YouTube was formed in 2005 by 3 former PayPal employees. Google, never slow to spot an opportunity, acquired YouTube the following year.

From it’s early beginnings YouTube is now one of the most powerful promotional channels on the web. Enabling anyone with a video equipped phone or camera to be the star of their own movie.

And there have been plenty of celebrities born on YouTube with Justin Bieber probably being the most famous.

YouTube isn’t just about home video and music sensations though. It’s a serious business tool too, with many companies and charities hoping to produce the next video sensation that will promote their brand virally around the world.

Recently Kony 2012 took the web by storm, becoming the most rapidly spreading viral video of all time, with more than 100 million views in six days. This has greatly impacted the films producer’s, Invisible Children, mission to stop LRA violence and support the war-affected communities in East and Central Africa.

YouTube In The Marketing Mix

Is it Social Media?

According to Gary Vaynerchuck Social Media doesn’t really exist and in the video below he uses YouTube as an example of how the phrase has been misused.

I agree with Gary, Social Media is the Internet, they are synonymous with each other.

YouTube is the fuel that feeds it.

With 4 Billion video views per day and 1 hour of video uploads per second it’s hard to ignore.

Read It Later or Pocket as it is now known, an application that allows you to save articles on the web for “reading later”, reports video saves are up 138%, and YouTube is the most-saved domain; The median length of a video saved in Read It Later is nearly 30 minutes.

Create Your Own YouTube Sensation

So if YouTube is the fuel that feeds Social Media you need to produce some of that fuel of your own. Video can be complex to create, but in an effort to help you understand how to do just that Google have set up some YouTube Creators Workshops throughout May.

Free to take part, they will be streamed live on the YouTube Creators Google+ page and will include:

• May 2: Introduction to cinematography
• May 9: Importing & Exporting: Dealing with codecs and compressions
• May 16: Building your audience on YouTube
• May 23: Improving your channel with YouTube Analytics

Whilst you may not become the next Justin Bieber or create a Kony 2012 you will at least gain an understanding of what is required to plan, produce and build a YouTube video to market your brand, big or small.

Want to build authority for you or your business online? Sign up for my new online course “How To Use Twitter To Build Authority In Your Market Sector”.