Thus far, we
have discussed some fairly technical aspects for you to draw on in order to
optimize and enhance your YouTube channel. It is incredibly important for you to target and maintain a specific audience and employ optimization tools. If you haven’t seen my last
two posts detailing these subjects, be sure to check them out! Today, I am
going to discuss how to use social media strategies outside of YouTube to
further grow a YouTube channel.
How can you best
integrate your YouTube channel with social media platforms? You need to ask yourself what platforms
are relevant and authentic to your brand.
Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and blog sites can all be used to help promote
your YouTube channel. When used
correctly, you can further connect your audience to your brand by seamlessly
integrating various aspects of your channel on these platforms. Furthermore, a potential audience
member may not currently be on YouTube but if he or she finds you on a platform
such as Twitter, it is likely they will check out your channel.
Do you have a
cooking channel? A blog site where you post pictures of your creations and
embed your YouTube videos might be most effective. Do you have a funny Vlog channel? A Twitter account with
your quirky one-liners might be the most relevant choice. Sometimes, it may
even be applicable to utilize all different types of platforms.
Case
Study: SarahFit
Sarah Dussault
of SarahFit has a fitness related YouTube channel. Sarah uses a blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to spread
her brand message. To begin, Sarah
has a blog with 133,000+ subscribers that she operates as a supplement to her channel to write about
fitness and lifestyle.
Sarah also has a Facebook with 17,000+ "fans" that she uses to actively post updates about new YouTube
videos and blog posts.
She also employs a Twitter account with 23,000+ followers to promote videos, discuss fitness
and interact with her audience.
Sarah even uses Instagram with 12,000+ followers to give her fans a more personal look at her
life. She often posts photographs of what she is doing and what she is eating.
Sarah impeccably incorporates all major social
media platforms as a way to promote her YouTube channel and expand her
audience. What social media platform will best fit your brand?
Interview
with Partnerships Coordinator, Madeline Motamednia:
I sat down and
had a candid conversation with Madeline Motamednia about integrating social
media with YouTube. Madeline is the partnerships coordinator for Kin Community,
a YouTube multi-channel network.
Q.
What is the most important thing a YouTube channel can do off of YouTube to
grow the channel?
A. YouTube
channels should make sure that they have given their followers an opportunity
to interact with them on multiple social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, Websites etc). These outlets should be referenced on the homepage of
their YouTube channel in clickable icons.
Also, the links to these outlets should be included in the description
of every video that is released. YouTube channels should make it as simple as
possible for their viewers to interact with them both on and off of the YouTube
platform.
Q. What do you think is the most
important social media outlet for a YouTube channel to engage with?
A. The platform
that currently seems to work the best for YouTube is Twitter. Twitter allows
users to decide just how much they want to share with their audience. It also
allows the account owner to easily re-tweet and comment back to questions that
have been asked of them. This is a very powerful tool as YouTube channels can
also reach out to other brands by tweeting at them. Many people will tweet to brands that they like and those
brands will send the YouTube channel product that they can feature in giveaways
for their viewers.
Q. Should a YouTube channel post their
videos on outlets other than just YouTube? If so, where?
A. If a YouTube
channel has a blog, they should embed their videos in a blog post. Often times,
and especially with lifestyle channels, talent will find that their YouTube
audience differs from their blog audience. Embedding a video in a blog will garner
traffic from viewers who are a fan of the talent but do not understand the
YouTube space. Audiences, ages 13-17, tend to make YouTube a part of their
daily activities, while older audiences are more likely to search for content
on websites and blogs.
Q. What advice do you have to make a channel's brand cohesive on
all different outlets including YouTube?
A. The most
important thing to do when you develop your brand is to be consistent. Brands must
think about their viewers every time they post something. If a post seems fake
or inconsistent viewers will fire back. This often happens when brands take advertising deals that
may offer pleasing profit but are not a perfect brand fit. If a talent claims
to be vegan, they should never accept an advertising deal that goes against
those values. Making a decision that is inconsistent with one’s brand can
result in a huge loss in video views and subscribers.
Q. What is a channel you like that does
all of these things well?
A. A channel
that has a cohesive brand is GossMakeupArtist. Wayne Goss is a talented makeup
artist who uses his skills and expertise to deliver honest reviews and.simple
tutorials. Based on viewer comments, it is clear that Goss' viewers not only
respect him and his craft, but also know that they can trust his claims. Unlike
many other "makeup guru's" on the platform, Goss has made it
exceedingly clear that he will never support a beauty brand for financial gain.
Goss also has a Twitter following of over 80 thousand people and a Vlog channel that gives viewers a look into his personal life.
Q. Is there anything else important you
would like to add about growing a YouTube channel through social media strategy?
A. It is
important to remember that growing a YouTube channel takes time! It is
incredibly rare to have overnight success. Growth will happen if the commitment
and talent is in place. Also, YouTube is an entirely different space than
television! Brands that have experienced success on TV will have to change
their strategy to reflect the YouTube audience's wants and needs.
Tracking
YOUR Effectiveness
There is no
doubt that using all of these different platforms can add an additional two to six hours
of extra work a week. It may be
frustrating to constantly update different social media platforms without knowing
if they are actually driving traffic to your channel. One way to cut down on uncertainty is to use Bitly links to
track where your audience is coming from.
Creating and tracking Bitly links to track channel traffic is fairly
simple.
1st
Choose a video that you want to promote on a social media site such as Twitter,
Facebook or a blog
2nd
Go to bit.ly and paste your video URL in the upper right dialog box that
shortens the link
3rd
Promote the link on your Twitter, Facebook, blog and/or any other social media
site
4th
Once your link has been active for a week, copy the same Bitly link into the address
bar, adding “+” at the end
5th
You will now be able to see where the majority of your YouTube clicks are
coming from
Using
popular social media outlets to further promote your channel is an invaluable
strategy that can grow your audience. By authentically tapping into your target
audience on more than one platform, you can connect and engage with your
viewers. Ideally, your reward for
this cross promotion will be greater revenue.
How are you
going to engage with your audience on social media today?
Thanks for
reading!
Christen
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