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Last week we talked about creating your own commercials. Once you’ve created a commercial however, you somehow need to reach the masses on the Internet. The best place to start is YouTube.

Social networking is immensely popular. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter do everything from friends to photos to applications. But YouTube does only one thing: video. It just happens to do it extremely well.

Of the big four social networking sites, YouTube is by far the most popular. In June it reached 87.7 unique visitors, a 22% increase over last year. With YouTube, members can link to friends just like on Facebook and MySpace, but they can also subscribe to the channels of others, such as retailers. As a store, when you post new videos, your customers are alerted to the new content.

Video is one of the popular pastimes on the web, and YouTube members are ravenous for new content. So if you want to explain your offerings, this is the place to be. To make a video really popular however, you don’t just want to have a commercial, you either want it to be highly entertaining and/or offer lots of important information. YouTube videos can be used both for marketing, such as a 30-second commercial, and as part of the sales and support process for your products. Video is a better way to show off products than just the text or images you normally provide on your website. One of the great features of YouTube is that you can embed a YouTube video into your own website, or even as an email.

Videos that are properly tagged with keywords can also boost brand awareness through natural search on Google and other search engines. This can also help within the YouTube site itself. Say for example that you have a Garden Center and have produced a video explaining how to get your hydrangea bushes to produce more flowers. Be sure to tag your video with keywords that let customers know what the video is about. Then when they find you and watch your video, make sure you provide contact information including a link back to your webstore so they can buy something from you!