Still reading the Youtube Creator Playbook … do you include a Call to Action in your videos?
Being successful in online video, especially in Youtube, includes being able to build community engagement and an audience (which is done through subscriptions to your Youtube account). There’s quite a lot of potential community engagement built right into Youtube. Things like comments, likes, favorites, sharing, and subscribing.
Not getting those? maybe you aren’t asking.
Which leads us to creating a Call to Action in your videos. You could also think of these as Next Steps. Basically, your goal should be to tell people watching the video what to do next – give them something to do (something that actually relates to your organization).
Here’s what Youtube suggests:
- Decide what actions you want your viewers to take for each video.
- Use Youtube annotations to ask, or have the host in the video ask for it (I’ll talk more about Youtube Annotations in a future video).
- asking people to subscribe to your video channel
- asking people to like or favorite the video
- asking a question, and then asking them to answer it in the comments box
- asking them to watch an older video (and providing a link to the video)
This works on your website, too. Embed your video in your website, then ask viewers to leave a comment on your organization’s blog. Or point out an organization-specific action, like checking out a book or registering for an event. You could include a link to the event in your blog post, on your website, or even in the Youtube description box.
Either way – don’t waste your time creating a video if you don’t have a next step or a call to action. Give your viewers at least one “what should I do next” instruction, and see what happens. They just might actually DO it.
So here’s YOUR next step – tell me what types of next steps might work well in a video for your library or organization in the comments. That’ll give readers a great list of ideas that they can use next time they create a video!
Next Steps pic from Bigstock
Msutliffsanders says
I’m creating storytime previews for my children’s department to give patrons a sample of what the different storytimes are like. Two possible actions: ask patrons to select which one they like best in the comments, providing a link to the story used in the video so patrons could check it out or reserve it.
Loretta Esparza says
Right now my community college library has two YouTube tutorials, Printing at SRJC Libraries and Course Reserves at the SRJC Libraries.  I suppose we could ask for feedback on the procedures.  “Can we make this easier for you?”  “Do you have any other questions about this not covered in the video?”Â
davidleeking says
Yes – those are great questions to ask! Cool, easy way to improve that service.
information technology says
nice blog..
Piercemichelle47 says
thank you for these tips… enjoyed reading your post,