How To Get Discovered Through Video Search

You may have heard the story about how the band Journey found a replacement for their lead singer on YouTube. Videos of Arnel Pineda performing Journey covers in the Philippines were uploaded to YouTube by Pineda’s friend in February of 2007. These videos caught the eye of Journey guitarist Neil Schon, who happened to be in the market for a new lead singer. Schon contacted the person who uploaded the videos and was able to obtain Pineda’s contact info. A few months later, Pineda was touring the world as Journey’s new front man.

While Joe Six Pack may not be scouring YouTube for a new lead singer for his 80’s band, he’s still discovering new things through video search every day. Perhaps it’s a new album, TV show, pickup truck, or Blendtec blender. Savvy online marketers need to get in front of Joe with some online video showcasing their products. Here are a few tips to help your product get discovered through video search:

Make the video compelling. People aren’t going to discover your product through video search if you can’t create a compelling video. The Blendtec and Arnel Pineda examples illustrate successful applications of the two most effective strategies to create compelling video around a product:

1. My blender can blend an iPod. This strategy is about going back to the basics and thinking about how your product differentiates itself in the marketplace. What is different, and thus compelling, about your product? What could catch the eye of your target consumer? Showcase that in your video. If you can show that your blender can blend a rake and your competitors can’t, you’re going to sell more blenders. If you can’t figure out what’s compelling about your product, it’s time to innovate.

2. I can sing “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” better than you. Is your product the best the marketplace has to offer? Showcase that in your video. If your product really is the best, Journey guitarist Neil Schon will know and you’ll now have the chance to hit the big time.

Make the video findable. Think about what keywords your qualified customer would be using on YouTube and the search engines to find your video. Incorporate these keywords into the title and description for the video. Upload your video to YouTube, which now gets more search traffic than Yahoo! (according to comScore). Housing your video on YouTube will also give your video the best chance to show up in the Google.com and Yahoo! search results.

Make the video sharable. Encourage your brand evangelists to share your video with their friends. If you post the video on your company blog or web site, include the social marketing toolbar to make it easy for people to share the content. Post the video to your Facebook fan page or promote the video via your monthly client newsletter.

It used to be an impossible dream that I could ever be the lead singer of Journey. But with this growing phenomenon of people discovering things through video search and the videos I have of me doing Journey karaoke, it’s…well… still impossible.

Eric Papczun is director of natural search optimization for Performics. The Video Search column appears on Thursdays at Search Engine Land.