Marketing is VIRAL, with increasing focus on the Internet, including YouTube, a secret weapon for branding, promotion, customer relations, personalization and establishing a more customized touch with clients.  If you’re looking to grow your online business, there are some free tools that are so user-friendly and easily available; you’d be a shmuck to ignore them. YouTube is a standout for many businesses, because of its obvious winning characteristics:

• Unfortunately for people, but fortunately for YouTube (or because of YouTube), people are becoming increasingly lazy and are much more likely to prefer a video to straight text

• Because YouTube’s so easy to use, the content you post can be updated and more dynamic than a static site, which gives you an SEO style, Google position boost

• A recent Nielsen report recorded that Americans streamed 15 billion (yeah…billion with a “b”) videos in May 2011

• Because YouTube is now recognized as a household name, its actually very professional for businesses to use YouTube as a reputable platform for relevant content

The creative team at SocialMedia Examiner did an extremely helpful post on YouTube’s marketing benefits.

My main takeaway is as follows: Harness YouTube’s potential, by personalizing your YouTube channel (checkout SheBytes’ channel), and making sure the videos you create bear valuable “content that addresses your audience’s needs.”

To get an idea of what a “valuable” video can look like, check out Renee’s concise video below:

But if all this seems really confusing to you, you may find it helpful to give up the guesswork and hire an internet marketing strategist.

Jesse Braunstein is a Junior at NYU double majoring in Economics and Psychology. Jesse joined Madison Technology and SheBytes.com in May 2011 as a summer intern. Jesse has been instrumental in utilizing his expanding background to come up with creative perspectives on the Marketing, Advertising and Business Development initiatives at both Madison Technology and SheBytes.com. Jesse’s outlook stems from an Economics and Psychology education and a deep understanding of the individual and how the individual acts within and interacts with the market.  Follow Jesse on Twitter and Facebook. Check out his About.me.