How YouTube Changes Affect Small Business OwnersYouTube recently reinvented itself to act more like a social media platform, which is good news for small businesses. In the past, YouTube primarily featured viral videos, but this move gives all videos a better chance of being found.

YouTube Channels

The biggest change is that YouTube is now organizing itself by featuring channels more. The move to channels means customers or clients can add your business’s channel to their favorites.  So if you haven’t done so already, go into your channel settings and make sure they’re optimized. Use keywords in your video titles, description and tags so when YouTube users search, your channel has a better chance of showing up in the results.

It has also become much easier for you to link to other media, whether it’s your website, Twitter feed, Facebook or Google+ page. Take advantage of this. And if a customer shares one of your videos on a social medium, that video will show up on the YouTube home page of all the people in that person’s gmail universe.

YouTube Feed

A subscription feed, similar to Facebook’s news feed, puts the videos of subscribers to front and center, instead of the viral video of the moment. If a subscriber comments on your business video, their subscribers will see that as well.

This means the more active you are, the better. As a small business owner who is already busy, the idea of having another platform that requires regular updates may not be appealing. But there are small, less time-consuming steps you can take to stay on the radar of YouTube subscribers.

Rather than uploading videos in big batches, consider spreading out the uploading over the course of a few days or weeks. Then, subscribers will get multiple alerts of your updates over a period of time rather than just once. The reach of your videos will grow as well when followers like, comment, etc. them. And whenever you interact with videos that aren’t your own, YouTube followers will be alerted of that as well. So whenever you’re on YouTube, make a point to comment on videos you like that pertain to your business or product.

Video Metrics

YouTube is offering new metrics, which makes it easier for you to pinpoint which videos work and which don’t — and perhaps more important, when they do and don’t work. If everyone is tuning out at the 30-second mark of one of your videos, try to figure out why and fix it. If you can’t fix it, at least make sure that it doesn’t happen in future videos. Conversely, if viewers are replaying something at the 30-second mark, duplicate that in future videos.