6
Winter 2016
I
f your business is not using YouTube, you may want to reconsider.
Every day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube
and generate billions of views. YouTube is also the second largest search
engine next to Google. Given this level of activity, it makes sense to take
advantage of YouTube’s potential for a variety of marketing, customer
service, recruiting and training activities.
How could your business use YouTube? Here are some ideas:
Video Marketing
Use this method for engaging potential customers when words alone don’t
do the trick. Provide details about your products, and show how they’re
used. Or, do something completely unexpected that’s likely to go viral.
Product Information
For customers who are already doing business with you, videos are a great
way to keep them happy. Provide step-by-step instructions that will help
them use your products.
FAQs
While Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be written, why not take it
a step further and provide a personal touch? As with product information,
you can demonstrate some things much more easily using video.
Recruiting
Consider creating a series of recruiting videos that show your various
departments, give a tour of the facility and talk about company values and
expectations. Upon applying for work, potential candidates will feel more
comfortable if they have already gotten to know you online.
Testimonials
What’s better than a potential customer reading about a
raving fan? A potential customer seeing that raving fan!
A video can bring a customer testimonial to life.
There are many good reasons
to create and post videos
Get Down
to Business on
YouTube
Our Creative Media
Producer’s Tips on
Using YouTube
Great Plains Communications started our
YouTube channel
(www.youtube.com/user/greatplainscomm) in 2010 as part of an online
strategy to increase our web presence and
strengthen our company image. It’s a place
to host our TV commercials, tutorials and
community events.
Thomas White, Creative Media Producer, notes,
“Since the channel’s launch, we have uploaded
over 100 videos and received over 26,000
views. Many of the videos are embedded in our
company blog and get cross-posted to various
social media sites. YouTube is a great place to
show what your company is about, share infor-
mation and educate customers. Finding your
niche will make your business videos success-
ful. Our most successful videos are community
events and tutorials.”
What’s his advice to other businesses getting
started on YouTube? He replies, “Decide what
success would be for your channel. Are you
trying to get high subscribers and views? Or do
you just want to house all your videos in one
place and increase your search engine optimiza-
tion? They are two very different approaches
but both offer significant value. We find our
value from being able to house all our videos
in one place that’s easy for people to find.”
Thomas White, Creative Media Producer