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How to Use YouTube in Public Relations

Guest post by: Scott Lorenz

Article Overview: As a publicist I am using YouTube in every way possible for all my clients. I truly see opportunities for every type of client I represent including, authors, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and even charities. One has obtained more than 2 million views and one author landed a TV interview from a YouTube book trailer. YouTube is a great tool for public relations.

How to Use YouTube in Public Relations

Throughout the history of mankind, people have gathered together socially and to sell their goods. The hottest spots are the locations where the most people can be found, whether it’s the town square, bazaar, farmer’s market or now via the Internet utilizing Facebook and YouTube. Whenever people gather, you have an opportunity to make a sale.

How can you tap into the power of YouTube for public relations?

As a publicist and President of Westwind Communications, I am using YouTube in every way possible for all my clients. I truly see opportunities for every type of client I represent including, authors, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and even charities.

In fact, I used YouTube to help Angel Acres Horse Haven Rescue make it to the “Top 10” in a $1 Million shelter makeover contest sponsored by Zootoo a web site for animal and pet lovers. As part of their effort, I commissioned an emotional song and combined that with photos of horses and compelling copy on screen. Our goal was to create a movement to support the online voting effort for the horse rescue. And it worked as people who saw the video were moved to vote for Angel Acres and pass along the video to their friends.

We included the video in our press releases by adding a link to YouTube on the release. We used ExpertClick and PR-Inside to distribute the release. Both services allow a video to be included or embedded with the press releases.

Another client, Mr. Duey, a school teacher who uses music to teach kids math, science and history, is also having great success with his video. Called “Mr. Duey Fractions” it’s featured on Teacher Tube which is like YouTube but it’s for teachers, parents and students. The “Fractions” video we promoted is now the most watched videos of all time on TeacherTube with an astounding 2,151,779 views.

You know you are hot stuff when the kids in your school ask a teacher for an autograph! The exposure has led to CD sales, media coverage and other exciting opportunities Mr. Duey and the label Kaas Records.

In this case we promoted the video to the end users, Teachers, Students and Parents via the publications and media outlets they visit both in print and online. Teachers loved the video because it helps explain a math concept that is pretty boring. The kids loved it because it made it easy to understand this very boring concept and made it a memorable formula. Parents loved it because they saw their kids enjoying math!

Another very successful application for YouTube videos is through video book trailers as part of a book marketing campaign. In an effort to obtain book publicity for my author clients we’ll create a book trailer about the book. A book trailer is like a movie trailer in that it allows someone to preview a book both visually and via audio. A video book trailer brings the book to life and gives the potential reader a sneak peak at the contents. We’ll then post that book trailer on YouTube and... here’s the best part… we add it to more than 51 additional video sites online for even greater exposure.

One of the big benefits of a book trailer is how is improves search engine ranking for an author’s main web site, providing you carefully select traffic driving key words and titles. An example of book trailers we’ve created can be viewed at one of Westwind Communication’s YouTube Channels called “The Book Publicist.“

A book trailer can help in a public relations campaign in so many ways. For example, we landed a terrific article for one of my authors in The Patriot Ledger outside of Boston. First, they ran a photo of the author holding his book. They mentioned the upcoming book signings I asked him to arrange after we had this story confirmed so he could capitalize on the PR.

The Ledger also included a link and screen shot of the book trailer video we produced for YouTube. The best part? ABC-TV CH-7 of Boston then saw the article and the book trailer, realized it was a good visual story and came out to the author’s house and shot their own story!

It really proves my point that “PR Begets PR, the More You Get, the More You Get!”

There are a lot of ins and outs when it comes to YouTube. If you are serious about using it then I suggest you buy a book How to Make Money With YouTube, by Brad and Debra Schepp. In this insightful guide the authors unveil specific steps to harness YouTube’s power to turn a profit. The Schepps offer in-depth, easy to understand instructions on everything from shooting and uploading videos to fundraising and marketing, to building buzz, and how to get your videos noticed.

They also draw on one infamous company’s humorous “Will it Blend?” video that brought thousands of new customers to its website. You’ve probably seen it. A guy in a lab coat blends everything from food to iPhones in their blender demonstrating how powerful the blender really is. The book is filled with valuable advice and practical tips to allow readers to maximize their potential on YouTube.

One of the most valuable features of How To Make Money With YouTube are real-life success stories from video marketers who used the site to launch successful consulting businesses. A featured success story is from my own firm about Mr. Duey mentioned above.

The bottom line: You can and must harness the power of YouTube for public relations and for the promotion of your business. You can’t go wrong.

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Article Tags: book trailer, public relations, publicist, teacher tube, tv interview, YouTube



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