Promote your company using the biggest free-for-all video database
YouTube is one of the most popular means of self-promotion on the Internet. The video sharing website has fueled several online phenomena and created a number of celebrities based solely on personal and usually amateur videos. Naturally, this popularity presents great potential to organizations and businesses who want to promote or advertise at lower costs. In fact, some companies such as Meebo, an instant-messaging service, have already started to use YouTube to gain brand recognition. NokiaDesign also has its own channel on YouTube. Here are some of the advantages of using YouTube to promote your business or organization.
- Lower costThe fact that it’s free means you don’t have to pay for the airtime or ad space you would normally buy when you advertise on TV or print. Ad space is one of the most expensive elements of media advertising, so free publishing provides great savings for your company. What’s more, your users can view your material anytime and replay it all they want, giving you virtually unlimited airtime.
Producing your material is also cheaper because you don’t need high resolution, frame rates, and other video attributes. In fact, it would be impractical to use professional-quality video because you’ll have to compress it to fit the screen size anyway. Also, full-length videos take more time to download, and the long wait can turn away potential viewers.
- Wider reachYouTube receives as many as 100 million views per day and accounts for 29% of the U.S. multimedia entertainment market. This means that promoting on YouTube sends your message to millions of users, greatly increasing your chances of getting clients and establishing your brand name.
One disadvatage, however, is that you can’t choose your audience. A Wall Street Journal study shows that 70% of YouTube viewers are American, and 50% are under 20. This is great if you’re selling shoes or clothes, but if your target market is global or the middle-age bracket, it’s hard to maximize YouTube’s potential.
- User feedbackYouTube allows users to rate and comment on videos. User comments give you an idea of how your company’s reputation is doing, and how well people are responding to your ads. Although these aren’t official and conclusive, they can serve as pointers for improving your product, or at least your next advertisement. You can also use this feature to test how well your material will be received before airing it or presenting it to potential clients.
Viral = effective
Another useful feature of YouTube is letting users post videos on their blogs or personal sites. A user who likes your video can copy it from YouTube to his or her blog to show friends and family. This provides additional channels for your message and makes it available from sources other than YouTube. This way, non-YouTube users can also view your material through networking. However, there are concerns about copyright infringement on YouTube, so make sure you use original material in your video.