There is really no debate with regard to the importance of video in the success of any company’s marketing strategy. The ability to reach large audiences with your message and branding is unquestioned. More companies of all sizes have seized this opportunity and have seen their brands expand as many embrace a YouTube channel as a way to stay in touch and to recruit new customers.
The Pew Research Center has recently published research on just why YouTube is so dominant and important. Here are just some of its findings:
- Around three-quarters of U.S. adults (73%) say they use YouTube, according to an early 2019 survey. And among 18- to 24-year olds, 90% say they use it. The only other social media platform that approaches YouTube in terms of its reach among Americans is Facebook, which was used by 69% of U.S. adults as of early 2019.
- YouTube channels generate a massive amount of content every week. As of January 2019, nearly 44,000 YouTube channels had at least 250,000 subscribers. Collectively, these popular channels uploaded 48,486 hours of content and received over 14.2 billion individual views in the first week of 2019 alone, according to a Pew Research Center analysis published in July 2019. The average video was 12 minutes long and received nearly 60,000 views in the seven days after it was posted.
- Many Americans use YouTube to stay informed and learn new skills. Half of U.S. adults who use YouTube say the site is very important when it comes to figuring out how to do things they haven’t done before. It’s also common for Americans to get news on YouTube. In a 2019 survey, 28% of adults said they get news there, behind only Facebook (52%).
- Establishing a YouTube channel quickly establishes credibility with potential customers as well as cementing authority and trust. As the Web’s second largest search engine, YouTube is frequented as a means to sift out information that just may solve a problem or bring added value.
-Written by Kevin Sawyer
