8 Ways to Engage Your Audience on YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, processing 3 billion searches each month. By creating an active YouTube channel, you reach an eager, and younger, audience and your business also stands to gain more influence on Google. If you’re not making use of YouTube in your marketing, it’s time to embrace it and its billion users. Comments on YouTube are tied to Google+, which means creating and posting content on YouTube increases your visibility and credibility with Google’s search engine, if you can engage your audience.

Here are 8 ways to engage your audience with your YouTube channel:

1. Link it. Create a Google account, if you don’t already have one. Then sign up for YouTube and customize your account page to reinforce your brand identity. Use your brand’s colors, logos, or slogans to create a unified look with your other social media channels. Include a link to your website in the video description, write a blog post and link to your video, tweet the link, post it on Facebook, and embed the video on your website. Being shared tells search engines that your content is popular.

2. Create it. Creating YouTube videos doesn’t have to be a chore. Using the same concepts and adding a personality and video camera increases your potential to reach the millions of people who prefer to receive information via video content over reading. Short how-to tutorials for your products, showcasing your employees, and behind the scenes creation processes are some good ideas to branch off from. For the most impact, craft a compelling title for your video, aiming for a specific description.

3. Time it. The most popular YouTube channels are consistently updating the content they offer. You should plan on posting once or twice a week to maximize YouTube’s potential. According to Tubefilter, Fridays and Saturdays are the best days to post. If you’re concerned about running out of content, use what you already have in different formats. For example, webcasts and webinars can be broken up and posted as a series.

4. Tag it. To ensure your videos are found, choose strong keywords. YouTube has a keyword planner that can help you research words to best describe your video. Resist keyword stuffing and use natural language to grab viewers’ attention. The video’s title has the most weight for search results, but don’t neglect the video description and tags. Aim for around 10 tags including category, content, location, and the names of people featured in the video. Relevant tags help potential viewers decide whether your video is worth their time.

5. Customize it. Create custom content that allows for the personalities showcased to connect and build a relationship with viewers. Repurposing TV ads might seem like a good idea, but custom content results in more than double the amount of daily views and subscriptions. Also, be mindful of users’ needs. There are millions of people with hearing difficulties or language barriers that you could be reaching by using subtitles, it will be greatly appreciated and they’re optional – so those who don’t like subtitles don’t have to see them. Make sure you review and edit for accuracy.

6. Discover it. Really figure out your brand’s mission and how you came about creating it. There is passion there – use that to resonate with your audience. What is your target audience passionate about? Find this connection and the content you should be making will become clear. You can earn links naturally by discovering the interests of your target audience that can be intersected with topics around your product or service, and create content around those topics.

7. Interact with it. Both Google’s and YouTube’s search engines weigh the number of views your videos attract, plus how long viewers stick around to watch it, how many positive ratings the video garners, and the number of comments, subscribers, and favorites the video attracts. The more engagement, the higher your content appears in the rankings. Monitor your comments and respond to feedback from viewers. Show the viewers you want to be engaged with them, and reap the rewards of an interactive audience. Doing this will increase your visibility, boost your search influence, and inspire loyalty in your audience.

8. Measure it. Using YouTube Analytics, you can compare numbers for different content to figure out what your audience is most interested in and where they are sharing it on social media. You can also discover who your audience is, where they’re coming from and where they’re going. Check the retention report to monitor subscriber numbers and user drop off rates. Paying attention to this data can help you to create videos that will drive more traffic to your channel.

Starting a YouTube channel may initially seem daunting, but creating engaging video content can significantly boost search influence, increase brand awareness, instill loyalty in your audience, and boost engagement with your customers.