YouTube 101 for Businesses

YouTube is a social media platform that can improve a company's social media presence  as well as their marketing.  With video blogging, companies can incorporate visual and audio to deliver their message.  Most companies are afraid to use YouTube because of the technical skills you must have to produce a good video.  What they don't know is that the most popular videos are not professional productions.  Here are some tips on how to use YouTube for your business. Start by custominzing your company's channel.  A good example of a company that does this is the University of Phoenix.

The University of Phoenix not only strayed away from the normal YouTube channel layout but added different tabs and incorporated their company colors.  This may be a little too technical for most beginning users, but do the little things.  Add your company's website URL, some information about your company and add some color and character to your channel.

Brainstorming ideas of what videos to make is hard.  Being creative is never easy, but is necessary in order to use YouTube in an effective way.  Start by looking at existing videos that relate to the type of video you wish to produce.  Using other popular ideas is a good place to start.  As I said, most videos that get a lot of attention aren't produced professionally so don't worry about the best videography.

Once you've produced your video, start off by naming your videos and adding keywords. Proper search engine optimization is a vital part of success on this social media platform. How do people find your video? Just like with Google, they will search for what they want to see. There are million of searches conducted on YouTube daily, and with 60 hours of video uploaded every minute those searches are critical to your video being found and watched.  Plus, Google returns YouTube videos in search results. The keywords on your video will determine if your video ranks.

With correct keywords, your video will reach a more specific audience, hopefully the audience that wants what you have to offer.  Find keywords by looking for videos that are similar to yours or ones that are from companies in your industry.

Also, adding a thumbnail that will grab viewers attention is a good idea. Go to My Account > My Videos > Edit to make changes to the thumbnail, title, keywords, and more.

Once you have multiple videos, be sure to organize your videos into playlists.  An organized channel will also help with SEO and can drive more traffic to your videos.

Don't forget that YouTube is a social media platform!  Connect with other users that are in the same industry as you and users that may be interested in the content of your videos.  Follow other channels and post comments on their videos to gain attention from users.  Promote your videos on your other social media platforms as well to align your followers on all platforms.

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