Using YouTube Creatively for Business Promotion

Before you proceed to post your business promo videos in YOUTUBE, please know these essentials as they will help you understand what results you can expect- and what you truly need to do to make YouTube work for you.

1) THE AUDIENCE: First, let's work the publishing business backwards. Know that the YouTube audience has the attention span of about 4-5 seconds.  They are web-surfers looking at YT over a phone, a tablet or in-between work breaks or ebay-shopping.  If they're seeing your video within a webpage, it probably sits fairly small in a screen full of text (carrying little impact visually). Produce accordingly and keep videos SHORT and to the point.

2) DON'T SELL: Knowing your audience also means that they all expect to be entertained in some way.  The YT society is impatient, easily bored and has high expectations over what they find online.  They will not tolerate being sold to esecially not from boring sales videos.  This is the same audience type that mutes commercials when they watch cable TV, so expect them to just "X-out" of commercials. 

3) TYPES OF ACCEPTABLE PROMO VIDEOS: What works for YouTube marketing are:

• ANY VIDEOS WITH HUMOR, STYLE OR GREAT VISUALS EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS (remember, YouTube is the global video encyclopedia)
• INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS
• SENSATIONAL (NEWS) INFO
• SPOT FEATURE INTEREST
• SHORT DOCUMENTARIES

4) PROFESSIONAL ENHANCEMENT: You've heard the term "one chance to make a first impression". If you are representing your business, please hire a professional or at least an experienced producer. Do not confuse what you are about to upload with the many millions of home movies in YouTube.  There is a very strong and solid business community in YouTube producing and distributing quality business presence and spend quite a bit on quality and video performance.

5) EMBED, SHARE and PROMOTE: If you review some of the highest-ranking videos, they are often linked, shared or embedded within webpages or blogs.  Learn to push your video through social media and proactive means. Know to use these tools to get visibility and dismiss the myth that posting your video will just go viral because of entering keywords.

This blog article is brought to you by the semi-opinionated, often perpetrated mind of CARMEN REGALO-DEWITT of imworx.com of Long Island, NY. Carmen is a content editor, design consultant and associate art director for IntermediaWorx and ReelPromoters.com.