YouTube Comments - A New Google+ Comment Feature
Last week YouTube announced a new commenting system for its
videos that is powered by the popular social network site Google+. The new trial launched on the channel discussions tabs and, over the next few
weeks and months, it will become available on all videos. This feature will
automatically rank comments and feature threaded and private conversations
which are personalised for each individual user – this hopes to eliminate the rude,
spam comments which have so often taken over the YouTube comment feature on
videos.
Image – www.clubcardwebsites.com
Last year, YouTube started to encourage this initiative by
asking its users to connect their YouTube and Google+ accounts so that more
users would use their real names on the site. They hoped that this might
persuade people to write comments which were more insightful and less abusive, as
people could not hide behind anonymity, spamming the site with irrelevant and
sometimes hurtful comments. Google+ also hopes that the new comment feature on YouTube
will enable you to connect with familiar faces.
The official YouTube blog reported
that the new comment feature will feature:
- Comments that you care about at the top of the
list:
§
Comments that are from the video’s creator,
popular personalities and people in your Google+ Circles will feature at the top
of the list –leading to more engaged discussions about the video.
§
YouTube already offered a “top comments” section
for the most upvoted comments on a video, but this did not guarantee that they
were relevant to the video or the viewer. Reverse chronological comments fall
away entirely with the new feature, and comments deemed ‘important’ to the
individual user will rise to the top.
-
Join the conversation in public or in private:
§
You can choose to join a conversation so that it
is publicly viewable on YouTube and Google, or you can make it so
that only people in your Circles or a selection of your good friends can see
what you post. In a similar way to Gmail, replies are listed in threads so that
conversations are easy to follow.
§
This allows you and your friends to have your own
personal discussions on the YouTube comments section, depending on what you
want to discuss – this hopes to engage users into a conversation similar to
those which happen on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and other social networks,
where users share videos with each other and comment on them between friends.
-
Better moderation of comments:
§
There are new tools available to review comments
before they’re posted, with the ability to block certain words or phrases that
the site does not wish to see on their comments under their videos. This
moderation system can also save time by auto-approving comments from certain
fans. These can help you spend less time moderating, and more time sharing
videos and connecting with your fans.
§
YouTube is also allowing video owners to create
a blacklist with words that automatically push comments into review and can
block users. In addition, YouTube is making a significant change by not telling users that they have been blocked and will continue to show them their own comments when
they are logged in. This will hopefully trick offending individuals into believing
that their posts are still online and will prevent them from trying to open up
other accounts once they’ve been blocked.
This new comment feature on YouTube has great potential for
marketers hoping to get in contact with their audience and create discussion.
According to Compete PRO data 162.5 million American adults visited youtube.com
in August 2013 alone, therefore brands should capitalise on this huge audience
and utilise the new ability to build relevant discussions from videos.
Companies should take time to reply to comments left by viewers, as it will
help to keep members engaged and, with the new system, comments from top
contributors will feature at the top of the list – advertising how well that
the company is responding to the views of its fans. It is also good to engage
fans by referring to them by name or acknowledging that you have read their comments
and possibly responding with other videos on YouTube.
What do you think?
Do you post comments on YouTube? Do you think that the use
of Google+ will be a significant benefit
for YouTube comments and will help to stop spam and rude comments from
appearing on videos?
YouTube Comments - A New Google+ Comment Feature
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Rating:
Reviewed by Anonymous
on
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Rating:
Anonymous
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