Tagged: YouTube

Sep 09

How to Use a YouTube Channel to Increase Web Traffic

As stated in my social media video that was in my previous post (Social Media: Why Should You Care?), YouTube is the 3rd most popular search engine IN THE WORLD. And since accounts are free, taking advantage of what YouTube has to offer is an easy way to promote your website and services.

These are just some of things you and your company or website can do on YouTube to customize your channel (aka your profile) and drive traffic and revenue to your site:

Integrate with Facebook and Twitter: This is so every time you do certain actions on YouTube, such as favorite a video, upload a video, or subscribe to someone, a notification is posted on Facebook and Twitter. This is an easy way to continuously drive users to your site, and it’s automatic, so you don’t even have to remember to do it!

Favorite Related Videos: When you “favorite” a video, it posts to your channel. Favoriting videos related to your company or website can provide users with a one-stop channel to get all their information related to your industry, rather than searching around YouTube for it. For example, if you are a bead making company, favoriting videos about how to make beaded jewelry or crafts is a great way to increase user traffic.

Embedding Videos: If you have a lot of videos on your website, uploading them to YouTube is a good way to let as many people as possible see it while also avoiding the server space the video takes up. Then, you can simply embed the video into your website, choosing from a variety of different sizes and colors. You can also embed any video on YouTube that hasn’t been deactivated from embedding by the user who uploaded it.

Custom Channels: YouTube allows you to edit the background and theme colors of your channel, truly making it your own. Use your logo as your profile picture and then have your site colors as the background, link, and text colors to maintain as sense of similarity between your YouTube channel and your website.

Google AdSense: Because Google owns YouTube, it’s possible to put Google AdSense on your uploaded videos. These are usually banners that run at the bottom of your video while a user is playing it. This is a great way to make some extra ad revenue, and it’s easy to set up if you already have an AdSense account.

Subscribe to Related Users: Subscribe to other users’ channels if they have similar interests as yours.  Much like Twitter, this will promote them in turn subscribing to you and many channels allow users to view who is subscribing to that channel, therefore increasing traffic to your channel if your channel profile picture pops up in the window of subscribers.

Promotion: Be sure to promote your growing YouTube channel on all available outlets- your website, social media profiles, and even in your store or on your business cards.

Like other social media websites, having a YouTube channel requires some maintenance and love, but is an easy way to build traffic, especially if you and your website was already posting videos.

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Posted in Business, Featured, Search Engines

Jul 21

Still resisting social media?

As reported by SearchEngineWatch.com, a new engagement index calculated by The Wetpaint/Altimeter Group is debunking some myths about social media, for example that it can’t be measured or that it doesn’t work in B2B environments. It also reveals that companies who’ve invested in social media are weathering the recession better.

The study looks at the depth of involvement of the top 100 global brands in various social media channels in an attempt to measure the true value of social media. Customized criteria were used to score each company’s involvement in social media channels including blogs, branded social communities, discussion forums,  social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Wikis, and content distribution sites. The highest ranking company was Starbucks, which uses 11 channels and employs a social media team of six people. By comparison, #2 ranking Dell spreads social media responsibilities around to all employees, who spend 15-20 minutes a day sharing their thoughts on Twitter and personal blogs.

Although the engagement index reveals a significant correlation between social media involvement and financial performance, don’t expect social media to be a magic solution for disappointing second-quarter profits. Engagement takes time, and the quality of your social media campaigns is critical when it comes to building relationships with your customers and earning their trust — which is, after all, what social media is all about.

More key findings from the study:

  • Focus on quality over quantity. Engaging deeply in one or two channels is preferable to skimming the surface of several.
  • Keep content fresh and respond to comments;  customers want companies that engage with them.
  • Make social media a part of everyone’s job, from the CEO on down. A few minutes a day from all employees adds up.
  • Tailor your social media campaigns to your industry. Luxury automotive brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Porsche engage in just two channels each. If your target audience doesn’t depend on social media, certain channels may not be right for you.
  • Do something. You don’t have to do it all, but you must start somewhere, or risk being left behind as consumers become more dependent on social media.

Read the full study here (PDF).

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Posted in Et cetera, Featured

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