Video content is top dog, and YouTube is the undisputed leader of the pack.
What is YouTube?
YouTube allows users to upload original videos for personal or business uses. Users create a YouTube Channel where all videos for that account are housed, and videos may be set to public or private. Users may also subscribe to other channels to follow their favorite content (music is the most popular channel with 82 million subscribers).
Acquired by Google a few years back and integrated into their product suite, YouTube is actually the second most popular search engine in the world (behind Google). Users can manage YouTube with the same Google ID as their other Google items, like Gmail, Google+, Google Drive and Google My Business. The integration of YouTube and Google’s search features makes YouTube a very, very powerful tool in online marketing.
Who is the audience?
Founded in 2005, YouTube has built a following of one billion users, and 60 million of those are in China. Among teenagers, 50 percent of those surveyed list YouTube as their favorite website, beating out Facebook, Amazon, Google and other leading sites. The site is attractive to other generations as well, garnering a following from the Golden Generation (30 percent use the site) to Generation Z (83 percent). The video site is available worldwide in 61 languages.
Why do I need it?
No matter your product or service, your audience is probably on YouTube. In fact, YouTube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-34 than any cable network. Users watch six billion hours of YouTube videos each month, which includes everything from funny cat antics to serious business content. A video can tell a story in a way text and still images can’t – it’s a great way to engage your audience.
YouTube is a Google product, and the number one best practice in search engine optimization is to play nice with Google. If you’re creating video content for marketing – and you should if you want to stay relevant in today’s increasingly visual environment – then YouTube is the premier venue for distributing and promoting that video content. YouTube allows you to push out notification messages via social media every time you post a video. You can also optimize your new video posts for keywords that are relevant to your products and services, increasing the searchability of your content.
At SMO Pros, we like to post video content for our clients on YouTube and then embed those videos in the clients’ blog post to create rich, multimedia blog content for things like testimonials, explanation videos, property tours, introductions, welcome messages and more.
