Dec
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YouTube for Business
December 2, 2009 | 3 Comments
With the end of my social media journey I have been wondering whether YouTube can be classified under the social media banner or not. YouTube equals Video. Not any video, but generally self produced, short video (10 minutes or less). There is a section for shows, which are longer in length, but are mostly episodes of television shows.
For me social media is interactive and usually involves conversations, however, there is a lot of push going on where the conversation is started and then comprises mostly of replies. This is not always a bad thing: just an observation. Videos on YouTube are similar in the way that a video is posted and people can leave comments. Therefore, I am going to classify it for my journey, as social media. Though I am sill not 100% convinced it should be.
There are millions of videos on YouTube aimed at all sorts of audiences. YouTube offers a partnership program where you can join their advertising program (A bit like Google Adsense) and if you produce/upload enough videos, which you have rights to, you can create your own channel. I think this is a great opportunity for any business and can be used in a number of ways, for example:
You can still upload these to YouTube without a channel. The important aspect of this is integrating these with your business. For example, you have a customer service section on your website where you have links to embedded informational videos. Your customer service or sales reps can point customers to these helpful videos.
YouTube offers a way to drive traffic/sales through call-to-actions from your video. If you manage to target the right audience this could give you a real boost.
Then you can earn money through the partner advertising model in the same way you do from Google Adsense.
I came across this YouTube success story page. This is more about successful partners. YouTube also offers partners analytical tools to measure their success.
I think it is important to always have a strategy, an identified target audience and objectives you want to achieve and to measure these. Another really important aspect is quality. If you are promoting a professional service or quality product your video should not be poor quality. However, if the intention is to make a homemade, on-the-run, type of video, then you may get away with it, though you can still ensure a certain level of quality. One of my clients has an excellent page explaining the video production process.
Considering the number of people watching videos everyday I think incorporating YouTube into your Social Media or Internet Marketing Strategy is well worth it
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Sean and Steve, I think you are both right.
The definition of media is ‘a form of comminication that reaches or influences people widely’ and of networking is ‘the developing of contacts or exchanging of information with others’. and lastly social can be defines as ‘tending to form cooperative and interdependent relationships with others’.
Based on that I believe a number of these fit into both catagories.
Any of you know where the video author can comment back to people who leave comments to their videos? If they can then YouTube can be classified as both. I know people are using YouTube to drive traffic, sales and get subscribers to their newsletters which would lead to interaction.
Social media is one of those terms with a constantly evolving definition that probably started with the cave men leaving messages on rocks. Youtube may not provide the two-way communication of other “social media” but it still creates a message for us to see and hear.
Steve Dafnis
http://www.vzual.com
I think the problem is with defining what Social Media is. The term Social Media is used to represent networking sites like LinkedIn and content sites such as You Tube.
Rather than call it Social Media, the broader term should be the Social Web (not as cool sounding). Then underneath this you have:
Social Networking (sharing conversations): LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
Social Media (sharing content): You Tube, Flickr, Blogs, etc.
Twitter falls into both.
So back to your question I believe YouTube is social media. The nature of You Tube is for people to watch videos and share the content with others, thus its social media.
Just my two cents.
Sean Nelson
http://www.socialmediasonar.com | the Blog