The steps to using YouTube as a personal branding and business tool
The world of YouTube, full of cat videos, travel vlogs and kids unwrapping and reviewing toys. BUT it is WAY more than that! It is this amazing library of videos with a purpose to inform, educate and entertain and it is a great place to build a personal brand and a business.
So what are these steps to creating a community, a following and profitable business using YouTube? Well, of course, we have brought in the absolute experts to educate you of ALL things YouTube!
On the podcast, we had Erin May Henry, Founder of The Game Changer Co and Australian YouTube Content Creator. Erin creates lifestyle content and helps entrepreneurs build their personal brand and business. Did we mention she has over 100,000 followers on YouTube? Yeah, she knows her stuff!!
If you find value in this blog, make sure you share it with me on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram! Even better, share it with your audience! You can also listen to the episode below!
Listen below!
Introduction to YouTube
Yes, we all know what YouTube is, but did you know there are 300 hours of videos uploads to YouTube EVERY MINUTE!! But, don’t let that stop you from creating content, because almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day! Thanks MerchDope for the fun facts!
Just because there are SO many videos loaded onto YouTube, doesn’t mean you can’t or you shouldn’t be creating content. It just means, as Erin says, you have to be working that little bit harder to create engaging content your audience loves.
Remember, entrepreneurship, personal branding and content creation is all a learning experience. Chances of you creating a viral video from the get-go are slim, BUT you should be creating content and treating each video like it is a viral piece. Then, once you work out what isn’t working, make sure you continue to change and adapt.
Then as Erin said, once you find something that works, do that over and over and over again!!
Find the niche you love
We know you have heard this before, but it is hasn’t sunk in yet and if you still hate creating content, REVIEW THIS!!
As Erin said, if you don’t want to talk about your story or your business niche over and over and over again, chances are you aren’t super passionate about it! You need to be passionate about it, otherwise, it will seem like a job!
So start brainstorming what you love and create a personal brand around this, from there you will begin to create a business and can help others do what you do (more on aspiration later).
But seriously, you need to be talking about an area you are SO passionate about, otherwise, you will struggle to be consistent with it!
Share your journey on YouTube
When it comes to creating content for a personal brand, look at sharing your journey!! We have areas in our life that interest us (no matter who we are), this comes down to health, money, business (or career) and relationships.
If you have a struggle or a story to tell in one aspect of these, chances are others will want to hear about it! When you are creating a lifestyle and personal branding video, your life is your content!
You might think some of the things you do is boring, but there is always a lesson in it! Look at the day to day things that happen in your life and see what you can use as content. Journaling can help with this!
Even if you want to start a business but don't know what that looks like, start creating content on YouTube and allow your personal brand to build that for you!
Have a purpose for your YouTube
Now, this purpose doesn't have to be to educate or to sell your products or services, it could just be to spark joy or to entertain!
Knowing what the purpose is of every platform you use as part of your business or personal brand is so important! So for example, my YouTube channel is just to showcase my lessons, travel journey and the like!
So just think about what your purpose is for your YouTube channel? Maybe you are an entrepreneur looking to make YouTube more of a personal branding tool where you share more about your life! Whatever that looks like, think about it before you get started.
Or if you have already started, do a little review!
Staying consistent and promotion on YouTube
Like everything, with YouTube, you want to be consistent. So the number one advice Erin gave is, you have to love it! You have to love talking about your niche or your life in a way that ensures you stay consistent with it! Of course, committing to a video once a week or the like, on a certain day can help with this too!
Once you have published your video, you do want to promote it across different channels you show up on to attract your community to watch it! But as Erin said, the most important things for her is looking at the analytics!
Look at the stats on YouTube
With all platforms, whether it is your website, social media channel or YouTube, the stats are SO important! This gives you a really good insight into your audience and what they like!
So the things you want to look at is:
Click-through rate (this how many people are clicking on your video from the feed)
Duration watched
There are many other stats to look at, but these are key! As Erin said, with your click-through rate, maybe you need to change your thumbnail or your title of the video to attract more viewers or a more aligned audience.
With the duration of the video, maybe you need to consider how you structure out the content or how long you should make them in the future.
Make sure you continue to look at these analytics to get a big picture look at your YouTube channel. This is where you can look at what topics work and what ones don’t! Then as Erin said, use what works over and over again!
Understand the algorithm on YouTube
You also want to understand the algorithm of YouTube. Of course, the number one objective of YouTube is to get people to stay on the platform. If you create content people like and engage with, if you keep people on the platform, that is a BIG win for YouTube.
So this means creating content for the consumer of that content. It also means putting your flair on your content to make it unique and interesting! Look at what people are doing in your space, look at what works, but of course make it yours! Make it true to you!
Also, look at the stats again and make the changes based on the thumbnail, click through rates and the duration of the video watched. Always look and gauge what is working!
The editing style of your videos for YouTube
The editing process places a pivotal role in how your videos are engaged with on YouTube! Make it snappy and fun, but also make it direct. We have short attention spans (especially with the rise of TikTok and Reels), so make sure you get your point across very early on in the video.
Keep people’s attention by changing the pattern every 30 seconds. This could be with a frame change or something pop up on the screen to make it different!
Really take care of how you edit your videos, take the time to make it as engaging as possible and always ask yourself, if someone presented this to me, would I find it interesting?
Developing a level of aspiration and relatability on YouTube
Now, this was a very interesting concept introduced by Erin in the podcast (listen below), and that is the term "aspiration and relatability". What does this look like?
So this is having a good balance of inspiring people so they want to be in your shoes (so to speak) but you also want to be relatable! Of course, having people aspire to be you doesn't mean going out and buying things you can't afford to look wealthy or do things that aren't aligned to you to be inspiring.
This means sharing your wins, showing the positives on your lifestyle, but then, of course, being relatable. Sharing your struggles and your lessons.
What does this balance look like for you?
Final thoughts
YouTube is a big channel, yes. Does that mean you can’t have success on it? Absolutely no way. If you have a message and a journey to share, share it!
There is a big pie, we will always have people going viral online, so why can’t it be you? All you have to do is, create the content to engage people, to create a community and to share your message.
It is all about understanding your audience and understanding the purpose of your content creation. Talk about what you love and be prepared to talk about it over and over again!!
“Be a content queen (or king) and remember developing your content develops your business”
Additional Resources
The Guide to Instagram Reels: How to add a BRAND new platform to your content strategy
What is the purpose of content creation and how does content marketing work?
What is an influencer: am I an influencer or how do I become an influencer?
How to handle perfectionism with creating content for business and social media
