Fact: Youtube has more than 100 million videos viewed each day with tens of millions of unique visitors. It’s one of the most viewed sites on the internet. Imagine empowering your business through such a medium, and the potential benefits of entering the YouTube arena.
Another fact is that less than 1 percent of visitors to YouTube actually upload videos each week, while the vast majority are just viewers.
I suppose you’re wondering about the cost, and the work required to upload a video to YouTube. The best part about YouTube is that it’s absolutely free. There is no cost to you for YouTube hosting your videos. As far as uploading videos, it’s a very simple process that will be explained later on. What type of videos would a typical business submit to YouTube?
TRAINING
Training videos are essential to getting new employees up to speed with current practices and with YouTube it’s even easier. Another advantage to training videos is to help detract employees from calling your helpdesk when you can post tutorials to your software that can be viewed by those who are authorized. This streamlines the process for both new and old employees for technologies that keep updating.
MARKETING
This is the most beneficial factor to your online image of your products and services. Pictures can say a thousand words and at 24 frames per second; we’re talking about a serious cost savings. If you utilize YouTube as a marketing tool effectively, you can drive more web traffic to your site, and increase product and service sales. You will be able to reach millions of users in free manor (only requires your resources for the production of the video), so why not take advantage of it?
EVENTS
Lots of companies promote upcoming events through YouTube. Does your company hold yearly events? If so, then using YouTube as a medium to draw a wider audience is a good way to effectively utilize the full potential of social media.
Those are just some of the popular ideas for how your business can utilize YouTube. When you get a plan down simply grab a camera and start shooting, then upload it.
There are a few key areas where most amateur videographers fall short. When recording the video, try to maintain a steady hand and try not to utilize too much of the zooming feature. Ensuring optimal audio quality is also very important, since bad audio quality will keep the vast majority of visitors from viewing your content. They may also walk away with a negative impression of your product or services due to the unprofessional nature of your video. Recording from multiple angles is also a good way to attract the audience while providing an added flair (almost Hollywood like feel) to your videos.
Lastly, the second to last step is uploading your raw footage to your PC or Mac. Once this is complete, you must edit the videos to remove unwanted blips or blurps that were not intended. You may want to also add some neat effects, especially if you want to add animations to your video to make it more interesting.
The restrictions to YouTube are simple to follow. For regular videos, it must be less than 100MB in size and 10 minutes in length. The only way around this is to get a director account or to split up your video into 10 minute segments. A director account is free, and has little extra requirements. You just need a picture for your profile and a link to your website.
YouTube requires just a few simple steps to bring your company to the rest of the world. Will you use it?
