How Sesame Street reached 1 billion YouTube views
Do you want your brand to go viral? Take a cue from Big Bird and the gang: Educate, balance serious and light-hearted content, and know what’s important to your viewers.
For those who love videos of talking dogs, babies biting fingers or Korean men dancing, the news that Sesame Street’s YouTube page is the first nonprofit channel to achieve 1 billion views may come as a surprise.
To those who know what kind of content inspires people, it doesn’t.
There are three main reasons why this channel has proven so successful—reasons brands (for-profit or nonprofit) should take note of.
1. It is educational.
Sesame Street targets youngsters, but the theory is the same for all brands: Teach viewers something new every time they watch. Sesame Street teaches a new letter, word, number or life lesson. Brands could teach anything and everything. It’s a great way to make content truly valuable.
If your videos enrich your viewers’ lives every time they watch, they’ll not only keep coming back for more, but be more likely to recommend your content to their peers. This could mean increased likes, retweets, shares and Google +1s. These broaden your reach and can improve your social signals, thereby increasing your traffic/rankings. What’s not to like?
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