YouTube
Introduction
YouTube is a Service where users are able to watch, like, comment, share and upload videos. The service can be accessed on many gadgets such as
- mobile phones
- tablets
- laptops
- PCs.
YouTube was established in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Currently, YouTube is owned by Google.
Usage of YouTube
The video service is very simple to use. You can access it either through their app or website. You can search for topics and videos you would like to watch or scroll through the videos on the front page. If you sign up in YouTube you are also able to like and comment on videos and create your own playlists.
YouTube provides interesting content that anyone can see and upload. YouTube can be used in many ways also in tourism business. For instance, companies create adds that people will see before they get to the actual video they were about to watch. These adds are usually from 5 seconds to 2 minutes long. Longer ones can normally be skipped after 5 seconds of watching them.
How to Use YouTube in a Tourism Business?
The ads are not the only options on YouTube. Many people have growth making videos as their daily job. Influencers have their own channels where they publish their own videos quite regularly. With those influencers, tourism companies could work in cooperation. The influencer gets to come to the destination for free, in return they film a video of their visit, which is approved by the company they visit. The video vlog they will publish in their channel for their subscribers. Subscribers are viewers that follow the influencer on this platform.
Tourism companies can also make their own YouTube channel to upload videos they make themselves. For example, videos like “behind the scenes” have become quite popular recently. Showing what the company does when there are no customers or how they provide the service, what does it take to create this kind of service for customers, are really popular form of videos. Also, a simple description of what they offer and how it looks from their point of view.
On YouTube you can also put a regular adds that stay on the side of the page. They are probably not as effective as the video formed ones, since they stay on the side and are on the platform people come for videos.
Target Group
YouTube is very common to use at different ages. Also, different target groups can be found using this platform. With a large scale of different kind of content makes the user group for this platform wider. People who don’t have the tools, time or interest to read a written blogposts could be found using YouTube as their tool.
The question is how to find the people on YouTube that would like the company’s content. With the suitable and interesting title on the video and focusing on the length not being too long but still being long enough to provide the information, the companies can reach the right target groups for them.
The content on YouTube is on a very large scale. By focusing on the visualization and effective story telling in the video attracts more watchers. There are no limits with what kind of content it could be, as long as it will be remembered who it’s made for.
Communication with the Followers
Communication through services provided by YouTube is done by messages to the user’s channel. Subscribing to other users with their created content as well as commenting on videos. Metrics are given to creators with statistics other than views of their uploaded content such as likes to dislike, average viewing duration and peak viewing times. The creator can also provide links to promotional content. If one desires to become successful in gaining a good number of subscribers, they need to:
- look at the trends in which their channel is used for
- Cator to their audience with entertaining or educational content
- a great personality helps
Best ways to use YouTube is advertisement that attract people to use or buy the services of your company. There are many good examples on YouTube of ads like that, to get an idea. Also reflecting own reactions to ads and videos representing a company and it’s services will help to create own videos with possibly similar features. It’s important to seek information on how to attract watchers as well as possible. Videos are an excellent way to give instructions with the moving picture and hearing someone explain at the same time.
Hey,
Thank you for your blog post, it was very informative! It was airy, easy to read, and you have added some more links and a picture, which was enough for me.
I personally used to use YouTube a lot for all kinds of contents, lately it has become a platform where I mainly search for “how to..” phrases. But I believe that in tourism it has an importance, especially if you can create a kind of content that is visually aesthetic, and informative. I think, 3-6 minute videos are the most effective, if I am very interested in the topic, it could be longer, but it is important to me, that the content should be dynamic, easy to follow, with good background music, and enough useful information.
As for your SEO, it would help you, if you add a keyphrase:)
Anyways, good job, very nice blog post!
Hi, what a great blog post! I totally enjoyed reading it and it really captured my interest. Many great facts and hints and tips on how to use this platform in a professional business way for tourism professionals were provided in a very informative written way.
In my opinion, you also compiled many information about defining the target group and how to communicate with the followers. I think building a connection between the followers, subscribers or fans on social media is essential in online marketing and values the audience for their support.
I also liked your attractive and simple layout and agree with Zsanett that your post was easy to read and looked very professional and straight. Maybe other readers would prefer a few more pictures and links to more tutorials or guides on how to use YouTube, but I also think, and, in this point, I am totally with you that often, less content and an overload of information’s is more. In your case, it works perfectly fine. Great job!
Hi Riikka,
Thank you for your great blog about YouTube. I found it very interesting to read. I liked how you told some nice facts and tips on how businesses could use YouTube. I think YouTube is a platform that many people daily use. This makes it an attractive marketing channel for a company. I agree with you that as a business it can good idea to make a ”behind the scences” video, since a lot of people like this. The blog itself was easy to read and had a good structure. Overall you did an great job!
Thanks for the articles and comments.
How about your favourite YouTube accounts? Why do they appeal to you?
The linked video is from 2015. Is the user interface still the same?
Travel vloggers?
The videos are very important in destination marketing (dreaming stage), check for example Visit Finland.
Yes, behind-the-scenes videos are interesting and entertaining. How-to videos are also very popular (how to cook over open fire, how to camp in winter).
Hi Riikka, Logan, Katariina and Helena!
I found your post really interesting as even though Youtube is a bradly used platform, still its use for tourism businesses it is quite unknown for me. I found very interesting the information regarding the advertisements as I normally find them annoying. I always think that short and funny/attractive advertisements will be more effective than the long ones. By the time I realize they last 2 minutes I already want to skip them.
I also think it is quite difficult to create believable videos for the customers, as they will normally think they are not accurate coming from influencers or the company itself.
Anyways, it is a great platform that as you mentioned, provides a huge variety of content and that can find almost any target group on it.
Thank you a lot for this informative blog post!
Hi Riikka, Logan, Katariina and Helena!
I liked your post a lot and found it intresting. It was nice how you talked about how companies can use Youtube as marketing tool. I agree that well planned and vizualised videos really grab the attention. I like videos which are not too long but still give me alot of information at the same time. Your post was easy to read and the structure was good. Great job!