Guide to online marketing and promotion: Part One - YouTube

The way we market to our audience is evolving. With more potential marketing channels than ever it can be difficult to know which methods and tools to use to communicate effectively to your potential customers.

There are countless free tools and services on the internet that allow you to exploit the internet’s vast user-base to promote your goods, services or even yourself. This help sheet aims to give you a starting point as you explore the endless possibilities of e-marketing.

Youtube.com

YouTube is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated; the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published.

The wide variety of site content includes movie and TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogs and short original videos.

One of the great things about YouTube is that the concept - uploading, viewing and sharing videos - appeals to nearly every age, race, and nationality. Used by millions everyday, they’ve made an exceptional name for themselves in this new content distribution model and will no doubt be one of the companies that change the way the world watches content.

More and more, companies are using YouTube and other video sites to showcase their product offerings. This is a great way to get the impact of a TV ad inexpensively, and is a wonderful way to create buzz and anticipation of product launch.

YouTube now has a larger audience base than network television - and you can create a video and post it for a fraction of the cost.

The Advantages of using youtube as a marketing tool

Zero hosting costs - Youtube relies on advertising to make their money. This means that not only is it free to post your videos to your youtube account, but they encourage you to do so and give you a lot of storage space to play with.

Video is Better than Pictures - More often than not video lets you illustrate more complex messages than you could with images. You could deliver a presentation about your latest product or give a 3D tour of the workshop where you make your handmade gifts.

Instant Audience - YouTube was the 26th most popular website on the Internet in September 2006, boasting an average visitor session time of 18 minutes (the longest among all of the online video sharing sites). All of these youtube visitors and members constitute your potential audience. They are people who could be viewing your product, watching your music video or listening to your sales pitch.

Potential Shared Revenue - YouTube recently announced that it will soon share revenue with its members. This means that you will be rewarded for posting videos to youtube if they become popular. If your business deals in digital products or services, this could prove to be a viable revenue stream to boost not just your potential audience, but also your income.

Before you get started

One thing to remain aware of before you delve in and start uploading your videos is that there are certain limits imposed by YouTube.

Your video file must be less than 100MB (Megabytes) in size Your video must be less than 10 minutes in length YouTube officially accepts videos in QuickTime, AVI, and MPEG formats.

Before you get started with creating your Youtube account, you should ensure the videos you are producing comply with these guidelines or you may encounter trouble later on. It’s also worth reading YouTube’s well written community guidelines (http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines) which cover the issues of what is considered ‘acceptable’ video content and what isn’t.

Getting Started with Youtube

To upload videos you must have a YouTube account. Go to the youtube homepage at www.youtube.com. Click on the Sign up link in the top right-hand corner

On the next screen enter your personal details. This is all pretty straight forward and you need to fill in all of the information on the form to complete the registration. The first option on the signup page called "account type” lets you choose from a list of different profiles.

Director Accounts are perfect for people who take their videos seriously. Whether you own your own production studio or are just passionate about home videos, a Director Account can offer a lot of advantages. By signing up for a Director's Account, you essentially become YouTube's content partner. Along with a 'Director' tag, you get to co-brand your logo, link to a URL and provide your company's description on each of your videos. You also get the ability to upload videos longer than the 10 minute limit they've set, and customise a lot of fields and values. The program is aimed at amateur film-makers and online content distributors alike.

Guru accounts are for people who are experts in… something! If you’re a gourmet chef, successful investor, or creative clothing designer, you might want to look into getting a Guru account. Advantages include being able to create a custom logo, genre, and links to your other websites from your Profile.

Musician Accounts allow custom logo, genre and tour date information, as well as the inclusion of CD purchase links on your Profile. Musicians can signup for an account which allows to them to post their own music videos and most importantly identify themselves as musicians. Also, they can customize their channel specifically with information like "Record Label." This is great for independent and amateur musicians.

Comedian Accounts allow custom logo, style and show date information, and CD purchase links on Profile. A comedian account is basically a lighter version of a Directors account, where, along with the 'Comedian' tag, you get the ability to customize your channel and videos. It is notable, however, that you still don't have the ability to surpass the 10 minute time constrain and post your logo to the videos.

If you are unsure of which classification you belong to (if any) just choose the Standard option. Don’t worry about this too much at this stage as you can always change it later on if you have to by going to the "Channel Info" section of your account and clicking on the "change channel type" link. Also, it's worth mentioning that no matter what the account, YouTube clearly states in the terms that the uploader grants YouTube a non-exclusive access to the video to be watched on the Internet, and warns you not to infringe any copyrights.

Once you have filled in your registration details, you will need to confirm your email address by checking your inbox and following the instructions.

When on the Youtube.com website, you can get to your account screen at any time by clicking on the "My Account” link in the top right-hand corner. Your account page acts as a starting point for any actions you may wish to take whilst on the site, such as viewing your favourite channels, or uploading a new video.

You are now (almost) ready to start uploading videos! To start uploading a video simply click on the ‘upload video’ buttons displayed on your main account screen.

When you click on the upload link, you will again be presented with a ‘confirm your email address’ screen. Although this is quite an annoyance, it is an extra security check recently implemented by Youtube in an effort to prevent unsolicited spam on the site. Just follow the instructions as before, checking your email account and clicking on the verification link. The next page you see will allow you to enter details about your video content.

You will be asked to enter a title, description and tags for your movie, so that other YouTubers will be able to find it online. Use tags which are descriptive but also use words which people are likely to search for who may not know much about your field. This information can be edited later if you make any mistakes or change your mind about anything by going to the "My Videos" page, available from your dashboard.

Once you have filled in the information about your video, you will notice you now have 2 options of how to proceed.

Option 1: QuickCapture is a way to record video directly into YouTube. You need to have a webcam or camcorder already attached to your computer in order to use this feature. To record and upload video using QuickCapture simply click on the ‘Use Quick Capture’ button. If you get a message that says "www.youtube.com is requesting access to your camera and microphone" click the ‘Allow’ button.

If you don't see a picture in the record section, you may need to choose a different video source from the video dropdown in the ‘Record Video’ window. Once you see a picture coming from your camera, click the ‘Record’ button to start recording your video.

When you're finished recording, click the ‘Done’ button if you're satisfied with your video, or click the ‘Re-Record’ button if you'd like to try recording it again. When you click the ‘Done’ button, your video is automatically uploaded to YouTube and starts processing.

Option 2: If you already have your video ready to upload, select the other option - Continue Uploading. This will take you to the next screen which will allow you to begin uploading your movie content.

Next, browse to where your movie file is stored on your hard drive. You will be able to specify whether your movie will be viewed publicly, or restricted to friends and family. Click the Upload Video button to add it to the YouTube site.

Once your movie is online, YouTube allows you to control how other users will interact. Comments and ratings can be added either automatically, or with your approval.

Some Pointers to bear in mind…

With YouTube, it's possible for anyone to embed a video onto a webpage, MySpace profile, or blog by simply obtaining the code and copying/pasting it onto your page.

Visitors to your site can see videos of your products or clips of your band playing live without having to leave your site or download any additional software.

There’s no magic formula to make your video popular, so just try to be creative with your video content. Make it enjoyable and give visitors the incentive to watch it and tell their friends.