How Important is YouTube Video Marketing in Growing Your Business?

If you’re interested in pursuing social media in Tampa to grow your business, you must have thought about online video marketing; i.e. posting videos to YouTube. If so, you’re in good company.  According to YouTube:

• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
• YouTube is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages
• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth

Sounds exciting – and also a bit daunting. Will anyone be able to sift through the millions of uploads and find yours?

You bet!

Tag – You’re It!

There is no great mystery to how videos are “found” naturally on Google. It’s all in the tags used in each video. Each is specific (or should be) to the content. If you do a search for “best craft beer Tampa,” for example, do you think “Top Ten Delis in Montana” will pop up in the results?  Of course not! And the reason is what words are used to categorize, or tag, the video.

Video Searches are Growing

As we study social media in Tampa, we have found that there are more people out there willing to search specifically for videos. According to one new study, more people who search the Internet watch online video content. Product demonstrations, how-to’s and informational videos lend themselves very well to short clips. People like to see what’s out there, not just read about it.

How many more are watching? It grows all the time. According to comScore’s November 28, 2011 press release, “184 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in October for an average of 21.1 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 42.6 billion videos, representing an all-time high.  Doubtless the presidential election, the Olympics, top news stories and the latest viral videos will increase that number. exponentially.”

Video Marketing Tips

You want to keep your videos short – under one minute, generally, or you will lose people’s attention. I refer to these short videos as vignette videos to grab attention.   If a business has a longer story to tell beyond the one-minute video, provide a link to the ‘longer’ story, which could be a blog or website. These videos don’t have to be perfect Hollywood quality productions by any means! Logical, lively and to-the-point is just fine. You want to give prospective customers a quick show-and-tell – a summary – and then prompt them to TAKE ACTION!  You want them to click on your link, email or call you – and then you can close the deal.

Know Who’s Watching

The beauty of YouTube marketing is the real-time marketing aspect. You can track the number of hits, the geographical location of the viewers, and track how long they watched. This information helps you tailor your message as you craft your Tampa social media presence.

Predictive Marketing

Can you predict the future of your business? With a little forethought and effort, your online video presence can certainly help!  About half of all Google searches are predicable 12 months ahead of time. That’s a figure you should think about. What are the months, seasons or cycles unique to your business? If you can predict that people will search particular terms at certain times of the year (such as “hurricanes” during June through November, or “gym memberships” close to a new year), you can use this information to time your videos, tag them appropriately, and help people find what they need when they need it.

There is actually a name for this phenomenon: Tent-pole programming. You can create and release video content tailored to specific times of the year. Part of it is reactive and part of it is proactive.

Get Expert, Local Help with Online Video Marketing

It is critical that you hire a social media expert to create and maintain your YouTube marketing presence. It’s time-consuming enough to run a day-to-day business without the added burden of crafting timely messages, writing and/or producing a video, editing, tagging, posting and tracking. Personalized Marketing knows social media in Tampa. We create online video marketing campaigns for many types of clients. Let us get you into Lights, Camera, Action mode!