Do you know what the world’s second biggest search engine after Google is? YouTube. Billions of people are making billions of video searches and watching hour upon hour of content everyday, on their TVs, tablets, desktop and Smartphone devices.
If your hotel doesn’t have a YouTube channel yet, you already have some catching up to do.
In today’s post, we’ll look at how to get your property’s channel up and running and start driving results.
Setting Up Your Hotel’s Channel
Once you’ve taken the first basic step of setting up an account, click the gear icon on the top right hand side of the YouTube homepage to create a new business channel. It couldn’t be simpler.
Take time to complete the profile and “about” section for your hotel – this is essentially your chance to sell yourself so don’t waste it! Include links to your property’s website and social media accounts, as well as relevant keywords to help you get found by the right audience. It’s also important to pay careful attention to your channel’s cover image. This image will appear throughout your channel so make sure your branding is on point.
Under the ‘Channel’ drop-down menu on the left hand tab, click ‘Featured Content’ to select the key video which will appear on your channel’s homepage. This will start playing automatically whenever a guest lands on your page, so make sure it’s enticing enough for them to want to stick around to find out more.
Also under ‘Channel,’ take a look at “Branding”. Here you can select the watermark that will appear in your videos – ideally your hotel logo and website link.
Head to the ‘Advanced’ section to select your country and the keywords you want to target to help your guests find you. Finally, the Associated Website tab gives you control over publicly displaying or hiding your subscriber count, and allows you to maximise your reach by giving YouTube permission to display your videos alongside content from other related channels.
Create The Right Videos For Your Audience
If you’ve put off making YouTube videos up until now, the thought of having to get out there and shoot and edit your own content is probably why. But creating basic yet high quality and effective videos is more simple than you might think. Whether it’s local area highlights, a property tour, guest testimonials and anecdotes or a peek at your restaurant’s best dishes, you probably already have a fair idea of the kind of content that will appeal to your audience. You just need a decent Smartphone and a touch of creativity to bring these ideas to life.
Before you start shooting, put some effort into the planning stage. Consider the most flattering angles to shoot your hotel from, the best way to sequence your shots and come up with a concise script before starting the video. Tools like iMovie, Adobe, Biteable and Quik by Go Pro - to name just a few – make editing relatively straightforward even for video novices.
Optimise For Maximum Reach
Your video’s title, description and tags are key to getting your content discovered in search, both in YouTube and Google search results, so don’t forget to insert keywords when filling in these details. Of course, you should also promote every video you create on social media and your website too.
Have you set up a YouTube channel for your hotel yet? If not, why not? Let us know in the comments below!
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