Six Power Tactics to Tap Into YouTube

We all know Google is the world's biggest search engine, right? But what comes second?

It's not Bing or Yahoo! or Baidu (the leading search engine in China).

No. It's YouTube.

I remember when Google first bought YouTube a few years ago, some experts were worried that it would quickly wither and die. Not because Google would kill it, but because there was so much copyright infringement on it and Google had so much money, that some people feared that it would be swamped with lawsuits.

Fortunately, it survived. And thrived. YouTube has just turned five, and it's now getting 5 billion views a day.

That makes it worth paying attention to!

I've been slow in recommending on-line video, and I didn't jump on the bandwagon early. But that was because we didn't have widespread broadband access, easy tools for creating video and easy tools for watching video. But that has now changed.

If you're a speaker, trainer, consultant, coach or other thought leader, you can't afford to ignore YouTube as a marketing tool for your business.

Don't think you have to create the same slick sort of video you would do for a speaker demo DVD. You don't need to use fancy green screen technology. And you don't even need to do "video" at all - in the traditional sense.

I'll share with you here six ways to create video for YouTube easily and cost-effectively. I don't have the space to take you step by step through the process of each technique, but I hope this will spark some ideas.

1. Do a book review.

An easy way to get started with YouTube is to do a book review by video. It doesn't require much of a "presentation", it requires just one prop (the book, of course!), and it's a great way to leverage your reading into a promotional opportunity.

Here's my video book review of Ken Robinson's book The Element.

2. Explain a concept with a diagram.

If you're using YouTube to teach something, use a diagram to explain your concept. You don't have to do this with slick PowerPoint or Keynote slides, nor with green screen technology. You've probably seen some people do it in front of a whiteboard or a flip chart. It's the message that matters much more than the presentation tool.

My weapon of choice is my five-year-old niece's drawing tablet, which I stole ... err, borrowed ... for this purpose.

Here's my video about what Web 2.0 means for your business.

3. Explain a concept with a metaphor.

The next option requires a bit more creativity, but it's very effective. Because YouTube is a visual medium, if you can create a visual metaphor for your message, it's far more effective than a talking head, or even a talking head with a good diagram.

Here are two examples I've done:

4. Do a screen tutorial.

If you can demonstrate something on the screen, you can use screen capture software to record it. You might be doing this already for your private e-learning products, but have you thought of publishing a few of them to YouTube for promotional purposes?

Here's my short video on how to be more productive with e-mail.

5. Create a slide presentation.

Of course, you can use screen capture software to capture entire PowerPoint or Keynote presentations, along with your narration. You can do the same thing without the screen capture software (for example, Keynote can save a presentation directly as a movie file), but if you don't know how to do that, just use the screen capture software.

Here's my video about my membership site.

6. Create an animated slide show.

Recently I've been experimenting with photo publishing software, which was originally designed for creating animated photo albums. However, if your "photos" are PowerPoint or Keynote slides, they make a beautiful, professional-looking promotion - complete with music.

Here are two recent promotional slide shows I created:

So what can YOU do?

I hope these six ideas have sparked some ideas for you. You don't have to use them all - but choose at least one and give it a go. Remember: YouTube matters!

Permission to Reprint: Yes, you may reprint this article in any of your publications - paid or free, electronic or physical, commercial or non-commercial - provided you do not edit it in any way (except for formatting changes to suit your publication style), and include this resource box with the article:

Gihan Perera is an Internet coach for speakers, trainers, consultants and other business professionals. He's the author of "Fast, Flat and Free: How the Internet Has Changed Your Business". Visit http://GihanPerera.com and get free e-books, webinars and more.

I would also appreciate receiving a copy of the issue in which it appears, if that is convenient.