Why You Should Use YouTube in Your Content Strategy

Why bother with YouTube?

In a word — search.  YouTube is the number-two search engine and the
largest video hosting platform on the Web.  What’s number one? Google,
of course.  But who owns YouTube? Google does. 

Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that YouTube is the number two most popular site on the Internet. Guess what number one still is.

How big is big?  According to Merchdope.com content producers upload
three hundred hours of video every minute! 

Content consumers watch almost five billion videos every day.

This alone should convince you that you cannot ignore YouTube as a marketing channel.

YouTube can also help with your SEO (search engine optimization). 
This is the holy grail of search.  If you content is optimized for
search, you will be discovered when your products or services are
searched for.

YouTube isn't just for posting cat videos

YouTube allows you to create a mini, branded site through their Channels platform.  Upload your videos, group them in playlists, add links to your website and your social media sites.  And, in the About section of your Channel, you can fill out an online profile detailing your company’s mission, location, and products and services. In addition, you can generate subscribers to your Channel.  These subscribers will be notified when you push new content live.

Is YouTube a social platform?  

Yes, YouTube videos support likes, comments and shares.  

YouTube also allows you to optimize for SEO. They allow
embedded tags that tell search algorithms about your content. YouTube
also provides a tool for content producers to upload a written
transcript of your content. Transcripts become searchable guides for
Google to index. You can also add sub-titles, which become searchable
as well.

What are the details?  

YouTube allows you to input: a title, a description, adjust privacy
settings, collect content into playlists, select an optimal thumbnail
that summarizes your content in a single frame, include searchable tags,
add intra video hot spots that can launch the user outside the YouTube
platform, and add a CTA (call to action) at the end of your video.  

As you’d imagine from a Google product, YouTube’s analytics are
robust, offering per-video information on reach, engagement, audience
and even revenue if you turn on YouTube’s revenue-sharing engine. 

Metrics include: views, watch time, audience retention, impressions,
click-through rates, traffic sources, and subscriber demographics.  

YouTube’s offers an in-platform video editing tool set, but these are definitely prosumer-level tools.

YouTube is a world in a world. Don’t exclude yourself.