The shifting rules of search mean that social media is more valuable than ever
The rules of search have changed. In fact, they change on a daily basis. But never so dramatic has rank been uprooted since the explosion of social media. Social media sites, especially the powerhouses of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have become back-link central for affecting organic search results.
Social media’s influence on driving business via the web is expected to surpass SEO in 2013, according to eMarketer. Web marketers and PR professionals must pay attention to how social media affects search, and ultimately how it can change the rules of online visibility and (online) brand engagement.
Changing the Game
Prior to Facebook’s takeover of the online universe (800 million active users today), online visibility in natural search was a sum of several, measurable components: SEO site compliance on site structure and meta tags/content, directory link submissions, and qualified and relevant site/blog linking. In 2010, the game officially changed, with Google’s support of social media—author reputation, bookmarking, and commenting, as well as a number of other social factors (likes, tweets, re-tweets, shares)—as a major factor in how it will rank websites and blogs in its algorithm. Real-time search in Google meant that search was only as valuable as the latest blog post, social share, and comment.
Today, the line is blurring. And this causes some confusion for web marketers. Should they focus on optimizing and driving traffic to their social pages? To their web site? Where does their online brand live? How do they communicate their brand value proposition, whether their personal or corporate brand?
The good news is that technology has advanced so that web marketers can manage their content and sites through the use of simple and effective blogging tools. Further, that those blog tool properties, such as WordPress, support integration of social plug-ins, and necessary content for social sharing, including video, effective product/service literature, and tagged imagery. And so, marketers can use social and manage their web presence to support online brand consistency.
How to Take Advantage of Social Media
So how can you use social media to increase your SEO rank and ensure that the rank and ensuing traffic will convert to business? First, you must create and understand a parallel social media optimization (SMO) / search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. All creators of content on your team (copy, social commenting, videos, and imagery) need to be on one brand team. The approach must be holistic. A unified brand message must drive visibility across all content, all channels.
To define a common strategy for execution across standard search engine optimization practices as well as across social media content development and sharing, marketers must re-think keyword development. The questions become less about search visibility vs. obvious competition and more introspective in terms of what the corporate and executive brand mean. Ask your team questions such as: What is our brand value proposition? What do we want our audience to say about us? How will we incent out audience? How will we be leaders? Why will people follow us? Answering these questions will help you to zone in on your top branded, broad and narrow-based keywords.
Once these target keyword phrases have been developed, you will require an actionable task plan to follow and with which to measure effectiveness of you new blended social/SEO strategy. Within needs to be: content types and frequency, planned outreach per social channel, and media (social) buys/ads with effective messaging and resulting goals. Determining success in social affects search visibility such that quality of the author, relevancy of the topical content, number of followers, number of comments/re-tweets, number of shares of blog posts must be considered and followed for search visibility to pull from success in these metrics.
When determining how you will rank in natural search for branded and business-driving keywords, first do the ABCs of SEO work in terms of on-site optimization wherever your online marketing plan calls for conversion. Once that has been completed, reign in your social and search teams to determine your custom strategy and measurable plan. Remember that, just like traditional SEO practices, SMO work must be consistent, authentic, managed daily and measured for success.
Monday 26 November 2012
Thursday 22 November 2012
7 Ways to Grow Your Business Doing Webinars
1. Webinars are a great marketing tool to get new customers onboard.
By doing an online presentation you give those who attend your webinar an excellent chance to get to know you, like you and trust you. You introduce yourself and your business to potential clients.
It's a powerful way to get people to know you and trust you enough to become your client, because a webinar is a live, interactive communication with you as a passionate expert.
When you communicate with your subscribers by sending a message or a Newsletter via email, it is certainly good for your marketing, but it is harder to get results and sell your products by doing only that. People buy from people they know, like and trust, and this is where webinars come. By doing an online presentation you build your credibility, you give people an excellent opportunity to get that feeling, to build a good rapport with them, to bond with them, to get your ideas across, to resonate to their style of doing business, so that they can start doing business with you.
When you host a webinar your audience immediately view you as a passionate expert about your services, they learn about your achievements, your experience, your knowledge in the field!
There's always an instant assumption that the presenter is an authority figure in their niche if they are able to host a webinar. So think about that!
2. Webinars give you massive leverage.
You can run a webinar with large numbers and there are no geographical boundaries. With a webinar you have an opportunity to spread your word and handle multiple clients at once and from all over the world, not just your own town, city or country, so you interact with a lot of people at the same time, while still offering great value.
You can find an expert oversees and invite them to speak to your audience on your presentation. This technology allows you to interview anyone you want for a training session. Or to introduce a new product that is coming on the market.
Do you see the leverage and the power? You leverage your time, your resources, your money, your energy, technology, internet - everything.
3. Use webinars as a tool to build loyalty with existing clients.
Webinars are an amazing way to add value to your existing clients because by running webinars you give people more access to you which means more interaction.
Not only webinars allow you to communicate with your customers on a more personal level, but they allow you to keep in touch with them after the webinar, because all webinar softwares send a thank you email after your presentation to each of the attendees and invite them to send you a question or feedback.
4. You create a point of difference by doing webinars:not many businesses are using webinars; and even fewer are using them well.
You can stand out by adding them to your service range.
When I spoke to business owners at the Women Mean Business event in Woolwich a few months ago, out of 11 entrepreneurs only 5 knew what webinars are. Although they were interested in doing them for their business, none of them were actually were doing them in their business at that point, although all of them wanted to.
By doing webinars you go a way ahead of your competitors and your business stands out from lots of others in your niche. This is a great advantage for you!
And this is why it is crucial. According to Google research it currently takes 10,2 interactions between a buyer and a seller before a buyer will open their wallet. So you need to make sure that as many interactions on the way to purchase are taking place with you or your company or your website and webinars serve this purpose very well.
5. Provide customer support or product support using webinars:use webinars to answer customer questions, explain how they can use the product more effectively, and get a feedback. Isn't that great to improve your service?
You can offer a more effective service to your clients & even sort out your customers' problems in a timely and efficient manner. And again this takes your business to a whole level because by doing so you create a point of difference.
6. You get more exposure for your business online.
This is what you need to do to achieve this. Record a webinar to create instant products: many webinar services have a recording feature built in, so recording your webinar is really easy.
How can you use the recording? You can send it to those who registered for your webinar but couldn't come, so they can listen to the recording and still benefit from your service.
I also suggest uploading your webinar recording to your YouTube channel to get people to see it, to attract new customers and get more exposure for your business.
You can make a video out of each part of your webinar presentation and upload them separately. Thus you will have a whole range of videos and all of sudden you end up with a lot of content by doing just one webinar.
What can you do with all this content? How do you make it work for your business?
You can upload each of your videos on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, your blog or website and because your social media accounts can be connected with each other, all your followers will immediately know and start looking at your content!
Do you see how you can leverage something you have done once?
You have run a webinar once, but you use your webinar presentation multiple times for a variety of purposes to promote and market your business.
One more thing. A webinar recording can be replayed over and over again, generating income for you on autopilot. You can have as many as 50 different automated webinars playing every day!
7. Webinars can help you sell more of your products and services.
At the end of a webinar, after you've spent 60 minutes giving great content to your webinar attendees, you can make a special offer to them.
Let's speak facts and figures here. Webinars typically outsell written sales letters 10 times over. Now what does that mean? When you send an email with an offer to buy something from you, you can expect on average 1 to 2% of sales. When you sell something on a webinar, a typical conversion rate is between 10 and 20%.
Let me share one of my real live examples. I was selling an online service for $27 via email. The email was sent to 1600 people, 20 people bought it. That means the conversation rate was 1,2%. If you want to get more sales, do a "show and tell" webinar, demonstrate live the benefits of your service and the solution it brings. And see your sales soar.
Another example for you. I recently hosted a webinar and invited an expert. That was a test webinar, where we tested a new product. She made an offer at the end of the presentation at the cost of $97. Out of 25 attendees, 5 people bought it. The conversion rate was 20%, which is a very good result. Now I know it works, I can do it on a bigger scale.
Furthermore, webinars allow you to sell high-ticket offers priced at $1,000 and higher, whereas it is difficult to sell products at more than $200 directly from a website. As long as you have a good offer and the targeted audience, it is normal to reach a sales point at between 8 and 10% at a $1,000 price point.
In figures that mean that if you have 100 targeted attendees on your webinar, you can bring in between $8,000 to $10,000 in sales from a single webinar! This takes some good practice of course, but it is worth all the effort, isn't it?
The fact that more traditional methods of promoting and selling products become less effective than before and the fact that more and more consumers prefer to browse and shop online, make webinars more appealing than ever before as a way to drum up and draw sales.
By doing an online presentation you give those who attend your webinar an excellent chance to get to know you, like you and trust you. You introduce yourself and your business to potential clients.
It's a powerful way to get people to know you and trust you enough to become your client, because a webinar is a live, interactive communication with you as a passionate expert.
When you communicate with your subscribers by sending a message or a Newsletter via email, it is certainly good for your marketing, but it is harder to get results and sell your products by doing only that. People buy from people they know, like and trust, and this is where webinars come. By doing an online presentation you build your credibility, you give people an excellent opportunity to get that feeling, to build a good rapport with them, to bond with them, to get your ideas across, to resonate to their style of doing business, so that they can start doing business with you.
When you host a webinar your audience immediately view you as a passionate expert about your services, they learn about your achievements, your experience, your knowledge in the field!
There's always an instant assumption that the presenter is an authority figure in their niche if they are able to host a webinar. So think about that!
2. Webinars give you massive leverage.
You can run a webinar with large numbers and there are no geographical boundaries. With a webinar you have an opportunity to spread your word and handle multiple clients at once and from all over the world, not just your own town, city or country, so you interact with a lot of people at the same time, while still offering great value.
You can find an expert oversees and invite them to speak to your audience on your presentation. This technology allows you to interview anyone you want for a training session. Or to introduce a new product that is coming on the market.
Do you see the leverage and the power? You leverage your time, your resources, your money, your energy, technology, internet - everything.
3. Use webinars as a tool to build loyalty with existing clients.
Webinars are an amazing way to add value to your existing clients because by running webinars you give people more access to you which means more interaction.
Not only webinars allow you to communicate with your customers on a more personal level, but they allow you to keep in touch with them after the webinar, because all webinar softwares send a thank you email after your presentation to each of the attendees and invite them to send you a question or feedback.
4. You create a point of difference by doing webinars:not many businesses are using webinars; and even fewer are using them well.
You can stand out by adding them to your service range.
When I spoke to business owners at the Women Mean Business event in Woolwich a few months ago, out of 11 entrepreneurs only 5 knew what webinars are. Although they were interested in doing them for their business, none of them were actually were doing them in their business at that point, although all of them wanted to.
By doing webinars you go a way ahead of your competitors and your business stands out from lots of others in your niche. This is a great advantage for you!
And this is why it is crucial. According to Google research it currently takes 10,2 interactions between a buyer and a seller before a buyer will open their wallet. So you need to make sure that as many interactions on the way to purchase are taking place with you or your company or your website and webinars serve this purpose very well.
5. Provide customer support or product support using webinars:use webinars to answer customer questions, explain how they can use the product more effectively, and get a feedback. Isn't that great to improve your service?
You can offer a more effective service to your clients & even sort out your customers' problems in a timely and efficient manner. And again this takes your business to a whole level because by doing so you create a point of difference.
6. You get more exposure for your business online.
This is what you need to do to achieve this. Record a webinar to create instant products: many webinar services have a recording feature built in, so recording your webinar is really easy.
How can you use the recording? You can send it to those who registered for your webinar but couldn't come, so they can listen to the recording and still benefit from your service.
I also suggest uploading your webinar recording to your YouTube channel to get people to see it, to attract new customers and get more exposure for your business.
You can make a video out of each part of your webinar presentation and upload them separately. Thus you will have a whole range of videos and all of sudden you end up with a lot of content by doing just one webinar.
What can you do with all this content? How do you make it work for your business?
You can upload each of your videos on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, your blog or website and because your social media accounts can be connected with each other, all your followers will immediately know and start looking at your content!
Do you see how you can leverage something you have done once?
You have run a webinar once, but you use your webinar presentation multiple times for a variety of purposes to promote and market your business.
One more thing. A webinar recording can be replayed over and over again, generating income for you on autopilot. You can have as many as 50 different automated webinars playing every day!
7. Webinars can help you sell more of your products and services.
At the end of a webinar, after you've spent 60 minutes giving great content to your webinar attendees, you can make a special offer to them.
Let's speak facts and figures here. Webinars typically outsell written sales letters 10 times over. Now what does that mean? When you send an email with an offer to buy something from you, you can expect on average 1 to 2% of sales. When you sell something on a webinar, a typical conversion rate is between 10 and 20%.
Let me share one of my real live examples. I was selling an online service for $27 via email. The email was sent to 1600 people, 20 people bought it. That means the conversation rate was 1,2%. If you want to get more sales, do a "show and tell" webinar, demonstrate live the benefits of your service and the solution it brings. And see your sales soar.
Another example for you. I recently hosted a webinar and invited an expert. That was a test webinar, where we tested a new product. She made an offer at the end of the presentation at the cost of $97. Out of 25 attendees, 5 people bought it. The conversion rate was 20%, which is a very good result. Now I know it works, I can do it on a bigger scale.
Furthermore, webinars allow you to sell high-ticket offers priced at $1,000 and higher, whereas it is difficult to sell products at more than $200 directly from a website. As long as you have a good offer and the targeted audience, it is normal to reach a sales point at between 8 and 10% at a $1,000 price point.
In figures that mean that if you have 100 targeted attendees on your webinar, you can bring in between $8,000 to $10,000 in sales from a single webinar! This takes some good practice of course, but it is worth all the effort, isn't it?
The fact that more traditional methods of promoting and selling products become less effective than before and the fact that more and more consumers prefer to browse and shop online, make webinars more appealing than ever before as a way to drum up and draw sales.
Thursday 15 November 2012
How to Use Instagram to Market Your Business
Photo sharing has been given a major social upgrade thanks to the introduction of Instagram. The Instagram platform has become hugely popular with more than 80 million users, who enjoy altering their photos with special effects and cool filters before sharing them with friends and followers.
Businesses can start using this new type social media as a way to market their company and build up a following. People love strong visual images, so posting pictures of products and even employees will make them feel closer to you. This type of marketing is what helps forge brand loyalty.
So how can your business use Instagram for marketing? Here are some examples:
Geotagging
In Instagram’s latest update, users now have the option to tag a specific location with their images, which are saved to a personal photo map. These can be shared with your followers.
This is great if you have a physical location or even if you travel around the city, state or country. If you have booths at local craft fairs or other vendor events, then you can snap a photo and tag your location to let your followers know where you can be found.
Inside Look
The whole idea behind social media is sharing. Your fans and followers are giving you a chance to reach them on a more personal level so make sure you are giving them the same. Take pictures of the staff in the office. Snap shots of upcoming products to give them a sneak peak. If you’re on the road, take some pictures along the way. Give followers a real sense of how things are behind the scenes to help them feel like a part of the brand.
Use Hashtags
If you use Twitter, you know how effective hashtags can be at sharing. You can use the same on your Instagram photos. Use hash tags that relate to your business or industry to make it easy for people to find you. For instance, if you make jewelry, you can use hashtags like #rings, #customjewlery, or #necklaces. Look up popular hashtags that are being used by similar brands and add them to your images.
Encourage User Images
People who are already using your products should be encouraged to snap a photo of themselves using it and tag it with one of your hash tags. This will show people how to use your products and show how many people are happy with your company.
Hold Contests
People love a chance to win prizes and using Instagram to hold a photo contest is an exciting way to give them what they want. You can ask fans to send in a picture of them using your product and then choose a winner from among them. You could also go a different route by asking them to send in a picture that demonstrates something more abstract, like what represents summer to them.
There are any number of ways to get creative and get more followers by holding a contest using Instagram. Your followers will share with their friends who will also want to join in the fun.
Market Your Events
If you are going to be at a trade show or convention, take pictures and tag your location to let your followers know what is going on for your business. If you are holding a big sale, snap a shot of your sales flyer for your followers to see. This is also a good way to make your followers feel more special because you can offer them a VIP discount that only Instagram users can get. Get creative with them!
Instagram was acquired by Facebook for about $1 billion. That is a sure sign that this is an important part of social media. When you implement it in your marketing strategy, it is one more important tool to have.
People love getting involved and sharing with the businesses they love. Take part in this era of sharing and you can broaden your reach and strengthen your branding with a few snaps of the camera.
Are you signed up with Instagram yet? What are you doing to market your business with the latest social app?
Businesses can start using this new type social media as a way to market their company and build up a following. People love strong visual images, so posting pictures of products and even employees will make them feel closer to you. This type of marketing is what helps forge brand loyalty.
So how can your business use Instagram for marketing? Here are some examples:
Geotagging
In Instagram’s latest update, users now have the option to tag a specific location with their images, which are saved to a personal photo map. These can be shared with your followers.
This is great if you have a physical location or even if you travel around the city, state or country. If you have booths at local craft fairs or other vendor events, then you can snap a photo and tag your location to let your followers know where you can be found.
Inside Look
The whole idea behind social media is sharing. Your fans and followers are giving you a chance to reach them on a more personal level so make sure you are giving them the same. Take pictures of the staff in the office. Snap shots of upcoming products to give them a sneak peak. If you’re on the road, take some pictures along the way. Give followers a real sense of how things are behind the scenes to help them feel like a part of the brand.
Use Hashtags
If you use Twitter, you know how effective hashtags can be at sharing. You can use the same on your Instagram photos. Use hash tags that relate to your business or industry to make it easy for people to find you. For instance, if you make jewelry, you can use hashtags like #rings, #customjewlery, or #necklaces. Look up popular hashtags that are being used by similar brands and add them to your images.
Encourage User Images
People who are already using your products should be encouraged to snap a photo of themselves using it and tag it with one of your hash tags. This will show people how to use your products and show how many people are happy with your company.
Hold Contests
People love a chance to win prizes and using Instagram to hold a photo contest is an exciting way to give them what they want. You can ask fans to send in a picture of them using your product and then choose a winner from among them. You could also go a different route by asking them to send in a picture that demonstrates something more abstract, like what represents summer to them.
There are any number of ways to get creative and get more followers by holding a contest using Instagram. Your followers will share with their friends who will also want to join in the fun.
Market Your Events
If you are going to be at a trade show or convention, take pictures and tag your location to let your followers know what is going on for your business. If you are holding a big sale, snap a shot of your sales flyer for your followers to see. This is also a good way to make your followers feel more special because you can offer them a VIP discount that only Instagram users can get. Get creative with them!
Instagram was acquired by Facebook for about $1 billion. That is a sure sign that this is an important part of social media. When you implement it in your marketing strategy, it is one more important tool to have.
People love getting involved and sharing with the businesses they love. Take part in this era of sharing and you can broaden your reach and strengthen your branding with a few snaps of the camera.
Are you signed up with Instagram yet? What are you doing to market your business with the latest social app?
Sunday 11 November 2012
Outsourcing Using Odesk
Odesk is very similar to Elance in that you have the ability to post jobs and also set yourself up as a provider of skills etc etc. Signup is free but you do need to validate your credit card. Its a simple process whereby you enter the card details and Odesk will then debit a couple of transactions from your card. Once this is complete you enter the debited figures into the validation system and you will be good to go. It should only takes a couple of days to complete and is a smooth process.
Once you are all validated you can start posting jobs. This is simple enough to do and you have the option of using either hourly charging or fixed price NB most work is done on the hourly charging. Once posted you will start to receive offers for the work, you will be able to see the providers profile and feedback scores, as well as the Odesk competency tests that the provider has taken. ODesk provide a full messaging system so you can communicate with providers from within the Odesk site.
So moving on, when you have shortlisted the providers you can interview them, all of the providers I have worked with have provided their IM details or phone numbers so this is easy enough to do. This is a great opportunity to find out a bit more about the providers and to ensure that they fully understand the requirements. I also use this opportunity to get an estimate from the provider on how long the work will take, especially important if you are paying by the hour. Following the interview you can then choose to hire a provider, this is simply a one click task. It is worth noting that you can specify the amount of hours that a provider can work per week so at least you can control what is worked.
You've hired and the provider is good to go! I personally with other outsourcing sites have often wondered about what exactly the provider is doing and are they actually spending the time on my job that they have said? Odesk has this covered and it is one of the best features and one that certainly sets it apart from other sites. Providers on Odesk have a software application installed on their machines that tracks not only the time spent on the job, but also takes a screenshot of their system and uploads it to the work diary which you can then view online. This is really useful and gives you the confidence that you are paying for your work to be done and not subsidizing other people!
Odesk take care of all the billing for you so you don't have to worry. They notify you in advance on what they will be taking from your card and all the financial data is located in the "payments" section of your account.
The quality of providers seems to be very high. But as with any outsourcing always make sure you fully state your requirements and ensure that the provider understands what is expected of him/her otherwise you can run into problems. As a point of note Odesk will assist with dispute resolution only for hourly charged work, if you go fixed price, you are on your own!
Odesk is feature rich and is good way to build a remote workforce in a cost effective and efficient way and it is now the site of choice for all my outsourcing activity.
Once you are all validated you can start posting jobs. This is simple enough to do and you have the option of using either hourly charging or fixed price NB most work is done on the hourly charging. Once posted you will start to receive offers for the work, you will be able to see the providers profile and feedback scores, as well as the Odesk competency tests that the provider has taken. ODesk provide a full messaging system so you can communicate with providers from within the Odesk site.
So moving on, when you have shortlisted the providers you can interview them, all of the providers I have worked with have provided their IM details or phone numbers so this is easy enough to do. This is a great opportunity to find out a bit more about the providers and to ensure that they fully understand the requirements. I also use this opportunity to get an estimate from the provider on how long the work will take, especially important if you are paying by the hour. Following the interview you can then choose to hire a provider, this is simply a one click task. It is worth noting that you can specify the amount of hours that a provider can work per week so at least you can control what is worked.
You've hired and the provider is good to go! I personally with other outsourcing sites have often wondered about what exactly the provider is doing and are they actually spending the time on my job that they have said? Odesk has this covered and it is one of the best features and one that certainly sets it apart from other sites. Providers on Odesk have a software application installed on their machines that tracks not only the time spent on the job, but also takes a screenshot of their system and uploads it to the work diary which you can then view online. This is really useful and gives you the confidence that you are paying for your work to be done and not subsidizing other people!
Odesk take care of all the billing for you so you don't have to worry. They notify you in advance on what they will be taking from your card and all the financial data is located in the "payments" section of your account.
The quality of providers seems to be very high. But as with any outsourcing always make sure you fully state your requirements and ensure that the provider understands what is expected of him/her otherwise you can run into problems. As a point of note Odesk will assist with dispute resolution only for hourly charged work, if you go fixed price, you are on your own!
Odesk is feature rich and is good way to build a remote workforce in a cost effective and efficient way and it is now the site of choice for all my outsourcing activity.
Thursday 8 November 2012
SEO tips and hints for startup businesses following the Google penguin and panda updates
One of the most widely used forms of online marketing is search engine optimisation (SEO). This is primarily because of its ability to reach large volumes of a business’s demographic and its relatively cost effective nature. When done properly, it can propel a business to the top of Google and other search engines and pull in plenty of highly targeted, organic traffic. However in this post Panda and Penguin world what can a small business do to get it’s self visible in the search engine rankings. Let’s now go over some SEO techniques along with some hints and tips for startup businesses.
Along with this, it’s smart to take advantage of Google plus and author rank. These platforms were created as a way to rank the overall quality of an author’s work so that search engines can provide users with the best possible results. For this reason, you should sign up with Google plus if you haven’t already and fill out your profile and link it to you blog profile. From there, you can gradually build your credibility and your content should rank highly as long as it’s of good quality.
In addition, it’s critical that you track your SEO campaign. By utilizing a platform like Google Analytics, you can keep track of all aspects of your marketing and SEO. One of the best features is the ability to monitor which keywords are being searched for and which ones are bringing you the most organic traffic. After you learn what’s working and what’s performing poorly, you can tweak your SEO campaign accordingly. Consequently, you should be able to improve your efficiency and effectiveness while saving time.
Guest Posts
Creating guest posts for relevant websites and blogs can be an incredibly powerful way to build backlinks while generating direct traffic at the same time. It works by contacting a website owner or blogger in your niche and asking if they would allow you to create a guest post. From there, you will need to write a helpful and insightful article that will naturally pique the interest of their audience. This can have profound results when their audience shares your content with others and visits your website directly. Since a website owner or blogger’s audience is likely to trust that person, it tends to make it easier for you to gain their trust as well. Over time, you can expect a pretty serious SEO boost and improved rankings.Video Content
Another idea involves creating video content. Due to the fact that humans are visual creatures and not always interested in reading long winded articles, videos can be very helpful for reaching lots of people while also appealing to search engines. For this technique, you will need to create a brief but quality video about the products or services that your business offers. In most cases, you will want to keep it somewhere between two to five minutes with no longer than ten minutes at most. From there, you should embed it within the content of your website and also on video sharing sites like YouTube. Doing so should help familiarize consumers with your products or services and should get indexed by search engines.Integrating traditional PR
It can also behoove you to utilize traditional PR to get your start up off the ground and running. For example, you should build a relationship with the journalists in the relevant trade journal and local press. Advertising in there publications can be useful in building the initial contacts, they may also be interested in competition. An editorial like from one of these journals will almost always be high authority and relevance.Along with this, it’s smart to take advantage of Google plus and author rank. These platforms were created as a way to rank the overall quality of an author’s work so that search engines can provide users with the best possible results. For this reason, you should sign up with Google plus if you haven’t already and fill out your profile and link it to you blog profile. From there, you can gradually build your credibility and your content should rank highly as long as it’s of good quality.
In addition, it’s critical that you track your SEO campaign. By utilizing a platform like Google Analytics, you can keep track of all aspects of your marketing and SEO. One of the best features is the ability to monitor which keywords are being searched for and which ones are bringing you the most organic traffic. After you learn what’s working and what’s performing poorly, you can tweak your SEO campaign accordingly. Consequently, you should be able to improve your efficiency and effectiveness while saving time.
Sunday 4 November 2012
9 Effective Ways to Use YouTube for Business
YouTube is the world’s most popular video sharing site. YouTube allows anyone to upload and store video for free. Videos can be viewed by friends or to the public and viewers are welcome to leave comments. YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees. YouTube is owned by Google and is the second largest search engine behind Google. Video is a very powerful tool for businesses of any size, but the user friendly, mass-market audience makes YouTube an excellent choice for small businesses. But like any business tool, it has to be used effectively to generate results.
1. Create a Branded YouTube Channel
This step is often skipped by small businesses. Your YouTube channel is basically your house for the videos you create and upload, the videos you have selected as favorites, and those that you have organized into a playlist. A customized channel gives you the opportunity to add and showcase your company’s branding with specific colors, information and links to your website and/or relevant social media pages. A channel also gives viewers an option to subscribe to your content with the click of a button. Plus, it helps them easily search for only your content.
2. Make Sure Your Content Fills a Relevant Need
If you are a steak house, create a video on how to cook steaks or sharpen knives. A great example of this is with the Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse. They have one location and have made numerous videos teaching people how to do a variety of useful things from how to properly use a knife sharpening steel to how to properly pan sear salmon. By doing this you create valuable information and interest in you and your company thus generating loyalty and trust.
3. Develop Videos that are Quick, Simple, Engaging, and Professional
Decent video cameras are no longer expensive, so you can make a professional video without breaking the bank. Pay attention to lighting the area, sound quality and shakiness of the camera. Your best bet is to use a tripod. It is important to plan an outline and a script prior to making your video. Much like writing a story, you will want to include a beginning, middle and end. Make sure your video has a purpose. Keep it simple and short. We recommend 2-4 minutes for a video.
4. Optimize Your Video
According to Wikipedia, “In April 2011, James Zern, a YouTube software engineer, revealed that 30 percent of videos accounted for 99 percent of views on the site.” YouTube claims that more than 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute, so the number of specific videos on the site is constantly changing. It is important you do everything you can to make your video easily found. Utilize tags and keywords, choose a thumbnail that is enticing so people will want to immediately click and watch your video. The title of your video might be a “how to” and include keywords related to the video and your business, again, making sure your video fills a relevant need. For example, the “How to Properly Use A Knife Sharpening Steel” video by PrimeCuts TV and the Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse has over 18,600 views. They used the following tags:
• caminito
• cuts
• knife
• prime
• sharpening
• techniques
• tips
• tv
5. Consider Adding Subtitles
This can be particularly helpful for a “how to” video so that your viewers can easily take notes and follow along. Not to mention it is a huge asset for hearing impaired viewers. Demonstrate you care. Show you not only want to engage and entertain your viewers but also educate them.
6. Participate With Others on YouTube
Spend time looking around on YouTube and make “friends.” Visit the competition and see what they are doing well and not doing so well. Engage with others on YouTube and they will in turn engage with you and your brand, which helps spread your information.
7. Share Your Videos in Other Places
Share your videos on your website, blog, tweets and Facebook page. This is once again where your thumbnail, tags, title and keywords are important to further encourage interaction with your video and your brand. Videos are effective on Facebook landing pages welcoming people to your brand. Tweet the link of your newest video to your Twitter audience. Video blogs are becoming more and more popular. The possibilities are endless.
8. Call to Action
Always include your company’s website address in the video as you want to give the viewers additional reasons to engage with your brand. Other ideas for calls to action might include: offering a contest, discount coupons, or instructional guides. The Caminito Steakhouse might want to include something like, “Print out detailed written steps for how to properly use a sharpening steel and receive a free dessert at the Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse!” If you’re working on building your YouTube subscribers, your message might be “Subscribe to our YouTube channel and receive a free appetizer.”
9. Measure
YouTube offers free analytics tools that are simple to use, providing you with a quick snapshot look at the results of your video. The information is available with the Insights area. You can track the number of views, the demographics of the viewers, and also how people found your video. Again, these are free to use so don’t miss out on accessing this valuable information when measuring the success of your video.
These are just nine effective ways companies can use YouTube for business. Do you have other ways you have found successful? If so, please list them below in the comment section to share with others.
1. Create a Branded YouTube Channel
This step is often skipped by small businesses. Your YouTube channel is basically your house for the videos you create and upload, the videos you have selected as favorites, and those that you have organized into a playlist. A customized channel gives you the opportunity to add and showcase your company’s branding with specific colors, information and links to your website and/or relevant social media pages. A channel also gives viewers an option to subscribe to your content with the click of a button. Plus, it helps them easily search for only your content.
2. Make Sure Your Content Fills a Relevant Need
If you are a steak house, create a video on how to cook steaks or sharpen knives. A great example of this is with the Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse. They have one location and have made numerous videos teaching people how to do a variety of useful things from how to properly use a knife sharpening steel to how to properly pan sear salmon. By doing this you create valuable information and interest in you and your company thus generating loyalty and trust.
3. Develop Videos that are Quick, Simple, Engaging, and Professional
Decent video cameras are no longer expensive, so you can make a professional video without breaking the bank. Pay attention to lighting the area, sound quality and shakiness of the camera. Your best bet is to use a tripod. It is important to plan an outline and a script prior to making your video. Much like writing a story, you will want to include a beginning, middle and end. Make sure your video has a purpose. Keep it simple and short. We recommend 2-4 minutes for a video.
4. Optimize Your Video
According to Wikipedia, “In April 2011, James Zern, a YouTube software engineer, revealed that 30 percent of videos accounted for 99 percent of views on the site.” YouTube claims that more than 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute, so the number of specific videos on the site is constantly changing. It is important you do everything you can to make your video easily found. Utilize tags and keywords, choose a thumbnail that is enticing so people will want to immediately click and watch your video. The title of your video might be a “how to” and include keywords related to the video and your business, again, making sure your video fills a relevant need. For example, the “How to Properly Use A Knife Sharpening Steel” video by PrimeCuts TV and the Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse has over 18,600 views. They used the following tags:
• caminito
• cuts
• knife
• prime
• sharpening
• techniques
• tips
• tv
5. Consider Adding Subtitles
This can be particularly helpful for a “how to” video so that your viewers can easily take notes and follow along. Not to mention it is a huge asset for hearing impaired viewers. Demonstrate you care. Show you not only want to engage and entertain your viewers but also educate them.
6. Participate With Others on YouTube
Spend time looking around on YouTube and make “friends.” Visit the competition and see what they are doing well and not doing so well. Engage with others on YouTube and they will in turn engage with you and your brand, which helps spread your information.
7. Share Your Videos in Other Places
Share your videos on your website, blog, tweets and Facebook page. This is once again where your thumbnail, tags, title and keywords are important to further encourage interaction with your video and your brand. Videos are effective on Facebook landing pages welcoming people to your brand. Tweet the link of your newest video to your Twitter audience. Video blogs are becoming more and more popular. The possibilities are endless.
8. Call to Action
Always include your company’s website address in the video as you want to give the viewers additional reasons to engage with your brand. Other ideas for calls to action might include: offering a contest, discount coupons, or instructional guides. The Caminito Steakhouse might want to include something like, “Print out detailed written steps for how to properly use a sharpening steel and receive a free dessert at the Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse!” If you’re working on building your YouTube subscribers, your message might be “Subscribe to our YouTube channel and receive a free appetizer.”
9. Measure
YouTube offers free analytics tools that are simple to use, providing you with a quick snapshot look at the results of your video. The information is available with the Insights area. You can track the number of views, the demographics of the viewers, and also how people found your video. Again, these are free to use so don’t miss out on accessing this valuable information when measuring the success of your video.
These are just nine effective ways companies can use YouTube for business. Do you have other ways you have found successful? If so, please list them below in the comment section to share with others.
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