The power of YouTube(rs)
Ollie Kmiecik
Senior Manager, Customer Success @ Hootsuite | Certified Social Media Expert
I love YouTube. It's my favourite social platform.
As such, to bring me closer to my favourite site I've been following a few YouTubers over the last year and I've been quite inspired with what I found.
A YouTuber is someone who uses YouTube as a creative platform to host their video content. Their videos can be about anything and everything. Some of the more prominent YouTube channels have come from the world of beauty, food, sport and, well, general sillyness (which we all need a bit of from time to time!).
It's now big business. From advertising, sponsorship and merchandise top YouTubers can net around ￡100k a year.
So what?
Firstly, the success of YouTube shows you how important good content is for a brand. In particular here, video content.
rubbish in = rubbish out.
If you produce content that inspires and engages your audience, you'll develop a solid community. And a solid community needs a solid content strategy. For me, working in the automotive industry, I always remember that the end goal is to sell cars...yes, even on social media! Encourage your fans and customers to a place where they can buy.
It goes without saying that you need to invest in your content. But, it may be worth considering using the skills and, importantly, the audience of YouTube stars. Third party endorsements can be more powerful and trustful than coming directly from a company / brand.
Check out Casey Neistat. He's used YouTube to post his short home-made films for years. More recently he's been vlogging (a video blog) which pulls in around 250,000 views...daily!
Mercedes Benz asked him to make 4 short films, culminating in an advert. You can WATCH his vlog about the process of working with the brand.
And here, to see the full 4 short movies:
CLA Project Part 1 https://tinyurl.com/clapartone
CLA Project Part 2 https://tinyurl.com/clapart2
CLA Project Part 3 https://tinyurl.com/clapart3
CLA Project Part 4 https://tinyurl.com/clapart4
But that's just one project. He's also worked with J.Crew, Nike, Apple...yeah, the big boys are out!
It's inspiring stuff, and ultimately is a wake up call about content. We know it's King and will remain so. But now we can be even more creative and forward thinking to engage with our audience and ultimately sell product. Using others who make a living from creating content seems a good idea, in the very least to seek some inspiration.
For me, these gifted content creators have not only inspired my professional work but also my personal. Creating my own content, pictures and short films enables me to have a more well rounded view of how it all works. And it's fun too.
So why not try it yourself? Or at least, consider this exciting part of the internet that's allowing those content creators to flourish and how you (could) use it as a brand.
