Examining factors that predict user engagement on YouTube

This research proposes a model to examine factors that predict user engagement with sports brand-related YouTube videos. This research also investigates which type of YouTube channels generate more user engagement. Prior research on social media engagement, YouTube, social influencers and sports marketing will be analyzed. Ten hypotheses are derived to carry out the research. The model concludes that factors such as the number of channel subscribers, channel age, video age, video duration and video definition have statistically significant relationship with YouTube engagement. Additionally, channel types: brand, private vlogger and news/updates also have a statistically significant relationship with YouTube engagement. Brands channels, having access to a larger network and the ability to feature sports celebrities, are likely to generate four times more engagement than other YouTube channels. This study contributes to the research on social media engagements in terms of examining the type of factors important in predicting user engagement on YouTube. Keywords: Social Media, Social Media Engagement, YouTube, Social Influencers, Vloggers, Sports Marketing and Soccer.