YouTube dominates online video sharing sites with over 84% American visitors. MySpaceTV,Why Video Content Needs to be Part of Your Online Marketing Strategy Articles Google Video, Metacafe, Yahoo!Video, MSN Video and BlipTV combined don’t account for even 10% of the American viewers. YouTube alone attracts more than 72 million unique visitors per month. This online phenomenon has dominated the web in the past couple of years and shows no signs of slowing down.

So why have you not yet implemented an online video marketing strategy?

Videos were once considered something that only the pros did or something that wasn’t part of the mainstream but that’s all changed. Video has evolved into the fastest growing content on the web. Video has become a web standard.

Maybe you are reluctant to enter the online video market because you don’t feel it is appropriate for your site or audience. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Just about every company or website owner has a good reason to include video on their site. Besides the obvious “selling” video, why not create a video that demonstrates how to use your product, or maybe a way not to use your product, or an unorthodox method or use of your product.

A video doesn’t necessarily have to hard sell something. A video can add value to your website which enhances the overall experience for your visitors. An example would be a video that interviews a customer that’s used your product (testimonials). Customer testimonials are good whether your selling products or services. A video testimonial is alot more powerful than a written testimonial.

Once you’ve decided it is time to add video to your site, make sure you do your homework. Think about the right video content for your site. Think about what style of video your visitors would expect to see from your product or service.

Let’s say you have a website about the best way to plant tomatoes, then a garden setting would be appropriate. Maybe you have a site that is about canning tomatoes, then a kitchen would be an appropriate setting.

What if your site is about something financial such as making money online whereby you can fire your boss and become financially independent. Give careful thought about filming a video showing you comfortably relaxed on a sunny day, stretched out by the pool with a pina colada in one hand and a laptop in the other with a mega yacht in the background. It lacks professionalism and your visitors probably won’t take you seriously.

The setting for your video is as important as the product or service you’re promoting. Define the role your video will play in your online marketing strategy.

When it comes time to get your video seen, any of the web’s major video sharing sites will let you upload a video. Besides YouTube, take the code and embed your video content on sites like Digg.com, Stumbleupon, Del.icio.us and Facebook. These sites are all integrated with video.

When you think about it, it’s easier to get massive exposure on sites like these via a video than a regular blog post because not as many people are using videos.

Online videos and social media have become huge and show no signs of slowing down and combining the two platforms has the potential to revolutionize how we interact with each other.

The smart marketer is becoming more familiar with video as a communication tool. Video is content and that content can be shared, discussed, tagged and rated. It’s no different than any other piece of content.

If you haven’t thought about the idea of adding video content to your overall online marketing strategy then you’re missing out on a world of opportunity that is now and will in the future dominate the web.