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Youtube Private vs Unlisted Videos: When Should You Use Each Setting?

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By Sam Nguyen

CEO Avada Commerce

Drive 20-40% of your revenue with Avada
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With approximately 2 billion people logging in per month, Youtube deserves to be top 1 social platform for video. By uploading videos on Youtube, you can share with people around the world many things such as your company, products, culture, and you even can earn money from it. Many people think that there is only a type of video on Youtube that allows everyone to search for and watch it. However, the fact is different; Youtube also has other settings for your videos that seem not as popular as the public but extremely useful - They are Private videos and Unlisted videos.

So, what are private videos and unlisted video? What are their pros, and when is the suitable condition to exploit them?

They will be all answered in this article. Don’t miss it!

Youtube Private and Unlisted Videos: Definitions

Definitions
Definitions

Before going deep about Youtube Private and Unlisted videos on Youtube, let’s briefly overview the types of videos on Youtube!

As mentioned above, Youtube offers users three settings for video, which are Public, Private, and Unlisted.

Public

As the name suggests, this setting allows people around the world to watch the video you upload easily. Whether you have Youtube accounts or not, you still access and watch video by searching it on Youtube or getting its link.

In fact, public is also the default setting of video on Youtube, and this type accounts for the majority of videos on this platform. By choosing this setting, you can maximize the number of views and the popularity of your videos. Thus, the public video will be your best option if you want to earn money from view on Youtube or spread your video content to everyone.

Private

In the Private setting, your video will not be public on Youtube. It means that people are unable to search for it on Youtube or Google. Only when the author invited you to watch the video, can you see it.

Unlisted

If you select the unlisted option, your video is invisible when people search for it on the Internet. Therefore, it is necessary to let others watch your video; let’s copy its link and share it with them. People with the link are allowed to see the video without signing up or logging in Youtube.

Now, you all know what private and unlisted videos are, right? So, to avoid misunderstanding between private and unlisted videos, let’s have a look at this table below! | Private | Unlisted | |:———————————————————————————:|:————————————————————————————————————————-:| | If you don’t invite people, it is impossible to share your video’s link with them | You are allowed to share the video’s link with everyone you want, and they can watch with no need to own a Youtube account | | You are given the ability to set time for publishing a video in advance | You aren’t provided with the ability to schedule time for posting video | | The number of people receive an invitation is no more than 50 | The number of people can see the video (except for the uploader) is unlimited | | People have to log in to the Google account that is invited to watch the video | People don’t have to log Google account to watch the video | | Your video cannot be switched to the public setting | Your video can be switched to the public setting |

Besides, the similarity between Private and Unlisted mode on Youtube is that your video can’t be seen in the video lists in your Youtube channel, search result, and your subscribers’ feed. To enhance your video’s quality, consider investing in a good microphone for YouTube to ensure clear audio.

Benefits of Private Youtube Videos

Youtube Private video
Youtube Private video

In the first section, we know that Private video will help us keep our videos private; it will be perfectly suitable if you want to keep your video secret. However, it is not everything private video can offer you, keep reading, and you will know the entire advantages of private videos.

First of all, private video is a helpful tool to help you share videos with your loved ones without worry about being seen by strangers. Imagine that you live far from your family, your friends and want to share some beautiful moments with them but don’t want others to watch it: private videos will be your best option; people can’t see the video unless you invite them. You can set parent controls to ensure the content is always age appropriate.

More than that, it enables you to create your private collection. Like your private library of art, records, image, or books, your collection of private videos on Youtube also allows you to keep the videos for yourself, and no one can access them without your invitation.

Not only helpful in personal life, but private videos are also excellent for your work. By setting it, you can store your videos and share with your partners and staff without anxiety about the case that your competitor will watch and know your strategies.

Via the private setting, you will have an ideal place for storing your video. Instead of spending a large amount of storage on your phone or desktop, you can upload your videos on Youtube unlimitedly. In addition, people who receive the invitation of the uploader cannot share the video with the third party. This, hence, will help the uploader keep the video as private as possible.

Benefits of Unlisted Youtube Videos

Youtube Unlisted video
Youtube Unlisted video

With unlisted Youtube videos, you are also able to exploit multiple benefits. The very first of it is that your video can’t be seen in the search video, but people can still watch it if they have its link. You can share your unlisted video with plenty of people by giving them the link. By doing this way, you can partially determine your audiences.

Also, if you are looking for a type of video to help you get comments only from people in your company, unlisted videos will be your resolution. There is no limit of people watching your videos, so you can freely send them the link, and they give you feedback.

The next advantage of unlisted videos is sharing all the necessary information displayed in the form of video to your potential clients. Taking advantage of videos, your data will become more attractive to your customers so when you upload your video as an unlisted video, you can send it to them with ease, and no one else and see your information.

Unlisted videos are also a perfect way to check your video’s effectiveness before changing to the public mode. As mentioned in the first benefit, you can share your videos with numerous people by the link and then receive their feedback. Actually, this way will help you estimate the effectiveness of your video when it is available for the public. If it seems great, publicizing it. Otherwise, what you need is to delete it.

Besides, making use of unlisted videos also helps you tidy up your Youtube channel. Perhaps everyone has some videos that make them feel ashamed when watching. You may wish to delete it but still hesitate lest you will feel regret one day or still want to keep it for some people. What can we do in this situation? Unfortunately, there is an ideal option for you, switch it to unlisted. In this mode, these videos will never be seen in your channel, but people with the link can still watch it.

When Should You Set Youtube Videos to Private?

In fact, the private mode is the setting with the highest privacy level on Youtube, and the followings are three popular cases that you are advised to set the video to private:

Your video is created for family only

When you live far from your family or have a holiday and want to share what you have experienced with your family, the private video will be your best option. You can share high-quality videos with them simply and rapidly, and no one else can see your clips. Also, it is unnecessary for your family members to download the video before seeing.

Your video is made for only members in your company or organization

Actually, video is an efficient tool to help viewers get the information in the shortest time so it is usually taken advantage of by plentiful companies and organizations. These videos can be about a guide of training new members, company’s policy, or any update in the company’s strategies. These content are for internal circulation only so that uploading video with the private mode is always considered the best resolution for this situation. By doing that, your content will never be leaked and can be put in a separate album.

Your video is used for applying jobs or attracting new clients

Several years ago, video resumes became the trend among candidates since it will make them outstanding in the list of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of applicants. By sending the recruitment team your CV in the form of videos, you will help them save lots of time for reading and they are also more likely to be impressed by your creativity and profession.

Moreover, this kind of video is only available if people receive the invitation of the uploader, so that there is no need for leaking personal information. The receiver, in this case, the HR, will simply click on the link and see your resume without downloading anything. Likewise, there will no longer be any error or problems in terms of formatting due to the differences among different devices.

If you are a videographer, making customers satisfied with your video is the keypoint, so sending them your video is unavoidable. Nevertheless, not all videos should be public, the issue related to copyright is also the concern of the author. Particularly in the sensitive topic, your video can cause dozens of negative feedback from strangers. In this case, private videos are exactly the perfect tool. After posting your own private video, you can send it to your potential clients directly and only they can see it.

When Should You Set Youtube Videos to Unlisted?

In some aspects, Unlisted video is the mixture of Public videos and private video since it can be seen in the search result, uploader’s channel or the subscriber newsfeed but anyone who has the link will have the right to watch it. Furthermore, unlisted videos are somehow treated like public ones. For example, your videos will be flagged if its content is inappropriate or violate the copyright audio, video policy.

This, hence, makes some people feel annoyed with it, so in this section, we will recommend several suitable situations for Unlisted videos.

Your video is posted on your website

If you are running a blog or website, this feature will be extremely useful when you want to make your content exclusive. By switching to the unlisted one, your videos will be invisible in Google and Youtube. Thus, the only way to watch your videos is to visit your web, which helps you increase your traffic driven to your page significantly.

You want to remove videos from your channel

Many people started using Youtube very early, so your channel sometimes includes several videos that you feel embarrassed when being mature. This, of course, makes you want to delete them immediately. However, what should you do if you still want people who have its links to watch it whenever you want? Let’s change it to the unlisted setting. Your unlisted videos will be invisible in your Youtube channels with visitors but visible with people having the link.

You want to do some surveys before publicizing

It is a helpful tip for the uploaders to increase the rate of positive feedback in your video’s comment. You can send to people you want in advance, and you will see how people will react to your video if you switch to the public one. Thus, when publicizing, you will know how to deal with the feedback from your viewers professionally, and your viewers will somehow have better impressions about your channel. It’s an effective way to share clips and music between fans and singers.

You have to publish your video in suitable time

If you are working as a social media marketer, publishing your post at a suitable time is crucial to obtain attention from the crowd. It can be a certain time in day or certain day in weeks. However, it is pretty confusing to wait for that time and publish. Instead, you can upload your video in unlisted mode and schedule time for publicizing.

Additionally, you have two options to schedule time for video which are directly from Youtube or on other platforms for social media distribution.

Perhaps all of you are familiar with it on such platforms as Faceook but not aware of this feature on Youtube. And now, you know that, so don’t waste it!

Conclusion

Overall, it can be said that each type of video setting: private or unlisted, all has its features and advantages. Thus, your mission is to analyze your case and decide which one is for you. We hope that this post will help you find suitable settings for specific situations. Whether it is private or unlisted, or even public, try to achieve the best result as you set before.

If you have any questions or advice on the cases and time for the unlisted and private video, don’t hesitate to share with us by leaving a comment below this post.


Sam Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Avada Commerce, an e-commerce solution provider headquartered in Singapore. He is an expert on the Shopify e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Sam loves talking about e-commerce and he aims to help over a million online businesses grow and thrive.