Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Google This – Build a Custom Branded Channel on YouTube

Bryan Stapp, Loud Amplifier Marketing

Any one can upload a video onto YouTube, Google’s online video community.  But if you plan on uploading a lot of video, then you should create a branded experience with your customized look and feel.

YouTube lets you build a brand channel which is a premium (but free) customizable page where you can present all of your video content.  It lets you build a centralized video library which acts as a hub for the community to watch your videos and connect with your brand.  And while it’s free, quick and easy, it’s something your competitors probably won’t think to take advantage of – giving you a differentiated brand experience.

Here’s how to do it:

Highlight Box – Tell folks who you are. Add an in-depth profile of yourself or your company to engage users.

Channel Graphic – this is your logo, or an icon that would best represent your brand.  See how Pepsi did it here.

Subscriptions – here you can promote sub channels or related channels and keep users aware of your latest posts

Play lists – use this to organize and categorize your video content for your users (by product type, usage, technical level, etc,)

Banner Graphic – here is where you place your brand and differentiate your channel by using the channel site background.  You can replicate the look and feel of your web site, and integrate an image map that links back to your site.

Featured video – show your best video here as it’s the first thing your visitors will see.  You can place your current TV spot; welcome video, or most popular video here.

As with a regular YouTube video post, your visitors will be able to embed the video onto their own website, comment on the video, post a video response, subscribe to your channel for updates, rate your video and more.  Check it out at YouTube Help.

Posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 10:00 am and is filed under Business, Computers, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.