There are many reasons for brands to have a YouTube account. For example, viewers retain more information from videos than from text-based content, and 75% of executives watch work-related videos at least once a week. That said, maintaining a YouTube account isn’t quite the same task as maintaining other social presence. In fact, there are a number of mistakes that brands make when attempting to create and manage a YouTube account. Is your brand guilty of the following?
Too many channels
Whether you’re a brand that has multiple presences around the world, or a brand that has multiple smaller brand names and products under one large corporate umbrella, it’s very easy to find yourself with multiple YouTube channel. Although YouTube has begun introducing verification for these official accounts, having too many similar accounts can confuse users searching for you, and possibly frustrate them. If possible, try to limit the number of dedicated brand channels, or work to differentiate them enough that users will be able to recognize the channel they’re looking for at a glance.
Too many promotions and commercials
Sharing promotions and commercials to your YouTube account is a great way to build up content, but if that’s the only type of content you share, you’ll likely bore your fans. Rather than using the medium as an opportunity to simply sell your product, use it as an opportunity to connect with, educate and generally engage your fans and customers. Mix in behind-the-scenes footage, tutorials, demos and other useful content that will make your fans want to return to your channel again and again.
Too much recycled content
Sometimes it’s effective and efficient to reuse content from network to network…sometimes, though, it just doesn’t pay off. If you post content to your YouTube channel, don’t repurpose it to your Vine or Instagram account unless you can create a new spin on it. Thanks to the new and improved in-feed viewing features offered by Facebook and Twitter, you don’t have to worry about uploading a video separately. If you want to cross-post, simply share your YouTube link across your networks to help boost views and the odds of fans subscribing to your channel.
Too much lag time between uploads
YouTube is different from most of its social media cohorts in that subscribers aren’t expecting you to update your content on a daily basis. Despite this, you should still aim to update it on a relatively consistent basis. In most cases, a new video every six months just isn’t enough. Don’t fill your feed with quickly created, ill thought out content, but make sure you create a schedule to keep you on track for creating new, quality content on a regular basis.
Looking for more ways to improve your YouTube presence? Ask yourself these important questions.
