The power of video in today’s ultra connected world is undeniable. In today’s time-crunched society, people will take a minute or two to watch a video on YouTube well before reading some ad copy that an agency spent hours producing.
Videos often appear on the first page of search engines and are a tried and true method for surging past your competition to the top of the Google page. The fact that Google owns YouTube certainly doesn’t hurt.
If you’re a tire dealer, don’t be intimidated because you don’t own that talking dog that becomes a star overnight via millions of YouTube views. Instead of dreaming of a grand slam, go for the base hit. Create content that addresses your audience’s needs, and you will get plenty of views that help you connect with potential customers.
How about tips for getting your car ready for winter? How to conduct a visual inspection of your tires? As an automotive service/tire expert, you have content that people want to see.
Take a look at this YouTube video by Alliance Tire Americas (full disclosure, it is one of our clients). It’s an interview with Dallas tire dealer Ned Edwards and contains a lot of desirable elements: action footage, good sound bites, short and to the point.
I’ve seen a good many tire dealers get involved in Facebook this year, but not so much on YouTube, which is a shame. You can shoot a perfectly fine YouTube video with your cell phone camera, perform some fairly easy online editing if necessary, and create your own free YouTube channel.
Once you have a good video or two in the can, the question becomes, “How will people find it on YouTube amongst the millions and millions of other videos. Here are some tips for setting up your video on YouTube:
• Title: Make sure your targeted keywords are in the first few words of your title. For a video on winterizing your car for instance, something like: “Winter Car Tips from Acme Tires.”
• Description: A nice trick is to start your description with a full URL – say your website. You can also include more URLs throughout your description if you wish and be as descriptive as possible with many key words.
• Tags: Be sure to include any and all related keywords in the YouTube tags field.
In addition, help ensure that your customers see your videos by posting them on your Facebook wall, including them in your newsletter if you have one, and featuring them on your website. If you are involved in Twitter, then by all means extend the reach even further by Tweeting the links.
Another great move is to submit your YouTube videos to StumbleUpon, a powerful referring tool that drives a lot of U.S. web traffic for social media sites.
After a few videos are up, use YouTube’s powerful analytics to provide insights into who’s watching your videos, how they found them, and which videos are resonating best with your audiences.
Are you using YouTube? I would love to hear from you.
Christine Taylor is vice president of social media marketing for JTMarCom,a Nashville-based marketing agency that helps companies with online reputation management and integration of social media into their traditional marketing programs. With a combined 35 years of experience in the tire industry, the agency places a special emphasis on working with tire and automotive aftermarket companies. Follow Christine on Facebook and Twitter (@chrisgtaylor). She can also be reached at 615-714-5469.
