YouTube Marketing- Video Magic

To understand YouTube marketing, you first must understand the animal that is YouTube. YouTube to

date is the biggest video sharing giant out there. According to Alexa it is the second largest trafficked

site globally, and it is estimated to get about 60 million unique visitors per month, with a market of

mostly gen y viewers. It is also estimated that those same users view YouTube roughly 5-6 hours per

day!

YouTube is also a subsidiary of Google, if that tells you anything. YouTube was created as a video

sharing site, and allows people to upload , share and watch video clips. You can watch as many videos

as you want, whether or not you are registered, however in order to upload your own videos, you must

register first.

Registration is free, so there is nothing standing in the way of you doing that right now. Once you have

registered, your account is then called a 'channel' and will house all of the videos that you choose to

upload and share with the population.

YouTube has TOS stipulations that prohibit the upload of videos that contain porn or defamation or

copyright infringements, and if you are caught the video will be disabled, and your account possibly

terminated. Content thought to contain potentially offensive material is only available for viewing by

users over the age of 18.

and has a large presence in the Asian market as well. It is also optimized for 18 different languages, so

your market reach really can stretch globally if done properly.

Now, on to using YouTube as a marketing tool. With the kind of potential reach a YouTube video has,

especially if it were to go 'viral', you would be crazy not to be utilizing it to grow your business and

build your brand. But the question is how can you do that most effectively? Well, glad you asked!

YouTube uses a certain algorithm in the same manner as Google, Yahoo, or MSN might to propel

videos into the limelight. One primary factor is the freshness of the video. If a video is old and tired, it

is unlikely to go very far within the search ranks. You would be much better off taking it down and

then resubmitting it to keep it fresh.

The second primary factor is the authority of your profile. YouTube will not smile kindly down upon

videos submitted from new accounts with hardly any friends, channel views or subscribers. Using a

powerful profile will speed up the growth of your video exponentially. So be sure to create natural

profiles and build them out into heavy weights that will have some impact on your marketing efforts.

Also, don't underestimate channel views, favorites, ratings and comments. For each type of action that

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can be taken on a video, YouTube has an honors system, and getting a large number of votes, comments

and general hoopla will help you get honors. Honors is good!

OK, so what makes a good video really? You have to look at entertainment value. YouTube users want

to be entertained, so there are really 3 main types of videos that users enjoy and that will generate you

the most traffic and recognition.

First obviously is entertainment videos. Anything quirky, funny, and even down right odd the y

generation tends to find entertaining. A great example of this style of video at it's marketing finest is

the blender company called Blendtec that released a series of 'Will It Blend' videos.

The videos featured their blenders being used to blend odd ball things like iPhones, marbles and glow

sticks, in an attempt to show that their blender lives up to the blend anything hype. Some of the videos

generated almost 5 million viewers.

The second most popular sort of videos are educational videos. Teach something, show something,

offer the viewer a way to learn something, and you can't go wrong. You can also create informational

videos such as popular news, How To's, and documentary's. Those are the three main styles that garner

the most attention from viewers and have the most potential to explode in popularity. However,

creating a cool and engaging video is really just the first step. You have to do more than that to really

use YouTube to your advantage.

First of all, get involved in the YouTube community. Yes it is a community! Comment on other videos,

and join topic oriented groups, or even create your own. Your name will start to become recognizable if

you throw it out there enough, which will only help you over time.

Share your videos. There is an option on the video to share, and you can share via email or to your

friends. Keep in mind that the more friends you have, the more people you can share with. That being

said, add friends to your friends list. Add new friends each day, and your network will slowly grow.

You can also invite people to subscribe to your channel which gives you more exposure.

As with anything online, choosing your keywords is paramount. Choose carefully as there is only one

way for a user to find your video on YouTube and that is through the YouTube search engine. So it's

important that you choose relevant keywords that draw in enough visitors to give you exposure, but few

enough to still be fairly targeted.

Speaking of targeted, make sure your videos actually direct traffic to your website. There is nothing

worse than creating a video that draws 10 million hits, but not a single one makes it to your website

because you never provided a link. It's also a good idea to make a special landing page for users when

they click your link that is fairly similar in feel to the YouTube site and is intuitive in it's job of

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capturing leads or making sales.

Finally, use social media to drive traffic to your videos. Sites like Digg, Twitter and Stumbleupon can

be used to garner visitors and recognition, as well as sites like Facebook and Myspace. Also pay

attention to video quality. While it doesn't have to be shot with a 300,000 dollar camera, quality should

still be fairly clear. And lastly, please invest in a small mic for audio. OK folks, that's a wrap!

YouTube has huge marketing potential for the right person who is motivated enough to go after it. You

just have to decide whether or not that person is YOU!

Tips To Remember: Uploading- Max sizes is 1GB and 10 Min in length. Recommended formatting is

1280x720 (16x9 HD) or 640x480 (4:3 SD). Use YouTubes bandwidth in place of your own, and

remember that these days a YouTube video goes straight to the Google search engines.