If you are one that markets your business online, you have more than likely heard or read the term ‘viral video’.  But what exactly is a viral video?  Let’s explore the answer and how you can make an effective viral video.

First of all a viral video is simply a short video designed to market something, perhaps your business, product or service.  Sounds simple enough, right? Well, it is not very difficult but in order to make an effective viral video for your needs there are some points you will want to keep in mind.

Before venturing out to make your viral video, determine what it will be used for.  Once this step is determined then you will want to make a viral video that will target your market audience and draw their attention.  Commonly viral videos are short which means they are no longer than 3 to 4 minutes.  Although you may find some viral videos circulating the web that are longer, the average is 3 to 4 minutes.  The object of the viral video is to entice your market audience and leave them wanting more.  With this short video clip they will be encouraged to visit your website or shop to learn more about what you may have to offer.

Once you have determined the theme, then you are ready to produce your viral video.  If you are not video savvy, you may want to outsource this project to someone or a company that will make one for you.  Your goal is to attract more business and entice your target audience, so be sure to keep this very important point in mind.

The viral video will need to be seen by many for it to be effective.  After the viral video is complete, you will want to place in different video sharing venues or video distribution sites to share with a larger audience.  From this point, your video will be picked up by bloggers or other followers that enjoy your video.  A wonderful site to place your video is TrafficGeyser.com where they will distribute your video to over 100 other video sharing sites.  If you are active in the social media scene, you will want to share your video in those avenues as well.  The sole purpose of your viral video should be exposure and the more places you can share your video link, the best it will be.

This is the second part of the SEO and videos, be sure to read Part 1 to get all the essential information you will need in order to have the search engines locate your videos.

Let’s continue with the tips in order for your videos to get the most exposure possible:

-Tags: implementing the proper tags for your videos is essential.  The keywords used should be relevant to the content of your video.  If you will be using the term, ‘video’ as a tag, be certain to have this word in your description and title. The basic rules that apply to articles or posts for tags, also works for videos.  Be certain to have the description as well as the title coincide with the tags you choose.

-Branding:  many individuals who make videos will neglect to add their brand to the video.  Not only with the brand be noticeable but it will also direct traffic to your main site.

-Use Video Sharing Sites: It’s great to place your videos on your site but in order to get more visitors it is wise to add your videos to sharing sites.  Placing your videos on sites like Youtube along with links to your site and other content and videos will increase your traffic.

-Allow Embed Code: In order for your video to be seen by more people you can allow others to take your video embed code where they can share your video on their websites and blogs.  Another perk with this tip is the backlinks that will be created which also help with search engine optimization and your ranking within the search engines.

-Ask for reviews or ratings: Yes, you read that last tip correctly.  When you encourage visitors to rank your videos, the search engines will find them quicker and mark them as favorites.  This again will increase your status in search engines which is ultimately your goal.

-Submit your feeds: Did you know you could submit your RSS or MRSS to sites as you can for written articles?  Yes, you can.  Here are some that you can submit your feeds to, Pure Video , Yahoo Video , and Blinkx .

As you can tell, there are many ways to improve your rankings in the search engines for your videos.  Apply some of the tips provided or all the tips and watch your traffic explode.

Marketing is a tricky game.  However, with the use of videos it can become less complicated.  We all know that in order for your product or service to sell or be noticed, it must be marketed.  The same applies with your videos.

In order to successfully market with videos you must create back links.  Don’t get discouraged, this actually sounds harder than what it is.  Creating back links simply means marketing your video in areas where people will find you.  Along with marketing is the description of the video and the keywords used to describe the videos, this helps in the search engines as well.

Ways to market you video:

Social Networks – once you have developed or made a video, spread the word in social networks such as Twitter, Facebook to name a few.  Mentioning it to your friends online will bring an influx of viewers which is your goal.

Forums – sharing your links to your videos on forums that you frequent is another way to gain exposure.  Be sure to develop a relationship with those on the forum before you share your links.  Folks that simply visit forums to plaster their links are frowned upon.

Blogs – blogs or websites are the perfect place to share your videos and attract more readers and visitors.

Directories - this may take some time but the research will pay off.  Research the different directories available that your target audience may be attracted to and place the links to your videos on those particular directories.  A great site is http://www.onlywire.com

Press Releases – another excellent way to promote your videos is by sharing your videos and your site via press releases. No worries if you are unsure about writing a press release, it doesn’t take much to share your new content which includes your videos for the world to see.  Some places allow you to place your press release on their sites for free, which is great for the limited funds for marketing.  Some free distribution centers are ClickPress, 24-7PressRelease and PRLeap.  Most importantly you will want to do your homework which consists of researching the different avenues to place your press release.

You’ll notice from the examples that I have shared, that it is not difficult to promote your videos to develop back links.  It is important however, that you are not tagged as a spammer, so it is important to be strategic in the marketing of your videos.