HOW TO: Get Started Marketing on YouTube [VIDEOS]
July 20, 2011 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute. GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Series are the leading educational events for organizations looking to advance their online capabilities. Learn more.
“Marketing your brand on YouTube is a great opportunity to not only increase social chatter, but it’s amazing for organic SEO,” says Justin Gonzalez, social specialist at creative video agency BARS+TONE.
With millions of visitors a day, YouTube is a fantastic potential marketing tool — it should sit alongside Facebook, Twitter and other social media services in your online marketing toolbox. Almost every business type can benefit from marketing on the world’s biggest video sharing site, but getting started can be daunting, especially if you have no experience in that arena.
We’ve spoken to an expert and found some handy video tutorials that will get you started marketing on YouTube. Take a look through the video gallery for tips, and in the comments below, please share any advice you have to give on this topic.
View As One Page »
“If you’re going to start marketing on YouTube the first thing I would suggest is to brand your channel,” advises Gonzalez.
“Check out all of the options available to customize your channel, and make it a unique brand experience for your visitors. This is one of the first things they’ll notice before your videos even start playing and they’ll either choose to stay and view your content or bounce off based on their first impression.”
The video above offers a tutorial overview from Susan Newman Design Inc. on how to design your channel to match your brand.
YouTube offers some useful marketing tools to help with getting people to discover your content. Tags, YouTube’s internal keyword system, are one of them, and should not be overlooked.
“Don’t ever underestimate the importance of tagging and titling your videos. Remember to think like a consumer and use keywords that actual people would search for,” suggests Gonzalez.
“This is important because Google and Bing are both serving up video content on search results pages and these videos have a higher click-through ratio than the plain text ads that surround them.”
In the video above, YouTube user Moonpies offers some straightforward and very sensible advice on how best to tag your content.
Used judiciously, annotations are another important YouTube marketing tool that can help you direct viewers to your other content or prompt them into other beneficial actions.
“Don’t forget that annotations are your friend!” says Gonzalez. “You can use them to link to other videos within YouTube or as a call-to-action for a ‘thumbs up.’”
This video tutorial offers a superb overview of the different styles of annotations available to you, and it suggests when and why to use them.
With your branding and marketing tools sorted, the next step is to engage in order to get the most out of your YouTube experience. From Gonzalez:
“Remember that YouTube is a social site, and you need to interact not only with visitors who comment on your videos, but with other brand channels as well. You can increase YouTube relevance by posting comments on or favoriting other videos from channel and industry partners. Remember to not be spammy — only link to relevant videos or content and always be genuine.”
Once you’ve grown your channel to a reasonable size, there are a few benefits to signing up to become a YouTube partner.
As well as a more professional-looking channel, you can enjoy revenue sharing and benefit from better analytics and content management tools.
You have to apply individually to become a partner, and there’s more general info on the necessary qualifications, the how and why over at YouTube’s “Partners” landing page.
Once you’re happy with how your content looks and you feel that you’ve squeezed the most out of the marketing tools YouTube offers for free, the next step is to promote your videos.
YouTube’s “Promoted Videos” options can better help you reach your audience and get more video views. There’s a promotional overview in the video above, and you can head over to YouTube’s Ads info page for more details.
Series Supported by Global Strategic Management Institute
The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute, a leading source of knowledge for today’s leaders. Learn more by visiting GSMI’s website, liking it on Facebook and following it on Twitter.
More Marketing Resources from Mashable:
- HOW TO: Start Marketing on Foursquare
- HOW TO: Start Marketing on Gowalla
- The PR Pro’s Guide to Facebook
- How Barbie Ken Were Reunited by Social Media
- How Converse Became the Biggest Little Sneaker Brand on Facebook
