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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Youtube for your webstore

SEO, it seems to be the buzzword on the internet, and also of fora of webstores like Etsy, SEO is the single most used word, at least so it seems. If I would have to make a guess on the second most popular word, my bet would be on Google, and then, Google as in the Search engine Google, not the company. Not realy surprizing, since its all about being found, and the synonym of "being Found" seems to be Google. Nothing wrong so far. The weird thing though is that, if we look at ways of being found, after Google there is a long... no a loooooooong silence. Then maybe Ask, Bing or Yahoo pop up, and maybe a cup of Facebook, a teaspoon of Pinterest, a sniff of Wanelo and maybe a hint of Instagram. One name keeps on missing, and yet it is the second biggest search engine in the world. Its name: Youtube!

Some Numbers*:

  • Every day, some 4 billion video's are being watched;
  • Every month, Youtube has some 800 million unique visitors;
  • 70% of all youtube traffic origins outside of the USA (I will explain why this can be important).
  • 100 million people a week perform some sort of social activity, like subscribing to a channel, "liking" a video or leaving a comment.
  • every minute, 500 tweets link to a youtube video.

So what makes youtube so important for your webstore? Well, its threefold.
First of all, like already stated, youtube is the worlds second biggest search engine, so NOT using youtube would effectively be like roughly cutting your internet-presence by a third. 
The second reason is the unique content that Youtube can deliver. I believe that, if done right, youtibe can hugely increase your store's visibility, even by more that 50%.
How so? Well, now a days, there are a lot of people using youtube to search for tutorials. So lets just say you have a webstore focussing on hand-made glass beads, or, crochet tops. If you would take the time to, preferebly with the assistance od someone else, make a few tutorials on "how to make" either of these, you are likely to attract people interested in acquiring the knowledge, or at least, have the aspiration. "Isn't that dangerous for me?" is the most likely question. Well, it depends, but in general not.
We all know that mastering something takes a lot of time, and practise. Unless your crafts are more of a trick than of skill, its not so likely people will master it after seeing your vid. But it has two other effects. Firs of all, you can (ofcourse) put a link to your webstore in the vid and on your youtube page. I betcha that a lot of people will click it or visit, just out of curiosity of what you have created. But there is more, by GIVING to the internet community (in this case knowledge), you build a reputation and are more likable. And in sales, its all about people perceiving you as likable. 
Lastly, youtube offers something that google itself does not: social capabilities. By liking your video, tweeting about it or leaving comments, more people in their circle will see your content, the famous oil-stain effect.

OK, I still owe you why its important that 70% of the searches come outside of the USA.  This is a more Etsy-specific issue. Non-USA Etsy sellers attract relatively little non-US viewers, simply because Etsy is most widely known inside the USA. And US based stores, find it harder to attract non-US buyers too (for the same reason of course). So by using Youtube, you are in fact broadening your geographic area of activity. Now, isn't that exactly what most shopowners want?



* source:http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics/