YouTube - Now What?
interesting uses of YouTube via Google’s Digital Creativity group….
https://sites.google.com/site/experimentsindigitalcreativity/
Sure, it’s a plug for “Google/YouTube are great”… but rightly so, right?
Not-So-Breaking News: Google is the #1 search engine, YouTube is #2.
A video portal is the #2 search engine, you say? yep. that’s right. and this too is not “new” news.
it’s all the rage - how wonderful YouTube is, how it’s the place/channel/portal that marketers can’t ignore, how it’s one of the most under utilized channels to give your content high visibility in the crowded, information overloaded, digital space.
so, now that you’ve convinced people to use YouTube, create a channel, develop videos, post post post…how do you actually execute this idea to garner high search rankings and visibility?
I went hunting around for some insights on this, and here’s what I found.
The first two steps are pretty standard:
- Create videos with interesting, compelling content
- Upload to youtube
If you’re a brand marketer, you may want to consider creating a branded (or unbranded) channel so that your videos are then entrenched in a community with subscribers, related content, etc. costs for doing so vary. Now, how do you get people to view your video among the millions that are on YouTube?…This is where it gets interesting:
- Post a Video Response: Look for videos with content related to your own that already have a large number of views and post your video as a response – these often get a lot of views and start that viral chain.
- Tag, Tag, Tag: ALWAYS tag your videos with relevant keywords. Also, look for videos with similar content and copy the tags to your video (increases the chance of appearing as a “related video” in the sidebar
- YouTube is One of Many: Embed your video on as many sites as relevant and possible…Facebook, Ning Communities, Vimeo, Myspace, MetaCafe, VodPod, VodSpot, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and the list goes on…(I’m compiling a list that I will post soon).
- Context is Key: Surround your video with as much text-based content as possible so that the search engines capture your videos content for results rankings.
It’s important to recognize that just being on YouTube doesn’t mean you will be the #1 video for any category. Developing tactical ideas around YouTube require an execution strategy that technically brings visibility to your videos….oh, and good content.
Many thanks to Kim Roach over at http://www.buzzblogger.com/ for blogging about this topic and providing detailed descriptions of the above ideas/strategies.