YouTube does not discriminate. It is a community for all to enjoy and participate in. The opportunities with video content are endless, provided you use the correct strategy.  The basis of your YouTube strategy should be your determined target market.  Identifying your target market will guide the nature of your content, such as length of videos, video type, and the nature of your content.

Tips for Setting Up Your Account

When you set up your account its highly important to communicate your brand's image. For example: If the nature of your content is fun and informal ensure your channel communicates this through appropriate text and images.

Make sure you use a highly recognisable image for your channel’s profile pic. An image that is striking and unique. Remember your profile pic is often the sole recognisable connection to your brand.

On your channel there is a space to recommend channels. This is a great place to create a mutually beneficial relationship with other like-minded channels. Every time someone visits your channel they will be recommending your buddy channels. Of course the action goes both ways, which increases your exposure.

Your channel name should be easily found and easy to remember. The vast amounts of content on YouTube can make finding a specific channel increasingly difficult. So keep it simple and clever.

Managing Your Video Channel

Now that you have your account set up you can begin the planning and the implementation of your online video strategy.

Users should be encouraged to post comments on your channel concerning your featured videos. The key to encouraging comments is, firstly, to deliver videos with compelling content. Furthermore, and equally important, you should respond to your comments to encourage conversations. This is the key to establishing a community and a following base on your YouTube channel.

For example: At the end of your videos pose a question, whereby the answer with the most likes will be featured in the next video.

There are many ways to invoke comments so get creative and create cool incentives for users to get involved.

Display various links on your profile page, which can direct your viewers to other domains of your online activities such as your official website, blog page or other social media pages. The vice-versa of the latter is possible as well; YouTube has made it very convenient for you to watch your videos on your official website. The YouTube logo displayed on a website, linked up, will direct visitors to a video or a series of videos relevant to your website content. Even more impressive, is when the actual video is embedded and viewable on your website itself. You can embed videos on your website by simply retrieving a video’s embedding code on YouTube by clicking the share button beneath the video. You then embed this code into your website.

Update and Optimisation Strategy

It is very important to set up a publishing schedule and stick with it. Other than having great content, publishing regularly is the single biggest accumulator of a channel's subscribers.

Ensure you announce the publication of your next video in advance. That way you build hype as well as remind the users of your commitment to the channel (and publishing schedule).

When posting video content ensure you include a well thought out description.  The first two to three lines are the most important, the reason being that they will always show directly under the video.  In your description make sure to include related content links, a well-written description, as well as links to your social media efforts.

Tip:  Use the appropriate keywords and phrases related to your video content in the construction of your video description and video title (when possible).

YouTube Insight is an analytics and reporting tool which allows you to access statistics about your published videos. Here you can determine the type of people that view your videos; their geographical locations and their level of popularity within the specific video market arenas. You can also discover the trends of interests that your viewers follow and discover the routes followed that lead them to your videos.

With this knowledge, you can adapt your future content to accommodate your current audience, for example, you could use examples relevant to the geographical regions that produce high traffic to your channel. You could also push the categories that have the largest following according to audience trends and interests.

Follow your video marketing strategy plan with vigilance and your business will reap all the benefits of having an online video presence. Work hard at it and get creative with your video content. A viral hit might only be one video away.

Previous article in the series: Social Media Strategy; Next article in the series: The Company Facebook Page

Julian Karstel is a Digital Marketing Consultant for Sound Idea Digital | @JulianKarstel|Julian@soundidea.co.za

Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital agency | www.soundidea.co.za