YouTube for Businesses (social media)

It can be hard to believe that a platform, which is seemingly famous for sneezing pandas and talking dogs, is also a powerful platform for businesses. As of February 2011, YouTube had 490 million users who spent a combined 2.9 billion hours, in one month, viewing content. More video content is uploaded on YouTube in 60 days than CBS, ABC, and NBC have created in the last 60 years![i] Considering these facts, you can see that YouTube is an immensely popular resource that your marketing team simply cannot avoid.

YouTube is simple to use.

Brands that avoid YouTube because they believe the video quality needs to be professional are misinformed. Yes, many big name brands like Vitamin Water have excellent production and superstar endorsements. But, there are also YouTubers like Charles Smith. He was able to mitigate the importance of high quality video and expensive production by hi-lighting his unbelievable talent and adding a quirky ending to his videos. 

There are three basic methods you should keep in mind when launching a successful YouTube campaign: inform people, entertain people, or educate people.

Inform People

To inform people, you need to tell them about your brand or product. Showing them the humble roots of your business, or the people that make up the brand. A video tour of your office or manufacturing plant is a great way of showing people these aspects of your business. Collings Guitars, an American guitar manufacturer in Texas, has produced an amazing documentary style video that profiles the techniques and people behind their production. This insider’s look gives viewers that extra sense of loyalty to the brand creating first time and life long customers.

Entertain People

This seems to be goal of many video campaigns. Unless you have a colossal budget like Old Spice, keep your ideas simple. BlendTec’s “Will it Blend” series is probably the most successful example of a small budget, simple idea, which found incredible viral success. Granted, many viewers will be interested in seeing what gets destroyed next, but there will also be a small portion of the viewers who come across these videos and are truly in need of a blender. They’ve generated over 170 million views with this campaign! Now, that’s exposure!

Educate People

Another reason people are directed to YouTube is in search for a “how to”. This creates an opportunity for your business to show how your product or service solves problems. CoverGirl Makeup offers a YouTube video series about applying makeup. In this series, CoverGirl educates the audience using a professional makeup artist who explains her techniques all while using and promoting the CoverGirl product.

Have trouble with blogs? Vlog instead!

Google owns YouTube

Go on Google and search for something with ‘video’ in the query, like ‘music video’. You should notice that somewhere on the first page of results there is a direct link to a video. Take a closer look at the web address of that video and you will notice it’s a YouTube address. Businesses like to promote their own, and by adding video content to YouTube your brand is more likely to rank higher in Google’s search results.

Interested in adding video to your repertoire? Kayak offers video services for businesses looking to add a professionally filmed and produced corporate video. Learn more using the button below.

Don't forget to follow Mark (@MarkAtKayak) and Randy (@Kayak360) on Twitter and connect with Randy in Google+.

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