“This post was originally written for and published on the Womens Network Australia Blog“
YouTube is well known and well used. With something from just about every category you can think of from comedy (the Death Star canteen video with Eddie Izzard), to charity and not-for-profit (RSPCA advertisement), to education (The Harvard Channel) it really does seem to have it all.
Owned and run by Google, the site has a global reach with the functionality and brand awareness to back it up. But can it help you promote your business, products and services?
What the site developers believe the purpose of their site is.
“YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.”
How easy it is to open an account, use the site and what does it cost?
It is extremely easy and free to open a YouTube account, however, you will need a Gmail account to sign up. If you do not have one they will happily walk you through the registration process (also free).
The site is very easy to use and has a familiar social media layout and feel to it. The navigation is clear and easy to follow and you can edit just about everything to suit you, from your colour scheme right through to your home page layout.
Will this site bend the time space continuum to suck my valuable time into a vortex?
OH YES! It is extremely easy to get lost in space and time with YouTube. Not only is the content intoxicating, it is just a hop, skip and a click over to the myriad of Google tools (toys) and if you are not careful, you can spend hours in the exhilarating maze that is Google!
My hot tip is to treat Google and it’s ever expanding applications like your grocery shopping, i.e. only visit the items on your list, follow this rule and you should be able to avoid spending over your allocated time budget every time!
How can I use this site to benefit my business?
- Create your own unique channel URL to direct users to that links back to your site and has your unique profile
- Embed your web address on all video files that you upload to guide users to your main site
- Integrate YouTube with your other Social Media tools (Twitter, Facebook)
- Broadcast free training videos to encourage interest in your business
- Embed your video files into your web site or blog
- Showcase your TV advertising in another medium
- Send a video message to clients to complement or introduce your eNewsletter
- Visually launch new products simultaneously with your offline launch
- Promote and showcase your services
- Promote and showcase your products in action
- Promote and showcase yourself
- Broadcast seminar or speaking engagements
- Tag your video files with keywords to increase your searchability
- Categorise your video to make it easier for interested parties to find
- Use the YouTube community as a global focus group
- Get visual testimonials from your clients and put them on your blog and web site
- Discover real time trends in your industry by subscribing to related channels
- Guide clients to your video files anywhere in the world with the click of a mouse
- Encourage people to subscribe to your channel and gain a new audience for your business
- Utilise YouTube’s analytics tool, YouTube Insight, to hone your campaigns
- And if you get really popular, consider selling product placement in your videos
I could go on, but I am sure you are beginning to see the benefits!
The Skinny!
YouTube opens up a world of promise for business to promote their products and services, showcase their knowledge and expertise, monitor the success of advertising campaigns, encourage new interest from previously untapped or unreachable markets, enhance your brand awareness and more.
While there is a lot of time and effort involved, the broad ranging benefits of this channel are impressive and cost effective.
If it is a bit much initially, then simply create your free account, beef up your profile and begin engaging with the YouTube community. You can do this through searching, watching, selecting favourites and adding subscriptions to your account. Then when you are ready to launch into video, you will not be the new kid on the block!
