Though good-quality and engaging video production can be a daunting task, it pays off for some businesses. The popularity of YouTube can be turned to commercial purposes, and ROI can be gauged using the site's analytics functions.
Creating your own channel is a particularly effective strategy to attract visitors and monitor viewings, comments and feedback. Once you've created a channel, you must maintain it much as you would a blog or text-oriented social media presence, according to Mashable.com's "Top 10 YouTube Tips for Small Business."
The advice on using YouTube's social capabilities – favoriting appropriate videos and making "friends"; using tags; and promoting your videos elsewhere - are particularly important in getting noticed.
We'd add an 11th tip: Determine your audience before you go on air. That will help shape the content and production of your videos, as well as whether YouTube is a good fit in the first place.
