In McConnell and Huba's, Citizen Marketers, six lessons vital to creating a democratized community are outlined. This six lessons are demonstrated by sharing the elements of YouTube which have made it a pacesetter in the realm of social networking. The elements are summarized as follows:
1. Community Emphasized. Features like comments, tags, and voting promote involvement and the formation of groups within the social network. YouTube’s private email system has also provided a method of communication that does not violate its user’s personal email directories, thereby increasing email participation.
2. It’s Easy. YouTube has made the sharing of videos and content simple for its users. The site has provided built in functionality within its “Share this video” message at the end of each video.
3. Statistics. YouTube has provided its viewers with data concerning the number of times a video has been viewed, number of comments posted, and the rank of the video as determined by ratings. McConnell and Huba have coined the term, “data transparency” to describe YouTube’s approach to statistical data sharing.
4. Personalization is Encouraged. YouTube promotes the personalization of profiles. Individuals are able to subscribe to channels as well as tag terms that will yield them videos related to their tags.
5. Welcoming Aesthetics. YouTube has created a neutral site that is pertinent to all ages and groups. Tabs have also made the site easy to navigate and therefore more accessible.
6. Search Functionality. YouTube has offered many different searchable terms such as title, date, added, view count and rating.
YouTube as a leader of social networking sites has endorsed community, ease of sharing and displaying data, individualism, and universality. These lessons and the success YouTube has achieved because of these elements could be a example to other social networks looking to attain success.
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