Marketing to the Masses: YouTube

Marketing to the Masses: YouTube
by James Fowler
www.mywebsource1.com
http://mywebsource1.blogspot.com/

Think that your business is too small for a television commercial? Do you want to reach beyond the target audience available through your local cable advertising? Why don’t you create a video on the web site YouTube.com?

What is YouTube?
YouTube is a free, personal video sharing service, and has grown into an a mega-website that has people watching – and sharing - over 70 million videos DAILY. Currently, there are approximately 2.4 billion videos on YouTube. This is no too bad for a company that has only been in business since February of 2005. Like the popularity of MySpace with its’ personal web sites, YouTube allows regular people to upload, tag and share their videos worldwide. After videos are uploaded, people can comment, rate, and share video content.

With YouTube, you can create a simple video and edit it at home. The majority of videos are quite humorous, but are typically very amateur in their content. You do not have to be Steven Spielberg or Ron Howard to create a video. The more likable the video, the faster it will spread throughout the internet. Making a video is a bit more difficult than creating a web page, but its’ value to your business or service can be even more far-reaching.

What you need to post a video on YouTube:

1) A Video camera or digital camera. You can even use your cell phone.
2) Video editing software to add your Title and Credits - including your web site address.
3) A YouTube account, which is easy to create.

You really don’t even need talent. Just the imagination to come up with something that you think other people will enjoy. A lot of the information being passed on YouTube is not very good. The more interesting clips, however, while not necessarily great quality are being viewed THOUSANDS of times per day. Your video will stay up as long as you desire. How many commercials do you know run indefinitely without having to pay for each time they are run?

Promoting tips for your YouTube video:
Let us assume that you have created a video. You have some footage that is topical, has some sort of value for people to watch (humor, information, or a unique, voyeuristic purpose), and will help your business or service. The next step is editing your video. This can be done by making a series of professional cuts that help to make your video more appealing or you can simply have some screens with text on them. The most important item you want to add to your video is your web site address. Make sure that your web site is on the video for a minimum of 6 seconds – even more if you can. The purpose of this is that the viewer will know where to find you on the internet. Also, you will want to make sure that your web site is on the information that appears to the right of the video when you are viewing YouTube.

Other ways to promote your YouTube video are repetitions of how you would promote your MySpace Site. See my article on MySpace for more information. A basic overview of these promotions are to join groups, post messages (with URL) and make comments.

Good luck on video making and production and promote that site!