It’s what you do with the searcher, once they find you that counts!!

I was having a discussion with a business thought leader last week.  She remarked that a business person can choose the e-Conversation Solutions, search optimized video (SOV) solution rather than pay per click (PPC).  While SOV works very well when coordinated with SEO (multiple use of both content and questions), using it as an alternative to pay per click was intriguing.  She noted that either pay per click or using video to get on page one achieves the same result.

But, as a second derivative, I pointed out to her, that once you are found, it’s what you present that counts.  With SOV, you have an opportunity to immediately present your company as an expert.  A targeted video both provides information and conveys trust.  It differentiates you from the competition, and suggests additional content.

SOV says “how can I help you?” “Here is a way to solve your problem”.  Pay per click says “buy from me”.   If you are selling commodities, “buy from me” will work.  But, if you are working to establish a long term relationship, it’s about answering a question and solving a problem.

How content is reused to create answer bits

Here is the process that is used to create content in various media.

First, we start with a question, or a set of questions. These questions should be tied to your search engine optimization plan.   It is also good to look at your frequently asked questions.

Here is an  an interview with an internet chief architect.   The overall questioning was centered around search engine optimization.  This example is focused on understanding if your website is effective.

We create a set of questions around the overall topic.  One of the questions is  “how do I know if my website is having problems”

Here is the 25 minute interview on BLIP.TV.

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The interview is then cut into segments that are posted on YouTube and can be embedded in websites, blogs etc..

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The content is also used to create a blog posting.

Ask Score: Could I get more from my Web site? Posted by Ann D. at 1/13/2010 10:11 AM CST

You’ve invested a lot of time and energy in creating a Web site to promote your small business and serve your customers. But how can you tell if you’re really getting the most out of it?

John Fairley, chief architect for Walker Sands Communications and a frequent presenter at Score Chicago workshops, has two suggestions:

First, put your business name into your browser and see what happens. Does your business name come up in one of the top three positions? If not, you have some work to do.

Second, try some key words that describe your business. If your business name doesn’t come up, that’s useful data: Potential customers aren’t finding you online.

Mr. Fairley once worked with a local moving company and found that the company’s name did well on search engines. But potential customers who searched for terms like “movers,” “moving company” or “moving and storage” weren’t likely to find this company. It didn’t rank well on searches.

Mr. Fairley went to work, revising the company’s site to highlight these descriptive words. After a couple of months, the site was ranking better.

He offers some other suggestions to make your Web site more search-engine friendly. First, make sure you have your local address on every page. Also, if you have a local phone number and an 800 number, feature your local number. The local number reinforces your company’s location, and that’s a key metric for search engines.

Finally, Mr. Fairley suggests that you list your company in the major search engines. Google, Yahoo, and Bing all offer free listing services. Check out GetListed.org, a free online resource, for details.

You can learn move about search-engine optimization from this Score Chicago CAN-TV 21 Hotline interview on Blip TV.

Score Chicago also offers workshops on Web sites and the Internet. You can find workshop information here.

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The content is then reused to create a radio spot.  Listen to the spot here.

All versions of this content can be embedded in web sites.  Selected versions can also be used in e-mails, newsletters etc.

You CAN use a Flip Cam

I was having a discussion with some people interested in social media.  In that discussion,  I suggested that Flip Cams were not capable of being used in building social media in a business situation.  I stand corrected.    I would suggest two approaches

First, a flip cam can give you a uniquely personal look at an experience.   If you want to give a person a roller coaster experience.  Check this out.

A personal view into the life of the food pornographer.

Second, creating the “documentary” on location video.  While these are shot with a flip cam… the editing is quite professional.    So, a flip cam in the hands of a highly skilled creator works.    It allows you to capture your subject without the intrusion of lights etc.  cinéma vérité

Travel videos also work well with the flip cam

3 Content Strategies for Social Media – Bulletin Board, Informational, & Emotional

When a user interacts with you using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc, there is an understanding between you and the user as to what you will deliver.

There are three general content creation categories, (1) Bulletin Board,  (2) Informational (3) Emotional.  You should focus on one category for each effort.  Sometimes, you can mix 1 & 2  or 2 & 3,  but don’t try to do them all in one effort.

Bulletin Board – current news and events. These can be as simple as “new address 200 W. Main”.  A Bulletin Board could also highlight an upcoming event.  For the most part, this content is specific to a time and a place.  Here is an example of a workshop video that was done for SCORE Chicago

Informational – “Our new facility is 3000 sq. ft. it includes ..”   Product descriptions are also information videos.  Training tips, insights into operations etc.  Pointed answers to questions.  Below you will find a product video and an answer to a question.

Emotional “ we are creating an environment that will …”  A good video tour of a house would be emotional., connecting with you so that you want to live there.  Emotional, does not have to be complex.  Here is a short video done by Google about a person moving to Paris.

Restaurant postings are often emotional.   Note the comments on this restaurant video.

A good news story combines, information and emotional.  See this news report that I did with First Business News on web development.

Understand what is the goal of your content.  Then, create a place that is consistent with that goal.  You can have more than one channel or Twitter effort.  One person in Chicago has 5 different Twitter accounts, each one targeted toward a different effort.

Jess Constable, a recent guest on my TV show,  has a business that sells jewelry.  To that end, she has a website that showcases her jewelry (bulletin board + information).  www.jesslc.com .  Separately, she maintains a blog that connects with a community providing insights into simplifying your live  makeundermylife.com .  While the efforts are complementary,  she doesn’t sell on her blog.

Panda Express on Twitter – Has Social Media Arrived?

Today, I was looking at the local “Coupon Clipper” Magazine.  I noted on the front page that Panda Express was asking me to follow them on Twitter.  Social Media and Twitter has arrived, when the Chinese Food National Franchise is asking me to follow them.

Maybe?

I went and followed Panda Express.  Came to discover that while they had over 700 followers, they were not following anyone?  They had not made a Tweet since September of 2009.

Having been a corporate person, all I could imagine is that someone at headquarters had an incentive to get on Twitter, so they did.  Like in the mid-1990’s when you had to have a website, so you took your brochure and put it on the internet.

Social media is about having a conversation.  Don’t think that Panda Express is there yet.

Everyone wants something for free

Recently it seems like everybody wants something for free.  Our first reaction as small business people is to reject the idea as unfair.  Sure, if you are running an ice cream shop, handing out a tiny spoon, while the person is in the store deciding what flavor to buy is a no brainer.  You know that they are going to purchase, so just build an extra half ounce into your pricing model.

But how about services, how do you give something away.  Recently, I have been shopping for a logo.  I came up with a number of home grown concepts, shopped them around my network and got some good responses.  However, a number of people suggested that I consider getting quotes from professional designers.

I reached out to two companies.  I sent each one my concepts and what people had said about them.  I figured that I was at least half way there.  One company took my email and without asking turned around a concept that got me about 80% of the way there… at no charge to me.  Another one, scheduled a call, did not call me.  When I called them, they did not acknowledge the receipt of my material; were peeved that I did not recognize their design brilliance; announced their price, then ended the discussion.  Took all of about 5 minutes.

Who do you think I will purchase from?

Sharon Aby discusses the 4 step sales process of Awareness, Education, Consideration, and then the buyer purchasing.  If you can get someone to consideration, I would suggest that you think about “Free”.   Offer a workshop at no charge, or coupon for one of a series, or a no charge assessment.

What the heck, if everyone wants something for free… give it to them!

What is Social Media

This is from the Linked Media Group website.  Thought is was a particularly good summary of Social Media.

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Social Media

Social media is about moving from one-way broadcasts to two-way conversations with a targeted audience – turning passive constituents into engaged participation sessions online. Social Media Marketing blends technology and process to promote your web site, brand, product or service through established social media channels – generating incremental click back traffic, high quality links, conversations about your brand/products/services, advocates for your products and services and much more.

There is no absolute form or process that works universally and there is a tremendous amount of overlap with all Social Media Marketing – the more the better in many cases. Brand reputation is enhance when you increase viewership, discussions, comments, analysis, critiques, etc. – our job is to expose your products/services to a broad community, get them to talk about you and recommend your brand to their community of friends.

How does Social Media Marketing Help You?

If you can share your content with others, and they are listening (reading, watching and experiencing), then there is great opportunity for your brand, public relations, sales and marketing. The secret lies in making everything available. The value lies in other people doing the work for you by sharing, telling, even creating more of your content for others.

Social Media marketing helps to generate primary and secondary traffic back to your site. Primary traffic is simply visitors who clickthrough directly from a Social Media site – secondary traffic is referral traffic from web sites which link to your site and refer visitors to you, after visitors find your content (Article, Blog Excerpt, Link, Video, etc.) on a Social Media site.

Think links too, popularity ratings with Digg, Reddit or other top tier SM sites will generate a large number of links for you, which help with ongoing SEO rankings and incremental traffic.

Our Three Absolute Laws for Successful Social Media Marketing

Most if no all forms of Social Media Marketing processes will address one of these three core types of actions, with overlap being the order of the day.

• Declare Your Identify
• Foster Association and Interaction
• Initiate User Interaction and Conversations

Declare Your Identity means your are declaring your online persona or identify, who you are, how you can be found online and where. “Identity Declaration” encompasses anything from your Blog Profile to your About Us page, your bio on YouTube, Squidoo, Hub Pages, your LinkedIn profile or Facebook page. This is a passive process, in that you are just “identifying who you are” not “pushing this out to third parties in most cases.”

Foster Association and Interaction is your way of giving third parties (customers, vendors, commentators, friends, family, etc.) to associate with you formally or informally online. Encompassing people posting about you via a Blog Roll on a blog, making a recommendation on LinkedIn on your behalf, “friending” you via Friendster or more consumer focused Social Media sites, following you on Twitter, Furl, Delicious – we are oversimplifying a bit, as we are mixing some more business oriented sites with consumer sites.

Initiate User Interactions and Conversations – in the online world you want users to talk about your company, its products or services – this is usually a good thing. If they aren’t, our job is to initiate and monitor these conversations on your behalf; or, more importantly, make sure your site has an integrated forum that lets people post about your products and services that we can monitor and respond to.

We were posting over ten years ago on Discussion Boards, Groups and CompuServe – fast forward to today and we are using some of the same processes, but incorporating a much broader base of sites (Google, Yahoo Groups, MSN/AOL Groups, Affinity Sites, Kaboodle Groups, Ning, Blog comments, etc.

We want to provoke, initiate and stimulate conversations with the broad community – what people like, dislike or even hate about your company – but, always respect their input, time and the implicit value in the dialogue you are building with them.

No that we have hopefully given you a sense about Social Media Marketing Services here is a list of our Core Services:

Initiating and Growing Organic Conversations

• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Article Sites
• Online Videos
• Wikis
• Social Networks
• Online Surveys
• Widget Development
• Webcasts (Broadcast & Archived)
• Integrating SEO Optimized Site Content
• Comment Posting
• Content Chunks & Posting
• Viral Content
• Cultivating Network of Supporters
• White Papers

How to Measure Social Media Marketing

As stated earlier, RO analysis for Social Media Marketing is not as easy as SEO, CPC campaigns, etc. We know of services that charge anywhere from a few thousand dollars a month to tens of thousands But, here are some metrics that we utilize for most of our clients to measure effectiveness which help us to track ROI.

• Traffic Spikes using Analytics
• YouTube Video Views
• Overall Web Site Traffic Trends
• Leads/Downloads/Calls
• Facebook or LinkedIn Friends/Contacts
• Improved Search Rankings
• Discussion Posts
• Alexa (good for broad trends)
• Compete
• Google Trends (only high volume keywords though)

YouTube Accounts for most video views

• 99% of Google Views are YouTube
• 170 million viewers watched an average of 182 videos per viewer
• 84.8% of US internet audience viewed one online video

How Online Video can Replace Cold Calling, Demos, Training

I don’t normally reblog someone else.  But, I thought this one was particularly good.

Home » Online Video to Replace Cold Calling, Demos, Training

Online Video to Replace Cold Calling, Demos, Training

As online video becomes a more accepted, widespread, measurable and cost-effective communications tool it is poised to enhance – and even replace – some of the more labor-intensive marketing and training functions at many businesses, according to a recent blog post by Wistia.

Wistia contends that video will likely supplement and replace the following five things in the not-too-distant future:

• Product Demos: The initial demonstration of a product or service no longer need take place in person.  Instead, prospects can watch demos on-demand and become knowledgeable more quickly – and in advance of an in-person sales meeting. This, in turn, can free up salespeople to focus on ripe opportunities, provide more in-depth demonstrations to customers at the next stage in the purchase process, and increase meaningful interactions.

• Customer Testimonials: Providing prospects information about satisfied customers is often one of the most meaningful and effective ways to build trust and close deals, though such first-hand recommendations are often one of the hardest things to arrange.  Interviewing customers for testimonials and packaging them on video will ensure they are at-the-ready when needed in a marketing or sales pitch.

• Cold Calling: Though cold calling is celebrated by the few salespeople who thrive on it, it is an often-maligned function that is unpalatable to many callers and call recipients alike.  Taking a “cold-call” message and making it into a video will enables prospects to receive a polished message in a way that is convenient for them. In terms of measurement, tracking what a potential lead watches also can give salespeople more time to follow up with meaningful conversations and less time chasing prospects down.

• In Person Training: Advances in technology, increasingly busy schedules and tight budgets have made in-person training harder to justify. Using online video to educate eliminates the need to travel, book venues or print out and ship documents. More importantly, it enables people to learn on their own and on their own schedule. It’s also possible to track the viewers of training videos to gauge the impact.

• Help & Support: Keeping customers and prospects happy and engaged 24/7 is a given in today’s competitive environment. While some customers prefer to tweet questions, others want an FAQ or forum, and still others want more in-depth explanations. As expectations have shifted, responsive marketers are coming to realize that they must make many different types of resources – including video that is especially effective in showing complex nuances and procedures – available on demand.

3 Tips on how you use Social Media to become the “Trusted Source”

I was talking yesterday with a person who had been a reporter for a major newspaper. We discussed the fact that print in general and newspapers in particular were losing readers to the internet.  He expressed a concern that no one wanted to pay for what he called a “trusted source”.   While on the other hand, information on the internet was being accessed, but often was untrustworthy.

As we talked more, it became clear that there is an opportunity to become a trusted source in your business area.  While viewers are not going to pay for your content, they will reward your company by purchasing your products or services.  Prospects are searching for answers.  If you provide the trusted answers, people are more likely to purchase.  Video allows for greater trust because they can see and hear you.

Here are 3 Tips that will help you become a trusted source.

1. Understand what benefits your products/services provides.  Be very clear how your company fits into your overall business ecosystem.  If you have not done a vision/mission, it can be a good exercise to help.  Also, helpful is a competitive analysis. Knowing who you are not is as important as what you do.   You can only be a trusted source in the areas where you are competent.
2. Reach out to experts in your business area.  Here you can tap your internal resources.  Additionally, consider your suppliers, partners and even your customers.  Being a trusted source does not mean that you need to have all the knowledge, just that you can help point the viewer in the right direction.  A video interview with is an expert, that is facilitated by your company is very powerful.
3. Find a “host” to provide continuity.  A “Walter Cronkite” does not have to know everything, but your repeat viewer is counting on someone to insure that the subject matter expert stays on track.  That host can also provide continuity.  Reminding your viewers that this interview is consistent with ones done in the past.   Your host also needs a bit of personality.  While viewers won’t tune in just to see a host, the host does provide familiarity.. putting your viewer at ease.

Think about how you can promote your experts in email marketing, trade shows and other events.   For example, when you do a new video posting, let your customers know.  Provide that content to other members of your ecosystem.  If you are doing an interview with one of your suppliers, ask them to also reach out to their customer base.  You can also give them the video that they can embed in their website.

Customer interviews are very powerful.   While these clips enhance your website or blog, you would be surprised how many times customers will want to add it to their website.  Experts often use a good video interview to enhance their personal reputation.  All of those postings will reinforce your company’s position as a trusted source.

Establishing your company as a trusted source takes time, money, and effort.  However, the payoff can be significant.  Mindshare can be translated into market share.  The value of knowledge cannot be discounted.