Youtube
The world’s biggest online video-sharing service, YouTube, is the perfect place for marketing campaigns to shine, if only marketers know how to grab the spotlight. The community is diverse, and its population huge. YouTube marketing can increase sales and widen brand coverage by using this innovative platform to connect and capture existing and potential customers.
But despite the huge market base, not all campaigns flourish in YouTube. Many companies’ YouTube marketing campaigns sizzle at the beginning and fizzle sometime thereafter. What’s the secret to staying power at YouTube? Let’s find out.
1. Quality and quantity of content
A large fraction of company or brand videos at YouTube are of the “flash-in-the- pan” variety, which means that they were initially uploaded as part of a viral marketing strategy. As time goes by, the channels are left untended and un-updated. This is a waste, because the initial videos should have been followed with more and more good content, to sustain the campaign and reap the results.
Video production technology is at its peak these days, providing the tools to create engaging videos, and lots of them. However, video quantity is a function not only of technology but also the quality of content. Companies that create fresh perspectives on a regular basis capture audiences better.
Regular content can come from current events or news related to the brand. It can also come from interviews with experts, endorsers, and even ordinary brand users. The delivery of such useful content can increase brand loyalty and confidence through time.
2. Market for wider coverage
YouTube marketing carries a deep potential for widening the customer base, for many reasons. The first is YouTube’s international audience, and the other is the cultural diversity. With the right content, marketers can capture a slice of this population to boost any marketing campaign.
Here are some ways to do this:
- Categorize videos according to audience preference. This segmentation refines the target audience population through a tailored communication aimed specifically to appeal to a group of audiences. The long-term result is an accumulation of searchable videos that are continuously viewed by common-interest users.
- Cultivate a subscriber base that views and returns to view the uploaded videos because they find value in unique and useful content.
- If possible, publish in as many international languages as possible. This widens the coverage more than when publishing only in a single language such as English.
Marketers should bear in mind, however, that building a wider market base through YouTube marketing takes time and patience, as much as it does using other channels.
3. Offer an expertise
Shying away from blatant self-promotions, a subtle yet very effective YouTube marketing strategy is to build a reputation through videos with have useful and practical information.
YouTube is not only full of entertaining videos, there are also many educational presentations or documentaries that impart knowledge and skills to users. Audiences view these videos to learn from the expertise of the company or brand.
How-to videos where notable experts are dishing out innovations and providing clarity on particular subjects are frequently viewed in YouTube. The experts may be well-known industry gurus, or the company’s president, or even a simple employee.
The secret to this YouTube marketing approach is sincerity and conviction in the message. This sincerity connects with audiences and makes them trust the information that they were provided with.
Debbie A. Everson is the CEO of SearchMar.com, experienced SEO Consultants and Search Engine Optimization Agency to over 2,000 small businesses. Read my SEO Blog at http://blog.searchmar.com for hints and tips. Follow me on Twitter@searchmar. Call 1.866.885.6263 to speak to one of our SEO Consultants. Visit http://www.searchmar.com
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com for MayonWebHosting Blog
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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a “safe harbor” from strict liability for copyright infringement to online service providers that satisfy its requirements.
A June, 2010 ruling by a U.S. District Court in New York in favor of YouTube established an important precedent for blog sites for avoiding strict liability for copyright infringement by blog posters.
The DMCA
Online service providers such as blog sites are vulnerable to claims for copyright infringement if visitors post infringing material on their websites, even if the service providers are unaware that the material is infringing. This unfortunate result – that’s often quite surprising to blog site webmasters who are unfamiliar with copyright law – is due to the strict liability principles of the U.S. Copyright Act.
Signed into law in 1998, the DMCA protects online service providers from strict liability for copyright infringement by their users if they:
* post a specific DMCA notice prominently on their websites,
* register with the US Copyright Office, and
* promptly block access to, or take down, allegedly infringing materials if they receive a notice from a copyright owner claiming infringement, or if the service provider has “actual knowledge” that it is hosting infringing material or if the service provider is aware of facts or circumstances that should make it “readily apparent” that there is infringing activity.
This protection by DMCA is known as a “safe harbor”; it completely protects the service provider from vicarious liability for copyright infringement.
The YouTube Case
YouTube’s online video sharing service permits users to post videos to the YouTube site which then can be accessed and viewed by anyone who visits the YouTube site.
Viacom International sued YouTube alleging that YouTube was liable for copyright infringement of numerous videos for which Viacom owned the copyrights. Viacom argued that YouTube was aware that some of its users posted infringing videos on the YouTube site and that this awareness disqualified YouTube from the safe harbor protection of DMCA.
The YouTube case involved the third bullet point above – whether YouTube’s general knowledge that some of its users post infringing content on the YouTube website can amount to either:
* “actual knowledge” of infringement, or
* qualify to make it “readily apparent” to YouTube that there was infringing material on the YouTube website.
The court rejected Viacom’s argument and ruled that YouTube was not disqualified from the DMCA safe harbor. Specifically, the court found that YouTube’s general awareness of infringing activity by some of its users did not rise to the level of “actual knowledge” or knowledge that would make it “readily apparent” which videos were infringing. The court noted that YouTube had removed allegedly infringing videos promptly after receipt of notice sufficient to identify specific infringing videos.
Finally, the court ruled that YouTube had no general obligation to police its website for infringing videos and to determine whether specific videos were infringing.
Conclusion
In general terms, the key rulings of interest to blog sites were that:
* YouTube had no general obligation to police its site for infringing videos, and
* that YouTube’s general knowledge of infringement, but not of specific infringing videos, was insufficient to disqualify YouTube from the DMCA safe harbor.
Blog site webmasters should be aware, however, that there are specific requirements that must be satisfied in order to take advantage of the DMCA safe harbor. It’s essential that these specific requirements be satisfied in order to qualify for DMCA?s valuable protections.
Leading Internet, IP and software lawyer Chip Cooper has automated the process of drafting Website Legal Documents www.digicontracts.com/whichdocs/ for website legal compliance. Use his free online tool — Website Documents Determinator — to determine which documents your website really needs for website legal compliance. Discover how quick, easy, and cost-effective it is to draft your website legal forms at DigiContracts.com.
This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com for MayonWebHosting Blog
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