Just a few years ago, YouTube was dismissed as a platform for amateur videographers who specialized in laughing babies and backyard wrestling. But today, video—and YouTube—is seen as a viable and essential communications vehicle by a large number of organizations. Consider that people watch 2 billion videos a day on YouTube and that every minute 24 hours of video is uploaded onto the site (see the chart on page 6 for further proof of YouTube’s power).

Along with the rising audience numbers, the way PR leverages YouTube is fast evolving. Many B2B and B2C organizations are effectively using the site for raising awareness around product launches. Others are discovering new tools that will better help them create and upload more content. And smaller organizations with little YouTube experience are now discovering its wide viral reach.

We asked three YouTube users—two very experienced and one relative newbie—to fill us in on how they’re leveraging YouTube in their communications programs.

‘TOUGH’ AUDIENCE

Tony Obregon, VP of digital media at Cohn & Wolfe, uses YouTube to showcase client Panasonic’s Toughbook laptops. These rugged machines are only available through B2B and government channels, but Obregon says the videos on the YouTube Toughbook channel are being consumed by regular consumers.

Viewing data backs that up: Videos for the new Toughbook 31 drew nearly 5,000 views in three days, says Obregon. Largely because of the vast YouTube audience, the laptops are being bought and sold by enthusiasts on eBay and other online marketplaces.

YouTube is even drawing in more tech journalists looking to write about Toughbooks, says Obregon. “Our strategy is to produce a video prior to launch that summarizes the product,” says Obregon. “We find that online reporters will write a story on the product and will now embed the video on YouTube into the story.”

Obregon says his next tactic involving YouTube will be replying to fans’ questions from Toughbook’s Facebook and Twitter pages with short and smart videos, à la the now famous Old Spice online campaign. “We’ll place these videos on our YouTube channel, which hopefully will drive even more traffic than we have now,” says Obregon.

Most Popular Video Upload Sites (Ranked by % of Visits)
Rank	Web sites	Domain	Jul-10
1	YouTube	www.youtube.com	86.20%
2	Hulu	www.hulu.com	3.61%
3	Bing Videos	www.bing.com/videos	2.04%
4	Google Video	video.google.com	1.06%
5	Metacafe	www.metacafe.com	0.77%
6	Dailymotion	www.dailymotion.com	0.77%
7	Vimeo	www.vimeo.com	0.61%
8	MySpace Video	vids.myspace.com	0.57%
9	Megavideo	www.megavideo.com	0.55%
10	Yahoo! Video	video.search.yahoo.com	0.47%
11	Ustream	www.ustream.tv	0.39%
12	Blinkx	www.blinkx.com	0.38%
13	Break	www.break.com	0.38%
14	Vevo	www.vevo.com	0.29%
15	Veoh	www.veoh.com	0.23%
16	YouTube Mobile	m.youtube.com	0.21%
17	Tagged Video	video.tagged.com	0.20%
18	Crackle	www.grouper.com	0.20%
19	Chatroulette	chatroulette.com	0.19%
20	Stickam	www.stickam.com	0.19%
Note - data based on a custom category of 77 Video Sites
Source: Experian Hitwise

RE-USER FRIENDLY

More uploads for more eyeballs is the name of the game, says Anthony Allen, director of digital media for the American Society for Training and Development. As one who produces some 300 hours of content per year, with much of that posted on YouTube, Allen is most interested in the quality of the video versus ease of production. So he’s keenly aware of new YouTube features that make the process easier.

The biggest game changer to come along in awhile, says Allen, is YouTube Video Editor. Introduced earlier this summer, the tool lets users create videos using excerpts from the videos they’ve already uploaded. “Videos no longer have to be completely perfect before they get to YouTube, because you can upload it and make tweaks to it later,” says Allen. “The tool is no Final Cut Pro, but for the lay person, it’s fine.”

What does this feature really mean for PR pros? “You might have a video posted that explains the mission statement of your organization,” says Allen. “With Video Editor you can splice in new footage that could be an update to that core message onto the original video—without having to pull it off the site.”

Allen expects organizations to take full advantage of this tool, and predicts that content “reuse” will explode.

While not quite the game changer as Video Editor, Allen sees a seemingly subtle YouTube change as significant: The time limit for videos has been changed from 10 to 15 minutes. “This is important to people who might be recording a conference presentation, for example,” says Allen. “Five minutes can really make a huge difference.”

BEGINNER’S SUCCESS

PR pros at small organizations, particularly nonprofits, may not be ready for features like Video Editor, but they can take advantage of YouTube’s reach nonetheless. Case in point: After the earthquake in Haiti, Laura Perry, director of communications at the UCLA School of Nursing, handed a Flip camera to Barbara Bates-Jensen, a wound-care expert who was heading out the door on her way to the disaster. “I didn’t know what footage she could get, but I thought we could make a short video of it, post it on our Web site, and she could have a copy of it,” says Perry.

The footage was very compelling, and Perry spliced in a follow-up interview with Bates-Jensen. It became “Healing and Hope in Haiti.” Perry posted it on UCLA’s YouTube Channel, where it’s garnered more than 1,000 views and inspired a campus visit from the Haitian ambassador. So much for “a short little video.”

Needless to say, the School of Nursing now has its own channel. One piece of advice from Perry: “When the video started to get a lot of hits, I submitted it to be a ‘featured video’ on YouTube. While it didn’t get accepted, it’s another way to get more hits.”

Obregon has more tips for making YouTube pay off:

• Show a cheekier side of your organization in your videos—it’s more transparent and authentic.

• Focus on creating YouTube playlists that are intuitive and allow visitors get to content they want to see.

• Use content from outside contributors. “They’ll love you for it,” says Obregon.

As it stands now, Allen can see only one drawback to YouTube’s booming popularity: National TV news shows like CNN are showing wild YouTube videos. “If I see another drumming baby, I don’t know what I’ll do,” he says. PRN

CONTACT:

Tony Obregon, [email protected]; Anthony Allen; [email protected]; Laura Perry, [email protected].