Using YouTube could pay off big time for your business. Industry experts agree that search engines love video, which could result in higher Google rankings. So how should you get started? YouTube is the number one video-sharing site, making the site a must-do. But beware, to leverage this effectively can take time. Luckily, it’s also a great area for bringing in an intern or freelancer to help. Here are a few pointers on where to start:
1. Create a Customized Channel –Your YouTube channel should match the look and feel of your brand – you can use the custom options to change the default settings of your YouTube page to incorporate your logo and add custom colors. It’s important that your branding is consistent across all of your social media sites.
2. Upload and Organize Content – An intern or freelancer can upload all relevant video content whether it’s a presentation you recently gave or a promo video. Are you creating a weekly podcast? Add some images and upload your podcast as a video. Whether you have hundreds of videos or just a few, creating a strategy and organizing your content is a great project to get some help with. Maybe your content should be sorted by date or chronological order depending on your business. Don’t forget the playlist option, where you can mix multiple videos into a perfect playlist.
3. Engage Others – While watching a video may seem solitary, YouTube is a social site. “Favorite” videos appropriate to your business and make friends with other relevant users. Add comments to content you enjoy and make sure an intern or freelancers moderates comments on your clips, too.
4. Get Tagging – Tagging content is critical. The better your videos are tagged, the more likely they are to show up in relevant searches – critical your customers (and potential customers) to find your content.
• Title: Create a title that clearly uses relevant keywords from the video.
• Description: Again, use keywords to describe the content. But don’t forget to add your company name and a relevant link to your website.
• Category: Make sure that your video is classified in the best category to describe its content.
• Tags: Use tags to help narrow down the category and get specific. For example, if your category is fashion, use tags like New York City, street style, e-commerce and boots for a video touting your newest products for your shore store in the Big Apple. Add as many tags as necessary to distinguish your video.
5. Track Progress with Analytics – You can get insight on every video that is uploaded to YouTube by clicking on the “Insight” button. Ask your intern or freelancer to look at the data to see the demographics about who is viewing your most popular videos and how they are finding your videos.
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Thanks Benjamin! I'm just getting started with YouTube. These tips are great for someone like me. Although I'm camera shy, I told everyone in my newsletter this week that I'm going to start video marketing soon. Seeing this post motivated me to keep my promise.