Video or YouTube marketing is a form video advertising which has become an integral part of Internet marketing.  This article will help you to understand the importance of YouTube marketing and help you to gain popularity for your products or services.

Why use online video marketing?
Video marketing is one of the leading advertising platforms on the Internet and a promotional opportunity for anyone wanting to boost the visibility of their business. It is basically the concept of showing rather than telling and can attract loads of viewers if done correctly. There are many types of video marketing. The primary kinds include article video marketing, viral video marketing and social video marketing. If you're not certain about how to implement videos, it's a good idea to consult with a professional or consider audio taking a class which will provide comprehensive training:

Article Video Marketing
This type of video marketing appeals to those who would rather watch informational videos rather than read articles. Video marketing involves businesses or individuals developing short clips that display the contents of articles written beforehand. You would expect these videos to be between two and five minutes and cover a wide range of topics. After the videos are created, they're uploaded onto a video sharing websites (ie. YouTube) to target a specific audience.

Articles can be transformed into videos in a number of ways. One of the most popular ways is to turn the written pieces into a PowerPoint presentation or animated slideshow. Pictures and a voiceover narration are usually added to the presentation before it's recorded via screen capture software and put on the Internet for viewing. Another option is to record an article and save it as an MP3 file, then video layout software is used to change the audio to a video. The finished product is then exported and uploaded to relevant websites for exposure.

Viral Video Marketing
Another form of online video advertising is viral video marketing which contains humorous events, eyewitness events or clips from comedy sketches on television. Many clips are shot by amateurs using mobile devices and edited using software before being published on video sharing sites, social networking sites and personal websites.

Most viral videos are created as a dialogue and shared with the intention of entertaining family and friends, but it can certainly be used as a way to engage prospective customers. This option has superseded word-of-mouth marketing and was preceded by email-sharing. These types of videos continue to increase in popularity in a variety of sectors, including education and music. However, fans of this concept must be careful not to violate copyright laws, as this has been a major drawback to viral video-making and has been the cause of several problems within the entertainment industry.

Social Video Marketing
This choice is equally significant. Social video marketing (SVM) is similar to viral video marketing in that it engages a wide audience through the distribution of video, however, self-expression tends to be more evident. This form of video marketing relies heavily on social theory, consumer culture theory, and economic theory.

Social videos tend to be passed along because of a shared interest or a sense of trust between sender and recipient(s). Social videos attract conversation in either a one-to-one or a one-many relationship, with the comments and interactions becoming cumulative, rather than moving in a one-way trajectory, as in the case of a viral video.

Introducing YouTube
No matter what kind of video marketing is used, advertisers do confirm the benefits of sharing their clips on YouTube. This video-sharing site attracts millions of visitors on a regular basis and offers a huge range of videos, including music videos, TV clips, movie clips, video blogs, and original clips. Although mostly individuals upload videos on the site, several major corporations are also making contributions as well.

Content is constantly investigated by YouTube's employees. Explicit or offensive material can only be viewed by registered users. This group also has the privilege of uploading videos, as well as watching them. Unregistered users, on the other hand, only have the right to view distributed clips.

Besides uploading, YouTube also contains other valuable features. Playback is a major attribute on the site and enables users to view finished products if an Adobe Flash Player plug-in is installed on their computer. Browsers that support specific HTML5 versions, such as advanced video coding and WebM, also give individuals the opportunity to view videos, although some clips are still inaccessible with this alternative. Additional features include 3D videos, various platforms and a newish
localisation system.

How it All Began
At the beginning of 2005, YouTube was established by three former PayPal employees. The entire concept of the video-sharing website was developed over the course of a few months and started out as a technology start-up
company.

After its establishment, the site grew faster than anticipated. By the summer of 2006, it was reported that thousands of videos were being uploaded every day and millions of viewers were watching clips per day. Numbers continued to increase and moved into the billions by 2010. Since then, YouTube has embarked on several new concepts such as the ability to upload full-length videos and the free streaming of specific content. A new design was also launched to provide additional benefits to users.

YouTube is headquartered in California, and after being acquired by Google, the Google+ social networking site was integrated with YouTube which allows the site's videos to be viewed from Google's interface. YouTube is a dominant force in the online business market worldwide. More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month watching over 4 billion hours of video. 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US with YouTube localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages.