In this post we’ll get back to my interview with expert video marketer Anthony Idle from Local Video Marketing. Anthony is a Google Certified Adwords professional with an MBA in strategy and marketing. He is a former general manager of a US national business, but these days he works online helping businesses globally to advertise locally.
For Anthony’s answers to my first three questions about YouTube as a social media site and relationship-building tool, check out YouTube Gives You Face Time With Prospective Customers.
4. What are the best methods and tools on YouTube for businesses to find interesting content (to generate blog post topic ideas and share with their networks)? I call this the “Expand your mind” step.
With YouTube, there are three dominant methods to curate content. The first is to use the search bar to find either individual videos to share immediately via social media or your blog, or to find channels/individuals to subscribe to so you can follow their content over time.
For the best results from the YouTube search bar, I like to recommend something called Google fishing. I put together a video to describe the technique (direct link to Anthony’s video about Google fishing).
The second way to find content and ideas on YouTube is with the related videos that turn up at the end of whatever video you’re watching. Some people turn that functionality off, but 9 times out of 10 you’ll see related videos that have similar tags, title and description as whatever one you’re watching (including your own).
The third tool is one that I particularly like, and it’s the Subscription Manager found inside your own YouTube channel. So if you’re trying to rank for five or six different keywords, you might create a group of subscriptions (these are called collections, and are similar to folders) in each of those categories. For example, I particularly like funny, creative ads, and so I’m always looking for 30-second classic ad clips. So I have a collection for these in my Subscription Manager.
5. What are the best methods and tools for sharing original blog post content on YouTube? What are the benefits of doing this? I call this the “Expand your influence” step.
If you’re the type of person who really doesn’t want to show your face on the camera, there are ways to turn written content into a YouTube video. For example, you can take the key points of your blog post and create a slideshow presentation using Keynote or PowerPoint. From there, you can play the slideshow while you capture your screen using tools like Screenr, Jing, or Camtasia.
Anthony lists all his favourite video marketing tools at http://localvideomarketing.biz/tool-kit/.
Is video worth the effort?
While it does usually take longer to produce a video than it does to write a text-based blog post, Anthony says it’s well worth the effort. He points out that a YouTube video can get you to the first page of Googe’s search results a lot quicker than a text-based blog post. He also stresses the importance of face time in building relationships with prospective customers. That’s why he takes the time to produce high-quality videos, and helps other businesses do the same.
As someone who hasn’t done very much video blogging, I appreciated Anthony’s insights into YouTube and video marketing. The wheels are turning with ideas for videos I might create. What about you?
Enjoying this series about social media and blogging? Check out the other posts here. You can also find my post about using Twitter for business at Social Media Today.