Do you YouTube? Maybe you should

I know it’s market week, which means you’re shopping for the latest and greatest home furnishings in High Point. But after you find your market winners and head back to your store, what’s the plan to get shoppers in the door?

I’ve got an idea, but first, by a quick show of hands, how many of you are familiar with YouTube? Good! And how many of you routinely visit that site? Wow! Only a few hands are up. That could be costing you business.

Think about this: Since YouTube’s launch in February 2005, it’s become the largest video site on the Web. And less than a year after launch, Google bought it for $1.65 billion. (Note to Neanderthals: YouTube allows registered users to upload, view and share video clips at no charge to potentially millions of viewers.)

Clearly, Google got the picture. And CNN, as part of a Democrat presidential hopefuls debate, teamed with YouTube to cull questions from everyday folks in the form of home-made videos. Since then, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate with the help of a YouTube video.

But politicians aren’t the only ones seeing the sense — and dollars — that YouTube may provide. Recently, high-end retailer Neiman Marcus decided to tout the company’s 100th anniversary with videos on YouTube.

Many people perceive YouTube as a site mainly for kids, but statistics from ComScore, a company that monitors Web demographics, say otherwise. In fact, 24.8% of YouTube viewers are in households with incomes over $100,000 a year, and 44.2% of its viewers are between 35 and 54 years old,

Get the picture? What a great opportunity for the home furnishings industry to reach out and speak to consumers in what can be a very cost-effective way.

Whether you like it or not, the Internet has changed the way we communicate. I think the time is right for smart retailers to change, in part, the way they talk to potential customers. She’s out there and probably, at some point during her hectic day, she’s decompressing by checking out what’s new at YouTube.

Why shouldn’t it be you?

Tell me what you think at rallegrezza@reedbusiness.com.