An idea has crossed your mind and you have crystallized it into a terrific YouTube video. Or, better yet, you have begun the hard journey of becoming a regular vlogger with your own YouTube channel. Have to say it: you’ll need discipline for sure, as well as a constant stream of fresh ideas, if you’ve chosen the path of vlogging.
But making the videos is half the effort. The other 50% are reserved for the good old video promotion. YouTube noted a total fail rate in video responses (only 4 people in approximately 1 million were reported to click on the comment option which has since been removed)…so there’s one less way of promoting your video.
What you should you do? How are you to approach sharing? And most importantly, where to promote your YouTube videos?
Don’t worry, this is what I’ll be talking about in today’s post.
Forums
Before I mention anything else, let me focus on the community forums and discussion boards. Many people seem to think that social media killed the forum culture, and while Facebook/Twitter certainly have had their effect, don’t make this rookie mistake.
Forums are still a great place to promote your YouTube videos, especially if you make the effort and research some boards that are strictly related to the nature of your channel. The engagement will surely be high, because most people are in discussion boards for a reason: to talk, give feedback and study in-depth the main forum theme.
What you need to make sure, though, is that you’re adding value. Forum users can be extremely scrutinizing and sensitive to spam, so don’t make the mistake of shotgunning your video link all over the place. You might get banned and then good luck promoting your video.
Social media platforms
An obvious place and perhaps normally the most popular answer of the “Where to promote my YouTube videos?” question. Both Twitter and Facebook are alright, especially Facebook which gives you the freedom of creating your own page to support your personal YouTube channel.
It’s been heavily utilized by both vloggers and streamers from Twitch recently, and it can really net you a few thousand likes in no time.
Don’t forget about Google+, though. While underrated, Google’s own social media is a great way to connect with like-minded individuals and join community discussions. Same applies for LinkedIn and its niche groups with thousands of people. Just remember what I said about the forum rules – LinkedIn groups (at least the quality ones) are very sensitive to spamming, so you’ll want to avoid that.
People who are close to you
A friend of mine who’s a semi-prominent YouTube vlogger said that it all starts with a bunch of friends and relatives. If you’re a company – with your most loyal clients.
He might be right, because reaching out to your close people (or customers) is a good headstart to any YouTube channel. What you need to do is just tell them that you’ve got a video running and they can see it and give you some feedback. Additionally, you might ask them to share it on your profiles for extra exposure.
It actually works to a great extent. Don’t forget that Kickstarter follows a similar principle – most of the initial project backers come from family, friends, and relatives. Utilize this approach when thinking where to promote your YouTube videos too.
Similar to the concept of forums, yet a little bit different due to its unique structure, Reddit can be a powerful way to grow your audience. Subreddit segmentation means that you have at least several core subreddits to the nature or industry you’re vlogging in. Sometimes when a small website gets shared, Reddit “breaks” it due to huge traffic inflow. This is pretty vocal for the power this platform has.
I’ve seen numerous videos and channels get their main audience from Reddit and people staying loyal to the YouTube channel. This could happen to you easily, if you a) provide real value with your videos and b) don’t spam, and remember to participate in the discussions.
Collaborations with other YouTube channels
YouTube collaborations are worth a mention here, but deserve a whole another post. What you need to consider is teaming up with another vlogger because other people’s channels are a powerful place where you can promote your YouTube videos.
In this way you two (or more, depending on the size of the collaboration) will benefit from mixing each other’s audience (given that you’re similar in a way). This mix will bring forth a surge of new subscribers which will effectively increase your channel views.
Collaboration can be a tricky experience. For now just remember it as one of the five great places to promote YouTube videos…later I’ll be sure to revisit the topic for more in-depth study.
Source :http://socialmediamarketing.tips
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