Must-Read Information for Creating and Maintaining a Branded YouTube Channel

Second only to Google itself, YouTube is one of the places most used to search for content on the web. As it is also owned by Google. Helping customers and prospects find you, gain valuable insight and engage with your brand is a powerful asset for building strong relationships and creating credibility where you would otherwise find yourself selling products and services cold. The power of video is incredible and knowing how to harness it is critical when it comes to elevating your profile and fostering brand awareness. Here are some must-read pointers for using Youtube to manage customer service as well as increase sales opportunities:

Know your Stuff: Learn the basics of how YouTube works such as how to upload a video and how to use editing features like annotations and the new one click video editor. Things change within the user interface of YouTube all the time so subscribing to a helpful blog or two that touches on YouTube or video for social media would be very helpful in keeping up with the basics. Understanding how your audience uses YouTube can determine how you approach branding your channel and the type of content you feature. For example, if your target market views videos mostly from the screen of their mobile phone, knowing that can make all the difference in your approach toward conversations.

Customize your Channel: Beyond matching the look and feel of your company and brand with the appearance of your YouTube Channel, you can opt to become a YouTube partner if appropriate, except when to do so might encourage ads from competitors. You also have the option of a branded channel though they are mostly used by large advertisers. In setting up a YouTube channel you can include enable users to subscribe to your channel and comment on your content. Also, you can highlight certain uploaded videos, favorites and playlists to appear more prominently.

Consider Outsourcing: There are specialists out there who are skilled in creating, uploading, optimizing and marketing videos on YouTube. Connecting with them can be a great help in getting a jump start on creating consistent content that reflects your strategy and ambitions.

Promote your Videos Outside of YouTube: The more views, the better! To accomplish this consider it part of your standard procedures to embed your videos where appropriate on your blog, website and other websites as well. Remember also to share links to your videos on Twitter, your Facebook Business Page, other relevant social media channels and in your social media conversations that take place in those areas.

Categorize and Organize your Content: Giving some thought to how to group videos together such as organizing by topic or grouping content by year will help you take advantage of the ability to share and embed playlists. Playlists, like video descriptions, can have key word rich content in the description section. Additionally, having a tagging system for organizing your content will help users find the groups of relevant videos they are looking for as well as discovering videos they did not know they needed.

Socialize on YouTube to Drive Awareness: Organically build up your list of YouTube subscribers by friending relevant individuals on YouTube, sending messages, and responding to comments. Outside of the traditional push marketing tactics you have an opportunity with YouTube to create meaningful dialogue around the pain points and needs of your customers and prospects. Engaging with the YouTube Community about these topics and carefully tending to the management of your profile will increase your reach. The aspect of socialization is especially relevant to the customer service aims of your social media strategy.

Leverage YouTube’s Search Engine: Just by having an appropriately branded and promoted YouTube Channel you can improve your search engine rankings for your website by more than 10%. So don’t forget to add descriptions to your videos with helpful key words, tags that improve your chances of being seen as well as links to your company website the titles and descriptions or wherever appropriate in each video.

Measure with Analytics: YouTube offers free analytics and very useful data which can be found by clicking the insight button on every uploaded video. Information on links users followed to find your video, demographics and other stats are provided. Be sure to first determine in your strategy what metrics and measurements are meaningful to your efforts and what will determine successful execution on your goals.

Borrow Tactics from Viral Videos: Going viral is tough to predict and it isn’t always considered to be “all that” for a business. However, considering some of the common elements that have contributed toward videos going viral can enhance your efforts. The element of surprise and unanticipated content can prompt people to share your content, when a video is pointed out by a person of influence or media outlet that can kick up the number of views quickly, and a community of participation such as the copycat videos made from S*** Girls Say” after it became a highly shared phenomenon are all ways videos have gone viral. While it’s important to have the goods to back up these tactics, experimenting with how they can help is completely fair game.