The Marketing Power of YouTube

*Originally published on 8/15/10



Youtube gets a bad rap. Many people blame the current generation's lack of attention span on the website. Like TVtropes, it's a website that you can spend hours wandering if you don't watch yourself. It has, however, given us a lot of benefits.

There are bona fide web celebrities, people who have been able to actually make a living posting videos online. If you go through the list, you'll see that a lot of the big names got their start on Youtube and were able to build up a sizable fanbase. By putting yourself on Youtube, you can expose yourself to hundreds of people...wow that sounded dirty, but you know what I mean.

This is helpful for artists of any kind, whether it's filmmakers, artists or writers. If you have a web page, you can use Youtube to make it stand out as opposed to just being text. It will also give you a greater connection to fans as they will feel like you are addressing them specifically.

Youtube has also paved the way for viral marketing. If someone sees something on Youtube that catches their eye, they can either link to it or post the video on one of their social networking pages to show it to others, who have the option of doing the same, further spreading the video to new viewers.

It always bugged me when a movie trailer gets posted and then the studios take it down "for copyright reasons". It's annoying for the simple fact that I can't watch the trailer, but more importantly, it's just stupid. Having the movie trailer on Youtube can only help you. People will see it and those who liked it will spread it via the aforementioned process. As much as companies spend on marketing, you'd think they'd jump at the chance to take advantage of some free advertising.

I've only taken one marketing class and I can tell you that a trailer being put up on Youtube is the best thing that could ever happen. It helps spread the word (at a much faster rate than a regularly aired commercial mind you) while being dirt cheap. This is a win/win situation. Taking the video down only serves to shoot yourself in the foot.

The internet has changed the way the market works and Youtube is on the forefront of that change. It can be a great tool if used properly. You can showcase your product to a vast worldwide audience. It's true that many web hosting services make that claim, but seeing as Youtube is a veritable titan in the industry, it's not surprising that they deliver on the promise to a much greater extent than a standard blog page.