Why YouTube Deserves Some of Your Attention

TweetEveryone is talking about social media, video and search engine optimization.  If you want a piece of any of these three hot trends — YouTube should be part of your solution.

YouTube has become an integral part of marketing on the Internet because it is a social media channel, a search engine and a video sharing site — all rolled into one.

YouTube as Social Media

The Journal of Computer Mediated Communications at Indiana University defines social networking sites as:

“…web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. “

YouTube does all the above… allowing its users to build profiles, share video content and add commentary on other people’s video.  It is a dynamic website where your business can build a following that is ready to consume your marketing message.

YouTube as a Search Engine

Firstly, Google owns YouTube.  Nuff said.  Well… maybe it’s not nuff.    When you are doing searches today in Google, you will notice that there is now video being displayed in the search results.  Adding video to YouTube is another way to get search engine traffic to your micro businesses website.

Secondly, YouTube itself is a search engine.  Search queries typed into YouTube total over 2 billion per month.  This 2 billion puts YouTube in the same league with the search market share of Yahoo and Bing, some have even said that YouTube is the #2 search engine in America.

YouTube as a Video Sharing Site

The social networking and search engine aspects of YouTube coupled with the fact that it is a video sharing site is what makes YouTube such a marketing powerhouse.

Video is hot.

Over 14 billion videos were viewed on the Internet in December of 2008 with the lion’s share of that going to YouTube… nearly 40%.

As a tiny business owner looking to market your business on the Internet… YouTube deserves some attention.