There’s no doubt that online video marketing is on the rise. Numerous studies and statistics prove that video works. In fact, Forrester Research found that videos were 50 times more likely to receive an organic first page ranking than traditional text pages. That’s a pretty impressive stat!

Online video marketing is attractive to many businesses today for numerous reasons. Making videos and posting them online is fairly inexpensive. Plus, online videos stay online forever. If you spend the money to record once, your video could still be getting views a year from now.

In addition, social media sites and video go hand in hand and most sites encourage video posting and sharing. The viral video opportunities are endless when you use the right strategies to create and post your videos online.

If you’re new to video, or have been thinking about flipping on your camera for the first time, here are some tips and strategies to get you going.
Six Quick Tips to Optimize Your Videos

Once you record your video, follow these tips to make sure it reaches your core audience and gets the views it deserves.

#1: Make your title count

Just like a headline to a blog post, video titles can pull powerful traffic. There are two main reasons why the title is so important. One, a great title can instantly grab a viewer’s attention. Two, when you use the appropriate keywords in your title, you are more likely to show up on search engines when people are searching for your topic. And remember Google owns YouTube, so there’s a story connection between video and searching.

#2: Provide excellent content

Take some time to think about your ideal viewer. What do you know that they’ll find valuable? What can you teach them? “How-to” videos are extremely successful because not only do they offer great value to your viewer, but also you’re able to showcase your knowledge and skill, thus positioning yourself as an expert. This is key as you continue to grow your brand.

Also, no matter how good your content is, it won’t matter if your video is too long and you lose your viewer’s attention. Try to keep them short.

In late 2009, ComScore reported that the average video was 3.8 minutes in length.

#3: Include your URL in your video

When you edit your video, take advantage of the different editing features. One easy feature is to add a text box to your video. This is where you can display your website address and it’s a great way to get exposure.

Here’s a screen shot of Mari Smith’s YouTube channel. Notice how she used a text box in her video to display key information, including her website URL at the end of her video. Smart move!

For the remainder of the article click here.

The post 16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

By Grant Crowell at REELSEO …
I was the first reporter to gleam this information from Matt Weiner, creator of the critically acclaimed TV show Mad Men at the 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas, as part of the 2nd day opening session titled “In Conversation With: Matthew Weiner.” Read about what Matt says are the parallels, and differences, with the 1960’s Madison Avenue age depicted in the popular show, to 2010’s “online video age.”

Yes, I admit it… MAD MEN is a show I’ve watched on a near-religious basis, since being introduced to it during the beginning of its 2nd season on television (and rented all the back episodes on Netflix since). I’ve even watched all of the video parodies of the show online. You probably already know about the SNL clips, and the Sesame Street and Simpsons parodies, but I actually find the Mad Women parody to be my fav.

For the rest of this great read, click here.

The post Mad Men’s Don Draper Would Be Dead Well Before The Online Video Era, Says Show Creator appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

The post Video engagement on social networks, a pattern emerges. appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

Seven predictions from eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey. Ad dollars will continue to accelerate their move from traditional to digital, though aggregate media spending will fail to return to former levels. Marketers will be emphasizing deeper engagement and earned media.

Video. More marketers will increasingly embrace online video advertising, supported by the twin boom of video streams and video ad networks. Further support for video ad growth will come from sites that offer a deeper catalog of professional, premium video content, which will need to introduce hybrid plans that combine subscription fees with advertising.

See the remainder of this article here.

The post 2010 Predictions Round-Up appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

Be sure to understand the implications of these changes before pitching your next Facebook project.

1. Email is now a supported channel
Facebook has long hidden user emails, but soon Facebook will provide developers access to a user’s verified email address. For brands that are serious about engaging in an ongoing dialogue with their fans, email becomes a powerful communication method. Email will allow brands to better reconnect with users who have interacted with them on Facebook. This becomes important given that…

2. Status updates are no longer guaranteed
Previously users’ streams included everything their friends and pages (including brand pages) published. Now the news feed has returned to a default view showing select highlights that Facebook’s algorithm thinks are most relevant to the user, which may or may not contain your brand’s message. There’s still a live feed view, but it’s no longer default, so only brand posts that fans interact with will appear in most users’ streams.

3. Other communication channels are consolidating
Many brands rely on application-to-user and user-to-user notifications to reconnect with users, and this communication channel is disappearing. That means in order to remarket to users to let them know about new product launches, sales, events, or promotions, you’ll need to acquire users’ email addresses or send popular posts (per above).

Source: iMedia Connection. Click here for full post.

The post Upcoming Facebook changes: 7 things brands need to know appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

Yes, even a small business can use video effectively to communicate with its customers online. However, as we amateur carpenters doing home repair know, you can wind up with a mess instead of a masterpiece unless you understand how to use a potentially powerful tool well. In that spirit we’re happy to share with you six terrific tips for using video successfully.

6 Tips to Video Success for Small Business:

1. Make sure that you are telling a compelling story. There is a danger in using video to share the same boring statistics or data that handicap effective print communications. Instead, think like your audience and come up with a compelling angle that illustrates the successful use of your product or service in a way that is relevant to them. This approach lets enthusiastic customers make an engaging case for the real-world benefits of your products and services.

2. Be concise. Keep editing down, down, down. Folks don’t want to spend a lot of time waiting for you to get to the point. Kathy notes that, with rare exceptions, your video should be no more than 2 to 3 minutes long. If you go beyond that point, you risk not capturing or losing your prospective customers attention. A slightly longer video – 3 to 4 minutes – can work when the product or service involves an imotionally significant part of your audiences life, their kids for example.

3. Use real interviews of your company team members or third party individuals / customers. Don’t shoot a video of people who have memorized a script and then read it word for word. This comes across as stilted and less than compelling. Instead, do a real interviews which enable your subjects to be more natural, to exhibit their real personalities, and to be believable when they’re talking about your company and your products.

4. Don’t skimp on good audio production values. A small investment in good quality audio equipment will pay off in providing professionalism this to your video. A simple, but important, touch is the use of a wireless lavaliere microphone on your interviewee’s lapel. Doing so, you can improve sound quality dramatically versus using a camera microphone of questionable quality. Quality sound is a key in representing your company in a light consistent with the quality you bring to your product or service.

5. Be aware of the quality of lighting and your cameras limits. Professional and prosumer video cameras have an ability to shoot in lower light conditions than say, a Flip camera. When using low level digital cameras, shoot in natural light, or go outside rather than try to shoot near a window whenever possible. If you’re not careful, the folks you’re interviewing may look washed out or display the dreaded raccoon eyes. If shooting indoors is a must, and your using your Flip or other lower end digital camera, using proper lighting equipment is best and a relatively modest investment. This added investment lets you put the very best light on your company, its products and services.

6. Unless you are skilled in, or are willing to learn each of the five previous elements, seriously consider hiring an outside expert. It is difficult enough to use content marketing effectively in a more traditional verbal and static visual context. When you move into an unfamiliar world, like video, you will benefit from the expertise of someone who is a trained storyteller and is able to craft a story quickly and compellingly. Doing so alleviates worry regarding technical issues, and more importantly can bring an outside perspective to your stories in a way that brings real value to video and how your audience views it – as relevant and authentic to their needs and interests.

Biggest mistake to avoid: Don’t use a bad video just because you spent time, effort, and money to shoot it. The last thing you want to do is show your staff or an important customer, or yourself for that matter – in an unflattering performance. Wait until you’ve got it just right to go live online.

The Bottom-Line: You have only one opportunity to make a great first video impression. So, be sure to make the effort in time, equipment, story development, and talent so that your customers watch, respond, and share your online video. Just like any other potentially powerful tool, video will work best for you when you learn how and where to use it right.

The post 6 Tips for Making Online Video Work for Small Business appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

The video was published July 19, 2009, and it now has nearly 30 million views. It had nearly 19 million views in the first three weeks after posting.

That’s what you call a viral video. It’s the stuff marketers dream of — 19 million people reached with no money spent on distribution or production. Businesses that achieve that kind of reach profit enormously. If you have any doubts, checkout what it did to Forever’s iTunes sales.

Of course, the chances of your company creating a video that reaches 19 million people in three weeks are essentially zero. It’s not going to happen, so don’t bother.

Most marketers understand that truly viral videos are almost impossible to create — and they use this as a reason to abandon video altogether.

That’s a mistake.

Video doesn’t need to be viral to have an impact on your business. In fact, any robust inbound marketing content strategy should include a video component, designed with assumption that none of the videos will “go viral.” Instead, businesses should put time into video for at least six other reasons:

(1) Video Gives Your Business A Voice — It’s one thing to read a paragraph about a company, but it’s a completely different thing to spend two minutes listening to a business owner and staff share the story, vision, and purpose of their business. Video adds a personal dimension to company websites, which are typically heavy on impersonal text.

(2) Videos Are Marketing Annuities — Like a blog post, videos are annuities; once you’ve published your video and it passes its initial burst of traffic, you’ll continue to get traffic and banding value indefinitely.

(3) Videos Build Company Culture — Videos are fun and they show that your company can have fun. They serve as morale builders within the company, and recruiting tools outside the company.

(4) Video Is Another Channel for Your Content — Effective inbound marketing content strategies need to be executed in multiple media types. Some forms of information are best communicated in blog posts; some in photos or graphics; some in webinars; others in video. If you’re not using or even experimenting with a combination of these channels, you’re missing potential customers.

(5) Videos Are Not As Involved To Produce As You May Think — If your business has stories, and all do, videos will be easy to produce. Don’t get sucked into the traditional details of video production. To plan your video, define your stories, schedule time to shoot it – with outside help if you wish – and make sure the shooting doesn’t drag on. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it simply needs to be authentic, relevant, and a bit entertaining.

(6) More Video, More Likely to Have a Big Success — Just like venture capital or movie production, online marketing video is portfolio business. No successful movie studio bets their year on a single film. They spread their resources across multiple films, and hope they’ll get one money-maker out of their portfolio. You should approach your marketing videos the same way. Don’t stop telling your stories and those of your employees, customers, collaborative partners, neighborhood, etc. Ask yourself – would my customers find this story interesting? – if so, tell it.

Does your company / business currently use video for marketing? How? Why? What else should be on this list?

The post Six Reasons Videos That Don’t Go Viral Are Valuable appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

The post Tell the Story Differently through Different Media appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

More and more businesses are using video as part of their overall marketing strategies. Once a high barrier to entry due to the sheer expense of video creation, production and marketing, businesses can now launch effective video tactics with just a few thousand dollars.

This also creates a problem. Because it is now so easy to create a video, and the proliferation of video sharing sites such as YouTube (among others) is ever increasing, there are more bad videos available than ever before.

What’s happened is that businesses are continuing to focus on the “technology” and not the core reason why videos are successful – great content and storytelling targeted to a specific customer segment.

If you are considering video as part of your integrated marketing strategy, here are the success factors.

Tell the Story, Not Your Story
Like any valuable, relevant and compelling content you create, a video is not about you, it’s about your customers. This is the biggest challenge for a business to overcome. So many times businesses want to talk about their products and services, or position one of their executives as an expert. That’s all fine and good, but if the video does not meet the informational needs of the individual watching it, it won’t be watched.

The solution is simple. Develop a keen understanding of the customer or prospect group you are targeting. What are their key challenges? What do they need to know to be more productive at work, or live better lives? Why is your message important in the first place?

Once that is established, you can then weave in your marketing objectives into the video content without selling to them. Remember, your goal is not to sell them, but to help develop a conversation with them. Without valuable content, there is no possibility of a conversation.

Forget the One-Timers and Think “Series”
Like any other successful communications program, consistency is the key. Many businesses create video in hopes of that viral one-hit wonder. Really successful business videos build upon each other. Sites like willitblend.com or askaninja.com didn’t just produce one video and sit back. They planned for ongoing and consistent videos with a content plan focused on their target customers.

Share It, Don’t Own It
Just like your brand doesn’t belong to you anymore (it belongs to your customers), treat your videos the same way. Don’t just expect your customers and prospects to only go to your website to view the video. Populate it wherever your customers may be, whether YouTube, Facebook or probably most fitting, the industry media sites and portals in your particular niche. Your goal is for your video to be watched, so that you can change or maintain a behavior. Knowing where your customers are prone to “engage” in your content is key.

Focus on Content over Production Value
The days of six-figure videos are over. Today’s consumers are very accepting of “YouTube quality” video, which are sometimes viewed as more credible and “real” to certain consumer groups. What are your current customers viewing habits? That question will save you a ton in production expenses.

Get Outside Help
When a business owner or sales and marketing department produces video without outside help, there is an uncontrollable urge to actively sell in it. Hire a on-line video content specialist or journalist to give you a third-party view that will help remove the rose-colored glasses.

Video lets customers view, see and hear things not possible with other formats. The technology is great, but it’s the targeted storytelling that will define your success and bring out the “human” side of your company.

The post Video – It’s Not About You, It’s About Your Customers. appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.

51% growth expected for online video in next 12 months!

(Note: the study requires name and email to download and the 20-page eBook can be downloaded here).

Here are the highlights from the 189 marketing professionals that took the study:

Beliefs about Content Marketing

* 93% of marketing professionals create or plan to create content marketing as part of their overall programs in the next year. The take: We are all publishers now.
* Almost 67% of marketers believe that the content they produce can have the same or more value than a traditional media company. 8 out of 10 believe they can create content as engaging as media companies. The take: Brands have access to some of the best writing talent in their industries today versus years’ past, so this makes sense (although the number is a bit higher than we expected. Marketers we’ve talked with on this don’t really “believe” they can do this without proper coaxing.)

Measurement

* Marketers believe content marketing is 18 times more effective in actually determining ROI than traditional advertising (74% to 4%). The take: Wow! But, this makes more sense when you look further at their marketing objectives. Since most are heavily relying on lead generation, this seems right since content drives lead generation programs. Still, amazingly high number.
* 70% of marketers are spending more on content marketing over the last three years. The take: this is consistent with our findings last December that found a 56% increase in content marketing spending in 2009 alone.

Content Where?

* Top tactics where content marketing is spent: Email marketing, Corporate web site, Social media.
* Where will the money be going next year: Online video and podcasts, White papers/eBooks, Social media.

How to use this report?

If you need research and statistics in order to get buy-in from your executive team for content marketing, this will be incredibly helpful. There are a lot more stats in here than the ones I included, so download the entire eBook report here.

Thanks to King Fish and Junta42 for putting this together.

The post Content Marketing / Custom Publishing Research – Marketers Telling the Story appeared first on StoryFirst Media Website.