Youtube as Social Media and Marketing Tools

Introduction

Social Media is a word used to illustrate Internet-based applications that facilitate consumers share opinions, wisdom, experiences, and viewpoints. Social media are of many forms, examples are content communities (e.g., YouTube), social networking sites or blogs (e.g., Facebook), and joint projects (e.g., Wikipedia). All such applications content has been created, updated and maintained by individual internet users and further delivered to new users, which is often provided free of charge in a philanthropic way. Such attributes discern the social media from conventional web pages, like www.google.com or www.yahoo.com, which are supervised often by companies for a marketable purpose.

By incorporating social media tools into their marketing strategy, marketers can gain benefits from it: they get real-time opinion on existing products or new ideas/concepts regarding products, they get chance to build community of consumers about their products, services or brand, leverage customer self services, and integrate customers indirectly to develop their product strategies in future.

The most alluring reality of all is that radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users, television took 13 years to capture users, 4 years internet, and iPod took 3 years, Facebook capture 100 million users only in less than 9 months. This clarifies the importance of social media and its immensity and its boundaries aren’t only limited for younger generations. In fact according to Socialnomics, the fastest rising fragment is 55-65 years old female on Facebook. With this emergent of people and easy access, brands have begun become conscious to acquire the existed potential of Social media in order to reach the users. According to Socialnomics again, 25% of the search results are links to user-generated content for the World’s top 20 brands, 34% opinions about predicts and brands are related with bloggers post.

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In study conducted by PR firm Burson Marsteller, pointed out that in the Fortune 500 list he observed 100 largest companies, in which 79% use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or business blogs to correspond with clients and other stakeholders. It is a worldwide statistics. According to these 100 largest companies use 50% YouTube channels as social media tool.

With the emergence of social media, it shifts business online as social media marketing has created its own niche in the business world. Great attention requires by companies to respond and penetrate in this web era more than ever. They can’t entirely rely on traditional marketing techniques like gleaming press releases or flashy ad campaigns. Soren Gordgamer, author of Wisdom 2.0, puts it. He states “companies now face a clear choice: wall themselves in and become increasingly controlled and hidden, or use social media and other means to reveal their human side, welcome transparency and forge new relationships with their customers. The old game is undoubtedly over, and the question now is what can business do to transition and succeed in this new era?” It is pretty understandable that social media marketing has become entirely a new marketing field.

(http://www.sociableblog.com/2008/02/11/why-people-use-social-media/)

Social media has emerged innately from users and thus inherently personal. The users endow with personal information and ideas, interact with other users, respond to them, do sharing and form a social media interaction. Due to all these benefits social media marketing comes to light. By using social media marketers want to identify who are the users and what are their preferences. With blooming worldwide communication and technologies social media sites are deemed as significant stage for exchange. Marketers or companies squeeze ideas nearby information like connectivity, word of mouth, promotion of quality, and trust of those deemed trustworthy. Users find social media interesting due to having immense information, timely and informative; such attributes make social media an important factor for marketers.

YouTube as a social media tool

YouTube’s principal features are the capability to upload and distribute video clips of any rational length. Most available standard video formats and converted to low resolution Flash for release. User account is necessary to b made in order to view YouTube video. This account provides a profile page that serves as an index to the user’s uploaded videos, and on which users may optionally disclose personal details, or “subscribe” to other users’ videos and “friend” other users; these details are then displayed in their profile pages. Users can then comment on other users or more commonly on particular video. Comments by users are displayed in the relevant pages. One of the YouTube feature is it offers community called ‘group’ which user may join to assert specific interests. Groups provide a way to serialize video content as well as offering a text message interface similar to discussion boards or Usenet.

YouTube signify an enormous opening for marketers to get in touch with consumers who are probing for relevant data about their products and services. YouTube can also be a significant direct marketing tool, conditioned that it should be taken as part of marketing mix rather than taken as a tactic or supported tool. Certain things are apparent, companies that are accomplishing durable attainment on YouTube are the ones who constantly and habitually issue and update contents on YouTube that’s has inherent value for online users.

How companies use YouTube as marketing tool

Companies are working hard to figure out the unique ways to attract potential customers and make a successful social media strategy. There are various forms of advertisement available on the internet provided by the companies, but most significant popularity goes towards video advertisement and became hot subject in most recent months With the acquisition of YouTube by Google in October, 2006 the purpose to get hold of amplified revenues all the way through advertising partnerships is constantly striven for. “While it’s starting to develop new ad offerings, its popularity is driving up costs that established Web giants, such as

Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc., are able to spread out”

In an article written by Catherine‐Gail Reinhard, creative director at an agency that focuses on creating video infotainment, she says, “the brands that achieve long‐term success on YouTube are the ones that consistently and frequently publish refreshing content that has intrinsic value for audiences online.”

The natural aesthetic sense of sea waves and breaking swell waves at ocean surface help make Roxy’s and Quicksilver content truly captivating. Those companies who make their products with exciting and natural aesthetic sense can create content easily. and Quicksilver’s and Roxy’s mini documentaries and web content give consumers an inside view of what goes on behind the scenes of professional surfing, skating and snowboarding tours circuits.

They employ videos that feature gigantic and striking waves that definitely confine the audience’s attention. But, they also generate webisodes and mini documentaries that offer people an inside scoop on the lives of professional surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders. With almost one new video a week, nearly every week Quicksilver displays fresh and unique content so that people keep coming back and put them always in curiosity state.

With the ease availability of broadband, the dream to attend online college or university has fulfilled. Online education programs particularly private education have taken immense popularity that even old guards Ivy League Universities have started to propose classes or access to online programs. University of phoenix Online leads the charge in establishing strategy to market its online classes via video.

They offer video testimonials, reviews, mini‐documentaries and webisodes. Their aim is to make video which fits for every potential students out there in market, as they r the ever first university which started YouTube as marketing tool for online courses and programs and they also appear on top when to search for online schools.