With the kind of traffic YouTube gets, it would be crazy not to capitalize on it. It may not provide the most competitive service for video producers, but it certainly rules the popularity contest. If you are looking for a certain online video, you know you have to start with YouTube. If you want to promote a blog, a product, a service, a film, etc. you know you have a good chance of gaining publicity via YouTube. It’s really rather hard to imagine what the internet was like before YouTube happened.
Using YouTube to a marketer’s advantage is pretty simple. It all starts with letting your presence be known. How exactly do you accomplish that? It is simply social networking with videos involved. Having an account means that you have your own channel. This allows you to have your own YouTube URL, create a profile and content that is interesting, supply a link to your actual website, and come up with playlists from both your own and other people’s accounts. Make sure that you choose the appropriate account type to indicate the kind of content visitors can find in your page. You can also design your YouTube page to optimize exposure for your website.
Once you have got your own channel up, it then becomes a matter of judiciously uploading content. With videos involved, brevity is a virtue. Infuse as much quality as you can in your videos in the less than five minutes recommended by experts. Grab your viewer’s attention in the first few seconds of playing. It’s hard to keep people hooked, so make sure that you are aptly convincing about the fascination of your content.
Once your page has content, get organized with your tags and categories. You have to be smart about these features. Remember that YouTube is a network. With tags, the prevailing slogan is “the more, the merrier”. With categories, think “big fish in a small pond”. Include the seemingly obscure categories. Your video just might rule in them. The main thing is that you get your videos recommended in the sidebar as often as possible.
Another thing you can do to draw traffic to your page is to make playlists. Using your own or others’ videos, compile a list that relates to the nature of your website. This is a sort of service provided by your page to the target market of your website. It is better to look for videos with not a lot of previous views so your page can have a comparatively unique offering.
When you have things running smoothly, you can start emailing other YouTube users and posting bulletins. This way, you can let people know about your updates. Remember never to seem like you are spamming. There are ways to feign relevance when your ulterior motive is just drive traffic to your page.
Be as active and social as possible. Leave comments. Join groups and communities. You can even start some yourself. Same goes for chat streams. Take advantage of active sharing. The more activities you participate in, the more exposure you garner.
These are all logical methods of self-promotion on YouTube. However, there is now an outright venue for people who want to transparently advertise on YouTube. Those with brand channels are allowed to customize, produce a unique background image, a distinct color palette, and an attractive header besides being provided a platform for a particular message. YouTube also actively points visitors to these brand channels.
YouTube has certainly established itself as a great venue for advertising. Take advantage of the service and have fun doing it at the same time.