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YouTube: How to Utilise it as an Effective Marketing Tool

Guest post by: Sue Cooper

Article Overview: A look at the widely used video sharing website YouTube and the way in which it enhances communication. Basic uses and handy tips for both regular web users and business owners alike.

YouTube: How to Utilise it as an Effective Marketing Tool

YouTube is one of the most visited internet websites today and is a huge warehouse of videos. Used by regular people, businesses, organisations, governments and regular media, YouTube has become the video-sharing website of choice everywhere, letting users from almost anywhere both watch and upload videos to share with the world.

These videos include movie clips, series’ fragments, music videos and live shows on the part of professional content providers. The film and TV corporations realised the potential and reach of this video platform and started to make their content available through it (via special partnerships) for anyone to watch.

But the true appeal of YouTube is that it also allows any web amateur to upload any kind of short, original video.

In order to do so, the only thing required on the side of the user is to create an account (or use your existing Google account if you have one) and you can start uploading videos to YouTube immediately. Once you create your account, you will have a profile page known as "Channel". YouTube channels are very used and promoted around the web, especially among media enthusiasts and video-bloggers.

In your YouTube channel, people have access to all the videos you have uploaded. There they can also rate them, comment on them and even respond to your videos with other videos (this is called "Video Response").

Now, one of the reasons so many people around the globe have adopted YouTube as their main video-sharing website is because of its simplicity and its compatibility with a wide variety of video formats. Thus, for any YouTube user to upload a video, all that is needed are a couple of clicks.

Utilise YouTube as an Effective Marketing Tool

With this in mind, many large and small business owners have started using YouTube as a marketing tool to promote their products and services. This is definitely a smart move, but one that has to be made with a lot more consideration than you might think. That is, if you really want to make an impact no matter if you are just a regular user or a small business owner.

Concentrate on the Look and Feel

The first thing to consider is a quite obvious one: Look and feel. Since hundreds or even thousands of Internet users will view your YouTube channel, you will want to convey a certain image to them.

This is achieved by personalising your YouTube channel or profile page with background images, a slogan and even your company’s logo (if you or your company have one). This is especially important if you are a business owner, since a professional-looking website and an amateurish-looking YouTube page will send mixed signals to your potential customers.

Promote videos on personal Websites

After your YouTube channel has been taken care of, make sure to promote your personal website or business through your videos. This is accomplished by embedding links in your videos so they will be viewable to anyone who watches them.

Integrate with Social Networking Platforms

Another greatly overlooked aspect of the potential of YouTube as a promoting platform is its seamless integration with other social networking sites. This can turn your social network followers into YouTube subscribers and vice versa. By embedding your videos on your social website profile of choice, you will start a two-way marketing momentum that will definitely bring more exposure to your personal web or business.

Quality of Content Uploaded

If you really want to leverage the vast amount of potential viewers/customers though, you need to deliver quality content in your videos, making them different and appealing. Keep in mind though, that even though almost anything out of the ordinary will do for regular users, only quality tips, timely information and product tutorials and demonstrations will be of use for business owners.

Involve Users in Your Videos

Another unusual, although effective method even big-name companies are using nowadays to generate interest, is to leave aside the professionally made videos and take a more personal approach. They show real people (sometimes in the very company’s locations) showcasing products, and offering tips and advice. This elicits a natural response from viewers, who may feel immediately involved with the company and the brand.

As we have seen above, YouTube can be a lot of things to many people - a simple and enjoyable way to share videos with your friends or with the world, another broadcasting option for known media companies, or a powerful visual tool for entrepreneurs and small business owners. No matter how you see it, YouTube is no doubt one of the most important agents responsible for shaping Internet culture the way we know it nowadays.

And in doing so, it has not only helped people and companies around the world to spread their different content, it has also provided regular users and small business owners a platform where they can compete on equal ground along with the once unreachable brand names, and if anything, very few things symbolise the true nature of the Internet than that.

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Article Tags: Traffic building, Youtube
Referred by: http://www.searchengineworkshops.com



Related Forum Posts
YouTube expands to 9 nations with Google's help - That's amazing! Although, with all the money Google spent on buying YouTube I guess it's not much of a surprise that Google is putting such an effort on making YouTube even more of a success. I personally don't like it though, they are really cracking down on the content people are allowed to post on YouTube due to copyright reasons.
Re: Is YouTube Going Commercial? - [quote="Alan Mater":e47a61ur]I think it's safe to say that YouTube is going more commercial and providing ways for advertisers to take advantage of User Generated Content.[/quote:e47a61ur] But I think YouTube should also consider that what's best for them (i.e. earning advertiser dollars) may not be what's best for their users. There has to be some sort of balance or YouTube will lose both advertising revenue and its customers. How can a social networking site like YouTube earn money from sponsors without being too intrusive in the "user experience"?
Re: My 3 best business books - 1. Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill 2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey 3. Permission Marketing - Seth Godin Think and Grow Rich seems more powerful each time I read it or dip into it. The 7 Habits not only offers some very effective ways to organize your life (which I have yet to master!), but also some great quotations and thought provoking statements including this by Nazi concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl: [i:2naxzsom]Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.[/i:2naxzsom] Seth Godin's Permission Marketing is a good read for anybody seeking to understand how to approach doing business on the Internet in the right way with regard to winning people's trust.
Re: Is YouTube Going Commercial? - [quote="Kevin":2yd8df44][quote="Alan Mater":2yd8df44]I think it's safe to say that YouTube is going more commercial and providing ways for advertisers to take advantage of User Generated Content.[/quote:2yd8df44] But I think YouTube should also consider that what's best for them (i.e. earning advertiser dollars) may not be what's best for their users. There has to be some sort of balance or YouTube will lose both advertising revenue and its customers. How can a social networking site like YouTube earn money from sponsors without being too intrusive in the "user experience"?[/quote:2yd8df44] I agree there needs to be a balance. Don't they already have one example of this in place? Google Adsense video units is the one I'm thinking of. Basically a YouTube ad or commercial from their partners placed on webmasters' sites.
Re: Need some information on freelance jobs! - Good answer Evan, I gave you a thump up on YouTube and also add a comment. My YouTube id is Altecdxtv1


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