WHEN IT COMES TO PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS, WHICH OUTLET SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO HOST YOUR VIDEOS?  WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS FOR EACH SOURCE?  HERE ARE THE BASICS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT EACH SERVICE.

VIMEO is probably the best choice for embedding your videos to your website.  You have a lot of UI control which means you can brand it to your liking.  For instance, you can remove the titles, change the color of the play bar, add your logo, add captions, choose what it displays when the video is finished, etc, etc.  In addition, you want your visitors to STAY on your website.  So remove any links that would take you to a different site – specifically the Vimeo logo and the suggested videos at the end.  That’s about it for vimeo, as the search rankings are not the greatest, and most people won’t see it unless you send them a direct link.

To embed, just upload your video, go to ‘Embed’ section under setting, chose your preferred option, then copy and paste the embed code to your website.  Unlike YouTube, Vimeo will not display unsightly ads on your website while prospects are trying to learn about your product or service.  All around, they offer a very clean embed for a professional presentation.

FACEBOOK:  Uploading your video directly to Facebook instead of pasting a youtube or vimeo link will give you the most organic views.  Facebook is in control of what videos get seen first, Facebook is trying to be the king of video content these days.  So, it you want more organic views, upload it straight to Facebook.  Also, if you paste a YouTube link, it will eventually get buried by posts.  If you upload a video straight to Facebook, it can easily be found in your Photo/Video Albums.  Don’t forget to add hashtags in your description.

You can also set a feature video to always show up at the top of your Facebook page, I recommend featuring your best video or most current video – change it up and keep it fresh.  You can also make video playlists.  If you have videos that fall into different categories, consider grouping them together into playlists.

Facebook also has a very easy to use promotional tool.  You can BOOST your videos presence by purchasing a promotional campaign.  Just look for the Boost button underneath your video, set your target audience, and throw down $20, $100, $500 or whatever you can afford on it, and watch tose statistics soar.  Be sure to add a good description with a clear call to action.  I usually always put a link to my website, my phone number and even an email address in my video’s description.  People respond to ads in different ways, give them options.

*INSTAGRAM – Same applies for Instagram as Facebook (Facebook owns Instagram).  Just remember you are limited to a 60 second video on Instagram.  Be sure to add LOTS of hashtags!!!

YOUTUBE is a great place to be discovered.  Just remember, Google owns Youtube, so when you do a Google search for something, look at the videos that pop up to the top of the results.  Videos now get a lot of plays after a typical google search.  So when you title your video, think outside the box.  How will your video get discovered – that is all you really want to use youtube for.

Here is an example for you, say you manage a winery that hosts weddings and you want to be discovered.  You probably won’t get discovered if you title your video “Weddings at SOnSO Winery”.  You would have a much better chance of being discovered if you titled your video as, “Beautiful winery wedding venue in Napa, CA.  Just think about what a bride might type into a google search bar, when trying to find wedding venues at a Napa winery.

On the contrary, you might want to title your video “Weddings at SOnSo Winery” if you were posting to Facebook because those are organic views and you want to remind your followers what you do.

Once you have a good title for your video, you then want to list a concise description.  People don’t come to youtube to read a novel.  Take them to your website to learn the details.  Just list a brief description and multiple ways to contact you – website, phone number and email address.  You will also want to add lots of tags.  In this case, I would list: Weddings, Napa Weddings, Vineyard Weddings, Winery Weddings, Napa California, etc, etc…

Last but not least, plan to design a Thumbnail for the video.  You can upload a nice looking thumbnail to Vimeo, Youtube and a Facebook Business Page (not your personal profile).  I usually create mine in quality photo in photoshop at 1920 x 1080 at 72dpi.