You've created compelling, informative, and professional videos for your business, but that's only half the battle. Now you have to get those videos in front of your potential customers! Here are a few tips on sharing videos online: Where to Upload Your Videos

Generally speaking, you'll want to first upload the video to your website, following the tips we shared last week on how to add video to a website the right way. Like we mentioned last week, if your video is properly added to your site, it will show up higher in search engines and bring more traffic directly to your site.

However, if your site is not yet mobile friendly, you should upload the video to YouTube and then embed the video on your site. This way, visitors coming from tablets and smartphones will be able to view the video.

Next, if you haven't already, upload the video to YouTube according to best practices. Don't forget to caption the video for your hearing impaired audience, and to improve search ranking. Sharing videos on YouTube will make them discoverable through YouTube's very popular search engine, and again will improve your Google search ranking.

If you have a Facebook page and plan on sharing the video there, you should upload it directly to your Facebook page as well. Why upload the video to Facebook instead of just sharing the YouTube link? Well, because there is an algorithm that Facebook has built to work behind the scenes to determine what content shows up in people's news feeds. Photos and videos loaded directly to Facebook are considered more valuable content than external links, and therefore will be more likely to be seen by your audience.

There are other video hosting sites that have less mass appeal, but that are good for reaching niche audiences. These sites include Blip.tv, Daily Motion, Metacafe, Viddler, Vimeo, and Yahoo Video. Spend time researching the audience and the kinds of content that do well on those sites before investing in a presence there. Also take a look at their terms and conditions to make sure your content is right for their site. For example, Vimeo frowns upon uploading content such as marketing material or personal video blogs.

Where to Share Your Videos

Where you share your videos is going to depend on who your audience is and where they connect with you, but here are some general tips:

• Email Blast. Share your new videos with those who have expressed interest in receiving updates from you. Write an email explaining what the video is about with a link to the video hosted on your website.

• Twitter. Include relevant hashtags, and use the YouTube link when sharing your video on Twitter. The reason: YouTube videos show up embedded in tweets, so people can see the screenshot and play the video without ever leaving the tweet, meaning more people will watch the video. Also, share the video more than once so as many followers see it as possible.

• Facebook. Like we mentioned above, upload your videos directly to your Facebook page to get the maximum amount of views, and don't forget to use Facebook hashtags.

• Google+. Share the YouTube version of the video on Google+, and not just to your followers but also to relevant G+ Communities. This is especially important if you have not yet built a significant following on Google+.

• LinkedIn. Share either version of the video here, but we recommend sending people to your website directly to watch the video as opposed to YouTube. Take advantage of LinkedIn Groups by searching for your relevant audience and posting the video in those groups.

• Pinterest. If you're sharing the video on Pinterest, using the YouTube link will automatically add a screenshot of the video into Pinterest for users to discover. If you want to send them directly to your website, another option is to upload a screenshot of the video on the same page as the video. Then when you pin it to Pinterest, you can choose the screenshot as the image you pin.

• Social bookmarking sites. You can also add the video link on social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, or a host of others to capture additional traffic or niche audiences.

Wherever you share your videos, you should have a call to action - whether it be to share the video with a friend, visit your website, or engage with your business on social media. With these tips you can develop a solid strategy to sharing videos online and meeting your business goals.

About Talking Head Studio

Headquartered in sunny Orlando, Florida, Talking Head Studio offers full-scale video production services to local businesses and national clients alike. Click here for more information on Talking Head Studio's video production services.