Videos that have relevant and rich tags and descriptions will be found and will be forwarded. But there is nothing wrong with supercharging this process, and this is where promotion comes into play.
This is especially important as many video sites employ a "bubble up" methodology that promotes videos and content creators that receive the most views, subscribers, comments, ratings and forwards. Thus, then "bubble up" to the top of video sites and become even more popular. So in the video world, popularity begets more popularity.
Building a community is the single best method for promoting a video.
This isn't an overnight process, but can be done by using the infrastructure of the various video-sharing and social networking sites. This means subscribing to people's videos and leaving creative comments so that people click on your profile. Also, it's important (and fun) to befriend people and invite them to subscribe to your video channels. You can also join and be a meaningful contributor to various newsgroups and chat rooms.
If you can pull off these things, you've just created your own set of groupies that will watch your content just because of the relationship, and this applies to both companies and individuals. Yet another way to build community is to write an interesting blog and create a following, as well as responding to the blog posts of others. Also, you'll be surprised how open bloggers and category experts will be to plug your video in exchange for a "sneak peak" or an interview.
Also consider submitting your videos to other "Web 2.0" websites that employ voting systems to promote content.
Some of the most popular sites are Digg, Reddit, Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. As your video or article gains more votes, the video will attract even more attention and may even end up in a featured or "top 10" type category which can generate hundreds of thousands of views in a day.
Generally, deploying videos to multiple sites makes sense as different sites have different content niches and audiences. Essentially, each site represents a community opportunity that you can tap into.
TubeMogul "Load and Track" is an easy tool to deploy to multiple sites at once. Here is a handy grid that provides some information on a few of the top video-sharing sites:
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| Description | Demographics | Reg. | Upload | Notes |
| YouTube | No intro needed here | Evenly female/male audience, even age distribution, U.S. East and West coasts. | Easy | Fast review process, mainly automated | Experimenting with ad sharing |
| Yahoo! Video | An original video destination, but late to the game | Slight more male viewers, slightly older, even US geographic distribution | Medium | Relatively slow and unpredictable review process |
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| MySpace | Primarily a social networking site, but video is still huge | High percentage of female and under 18 viewers | Easy | No review process. Videos go live immediately | Being rebranded as MySpaceTV |
| Metacafe | Popular worlwide, prides itself on community votes driving featured content | Skews towards older, more educated, male viewers | Easy | Fast human review process | Offers ad sharing |
| Google Video | Increasingly becoming more of a video search engine | Slightly more male viewers, disproportionately more Hispanic audience | Medium | Limited review process. Unlimited content length and size | Integrates with other Google apps like Web Albums and Picasa |
| Revver | One of the firrst video sites to offer ad revenue sharing | Slightly older, white male crowd | Easy | Discriminating human review process | Ads inserted into all videos |
| DailyMotion | The YouTube of Europe | Overwhelmingly white male. Higher age and income than most | Easy | Fast and easy | Growing in the US |
| Blip.tv | Publisher-friendly video sharing and distribution site | Slightly more male, slightly higher income level than most video sites, even ethnic distribution | Easy | Easy | Publisher can choose to insert ads |
| Brightcove | Trying to bring TV to the internet | Even split male and female. Few under 18 viewers | Easy | Easy | Ad share options available |
| Crackle | Focused on making people stars | Largely male, disproportionately African-American audience | Easy | Slick Flash upload tool allows many videos in one shot | Owned by Sony |
| Veoh | Focused on full-screen video programming for anyone with a broadband connection | Slightly more male viewers, predominantly Asian, distributed across all age categories | Medium | Easy | Investors include Michael Eisner and Time Warner |
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Source :
Online Video Marketing and Promotion
