Friday, August 20, 2010

Break Through the Clutter on YouTube

In my two years as Firm Director of PRowl Public Relations I have seen a drastic increase in our focus on social media for our clients. While some of our first client work relied heavily on traditional media relations and hitting-the-streets community outreach, we quickly began adding blogger outreach, Twitter and Facebook development, and interactive e-mail campaigns to our PR plans.

Another promotional tool that has been successful in creating buzz around various clients has been the use of YouTube videos. Especially when there is a visual element to be told (for example, a moving dance piece about the genocide in Darfur by the Rebecca Davis Dance Company) we find videos to be especially impactful.

We create these great videos, but then how can we ensure people see them with all of the other video clutter on YouTube?

Sandra Fathi gives seven helpful tips in her article on PR Daily News:

1. Use of keywords - the video title should include keywords that you expect your target audience to search for
2. Video description - the text in the description should align with your title as well as the message(s) you wish to portray
3. Tagging - tag your video with searchable words that are related to your video/client
4. Link back - include the YouTube video link on other social media profiles and pages
5. Give feedback - use YouTube's Video Response tool to search for other videos related to the client/message and post a video in response
6. Gain insight - view detailed statistics about the videos you upload, such as demographic information about your viewers (click "Account" and then "Insight" once in your YouTube account)
7. Promoted videos - pay to promote your videos through keyword searches (if you have a little extra money)

Another simple way to help get your videos seen: include your YouTube account link on all correspondence (as well as your other social media profile links), even if it's just in your e-mail signature.

Any other ideas on how to create buzz around your videos?

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