Capture Video – YouTube and Your Business

YouTube and Your Business

Did you know that YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google? That means not only are people going there to watch cute cat videos, people are going there to find information and learn.

Did you also know that Google owns YouTube? They have a complicated marriage where YouTube talks to Google, but Google doesn’t really affect YouTube. So having an active page and presence on YouTube can strongly affect your Google ranking. How important is search engine optimization (SEO) to your business marketing strategy? If it is a major concern, then YouTube is an opportunity to both share your message and make sure your customers can find it.

If your business lends itself to information videos or interesting concepts, or even personal stories, YouTube can be a golden (and cost effective) marketing opportunity. Creating a page is extremely simple. Posting to YouTube is free and there is no limit to the number of videos you can post. Each and every posted video can have a link back to your business website. Links are among the most important things to attract the attention of Google rankings.

When you post a video there is a place for a description. You may want to work with a social media specialist on determining the right keywords for your audience. Some categories are extremely competitive and busy. That can make it harder for people to find you, but not harder than not being there in the first place.

Of course, then you have to be sure that your videos are good quality and interesting. Working with a videographer to make sure your submissions to YouTube are going to reflect well on your business can be a good place to put your marketing budget. One day of shooting could turn into multiple posts, and you definitely want to be posting regularly. Once you have a following, you’ll want to keep their attention with regular, quality content. Fortunately, short segments in the five minute range work well. Break a complicated subject into small segments and post a segment every week or two.

Although YouTube is the biggest and connected to Google, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are other video sites such as Vimeo, Metacafe, Veoh, and DailyMotion. Facebook and LinkedIn make it easy to add videos. Once you’ve created your content, you’ll be able to get a lot of mileage from each piece.