What the New YouTube Comments Mean for Marketers

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If you’ve ever posted a YouTube video for your business and been inundated with a slew of negative comments, or been sorely disappointed with the snide remarks on videos you’ve enjoyed viewing, there’s some good news in store.

YouTube has announced some changes to the commenting system that would focus on the relevance of comments rather than their recency.

“In the coming months, comments from people you care about will rise up where you can see them, while new tools will help video creators moderate conversations for welcome and unwelcome voices,” YouTube announced on their blog in late September. On November 6th, those changes began to roll into effect.

What’s changed for YouTube comments

The biggest change that Google is implementing to YouTube comments is linking them to commenters’ Google+ accounts. As a result, Google says it will favor the most relevant comments over simply the most recent in order to provide a better experience.

It also means that YouTube will know who is in your business’ Google+ circles. People you have added in circles—the ones you know—will have their comments posted above those you don’t know. This provides more relevant uruguay whatsapp number database feedback from your clients and prospects, people whose opinions you may value more.

Other changes being rolled out include the ability to moderate and review comments, pre-approve the comments of certain fans and block certain words. These will all be accessed through the “comment settings” of your YouTube channel.

User experience consultant Sam Blake, who’s worked with companies such Microsoft and Fog Creek Software, believes that the YouTube comment overhaul is another way for Google to increase Google+ usage. “I think this is clearly a strategic move on their part to kill two birds with one stone. They want to increase the quality of YouTube comments certainly, but they also want to increase the relationship between YouTube, which has tons of users, and their Google+ property, which has a lot of users in name but doesn’t have a lot of users in fact,” says Blake. By linking the two accounts together, Google is trying to encourage conversations of videos within people’s circles, using tools such as Google+.

What does this mean for your business?

Small businesses can take a couple of steps to make the most of the new changes to YouTube.

First, you’ll want to link your YouTube and Google+ accounts, if you haven’t already. Go to your advanced account settings in YouTube and click on “connect with a Google+ page.” The username you select will become your new YouTube channel name, so choose wisely! You’ll want to select your business name rather than a nickname. Remember that if you post public videos on YouTube, they’ll show up on your Google+ page, too.

If you’re worried about the potential for negative comments on your YouTube channel, you’ll be able to experiment with comment moderation options and newer comment features as they’re rolled out. What’s available now is a “blacklist” feature, where comments matching specific words you select (perhaps based on terms or phrases you found problematic in the past) can be held for review. You can approve certain users or even entire Google+ circles (your circle of clients, perhaps), ban specific users or circles, and choose between three moderation settings: disabling comments, allowing all comments, or holding comments for review.