Internet Marketing Blog

YouTube is like other social networking sites in that it is completely generated by the users, but in this case we are just talking video content and more to the point, video sharing.

Although figures are pretty scarce it was reported that in January of 2008, 79 million users were watching over 3 billion videos. Not bad for 3 guys who used to work for PayPal and a site that only launched in 2005.

Needless to say, search giants Google spotted the potential and acquired the company in November of 2006 for $1.65 billion in Google stock, just over a year and a half after YouTube’s launch.

According to Alexa, YouTube is the 3rd most popular site on the web with 65,000 videos uploaded everyday and 16% of the internet population visiting the site. Not surprisingly YouTube is no.1 for online video and video sharing, which is incredible when you think about the fact that it has been created entirely by the users.

These days, anyone can be a star and with YouTube just egging you on, everyone can have their 15 minutes. Just look at Corey Delaney. The 16 year old from Brisbane shot to fame after a throwing a ‘near-riot party’ at his home when his parents were on holiday. If you are unaware of his work, then please watch this video, which has (along with his stunt) earned him celebrity status and worldwide support and kudos on every social networking site in the world.

Why do we like YouTube?

YouTube is a great tool to get to know your audience and help them to get to know you. You can create a profile upload videos, watch other people’s videos, start a video blog or ‘vlog’ as they are know, email, comment and rate. You can search for videos by category, watch the most viewed videos, view channels and find your favourite band, enter contests and share it all in the community areas. YouTube will also keep you up to date with what is going on in their blog as well as allow you to test their latest developments and comment on them. Do you feel part of a community? We sure do.

So what can you do with YouTube?

You can use YouTube to tell the world about you. Think of it as self promotion. It could be for your music, movie previews, interviews or adverts, or you can use it as a revenue stream by integrating sponsored advertising from Google Adwords.

If you want to use YouTube then we would recommend creating a group and encouraging people to get involved by uploading their own videos. You could run a competition alongside it and really get the buzz going around your brand. Let us know how you get on, or if you need some more pointers, then why not give us a call on 0845 838 7435 or drop me a line.