HHS YouTube Guidance
This information applies to the entirety of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Operational Divisions and Offices within the Department may create guidance and establish policies that are more restrictive if the appropriate management so chooses.
Last updated: July 1, 2011 | PDF | | Directory of HHS YouTube Channels
Getting Started
- Do I need a YouTube Channel?
- How do I get a YouTube Channel for my Office?
- What benefits come with being under the HHS TOS?
- What if I don’t have/want a YouTube Channel but I want my video to be on YouTube?
- Does every video I make have to go through clearance?
Standards and Policies
- Video Requirements
- Accessibility (Section 508)
- All videos must also be shown on a dot.gov website and linked to
- Comment Moderation
- Video quality and presentation standards
- Responding to Comments (and other Engagement Issues)
- Embedding a YouTube video
Video and Channel Metadata
Additional Resources
Getting Started
YouTube 
owned by Google, is a free online video streaming service that allows anyone to view and share videos that have been uploaded by registered users. HHS YouTube Channel activities are managed by the HHS Center for New Media (hhsCNM). A list of all HHS YouTube Channels can be found at our Who’s on YouTube page.
Do I need a YouTube Channel?
The most well-known and prominently used video-sharing network, YouTube is visited by millions of viewers every day. Users span all demographics, and every minute there are 35 hours of video uploaded to YouTube.
However, not every office needs its own YouTube Channel. Remember that people find most videos via search or because they are referred directly to it by friends. A very limited number of people are likely to actually view a YouTube Channel.
The following factors should be included when deciding whether or not you should create and maintain your own YouTube Channel:
- Is there enough content to warrant it’s own channel? Advice: A minimum of fifteen (15) videos should be posted to your Channel within 6 months.
- Has there been / Should there be a strategic decision made to centralize YouTube efforts in your Agency, Office or Program?
- Do you have the financial resources to regularly produce video content?
- Do you have the staff resources to maintain an Account? Especially important if you determine to allow comments on your videos which is strongly encouraged.
How Do I get a Channel for my Office?
Adding new Channels to the HHS TOS consists of the following steps:
- Consult with management for approval and to develop a strategic plan for the use of a YouTube Channel.
- Create your YouTube account .
- Email the hhsCNM at newmedia@hhs.gov with this account name and the contact information of a single Point of Contact who is to act as the Office’s YouTube Content Manager. Back-ups and other ‘need-to-know’ individuals may also be identified at this time.
- The hhsCNM will then review with the appropriate management for verification of approval of the YouTube Channel.
- hhsCNM will send a request to Google for this to account to be moved under the HHS TOS. Requests are sent the Thursday before the 4th Friday of each month.
Unfortunately, at this time we do not receive notice of when the account has been moved. Instead an Agency will have to notice the changes on its own. The easiest way to tell is to look at your channel page while signed in. Running across the top it says:
Post Bulletin | Settings | Themes and Colors | Modules | Videos and Playlists
Once the channel has been moved under the HHS TOS, a fourth box called “Branding Options” will appear.
What benefits come with being under the HHS TOS?
A number of benefits come with the agreement with Google, Inc. These include, but are not limited to:
- Legal restraints removed. Agencies posting to the HHS Channel are not required to sign an indemnification clause.
- Length restriction removed. The 15 minute time limit on videos is removed; however, there is a 2GB size limit.
- Branding features activated. Certain areas within the Channel and in the playback view are made available for branding, including the placement of banners and images.
What if I don’t have/want a YouTube Channel but I want my video to be on YouTube?
You may be able to post your video on the main HHS YouTube Channel; however, it may be more appropriate for you to post in another Channel that is more directly relevant. For example, a small program within NIH that is not expecting to produce much video content may be able to post to the NIH OD YouTube Channel.
Look up your bureaucratic organizational chart to determine the office most directly overseeing yours that does have a YouTube Channel. Or email the hhsCNM and we can help connect you with the owner of a Channel you specify.
Who oversees my YouTube Channel’s Activities?
A YouTube Content Manager must be designated to oversee and ultimately be held responsible for all activities of the YouTube Channel.
The clearance process for posting YouTube videos is the same as that for other content for website publishing.
Standards and Policies
There are federal and HHS-level standards and policies that apply to the management of YouTube Channel.
Video Requirements
Videos posted to HHS Channels must serve the core communications mission of the posting Agency.
Accessibility (Section 508)
All videos posted on YouTube must meet HHS Section 508 requirements for accessibility.
The YouTube platform is not Section 508 compliant. This is one of the reasons that it is required that all uploaded YouTube videos must also appear on a dot.gov website.
All HHS video content on YouTube must be captioned.
- For information on the captioning file types that are compatible with YouTube, see the YouTube Help Center .
- Additional information on captioning is available at http://www.hhs.gov/web/policies/webstandards/video508.html
508 Accommodation Waivers: Exceptions to the 508 requirement may be made in cases of engagement with citizen users. For example, when running a video campaign in which an Agency is asking for users to upload content directly into a YouTube Agency group, it would be unreasonable to expect or insist that all users caption their content.
- The YouTube Content Manager must contact hhsCNM before bringing non-508 compliant video into the Agency's Channel.
- The sponsoring Agency must demonstrate the ability to provide access to the video information if a visitor to your channel requests accommodation. WCD has a support contract in place for HHS Agencies to use.
- Note: Under no circumstances shall a non-captioned video be the featured video in your YouTube Channel.
All videos must also be shown on a dot.gov website and linked to
It’s an OMB requirement that all HHS videos posted on YouTube must be shown on an HHS.gov website. This requirement may or may not be fulfilled by embedding the YouTube video itself onto that website.
A link must be provided in the video description linking to a dot.gov website where a user could reasonably find this video shown.
Video Quality and Presentation Standards
This section is important but still needs to be written. Do you have any resources or are you interested in helping with this?
Engaging with others and others’ video content over YouTube
Subscribing to other Channels
Subscribing to a Channel allows one to be alerted when that Channel is updated.
- An Agency has no control over who subscribes to its Channel.
- An Agency may subscribe to any government-operated Channel.
- Agency management must approve subscription to non-government Channels.
- Agencies may not subscribe to political Channels.
Friending other Channels
Becoming friends makes it easier to keep track of what your friends are favoriting, uploading, or rating, and makes it easier to share public or private videos. Because of the capabilities of subscriptions...
- Agency Channels may not friend nor accept friend requests from non-government Channels.
'Favoriting' videos
'Favoriting' videos allow for external video content to be brought into a Channel.
- An Agency may 'favorite' any government video.
- Agency management must approve 'favoriting' non-governmental videos.
- Agencies may not 'favorite' political videos.
Responding to Comments (and other Engagement Issues)
One powerful use of the YouTube platform can be the direct public communication with individuals. Before engaging directly with the public, see our HHS Guidance: When and How to Engage over New Media Platforms (PDF - 60KB).
Personal Messages can be controlled by going to your YouTube account’s privacy page . If this feature is utilized, the standards and policies surrounding the use of email between gov’t and individuals apply.
Comment Moderation
Agencies have the option of allowing comments and video responses. If comments or video responses are allowed, they must be moderated - reviewed and approved by Agency staff.
By default, comments are made in threaded discussions under each video and within a Channel as whole. There are four moderation settings for comments:
- Allow comments automatically. Agencies must not select this setting.
- Allow friends' comments automatically, all others with approval only. As HHS Channels are not allowed to accept or make friend requests, Agencies must not select this setting.
- Allow all comments with approval only. This setting requires Agency management approval.
- Don't allow comments. Not encouraged, but sometimes necessary.
Video responses can also be posted to individual videos. There are three moderation settings for video responses:
- Yes, allow video responses to be added automatically. Agencies must not select this setting.
- Yes, allow responses after I approve them. This setting requires Agency management approval.
- No, don't allow video responses. Not encouraged, but sometimes necessary.
All videos allowing comments must have the following (or the like) in the video description:
We accept comments according to the spirit of our comment policy: http://newmedia.hhs.gov/standards/comment_policy.html
If comments are accepted, then all comments, including those not posted, must be retained. More information on records management at HHS Web Records Policy & Guidance.
Embedding a YouTube video
It is the default feature of YouTube to allow anyone to embed any video. The ability for others to embed your video on their websites is a key element in increasing viewership and increase the distribution of your message. You may also be interested in embedding videos (yours or other’s) onto your dot.gov website.
Requirements in Obtaining the YouTube Embed Code
When obtaining the YouTube embed code, the following must be completed:
- Ensure 'Include related videos' is NOT checked (HHS policy)
- Ensure 'Enable privacy-enhanced mode' is checked (OMB policy)
Related Videos
Related videos appear within the embedded video player after the embedded video has finished playing. Related video lists are calculated by a Google algorithm that may tie associations between our videos and videos that we don't want to be associated with. Therefore, ensure "Include related videos" is not selected prior to obtaining the video embed code.
Privacy-enhanced mode
Default YouTube embedded videos activate user-permanent cookies immediately upon landing on the page with the embedded video. Enabling privacy-enhanced mode prevents cookies from being set until the user clicks on the video to view it.
YouTube Logo and the Required Privacy Notice
When the "Privacy-enhanced mode" is enabled, embedding YouTube videos on .gov domains automatically replaces the YouTube logo that typically appears on the bottom right of videos with the text Privacy info. This text links to the required YouTube privacy notice page. No additional steps are required by HHS Web staff.
Video and Channel Metadata
Channel Name
Most people don’t know acronyms. Please try not to use them. Be creative.
Search Engine Optimization: Title, description, and tags
The most important aspect of increasing rank is to create quality, meaningful content that people will want to watch. The following items drive SEO and are dependent upon the viewers' responses:
- Number of views
- Number and location of incoming links
- Number of comments (if activated)
- Number of Channel subscribers
- Viewers' ratings of the video (1 through 5 scale)
- Others
YouTube SEO is also largely based upon the metadata attributed to each video. This data is entered upon uploading each video but can be changed at anytime:
- Title of the video
- Description of the video
- Tags assigned to the video
Additional Resources
As is the nature of this type of platform, YouTube is constantly changing. New features are added and old features are removed or changed.
The YouTube Help Center is a valuable resource that is searchable and easy to navigate. Every Content Manager should be familiar with this resource.
Often times just searching online can yield a wealth of information. If you have a question, chances are others have asked it as well. And they’ve likely found and posted their answers online!
Technical and strategic training and brainstorming is available from the hhsCNM.
There are a number of government groups available as well, including the HHS-NewMedia ListServ which is open to all individuals with an email address from the HHS family of agencies.
We are also growing an HHS group of individuals interested in online video, so let us know if you’re interested in contributing to that community.