Are you ready to rumble? OK, that was written mostly for me so I can say it out loud, as I have been for decades since watching Friday Night wrestling on TV as a kid.
I suppose the correct question to you is are you ready for the new One Channel theme being rolled out across YouTube on Wednesday, June 5.
After several months of beta testing, all YouTube channels will be upgraded tomorrow. The rationale for the YouTube’s One Channel design is to encourage more subscribers to your channels, make the channel consistent visually across devices, and give you some added customization with your videos and playlists.
YouTube celebrated its eighth birthday last month. Today the platform reports that more than 100 hours of video are uploaded to it every minute. And more than 1 billion people people come to the website every month.
Let’s dive in to how those folks will experience the new changes.
Channel Art
YouTube’s One Channel-themed channels will have a channel image that is designed to be viewed on different platforms from PC-viewed websites, to smart phones, to tablets to television. In the past, branding images were cutoff or resized to less than stellar results. Cropping will still take place but here is a template for how you can design your channel art so the important parts are seen regardless of crops. Here is the template for designing your channel art.
Teaser Video
The One Channel theme will feature introduction video that you can upload for people that haven’t yet subscribed to your channel. Those who have already subscribed would not see the video. If you are creating a teaser video, make sure to keep it short and to the point.
More Focus on Playlists
The One Channel theme now gives you more options on how you lay out your video content, whether it is videos or playlists. This is a great way to give some new life to videos that had previously gotten lost in the library.
Need some more suggestions for your YouTube One Channel-themed channel? Here is a link to YouTube’s playbook on channel optimization.
Previously released changes that you should also consider in designing your One Channel-themed YouTube channel include:
- YouTube will send you an email to notify you that your video upload is completed. This could help you in sharing news about the new upload across your social channels.
- YouTube gives you control when the videos are published and made public. Previously, your channel subscribers were notified to every new upload, regardless of its public or unlisted status. That included draft videos you may want to share with other decision makers, or (it sometimes happens) when you were planning ahead for future videos.
- Connecting your YouTube channel to your social accounts, including Google+
- Creating custom thumbnails for your videos.
The new changes may seem confusing, or just require time you don’t have to update. If so, please consider contacting Seven G Media. We would be glad to update your channels for $100, or $250 if you need a teaser video.