So You’re Not Steven Spielberg

Get Started on YouTube

Let’s say you’re not Steven Spielberg, award-winning director and producer of Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, and over a hundred more memorable, entertaining films. (That is, unless you really are Spielberg, in which case you’ve just proved, by reading this, that you’re also a savvy marketing strategist). We at Professional Mojo aren’t Mr. Spielberg either (in case you were wondering).

But you’re probably not Mr. Spielberg, and maybe you don’t know your way around today’s video cameras. Technology changes fast, and many of the new cameras offer features that can seem unfamiliar and confusing.

But no doubt you’ve also seen plenty of YouTube videos, so you know that people are using these cameras to shoot and upload footage. Some of the videos out there are simply intended to be cute and funny, like the ones with kids and kittens.

But there’s a lot more to YouTube than kittens.

Did you know that approximately 85% of the total US internet audience now watches online videos? Of those videos, about 43% come from YouTube. Think of it: when you create a video for your small business, YouTube gives you the potential to reach thousands or hundreds of thousands of consumers, customers, and clients.

Statistics show that YouTube hosts around 144 million—that’s so impressive, let’s say it again—144 million UNIQUE visitors each month. That’s about one-third of the U.S. population. Since Google purchased YouTube, YouTube has also overtaken Yahoo as the second most popular search engine, which is great for search engine optimization words.

See where we’re going with this? YouTube is a powerful, exciting marketing and social media tool.  If you aren’t using it, it’s time to start.

You don’t have to be a Spielberg to shoot a 30-second clip that promotes your product or service on YouTube, which is free, easily accessible, and unbelievably popular.

YouTube has features that allow you to cross-promote your small business and build communities. Users and viewers can share videos via Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, and other networking platforms.

YouTube is instantaneous. With a few clicks, you can send a video promoting your business to all your contacts at once, immediately reaching your target audience and, if you wish, everyone in your personal, social network.

In our next post, we’ll tell you how to choose a video camera wisely, to get you on the way to recording your own YouTube content. As they say, see you at the movies.

 

 

Source for YouTube statistics:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFTHOkCj0-I