Welcome to Saucy Horse - Video Production & Social Media Marketing.

Visit our websites :

VIDEO PRODUCTION FOR BUSINESS & WEB
http://SaucyHorse.co.uk

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING http://SaucyHorseSocialMedia.co.uk

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Video For Websites – Originality and Collaboration Breeds Publicity!

How do you promote your business through video?

No matter what your business is, you can promote it through video. You can simply show what you offer – or you can put a little bit of a spin on it and show what you have without people even realising it, and biting your hand off to get at it!
You know that we love a bit of lip-dub video here at Saucy Horse Video, and we all know that using humour in your website video can cause it to go viral – look how many companies jumped on the back of the Fenton video.
Say you run a retirement home – not much you can promote about that differently, is there? Your loved ones will be well cared for, there are lots of activities, it’s a friendly well-run place, blah. blah. blah…
This retirement home in America thought a bit differently. It collaborated with a local college and produced this piece of brilliance. Instead of selling itself to the children of the retirement home potential residents, they have gone straight for the decision maker… the WWII and the Rebel Without A Cause generation. Thanks to Paul Warner of When I was a Kid for bringing it to my attention…
Even the little glitches make it perfect. It’s fun, it’s charming and everyone – including the directors of the community – is having a blast. It showcases all the different activities the community offers much better than a “and here’s our beautiful pool and we run casino nights too!” video ever would.
It’s made for sharing, and it has been – over a million people have watched it. Would a “normal” video have achieved that reach?
When planning your video for your website, think a little bit differently. What kind of video would best showcase what your business has to offer?

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Why is video important on my website? How can Online Video get me more business?

How video boosts your online visibility

Rather a fabulous and succinct article from opensourcemarketer.com on why you cannot afford to ignore video as part of your marketing mix anymore.
Lots of great points – here are the bits I think you particularly need to pay attention to…
Are you still “thinking” about putting video on your website? If you’re not, the evidence suggests you should be. According to ComScore, 180 million internet users in the US watched online video content in July 2011 and it’ll be interesting to see what the UK stats are – as with all things “online” we won’t be far away as we play catch up…
It would be silly & quite strange to ignore the fact that web video has become an essential part of marketing your business online. Video has always been a nice to have, or a future task, but now it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the benefits of using video online to promote your business website because of the hard and fast facts on how it makes you easier to find online. More importantly it helps build the trust & credibility with clients and potential customers that is essential for a successful and fruitful business relationship. Your customers remain loyal and buy more if they trust you and believe you care about their experience. Video helps you prove that you do!

5 reasons you should be using video to promote your business website:

  • YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet!
  • Videos show up in Google search results.
  • Videos can actually rank better than your website.
  • Videos stand out in the search results.
  • Videos keep people on your website longer.
Let me guess what you’re thinking, “YouTube is full of cat owl (or owl cat) videos” or “my customers aren’t on YouTube”, but a lot has changed in the past few years and you should reconsider both of those statements. More and more people are using YouTube to learn how to do things, how to buy things, and how to get more of what they want. They’re looking for information on how things work, how they compare to other products or services, and how other people are using these items to make their live better. You need to be there with useful content if you want to be found.
Not only has YouTube become the second largest search engine on the planet, but it’s video results also show up in Google search results. That means that out of the ten search results returned by a Google search, at least one of them could be your video. In most cases, people will decide to take a chance on the two minute video clip rather than sift through nine other text search results.
In some cases, depending on the popularity of your video and the online competition in your industry, your video can actually rank higher than your website for your topic of interest. That means you have the perfect opportunity to get in front of your customers ahead of your competitors to promote your business website. There are low cost video production options open to you, and, relatively speaking, when compared to the cost of other more traditional advertising and marketing spends, video is so much more effective and far reaching if done well.
Ensure that you embed your YouTube video on your website. Not only does it give people a reason to stay on your website longer (which gives them more time to notice something else that you do or offer), but it also helps to increase the total number of views that your video has received. It’s a simple matter of creating social proof. The more views a video has, the more likely it is that people will watch it in the future. Everyone likes to do what others do, so add your videos to your website, send them out in your newsletters, and share them with your social network. The more you promote your videos, the harder they will work to promote your website.
You can read the full article here on why you should be using video in your online marketing here. If you are as yet unconvinced, why is that? What is the main obstacle you face when it comes to implementing video within your online marketing?
Why is video important on my website? How can Online Video get me more business?

Keywords – The Very Crux of the Matter:Online marketing-websites-social media-SEO – it all hangs off Keywords!

Keyword Research

Keyword research should form the basis of every type of online marketing activity you embark on.
Why? Well, for starters there are some good points covered by Mark White over on his blog on linkedintraining.net
“From Search Engines to Pay Per Click, email marketing and, of course, the elements of social networking and social search that we are interested in here. The keywords, and most commonly used keyword phrases, that result from this research dictate to a large degree how we get found and whether we are getting found for the right things or not.”
As the article goes on to say…
“How you use the keyword phrases is important but finding the right ones is critical or else all the time that you spend using them after that point will be time wasted. If you are focusing your attention on being found for one phrase but your prospective clients are using a totally different one as they search for potential suppliers then we have a mismatch – and unfortunately you are going to be the loser in this.”

If you work in the legal sector, for example, then you will probably want to consider terms such as ‘lawyer’, ‘law firm’, ‘legal services’ or ‘solicitor’ as a general start point, but then also focus in on the areas of specialism such as ‘employment law’, ‘company law’, ‘family law’ etc as well as a geographic element if you work and want to be found for your town or county.

All of these keywords and their variations can and should be woven into your online presence – for instance, in your Personal Profile in Linkedin, within the blogs you are writing as anchor links, headlines (H tags) and in the SEO tags, within Tweets that link to those blogs, in your Facebook posts so that they make it easier for you to be found and then contacted for the services you can provide, in the descriptions you write for your YouTube video uploads… you get the picture.

How to carry out Keyword Research

Back to Mark on the subject of keywords on LinkedIn…
“When we look at researching the right keywords to use then it is all too easy to get sucked into our own little world and just look at it from our own perspective – let’s face it, all of our industries have their own internal vocabulary which we use on a daily basis but may mean little to those outside of it who we want to talk to.
Some ways of identifying the best keyword phrases that you can then look at building into your LinkedIn profile or indeed your LinkedIn Company pages as well should include:
  • think about what your product or service does or more importantly what benefits it offers, and also consider different ways to express that;
  • talk to clients and partner organisations and ask them what words they feel best describes what you do – getting as wide a range as possible gives you the best possible start point;
  • use some of the tools available to help find what words are commonly searched on and what other words and phrases are similar to them – Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a good start point – I also look at the good old thesaurus to help as well!;
  • examine your direct competitors sites and their online campaigns and see what words they are focusing on.
We can also use LinkedIn itself to do the same:
  • check the profiles of people who work in the same areas as you or offer similar services: see which words show up the most frequently on their profile;
  • ideally, filter your search results on LinkedIn by “keywords” rather than the default of “Relevance” and you should find more hits with regard to the keywords you want to find;
  • take a look at their ‘Specialties’ section which ideally would be used to highlight keyword phrases.”
Key takeaway here, on whatever social media marketing platform you are working on…
The important point to work on is understanding how others perceive you and the service or product you offer. How do they search for what you do?
Work from that standpoint and you are well on the way to success!
You can read Mark’s full article on keyword research for LinkedIn here.
Keywords – The Very Crux of the Matter:Online marketing-websites-social media-SEO – it all hangs off Keywords!

Social Media Marketing Intern Wanted

S

Social Media Marketing Job Opportunity

We’re hiring!
And it all starts with a search – a search for the absolute crème de la crème.
We’re looking for the Saucy Horse Social Media & Video marketing superstars of 2012!
Here’s the deal : if you’re just looking for a “job” or if you’re just looking to pass the time till something better comes along this is NOT for you – don’t waste your time.
If, on the other hand, you know that working in the cutting edge of online marketing with a company that aspires to excellence, originality, innovation and FUN every single day (and whose clients say we achieve that) then we might just be what you’ve been looking for… now to prove that you are what WE are looking for!
Read some of our testimonials and see if this is what you want to be part of…
http://www.saucyhorsesocialmedia.co.uk/testimonials/
LinkedIn Summary – read our testimonials
What you have (in spades):
1. Passion that is palpable (for everything you do)
2. Commitment (to every mission you get involved with – and we’re on a mission…)
3. An HPO – (hugely positive outlook ;-) )
4. Respect – for yourself. You’ll want to learn, develop & grow and you’ll love being in an environment that encourages that.
5. Respect – for others. You will care about the team around you and about our customers and clients – we want to make them happy!
What you need:
1. The ability to make people feel good. When you’re with the team and our clients, everyone is happy about that!
2. You’re SMS (social media savvy) in terms of what the possibilities may be.
3. You have real talent – websites, design, SM platforms, copywriting, video production, something else : you’ll have something practical to add to the Saucy Horse Sauce! It doesn’t matter what it is – tell us what you can do for us!
4. The ability to write well – you take grammar seriously.
5. Organisational Head – yes, we want you to be able to plan, prepare and execute – because you’ll be taking projects through to completion.
What you’ll do…
You’ll join the rest of our small team who handle day to day support and office management, including:
• Answering incoming telephone calls. First line voice of the company so it’s your chance to shine! Displaying attention to detail in taking both names and numbers down correctly before fielding to the most suitable member of our team, or helping them yourself which we will empower you to do as soon as possible.
• Welcoming all guests to our offices – soooo important in terms of first impressions. Preparing meeting rooms in advance. Providing basic catering for all meetings.
• Checking team diaries on a daily basis – Keeping us organised & being aware of forthcoming events and staff movements.
• Managing our social media admin – our clients expect us to keep on top of things and you’d be part of that, using social media monitoring software & the platforms themselves.
• Content Research – we work with an eclectic range of clients. You’d spend time understanding their businesses and researching topics we need to talk about on the social media platforms.
• Acting as a production runner. We make videos so you’d be on location & studio filming duties when necessary.
• Clerical Marketing work including Excel, Word, Publisher, Powerpoint, photocopying, filing, data cleansing and assisting with mailings, and all that jazz. Communication with our clients is key & you’d be working on keeping our communication channels open.
• Ordering of Thank You/Congratulation gifts for clients and Saucy Horse friends.
You’d be learning, developing and utilising technical and design skills across Facebook, Websites & Video Editing packages, and any other new platforms we come across!
Most importantly, you’d be in an environment where your ideas and input would be expected and welcomed.
This is a 3 month internship – we want the best from you because we plan on you being with us a lot longer. Successful interns will join us on a full time basis.
The detail:
1. Our internships are for 3 months initially.
2. We pay travel & lunch expenses and there’s the possibility of an additional discretionary payment based on what you bring to the party.
3. We are based in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire & there may be travel depending on film locations.
Here’s how to tell us you want this:
1. Add your name, town & county in the comments section of this blog. Also tell us how to find you on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and we will be in touch with details of how we want you to apply – it’ll be fun!
2. That’s it!
CLOSING DATE : Initial applications on blog by 7th December. Full applications by 14th December 2011
Looking forward to meeting the Saucy Horse Superstars of the future…
ocial+Media+Marketing+Intern+wanted+:+Only+those+with+the+WOW+factor+need+apply!+Job+Opportunity+to+die+for...

Friday 11 November 2011

Video For Websites – Who’s That Lady? Saucy Horse Cowgirl needs a name…

You may have noticed on our Facebook page, or if you have seen us at exhibitions, that we have a new addition to the Saucy Horse stable.

Meet… and there’s the rub. Poor lovely new Saucy Horse Cowgirl doesn’t have a name. We’ve all thought about it and had various suggestions. Luanne? Betsy? Shelby? Phoenix? We couldn’t agree and decided to open it up for all suggestions. We will put them all in a (cowgirl) hat and pick one – and the namer gets a Team Saucy prize :-)

Tracy has her hat at the ready waiting for your suggestions. You can either leave them in the comments box here or on ourFacebook page. Win a great Saucy Horse prize and the glory of knowing that every time we mention our lovely cowgirl, you picked her name!

Monday 26 September 2011

Video For Website - Case Study - Holiday Resort

Create a video for your website with our tips!

 

Want to create a great video for your website? Here's our tips on how to go about it, using a video from the Saucy Horse YouTube channel, SaucyHorseTV as guidance.


Feel of the Video

What do you want your video to say? This one was "you want to come here, it's great" - because it is! The video has to show why the resort appeals to families, singles, couples, people on a sports break, people on a get-away-from-it all break; anyone who would like a great holiday in a fantastic location.

Music for your video

The music in this video sets the tone - you're in Spain from the first notes. There are lots of options for obtaining music for your video - Royalty Free Music, where you just pay for the license, or you can commission a piece.  Think about what you want your video to say and use the music accordingly.

What to film for your video

Make sure you have a programme outline before you begin to ensure you get everything! Even material that you think may be uninteresting can be spiced up when put in context with framing, edits and music. Don't be afraid to keep filming. Judicious editing adds mood, tone and texture to your video, meaning people are more likely to keep watching.

Editing your video

The tone of this video meant that we could use different clips at different lengths. There was a lot to show and fast cuts allowed us to do that - the music was chosen to match that style.  Be careful of using too many video effects in your editing - a quick jump or a slow fade to the next scene is easier on the eye than a swirl or a swoop from the side.

Script for your video

"What script?" you may cry, "there's no voiceover!" This is a very tightly scripted video - we knew what shots we wanted to be included and what we wanted these shots to say - relaxing, exciting, fun, sporty, family-friendly. Make sure that you have a clear idea of what you'd like to say.

Review Your Video

When you have finished and the video is ready to go, watch it two or three times with a critical eye - are you pleased with the flow? Is the message there? Is there anything that you would take out? Anything that should be included?

Video Production Professionals

Hopefully you have found this short entry helpful in showing you the basics involved in creating a mood in your video. If you use a professional production company they will hand-hold you through the process and ensure the necessary preparation and attention to detail throughout the process, meaning that you will be pleased with the results - and that the video does the job you need it to do.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 21 September 2011

How to get your video found on YouTube – Video SEO tips & advice

How to get your video found on YouTube – Video SEO tips & advice

Social Media Marketing Statistics – another 20 to blow your mind!


For those who’d like some more mind-numbing numbers and reasons to ensure they are making the most of the social media marketing opportunities that are thrusting themselves in our faces, here are some great ones from Jeff Bullas over at BusinesstoCommunity.com
These figures reveal the huge black hole that our time disappears into when we visit Facebook, Twitter or YouTube or other social media sites.
One in every nine people on Earth is on Facebook ( This number is calculated by dividing the planets 6.94 billion people by Facebook’s 750 million users)
  1. People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
  2. Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site
  3. More than 250 million people access Facebook through their mobile devices
  4. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook
  5. 30 billion pieces of content is shared on Facebook each month
  6. 300,000 users helped translate Facebook into 70 languages
  7. People on Facebook install 20 million “Apps” every day
  8. YouTube has 490 million unique users who visit every month (as of February 2011)
  9. YouTube generates 92 billion page views per month (These YouTube stats don’t include videos viewed on phones and embedded in websites)
  10. Users on YouTube spend a total of 2.9 billion hours per month (326,294 years)
  11. Wikipedia hosts 17 million articles
  12. Wikipedia authors total over 91,000 contributors
  13. People upload 3,000 images to Flickr (the photo sharing social media site) every minute
  14. Flickr hosts over 5 billion images
  15. 190 million average  Tweets per day occur on Twitter (May 2011)
  16. Twitter is handling 1.6 billion queries per day
  17. Twitter is adding nearly 500,000 users a day
  18. Google+ has more than 25 million users
  19. Google+ was the fastest social network to reach 10 million users at 16 days (Twitter took 780 days and Facebook 852 days)
Do you have any doubt that the people you need to do business with are on the social media networks?

How to get your video found on YouTube – Video SEO tips & advice

Getting your video found on YouTube

 

Like the Search Engine Optimization that should be part of your website planning and ongoing development, you need to get the most out of video that you are posting on YouTube - video optimisation starts with deciding on the keywords you want to rank for and ensuring that these keywords are in the title of your video.

Firstly, identify one main keyword or keyword longtail (2 - 5 words) for the video title. There are several keyword tools you can use to see what people are looking for around your subject.
  1. Go to www.google.com and type in the keyword you are thinking of. If people are looking for this keyword, Google instant will show automatically completed results if the phrase is one that's being searched.
  2. Go to YouTube itself - try typing in the search bar and see if the keyword you want appears - if so, it's being searched.
  3. Google Keyword tool is also another great keyword research tool.
When deciding on your video keyword you can also look at the Google or You Tube search results to see how many listings, or pages there are with that keyword present. This will give you an idea on how competitive it will be. The longer keyphrases (long tail keywords) are easier to rank than shorter ones.

Next place to use your keywords is in the description. The description is where you describe what your video is about. Always start with the URL of your website or wherever you want to direct any traffic. That way it'll will always appear in any shortened description that YouTube shows. The content of the description needs to be full of keywords that are directly relevant to what your video is about!

In "Tags", you should also list the other relevant words or search terms for your video. These help people find (or otherwise!) your video, so use keywords here that are related to your main keyword. Relevancy is king here - you need to make sure that your title, description and tags are all related to the core content of your video. This will help you rank your video on YouTube and in the search engines.

More on embedding into your website next time!

 

 

 

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Video For Websites – Share The Love : Using your key staff to connect with customers

Looking for another way to use video on your website?

All businesses have an unofficial office "motivator"? You know the person - the one who can spot when people are a bit down about a project and can gee them up. The person who hits it off with others and shares the goodwill around. If they are passionate about the business, why not feature them on a video?

This video features Lucy Ignatiadis talking about her work with Nigel Botterill's Entrepreneurs Circle - her enthusiasm is infectious!


If you have a similarly enthusiastic team member, their natural interest in the business and the products will come through and engage with the viewer. It will add another facet to your video offerings and demonstrate a more personal side to your business. You'll also be involving key employees in how the business presents itself to the world and that can only increase motivation and staff morale.

It's also a great way to feature different people and departments within your business. Have a look around - who do you think could "showcase" the benefits of your company?

Tweet

Unthink – What is it? Very cool video fronts up “Greedy Giants” Facebook & Google+

Unthink – What is it? Very cool video fronts up “Greedy Giants” Facebook & Google+

Monday 22 August 2011

Twitter - As events unfold in Tripoli, should you Tweet things you may regret later??

Rather a good story this morning revolving around the events that are unfolding in Tripoli and Gaddafi's probable impending demise, via Will King and his @KingofShaves Twitter timeline. Is this a case of Tweet in haste, repent at leisure? I don't think it's turned out like that...

Iain Dale is publisher of Total Politics, MD of Biteback Publishing & presenter of LBC's evening show. He also Tweets. Here's his salutary tale of how an impulsive Tweet led to a barrage of insults and a period of reflection on his part... although I think if you read the comments on his blog you can see that, by airing his apology so publicly, he has garnered support from the opposite side to those who aired their disapproval on Twitter.

I'll let Iain take over the story...

"Yes, my rather idiotic words became the centre of a rather unattractive twitter storm. I suppose it had to happen sooner or later. I even ‘trended’ in Dublin, I’ll have you know. So, what caused this to happen. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

Like most of you, I suspect, I was avidly following developments in Libya during the course of the evening. Sky News’s coverage was superb, with Steve Dixon anchoring it in London and the fearless Alex Crawford travelling with the rebels (a la John Simpson) into the centre of Tripoli. Gripping TV. And then I switched over to the BBC News Channel. Oh dear, oh dear. No sense of drama, no reporter embedded with the rebels and appearing totally behind the curve. Lots of people were saying the same thing on Twitter. No one could quite understand how the BBC coverage could be quite so bad. As I said in one tweet...
Sky News is whipping the BBC’s pale white ass at the moment
The BBC didn’t even carry Moussa Ibrahim’s press conference live, yet pretended to. Everyone seemed to agree about the awfulness of the BBC’s coverage, even those who normally have no problem in faulting Sky. A few minutes later, having watched an action packed five minutes with Alex Crawford I switched over to the BBC to find the presenter talking to a reporter in a flak jacket, who was in the Media Hotel in Tripoli. The contrast was stunning. I wondered why he was in the hotel rather than out on the streets like Alex Crawford. That was where I made my big mistake. This is what I the tweeted...
Who is this wimp of a reporter on the BBC wearing a flak jacket in the hotel! Bet he's been told he can't go out cos of Elf 'n Safety.
And then the wrath of twitter descended on me. I might as well have said I agreed with slaughtering the first born. But it wasn’t just the usual suspects who were having a right old go – it was journalists I respect.

You can do one of two things in these circumstances. Stick to your guns or issue a rapid apology. I have been in this situation before on my old blog, and I have always taken the view that if you’re in a hole, stop digging. And if you think you’ve gone over the top or just been plain wrong, say so. Acknowledge it. Apologise and put it behind you.

The latter is easier said than done in this case, I suspect, but I withdrew the tweet (although I didn’t delete it, as I would have been accused of hiding) and then issued a total apology and took up a twitter follower’s suggestion and made a donation to the Rory Peck Trust."

He goes on to outline the actual responses he got, including some rather Anglo Saxon language from some very unhappy fellow journalists and followers on Twitter. However, have a look at the comments and the rather measured thoughts on spontaneity and balance. I think these have parallels on all the social media marketing platforms.

Where do you stand? It's an interesting one...

Full article here if you don't mind some "adult" language - Iain Dale and how I made a **** of myself on Twitter

 

 

 

 

 

Social Media Marketing : Quality of Following, Not Quantity.

Oh, I love starting a blog post with a riff on a cliché, but please bear with me. When it comes to assessing the success of your social media marketing, there are basic things you should do. Have a look at your Twitter followers, Facebook Friends and Likes, LinkedIn Connections, YouTube subscribers. How many do you "know" and can you list one or two things about them off the top of your head?

It's not always about the numbers, it's about the Social Media Engagement. Without this, you're wasting you're time. Have a look at your lists and spend a bit of time every day going through it. Say hi to people, comment on their posts, reply to their tweets. Hang around for the conversation that evolves. Share others' links and thoughts too. You'll get to know the people on your feeds and streams and they'll get to know you too. That can only be a benefit to your knowledge and your business.

How do you expand your knowledge about the people in your feeds and streams? We'd love to hear other examples!

Video For Websites - It Doesn't Have To Be "All Business, All The Time"

If you are creating interesting and engaging content on videos, you should be sharing it around - video on your website, on YouTube, Facebook, links on LinkedIn, in fact everywhere you have a presence then you can link your video.

As you build your viewers and they get to know you, you can enhance your video offering by including a few shorter, more personalised offerings. If there is a trade show that a lot of your customers are attending you can put up a short video saying that you hope they enjoy it; wishing your customers a good Bank Holiday, commenting on a new story relevant to your industry.

Sorry to bring up Christmas in August, but here's an example used by an Army Surplus Supply Shop



Personalised videos keeps you fresh in your customers mind and will have them returning to your site to see new content - always good!

Are there any situations where you can see yourself using video in a more customer-orientated, personalised way?

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Twitter Tips - How to use Twitter : What's with @reply and @mention?

 

Great tip from Mark Shaw in his blog on the use of the @reply and the @mention on Twitter!

Over to him...

"What is the difference between these 2 sentences…….and believe me… There is a huge difference in their outcome…

Exhibit 1…



Exhibit 2…



The Answer is…

Exhibit 1 is called an @reply as the Twitter message begins with an @twitterusername. The people that will automatically see that message are… You (because you sent it), the recipient who you @replied AND anyone that follows both you and them. So its not private, but in reality as many peeps dont follow both people in a conversation, they WILL NOT SEE AN @REPLY

Exhibit 2 is called an @mention as the @twitterusername is anywhere but at the beginning of the message. So who sees this automatically? You (because you sent it), the recipient because they were mentioned, BUT now also ALL OF YOUR FOLLOWERS."

As Mark points out, there's a huge difference in terms of numbers of those who might see your tweet. When you @reply someone automatically the 2 of you will see that message and anyone else that follows both of you - that could be a few, none or thousands. But, if you @mention their name instead, then 2 of you automatically see that message as well as all of your followers, regardless of whether they follow the other person or not.

So think it through before you use one or the other.

If you are telling your mate what time you will meet them in the pub, then an @reply is absolutely all that is needed. If however, you are replying with something of value - answering technical questions, giving out a link that may be useful to many, or perhaps demonstrating your specialist knowledge and positioning yourself as an expert, then you may be better served by using the @mention. Use wisely though - we've all heard the remarks from the disparagers... "Twitter is full of people telling you what they had for lunch". Be sure not to give them any ammunition with inappropriate use of your @ key in the wrong place!

You can read Mark Shaw's full article here

If you need help with managing your Twitter account let us know - always happy to point you in the right direction :-)

Tuesday 16 August 2011


Thanks to @ALSaucyHorse for finding this infographic from the Touch Agency - it lays out plenty of interesting facts and figures about how your customers and clients use Twitter. (Click for larger)

TWITTER INFOGRAPHIC

A few quick facts to pull out

75% of users are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow. Twitter can drive up sales, so keep customers informed of products and deals.
67% of users are more likely to recommend a brand that they follow to others. Regular Social Media engagement builds up loyalty and trust.
@80% of customer service questions tweets are negative or critical. Make sure that you have searches set up for your company name so that you can answer these tweets. Have a policy set in place for dealing with negative or potentially damaging tweets.
What do you think about this infographic? What do you think is the most surprising or interesting statistic? Can you use any of this information to improve your social media marketing?

Monday 15 August 2011

Twitter Tips – How to use Twitter : Useful Twitter Tip to stop auto DMs

As an evangelist for real and meaningful communication in the social media marketing arena, I don't like much about automated "anything" to be honest. There are applications which allow you to post to your Twitter account simultaneously to posting on Facebook, Subjot, Empire Avenue, LinkedIn or YouTube for instance - and if you want to, you can give most applications access to your life via other platforms - so it follows that you do need to be careful that you don't overload and bombard your followers with the same message eleventeen times. Careful and judicious use of these is required.

However, although I can see how they might help you to provide value in the form of valuable content to the people who listen in on you, I cannot see the value of an auto DM - an automatic direct message that you set up your Twitter account to send every time someone follows you. None of us these days want any more communication that we choose to have - getting something sent by a bot does not make me feel valued, even less so when it contains a link that is trying to sell to me.

It's too impersonal. If I want to send a message to a new follower, I do so, using their name, and making it about them. It's the first step in an ongoing relationship on some level so I don't wish to start that with some sort of generic blanket approach.

If you choose to send them and like receiving them then that's fine, but if like me you don't want to have them jamming up your messages box, you can try this tip from @MQTodd - who's full of great tips actually ;-)

1) Log in to Twitter.
2) Follow @OptMeOut (SocialOomph)
They will follow you back within a few minutes.
3) Wait until you’ve received the email from Twitter that tells you @OptMeOut has followed you back.
4) Then send a DM to @OptMeOut. (You can write whatever you want in the DM, it does not matter.)
5) After sending the DM, unfollow @OptMeOut.
This will only stop those DM's generated by users of SocialOomph - but it's start and good on them for offering the feature!
Let me know what you think - is this a good tip? Is your DM box a little cleaner now??

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Video For Websites - Tell Your Story

Stories are fascinating, and people love to share them. Whether it's around a business conference table with colleagues or round a pub table with friends, or the dinner table with family, stories are recounted and shared and carried on from person to person.

We pass them on through letters, emails and blog posts too, and read about them in books. A good story, whether fact or fiction, grabs us and stays with us. We take relevant points from it and can learn from them too.

We all take interest in other people's stories and when we see how they affect them it can affect us too. My widowed great-granny raised six children in a single-end in Glasgow. I had heard these stories from when I was young girl; I knew it must have been hard but then watching Jeremy Paxman's episode of "Who Do You Think You Are" I saw how hard it must have been. His great-great grandmother was in a similar situation, and retracing her journey left Jeremy upset and angry and the clip shared that with all those watching.

The video clip, unfortunately not online, brought the story to life. This can be used on your website too. Tell the story on video of how your company came into being. Share the struggles and the successes and why the company was started in the first place. People will react to your interest and passion and no-one can tell your story as well as you can!
Tweet

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Using Video To Take A Great Idea Forward

In February 2010, Old Spice debuted its "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign in the US. The YouTube video has 34 million views and still rising.

 

They moved this on with another video, this time putting Old Spice Guy in even more "glamorous" locations.

 

How to go on from that? They filmed Old Spice Guy answering questions set by members of the public and posted them on YouTube. These short personalised videos carried on the viral sharing of the first two televised ads and cemented the originality of the whole campaign. The YouTube Old Spice channel has over 218 million views.

This month, Old Spice announced that Old Spice Guy was being replaced by Fabio, a model for the covers of the American "Mills and Boon" style romance novels. People were not happy. It was all part of the campaign, and now Fabio and Old Spice Guy are locked in a YouTube duel for the mantle of Real Old Spice Guy, resulting in this gem.

 

(the pec wink at the end while keeping a straight face? Genius.)

Over a year since the start of the campaign, the videos are still being shared, still moving forward and are inspiring Social Media parodies, riffs and lip dubs. The message is being shared outwith the target market and has entered popular culture worldwide.

The message all marketers can take from this for their videos is keep it fresh. Improve on the good points of the previous videos, remove what didn't work and react to your comments. That way your message will be passed on.

Have you been inspired by advertising campaigns for your company videos?

 

Thursday 28 July 2011

Social Media Policy Summarised Part 1 – “Don’t do anything stupid”!

Have you set up a company Social Media Policy? If not, what has put you off? Is it the thought of having to draft a long policy document? The thought of having to make sure that everyone in your company ploughs through it so that they know how Social Media Guidelines impact employees?

When I received a link to the BBC News Social Media Guidance I won't lie, I made myself a cup of tea and a sandwich to keep me going as I thought I was in for the long haul. When I opened it I was pleasantly surprised. It's brief, no nonsense and to the point, and excellent advice for any employer who wants to set up guidelines for their own staff.

I love the fact that the first point is;
They can all be summarised as: 'Don't do anything stupid’.
This covers everything - checking that you are in the right twitter account (unlike this unfortunate ITV news tweeter); don't swear (unlike this Cheapflights post which also ties in with check you are tweeting from the right account. Note - SFW, asterisks out the swearing but does use a pejorative term); check before making a site live (oops, that's a BBC one) and many other things.
You shouldn't state your political preferences or say anything that compromises your impartiality. Don't sound off about things in an openly
partisan way. Don't be seduced by the informality of social media into bringing the BBC into disrepute. Don't criticise your colleagues. Don't reveal confidential BBC information.
Take out "BBC" and put in your company name and these are excellent rules for all Social Media. "Seduced by the informality of Social Media" especially. If you wouldn't say it in a meeting, don't say it on Social Media. You know your customers and the level of informality they are comfortable with so if you stick to that you won't go wrong.
 

Monday 25 July 2011

video production for websites, video production conferences, video production eventsA great way of building interest in a forthcoming event is to trail it with a video. Video all your conferences, roll-outs, product launches or even informal get-togethers and edit it into a short business video for your website.

Not only does it help the attendees know what to expect, it builds anticipation and lets them have a taster of what the event will involve. Here is a short video that we produced for Nigel Botterill's Entrepreneurs Circle, highlighting a recent meeting in Ascot. In just over two minutes it gives a flavour of the event and highlights how helpful the attendees found the meeting.



 

Share the video around on your Facebook Page, twitter and your company LinkedIn page. Use it to build a buzz!

Have you ever trailed an event with video for your website? Would it be something that you think you would do?

Friday 15 July 2011

If you don’t ask, you don’t know!

We’ve all been there. In the middle of an interesting conversation, presentation or meeting a fact, statistic or comment is thrown out that you either don’t understand or don’t know about. In real life we ask for further explanation. On twitter, facebook, linked in or blogs it should the same thing – ask away.
Social Media is the ideal platform for this. You are giving the other person the opportunity to position themself as an expert, you’re expanding your knowledge and you are also creating the dialogue that Social Media needs to exist. Yes it’s easy to look up things on Google or the numerous Questions/Ask sites but by asking questions to the originator you are finding out their perspective.  It opens both parties up to new possibilities and sharing of ideas as you don’t know what turns the conversation is going to take.  Other people may join in to give their opinions or take on the situation and the conversation could take a different turn.
The same theory applies if you are looking for information.  Throw out a question on the Social Media platform of your choice – a simple tweet, a facebook wall post, a linked in discussion on Groups and see what happens. People love sharing knowledge.
If you see someone asking a question, share your expertise. Every contact builds a relationship.
What sort of relationships have you built up on Social Media through the simple act of asking or replying to a question?

Thursday 14 July 2011

Video For Websites - Where do you find your inspiration?

As I sit here in my garret, looking for inspiration, a thought strikes me. Actually, in this technical age should it still be a garret? Shouldn't it now be an EMP-shielded-bunker?

As I sit here in my EMP-shielded-bunker, looking for inspiration, a thought strikes me. If you are looking to put video on your website but are unsure as to how to do it, where should you look for good examples? Join me as we wander through my thought processes. I'll try to keep the tangential thoughts to a minimum.

How are good things recognised? Sometimes, with awards. So off I went to have a look at the Webby Awards site. Each category has two awards; the Judges' votes and the People's choice so gives a fair result as to what is going on in website land. You could easily lose a day wandering round the Webby website but today I am focused and looking for inspiration, so went straight to the Best Use Of Moving Video Category. The winner, The Wilderness Downtown is - OMG THIS IS AMAZING - focus focus - utterly beautiful, but not exactly what I am looking for for inspiration if I wanted to put video on my site (actually that's not true; we can take ideas and concepts from it but not what I am looking for today). So with a last longing look at my childhood home on the video, I went to TED.com the winner of the People's Choice award. (This is more about TED)

TED's whole concept is "Ideas Worth Sharing" and the whole site is videos of people sharing ideas, concepts, discussions. Again, I seem to have led you into a site that could happily keep you entertained all day, so please forgive me. If you are looking for inspiration, go to inspirational people and this site is full of them.



There's my quick ten minute guide as to where to find inspiration for putting video on your website. Seriously, inspiration is everywhere. The Wilderness Downtown shows that if you have an idea, explore it and see if it's possible. The Webbys is only one website, if you see a video or have an idea, explore it, find out if it's suitable for your business or message and then film it and put it on your site. It doesn't have to be on a massive scale if that is putting you off - create something that people want to see and return to. You will reap the benefits.

What ideas or inspiration have you had for videos?

Thursday 7 July 2011

A Social Media question we all need to ask ourselves - Why?

A question we all need to ask ourselves -Why?

Read this article based on Brian Solis' well-timed question - in terms of social media for a brand or a business, Why are we doing this? What do we want to achieve?

Monday 27 June 2011

Like Comedy, it involves...timing






When you've made the decision to put video on your website due to all the positive factors it brings, you'll have to decide how long you want your clip to be.

(All videos from the SaucyHorseTV YouTube Channel)

For a promo clip, a short 60-120 second video with all the features packed in will do wonders for your business and site. This clip for La Manga shows off the resort to beautiful advantage and makes the viewer want to learn more and hopefully go there. (I have to admit, I watched this clip more times than necessary for research purposes and imagined myself there!)

 

You can also position your company and previous work undertaken with a 120 - 180 second clip. This clip for Saucy Horse shows of techniques, previous work and styles which gives customers an idea of the work that we do.

 

A longer clip of 4 - 6 minutes can give your customers and visitors to the site a full breaksown of your company, staff and facilities. It's an ideal showcase for your company.

 

Your video partner will help you in your decision as to which clip is best for you and your business. They should have a range of packages on offer which will meet your needs. Even the shortest video keeps customers and prospective customers on your site for longer, giving you more chance to showcase your product or services.

What kind of video would suit you and your market best?

 





 

Friday 24 June 2011





two-girls-whispering.jpg image by getfrank

"Your brand is what people are saying about you when you're not in the room"

I'm not sure who coined that phrase but it's a cracker. Daniel Rowse wrote a great blog on ProBlogger about branding for your own blog and it got me thinking about Business Brands.

So, what are people saying about your brand? Do you even know?? I've asked a few business owners this question. One replied - "We don't really have a brand, we just sell carpets". Well, let's have a look at that first...

A brand emerges over time whether a business actively works towards it or not, and whether that business wants it or not! Your customers and potential customers begin to develop perceptions about your service or product, and what your company stands for, in many instances, sub-consciously. Social Media networks provide an immediate platform for your customers' opinions, thoughts and experiences. And we can all access our social networks wherever we are now, courtesy of the technological leaps in mobile devices. So, we're in a restaurant having a great meal - we might Tweet that... We're in a carpet shop and the service is terrible - we might Tweet that as well, or comment on our Facebook wall - and it's out there, for millions of people to see. One tiny ingredient in the recipe that will become your Brand.
There are 300,000+ businesses on Facebook, and half a million new users every day. Twitter is on target for 1 billion users by 2012. As social media users grow exponentially (that's your customer base we're talking about - B2C and B2B), it's clear that, whether you are engaging with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn et al, as a business or not, things will be said about your company. The important thing is to listen - and to do that, you need to be there in the room!

People will make up their own minds about who you are and what your company stands for – but you do have some ability to help them come to these conclusions. As they use your product or service, as they hear how others feel about you by reading online reviews and Tweets, and as they then engage with others, sharing their own thoughts and experiences of your business, your brand is being built. If you are listening to these conversations and taking part - with relevant contributions and helping out with answers to questions - you are in a strong position not only to manage and enhance your reputation, but also to respond positively in the way you take your business to the market in the future. Let's say you are listening to your competitors' customers for instance, perhaps by following them on Twitter, perhaps by monitoring comments on Facebook pages, and you hear that there is a specific problem to which you can actually provide a solution - you are in a position to take action. That's responsiveness, and the immediacy of this interaction and feedback beats any Focus Group or Market Research by a long shot, doesn't it?? Let's face it, if you're not listening, you may never know it was said in the first place, and that includes complaints and derogatory comments as well as praise!

So, for brand enhancement alone, the ability to build relationships with your customers is key - and for all the hype and buzz around "social media", the point, surely, is that it's the most effective way to do just that - build relationships. By doing that, you will know what they are saying, and they will know you are listening. It's great customer service and plain business sense.

Please leave your comments below - are there better ways than using the social networks to monitor what your customers think about you?



Thursday 23 June 2011

Using Video on your Website - YouTube







Ninth in a series of entries inspired by Social Media Examiner - 26 Ways to Engage With Customers Using Video All quotes come from the article - have a look, it's an informative lesson in using video.

YouTube

Mention video on the web and you instantly think, "YouTube". Its ease of use, upload and search facility makes it the first stop for people who want to upload video. It's the go-to site for people wanting to see how something is done - try following written word instructions to make an origami crane. Going to YouTube to watch the video tutorial is quicker and easier. How did we cope without it?

If you use a blog rather than a have company website you can store your videos on your YouTube channel and embed them directly into your blog. People can subscribe to your channel and be updated instantly by email as soon as you add a new video. It's such a powerful tool that you cannot think of Social Media without it - it seamlessly integrates into Twitter (and twitter clients), Facebook and LinkedIn. Apps are available on Apple products to allow YouTube videos to be watched and shared.

YouTube is now one of the top thre search engines. You can ensure that your video is found by making the description of the video as complete as possible. Also, check the autocomplete search box and make sure that your description comes up in there as one of the top 3 autocompletes.

How would you integrate YouTube videos into your Social Media and Website? Do you use YouTube for work or do you think of it as a social resource?




Wednesday 22 June 2011

When Social Media Goes Bad







This is an old story, but it’s such a great case history and article. Since I’m a new Saucy Horse, I’d like to share my favourite stories, case histories and writers with you. We’ve touched on this subject here before.
When things are going right on your Social Media Feeds, it’s great. You’re interacting with your contacts, customers and  potential customers; everyone is happy and life is good.
Then something like this could happen.

Somewhere, far from your PC and your Social Media Policy, a circumstance over which you have no control has the potential to cause serious damage to your company’s reputation.  Kevin Smith is a serious “influencer” as a successful and popular film director with nearly two million followers.
How Southwest handled this is detailed in this excellent article by Cord Silverstein of Marketing Hipster.
This began a back and forth Twitter throw down that Southwest Airlines could not win.  When you are dealing with an influencer who has the backing of his people, right or wrong, the people are going to have their say against the big bad corporation. This is where Southwest’s social media strategy truly took flight.
They did the following:
  • They responded to each individual who tweeted to @SouthwestAir about the situation.  No matter how mean the tweet was, they responded.  They apologized that Mr. Smith had to go through what he did and explained their company policy.
  • They posted a blog post once again apologizing, but also explained the airlines position.  When their blog went down because of all the traffic they were receiving, they moved their blog post to another Web site so people could read it.
  • If you check out the comments on the blog post, you will see users who left comments with curses and writing some not so nice things about Southwest.  Did they remove these comments or take the easy route and just turn the comments off, no. (Note: the Web site is still real slow because of all the traffic they are getting.  You might not be able to get to this page.)
  • They had a VP from Southwest reach out and speak to Kevin Smith on the phone.
Southwest were adept in their handling of this. They quickly realised that the damage done to Kevin Smith wasn’t immediately fixable; however the damage to their reputation was. They apologised to Mr Smith and then responded to every tweet; and there is the genius. These people were not connected to the incident so Southwest could have legitimately ignored them; Southwest didn’t. However rant-y and rave-y they were, they were included in the discussion.
These bullet points from Cord Silverstein have stuck with me ever since I read the article at the time.
  • In social media, you cannot control the conversation.  Don’t even try.  Your goal is to listen, understand, engage and potentially influence.
  • You are never going to make everyone happy or solve everyone’s problem.  Using this case study as an example, Kevin Smith is not going to be a fan of Southwest Airlines no matter what they say now.  But Southwest understands that they are fighting for the hearts and minds of the thousands possibly millions of other people who are witnessing and discussing this incident online.
  • Finally, half the battle is just showing up.  Southwest knew they could not win this argument.  They knew they were going to take their lumps, but they understood that not engaging in these conversations would be shortsighted and deliver far worse results.
Social Media can go wrong; anything from tweeting from the wrong account to misusing hashtags and all points in between. How we deal with it is what counts.
Making sure that there is a strong Social Media Strategy in place is key.  If you outsource make sure that all sides know how to react in worst-case scenarios. Make sure that everyone who has access to your Social Media Accounts is fully trained; they are the public face of your company. Foster a community.
And never, ever, throw Kevin Smith off a plane.



Thursday 19 May 2011

Brad Burton - Entrepreneur behind 4Networking talks business blind dates




Brad Burton, the entrepreneur behind 4Networking, talks about his business on BBC2's Working Lunch.

What networking groups do you belong to and what groups do you recommend? Where do you get most success - what do you actually define as networking success?