We have the technology that allows, well, anyone to shoot a video and upload it to the Internet for the whole world to see; however, for marketing purposes, that technology is useless unless you have the information and skills to promote that video so others will view it. In my previous post, I discussed ways of advancing your videos or YouTube channel to the website homepage where increased viewer traffic is inevitable. In this post, I will be discussing more technical ways of increasing views.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Many have heard about it, but most don’t know what it is. SEO is a concept that basically ties your website to popular search keywords. For instance, a baker who is uploading business-related videos to YouTube may consider including keywords like “famous cake batter” or “best cookie recipe,” so their video has more of a chance of resulting from a search about baking. I came across a great article by James Martin (2010) about the top ten SEO tips for promoting YouTube videos and I would like to share a few of the tips with you.
Martin begins with discussing the importance of including a “call to action” at the end of each video. What’s the next step? Should they visit your blog? Website? Should they call your office? It needs to be included (¶6).
Next, don’t ever underestimate the power of a good caption. You may not write a cute caption after every Facebook picture upload, but when you are marketing a business-related video you need to include a descriptive caption. Why? Martin explains: “YouTube, Google, and other search engines index captions and use them to help decide if a video is relevant to a query” (¶18).
And the tip that I agree with the most: create an original, branded YouTube channel. You have a credible company. You have an interesting, beneficial video. Don’t sell yourself short by uploading them to a plain, anonymous channel. “Branded channels give your YouTube presence a more professional look by incorporating your company’s logo, a custom background design, and so on” (¶21).
In closing, as the holidays are approaching, I thought I would include a hilarious, holiday-themed video starring John Roberts as he portrays his mother. This happens to be one of my personal favorites. Roberts’ YouTube channel has received 14 million views.
Video courtesy of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTs5eKZ0i1E
If you would like to read Martin’s article that was cited in this post, please click here.
Happy Holidays and I hope to see some of your funny Christmas moments on YouTube soon.
Source
Martin, J. (2010). Top 10 small business SEO tips for YouTube videos. Small Business Computing. Retrieved on December 7, 2010, from http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/emarketing/article.php/3915326/Top-10-Small-Business-SEO-Tips-for-YouTube-Videos.htm
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