5 ways to increase your video views beyond YouTube

Video consumption is at an all-time high and shows no sign of slowing down. In fact video viewers are expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2016.As the number of video viewers continue to rise so does the number of individuals and businesses using video to convey a message and connect with their target audience. But in an increasingly crowded video space, content creators are scrambling to get their videos seen by their desired audience.The smart people are looking beyond YouTube for video exposure and video distribution. And the really smart cookies are thinking of ways of better monetising their video content for greater success.Did you know that last year 75% of video views happened outside YouTube (Reel SEO, 2014)?Creating an engaging video and placing it on their YouTube channel followed by some social media promo just isn’t enough anymore (unless perhaps you’re a multinational company with a million-dollar marketing and advertising budget).So with YouTube no longer king, what are you doing to stay on top of video viewing trends?While the online video landscape may be growing more complex, there’s no reason to fret. Start exploring new video platforms and technologies and be willing to put more time and energy behind your video campaigns – then you’ll start getting the results you want.Here are five ways innovative content creators are expanding their reach beyond YouTube:1. Placing content on their own publishing site. This may seem like a straight-forward “no brainer”, yet so many content creators do not do it. They’ll upload their video to YouTube thinking that’s where it belongs and fail to embed it on their website for additional views and exposure.You put a lot of work into your website and its promotion so making sure there is video content to capture readers attention is worthwhile. Ensuring your video is located in a permanent area that you manage will stand you in good stead. In fact, people who build in video content to their blog posts receive 15% more (engagement and time on site than posts with images and text).2. Using Facebook and Twitter’s native video players. In the past year both these social media giants have made massive strides in their use and availability of online video. They know their users love to watch online videos and so they’re making it easier for them to upload videos.In January 2015, Reel SEO announced Facebook was now accounting for 60% of all global video shares, and direct video uploads overtaking YouTube shares on the social network for the first time.While many would say this is largely down to Facebook’s auto-play feature, it’s still worth utilising Facebook’s own video player and using its advanced targeting options to gain optimum exposure. Currently it is businesses and brands who are making the most of Twitter’s video player, which allows them to upload 10 minutes worth of video content and offer teaser trailers.3. Giving video lovers access to exclusive content via paid subscription. Many big name content creators (mainly video bloggers) have signed up with Vessel and Vimeo on Demand to offer early access to new content to their millions of fans worldwide. These online platforms are taking the lead from Netflix and Amazon Prime and it’s likely their approach will be a huge success considering the fact online video users are ever-growing.This new approach is likely to appeal to the super fans of vloggers who want to be one of the first people to view unique content and are willing to pay a relatively small monthly subscription fee. While it’s early days for Vessel, in particular, the calibre of creators they have signed up shows the faith the creators have in the new system and their willingness to look beyond YouTube in the hopes of making more money.Vessel is offering creators 70% of all advertising revenue and 60% of subscription revenue (above the 55% cut of ad revenue they ordinarily get from YouTube). Meanwhile, Vimeo PRO users get to keep 90% of their revenue.4. Making fashion and beauty video content shoppable for viewers. The extremely successful affiliate arm of Pop Sugar – ShopStyle Collective – launched a brand new video monetisation platform at the end of 2014. It’s a place for fashion and beauty vloggers to upload their video content and link directly to the items they feature for their fans to shop.Using video tagging technology, vloggers are limited to using the products of the brands affiliated with ShopSense and get paid on a per click basis. Pretty nifty if you have a decent amount of traffic going to your blog.5. Pushing videos out via an affiliate channel for distribution. The savviest of brands are first making their videos shoppable and then pushing them through their affiliate channel as dynamic content for publishers such as bloggers to use on their sites. Video views increase, conversions double and the publisher gets paid for sharing.The world of online video viewing is noticeably expanding and it’s an exciting time for video creators of all kinds as more and more video-sharing platforms emerge. It’s likely a mixture of video-sharing platforms will generate the most success for you and your video campaigns. Not every platform will suit your needs, but it’s worth experimenting to see what works for you and your type of video content.Ruth Maguire is marketing manager at taggled.tv