If I Can, You Can Do It Too!: YouTube Edition

Ever seen those awesome company YouTube channels and wondered how amazing it would be to be able to make something like that? Well, trust me, if I can do it, you can do it too. Seriously!

My company, PGi, handed over their corporate channel to me with the request that I update and organize it. Through the experience, I have gotten a first-hand account about what it looks like to

First things first: Content. Content. And more content.

This day in age, EVERYONE in marketing will tell you that content is king. Creative and engaging content differs your company from your competitors and will help get your company's name on everyone's mind. "But Tech-Know", you say, "I work at a (insert random company name here) and I don't NEED content or a YouTube channel!"

Oh really? Let me turn your attention to blender maker Blendtec. This company has a line of professional-grade home blenders that hadn't really caught on in the market due to their higher-than-average price. However, the company started a YouTube channel called "Will It Blend?", which showed, with witty dialogue and themed posts, a man blending household items with the powerful Blendtec blender. Due to a growing response, Blendtec started making "Will It Blend?" vidoes with Apple products, video games and even pool cues all meeting their maker by being blended up in a Blendtec blender. Each video they make has over 1,000,000 views and countless views per day. On Amazon, each Blendtec product now has 500 comments or more from their growing fan base on YouTube.

Second helping: Make it pretty.

As much as I would love to tell you that looks don't matter, we are a shallow species. And to catch our attention, we must have something bright, something bold and something that looks good.

At least when it comes to marketing.

There are three key pieces to your YouTube channel that you must coordinate. Your background, your banner, and your key video. These three sections will be the first impressions that your viewers will have of your channel. The background and the banner must mesh well together, and your key video will play automatcially when someone enters your site, so it must be catchy and attention-getting.

Next: Organize your stuff.

The first step to organizing your page is to organize your videos into playlists. The more you organize your videos by content, the easier it will be for your viewers to find your videos. Next, go to the "add a section" button at the bottom of your channel, and add your playlists as sections on your page. It will create these nice little lists of videos that appear on the front page of your channel.

Play with your channel design and content until you add more viewership. Make sure to look at the "Analytics" section on your page to monitor what videos are getting views, how many people are viewing your channel, etc. Feel free to comment your questions below!

Some people who are doing it right:

PGi (if I do say so myself)
Kraft Cooking School (although you can't go wrong with food)
Apple
Cisco 
And of course, Blendtec