YouTube Marketing

In just a few years (believe it or not it was only launched in February 2005 in the US and June 2007 in the UK), it has become the largest video sharing site in the world and a massive part of contemporary culture. This article looks at business and YouTube marketing.

Given it’s huge success all over the world, it’s really surprising that so many businesses don’t take YouTube marketing seriously. We’re not talking paid advertising here but videos about different aspects of your business. Where you choose and upload your YouTube marketing videos to suit your business. They can be a fantastic way to not only gain exposure but just as importantly, develop valuable social media collateral to help you climb the search engine rankings.

Now, the numbers speak for themselves but you’re probably thinking, quite rightly, that there’s a massive difference between the latest boyband offering and what your business has to say. What’s more, underneath the mega-popularity of popstars and celebrities on YouTube, there are gazillions of also rans who barely scrape double figures. Right?

Well, to an extent. Both facts are indisputable. But here’s some more facts about YouTube that may convince you to give it a whirl, regardless of your celebrity status:

1. Over 800 million unique visitors go to YouTube each month. If you divide the number of unique visitors by the world’s total population, you’ll discover that over 10% of the earth’s population visits YouTube each month. A huge audience for your YouTube marketing.
2. Over four billion hours of YouTube video is watched every month. That’s 34 minutes and 25 seconds for each person on earth, or five hours for each monthly YouTube visitor.
3. YouTube had more than one trillion aggregate views in 2011.That’s over 2.7 billion views every day of the week.
4. 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US.
5. YouTube is now available on approximately 350 million devices worldwide.
6. YouTube’s mobile traffic more than tripled in 2011. That translates to more than 20% of YouTube’s total use, and it’s growing every year.
7. Approximately 500 years of YouTube video is watched every day on Facebook.
8. Over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute.
9. Around 100 million people respond (i.e. like, share, comment) to a YouTube video each week.
10. YouTube ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ are up approximately 100% since the beginning of 2011. On average, for each dislike a video receives, approximately 10 likes are given.

As impressive as these stats are, they are likely to get even bigger as time goes in. And as YouTube continues to embed itself in our cultural environment, its power can only increase.

Clearly, it’s unlikely you’ll ever be able to achieve pop star type figures but chances are your existing customers, potential new customers, employees and other stakeholders would find real value in seeing a video about your business. Whether it’s a generic ‘About Us’ story to introduce the business to people, or more specific films about particular aspects of what you do – how your products is made or a case study, for example.

Not only is YouTube a great way to communicate with people – including potential new customers – it raises your profile among your target audience and, crucially, give your search engine rankings a boost, too.

Best of all, at the most basic level, all you need is a camera phone and something to say. So what are you waiting for, get filming and make use of YouTube marketing, and best of all it is free!

To give you an idea of just how powerful YouTube marketing is in terms of audience – SEO Web Marketing have put together the following two lists.

One is the most viewed TV programmes ever in the UK (not including soaps like Corrie and Eastenders). The second is the most viewed YouTube clips ever.

The results may surprise you in terms of sheer numbers but they should also help you realise just how popular YouTube is and the reach it can deliver to your brand through YouTube marketing.

	Most viewed TV Programmes ever in the UK
1	1966 FIFA World Cup Final	32.3 million	30 July 1966
2	Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales	32.1 million	6 September 1997
3	Royal Family (documentary)	30.69 million	21 June 1969 and 28 June 1969
4	Apollo 13 splashdown	28.6 million	17 April 1970
5	FA Cup Final replay: Chelsea vs. Leeds	28.49 million	29 April 1970

Most viewed YouTube videos UK 1 Adele – Rolling in the Deep 7.8 million 30 November 2010 2 One Direction – What makes you beautiful 34.69 million 19 August 2011 3 Jessie J – Price tag 251.55 million 25 January 2011 4 Adele – Someone like you 249.25 million 29 September 2011 5 One Direction – One thing 212.05 million 13 January 2012