Talk about reach in social media YouTube poses as the best example! Just a few years after the video sharing platform was first introduced to the world, one of the founders Chad Hurley once remarked, “YouTube is becoming much more than an entertainment destination.
We want to entertain, inform and empower people with video around the world”. The kind of insight that the founders had on this channel has proven to be true. And today YouTube influences education, economy, the entertainment industry, and even politics.
Are you looking to advertise your business? Are you looking to earn extra income from home? You can do all of that and a whole lot more on YouTube.
It is free and it is easy. So everyone out there has equal access to all the resources and equal chances of making it big. Then how do you outshine the competition?
How do you make yourself heard, or rather, your videos to be watched by people around the world? If this one question has been on your mind, we have the answer for you.
Contents In Page
1. Name your channel
YouTube was ranked the second most popular website on the internet by Alexa Internet, Inc in the year 2018. It is easy to create a channel on YouTube and upload videos.
If you think you could simply use your name or the genre in which your videos would be created, as the name of your channel, think again! This name would be the first thing that people notice about your channel. Come up with a name that grabs eyeballs. Come up with a name that would become your brand.
2. Build a profile that shines
Naming your channel is not the only step involved in creating a profile. Right from the profile avatar, you choose to the description you provide on your profile page, every tiny detail matters.
All of these summed up to create a profile that viewers would actually be interested in.
3. Stick with a theme
Keep your target audience in mind when you choose the profile theme. When we talk about theme, it doesn’t just cover the genre of the videos and content that you upload but also the actual feel and aesthetics of your videos.
It could be a cover page in your videos or the font styles and color schemes used in your videos. There should be something unique and when people see the theme they should be able to instantly recognize that it is from your channel.
4. Social media integration
Providing links to your social media channels is an underrated task. You might be a star on YouTube but that should not stop you from being active on the other social media channels.
Being super active on one and ignoring another social media channel might mean that you are losing several leads. People who have not subscribed to many YouTube channels, those who do not directly visit
YouTube to find videos might sometimes get there eventually from the other social media channels. So when you provide the links you are widening the pool of audience and your visibility. Also ensure that you stick with your channel name, avatar, and maintain a similarity in your profiles across the various channels.
5. Tripods, please!
Though this one is not often stated as a crucial step in branding, the quality of your videos is probably one of the first places to fine tune. Work towards perfecting your videos from day one. Right from the first video, you upload to ensure the best quality video recording.
This involves choosing the optimum lighting conditions, audio, and of course, a camera mount or tripod to add stabilization in the videos. Any of the videos in your channel could be the first video for a viewer who is new to your channel.
This video would be what talks to your views about your channel and motivate the viewer to check out your other videos. So make sure that you stick with high definition super clear videos.
6. Tag your way to glory
Tags, especially brand tags are the best things that help increase the visibility of your videos. There could be several videos with similar titles and similar descriptions on YouTube.
Allowing people to find your videos by allowing YouTube to display them among the related videos list would be the best way to get people’s attention. These tags also characterize the content in your videos and the character of your channel.
7. Keep your brand visible
By working on the visibility of your videos you have grabbed the attention of the target viewers pool. So what do you do next? Make sure that people keep seeing your brand name or the channel name. Out of sight is out of mind.
Including a watermark in your videos is a good idea. But make sure that you pick a position and a font opacity that doesn’t hinder the content on the screen.
8. Keep a tab on those pesky ads
Ads are great ways to earn revenues, there is no denying it! But the trick is to understand how much is too much. Instead of thinking from the perspective of a channel owner, think from the perspective of an average YouTube viewer.
Would you be patient to watch the entire video if there are more than 3 ads, be it a banner or a short video ad, tagged to a short 3 to 5 minutes of video? The number could vary based on what ads are being displayed and where they are placed.
These ads might also end up distracting the viewers and taking them away from the video when they happen to click on them. So limit the number of ads and use other means instead, like affiliate marketing. This also has better chances of you being identified as an influencer for specific products and makes it easy for the viewers to directly visit the product purchase page after watching the video.
The nuances of creating a channel and making it thrive in the competitive field can be learned with experience. Learn from the strategies adopted by similar channels on YouTube and create a strong personal brand.
