Firstly as in all communicating you need to be clear who your message is to. So this is a blog post aimed at micro / small businesses who want to get things right on YouTube first, before getting video across all social media.
YouTube has been a part of my video production process since the UK version of the platform began back in 2006.
Thirteen years later in 2023 and an amazing 500 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day. That’s a staggering figure actually hard to believe. I’ve had to fact check it multiple times but can confirm the figure actually comes from YouTube.
That’s nearly ¾ of a million hours per day. Unimaginable!
In 2023 uploading a video to YouTube then just leaving it there is not enough for it to be doing its job. It’s like getting new leaflets created- with the cost of a copywriter, photographer, and printer, then to just leave the leaflets in a box in the cupboard. Something a small company can’t afford to waste money on.
Keep videos simple- not just in message but in the content and effort you go to in making them, and do them one at a time so you can take on board any reactions.
But as a small business you do everything yourself when it comes to communicating (and quite likely have made the film yourself), so you just want to get things right on YouTube first. Okay then, decision made.
So your film has been created and off you go hitting upload on YouTube. But before clicking the ‘public’ option, consider these points…
Test the film. Before it goes live on YouTube upload the video as a private one and check it plays okay. Open up the subtitles on YouTube and see if everything appears correctly. Once a video goes ‘live’ you shouldn’t be deleting and re-uploading it because people get confused why the links don’t work, and you lose initial views.
The Thumbnail. It’s a real skill having the right thumbnail that accurately reflects the video content. The thumbnail should be simple, colourful, and ideally no text. We’re all savvy surfers now and can spot click bait a mile off. The thumbnail doesn’t need to be an actual still from the video but it shouldn’t be misleading.
Have a plan. Decide the day and time your video will go ‘live’ on YouTube. Do some research but fun stuff seems to work well on a Friday, other stuff week-day mid mornings. For times to go live have a look at what Sprout Social say here. Then part of that plan should be pre-written social media posts timed to coincide with the video going live.
Share It- YouTube videos are good for embedding into web pages so consider internal comms, and adding it to email marketing messages.
Are you creating your own video content for now? Here are some tips on dealing with sound issues.
The ‘snowball’ affect. The sooner you can rack up views the more people then view a video. Imagine you’d been at an event and you as well as others upload a video about it- someone will more likely click on a video with 200 views rather than just 5.
Be an active member of the YouTube community. If you hope for a YouTube film to be watched purely from just being on YouTube, then you need your YouTube channel to be very much embedded into the YouTube community. You need to be subscribing and have subscribers, and regularly liking and commenting on other people’s videos relevant to what you do a daily basis.
I get asked to film and edit some weird shit. See the top 5 strangest things here.
Take in the results. YouTube / Google analytics give you lots of information about the audience reaction in a video. See what keeps them watching or switching off, then let that influence your future films.
Are you still reading? Then it’s likely video making is something you are just going to be doing yourself for now, so take on board the above and be genuine, keep videos simple- not just in message but in the content and effort you go to in making them, and do them one at a time so you can take on board any reactions.
If you need any guidance I’m more than happy to give some help, just send me a message.
Jonathan.
