Tuesday, January 14, 2014

YouTube Tips For Authors


We always hear about crazy “viral” videos on YouTube.  Some people make money, build a brand and have fun making and posting videos.  I never spend any time on YouTube but I recognize it’s a potentially powerful area for authors and publishers – if they were to harness the power of this leading social media site.  What exactly is the formula for success? 

One book shows us how to use video to find customers, launch products and influence a massive audience: YouTube Marketing Power by Jason G. Miles, the bestselling author of Pinterest Power (McGraw Hill Education).

What kind of video will you make?  Some try to capture outrageous daredevil stunts, such as Jackass.  Others use video to audition a talent – dancer, singer, comedian.  Some take to YouTube to document an odd  or newsworthy event.  Some video captures celebrities, powerful people or authoritative figures behaving poorly.  There’s no creative limit to what can be filmed.

There are many archetypal onscreen personas that successfully capture huge viewings and legions of followers.  Which one will you be?  Do you want to be seen as an expert or a clown?  Are you the nerd, the sage, the genius, the soccer mom, the grandma or the child prodigy?  Perhaps the unassuming average guy style works best for you – or the jester, the explorer, the trainer, the beauty queen, the victim, the complainer or the philosopher.

People use YouTube to:
·         Build traffic to their Web site
·         Increase search engine optimization
·         Get media  exposure
·         Engage in a dialogue
·         Respond to something or someone
·         Sell books, products or services
·         Teach, educate, instruct and demonstrate
·         Build their brand and develop  name awareness
·         Go viral and get discovered
·         Placate their ego
·         Collect ad revenue

Miles’ book is an easy-to-use toolkit that helps readers – including authors – learn how to utilize the powerful video service.  He shares the following seven smart social activities people participate in regarding YouTube (excerpted from the book):

1.      Post Videos
Sometimes the most obvious action is the wisest.  You cannot grow a large subscribership on YouTube if you’re not regularly publishing video content.  Each time you publish a video, it is included in your feed, and your subscribers can engage with your work.  When they do, their subscribers see the interaction.  It stands to reason that the more you post, the more your subscribers will engage with a video, and the more you’ll be discovered.  The other reason to post frequently is to ensure that you have videos that appear when people search for the keywords related to your industry.

2.      Comment on videos
There are most likely countless videos to comment on in your niche or industry.  You can comment on your customers’ videos, competitors’ videos, and industry-related peers’ videos.  When you comment wisely, you share your encouragement, wisdom and insight.  You establish yourself as an authority in your niche or industry.

3.      Like videos
On YouTube, you can give a video a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.  Liking videos is a sign of support and encouragement to the video maker.  It is probably the simplest social action on YouTube, and it will only take a split second.

4.      Add a Video to a playlist
If you consider yourself a curator of information and education for your prospects, then creating playlists that go beyond your own videos makes a lot of sense.  And when you add a video to a playlist, you encourage the video maker.

5.      Make a channel comment
When you comment on a channel that belongs to one of your customers, prospects or industry experts, you make yourself known to the person in a friendly and engaging way.

6.      Subscribe to another user
Subscribing is the biggest form of support you can provide on YouTube.  Subscribing is voting.

7.      Send a bulletin
We’ll talk more about this in the chapter on traffic strategies, but you can send a message straight to the feed of every one of your subscribers.  This is an incredibly powerful marketing tool.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014.

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