Take a look at YouTube by the numbers: • Over 100 hours of video are uploaded to every minute. • Over 1 billion unique users visit the site each month. • The second largest search engine with over 3 billion searches processed each month. (Google is, of course, first.) • Over 6 billion hours of content watched on YouTube each month. • Researchers at Nielsen say YouTube reaches more Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 than any cable network. (Yes, even you, HBO.)

1. Best Practices
for Making
YouTube Videos
better

2. In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a time where
everyone is a creator. People of all ages and backgrounds have the ability to
make music, videos, images, and articles with little to no experience and the
most basic of tools. Even a proud Luddite could figure out a way to record an
album or create a short film in just a few days.
If you’re looking for proof of this trend, head over to
YouTube. Every day brands, networks, business owners, wannabe pop stars, pet
fanatics, make-up artists, and extreme sportsmen (and women) upload videos
that range from polished and professional to amateur and arresting. If it sounds
like there’s something for everyone, that’s because there is.
2 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos

3. Whether you’re a small business or creative director thinking
about how to make videos that will connect you with your ideal
audience, we’ve gathered up some best practices forYouTube
to help you map the platform to your goals.
All of this adds up to a massive, cost-
effective opportunity for a small business
owner or professional who wants to get the
word out about their product or offering.
Take a look at
YouTube by the
numbers
• Over 100 hours of video are uploaded to every minute.
• Over 1 billion unique users visit the site each month.
• The second largest search engine with over
3 billion searches processed each month.
(Google is, of course, first.)
• Over 6 billion hours of content watched
onYouTube each month.
• Researchers at Nielsen sayYouTube reaches more
Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 than any
cable network. (Yes, even you, HBO.)
3 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos

4. When establishing a YouTube
presence, you’ll want to create
a dedicated account for your
business or brand. Even if you’re
a small business, or a business of one,
this is better than uploading videos on
under your own name, or the name of
the person in your company in charge
of social media. Establishing a profile for
your business makes it searchable and
professional. It tells even the most casual
viewer that what you’re presenting isn’t
a mere hobby.
Just as you do with your
company’s Facebook brand
page or Twitter feed, you’ll
want to make sure your
YouTube page is well
maintained.That means always
having an up-to-date description and
profile image, as well as regularly
addressing customer questions or
concerns in the comments. Like any
other social property, aYouTube page
isn’t an outpost you can set up and
forget. If you’re going to start one, you
need to be in it for the long haul.
In terms of basic
professionalism and your
videos, they should be as
buttoned up as possible. That
doesn’t mean you need to have a
massive production budget (on the
contrary - some people react better
toYouTube videos that feel off the cuff),
but they should be more than an
unimaginative PowerPoint presentation
set to bad stock music.
Also, while you don’t need a degree in broadcast journalism to step in front of a camera, you want
to present your best take. That means no messy hair, no flubbing your lines, and no jarring edits or special effects that
will make it seem like a beginning filmmaker trying to unleash his or her inner Michael Bay.
Establishing a profile for your business
makes it searchable and professional.
Make it Official
and Professional
4 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos

5. If you’re coming to
YouTube to post one or
two videos, you may want
to reconsider your stra-
tegy. Studies have shown
that brands and business
that are successful on
YouTube generally have
50 percent more videos
than their less successful
counterparts.
There are many reasons for this,
but generally, it shows that you
are active and engaged and using
yourYouTube presence to talk
to your customers on an ongoing
basis. If you only have five or
six videos, yourYouTube page
might come across as something
that was established and then
abandoned, making it seem
unprofessional and outdated.
When establishing yourYouTube
presence, make a long list of
possible topics and an editorial
schedule of how those videos will
roll out. If making dozens of videos
doesn’t fit in with your business,
still try to post new videos on a
somewhat regular basis so poten-
tial customers can know that your
business is active and thriving.
Make Lots and
Lots of Videos
5 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos

6. When it comes to making You-
Tube videos, your goal should
always be making sure your
content is easy to find. Whene-
ver you make a video, create a list of
tags that will help people find your con-
tent. So if you’re a creative who specia-
lizes in design or drawings of company
logos, you might use tags like “design”
“logo,”“drawing,”“graffiti,” and so on.
YouTube also offers
suggested tags when
uploading a video.
Be sure to take
advantage of these.
Consistency is maybe the
most overlooked rule of the
Internet. In regards toYouTube, it’s
important to ritualize your customer’s
experience with your brand so
that they always feel as if they are
interacting with a static entity, one
that knows and understands their
questions and concerns from today,
or from an experience with your
business three years ago.
To do this, make sure your
visuals, tone, and content
are consistent across all your
videos. For instance, a customer
might get confused if they see
three slapstick videos about your
business and one that feels stuffy and
corporate. Similarly, a set of videos
with different logos and intros can
leave them unclear as to what your
business is about.
Title consistency is also
important. Your video titles should
set forth the video topic in a way that
is easy to immediately understand.
After all, how else are you going to
earn those clicks?
Once you’ve found a format that
works for you, stick with it for future
videos unless you absolutely must
try something else.
Tag and
Make Playlists
6 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos
Consistancy is Key

7. Setting out to create a viral
video is as foolhardy as sitting
down to write a bestselling
novel, or picking up a
camera with the idea that
you’re about to make an
Academy Award-winning film.
The outcome of any creative
endeavor is impossible to
predict and requires you to put
in the work first.Virality is some-
thing that is bestowed upon a piece of
content by the Internet gods. It is not
something you can cook up in a lab or
achieve through some mysteriousYou-
Tube formula (cats + stats + Autotune
= viral video!). It takes strategy and
creativity, along with a ton of luck.
If you think you have a video for your
business that could get a lot of atten-
tion, by all means make it. Once you’ve
done that, use every possible resource
out there to get people to see it: share
with influencers, syndicate on other
social properties, and maybe even add
a paid media component. Getting lucky
takes a lot of work.
MonitorYour Analytics
Viral Videos Are Accidents - Mostly
7 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos
Commenters are drama queens, you mom thinks every video you make is
so creative, but analytics don’t lie. You may think one of your videos is the
best thing ever for your business, but if it’s getting fewer views than all
the others you’ve created, chances are you’re doing something wrong.
While no business or video creator should live and die by their analytics alone, they can go a
long way in helping you figure out what viewers are responding to.As with any social strategy,
testing and monitoring should be an ongoing initiative that informs your creative process.

8. We’ve touched on this a few times, but it’s
worth stating plainly: your YouTube videos
should be part of your overall online
business or marketing approach.
Is your business on Facebook,Twitter,Tumblr, Instagram or any
other social network? If so, be sure to use those platforms to
point people to new videos whenever you put them up.Yes,
YouTube is the number two search engine in the world, but
even giants need a bit of help now and then.
Even if you’re an entrepreneur of one creating organic pet toys
in your garage and are thinking about using aYouTube video to
introduce the world to your brand, it’s completely worthwhile
to set aside some time to think about how you can expand
the reach of this content through other social channels.
Connect
and Syndicate
8 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos

9. Despite the name, YouTube isn’t all about
you. It’s also about the massive community
of creators and followers that make it one
of the most vibrant places on the web.
Explore the site and subscribe to users and brands that make
videos you like.You can learn a lot by watching content you
admire.Also be sure to contribute to conversations in the
comments in a way that makes you interesting and worth
getting to know (that means no spam or petty arguing).
Be sure to do this for your own videos as well, especially
if people are asking questions or expressing concerns.
Again, this is all about being attentive and informative.
Be Part of
The Community
9 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos
You can learn a lot by
watching content you admire

10. Those are the basics, but as with any creative- or business-related project, you’ll want to stay up to date on any
changes that affect your strategy and optimize accordingly. YouTube’s Creators blog is a good place to start.
It offers tips and updates that any business-minded professional should have in their arsenal.
10 | Best Practices for Making BetterYouTubeVideos
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