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YouTube

Please Note: New social media accounts (including YouTube channels and accounts) fall under Western's New Social Media process, in partnership with your Communications Officer and the Western Communications.

Refrain from posting YouTube video links on Facebook and Twitter. Directly upload your MP4 (Video) and SRT (Closed Caption) files to these socail networks. Refer to our guide for publishing video to social media.

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Western's YouTube Strategy

Western has an official YouTube Channel (youtube.com/westernuniversity) that is used school-wide. Rather than creating many YouTube channels, individual groups such as Faculties and Departments have playlists within the official YouTube Channel. A list of these is included below, and you can also refer to our social media directory.

Western also uses YouTube as a video hosting service.  YouTube videos can be either private or public, which allows us to use YouTube as a video host even when the videos are not meant for everyone to see. We upload videos onto YouTube and then embed the YouTube code onto our websites. Your videos will play more smoothly and be compatible with more devices if you host them on YouTube in this way. 

Questions about YouTube at Western University can be directed to youtube@uwo.ca. You can also contact this address to request updates on YouTube at Western.

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Subscribe to Western's YouTube Channel

Support Western's YouTube channel and receive notifications about our new videos: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=westernuniversity

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Request to add a video to YouTube

If you are not a regular Western YouTube user with access to upload your own videos, please contact youtube@uwo.ca with the following information to request your video uploads:

• Meta data for each of your videos (Title, Description & Tags are required)
• Playlist(s) to include your video (Minimum 1 playlist required per video)
• Video file (Provide online link via file sharing service, network location or send via campus mail)

If sending the video via Campus Mail, please send to: Western Communications (WH 360).

See below for details on the length and format for your video files.

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Requesting Access to Western's YouTube Channel

If your department would like to join our school-wide YouTube project, please contact youtube@uwo.ca.

Western's YouTube account often requires additional verification beyond the username and password. Book a time to coordinate this verification with the cell phone that is registered to the YouTube account.

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File Types

YouTube accepts a wide variety of video file formats for upload:

To ensure that we can use your video for other websites, training videos, etc., we prefer that you publish your videos in MOV or AVI format.

Tip: Use your video's title as its file name. This will very dramatically improve your video's "Search Engine Optimization."
i.e. Save your video as shawn-li-cancer-research.avi (do not save as li-video-final.avi) 

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File Size

According to YouTube, videos can be no larger than 1 GB and no longer than 10 minutes long. Because of Western’s acceptance into the EDU directory, we can post videos that are as long as we'd like (but that are still under the 1 GB file size).

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Captions & Accessibility

It is important to upload closed captions for your videos. 

Option 1 (Recommended):

• Upload your video to your department or Faculty Facebook Page as a new video post.
• Let Facebook automatically generate captions for your video and then edit them to correct mistakes.
• Download the SRT closed caption file from your Facebook Video. (Screenshot below).
• Upload your video to YouTube, including the SRT closed caption file from Facebook.

Now your video is live and has closed captions on both websites.

Option 2:

Use YouTube's closed caption tool. This means your video is only on YouTube - and not on Facebook - and you cannot export the YouTube closed captions and upload them to Facebook later. 

Please do not post YouTube links on Facebook.

Below: Where to find the SRT download option on your Facebook Video

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Video Length

Standard videos uploaded to YouTube should be no longer than 10 minutes in length. Because Western has been accepted to YouTube EDU, we can post videos that are as long as we want. Right now, the longest video on YouTube is about an hour long.

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Metadata

All Western videos require a minimum of metadata to help sort and classify our content for viewers to find and search engines to index. The key items of metadata are: 

Title - Add a descriptive title. 

Description  - Add an accurate description of the video. This can be as long as you’d like, but should at least be one or two full sentences at minimum.

At the end of your description, make sure to add "Uploaded by (Your Department Here)"

Tip: You can include links in your video's description, to increase traffic to your website and guide your viewers to additional information.

Tagging  - All Western videos must be tagged with at least the following: 

• westernu
• western
• university
• london
• ontario
• canada
• uwo

Any other tags that you’d like to apply to your videos are fine (i.e. robarts, emergency, homecoming, chakma), as long as you have the above short list. 

Tags should be entered one word at a time, separated by a comma. YouTube doesn’t seem to be able to use phrases, yet.

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Playlists

All videos uploaded to YouTube must be added to at least one playlist:

View all YouTube Playlists

We require videos to be added to playlists so they will automatically update Western websites with new videos when they become available. This system of automation is built on YouTube playlists. The more videos added to a playlist, the more videos that will appear on Western websites that pull those playlists for content! 

Feel free to create a new playlist for your endeavour, but make sure you check to see if it exists already so that we don't double up on content. When you suggest a new playlist, be sure to include not only the name of the playlist but also a brief description to apply to the playlist. That way we can improve the visibility of our videos in YouTube's search tool. If you would like to request a new playlist be created for you please email youtube@uwo.ca. 

Keep in mind that videos can be featured in multiple playlists – so if a Research story would also fit in In The News, feel free to add away!

Tip: You can even include YouTube videos from other YouTube accounts in your playlists! This can be helpful if you work on a video with a partner and it is uploaded to their YouTube channel instead of Western's.

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YouTube Resources

Some helpful links:

• New Video Communications Plan
• YouTube Creator Hub
• YouTube Video Editor
• YouTube Charts
• How to Make Your Video Upload Crystal Clear (Got Video Bloat?)

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