With over 200 billion videos being viewed online every month, if you are looking to expose your business to a potentially huge audience, you will want to have a presence on video sharing sites. But where do you start?

Google owned giant YouTube, which since its launch in 2006 has become synonymous with online video in the minds of most of its 800 million monthly visitors, is undoubtedly the king of the marketplace. But is it the only option?

In this article, I will give a brief overview of the four largest video sharing sites that are well worth considering for your video marketing campaign, and will demonstrate the various video players using some of my personal favorites of 2011!

YouTube

(YouTube stats)

In terms of traffic, YouTube is number one by a mile – and being owned by the World’s largest search engine: having video that is indexed by Google certainly won’t hurt your chances of it (and your business!) being found!

It is quick and easy to set up and customize your channel, and you can upload an unlimited number of videos of up to 15 minutes length to your account.

The only downside to such a vastly popular site could be that with 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, of varying quality and subject type, it can be hard to find the diamonds in the rough. For every video that hits the big time with a global reach, millions more go largely unnoticed.

Vimeo

In terms of scale, Vimeo may be a drop in the ocean stood next to YouTube, but with 65 million unique visitors per month, it still makes a big splash.

Vimeo boasts “the highest quality video in the Universe” and has built its reputation on the strength of its content, and a more engaged audience. It offers “complete customization” of its video player, so while videos uploaded to YouTube will always carry the YouTube logo, Vimeo allows you to embed your own logo and branding into the player.

The Vimeo terms of use are much stricter than YouTube, which on the plus side means a more professional platform. The downside is that they have tight regulations relating to video for “commercial use”, so you will not be able to embed your video onto your own site –  and pay close attention to the fine print before you upload.

Vimeo also puts a cap on the number of video views unless you purchase upgrades, and some of the best features are only available with a paid “Pro” account – Detailed statistics; priority upload; removal of advertising banners. Depending on your budget, however, the Pro account – at $199 a year – might be worth considering.

Sign Language – a short film from Oscar Sharp on Vimeo.

Metacafe

Metacafe takes user experience very seriously, offering a streamlined interface, a lack of duplicates and a strong community.

Content is carefully reviewed by a panel of 80,000 community members, which keeps the standard high and the site orderly, and the content is easy to find by assigned category.

There is no limit on video length (as long as the video is less than 100MB), and while Metacafe may not have as many visitors as YouTube (40 million monthly viewers worldwide), according to a Metacafe top video views analysis:

“The top 200 videos at YouTube received a total of about 560,000,000 views while the top 200 videos at Metacafe received about 630,000,000, 12% more than YouTube” – impressive!

Daily Motion

French owned DailyMotion is another site attracting vast numbers of hits. It boasts a hugely international audience and the content tends to be more professional in nature – an advantage for the business user.

The interface may not be quite as attractive as the sites above, but it is well-organized and user friendly, and users are able to upload video from their webcam or mobile phone.

Offering 32 localized versions of the site, the DailyMotion mission is “to provide the best possible entertainment experience for users and the best marketing opportunities for advertisers, while respecting content protection”.

Conclusion

While YouTube is not likely to lose its crown any time soon, when it comes to video sharing sites – the courtiers are holding their own.

And best of all? The sites above can all be used for free.

With more than 50 video sharing sites out there, the choice can be overwhelming, but even if you went with just the big 4 above – that is a combined total of over a billion unique visitors a month.

The dominance of YouTube is undeniable, and each of the sites has its pros and cons – but when it comes to gaining exposure, the more the merrier. And with the emergence of video distribution sites such as TubeMogul, VideoWildfire and Hey!Spread, which allow users to upload their content to multiple video sharing sites simultaneously, those 1 billion potential customers are, literally, a click away.

The use of video sharing sites as a marketing tool is growing exponentially, and with virtually no financial investment involved – get uploading!

Author Bio

Neil Davidson is the CEO and Founder of My Web Presenters. They have pioneered and built the market leading technology for using web presenters on your website.

My Web Presenters offer web video production that evokes a response in the viewer and brings them closer to your brand.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Small Business Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.