To leverage all the opportunity that YouTube has to offer, consider:

  • Partnering with YouTube icons. There are now thousands of people who make a full-time living off of YouTube thanks to YouTube’s official partner program. These partners have thousands of subscribers (in some cases millions) who tune-in to watch every upload. By reaching out and partnering with these online celebrities, you can gain instant exposure for your brand. Instead of trying to create a viral video from scratch, partnering with a YouTube celebrity gives you an instant advantage over your competitors. With YouTube partners in every niche, be sure to select a personality who relates directly to your brands and services.
  • Encourage feedback. When you keep in mind that YouTube is a social networking platform, it’s easier to encourage comments. Use this opportunity to encourage feedback about your video marketing strategy and your brand. By getting feedback directly from consumers, you can begin tweaking your strategy to improve your business and video marketing. Remember, though, that the comments section of YouTube is not a scientific barometer of opinion and that they should always be considered with a grain of salt.
  • Be clever. Online users are used to edgier content than other platforms, especially on YouTube. This is the perfect opportunity for your brand to get so creative that consumers can’t help but watch. This is part of the reason why so many musical artists, such as Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, and Katy Perry, create music videos that are visually provocative. This isn’t to say that your video content should be controversial, but definitely be clever and creative with your video marketing!
  • SEO practices. While YouTube is a social media platform, it’s also the world’s second largest search engine. This means that SEO practices not only help your video content rank within YouTube, but on Google itself, thereby improving the view count for your video marketing efforts. Be sure to include keywords in your video title and to strategically place them in the video description as well. Of course, be sure to provide links to your website and any social media presence that you may have.
  • Make a video reply. If there’s a viral video or a video trend, there’s always an opportunity for brands and marketers to take advantage of the trend. For instance, the Harlem Shake trend encouraged many organizations, from major corporations to universities, to create their own Harlem Shake video. Because the Harlem Shake trend was taking off, these videos were able to easily acquire a large number of views simply because of the video content and how it related to the dance trend. Aside from catching onto a video trend, you can also create a video reply to a specific video – just be sure that it’s related to your business or industry!