Somewhere in the world right now, there are people working, banking, playing games, chatting, watching movies or videos or reading on the internet. Just among the people watching videos there are endless options of what they could be doing. If you’ve wandered through the videos available on a service like YouTube lately, you know there are people and companies from all over the world using that platform to get across their message.

A Boon for Business

Were you aware that there are businesses which successfully use YouTube for marketing and branding purposes? Yes, of course, if you’re using the unpaid version of YouTube, you’ve seen the ads pop up like commercials in the middle of what you’re watching or appear across the bottom of the video or in a box somewhere on screen. They don’t interrupt what you’re watching, but lead you somewhere else if you click the wrong button.

It’s more than that, though. Companies are utilizing social media to fix their brand identity into the minds of consumers by giving a peek at whatever it is their marketing team thinks you should see. A company with a strong “family values” brand will put out videos supporting that vibe and utilize key words like #family, #familylife or #familyvalues in their description so that if you search those keywords, their videos will be part of the list offered to you for viewing. Why is that important? You see their brand and subconsciously identify their company with something that appeals to you. You’ve also identified yourself as a likely target to use their company in the future, so those keywords you searched become cookies that lead them straight to you repeatedly.

It Really is Easy

There are elementary school children with YouTube accounts that will show you everything from their own talent at animation to them reading to their long-distance grandparents to them trying their favorite hobbies. If these kids can do this, you can figure out how to utilize YouTube for your business, too. Don’t ignore it in favor of the other social media sites. Your brand identity is boosted not only by spreading yourself out across multiple platforms, but also by showcasing your company in different ways. Your pictures on Instagram are helpful, as are your Tweets and Facebook posts. YouTube can play host to longer videos that better establish your brand to round out the image you want fixed in your customers’ minds.

Don’t neglect a cost-effective and easy service like YouTube in your marketing plan.