Back in January, we wrote a blog post arguing why brands should extend their online presence beyond Facebook and Twitter and into the YouTube realm in order to effectively reach online consumers. As the most used site among online consumers and the second largest search engine in the world, YouTube is an untapped gold mine for brand managers and marketing professionals alike who are looking to create user-friendly and engaging content and brand recognition.
Despite YouTube’s popularity with consumers, many brands are still overlooking the opportunity to maximize YouTube’s full potential by neglecting to apply basic search strategies to their videos.
To help inform brands on how best to utilize and improve their YouTube content and marketing, we’ve compiled a list of services available to complement a YouTube strategy:
VidIQ:
VidIQ is a start-up company, backed by well-known businessman and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, that offers tools to enable companies to monitor and manage their videos and apply SEO techniques to help videos rise in the search rankings. VidIQ features a primary SEO toolbox that encourages users to add more keywords to their videos. In addition, the toolbox provides guidance on the best time to publish new videos. Similar to what Hootsuite does for Twitter, VidIQ gives users analytic tools as well as the ability to monitor comments and buzz about videos. VidIQ offers a free self-starter package that includes: 1 channel, 1 user, video scheduling, Facebook app, basic analytics and bulk description editing. Users can also opt to upgrade to the Enterprise package for a higher cost, which includes multiple channels, multiple users, advanced analytics, bulk description editing and more.
Unified Social:
Similar to VidIQ, Unified Social is a marketing technology company that assists brands in activating their social audiences and impacting consumer actions. Unified Social features a unique Social Operating Platform (SOP) that helps brands oversee and manage their advertising across several social channels, including YouTube. The SOP offers data management, data security, portability and enterprise-wide services for social marketing. Think of the SOP as a large data warehouse that allows you to store, manage and organize information from YouTube, as well as your other social media channels, onto one platform. Interested users and brands must contact Unified Social for specific pricing options.
Raven Tools:
Raven is a company that provides brands with the tools to connect their YouTube accounts with their Raven account so that they can better monitor and evaluate their YouTube videos. Specifically, Raven Tools allows you to oversee your YouTube channels by: viewing quick statistics of subscribers and channel views, seeing advanced stats and exporting your YouTube channel data. There are also reports available with page views, time spent on site and lastly, Google Analytics goal conversions from YouTube referral traffic. Raven offers a free 30 day trial that encompasses unlimited Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts, customer support, 10 social media monitoring terms, analysis and more. There is also a pro package for $99 dollars a month and an agency package for $249 dollars a year, both of which are extended versions of the starter package.
Recommendation: For brands looking to maximize their potential on YouTube, VidIQ is the way to go. VidIQ’s tools are designed specifically to help users improve their YouTube search rank, giving brands the opportunity to utilize SEO techniques and analytic tools in order to improve their overall presence on YouTube.
The increased availability of tools like VidIQ, Unified Social and Raven demonstrates that it is not enough for brands to simply produce engaging YouTube content. Brands must go beyond content creation and take an analytic and strategic approach to their YouTube videos in order to create a comprehensive online marketing strategy.