A July study of video distribution by start-up tubemogul.com highlights an interesting pattern in video viewership.
The study sought to measure the effect of using multiple distribution channels instead of just YouTube and one’s own Web site.
It wouldn’t take a study to figure out if you had more distribution, you’d have more viewers, right? And, indeed, it did find that to be true and that supplying video into several channels far smaller than YouTube actually resulted in a huge growth in views.
The test site’s video views grew by nearly 250 percent.
What I found more interesting was something else the tubemogul folks discovered. Videos are not uniformly popular across sites; they don’t each become more or less popular at the same time. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Videos bubble up and down to each site’s own rhythms.
While YouTube is still the preeminent force in online video, video producers who employ a multi-site distribution strategy receive greater viewership than those who do not …
This certainly supports the advantages of trying to build audience and awareness through a multi-channel, see-it-anywhere strategy. Are you just presenting video on your site? Do you post to YouTube? Do you post to multiple networks?
This study would suggest you are passing up audience if you are not. And even if you are posting to your site and YouTube, substantial upside potential exists in posting videos into other networks as well.
See the full study (short).