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Expert Video Marketing Strategy – Spoiler Alert: Cat Videos Included #SESNY

Posted on 22. Mar, 2012 by BLarson in Blog, Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Video Marketing

Have you worked yourself to the bone on a video marketing campaign only to see the results fall flat? Do you have a wealth of video content but are unsure how to leverage it effectively to serve your marketing objectives? Can your presence on YouTube be summed as ‘well, we have a channel’?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you’re not alone. Getting results through your video marketing efforts can be a challenge if you don’t have the right game-plan. However, you’re in luck! At day 2 of SES New York TopRank CEO Lee Odden moderated a panel discussion with leading industry video marketers.Their stellar tips and insights that can be found below.

Video Marketing Tactics – Mark Robertson

Robertson did an excellent job providing a nice comedic break during the session by showcasing a video that pokes fun at one inevitable truth about audiences: we love cat videos. If you haven’t seen the Catvertising video, take a moment to watch the video. It’s worth it.

Cats aside, Robertson shared some helpful and often overlooked SEO tips for YouTube that can help your video be found more easily through search.

• Titles-Be sure to include a relevant keyword at the start of the title to help the video be found through search.
• Summary – The summary serves as the meta description in the SERP. Start your summary with your keywords when possible to set expectations with your audience about the content in the video.
• Tags – Per YouTube’s own instructions, include as many relevant tags as possible.
• Playlists -They offer appear in search results and can keep your audience engaged with other relevant videos. Create playlists and include 3rd party content. Per YouTube, a videos ability to funnel traffic to other videos is factored into its search algorithm.
• Close Captioning – When uploading videos, be sure to upload closed captioning. The text from closed captioning is indexed and can help the hearing impaired and search engines find your video.

Applying a Strategic Approach to Video Marketing – Aaron Kahlow (@omconnect)

Video marketing shouldn’t live on an island in your marketing program. To be successful videos can’t be a simple one-off project or after thought. Kahlow encourages marketers to apply their marketing strategies to video and incorporate video marketing as part of a larger holistic effort.

Here are some key strategic steps to apply to video marketing:

1. Determine Your Goal – What marketing objective should it serve. What is the desired outcome of the effort?
2. Identify How to Capture the Video – Should the video have a raw feel that can be captured through a handheld or does the message need to be shared through high-quality video and production.
3. Target an Audience – Who are you targeting with this video? Apply what you know about this audience to dictate how, when and where you promote the video.
4. Leverage Your Brand & Promote Links – Your video should not be a secret. Promote it through other established channels such as: website, blog, email and social.

Video Marketing Case Studies – Greg Jarboe (@gregjarboe)

Making a viral video is a lot easier said than done. Although planning that a video will reach viral status is a dangerous expectation, Jarboe helps break down some of the commonalities that widely successful marketing videos share. Through his research, he found that every video that found a large audience fell into 4 categories.

• Inspiration
• Entertainment
• Enlightenment
• Education

An Example of Inspiration – Positive vs. Negative

Given the current political landscape, one might expect that the Republican candidates vying for the party’s presidential nomination would be gaining a large audience on YouTube. Compared to the number of views and shares for videos promoting President Obama, the Republican candidates’ audience is just a fraction of that of that of the incumbent. Why would that be?

One observation Jarboe noted was the focus of the videos. Whereas 71% of the videos on YouTube by Republican candidates were negative or attack focused, a majority of the videos surrounding Obama have a positive message promoting things like ‘hope’. Interestingly enough, only 10% of Obama’s videos from the 2008 election actually featured Obama himself. The remaining 90% focused on Obama supporters.

The takeaway for a business is that videos that promote a positive message more often inspire sharing. As Jarboe put it, get your audiences thinking about ‘we’ and not ‘you’.

An Example of Entertainment – Consistency is Key

Ray William Johnson is an actor/comedian who reportedly makes over $1 million dollars a year. What makes that so unique is that you’re not likely going to find Johnson on a major network when you’re flipping the channels. Instead, Johnson found his audience through building his presence on YouTube.

Now it should go without saying that Johnson invests time and energy into putting together creative content – and without those funny videos the next point is moot – but one way Johnson has been able to stand out amongst the flood of videos on YouTube is through consistent publishing. Posting new videos twice a week and always at the same day and time, Johnson has taught his audience to expect new content on a regular schedule – and he delivers.

 Next Steps

This session packaged information well and when looking at the guidance from a cumulative perspective, there’s a comprehensive plan to glean from these experts. Between incorporating Kahlow’s strategic steps, following Jarboe’s guidelines for the type of video that inspires sharing and leveraging Robertson’s SEO tactics, you should have a good action plan to take your video marketing to the next level.

Do you have some expert guidance to share? What video marketing tips would you add?

Stay tuned for more posts from #SESNY, with additional updates on Twitter at: @toprank, @leeodden,@azeckman, @bslarsonmn.

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Expert Video Marketing Strategy – Spoiler Alert: Cat Videos Included #SESNY | http://www.toprankblog.com

Crystal Light Challenged Getting Ready For Bikini Season

Posted on 24. Feb, 2012 by Lisa Loeffler in Blog, brand communities, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media case study, social media optimization, social media strategy, Video Marketing

Guest post by Lisa Loeffler, Research & Analysis Lead at Convince & Convert. She is also founder and principal of Genuine Media, a marketing agency that helps clients build their individual and brand reputation through social media.

It started out innocently when I saw Crystal Light’s new TV commercial last month.

After rewinding it a handful of times and rolling in my personal laughter I thought it was funny enough to share. I grabbed the footage on my iPhone and loaded it up on YouTube.

Watch the video now to follow along on this post.

Like many other social media marketers you need to know a bit about SEO. And after loading the video to my YouTube channel I ran through my mental check list to optimize the title, description, tags etc. I even added a poll question for a little extra fun in the video description: “If you were stuck on a deserted island, what would you want to have the most?”

The next day out of curiosity I checked the views. I was pretty surprised to have more than 300 hits in 24 hours and 50 visits to my website. Pretty good stats as Crystal Light’s YouTube video only had 1,490 hits and they’d loaded their video 13 days before I did.

Today, seven weeks later, I have approximately 36K hits with 116 likes, 42 dislikes and a lot of comments – many of which I’ve had to remove for their surprising illicit content.

I attribute my video’s success mainly to optimizing my YouTube video, because through some searches (in which I logged out of Google) my video usually comes up number one for the terms “Crystal Light Commercial,” “Crystal Light Bikini Beach,” “Crystal Light Plane Crash Commercial.”

Below you can see the difference in the meta titles, description, tags, etc. between Crystal Light’s and mine. Initially when Crystal Light posted the video, they had no link directing visitors to their Facebook page. This was added approximately three weeks after the video was uploaded around the middle of January.

Crystal Light Commercial lacking SEO optimization and campaign detail.

My Commercial, SEO Optimized:

Curious to see what other people were saying about the commercial, I headed over to Crystal Light’s Facebook and Twitter sites.

When I landed on Crystal Light’s Facebook page I saw this fan gate…

But not until after liking Crystal Light’s page did I see this fan gate…where Crystal Light asks viewers to vote on the commercial’s ending. You can read the ending here.

I checked their Facebook wall and discovered they were promoting the contest regularly there…

As well as on Twitter…

But as an initial non-Crystal Light Facebook fan landing on their welcome page I was confused.

I, and I’m sure several thousands more, didn’t see the Crystal Light Challenge campaign reveal until after liking Crystal Light’s Facebook page. I wonder if they lost other people in the transition, especially those who didn’t know they had to like Crystal Light’s page in order to participate in the campaign after being directed from YouTube, Twitter or just casually landing on their campaign page.

That’s why it’s always important to test your campaigns before they go live. If possible, utilize some people outside your organization and others who may not be readily familiar with your brand so you can gain more audience perspective.

Crystal Light Challenge Campaign Overview

What they got right:

• Shock Value. Don’t over think the plane crash bit – this video is fabulously funny!
• Takes you to the fantasy and out of every-day life.
• Creates controversy and passion. People love it OR hate it!
• Attempt at social media integration – but doesn’t hit the mark.

What they could have improved:

• Add CTA (Call-to-Action) at end of TV commercial to drive viewers to Facebook promo landing page
• Push out official press release or SMR (social media release) to tease it
• Promote “Crystal Light Challenge” commercial on website
• Enhance YouTube SEO description and tags
• Drive people to “Crystal Light Challenge” landing page with Facebook/Twitter Ads or retargeting program.

What they got wrong:

• Bury the promo behind the fan gate on Facebook. You can’t see the promo until you “like” Crystal Light’s Facebook page.
• Non-Fans who visit via Twitter are directed to the fan gate page asking them to join the Crystal Light community – Again no mention of the promo on fan gate prior to “Liking” page
• Poor SEO optimization of YouTube video
• Title, tags, description lack depth for optimized search
• A little too late: They initially didn’t have a URL to drive people to Facebook, but added the link approximately 3 weeks after video launch.

I’m sure Kraft spent thousands of dollars hiring a creative agency, scheduling TV airtime, developing campaign graphics and utilizing their social media marketing team. But they failed to take full advantage of the entire tool chest to promote their ad and just picked a few – Facebook, Twitter & YouTube.

If they had taken the time to integrate their campaign across more channels, they may have experienced media success similar to Old Spice – The Man You Could Smell Like.

Take away:

Don’t make art for art’s sake.

When you develop an advertising campaign for your brand, step back and take a look at all the channels you can re-atomize your creative content to grab the most eyeballs.

Incorporate a strategic blend of social media, SEO, your PR and social teams, website, email and other channels you think (through research and testing) will get you in front of your customers and potential new customers.

Remember to develop a list of success metrics for your campaign (comments, reposts, downloads, forwards, RTs, etc.) and standardize your list against future campaigns so you’re measuring apples to apples.

If you do…You’re likely to come up with bigger success and more profits.

(Video) 4 Mistakes You Make When Posting Video on Your Blog

Posted on 21. Feb, 2012 by Jay Baer in Blog, Blogging and Content Creation, Guest Posts, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media optimization, video, Video Marketing

Guest post written by Rocky Walls, who has more than 10 years’ experience in digital content creation. As CEO of 12 Stars Media Productions, Rocky works with businesses to create video that’s so real and simple it changes audiences into relationships.

It’s no secret that embedding videos on your blog post is a great way to attract readership and conversion. However, using video to its fullest potential involves more work than slapping an embed code on an otherwise empty post. Here are four common mistakes we’ve seen along with some tips to help ensure that you make the most out of a video on your blog post.

1) No Indication That There is a Video in the Post

You should let your readers know right away that your blog post contains a video. You can accomplish this in two ways.

First, specify it in the title of the post. A good way to do this is to star the title out with “(VIDEO)” – this will let folks know right away that the blog post contains a video. Following “(VIDEO)” write your title as your normally would. For example, a good video blog post title would look something like: “(VIDEO) A Private Tour of Our Offices.”

Secondly, be sure your embedded video appears relatively close to the top of the post. If possible, you want to avoid the video appearing below the fold. Even if readers ignore the title of your post, they will see right away that there is a video on the post if it appears towards the top.

2) No Text Content

Too often we see blog posts that are comprised solely of an embedded video. It’s a good idea to give your readers some context before asking them to watch an entire video. Introduce your video with a few sentences, and then summarize the video in a paragraph below. If you’ve transcribed the A-Roll in your video, you can use some of that content to form the summary paragraph.

(Editor’s note: Here at Convince & Convert, we use Speechpad.com to transcribe our video interviews and the http://socialpros.com podcast)

3) No Customization 

Another common mistake is not optimizing the size of the video to the width of your blog. Whether you use the old embed code or an iframe from YouTube, the first line of the embed code will always start with <object width=”560″ height=”315″> – make sure that the width of the video doesn’t exceed the width of your blog’s content column. It’s best to find the width of the column and set your video width to just slightly less. Don’t be afraid to employ a little trial and error – set a resolution, check to see how it looks, and then make a tweak if its necessary. The height will always conform to the width by automatically adding black bars to the top and bottom of the video in order to maintain the aspect ratio.

You can also customize the code for other aesthetic value and advanced functionality, such as allowing/not allowing related videos and setting a specific start time. Check out this post from the 12 Stars Media blog that talks about ways to customize your embed code to optimize overall viewer experience.

Why I Gave Up Video (And Why I’m Back)

Posted on 16. Jan, 2012 by nardene in Blog, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Video Marketing

I didn’t give up video. I just got busy.
You know how it is, right? You want to do something and then you make this grand list. Then you do a bit of it. And you do some more. And some more. And you get results. And then you do a spectacularly stupid thing.

You give up.

Why? No one knows for sure.
It’s not like video took me more time. In fact, the first time I tried to make a video  (I say ‘try’ because I didn’t complete the video) it took me five hundred and eight hours.

A couple of hours of shooting. Five hundred hours of wondering how lousy I’d look and sound on video. And the remaining six hours of fiddly stuff with the right location, video software etc.

And yet a month or two later, we were shooting eight videos in an hour

My wife, Renuka would set up the camera. We’d switch on the lights. And I’d speak. No teleprompter, no reading from notes, nothing. Just speak as though I was speaking to a client.

And no, I didn’t start out that way. I needed the notes. I bought several teleprompters. Then I just got sick of the whole process and decided to shoot whatever I possibly could in an hour.

And it was ONE take. No second take. The less I focused on getting it right vs. getting it done, the more videos got done. But it was killing me to script, shoot, edit, put titles, keywords and upload the darned thing.

Bah! It was maddening!

So I hatched a devious plan

I contacted some kids at school and one of them showed up, keen to edit video. Now he had standing instructions. He had to show up and never call. If he called, I might say something like, “Let’s skip this week”.

But if I knew he was going to show up anyway, I had to do the video. This kid was free for a few hours on Saturday. I’d shoot on Friday evening. One hour. Eight videos. Back to back. Then I’d need a beer or two.

But something happened along the way

I can’t remember the details. But I just gave up. The kid stopped showing up. Maybe we went on vacation. Maybe something else happened. The point is irrelevant. I just stopped.

And that’s what we all do. We stop. And we have to be re-booted once again.

So towards the end of last year, I did the reboot. I contacted a film school and asked if their alumni were keen to earn some money. Three eager beavers showed up. Two dropped out, for some weird reason. One stayed. And he’s good!

And that’s a lesson in itself

Trying to do the scripting, shooting, editing, rendering, uploading is a pain in the you-know-where. You may start off all nice and cheery, but projects come in the way, chaos drops in for a beer and then all hell breaks loose. You definitely need to get some help. Kids all around you know how to use video cameras and all tend to have access to a computer.

And they will spend the time editing, if not shooting for you. I prefer to have the person shoot and edit, and that is the best way going forward. That way you, the talent, can do the prep work, get time to actually comb your hair and then do the shoot in one go.

Or two. Or five. But at least once it’s done, it’s done.

And so in two weeks, we’ve shot seventeen videos

Not in two weeks. In two hours, just spread over two weeks.

I know, I know. It sounds intimidating, but it’s only intimidating for the first five hundred and eight hours. After that you get used to the camera, just like you get used to looking at yourself in the mirror.

And while those seventeen videos were the live videos, I got back into making screencasts as well.

Now screencasts are tough

They’re tough if you want to do a good job. Because there’s no live movement, you have to create the movement. So a 30-minute video may have as many as 250 slides and about 300 specific animation points.

That’s not counting the audio recording time (which I do separately) and the graphics. And the layout. And the storyboard. And another half a dozen things. In short, it’s a big production. And often people make screencasts because they’re afraid of facing the screen.

Well don’t let me stop you from making 250 slides

But if you’re looking to save time, live action is better. It’s quicker. It’s easy to trash and start again. You may not like your voice and you may not like your face on video, but you’ll get over it sooner or later.

Probably later, but there will be a time (and get this) when you will actually like your voice. No, I’m not kidding. Then people have to shut you up.

The final reason for making screencasts is because you have something that needs to be demonstrated, rather than spoken.
Of course the final reason is just that you’re a sucker for punishment—which I am.

So why did I start making video again?

Well, I don’t know about you, but if there’s a page of pretty pictures to see, or if there’s text on this page, I still click on the video. I will head to an Apple.com page in all its glory and pretty pictures and bingo—it’s the video I want to see.

Well-made video is quicker and more tidy than reading a whole page of stuff. But let’s say you’re not me. Let’s say for instance you are the one who reads the pretty words and loves the pictures. Well, then there’s a good chance you have a client like me.

A client who wants videos. And so you may not be a video-watching person yourself, but your client loves video. And so you do what’s needed.

So I buckled down and made the video.

I made live videos.
I made screencasts.
And I’m going to make videos for our sales pages as well. Because I know they work. I’ve seen them work on painful people like me, who don’t want to read or see pretty pictures. And while it’s not always fun to get the script, the topics and do all that speaking etc., it’s now a lot of fun to see the finished product. It’s nice. It’s effective.

And more importantly, it doesn’t take five hundred and eight hours any more.

Phew!

P.S. If you’re considering video, and especially if you’re considering screencasts, you will want to look at Black Belt Presentations. It really, really helps.

Do you have a similar story to share? Post it here.

The Brain Audit really teaches you the art of persuasion because it gives an insight into how people’s brains work. I have used the principles in writing WebPages, writing articles, making presentations, networking, negotiating and even writing submissions for a judge!

But the best bit about the Brain Audit is that it actually works.The principles are easy to understand.

Would I recommend it to people serious about getting on in business? Absolutely.

Michael Smyth, approachablelawyer, Auckland
Judge for yourself —The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy And Why They Don’t

“If you suspect that your business could be bringing in a lot more revenue but you don’t have a clue how to make that happen without hype or hassle, 5000bc is a must-have resource.

I honestly didn’t see what 5000bc could offer me that I couldn’t get from Sean’s books. Besides, how could a bunch of people – most of whom are not business experts – help me build my business?

I joined anyway because the price was right and I wanted the information that came with the premium membership.

The information and support I received from Sean and my fellow “cavers” about a single Web page was directly responsible for selling $10,000 worth of books in less than two weeks.

Unlike many Web communities, 5000bc members are active and to the point. Sean keeps adding content that drills down to specific problems in business and then shows you how to solve them.

Try it. You won’t regret it.”

Molly Gordon, Master Certified Coach
Shaboom Inc, USA

Judge for yourself—How 5000bc can make your business succeed.

1) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

2) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

3) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

4) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s March, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

5) Nothing bugs you more than a painful client.
A client who hassles you at every step of the way. Learn how to use the power of the ‘six critical questions’ to get incredible testimonials—and attract clients that make every day an absolute joy.

[next_step]

Why YouTube Annotations Can Make the Difference Between Viral and Lame

Posted on 07. Nov, 2011 by Andy Havard in Blog, content marketing, Guest Posts, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, video, Video Marketing, YouTube

Guest post by Andy Harvard, a Marketing Executive at Skeleton Productions, a UK based Internet video production company.

YouTube Annotations have always been a hard tool to grasp for both user and viewer. In the early days,  YouTube users sometimes used Annotation to spam their viewers.

These Annotations were never ‘cool’ or user friendly, they were always gaudy, uninviting and looked very unprofessional, so you can imagine my surprise when YouTube Annotations suddenly became useful.

Why We Used To Hate Annotations

It wasn’t just the look of Annotations that made viewers want to run as far away Internet video as possible, it was the general practicality of Annotations. YouTube Annotations no matter how honest or professional they were, never looked trustworthy. They always looked out of place and made viewers felt a tad uncomfortable that their viewing experience was being rudely interrupted.

YouTube has always been a site full of great ways to gain quick SEO value by using Tags, Descriptions, Titles and Closed Captions. Therefore many users had hoped Annotations would only add to the SEO value YouTube offers, but unfortunately Annotations never carried any SEO value at all. You couldn’t even include a clickable URL to help increase traffic to your website. You could only include video URLs, which may be handy, but that would only keep viewers on YouTube longer and keep them off your actual website.

The biggest problem with Annotations was that no one had come up with a clever way of using them, no one had thought of a way to make them look professional or make them useful to users and viewers alike, until now.

Why The ‘New’ Look Rocks

YouTube hasn’t issued any changes to their Annotations, in fact their look and use is still the same. However, YouTube users have smartened up and changed the Annotations game for themselves.

Many users have taken to using the clickable video URL YouTube allows, to make their videos look slick, professional and a great way to showing off more of their impressive content.

Here’s a look at what I’m talking about:

Forward to 1:25 (you’re welcome Scott Monty)

Or this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua5qh40x4KA (Fast forward to 1:51)

Companies of all sizes are incorporating this new YouTube convention into their videos. This technique is a simple case of putting other video content into another video in the editing stage (before YouTube upload), then making use of the video URL hyperlink to enclose it (once uploaded to YouTube). It’s a very simple and effective way to make your video content look sharp to your viewing audience.

Annotations Make Video Interactive

This new video convention hasn’t just stopped at making Internet videos ‘look’ better. It’s created perhaps the most engaging style of video ever made – interactive video.

This impressive way of using the video URL hyperlink has paved the way for a broad new spectrum of Internet video, in particular two key genres; interactive videos and video games.

Let’s take a look at an interactive video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbEei0I3kMQ

The user experience an interactive video provides is unlike any other. Getting viewers to actively interact with your content and enjoy the material on display can be a fantastic way to build brand awareness. It certainly helps to make your video content stand out from the crowd.

Annotations Can Turn Video Into ‘Video Games’

You’ve all heard of video games, but perhaps not quite like this. The engagement an interactive video provides is great, so you can imagine how much better creating an interactive video game could be. The World Wide Web is full of users playing games online, and now there’s a way you can get users interacting with your video content in a similarly engaging way.

If you thought Sesame Street was a blast from the best, take a peek at this:

Hopefully you’ll have come back to this article, but I can’t blame you for getting lost in the video game magic (in a way if you have got sidetracked it proves my point). By now you will have definitely seen the power YouTube users are generating from their content by taking this innovative direction on YouTube Annotations.

Ironically, in some of those video examples you will have seen the pesky issues of the old Annotations creeping in (some users just can’t leave well enough alone), but it’s undeniable that YouTube users are creating cool, effective and furthermore innovative video content, by using the basic uses of video Annotations.

What Does This All Mean?

Depending if you’re an everyday YouTube user, a marketing executive, a blogger, an advertising agent, or a small business owner etc, you may have different views on this brave new world of YouTube Annotations. There are definitely some amazing new ways to use Annotations.

How can your company use YouTube Annotations to make a difference? Best idea wins a copy of The NOW Revolution!

What Google and Facebook Hide From You

Posted on 17. May, 2011 by Patsi Krakoff in Attracting Clients, Blog, content marketing, Content Marketing with Videos, Video Marketing

Do you ever wonder what Google, Facebook, and other sites record about your online viewing habits? They know more about you than you realize. And they don’t ask you, they simply assume way too much.

For example, although I live and work from Mexico, I do almost all my business and shopping in the US, in English. I find it annoying when I’m served up pages and ads in Spanish or for local businesses. That doesn’t interest me. But their algorithms mistakenly think otherwise. Why can’t they just ask me what I prefer?

Here’s a TED TV video I think worth viewing, it takes about 10 minutes.

By the way, on Thursday May 19 at 5 p.m. ET, I’m hosting a free webinar about YouTube and online video marketing presented by Colin Martin and Marc Bullard, and you can get the info here: http://bit.ly/jfLTBt

Related posts:

1. Content Marketing with Videos: Free Webinar
2. 10 Ways to Use Facebook as a List Building Tool
3. Scattered Marketing, or Content Marketing Google Map?
4. What’s Your Search Story? Patsi Krakoff’s Google Video
5. The Sociology of Social Media: TED TV Talks