Ever since Amazon started including video and picture reviews with its product listings, people can learn more than ever about the products they purchase. They can see them in action before hitting “add to cart.” Incorporating natural, product-enhancing videos to your ecommerce site is a great way to drive traffic from a social giant like YouTube while adding value to your brand offering online.
Benefits of Using YouTube for WordPress
If you search for YouTube plugins for WordPress, you’ll find several different plugins, but many of these only provide limited functionality. For example, some only embed videos and don’t allow you to upload content directly from your WordPress site. The latest version of YouTube for WordPress is an all-in-one solution that allows website owners to customize their video player, upload content directly through the plugin, and search YouTube as needed from one centralized location.
As online content becomes more video-heavy, website owners are looking for simpler ways to incorporate video into their own brand messaging. If you have a simple video uploaded to your site, it will only reach visitors who visit that particular landing page. When you use a massive social media network such as YouTube, you can expand your reach to YouTube’s audience as well as those who access your website via another route.
Getting Started With the Plugin
To get started, you will need to download the WordPress Youtube plugin and complete the setup process. After the initial setup, updating your website and YouTube account with new videos will give you an easy way to improve brand visibility and drive traffic back to your site.
To setup your new plugin, you will need to go through the process of creating a new Google Project, enabling the API, and selecting the proper authorization settings. If you don’t already have a company sponsored YouTube account, create one. Once completed, your WordPress website and your YouTube account will be integrated. Over 85,000 WordPress users have downloaded this plugin since it was released in late 2015.
For more information on the step-by-step process, the plugin developers have created a video tutorial and text based tutorial for users to follow. The instructions are straightforward and will ensure that your plugin is properly setup so you can begin using video to enhance your online marketing efforts immediately.
Using the Plugin to Boost Social Media Activity
The YouTube for WordPress plugin markets itself as an all-in-one tool, enabling you to upload and manage videos and social media activities directly through the plugin. Here are just a few of the ways you can use it to maintain and monitor your video-based social media activities:
• Take advantage of shortcodes. You may use shortcodes with your other WordPress plugins, which are incredibly useful with the YouTube for WordPress plugin. Shortcodes allow you to use a limited number of characters to imbed or create content. To imbed a YouTube video, you can simply open up your content editor and add the shortcode with a video ID where you want to see the video on your site.
Note: The video ID is the combination of numbers and letters that appear after the “=” on your YouTube URL.
For instance, you may want to add a video to a blog post to give it a little more depth and interest. Insert the shortcode for a single video, a playlist, or a search grid using the following format:
Single video: [yt4wp-video video_id=”video ID code”]
Playlist: [yt4wp-playlist playlist_id=”playlist ID code”]
Search grid (allow website visitors to search for videos on your site!): [yt4wp-grid search_term=”search term”]
Manage social media activities.
Keep up with competitor content and get ideas for future posts as you browse videos through the plugin’s interface. You can also create an RSS feed widget for your website to ensure any content you upload remains current. Subscribe to vendor and partner YouTube feeds directly through the plugin to showcase your brand affiliations, and keep private and unlisted videos stored in your plugin for use later.
Manage your online reputation from one location.
When you have content on multiple online platforms, you need the ability to see what is happening with your brand in real time. Keep track of how your content is performing (likes, views, etc.) without leaving your WordPress site.
Ask an Imagine Monkey developer about a custom solution. YouTube for WordPress isn’t the end of the line for social media functionality within your website. If you aren’t getting what you need out of the plugin, talk to an Imagine Monkey developer about creating custom functionality that helps you do more with the video content you produce. Whether you need more functionality for interacting with viewers or to enhance a viewer’s mobile experience, the plugin is designed for flexibility.
YouTube plays an important role in modern digital strategies. Start gaining content visibility with a plugin that lets you do more everyday using one familiar interface.
