As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique visitors per month worldwide. The average YouTube user visits the site 14 times per month, spending an average of 25 minutes on the site each time. And these numbers are only for the YouTube website itself and don’t include all those embedded YouTube videos that are all over the place, in blogs, viewed on smartphones, etc.

We know that YouTube can be an important medium to increase SEO, to share content and to receive feedback on that content, but how well are you showcasing your page? YouTube says there are 35 hours of video uploaded every minute, with all that competition how do you standout from the crowd; how do you stand out from every other dealership?You don’t have to be overly internet savy to create a fantastic, customized YouTube channel. There are easy options that everyone can take advantage without taking up to much time.

Create a custom background- just like any other medium, you want your YouTube Channel to be branded to match your dealership. And what better way to do this than create a custom background? By going to “My Channel” and clicking on “Themes and Colors” at the top of the page, you can customize your background to reflect your dealership. You can even use your logo (or another photo reflecting your dealership) as a background image. Here you can also create the perfect color scheme to match.

Make sure your featured video is your best video- by default, YouTube uses your latest post as your “Featured” video. While this might be good for dealerships post often, it may not be the best option for dealerships that only post occasionally. By clicking “Videos and Playlists” on the tope of your channel, you can choose between letting your most recent video be the “Featured Video” or chose one specific video that will remain regardless of what you post.
Note: the drop down menu will give you the option of “most recent” as well as a list of the last few videos you posted. If the video you want does not appear, click “other” and put in the web address of the video you are looking for.

Organize your videos- setting up playlists are a great way to organize your videos. Creating playlists will not only help you to more easily search for videos but also help your customer or potential customer see the videos they are interested in seeing. Sort your videos by make or by model, by ads and promotions and (if you have them by testimonials)

Make sure the thumbnails for your videos are attractive- thumbnails are what the viewer sees as a reflection of your video. If you didn’t specifically chose a thumbnail when you posted the video, you can still change them. Click on your user name at the top left of the page and click “My videos” in the drop down menu. Chose the video you want to change and click “edit”. In this page you will see “Video Thumbnail” and this is where you can change the thumbnail picture if you’d like.

Add channel tags- just like you tag each of your videos, you want to make sure you tag your channel as a whole. By clicking the “Settings” button at the top of your page, you’ll see a place where you can add tags for your dealership’s channel. This is a great way for people to find your comment. Make sure to not only use the makes you sell as keywords, but also add things like “ preowned dealership”, “car dealership” “certified dealership”, etc.

Pay attention to comments- by checking the “comments” area of your page on a regular basis, you can engage with your customers and see what they are saying about you. By taking the time to reply to comments you will keep your page from looking neglected and be able to respond to negative comments.