Social Media Communications Platforms

How to use YouTube for your business ..

Social Media is all about engaging with your customers as you know. In order to engage with your customers it is important to know where they hang out … YouTube is one such place!

I was really surprised when I learned that YouTube is the second most used search engine on the planet! Given it is owned by the omnipresent Google I guess they have a bit of a monopoly!

On thinking about it however, it is not so surprising after all. If you want to find out how to do something it is a really good place to start. I recently wanted to know how to pluck a pheasant (apologies to the squeamish amongst you, but we are out in the sticks here!) and thought I’d check out YouTube – sure enough there was a perfectly decent video showing me what to do!

How can you use that for your business then? Do you have a regular customer service question?

• How do I replace a wheel nut?
• How do I change a plug?
• How do I cook a dish?

If you do, why not make a short video – use your phone – it doesn’t need to be a fully professional job … and post it up to YouTube on your account.

What does this achieve? It means that, to use the examples above, if someone wants to know how to change a plug and searches YouTube that you may get discovered by people who didn’t know you existed, so you have a potential new customer!

It also means that next time your customer service department is asked that question they can refer the person asking to the video, so making the process more efficient. Or you could put the video on your website as part of a customer service tool suite.

The key point is that you are sharing knowledge, you are sharing content and you are helping people – a perfect social media mix!

There is a great article on how YouTube is increasingly being used by kids to research their homework from The New York Times.

If you take the idea and extend it, the possibilities are really infinite. This is a new website, so we haven’t done them yet, but we could do some videos on the services we offer, mash them in with customers saying how good we are (!!) and you have a pretty good potential sales pitch. That video can then be shared and distributed and you have the possibility of a viral campaign – IF THE CONTENT IS GOOD ENOUGH!

One of the most famous viral campaigns in recent years is from a US company that makes blenders. I don’t know about you, but blenders are not top of my sexy item list! However do go and check out their website at http://www.willitblend.com – I guarantee you will remember them … you may even tell your friends, just as I am telling you about them now … are they paying me to tell you about them – NO, just as they won’t be paying you when you tell your friends and share their content. Are they selling more blenders – for sure they are!

YouTube is a great channel and one we should all be using – where is the downside?

How to use Flickr for your business

Flickr is a photo sharing website. How might that be used for your business? Surely it is great to share pictures of your family or days out with your friends, but how can it work for your business.