Top 5 YouTube Marketing Mistakes Committed by Small Businesses

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

marketing mistakes small business youtube video success

The path to YouTube marketing success can be littered with potholes that budget- and time-strapped small businesses cant afford to fall in to.

Weve spoken to three top experts in the video marketing arena to get professional advice about the common mistakes that small companies mak! e on the video-sharing platform so that you can avoid making those same errors.

For your viewing pleasure and enlightenment, weve also included a few successful YouTube videos that were produced by small businesses.

1. Having Unrealistic Expectations

Some businesses mistakenly believe that they just need to upload a video to YouTube and wait for viewers to watch by the millions. According to Sarah Wood, founder of social video distribution and engagement company Unruly Media, this rarely happens.

Yes, there is a massive appetite for online video content, but there are 35 hours of video content uploaded to YouTube every minute, so the competition for eyeballs is intense, says Wood.

You need to manage expectations when it comes to the success of your YouTube content. There are a ton of high-quality, company-made videos on YouTube that never manage more than a few thousand views.

Remind yourself that having a video go viral is a notable success, not the norm, says Matt Smith, director of strategy at digital agency The Viral Factory. Smith counts Blendtecs Will It Blend? series (see above) as one such success.

Blendtec happens to be one of the most brilliant viral marketing campaigns ever, and its the exception rather than the rule, he says.

No matter how good your content is, you cant just upload a clip, sit back and wait for people to come to you you need to have a promotion and distribution plan.

You need to think through why youre on YouTube and what you want out of it, then tailor the content and the delivery strategy appropriately, says Smith. Putting content on YouTube is step one, step two is getting out there and promoting it.

Justin Gonzalez, social media strategist for creative video agency BARS + TONE agrees that videos wont go viral on their own you must allocate time and resourc! es to se ed it properly.

Try using social networks like Facebook and Twitter to get your social strategy started then promote your video using those vehicles. At the very least, friends and family are a great way to get a video to start circulating, says Gonzalez. After all, you put money into making the video, so you better do it justice and get it in front of the right people.

2. Thinking Small

Although expectations need to be kept realistic, dont think that viral success is totally out of reach just because youre a small business.

There are plenty of small brands that think they need to be a Nike or an Adidas to be successful in social video, says Wood. This is simply not true! Any brand, large or small, can score a hit in social video.

And Wood has a great example of a small business with a successful video: Alphabet Photographys Christmas Food Court Flash Mob (see above). The clip was one of the surprise hits over the holidays last year, garnering more than 30 million views and almost 773,000 shares on Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere, according to Unruly Medias Video Viral Chart.

3. Treating a Viral Video as a Commercial

YouTube is new media, its social, its about engagement. Dont sign up for the platform with a limited, old media perspective.

When you go into online video with the understanding that it can do more than just sell a product or service, youre already ahead of the game, says Gonzalez. YouTube is a social channel where people want to consume and share fun and engaging content, so dont hit them over the head with a sales pitch.

YouTube requires as much thought as any other social media channel and shouldnt be looked at as a dumping ground for marketing videos, says Gonzalez. Everything you post should represent your brands personality and inspire some type of reaction from your viewers - whether its provoking thought, ! laughing out loud or making a purchase.

4. Putting All Your Eggs in the YouTube Basket

Its certainly the biggest, but dont forget that YouTube isnt the only online video platform, and it may not offer the best chance of success for your brand. Vimeo, for example, could be considered a more credible platform for creative professionals.

Businesses that want to leverage the word of mouth potential of social video need to focus away from just YouTube and explore the world of social video that exists beyond YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, says Wood.

Wood also names action-sports site Mpora and comedy site Funny or Die as effective outlets for hopefully-going-viral videos because they can deliver high-quality video engagement to a more targeted and niche demographic.

5. Basing Success on View Counts Alone

Too often, businesses produce videos and hope to get 1 million views. On todays social web, success isnt always counted with stats or measured in view counts meaningful engagement is what matters.

At Unruly, we place a greater emphasis on brand engagement, so we also look at the number of times a video has been shared on various social media platforms, time spent with the video and uplift in relevant brand metrics, says Wood.

Gonzalez thinks this is a particularly important point for small businesses, which have limited resources and must decide from the outset what they hope to gain from YouTube.

Sometimes marketers get bogged down in looking at the metrics and trying to determine whether the number of video views really made a difference in the bottom line, or whether it was just enough to build buzz around the product or service, says Gonzalez. When you can clearly define why its necessary for your business to be on YouTube, youre ready to move on to the next steps.

BONUS: Dont Underestimate the Power of Cats

And finally, Smith chimes in with ! the most insightful and important point of all that will help any brand on YouTube regardless of size or industry.

Dont ignore cats. Failure to put a cute or funny cat in your YouTube marketing material will cost you dearly in terms of exposure, credibility, sales and reputation, he opines. Everyone will know you are a failing business, and theyll hate you and your product.

More Marketing Resources from Mashable

- 5 Tips to Strengthen Your Companys Social Media Voice
- 10 Online Strategies for Your Next Product Launch
- 10 Fascinating YouTube Facts That May Surprise You
- HOW TO: Engage and Mobilize Facebook Fans Beyond the Like
- 5 Masterminds Redefining Social Media Marketing

Image courtesy of Flickr, Brandi Sims

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