Today we are diving in to #3 on the list of The Big 6 of social media - YouTube. If you have any questions or how it relates to you specifically, please don't hesitate to contact your marketing specialist.
A brief overview: YouTube is a video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service was created by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—in February 2005. As of December 2015, it ranked before Facebook in terms of global audience reach. Pros vs Cons: Pros: 1. YouTube offers a massive viewing audience, and is easier to reach "Viral" status with your content. Millions of people watch videos on YouTube daily. 2. YouTube has become the second largest search engine with about 55% consumer traffic on the Internet in 2014. 3. Since YouTube is owned by Google, their content enjoys a better chance of a higher ranking by Google, which typically leads to more viewers and traffic to a website. 4. Videos can be easily shared across all social media platforms. Cons: 1. Posting videos does not guarantee results. Viewers may like your video, but not be inspired enough to do anything (share it, go to your website, etc.). 2. Negative reviews of your videos can not be removed or changed, and have the potential to damage your reputation online. Typical Users: - As of April 2015 there were 31.8 million users aged 18 to 24 and 19.4 million visitors 65 and older. - 36 percent of U.S. internet users accessed online video on a daily basis. Strategies: - Create videos that address your patients' needs. They should be helpful, valuable and compelling. Make content - not ads. - Utilize YouTube's advertising service to drive traffic to your company page. - In addition to posting your videos on YouTube, you should also post them to all of your other social media sites. Misconceptions: - Setting up a YouTube presence will be quick and easy. Actually, it takes some time and patience to build up your YouTube audience. While designing your page and uploading videos may be a quick process, getting subscribers is significantly more difficult. Many people attempting to utilize YouTube for business sign-up for a channel, add a few videos and then get discouraged when they don’t get any views or subscribers. Often times, channels go abandoned even though they were initially very excited to build. Measuring Results: - Because YouTube is owned by Google, it offers a LOT of metrics to see how your videos are performing. Everything from views to clicks, engagements, video viewership (showing how often your video is played through completion), subscribers, likes, shares, and more.