The Social Media Takeaway - Louise McDonnell

YouTube for Business Growth and Lead Generation

• Louise McDonnell • Season 1 • Episode 44

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In this week’s episode of The Social Media Takeaway, I’m joined by Anita Wong, a YouTube and video strategist, and she helps business owners use YouTube to grow leads and increase visibility. In this episode, we discuss how YouTube can be a powerful tool for business growth and lead generation. Anita explains why YouTube videos have a longer lifespan compared to other platforms, how YouTube and Google work together to boost your content's visibility, and the key steps to optimising your videos for maximum impact. You’ll also learn the importance of consistent uploads, creating thumbnails that encourage clicks, and why starting with short-form videos is a great way to ease into YouTube. 

If you’ve been creating video content but haven’t considered YouTube or are unsure how to make it work for your business, you won’t want to miss this episode.

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Louise McDonnell:

Welcome to the social media takeaway. I'm your host, Louise McDonnell, and this is the podcast for business people who want to know how to use social media to drive sales and leads for their business. If you enjoy the show, please make sure that you subscribe. And if there's anyone at all that you believe would enjoy this show or any other episode, make sure that you share it with them. I'd love to hear your feedback. So at any time, feel free to seek me or any of my guests out on social media and let me know your comments or questions. Today, I am delighted to be joined by Anita Wong. Anita is a YouTube and video strategist who loves to help business owners step into YouTube and grow their leads and visibility through video. She is passionate about raising the profile of women in society. Sports, particularly BMX racing and lives in London with her family. So you're very welcome to the show, Anita.

Anita Wong:

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Louise McDonnell:

Oh, it's a pleasure. you're the YouTube queen we were calling you. So tell me, why do you love YouTube so much?

Anita Wong:

I think it's because it's a platform that I've. I've grown with as my business has developed as well. And I think the way that it works with the connection with Google really is advantageous. So I think that's why it's one of my favorite platforms. And obviously it's a favorite when it comes to helping others to sort of like step into video.

Louise McDonnell:

So for those, maybe who didn't realize it that YouTube, Google owns YouTube, doesn't it?

Anita Wong:

Yeah, so basically Google bought YouTube and then they've become a sort of like twin connection. So what happens is that when you put a video onto YouTube, it becomes part of the Google sort of like space. And it's indexed in the same way. So if you go into Google and you type in something, which is where most people go to really, isn't it? Like they open their computer and they go to Chrome and Google, or, or even like Safari, if you're on a Mac, they're all linked together and you search for something, and if you've got a video and it's been set up properly, and the SEO is, you know, optimized and it's been indexed, then it will, And then you have the opportunity to be pulled over with those search results and actually placed quite high up on the first page. without having to pay anything. So it is really, really advantageous.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. And I know that if you embed your YouTube videos onto your website, it also really assists your website perform better as well.

Anita Wong:

Yeah, it does. And I mean, I think the thing with YouTube as well, which I love is that they don't seem to mind you putting the videos elsewhere. You know, some social platforms sort of like, I wouldn't say they penalize you, but they, they don't make it easy for you to share videos. out of their platform or they don't like you to put things into their platform. Whereas YouTube actually make it easier for you to share your videos. So it's the place where I always start my videos and my sort of like connection with my audience and then I take them through that process. So yeah, you can embed your videos onto your blogs, you can put videos into your newsletters and of course you can share your videos out of YouTube onto various social platforms.

Louise McDonnell:

Brilliant, I always say, About YouTube that you're the experts. You can tell me if I'm right or wrong with my kind of idea of YouTube is that, If you put a video up on Facebook or Instagram or Tik Tok, it has a lifespan of potentially a few days. Days, if you're lucky, if the algorithm keeps it alive. But I always think that YouTube is like the library, you know, so that if you put a video up on, how to run a Facebook ad and somebody searches for that in three years time, that that video still has the potential to generate traffic for you because it's more like a library of video resources rather than just the, you know, fast hit.

Anita Wong:

Yeah, it's true. Actually, I think. What happens with YouTube is that obviously it works with the search terms, so if people are looking for something, and you have your title, and your description, and the sort of like hashtags and tags. in line with the content of the video and that sort of makes up that search term, then the video is going to be pulled up. But it's never put on the back shelf like it is on other social platforms. It's always there waiting to be pulled up in front of people. It's like, I've got a video at the moment about how to remove the background noise in Capcut on the mobile. And I put that up. probably like last summer. And it didn't do that great, you know, it did all right, you know, it sort of just puddled along and then in October it's just suddenly gone like that. And I was like, Oh, what's happening here? And it's basically someone's obviously searched and then it's just been picked up and then it's just being shown to other people that are looking. And it's also being recommended by other people's videos. So that's something that YouTube really does help you with your exposure. So if you Put a video up and it's, you know, it doesn't even have to be like go straight up into the for you page if you want to call it that. But other videos that are of a similar content will recommend other videos. So your video could recommend other people's videos and other people's videos could recommend your video. And when I looked at the stats of that particular video, there are other videos that it's being recommended by. So that's what a way of people discovering. Your content. So it's always there waiting to be pulled up. It's a bit like the old librarian, isn't it? You say, Oh, I need a book on such and such. Why don't I put that, you know, and they go back to the other end of the library, but it's still there and it's still valid.

Louise McDonnell:

So, yeah, it has a long shelf life. Okay. Now, I have this impression of YouTube that when you go onto YouTube, you have two types of business accounts. You have one with like hundreds and thousands of views and followers, and then you have others that are like, tumbleweed. Why does this happen, Anit, and how can people get rid of the tumbleweed and start growing?

Anita Wong:

Okay, so there's a few factors. Usually the ones that have got lots and lots of followers and lots and lots of views have been there a little while. If you go onto their account and go to their video tab and go to the oldest, you'll see that some of them might even be like 5, 10, I mean, I don't know how long YouTube's been going now, but we're getting much older. So time seems to be traveling quite quickly, but at least 10 years old, say like some of my videos are like eight years old, so it must've been quite a while. So, if, say, someone's very popular and their content has got a lot of views, they may have done some optimisation to their videos. So what happens with most people is that they put a lot of time and effort into their videos, recording of the video, which is important, but the optimization of the video is as equally important when it comes to YouTube. And sometimes a lot of the groundwork for how well the video will do actually happens before you've even recorded it. So it's like doing a little bit of homework about the subject that you want to do. And then once you've sort of discovered what People are looking for on YouTube, you do something similar to that that's within what you want to talk about. And then you, prepare the video in such a way that you're sort of like talking about the title and the content quite a lot during it. And then you do the optimization when you upload. And then, of course, you then go back and tweak as well. You don't just leave it there and Never go back to it and revisit and see how it's getting on. There's always things that you can do to make a video perform better.

Louise McDonnell:

Okay. So even when you have like uploaded you know, you've done all your optimization, you've done the title and the descriptions and the tags and all of that. and if it's not performing, you should go back and review it and even tweak them.

Anita Wong:

Yeah. So you can go back and review it and you can change the title a little bit. You can look at the performance. So for example, one of the. performance metrics that I look at is that how often are people actually clicking through to watch the video. So what YouTube usually does is it will share the video out to a lot of people and then it will measure how many people click through to then watch the video. So what happens is that with the click through there are a few things that might help you get more people to click through. So the thumbnail is one of those things. So that's like the place card.

Louise McDonnell:

Just for the people who don't know what a thumbnail is, just explain that as well.

Anita Wong:

Yeah. So a thumbnail is like the place card that you put over the front of the Video. So it's a bit like the book cover, you know, when you're looking at a book or a magazine, it's always like the best bits at the front sort of thing. So a thumbnail is a bit similar to that. You put a picture or an image of what you're talking about with a couple of key words that will entice people to click through. So for example, if you're doing a how to video about a product, you might. Hold the product in your hand and show that off or if you're doing like a talking head one a bit like this You might put both people together and and things like that.

Louise McDonnell:

Okay, very good. so for somebody who hasn't been active on YouTube and they're already creating video. What do you say to them?

Anita Wong:

Okay, so what I would do is I would have a little look at your videos. So you could go into the YouTube account and look at the studio and the studio gives you lots of different analytics around the videos. But what I would do as a basic start off is go in and just look at what videos are performing the best on your channel. Even if it's, you know, 10 views, 20 views, 30 views, whichever one is performing best, have a little look at that video and go right. So if I were to look for this video. Does the title tell me what the video is about? And does the title tell me who the video is for? So that's one section that's really important. So, Does the title say what you're talking about, and does the title say who the video is supposed to be going to? Then look, because some of your videos might not have thumbnails, because you might not have been aware that a thumbnail even existed, because, you know, when you're putting the video up, there's lots of different things to do. And sometimes we might not get to that point, or you might not be aware of them. So if the thumbnail is a bit Sort of like blurry, or it doesn't really show what the video is about. Perhaps, you know, jumping to Canva, for example, they have some really good templates on thumbnails and go in and just refresh the thumbnail. YouTube's actually got this really good new built in tool where you can do A B testing on thumbnails. And that's actually built into the YouTube studio so it doesn't cost anything, you just go in and you can upload up to three video thumbnails and YouTube will test it over the course of three of two weeks, and then it will show you the results of the most popular one, and then it will leave that one as the one that it thinks will serve your video better And then. I think those two, so the thumbnail, the title, and then tweak the description a little bit. Sometimes what happens is that when you put a video up, you just put the title up, and maybe if you do, you put the thumbnail up. But because YouTube is built on SEO, having a description of what the video has in it is really important. So having like a description of what you're saying, some of the key points. Some of the sort of like keywords of what you've been speaking about if you have that written in your description Then that adds to the way that the YouTube algorithm indexes the video.

Louise McDonnell:

Okay, brilliant. This is all really good information. So you must have some really good success stories you can share with us. for someone who's here, because I know that I just know there's so many people that are listening in here that haven't even considered YouTube or haven't considered it in a while. And I want you to share the stories because I know you've lots of success stories. like, I want you to make people realize that maybe they need to pay attention.

Anita Wong:

Yeah. I think the success on YouTube comes with the awareness that people have of you. It's really funny. The other day, actually last night, I had a text from one of my clients who said, Oh, I was at a meeting, you know, like a town sort of hall meeting in my local area. And this lady kept looking at me. And I wasn't quite sure why she kept like looking over. So in the end, I went over to her and said, Oh, are you okay? Is there something that I can do for you? And she was, I know you from YouTube. I just can't put my finger on why I know you. she was like, Oh, I, you know, I teach Pilates. She's like, Oh, that's it. I watch your Pilates, you know, so it was like, It was really funny because she was like, Oh, I'm famous where I live. So, you know, say like Margate today and Las Vegas tomorrow, you know, sort of thing. So I think it just raises brand awareness and it, solidifies you in someone's memory. Because what happens with YouTube a bit like the whole buying cycle is that more you see somebody. the more they remember you and the more it triggers that, Oh, I'm sure I know that person from somewhere. And it really helps you think about it. So that's one of the biggest success stories is that you, you don't want to be famous to everybody, if you want to put that word in famous, you want to be, Seen by the audience that you want to reach, and that's a really good way of doing it on YouTube because they actually get to meet you, sort of like online and they get to know you and they get to like you and, and you know, they don't gel with you. Then they can go and find someone else, but most of the time they do. I think that's one of the biggest success stories is actually just raising that brand awareness. And I think you don't get that from some other social platforms because they are in like their own little capsule, if that makes sense, where they have their own sort of like universe, whereas YouTube, because it's so open and because it's so connected with Google, it enables you to be seen in lots of other places. Another thing is that I did have a client who was a podcaster who started putting their podcast up onto YouTube and just talking about topical things that you do generally and then putting that onto your channel and making it relevant helped her get over like 1500 subscribers from one podcast account because it really just sort of like hit home on a certain topic which was really relevant to her audience and then of course that just raises their visibility.

Louise McDonnell:

Brilliant. And any other examples of businesses who've had like real good success with videos getting hundreds of thousands of views?

Anita Wong:

Yeah, I mean, I think it's more, I would say that it's not so much about the number of views. It's about the quality of the leads and the people that you watch that, that really count. So another lady who I work with, who actually had quite a following on Instagram and still does, started to move her short form content from Instagram onto YouTube. So most people might not be aware that you can actually do short form vertical video on YouTube. As well as the long form. So if you're not sure about stepping into YouTube, one of the best ways to start getting used to being on YouTube and working out how that works is actually to do it with the short form video that you've already got. And that works really well. So what we did with her is that we repurposed the short form video from her Instagram account and then slowly introduced a slightly longer video that was a little bit more of an explainer so that when people were looking at the short form videos there's this neat little hyperlink that you can get on YouTube that connects the short to the long so they can get that discovery. And then you can take them back for the value points. So that's something that if you really aren't sure about YouTube, you could step into it using short form, because I, pretty much a hundred percent say that most business owners have had a go at doing short form video. You know, we've got Instagram and Tik TOK and we're a little bit more comfortable with just picking up your camera and doing a quick video. And you can use that type of content on Youtube. I think that comes to another point that I can is that it doesn't have to be that polished. You know, the video, sometimes people get really phased by the whole, Oh, everything has to be so perfect on YouTube. It really doesn't. I think the content speaks for itself. And I think as long as you've got subject matter that people want to listen to and find out about, and you're uploading consistently. So it's not just a, let's put that video there and then not do anything and come back in a month's time and see what's happened. You do have to be consistent. Then you, you just need a basic microphone, you know, a camera and, and a light and you you're ready to roll.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah, and I think it's a great point that if you are already creating that short form content like Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, Tik Toks, and even like the short form videos now on LinkedIn. So if you already have the content, why not repurpose it?

Anita Wong:

I wouldn't say that YouTube is like forgotten, but I think people don't necessarily go there to watch video. if it's like an entertainment thing. And what happens with the short form video on other platforms is that because we consume it so quickly, you get that awareness because something will come up and you'll go, Oh, but on those other short form platforms, you don't get the opportunity to really learn about somebody or about their products or about their services. Whereas on YouTube, you actually can get that same scroll. Feeling on YouTube, where you can look at short form content. But the difference is, is that when something catches your eye on YouTube, you can just click the icon and go back to the channel page. And there you can have a mixture of longer videos, shorter videos, podcasts, and you can even have like Instagram style posts inside of your channel page. So there's a lot more flexibility on YouTube than most people think. And it's a great platform for lead generation because they don't penalize you for putting links in your descriptions on your longer videos. So again, they encourage you to sort of like, obviously keep people on their platform by sharing links to other videos, but they do. allow, you know, external links. So if you're putting a video up that is something that you would want people to take action from, you can actually have a link to maybe your website or your booking call or your lead magnet. All underneath that video so that when people want to take action, they can actually click through and become a potential client.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. And another reason, I suppose it's what we just mentioned at the very top of the show is that, you're going to improve, increase your visibility on Google.

Anita Wong:

Yeah. I mean, the Google part of it is. Is is quite, under ranked when it comes to YouTube. Now. I think that's because there are two, there are two distinct areas within YouTube. There is a, the creator group, and then there is the business owner. Now, sometimes there's a blend between the creator becoming a business and selling products and things like that, because YouTube allow you to build a community on YouTube and you can have a shop on your channel and all those sorts of things. But the great thing about. way you can use YouTube as a business tool. Is that they have so many different connections with Google, so you can make it a lot easier for people to, become leads and also become part of your community because of that community aspect that they've created.

Louise McDonnell:

And I know you're also a video strategist, Anita, so tell us what has changed in the world of video creation? What's trending right now? Like I, I know one of the things I've noticed is that. Obviously, we have zero attention span in the whole world at the moment, I just noticed with videos that it's all very on the move lots of scenes, like, so you could be walking one direction and in the next sentence you're doing something else and it's all of this changing scene trying to hold attention. Can you give us a little bit of insight into, you know, these kind of trends and what you see or what do you see happening even next year?

Anita Wong:

Yeah, I think the movement part of video is sort of being mimicked from movies. You know, when you watch a film, if you actually pay attention to how many scene changes there are, that's sort of like the way that cinematic sort of like keeps you in the theater for an hour, an hour and a half. Whereas like you say, the attention span of a person nowadays is very short. So we're trying to, I suppose, bring that into sort of like a strategy. But when it comes to What's going to happen the rest of the year and next year, YouTube have introduced three minute vertical videos to try and encourage creators who prefer using vertical format to come over to their channel, and I think that's a way of encouraging you to be a little bit more, sort of try and keep people on the platform for a little bit longer. So I think regarding strategy, I think it's, that trying to keep people entertained, but doing it in a, in a business sort of manner. So I think short form, longer short form video is becoming a little bit more of a trend. And I think also faceless videos is becoming quite popular as well, where you use AI to help you create content. So you see especially on YouTube and maybe some of the other short form platforms where you get narrated over the top of what we would call B roll where it's animated video or it's even you as a person filming what you're doing on a day to day basis and then putting audio over the top of that. I think that's becoming quite popular as well where we, we don't always have to be center front on we can actually use faceless content and that's being helped by AI. So AI is playing quite a big part in video creation at the moment and I think that's going to continue going through to the next couple of years, I think, because AI is, you know, it's obviously on a roll up and people are using it more and more. So I think that's, that's something that's going to really take hold is longer, shorter form video is becoming quite popular. I suppose that's quite good because it means that you don't have to rush You know, if you are doing short form video on YouTube, people tend to find it's quite difficult to get what they want into that short amount of time. So having a slightly longer short form video, which is easier to record, i. e. on your mobile, is becoming quite popular, and I think that's in line with people's attention spans.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah, I would say even though I will say to my clients, they say how long should the video be? And I'm like, as short, as short, as short as possible, because with the attention spans being so, so short, you're better off to try and do something in 30 seconds and three minutes, I think. Because I think you'll, unless it needs to be three minutes, unless, you know,

Anita Wong:

yeah. I mean, I think for, if you're using video as a. promotional purpose, like an ad where you're trying out ads organically beforehand, then obviously they do need to be shorter because people like to just come and see what it's about, and then go and do something. But if you are sharing value, and as long as you can keep people engaged, and they're waiting to get the answer, then encouraging a little bit longer is better. And I think when you're starting out on YouTube, The shorter, the better in regards to keeping them entertained is quite good. So if you are, starting out on YouTube or you're just starting to get back into it, I would look at something around five minutes long at the maximum. And that can be in the horizontal because what you wanna do is you want to get people used to watching your content. And if you put in a 20 minute or 30 minute video, they don't really know you yet. So unless it's like mind blowingly, high. edited high performance video, it's not that reasonable to think that they won't hang around for 30 minutes. Whereas if you've got a five minute video, where you're giving value and you're keeping them engaged by asking them to do things, then you will get them to watch the majority of it. You'll probably see a drop off at the end when they know they've got their answer, but the majority of the video, You've kept them entertained. And that's a perfectly good length video. I mean, most of my videos on my channel are between five and 10 minutes. They're not, not really longer than 10 minutes.

Louise McDonnell:

That's good. And I suppose, like, it does have an impact as well on like how YouTube kind of rates your videos, the watch time, I imagine.

Anita Wong:

Yeah. It's another one of those factors that they rate in. So obviously they, they share your video out to people. They measure your click through rate to see how many people are actually clicking through and then they look at your retention. So if you're just starting out, putting videos up, you know, like a short form up to three minutes is great. Or. If you're going to do a horizontal one, even doing a horizontal landscape video up to three or four minutes long is great because what you're doing is you're getting people to start watching you, you're getting people to start understanding a little bit more about you and your business and what you offer, and then you're, keeping them on. And it's good practice to get used to sort of showing a little snippet of what your video is about at the beginning so that they are more Likely to stay and watch. So don't start your video. This is a really good pit. Like, don't start your video with, hi, my name's Anita and I'm a YouTube strategist, and today I'm going to talk about this and this, but before I do that, I've been at work for this many years and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. You know, people just don't want to watch that. And the trouble is when you start a video like that, if people click off straight away, because they're just like, Oh, that person's just talking about themselves. then YouTube's not going to show it to anyone else. So having a little snippet of what's going on, you know, in your videos, for example, if I was doing a talk on, you know, what type of microphone to use, I would probably go, so this is my Rode microphone, and this is really good for A, B, C, and D. And then I would then start talking about it, so that people know, okay, I'm here, I'm going to learn about this, let's hang around and watch a little bit more.

Louise McDonnell:

Hmm. And so let's say it was somebody with a podcast. So let's say my podcast to generate about 30 minutes long. And what we normally do is in our description, we have the chapters, you know, so we've been like, what's what, you know, the conversation so people can skip through to the chapters. But from what I'm hearing you say, would, would it be an idea that if there was any particularly topical or interesting question that you could actually create a long form video of three or four minutes of somebody. answering a particular question.

Anita Wong:

Yeah, you could. So you could cut the podcast down. So podcasting on YouTube is a little bit different to long form video as such because it has its own place. So YouTube obviously has encouraged people to upload their podcasts and you can upload a video podcast or you can just pull the RSS feed from your podcasting platform and YouTube will use the thumbnail that's on your podcasting platform as the thumbnail and then you just listen to it. And then, of course, then YouTube puts it onto its audio platforms as well. But there is a really good way of using shorter snippets of your podcast to promote that longer form video. And you can, like you say, you can do that by just taking one question from the podcast and just putting that out as a video or using tools. That are driven by AI, such as Opus Pro, or even CapCut has a work, has a ability to cut your long form down into shorts. Use tools like that to help you pull the best bits of the video out and then create videos around that.

Louise McDonnell:

Brilliant. Yeah, that's really good. Okay. So Future Outlook anything that you see coming yourself in 2025, Anita, for YouTube or for video in general?

Anita Wong:

Yeah, I just think that Future Outlook in 2025 is don't forget about YouTube because it's here and it's actually adapting so that becomes easier for people to use. So they're making the interface easier to use. They're changing or they've already changed the way that your channel page looks so that you can actually just, as soon as you upload a video, it shows up on your homepage. So they're creating this sort of like, hub of your video content. And of course, they're then encouraging you to put your short videos on, your podcasts on. They're introducing the community tab into your YouTube studio now, so you can actually interact with your audience much easier. You can have conversations with them inside of YouTube using the mobile apps that YouTube provides. don't forget about YouTube, I think is the thing I would say, because it's easy to get distracted by the sort of like short form platforms that are encouraging everyone to get onto, but actually YouTube is, it's not going anywhere. And if you start uploading to YouTube your videos have got a much longer shelf life than the other short form channels. So just start and develop your strategy as you go along.

Louise McDonnell:

Yeah. Brilliant. I think that's really good advice. And if you're already creating video, you've already got the content there that you, can put out there or you can tweak. I think the best thing I heard you say today is that you're long form video five to 10 minutes. So it's not going to take up. All your day. And another thing you said, which I think is really important is don't wait for perfection. Don't wait for, Oh, I can't possibly do that today. I need to, you know, I need to get my hair done or I need to just do it, you know, because nobody else is going to be as critical about yourself, except yourself. So people are more interested in what you can do for them and the information and that they're going to be learning from you. So Anita, how can people find you?

Anita Wong:

Well, you can look on my YouTube channel. It's Anita Wong and all the links are there, but otherwise my website is anitawong. co. uk and reach out to me and we can have a free discovery call if you want some help, you know, stepping into YouTube or you've already got a channel and it's not really doing anything. I can have a little look at that for you.

Louise McDonnell:

Brilliant. And did you have a free guide for people here today as well. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Anita Wong:

Yeah, so I've got a couple of training videos that show you how to repurpose your videos and I've also got a PDF which sort of goes through some of the 10 top things that I would encourage you to do on your channel, from how to optimize to how to create and how to utilize your video afterwards. So those two are available on my website. You can have a little look and download.

Louise McDonnell:

Fantastic. We put everything in the show notes as well. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing all your advice about YouTube. And I suppose the message is don't forget about it. It's a very strategic channel. And if you're already creating video content, why not?

Anita Wong:

Yeah, exactly. just think YouTube all the time. Brilliant. Thank you.