Quick Guide To YouTube Podcasts: Everything You Need To Know About It

Get off the marketing roller coaster and get on the automated fast track to digitally market your brand everywhere. Now join podcast producer Tom Hazard and Inc. Columnist Tracy Hazard as they share easy content building formulas and smart cut secrets proven to fuel hundreds of blogs, podcasts and brands with bingeable original content. Join the conversation on how to get your message out to the world. Be original, be heard, promote with power and purpose. Feed your brand.

Welcome back to Feed you'd Brand. This is Tom and Alexandra and today we're going to talk about one of the most frequent questions that we get asked at brandcasters and it's about YouTube.

Yeah. Should you YouTube podcasts or should you not?

And I think that it's a very good question and I'm glad people think about it and ask it all the time. And there's not an absolute right or wrong answer here because the reality is podcasting in and of itself is such a wonderful thing because you don't have to worry if your hair is perfect. You don't have to worry about the background behind you, what's on the camera, what's not. Are you in your main office, your home office, are you out in the world, what's behind you? These are lots of things. It is inherently more involved to record video than audio, but a lot of people do and there certainly are a lot of benefits to recording video and as well as audio, so should you YouTube podcasts. Good question, and I'll tell you, let's discuss it from a purely SEO perspective first. Okay.

From an SEO perspective, YouTube is owned by Google. So all your keywords that are in your description of the YouTube video that are in the title of the YouTube video, all the tags that are in the YouTube video are very important because it's owned by Google. So anytime someone searches those keywords or those tags and it's going to show up in Google.

And you know, there's an important distinction to make here between YouTube and Google because Google really does not use tags anymore. We mentioned that in another episode. I don't know if it was before this one aired or not, but tags don't really help you in Google search in and of itself. But YouTube absolutely uses tags, right?

Right, exactly. And when you search in Google under YouTube, because you can categorize your search to only show you YouTube videos when you're searching in Google as well. So I think it would benefit you there as well because it should just be bringing up the same search you would get in YouTube.

But that is still specific to YouTube videos, right?

Exactly. So it's super important that if you do YouTube podcasts, that you YouTube them with all your keywords and all of your tags that you would do with a normal podcast anyway.

Sure. So the way I think about this is if you're already recording your episodes as a video cast, if you're doing it live on Facebook, for instance, like if you're interviewing someone for your podcast and you're using Zoom and you have video anyway, Zoom lets you go live on Facebook as you're recording it. I mean, you can actually.

That's a whole nother rabbit hole too.

It is, but you can use a lot of. You do use Zoom to record your podcasts because you want to see your guest and it is video. You can do the split screen, side by side broadcast of that over Facebook Live and get a lot of exposure on social media. That's actually, to me, I think, even a more beneficial thing than putting it on YouTube.

But if you're doing that anyway, you do want to go put that on YouTube, that Facebook video is not going to show up in a Google search, but that YouTube video will. And that YouTube video can also be embedded on your blog post, which is also going to give you higher SEO value for that blog post.

Absolutely. And actually I think that's even a more critical thing for people that are going to YouTube their podcasts, that you don't just put it on YouTube and leave it there. And that's like the only place people can consume it. Because again, we've talked about this in other episodes. You want to be directing your traffic and own owning your own web traffic for your brand and the content you're creating. And so the best way you can do that is to embed those videos into your blog posts on your website. And it's just another way people can consume your media if they really don't have time to pay attention and watch that video. Well, they can listen to the podcast or maybe you talked about something really interesting or there's something about seeing you that they want to see you. Well, then they'll watch the video, but they can still be watching it on your website, on your blog post.

Right. And speaking to that point, it's super important to be mentioning that the video will be in the blog post throughout the episode. So that way if you do have something visual, you say yes, then that'll be in the blog post. For those of you who are listening and want to check out what I'm talking about.

Yeah, because it's a YouTube video. Play is a play is A play, it doesn't matter where people watch it. Whether They've gone to YouTube and found your channel or searched and found your video and they're watching it while they're sitting on YouTube. If they're watching it while they're sitting on your website, that counts as the same play. YouTube does not care that you are sitting on your website versus being on YouTube.

Right. And if you're going to YouTube podcasts, the end game isn't normally how many views your YouTube podcast gets. It's normally to help your SEO value increase. Because that YouTube video is going to give your blog post that it's embedded in more keywords because the keywords are in that YouTube video's description and title and tags. And it's also going to bring more traffic to that blog post, which is going to increase your searchability as well.

Yeah, it's really just about cross referencing and making your content available in as many different places as possible. Now, I'm not saying that every podcaster needs to be recording things as video and putting them out on YouTube. I really, I don't believe that. I'm not even a big fan of taking the audio of a podcast and just putting a static image up and throwing that up on YouTube. You can. And maybe from an SEO perspective, there may be a little value in that. But I don't think people go to YouTube as a destination to go listen to things only. Do they?

They do, actually, surprisingly. And it's mostly with millennials. But because YouTube is free and music videos are always on YouTube and a lot of time these days, music artists that do not have a music video with their track, they will put it on YouTube with the artwork for that album on YouTube. So you can listen to full music for free on YouTube, whereas Spotify costs you monthly. And Pandora, you have to listen to ads. And yes, YouTube, normally you get ads as well, but some people prefer to do it through YouTube. And I actually know quite a few people who do that.

Yeah, but for music videos and music, I can understand that. But podcasts are free to listen to on itunes already.

They are free to listen to on itunes already. But if someone's already listening on YouTube, it's another destination they may want to listen to it at. So is it as popular? Maybe not, but it's still done.

All right, so it's done. But back to my point of you don't have to record all your podcasts as a video.

Right.

Because that, as we've said, and I'm sure many of you know who have recorded videos, that it's inherently more involved to record a video than it is audio. I mean, not with you, Alexandra, but sometimes with me and Tracy. We're recording a podcast. We'll do it at 10:30, 11 at night. I'm in my PJs, and so is Tracy. And then we will go and just record. And no one knows. No one sees us because we're not on video.

Yeah, definitely. But a lot of men, particularly, will find it easier to just throw on a nice shirt and comb their hair for a second and go ahead, they can do the video. Now, you can't do it at night because of lighting, but maybe you have great lighting in your home and you could do it at night. Or maybe for you, it's just not as difficult. So if it's not as difficult, because us women, unfortunately, the standard of beauty is much higher. We have to have our makeup done and our hair perfect. And although that is just a social standard, I know many women who would not want to do a video cast without that being done. So if you're a person who doesn't care so much or maybe it's easier for you to get ready more quickly and it doesn't take that much time, maybe you would want a video. Maybe you would want to YouTube your podcast.

Yeah. So there are some podcasters out there and some of them that we work with who are just, I would say, hyper marketers. And I'm going to say Scott Carson from the Note Closer show is one of those.

Oh, absolutely.

And he is already multiple days a week, three to four, maybe sometimes even five days a week, he is recording an episode through Zoom and putting it out as a Facebook Live video as he does it. And that's a part of his social media marketing strategy. And then we produce that as a podcast, and that video goes up and other places afterwards as well. And it makes sense. He's already doing it. But if it's not already a big part of your social media marketing strategy or your plan as a company, you're going to find that recording videos is a whole lot more time consuming than podcasts. And so you have to weigh those options. The benefit of putting your content out more places and, you know, benefiting from additional SEO opportunities versus the amount of time it takes you to create the content.

Right. And with Scott Carson, he already does his Facebook Live every single morning. He has a time slot for an hour. He does it every day, and that's what he turns into, both his video cast and his podcast. So he's repurposing that content. And he already had that as part of his routine in his week. So if you set up a routine with it like he does, it's easier to do. But if you're not going to set up a routine like that, and let's say you're going to do what we do with feed your brand, where we record a bunch of episodes in one day, you got to think about, well, I'm going to be wearing the shirt, same shirt in every single video. Is that going to be okay? Or maybe we change up the order so that way it looks like I'm wearing different shirts, but I'm really just wearing the same one.

Well, when I've done things like that and I've been recording several different video segments and I've done that not really for putting out on Facebook, but just for recording different video segments of different content. And I'm doing several in a day, I actually do go and change my shirt each time so I don't look the same in multiple videos, regardless of when they're going to be distributed or who's going to consume them when. I do think you have to consider those things. And I'm glad you said it, not me, honestly, I think I would have gotten some critical emails and such. If I'm the one that said, oh, it's harder for women and they need to do more to get rid of.

I'll be the first one to tell you, as a woman, it is harder.

I didn't want to potentially offend anyone and be seen as, hey, you know, not being fair.

I understand that in this day and age.

But I have to say, I live in a household with where I'm the only man and there are three other women and this is what I hear. So it is more difficult for women. So, yeah, I think it's easier to be a guy, just change your shirt, your hair, no big deal. I mean, most of us have shorter hair. And certainly if you ever watch any of Scott Carson's videos, you can see that his hairstyle is the same every time. It's just ultra short.

Right? Exactly. Speaking of Scott Carson, though, I do want to bring up whether a lot of times we get the question of, oh, I've decided I want to video my podcast. I want to do a video version. Should I Vimeo or YouTube? My podcast. And the answer is you YouTube podcasts. Because of, like we said, it's owned by Google and it's super important that you did that. And the reason why Scott Carson reminded me of that is because he had his video cast already going before we had started working with him. And he was already had an active Vimeo channel, so that's where he uses it. But we made an active decision not to put those Vimeo videos into his blog post because it's Vimeo and not YouTube. And because YouTube's owned by Google, you want to watch out for that.

So is he. We're just putting the YouTube videos in his blog posts?

No, he doesn't use YouTube. He uses Vimeo.

Always.

Always. But we do not put it in the blog post because it's Vimeo and not YouTube. And although Google's not supposed to be doing anything because they're competitors, they're not supposed to be dinging you. We didn't want to risk it at all. So we decided to leave the video out because he uses Vimeo. But he has so much social exposure that for him it doesn't matter. He's at that level now where it doesn't matter for him anymore. But when you are just starting out, it's super important that you choose to YouTube podcasts rather than to use Vimeo because of the difference in ownership there.

Well, that's interesting. You know, I hadn't really considered that. I remember as we were doing video stuff, we have established YouTube channels and not really gone the Vimeo route, But I didn't really realize. One of the reasons we may not have done that is because of the power of Google.

Right.

Because they like it or not, Google does own the Internet. They really do.

They do.

Yeah. I don't really think that's an overstatement, but they hold the keys to the castle for exposure on the Internet, that's for sure. YouTube is now a big part of that since they bought them. So very, very cool. So again, like I said, I'm not a big advocate of video. Podcasting is wonderful and flexible and really relatively easy. And it's much easier to sound your best than to look your best. Even me. I mean, we are on a lot of videos and I find I don't smile enough. Right. I need to smile more when I'm on video. But when I'm podcasting, you don't even know that I'm smiling or not.

Right, Right.

It just makes it much easier.

Yeah, definitely. But it is an easy step to make. If you've decided you wanna give your blogs even more power and give your website even more Google power, you can do it through YouTube podcasts. And it's not that much more of a difficult step. If the whole getting ready and being on camera is not as big of a deal to you.

That's true. And I think that the advent of Facebook Live videos, the how more frequent and common they are now, I think has conditioned audiences and viewership out there to. Except I would say, less polished videos.

Oh, absolutely.

Because people are holding up their cell phone like a selfie really, and doing it. I mean, you can tell there's higher production value videos and lower production value videos out there. And there's something to be said for a high production value, no question. But there's just a lot more, I would say, user generated content out there in the video world. But if you are going to do that and you are going to record all of your podcast as videos first, I do still highly recommend you use a good quality microphone and that you think about the audio quality of your video. Because there's only so much that we can do to improve the audio quality of what is recorded in a video. If you haven't done a good job of that, your podcast audio quality is only going to be so good. And I think that it's different from viewers watching videos who may be more accustomed to user generated content and willing to accept a lower production value of video. People that listen to a lot of podcasts really do want the audio quality to be as clean as possible. And if you don't have a good quality audio, they might move on. Next. What's the next show I wanted to listen to?

Absolutely. And you can use the same microphone you use for your podcast now to videocast. Most people already do it through zoom anyway to actually execute the guests interviews on their podcast. It's just making sure that mic is hooked up correctly and it can work.

With a video mic hooked up correctly. And also the audio input for whatever program is recording is set to use that microphone. Double check that. Because even in our early days we made some rookie errors and we had this great microphone sitting in front of us that we're talking into and the audio wasn't actually using it to record, it was using the other ambient microphone that was nearby. So remember not to make that rookie error.

Right. It's funny, the small part of me that is a little bit into activism and whatnot wants to be like, you know what, women out there and anyone out there who wants to do video cast, if you don't look your best, it doesn't matter, just do it. People will still want that content. I mean, nowadays we have people doing no makeup Mondays and all these sort of things everywhere. So, I mean, it depends on you and what your brand is, but if it fits in with your brand and your podcast, to do a day or two here and there where you don't. Absolutely. You're not polished that day. I feel like in this day and age, people are more willing to accept that for sure.

That's probably a statement that there's going to be a lot of people that don't agree with you and people that do it.

Definitely.

I think people are going to be all over the map on that one. It really depends on your brand, your image, and what you want to project out there to your audience.

Exactly. Like if you are a health and wellness brand that's all about being the healthiest you, then that would totally fit in with that brand because you're doing no makeup Mondays to give your face a break, to give your skin a break.

But I'll tell you, if part of your goal is to use your podcast and your video cast to elevate your perception as a speaker and to get more stages, then I think you want to have a more polished appearance and presence and quality of video. Because sort of jeans and T shirt and winging it on the fly, isn't it probably going to get you the best speaking gigs?

No, it is not.

Obviously there's things.

There's pros and cons to everything. Just like with YouTube podcasts.

Yep. No right or wrong answers, but a lot of things to consider. So, hey, there we go. Well, I think we covered that subject.

I think we did.

All right, so we'll wrap it up for today. I want to thank everybody for listening to Feed you'd Brand. And remember, please go to the blog post at FeedYourBrand code and follow us anywhere on social media. Edyourbrand. So for today, this has been Tom.

And Alexandra on Feed you'd Brand.

Sam.