| Feb 2010 [57:00 minutes] MP3 |
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U.S. News: It was primary season and Barack Obama was being battered in the press because of his relationship with controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Some of Wright's more inflammatory sermons were captured on video and were flying around YouTube.Here’s how to make your political videos rise to the top:
Instead of letting the clips fester online, the Obama campaign immediately posted on YouTube the candidate's full rebuttal, a 37-minute-long speech on race he delivered to an audience in Philadelphia.
The video clip helped calm the controversy and attracted around 5.3 million views on the video-viewing website, proving the popularity and impact of a medium that was first used widely this election cycle.
Dubbed early on "the YouTube election" by some, by late October, 39 percent of voters had watched some sort of campaign-related video online, according to the Pew Research Center, up from the 24 percent who said in December, before the primaries began, that they had watched political videos. "I think it's fair to say that this is the first election YouTube has played a critical role in helping the president-elect to reach audiences and get people out to vote, says Steve Grove, YouTube's head of news and politics.
By Election Day, 28 percent of voters surveyed said they had watched speeches the candidates had put online, like Obama's race speech. "Even though it's 37 minutes long, it's the most-viewed video ever uploaded by a presidential candidate to YouTube," says Grove. "[The Obama campaign] understood that YouTube's not just about short clips, or commercials, or "gotcha" footage, or a slick ad. It's about making yourself available to people."
Of course, YouTube was about much more than official campaign videos. While YouTube logged about 200 million views of official candidate videos, there were as many as 1 billion views of videos created by average Americans and groups not associated with the campaigns, according to the website TechPresident. "So YouTube has become the town square for America's future," says Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of TechPresident, a website that covered the intersection of the election and the Web.
There were other more professional-looking videos that became hits too. One is "I Got a Crush...on Obama" that turned the sultry Obama Girl into an online and offline pseudo-celebrity. And then there was Will.I.Am's "Yes We Can" music video that featured a handful of actors and musicians singing and rapping to an Obama speech, which received about 12.7 million views. "The 'Yes We Can' video captured the culture of the Internet's interest in Obama at the beginning of the primary season," explains Rasiej. "It was the perfect melding of Obama's political message with a desire for more engagement by the American public manifested in a simple video instantly viewed by millions without any influence by the mainstream media and the political parties themselves." The video proved to be so popular online that it was adopted by the Obama campaign to be played at campaign rallies.
Unlike normal campaign advertising, online video was often more persuasive because it was passed viral fashion from person to person.
How To Use YouTube For Politics |
Search your candidate’s name, or the issue you’re passionate about to see what’s on YouTube already. You might find clips of your candidate’s message that have been taken out of context, or footage that misrepresents the facts of an issue. Taking YouTube’s pulse first will help you craft your own message effectively.
- Search any and all relevant keywords surrounding your candidate or issue, including opposing views.
Determine what you’re trying to accomplish with each video, and who you want to reach. Would a series of issue-focused political commercials work best? Q&A sessions in which your candidate answers voter-submitted questions? Daily video diaries that address breaking developments on your campaign?
- Focus on one issue per video so you don’t dilute your message. You can upload as many videos as you want for free on YouTube.
Shoot your video. Make it compelling and concise, and try to distill complex issues into small, digestible bites. Don’t obsess over production values; a solid message is more important. Simple graphics and B-roll footage are easy ways to make your video stand out.
- Solicit volunteers to help make your video by searching for YouTube users who may be sympathetic to your campaign.
Include a direct call to action. Ask people to sign a petition or donate money, or just forward the video to their friends. All you need to do is ask – engaged viewers will want to know what they can do next to help.
Step 5: Use good keywords
Include relevant “tags” – keywords that help people find your video when they search for clips on your candidate or issue. Mimic keywords and descriptions of similar political videos so that yours shows up in the same search results. Go with an attention-grabbing title that will make people want to watch, but be sure it’s accurate. Misleading people about the content of your clip can lead to bad feedback.
- For more information about creating and optimizing your video, visit youtube.com/youtubehelp.
Reach out to YouTube users who are likely to find your message compelling. Post your video on related message boards, or get it embedded on popular blogs. Social-networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter are also great ways to spread the word.
Step 7: Monitor your performance
Monitor your video’s performance with YouTube’s Insight tool – you’ll see who’s watching, and how they’re finding your video. If you find you’re not reaching your target audience, shift your approach and try again. There’s always a new audience on YouTube.
- You can stay on top of political video trends with YouTube’s political blog, Citizentube, at citizentube.com.
Politicians and Campaigns on YouTube: What's Working. [55:55] |
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