As an entrepreneur, small business person, or artist/musician looking to get themselves or their business more exposure, there’s no single tool greater than YouTube. I’m sure that you’re already familiar with YouTube for funny and silly videos, as well as other things, you’ve seen here or there, but the hidden benefit to YouTube is making your own video, and using it to bring a greater awareness to your work or business.

For instance, let’s say you own a dry cleaners. You might think that nobody could have any possible interest in the business of a dry cleaners on YouTube; you’d be wrong. The Web is filled with just this kind of stuff, these minor curiosities that folks would love to spend a few minutes watching while they’re eating their lunch.

Take this video, for example, with almost 76,000 views… what if you made this video, and promoted your company simply by including a small logo in the bottom corner, or having the people in the video wear shirts with your logo, boo-yaa! I guarantee business would increase:

Then there’s this one, which, Paula Berg from Southwest Airlines talked about at the Digital PR Next Summit I recently attended, and it made me laugh out loud. This is a video of a jet engine being washed, basically, three minutes of water being blown through a jet engine, almost 97,000 views:

Anyway, I think you get the point. YouTube can bring great awareness to your work whether you’re an entrepreneur, small business owner, artist or musician. Surf around YouTube, and look at folks in your business are using it. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll find.

I found the PR News Digital PR Next Practices Summit to be highly informative. It was a good chance to brush up on theories of social media in application, but it was also good to see some different things that people were doing. For me, though, there were a couple really great stand out presentations. The first one that really stuck out for me was:

Social Media Relations: Getting Positive Coverage in the Conversational Age, which featured the folks below, with their names being links to their respective presentations. This one was great:

Johna Burke (@gojohnab)
Vice President
BurrellesLuce

Julie Crabill (@julzie)
VP, Consumer Lifestyle Practices
Shift Communications

Monte Lutz (montelutz)
SVP of Digital Public Affiars
Edelman

The next one that I thought was really great, and I would say, possibly the best one, because the presenter, Paula Berg, was a great presenter, with a lot of enthusiasm and a real sense of humor about what she’s doing, was YouTube and Other Video Tactics to Advance Your PR:

Paula Berg (@PaulaBerg)
Manager of Emerging Media
Southwest Airlines

Here are some highlights from PR News Digital PR Next Practices Summit as posted on Twitter by attendees:

@montelutz #prnsummit – reporters are setting up spam filters for phrases like “great story idea” to weed out bad pitches –> @gojohnab

@gojohnab #prnsummit @julzie SM release preso old releases no longer applicable too much marketing speak not enough community and conversation

@cericwright @julzie says your brand belongs to the community at large #prnsummit

@montelutz “your brand’s already been hijacked. it doesn’t belong to you. it belongs to the community” #prnsummit ht @julzie

@nduhoski Check out Microsoft, Cisco, Ford for good social media newsroom site examples. #prnsummit

@nduhoski Google is as much a reputation engine as it is a search engine. #prnsummit

@nduhoski RT @DenverPRguy Your brand has been hijacked already. Its not owned by you but by the community. Be part of the community’s convo #prnsummit

@nduhoski When it comes to SM Best Practices: Beg, Borrow & Steal, then give back, credit. #prnsummit

@FlightpathNY Coke did not start their facebook page, even now they co-manage it with fans of the brand #prnsummit

@Rat_Race Lots of talk about engaging employees as brand advocates. Wonder how a work life balance fits in… Is there a balance? #prnsummit

@julzie @paullyoung “hits: how idiots track success” #prnsummit

@DenverPRguy Social Media users are 83% more likely to be brand loyal than non-users (from Paull Young, Converseon at #prnsummit)

@FlightpathNY Relationships with community members is the most critcal element & the most difficult to measure. Transparency remains paramount #prnsummit

@kdpaine RT @DenverPRguy: Relationships are what makes SM successful. UR measurement plan should track what those relationships look like. #prnsummit

@paullyoung says that the most powerful analytics tool is the human brain, use common sense #prnsummit

@mtkiefer @leeodden “if content can be searched on, it can be optimized” #prnsummit

@MerrittPR Incorperate links within online content and don’t have link read: click here but rather imbed within content of release or copy #prnsummit

@DenverPRguy Amen. “One of the biggest dangers of social media is not getting involved.” #prnsummit

@gojohnab Good #CEO ‘s recognize smart people no matter what level in the organization and will engage when appropriate #prnsummit

@gojohnab: #prnsummit Matthias Preschern: Content is king. Participate by linking in vs. Trying to build communities on your own

@MerrittPR Why does the blogosphere matter? B/c 71% of all journos read blogs for content #prnsummit

@MerrittPR Engage the blogosphere BEFORE, during and after a crisis! #prnsummit

@DallasLawrence Great comment by Southwest at #prnsummit – no link between quality of video and views. In other words, content and authenticity rules