Did you know that You Tube gets over 3 BILLION views every day? Wow! Imagine what you can do with a marketplace like that? Don’t be shy you need to get in there and take a piece of that pie! Use the masses of social networking to market your business. Sure you are going to post a video on You Tube but it isn’t going to just stay on You Tube – with the right marketing strategy it is going to go viral!
Let’s get Started: Obviously, the first thing you would do is create your video. Here are some tips to getting just enough coverage to be successful.
- Length of Video – The maximum length of a video should be 10 minutes. The most successful lengths are 3-5 minutes.
- Video File Size – It should be less than 21.9 MB
- Video Bit Rates – The most successful bit rates are 300-400 Kbps
Video Content: The content of the video must meet your goal of brand recognition. The idea in marketing videos isn’t to create an ad campaign but rather create brand recognition.
- Subliminal Messaging: You don’t want an ad campaign (unless it was featured during the Super Bowl) but you do want is more of a subliminal message. Example, Coca-Cola and American Idol are a duo. You never see an American Idol episode without the Coca-Cola container in front of the judges. The judges are not saying “Drink Coke”. The product is sitting there ready for you to recognize their brand and without saying it – make you get up and get a Coke.
- Product Placement: Product placement is related to subliminal messaging and is in fact, very much the same. Probably the most famous product placement and even one of the originals was in the 1982 film “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial”. In order to feature a product in a movie the movie must get certain “rights” from the product. The joint venture between “ET” and “Reese’s Pieces” paid off. The sales for the little known candy at the time tripled!
- Select Popular Categories: The most popular categories on You Tube are entertainment, sports, music, comedy, and news/politics. Make sure you video falls into one of those categories to ensure that it goes viral.
- Riveting: Yes, the content needs to be something that is truly amazing, shocking, heart-felt, and the list goes on. At the end of the day the video needs to be viewed not only once but again and again by the same person. You want that person to share the video with all of their friends! Make it worth the 3-5 minutes!
When to Post your Video: Yes, it is all down to a science! You should know when the best times to post your video are. The most common times that people browse You Tube are on the weekdays between 2pm and 6pm. The two most common days are Wednesday and Thursdays. If the peak hours begin at 2pm then you need to post your video between 12pm and 1pm since it takes about an hour for your video to be posted.
Going Viral: The whole point of posting a video is to ensure that it goes viral. Follow these tips and you are sure to make it on the “most viewed” charts.
- Pay per Post: You can market your video to people that write blogs about your latest video and pay them to post your video on their blog that day.
- Forums: You feature your video on various forums and start commenting on them. Yes, people do it all the time. They comment back and forth with themselves between different accounts to make it appear as though they are other people.
- MySpace: MySpace has the capability of adding videos to your web design. You can embed your video on your profile and see if your friends will also embed the video. Then their friends and so forth.
- Facebook: Facebook has a number of ways to share a video. First you can put it on your profile, suggest it to your friends, create an app, tag the video with your friends’ names, like it and encourage others to do so and you can even create an event and invite everyone to watch the video.
- Email List: You can email the video to all your friends, families, and business associates. If you already have an emailing messaging company you can create an email campaign with the video.
- Circle of Friend: Yes, get your friends involved. You need that base to start the spreading the word and your friends should be able to help you in all of the suggestions above.
- Titles are Important: Make sure your title will do what you want it to do. Use keywords that explain your video but make sure it is riveting and people want to open it to see what you are talking about.
- Thumbnails: Pictures, yes people need pictures. If it doesn’t have a thumbnail attached to it, it is going to get overlooked. People look first at the picture and then the title. No picture – no one reads the title – no one watches your video.
- Comments on You Tube: You got it, just what you did for the forums. You are going to do it straight on You Tube. Create a controversy. People love a heated debate!
- Multiple Videos: If people liked the first video they are probably going to be looking for more. Create a series to get more hits in total for your concept.
- Relevant Tags/Keywords: When I type in a search bar to find ice cream. I expect to find ice cream. The only way I can find the kind I want is by tags or keywords. Make sure that your video is tagged with the correct tag and as many tags as permitted (yet, relevant).