I’M LAUNCHING MY BUSINESS YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
After much planning – this month I am launching my own YouTube channel. I already have one with my husband, about our caravan holidays, but this one is all about me, small business, the media and PR!
Launching, on Friday Jan 5, it will be called Reel PR with Fiona Scott.
It’s going to be a chat show style, with a new episode each month in 2024. I’ll be talking to interesting guests with a global view about business and PR, or – anyone with an interesting backstory where I want to be nosey around their story.
One of my guests will be John Boitnot, a journalist from San Francisco, I met whilst in Las Vegas, where I’d been invited to attend SuiteWorld 2023. John and I got on so well and have stayed in touch. He found me sat alone eating, at a ‘do’ where we were on a balcony overlooking the Strip at a media shindig. He asked if he could join me – and that was it, he couldn’t get rid of me for three days!
Now you will all have the chance to find out about John too.
Having a YouTube channel if a natural extra layer to my own PR and I have been prompted to do it, due to the success of my podcast, ‘PR not BS’. Given that I recommend that my own clients layer in new aspects to their PR, it seems only right that they see me doing the same – based upon my goals.
Also, YouTube is the second most popular social media platform in the world, after Facebook. As someone who talks about being visible, it makes perfect sense for me to have a channel.
There are 5 advantages of being on YouTube as a brand/personality (and I’d argue the latter is more important:
- Having a YouTube channel gives you brand exposure. Building up your videos on the platform gives you visibility over the long term, as in contrast to some other social media platforms, where videos have a shorter shelf life of only a few days or even hours.
- On YouTube you can reach a massive audience worldwide, and this can generate leads and opportunities. Having engaging and entertaining content, your viewers will grow and you can encourage comments and subscribers too, which again, builds your audience.
- It’s a great platform for building authority and credibility. People will be able to determine whether you are authentic, which, as I talked about in my December podcast, PR Predictions for 2024, is going to become more and more important in 2024.
- Your channel can bring you customers who are interested in your brand and – most importantly – you. Around 30 million small business owners worldwide are using the channel so far – there are many missing out on its potential. I want to be one of those millions.
- As I’ve already mentioned it is going to give me another layer to my PR. Having already worked in TV, I’m looking forward to being talking to guests of my choice, sharing my chosen topics and questions. Interviewing people has been part of my job as a journalist for a long time. I love talking to my guests on my podcast, and this is just going to be another opportunity for me to talk to fascinating people, and showcase my brand at the same time. YouTube plays to my strengths.
Taking on point 2 – around 74% of my audience is UK based, and another 10% from North America, and that’s the area I want to grow! I can support and train people anywhere if we can speak the same language yet that won’t happen if I don’t take action. Having been to the USA last year with plans to go again in 2024, this is one small step towards a new audience.
One thing to note though – having a channel set up and running doesn’t mean immediate success will turn up. Just like anything else, you have to put in the effort around it, talk about it and keep sharing and engaging. It’s not just the time of creating content, it’s the time to keep sharing that content.
Our personal YT channel has almost 200 films uploaded, has been ‘out there’ for just over four years and only in the last year has it generated a small amount of ad revenue – about £25 a month and we have just over 1,200 subscribers. Just showing up isn’t enough – you have to work the opportunity and be in it for the long game.