The YouTube Audience Retention Index Page

Posts in the Audience Retention Series

3 Dec 14	Audience Retention Explained via Motorola's The Maker
2 Dec 14	Advanced YouTube Audience Retention for Creators
25 Nov 14	Martin Van Buren at 103%
24 Nov 14	Taylor Swift at 94%
11 Nov 14	Your Channel’s Learning Potential
25 Oct 14	YouTube Reveal Audience Retention
11 May 14	Message to YouTube Creators

Blogging with Blogger and a Model Post for Blogger Talk

this blog's home page as a collage

In this post, I don't want it to be about me, but about the story I have told in the last four years.

And in this case, what I've used to tell it, Google's +Blogger.  This site or blog is written by me and no one else.

Audience Retention Explained via Motorola's The Maker

Sometimes it's far easier to show than tell. On 25 Nov 2014, +Motorola Mobility uploaded Moto X - The Maker to YouTube.

Advanced YouTube Audience Retention for Creators and for those who watch

The story so far For a youtube video to be successful it has to retain an audience.

In my mind, success is defined not by views alone, but how the cycle of prepare, shoot, edit, upload and feedback is a process that never ends.

A big thank you to the readers on getting to 500,000

Today is the day, this blog passed 500,000 page views. And for that I am truly thankful.

This post is dedicated to those people like me who have a blog and who have not given up posting. And particularly to those people who listen to their own head and heart, refusing to be drawn into the noise and the nonsense that surrounds our day to day online existence.

About Writing, about Creative Nonfiction, about your head and your heart

link to the pdf for the notes

As a kid I was never interest in reading words or writing them. I was blank when asked to make stuff up, then years later it all reversed.

At teacher training while at University, I was exposed to children in the primary school classroom, I saw how they thought and what they created. 

Somewhere along the line, I started to read. One of my favourites was Bill Bryson. He was a copy editor for The Times of London, then gave it up to write some books. 

If you've never heard of him, then look him up - he has the most incredible and unique ability to take a mundane subject and make it interesting. he tells a true story, overlays some amusing dry wit and makes you smile.

Martin Van Buren that's Who at 103% is an astounding success

In many ways, making at 30 second video sounds as easy as writing a four line poem. And it is.

Then, when you realise you have 1,025,109.8 words to choose from - life suddenly takes a sharp turn. It matters little, but you'll see what I'm getting at by saying..

There was once a poet, who spent the day at his desk. A maid asked him how the day had gone. He replied, 'I have written seven words.'

Taylor Swift Blank Space Unbelievable 94% Audience Retention for a Music Video while being almost perfect to learn from

edit 3 sep 15, video now at 1.1 billion views at 3.16/4.32 = 72%

Now all the Taylor Swift Blank Space hype has died down a bit, I'm finally able to unfry my brain and write this post.

Call it what you will, but if you get caught up with a #swifty experience you have some great fun, some laughs, enjoy the many moments and wake up singing the darn tune (yes, that last bit def happened to me).

Determine your channel's learning potential - response to the YouTube Creator Academy's Determine your channel's earning potential

Chloe Brett from Street Child in Liberia

This post will add some ideas and build on the topic of Audience Retention and Average View Retention at YouTube. I have posted twice before on 25 Oct 14 and 11 May 14.

There will be three case studies taken from +Khan Academy, +Street Child and +SunKissAlba.

Wow OMG Youtube Reveal Audience Retention for many creator videos - Here's how to find it

all slides in this album

Audience Retention has been a much guarded secret at YouTube. I posted about it's importance on 11 May 2014 (don't go there now, wait till you've read this post, thanks - it will make more sense for you).

For any video, the public can see a View Count and usually a Statistics area that outlines Time Watched, Subs Driven and Shares as Cumulative/Daily.

The key to finding Audience Retention is More > Statistics > Time Watched > Average View Duration and then some maths.

The Mike Downes Media Custom Search Engine

This box will help you find posts from seven of my sites. To compare a search, I've made this example of googling, mike downes media audience retention, to perform this search below, just type 'audience retention' .. Feedback welcome ..

Considering a blog column width - what's best on desktop?

My blog has 932 posts (yes this one you are reading), with a column width of 580 and a sidebar of 280 (total 900 pixels wide with padding).

I have a second blog with a one column set at 886, no sidebar with only nine posts.

The question I have for myself, and anyone who reads, is what reads best on desktop? For mobile, there is little difference.

The X Factor 2014 Live Show 1 - YouTube views versus public voting, any correlation?

Sunday at 6pm

This article is a cross post from my widescreen blog: mikedownesmedia.com (this blog is 580 column width, where the other is 886 wide).

I wonder if there's any correlation between the sixteen acts songs views on YouTube and the public vote?

I've passed by twice today - 10.27am and 11.58am. I will keep charting for the next few hours.

Street Meetings from Essex Police, UK - a first step to visualise and make them easy to find

Sun 5 Oct update: The Chelmsford District Street Meetings Map is now available showing the 76 street meetings from 1 to 31 Oct.

It's divided into two data sets, 1-15 Oct and 16-31 Oct, so as one timeline runs out, the next one begins.

From the 76 meetings, there are 41 location post codes. With one location being used seven times in the month (another one has six).

How the BBC have a major problem linking to YouTube videos like David Holmes and Aysha King

clicking this image will open all in the lightbox

On the 4th Sep 2014, +Norfolk Police and +Suffolk Police posted a video on youtube called David's Story: Road Safety Campaign. 

Two days later, it's had over five million views (6.2 million as I publish this post, 7.3m as Sun 7 Sep 2pm uk, 9m on Mon 8 Sep at 12 noon uk, 12m 11 Sep, 5 Oct 14,095,686).

Top 10 Most Viewed UK Police Videos as 12 Aug 14

6 Sep 14 edit, You will see there are now 11 videos as +Norfolk Police released David's story: Road Safety Campaign. This video has 4.7 million views since posting on 4 Sep 2014.

12 Aug 14 To understand what's going on with the official UK Police YouTube Channels, it's worth looking at the views.

This list is compiled from the official uk police youtube channels, not police viral clips from all users.

UK Police on YouTube 50 Forces Compared for Aug 2014

to view this playlist - see below

This is Part Two of the UK Police on Social Media Survey for Aug 2014. The focus of this post will be video at YouTube and video editing.

Method Public data has been collected from fifty UK Police official force YouTube Channels.

I've used a second site, vidstatsx for collating the list of most recent videos. This site was useful for delivering the average watch time and view count.

UK Police Social Media Survey Aug 2014 twitter facebook youtube The #SMILECon Edition

Chief Inspector Kerry Blakeman of WMP

Next month will see +West Midlands Police host the first ever #SMILECon in the UK - Social Media, the internet and Law Enforcement (9 - 11 Sept 2014, Tally Ho Conference Centre, Birmingham, UK).

For the press release, visit Bringing local policing to a living room near you (5 Aug 14). The list of #SMILECon event speakers includes Chief Simon Cole from +Leicestershire Police UK and Deputy Chief Peter Sloly of the +Toronto Police Service.

Message to YouTube Creators to Use Audience Retention Every Single Day

How Zoella uses a hand to focus the camera

Twenty years ago I started teaching, and if I had Audience retention back then - I would have been a million times more effective.

In a regular lesson, I had to position myself in the classroom so I could always see every child. It's called risk management - you may stop children throwing stuff, fighting or even falling asleep.

To the ITV Daybreak/Good Morning Britain Team, Suggestions for the Show

see the Vive animation

Sunday 27 April update Here's more info on the social media streams for gmb.

Hashtag: #GMB 
(at google, at twitter, at facebook)
Twitter: @gmb (224,243)
Facebook: /GMB (234k)
Instagram: goodmorningbritain (139)
Vine: GMB (26)
Web: itv.com/GMB (54 indexed pages)
Google+    ?
YouTube   ?

I also hear the gmb team have visited +Good Morning America in the US, presumably to learn from them. So where is google+ or youtube?

I will just repeat a few ITV facts. Britains Got Talent, also an ITV show has a youtube channel that has 2.1 million subs and 1.7 billion views (and google+ page with 28.5 millions views). The X Factor Uk also has a youtube channel (with 2.7m subs and 2 billion views and a g+ page with 13.5 million views).

Topsy Twitter @daybreak v @gmb

In case you are wondering, the main ITV youtube channel as 73,246 subs, 24.5 million views. +ITV News has a g+ page with 5.6 million views. Even +ITV Football has 2.8 million views. There is also an +ITV Press Centre (which I particularly like).

So there you are - I am just one simple voice in a million.

Original text (18 April) A month ago, I sent an email to ITV with my suggestions for Good Morning Britain. I received a blanket reply five days later - and that was that. 

I cannot gauge how many suggestions the producers received or how much they listen (and wish to engage with an audience). But I do know I have something to give.

I've had my head in the US for the last few years (via Hangouts). Have a read, I wish the show success. What's not mentioned in my email: Good Morning America's Social Square. 

It seems the show will broadcast it's first episode on Monday, 28 April 2014 (wiki and ITV Press). 

www.itv.com Survey 18 Apr 14

The slide on the left shows an ITV Survey dated today, coincidence I guess.

Having just spent a few minutes answering the questions, I'm pretty disappointed. Same old, twitter, facebook - then, vine, instagram and pinterest, Not one mention of Google+ or YouTube. I will repeat ITV run Google Apps and have done since July 2011.

As a final thinking point, is my digital landscape a place I work with in Public or Private? I now feel I should have gone with my instinct and posted this note in public a month ago. We could have crowdsourced a solution.

What I sent by email: To Daybreak/Good Morning Britain Team, Suggestions for the Show (sent by email 13

Like most people, I wish GMB every success when they launch. I'm also fascinated what will make people watch breakfast TV, especially now we're in the age of mobiles/tablets on buses/trains early in the morning..

ITV are Google Apps already and have a brilliant App (for Catchup, but there is no Live broadcast[?]).. Is that coming soon?

I'm a power user at Google+, I've been in over 2,500 Hangouts, many of those LIVE at Youtube. One example that GMB could replicate is how my friend Maria Quiban of Good Day LA has used Hangouts On Air since 2011 (link to the youtube channel). Now, we have the news anchors (like Tony McEwing) dropping by the hangout for achat - they all get to know the g+ folks in there and call them friends, kinda cool).

The formula is very simple, a guest arrives at the studio, ready for On Air TV, a polite word was said to encourage the guest to say Hello to the people in a LIVE Google Hangout (of course g+ those users were vetted and trusted beforehand).

A few months later, guests where staying longer and longer - eventually we had stars like Mike Tyson, Kevin Bacon, Salman Rushdie and 100s more staying for a full 30 minute fun interview. The guests just love seeing the faces of people all over the world in realtime.

Google see me as an evangelist for google+, I test Hangout features for them, but I'm really working on making someone in the UK successful, we're getting there - but slowly. Manchester United will broadcast fans in the #MUfrontrow very soon, already 600,000+ views at youtube.

Sarah Hill was featured in a Google+ Stories (July 2012) -- I can imagine Susanna and Charlotte doing something like this. My vision, is GMB could be a hybrid of a regular Studio shows, but meets some elements of what The Big Breakfast gave us.

I have a bunch of other ideas.

1, ditch the warm studio and go light weight, on location ie public places or GMA style in Times Sq with a glass wall between you and the audience (Sure other Un Shows have a glass wall, but from a studio - not like in the centre of Liverpool Street etc)

2, get in guests houses -- take the broadcast to them

3, make it more radio show ie where you can listen rather than watch, v important for mobile users (limits on bandwidth etc -- could the App handle that?)

4, put Susannah in situations that brings out her best ie Where's Susannah/Charlotte (on location)? (there are a few videos on youtube of 600,000/925,000+ views usually about what she's wearing or how she is sitting) ..

5, Remember, Channel 4, Sky News and even the odd BBCWHYS have dabbled in Hangouts...

6, make a program that people will watch as Catch Up, my guess -- very hard to do as a breakfast show.

Thanks, Mike

---------------------------

18 March 2014

Dear Mike

Thank you for your email sending us your ideas for our new programme.

We have passed your message on to the editorial team and they will contact you if they are keen to discuss your ideas in greater detail.

Thank you for contacting us and do please get back in touch if you have other comments or enquiries in the future.

Best wishes

Duty Officer - Daybreak

Tracking my Photosphere Views each week while learning about discovery

21 June 2014 update As today, there are 51 images with 20,659 views ..

I made my first #photosphere on 1 Dec 2013 - my total now is 45. What started as a Can I do it with a DSLR? has ended up as a theory into discovery.

In other words, the latest image (of the library) shows a higher view rate than the rest. 

This was the first internal panorama of a public library in Essex, UK. It was tweeted by +Essex Libraries.

It's best to view the data sheet and charts in a new window. Photospheres are can be viewed in four places: 

1, Google Maps 2, Google Maps Views 3, Google+ Photos and 4, Embedded in a webpage. You can see the difference with these links for the library..

1, Google Maps 2, Google Maps Views 3, Google+ Photos and 4, Embedded in a webpage (see below).

To get started yourself, visit the Google Support Page. Anyone can do this. And also make sure you check regular updates from Google's +Evan Rapoport too.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone doing a similar study. I'm a teacher, so I'm not in a race for views, but rather the place a #photosphere sits in the suite of Google Services. For example, we have Panoramio that's also available and now shows g+ photo features (Remember Panoramio has been showing photos at Google Earth for years). 

Views: North Melbourne Library by Mike Downes

Hangout Swapshop renamed #occupyhangouts from #hangoutswapshop

 +Robert Redl interviewing a pigeon (18 March 2014)

Update as 29 March For the last week, we have been using the hashtag #occupyhangouts for these meetings. As the idea was a beta, I will not be using the tag #hangoutswapshop again.

Hangout Swapshop is an idea I'm working on following last night's hangout and the six hours I spent Sunday from 8-2am.

#hangoutswapshop asks two things

1, Come with an idea to share and 2, listen to others (without forcing your own talking point till the time is right). That's it..

The #yearofcode Google+ Community Resource Page

I normally create a resource page first, and then a Google+ Community - but in this case it's the other way around. That means, thankfully for the reader, this post can be concise.

Anyone can join The Google+ #yearofcode Support Community, there two messages that I will post here.

About Welcome to The Google+ #yearofcode Support Community created by Mike Downes. This group does not form part of the yearofcode.org, rather it's for those who wish to understand what coding involves. It's a place for discussion, to share your stories and learn from each other. 

Find Google Help Fast - What do 87 shares and 36,000 views tells us?

On 9 Feb 2014, I made a simple post at Google+ as I was fed up giving people the same links over and over again. It had this slide and text:

Find Help for Google Stuff fast There are 519,000 results athttps://support.google.com so to find ANYTHING by googling 1, Support 2, 3, .. like support youtube comments or support blogger domain .. This is the No1 way I find stuff .. #googleit #support #help

I have an altruistic rule with myself than I find or

A slide I made from watching a YouTube Help Video

create something useful to me, then it will probably be useful to others. But there's catch - the really useful stuff, goes unnoticed by 99% of the people.

One example is the brilliant series of +YouTube Creator Academy videos made recently. They have like tiny views compared to what they should be getting. Take a look at the last six videos with +Rachel Lightfoot and +Yury Polnar where views are 1,331 to 2,722. 

What I'm getting at here is the busy life we lead, the uncontrollable urge to click on something when we shouldn't and the irresistible temptation to walk away, when we know we should stay. Bottom line, a video (or post) gets a million views in a day or just a few.

I never ever post anything for the views - I do it usually, to teach somebody something. It's a bit like my own FAQs - I want to be left alone, so if I can help people answer themselves - great.

It took a day to get 80 shares and I declared give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to fish and you feed them for a lifetime.

My Take Away When people get stuck, they often panic a bit, get fed quickly and become impatient too. Even if one person reading this could just stop and think - Google, support and read the results - I will be very happy.

Autonomy Did I tell you about the friend I had in teaching who had the latest iPhone? She showed me the latest features are how wow it was. But when she was late for a city centre appointment - she was late, defaulted to what she knew and rushed to find a copy of the local AtoZ Map. We all know the iphone and google maps would be there faster than she could say OK Google .. 

UK Police Social Media Survey Feb 2014 One Year On Twitter Facebook YouTube Google+ by Mike Downes

One year ago, I made a post looking at how UK Police Forces were using Social Media (14 Jan 2013).

Welcome to the annual Feb 2014 Survey where you will find six charts and a video. If I were you, click on the first image and scroll through the charts (they should open in a light box), then have a read of this text if you need to.

UK #photosphere Study Post 1: The Natural History Museum, London

I'm curious to know of the many photosheres that are live on Google Maps.

Which are the ones getting the views and are they simply the ones that are closest to the road?

You can drag Pegman on any Google Map and see blue dots for photosheres.

The Tesco Eat Happy Project #connectedclassrooms Resource Page

Screenshot from Eat Happy Project at 4:09

When new things happen, I make a resource page collecting together everything I can find in one place.

You will find  all I can find out about the project including the press release, google+ pages and posts, youtube channels and videos, news clips and useful links.

Mike Downes Creative Media - Why I'm Posting this Image

Mike Downes Creative Media

Every once in a while we update the way we look.

Google knows what we all look like on the web - if you want to know yourself take a look: www.google.com/settings/me

This post need not be long, all it needs to achieve a this stage - it's just here. Google will do the rest.

Season One of #bloggertalk Episodes 1-12 January 2014 now available uisng Google's Blogger

Season One Playlist at YouTube

Season One of #bloggertalk is now complete.

This Playlist includes all 12 Episodes and 8 extra videos in support of the main episodes.

Join the Google+ Blogger Talk Community .. Season two will start filming immediately.

Thanks for all your support so far ..

20 videos 2 hours, 55 minutes

Beamed by Satellite, some history and Why do Broadcasters still say it?

Have you ever wondered who first said the phrase, Beamed by Satellite and why people still say it today? After all, a satellite is hardly a novelty any more is it?

Yet, TV or newsprint is never short of a sentence like this, The panel was beamed by satellite to all the participating cinemas live from the Ritzy cinema in Brixton (March, 2013).

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