Presentation onYouTube from "Acting Up - Using Theater & Technology for Social Change," from DePaul's School for New Learning Distance Education Program, Winter 2010.

1. Pros and Cons of the Internet’s Top Video Sharing Site

2. An Introduction
 Created in 2005 as an
alternative to paid services
already in existence.
 Purchased by Google in 2007.
 According to Alexa, it is
currently the third most
visited site in the world
(fourth in the US).

3. What YouTube Does For You
 YouTube offers free hosting of short user generated
content in the form of short video clips
 Allows for users to post almost anything with a few
exceptions
 No copyrighted material
 No ‘offensive’ material
 No pornographic material
 2gb maximum per clip
 10 minute maximum length per clip

4. Demographic
 Third most visited website in the world
 Almost a quarter of all internet users will visit YouTube
at some point in a given month
 Generates 100 million unique visits in the U.S. alone in
a given month
 Users will watch close to 10 billion videos in a given
month
 Encompasses all demographics; most prominent are
males 18-24 years of age.

5. Pros of Usage
 Extremely easy to use
 No technical training needed
 No special equipment needed
 Free bandwidth for video streaming
 Allows for videos to be embedded into a personal
website or blog
 Massive audience potential
 100 million unique visits in the U.S.A.
 400 million unique visits worldwide (est)

6. Cons of Usage
 Massive website that could cause video to be lost in the
crowd
 Hosts millions of videos
 Thousands of active channels
 Difficult to generate page views
 Immature content and viewership
 Young demographic
 Most popular videos all time and monthly best labeled
as entertainment videos
 YouTube video is almost synonymous with funny video
in internet searches

7. Ways to Mitigate Cons
 Effective Promotion
 Proper “Tagging”
 Descriptive video captions
 Creation of a YouTube channel
 Target the proper audience
 Tailor YouTube messages towards 18-24 demographic if
possible
 Use in conjunction with more traditional forms of media.
 “See more videos at YouTube.com” advertisements
 Embed video in an established website or blog

8. How to Upload a Video
 Sign into your YouTube
account
 If you don’t have an
account create one
 It is free
 It allows control over
posted content

9. How to Upload a Video (cont’)
 Once signed in the
username will appear.
 Click “Upload”

10. How to Upload a Video (cont’)
 Select “Browse” and find
the video you wish to
upload
 Once selected the video’s
location will appear in
the text box
 Click “Upload Video”
 Multiple videos can be
uploaded at once

11. How to Upload a Video (cont’)
 Once uploaded some
descriptors need to be
added
 Title
 Description
 Tags
 Category
 Privacy
 These help promote the
video

12. How to Upload a Video (cont’)
 Once everything is
complete, verify the
upload by going to your
profile
 Video will appear with
all information
pertaining to it

13. Conclusion
 YouTube offers an almost zero risk opportunity for
advertisement of a cause
 Effective tool if used properly
 Must play to YouTube’s weaknesses
 Not an effective replacement for traditional media
 Should be used in conjunction with traditional media
 YouTube messages can be supplemental advertisement
for costly broadcast messages
 To ignore YouTube would be wasting a golden
opportunity