Today it was announced that YouTube, one of the biggest search engines in the world in and of its own right, has changed its algorithm, rewarding videos that people “watch longer” with higher video search rankings. In an nutshell, “watch time” is now worth more than “view count” in the YouTube algorithm.

YouTube’s video discovery features were previously designed to drive views. This rewarded videos that were successful at attracting clicks, rather than the videos that actually kept viewers engaged. (This short-sighted focus led some video marketers to use “cleavage thumbnails” to attract clicks.)

“Now when we suggest videos, we focus on those that increase the amount of time that the viewer will spend watching videos on YouTube, not only on the next view, but also successive views thereafter,” Meyerson said. “If viewers are watching more YouTube, it signals to us that they’re happier with the content they’ve found. It means that creators are attracting more engaged audiences. It also opens up more opportunities to generate revenue for our partners.”

The shift in YouTube’s algorithm reflects the attempt on the part of search engines to reward follower engagement across all social media channels. The takeaway: want to see your videos rank higher in video search? Make your videos more engaging and give viewers a reason to stick around.

The post YouTube Wants You To Watch Longer . . . appeared first on 435 Digital.

Here’s a look at what we’re reading today:

While rumors of Facebook’s penchant for making your private messages public has been greatly exaggerated, there IS a Facebook bug out there that can make posting on your (former) friends’ timelines problematic. Or a whole lot more fun:

A recently found Facebook bug lets you post un-deletable messages to friends’ walls.

Here’s how it works: Once you’ve blocked a person on Facebook, he or she can no longer see content you’ve posted on the social network, including posts you’ve made to their own wall. Since the content is no longer visible, it can’t be deleted. The only way either party can see the post again is if the block is removed.

In a way, Facebook lets you know that’s going to happen when you block someone in the first place: “Blocking means you won’t be able to see or contact each other on Facebook,” reads a message that pops up when you decide to block someone (see screenshot below). However, it’s a one-sided agreement: The person being blocked isn’t notified, and all of the content you’ve previously posted on their wall remains intact but invisible to both of you.

Are you relieved to know that people you have blocked might have written un-deletable comment about you on your wall? We knew you would be.

Speaking of Facebook, is your brand over-posting? Turns out, too much content, no matter how brilliant, is one of the fastest way to lose fans:

More is not always better when it comes to Facebook. Ignoring the fact that most fans never return to a page after they like it, people get frustrated and annoyed by constant posts. Worse than that: now you, the social media professional, has to come up with a large amount of posts. When posting three or more times per day, most of those post are worthless with little value to the fans.

Here are some great stats from an article from the social business:

One-to-two posts a day is more effective than fewer or more posts per day. One or two brand posts receive 32% higher “like” rates and 73% higher comment rates compared to posting 3 or more times a day.

Engagement is highest when brands post four to five posts a week. Posting one to four times a week produces 71% higher user engagement than five or more posts in a given week. Posting less than that, does not maximize your opportunity to target your fans as often as possible.

Meanwhile, over at Google, another algorithm change is on the way, this time to reduce low-quality, exact-match domains from ranking so highly in search results:

The head of Google web spam fighting team Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that Google will be rolling out a “small” algorithm change that will “reduce low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains” from showing up so highly in the search results.

Cutts said this will impact 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. He added it is “unrelated to Panda/Penguin. Panda is a Google algorithm filter aimed at fighting low quality content; Penguin is one aimed at fighting web spam.

This should come as no surprise, as Cutts said a couple years ago that Google will be looking at why exact domain matches rank well when they shouldn’t, in some cases.

Likely over the coming days, you will see shifts in the search results where many sites that may rank well based on being an exact match domain may no longer rank as high in Google’s search results.

Finally this morning, take a moment to read this Sikh woman’s response to a mean-spirited photo of her posted on Reddit:

A Sikh woman’s classy, thoughtful response to a mean-spirited photo of her posted on Reddit has not only warmed the hearts of people around the globe, it has even forced the man who posted the photo to look at his actions and repent.

The original poster, a student at Ohio State University who goes by the handle “European_Douchebag,” posted the above photo with the caption “I’m not sure what to make of this.”

Classmates of the woman in the photo, Balpreet Kaur, a neuroscience and psychology student who also attends Ohio State, alerted her to the post on Facebook. Kaur is Sikh, and will not alter her appearance because of those religious beliefs.

In a response to the post, Kaur shared the reasoning behind her appearance, and why what appeared to be a big deal to the man who posted the photo didn’t matter to her at all.

“If the OP wanted a picture,” she wrote, “they could have just asked and I could have smiled.”

According to Kaur, Sikhs believe in the sacredness of the body, because “it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being… Just as a child doesn’t reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us.”

Tolerance 1, Internet Trolls 0.

Have a great Monday!

The post What We’re Reading: Facebook Privacy, More Google Algorithms, and Reddit Strikes Back appeared first on 435 Digital.