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Posts Tagged ‘YouTube’
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
The next phase of video marketing has begun. Not too long ago, YouTube rolled out live streaming videos for specific channels. This past week, however, they opened up live streaming to anyone with a channel of more than 1,000 subscribers. That’s almost everybody.
If you are just getting started in video marketing or you are well on your way to reaching 1,000 subscribers, then you have a measurable goal to strive for.
Once you hit 1,000 YouTube subscribers, then you can enjoy some of the great benefits of live streaming. Features of the service include:
- Real-time transcoding into every conceivable format
- Showing multiple camera angles
- Closed captions
- Ads and slates
- Any device supported
Here’s how you can know if you are eligible for live streaming on your YouTube channel:
If you want to know if you are eligible, simply check your account features page. If you’re eligible, you’ll see an “enable” button and there you’ll be able to sign up. YouTube says that live streaming capabilities will officially come to these channels in the following weeks.
With live streaming, you can reach audiences right now. You don’t have to wait for your video to parse and go live. You can record it online and make offers, take orders, receive call-ins, etc. Anything you can do on a live TV show can be done on YouTube. Welcome to the 21st century!
Video marketing just got tons better.
Tags: live streaming, video live streaming, Video Marketing, YouTube, Youtube marketing
Posted in Video Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, April 5th, 2013
One of the fascinating things about Google+ that few people are aware of but that is a powerful tool for business is Google+’s Hangouts-on-Air.
I’ve written about Google+ Hangouts before. But did you know you can host a Hangout and record it live on YouTube? If you have a YouTube channel, this is a golden opportunity. You can reach all of your YouTube channel subscribers with one live video feed that you can also embed on your own website. And it’s really easy to use.
Google+ Hangouts is a webinar feature much like Skype. However, unlike Skype, you can share documents with the other participants live and for free.
Whereas Skype allows up to 25 participants in a single web conference, Google+ Hangouts allows only 10. But that’s a small disadvantage when you consider the other advantages mentioned. When you get your Hangout started, you click the “ON-AIR” button and the web conference goes live. It’s really that simple. Then you can share it on YouTube, which makes the web conference searchable by all of YouTube’s visitors.
When you’re finished with your Google+ Hangout, sharing it on YouTube is super easy. And, just like all YouTube videos, you can embed it on your website and share it on all of your social media profiles. It’s a great business tool.
Tags: google, Google+ Hangouts, YouTube
Posted in Video Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
One of the biggest mistakes YouTube marketers make is thinking they’ll get a rush of traffic from their uploaded videos. More often than not, the referrals from YouTube are pretty low. That’s because people go to YouTube to watch videos. They are not looking for websites to visit. They want to be entertained or informed.
That doesn’t mean, however, that marketing through YouTube has little or no value. It actually has a lot of value.
But what about rankings?
If you think that uploading vidoes to YouTube and then embedding them on your website is going to improve your website’s rankings, then you’ll be disappointed by that too. More than likely, those embeds will help YouTube rank better. If you own the channel those videos are uploaded to, then your YouTube channel could see a rise in rankings based on number of video embeds and social shares. That’s not a bad thing as it means your brand will have one more ranking than it did before. That’s great for reputation management.
The real benefit to marketing through YouTube, however, is in branding. YouTube is one of the top 5 most trafficked websites online and the second biggest search engine. That means you have a powerful marketing medium.
If you can get your YouTube videos in front of a lot of eyeballs, that’s powerful branding. And it’s the true value of marketing through YouTube. Forget about rankings and traffic.
Tags: Branding, online marketing, Reputation Management, search rankings, traffic, Video Marketing, website rankings, YouTube
Posted in Branding | No Comments »
Friday, March 8th, 2013
Video marketing just keeps getting better and better. YouTube recently introduced One Channel, which is a new platform that allows you to redesign your YouTube channel to appeal to a larger audience. In essence, One Channel makes your YouTube channel more accessible to more devices.
For instance, your YouTube video channel will look the same on a desktop as it does on a laptop or a TV. Even smartphone users and tablet users can see your YouTube videos the way you intended for them to be seen.
You want to see some examples of YouTube One Channel in action? Try these:
As you can see, viewers of your YouTube channel will get an introductory video that will give them insight into your show and what it’s about.
The great thing about marketing on the World Wide Web is that it just keeps getting better. Whether you are into video marketing, e-mail marketing, social media, something else, or a combination of the above, technology, and the Web in general, keeps improving. But if you want to take advantage of it, then you have to get on board.
YouTube is just one option for marketing your business. It’s a powerful option. And if you use it, you can now reach more people on more devices.
Tags: Video Marketing, YouTube
Posted in Video Marketing | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
Forget video marketing as inbound link building. Let’s talk about ways you can increase your on-page optimization using videos. These are simple, easy-to-implement ways you can use videos to increase the on-page optimization of your website and your YouTube channel, but mostly your website.
- Design a niche-related video section – Why not encourage other people in your niche to upload their videos to your website? You can do that easily by adding a niche-related video section to your website. It can be a subdomain of your website or a section/folder on your server. Either way and you’ll get the benefit.
- Create a sitemap - This alone has a ton of SEO potential. Search engines love sitemaps because they make it easier to crawl your website and find the information they are looking for. A video sitemap specifically lists the videos on your site.
- Embed videos on your website - Google indexes embedded videos and sends traffic directly to those embedded videos. Upload the video first to YouTube, then embed it on your website. This works really well if you have good text before and/or after the video to give the search engines great optimized content to crawl.
- Include a video transcription along with the video – You can do this on your own website and on YouTube where you upload the video for sharing. The text of the video tells the search engines what your video is about. It’s one of the most powerful optimization tools you can employ.
This is just the tip of the iceberg on video optimization. There is much more you can do, but this is a great start.
Tags: Video Marketing, video optimization, video SEO, YouTube
Posted in Video Marketing | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, September 4th, 2012
According to one survey, Facebook is the riskiest social media site for businesses online. It’s not really surprising. One negative message about your brand going viral can really put a damper in your business’s trust among consumers. But the rest of the results of the survey are quite interesting.
Here are a few gems I found while perusing the results.
- 43% of businesses found video sharing sites to be slightly risky.
- Company and third-party blogs are considered less risky than Twitter or Facebook, which indicates that businesses are warming up to blogging.
- LinkedIn is considered slightly risky by 43% of businesses and not risky by 35%, making it more trusted than Facebook, Twitter, video sharing sites, or blogs.
- 33% of survey respondents consider Pinterest to be slightly risky and 48% consider it not risky, which makes it more trustworthy than all of the above; I found this statistic to be VERY surprising considering how new Pinterest is and the controversy surrounding intellectual rights.
- Foursquare could be considered the least risky social media site online as 58% of businesses surveyed said it was not risky; on the other hand, 20% said it was slightly risky, showing that 78% of those surveyed consider Foursquare slightly risky or not risky at all.
- Google+ came in at 49% slightly risky and 33% not risky, a total of 82%, beating out Foursquare in the “slightly risky or less” category.
- Q&A sites, but no specific one, have a rating of 88% slightly risky or less; the number for slightly risky is 43% and for not risky is 45%.
These are interesting numbers. If you want a “no risk” social media strategy, perhaps Foursquare is the place to be, but if you want “slightly risky” or better, then Quora, Yahoo! Answers, Google+, and Foursquare (in that order) are likely to be your cup of tea.
Still, I don’t think it’s any secret that more businesses are using Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, showing that companies are willing to take the risk in order to receive the rewards. I’d like to see which social sites businesses consider most rewarding. Wouldn’t you?
Tags: facebook, Foursquare, google, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Social Media | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
As many videos are viewed on YouTube every day – last count, 3 billion hours every month – you can’t ignore video optimization best practices. It isn’t enough to simply add your video to YouTube any more. You have to optimize it to give it the best chances for ranking in YouTube’s, and Google’s, search algorithms.
Here are 5 YouTube video optimization tactics you should consider before you upload your videos:
- Write a keyword-based title – Just as you’d write a keyword-based title for a web page, you need a keyword-based title for your videos on YouTube. They should also tell your viewers what your videos are about and encourage viewers to stop and watch.
- Include a well-optimized description - Think of your video description as your web page’s meta description. Optimize it for at least one keyword, maybe two. Make it long enough to get real traction and tell your viewers what your video is about.
- Optimize your video with tags – YouTube provides a place for your video tags. Include as many as are relevant to your video.
- Upload a video transcription – Many YouTube video marketers ignore the video transcription. YouTube will do this automatically, but it’s better if you can do it for yourself. Type out a word-for-word transcription and upload it to YouTube with your video.
- Manage your channel authority – Every channel has an authority. It’s either low or high. Produce high value videos that get shared, commented on, and starred and you will develop a channel authority. The more subscribers you have who interact with you on your YouTube page, the higher your channel authority will be.
YouTube video optimization is every bit as important as web page optimization. Don’t leave it out.
Tags: video optimization, YouTube, YouTube optimization, YouTube video optimization
Posted in Video Marketing | 5 Comments »
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
I never thought I’d say this, but the Fortune 100 are learning how to market themselves online – and they’re doing it in rather unexpected ways. Of course, we’re talking about companies that are accustomed to interrupting our regular programming to blast us with marketing messages on our televisions and radios. Now, they’re doing it on YouTube.
Except that they have 2 million subscribers each and those subscribers are engaged with the companies on a level like never before. What’s up with that?
79% of the Fortune 100 companies have YouTube channels, up from 50% two years ago. How are they doing it? By entertaining their subscribers. Here’s an example.
If that looks like a commercial you might see on TV, it’s because the Fortune 100 companies are using the same entertainment-focused approach for YouTube that they’ve learned to cultivate for the TV. And it’s working.
So what can small businesses learn from this approach? You can make videos just like this. Maybe not on the same scale, but you can do it. The key is to entertain your audience while you enlighten them on the benefits of your product or service. Be an entertainer, not a salesman.
With a little creativity, you can produce great videos for your YouTube channel, and you can do it on a modest budget.
Tags: small businesses, Video Marketing, YouTube
Posted in Video Marketing | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 6th, 2012
The mark of a good social media website is how serious its owners are about improving it. If the ownership team is serious about creating a useful and rewarding user experience and trying to keep up with the rapid changes of the web, then you have a good social media website. There are a few good ones out there, Pinterest now being one of them.
Pinterest started out as a way for marketers to share images with their friends. Now you can share videos too.
In fact, video sharing on Pinterest is a powerful feature because you can mix your videos in with your regular images, unlike YouTube where people go specifically to watch videos.
Of course I’m not knocking YouTube. It’s a great site for sharing videos and you should use it. But Pinterest isn’t YouTube. People aren’t going to go there just to see what videos they can find, which is what makes it a great place for pinning and sharing videos. You can catch people off guard – in a good way.
But, if you share the same video on Pinterest that you share on YouTube, be sure to give it a new title and description. You don’t want the duplicate content to disappear from the search engine results. If you give your video a new title and a new description on Pinterest, then you have the potential to rank that video on the search engines on both websites. Increase your opportunities with effective Pinterest video SEO.
Tags: Pinterest, Video Marketing, YouTube
Posted in Video Marketing | 4 Comments »
Sunday, July 1st, 2012
Small business owners all over the world are about to get a big boost in helping them brand their businesses online. If television advertising has been off limits to you because of the high cost of production, maybe you can turn to online video marketing – or video branding if you prefer – instead.
It seems that YouTube is working on putting together a marketplace where video marketers and on screen video talent can hook up. Think of it as a celebrity endorsement agent for YouTube channels.
Let me break it down into the simplest terms I can think of:
- A particular YouTube celebrity has hundreds of thousands of subscribers on her YouTube channel
- Her audience just happens to be the same audience you are trying to reach
- You connect with this YouTube personality through YouTube’s talent marketplace
- You pay the connection fee (a fraction of what it would cost to get a real life celebrity to endorse your product)
- The YouTube celebrity makes a video endorsing your product or service
- The video goes out on the YouTube celebrity’s video channel, your own video channel, and you embed it on your own website and promote it through social media with the celebrity’s help
Do you think that would be effective marketing? I do. Would it be effective online branding? You bet it would.
And what if that celebrity was so good at endorsing your product that you hired her to be featured in several YouTube videos, maybe even hundreds, over the course of a few years. You could have your very own Aflac duck voice or William Shatner-like voice of credibility promoting your brand online.
Coming soon to a YouTube channel near you.
Tags: Branding, small business, video branding, Video Marketing, YouTube
Posted in Video Marketing | 3 Comments »
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