June 21: It’s been a couple months since our last audience report, but thanks to the many of you who have been asking for a new one; we’ve got a lot of big news to share.

COUNTING DOWN TO 1 BILLION: NEXTNEWBILLION.COM

Three years, 8,000 episodes, Ten Webby Awards, 1 Billion Views. Today we launched a campaign to celebrate our first billion views, a milestone we expect to hit in the coming month (our current count: over 980 million). On nextnewbillion.com, you can watch over 50 of our biggest hit episodes, guess the date we’re going to hit 1 billion, and download a super-cool commemorative poster, a photo-mosaic of over 5000 of our episode thumbnails. 

It only took us 8,000 episodes to hit 1 billion views, meaning the average Next New Networks video gets over 125,000 lifetime views. Compare this to the average 100 lifetime views a video uploaded to the Internet gets; that’s a 1250% increase in views that’s Next New Networks’ greatest advantage.

Of course, besides building audience, we also connect creators with great opportunities, from advertising and sponsorship, like our multiple renewals with Samsung, Unilever, and Warner Brothers, to building their visibility in the industry. At this year’s Webby Awards, Auto-Tune the News took home two awards and The Reel Good Show won filmmaker Bobby Miller his second People’s Voice for Variety; to date, Next New Networks series have won an amazing ten Webby Awards in the past three years. The Gregory Brothers stole the show with their five-word acceptance speech; watch it on the Webby Awards’ YouTube Channel.

NEXT NEW MONTHLY VIEWS DOUBLE FROM JANUARY TO JUNE

From January to June 2010, our monthly views have nearly doubled, from 32.8MM to a projected 65.3MM. Driving this growth is the ongoing success of networks like Barely Digital, Fast Lane Daily and Indy Mogul, but also large growth in our creator-owned series in the Next New Creators program, which in June accounted for over 20% of Next New Networks views.

We’ve actually had a ton of momentum this year to date, with hits like The Key of Awesome, as profiled recently in Entertainment Weekly and Mashable. Follow the latest Next News on Twitter and Tumblr, where we update regularly about our web series hits and audience growth.

Read our Entertainment Weekly article.

NEXT NEW ON MASHABLE: HOW TO BUILD YOUR YOUTUBE AUDIENCE

Next New Networks’ own Vanessa Pappas recently contributed a guest byline to leading social media blog Mashable, “5 Ways to Build a Loyal Audience on YouTube,” laying out many of the best practices we use for Next New series that can benefit any business looking to be more successful on the world’s leading video site.

Here’s an excerpt:

Utilize the Platform – This is Not TV

YouTube is many things to many people, but above all it is a social medium. It’s where conversations happen, content is shared, and people engage in a very personal and direct way. By looking at some of the most successful YouTube channels, you’ll quickly learn that being authentic in your videos is rewarded while brand marketing that is disingenuous or without value gets few results. Big companies like Zappos and Southwest Airlines understand this, and are excelling via engagement.

To get the most visibility from YouTube, use all the tools at hand. People are not just watching content; they are “Liking” it, commenting on it, and sharing it through e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. By encouraging such activity through either specific calls to action within your videos or using advanced features like YouTube Annotations, you increase the chances of your videos being shared and discovered by a wider audience.

Another main YouTube tool is the subscription feature. By asking your viewers to subscribe, you can convert many of them into repeat viewers and guaranteed audiences for future videos. Above all, by directly engaging with your viewers — through comments, responses, and replies to messages — you can effectively convert fans into a mobilized marketing team. Reward them by letting their voice be heard and including them in your content, and in turn you will find they will advocate on your behalf. To that end, no marketing dollar spent can match the value of personal endorsements and word of mouth from your biggest fans. At our company, we’ve seen the “pass-along” value and engagement metrics drive upwards of 40% of our traffic on top videos.

 Read the whole article on Mashable.