A social media giant, YouTube has been one of the most popular entertainment and content creation platforms for many years. Commanding high viewership, it has remained unwithered in the face of social media evolution. But where does it fit in the marketing strategy of B2B companies?
Short videos and vlogs have emerged as appealing marketing media. Studies have shown that most industrial marketers have relied on videos as their top content type. As a result, video marketing has led to as much as 49% faster revenue growth for companies.
Tapping into the psychological potency of video content to feed the attention span of viewers, B2B companies are inching toward YouTube for their marketing goals. And now, they can even leverage YouTube Handles to ensure their audiences can find them easily.
What Are YouTube Handles?
YouTube Handles are a way to find and connect with a YouTube channel. They act as identifiers unique to a channel and are a part of its URL. Often confused with YouTube channel names, they differ from them in that two or more channel names can be similar, but YouTube Handles are always unique to a channel.
YouTube Handles can make it easier for your B2B customers to find your channel. As a username, they appear next to an @ symbol. A newly introduced feature, YouTube Handles will now appear indispensably with the channel name. Prior to this, YouTube only showcased the channel name when you landed on their profile.
How Can YouTube Handles Benefit a B2B Company’s YouTube Marketing Strategy?
YouTube Handles are a new way for people to find and engage with your B2B company on YouTube easily and quickly.
Your unique YouTube Handle will pinpoint your prospect’s search to only your B2B company and does away with problems relating to similar channel names, thus establishing your distinct presence on the platform.
YouTube Handles will further benefit your company by increasing brand visibility and reaching new audiences.
You can use your YouTube Handle to promote your channel outside of YouTube as well. By using it in comments, mentions, and other places, you can conveniently spread the word about your channel and, in turn, brand by directing the audience to your unique content. If your content creation game is strong, you will notice greater traffic on your channel and increased demand for your products and services.
Finally, modern-day marketing is vastly affected by a strong social media presence. So, with the right audience engagement with your channel, you will also gain new leads and potential customers for your sales team.
How To Use a YouTube Handle
A channel may already have a personalized URL. In that case, it will automatically become their default handle. You can also change your YouTube Handle once you have access to do so since YouTube is rolling out this new feature gradually. Getting access to the handle selection or changing process depends on your overall YouTube presence, the number of subscribers, and whether the channel is active or inactive.
When you select a handle, YouTube will use that in the “sharing URL” they create. Using this URL, customers or prospects outside YouTube will also be able to view your content. Notably, every channel can have only one handle. You can use this handle in comments, mentions, Shorts, and even outside YouTube.
Here are some pointers to keep in mind for making the most of a YouTube Handle.
- Your handle will reassure your customers and prospects that they are connected to the right channel. Hence, choose one that is true to you or best identifies with your B2B brand.
- Your handle must contain a combination of numbers and letters (either uppercase or lowercase). It can also have characters like hyphens, underscores, or periods.
- Your channel can have only one handle, and no other channel can claim it. Your handle is unique to your channel.
- Your handle must comply with YouTube’s Community Guidelines. According to YouTube, it “reserves the right to change, reclaim, or remove a handle at any time.” Thus, any violation may lead to either or all of said punitive actions.
- Your handle can’t resemble a URL or phone number.
- Your handle should be between three and 30 characters long.
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