For our second edition of Social Media 101, TVG will take a look at the mega-popular video sharing site- YouTube.

Many people are familiar with YouTube as it appears in random sharing of bloopers caught on home video or television mishaps. But there are many other uses for the site–from viral marketing, contests, education and much more.

First the Facts:
· 200M+ Worldwide unique monthly visitors, 68M+ US Unique Visitors
· Sixth largest site in the US, ahead of Wikipedia, eBay and Amazon
· Hundreds of millions of videos viewed daily
· Hundreds of thousands of videos uploaded daily
· 56% 18- to 34-year-olds are registered, 47% overall
· 51% go to YouTube weekly or more often
· 50% watch all of the videos to the end
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings, US only, March 2008.

YouTube is, by far the most popular video sharing Web site online. Visitors use the site to upload and share videos. They share videos they’ve created themselves or clips that they’ve found on TV or the web. YouTube videos can also be shared through blogs, e-mails and other sites.

How can this concentration of active customers be utilized by your company or client?

Create a Brand Channel
A YouTube channel page serves as a profile page for a YouTube user. On your channel page, other YouTube users can see your public videos, favorite videos, bulletins and subscribers. Your channel page also displays several links that let other people connect with you (or your brand) by sending you a message, sharing your channel with friends or adding comments to your channel.

Some of our favorite brand channels-
Associated Press
EA Sports
HR Block

Create a YouTube Contest
The user-generated nature of YouTube is a great platform to hold a contest as part of a marketing campaign for your newest service or product. A contest promotes a high-level of engagement and meaningful interaction- from having fans share their favorite things about your brand to having them film your next television commercial.

Here are some of my favorites that are just wrapping up-
Everyone has a Natures Valley…Where’s Yours?
Tide to Go Instant Stain

Viral Video Production
The most common use of YouTube by organizations is to distribute viral videos as stand-alone promotional pieces.

Some famous viral videos include Gatorade’s Ball Girl video, Ok Go’s music video and Reebok’s Extended Terry Tate commercial.

When creating a viral video, companies often do not include their name in the production, creating the appearance that it was accidentally captured and uploaded by a general user.

If your company creates a viral video it is essential to remember the social media rules of authenticity and transparency — you should not hide that your company has created the video.

One last aspect of YouTube to remember is HAVE FUN. Visitors come to the site and send e-mails to friends for entertainment value. There is room to be informative but you also must be unique, innovative and entertaining.