We can all agree that Google is the largest search engine on the web right? But do you know what the second largest is?
If you guessed YouTube (which is actually owned by Google) then you are one smart cookie!
Videos are being searched and viewed more than ever nowadays. And as an SEO specialist let me tell you it’s 100 times easier to get to the top of the search engines with a YouTube video than trying to optimize your website to rank high in the search engine results pages.
Which makes me wonder why aren’t we doing more videos as VAs??? Just do a search for the phrase “Virtual Assistant” and you’ll find 1,340,000 results for webpage results yet only 143,000 results for videos. It can take months and thousands of dollars to get your webpage up to the top of the search engines. Yet in just a few days you can get a video (taken with your iPhone) up to the top of the search engines and as well get thousands if not millions of views.
Example: I posted a personal video on Facebook/YouTube about a new product I’m selling that makes me look 10 years younger in just 2 minutes. I posted it on my personal Facebook pages and VOILA! Over the past 48 hours it has been shared 12 times and has 5,000+ views! Simply amazing!!!
(Best to watch video when you are already logged into Facebook so you can view the raving comments and 5,000+ views. Please post your FB comment on the video and what you loved best about it, would love to engage with you on Facebook as a friend too)
Ok back to topic at hand here, VIDEOS on YouTube! As of today, according to YouTube’s stats there are over 1 billion unique users on YouTube each month. That’s very significant because video is a very powerful medium in which to tell the story of your brand. Companies have been using video longer than YouTube has been around, in the form of TV advertisements. It’s important to consider using video as part of your content marketing mix. Here are eight reasons why.
1) Video Is Popular – On any given day there are 4 billion YouTube views. This constitutes a very powerful, though crowded venue that you need to be using to market your business, spread brand awareness and make your mark.
2) YouTube Isn’t the Only Game – There are other up-and-coming video hosting and sharing channels like Vine, Google, Wistia and Vimeo, but none of them have the power of YouTube. Thankfully, you can place your videos on many different services without worrying about duplicate content. Just change the text descriptions and tags a bit and you can be seen everywhere.
3) We Have the Technology – With the advent of streaming capable smartphones and tablets, video viewing is only going to become more prevalent as time moves forward. This means that you need to find a way to take part in developing and publishing videos for marketing your business. You simply cannot afford to miss out.
4) Video Is Second Only to Text – According to eMarketer.com, video and text-based content are the most common forms of marketing today, but videos are shared more frequently than plain text-based content. While textual content still shares the lead in popularity, it is declining. Text-based content will never totally go away, but video is going to take off and be more popular than ever over the next year or so.
5) You Can Say More in Less Time – You’ve likely heard the saying that a picture is worth 1000 words, right? Well, video is worth even more than that. You can say so much more in a short three to five minute video than you can say in a 500 to 1500 word article.
6) Video Is Easy to Understand – You can also make it more understandable with visual elements that help the viewer understand more. Because of that, and the small amount of technology you need to make truly good videos, you would be crazy not to start taking advantage of this method of marketing as soon as possible.
7) It’s Easy to Get Started – If you’re nervous about getting started, begin with something that doesn’t require you to be in front of the camera. Instead, start with asking your current clients via a contest to submit testimonials on YouTube. They should talk about what they love about you, your products and/or services and recommend you via their video. You can offer a prize to the most liked video which will be voted on by likes and shares via the YouTube community.
8) People Love Videos – The truth is that people simply love watching videos. They are fun, and videos get results. If you want great marketing results, start adding video to your content mix on a regular basis and watch what happens. You shouldn’t make it all video all the time, but video should definitely be in your content mix.
Today, almost anyone can create a YouTube video that is just as effective as any TV advertisement – maybe better since most videos that small business owners create are more informative than advertorial. People love information over being sold to.
See you on YouTube!
