Recently, Facebook gave Facebook users and Facebook marketers something to wonder about, announcing their new big News Feed redesign. For some time this redesign has had the social media world buzzing, but other marketers really could not care less about it. Now, video marketers have a similar announcement that they should pay attention to. This is especially true considering that most video marketers look to YouTube for effective video ad placement options. Much like Facebook, YouTube has a new redesign underway, to which the company has given the name, “YouTube One Channel.” However, YouTube’s redesign is both a matter of visual appearance or effectiveness, as well as functionality of user channels.
The introduction came in the form of a video from the YouTube Creators, in which a few of the most famous YouTubers made appearances to give their opinions and thoughts on the new channel design options. From the video we learn about what YouTube will be offering to its users.
The New Look
With YouTube One Channel, a new option is available that can help those who run popular channels, as well as marketers, in making YouTube viewers more aware of a channel. The new option, called Channel Art, will allow those people using YouTube to include a large header on their channel page, much like what we see with Facebook’s Timeline cover photos. The difference is that YouTube users will have the option of making the header area a functional image, including links to merchandise or prompts to become a fan on social media sites.
There is also the option to include a channel trailer, appearing only to those users that are not yet fans of a page. In their OneChannel overview, YouTube writes;
Win new subscribers with a trailer video that only appears to non-subscribed viewers. They’re all your fans; they just don’t know it yet.
The company has also made a change that will optimize all channels for any given device. YouTube, answering to the immense mobile growth lately, wanted to make it so that no matter where a user accesses a channel, it will appear as the channel owner planned for it to, including the new headers.
The New Functionality
YouTube states that, “Your content is a unique snowflake,” upon using their OneChannel. Users now have better and more control over their content, with the ability to organize their videos on their channels. YouTube users can now decide what they want viewers to see first and foremost upon visiting their channel.
Take greater control over how you present your videos and playlists on your channel. You can now curate content — your own or others’ — into highly visible sections for your fans to discover what to watch. With multiple layouts for videos and playlists, you can arrange your channel to best highlight your content.
Now, when your subscribers click on your channel from the guide, your full channel appears instead of just your activity feed. Your fans see exactly what you want them to when they click on your channel.
If you would like to view the video from YouTube Creators, explaining a bit more about the new design, visit their channel. Also, visit the OneChannel overview page. From there, you can get started with the new design. As of now, the feature is only available in a limited beta, but the good news is that it is available to all users.
