YouTube, You Do?

I learned a lot about YouTube in the Citizen Marketers reading this week. I have used it a few times, but mostly when someone else has sent me a video of something funny. I have searched for a few videos when I had something specific in mind, but I had no idea how fast it grew, the full capacity of its functionality, or that it is also considered and actually quite successful at being a social networking site.

According to McConnell and Huba, YouTube "...came out of nowhere in November of 2005...[and] by its six-month anniversary [it] was reportedly reaching more people than the Web sites of all the major television networks and popular yet traditional media like the New York Times. It was serving 100 million videos each day to 6 million people."

McConnell and Huba use YouTube to profile a case study organizations considering creating their own democratized community. Here is a summary of the 6 lessons to be learned:

1. Community is the founding principle behind YouTube, and social media tools democratize involvement. Private email system allows people to link to one another without the fear of receiving spam-a-lot.
2. Sharing videos is easy as pie. Watch a video, and press a button to share.
3. Statistics, statistics, statistics. You get to instantly know how many viewings your video receives, how many comments have been posted for each video, the number of "favorites" each video receives, and any "honors" it has won. "Data transparency has been one of YouTube's strongest attributes. It doesn't hide data; it flaunts it."
4. Upload a video, get your own personal page, just like Facebook, or MySpace. Now anyone can follow any more videos you post.
5. Design was simple and unassuming. It appeals to all ages and is easy to use.
6. Search functionality is actually better than Google Video. Again. It's super easy to use.

I love it. I am YouTube's newest fan, and I haven't even uploaded a video. But you know what? This is a site that even my parents will love, especially when I start uploading videos of my daughter. :)