YouTube Guidance
YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, view, and share videos. The BLM leverages YouTube's interactive medium to provide information about BLM services, showcase local events, and highlight programs that contribute to the country.
This online guidance outlines procedures for using YouTube for official BLM business.
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I. Governance
The National Communications Directorate - through its New Media Team - provides national oversight of YouTube accounts for official external communication needs.
The BLM's New Media Team authorizes only one national YouTube account and one YouTube account per BLM state and center. The BLM's New Media Team and State/Center External Affairs (EA) Offices will manage the approval, posting, and tracking of videos. Offices and programs with appropriate videos should contact their local BLM communications staff.
At this time, not all BLM states and centers maintain a YouTube account. To establish an account, the State/Center EA Office should submit the Social Media Request Form to the BLM’s New Media Lead, Kaveh Sadeghzadeh, at kcsadegh@blm.gov - as outlined in the BLM's online new media policy.
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II. Branding
For consistent branding across new media sites, all BLM YouTube sites must include the following branding elements:
- The official BLM logo (download the BLM logo resized for YouTube);
- The BLM office, state, or center name;
- The boilerplate language for BLM official communication;
- A brief description of the BLM office, state, or center;
- The BLM office, state, or center official website; and
- A linked list of office, state, or center new media sites.
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III. Technical Requirements
All BLM YouTube sites must comply with the following technical requirements.
[1] All videos posted to an official BLM YouTube site will be archived in the BLM's web content management system.
[2] All videos posted to an official BLM YouTube site will first appear substantively on the BLM's external website.
[3] All videos posted to an official BLM YouTube site will have a title and description that covers the who, what, where, when, and why of the video. A good description provides not only greater accessibility to persons with disabilities but also more effective search results for the public.
[4] All videos posted to an official BLM YouTube site will have closed captions for accessibility to persons with disabilities. YouTube's automated machine transcription service does not qualify as closed captioning. BLM states and centers are encouraged to use the transcript upload capability of YouTube to properly caption videos.
[5] All videos posted on an official BLM YouTube site will meet the following standards.
- The BLM must have secured rights to stream the video.
- The video quality should match at least DVD quality; lower quality video will be considered if the audio is clear and the content is compelling and informative.
- The video should be saved in an acceptable format: .MOV, .MPG, .WMV, .AVI, DVD, Tapes (miniDV and DV Cam), 640x480 (SD) or 1280x720 (HD) for 4:3 & 16:9 aspect ratios.
- The video frame rate should match the frame rate of the original video.
- The sampling rate should be 44.1KHz for MP3/AAC audio.
- The source video should ideally be high resolution, for example .MOV or AVI file, NTSC 720x480, HDV 1080i, 720p or VGA 640x480.
[6] All official BLM YouTube sites will provide a link to the .
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