If you are putting videos on your business website or blog, you are probably using YouTube. It's the easiest way to embed videos on non-self-hosted blog platforms like WordPress etc. The new features of being able to choose the preview picture for your video on your website and remove the YouTube logo if required have also made this feature more attractive. You can also change the embed size so that the video looks neat inside your site. The option to remove suggested videos which flash up at the end of your video can also be useful as you have no control over what is shown there.
If you link your YouTube account to your twitter account your followers can see when you have posted a new video and also when you like or share a video. Sharing videos around is a great way to foster a community and may encourage people to share your videos too. We have discussed using YouTube as a way to grow your business on the blog previously; it's also a way to grow your network by subscribing to channels and liking and sharing videos. Comment on others' videos, leave a thumbs up and encourage customers and contacts to do the same on your videos. Encouraging feedback not only increases your viewing base, in increases that magic SEO
Like all Social Media, YouTube works best when we engage fully with it. What's your top tip for interacting on YouTube?
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Monday 27 February 2012
Friday 24 February 2012
Thursday 23 February 2012
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Using Video To Take A Great Idea Forward
How to make a viral video
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?
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Tuesday 21 February 2012
Some Jaw-Dropping YouTube Stats...
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Great article by Amy Mae Elliott for Mashable about the phenomenal reach of YouTube - pick of the points for me...
Some Jaw-Dropping YouTube Statistics and why you must have a business presence for your company video on YouTube.
As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. We spend around 2.9 billion hours on YouTube in a month — over 325,000 years. And those stats are just for the main YouTube website — they don’t incorporate embedded videos or video watched on mobile devices.
YouTube’s Social Stats
Social media-related YouTube stats are just as impressive. YouTube says that on average there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link. Meanwhile, over on Facebook over 150 years worth of YouTube videos are watched every single day.
You can read the full article here
Are you using video to promote your business and get higher search rankings? Do you have video on your website homepage? If not, would you consider it?
Great article by Amy Mae Elliott for Mashable about the phenomenal reach of YouTube - pick of the points for me...
Some Jaw-Dropping YouTube Statistics and why you must have a business presence for your company video on YouTube.
As of February 2011, YouTube has 490 million unique users worldwide per month, who rack up an estimated 92 billion page views each month. We spend around 2.9 billion hours on YouTube in a month — over 325,000 years. And those stats are just for the main YouTube website — they don’t incorporate embedded videos or video watched on mobile devices.
YouTube’s Social Stats
Social media-related YouTube stats are just as impressive. YouTube says that on average there are more than 400 tweets per minute containing a YouTube link. Meanwhile, over on Facebook over 150 years worth of YouTube videos are watched every single day.
You can read the full article here
Are you using video to promote your business and get higher search rankings? Do you have video on your website homepage? If not, would you consider it?
Sunday 19 February 2012
How do your products and services look "in the wild"? Find out with a video!
You know how great your product or service is. Your customers love what you provide. How do you convince potential customers that your company is the one to deal with?
You won't be surprised when we say - VIDEO!
Ask your customers if you can film a short testimonial and a few shots of the way they use your product or service. Edit this into a short video that shows how much your product or service has helped your customers. Potential customers will see this and can visualise immediately the benefits that your company can bring to them. Not only can you embed it on your website or YouTube account, when you are sending out quotes you can link to the video on your website in the quotation email. It sets you apart and makes you memorable.
This short example is from a Reptile Centre, asking their customers questions about the services the centre provides.
Have you used customer testimonials in any of your videos?
You won't be surprised when we say - VIDEO!
Ask your customers if you can film a short testimonial and a few shots of the way they use your product or service. Edit this into a short video that shows how much your product or service has helped your customers. Potential customers will see this and can visualise immediately the benefits that your company can bring to them. Not only can you embed it on your website or YouTube account, when you are sending out quotes you can link to the video on your website in the quotation email. It sets you apart and makes you memorable.
This short example is from a Reptile Centre, asking their customers questions about the services the centre provides.
Have you used customer testimonials in any of your videos?
Thursday 16 February 2012
Video makes your life better!
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Well, gets you more website traffic and a chance to get more customers...
SEO Done it...
EMAIL MARKETING Bought the T-Shirt...
and Social Media is hopefully on the list too - a strategy and a presence on the relevant platforms where your audience are.
So what other online marketing tool can you use to increase your ranking in the search results by up to 50 x?
What other tool can you use to help you get more visitors to your website, and to make those visitors happier, better engaged and more likely to become your customer once they're there?
The answer, my friends, is VIDEO
In the old days video was seen as something that only the big boys could afford - and even then it was considered problematic with upload times and rendering problems on many websites.
Now that we all have superfast internet connections wherever we are, that problem is no more - adding video to your homepage was the fastest-growing website feature for small-business advertisers in the USA in 2009, according to a study by WebVisible.
Video can be used to build your company profile, boost your brand, build trust & give your customers comfort about who they are dealing with, show product demos, show happy customer testimonials, and help position your business as experts in your field or sector. As well as featuring on your website they can be uploaded to YouTube on your own business TV channel - YouTube is the second biggest search engine behind only Google. Your customers are looking for your service or product on YouTube every day, and you will only be found if you are up there! There are a plethora of video distribution platforms available to you and they can be used to get your video assets out into the world where your customers will find them.
Video is an excellent way to cut through the noise that is email marketing these days - we can set up short URLs to a specific piece of video content which you can then use within your email. Full tracking of who is opening and watching can also be provided. The possibilities are endless - how about using QR Codes or Textback Marketing to deliver fully mobile video content to your customer's mobile phone? Property videos sent to your client's Blackberry as they scan a property in the estate agents' window? Film trailers sent to your customer's I-phone when they scan the "what's on" in the local paper? Or perhaps you prefer to drive the customer to your website with custom URLs that they can scan to be taken directly to your homepage where they can watch a video? Oh, it's exciting!
Putting up static brochure websites is the same as not having a website was 5 years ago - we are all incredibly sophisticated these days in terms of our viewing habits and our acquisition of information, and we want to be given it in an attractive, engaging, effective package. Video does that. And because it makes your website visitor's experience so much better, the search engines will love you for it, and reflect that in your rankings. And rankings is where it's at - if you're not ranking high up on that first page, you won't get a look in.
Please call me if you'd like to chat about what's possible within your budget. You can have a look at some prices and gallery of our work at Saucy Horse Video
Well, gets you more website traffic and a chance to get more customers...
Marketing checklist for your business:
WEBSITE Been there...SEO Done it...
EMAIL MARKETING Bought the T-Shirt...
and Social Media is hopefully on the list too - a strategy and a presence on the relevant platforms where your audience are.
So what other online marketing tool can you use to increase your ranking in the search results by up to 50 x?
What other tool can you use to help you get more visitors to your website, and to make those visitors happier, better engaged and more likely to become your customer once they're there?
The answer, my friends, is VIDEO
In the old days video was seen as something that only the big boys could afford - and even then it was considered problematic with upload times and rendering problems on many websites.
Now that we all have superfast internet connections wherever we are, that problem is no more - adding video to your homepage was the fastest-growing website feature for small-business advertisers in the USA in 2009, according to a study by WebVisible.
Video can be used to build your company profile, boost your brand, build trust & give your customers comfort about who they are dealing with, show product demos, show happy customer testimonials, and help position your business as experts in your field or sector. As well as featuring on your website they can be uploaded to YouTube on your own business TV channel - YouTube is the second biggest search engine behind only Google. Your customers are looking for your service or product on YouTube every day, and you will only be found if you are up there! There are a plethora of video distribution platforms available to you and they can be used to get your video assets out into the world where your customers will find them.
Video is an excellent way to cut through the noise that is email marketing these days - we can set up short URLs to a specific piece of video content which you can then use within your email. Full tracking of who is opening and watching can also be provided. The possibilities are endless - how about using QR Codes or Textback Marketing to deliver fully mobile video content to your customer's mobile phone? Property videos sent to your client's Blackberry as they scan a property in the estate agents' window? Film trailers sent to your customer's I-phone when they scan the "what's on" in the local paper? Or perhaps you prefer to drive the customer to your website with custom URLs that they can scan to be taken directly to your homepage where they can watch a video? Oh, it's exciting!
Putting up static brochure websites is the same as not having a website was 5 years ago - we are all incredibly sophisticated these days in terms of our viewing habits and our acquisition of information, and we want to be given it in an attractive, engaging, effective package. Video does that. And because it makes your website visitor's experience so much better, the search engines will love you for it, and reflect that in your rankings. And rankings is where it's at - if you're not ranking high up on that first page, you won't get a look in.
Please call me if you'd like to chat about what's possible within your budget. You can have a look at some prices and gallery of our work at Saucy Horse Video
Having a Business Event? Build interest with website video!
A 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?
Wednesday 15 February 2012
How to use Social Media to create an online community to benefit your business
Author:
Wendy Suto
Some great thoughts here from Wendy Suto as to how to approach social media marketing in your business.
Although social media marketing has become extremely popular in today's day and age, there are still many businesses that haven't figured out how to do it right. Using social media to build a functional online community that actually benefits your company is harder than it may seem. Even if you know the importance of making a good online impression and image for your company, you may be unsure of exactly how to go about doing it.
Here are some tips that will help you build an online community that will increase brand awareness and loyalty as well as drive traffic to your website and encourage purchases.
First, identify your business goals and objectives. What do you want to accomplish with your online community? Do you want to increase brand awareness and enhance your company's online image? Do you want to have a direct network where you can announce promotions and new product launches? Do you want to enhance your customer service? Luckily you can do all of these things with a social media network. However, it's important to define your exact goals so you and your staff know what to focus on. Also, think about your target audience. What kind of information would they be interested in reading? You want to make sure your online community is a place where your target audience/customers can meet their objectives. Otherwise they will not have an incentive to come to your network. So whether their objectives are to learn about the business's promotions and new products or have somewhere to talk to others about similar interests, make sure your social network is able to meet their needs.
Get personal. One thing to keep in mind about social networks are that they are places where people go to interact with other people. This means that the more human you make your company appear on its social network, the better. In order to accomplish this, you must talk to your audience in a conversational, casual tone. Make them feel like they are talking to a friend rather than a huge corporation. This will increase their trust in your company and therefore make them more likely to do business with you. However, keep in mind that getting too personal is never a good thing. Have your company on the brain when you post or tweet, and ask yourself, is this something my customers would appreciate or am I going too far? You are a business after all, so you must maintain some professionalism without being too stuffy.
Become an industry expert. Social networks can help you become a source for news and information that deals with your industry, which is a great thing. Post relevant breaking news stories, trivia, tips, trends and advice that deals with your industry and people will keep coming back to read more. This also enhances your company\'s credibility, which will motivate people to do business with you rather than your competition. It will also ensure that your site comes up in conversation when people talk to their colleagues and friends. Becoming an industry expert will help your company gain and maintain the trust and loyalty of your customers as well as get more leads that will hopefully turn into sales.
Find out what they think. Social networking is a great way to find out what your customers think about your company, products or services. If you just launched a certain service or product and want to know if your customers approve, just tweet or post the question on Twitter or Facebook (or both) and watch the mentions, direct messages and comments fly in. People love sharing their opinion, so asking a question is one of the best ways to engage your audience. Gaining valuable opinions from customers will allow you to shape your products or services to better meet their needs, which will increase customer satisfaction and sales for you.
Give online community members privileges. Giving your online community members special privileges, promotions or information will give them an incentive to join the community. It's important to provide an incentive to stay active within the community, so try giving members weekly specials, monthly contents, daily breaking news and more. If you're launching a new product, make sure your online community members are the first to know. The more special access to new information, discounts and contests you give your members, the more they will talk about how fun your community is and spread the word to their friends, family and colleagues.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/internet-marketing-tips-how-to-create-an-elite-online-community-for-your-business-4128434.html
About the Author
Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in organic search engine optimization, blog marketing, Web site copywriting and article marketing solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars in Cleveland, Ohio. wendy@searchcircus.com
Wendy Suto
Some great thoughts here from Wendy Suto as to how to approach social media marketing in your business.
Although social media marketing has become extremely popular in today's day and age, there are still many businesses that haven't figured out how to do it right. Using social media to build a functional online community that actually benefits your company is harder than it may seem. Even if you know the importance of making a good online impression and image for your company, you may be unsure of exactly how to go about doing it.
Here are some tips that will help you build an online community that will increase brand awareness and loyalty as well as drive traffic to your website and encourage purchases.
First, identify your business goals and objectives. What do you want to accomplish with your online community? Do you want to increase brand awareness and enhance your company's online image? Do you want to have a direct network where you can announce promotions and new product launches? Do you want to enhance your customer service? Luckily you can do all of these things with a social media network. However, it's important to define your exact goals so you and your staff know what to focus on. Also, think about your target audience. What kind of information would they be interested in reading? You want to make sure your online community is a place where your target audience/customers can meet their objectives. Otherwise they will not have an incentive to come to your network. So whether their objectives are to learn about the business's promotions and new products or have somewhere to talk to others about similar interests, make sure your social network is able to meet their needs.
Get personal. One thing to keep in mind about social networks are that they are places where people go to interact with other people. This means that the more human you make your company appear on its social network, the better. In order to accomplish this, you must talk to your audience in a conversational, casual tone. Make them feel like they are talking to a friend rather than a huge corporation. This will increase their trust in your company and therefore make them more likely to do business with you. However, keep in mind that getting too personal is never a good thing. Have your company on the brain when you post or tweet, and ask yourself, is this something my customers would appreciate or am I going too far? You are a business after all, so you must maintain some professionalism without being too stuffy.
Become an industry expert. Social networks can help you become a source for news and information that deals with your industry, which is a great thing. Post relevant breaking news stories, trivia, tips, trends and advice that deals with your industry and people will keep coming back to read more. This also enhances your company\'s credibility, which will motivate people to do business with you rather than your competition. It will also ensure that your site comes up in conversation when people talk to their colleagues and friends. Becoming an industry expert will help your company gain and maintain the trust and loyalty of your customers as well as get more leads that will hopefully turn into sales.
Find out what they think. Social networking is a great way to find out what your customers think about your company, products or services. If you just launched a certain service or product and want to know if your customers approve, just tweet or post the question on Twitter or Facebook (or both) and watch the mentions, direct messages and comments fly in. People love sharing their opinion, so asking a question is one of the best ways to engage your audience. Gaining valuable opinions from customers will allow you to shape your products or services to better meet their needs, which will increase customer satisfaction and sales for you.
Give online community members privileges. Giving your online community members special privileges, promotions or information will give them an incentive to join the community. It's important to provide an incentive to stay active within the community, so try giving members weekly specials, monthly contents, daily breaking news and more. If you're launching a new product, make sure your online community members are the first to know. The more special access to new information, discounts and contests you give your members, the more they will talk about how fun your community is and spread the word to their friends, family and colleagues.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/internet-marketing-tips-how-to-create-an-elite-online-community-for-your-business-4128434.html
About the Author
Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an ethical SEO firm specializing in organic search engine optimization, blog marketing, Web site copywriting and article marketing solutions. As a certified search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO seminars in Cleveland, Ohio. wendy@searchcircus.com
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Using Video on Websites - What are your Future Plans?
Video for your website - Announcements
If you have big plans for your business, then a video is a great way of showing them to the best advantage. You can not only talk about your plans but can show them off with video clips and stills.
This video from the MD of Royal Windsor Racecourse does just that by showcasing everything that the racecourse does best and highlighting it.
This is a great technique that you can use on your own website for product launches, expansion details etc.
Monday 13 February 2012
Would you like more Visitors to your Website?
If you run a travel or holiday business and you are interested in getting more customers, read on. In fact, if you run any type of business and you want more leads, this is for you.
You can increase the number of visitors to your website by increasing the likelihood that they can find you in any searches they do on the web - you need to be appearing high up in the search results, and you can aid that process by using video on your website.
Just like this...
Using video on your website improves your rankings with Google and other search engines by up to 50 times.
Of course, the main reason why you need an eyecatching, interesting and engaging video on your Home Page is so that you provide lots of relevant & helpful information to your visitors - after all the most important thing is that your visitors get what they need when they get there! This will increase their "user experience" which keeps the search engines happy and improves their ranking of your business - but the bottom line is video helps you engage with your visitors and makes them glad they found you... when it's done right.
If you aren't using video yet, what's the main obstacle stopping you capitalising on this marketing godsend?
You can increase the number of visitors to your website by increasing the likelihood that they can find you in any searches they do on the web - you need to be appearing high up in the search results, and you can aid that process by using video on your website.
Just like this...
Using video on your website improves your rankings with Google and other search engines by up to 50 times.
Of course, the main reason why you need an eyecatching, interesting and engaging video on your Home Page is so that you provide lots of relevant & helpful information to your visitors - after all the most important thing is that your visitors get what they need when they get there! This will increase their "user experience" which keeps the search engines happy and improves their ranking of your business - but the bottom line is video helps you engage with your visitors and makes them glad they found you... when it's done right.
If you aren't using video yet, what's the main obstacle stopping you capitalising on this marketing godsend?
Friday 10 February 2012
How do you produce a good video for your website? Preparation!
You know that you want a video for your website. What’s the secret to a polished, professional video?
Preparation!
Firstly, make sure that you have a good script. Don’t read from it, or learn it by rote if you are looking for natural speech patterns. Have the points that you want to cover and any examples that you want to mention fresh in your mind. You can have bullet points near the camera to jog your memory and keep the commentary flowing. Speak with passion and interest. This will come across on your business video and keep your vocal tones interesting and engaging.
Plan your shots. Have an idea in your head as to how you want the shots to look and shoot your video around that. Clear the background for your business video so that the viewer is concentrating on you.
Plan your edits. If you are going to cut in shots to illustrate the points you are making, have it in your mind where and when in the video this will be.
Points of interest. Make sure that you highlight in your video the main points of interest that you would like the viewer to focus upon. Highlight these with on-screen graphics if you want.
Put in the time on preparation before you even turn the camera on and you will have a video to be proud of. How much time do you spend on the planning of a video before you start shooting?
Preparation!
Firstly, make sure that you have a good script. Don’t read from it, or learn it by rote if you are looking for natural speech patterns. Have the points that you want to cover and any examples that you want to mention fresh in your mind. You can have bullet points near the camera to jog your memory and keep the commentary flowing. Speak with passion and interest. This will come across on your business video and keep your vocal tones interesting and engaging.
Plan your shots. Have an idea in your head as to how you want the shots to look and shoot your video around that. Clear the background for your business video so that the viewer is concentrating on you.
Plan your edits. If you are going to cut in shots to illustrate the points you are making, have it in your mind where and when in the video this will be.
Points of interest. Make sure that you highlight in your video the main points of interest that you would like the viewer to focus upon. Highlight these with on-screen graphics if you want.
Put in the time on preparation before you even turn the camera on and you will have a video to be proud of. How much time do you spend on the planning of a video before you start shooting?
Wednesday 8 February 2012
The Bananarama Syndrome. It ain’t what you do…
It ain't what you do it's the way that you do it...
I hadn't heard of the Bananarama Syndrome before today - I'd heard of Bananarama, of course. Who could forget their efforts to ruin the fashion credibility of the entire teenage girl population of the early 80's - "For an early 80s Bananarama look, you don't need to look like you've tried too hard! Just get hold of a stripy jumper or top, a hat and some pedal pushers or cropped jeans. Hair must be wild and messed up, make up bold" sic angelfire.com/retro
I digress... Nigel Botterill and his Entrepreneurs Circle was the source of the remark that highlighted the aforementioned syndrome.
Discussing how to make 2011 the best business year ever for the Entrepreneur Circle members, he relayed the story of a business person who seemingly had all his marketing bases covered - social media, direct mail, email shots, vouchers, offers, advertising etc etc... and was doing okay, but the question he was asking himself (and Mr Botterill) was how he could take his business up a notch. How could he grow his profits and increase his customer base? However, when questioned on what worked best of all these marketing activities, he didn't know...
The moral of the story? It's all very well getting your ducks in a line and doing everything you know you should be, on the marketing front, but if you don't know which of those things is having an effect, which is getting the results and bringing in the customers - you're missing a trick. The answer to our friend's question was that to grow his profits and his customer base he needed to do more of whatever was working at the moment - and to do that, you need to know what it is! Tracking by promotional codes, tracker telephone numbers, email responses, open and click through email rates, using Google Analytics to analyse your web traffic... the tools are all out there. You don't need to be a banana!
How do you track and monitor your marketing efforts?
I hadn't heard of the Bananarama Syndrome before today - I'd heard of Bananarama, of course. Who could forget their efforts to ruin the fashion credibility of the entire teenage girl population of the early 80's - "For an early 80s Bananarama look, you don't need to look like you've tried too hard! Just get hold of a stripy jumper or top, a hat and some pedal pushers or cropped jeans. Hair must be wild and messed up, make up bold" sic angelfire.com/retro
I digress... Nigel Botterill and his Entrepreneurs Circle was the source of the remark that highlighted the aforementioned syndrome.
Discussing how to make 2011 the best business year ever for the Entrepreneur Circle members, he relayed the story of a business person who seemingly had all his marketing bases covered - social media, direct mail, email shots, vouchers, offers, advertising etc etc... and was doing okay, but the question he was asking himself (and Mr Botterill) was how he could take his business up a notch. How could he grow his profits and increase his customer base? However, when questioned on what worked best of all these marketing activities, he didn't know...
The moral of the story? It's all very well getting your ducks in a line and doing everything you know you should be, on the marketing front, but if you don't know which of those things is having an effect, which is getting the results and bringing in the customers - you're missing a trick. The answer to our friend's question was that to grow his profits and his customer base he needed to do more of whatever was working at the moment - and to do that, you need to know what it is! Tracking by promotional codes, tracker telephone numbers, email responses, open and click through email rates, using Google Analytics to analyse your web traffic... the tools are all out there. You don't need to be a banana!
How do you track and monitor your marketing efforts?
Tuesday 7 February 2012
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 of social organic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
What ideas or inspiration have you had for videos?
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 of social organic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
What ideas or inspiration have you had for videos?
Are you taking your vitamins? Social Media Strategy for Business
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Great blog by Executive Business Coach, Chuck Boyce - likening the use of social media marketing to the practice of taking vitamin supplements! He says -"Using social media is a lot like taking vitamins - we know we should do it, we know it will be "good for us,' but sometimes, just forcing ourselves to commit to it and take it seriously is harder than it sounds. After all, just setting up the account - like buying that bottle of vitamins - is only half the battle.
For social media to work, you have to use it regularly and use it properly, just like you need to take those vitamins every day for them to do any good. After all, logging on to Facebook and playing Farmville once in a while might be a nice break from the daily routine, but it isn't going to provide much of a boost for your business."
Spot on - that's the crux of it isn't it? If you're anything like me, knowing what you should be doing is not the problem. I like to think I am well read - I keep abreast of trends, scientific developments, current thought and so on - so I can't argue I don't know what night be good for me or what I should be doing. Moving on from "knowing" to actually taking action is another matter. To do anything properly takes a little bit of time and a little bit of thought. Social Media Marketing is absolutely no different in that respect.
It doesn't need to be difficult. By taking a few minutes to share some free advice, via your Business Facebook page, your Business Twitter account, Your LinkedIn profile or your Business YouTube channel you can take advantage of the success that following the "Listen, Learn, Care & Share" mantra of the great Laura Fitton . You'll find yourself forming relationships with your potential customers and clients.
Think about that - this isn't just about "marketing at" your customers. If you can add something of value to the lives of these people, you build on those relationships. If you can keep it going - and remember it's about serving - before you know it they may even decide they can trust you with their business!
As Chuck says, "Yes, there are people out there who still think that Facebook is just something their teenager uses to avoid actual conversation, or, even worse, that Tweeting is something birds do. But now that we're a few years into the social media revolution, those numbers are definitely dwindling. Even people who once considered themselves "above" social media, as well as those who worried it would be too hard to master, are jumping on the bandwagon. Especially other businesspeople, who don't want to miss out on an opportunity while others are taking advantage of it."
Your competitors are already using Social Media Marketing - how well is another matter, but if you're not using at all, you're at a disadvantage. By finding yourself a Social Media Manager you like, one that speaks with a voice you recognise and that fits with your business message and culture, you are on the way to capitalising on the most exciting business marketing opportunity to appear on the scene for quite a while!
Most importantly, Social Media tools are free - of course you will have to pay for the Social Media Manager who looks after this for you, or at least for effective training of your own in-house marketer or employee who understands the opportunity - but, in the hands of someone who understands how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube amongst others, you have a low cost marketing weapon set that can radically change the way you engage with your pool of prospects.
2011 is the year you can take the first step towards creating your own Social Media Strategy.
You can read the full article at http://bit.ly/chuckboycearticle
Monday 6 February 2012
Why haven't you used video on your website?
One of the benefits of being amongst the video creative people at Saucy Horse is that the creativity is shared around. I'll be the first to put my hands up and admit I am not what you'd call "visually creative". My colours are black and grey and when I want to go really off my head and mix it up I'll throw some cream into the mix. My skill-set is Social Media and blogging; I feel comfortable with words. Your skill-set may be thought of as Sales, or Networking, or Finance, or Ideas, or anything that you wouldn't class as suitable for making a video. So, I thought I would address what would be the biggest barrier to why people who may have thought like me wouldn't put video on their website.
As a video newbie I was delighted with my results and I'm sure you will be too. Have a try, then when you see the results both of your video and the improvement in your SEO you'll hopefully use more and more video. I'm already planning my next one, inspired by the team here!
I don't know how to do it.There are two options here.
- Call in the professionals. Tell them what you want and they will work with you and share ideas around. They will work to your budget and timescales and you will have an amazing video for your site.
- Do it yourself. Come back! Don't be scared. Once I decided to blog about this subject I took the plunge and made a video myself. I used Windows Live Movie Maker to make a simple three minute video using both pictures in a slide-show format and small clips of video that I edited in the programme. I put a soundtrack on it, and (hold on until I get the brass instrument out of its case so that I can blow my own trumpet) I am delighted with it! (It has a pop song as a soundtrack so unfortunately I can't put it up here. This could be good; you are saved the indignity of watching me try to manoeuvre a cabin cruiser through a lock at Romney and performing the boating equivalent of "car stuffing it up the side")
- Theme. Have an idea of your theme and shoot round it. Collect photos to use in a slide-show in your video.
- Shoot loads of material. Even if you think it has no use at the time, it will. Once it is set to a soundtrack and context you will have a great video. What, on camera, looked like a very normal shot of other boats passing us on the river looks almost atmospheric when paired with other shots and a soundtrack.
- Soundtrack - Check out royalty free music sites, or pay per use sites.
- Voice over and speech to camera - Make sure that you have an external microphone so you don't pick up any extraneous noises. Practice your voiceover.
I don't know what to do with it.Share it around! YouTube, Facebook, your blog, your website, tumblr, twitvid. Everywhere you upload it, post a link to your site so that people can find you.
As a video newbie I was delighted with my results and I'm sure you will be too. Have a try, then when you see the results both of your video and the improvement in your SEO you'll hopefully use more and more video. I'm already planning my next one, inspired by the team here!
Friday 3 February 2012
Using Video on your website - Integrate with Facebook
Tweet
Third 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.
Facebook
Do you use video on your Facebook page? How do you think it would increase customer interest in your product?
Read the full Social Media Article here
Tweet
Third 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.
By now you’ve probably heard that Facebook is a good place to upload a company video. However, what shows up in a user’s news feed is dependent on a number of news feed optimization factors referred to as EdgeRank. The good news is that video is one area that ranks higher and is more likely to bring a post onto someone’s news feed.After you have created video for your website, you can increase the number of people who see your video by posting it onto your Facebook page. It's instant feedback. When your customers like and pass around the video you've gained valuable knowledge on the information that your customers react to. Lesser reaction instantly lets you know when you have gone down the wrong path. Posting regular videos encourages repeat visits to your page.
Users love videos, so it’s extremely beneficial for businesses to continue to add to their library.
Video consumption on Facebook is growing. The blog All Facebook recently reported, “Nearly 47 million people in the U.S. watched videos on Facebook in February 2011. That puts the site in fourth place on the comScore Video Metrix ranking, two spots higher than it ranked in January.”
Do you use video on your Facebook page? How do you think it would increase customer interest in your product?
Read the full Social Media Article here
Tweet
Thursday 2 February 2012
Social Media Strategy? No good without a CONTENT strategy...
“You can’t have a social media strategy without a content strategy.”
This is a quote by Susan Cato, Senior Director of Web and New Media Strategies at CompTIA - I read it this morning in an article on how to create a Social Media Content Strategy.
It's the crux of the matter - with all the buzz around social media activity for business, the core simplicities are in danger of being lost. Content is King. Always. And Social Media is no different in that respect. What's the point of engaging if you have nothing to say?
So... how do you develop a Content Strategy?
Rich Brooks has some tips for us in his excellent Social Media Examiner blog - to summarise:
There are three important elements to developing an effective content strategy.
- You need to know what your customers, audience or community want to talk about and be willing to engage in those conversations.
- You need to know where your audience wants to have these conversations - in other words, where they go when they are online.
- You need to measure the results of your conversations to see which ones are enthusing & engaging your audience.
- Keyword Discovery or WordTracker: two popular paid tools
- Google AdWords: a free tool that uses Google AdWords data to determine what phrases are popular.
Once you know what the discussions need to include, you will then need to find out where your customers are having these discussions.
LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for B2B (business to business) companies. Facebook does well for B2C (business to consumer) offerings. Blogs and online video-sharing sites like YouTube can work for any audience.
Let's just take LinkedIn for the moment as this is the Social Media Platform that seems to create least resistance in those business to business owners I talk to about a Social Media Strategy. It's the platform that they most understand as relevant to their offer and their target client / customer, and therefore feel most comfortable with.
One way of making it work for you - if you look at the Answers section in LinkedIn and search for answers to questions that are based on your keywords, you will find Forums, Discussions & Groups that you can contribute to. For example, an HR executive might search for “employee retention" -
By contributing to these discussions your expertise becomes visible to potential clients. I regularly contribute to discussions on LinkedIn and often get enquiries and invitations to connect on the back of that contribution.
In my next blog - how can businesses use their content on Facebook and actually get an acceptable result?
Wednesday 1 February 2012
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 three 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?
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 three 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?
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