YouTube is an online hosting service that features videos from all over the world. It is also in essence a social network. YouTube allows you to do more than just view videos; you can interact with other viewers, comment, ask questions, subscribe to users and their playlists and create your own profile, playlists and followers.

Just another social media network, you say? Why add more time-consuming work to your digital marketing plan? Well, YouTube is very useful for your business for several reasons, and it is worth investing time and effort in. let’s take a look at how YouTube can help boost your business and prove to be a useful marketing tool.

Second Largest Search Engine

YouTube has the second largest search engine, after Google (that owns YouTube). So being on YouTube and using the right keywords to introduce your videos will get you noticed by people searching for those particular keywords on the network. Video results are big on Google search as well; notice how when you search Google, you no longer only get results with written content, but images and videos as well. Make use of this and get on board.

YouTube Analytics to Help You Keep Track

YouTube offers you detailed analytics about your videos that will help you see how well you are doing, who is viewing your work. Based on that you can adapt your videos to reach your target audience – or even change your target audience for more success.

YouTube Channels and Playlists – Be a Pro

YouTube allows you to create your own channel; this gives you the opportunity to create and customize your profile to give a more dynamic and alluring image of your business or your company. The About section is where you can add a description of what you do and links to your website or other contact information. You’ll start seeing more results once people subscribe to your channel – so make sure to advertise and promote!

On your channel, you can create playlists and organize your videos by topic or by type, making it easier for viewers and subscribers to browse through your videos and find what they need. This will keep them coming for more and help establish you as an authority in your field.

YouTube and Creating Community

As you well know, people don’t just view videos on YouTube; they often comment and ask questions. Think of it as a great way to create a community with your target audience by answering their questions and interacting with them. Also, if you know your audience well enough and you’ve done your market research (as hopefully you have), then you can anticipate your viewers’ needs and create videos they would be interested in.

YouTube Ads – Get out there

YouTube ads allow you to promote your channel or videos by targeting the demographic, topic or viewer interest that you want. You pay whenever someone watches your video, making the effort and money put into the advertising worth it. Check out the details on how to advertise using YouTube here.

YouTube is a great way to interact with your audience and to show your company and business in a more dynamic light – adding personality to it. But, as with anything else you do on the web, you need to promote. Promote your YouTube channel and videos by embedding links in your blogs, emailing links to your friends and contacts and sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn (and/or any other social network you are involved in). And don’t forget to ask people to share your videos if they like what they see 