Top 5 Tips: YouTube Channels for Businesses

1. Get One.

  • If you use videos, you should have a YouTube channel. In fact, you probably should have one for your business even if you don’t use videos. Why? Well, YouTube belongs to Google, and a connected, pervasive presence across Google will certainly help your search engine results.
  • If you upload your videos to YouTube instead of hosting them directly at your website, you increase the opportunity for customers to find out about you. It also acts as one more portal – funneling traffic to your website.
  • If you don’t have your own videos, you can still use your channel to create playlists that will entertain or educate your target market on topics related to your business. You can also use playlists to express your brand’s personality and values.
  • Also, there is a good chance you already have a Google ID (for email, Google Analytics, etc), so it is very fast and easy to create a channel. Just go to YouTube and sign in and YouTube will guide you through the process.

2. Look Like a Pro

  • Like the letterhead on your business stationery, you want your channel art (the large header at the top of your channel) to reflect your professionalism. Refer to YouTube’s Channel Art Guidelines for detailed instructions, dimensions, and a template you can download here.
  • Pay attention to your profile photo as well (it will be generated automatically from your Google+ profile).

3. Cross Promote

  • You can now add social links next to a link to your website, which appear over the bottom right corner of your channel art. To add social links, hover over the top right corner of your channel art and click on the pencil icon and then the option to edit links and then click on the add button under the social links heading that appears under your channel art.
  • Make sure you promote your YouTube channel: add it to your website, integrate with other social media platforms, and announce it on your Facebook page, email signature, newsletter, etc.

4. Integrate

  • You can go into your YouTube settings and connect to Facebook and Twitter (click on your username at the top right and then click on YouTube settings in the left column that pops up). You then get to select what activity you want to share. This is an easy way to save time and easily generate some new content across several platforms at once.

5. Participate in the Conversation

  • Subscribe to other channels, like videos and comment on them.
  • You can sort your subscriptions into collections using the subscription manager at the bottom of the left sidebar on your channel.
  • Go into the settings and confirm that YouTube will notify you if anyone comments on or likes your videos. If you are worried about negative comments, you can disable comments (not recommended in most cases).