Five Things Event Planners Should Never do on YouTube

So, you’re planning to market your event on YouTube? That’s great! Good initiative! You’ve potentially just equipped yourself with a powerful tool that could easily make your brand soar to new heights – but only if you actually understand how to manage it. Even a seemingly irrelevant mistake could cause all your efforts to come crashing down around you, leaving you with little more than a few terrible videos and a lot of wasted time.

The problem here is that if you’re new to YouTube marketing, there are a few mistakes that you’re far likelier to make – mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.

Settle for Low Video Quality

One of the biggest errors you can possibly make is to settle for anything less than top quality in your videos – particularly if you’re streaming your event or uploading keynotes to your brand’s YouTube channel. The higher the quality of your channel, the better it makes your brand (and event) look. Better videos make for more channel and video views, a better reputation, and potentially higher attendance.

That works both ways, too. Videos that are exceedingly low-quality are less likely to be shared or viewed; if you end up settling for low-grade camera equipment, low resolution, or poor connectivity, don’t even bother.

Be creative with your budget and put the best possible content out there. 

Treat YouTube as An Advertising Platform

This one’s not just isolated to event planners, and might well be one of the most common marketing mistakes on YouTube – treating it as though it’s an advertising medium no different from a TV screen.  I’ve see far too many people act as though YouTube isn’t anything new or different, and far too many channels that upload little more than re-purposed television spots. That isn’t what YouTube is about.

If you’re designing content for YouTube, make sure it’s content that people are going to be willing to share. Make sure it’s content designed with the social side of the platform at its core. How you do this is entirely up to you. The important thing is that you entertain, or inform, or both.  Don’t just vomit out a torrent of press release videos. That’s not how you get subscribers – that’s how you drive them away.

Be Inactive

In relation to the previous point, don’t just use YouTube to tell everyone all about your event. If you’re going to create a YouTube account, you should have something more in mind than just ‘event promotion.’  Provide people with informative, entertaining, and interesting content related to your industry.  If you’re involved in Oil and Gas, for example, you might consider posting reviews of oilfield technology, details on the current market or even information on how to nail down a career with your organization.

The important thing is that you upload videos to your channel regularly.

Fail To Read the Creator Playbook

Posted on YouTube is a very handy source of information created by Google known as the YouTube Creator Playbook. This resource encompasses pretty much everything you need to know about being a YouTube content creator, including video optimization, SEO, and YouTube partnerships. Disregard it at your own peril.

Ignore the YouTube Community

It’s been said before, but it bears mentioning again: YouTube is a social network first and foremost. Since it’s a social network, it’s in your best interests to pay attention to what the people who use it have to say. Keep an eye on your inbox, read – and respond – to comments on your channel, and look at how and where your videos are being shared.

In short, you need to be an active member of the YouTube community.

Bonus Entry: Believe you HAVE to be on YouTube (or anywhere else)

There’s one last thing that should be mentioned – if you don’t think your event will be well-served by it, you don’t need to be on YouTube. Don’t sign up for any social network just for the sake of being there, or just because you heard there might be a few potential clients or customers. Establishing yourself on a social network is a full-time job; you need to be certain there’ll actually be a payoff for doing so.