I saw a TV program yesterday that mentioned vlogging (video blogs) and how they were being used for covert advertising.

The “boy or girl next door” videos were actually being as close to professionally produced as they could get away with, without coming across as that.

So the background was usually the teenager’s bedroom and the videos were done in selfie style, albeit with the occasional cut where the video hadn’t been shot in one take (probably much like the pauses I use but they show up a lot more in videos with face shots than they do in slide presentations)

The descriptions below the videos were long.

Often very long. That’s an excellent tip right there – remember Google and YouTube index words much more efficiently than anything else.

And the products being mentioned were all conveniently linked in the description.

The ones I saw on screen were Bit.ly links so I’d guess at least some of them were affiliate links.

The subscriber numbers on the vlogging channels were (to me) incredible – millions of people.

Apparently the number of searches for products mentioned dramatically increased when they were mentioned in these vlogs. So the audience is watching and paying attention.

Advertisers would have been paying – free products and/or cash.

The agency handling the vloggers would have been getting their slice as well.

You can find quite a few of these vloggers here if you want to see what they’re doing and the number of subscribers they get.

At least one has gone on to have a radio show on the BBC, write a book and go on a live tour.

Could you do a vlog in your business?

A modern phone is more than adequate to do the filming.

Vlogs aren’t restricted to teenagers – I know quite a few business people who watch a daily or weekly short blog, usually about 2 to 3 minutes long.

The teenagers aren’t shy about promoting their channel and reminding people they need to subscribe.

They’re also not shy about promoting things but usually in quite a casual way that makes it appear as though they’re just talking to you as one of their friends. Even though they’ve got a million or more friends!

Think about whether you could create a regular vlog in your niche.

Then promote it without being bashful. Just using all the modern media you already know about to engage with your audience.

It’s textbook internet marketing.

You almost certainly already know how to do it.

And even if you don’t completely know, you’ll learn as you go along and get better at it.

This is open to near enough any niche and YouTube plus Twitter and Instagram and Facebook are the perfect places to grow your audience.

Just a thought.