Marketing Your Business On YouTube

Videos are being watched everywhere and anywhere, at a rapidly growing rate every day. Authentic videos (not-staged) and produced videos (most likely staged) are making their way into search engine results, your Facebook wall, Twitter feeds and your LinkedIn updates each day.

How is your business able to leverage this medium and expand your branding efforts?

Video is an increasingly important part of every business’s marketing functionality. It is a great way to highlight products, services, branding, and even employment opportunities. But what are a few ways that you are able to leverage and even succeed with video?

Be Real

Don’t hire an actor, even though it worked for Old Spice. Start with someone inside your company, someone comfortable in front of a camera and is able to convey your message effectively.  This does not need to be a high level executive within your business–it could easily be a passionate, lower-level employee. Nothing is more authentic than using your own internal resources.

Be Branded

This is your YouTube channel, your source. Absolutely, you should have your company branding on the page so visitors can easily recognize and connect with you. Wearing a t-shirt with your logo in the video makes it even easier for viewers to relate to you on a personal level. Keep It Simple! One of the best marketing strategies for architects is showcasing your brand consistently, whether it’s through video, your website, or social media. This helps build trust and keeps your firm top of mind.

Be Informative

Research shows that videos should be under 90 seconds. That is all the time you have to convey your message to your audience. Planning is critical. What do you want to share with your audience, what is that message? How are you going to effectively tell them this message and make it memorable and so that they want to share? Planning is important. White board your ideas, share them with your internal team. Share these ideas with your friends and family to see if it is something they would watch. Crowdsourcing is a great way to gain immediate feedback and for you to fine tune ideas.

Be Fun

Don’t be that guy, such as the teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, where you simply speak in a monotone voice resulting in your audience tuning you out before you start… or worse yet, clicking away from you. Guess what? They won’t be back! Keep videos lively, with your actors/subjects.  Film in unusual locations that are eye-catching and colorful.

You don’t need to put an abundant amount of time into a video, but you need to put time into the preparations. Using a Flip camera or a Kodak Zi8 is a great way to make an authentic video with HD quality.

Getting viewers to share the video is important. Comments are great. Getting the video shared by many people on many social media sites is very important. If you are able to get your message, your video, to where the people are then much of your work is going great.

Now, just to track what messages come from that video…

Photo credit thanks to PearlTrees.

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Keith McIlvaine manages the recruiting social media strategy for a Fortune 500 company and is an avid networker.  He is a corporate recruiter, social media advisor, coach, speaker, blogger and an all around fanatic.  Connect with Keith on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or on his blog at the HR farmer.  (The statements posted on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer)