If YouTube wasn’t famous before on the online world, it certainly got a big shot in the arm when Tom Cruise appeared on a YouTube excerpt of the Oprah Winfrey show. That excerpt has become wildly popular among both Tom Cruise fans and people who just like a good controversy, because the YouTube excerpt shows Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s sofa cushions and professing his love for then-fiance Katie Holmes (now Mrs. Tom Cruise.) That Oprah episode may go down in history as the most famous YouTube offering yet.
But aside from controversial TV show excerpts, what else is YouTube good for? YouTube has only been around since February 2005 but its main use is to display video-based content using the Adobe Flash player system. It can accommodate amateur videos (like homemade music videos, presentations, and cellphone recorded clips) that either unregistered or registered users can watch when they like. Although YouTube does not officially permit offensive content, some strange content does manage to get posted as well.
Google itself, which bought YouTube recently, does not profit from ownership of YouTube. However, someone who needs to upgrade his marketing strategy can use YouTube for that purpose. You might be surprised who gets to market what on YouTube. For instance, this ongoing US Presidential campaign between different American contenders gained added popularity when the Presidential candidates started relying on YouTube submissions to promote their respective political platforms and expand awareness of who stands for what in this Presidential Race. The staff of each candidate relies on YouTube videos to either support their candidate or criticize opposition candidates, and sometimes both at the same time. This type of marketing of a candidate is not only good for YouTube’s popularity, but it does serve its purpose of making US politics reach voters in a more tangible manner.
This 2008 Presidential Race in the US has been dubbed a very “democratic” (perhaps THE most democratic) Presidential Elections so far. This is attributed to the use of YouTube videos wherein ordinary Americans would posit questions to the candidates for the latter to answer. This is perhaps the first time such technology has been fielded for a major US election.
Politicians in other countries like Italy, France and Australia have also been adopting use of YouTube for their political activities. It is not so far-fetched to imagine that other politicians in other countries may eventually start using YouTube as well.
The controversial nature of YouTube though is one reason that some countries have banned access to YouTube. I know of one airline does not allow certain YouTube pages to be shown aboard its flights at any time. Controversy surrounds YouTube, among some viewers who find its content to be offensive to them as a culture and towards their faith.
If you like to have people see content that you need for your marketing plans, then perhaps YouTube is worth exploring. Some people even buy youtube views or regularly scroll through YouTube videos daily so this would be a nice way to get additional exposure for your business.
For more tips on how to improve your Internet marketing skills make sure you browse through our posts in the Internet category.