YouTube is one of the most popular websites in the world (currently 3rd on Alexa. I would say it is the most popular content source on the web) but I don’t think people take enough notice of what they are really now starting to achieve. It’s incredible! The level of AET is way beyond anything else in the world.
This is the video that really struck me this morning.
Philip DeFranco has created his own YouTube channel and is getting a regular audience of over 250,000 people every time he puts up a video. That’s more than most of the smaller channels on Freeview, who are selling advertising and making money.
The Philip DeFranco Show is the twisted product of the host/producer/writer Philip DeFranco. The show covers politics, pop culture, tech, and obscure news, with an uncensored and sarcastic twist.
With 5 shows a week, The Philip DeFranco Show has received over 39 million views. Whether he is talking about a woman punching a police horse in the neck, hacking your iPhone, or the United States Election, Philip is sure to entertain and inform you about your crazy world.”
Of course everybody knows youtube gets massive numbers if you video is positioned in the right place. What is more exciting it that this video (on 09/06/08 at 09:12 GMT) has had 1,601 comments which form a genuine debate about the issues talked about in the video and 28 video responses which directly address the video they are responding to.
The issue most of the comments and video responses surround is a question posed in the video about the American confederate flag. The debate has some great responses that express genuine opinions they would like to add to the debate.
Lets also think about the fact that most people don’t have a webcam. If they did the volume of video responses would surly rocket.
The engagement achieved in this video alone is staggering and the results it has for users are so valuable. People are able to spend time actively engaged in debating and exchanging ideas with a group of people they would never otherwise be able to communicate with.
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As content producers if we can contextualize and set our media in an environment which allows the possibility for people to actively engage to a deep level with it then they will.
The difficulty is in building an audience enabled to do this. YouTube has millions of registered users who are actively seeking the opportunity to engage with debates spread across the plethora of different subject matter that can be discovered on their website.
A passive audience doesn’t necessarily want to register with a site in order to engage with it’s content to the level seen here. This is where exploring partnership opportunities with sites like YouTube become very interesting. As you can tap into that registered actively engaged audience to the benefit of your own brand and bank account.
