Utilizing YouTube

As a Chicago PR firm we like to always be cognizant of trends and utilize tools to help ourselves and our clients be successful.  A big part of public relations is doing something unique and building buzz to help a client stand out.  Many times a PR firm will be brought in to help a company develop and execute a plan to help promote a company's products or services.  Video is a great tool to do just that.  Here are a few great ways to utilize both video and popular video website YouTube as a part of your PR tactics:

1- Great way to start a campaign: YouTube makes for a great way to kick off a PR campaign, there's no doubt about it.  People absolutely love videos and capturing an audience right at the very beginning of any PR campaign is a surefire way to ensure some campaign success.  Create a short, but sweet, video to engage your audience and get them fired up about your PR campaign right before it begins.

2- Carry over your branding: YouTube, and videos in general, give you a great place to carry over your branding.  Your entire YouTube channel can utilize your company's branding and so can the videos you create, giving your branding some sticking power in a viewer's mind.

3- Crisis control: Should a crisis arise a video may just be the ticket to helping you take control of a  bad situation.  Videos are powerful and when done right can truly grab a viewer and make them see a situation in a whole new light.

4- Become a part of an online community: YouTube has millions of viewers each and every day with people not only posting videos, but also commenting on videos making it an extremely interactive platform.  Posting YouTube videos gives you the ability to engage viewers and start a conversation, which is crucial for PR experts.

5- Measurement: Yes, we are all about measurement, especially when it comes to a PR campaign. Without measurement we would never know how effective our PR strategies and PR tactics really were throughout the course of a campaign.  Measurement should be done for all parts of a campaign, even for videos you are placing on YouTube. Luckily, YouTube has a wide array of tools that can be used to help measure the reach of videos.  This will help you figure out which videos are working for you and which are not.  From here this may help you determine what type of concepts work so that the next few videos you do are more effective.

Have your own tips on utilizing both video and YouTube?  Feel free to leave a comment below or contact us.