Why YouTube is Becoming More Important than Ever

My name is Rebecca and I’m a Twitterholic. I’m on Facebook all day. I make no bones about it. And I don’t care what you think.

Social media is my world, and I spend most of my day in it. And the folks that I work with, the people in my classes and workshops are beginning to see the light. They’re coming around to seeing what powerful marketing tools social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are.

I have maintained for some time, and still hold forth, that YouTube is perhaps the most underutilized social media marketing tool out there. Why? First of all, the power of video is immense. If you think about how powerful the written word can be, how powerful a photo can be, and then take those words and put them to moving pictures, then exponentially, how much more powerful is that?

Additionally, we are kinda lazy. If I can watch a video instead of reading something on a page, why wouldn’t I do that? It’s engaging, it’s interesting and it gives me a much clearer focus.

I recently participated in a survey of marketers who were using social media, and as payment for such, got a copy of the final report when it was compiled. This report, compiled by Michael A. Stelzner for the Social Media Examiner, is called 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow their Business.

The report has lots of interesting stuff in it, so I’d encourage you to read it for yourself, but this tidbit caught my eye:

A significant 77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2011.

I think there are a bunch of reasons marketers feel intimidated by video. First, certainly, is the technology factor: purchasing and operating a video camera and then learning to use editing software I’m sure scares the pants off of lots of people. But the truth is, this technology is getting easier and easier all the time, making us able to produce really professional-looking results without a lot of technical know-how. Second, is the time factor. It does take quite a bit of time to shoot and edit something that goes by so quickly in real time. Finally, there’s coming up with a creative (read: not boring) idea that is going to catch people’s attention.

Here’s a few blog posts I’ve written on the topic. Best advice I can give you, which goes for all these new technologies: just go for it. Jump in. Make mistakes. Learn. But if you wait too long to jump on the bandwagon, you might find that it’s left without you.

Shameless self-promotion: I’ll be at Social Media Camp Victoria (the largest Social Media event in Western Canada) on June 4 doing my YouTube 101 Workshop. I recently did this workshop at the #EatDrinkTweet conference, and it was a huge success.

Maybe I’ll see you there?