12 Steps To Effortlessly Include YouTube Into Your Social Media Strategy

Here on this blog, we often talk about the importance of video on social media. We’ve also discussed how easy it might be to recycle video content across multiple different platforms.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that we are now going to help you out to easily create a YouTube content strategy around your existing social media marketing plan and reach a new audience without much effort.

The Last Social Media Platform of Choice

YouTube is often the last social media platform to be picked by marketers for a particular social media strategy. The core reason for this is the difficulty and cost that has been related to the creation of YouTube videos.

Yes, the video sharing platform might also be the second biggest search engine, but it is also oversaturated with content and a brand can rarely receive the needed engagement. Especially if considering the cost to make a post compared to the engagement it receives, it’s clear to see that YouTube is the least efficient platform to build a social media marketing strategy around.

What’s more, the video sharing network doesn’t have an efficient natural reach as some other social media platform do.

For example, if you write down a simple tweet that includes a trending hashtag, you are instantly going to achieve a reach of a couple of hundred individuals that come across your tweet by pure chance.

In comparison, YouTube doesn’t have that natural reach outside of its search engine. Plus, even if you account for SEO, the chances that your content is going to be picked up by a random viewer is extremely low.

Not to mention, while on other platforms people can easily share your content with their audience, on YouTube it’s not that easy. In fact, there is no current way in which you can directly share content from other YouTubers to your subscribers, as you can do with your Facebook friends or Instagram followers.

In addition, the YouTube subscribers themselves often don’t manage to receive the content they’ve subscribed for, thus lowering your reach even further.

So why bother?

Having in mind all the negative factors that come into play with a YouTube social media marketing strategy, it’s easy to see why putting effort into one is not an easy decision. Yet, whether your brand is big and you want to have a presence on all platforms or simply because you want to tap into all possible streams via which you can reach an audience, YouTube might be worth the shot.

First and foremost, while the competition on all other social media platforms is extremely high, on YouTube, especially for brands, it isn’t. In addition, a long term YouTube content strategy plan could help you build and sustain a highly engaged audience.

After all, if a person likes your tweet, it’s a simple like. But if someone engages with your video, chances are they’ve watched the entire thing and are highly interested in what you have to say. So how do you proceed with making a YouTube social media strategy work? Let’s break it down!

The 12 Steps towards YouTube Brand Success (without much effort)

YouTube is a great place for social media marketing if you know what you are doing and if you have the proper resources and ideas. With extremely low competition, chances are you’d be able to skyrocket your brand on the platform, as long as you are persistent and manage to build a sustainable strategy.

#1. Be Familiar with the Platform

The first thing you should do is familiarize yourself with the platform and the audience of YouTube. Similarly to the other networks, the video sharing site is a place that collects people from all walks of life. Yet, unlike most networks, it has a culture of its own that is deeply intertwined. You can check out our YouTube Guide for Brands for more info on that matter.

#2. Recycle your Video Content

Another thing you should be familiar with, even before you start conceiving your YouTube strategy is how to properly recycle your video content across multiple different SMM platforms. This will allow you to make the process of video making that much more seamless and simple.

#3. Shoot on Your Phone, Edit on PC/Mac

Most marketers are afraid of video as they believe that you’d have to purchase equipment worth thousands to shoot a quality piece. Yet, with the camera on your smartphone you are able to get decent enough quality for social media, including YouTube.

#4. Hire a Freelance Editor

Instead of hiring a production team, go ahead and outsource your video editing work to a professional freelancer at the fraction of the cost. While not as professional, video editing freelancers can also help you out with your overall video recycling strategy.

#5. Prioritize Recyclable Video Ideas

When in the idea stage, make sure to prioritize the video ideas that provide you with content that will be easily recyclable across multiple video platforms. With that in mind, simple ads won’t do the trick. Instead go for long-haul shooting sessions that give you the space, time and diversity that allows for various video content that can be shared on all social media.

#6. Script Your Videos

A great way to start out would be with a video script. You don’t have to be professional at writing scripts, just make sure that you are able to grasp the core content that you want to be included in the video and the way it should be presented.

#7. Plan-out Content Weeks Ahead, Shoot One Day

A great way to proceed with your YouTube strategy would be to plan out content for the next couple of weeks and shoot it in one single day. Granted, to be relevant you should be cautious about content scheduling, but making the shoots in one single day can greatly increase your efficiency.

#8. Call Everyone You Know and People You Don’t Know

For a marketer this should be an easy step. Much like a link on a post can help you get a link back, featuring someone in your video can benefit both of you. A lot of businesses and corporations would be happy to help you out with a shooting location, props or other items for your video, as long as they are featured in your video. What’s more, if you are running multiple brands, make sure to come up with collaboration videos that complement both brands. That way you’d be killing two birds with one stone.

#9. Keep Track of Your Competition

Make sure to keep track of your competition as well. As aforementioned not all brands go for an SMM strategy on YouTube, ensuring that you’ll have lower competition. What’s more, chances are your competition in the industry you are trying to rank for will be individual YouTubers. If this is the case, it might be easier for you to contact them and make collaborations. Further, such YouTubers can help you out with your SMM strategy and insights.

#10. The Intertwined Loop of Content

Remember those joke cards that say “turn the card and read the other side?” Your social media strategy on YouTube should be similar. Not only should you promote your other videos in each of your videos, but you should also promote your other social media profiles. What’s more, you can further proceed to put teasers for your video on other platforms to ping towards your full video on YouTube and then in the video advise people to go back and check your social media profiles.

#11. Share! Share! Share!

When you make a video, make sure to share it across multiple platforms. In fact, sharing it to as many places as possible can highly boost your reach in seconds. But don’t stop at social media. A thing that makes YT stand out is the possibility to easily promote it via blogs. Simply write to smaller blogs within your industry, and ask if they’d be interested to share your video as a post, and you are bound to get a few positive answers. The reason for this is that video content is rare and blogs crave quality video content at all times.

#12. Check Out Live Video

Last, but not least, you should also check out live video sharing on YouTube. We’ve recently discussed how to step up your Facebook live video game, and what stands true for Facebook, stands true for live video on YouTube as well. You want to be honest with your audience, be creative and put as least effort in the videos as possible, while at the same time achieving the best possible quality.

And don’t forget to keep track of the stats. Do you know that Locowise allows you to track all your accounts across all social media platforms? Learn more and sign up for the 7-day free trial right here!