The Benefits of YouTube as a tool to gain business

Many of our clients ask us about social tools such as Twitter, Facebook, & YouTube among others.

As the one of the most surprisingly relevant tools to the modern day social business, this piece will take you through YouTube – what it is, how to use it and the benefits of creating your profile to grow your brand.

What is YouTube?

Unless you haven’t been using the Internet for the last few years (or don’t watch America’s Got Talent!), you have heard of YouTube. Simply put, YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload videos for others to watch.

Before YouTube, there weren’t many places to easily stream videos. When it launched in 2005, it quickly exploded in popularity and by early 2009, YouTube had 83 million unique visitors per month, was the fifth biggest brand on the Internet, and Credit Suisse estimated that over 40% of streamed videos in the U.S. go through YouTube.

The power of YouTube is its ability to make unlikely stars out of unknown people and things -And this produces YouTube’s major benefit for businesses.

What does it mean when something goes Viral? Do I need to get a shot to protect myself?

Put the needle away (Thank God!) YouTube can let your efforts become “viral.” Though comparable to being contagious, a viral advertisement is simply an ad that naturally spreads without a push from marketers.

The YouTube video for Old Spice, called “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”, is a perfect example of this. (If you haven’t seen it, watch it now before continuing on this with this post because how they’ve leveraged an already great commercial using Twitter and YouTube is pure marketing genius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE
The original video has almost 18,000,000 views as of this writing!

How would your business do if you could get even a fraction of that kind of market visibility?

Although viral videos can have a profound impact much stronger than their initial marketing investment, getting something to go viral can be one of the most difficult things to achieve. Fortunately, getting a video to go viral isn’t YouTube’s only benefit for business.

More benefits of using YouTube for your business

1. YouTube can help you recruit new employees. You can use YouTube to advertise for new employees by showing what you have to offer and what they can expect. This works really well if your company or business is very different than what people normally expect from a company.

2. How To Videos. People are always looking for information on how to do things on the Internet. If you are marketing a product or service that can be complicated to new users, think about creating a branded how to video. It will give people a taste of what you have to offer, and people will be drawn to its useful information.

3. PR and company communications. News releases can be very dry, and when newspapers pick them up, they filter and skew your message. Putting a PR video on YouTube, however, enables any interested party to hear the truth directly from you. And hearing news from a person is always more exciting than reading it.

4. Market research. Posting a new ad on YouTube before you put it on TV can give you free, instant and honest feedback on whether it is working or not. With the site’s metrics, you can also gauge who is watching the video, where they live, and how they are finding your video. Just don’t let it go viral if the response is becoming negative!

5. Training and employee communication. Although there are other services that provide more secure online video viewing, businesses that have to deal with a lot of freelancers with a wide variety of computers and interfaces know that showing a video directly to all of them at the same time can be a major headache. In contrast, almost everyone can watch YouTube videos, and they can watch them in their spare time. It may not be the most secure method to deliver employee communications, but it can save you a lot of hassle.

6. Deliver sales pitches to clients. Sometimes you want to create a strong pitch to a few selected clients. Creating a custom made video and uploading it to YouTube can be exactly what they are looking for. This can work well for real estate agents, decorators, or even dog groomers – any business person whose personality is a part of their business. Embedding custom videos to your blog or website can also make those sites more engaging, and will encourage people to spend more time on them.

7. Cultivating a brand. A local restaurant that wants people to find it fun, wacky and engaging might make a couple of videos showcasing their friendly staff and delicious food. A natural products manufacturer might show off the ways they make their products and the good things that go into them. Adding YouTube videos to your site will not only create a hard pitch, but will also help people associate certain emotions to your company or business.

Now what?

A well executed video with the right title and content, can have huge viral impacts for your brand, especially if your video reaches the most viewed pages. There are also numerous other ways to optimize your videos, but coming up with an interesting concept and being aware of title, tagging, and thumbnail image, should each be key components of your strategy.
With the flexibility of YouTube there are many more benefits that gang&lani productions can help you discover – Until then, consider YouTube the next time you are stuck with a business problem, or perhaps looking to launch a product/service – and it might be the best solution for your brand strategy!

Need some more guidance or help? Feel free to email us at askus@gangandlaniproductions.com
gang&lani productions | www.gangandlaniproductions.com
brand & land | www.brandandland.com

About the author: Sanju Ganglani

With over 7 years of experience with 3 of the largest hardware and software Fortune 500 companies, Sanju Ganglani is the president of gang&lani productions, Toronto based custom marketing services company specializing in brand management, web marketing, event management and revenue generation planning. Sanju is also the co-founder of brand & land, where candidates and companies are assisted with building their brands and equipped with the tools to be successful with employment and client acquisitions.

You can reach him at sanju@gangandlaniproductions.com, find him on twitter @gangandlani, on facebook.

Visit www.gangandlaniproductions.com or
www.brandandland.com for more information