YouTube. It’s just a fun little video web site, right? When you want to see videos of talking dogs and parental pandas, when you want to see the latest music videos and interviews with celebrities, you go to Youtube.com and surf around. That’s all it’s for anyway, right?
Wrong. Way, way, way wrong. According to YouTube’s own statistical counts, there are more than one billion unique visitors to Youtube.com every month. And of all those visitors and viewers and creators, more than 70 percent come from outside the United States, which actually makes perfect sense when you consider that only 350 million people live in the U.S. anyway, which comes out to 35 percent of one billion. Did my math just blow your mind? Probably not. But this statistic might, as reported by JeffBullas.com: every 5 minutes, 500 new tweets are posted on Twitter containing a YouTube video. A halfway decent, barely effective, hardly entertaining video on YouTube can go viral in a flash.
So here is this video network, the largest single gathering place of members on the internet (yep, larger than Facebook). How on Earth can a Network Marketer leverage such a worldwide potential audience?
Well, let’s put a few things into perspective about YouTube.
- Google owns YouTube. The most-visited website in the world, the king of search engine rankings, the ultimate innovator, Google. Which means YouTube’s searching functionality, video recommendations, and advertising decisions parallel Google’s.
- Your YouTube account is now integrated with your Gmail email account, your personal Google Plus account, and your business’s Google Places page. At least the YouTube and Google geniuses created a video to help us understand how they’re all integrated now. But in reality, this integration can make things easier for Network Marketers because your content, preferences, and contacts can all be utilized among the different Google/YouTube tools.
- Those who had a Gmail account were quickly forced to mesh their separate YouTube account with their Gmail a couple years ago. Now, Google Plus and YouTube are soon becoming one in the same. As reported by Selena Larson, YouTube will require all commenters and uploaders to have a Google Plus account. While it won’t be much of a hassle for YouTubers to add the G+ features, it will certainly skyrocket G+’s numbers.
- Google is always innovating its algorithms. Google Plus is always changing its look. Gmail makes functionality and appearance changes regularly. BUT YOUTUBE HAS NOT CHANGED ITS LOOK AND FUNCTIONALITY FOR SIX YEARS! In my opinion, that’s a great thing because it provides beginners to YouTube the opportunity for quality designs and usages. No constant changes, no headaches.
- YouTube has no customer support. This is typical of Google’s businesses. Get used to it.
Now that you have a basic understanding of YouTube, let’s dive into the pool of creating your own Network Marketing YouTube sensation.
First, follow the steps in this article by Accelerate Your Marketing. It will teach you how create a Google account for your business and link it to a new YouTube Channel for your business. It’s pretty easy and doesn’t take long if you’ve got all your Network Marketing plans and business names in order, like addresses and phone numbers, etc.
Next, read. Read a lot. You are reading and researching to decide on what type of YouTube channel you’d like to develop. There are many options out there, many creative ideas, and many that haven’t been created yet.
Charles Holmes believes that instead of making and posting videos about how to generate MLM leads, you should instead make videos about the products you sell.
“I recommend you make some quality videos geared around your product line. Most distributors provide educational videos about the network marketing industry. Few talk about the products. I also recommend you read your distributor agreement first, to make sure this doesn’t violate any of your company’s policies,” Holmes says. “If it is allowed, you have a few options. You could provide testimonials about the products. You could do comparisons with your products vs. other products. You could also share your personal story about how the products have helped you out. I recommend you provide a disclaimer in each video, so people know you are a distributor.”
Here is a simple strategy you can implement immediately, to start promoting your network marketing business through video, while still keeping some curiosity in the prospect.
Several social media marketers and YouTube experts suggest that Network Marketers and small business owners put substantial time into watching other successful YouTube videos to glean insights into what make a YouTube video successful. Tara Hornor of Social Media Today is one such expert, who says “Internet users constantly upload YouTube videos every moment. Find ways to establish your business within the YouTube community through commenting on other videos within your fields of interest. Add links to videos on your website. Tweet videos or share them on Facebook or Google+, both your own videos and those of fellow YouTube users.”
Perhaps the most comprehensive YouTube for Business article I’ve found was created by Michael Stelzner of the Social Media Examiner, who follows the teachings of YouTube super-user Gideon Shalwick. Stelzner paraphrases what Shalwick proposes for a quality YouTube Channel strategy: maximizing the overlap of three concepts.
Gideon states that you need to be very strategic when you set up your YouTube channels. A lot of people think that it’s about the views, but that’s not the case. When Gideon thinks about his own strategy and when he helps others, he always starts with the Hedgehog Concept. You’ll learn how this concept relates to two different kinds of businesses. The concept is defined as the overlap of three things:
- Your area of passion
- Your area of skill or the thing that you can become the best at
- How you can make money from it
Stelzner goes on to write: “When these three things overlap like a Venn diagram, the middle is your Hedgehog Concept. You’ll learn how this can help you identify your target audience’s needs. The effort you put into it will help you grow your business for long-term success. Gideon believes the two functions that YouTube offers for business are exposure and relationship-building. Once you have built exposure on YouTube, you then have the choice of how you want to redirect that attention.”
As a Network Marketer, your passion is most likely the building of relationships through whatever means appeal to you most. Many Network Marketers work through digital means only, whereas many others work best face-to-face. YouTube is the rare combination of face-to-face interaction over digital channels, essentially giving all Network Marketers the opportunity to excel.
Niveen Salem is a Network Marketer who created quite a buzz with her YouTube Channel and tries to share her secrets to success. Salem’s most applicable advice is in the preparation of YouTube production and not necessarily in the technique. To start with, Salem says, you as a Network Marketer must build a digital reputation.
“Before you go out there making a video of yourself on YouTube, it is very important that you first build a good reputation of yourself. Remember that reputation is everything over the worldwide web. Once you designate yourself a popular online marketing expert, viewers will search for your videos automatically and leads will come naturally.”
Next, Salem discusses the importance of professionalism in language and in appearance on YouTube. Without a high level of professionalism, you’ll look like a know-nothing slob. “When using YouTube to acquire network marketing leads, it is important that you present yourself very well. Always appear in a business-like manner. Be sure to wear a corporate attire when shooting the video. The background and the audio of the video clip should be professional as well. Pick a good, quiet spot inside your office, or somewhere else that is way better than the busy kitchen table. You’ll get better results that way. Use words that are formal, professional-sounding, and motivational. And always remember that a hot-shot network marketing expert has lots of new ideas to share and innovative techniques to suggest. Be sure that you are giving your audience something useful every time they watch you talking about network marketing on YouTube.”
As you create your YouTube videos, try to bear in mind exponential SEO benefits of using YouTube, after all, it is owned by Google. YouTube videos, integrated with Google Plus and shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and on blogs, will shoot the video’s description to the top of Google search results. As Digital Aptitude recommends, do whatever you can to gain an SEO edge with your Network Marketing YouTube videos and YouTube channel.
The best way to help people find your videos is by including your keywords in them. Here is an example:
Title: How to Motivate People
Description: http://www.YourSite.com/blog – Do you want to know how to motivate people? This video reveals the 3 secrets of people motivation.
Tags: how to motivate people, motivate people, people motivation, motivate employees”
Notice that the keywords in the example are “Motivate People”. With your videos, use titles, captions and descriptions to place keywords you want to rank high in on Google.
In fact, a blog by Distilled.net strongly advises that you transcribe every word said in your video and add that script to the video’s description.
“As Google can’t determine the content of a video like they can do for a blog post, Google won’t really know the content of the video unless you tell them exactly what’s in it. The solution is to transcribe your videos and put the content below the video.”
If you’re looking for further suggestions on how to maximize your YouTube channel for Network Marketing success, GigaOM.com wrote an interesting article that provides 34 tips on how to use YouTube for your business. THIRTY-FOUR TIPS! It’s a good bet that at least a few of those 34 tips will be worth your while.
I would also strongly suggest watching a view YouTube videos on how to generate downline leads on YouTube. There are tons of videos out there from folks just like yourself trying to add downlines with a YouTube video. But remember, only use ideas from videos that have received several hundred (or more) viewers.
YouTube’s potential for mass, international Network Marketing success is enormous. Granted, not everyone loves an MLM video, and most of them do not go viral. But remember that virality does not necessarily convert to leads and sales. Sometimes you only need a few of the right viewers, not a million of the wrong viewers, to build an uber successful YouTube channel for your MLM or Network Marketing business.