Get the Most Views and Likes on Your Video

When Duke associate professor Martin Brooke started creating videos for his Duke “Microelectronic Devices and Circuits” course several years ago, he was recording with his Droid phone and uploading directly to YouTube.But now, instead of recording grainy footage with his phone, he records professional-quality lectures with help from OIT Academic Media Productions. He uploads the videos to Warpwire, a new, free Duke video publishing site. “I’m still experimenting with the whole video class lecture thing,” said Brooke, an associate professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. “But from an academic, business-like standpoint, Warpwire makes video sharing more professional.”Whether a faculty member uses video to share research or supplement a course, or a staff member wants to share footage from a department event or project, there are tricks to increasing views and interaction. Duke’s video experts share some best practices: Quality is key About 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, according to the video sharing site. This means there’s a lot of competition for views.Elise Mueller, an academic technology consultant with Duke’s Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), said viewers may decide in the video’s first 30 seconds if they’ll continue watching. A high-quality video helps increase viewership. When creating a video, she suggests wearing neutral colors if you’re on camera, paying attention to sound quality and recording in a well-lit area. “If you’re in the dark and I can’t hear you, I’m just not going to bother,” Mueller said. Duke CIT provides consultations to faculty exploring video creation, from writing scripts to sharing the final product. Email cit@duke.edu for help.Choose an appropriate video-sharing site Decide if you want your video to be viewed by the public or a specific Duke group. For public videos, Duke’s Office of News and Communications recommends using YouTube, the primary site Duke uses to share videos with the media and other campus departments. If videos are internally focused, Warpwire allows faculty and staff to share videos with specific audiences such as Duke classes or departments. Anyone with a valid Duke NetID can use Warpwire to upload videos. When videos are shared, viewers sign in with their NetID and password to securely watch the video. If a Duke user uploads a Warpwire video and makes it public, no NetID verification is required. Be your own marketing agency Ask people to share your videos with others, said Sonja Foust, senior program coordinator in Duke’s Office of News and Communications. Don’t just upload a video to YouTube and stop there, she said. Post the video to relevant blogs and websites, such as a Duke departmental webpage.“People are always looking for really good content to share with their audience,” Foust said.