YouTube Marketing Using Creator-Influencer Experts
What started as a family novelty has become an advertising powerhouse. What used to be considered slightly underground has come out into the sunshine and is packing a punch more powerful than much of mainstream advertising in the world of brand-building. Putting a video up on YouTube can potentially reach audiences of millions. YouTube can be a spectacular place to grow an audience. When you use techniques to leverage consumer demand on YouTube, you can develop a successful brand as well.
Research by Carat Global's Sanjay Nazerali and colleagues has found that collaborating with popular YouTube creators is 4 times more effective in brand building than getting a celebrity endorsement. In other words. popular YouTube creators can become "YouTube influencers," affiliation with whom can drive your brand building. Influencers are people who drive their own businesses through YouTube. This is what so fascinating about YouTube. This primarily public social medium can generate such popularity that a creator can base a business model on YouTube, and can also spread their influence onto other brands which enter their orbit.
How Do Creators Become Influencers:
In a way, creator-influencers are like celebrities. Having a celebrity give your brand an endorsement will help people remember your brand name, but those endorsements are often not as effective at driving sales and brand development as aligning with a YouTube influencer.
In a nutshell, an influencer is a creator who has accumulated a substantial number of subscribers to their video channels. The longer a creator dedicates himself or herself to creating YouTube videos, the more likely they are to develop a large fan base. Influencers are generally people who project being likable, successful, funny, sometimes irreverent or slightly rebellious, and who know their way around social media. If a channel is still producing consistent content after five years, the channel has a 20 percent chance of becoming a trendsetter, a celebrity, and an influencer. Consistently high quality monthly or weekly uploads have a big impact on subscriber growth.
How to Find and Build a Relationship with a YouTube Influencer:
YouTube is less about the content of the video as it is about personalities and distribution. A company like Honda made an elaborate YouTube video they thought would drive their advertising, only to find it fail with less than 50,000 hits within 24 hours, not a big success compared to the power of real influencer-creators. It almost doesn't matter what kind of video you upload, but it will improve your brand much better if you can upload it to the channel of a real influencer-creator with a lot of subscribers. In contrast with Honda, who tried to go it alone, a large company like Taco Bell quickly partnered with the fiery video maker, FreddieW whose small-scale projects have gained more than a million views (with over 2 million subscribers).
You have to identify your creator-influencer of choice. Then you have to nurture a relationship with that individual. You have to plan the project you intend to upload with the special quality of YouTube in mind.
You have to determine what category of viewer you want for your video and align with a specific vertical market. Understand what type of content your audience is interested in, and identify just the right creator for that topic.
Make your message clear. The clearer, and more focused you make your message, the better your creator-influencer can relay the message to your audience.
Collaborate with your creator-influencer to develop a relationship with him or her. You want to try to develop a lasting collaboration, not a one-time partnership.
The business of finding creator-influencer partners has itself grown into a significant consultancy business. Considerable lists of companies with influencer lists can be found if one searches for "How to find influencer partners?"
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