It’s hard to imagine a world without YouTube but the fact is the website was launched just 5 years ago. The growth of YouTube is phenomenal – every minute over 24 hours worth of new video content is uploaded to the site and YouTube embeddable players are to be found on tens of millions of sites across the world wide web.
YouTube has taken the old media world by storm, forcing them to join the party or suffer the consequence of losing out to audiences watching pirated versions of their content. Many TV channels enable much of their schedule to be watched within a branded YouTube interface, for example Channel 4s 4OD. And far from being the preserve of dogs on skateboards, YouTube has become a viable business channel. Webvideo is fast becoming the way people consume what would traditionally be considered ‘TV’. If you’ve always wanted to air TV ads for your business but couldn’t afford to do so, YouTube gives you the opportunity to do it, except your message can be a lot longer and it’s a fraction of the cost of traditional TV advertising.
While not a social network in the same way that Facebook or Twitter is, YouTube is a powerful tool for sharing content. Users can connect their YouTube profile with their other social networks, allowing for autosharing across all connected platforms. Over 4 millions users autoshare YouTube videos to at least one other of their social networks and YouTube stats show that an autoshare to Twitter generates an average of 6 additional views for that video.
Of coruse, web videos are also great content to post to your own social network profiles to keep your existing followers engaged, but another reason to use the platform is to gain new customers through Search performance. YouTube is owned by Google who consequently gives preference to YouTube content in search results, so if you maintain a YouTube channel with relevant content and keywords you will improve your search rankings. As we’ve blogged about before, people use a variety of sources when researching on the internet – a YouTube channel in addition to your website and social networks provides additional sources of customer information and can therefore strengthen trust in your business.
Depending on your business YouTube videos can be used to varying degrees. Most people are familiar with the great YouTube Old Spice campaign which came out of the United States in 2010 but don’t be put off if you are a small business. There are many great ways the medium can be used for a surprisingly wide range of niches. Consider this case study for magnetic jewellrey makers Dynomighty, who used product demonstration videos on YouTube to drive sales.
No matter what size your business, you can produce slick videos for YouTube. Recording equipment is cheaper than ever (high definition Flip cameras can cost as little as E100) and editing software easier to use than ever. In no time you can have a professional looking YouTube channel for you business and produce videos to promote your products or services which can be easily shared with your target customers.