If you have been a reader of this site for any period of time you know that I am a huge advocate of having a YouTube channel. In fact I believe it to be a must have for photo booth owners. Just in case that wasn't clear let me say that again. Having a YouTube channel is a must have for photo booth owners.

 

Why YouTube?

You want entertaining content to help build your brand and land gigs, don't you? You want this content to be easy to consume whether the viewer is using a computer, smart phone, tablet and even a TV. Just as important you want it to be highly discoverable and of course easy to share, right? Of course you do and who wouldn't?

YouTube is the perfect vehicle for doing this. YouTube is pretty much synonymous with online video these days. It works wonderfully in your parent's old version of Internet Explorer 7 to the new Smart TV sitting in your living room.

Why not use alternatives like Vimeo or Flickr (yes they have video too)? Well let us look at some numbers. Here are a few key stats published by YouTube for a its users. If you would like to read more staggering stats you can go to http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics.

  • Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
  • In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth
  • Millions of subscriptions happen each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you're interested in — whether it's a friend, or the NBA — and keep up on their activity on the site

WOW! Over 800 million unique visits per month. How would you like to access just 0.1% of that? I know that I sure would. While results may vary, I can guarantee one thing. If you do not have a YouTube channel you will be accessing 0% of these visits.

 

Amazing Videos Need Only Apply

I am sure that you are asking yourself how do I get amazing content for my YouTube channel? I do run a business here and one thing that I lack is tons of extra time to spend building videos. As a fellow business owner I fully understand, but the great news is it doesn't take much time. Typically less than 15 minutes of your time to create amazingly entertaining videos from your event photos.

This is where Animoto‘s amazing online service comes into play. Hands down, the best service for those that have yet to create any online video.

 

What is Animoto?

Animoto is probably one of the easiest yet most rewarding tools I use in my photo booth business. Trust me it is a lot more enjoyable than my QuickBooks. Animoto automatically produces stunning videos from your photos, video clips, and music. The basic idea is you upload a set of photos, pick the song, select a theme from a handful of presets and let them do the heavy lifting for you. As they like to say “they add the magic”.

Want to see a sample? Sure. Here is a sample video from my photo booth business' YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/itsaphotobooth)

 

This video literally took me less than 15 minutes to create. The interface of the app is very intuitive. They have a large selection of royalty free music to choose from (600 on the plus account, 1100 on the pro account), though I still supplement mine with tracks from AudioJungle to keep things fresh. If you used their service I awhile back I would like to inform you that a recent upgrade has videos rendering in near real-time.

Another great feature is their HD upgrades (included in the Pro account) that render your videos at 720p resolution at the time of this writing. I am still hoping that they will bump this to 1080p soon.

You may notice that I have a branded intro and outro to my videos. This is a great feature of the Pro account I have. I highly recommend that you consider this upgrade if you will be doing 20 0r more videos a year. If you choose the plus account HD upgrades are currently $6 each.

 

Bonus Tip

Here are two great things you can do with your newly created video assets.

First you can integrate it into your website to help drive traffic there. By using the embed code on YouTube you can let them handle the bandwidth for you while you reap the benefit of multi-media content on your website. If you are in need of a low cost, quality web host I recommend that you check out Blue Host. They are my host of choice and host this site along with my photo booth's.

Secondly, you can differentiate yourself from the competition by offering a unique personalized DVDs for your clients. If this interests you I recommend that you read my post Stand Out with a Personalized Video DVD.

 

Is this something you think you will try? Is there something you would do different? Share with the community by leaving a comment below.

 

 

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