YouTube was one of the earliest businesses to hit upon an idea that ended up becoming a backbone of the internet subculture. The idea of sharing a video with anyone you want along with a handy space for comments and the ability to save the video and view it later are all innovations that YouTube pioneered and have now become standard fare for any video-hosting website. With the advent of YouTube, however, came the idea of viral marketing using videos. Although many of us will never create a viral marketing sensation in our lifetime, there are many simple ways you can add oomph to your YouTube marketing. Here are a look at some of the ways you can spruce up your videos with an air towards marketing something that the general public will want.
Create Videos That Are Compelling
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There is a lot of marketing research currently going on to determine what qualifies as a viral video. As it stands, viral videos are the exceptions to the rule. Your videos won’t actually go viral, but if they’re compelling and address a certain topic, then they’ll be a hit with the crowd that goes in for that topic. Forbes.com noted in a study regarding response to marketing that,
Most respondents prefer video over white papers, case studies, even live demos with reps.
Video is not a new medium, but the ease with which YouTube videos spread makes it a very easy way to get your message out. Once your video addresses a certain niche, then it is likely that persons who are interested in it will share it with other like-minded individuals. Because of the free sharing of information across the internet and the ease of use of YouTube to do it, you can have a far-reaching internet presence, despite not being able to make the video viral.
Make Sure People Looking for Your Video Can Find It
One of the biggest problems new YouTube marketers tend to have is making their videos hard to find. YouTube is spidered by search engines, just like any other site, but the internal YouTube index depends upon how well you describe your video. It is unlikely that your video detailing the nuances of cake batter mix will be referenced as such when it was uploaded with the name ‘Title’. Shih et. al. in an article published in the ‘Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries’ state that,
Results reveal that a well-designed SEO strategy, with the incorporation of social networking, can effectively enhance the website’s visibility and exposure.
Although Shih et al. were talking about general search engine optimization, the fact remains that visibility and exposure are what you need to ensure that your video gets the audience it needs. To do this, ensure that the keywords for your video are used in the title and in the description, at least once. Use a full URL in your description as well and ensure that you use your keywords strategically, without bombarding the description with it and turning an otherwise readable entry into mush. The tags field is used to include all of your related keywords so that people searching for the topic will find your video.
Clever Use of Annotations
YouTube allows for the use of annotations in videos, and this is important from a marketing perspective because it allows you to draw users who have seen one of your videos in to see others, thereby offering the potential to get a new subscriber. In SEO marketing, this is analogous to links within an article or series of articles that lead to others you may have written. This encourages the user to peruse your work and possibly look out for more articles written by you. The same principles apply here. Once you followed the tip above about making compelling content, it should be easy to convince a user that they should follow your stuff because it would appeal to them. Annotations are usually unobtrusive overlays, usually put in a corner somewhere and popping up momentarily to tell the watcher about another video you made that may be of interest to them. Social Media Guru Julian King notes,
YouTube annotations are among the most valuable tools that YouTube offers us to increase the members of the channel, make more involving videos, add information, create interactive stories and link to other videos, channels, profiles, Google Plus or YouTube search results.
Use Bulletins
One of the more innovative features YouTube has is the ability to post a bulletin. This allows your video to show up as a tagged post on the pages of your friends and subscribers. This immediately draws their interest and can be an invaluable tool for getting the initial run of your video out to the public. Followers of your friends can also access these bulletins. Once the initial thrust of the video is out, the engaging nature of the content and the unobtrusive annotations can garner you a lot more subscribers. The video needs to start somewhere and posting a bulletin with it is a great way to give it an initial sendoff.
Link to Other Social Media Platforms
One of the things YouTube does with great success is make their videos available to be embedded in other social media sites. So places like Facebook and LinkedIn can easily have the video for perusal by all of their users without them having to leave the safety and comfort of the site that they are familiar with. These social media platforms all have their own ability to share and post to groups and friends. Once the video falls within a niche that people will follow, users of that niche will find themselves sharing it with other friends who have the same likes. It’s like setting a fire in dry grass, all it takes if that initial spark, the first share, and before long it’s a sharing conflagration.
YouTube is one of the places where marketing will find the people who want to see your video. The ease of subscription and sharing of the content on the site makes it truly a treasure for any modern media marketer. However, there is a fine line between making a video and being an effective YouTube marketer and it’s up to you to find that happy balance.