11 Tips to Boost the Number of YouTube Views of Science Explainer Videos
Are your videos getting watched only by your mom and the person sitting next to you in the office? If you want to boost the number of YouTube views, keep on reading…
1. Engagement is king
More than two decades ago, Bill Gates coined the phrase “Content is king”. Nowadays, with the immense abundance of content on YouTube, we need to put a twist on that phrase to make it “Engaging content is king”.
Everyone has its own view on what the right length of a YouTube video should be, some based on mere perception and some based on statistics they might have seen here or there. But there is one factor we all know holds true: the more engaging the content, the longer you are going to keep on watching.
Research & Innovation videos are no exception. Some of the factors that determine the engagement potential of Research & Innovation videos are pretty obvious: visual quality, storytelling effectiveness, relevance to your field of work… but there is one factor which is almost always underestimated: impact potential.
But what exactly is impact potential in this context? According to the European Commission, it is the envisaged value the results of a project can bring to society. Therefore, whether for a small subset of society or for society as a whole, whatever potential impact your project can bring to the table, it has to shine through in your video.
You can breathe life into your impact figures by using quantitative values (rather than simply qualitative statements) which can then be put into perspective (to ensure their indicated magnitudes can really be grasped by the target audience). You can find a great example of this in the video of the EC-funded project MefCO2. At 2:06 of this video the foreseen results of the project are explained: “We envisage the daily production of 1,000 Kg of methanol through a conversion of approximately 1.5 tons of CO2 per day”. But what does this really mean? These numbers are put into perspective by adding “which is equivalent to the emissions per passenger of a commercial flight between Europe and the US”, maximizing this way the impact of the video and optimising its engagement potential.
