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Social media is an important tool for businesses from all industries and engineering is no exception! When used effectively, it can help you to increase your brand awareness and ultimately, your customer base as well. Therefore, it's crucial that you understand how to use social media, what to post, and when to post.
In this series we'll show you how to use each of the social media platforms to grow your engineering business and expand awareness of your brand. In this instalment, we're focusing on Youtube.
What is Youtube?
Youtube is a social media platform that's centred around watching and uploading videos. Far from being just a video streaming site, Youtube allows users to comment on and share videos, meaning that it's a great way to draw attention to your company through the use of clever marketing.
According to Biteable.com, Youtube is the second most popular website behind Google and 59% of people would prefer to watch a video than read written content. This makes Youtube one of the absolute best ways to draw attention to your company and an extremely important marketing tool.
READ: Using LinkedIn To Grow Your Engineering Business
Who Uses Youtube?
Similar to social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube is a very universal platform which is used by a huge demographic of people. This makes it a great way to get your content in front of your target audience, no matter who your target audience may be!
With that being said, Youtube is especially popular amongst the younger generations, so if you're looking to promote your engineering services to up-and-coming manufacturing buyers, then Youtube will allow you to do just that.
What Should I Post?
For Youtube success, fun videos such as animations and skits tend to work best.
What you post on Youtube is entirely down to your business. While Youtube has plenty of corporate videos such as showreels, meetings and interviews, these generally work better as a tool to embed on your website. For success on Youtube itself, fun videos such as animations and skits tend to work better, as these have a higher chance of being shared. Instructional or 'how to' videos can also be popular as these often correlate with search terms, meaning that you have a higher chance of picking up organic views.
Although engineering as an industry often has a lot to show off, it can be difficult to set yourself apart from the crowd. Many engineering companies have videos showing off their machines and components, so although these types of videos will be interesting to a certain demographic of people, they will often get lost in the crowd. Instead, 'whacky' engineering videos are often much more successful, such as Colin Furze's video of him machining biscuits so that they fit into his morning cup of tea. This video currently has almost three-and-a-half million views, which just goes to show the sort of reach you can achieve with the right content.
The most important factors to consider are the type of content you want to produce and your budget. Youtube videos can be produced for free, or if you've got a bit of cash to spare, then hiring an external company to produce your videos is a worthwhile investment. Check out Qimtek partners Shotblast Media, who are experts in video production for the engineering and manufacturing sectors.
Click here to visit Shotblast Media's website
When Should I Post?
Youtube is less restrictive when it comes to the right time to post your content.
Unlike other social media platforms, Youtube is less restrictive when it comes to the right time to post your content. This is because content is more of a permanent fixture that is generated by search terms, instead of relying on being at the top of a fast-paced newsfeed. Therefore, there really isn't a right or wrong time to post your videos - as long as you promote them through your website and other social media platforms, then you're free to post whenever you like.
It's also worth noting that Youtube has a number of paid services that will allow you to put your videos in front of a certain audience. Just select the demographic you require (age, job title, industry etc.) and Youtube will promote your videos to the audience you're trying to reach. This is well worth looking into, as it gives your content strategy more of a focus, instead of waiting for people to come to you.
READ: Using Facebook To Grow Your Engineering Business
Further Tips for Youtube Success:
It's highly recommended that you put some budget towards producing Youtube videos. This may involve hiring a professional company to help you come up with content ideas and produce your videos. By having professionally-produced videos, you have a better chance of gaining a higher number of views and marketing your company in the right way.
Remember, 'whacky' content will help you to stand out from the crowd, so don't be afraid to have fun with your videos. Remember the biscuit machining video we mentioned earlier? Something different - and fun - will increase your video's chances of being shared and reaching a larger audience than a stuffy corporate promotion video.
Something different - and fun - will increase your video's chances of being shared and reaching a larger audience.
Embed your videos onto your website so that they can work for you in more places than one. If you use a platform such as Mailchimp for your email marketing, then make sure to embed your Youtube videos into your mailshots. These platforms won't often allow you to upload a video directly which is why Youtube works so well - if a recipient clicks on your embedded Youtube video, then they will be taken to Youtube to view that video. This also solves the issue of page loading speeds which would otherwise occur within your mailshots.
Remember to promote your videos on other social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. This will allow the video to be shared amongst other users, thereby increasing the number of views that your video receives.
It's important to bear in mind that Youtube is a social media platform it itself, which means that a certain amount of participation with your audience is required. Remember to reply to comments on your video and direct viewers to your website as much as possible.
Further Information:
If you would like any further information on how to use Youtube to grow your engineering business, then we're more than happy to help! Simply call Qimtek on 01256 395 500, or email [email protected].