Creating A YouTube Channel For Your Association OPTIMIZED
Creating A YouTube Channel For Your Association OPTIMIZED
Introduction
There are a lot of reasons you might want to create a YouTube channel for your association,
especially if you are looking for an easy way to share original video content across all of your web
platforms. A YouTube channel is a really easy way to store and disseminate your organization’s
video content. YouTube’s ubiquity means that the videos you host on your channel can easily be
imbedded in other platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and your association website.
A channel is basically a profile page for your organization. You can set branded images, and
include important information about your mission and about the content of your channel. YouTube,
just like Facebook or Twitter, is another point of entry for people who may be new to experiencing
extension as an informational resource.
YouTube is owned by Google, which means you’ll need a Google account to get set up. Note that
you do not need a Gmail address to create a Google account--you can also use your Cornell e-
mail. However, you might not want to. Often, when maintaining any kind of shared social media
account, it can be a good idea to set up a designated e-mail account, or Google account, in order
to avoid attaching one specific person (and as a result, all their other electronic accounts) to a
profile. While YouTube does allow you to create multiple channels under a single account, it is still
a good idea to avoid using an employee’s specific Cornell e-mail. This will save headaches later
on. For example, you might create a [email protected] for use on all of your social media
accounts.
Side-note: users can search for videos and view as many as they like without creating a YouTube
account. However, advanced features, such as the ability to save videos to playlists, and to upload
your own videos to YouTube, require the creation of an account.
Once you are signed in, make friends with the YouTube guide, or the menu on the far left of the
screen. If you don’t see a menu, click on the hamburger menu to open it. You can find all of this to
the left of the search bar at the top of the page.
3
Figure 2: Don't see the guide? Click on the hamburger menu to show/hide the guide.
4
This menu, which you can hide or show according to your preference, houses all the tools you
need to get around YouTube. We’re going to ignore most of them for now, since we won’t really
need them until we are up and running with our channel.
There’s not too much here to worry about just yet, so look toward the bottom of the settings list to
find “Additional Features,” and under that, click on “See all my channels or create a new channel.”
You will be taken to a new page.
5
On the Channels for [email protected] page, click on the white rectangle with the big plus sign
that says “Create a new channel.” On the next page you come to, name your channel and select
the appropriate category for it, which in this case would be Company, Institution or Organization.
(Your new YouTube channel comes with a Google+ page by default (sorry). Feel free to use this
page, which is part of a not-so-popular social platform, to connect with your audience. Note, your
audience may or may not be using Google+. But they probably aren’t.)
Anyway…
Now you can use the YouTube Manager to visit your channel by clicking on the My Channel link.
6
Pretty plain. Let’s fix that up. We’re going to add an avatar, or profile picture, or logo, as well as a
cover photo, or what’s called channel art here. You are going to need:
• A large (size) high-quality image to serve as channel art.
• And a smaller (and easily recognizable at a small size) image to serve as your avatar.
Click on the little pencils to edit each one. Let’s start with channel art.
7
When you open the channel art dialogue box, check the bottom-right corner for the image size
requirements. You are going to need a BIG picture. If the image dimensions aren’t right, YouTube
will prompt you to find a different image.
Next it’s time to add a channel description so users know what you’re about.
• UNLISTED: Users must have the video URL to be able to view it. It cannot be searched
from the YouTube homepage. Unlisted videos will not show up in your channel, either.
• PRIVATE: Users must have a YouTube account they can log into, and be invited to view
the content. A maximum of fifty users can be invited to view a private video.
Each time you upload a video, you have the option to set very specific parameters for it, from who
can see it to how it’s tagged. Don’t skip this part! Making your video findable is the first step (well,
after making a good video) to getting eyeballs on it.
10
If you are looking for even more options for describing your video and making it findable, click on
Advanced Settings.
Once you have all of your settings filled out the way you want, just wait for the upload status bar to
fill up to 100%, and click publish. You can always come back and make changes to your settings.
When you switch over to the page you are editing, just select the Insert Video button (between
Insert Picture and Insert Attachment), and paste the Embed code into the box provided.
12
What’s Next?
Now you can take over the airwaves with your exceptional extension content. If you’d like more
information on setting up and managing a YouTube Channel, I recommend these resources:
• YouTube Help Pages
https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/16549?hl=en&ref_topic=4355169