E-Marketing

YouTube is a free video-hosting website that enables people from around the world to share videos - whether they've shot these videos themselves, or are sharing other people's videos that they find appealing. It's a great way to share content with your audience.

You don't need an account on YouTube to browse and search for videos or view people's channels, but you do need an account to upload your own videos to your channel or save your favorites in a playlist.

After you sign up for an account on YouTube, you can shoot your own videos and post them online, where people can view them on your YouTube channel. If you also want to use someone else's video on your YouTube channel, you can change your account settings to share the favorites in your playlist. This is a powerful way of building your channel without the need for creating your own videos.

For example, a guesthouse on the beach could share videos from their own guests as well as other YouTube channels about local events, e.g.

• beach weddings
• surfing contests
• tours that operate in the area
• tourism videos promoting Sri Lanka
• traditional food
• festivals

In this way, the guesthouse channel may be found when potential visitors search YouTube or Google for "beach wedding in Sri Lanka", which would be ideal advertising. The guesthouse becomes known as an authority in the area and can attract customers interested in any of these subjects.

Here is a YouTube search page showing the results. Note the channel names:

How to create a YouTube business account

YouTube is part of the Google group and is managed via a Google account.

1. Sign in to an existing Google account, or create a new YouTube business channel.
2. On the YouTube homepage, click on the avatar icon at the top right corner of the screen.
3. Click on "My channel" from the drop-down options.
4. For YouTube for Business account creation, click "Use a business or other name" which will lead you to a screen where you can enter your brand's name.
5. Click "Create" to activate your new YouTube account.

For step-by-step details see:How to create a YouTube business account

Just like any other social network, YouTube represents a community. Becoming an active participant in the community means following other channels, liking other videos and letting your viewers know that you're involved in your industry.

A great advantage with YouTube content is that it remains searchable and available - it is long-lasting. Viewers on Facebook and Instagram, by comparison, see only the latest posts in their feed and may miss most of your content.

Summary

• YouTube allows videos to be shared - whether you've shot them yourself or share someone else's via your playlist.
• You don't need an account to view videos, but you do need an account (channel) to upload and share videos.
• YouTube content is long-lasting and always available via search.