"And just like that we’re back from SXSW 2013!

During SXSW 2013 interactive, geeks from all walks of geekdom (myself included) descended on Austin like wildebeests at a watering hole. From Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal’s humorous and inspiring keynote on performance anxiety, to a presentation I attended by Thomas Pickens on Developing Meds in Space to Save Lives on Earth, there was an impressive array of discussions on technology and science that spanned every topic imaginable. Trying to document all the sights and sounds of SXSW here would be a nearly impossible feat, so instead I’d like to concentrate on an overarching theme I noticed during my time in Austin; YouTube is the next big thing in social enterprise.

Out of all the panels I went to see, nowhere was this more apparent than at the B2B Social Marketing: Blazing New Trails panel I attended where the VPs and Directors of Social at Salesforce, Xerox, and Cisco spoke about their craft. Since their inception, Facebook and Twitter have dominated the social conversation, so it was interesting to see that a majority of the time spent on this panel (and elsewhere) was around YouTube strategy. At this juncture, it is clear that VPs of Social and CMOs have Facebook and Twitter figured out; social media management software and audience development tools for these platforms have existed for quite some time (I’m looking at you, Buddy Media / Wildfire Interactive!) and the best practices are well documented. However, YouTube is still very much the Wild West, and marketers are scrambling to understand this platform as brands rush to double down on original video content.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in YouTube search, which, if you’re Salesforce, dictates how 60% of your content is discovered, according to Jamie Grenney, VP of Social and Online Video. SEO hasn’t necessarily been a factor in traditional social media marketing, but it has emerged as The Great Differentiator between winners and losers on YouTube. Which is precisely why we are investing heavily in YouTube SEO.

We couldn’t be happier to be innovating in this space at such an exciting time; our tools and best practices act as a democratizing force that empower YouTube marketers and ensure they won’t miss out in the scramble for YouTube.

Panelists speaking at SXSW Interactive 2013 conference in Austin, Texas, featuring laptops.

For every similarity that exists between YouTube and Facebook / Twitter, there are drastic differences that present unique challenges.

SXSW 2013 Recap: YouTube’s Big in Social Enterprise

Over the past 8 years my passion has been online video.

I’ve lived and breathed it for my entire professional career — and I’ve loved every minute of it. This has always been the most exciting area of technology for me, and there hasn’t ever been a more exciting time than now. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was graduating from college, going to work at Macromedia, and founding Viddler at 22 — since then the online video industry has changed a bit (to say the least). YouTube grew from relative obscurity to become the 2nd largest search engine in the world, and a critical destination for brands to develop and engage with their audience. Bettering this audience development experience for brands and helping them manage their YouTube presence and increase their views and subscribers has been my focus for the last year, and we’ve built something truly amazing. The best part? Now we get to share it with the rest of the world! Today we’re announcing vidIQ is coming out of beta! And we’re excited!

While we have your attention, we would like to give our thanks to a few people, whom without their help, vidIQ would not be launching:

The hundreds of brands, networks, and YouTube creators who have been giving us feedback every step of the way. The thousands of people who have signed up for our beta and have been patiently waiting until this moment. Our world class investors who believed in us very early on and continue to be an incredible source of expertise and guidance. For YouTube on having an awesome developer relations team and continually making APIs available for our team to build amazing things with. We feel extremely blessed to be innovating in this space and encourage you to sign up and check out vidIQ for yourselves!

Rob Sandie

Posts Written By Rob Sandie

SXSW 2013 Recap: YouTube’s Big in Social Enterprise

Welcome to vidIQ!