Unless you have had your head in the sand, you must have heard of social media. The truth is, social media is not just a wave of trend; it is a relatively new medium of communication and it is here to stay. The last couple of years, businesses have started to embrace social media into their marketing strategy. While most of them incorporates Facebook, Twitter, and more recently, Pinterest, YouTube is something that often overlooked. An opportunity is missed when you are excluding YouTube, which is a division of Google – a fact that should not be taken lightly as it can dramatically improve your online visibility.   Using YouTube as a marketing tool The more visual aid you have to deliver your message, the better. Infographics and images increase readership, but nothing compares to a video to entice customer interest. See below for step-by-step guide to add YouTube to your marketing strategy. 1. Getting your video made The first step is obviously to create a video. If you’re not comfortable shooting and editing your own video, you can also create flash video. You don’t have to be a filmmaker to create good videos. There are plenty of tools you can use if you sweat when you hear Adobe Premier Pro:

• Fiverr: Hire someone to do your video from you. You can get a decent video made for $5-$20 on Fiverr.

• iMovie: Decide to shoot and edit your own video? Not a problem! iMovie (for Mac users) allows you to edit and add sound to your video, and it is relatively easy to use.

If you shoot your video using a smartphone, check out the list of recommended video editing app by Mashable. Remember to keep your video short, under one minute whenever possible. If it’s relatively content-heavy, break it down to one to three videos.   2. Getting your video on YouTube Now that you have your video ready, create your YouTube channel. Don’t forget to align your YouTube channel branding with your existing one. Upload your video(s) to your branded YouTube channel and use keywords in your video title (when possible) and in the video description. After that, insert tags for your video. Tags are useful to help YouTube index your video.   3. Create a transcript for your video It’s not done yet! After uploading your video to YouTube, you also need to get a transcript for your video. A transcript is a text version of a video. Add this transcript to your video description. This is why it is important to keep your video short! You don’t want to put a long block text on your description now, do you? Why add transcription you say? Google can’t read the content of your video (yet). By adding transcription, you’re helping Google to index your video and show it when related searches come up.   4. Share your video and spread it on social media The final step is to get views by sharing your video on Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg. Don’t forget to share it on your communication channels: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, email list, etc. This step will help you to create some backlinks and help you to get indexed faster on Google. As a result, you will get traffic and more visitors to your YouTube channel   Here are some examples of successful use YouTube for marketing purposes: Old Spice: The man your man could smell like Lululemon: Sh*t yogis say Smartwater: Jennifer Aniston Samsung: The next big thing is already here What do these videos have in common other than their entertainment value? That’s right! They share a story. The key in creating a video is to know your message and build an engaging story to deliver that message. So, there you have it. See? Creating a YouTube channel and videos are not a rocket science. Don’t be intimidated. Try it and let us know your results!