So, say you’ve been looking at all of the company owned YouTube channels, full of brand promoting content for the whole world to see. But before you go and create your own channel in the heat of the moment, here are a few do’s and don’t’s for how to set up your YouTube channel, and what to do with it once it’s up and running:

Do:

• Have a plan.

This might seem obvious, but it’s something that a lot of businesses fail to consider: What’s the audience you’re aiming for: Corporate clients or consumers? Both these channel types require a slightly different approach as those audiences have different expectations. Plan what content you’re going to post and when you plan to share it; consistency makes you look more professional.

• Link it all up.

This is a great way to create your own network of sites: If you have a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, share links to your channel, and vice versa: put links to your social media profiles and websites in the video descriptions, even in the videos themselves. This adds a professional element to your online presence and helps your SEO.

• Keep it relevant.

Make sure what you’re posting is relevant to your company as it currently is. This means avoiding posting videos just because they’re popular or “flavour of the month”. Keeping the content close to your brand image will also improve your SEO.

• Make it look nice.

Regarding the channel itself; make sure it reflects your branding and company image: Have a distinctive name, profile and cover pictures, and make some eye-catching thumbnails to help the videos stand out. The same can be said for your videos: Make sure they’re up to a professional standard, if you’re really serious about creating content it would be a good idea to hire a production company to film and edit the video.

Don’t:

• Skimp on quality.

A YouTube channel is your best foot forward, having a low-resolution image on your channel, a video shot vertically on a phone, inappropriately named videos or description boxes, or content from years ago before digital cameras existed won’t make your channel look professional.

• Overload it.

Say you’ve got a backlog of videos stored on your company hard drive, as tempting as it may be, don’t post everything at once. Not only will this exhaust a source of content that could be used later, it also overwhelms your audience, who may unsubscribe if their feeds are constantly full of your videos. Alternatively, you can upload old content as being “from the archives” and make it into a recurring feature, but make sure your archive material is of high enough quality in both resolution and content before uploading it.

• Ignore the analytics.

YouTube now provides rather detailed analytics for how many people are viewing and interacting with your video. Ignoring these is ill-advised you could be putting a lot of effort into a video that’s not providing a high level of return. Equally, you could be neglecting content that is, in fact getting you loads of views.

• Abandon ship!

Even if you run out of content to post (which shouldn’t happen if you planned it properly, see Do 1.) don’t just stop updating your channel. If you do it’ll look like your business might not exist anymore, which could jeopardise future orders and custom.