The great thing about videos is that they can be a very powerful or even forceful way of delivering your message. Their compelling nature allows you to see and have a feel of what the moving images portray. No wonder then that many companies and organizations, both big and small, bank on videos for some of their advertising and marketing needs.
Many companies utilize the TV, itself a visual medium, as a platform in buying airtime for their video ads. With the rise of web-based videos, however, there is now a thriving community of video makers and a massive global audience willing to sit down and spend time viewing content of this type. When it comes to online videos, YouTube remains the undisputed leader. Host to millions of videos, the site attracts billions of views and is often used as an effective determinant of what’s hip and trending. As it were, it can also be a great platform in promoting your own organization.If you haven’t signed up for a YouTube account yet, now is the best time to start. Here are 5 essentials to boost YouTube visibility:
In uploading videos, emphasis must be on quality, not quantity.
On YouTube, quality matters. A lot. It’s easy for a crappy, poorly edited, forgettable, and badly produced video to get a dismal ranking, particularly if it managed to earn more dislikes than likes. Note that the video format also plays a role on how your video performs in the rankings. YouTube’s algorithms prioritize HD videos over the low-res ones. This is precisely the reason why search engine results within the site almost always yields a selection of high-quality videos. In producing videos, therefore, due emphasis must be placed on the quality of the camera work, how polished the editing is, how clear the audio is, and how the final output looks like. It need not be at par with mainstream productions, but it must at least approximate decent production values in order to attract views and be on top of the rankings.
Fill out all the necessary metadata.
Your video is likely not going to get the views you want if it is not optimized. It is necessary to put a title that gives the viewers an idea of what it is all about. On YouTube, there is also a similar space for captions and tags. Many accounts choose to forego these, but filling them out is going to make your video more searchable. Utilize keywords and SEO when writing your caption. There is no word limit for this section, but this does not mean you’d devote a very long caption when two paragraphs can get the same job done. In coming up with tags, think of keywords, categories, or phrases that viewers might use in looking for your video and include them in the tags section.
Share your videos.
Don’t let your videos go stale. Share them! If you have other social networking accounts, it would do well to let your followers know that you have videos, too. On Facebook and Twitter, for example, YouTube videos can be posted and viewed on these same sites without needing to open a new window. Sharing your videos on these sites also increase their chances of getting re-shared and retweeted, thereby boosting their visibility.
Optimize your YouTube channel.
One of the 5 essentials to boost YouTube visibility is the need to optimize your channel. Come up with a short, but creative channel name. Choose unique and distinctive profile and cover photos. Write a concise description of your YouTube channel. At the same time, connect it to your other accounts, such as your website, your Facebook page, your Twitter and Google+ profiles, as well as your Instagram account. The key is to make your channel attractive enough to attract new viewers and subscribers.
Learn about your audience and the performance of your videos.
YouTube has a nifty and detailed analytics section that allows you to see how your channel is doing. Here, you can see how your viewers found your videos, where your viewers are from, which videos are doing well, and how your total viewership did over the course of, say, a week or a month.
These pieces of information are useful because they give you an accurate picture of who you should target and how you can improve your videos. Furthermore, the analytics section provides you real-time insights that you can use to set the direction of your future initiatives.
