In a move to become the defacto platform for video on the Web, YouTube has rolled out a series of free tools that essentially enables any broker, consultant or adviser to edit, post and analyze viewership of a promotional video at no cost. It's an offer worthy of serious consideration, given that by 2012, 88% of all U.S. Internet users are expected to be watching video online, according to Web research firm eMarketer.

Indeed, a number of employee benefits industry businesses already have taken YouTube up on its offer, including Benefits Consulting Services, which has a slick video promoting its services on YouTube. Other industry vanguards using the service include Southeastern Insurance Consultants, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and Asperity Employee Benefits UK.

While YouTube has been courting the Web-at-large with its free tools for a while, it's most recent introduction of free analytics tools, dubbed "Insight," is what has really begun turning heads in the business community.

"Uploaders can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in the market over a given period of time," says Tracy Chan, YouTube's product manager.

"You can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of your videos, like how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks."

Essentially, whether you're looking to experiment with Web video for the first time, or you're an experienced user looking to cut costs while increasing the sophistication of your Web video promotions, YouTube's free solution is tough to beat.

Here's a breakdown of how the service works.

'Video toolbox' tips

Once you finish shooting your raw video footage, YouTube offers a helpful editing tips section on its site, youtube.com/video_toolbox, with advice on how to get the lighting, transitions and sound just right.

There's also specific detail on how to upload a video from a cell phone or other mobile device and a forum you can use to ask others to help brainstorm a particular editing problem.

Embeddable video player

Once you've posted your completed video to the YouTube site, you can cut and paste a snippet of YouTube-provided code that will enable you to create a YouTube player on your Web site in seconds. The player, which is also free, can be quickly dropped into your company's blog, onto your Web site's social network, or into virtually any other Web-based environment.

You have the option to post the YouTube player "as is," with its familiar chrome border and YouTube logo. Or your Web designer can customize the player with its own "skin." That customized look can feature your company's logo, as well as a look and feel that's distinctive to your company or company's Web site. However, with either option, a faint YouTube watermark appears in the right-hand corner of your video.

The player creation tool also enables you to optimize your video for the search engines by allowing you to include titles, descriptions, ratings and viewer comments associated with your video.

For a how-to video on how to add the YouTube player to your Web site, check out youtube.com/youtubeonyoursite. There's also a separate how-to video on how to customize your player available through the YouTube site.

The real beauty of the player is that the technology enables you to offer a window to your business' videos on your own site, while shifting the hosting and transmission costs associated with the viewing of that video to YouTube. While the player is embedded on your Web site, your actual video is uploaded onto YouTube's computer servers. That means every time someone views the video, it's YouTube's servers that are actually transmitting video - not your company's Web servers. Therefore, it's YouTube's servers that are picking up the bandwidth transmission costs - not you.

That scenario is especially ideal for brokers, consultants and advisers that are interested in reaching out to Web video viewers with a number of offerings, but have little or no budget to do so.

It's also an excellent insurance policy for any company that happens to produce a video that goes "viral" - i.e., a video that becomes an overnight sensation on the Web that is viewed by hundreds of thousands or even millions of viewers.

For most small and medium-sized businesses in the employee benefits industry, the onslaught of that kind of massive downloading generally results in crashed servers and countless missed sales/public relations opportunities. For YouTube, it's nearly an everyday event that they've learned to accommodate.

'Insight' video analytics

Once your video and player are in place, you'll also be able to use YouTube's free video analytics service to glean deep insight into the popularity of your video, who's viewing the video, and where those people are coming from.

A fresh analytics report is issued each day, so you'll be able to track spikes in viewership against your roll-out of new marketing campaigns on any given day, or any media coverage your company happens to receive on any given day.

You'll also be able to see how viewers found your video, whether by searching on YouTube or Google, browsing under 'related videos' on the YouTube site or via a link to the video from your own email marketing campaign or from another Web site. And you'll also be able to tell if viewers are watching your video from the YouTube site or from the YouTube player you install on your site.

Another metric Insight offers is the ability to identify the search queries visitors use on the search engines to find your video - information that can be used to make informed decisions on the kind of keywords your company may want to bid for on Google sponsored links, and similar sponsored links programs on other search engines. Plus, you can look for even more analytics features from Insight in coming months, according to YouTube's corporate blog. Users can find the Insight tool by clicking "My Account," then "Videos," then "Insight."

The tourism industry can teach employers a thing or two about jazzing up their Web sites aimed at employees, new recruits and potential hires, says Joseph Rotella, chief technical officer at Delphia Consulting, LLC, an Ohio-based company that specializes in HR technology.

On tourism Web sites, there is a clear understanding of what the user wants to know. “You could see that they have spent a great deal of time making sure they have data that people really want to know about,” Rotella says.

Similarly, new recruits and prospective employees desire to know more than just the mission and vision of the company. They also are intensely curious about what workers do on a day-to-day basis, a company’s facilities and benefits and are seeking a sense of what their career trajectory might look like at the company.

Employers should take cues from the visual images presented on tourism sites, Rotella advises. Many employers’ recruiting Web sites display unimaginative photos — if any at all — featuring stock images of professional models sitting around a conference room table or standing in the lobby. Rotella urges employers to take photos of their own workers and post those on their Web sites. Also, employers should not shy way from uploading a video tour of the company.

Further, employers should think twice before posting a “frequently asked questions” page on their Web site, Rotella says. “I don’t like FAQ pages. To me, they are the junk drawer of the Web.”

Rotella warns that when employers provide important answers about the company on one page, they run the risk of the Web visitor not reading the site’s main content.

The biggest mistake employers make with their employee self-service Web site, says Rotella, is that they fail to treat the site with the same level of respect as their external marketing Web site. Employers allocate a ton of resources in time, money and people to build a phenomenal external Web site, but don’t take the same approach toward their internal Web sites.

Some employers buy off-the-shelf solutions for their service-self Web sites, failing to spend any effort to customize or stylize the site so that it conveys a visual and emotional sense of the organization.

Keep in mind, a company’s intranet is an excellent vehicle to present an internal marketing message. “If you have a great self-service Web site where employees go online to update their mailing address, obtain paystub information, change income tax withholdings and conduct other employee-relations activities, and then why not use that online real estate space to market the company and its employee program,” says Rotella.

Employers with good intranet sites routinely post news about awards the company earned, positive media reports about the company, notices for important company events and upcoming professional development and training classes. Says Rotella: “All of that can really boost the value of a service-self Web site both to the employees and to the organization.” - Lydell C. Bridgeford