Using Social Media and plane hustle works really well if you love what you´re doing!

Whatever you choose to do you have to know that the first 24 to 48 hours are crucial, YouTube is very interested in your videos velocity to be shared and consumed by your audience, it can determine your rank and how “evergreen” your content is going to be.

This is why choosing between two or three strategies is key, that way you can get a better spread for your video but you don´t lose focus by trying to put all of your energy in promoting your content on twenty different platforms, it won´t work.

Focus on just a few, do it well, and most of your energy dedicate it to making great quality top content, that should be your very first promotion strategy!

Now, let´s dive right into what strategies should you invest your time in?

1. Instagram & Snapchat

First of all, don´t turn your Instagram account into a promotional pitch, the first principle of any great promotion strategy will always be to provide value first and then ask something in return. 100% of the times.

That being said, Instagram makes a huge impact on many YouTuber who share with their followers a little of more behind the scenes type of content that increases engagement with their audience.

Like Casey Neistat does.

On the other hand, Snapchat doesn´t have a post limit like Instagram does, so the number of “snaps” you can share is practically infinite!

Make sure you share exclusive content with your followers by adding video snippets and maybe some pictures to your Snapchat story.

It is one of the most engaging and entertaining ways to create content that they can’t see anywhere else.

PRO TIP! Use IFTTT (If This Then That) allows you to automate your promotion strategies on many platforms for free and includes many benefits to YouTube users.

2. ¡Quora!

It´s practically the service that replaced Yahoo Answers, where people´s ask any type of question that gets categorized on a certain topic and gets an answer from every user that wants to participate.

The best answers get thousands and thousands of views! so it´s not a bad way to promote your content.

Use it to link your videos and offer more information about any given topic.

It is a long-term traffic source, the platform lets you establish yourself as an authority in your niche, and you´ll also get traffic directly from Google. All great benefits that can increase your viewership.

3. Get Into Pinterest

Using what it´s called Pinterest for Business you can make your channel´s traffic growth skyrocket and drive people to your videos for years to come.

Although there are a series of steps you have to comply in order to get your account going!

1. The very first thing you must do is create a business account.
2. Apply for rich pins to boost your pins reach and engagement on the platform.
3. Create a few Pinterest boards.
4. Begin the pinning!
5. Follow some top players in your niche.
6. Finally, join some group boards where you can get much more targeted traffic from.

PRO TIPS! The more you pin the more possibilities you have to create engagement and reputability within the community. The good news is that you don´t need to pin original and unique content. You can re-pin other´s people content and set it that way for days. 

4. Reddit Forums

It´s all about joining a tribe, ask yourself where they hang out and start looking for them on Reddit.

Here are a few common tips you need to know about Reddit.

• You have to choose a relevant subreddit. (a topic related section where you can post just about anything you want!)
• Follow the rules or you´re going to be banned, seriously.
• Note what it´s already being discussed and join the group.
• Do not spam or link directly to your site/channel before you´ve contributed in some way.

Finally, and just because it´s really important I want to repeat it, don´t ask people to go and watch your videos, try to post your videos only if they´re relevant and can actually provide value to the community, any other tactic will not work.

5. Facebook Groups

The same way you do when you´re looking for forums you go about Facebook groups. Well, actually, Facebook groups are in a way a really engaged type of forums!

Take advantage of the many opportunities they have to offer, join some that are related to your niche or where people could be interested in your content, participate and engage with the community, try to provide value.

You can find a question that´s been asked a lot, and make a video to answer it!

Better yet, go through the group and see if you already have a video that relates to some of the questions that have been already asked.

You´ll provide not only value but also good quality content that ´s focused on what they´re interested in.

6. Use Google Trends

You can stay ahead of the curve by using Google trends on a weekly basis!

Make sure to check out what are the last searches and see if anything pops out and can be a part of your next videos.

Content creators usually create content around some of the latest topics so they´re found easily by their audience through a Google or YouTube search. You´ll find it is a very effective strategy.

It´s absolutely free and it takes about a minute to find a couple of great opportunities you could gain some viewership from.

You can make a search just about any topic you can think of and see if it´s still relevant to create content about it. 

There´s also the option to do daily searches of what´s trending right now and Google will show an extensive list that you can check out.

7. Tumblr, an Unexplored Alternative

It´s an online scrapbook where you can post text, photos, videos, and even audio clips! It´s kind of a cross between a blog and a twitter feed.

So, if you want to grow a following and share some of your creations on the platform it is a great opportunity that you should consider to grow your audience on YouTube.

Many videos get a re-post if they´re liked by the community, and that allows you to have greater exposure with no need for extra effort from your part.

You can also reblog quality and relevant content to your account by using your queue to set it up and not have to worry for the next days, or even weeks (You can fill it with up to 300 posts!) and keep your following up to date.

In addition, you have features like hashtags and captions to create great call to actions where you can drive traffic to your channel.

8. Grow a Twitter Account

Twitting on a regular basis to grow a following

It´s been proved that the most effective way to promote YouTube videos on Twitter is whether by sharing a tease of your video, some part of your content that can easily grab people´s attention in a matter of seconds.

Or, you can simply make a good looking thumbnail and share the link, so that people will have to click it to go and watch your video on the platform.

Considering that a big part of Twitter´s traffic is from mobile devices you´ll find that a big part of those people will click.

PRO TIP! You can use JustRetweet which is a free platform that allows you to earn credits for sharing people’s content and use those credits to give to people who share yours. Include the video link in the promoted tweets and you´re ready to go!

9. ¡Blogging Your Content Out!

Think about it, you´re already creating a great amount of content, making it look nice, maybe you´ll even write a script to read from and serve you as a guide, you know how to provide value now, why not reuse it and make the most of it?

You could make your videos blog posts! (or vice-versa if you´re already a blogger)

You´ll already have a script on your hands, and if you don´t, maybe it´s time to consider writing one. Your post serves you as a great guide from where you can start off.

There´s no extra work to it, you´ll be repurposing content you´ve created. Original and unique content in different formats to have a more extensive reach with your message.

10. Long Tail Keywords Approach

Yes, probably creating great and shareable content that people is already looking for is the best strategy to have in order to rank on YouTube, but the truth is that´s not always 100% effective.

Sadly, there´s a lot of competition out there, although there´s still room for you to be discovered, you just need to take the right approach right from the start.

Going for long tail keywords that no one else seems to be ranking for, or even creating good quality content in should be your first step. But, how do you do that?

Well, there are two main ways you must try to find those “smaller” topics where none of the top channels is trying to rank for and that you can easily conquer piece by piece until you get an engaged audience that will give you the necessary “juice” to rank for the more competitive keywords.

The first way is to use the YouTube Autocomplete feature, where you start typing your keyword or phrase and then keep using the space key to see what others words people are looking for, like this.

Look what pops out on the first page for some of those longer keywords and see if you could make a better video about that same topic that could outrank your competition.

In most cases, the longer the keyword the easier to rank.

11. Master YouTube SEO

Optimizing content for search must be one of the most effective ways you can promote your videos and be discovered by your audience.

Using calls to action, featured videos, cards, and annotations are practices you have to dominate if you want to engage with your audience and make them watch some more of your content. But, they don´t make up the 10% of what you should cover!

There are a few ranking factors that can make or break the foundational base of any video on YouTube.

Let´s dive in each one of them so you can learn how to do it properly, then you´ll just have to set it and forget it!

Proper Keyword Research

Google suggest or autocomplete feature allows you to gain more traffic for every possible viewer that makes the same search that you´re ranking for on YouTube.

Actually, there´s a tool called Keywordtool.io that´s fully optimized to search those same long tail keywords specifically for YouTube.

It does the same job as if you were trying different searches on the YouTube bar like I´ve shown you above, but it compies every possible search on a single file, with an amount limit, if you use it for free of course.

Good Semantic Reach

If you want to be found by as many people as possible one good way to allow the platform to suggest your video for different related searches is by saying not only the main keyword on your video but also adding similar keywords too.

In other words, what you say on video is understood by the algorithm as a written word that can be used to rank your video for many queries. That´s why creating a script can be so useful.

Not only for guidance but also for greater keyword reach.

Make Shearable Content

Creating content that makes people relate to you and what you´re saying, using interesting topics that can identify a certain group of people, picking a specific theme, or even tapping into an emotional or inspirational subject.

It is also a great strategy to give your videos a more personal and authentic vibe.

People share because of what it says about them. – BuzzFeed. 

Optimize Your Title

One obvious, but none the less very important way to increase your chances of ranking and getting much more viewers is by crafting an awesome title.

First thing is using your focus keyword at the beginning of your title, and then making a video that could attract your potential audience.

Comments & Likes = Higher Rankings!

It´s been proven that the way people interact with your content it´s how well it will rank and capture a higher number of views.

Make sure to remind people to comment your video and give it a thumb up if they liked it.

Asking people a question or getting them involved in the content you deliver is a great way to make them interact with your message.

HD Video Quality is Key

Brian Dean, from Backlinko, conducted a study where he and his team analyzed over 1.3 million YouTube videos that ranked on the first page of the platform for different searches.

They learned that exactly 68.2% of videos on the first page of YouTube are in HD!

So, take that in consideration if you were thinking about recording your very first videos with your old smartphone.

Creator´s Academy

You´ll find that YouTube itself offers a great number of awesome and actionable tips you can benefit from if you are new at this.

They want you to do well because if you succeed they do too!

In fact, one of the main things I´ve learned from them is to make longer videos, just check out the first page for every popular term there is. There are almost no short videos left!

PRO TIP! Keep in mind that the average first-page video on YouTube is 14 minutes, 50 seconds.  

12. The Playlists Strategy

Yes! You can generate massive traffic by creating awesome playlists on YouTube.

If you take a quick look at the suggested videos section you will most likely see at least one, sometimes even two, playlists at the top of the listed videos.

Why is that?

Well, basically YouTube wants you to spend more time on their platform but without having to repeat your search several times until you find what you were looking for.

That´s one of the main reasons Playlists exist.

In YouTube´s documentation, they actually recommend creating playlists for content creators, so they can rank a series of videos that provide great value to the user without having to suggest featured related videos.

You can even embed some of your own videos with other curated content in the same playlist, that way you can appear much more authoritative in your niche if your videos are found within a playlist that has content from other great YouTubers out there.

13. Do Some Collaborations

It´s been said that one of the fastest routes to growing a YouTube channel is by doing some collaborations with other YouTubers.

You´ll find is one of the best ways you can expose yourself to a new audience and increase the number of subscribers you get from a single video.

Guest appearances, exchange mentions, guest vlogs, everything work pretty well when it comes to collaborating with others on the platforms and applying some cross-promotion strategies.

In fact, the YouTube Creator Academy highly suggests doing some collabs to grow your channel!

14. Make a Response Video

This is one of the most used methods to increase viewership and capture people´s attention efficiently.

Actually, PewDiePie and some other really big channels create from time to time response videos in order to keep their audience engaged and further develop a possible “series” of video content.

It´s easy to do, engages your audience, and used to be an actual feature in the platform.

Yes! YouTube used to have a tool within the setting options to make a response video based upon another YouTuber´s creation, but they´ve removed it.

So, nowadays we have to do it “manually”.

15. Get Linkedin Traffic

LinkedIn is an awesome traffic source and probably one of the most underutilized platforms there is to get people to your videos.

Similar to Reddit you build up a reputation and you start doing so by optimizing your profile.

Then, you can join or start a new group that suits your niche and/or topic of interest, you can create your own company page (if you think it could be of value), and share your content with a pretty targeted audience that will probably appreciate your contribution.

In case you´re doubting about whether to use Linkedin or not to promote your channel check out this interesting stats!

• It has over 500 Million Users, according to Business Insider & Fortune.
• LinkedIn is the most-used social media platform amongst Fortune 500 companies.
• It is the #1 channel 94% of B2B marketers use to distribute content. 
• 79% of online marketers see LinkedIn as a good source for generating leads.

16. The Google + Community

Most people ignore this method, which is crazy to me!

Google plus has a growing community of around 300 million dedicated users. It recently reached enough growth to compete with platforms like Pinterest, or Linkedin.

Now, how can you take advantage of it to drive traffic to your YouTube account?

• Create eye-catching posts.
• Use hashtags relevant to your niche, there´s even an explore feature you can use.
• Increase engagement by posting at the right time to get maximum attention.
• Join communities for massive exposure.
• As with any other social platform, participate, provide value, engage.

17. Podcasting Growth

This is a constantly growing business that has surpassed my expectations for the last couple of years.

You´ll find there are lots of people translating their content into simple audio formats so that the audience can consume it while doing something else.

In other words, you don´t need to create more videos, simply convert the ones you´ve already made into mp3 files and upload them again.

There´s a huge audience that prefers listening to a podcast than subscribing to a YouTube channel, just take a look at the numbers.

That´s how much the ad spends on podcasting has increased in the last few years, and what´s the estimated growth for the next couple of years.

18. Guest Posting

Another very good way to reuse content from a video or maybe a blog post (in case you also own a blog) that´s on the same topic in order to drive traffic to your videos is by guest posting on other websites.

There are many sites that allow us to post on their blog section and get some interested viewers that are already engaged with your kind of content.

You´ll find there are literally hundreds of sites where you can post your content and get some traffic and gain traction for your videos.

Just to give a few quick and common examples of what I mean, you have places like Medium, Mashable, Lifehacker, Forbes, Buzzfeed, Health Line, The HuffPost, Entrepreneur, DailyNews, Business Insider, Smart Hustle, among so many others!

if you make a quick google search you´ll find the best ones for your specific niche and you´ll be able to create quality content for them!

Just make sure to read and comply with their policies. 

19. E-mail Marketing

Google gives you traffics from your posts as YouTube does for your videos, but the truth is that they own your audience, not you.

If you want to be able to reach out to your people at any given moment and, let´s say, “own them”, then you should focus on creating an e-mail list immediately.

You won´t find a more effective, personal, and engaging way that an e-mail list where you can feed your audience with exclusive content, pdf, helpful tips, and occasionally let them know you´ve uploaded a brand new video to your channel.

This way you´ll grow your viewership with every new subscriber and you´ll get to contact them for any other possible purpose you have.

20. Internet Forums

This is one of the most engaged communities you might find online if you know where to look and you get to know the people of the community and contribute in some way with it.

Forums used to be one of the most powerful driving factors of traffic not so long ago, and still is!

Nowadays you can find tons of different categories that cover any kind of niche you could possibly think of, so it´s probably that you´ll find more than one that suits your needs.

Make sure to provide some value first (as always!) and then share a link to one of your videos that answer some of the most asked questions or doubts that are usually posted on those chats.

You have to make it casual, and try to give a direct answer to the question or query the user has asked about so you don´t look too spammy.

21. Running a Giveaway Contest

In order to increase your YouTube exposure another effective plan you can set up is creating giveaway contests.

There are three common denominators that can highly increase your rankings and that can be affected positively by a giveaway video contest.

You must ask people that subscribe, like, and comment your video in order to participate and you´ll choose one, two or three of them to be the lucky winners.

That way, being subscription, comments, and likes on a video a huge SEO factor on YouTube you´ll gain more exposure and more views thanks to that.

It´s not necessarily free although you could give away something that you already have and that you don´t use, so that may depend. It´s a worthy investment, I can tell you that.

Try Offline Promotion

Appealing directly to your community and networking with people face-to-face is another great way to get your content spread.

Give business cards, make appearances, give a conference or seminar for free, participate and join a community that could relate with your content and shares it with their friends and family.

You´ll get to know some of the people that will be part of your growing audience and you´ll have the opportunity to get to know them a little better!

For instance, you can ask them what they want to know or learn more about, try to find patterns and commonly asked questions that are not being addressed properly on the platform so you can make a video about it!

Wrapping up!

Although I wanted to lay out some of the most effective ways to promote your content you should not discard paid promotion.

Nowadays having an Ad on Facebook it´s pretty affordable and can make a huge impact on your channel´s growth.

You can easily target your audience and be found by those who are already interested in what you have to say. It can surely fasten your growth like nothing else.

And, if your content is good enough you can skip most of the strategies I´ve talked about and focus solely on making awesome videos!