Growing your business and reaching a larger market must involve the use of YouTube advertising. It's not just a website full of silly videos or useless clips of teenagers who have nothing better to do with their time. Large and small companies alike post videos that drive traffic to their website. Some videos go "viral" (more on this later), which can get your product and services more attention than you ever dreamed of. Don't be intimidated at the thought of putting together a video for YouTube. It doesn't take much equipment or time, and you also have the option of hiring a video marketing company to help you out.

Create Your Channel

First, go to YouTube.com and sign up for an account. A new account and channel will be generated for you. Use your business name, a name that reflects your business mission or a popular product or service you sell. Branding on YouTube begins with your member name and channel, and all aspects of the YouTube advertising strategies you use should have one goal in mind: to establish a brand identity.

Write Your Profile

Before you write your channel's profile, think about your search engine marketing. YouTube ranks high in all of the search engines, and using search keywords for your profile can help web surfers find you. They may find you on YouTube first before coming across your website. That's why you need to include a link in your YouTube profile to your website. Keep your profile professional, but don't copy and paste the same material from your own website. This will help you avoid creating duplicate content.

Create, Edit and Upload Videos

This step discourages many small business owners from even trying. With a flip camera or digital camera with recording capabilities, you can shoot your own video. You can then edit it yourself using Windows Movie Maker or other software. If you're worried about the quality of the videos that you're able to create, consider these options:

• Hire a video producer who specializes in video marketing
• Find a college student willing to work as an intern and produce your videos
• Take a class to learn how to create your own videos

Don't let the idea of producing videos hold you back from taking advantage of YouTube advertising. Get the help you need if you're unable to learn it on your own.

Viral Nature of Some YouTube Videos

Let's examine what a viral video is. YouTube videos can go viral, which means viewers who like your video content will email it to their contacts, link to it on their own YouTube channels, blog about it, tweet about it and so on. There is no formula for creating a viral video, because the videos that have gone viral are so different that it's often hard to predict what will generate a buzz. There are a few things that can help, such as:

• Keep it short, between 4 and 6 minutes
• Have a good quality video, for people to remain interested in watching it
• Choose the best categories and tags for people to find your video

Rather than expecting your videos to automatically go viral, supplement your YouTube advertising with press releases, article marketing and YouTube emails.

The key to successful YouTube advertising is to work on building a community around your niche. Other members will do your advertising for you if you keep them informed and engaged.