Do you think video syndication is a good link building tactic?

[elephantseo]

I am creating a process & strategy for publishing videos and would like some feedback on if it is worth syndicating the videos on multiple third party sites either manually or via TubeMogul.

Currently the plan is to put the video on our main site, create a video sitemap, submit to webmaster tools so that hopefully the videos on our site show up in the SERPs. Then wait a week and syndicate on third party sites such as youtube, vimeo, viddler, etc. Are there any negative side affects?

My thinking is that some people may only see the video if it is on youtube and the other niche sites because they may search those sites for videos rather than Google/Bing. Your thoughts?

[StalkerB]

I'm not convinced syndication via other players is the best link building tactic because if anybody links to or embeds them they're linking to the host site and not your site.

If the aim is to let people see and talk about the content (as in, if they're likely to do a blog post or otherwise talk about your site with a link when using these videos) then it's not bad, but there will almost definitely be some leakage.

So, definitely do it for exposure, especially if you think it's the only way people will see your videos in the first place. Not the worst thing in the world if you're selling something or it's the type of content people blog about.

However, if you can host your own player (or something like Brightcove) and have a link back in the player then that's going to be better in terms of link acquisition.

[petrakraft]

I think your stragety is a perfect one if you put the video a) to your website and b) to video hosting pages.
Like that you get the most profit.Just try to set up a complete profile on each video platform and enter all the datas you can put in there to attract as many viewers as you can.

Regarding video sitemaps which has been submitted to the Google webmaster tools - we have many positive results showing up in the vertical results of the serps and even on the main stream.