Online Video Marketing: The SEO Value of Videos

We have all seen the increase in video marketing over the past few months, and heard all of the chatter about the value of video from marketing experts, but did you know that video marketing, or social videos, are also an extremely valuable SEO tool?  Well, you do now!  According to a study by Nate Elliott, now with Forrester Research, Google’s “Universal Search” feature—which incorporates results from news sites, videos and maps right into the body of a search results page—was introduced in May 2007, and already 1/4 of Google searches return videos in the results, videos are 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of search results than text pages.  To determine this information, Elliott’s study looked at 40 of the most popular keywords, and found:

“Of the keywords for which Google offers video results, we found an average of 16,000 videos vying to appear on results pages containing an average of 1.5 video results—giving each video about an 11,000-to-1 chance of making it onto the first page of results. By comparison, there were an average of 4.7 million text pages competing for a place on results pages with an average of just 9.4 text results—giving each text page about a 500,000-to-1 chance of appearing on the first page of results.”

One of the reasons for this is that there is simply much fewer videos on the web, than web pages, making their fight for front page results much easier.

But how do you optimize your videos for high search rankings, and once they are up there, how do you make sure users actually watch the videos, and pass them on to their friends?  In order to create optimized, engaging videos (and potentially even viral videos) you want to make sure you complete the following:

• Optimize keywords by including them in titles, tags, and file names.
• Host your videos on YouTube, which shows up by far most often in Google results than other video platforms.
• Make sure to add new content frequently, because freshness matters to your users.
• Create the video so that it begins and ends with a black screen & the URL of the originating website.  If you’re using video to bring traffic to your website, you’ve got to tell people what your website is!
• Place the URL of your website at the bottom of the entire video.  This is a great idea because is if people clip it or make mashups – you are still getting credit for your work and visitors to your site.
• Keep it simple.  Videos do not have to be over-budgeted monstrosities, all they have to do is be engaging.
• Lastly, use humor in your videos. Humor is a great way to keep your viewers engaged through the entire video.

With 12 billion videos viewed online each month, and videos maintaining unbeatable search engine rankings, if you’re not using videos to market your product or service, you’re missing out on the newest and most effective social media and advertising strategy to date.  Social American, a social media marketing agency I partner with, offers low-cost, high-quality video production to create engaging media for your company, and through strategic video placement, you gain more exposure, customers and profits.  Web video syndication is among the tools you’ll receive from Social American, helping you harness the power of social media marketing for your business, forever, while our team guides you every step of the way.

Corporate Video Production: Video Marketing – 5 Steps for Success

Online Videos have been named the primary focus of marketers in 2009, as it allows brand marketers to create and send out a message on multiple levels via visual imagery, the spoken word, music and visual text.  In this exciting world of new media and social media, video can and will play an extremely important role in shaping the future of online marketing.  We are already begining to see the shirt occur – No longer are people relying on their television for entertainemet.  People are now reaching ot to the web, and services such as YouTube, Hulu, and TV.com for entertainment, and I predict that their success is only going to grow.

In order to be successful at video marketing, you must understand the rules of the game, and know your playing field well.  There is nothing more upsetting that spending your time (and money) developing a video campaign, only to not promote it properly and receive a disappointingly low number of views or clicks.  To help you understand how to create an engaging video or video campaign, here is a list of 5 Steps to follow for success, from Maria Andros, touted as the Video Marketing Queen.

1. The Welcome

Everyone loves to be welcomed and the more you can smile and be authentic the better. Let them know that you are happy they stopped by and say something like “Hello and welcome to this video.” (A great tip when you’re filming is to make sure you smile and pretend like you are talking to your best friend or family member).

2.   Share Your Story

Before you get into your opportunity, you first need to build a background of relatedness.  Share something about you, where you’re from perhaps, you want to establish credibility here by sharing anything that will make you sound like an authority and why I should listen to you.

3.   What’s in it for Me?

In your videos you also want to make it all about your viewers. It’s important to build a sense of relatedness first and once you do you want to provide value.  You can teach your viewers something; a “how to” video usually converts really well.  In this part of the formula you also want to really bring out the problem that your prospect is facing and to offer a solution:

For example if you are a dating coach you can say, “I know what it’s like to not be confident with women. I used to be like that, I was shy, I was awkward and I would just avoid women period to not risk getting rejected …  Until I discovered…”

Marketing is simply being able to explain someone’s problem better than they can explain it themselves and then offering a “solution.  Here you can share the solution that you found and then go into your product more in detail.

4.Your Irresistible Offer or “Hook”

Here is where you can offer your prospect something for free whether it’s a free report, a free audio class, a free video report and share with them what you are going to teach them if they come visit your website.

5. Call to Action

This is often what is missing in most videos that I see online, there is no call to action. As kids we are taught to follow the leader almost like Simon says so you want to let your prospects know what to do next. This can be simply telling them to go to your website, to give you a phonecall, to add you on twitter, it’s completely up to you.

By following the 5-Steps above, you can develop successful, engaging videos to help build your busieness’ success.  Stay tuned for more video marketing tips coming up later int he week!!

Marketing Trends: What’s Does it Take to Find a Great Social Network Application?

My colleague, Jean Ann Van Krevelen recently wrote a post about “Using Applications is Social Network Profiles.”  She writes, “Social media platforms, particularly social networking sites,  have made the use of profile applications an integral part of the user experience. And while some of these apps are fun, there are others that can really increase the functionality and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.”  I agree with Jean Ann 100% that applications are an extremely useful tool for social network profiles, and over the past few weeks I have spent a great deal of time evaluating and testing a variety of applications on Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn, in order to develop a better understanding of the variety of applications out on the web.

The results of my evaluation was rather disappointing.  I searched through hundreds of applications on Facebook, MySpace, and Linked in only to wind up dissapointed in the quality of work and variety on applications.  On the three sites, LinkedIn has the best applications by far, and the small number of applications they offer tells me that they are interested in providing quality applications, not quantity (like Facebook & Myspace).  Facebook, on the other hand, has thousands of applications, but many of them have extremely poor quality, functionality, and design, and are not worth wasting your time for.

To help you sort through the abundance of options, and weed out all of the junk, I am creating a list of some of my favorite applications on the three social networks that will provide real value to your profiles.

My Favorites

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn Polls – LinkedIn Polls allow you to easily find answers to your business and market research questions.
• Company Buzz (Developed by LinkedIn) – Every second thousands of people are sending out messages about topics and companies through twitter. Company Buzz lets you tap into this information flow to find relevant trends and comments about your company. Install the application and instantly see what people are saying.
• SlideShare – With SlideShare on LinkedIn you can check out the presentations of your colleagues, find trusted experts, and share your own presentations with people in your network. It’s a great way to share your portfolio, resume, or presentations, market your ideas to other people, and learn from other people.
• TripIt – See where your entire professional network is traveling and when you will be in the same city as your colleagues. Meet up at the next industry event or re-connect with old friends. Add the My Travel application to display your current location, upcoming trips and travel stats within your network.
• WordPress – Connect your virtual lives with the WordPress LinkedIn Application. With the WordPress App, you can sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile, keeping everyone you know in the know.

Facebook

• Business Cards – With this application, you can create a Facebook Business Card, attach your Business Card to Facebook messages, and promote your service offerings by creating a customized business card signature.
• Simply RSS – Simply RSS provides an easy way to add feeds to you profile. It supports all versions of RSS, two major versions of ATOM (0.3 and 1.0) and a number of other namespaces.
• Poll (built by Kresma Design) – This is the premier polling application on Facebook.  This application will allow you to create polls for your Facebook pages and Profile pages, allowing you to gain valuable market research from your user group.
• YouTube Video Box – YouTube Video Box is the best way to share your favourite YouTube videos on Facebook. Quickly find videos with our integrated search, show off your favourite videos on their very own profile tab, import your favourite videos from an existing YouTube.com account and much more.
• MyFlickr – Flickr photos meet Facebook with the My Flickr app. With My Flickr, you’ll be able to display your Flickr Photos and Photosets to your Facebook friends for them to comment on with or without making them leave Facebook.

MySpace – Let me start this list by first saying that of the three social networks, MySpace’s applications scored the lowest in my book, due to poor quality, lack of functionality, and disappointing design.  Because of that, this list is much shorter than the above recommendations.

• Poll Daddy - This application will allow you to create polls for your MySpace pages and Profile pages, allowing you to gain valuable market research from your user group.
• RSS Reader – RSS Reader add your Blog RSS feeds to you profile, allowing to to have a live feed from your blog right on your main profile page.
• YouTube Favorites – This application will allow you to display Youtube Favorite Videos, Artist Vids, and more on your profile.
• Happy Flickr – Happy Flickr displays your Flickr photos on your profile. This app requires that you have a Flickr account.

So there are a few of my favorites – Do you have some applications that you love?  Let me know by leaving a comment!

Branding Strategies: Online Etiquette: Not So Far From Everyday Manners…

One of the most common questions I receive from clients merging into the online space is how do I communicate with my “new friends” online, or “how do I reach out and make friends online?”  The answer is deceptively simple, and it is a question in return.  I reply, “how do you normally make new friends or talk to people you don’t know?,” because the same rule so of etiquette apply online.  You wouldn’t walk into a networking event, approach the first person you see, regardless of how they fit into your target market, and start selling them on your products/services…Or if you would, perhaps it is time for you to re-evaluate your sales strategy! 

The truth of the matter is, online rules of etiquette mirror the social etiquette rules you and I follow every day.  Tamar Weinberg, of Techipedia, writes, “Would you do the following within real face-to-face relationships?”

• Jump on the friendship bandwagon without properly introducing yourself?
• Consistently talk about yourself and promote only yourself without regard for those around you?
• Randomly approach a friend you barely talk to and simply ask for favors — repeatedly?

The answer is of course not, so why would you presume to act that way online?

The key to social media, and online marketing is engagement.  One-way conversations are not effective, are are most often times ignored by your potential customers.  One way conversations are the equivalent of SPAM.  To help your self develop solid relationships online, stay away from these examples of bad online etiquette from Tamar, and focus on really building a relationship with your users.

Bad Etiquette Examples

• Adding users as friends without proper introductions. If you’re looking to make friends, tell people who you are. Don’t assume they know you — especially if they, well, don’t.
• Using a fake name as your Facebook name.? I can’t tell you how many people have added me and their last name is “Com” or “Seo.”? I’m not adding you unless you can be honest about who you are.? Once upon a time, Facebook deleted all of the accounts that portrayed people as business entities or things.? I wish Facebook would employ the same tactics yet again, because I’m not adding a fake identity as a friend.
• Following a user and then un-following them before they have a chance to follow back. Or un-following them as soon as they follow you.
• Mass-following everyone so that you can artificially inflate your numbers. Then, you use that number as a success metric for influence.
• Not humanizing your profile. Twitter is also about real relationships. Add an avatar and a bio at the minimum. Let people know who you are.? To take it a step further, make it easy for people to contact you outside Twitter if necessary. This is especially important if someone on Twitter needs to reach you but can’t direct message you since you’re not following them!? If they’re making the effort, it’s probably because they really want to talk to you.? (Was it something you said?? Usually.)
• Gathering all the email addresses of users you are connected to — even locating email addresses of LinkedIn Group managers — and utilizing this mailing list to promote your own company or service off-site. In a specific case, I manage a few LinkedIn groups so my email address is far more visible on the site than I’d like. I’m not connected to the LinkedIn individual who spammed me, but he still took the liberty to use my email address for his personal gain in a completely unsolicited fashion. Perhaps this individual lost sight that LinkedIn is a professional network and not a spam facilitator. Even so, recipients should still be required to opt in.

Lastly, remember that everytime you enagage online, you are leaving a digitial footprint behind for all the world to see.  Communications are now more public than ever, and consumers are becoming less and less forgiving.  Stay away from the practices listed above, and really try to make a connection with your audience.  Only then will you truly be successful!

Campaign Strategy: Link Building – part 2

When devising the strategy for your social media campaign, it is important to understand that there are two main types of social media sites, networking sites and link building sites, and each category has it’s own rules and best practices.  In my last post, I discussed the link building side of social media, explaining what it is and why it is important, and now in this post, I want to review some best practices with you and share a few tricks of the trade.

If you remember from my last post, link building is the process of creating inbound links to ones own website. This can be done by reciprocal links, being listed in e-zines, newsletters, directories, search engines, etc.  Link building is one of the best ways to increase your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your website, but if you expect to see results, you must learn how to build links correctly, and place them on the right link building sites.  Here are some of the tips that you can use for better link building:

Tip: Try to obtain as many one way links as you can.

One way links are considered to be one of the most difficult type of link to be achieved because you are not returning any link to the site that links to you. One of the only ways to get this type of link is to have stellar content on your website, blog, or sit e you are promoting.  So to get this sort of one way trusted links, the content of your website has to be too good. One way links can come from a variety of services, including:

• Blogs -  The more backlinks you have from bloggers to your site, the better off you site will be.  When looking for bloggers to comment on your site, try finding knowledgeable bloggers that can write intelligently about your website, remember they now represent your brand.
• Press Releases - In order to increase your website’s visiblity, distribute your own news through various online press release services. Online press releases can generate and direct unbelievable traffic towards your site and eventually it helps in better ranking too.
• Social Videos - One of the easiest ways to develop on way links is posting your own videos on various video social sites, which will provide links back to your site.

Tip: Utilize Social Media Bookmarking Web Sites

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger writes “The quickest way for an exceptional piece of content to get a lot of attention that results in secondary links is to make the home page of Digg or Delicious Popular. There are scores of similar sites that can drive quality traffic as well, such as Reddit, TechMeme, and Magnolia. For more offbeat content, Fark will shake your server. Plus there are dozens of aggregator sites such as PopURLS that also drive traffic based on your inclusion at the primary site.  If you’ve done a great job with your headline, it should magnetically draw people in. However, you need to understand the audience of each social media site. What works as a headline for Digg often won’t work for Reddit. Tweak accordingly, but try to retain your keywords in the title if at all possible, because most of the resulting links will simply regurgitate that title.”

Tip: Link OUT

This one may be a little surpirsing, but linking out can actually attract links back to your site.  By linking out, you are generating a conversation with another blogger, and if you provide meaningful comments and feedback, there is an extremely good chance that they will return the favor for you.

Conclusion

I hope you now have a better understanding of what link bulding is, why you should engage in a link building strategy, and how to begin.  Before you dive right in, remember to analyze which platforms will work best for your campaign.  Each network targets a different type of content, and each site has a different audience that you will be reaching, so it is important for you to understand where you want to target your campaign to see the best results.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment! And remember, “the words you put on a web page have no life of their own until they get read.” – Brian Clark