Where Should I Post My Video?

After you’ve created your business video, the next step is deciding where to host it where people will see it. The obvious players are the popluar ones — YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo — as all three double as social media platforms that help your content be seen by potential customers. But it’s more than just hitting “share” or “upload”

This blog discusses how you can utilize each one to promote your video and get it to your clients.

Using YouTube to Host Your Video

Google’s YouTube is the largest video sharing service on the web with over 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and almost 5 billion videos watched per day. This easily makes it the most familiar.

With Google as its parent company, YouTube is as much a search engine as it is video player. Tags help with SEO that allow creators to tell YouTube what kind of content is in your video so that other people can find it. You can also monetize your page with ads to generate income.

YouTube has integrated sharing, embedded video, custom playback options, adaptive quality streaming and caption support – making it one of the best free video hosting websites.

There is also the ability to have hidden videos, private videos and custom auto playing playlists.

Using Facebook To Host Your Video

Facebook wants video to be more popular on its platform, and 2017 stated that their News Feed algorithm would give higher priority to video content.

Facebook can host your video for posting to your channel. Since channels can end up in your followers’ News Feed this is a great way to get organic traffic. You can also pay for video plays through Facebook’s ad system to get even more eyeball on your videos. The downside it’s not as free as YouTube. The upside is that you can ensure that your video is seen by just paying a small advertising fee.

Facebook video though has some inherent rules to keep in mind. First, unless the user has selected otherwise video may start automatically when the video shows in their feed by without sound. Recent studies have shown that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.Many businesses get around this by really selling their beginning seconds in a video with engaging content and then using subtitles to narrate the video.

Facebook video is also not easily shared outside of its walled garden, unlike YouTube’s easy embed features. They are also careful about copyright and have given content creators issues when using perfectly legal royalty free music in their video.

But the fact that you can pay to have your video seen is a huge bonus.

Using Vimeo to Host Your Video

Vimeo is to video sharing to what Windows is to Mac. Both have dedicated fan bases and different uses. Vimeo caters to professionals more than YouTube. It has higher quality players (that you pay for), a membership system and is the favorite of professional video creators.

Like YouTube, they allow embedding, playlists and easy navigation to find similar videos from other creators. Businesses, however, must pay for use if their videos are commercial in nature.

Upside is that using Vimeo shows you are invested in a quality experience and can benefit your brand – depending dependig on your audience.

Since Vimeo is also made up of professional content creators, there are groups, rooms and a plethora of tools for businesses to use on their pages.

The Best Website to Host Your Video

In the end, what’s the verdict? It really depends on what you want to do with your video. YouTube is free and is the most popular. Facebook is great if you’re looking to get your video out to the masses, and don’t mind paying a little to get it there. Vimeo is a great place to host high quality video, with a whole host of control and options.

But why not use all three?

Facebook video, hosted on the Facebook platform plays off their servers. So, posting it there rather than linking to your YouTube page is a great option. Also, one of the things that slows a website down the most is page content. Rather than having videos uploaded to your own web server, it’s best to place it somewhere else (like YouTube or Vimeo) and embed the video with their link.