If you are looking to generate a monumental amount of sales by using social media, YouTube videos are a key ingredient in this success. While you still need to position your business or brand on other social networks like Facebook on Twitter, leveraging the capabilities of YouTube will allow your product or service to reach people like never before — people who could be converted into paying customers.

To use YouTube as an aspect of social media to increase sales, you need a YouTube account and a way to not only shoot videos, but edit them as well. The higher quality a video, the more respect the video will earn and the more professionally your business will be viewed. Once you have these basics, you will want to develop an idea of what types of videos to produce. Instead of haphazardly shooting videos, think about what types of videos have worked best before for other brands. Consider, for example, the success of the Old Spice campaign in 2010, which leveraged a unique, new, and slightly outrageous style combined with engagement on other social networks for a one-day viral campaign. This campaign boosted not only awareness of the Old Spice brand in a new, younger demographic, but it increased sales as well.

While you should always strive to do something new, you can analyze what has worked in previously successful YouTube advertising campaigns, or for other businesses that incorporate YouTube videos into part of their content strategy. Typically, these videos are successful because they utilize a style that is slightly beyond the norm of acceptable, and extend upon some cliche. Others work because they are especially helpful while still being entertaining. You can make a YouTube video about any topic, but a successful YouTube video will go beyond the ordinary to portray the message.

While you may inclined to strive to make your YouTube videos “viral” to reach the largest audience possible, keep in mind that viral YouTube videos are rare, and also are viewed by a wider span of people than your target audience. You will have more success hoping that the majority of 6,000 people who watch your YouTube video are interested and capable of making a purchasing decision about video games. If you increase your budget and time to make a YouTube video in hopes to go viral, and market it to a more diverse audience, less of these viewers may have a legitimate interest in purchasing your product, resulting in less sales and a potential loss, over all, for the campaign.

Using YouTube as part of social media with a goal to generate sales is useful because the videos can be easily shared amongst a like-minded audience on other social networks. While you shouldn’t set out to make a viral video, creating a unique, entertaining, and helpful video that attracts a targeted audience will have the potential to reach more people than your other social networks, and these people could be easily converted into paying customers.