YouTube is a fun, popular social media platform that allows users to get creative with their content. Whether you are a middle school girl with a love for makeup or a Fortune 500 company, YouTube offers the chance to make something new and exciting for your audience. However, even if your content has a high production value, you still need to know how to get that content out to the masses.
Determine a Schedule and Stick to It
Unlike other social media platforms, you will get the most out of YouTube by sticking to a schedule. Whether you post one or three videos a week you need to make sure you do so on the same day and keep similar content to the same day. For example, you can decide to post a Q&A video on Mondays and How-To videos on Fridays. Whatever the content is, be consistent so your audience knows what to expect and when to expect it.
Use Annotations
While they might be annoying to watchers, annotations are a great way to enhance your videos–if done correctly. YouTube allows you to include annotations to your video. You can use these to provide more detail or clarifications to certain aspects of your video or use them to link your viewer to your website. Just don’t over do it, because your followers want to watch a video and that can be rather difficult with twenty different annotations popping up at once.
Tag Your Videos
This is mostly for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes. YouTube is owned by Google, which makes it a good idea to use strong keywords in your video tags so people searching for the content you’re offering can find your videos. You can better determine the keywords to use based on analytic data of other videos on your channel. Just be honest with your tags. If it’s not actually in your video then it doesn’t need to be in the tags or in your title–people don’t like being lied to and it will reflect in your video’s “like” bar.
Eye-Catching Thumbnails
The video thumbnail is the first thing a potential viewer is going to see, which is why yours needs to look good and give an idea of what your video is about. While using a screenshot from the video is always an option, it’s better to take the time to design your own and upload it. It doesn’t have to be over the top but it should look nice and professional.
Cross Your Platforms
You shouldn’t treat the social platforms you use as separate entities. You should always find ways to connect them together so that a fan on Facebook becomes a subscriber on YouTube and then shares your video on Twitter. Post the videos on your YouTube page to your Facebook/Twitter feeds as they come out and encourage your viewers to subscribe to and share your content.
Final Word
YouTube is a creative outlet that should be taken seriously as a marketing platform just like Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform. If you want to have successful campaigns on the site you need to take the appropriate steps to optimizing your content so it’s easy to find and easy to share. It’s okay to have fun with your content, just make sure you don’t forget to take it seriously.