It’s becoming a bit of a mantra round here, but time and again we’re telling clients to use Youtube for their video content, unless they’ve got a genuine reason for not doing (such as wanting to restrict the content to a small group). Not making use of a channel that is a) free and b) has a massive existing user base just seems like utter madness.

Of course, Youtube in a way is a bit shorthand for A. N. Other free video service (we  sometimes use Vimeo for projects instead for various reasons), but the point remains the same.

So, very interesting to see this flagged up by Paul Canning, that Barack Obama has received $46,893,000 of free advertising through Youtube so far. Whilst it’s not worth trying to translate that into a UK value given the current economic climate, it’s clear that there’s a massive potential for free engagement and free value add from the use of popular free sites generally by the government sector at all levels.

The software is there, you just need to know how to use it properly. (SH: Easier said than done when’s it’s new, and you’re not in complete control over it?)

Read Paul’s full blog post on this here