When was the last time you used YouTube? We bet it was just a couple of hours ago! 

YouTube has evolved since its inception in 2005. It’s gone from being a music / video streaming app to a global communication platform. Right from how to learn Latin, how to bake the perfect cupcakes to which DSLR to add to cart next, YouTube is your guru. The evolution doesn’t stop, though. Your favourite YouTube channels are always coming up with something new and exciting to offer. 

You’re always a step ahead with YouTube.

How YouTube has revolutionised the digital era–

1. Second most popular social media platform 
   After Facebook, the world’s most frequented go-to social media platform is YouTube. Approximately 79% of internet users across the world have a YouTube account (Dataeportal, 2019).
   YouTube has countless advantages for users everywhere, whether it’s to stream music, look at product reviews, movie trailers, covers, learning, and what have you. 
   Ever since Google’s acquisition of YouTube from its founding PayPal employees, YouTube has grown unfailingly and exponentially, one of the reasons being the ease of accessibility. Even now, with the launch of YouTube Red and YouTube music, the surprises never seem to end. 
2. Second most popular search engine
   Besides being the world’s second favourite social media platform, it is also the second most used search engine after Google. It enjoys viewership of around 1,300,000,000 users, and about one billion user-hours everyday!
   Evidently, it would seem that YouTube holds answers to everything. It’s the world’s preferred search for “How to” videos. 
   Fun fact: The most searched “How to” on YouTube is “How to kiss”.
3. YouTube means business, too!
   Considering the preference of video content over plain textual content, an increasing number of businesses and brands are turning to YouTube for marketing and promotion of their products and services, either directly through their channels or through YouTube content creators. 
   Given the world-wide reach of the platform, it is an excellent channel to interact with existing consumers and invite potential consumers.
4. Helps users discover new products
   90% users say they come across new products and brands through YouTube (Thinkwithgoogle, 2019)! 
   While it may not elicit a definite purchase from users, it sure gets the ball rolling. Seeing as consumers depend more on video content than anything else, YouTube can introduce an unprecedented number of potential consumers to your brand. 
   Think about it: How many times have you searched for product reviews or looked for product recommendations on YouTube? Right? You’re not the only one!
5. Learning & upskilling
   YouTube is a go-to learning platform for users across the globe. Whether it’s academics, learning skills like playing musical instruments, cooking, learning how to code, how to draw, design, or even how to workout — YouTube has the answer to everything. Users rely on video instructions and guides over texts, as it’s much easier to understand when seen in action. 
6. Worldwide reach 
   One of the most prominent advantages of YouTube, especially for businesses – global reach. You can potentially communicate with millions of users across the word, even if you only speak one language. What’s more? Closed-captioning helps you gain more viewers as it makes your content more accessible.

Some fascinating facts about YouTube–

1. YouTube started as a dating site 
   Back in 2005, when YouTube was launched, it was introduced as a video-dating platform! In fact, they’d established a tagline for it, too – “Tune in, Hook up”. 
   But of course, that was very short-lived. No complaints there!
2. First video ever to be uploaded on YouTube 
   The first video on YouTube was no showstopper. Uploaded on 23rd April, 2005, the video featured Jawed Karim on a trip to a zoo in San Diego. It had. 4,282,497 views.
3. YouTube & April Fool’s Day pranks 
   A lot of us are unaware of this, but YouTube is notorious for playing pranks on its users every year on April Fool’s Day! In 2009, YouTube took the internet by storm when it turned the website upside down. The tradition continues. 
4. Majority of footfall comes from outside the US
   Only 20% traffic comes from the US. Since YouTuber is accessible almost all over the world and available in 76 global languages, 80% of the footfall comes from outside the US!
5. Most watched 
   As on this date, the most watched video on YouTuber is “Baby Shark Dance” with 8 billion views, closely followed by “Desapcito” with 7.2 billion views. 
6. Upload frequency 
   Approximately 500 hours worth of videos are uploaded on YouTube every minute! This translates to 30,000 hours worth of videos every hour! It would take you nearly 82 years of undisturbed watching to finish all of those videos, and that’s if we discount those being uploaded while you continue to watch! 

There! We bet some of these insights surprised you as much as they surprised us! 

Stay tuned for more such interesting tidbits.

Back in the day, only celebrities and brand ambassadors were considered to be real influencers. However, over the years, with the exponential growth of social media, the entire definition of ‘influencer’ seems to have gone through a paradigm shift. 

Now, an influencer is basically a person with a substantial follower reach, someone who can literally influence their followers. They’ve established their presence in the digital community across platforms like Instagram, YouTuber, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and even LinkedIn! 

While communication through celebrities is still beneficial, communication through influencer marketing holds a couple of distinct advantages over the former. A celebrity may have millions of followers, not all of whom would be relevant to your brand. An influencer whose ideals and beliefs are aligned with yours are more likely to bring in more footfall, more loyalists. Their followers would most likely include a majority of your target audience, making it perfect for niche marketing. 

Here are some the ways in which influencer marketing can help your brand –

Brand awareness 

One of the most obvious reasons why brands use influencer marketing – to boost brand awareness amongst the digital community. They have a great presence on social media and can help your brand reach a vast number of people, a good fraction go which might be interested in your brand’s products or services. This helps bring your brand into the light. 

Even if you wish to target a new demographic, influencer marketing is one of the effective ways to achieve that. 

Credibility 

Consumers, more often than not, tend to trust reviews and opinions that come from an unbiased third party. If your brand is popular amongst a particular set of influencers, it will help strengthen the credibility of the brand while enhancing its reputation. Opinions going from influencers will look like honest testimonials, and hence will be trusted by their followers.

Fun fact: According to a recent study, 60% of participants confirmed that they’d purchase a product / service from a brand reviewed by a YouTuber.

(Source – https://bit.ly/3wgIOL9)

Target audience 

If you do your research right, you can address your target audience easily through influencer marketing. Look for influencers relevant to your brand, influencers whose beliefs and ideas match your brand’s. These influencers will bring with them an influx of potential customers who are interested in your brand’s offerings. 

All you need to do is choose the correct mediator through which to communicate, and get the communication right. 

Engagement rate 

Churning out unique and exciting content every week is a task, even for brands. Collaborating with an influencer would mean they’d take a little load off your back by putting their own resources and creativity to use and producing new content for you. As influencers talk about your brand, it creates a ripple effect, leading to an increase in engagement rate across social media platforms. Giveaway contests are a great way to kickstart your engagement growth! 

Boost conversions 

A 2018 report revealed that 45% smartphone users rely on product reviews before making a purchase. That gives influencers a substantial amount of power to influence potential customers. According to CivicScience, 22% confirmed that they would make a purchase recommended by an influencer! 

There, you have it! Influencer marketing is totally worth the hype it’s getting. Have you considered it for your brand?