YouTube
With over one-billion unique visitors every month, YouTube is the number one platform for sharing video content and can equally be as powerful as a social media marketing tool. Commercials, how-to videos, promotional campaigns, and fun videos from the workplace can be featured on YouTube to build a business’s online personality. Utilizing YouTube for business can build credibility by showcasing knowledge and skills.
YouTube is owned by Google and uses the same login information for a Gmail or Google+ account. The integrated Google platform creates an efficient social experience as YouTube users can upload and post videos on their channel or onto their Google+ page. Commenting on videos and offering insights on your own and other industry-related videos will make your voice heard on the web.
Using YouTube
With attention spans constantly decreasing, creating and sharing short 30-second to 4-minute videos will benefit your audience best. Keeping your video interesting, informative, and orienting content to serving the audience’s needs are important concepts to remember. Videos that look similar to infomercials will be shared less often and will not retain popularity.
Use YouTube for a variety of video content:
- Capture testimonials—video is more compelling than reading text
- Offer behind-the-scenes looks and office tours to highlight the workplace
- Record biographies of personnel to highlight individuals and showcase their personality
When recording video, remember these guidelines as well:
- High Definition quality video can now be captured on smartphones
- Working with a low budget is doable—you don’t need to hire out with an Android or iPhone
- Using free editing software, like Windows Movie Maker, iMovie (Mac’s only), or even YouTube’s video editing capabilities get the job done
After creating a video for YouTube, it is important to share it properly to engage audiences and gain traffic to your YouTube channel and more importantly, your website. Linking your video on other social media platforms and adding links to your website and blog will help spread your video and increase traffic. After creating a video, it is also important to name and describe your video with detail as YouTube videos will display in Google search results. Optimizing your content with detailed and keyword-specific titles, descriptions and tags will make your video appear higher-up in search results. And always include a call to action—SUBSCRIBE NOW!
What to Avoid
Once uploading and sharing your videos, remember to encourage feedback and respond to comments, but do so cautiously. There will always be negativity and inappropriate comments, but responding back in a positive manner to certain, selected comments can give you positive publicity. Responding to complaints in wordy back-and-forths can be damaging or add to online negativity. If a comment or post becomes negative, it can affect everyone monitoring or just beginning to read the post.
Increasing Your Circles, Followers and Popularity
To boost your overall popularity on YouTube, you must continue sharing interesting content and connect with your audience, but you also need to let people know you are on YouTube.
It is important to continue notifying customers that you have a YouTube presence, as well as any other social media network presence. Linking to your videos on blog posts, your website, newsletters, and emails is a great way to notify clients you are on YouTube. Placing YouTube and other social network logos with links to your pages are essential in spreading your online presence. Inviting your business contacts to visit your page can also boost your page’s traffic.
The End Goal
Successful businesses use YouTube to inform and entertain, but also let customers get to know the people behind the logo. YouTube should liven up the workplace for clients and invite customers to join in the fun. YouTube acts as a doorway you want customers to walk through. Once you capture your own branding on YouTube, then it can become a very significant lead generator when fans become loyal and excited by your work and services.
If you are ready to begin, learn how to set up your YouTube channel below.
How to Start: 4 Steps
Step 1: Create a YouTube account and follow step-by-step instructions
Step 2: Subscribe to your friends and colleagues, share your page, and invite your business contacts to subscribe
Step 3: Begin recording and uploading video content. Follow the advice above to communicate with your audience
Step 4: To further boost and engage audiences, check out YouTube advertising
For more information and help, contact one a digital marketing consultant at 4 Site Digital or check out YouTube Help Page.