Tag: video

What Can Video Do for Your Brand in New Year?

Video is an amazing resource for small business owners. This marketing method showcases your brand personality and allows your audience a window into the real you so they can make the connection needed to build trust. The emotions behind your eyes, your thoughts around certain topics, and the fun culture you are building around your business are effective ways of getting attention, building awareness, and earning trust for your brand. Whether pre-recorded or live – your audience gains insights into who you are as an individual and a business.

Get Attention

People are busy. Pretty graphics used to work well but, often, they just become something that people scroll past. An engaging caption is ideal, but first, you have to get someone on social media to stop and read it. Short videos about you and your business are great ways to get someone’s attention. By recording short videos that are motivational, inspirational, educational, or entertaining – you are increasing the likelihood that someone will find you on social media.

Build Awareness

Once you get their attention, you’ll need to keep it long-term. This is where video excels. If someone resonates with your videos, and you make a commitment to consistently show up, that audience will keep coming back to watch more. This is the perfect opportunity to build awareness about your brand so people understand who you are, how you serve, and your big vision for business and the world.

Earning Trust

When it’s time to make a purchasing decision, trust is the most important part. Watching your videos allows your audience to get to know you better, understand what you provide, and make a decision on whether or not you are the right company for them. 

For years now, marketing professionals have been recommending video marketing and it’s a trend that continues to be successful and still produces results for small businesses.

If you are using social media, you are probably only engaging with pages that share relatable content. Are you wanting to define your story and build a long term relationship with a loyal audience that finds YOUR content enjoyable and relatable? Let’s do a Discovery Session to see which Social Media Advisor programs best fit your needs.

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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

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#TechIsTheNewAwesome – Utilizing Live Video for Online Marketing

If you’ve been watching the trends in digital marketing, then you won’t be surprised to hear that video currently makes up 74%  of all web traffic. Just look at your own social media feeds and you’ll see lots of videos as you scroll through. And if you look closely, you’ll notice that they’re not just ads. There are videos of news stories, self-help information, humor and a variety of other content.
There’s a good reason for all that video: it works! It’s engaging, has been proven to make the message easier to remember, and those who see it tend to stick with the content longer. Forbes reports that by 2019 video will claim more than 80% of all web traffic. Video traffic is high across all platforms – video views on phones and tablets now account for about half of all traffic. As video has become more popular, more platforms are making it available to their users.

Facebook Live, Twitter’s Periscope, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat all provide easy ways to share video. And you don’t have to spend a fortune to produce it. Smartphones have made it easy for anyone to produce high quality live streaming experiences for their social media feeds.
If you haven’t been using video as part of your marketing strategy yet, you might be wondering how to make it work for your company. Let’s say your tech support or customer service lines have a question that is frequently asked. A live how-to session that explains the problem can give your customers the chance to learn more about the product and interact with your experts. Other ways to engage your audience include live streaming events that you sponsor, a “behind the scenes” look at your business, and inspirational testimonies by customers.
Of course, nothing is quite as simple as it sounds. If you grab the camera and just start broadcasting  without a plan, chances are you won’t get the results you’re looking for. You need to treat video like your other marketing initiatives: you need to choose the right platform for your business, craft the message you want to convey, learn about the tools and determine how you will measure success.
Take a look at how others in your industry are using video. If video isn’t widely used in your industry yet, check out leaders in other industries. Buzzfeed is considered one of the best at streaming, and brands like Starbucks and Mashable incorporate live video as part of their marketing strategy.

With a little homework and lots of practice, you can successfully weave live streaming video into your overall marketing strategy. Once you hit on the right formula for your business you’ll find that your customers are more engaged, your message is hitting the right points, and you may even have some fun.

Live video is one my passions. If you have an event coming up and would like to get some live coverage for your social platforms, give us a shout at The Social Media Advisor! Let’s show the world how AWESOME you are.
Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!
Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.



#AwesomeStorytelling – Share Your Passion With Videos

One of the most effective ways to get your audience on board with your passion is by making great storytelling videos. With social media giants like Facebook and Instagram pushing video content, now’s the time to connect visually with your viewers.


How do you do that?

With awesome storytelling, of course!

An infomercial will turn off your readers, but a compelling story will keep them hooked. Stories are great ways to teach, engage with, and create emotional responses in your audience.

You don’t have to sit in front of the camera and talk for ten minutes. As a matter of fact, that can actually be detrimental to your video’s success. Instead, incorporate other visuals that help tell your story. You can use regular things like slides, but also consider recording additional footage that enforces your story. This is called B-Roll, and it’s wonderful. If your passion is horses and horse rescue, showing B-Roll footage of horses running at dawn, or the recovery efforts of a recent rescue can lend power to your voice.

Here is a fantastic video by filmographer Peter McKinnon on how to incorporate B-Roll in your video. Some key takeaways are to use your B-Roll to help tell your story, think about how your world is a part of your passion, and use it to make your story more powerful.

If you’re camera shy, you can develop videos that incorporate B-Roll, slides, and more with a voiceover by you.

You can also take advantage of platforms and the way they push videos. Instagram Stories, for instance is a great way to show your daily passion through video. Jesse Driftwood is an excellent Instagram Stories user, and he gives some incredible tips on how to take your storytelling to the next level. Keep in mind that Instagram Stories are temporary, but you can create the video with whatever software you choose and then upload it, so your Stories stay with you. You can release them on other platforms, as well, but the daily connection with your passion can be told through daily footage, excitement for your day, and, as Jesse says, by making everyday things in your life a “character”.

Whatever way you decide to tell your story, make sure you keep these key point in mind:
  1. A story has a beginning, middle, and end. Whether it’s ten minutes on YouTube or fifteen seconds on Instagram Stories, you need to follow this logic. A cliffhanger now and then is okay, but do it too often, and your audience will become exasperated.
  2. Music is necessary. Make sure you adjust the volume levels appropriately, and that the music fits the story you tell.
  3. Shoot video footage with as much stabilization as possible. There is nothing more jarring than shaky cameras. There are some amazing phone and camera mounts out there. If you create “selfie” types of videos, make sure you have three points of contact with the stick and you’ll see a huge difference in the shakiness factor. You can also try a stabilization system like steadicam or any other type of gimbal device. Basically, it uses counterweights to keep your video steady so you can walk, talk, and without the jarring stepping motions.
  4. Put your best foot forward. In video, appearances are just as important as content. So make sure you’re camera ready before you begin.

That’s it for video storytelling! What kind of video did you want to make? Are there any areas you’d like me to expand on?

Remember that telling your passion in the form of storytelling is just one way to be awesome in storytelling.




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Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

#AwesomeConsistency – How Consistent Video Supports Company Culture & Expectations

We keep talking about how video, live video in particular, has the biggest impact in social media in 2017 – and that’s just facts. If you are planning to incorporate video into your social media or marketing strategy on a regular basis, to take advantage of the benefits of consistency, then you will need a game plan for the videos you create. Why? Because your videos will become a part of your corporate and personal branding – they will speak to your company culture and visually demonstrate your mission, vision and values to your audience. Expectations will be the ultimate result of this effort so if you do not begin with the end in mind, you could miss the mark with your video marketing.

Company Culture

How do your marketing videos affect your overall company culture? It’s a twofold approach. First, they act as an example to your team of what your business stands for both internally and externally. They can be used to showcase the brand, boost employee morale, and leverage both recruiting and retention efforts.

Not only are they a promotional tool for hiring the best talent, they build your company’s online presence in a way that sets expectations for the audience. Video is a way of demonstrating what you stand for, what you do, and how you engage with others. It establishes trust and a level of comfort, as your viewers start to feel like they know you and what you stand for. This lowers any perceived or hidden barriers between you and your followers. Know, Like, and Trust – the social marketing triad – is established by posting videos regularly.

Starting with Video

The great thing about video marketing is that you can begin with as little as a cell phone or invest in really high-quality production experts – depending on your budget and what you are looking to achieve with your content. With the rise of live video, people no longer expect an expensive end result. Often, just sitting down, speaking to your audience, and responding when they engage is all that is needed to make video worthwhile.

Stay on Point

If you don’t really understand your own branding yet – I mean backwards and forwards – then take time to fully develop your brand story before diving into video. Why? You are going to want to display those aspects of your branding that make you unique, interesting, and that differentiate you from your competition in your videos. Clear and concise content is what is needed to retain attention and audience.

Spotlighting

Do you hate being spotlighted or feel uncomfortable with the idea that it must be you on camera every week? Get creative or switch it up. Give your staff a voice by interviewing them. Highlight your products as they arrive or as you are packing them up to ship out. Show off your work space. Give viewers an insider’s perspective on how and why you do what you do.

Have a Purpose

As with any decent marketing strategy, understand before you start what you are wanting to get out of this process. What is your call to action? Are you trying to connect with your audience and deliver your brand messaging to more people (reach)? Trying to grow your list / sales funnel (lead generation)? Do you want to flip viewers into paying customers (conversions)? Communicate what you need and what is important to you, and your business. In order to get your audience invested in you, they need to understand your “why.”

If you haven’t started creating videos for your website, email newsletters, vlogs, or social media – then now is a great time to start! Soon everyone will be doing it and it will be more difficult to #BeAwesome and get the sort of results you can get right now while this movement is fairly new.

Ready to brainstorm and talk strategy? Book a discovery call with me!

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!
Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.
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