Let’s just pretend that you want to find out how to tie a bow. Do a Google search and, besides a few top-rated articles, you will be served some instructional videos. You will be more likely to click on a video than on an article because in your case the former will be more helpful than the latter. After all, it’s easier to watch than to read. Now there’s a good chance that the video you’ve chosen comes from YouTube.
All online marketers use Facebook and Twitter, but many don’t use YouTube at all, or do it only marginally. That can prove to be a big mistake, as YouTube marketing has some significant benefits that no other social media sites have – not even Facebook and Twitter.
- YouTube Is Free
It’s true that making videos and uploading them will take time, but it’s time well-invested. The video-uploading process is simple and convenient, and can be done across operating systems and devices. Probably no other video site is as optimized for mobile devices as YouTube is – uploading videos on the go is really, really easy. Once a video is uploaded it’s there forever, for everyone to view.
- Search Engines Love Video Content
Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines rank highly websites featuring video content. Many big brands, including Coca-Cola, tend to embed YouTube videos into their homepages and other primary pages. You can upload videos to your YouTube channel and then embed them in your web pages. Search engines will love you for it.
- Reaches to a Global Audience
YouTube videos can help your business attract customers from all over the world. Using adequate keywords is important to target the right customers. But if you have a small local business, you can also target only local customers. YouTube, with hundreds of millions of users, is in the end one of the world’s largest and most visited sites, and it can propel your content into the global spotlight. If you want to build a YouTube audience faster, you might want to buy YouTube views, while it’s a conterversal subject and practice, the bottom line is its eyeballs on your content, after all is it so bad that budlight buys views during the superbowl?
- Improves Your Reputation
Web users love helpful videos that solve their problems and give them practical tips, and they form a favorable opinion of those who create them. By showcasing your expertise through YouTube videos you gain the trust of customers, who will be more likely to buy your products or services. Not every business has the time or energy to create and distribute free content that helps customers though. Those that do stand out.
- Builds Trust
A customer is more likely to make a purchase from a brand they trust. Social media marketing via YouTube is a highly effective way of building trust. By creating insider videos, you give faces to the people who run your business. If the faces are honest and friendly, you will be liked. Showing the location of your business is also a good idea.
- Spreads Your Content Across the Web
YouTube videos are one of the most shared types of content on the Web. Video content that goes viral can bring you hundreds or even thousands of viewers to your site, and that means many new customers. A video with only 10,000 viewers can bring you a huge exposure. And when that video mentions or promotes a product, it always means increased sales.
The conclusion is that YouTube marketing has many advantages that simply cannot be ignored. Use it to your advantage.
Aishwarya Vohra is a blogger and an SEO expert. She writes on topics as different as internet marketing and parenting.
Whenever I have the opportunity to learn something that someone is presenting, I always look to see if there is a video. Rather than read or in addition to reading, videos are an excellent social media marketing tool. They can be creative, fun, entertaining and educational all at the same time. Thank you for your post about this.
I’m glad you liked my article. Thanks for taking out the time to read and comment on it.
Interesting stuff, but unfortunately you missed one absolutely critical point- YouTube’s totally out-of-control flagging & community guideline enforcement policy.
Both personal experience and anecdotal evidence has shown that video producers posting to YT are likely to find themselves persistently and aggressively flagged (resulting in guideline ‘strikes’) for completely false or spurious reasons, no matter how uncontroversial their content. There is an ‘appeal this strike’ button, but it usually results in simple confirmation of the strike within minutes.
The producer will then find him/herself labelled & defamed as a pornographer or producer of unsuitable content (such as graphic violence or ‘hate speech’) in YouTube/Google permanent records. There is no guarantee this information won’t be shared with law enforcement authorities at some point in the future, and only a lengthy legal challenge can alter this status.
So overall, my advice is to steer well clear of YT- it’s not worth the risk.
I agree, Youtube is an awesome marketing tool. It’s currently the 2nd largest search engine and one of the best places to create exposure and get traffic.
Video is without doubt becoming a more popular medium to absort and digest content so if you are not currently utilizing it then you are leaving a lot of money on the table.