Debbie Mayo-Smith: YouTube - it's a tool, not just a toy

YouTube is a useful tool for those in management wanting to disseminate information to employees.

If you're a typical parent, I bet you're continually chiding your children for chewing up your home internet bandwidth allowance, watching videos on YouTube.

But don't be prejudiced. YouTube is not only videos of babies laughing, kids' pranks, or the latest music. It can also be remarkably useful for almost every manager - sales, human resources, IT, customer service, marketing, finance - for training, how-to, procedures, software tips, executive messages, demos, role playing, induction. I'd like to devote this column to explaining why I think YouTube has such universal appeal for those in management. In my next column I'll brainstorm clever ways of using it for the self-employed and small business owners.

Everyone knows the whole point of using YouTube is to share your videos with the world, but they don't necessarily have to go public. You have two other options. The first is for the video to be private - only people you select can view it, to a maximum of 50. The second is unlisted - anyone with the link can view.

One of YouTube's main benefits is the simplicity of uploading videos. You don't need to involve your IT department - unless it's to lift any ban on the website. You can easily upload a video via a flip video camera or smartphone. Within minutes it's there to view. Additionally, with the built-in functions described below, you don't need special software editing tools if you'd like to make changes to the video.

Now, why would you use Youtube instead of the company intranet?

* Cost. Let Google (YouTube's owner) pay for hosting videos and the bandwidth required for people watching them. Your own channel. Create your own department channel, customising it with your branding, logos and colours if you like.

* Add captions and transcripts. These help in two ways. First, of course, they allow people with hearing difficulties to follow what is being said. Second, if your video will be public, captions help the video's search ranking. Need the video to be viewed by offices around the world? Translate your captions by clicking on the "translate" button.

* Want to embed a link? A comment? There is an annotations editor for creating pop-up comments on your video and a pop-up link to your website.

* Delete offensive comments. You don't have to visit YouTube every day to watch for good or bad comments on your videos. All comments are emailed to you. If one comes that you consider spam or nasty, simply click the downwards pointing arrow to the right of the reply button and delete the comment forever.

* Categorise your content. If you plan on producing more than a few videos, it's a great idea to categorise them. You'll get more viewings by making it easier for viewers to find the content they're looking for. You can categorise content in two ways.

First, by playlists. Rather than making your viewers go through a long list of your videos, group them by category into playlists. An added benefit is that you can embed entire playlists (or individual videos) into external sites such as your own website.

Second, by tags. Get your videos found. YouTube's content is organised on a tag word basis (keywords, in other words). So when you're loading your video online, think about words people may use while searching, and add as many as you like. Note: if you set a video to private or unlisted, it will not appear on your channel, in groups, search results, or playlists.

* Who's watching? The "Insight" button on every uploaded video (My Uploaded Videos View) gives you valuable information about viewing statistics, demographics, how viewers found your video, and the popular links they followed to get there.

* Remove bloopers. Edit bloopers out of your videos easily in YouTube's Video Editor. You can also combine videos, or add a soundtrack from the AudioSwap library.

* Use high definition You don't have to settle for grainy low quality. If your camera or smartphone supports it, you can upload widescreen and high definition.

While these features are a drop in the bucket, hopefully you can see that for management, videos can be an easy way to help motivate, educate, inspire and have fun with staff. Next time, we'll look at 10 key areas where businesses can cleverly use YouTube.

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Debbie Mayo-Smith is a bestselling author and international speaker.