How YouTube Can Benefit Your Company

June 9, 2011 By 2 Comments

It seems so hard to believe that YouTube is the world’s second biggest search engine.  YouTube, the search engine?  Really?  Think about it, how many times have you:

  • Utilized a short tutorial to help you understand how to use a product
  • Watched a video that explained to you step by step how to apply special effects to your image in photoshop
  • Received free guitar lesson
  • Seen a slide show on an interesting topic set to music

YouTube is much more than pure viral entertainment.  It definitely can be used as a place for merging business and humor, but it’s also about education, YouTube enables us to answer the “how to”, “why” and “could I” questions in creative and personal ways.  Posting useful videos about a company’s products or services or showing reviews from real customers can open HUGE opportunities for many different businesses.  Here I’d like to share 3 main ideas on how YouTube can be used as a very effective tool for your business.

Real faces behind products

With today’s social media popularity it became a fact very quickly that people like to buy from people.  It’s naturally interesting for us to know some real, personal details about the company that we work with.  Creating a video with actual employees will add authenticity to your brand and make it more appealing for the job seekers.  Zappos found out that by using regular employees in product description videos they improve the level of trust to Zappos brand.

‘How to’ videos

Another way to present your company on YouTube is to create video tips on how to use products or services that your company offers.  Give your prospects and present customers valuable information without over selling yourself and they will respect your company.  Eventually this will be a buying factor for them.  You can answer any existing question related to your industry or business by making an informative video or sharing a demonstrative presentation.  The key to success here is to do it short and to the point!  Not only will your company receive appreciation for helping out, but it will also gain recognition as an expert.  Home Depot is one of the most famous examples of posting helpful videos about how to use their products on YouTube.

 

Video Testimonials

Posting video testimonials on your website is a very smart marketing idea.  However, uploading video testimonials on YouTube and other social media outlets will increase the chances of finding your video online.  Recording happy customer’s experiences and their feedback about your products is one of the best ways to convince potential customers to do business with you.  Video testimonials are usually more believable and trusted than written ones.  It’s a powerful selling technique that helps to raise immediate credibility for your company. Check out how Square did it posting video testimonials on their website and uploading them also on YouTube.  Krista Neher is keeping up with the new social media trends as well adding her video testimonial on kristaneher.com , Vimeo and YouTube!

 

Mariya Newman

Follow me on Twitter (@MariyaNewman) and add me on LinkedIn!

Filed Under: industry news, Internet Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Tools, Social Networks, Uncategorized, Video Tagged With: , , ,

Video Marketing: How YouTube can build your business

February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A team at Pingdom.com conducted a recent survey and found that YouTube gets over 490 million unique users per month from all across the world.  To put it in perspective, this amounts to 92 billion page views each month!  Also, keep in mind that these numbers don’t account for embedded videos or videos viewed through mobile web – these numbers are just for YouTube’s main website. As you can see, YouTube is an excellent tool for video marketing and can enhance your business’ digital marketing strategy.

Create interesting content

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is worth a million! The key feature for your video marketing is creating interesting and engaging content.  What is it that makes your business unique?  Your content should highlight your expertise in your field of business. For example, if you were a real estate agent, you wouldn’t want to talk about yourself and the number of houses you’ve sold in the last 6 months. While these numbers might show you are successful, it doesn’t help the consumers who are trying to sell their house.  Instead, offer a video that offers suggestions and tips on preparing to put a house on the market or how to sell your house in 6 months or less. This type of content will show users that you know what you’re talking about and they will come to you for your expert advice.

Integrate into other social media networks

One of the great things about social media networks is that they are all, in one way or another, connected. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all allow you to share videos, upload photos and post links. When you post a video, make sure you share it through all of your social media networks. This way, you will expand your reach to all of your audiences on each network.

There are also a number of article/video submission sites where you can post your material – this is a great way to enhance your SEO and share your expert advice!

What to share in your videos

Videos are a great addition to a presentation or lecture.  Make sure your videos are rich in information. In my experience providing social media training, I have found that I generate a lot of interest by providing training sample videos and interviews about social media marketing.  Let your audience know what you’re about while also providing helpful tips and suggestions.  You don’t want to appear spammy and sell yourself by talking about yourself – share what you know and show that you’re an expert.

While some think of YouTube as being the source of hilarious videos of cats playing the piano or a place to see Wayne Rooney’s winning bicycle kick against Manchester United, YouTube is number two (behind Google) in being the most popular search engine sites in the world. Create a YouTube channel for your company and get started on sharing what you know!

How is your company using YouTube?

Add me on LinkedIn and follow me on Twitter (@scunn07)!

Filed Under: social media marketing, Social Media Training, Video Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Social Media Training: Setting Goals for your Social Media Strategy

February 1, 2011 By 2 Comments

Have you set goals for your company’s social media strategy plan for 2011?  The year has just begun and it’s not too late to map out your strategy goals.  What is it that you want to accomplish using social media?  How will you measure your accomplishments?  In my training courses, we discuss how to implement social media into a business plan and it’s important to define the goals of your plan.  Here are a few tips and suggestions on what to aim for this year!

1. Identify Your Goals

First, you want to identify what it is you want to accomplish.  You should make a list of each social media networking site you use and decide what it is you want to accomplish using each network.

For Twitter, maybe your goal is to attract a certain number of followers or increase your follower by a certain percentage.  Another possible goal would be for your 140 character Tweets to be so valuable that you get a certain number of ReTweets. Make sure you Tweet regularly and Tweet interesting comments/articles/facts.  You don’t want to be the ‘spammy’ Tweeter.

For your Facebook account, similar to your Twitter goals, you want to up your fan count by 50%, or whatever you think is an appropriate bar to set.  Facebook also has great features that allows you to track the activity on your page – this way you can see if the content your posting is engaging your market.

On your YouTube channel, you could set a goal of uploading a certain number of videos per month.  Or you could set a goal of how many views you want for each of your videos. Identify what kinds of content you want to post and try to increase your followers with your engaging content. YouTube videos can also be integrated into your other social network accounts as well.

For your LinkedIn profile, set a goal for how many connections you make per month.  Contributing to conversations on LinkedIn is also a valuable feature for this network so make a point of getting involved in the buzz.  Finding connections in groups is another aspect of LinkedIn that you could include in your social media goals.

Whatever your goals might be, make them challenging, yet attainable.  Be as specific as possible so you know exactly what your looking for in your results. You can always adjust this list along the way!

2. Plan of Action

What are you going to do that will make you achieve these goals?  Decide how often you want to post on each site and where. Spending a few hours a week on your social networking sites will help build your social media presence and more activity will drive more traffic to your pages. Brainstorm a list of topics you think people would be interested in that you can talk about on your sites.  Also, make a point of checking in on discussion groups on Facebook and LinkedIn.  In giving valuable input, you are presenting yourself as a qualified and knowledgable contributor that could ultimately drive traffic to your page. Just remember to avoid being too ‘spammy’ and blatantly promote yourself- no one likes a spammer.

3. Ready, Aim, FIRE!

Put your plans into action. And stick to your plan! Keep yourself on schedule with your plan and you will see results!  Decide on how often you are going to check in on your social media sites and what results you are looking for – new fans, followers, active conversation or views. The great thing about social media networks is that they provide you with immediate feedback so you know whether or not your plan is working.  If not, adjust your tactics and try again!

What are your goals for 2011?

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy, social media marketing, Social Media Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Social Media Revolutionized State of the Union Address

January 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

Last night, President Obama delivered his annual State of the Union address to the United States population where an estimated 48 million people tuned into the event.  With social media being the new phenomenon of social interaction, it’s no surprise that the White House took advantage of this opportunity to connect with the over 85,000,000 social media users in the United States alone.

State of the Union isn’t just on TV

The State of the Union is no longer an annual event where Americans sit on their couch and watch the speech on their new flat screen, hi-definition television.  The State of the Union address has now gone viral through the Internet, social media and even mobile mediums.  The White House estimated that an estimated 1.3 million people tuned into the live streaming video made available on the White House website during the time of the speech.  There is also a White House app available on the iPhone where users can follow the latest news, blogs and videos streaming live from their phone.

Twitter Play-by-Play

From the start of the president’s annual speech, the White House Twitter account was on rapid fire with a play-by-play rundown of President Obama’s address to the country.  This method of following the speech allowed for users to replay with questions and comments that were sent to a panel of White House officials (@whitehouse) for LIVE answers during the speech.  To watch this Twitter account explode with tweets from its nearly 2 million followers, I assume, would be like watching live stock market charts at Nasdaq.  Tweets were probably rolling in by the second!

Facebook Action

The White House Facebook account also posted a play-by-play of the president’s speech that attracted more than 50,000 participants with questions for White House officials.  This direct interaction with the country’s government is an unbelievably difficult task to take on with over 800,000 fans and 50,000 comments within an hour!  However, it does show how much involvement the government works to have in this direct communication with the public.

Online Events

President Obama and senior administration officials have created a number of online events in order to response to the millions of questions and feedback the White House has received over the past 24 hours since the speech.  On the White House website, they provide an events calendar with the listings of online events for answering the questions provided from the American audience through Facebook, President Obama’s YouTube channel and live feedback from Press Secretary’s Twitter account.

Conclusion

In your social media strategy, make yourself available.  The United States government present themselves in a way that encourages interaction and traffic to their social network pages. What do people want to know about your company or service? Provide information that people will want to hear about.  The White House Twitter and Facebook provided information on the points delivered throughout the speech because that’s what people wanted to hear.  While your company may not be as big and worldwide as the United States government, you still want to give your fans, readers and potential followers something interesting to engage in and possibly participate.

How did you tune in to the State of the Union Address? Are you available to your audience?

Filed Under: Internet Marketing Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Social media workshops to build business in Cincinnati

June 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Grow Your Business in a Down Economy with Social Media

Cincinnati Ohio — June 29, 2009 -  BootCampDigital, a leader in social media consulting and training, today announces the launch of social media marketing courses to help local and regional businesses spark new growth, gain new customers, and beat the down economy. The first courses – in an ongoing series – include two half-day social media marketing courses held July 20th and 21st in Oakley, on Cincinnati’s central east side. The BootCampDigital courses are presented in conjunction with the Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association.

“Many companies – big and small – struggle with how to effectively use social media to grow their business,” said Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp Digital “Others can’t afford to hire outside consulting. We created these training courses as a cost effective way for organizations to take advantage of the power of social media in driving their business.”

BootCampDigital social media courses are specifically designed to help enterprises understand and implement social media strategies to build their business.  This solid understanding is more than just theory and strategy. “Participants and businesses will leave the sessions with the working tools and action plans they can use to start building right-away,” adds Neher. “If a course ends at noon, businesses can be online, with effective social media tactics and tools, by one o’clock in the afternoon.”

More than a lunchtime seminar or online presentation, BootCampDigital training is built upon interactive, face-to-face exchange of ideas and best practices. Participants meet with social media enthusiasts, learn from guest presenters and successful case studies, and come away with proprietary and effective social media working materials.

The July 21st course, Social Media for Marketers, is a half-day session designed to cover use and processes behind six effective social media tools – blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Flickr and YouTube. Interactive workshops and networking discussions aid the creation of individually crafted action plans participants can use to start their interactive campaigns.

At Building a Successful Blog, the July 20 course, participants learn and use all the tools to create professional Web logs, or “blogs”.  Course content includes the right blog platform, technical and design issues, how to write great content and how to market blog and build community and audience.

Both half-day courses will be conducted at 3500 Madison Road in Oakley.

Scholarships available to jumpstart individual employment

To further accelerate local economic growth, BootCampDigital is donating 20% of the seats in all classes to unemployed workers with The Economy Sucks Scholarships. “I had the opportunity to quickly create a successful Internet marketing and social media consulting practice — because this is such a high growth sector,” said Neher. “I want to help others find the same success.” The scholarships cover the entire tuition of the course as well as all workbooks and guidebooks.

To qualify for scholarships participants must be currently out of work, and explain how attending this course will help the job search.. “We want people to know the resources and what’s available right now,” explains Neher. “We believe that getting smart people back to work is going to beat this down economy. We encourage people looking to build themselves, and the their next employer, to apply online at www.bootcampdigital.com/contact/scholarship.“

For more information about BootCampDigital courses and consulting, see www.bootcampdigital.com.

About BootCampDigital

BootCampDigital, founded in January of 2009, is a Cincinnati-based marketing consultancy that emphasizes the creative use of technology and social media to grow brands online. Providing marketing solutions for Fortune 500 companies as well as start-ups and small businesses, BootCampDigital brings a unique combination of traditional marketing skills and experience, technical knowledge as well as creative new marketing approaches with an emphasis on online and social media marketing.

BootCampDigital CEO, Krista Neher, is an internationally recognized authority with a track record of successfully growing businesses using twitter and related social media tools and practices. Prior to BootCampDigital Neher was in finance and marketing at Procter & Gamble, and also served as vice-president of marketing for recently acquired Internet startup Photrade.com.

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