When creating any kind of content online, obviously you have to find the right angle. You can't just keep cranking out advertisements. These will eventually bore your audience on social media. And they won't do anything to lift your search engine rankings either. (Too many could even damage them over the long term.) 

So you have to find an approach, an angle, that promotes what you do while still being interesting, useful, unique and engaging. It can be quite a challenge if you're not in a "sexy" niche.

I've been thinking about this question as it pertains to my YouTube channel for this site. It's been a bit tricky. See, I have another blog about Perth that I've been making little videos for. That's really easy. I basically just walk around the city and pull out my camera when I see something interesting.

But this site has a narrower target audience and so a different strategy is required. Ideally my videos will be visually interesting as well as related to business promotion. 

A while ago I made some half-hearted efforts in this direction. They weren't all bad, but they were jut kind of vague. So I didn't upload them. 

Recently, however, I've found a better approach. I've been keeping an eye out for new projects, events and the like and looking at them as mini case studies. I figure that if I've heard about them they must be doing something right marketing wise. So I can swing past one day and get some footage of them, adding a few thoughts as I do. 

I've only done this twice so far. But the process flowed easily and I think it's a good angle to repeat.

This approach has a couple of advantages. Firstly, I already know that what I'll be filming is in the news or has a bit of a buzz about it. So people in this city are sure to be interested and will be searching for it. 

Being locally oriented content, it will be comparatively easy to rank highly for relevant searches for it on YouTube (which is a hugely popular search engine in its own right).

This "case study" approach could be applied to pretty much any niche. Say you're a builder, specializing in a certain kind of structure. You could just lob at a notable example of this getting some publicity, and start shooting. Having so much expert knowledge of what's being done, including an engaging narration (either as you film it, or afterwards) wouldn't be a problem.

I've written before about how old fashioned local offline advertising can be an excellent way to promote online products and services. I'm actually doing it with this site, using flyers to promote my lessons in online marketing. And I'm often thinking about similar business ideas that would be best marketed this way. 

One that I think has a lot of potential is making promotional videos for local businesses, then uploading them to YouTube and other video sharing sites.

I know it's not an original idea. But I don't think many people are doing it here in Perth. 

There are different ways to approach this. There's the high end, for example. That's when you use the best equipment and lighting, and sometimes hire attractive performers to sing the company's praises. These videos are slickly edited and sometimes even have their own unique soundtracks.

Clearly, if you were to offer this kind of product you'd have to be well trained, highly skilled and have access to a team of technicians and performers. You could charge top dollar, but it would be very involved and probably quite stressful work. 

There'd certainly be some demand for such a service in a busy city such as Perth. After all, promotional videos can be powerful -- particularly if you're a growing business that wants to project a slick, branded image. 

But if you're a potential advertiser you should remember that if you fork out for this kind of promotion, you still have to get the video found and shared. That's a challenge all in itself. And if it's purely promotional, and not educational or instructive, then people are much less likely to share it on social media. 

It's long been established that the most shareable online content is entertaining, useful or instructive. And that can be made extremely inexpensively. You just have to look at YouTube and see what is popular. There seems to be little correlation between the high production values and number of views. A blurry hand held 30 second grab of a singing dog can garner countless views, while a five minute mini-movie costing several thousand dollars can be almost completely ignored.

That's why I think offering a much more basic video production service could be a good move for budding local entrepreneurs. You could charge a comparatively low fee while still making it worth your while. And the client could get excellent value for money. 

You could offer a package deal that included a couple of purely promotional videos. And others that were more instructive or informational. (Say you were doing it for a restaurant. As well as a little montage of happy customers enjoying the venue's food and atmosphere, you could also include an interview with the chef showing how they make their signature meals.)

This could be interesting content, as well as humanizing the business. It would be a great way to build authority online. 

Even something as basic as Microsoft Movie Maker would be adequate to give the video a presentable look with a title and credits etc. You certainly wouldn't need to be Steven Spielberg make the clips presentable!

Not only would such videos draw many local views over time; they would also be helpful for the business website's SEO.

YouTube is a fantastic promotional tool if you are in business. Not only is it a great way of being seen by lots of people, but it can quickly prove that you are an expert in your field and thereby help build your authority in your niche. It's also a great way of building backlinks to your site or blog that can help with SEO in the long term, particularly in a local sense. 

It's not just the SEO benefit to your site that is worthwhile. You can be found directly by prospective buyers near your location on the video sharing site itself. This is because, just as with using search engines for info, people often scour YouTube for locally oriented material. (And remember that it is the world's second largest search engine behind Google itself.) 

With this in mind I've been doing a bit of an experiment over the last year or so. I haven't put up any videos promoting the services listed here (though I will in time). Instead, I've just been going to various Perth locations and making short videos of them.

I've done some very basic keyword research and included geo-specific keywords in the video descriptions. Then I've gone back and looked at my stats form time to time. (And just regarding this research: You can use the YouTube keyword suggestion tool as a starting point. With many searches it will say "no data". Even so, if the search you wish to target does appear in the drop down suggestion box it is on the tool's radar, so it is a good sign in my opinion. Alternatively you can use the one in the main Google search box. If people are searching for something there then there's a good chance that they will be searching for it in YouTube as well.)

After looking through my traffic sources, I've been surprised at just how many viewers came by way of geo-specific keywords. I've had lots of visitors arrive via searches for things like "Perth skyline", "Perth Arena", and "London Court". 

Traffic from these searches just trickles in, of course. But that does add up over time. I've only had a dozen or so short videos up for a year or so. And with next to no promotion they've still racked up well over a thousand views. 

If you film events that are topical and newsworthy, on the other hand, then you can often tap into powerful bursts of YouTube traffic. Recently, for example, I went down to Cottesloe and made some videos of the anti-shark cull protest. Just two of them got hundreds of hits, some shares and several likes within a few days.

So, if you're in business it's definitely worth keeping an eye out for such local, newsworthy events you can record to get traffic. 

There is a challenge, however. Just like with blogging, you've got to work out how to tie the content into your business. Obviously if there's a direct correlation with what you're filming then it's not a problem. A bustling industry convention would be an example of this. 

But with something like the shark protest, it's hard to think of a business link. It was a political event more than anything ... Still, there were a lot of beachgoers there. Perhaps if you made or sold swimwear it would be worth posting some videos of the demo. (The link does remind people of the dangers of swimming so it's not the best content. But in terms of getting known by your demographic, I think it would still be worth it.)

Another example of a local political event worth filming would be a teachers' demonstration. You might supply stationery or text books to schools. There'd be many in the education field who would look for such footage. So posting a video of the crowds and speakers could get some worthwhile clicks to your site. Or you could just include your business name in the actual video.

Of course they don't have to be political events. They just have to be local and well known with lots of "colour and movement". Sporting events, local arts and craft festivals, industry conventions would all fit the bill. You could even be an amateur paparazzi and steal some footage of a local or visiting celebrity related to your niche. Any content like this could be effective in getting on the radar of YouTube users in your local area.