Plan Your YouTube Video

Here are some general tips on creating and publicizing your YouTube videos:

• Create a Video Strategy — Naturally, we recommend having a strategy before getting too involved in YouTube or other video sites. You should understand what’s going on already in your area of interest, who the players are, what they’re doing, what kind of community already follows your product category via video, and, most importantly, what you hope to accomplish with video. Create goals out of this strategy, and metrics to measure your progress. Your strategy should encompass not only YouTube, but Vimeo and other video sites, as well as how to get your supporters to embed videos on their sites (more on this in a bit). Finally, your strategy should lay out your Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) plan so you improve your findability on Google and other search engines (more on this later).
• Reach Out — Post videos that get viewers talking via the comments section on YouTube. It’s best to include an invitation to comment at the end of your video — “We’d like to hear your ideas. Please use the comment section below to let us know what you think.” Deliver this message with a real person, who points down, indicating the area for comments below. Many users may not be aware of the comments section or how to find it.Then join the conversation with your own comments and video responses. YouTube lets anyone post a video response to a particular video, and it can be an effective way to broaden your reach, since each video response will attract its own viewers, who may be interested in your original video.
• Partner Up — Find other organizations on YouTube you can partner with and promote each other. Remember, people will spend most of their time on YouTube viewing other videos. Partners can help you build your YouTube community.
• Keep It Fresh — Put up new videos regularly. Don’t worry too much if you don’t have anything earth-shattering to say. Think of the exercise as a way to keep in contact with your community. Report on what your company is doing and planning to do, and give status on ongoing efforts. Remember to keep your videos short—ideally in the two- to three-minute range, and for sure under five minutes.
• Spread Your Message — Share links and the embed code for your videos with supporters so they can help get the word out. Embedding means others can copy some simple code that YouTube generates into their Webpages and thus show your video on their sites. You can encourage viewers to embed the videos by having an on-screen person indicate the button that appears below your video and asking viewers to use it on their sites.
• Be Genuine — High numbers of views come from content that’s compelling, rather than what’s hip. Make sure your videos and video channel are listed in the YouTube categories that are appropriate.