How to use YouTube for business

By Avanish Tiwary

Entrepreneurs that rely on YouTube for online marketing must have skipped a heartbeat when Google, its parent company, in its April 1 ritual, declared that the video sharing website would cease to exist.

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google Search. Looking at the dominant position YouTube holds, analysts and business gurus worldwide have been advocating the power of video content and what YouTube can do to a business. YouTube videos that went viral (Harlem Shake, Kolaveri Di) are apt examples of what the right video can achieve.

Assuming that the quality and content is relevant, interesting and informative, a video uploaded on YouTube can help a brand build and strengthen its relationship with its target audience.

Not many small businesses in India use this platform to connect with customers as it is often believed that online videos can help only a select kind of business. This is nowhere near the truth. Virtually any kind of company can build a community of its own with YouTube.

The popularity may not immediately be translated into financial benefits, but it definitely spreads the word about your brand. However, it is a daunting task to get your video ahead of the pack.

Invest in quality

Watching a video online should be a pleasurable experience. Hence, it is advisable to spend money on ensuring that the quality of the video is not compromised.

A decent video camera doesn’t cost much. Buy a good camera and think of it as an investment and not as an expense because this is going to pay off in some way or the other in the future.

Along with the video quality, pay attention also to the sound quality and lighting. If need be, hire a professional part-time cameraman. Remember, no one wants to spend their internet bandwidth on an unlit, shoddily produced shaky video. There are various tools and techniques which, if used carefully, can get incessant views to your YouTube channel.

Tag your video

In 2007, in a bid to make YouTube more relevant for business owners, Google started displaying YouTube videos in its search results.

Tagging or giving keywords to your video upload is one of the easiest ways to route viewers to your company’s YouTube page and make your brand visible in search results. However, ensure that you use tags which are relevant and fit your subject area.

Google has algorithms which can detect extraneous tagging behavior. And once it does that, your YouTube page will cease to be popular.

Customize your channel

Apart from keywords and tags, it is important to fill all the information about your business and product while creating your YouTube channel.

Upload your company’s logo in your YouTube channel and make sure that the ‘title’ of the video matches with what your video is about. To get more views to your page, write your ‘title’ in a way that the important keywords are in the first few words.

The second important step in customizing your channel is to write an elaborate description which should contain all the relevant keywords.

It is advisable to not overuse annotations-a small comment in the corner which appears while the video is being played.

It is believed that they serve as a distraction, rather than being informative. If tempted to use this feature, do so only for giving out basic information such as your company’s website, information about your next video, etc., at the end of the video.

Promote your channel

Once a video is uploaded on YouTube, it should also be shared on other social media websites. The objective here is to get as many subscribers for your channel as possible. Sharing your video  regularly will get you updates about the feed and  inform others about your company and new products, provided you keep the channel fresh with new content. Creating a small contest or organizing a live community chat with subscribers will also popularize your videos. However, there is a caveat here: People often get irritated if this is done often and without a reason.

Use analytics

YouTube offers its users an option to measure and track the number of views a channel gets in a month to a particular video through Google Analytics. It is a tracking system which, when linked to your YouTube channel, gives detailed information on the traffic or views your video gets. Google Analytics tells you how many viewers visited your company website after watching the video. They inform you about the behavior of your viewers and based on this information, you can make appropriate changes in your channel.

Engage with viewers

Spend some time on YouTube searching for similar pages and get involved in its activities, while promoting your own YouTube page.

Engaging activities like commenting on a video, sharing, or ‘liking’ it will get attention of other viewers who might view your page, thereby increasing traffic.

Use Google AdSense

YouTube gives its users an equal opportunity to earn money through video uploads-AdSense, an ad-monetization feature from Google, allows users to earn money through advertisements that are impregnated in a video.

In order to use this feature, a YouTube user will have to open an account with AdSense and then allow Google to integrate advertisements in the videos.

Advertisements appearing in the video are decided by Google-which depends on various factors, such as type of video, who has uploaded it, etc. Being proactive in marketing through various online streams will help a business grow. Use it deftly to market your business.
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