I am a big fan of YouTube. I love being able to find some great videos of my favorite performers and I can watch them for free…and as many times as I want.  #1 on my list of performers to watch is Clay Aiken; I also love pulling up figure skating videos…anyone else like watching Michelle Kwan?

YouTube was created by three engineers in San Bruno, California in 2005.  The three men met while working at PayPal.  It seems the idea of YouTube came about because the three were trying to share videos taken during a party in San Francisco.  I am sure these talented young men had no idea they were creating one of the largest and most successful social networking site on the Internet.

The purpose for writing this blog today is to introduce the importance of YouTube to Clay Aiken.

Please look over the following statistics about YouTube.  I was amazed at the numbers.

YouTube Traffic

• 72 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second.
• Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day
• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
• More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years
• 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside theUS
• YouTube is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages
• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views
• In 2011 there were almost 140 views for every person on Earth

Mobile Devices

• Traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011
• More than 10% of global YouTube views come from mobile devices
• 3 hours of video is uploaded per minute to YouTube from mobile devices
• YouTube is available on 350 million devices

Social

• 500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute
• 100 million people take a social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc) every week
• More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community
• Millions of videos are favorited every day
• Clicks on the ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ button on YouTube have doubled since the start of 2011. For every ‘dislike,’ they get 10 ‘likes’- people like to tell other people about the stuff they love.

These are astounding figures.  I knew YouTube was popular, but I had no idea it was so large.

So, how does this relate to Clay Aiken?  Well, YouTube is a good place to be seen.  There are hundreds of videos of Clay…you can see concerts, TV appearances, and even some backstage action.  As fans, we can help get high numbers on Clay’s videos.  First, we need to view the video.  It doesn’t stop there though…we need to “like” the video, and leave a short comment.  These numbers are used to track the popularity and relevancy of songs and artists.  The data is used by record labels, booking agents, advertisers, and radio stations.

So… Let’s start with the video posted below.  If each of you will play it at least once, “like” it, we could add some numbers.  Pass the word…ask another Clay fan to watch the video too.  To me, it’s a “win-win” situation.  Clay’s numbers increase and I get to watch Clay perform.  I can do that!

Statistics about YouTube were taken from the YouTube Internet Website.

Graphic from www.techwelkin.com

Have you ever posted a video on YouTube?  Do you watch YouTube videos of Clay?