How creating video content can build awareness for your business
Many people have watched YouTube videos, but have you ever thought about creating them for your business? It might be intimidating to pick up the camera for the first time, but the benefits that videos create for your business could be life changing.
How popular is YouTube?
YouTube is an on online platform that cannot be ignored. As reported in ITechPost.com:
YouTube has recently disclosed its most updated statistics and the Internet giant claims that its website gets one billion hours’ worth of views per day. In a blog post, YouTube’s VP of Engineering, Cristos Goodrow, has expressed his pride and gratitude for the website’s success. He says that this achievement indicates the enjoyment people get from the site.
A billion hours per day is a very impressive number, and yet many businesses still live in a world where a YouTube video is considered to be more like a TV commercial than an online video. Quantity matters online. In the television age, you had 30 seconds and that cost you handsomely. Now, you have as much time as you’d like to push forward regular content.
Don’t be afraid
For many small and mid-sized businesses, the fear of creating videos or being the face of the company is paralyzing. As a young person, I thought that being self-conscious would evaporate after high school, perhaps college at the latest. Not so. The reality is that most people feel self-conscious throughout their entire lives, and YouTube heightens feelings of insecurity. Our faces online, talking about whatever, is a nightmare scenario for many people. As Nick Morgan of Forbes.com points out:
About 10 percent of the population loves public speaking. That group experiences no fear and get a huge buzz being in front of a large crowd.
Another 10 percent are genuinely terrified. Those are the people who are physically debilitated by even the thought of public speaking. True glossophobics will go to great lengths to avoid speaking in a group situation, and will experience nausea, panic attacks and extreme anxiety.
The rest of us – roughly the 80 percent in the middle – get butterflies, get anxious, don’t sleep much the night before – but we know that we’re going to live through it. It’s just not much fun.
That fear we experience – whatever the precise physical symptoms – is adrenaline-based. That means that it’s unpleasant but not debilitating. Here’s the good news: with a little work, we can turn those butterflies to our advantage.
Nick is right. To overcome the fear of public speaking is paramount for Internet entrepreneurs and business owners. Business owners are experts in their industry, and yet speaking in front of a camera is horrifying for many of them. You can turn this to your advantage! Simply answering basic questions on YouTube and embedding those videos within your site’s blog gives you an advantage.
Benefits
YouTube is simply too large and powerful to be ignored, and there are significant SEO benefits to having YouTube videos and links in the description area of the video and annotation links. It is still very much the wild west online and the opportunities are massive. I really thought YouTube would have become much more competitive more quickly, but small businesses are so busy with everything else that marketing, and especially YouTube marketing, takes a back seat if it gets a seat at all.
Many business owners I’ve chatted with have no idea what the average cost per view is for YouTube ads. For us, it’s hovered around three cents. And we are only charged if the viewer watches for over 30 seconds or clicks on one of our links. We’ve received 70,000 impressions and 4,000 views for $140. I’ve been recognized randomly in Las Vegas based on the YouTube videos I’ve been advertising!
Bottom line: start making YouTube videos! They are assets that will stand the test of time. They also build links back to your website through annotations. If fear is stopping you from moving forward, download a video program (I use iMovie) and record a tutorial on something you do every day. You will have to get used to your voice and seeing your face on camera. It is well worth it. If you are serious about Internet marketing, low cost video production is key! Fight the fear and make more videos.
Guest article written by: Kellen Kautzman is the founder and operator of Send It Rising Internet Marketing, a Las Vegas-based internet marketing agency. Kautzman is a well-regarded expert on growing small business with digital marketing and SEO, a public speaker, and published author of the book, “Everybody’s Doing It – Advertising Redefined by SEO Expert Kellen Kautzman”, which initially launched as the #1 New Release on Amazon.com in the SEO category.