 Social media marketing has become a challenging “game” for Businesses, both large and small. Getting your brand out there in the cyber world is getting tough. Despite social being more relevant than ever, organic reach isn’t just dropping, it’s plummeting. That makes things difficult for brands that are prioritizing native content over paid ads to reach their audience. In spite of the fact that social platforms are making it difficult to reach your target audience organically, people are still inundated with an overwhelming amount of branded content. There’s a lot of noise out there. The only way to take advantage of the reach you do have is to create social media content that really makes an impact. Here are four tips I found that are useful to make your content resonate on social. 1. Be ready to respond to breaking news quickly This is where being on top of things that are relevant to your audience can really help. If you’re the first to share breaking new, or to leverage a trending hashtag, you’re going to get the attention and engagement that latecomers are not. To do this, subscribe to relevant news feeds. Set your Google Alerts for topics that are relevant to your audience, and be otherwise actively on the lookout for news and events that are of concern. 2. Initiate a conversation Try to think of your social platform as a conference table sharing ideas and not as a podium where you are the one throwing out topics. A poll is a great tool for seeding a conversation. Not only will people answer the question you’ve posed, they’ll also engage with you and one another over the topic you’ve chosen. Your job is to find a topic that really sparks interest, then be an active participant in that conversation. 3. Add more emotion to your posts Emotional content gets a reaction. It earns shares and comments. Think about it. What is more likely to make you share something than a post that makes you laugh out loud, that brings tears to your eyes, or that motivates you to take action. When you only have a couple seconds of the viewers’ attention, this connection can make all the difference. Not only is emotional content compelling to a viewer - it’s also extremely sharable. Before you can expect loyalty, you have to tap into what is important for your audience and establish an emotional bond.” To use emotion in your social posts you can: · Engage in storytelling. · Share your human side. · Use the right visuals, text and music to paint an emotional picture. · Encourage your audience to share their stories as well. · Use Live Video Using live video will increase your organic reach. No question about it. It’s one area that doesn’t seem to be nearly as impacted by the downturn of unpaid social reach. Live video draws people in. It makes them feel as if they are a part of something important, and it encourages them to participate. Use live video at events, to share behind the scenes content, or simply to give live updates on topics that you think will interest your audience. Remember that great hosting is really important. Recruit someone who is outgoing and has a great camera presence. Your social media posts are probably reaching fewer people than ever. The only way to combat this is to ensure that your reach goes as deep as possible. Accomplish this goal by using these tips to create content that makes an impact. -Roy #Tags: #socialmedia, #marketing, #content, #engagement, #socialplatforms, #advertising, #businessmarketing
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 I Love to read industry related articles. One I recently came across dealing with video since this is one of our main services we offer was a survey that Cisco did. They estimate that by 2021, 82% of all consumer internet traffic will stem from video content, which will be viewed at a rate of a million minutes per second. As the video market grows, how are businesses and brands going to use the data and the numbers video is going to create to gain any market share? Here are some tips I found useful in creating or producing marketing videos. #1 Using the right insights can lead to great video successes. Personal insights or personal content which fits your audience is tough. Use what you know will work with your followers and expand on that. Using data that you know what works and does not work will help keep your content fresh. #2 Digital audiences and Old Skool TV audiences are in fact different. It is so important that you make sure you create separate content strategies for the two, in addition to developing content unique to each platform. You don’t want to us the same content from TV directly for social, because what audiences want to watch on their phones isn’t the same as what they like on TV. They want shorter, 2-5-minute clips. Also, if you are using video for TV or desktop viewing note that formatting is totally different with aspect ratio. Smartphone apps such as Instagram have a totally different aspect ratio. So, besides the shorter video, know how to edit so your visual story will actually fit. #3 Times and technology have changed You really have to as well. Trying a new format or social platform might not be what you’re used to, but it could result in great strides in your digital video efforts. Your TV shows won’t look the same on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, for example, and that’s actually quite good, because it presents individual opportunities to grow those properties online vs. just in a linear setting. I know, I am older than you may think and I am a old analog guy from television. Going into digital was a ice cold shower for me when I started. #4 Take Negative Feedback As A Positive For Fixing What Does Not Work. Some types of audience feedback, even the negative kind, are more useful for measuring and improving your content than other forms of engagement. This goes for all platforms you may use and getting your followers to those platforms. #5 Your Goal Is To Get Your Audience and Followers To Share And Like No matter how well you think your content will do, your audience’s preferences will ultimately show you what they care about. Your goal is to determine how to identify content that is not only worthwhile but meets their tastes. If you can take what you learn to create content that’s both highly shareable and highly worthwhile, you’ll be nearer to the sweet spot of successful digital video. #6 Make Sure Your Branded Video Content is Real and Authentic Branded Content has been known for its ups and down. It works as long as it’s done in an authentic and truthful bonding way. Use branded content to create that engagement and interaction. It is OK to tug on your viewers emotions, make them ask questions, and smile. #7 Know Why Certain Video Content Worked Well And Capitalize! If you find a winner with your videos that is getting a lot of shares or likes, find out why by the data. Your followers have a reason why they enjoyed it. Focus on those videos and create similar content. -Roy TAGS: #video, #social media, #digital video, #brandiing, #marketing
 Being that our firm works with digital video on an almost daily basis, we do a lot of reading and research on the platform. Digital Video is growing at a rapid pace and the platforms that deliver the media is ever changing as well. Recently we came across some interesting statistics we wanted to share. Consumers will dramatically increase their overall time spent watching digital video from the rest of this year to 2021. That is a given. A data based company called Activate recently evaluated extensive data on creators with over 10 million views on YouTube and found that 24% of these creators account for 71% of views. Over on Facebook, 26% of creators account for 77% of views. Both of these groups of top creators have over 50 million views on these social video platforms. Activate’s analysis of the data confirms that influencers and media companies make up 97% of YouTube views in this group of top video creators with more than 50 million views. And 98% of Facebook views come from influencers and media companies. Brands only make up 3% of the views on these platforms. Influencers are defined as personalities, celebrities or public figures with significant social presence. Media companies are defined as organizations whose primary business model is in production and/or distribution of content. This includes some professional influencer entities that have moved upstream.
How Brands Can Find the Right Content Partners to Work With The data shows that there is a greater ratio of influencers to media companies on YouTube (83% influencers to 17% media companies) and a roughly even ratio on Facebook (52% influencers to 48% media companies). So, if brands are looking for the right content partner to reach the right audience, and get more engagement for less spend, then they need to look in different categories on different platforms. Activate analyzed the top five YouTube influencers by subscribers in four categories: How-to & Style People & Blogs Comedy & Entertainmen and Gaming. They concluded: Top web video influencers range across content areas and platforms. Combined, these influencers have over 70 billion views on YouTube. And all of these influencers have a strong presence on a second platform, ranging from Instagram (13) or Twitch (5) to Facebook (2). Activate also analyzed data for the top U.S. media company creators on YouTube and found 49% are in the Entertainment category 22% are in Music & Dance and 9% are in News & Politics. Next, Activate analyzed for the top U.S. media company creators on Facebook and found 61% are in the Entertainment category and 10% are in News & Politics Web video platforms satisfy different content preferences along with media companies which will need to play to each platform’s strengths. Their analysis extends beyond YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch; it includes Instagram and Snapchat, too. The research summarizes that attracting theses these creators and to capture user attention, web video platforms are attempting to move into each others’ turfs.” So, watch initiatives like YouTube Red, YouTube Live, YouTube TV, Facebook Live, and Facebook Watch like a hawk. The video segmentation matrix is shifting almost in real time i.e. day to day. Social Video and the Shift to Live-streaming Activate also analyzed live streaming. The medium has exhibited rapid growth in views and time spent. It shows Twitch, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, as the leader in this category (with 743,000 average live streaming viewers), followed by YouTube Live (with 318,000), Facebook Live (with 61,000), and Periscope (with 23,000. Activate also predicts” Live-streaming creators will use crowdfunding platforms, such as Patreon, to monetize directly through fans. The data given to Activate was provided by Tublar Insight Labs. -Roy If your business uses videos in their marketing strategy (which you should if you do not) part of the key element of that video to tell a story. Every video, no matter what the message you are trying to convey needs a story behind it.
How To Break Through to Your Customers “storytelling” in the marketing world is talking at consumers. And, since the “Mad Men” era, brands have used advertising to broadcast their stories at a large audience of consumers. But, it’s stopped working. There are over 600 million devices running ad block software, and the message from consumers is clear: Stop interrupting me – I don’t want to see your ads. At the same time, consumers are constantly connected and literally have the power to make or break a brand at their fingertips. So how do you break through and engage with consumers?” This is a good question.… it is time to put consumers at the center of our efforts; it’s time to be great story-makers or story tellers. “story-making” is the combination of “art, science, and necessity” that was developed as a response to a “society where the pace of technology and information exchange only continues to speed up; and where consumers only allow brands a few mere moments to make or break a relationship.” Consumers Value Experiences Over Things A recent study by Mastercard and retail sales data supports that today, consumers value experiences over things. Mastercard’s Priceless campaign – now in its 20th year – was founded on the insight that experiences matter more than things, but the way it is executed today is much different. Mastercard has evolved its Priceless strategy from a single traditional advertising campaign to a holistic experiential-led marketing platform. What Mastercard has done to change the way they present their information is: 1. Focusing on consumers’ passions, 2. Building experiential platforms. 3. Creating products/technologies that change lives for the better. Mastercard: Storytelling and Sponsored Videos Sponsored videos are also part of Mastercard’s “holistic experiential-led marketing platform.” The brand has 76 partners that have made 798 videos, which have a total of 45.5 million views and over 1.3 million engagements. Now, that’s taking story-making to a level that traditional storytellers only reach once in a blue moon. It’s the difference between creating a priceless experience for your customers that they want to share with their friends, family, and colleagues and merely telling a story – even one with emotion – about the features and benefits of your products or services. That’s a very big idea. Remember to use story-telling in your next marketing video. Engagement with your audience is so essential and you have very little time to capture their attention in this day and technical age. (portions of this article are from Tubular Insights weekly) -Roy  Are you aiming to get more traction from your blog or website’s content through social media shares and re tweets? Perhaps your goal is get a 180 on your links. If this is the case may I suggest you take a deep dive into your visual content that you post.
It has been tested time and true that by using images: · Your presentations that are accompanied by visual aids have been proven to be 43 percent more effective. · We are all visual learners one way or another · Of all the information that is processed by the brain, 90% of it is visual stimulation. Hopefully this week's blog post t will give you some insight on various types of visual content that will help you grow your online growth and engagement. Images That Will Engage Your Readers Splitting up the body of text on your posts with high quality, exciting images that are relevant to your story idea will compel your audience to continue reading what you’ve written all the way to the end. Images sell your written information! Sadly, today, our attention spans have hit a new low. Without those images our readers today refuse to read any long blogs or content. Articles containing images receive 94 percent more views as compared to those that don’t have any images. Tweets that are posted with images are re tweeted 150 percent more compared to those that are composed of text only. Facebook posts that are posted with images receive 3x more engagement than posts that don’t have any images. Image quotes: For whatever reason, people love to share quotes that are either written within the image or directly below it. Images that evoke emotions: A simple thought provoking image captures the heart or the soul of many of your engaged audience and will get you a share of that image. Screenshots: Screenshots are an effective since they give your audience a first-hand perspective of how your product or service works. An excellent example is a screenshot of your app as you use it, to give the consumers a kind of visual proof that your app actually does what your marketing messages claim. This way, your audience will trust you more as they have verified your claims. Essentially, screenshots are the best way to secure the trust of your consumers as they can easily confirm for themselves using their own eyes. Memes: “Meme” refers to an image that is accompanied by an amusing caption. When memes started gaining viral popularity online, no one ever thought that they would end up becoming an integral part of online marketing. For instance, if your brand is aimed at engaging a younger demographic, then memes are an excellent choice for creating inside jokes in your trade. This kind of humor is a remarkably effective way of bringing your audience together. Memes are a great source of entertainment, they are the most common types of viral social media content that has the potential to get millions of shares. Slides & Presentations: Currently, slides are an effective means of expanding your brand’s outreach as they allow you to educate and communicate with your audience.Just slides and presentations largely depend of color and design in order to convey the message or information in the most effective manner. Always make sure that your slides are not only engaging, but they should also give the consumers solid advice that is practical and create action. Presentations usually contain several slides, you have to have some consistency in the design, color and even the font so that your message and/or information stays streamlined as the audience consumes it bit by bit. Video Content: If you want to show how effective a solution your product is, there’s no better way of doing it than using a video. And for your video to be effective it must be engaging, educational, and entertaining. This is my fave. There are other cheaper, less complicated forms of visual content advertisements – but then again, you’ll realize that going that extra mile to create a quality video is totally worth all the trouble. Video has more engagement than any of the other type of digital content. With all the potential that videos present for your business, you should be very particular with the types of videos that you use to enhance the strength of your brand. Some of the best types of marketing videos are customer testimonials, demonstrations, how to videos and even explainer videos. As an example, you can start your video by presenting a common problem, then finishing the video with the solution that your product offers. When properly executed, visual content also gets you more links and your readers will share it more among their peers, which is overall, free advertisement for you! -Roy It has been awhile since I did a byline on using Facebook For Your marketing campaigns and so some, these tips may sound like no-brainers. However, for newbies to Facebook marketing and there are a lot of those in SMBs, hopefully these will help you find your way a bit easier on using Facebook in your scheme of things.
Building Your Audience One of the biggest complaints about leveraging any social media for content marketing, much less Facebook in particular, is that it can often be a waste of time: because posts go off into the ether of the internet and are never seen by anyone. This is a real concern… but only if you don’t take the time to build your audience base. If the likes on your page aren’t relevant, they do nothing for you or your business brand. You need to spend the time and effort to ensure that the likes your page gets are from individuals genuinely interested in your product or business. When those individuals see the content you’re promoting, they’ll be more likely to click through and learn more about your brand and your offerings of products or services. Manage Your Online Reputation Online reputation management is a big deal, and a poor reputation online almost always translates to lost customers and lost sales. You can do one of two things. Manage your reputation yourself by constant monitoring of what you have out there or pay a professional reputation company to do it for you. Try to respond to comments and ratings about your business in a timely and positive manner. Always respond to bad reviews, and make certain to ask the reviewer what you can do to improve their experience. It’s important to address every bad review so that review readers feel that you care about the quality of your business and product. Use Video And Images On your Timeline! Did you know that Facebook posts with images get wildly more clicks than posts without them? And watching videos comprise approximately 80% of all the activity on Facebook! Videos and images will ensure that the content you share gets more likes and more reads. Where images are concerned, ensure they’re horizontal images which have text titles on them, which can increase engagement. Examples of this are videos shot by your cellphone, Links to your YouTube Channel , Images of your products or services shot by you or your customers, and do Facebook Live events. Useing Facebook Promoted Posts Using small, short, highly targeted Facebook ads can help you get new viewers for your content pretty easily. Of course, promoted posts are primarily recommended for individuals who have grown their Facebook page likes beyond a threshold of 100, simply because promoted posts are traditionally displayed only to friends and connections of those who have liked a Facebook page. While there is also the opportunity to use Facebook ads, they’re not recommended for Facebook. I have mixed feelings about Facebook promoted posts as their effective reach varies and success rates on your ROI is questionable at times. Link to Your Own Website When sharing content, ensure that content is always on your own website when you share! Promoting links to your own website not only brings new potential clients or visitors to your website, but can provide a small SEO boost. And of course, having all of your website’s schema markups operating correctly can pull sample text and images from your website quickly, rather than requiring you to manually enter them, which can save a few minutes of work. Always, always link to your website whenever possible. I hope these tips give you a bit more insight into using Facebook for your marketing scheme. Do NOT mix your personal Facebook Page to your business Page. Keep things separate. Remember the above mention on your reputation? Mixing business with your personal life can kill that in a instant. -Roy FDMC Digital Media LLC www.floridadudemarketingconcepts.com It just seems like yesterday that Instagram was a novelty app for young people to exchange photos. Then Millennials caught on and it grew. Then video was added and now live streaming which has led us to Instagram as we see it today. It is overtaking Snapchat and has become a serious marketing tool for even the Fortune 500 Companies.
Whether you want to drive leads to your homepage or encourage customer engagement, Instagram is the perfect platform. Here are are some serious reasons you need to add Instagram to your marketing mix. 1. People spend more time on Instagram than any other social platform except Facebook If you’re looking for a social platform with a high level of traffic and engagement, Instagram is the ideal fit. According to comScore, global users spend a monthly average of 12 billion minutes on Instagram, which translates to massive opportunity for businesses who want to dominate their niches. 2. Instagram makes it easy to get noticed because it is still relatively new to business While it’s becoming harder and harder to get noticed on Facebook and Twitter, only 9% of small businesses currently use Instagram, which means there is plenty of space to build a robust online presence but it is growing rapidly each month! 3. Visual content is today's main focus & it is sharp! Marketers around the globe are predicting that visual content will be the future of online marketing, and Instagram is positioned to be on the bleeding edge of the shift toward image-based brand stories, especially in the use of digital video. 4. Content on Instagram=followers and influencers While the content you post on Facebook reaches only a fraction of your audience, Instagram’s non-filtered feed means every post you make reaches your entire audience. This has the potential to boost engagement and improve your conversion rates. 5. Instagram caters mobility users in every way 2015 was the first year that mobile search overtook desktop search, and Instagram, more than virtually any other platform, caters to the rise of mobile users. Sharing on mobile platforms is quick and easy, and the app makes it seamless to navigate a brand’s content. Instagram Marketing: You need it as a resource Regardless of which industry you specialize in, Instagram is an essential tool that can overhaul the success and engagement of your marketing strategy. Simple, streamlined, and user-friendly, Instagram is the future of digital marketing. For more information, feel free to reach out to us here at FDMC Social and Digital Media. -Roy www.floridadudemarketingconcepts.com How can you increase your organic reach on Instagram? Here are the 10 powerful tools to help you reach your audience with Instagram. Use them all or use some of them for your business. Regardless, make Instagram a part of your social marketing strategy so you are not missing out on your target audience whom today are very mobile.
1. Find your optimal posting times Even though Instagram uses an algorithmic timeline now, optimal posting times are still important. It is a factor in the algorithm. Posting at the right times can help generate an initial round of engagement on your posts which can, in turn, prompt the Instagram algorithm to push your posts higher on your followers’ feed. If you are using a Instagram Business Profile, you can check your Instagram Insights to find out when your followers are most active by the day of the week and the time of the day. To access your Instagram Insights (link to Instagram analytics post), tap on the profile tab in the Instagram app and then the bar chart icon () on the upper-right corner. There will be a section for your followers’ activity information, and you can tap on “See More” to see more detailed insights. Here’s an example of what you’ll see: 2. Experiment with videos Studies have found that photos tend to get more overall engagement (i.e. likes and comments) than videos on Instagram. On first look, it might seem that photos are better than videos for engagement — and it could well be! On closer examination, we might draw a different conclusion. News Whip studied the Instagram accounts of 31 news publishers and made an interesting discovery. While photos, on average, get more likes (and overall engagement) than videos, videos generate more comments than photos. In fact, videos, on average, received more than twice the amount of comments than photos! It is not certain if the Instagram algorithm values likes and comments equally or one more than another. But since commenting requires more effort from a user than liking, it’s possible that the algorithm values comments more than likes and would rank posts with more comments higher than posts with more likes. Last year, Instagram found that the video watch time on Instagram increased by more than 40 percent over a six-month period. At this growth rate, it could be great to experiment with videos to see if it increases your engagement and organic reach on Instagram. 3. Host contests or ask questions to encourage engagement Asking questions or calling for an action is one of the fun ways to encourage your followers to interact with your Instagram posts. Hosting a giveaway contest is an effective way to engage your followers. Some of the call-to-actions you can do are: Enter to win by sharing your favorite emoji party combo in the comments below To enter, simply tag a friend below who you would “Vote” for as your favorite marketer and you’ll both be entered to win! To enter tag a friend below who you know is rocking it on social media! What’s on your reading list this week? Drop your book suggestions below for a chance to win a free book of your choice from the Buffer team! While giveaway contests usually generate more comments than usual posts. Try to give it a few months in between each contest to keep things fun and exciting. 4. Curate user-generated content Curating user-generated content can encourage those users to engage with and share those content. Since the Instagram algorithm considers users’ relationships when ranking content on their feed, building relationships with your users through Instagram might also help your content rank higher on their feeds. Apart from organic reach, Crowdtap found that user-generated content is 35 percent more memorable and 50 percent more trusted than traditional media and other user-generated content. This makes user-generated content a valuable strategy to try. 5. Tell Instagram Stories Typically, 63 percent of marketers use Instagram, only 16 percent have created Instagram Stories. There’s a great opportunity to stand out before it gets too crowded! Instagram Stories take a prominent position on the Instagram app — above the feed. This allows you to stay on top of your followers’ feed and grab more of their attention. If your followers view your Stories regularly, it could possibly even help your Instagram posts rank higher on their feeds. It’s worth noting that the Stories are also ranked by an algorithm. Spend the time to create cool stories and make them shine! 6. Go live on Instagram A similar “trick” is to go live on Instagram. When you use live video, you will appear right at the front of the Stories feed, assuming no one else is live at the same time. The “LIVE” logo also makes your profile photo more prominent in the Instagram app. Going Live though can have a weird effect on your content. A reason might be your brand is in front of your fans more often so the fans might go to your page to see your content more — even if the fans don’t watch the live video. This effect could play out on Instagram, too. Seeing your logo at the top of their feed might encourage your followers to check out your Instagram profile. 7. Use Instagram ads This might sound a little counter-intuitive but Instagram ads can be an effective way to grow your organic reach. If you have an Instagram Business Profile, you can promote your existing posts from within the Instagram app. (Here’s how!) By boosting an existing post and selecting the appropriate target audience, you can drive more engagement to the post and help it rank better on your followers’ feed. The paid reach can eventually help to drive organic reach! So which post should you promote? Here’s a quick way to pick a good post to promote: Go to your Instagram Insights on the mobile app (tap on the profile tab and then the bar chart icon). Tap “See More” under the “Top Posts” section. Tap on “Impressions” at the top (a pop-up should apply to let you adjust your stats filters). For the first filter, you can choose “All”, “Photos”, or “Videos” according to your preference. For the second filter, select “Engagement”. For the third filter, select “7 days”. You will see your top posts by engagement for the last seven days. From there, you can pick a post to promote. 8. Post less If you truly want to connect with your audience, it’s better to share one fabulous photo instead of 20 mediocre images. So next time, before you hit post, take a moment and consider how this content contributes to your brand, and does it effectively encourage engagement from your followers. I believe this is about the allocation of your resources and time. Instead of publishing 20 posts a week, use the same resources and time for just one or two posts and make them great. Quality content that is relevant to your followers has a higher chance of eliciting a positive response from your followers. In turn, this can help your posts rank higher on your followers’ feed. 9. Create specifically for Instagram One way to create quality content is to create content specifically for Instagram. Instagram, being a very visual platform, has a greater focus on the photo or video itself than the text. So a post that would do well on Instagram is probably different from one that would do well on Twitter or Facebook. For smaller social media teams or solo social media manager, it can be challenging to always create unique content for each platform. Cross posting and repurposing content from other platforms can be great, too. If you are doing that, it’d be best to craft specific caption for each social media platform as your followers likely follow you for a different reason for each of the platforms. 10. Be a great Instagram user Social media algorithms are built to encourage genuine, positive behaviors on the platforms such as sharing, showing appreciation, quick replies, and more. Often, they would also try to discourage abuse or hacks. My gut feeling here is that being a great Instagram user will help you grow your organic reach over time. That includes: Posting quality content that is relevant to your followers (be it informative, inspiring, or entertaining) Answering questions on your posts quickl Thanking people for commenting on your posts Exploring other people’s profiles, engaging with their posts, and building a relationship with them I hope this has been of some value to you and if you have any questions always feel free to reach out to us. Have a good one! Roy Garton FDMC Social & Digital Media LLC www.floridadudemarketingconcepts.com Video Marketing has become increasingly important for small businessesof all sizes. And YouTube is one of the most popular platforms for posting and sharing those videos.
If you have a YouTube channel for your small business, or are thinking of starting one, here are 20 ideas for type of content you can post. Hope you enjoy them! Video Ideas for YouTube Product Spotlights If your business is a product-based one, you can use YouTube as a platform for highlighting specific products such as widgets, bar glasses, Tiki patio furniture.. Product Announcements Then when your business comes out with new products, you can create videos that offer a preview of all the new features. Product-in-Action Videos Video can be a great way to show your products in action. This is especially relevant for products like video games. PlayStation often posts game play videos for the games available on its device. Locally you can do the same with your proucts. Product Explanations If your product is something that might require a bit of an explanation, you might also consider creating videos aimed at simply explaining it to beginners. This can help them get acquainted enough with your offering to gain interest. Product Comparisons You can also create videos that compare multiple products to help your customers make more informed choices. An example would be if you sell air conditioners, you might show the difference of various sizes of the conditioners as to how many rooms it would cool. This would help your customers out! Collection Videos If your business releases collections of products, like lines of clothing or similar items, you can also create videos around those releases, Say you offer a new line of home made soap here is your chance to make it a premier star out of it. Mini Movies Your YouTube content can certainly be intended to inform or persuade. But don’t forget to entertain your audience as well. Lego does this with mini movies that feature some of its popular product sets. You can do it for your business as well. Having good editing software here is something I would suggest highly. Special Offers You can also share information about special offers or limited time promotions so that your YouTube viewers are constantly up-to-date with your offerings. Customer Stories To create more engagement with your customers and share content that’s relevant to your audience, you can create videos that share some of your customers’ stories through interviews or similar formats. I did this for a local insurance company and it worked out well. Behind the Scenes Videos You can also create videos that show some behind the scenes views of your company or products. Doing a "Meet The Staff" video or "A day In The.." with one of your route drivers is another example. Company Milestones When your company reaches a big milestone, or has a big accomplishment, you can create a YouTube video to celebrate and share the news! How-to Videos People often watch videos to learn how to accomplish certain tasks. So you can make these helpful videos in a way that includes some of your products or services. Tips Videos You can also create videos that offer simple tips on a particular subject. If you are a real estate person (and boy do we have real estate people all of a sudden here) you could do a video on tips on preparing your home for sale or showing. Tips such as painting or yard work. You get it. Discussion Videos Similar to how you might discuss various topics on a blog, you can create a video where you simply share your expertise or some thoughts on a particular topic. Let's say you own a gym and you do a series of videos on fitness or running. This would be a great example of discussion videos. Contests Video can also be a great format for showing off content from your audience, especially if you can collect clips from people as part of a contest. GoPro is one example of a company that has done this well but make sure you follow all laws before doing this. Inspirational Videos Even if a video doesn’t directly relate to your products, it can still offer value to your target audience. Inspirational videos can sort of break up all those videos that specifically relate to your products or services. Assist a non-profit for example and shoot some video be kind and don't make a big commercial about yourself out of it. Regular Series If you create enough video content regularly, you can turn it into a web series. Red Bull does this with some of the behind the scenes content it shoots with various extreme sports stars as an example. Influencer Videos You can also partner with influencers relevant to your audience and ask them to star in your videos as a way of creating quality content and growing your audience. Examples would be factory reps or distributor reps that you buy your products from for re-sale. Holiday Greetings On or around holidays, you can also make special videos intended to show some festive spirit and have some fun, We had a blast making a bunch of these for some of our customers last year. Yes, you can get them done professionally if you wish. Funny Videos You can also simply have some fun with your audience by posting funny commercials or other video content on your YouTube channel. Brevard County Sheriff's Office has been getting thousands of hits and national publicity doing these while bringing up awareness on crime protection and safety. I hope you enjoy these tips and if our company can be of any assistance to you in getting you started, please call or email us. We are YouTube certified partners and we can help you with that next video project as well. Roy Garton FDMC Social & Digital Media LLC www.floridadudemarketingconcepts.com If you are running your own business, then you know how tough it can be. A blog significantly improves search rankings and gives you a chance to connect with more customers.
But what if you’re not an amazing writer? And what if you don’t know what to blog about? Don’t worry. The first blog post is always the hardest. That’s why I collected examples of different kinds of posts for your inspiration. Check these out and consider writing to tell your story, announce a sale, or give a guide to your products today. Make a List of Influencers to Follow Here’s an easy way to create good content – and offers the potential to be widely-shared: Make a list of the top 25 blogs, Twitter accounts, or even Tumblrs, for someone interested in your industry to follow. Compile that list, write a few sentences about why you included each blog or Twitter account, publish it, and send it to the people you feature. If you do it tastefully, there’s a good chance that they’ll share the post with their audiences. That will get you lots of traffic – in addition to improving your SEO. Answer Questions About Your Industry or Vertical Some of the most successful pieces of content marketing ever comes via Marcus Sheridan of River Pools and Spas. River Pools and Spas installs fiberglass pools, the cost of which is not always transparent. Sheridan decided to write blog posts about every aspect of fiberglass pools. Sheridan’s posts were so good that the New York Times profiled him with a headline: “A Revolutionary Marketing Strategy: Answer Customers’ Questions.” His blog posts often rank on the first page of Google for their search terms. And that’s driven both traffic and sales. Profile Your Team or Staff Your team is made up of interesting people. Why not feature their stories? There’s a variety of things that you can do. You can write up a short bio of them that includes their interests and where they’ve been. This can also take the format of a Q&A, when you spend 15 minutes chatting with someone on your team and then write up the questions and their responses. This is an especially easy way to generate some good content. Most importantly, it gives your customers a sense of who they’re dealing with. When they purchase a product from your store, they know that they’re buying from real people with real passions. Give a Sneak Peek of New Products or Services (and Ask for Feedback) There’s two ways that this tactic can be valuable: First, it generates excitement from your customers for a new product. If they like what you do and are loyal towards your brand, they’ll feel especially good that they get to see a new thing first. Second, it has the potential to increase engagement. If you manufacture your products, consider floating a prototype for people to see; they may offer valuable input on what can be improved. And if you don’t manufacture your own products, ask your readers which of the options you can stock most appeals to them. Let them anticipate something that they’ll buy from you. Make a Tutorial for Your Products Everybody wins when your customers know how to use your products. Not every product needs an in-depth tutorial on how it's used. But for certain products this can be a big help. Does your product have cool, non-obvious uses? Is it best enjoyed in a certain condition? Is there something that the customer should do to make the most of it? Point these things out. Potential customers may see one more way to use your product and existing customers may be pleased to discover a new way to use it. Announce a Sale This one's obvious. When you have, a big sale coming up, announce it on your blog. It'll give people something to link to. Use the space to talk about the products you have on sale, and if it's applicable, why these products are right for the occasion. (It may be, for example, the perfect present for Mother's Day.) And if you're able to design something, put together a graphic. Run a Contest Running a contest is like announcing a sale. They're both effective and attractive ways to get more attention for your store. Just make sure that you’re not making the common mistakes with giveaways and contests. You can have all sorts of giveaways, of your products, of gift cards, or even special experiences like a visit to your store. And entering the contest can take a variety of forms. The easiest way is to submit a comment at the end of the post. You can also ask people to tweet about your store or share it on another social media platform. Set up Gleam to make the most out of your contest. Gleam offers one-click entry, built-in viral sharing, and multiple ways of picking new winners. Write About an Event You Participated In If you help put on an event then you should definitely write about it. But you can also write about something that you don’t own, like your thoughts on a conference. Write up your impressions and thoughts about a conference or meetup you went to. It shows that you’re paying attention to where your industry is going and people will appreciate the insights. Make sure to snap a few pictures and post them up too. Tell the History of Your Company Being an entrepreneur means something special. Few people think of it, and even fewer people act on it. So, what’s your founding story? Share the story of why you decided to become an entrepreneur. Was it driven by an event? Was it the result of a special trip? Were you struck by inspiration of some sort? Tell the story and connect better with your customers. Make a Video: Product Tutorial Okay, we don’t want to give the impression that content marketing is only blogging. It can be making videos, writing emails, and other kinds of content-generation too. Sometimes you just can’t write about how to use a product. You have to show, not tell. Then it’s time to post a video on YouTube (or some other platform). Besides, video marketing is effective. By one estimate, consumers are 64% more likely to purchase a product after watching a product video. Shoot a product tutorial to introduce your product, its benefits, and how it can best be used, or talk to us here at FDMC Social and Digital Video on how we can help you. Make a Video: How Your Product Is Made or the Service You Offer Our last suggestion for an easy piece of content: Make a video of how your product is made. Do you have a very interesting manufacturing process? Does it require special tools and equipment? Is the process fun to look at? Shoot a video of its production. Conclusion You know your business well, and there are lots of opportunities to create good content by telling people about cool things in your industry. Write a blog post, shoot a video, or generate some other type of content today to tell your story and improve SEO. Roy Garton FDMC Social and Digital Video www.floridadudemarketingconcepts.com |
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