My initial thoughts were dismissive.  Comments, whether text or video, were certainly becoming more pervasive, but most of them were either inappropriate or spam.

Friends of a video channel?  Why would there be any serious move towards folks becoming friends of a channel?  Subscriptions? That made more sense, but other than some big hits, how would that work?  Would more than a few visitors to lesser known videos actually subscribe so that they could be notified of future videos?

We all know how fast things move online, but in that short window, YouTube has gone from being a blip on the social media playing field to the talk of search engine marketing.  What happened?

Ipod, Iphone, Ipad, and their cousins in the Android world.  YouTube is now ubiquitous.  Your friends recommend videos to you. You check out the results of Idol and Dancing the morning after through YouTube.  And most folks when given a choice between learning a new skill or how something works would much rather watch a video about it than read.

Under the radar and with little fanfare, YouTube Channel environments have been upgraded to have the look and feel of Websites or a Facebook page.  Videos created by the channel owner can be mixed with videos favorited and then organized by topic, date, or other approach.  The result can be huge stickiness to the channel as fans of the subject matter watch video after video.

For business owners who have wondered how to get traction on Facebook, Twitter, or their blog, the creation of even amateurish how to videos or product reviews can result in 100′s of subscribers and friends.  With a bit of additional work, these same videos can be the very method by which visitors are drawn to the other social media platforms.

To add to the overall effectiveness, the videos can be embedded or linked at Facebook or blogs and websites, and announced on Twitter and LinkedIn, sending fans from those sites over to the video channel where they might subscribe or become friends.

While this entire marketing environment lends itself more to businesses who have fans who will be interested in getting more content in the future from that channel, there are multiplied other possible targets:

• Professionals who might recommend you and be interested in info from your niche
• Friends of those who need your services find you in these places
• Others in your field pick up your video and show it on their blogs or other sites
• With so much information online, you are far more likely to be found

While many of the content possibilities online can be created as DIY projects by owners with lots of time on their hands, or through the use of employees with a flare for these kinds of things, a comprehensive social media strategy with video as the foundation is not for the feint of heart.  Our staff at Page 1 Listings.com is specially trained to maximize the use of these tools in such a way as they are most likely to result in traffic to your business.

In the specific case of Local SEO, the rules of the game have been changing so rapidly that most companies who profess to be experts in local search engine optimization have to work like crazy to keep up. Whether by design or by failure of design, Google keeps their methods a secret. The result is a constant scramble by those who need to know. The goal is to unravel the methods and use them to the advantage of SEO clients.

If a local business owner spent ten hours a week or so trying to stay on top of the local SEO news, he or she might be able to stay on page one of organic listings and Google Places. But that would assume that they are spending even more time or money actually implementing the strategies they learn about.

Google Places alone has made almost weekly changes over the past 6 months: changing the brand, offering posts, reducing the outside maximum on the outside pack to seven from ten, now allow links in the listings at two places, came out with a specific list of rules on some issues, created a paid ad called tags, have eliminated the direct link on the short listing to the website, and have added a problem center (albeit as of now it is one way). These are just the major changes. The entire list would be the subject of another entire article.

Over the course of the next ten days, I will provide the inside information that we might seem foolish to reveal. Your SEO consultant doesn’t want this list to see the light of day. But you need to know it. The main reason is so that you can tell your web designer who claims to know local SEO how to correctly set up your website. You need to know it so that you can help the SEO expert who tells you they will get you on page 1 for hundreds of dollars per month, but your phone never rings.

Here is Tip One of Ten on Local SEM Through Use of SEO

Title Appears Above the URL address Bar on Most Browsers

1. Meta Title Tags may be the most critical words on your website. This title tag is often what will be the headline in search, and Google thinks this is what is important to you. Your title tag should not be “Home” or “Joe’s Restaurant.” It should be “keyword keyword keyword city keyword keyword city.” Using restaurant as an example: “Italian Restaurant Pizza Beverly Hills | Wine Tasting | Los Angeles” You get 64 characters to tell your story.

The Title is Commonly Used by Google as the Headline

If you need to move product from retail shelves, create trust with your clients, or explain important details about consumer goods or business-to-business services, YouTube may provide your company amazing returns on your investment.  YouTube videos are reportedly 27 times more likely to show up on page one of your critical key words.  Knowing why and how could result in substantial revenue and profit increases for businesses like yours.

The oldest bicycle retailer in America under one families’ ownership is located in Ontario, California. Bumstead’s Bicycles is now owned by the forth and fifth generation of Bumsteads. But in their 99th year things were pretty rocky. After a failed attempt to move into larger, more expensive, quarters, they questioned whether they would be celebrating number 100. One thing they tried was YouTube Videos. Lloyd Bumstead points to creation of a series of YouTube videos as one of the best decisions they made in 2008. “In one weekend alone we had three new customers buy bicycles who were drawn by our videos.” Lloyd and son Garrison are now in year 101.

Why is YouTube working for small businesses? Visual media is trusted. Many consumers prefer to get their information by video instead of text. The emotion and energy of a powerful visual presentation convert visitors to buyers better than print. Use of music and special effects accomplish things that no other media can duplicate. But in this internet age, the big deal about YouTube is how easily you can get visibility on Google search. It is not uncommon for a thoughtfully keyworded YouTube Video to show up higher than your $5000 website.

In fact, Google is now making a concerted effort to “mix media” on page 1 search results. That’s why you now see news, images, videos, and local search engine results right on the top page mixed in with traditional websites. It is now estimated that a YouTube video is 27 times more likely to show up on page 1 of a google search for your important keywords than a website. Results happen quickly, too. Commonly your YouTube video will be seen on Google search within hours.

What does it take to create a video that might get such startling results? You can either do it yourself or hire a professional video production company to do it for you. The cost for a professional will range from a few hundred dollars complete to $1000 per minute. For YouTube purposes a good $300 video is probably all you need. Inexpensive videos might include a staff member explaining the benefits of a product, service, or the company itself, but many videos are simple compilations of still pictures, text slides, super text, and music.

Going it on your own is simpler than you might expect, and yet the potential return on your time investment may depend on a serious commitment to getting past the basics that follow. Excellent results may require digging into tutorials available on the web. Learning how to “tell your story” in a way that captures and holds the viewer’s attention long enough to create action is more art than science. That said, here are the basics you will need to do it yourself.

• Camera – Almost any camera that takes digital video will work. I like the Casio Exilim cameras. You can even get the job done with the Flip.
• Movie Editing Program – Apple’s IMovie is fantastic, but there are many free programs available.
• The Script – Plan out what you want to say and how you want to tell the story.
• Directing – Whether you are only directing yourself or others, admonish the story teller to just relax. They can do it over as often as necessary. Also, YouTube is a relaxed environment. Many viewers don’t want the material to be too commercial.
• Upload your contents into your editing program. Add still shots as inserts or breaks in the action. Create an intro and credits. Edit the video down to the point where you story is fully told. Add music if you dare. Music is a big plus at least for the intro. Here is an example of a YouTube video created for a bike shop that captures these ideas and has successfully sold a lot of product.
• Upload to YouTube. Your Title should be keyword rich, but still attract viewers. Your description can be really long. Start with your website URL, then add content. Some suggest the description should be a transcript of what’s on the video. Tell the visitor what action to take. Add keyword tags.
• Promote your video. Get friends to go to the video and give it a 5 star rating and make nice comments. Add the video to Facebook, blogs, and your website. Tell your followers to go see it.
• Finally, do Google searches under the keywords that you targeted. See where you are showing up.

There you have it. Easy and actually fun. Go back to your YouTube account, look under insite, and track the results. You may even want to tweak the title or keywords to try and get better traffic. What is a success? Hard to know. The best gauge? Does anyone buy anything from you because they saw the YouTube video. Five views a day and one order a week is better than 50 views a day and no orders.