The first thing you need to know before setting up your company YouTube channel is that it is no longer a stand alone platform. Google has completely integrated YouTube with Google+, which has been integrated with pretty much every other Google product, including Google maps and local business directory.Because of this, you must do these two steps first, before you create your company YouTube channel:

Step 1. Create and Verify your business on Google Maps. To do this, start here: https://www.google.com/local/business/

Step 2. Create a Google+ Page for your business and connect it to the verified local business listing you created in step one. To do this, start here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/dashboard

You must use the same Google/Gmail account as you did when setting up the local business listing when completing step two. If you haven't yet set up your personal profile on Google+, you must do that before step two. Do not set the name of your personal Google+ profile as your company name. It is against Google rules, and you won't be doing yourself or your company any favors. A personal Google+ profile is intended for an individual, and is required in order to create a Google+ page. Once everything is set up, the individual's name and personal Google+ profile becomes irrelevant, and you can add multiple people as managers of the business page, local listing, and YouTube account.

What happens if you don't do both of these things before starting on your company YouTube account? Well, for starters you may end up with duplicate pages if you do it the other way around, which will confuse Google & YouTube search engines and make your Google presence too thin to the point that it will be ineffective.

Second, Google has designed these online areas to work in conjunction with one another, each raising the reliability and visibility of the other in search.

The bottom line is that Google's main goal is to give its users the best and most reliable results for their search. The more Google properties you have correctly set up, connected, optimized, and linked to your website, the better Google will feel about recommending your website, YouTube page, Google+ page, and business listing in their search results.

Once you have completed both of these first steps, you are ready to begin setup of your business YouTube channel.

Step 3: Go to YouTube.com and sign in with the Google/Gmail account you used in Step One and Step Two.

Step 4: Click on your profile photo in the top right hand corner, and a menu of options will appear.

Step 5: Click on "Switch Account", and then choose the Google+ page that you just set up.

The first time you do this, YouTube will ask you if you would like to create a channel for the Google+ page you choose. Click OK.

A window will pop up telling you that the Google+ page and YouTube Channel will now be linked, which is exactly what you want. Click OK.

Congratulations! You have successfully connected your YouTube channel to your Google+ page and your local business listing. You are ready to move to the next step in the YouTube channel set up process what we will walk you through next week!

Click here for Part Two...

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About Talking Head StudioHeadquartered in sunny Orlando, Florida, Talking Head Studio is offers our full-scale video production services to local businesses and national clients alike.