YouTube is an incredibly popular video hosting platform designed to share your videos with the public. From the ground up, YouTube has been designed for the consumer and thus has systems and features tailored specifically to this market. Though the affordability of hosting videos on YouTube may seem attractive at first glance, there are a few key negatives for businesses to consider when hosting their corporate content on YouTube.
1. Public Access and Audience Control
YouTube is first and foremost a public video gallery. Even if you set your corporate videos to "Unlisted," they can still be discovered by anyone with the video link. “Unlisted” YouTube videos can even be discovered by search engines if they were previously listed as “Public”, thus forcing the user to “Private” videos to restrict access to everyone, thus defeating the point of hosting your content online.
If a video is set to “Public” on YouTube, anyone will be able to search your content and view it unless it has been geo restricted or age restricted, both of which are controlled by YouTube itself, removing any control you have as a user. Additionally, YouTube's search algorithms might surface your unlisted videos in related or unrelated searches and recommendations, further compromising privacy.
For businesses that require control over their intended audiences, YouTube is one of the last video hosting platforms you should be looking at. Alternatives that are built for business, like Viostream, have a range of audience control settings allowing you to fine-tune access and security and avoid YouTube’s algorithms running amok with your content.
2. Unrelated Content and Advertisements
YouTube thrives on user engagement and advertising revenue. This means that alongside your carefully crafted corporate video, viewers are likely to encounter unrelated content and ads that can distract or even detract from your message. The presence of unrelated videos can dilute the impact of your communication, while ads can interrupt the viewing experience, and at worst could even advertise competitors to your business. Users cannot control which specific ads appear within your video, nor the recommended videos surrounding your video. Even if you embed a YouTube video, the end card displayed after the video will display recommended YouTube videos, with a high chance of them not being relevant to your business.
YouTube content is typically produced for entertainment, being designed for easy consumption and clickability. Corporate videos will be hard pressed to compete against this style of content within a public forum.
3. Limited Features for Customization and Branding
YouTube offers no branding and customization options when it comes to distributing video through their player. Color of the play button will remain YouTube red, and YouTube’s logo and layout will remain consistent to their platform, not your organization's branding. Corporate videos often need to align with the company’s brand identity, and YouTube’s generic player typically will not meet these needs.
Viostream not only provides complete color and layout customization for the player, but also allows your organization’s logo to be uploaded so that you can share a branded video gallery completely from within the platform; no coding required.
Moreover, YouTube lacks advanced security options, such as IP restriction, video password protection, and viewer registration which are critical for corporate video management.
Viostream, on the other hand, excels in providing these essential features. It allows extensive customization of the video player, ensuring that your videos are presented in a way that aligns perfectly with your brand.
Given the public nature of YouTube, the distraction of unrelated content and ads, and its limited customization and security features, it becomes clear that it is not the optimal platform for hosting corporate videos. For businesses seeking a secure, customizable, and professional video hosting solution, a business oriented video hosting platform like Viostream stands out as a superior alternative.
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