This year we have tried to make better use of the FLOSSUK YouTube channel. The first stage of that was to ensure that conference videos appear as quickly as possible online (we would love to stream but there are complications in doing that which we still have yet to overcome).
We also wanted to make sure we check the statistics and to try and engage people with more notification of the videos and unique events at the conference. This was greatly helped when we unveiled the KDE Slimbook at our Spring Conference (YouTube playlist) which garnered a number of views. However all the videos this year have received a bump in their popularity. Let me show you some of the stats before I give a brief analysis.
I have placed them next to the 2016 figures. Note that we are only just under half way though 2017, though if the video viewing habits follow previous years our greatest percentage of views is in the first 4 months.
2017: Watch Time (so far)
2016: Watch Time
2017: Average View (so far)
2016: Average View
2017: Total Views (so far)
2016: Total Views
2017: Likes, Dislikes and Comments (so far)
2016: Likes, Dislikes and Comments
2017: Shares, Playlists, Subscribers (so far)
2016: Shares, Playlists, Subscribers
So what are the numbers telling us?
Well we have generally had a positive time. As a warning we have to note that some of the numbers are skewed by the unveiling we had of the KDE Slimbook. This gave us some disproportionate effects, not all positive, as the following screen grab shows.
So the unveiling takes the majority of our stats (about 58%) which we must take into account. However it was a conscious decision to use this form of promotion and therefore can be seen as part of the overall plan as well as serendipity.
A quick run of what we can see of 5 months versus the previous year:
- We have 1,299 hours (77,999 minutes) more watch time, which is 520 hours more without the Slimbook;
- The watch time is lower this is due to the Slimbook being shorter than the average videos;
- Total views is 26,000 more, or 3,000 more sans Slimbook;
- Likes is 188 vs 11 or 64 vs 11 (Slimbook);
- Dislikes, well we had none of these but the Slimbook has granted us more negativity by exposure;
- We also have positive engagement with 22 comments, 3 not on the Slimbook;
- We have x9 as many shares and a number of these had nothing to do with the Slimbook;
- There are 100 extra videos in playlists. Bit of a confusing stat as we didn’t add 100 videos, it is more that we also organised the channel better to have videos in playlists and this has been beneficial;
- We have 80% more Subscribers, which is great.
So the addition of the very popular video has been hugely beneficial but the numbers also show that the positive promotion, organisation and engagement has shown a good return.
We are always interested to hear feedback, suggestions or just your general thoughts, so please drop us a comment.
Amendment 1
I rather foolishly forgot to thank some people when I first did this article that I would like to correct.
- Tom Bloor did an excellent job of videoing, editing and rendering all of the video files all in his free time. Thanks Tom, great work and really appreciated.
- The speakers have always put a lot of effort into presenting talks and contributing to the community, thanks to all the speakers who we are able to meet, listen to and present to others. You rock.