Creating a YouTube Channel: Part 1

July 23, 2025
Did you know 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text? There's no doubt about it—video marketing is a must. Today, the majority of marketers are investing in video more than any other type of content. So let's take a dive into creating a YouTube Channel and best practices that will help drive success.
YouTube Basics
Over 2 billion people use YouTube monthly—which is one-third of all Internet users—making YouTube the largest video-sharing platform in the world.
YouTube enables companies to market their brands and products, create a library of instructional manuals, index social media videos to make blog posts more dynamic and engaging, boost employee recruitment efforts and more.
Marketers benefit from YouTube because it has high traffic, videos trend online and are easily shareable. Most often these are the primary marketing objectives for a YouTube channel rather than creating a revenue source.
The Value
High Traffic
The second largest search engine on the internet, YouTube is owned by Google. To illustrate how popular YouTube is, on average there are 122 million visitors—daily.
Trending
Videos are what's trending on social networks. The major social platforms—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and TikTok—use videos as a way to share content, whether it’s live streaming or not. Seventy-four percent of all online activity is spent watching videos so it is a critical tool for engaging your audience. The addition of YouTube Shorts has furthered the growth of viral content on the platform.
Shareability
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X enable users to post videos uploaded from YouTube. Once videos are put on your YouTube channel, you can share them on any social media site by copying and pasting the link or embedding YouTube’s personal code on your website. It's arguably the easiest way to share videos across the web.
How to Use YouTube
The layout and concept for YouTube differs greatly from other social media platforms. Users on YouTube tend to post less frequently, but the content quality is usually better. In order to have a successful YouTube channel, you must know how to use it. Some key aspects include creating a profile, producing quality videos and growing subscribers. It’s also important for companies to include relevant keywords on their YouTube channel to be found in organic searches.
Create a Profile
Creating a channel (profile) on YouTube is quite simple. Create a channel by using your Gmail account. You will have to create a Gmail account if you don’t already have one, as this is the only way you are able to build a YouTube channel. A channel can be created for personal use or as a business account. Business channels can be categorized by product/brand, company/organization, arts, entertainment, sports or other.
The next step is adding a profile image and banner art, which is the equivalent to a cover photo on other social platforms. For best quality, banner art should be uploaded to 2560 x 1440 pixels. This is very important because your banner art is the focal point, and if the image is pixelated or cropped poorly, it will hurt your brand image and credibility. To learn more about creating a YouTube channel, read our YouTube: Part 2 blog!