Good Business Sense: Channel the Popularity of YouTube

Posted on December 22, 2009
Filed Under Ecommerce |

According to the official YouTube Fact Sheet, “people are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.”

Why exactly is YouTube so in vogue? Because users can easily share their life stories with the masses at only the price of a low cost video phone or recorder. One day in the near future, friends won’t be saying to friends, “you should have seen it when…,” they’ll be sending out YouTube hotlinks to their funniest stories. And YouTube also acts as a live news feed, capturing dramatic events as they occur. It’s no wonder traditional media ratings are down. The public now has the power to share real news and life events in only a series of a few short clicks; and all free to boot!

With broad demographics (user base age range: 18-55, even m/f divide) YouTube is reaching a wide range of customers wherever they may be in the world.

To spread the word about new products and company news, many businesses are placing advertisements via InVideo ad or YouTube ad programs, but because YouTube accounts are so user friendly and free, a number of businesses are taking advantage of the chance to produce their own YouTube promotions.

The YouTube philosophy that “user experience comes first” is important for business owners to remember, especially when it comes to producing their own promotions. YouTube has garnered popularity from such a mass of users because of it’s creative, non-commercial appeal. YouTube video uploads likely to be viewed and shared the most are the ones that are imaginative, fun, timely and/or newsworthy. YouTube users are looking for unadulterated entertainment or news; not a feeling that they’ve just been sold on something. Although this fact doesn’t dispel new product branding, it does mean promotional YouTube videos should be stimulating enough to captivate a choosy audience.

Take for example, HomerunMonkey.com’s Rawlings S100 Baseball Helmet YouTube Promo. Since May 2009, there have been nearly 12,000 video views. This 1 minute, 42 second long clip can easily be sniffed out via an organic Google/YouTube relevant keyword search, plus it’s embedded into the HomerunMonkey.com site for easy customer access.

Video viewer counts are readily displayed to the public to denote popularity and tools like YouTube Insight can be used to further inspect detailed video traffic stats.

For e-commerce and/or brick and mortar business owners mapping out a social media management plan, YouTube is only one tool from many to consider. Ideally, it should be used in conjunction with others such as Twitter and Facebook and managed by an experienced team of e-commerce design and development specialists who understand how to strategically integrate those agressive border hopping social media campaigns into an anchored and secure home website landing pad.

FastPivot.com has an international team of site developers and social media managers on staff. A shining client portfolio is a testament to the team’s e-commerce prowess and technical ability. Business owners who want to build a dependable and successful social media road map can contact FastPivot via the Contact Us page.