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Picture More Business When You Use Video

April 6, 2016 by Thomas 2 Comments

How often does your brand turn to video in order to spread its message?

If the answer is infrequently or even never, then you definitely might want to reconsider such thoughts.

When it comes right down to it, video can do myriad of positive things for your brand.

So, are you ready to give it a try?

Put Your Brand in a Positive Light

Start by looking at what resources you will need to put together not just one, but a series of videos tied to your brand.

One of the necessary resources will of course be someone to shoot the production. The question then is, do you do it in-house or do you outsource such needs to providers like a video production Orlando and others in the business?

If you opt for the first choice, you can save your business some money. In the event you want to outsource the video needs, while you will be spending additional money, you stand a better chance of getting a higher quality video production. That is unless of course you have hired someone (or even a team) of video production experts.

From there, you need to determine what your video message will say.

You may opt to make it rather simple, touting your product or service as the best one out there for the consumer.

On the other hand, you may choose to profile your company itself, including your team of employees.

Lastly, you might go in the direction of a video that demonstrates current happenings in your respective industry.

Whatever the choice may be; put 100 percent time and effort behind it, knowing that you are giving your brand a chance to shine in front of countless eyes.

Another important piece of the puzzle is how you can set your video/videos apart from the competition.

Differentiate Your Brand from the Competition

With more businesses turning to videos these days, it is important in your particular industry that you differentiate your brand from others.

You can do that by not only featuring your product or service, but also one or more of your employees.

Face it; your business probably doesn’t have the depth or financial pockets to go the direction of some more famous brands such as Progressive, AT&T, KFC and others, all of which generally have one character playing the lead role time and time again. That respective character ultimately comes into so many homes (commercials, magazines etc.) that they become a household fixture (at least their image does).

So, how best to feature one or more of your staff and still drive your brand’s message home?

Make sure you have someone on your team that is not only personable, but comfortable in front of a camera.

You probably know as well as anyone else that not everyone in your office is cool and collected when asked to perform in front of others, be it a talk or even a commercial.

Also make sure you to give any video productions you do plenty of social media love.

Just as you would hopefully promote your blog posts and other written initiatives on social networking sites, it is important to do likewise with videos.

There are myriad of sites that can help you with promotional needs, most notably Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

As it relates to YouTube, many companies have opted for this site, a site that has only grown leaps and bounds in recent years when it comes to videos.

You should keep your brand videos short and sweet, getting your message out without putting the viewer to sleep or wanting to leave, never come back to your brand again.

So, are you ready to picture more business when it comes to using video?

Properly done videos can play a key role in helping you promote and ultimately sell your brand to consumers.

If video has not been part of your marketing strategy up to this point, give it some strong thought moving forward.

There is a good chance that you will see video not only promoting your brand, but helping it ring-in revenue.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business and marketing topics on the web.

Video: Show Us What Youve Got

November 18, 2014 by Rosemary 1 Comment

By Lisa D. Jenkins

Coupled with the mass adoption of smartphones and mobile devices, platforms like Instagram and Vine allow social brands to take advantage of videoÂs popularity with online audiences.

The days of expensive, drawn out video production are gone. Video is easier than ever to create, publish and share.

If you think video is something that should be added to your marketing strategy but donÂt quite know where to start, read on for some inspiration.

I just found BartÂs Fish Tales on Instagram. Fish Tales uses 20-second video to produce the worldÂs shortest cooking show featuring recipes, tips and tricks on how to make great sustainable fish dishes.

On Vine, Home Depot has a variety of 6-second videos that show followers Âwhat it takes to go from to-do to doneÂ. HereÂs a great one that shows us how to plant an easy-to-care-for kitchen counter herb garden.

PowToon publishes video on YouTube that shows viewers how to use their animated presentation tool to produce demos, business presentations, social media clips, etc.

GoPro encourages people who use their camera to tag their own videos with #GoPro, creating a wealth of user generated video content the brand shares online.

Video isnÂt out of reach for you.

While thereÂll always be a space in the market for professionally produced video, the reality is that todayÂs easy-to-use tools and video-friendly platforms make it possible for SMBÂs that couldnÂt afford the medium a few short years ago to give it a try.

Go ahead! There are any number of ways video can be used to advantage in your marketing – share your mission, create a how-to, show off your customers. What do you have to show us?

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+

Is Your Content Marketing in Need of Video?

January 8, 2014 by Thomas Leave a Comment

Content marketing that does not utilize video just seems to fall flat compared to moving image marketing strategies.

And, considering attention spans are getting shorter and shorter with every innovative viral sensation that hits the Internet, if your companyÂs missing out on video in its marketing content, itÂs likely missing out on a huge cyber audience.

So, what are the benefits of using videos as part of your companyÂs content marketing strategy?

Â Video is Growing in Popularity

If you surf the Internet for different advertising and marketing campaigns, chances are youÂll find videos posted in company blogs, on business homepages, and everywhere in between. Simply put, video content marketing is growing in popularity.

Text is and always will be a content essential, but the marketing masses are turning to video in droves as a way to expand on their marketing efforts.

So, to avoid being left out to dry, itÂs wise to jump on-board the video bandwagon. Besides, the average Internet user already watches more than 100 videos a month and counting.

Watch-ability Outweighs Readability

As stated before, online attention spans are quickly adapting to the video format, thus giving other forms of content the backseat. With video, your company can say what it wants, how it wants, with visual representation, all in one short video.

Think of it this way, with your busy schedule, would you rather read about a company for 10 minutes, or watch and experience what that company is trying to convey in a 3-minute video? Video gives your company the opportunity to expand beyond the written word and truly reach the audience.

Vlog, DonÂt Blog

Blogging is great because it gives your company an opportunity to express itself as well as inform and update online audiences Â all of which are essential marketing tools. But, with vlogging, or video blogging, incorporating videos into blog posts brings your companyÂs online presence to a whole new level.

So, instead of posting a blog about the newest line of products or the most innovative services your company has to offer, vlog instead. Likewise, as far as customer questions go, responding in a vlog post is much more effective than just replying to a customers’ comment via the written format.

Inherently Compelling Content

People relate to images more so than words and with video, your content marketing is already compelling because itÂs visual. In other words, what do you think is going to get more online traffic: a how-to article or a how-to video with step-by-step visual instructions?

Everything from demonstrations to interviews to customer testimonials to straightforward advertisements are automatically in class of their own with video. As long as you keep the video content unique and engaging, audiences will watch without even realizing theyÂre being marketed to.

When it comes to content marketing with an undeniable impact, going the video route will take your company to new cyber-heights.

Photo credit: videobroadcasterservices.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including marketing, problems with ripoff report, and social media.

5 Ways to Use Vine To Grow Your Business

May 31, 2013 by Rosemary 1 Comment

By Marcela De Vivo

When it comes to social media, Vine is a relatively new tool, and many business owners arenÂt even using it yet. If youÂre already familiar with Vine, youÂve got a leg up on the competition.

However, just because you know about Vine doesnÂt mean you know how to use it the right way.

Vine can be an incredible tool for helping you grow your business, but you have to know how to make and share videos that are effective.

Follow these five simple tips for using Vine to grow your business. YouÂll probably be surprised how quick and effective they really are.

1. Use Tags In Your Videos

When you make videos to share on Vine, itÂs important that you use tags just like you would when making and sharing images for Twitter and Instagram. Before you pick which tags to use, search for relevant tags to apply so that users can find your videos.

Adding tags to your videos doesnÂt take long at all, and it can really increase the amount of views that you get, which can in turn increase the amount of visitors you get to your website.

2. Be Social

One important but often overlooked aspect of Vine is the social media aspect. Making videos you can share is great, but you also need to make friends, find and comment on videos and generally get a dialogue going with consumers and other businesses. Once you start engaging people on Vine, theyÂll start following you back, which will help to create exposure for your content and business.

3. Work to Humanize Your Brand

For very large brands, using Vine is a quick and easy to way to create behind-the-scenes videos that can make your company seem less like a faceless entity and more like the passion project of a few successful individuals. Make videos that tell a story about where you work, who you work with and why your company is special.

Videos that humanize a brand are generally very successful, and they can work wonders for the public image of your company.

4. Integrate Customers

If your business routinely interacts with its customers, putting some of them on film and then sharing those videos is a great way to build your brand. Of course, youÂll need to ask your customers ahead of time, but many will be happy to participate.

You can also announce a video contest for your customers, allowing them to share videos about using one of your products or your service. If you do this, make sure you include a prize for the best video to really entice people.

5. Have Fun With It

Not all of the videos that you create for Vine need to be totally focused on your business.

Creating humorous videos that you can share with humor sites is a great way to get huge numbers of visitors, which will certainly help attract new customers to your site. Your video might even go viral, which is always a good thing.

Vine is a unique tool that you need to start using in your business. It may not seem like six seconds is enough time to really say anything about your company, but youÂll be surprised how much Vine can really do for you if you embrace it.

Have you tried making a Vine yet?

Author’s Bio: Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer from Los Angeles. Her background is in online marketing and in specializes in a variety of topics, from social networking, search marketing, web hosting and content development.

Above and Beyond YouTube: Using Video To Promote Your Business

December 10, 2010 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

A Guest Post by Maureen Page

Many are now turning to video to help promote their company. Many others are “dabbling” with video or thinking about it. With the advent and popularity of YouTube and other web-based video services, it has become amazingly easy to get videos published for the masses to see.

Stop and Think About What You are Trying to Accomplish

Before you get into video in a big way it is important for you to establish what you want to accomplish with video. If all you want to do is make people aware of your company and your products or services, then simply posting videos to YouTube may suffice. Most companies, however, aspire to more than simply being known. Most want to sell something. If you have more lofty goals of bringing people to your website and generating prospects for your products and services, then your video efforts will need to move beyond YouTube. Make no mistake about it. YouTube will still be a component of your strategy; it simply will not be the major component of your strategy.

Using Video to Get Traffic and Prospects

So you want traffic to your website and prospects for your products or services. The challenge is that in order to get traffic, videos need to be on your website. In order for the videos to be more easily discovered they need to be on YouTube. So what is one to do? The answer is simple – you need to put the videos both places. But you should not put all of the videos both places. Some of the videos need to go on YouTube to be “discovered.” Others need to be on your site to generate traffic. The best way to accomplish this is to create a video series. The first couple of videos in the series should be posted to YouTube. They should promote that they are part of a series and that the rest are on your site. The remaining videos should be posted to your own site.

Some things that help this to be particularly effective:

The video series should be on a topic of general interest, not simply a commercial for your
company, products, or services.

Each video should advertise that it is part of a series and advertise where to get the next video
in the series.

Put your branding and website URL in the lead-in and trailing parts of the video. Also, in the
trailer advertise where the next video can be seen along with the URL to access that video.
It is all right, and important for completeness of the video series on your own site, to put the
code from YouTube for the first couple of videos onto your own site. PLEASE NOTE: You should
not simply put all of the videos on YouTube and then put them on your site using the YouTube
code. If you do this the vast majority of people will simply view the videos on YouTube and very
few people will actually come to your site. You need to purposely split the videos as mentioned
above to force people to your site if they want to see the rest in order to get traffic to your site.

Following this strategy should:

Help to get exposure for your videos by placing some of them on YouTube.

Funnel traffic and potential customers to your site because the rest of the videos are there.

Maureen Page is VP of Discount Security Cameras. To learn more about security camera systems and video surveillance visit the Discount Security Cameras Interactive Security Camera Learning Center.

——
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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