Catch up on what you missed in Part One and Part Two. In Part Three of our Guide to Creating a Company YouTube Channel, we will continue to perfect the visitor's view of the channel to increase video views and subscribers. We will pick up where we left off last time in the About section and teach you how to take advantage of an area called FeaturedChannels. We will also share tips for creating a Channel Trailer, and creating Sections and Playlists to fill your channel with content - even if you only have a few videos.

Step One: Choose Your Featured Channels

The default title of the section below the links and description on the About page is Featured Channels, but the title can be customized to suit your needs and how your company will use this section. We renamed ours "Orlando, Florida on YouTube" to feature YouTube accounts relevant to the community we serve. Basically, this section allows you to feature YouTube channels you choose by displaying them with their channel icon, name and number of subscribers. All you have to do to edit this section is to click on the pencil icon in the top right corner, then start adding channels.

A few suggestions on how your company can take advantage of this section:

• Feature the YouTube channels of past or present clients.

• Feature the YouTube channels of businesses you partner with.

• Feature the YouTube channels of other departments within your company.

• Feature local YouTube channels to establish your connection with the community you do business in.

• Feature the YouTube channels of nonprofits or causes your company supports.

• Feature the YouTube channels of organizations you are a part of, such as your local chamber of commerce.

Step Two: Create A Channel Trailer

A Channel Trailer is a video produced for the purpose of explaining to the viewer what your business is and what they can expect from your YouTube channel. Don't make the viewer draw their own conclusions about what your business does, tell them! Trailer videos are especially important because of the limited space for text on YouTube Channels. Having a trailer video allows your company to tell it's story with emotion and vibrance. Since this video will be the first video people see when they come to your YouTube channel, it should be a professionally produced video that is intriguing and indicative of the style of videos the viewer can expect.

A few tips for creating a channel trailer:

• Keep it short. 30 - 90 seconds is ideal, or at least keep it under 5 minutes.

• Don't make it a sales pitch. You'll turn off viewers immediately.

• Encourage a call to action. Remember those decisions you made at the beginning of last week's guide? Refer to them to decide what your call to action is going to be.

• Use the InVideo programming option to guide viewers to the next video you want them to watch.

• Get inspiration from Hollywood. They use trailers for movies to get people excited about the coming attraction. Your channel trailer should achieve the same effect.

It's very easy to add a Channel Trailer. Simply upload a video like you normally would. Then, go to your channel page and roll your mouse over the top right corner of the channel trailer section until the pencil icon appears. Click to change the trailer, then choose from the videos you've uploaded.

Note: Your Channel Trailer is only displayed to visitors who are not subscribed to your YouTube Channel. Subscribers do not see the Channel Trailer.

Step Three: Create Playlists

A playlist in YouTube is a collection of videos, either your own or those of another YouTube channel. These playlists can be displayed as collections of videos on the main page of your YouTube channel. When used strategically, they can guide visitors through your content to discover older videos or videos on certain topics.

Creating a playlist is very easy. Just go to the video that you want to add to a playlist, then click on the "Add To" tab below the video. From here you can create a new playlist by entering the name and clicking "Create Playlist", or you can add the video to an existing playlist.

Some examples of playlists to create are:

• A video portfolio of your company's completed projects

• Staff introduction videos

• Event videos

• Video testimonials

• All videos about a certain product/service

• Helpful tips or tutorial videos

Since playlists can include any YouTube video and doesn't just have to be a video you've uploaded, using playlists is a great way to make it look like there is a lot more content on your YouTube page than there actually is. For example, if you just started using YouTube but don't want to look like a newbie, creating playlists of other people's videos that relate to your business would be a great idea.

Playlists are also great for displaying videos that are about your business, but that you haven't actually uploaded yourself. For example, if you are a franchise and your corporate entity is on YouTube, you can curate a playlist of their videos along with the ones that your franchise has created. This will help you to still have branded content on your YouTube page and also will help your YouTube channel to look more robust and full of video content.

Step Four:Create Sections of Videos

Once you have created a few strategic playlists, now you can create sections to display them on your YouTube Channel. Below the Channel Trailer are sections where you can categorize and prioritize your videos for viewing.

On the right side you will see a pencil icon when you scroll your mouse over it. Clicking this icon allows you to edit a section. Scrolling to the bottom, you will see a button that allows you to "Add A Section."

First, you will choose the content you want to display. This can be one of those playlists that you created in Step Three, or it can also be:

• A playlist someone else has created

• Popular uploads (your videos with the most views)

• Recent uploads

• Videos you have liked on YouTube

• Videos you have uploaded that share the same tag

• Recent activities

• Recent posts

• Other channels

For most of these options you will be able to create a custom title for that section, for example "Project Portfolio" or "Meet Our Staff." Once you've created a title, choose which way you would like the videos to display, either horizontally in rows or vertically in columns, then click done.

Now that your YouTube Channel is optimized to look great to your visitors, in part four of our Guide to Creating a Company YouTube Channel we will teach you how to adjust the settings so that your YouTube channel gets more traffic, and also sends more traffic to your website. 

Click here to go to Part Four...

About Talking Head StudioTalking Head Studio is an Orlando video production company offering full-scale video production services to local businesses and national clients alike.