YouTube is an inevitable evolution of any social media
marketing plan. Each month, there are more than 1 billions unique visitors to
YouTube (many of them are researching new products before they decide to make a
purchase), so it’s likely that some of them are your prospective customers. If
you are considering setting up a YouTube channel for your business, it’s best
to start with a YouTube-focused strategy. Since YouTube is a video-only social
network, it means rethinking content.
Before you get ready to set up your own company YouTube
channel, you need to explore the answers to these questions.
What do you want to
accomplish with our YouTube channel?
As with any business-related venture, it is important to
have a clearly defined goal. Do you want to increase web traffic? Boost sales? Promote
and demonstrate new products? Or maybe just have a video that gives people a
behind-the-scenes look into your operation. Regardless, establishing clear
goals will help determine the editorial guidelines for video content.
Who will create the
video content?
OK, so you’ll need video content. If you have a limited
budget, it’s acceptable to create videos on your own. But, you may want to
invest some money in having a professional take over your video creation as the
time you spend making videos may affect the operation of you business. Either
way, you’ll want to add new content on a regular and frequent basis. When you
post valuable content regularly, viewers will be more likely to return.
How do you promote
the channel?
What good is posting video content if no one knows it’s
there. Don’t assume your audience is actively waiting on your next post.
Publicize it. At a minimum, you should alert your followers every time you
upload a new video. Simply post an update on your social media networks with a
link to the video included.
How do you measure
the success of the channel?
This is a reflection of the goals you set for YouTube. You
can measure success in a wide variety of ways, and there are built-in analytics
to help you measure such things as views and page traffic, but ultimately you
need to outline the metrics for success before you begin.
Once you address these questions and you start to make
progress on your channel, there are several nuances that will help you
fine-tune the user experience.
- How do I tag and describe videos?
- Video organization.
- Allow comments or not?
- Multiple channels?
- Brand & customize your channel.
- Do you allow product commercials?
We’ll cover these details in another blog, so stay tuned.
Have you considered a YouTube channel? What obstacles have you experienced?
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