Video is the king of content; if your business is not using it to engage with your audience, you may want to rethink that decision. According to Statista, about one-quarter of internet users spend 10 hours or more a week watching videos. Since YouTube has more than two billion active users worldwide and is the second most popular platform, it is a stellar opportunity to gain followers.
While we know attention spans are remarkably short, averaging just over 8 seconds, and the time you have to capture that attention is even shorter (see more on that shocking fact below), the data shows people are looking for longer-form content on YouTube.
According to Brafton: “The best way to keep users occupied is to produce long videos that strategically disperse valuable information throughout the entire video. Videos that hit the 10-minute mark are often able to achieve a significantly higher watch time than those that cram too much information into a short video or those that don’t cover a topic thoroughly enough to retain their audience. The average length of page one YouTube videos is 14 minutes 50 seconds.”
Are you considering creating a YouTube business strategy yet? Keep reading for some additional benefits.
Here are five benefits of using YouTube within your social media marketing strategy.
1. Easily Reach Your Audience
With YouTube gaining popularity each year, you’re guaranteed to reach your audience by creating video content that can educate, entertain or provide a solution to their problems.
2. Improve Your SEO
In recent years, Google search results include videos and popular blog posts or websites. This is because Google Universal Search looks for videos, images, news or books to provide the most helpful information. When creating your social media marketing strategy, it’s essential to take advantage of this by writing high-quality articles on your site and creating complementary videos on YouTube. With this strategy, you build backlinks to your site and allow your audience to find more of your content on Google.
3. Content Is Always Relevant
When your business uses YouTube, you can repurpose content you’ve already created without spending additional resources and time. You can repurpose podcasts, infographics, presentations and blog posts. This enables you to create multiple versions of the same content.
4. Consistently Grow Your Audience
Creating video content allows you to reach people who otherwise would not see the other content you produce, like podcasts or blog posts. YouTube has such a broad audience you’re able to connect with people all around the world.
5. Your Audience Helps You Grow
Make sure your video content has a personal touch. It allows people to develop trust with your brand, which makes it easier to decide whether or not to purchase your product or service and dramatically increases your list of potential new clients.
Are you convinced to leap into creating a YouTube Business Channel but don’t know where to start? Have no fear; I will walk you through the steps of creating a channel and promoting it to gain followers!
Steps To Create A YouTube Business Channel
Step 1: YouTube Channel Creation
The first step in your YouTube business strategy is establishing your YouTube channel. To start, you need to create a Brand Account on Google. According to Sprout Social, a Brand Account is one specifically for your brand that connects to your YouTube channel and allows up to 10 team members to manage the account. Next, make sure you pick a channel name like your business name so it’s easy to recognize.
Creating your YouTube channel is pretty simple if you follow this helpful guide from Sprout Social:
- Sign in to an existing Google account, or create a new, dedicated account specifically for your YouTube business account.
- Once you’ve created your Google account, go to YouTube’s homepage and click on the avatar in the top right corner of the screen.
- Click on “My channel” from the drop-down options.
- For a business account creation, click “Use a business or other name,” which will lead you to a screen where you can enter your brand’s name.
- Click “Create” to activate your new YouTube account.
Step 2: Add Images
For YouTube, you will need a cover image and profile image to start. It’s also a good idea to have a few videos you want to showcase ready to go. You want to make a solid first impression when a new visitor lands on your channel. Make sure your images and color palette are aligned with your brand’s image and guidelines while still having its own personality that distinguishes this channel from the rest of your platforms.
If you need help creating art with the correct dimensions, check out this guide from Sprout Social.
- Channel icon: recommended as 800×800 pixels, displays as 98×98 pixels.
- Channel banner: 2,560×1440 pixels, safe area for mobile and web (without text and logo cropping) is 1546 x 423 pixels.
Step 3: Write A Description And Fill Out The About Page
While it’s easy to overlook, it’s crucial to have an enticing description for your channel that will encourage people to subscribe. As Sprout Social puts it, “Not only is this a place to make a personal impression of your viewers but also funnel them to your social profiles or homepage.”
For the description, add a brief statement about your brand, a call to action to get them to visit your other sites and a contact business email.
According to Sprout Social: “The last piece of your description is arguably the most important. Add links to your homepage, social profiles and any other places you’d like your YouTube traffic to land. Including these links increases the chances of your traffic becoming long-term followers of your brand. YouTube allows you to add up to five links and customizable hyperlink text up to 30 characters.”
Step 4: Playlists
Playlists are an easy way to show off the different types of content your brand offers. If you have a podcast, create a playlist for it; if you have a weekly show, create a playlist for that as well. Playlists organize your YouTube videos in a way that is easy for viewers to find and encourages your audience to binge-watch your videos.
As Michael O’Neill of Brafton puts it: “Playlists are a trusted way to boost watch time. Upon one video in a playlist ending, YouTube automatically moves users to the next video in the sequence, meaning their attention is effectively transferred from video to video. Threading videos together to form a larger, more comprehensive playlist also allows you to showcase complex concepts without being confined to a set length of time with a single video. Playlists also break up the file size of the video project into smaller individual videos so uploading can be completed more quickly.”
Step 5: Featured Video Or Channel Trailer
YouTube allows you to highlight a video or showcase a channel trailer at the top of your page. Next to either the featured video or the channel trailer will also be your channel description. Make sure the channel description matches the video you choose to showcase.
Step 6: Featured Channels And Activity
YouTube isn’t just a video service and search engine; it’s a massive social network with millions of creators. Sprout Social details why it’s essential to show you’re a part of the community: “Just like any other social network, YouTube represents a community. Signaling yourself as an active participant in the community means following other channels, liking other videos and letting your viewers know that you’re involved in your industry.”
If you don’t have a lot of video content to share, highlighting featured channels and “liked” videos is a great way to show viewers that you’re still engaged on the platform.
How do you know what videos to like? It will primarily be determined by the industry you are in and the content you want to align yourself with. Sprout Social offers these guidelines:
- Highlight industry leaders and influencers (but not competitors).
- “Like” the content of companies or creators that you admire or find entertaining yet relevant.
- Avoid any content that could be perceived as controversial or otherwise unrelated to your business.
The First Three Seconds Of Your Videos
Once you have your YouTube business channel set up, if you want people to watch your video and engage with your YouTube channel, you have three seconds (yes, three!) to capture their attention!
If you have any hope of people staying on your video for longer, the first seconds need to hit the mark and provide a value proposition the audience will buy into. Here’s some advice from Cincopa:
- Set the tone with music and visual style
- Make the opening shot count
- Get to the point ASAP
- Generate an emotional response
- People love seeing people and animals
- Don’t be predictable
Now that your first videos are uploaded into their appropriate playlists, you’re ready to move on to the next step: promoting your channel!
How To Promote Your YouTube Business Channel
Even if you have the best YouTube channel in the world, if you don’t build your audience, no one will ever know about it! Beyond ensuring you have optimized your channel during the set-up process, the following promotional suggestions from Sprout Social will help people find and engage with your YouTube business channel.
1. Use Engaging Titles And Thumbnails
One essential promotional tool you should use is titles and thumbnails on YouTube. They can make or break your videos because your audience may miss them without an eye-catching title and thumbnail. However, you don’t want to grab your audience’s attention through clickbait headlines (a title that doesn’t accurately represent your video and brand). Create titles and thumbnails that engage and capture your audience’s attention.
2. Optimizing Video Content
To help people find your videos, you must optimize your channel and content for YouTube and Google.
Implement keywords into your video title, the file’s name, tags and the description. If possible, place a keyword in the channel name as well. Making sure you use the best and most relevant keywords will help viewers find your content. Additionally, using categories effectively will help YouTube better understand who to show your videos.
According to Social Media Examiner: “The YouTube algorithm uses dozens of metrics, but many of these kick in only after your channel has an audience of some sort. When you’re starting from zero, your best bet to gain new followers is through optimizing for search.”
Subtitles are another critical area to include in your video optimization. They help promote your content in several ways. Adding subtitles makes your videos more accessible to people with hearing impairment, increasing the reach of your potential audience. Google can also pick up on keywords within your captions, improving SEO.
Knowing how to optimize content properly is the key to achieving the results you’re hoping for.
3. Engage With The YouTube Community
YouTube is a very social platform and represents many interests. YouTube takes into account your interactions with other content creators. For example, simply liking someone’s comment goes a long way to demonstrate your trustworthiness and connection with your audience.
4. Cross-promote Videos
When you cover similar topics on YouTube as those on your website, podcast or social channels, it’s crucial to drop links to that content in the description part of the video and encourage viewers to check them out. This persuades viewers to watch your videos all the way through and find additional interesting content. And vice-versa, don’t be afraid to share your YouTube link on your website, podcast and social channels.
5. Use Strong Calls To Action
There is nothing wrong with asking for engagement – it can be very beneficial. Either use the description section or directly state calls to action in your videos. Be clear and tell your viewers what you’d like them to do, such as watch your other videos, visit your website, subscribe to your newsletter, listen to your podcast or possibly review your business’s products and services.
These five promotional suggestions can improve your business’s visibility on YouTube and potentially convert your subscribers to business followers and future customers.
Do You Need Help Creating Videos For Your Content Marketing?
If you’re still hesitant about using YouTube to your advantage, let the Three Girls team help! We have the time, resources and expertise to create and manage your YouTube business channel. Contact us today to get started!