As you know, social media is huge with Internet marketers and everyone who’s anyone has a solid foundation in the top three communities: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Folks are diligent about maintaining their profiles, updating their statuses or feeds, and staying as current as possible to be an active member of the online communities. What a lot of those people forget about is the power of video.

Go into any eating establishment with a television to see what we’re talking about. Although they’re surrounded by friends and fried food, people are drawn to the screen and will crane their necks to see what’s going on, even if they can’t hear the audio or don’t really care about the content. Maybe it’s the flashing lights or maybe it’s because television was their babysitter – whatever it is, people love a video. Don’t you think it’s high time you take advantage of that fact?

With an inexpensive video camera and YouTube, creating and uploading your own videos is impossibly simple and there’s no better time than the present.

Maybe you could write a how-to video for one of your products. Perhaps put together a showcase of your company’s employees and skills. You can even do an introductory video of yourself and what services you provide for your clients. The point is to interact with your potential customers and create a relationship that goes beyond just buyer and seller.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Make your content entertaining, engaging and informative.
• When you upload, make sure you make your video public so that it’s searchable.
• Be sure to put your video in the correct category.
• Use appropriate tags.
• Watch out when using music or other material that isn’t yours; copyright infringement is serious business.
• Respond to any and every comment you get. This conversation has to be a two-way street.
• Write a concise, accurate description of your video so your target market can find you.
• Make friends with other users in your field or target market to widen your reach.

Now that you know a little more about making your own YouTube video, write that content, have a great time shooting, smile for the camera and good luck. Once you get started with YouTube videos, you’ll see that it’s not only another effective way to use social media as a marketing tool, it’s also a lot of fun. Here’s to going viral!

If you have a YouTube account so you can keep track of the videos you enjoy, you might want to consider ways to improve your SEO with YouTube. Maybe it’s time to create a video for your business and start building some traffic to your site.

People search YouTube every day for all kinds of things. You can take advantage of this movement to increase your SEO efforts, find new customers, increase conversions and more. Any topic that your target audience would be interested in can make a good video for your business. Business strategies, information about your products, a welcome to our site or thank you video are just a few of many ideas you could use. A good video can be anything informative, entertaining, instructive or inspirational.

Hook up your camcorder, which probably came with your PC, then sit down and record a video just like you were talking to a friend. If you want to edit your work, download one of the many freeware programs available and polish your video until it shines. The better the quality, the greater the response.

When you’re finished, sign in to your YouTube account and upload it. Be sure to include good SEO keywords in the title, tags, and description as you’re setting everything up. This can really make a difference in how many viewers you’ll get.

Writing a good description is important since that’s how viewers will determine if they want to invest their time in your video. Again, use appropriate keywords, choosing them carefully so you pick the terms your target market will search for to find you.

Invite your friends, website visitors and subscribers to view and comment on your video. You could gain a lot more traffic when others read the comments, which will increase your SEO efforts even more. While you may want to rebut negative comments, don’t let them worry you. Even they can increase your site visits since they can make people curious to learn more about you and your business. However they get to your site can be a benefit if you give them a reason to stay once they’re there.

One of your most valuable business assets is your website. Of course, people do earn money without one, but it’s much more difficult, so why chance it? Grow a business more quickly by making your site work for you and improving your SEO results with YouTube.