For the fourth and final part of our social media blog series, we focus on a platform that not only helps you create dynamic content for your social media campaigns, but is also becoming one of the top search engines on the Internet: YouTube. As YouTube’s video content grows at an exponential rate, many are utilizing them as a way to find information. Rather than reading about how to change a flat tire, most would like to see it for themselves! For companies, this means that YouTube is not only a way to post videos about your company and products, but is also a great way to increase your SEO and drive consumers to your website. YouTube can’t be ignored because:
• More than 3 billion videos are viewed a day
• 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
• Nearly 17 million people have connected their YouTube account to a social service (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• 100 million people take social action on YouTube (likes, shares, comments, etc.) every week
In this blog, we will describe how to get the most of YouTube by making and customizing your own company channel. The steps for creating a company channel are incredibly simple, as you’ll see.
1. Assign an administrator for your YouTube account
- Administrator’s email will be the login email for the account
- Administrator will upload and manage video content
- Administrator will monitor comments posted to videos and can remove unwanted comments
2. Once the YouTube account is created, in the left hand column, click “My Channel”
3. Choose a name for your YouTube channel
- Channel names can only be letters and numbers
- Channel names cannot contain spaces
- Keep the channel name relevant to your company
4. Once your channel is created, select “Edit Your Channel”
- Upload company logo to act as the channel’s “avatar” or icon
- Write in a company description, under your channel description header
- Add tags to your channel so it is searchable (tags should be relevant to your company and can contain keywords from your SEO you already have on your website)
- Select a background color for your channel to make it visually appealing to viewers. Background color should be as close to your color palette as possible
5. Begin uploading videos to your channel
- Simply select “Upload Video” to begin the process
- Create descriptive, searchable titles for your videos. Try to use as many characters as possible to title your video, as this will make it more descriptive and optimized for search
- Also add “categories” to your video, which will also help make your videos searchable. Categories should relate to the video’s content as well as your company
As with every social media platform we’ve covered in this series, the second step is to create dynamic, interesting content for your videos. Just like nobody wants to sit through somebody else’s boring family videos, you need content that is going to entice, engage – even thrill your audience. Content could contain:
• Product comparisons
• Company news
• Company events
• Charitable missions supported by the company
• Employee features
• Profiles of tradeshows attended
This is the part where you get to flex your creative muscle, so have fun! Once you have content, videos should be uploaded on a consistent basis, as often as they are created, so your company will be top of mind with followers and searchers on YouTube
The final step in YouTube, which is unique to this platform, is to connect your channel with your other social media accounts. While this may sound complicated, it is actually a very simple process.
1. Under the Settings tab of your channel, click the “Sharing” button
2. Then click “Connect” next to the Facebook icon
- This connects your YouTube and Facebook accounts so whenever you upload a new video to your YouTube channel, it will also be shared directly on your Facebook page
3. There is no way to directly connect your YouTube and LinkedIn accounts, so you will have to post videos to LinkedIn as soon as they are uploaded to YouTube
- LinkedIn administrator or YouTube administrator should be in charge of this
- Post the link to the YouTube video, so users get accustomed to your YouTube channel, and if they also have YouTube accounts, will request to follow your channel, so they will automatically be notified when a new video is uploaded
Like Facebook, YouTube is a necessity for any company starting a social media campaign. While videos are more timely and costly to create, they provide dynamic content for your other social media accounts and give another outlet for potential customers to find you through search. Interested in tips and advice on creating videos for YouTube and how to start your own account? Contact us today! And if you liked this blog, make sure to subscribe so that all of our future blogs come straight to your inbox!
Have you seen these recent statistics?*
• 57% of businesses have acquired a new customer through a company blog
• 41% of B2B and 67% of B2C companies have acquired a new customer from Facebook
• Websites with a blog get 55% more visitors than those that don’t have a blog
• The number of marketers who say Facebook is “critical” or “important” to their business has increased 83% in just 2 years
Let’s face it – social media is more than just the hype it regularly receives. But many B2B marketers remain uncertain about its value. At the highest level, social media connects your brand in a more personal way to your target audiences, reaching them where and how they want to be reached.
Our best advice? Consider incorporating social media into your marketing mix by asking key questions, like: Do we need to exchange information with customers or participate in industry conversations on a more timely basis? Can real-time conversations with clients increase orders? Do our core prospects already congregate online, to share information or network? Even if you’re “late” to the social media party, these questions will help define an approach.
As we start this four-part series on social media, we will show you how to incorporate this growing medium into your marketing communications strategy by giving you tips and advice on how to get started. Our series will focus on three main social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIN, and YouTube. For each platform, we will describe its importance, how to get started using it, and how to turn it into a successful marketing platform for your business. If you’re thinking of incorporating social media into your marketing mix, you can’t miss these blogs! Stay tuned!
*Source: The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing, HubSpot
