Above and Beyond YouTube: Using Video To Promote Your Business
A Guest Post by Maureen Page
Many are now turning to video to help promote their company. Many others are “dabbling” with video or thinking about it. With the advent and popularity of YouTube and other web-based video services, it has become amazingly easy to get videos published for the masses to see.
Stop and Think About What You are Trying to Accomplish
Before you get into video in a big way it is important for you to establish what you want to accomplish with video. If all you want to do is make people aware of your company and your products or services, then simply posting videos to YouTube may suffice. Most companies, however, aspire to more than simply being known. Most want to sell something. If you have more lofty goals of bringing people to your website and generating prospects for your products and services, then your video efforts will need to move beyond YouTube. Make no mistake about it. YouTube will still be a component of your strategy; it simply will not be the major component of your strategy.
Using Video to Get Traffic and Prospects
So you want traffic to your website and prospects for your products or services. The challenge is that in order to get traffic, videos need to be on your website. In order for the videos to be more easily discovered they need to be on YouTube. So what is one to do? The answer is simple – you need to put the videos both places. But you should not put all of the videos both places. Some of the videos need to go on YouTube to be “discovered.” Others need to be on your site to generate traffic. The best way to accomplish this is to create a video series. The first couple of videos in the series should be posted to YouTube. They should promote that they are part of a series and that the rest are on your site. The remaining videos should be posted to your own site.
Some things that help this to be particularly effective:
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The video series should be on a topic of general interest, not simply a commercial for your
company, products, or services. -
Each video should advertise that it is part of a series and advertise where to get the next video
in the series. -
Put your branding and website URL in the lead-in and trailing parts of the video. Also, in the
trailer advertise where the next video can be seen along with the URL to access that video. -
It is all right, and important for completeness of the video series on your own site, to put the
code from YouTube for the first couple of videos onto your own site. PLEASE NOTE: You should
not simply put all of the videos on YouTube and then put them on your site using the YouTube
code. If you do this the vast majority of people will simply view the videos on YouTube and very
few people will actually come to your site. You need to purposely split the videos as mentioned
above to force people to your site if they want to see the rest in order to get traffic to your site.
Following this strategy should:
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Help to get exposure for your videos by placing some of them on YouTube.
-
Funnel traffic and potential customers to your site because the rest of the videos are there.
Maureen Page is VP of Discount Security Cameras. To learn more about security camera systems and video surveillance visit the Discount Security Cameras Interactive Security Camera Learning Center.
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–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
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3 traits of the best leaders
by Patty Azzarello
Stand-out Leaders
What makes the top leaders stand out it is not their skills, or experience.
Once you get to compete for the top jobs, everyone has impressive skills and lots of relevant experience. So how do you differentiate?
Itâs also not just about execution.
Execution is critical, for sure. Yes, you need to be able to set a compelling agenda and deliver on it, but again, thatâs entry stakes â it doesnât make you great.
Where is the greatness?
The higher up you go, your value as a leader is associated more with who you are as a person, than with your skills.
Iâve noticed that there are 3 traits that the best leaders have:1. They are who they are
2. The communicate well
3. They pick the right people and make them great
1. Great Leaders are who they are
They are people whose words and actions match what they genuinely think and feel on the inside. This is sadly pretty rare.
Egos, agendas, fear, and politics all pull on us to say and do things that we donât quite believe, but serve to please others, smooth things out, or defend ourselves. Most people cave in to this pressure.
The best leaders stick to their values
They say and do what they really feel and think. They bring the core of who they really are to work, and they talk about what really matters to them. When you see a leader behaving this way it obvious that they are being authentic.  Itâs not hard to spot. You canât fake it.
You can fake opinions or positions, but you canât fake authenticity!
This authenticity builds trust and and makes people eager to follow
2. They communicate well
The best leaders communicate well, consistently, often, and to everyone. They invite people in. They let people know what is going on. And to the first point, they tell people what they really think.
One-to-one communication
Great leaders listen.
They donât just go through the act of listening, they listen with active curiosity because they are genuinely interested in learning the other personâs point of view.
Execs that go through the act of listening, but donât actually respect the people they are listening to, nor really care to understand the opinions they are hearing, may get some leadership points for the show, but they are not connecting and they are not learning.
Group communications
A steady heartbeat of communications from the top lets people know that you are there, and that you are engaged. What you say is almost less important than the fact that you commit yourself to saying it on a regular schedule.
Communicate every week or two without fail. You will score huge leadership points with steady, quality communications.
When people feel in the loop, they are much more motivated, less worried, and more productive, and they consider you to be a better leader than someone they seldom hear from.
Persuasiveness
Great leaders are persuasive.
You donât need to be a world class public speaker to be a good communicator. You need to understand people and how to persuade them. That is why listening and learning helps.
Persuasive communications light the path you are asking people to travel, and sell the reasons why they should go with you. The best leaders do this all the time.
3. They pick the right people and make them great
The right people
There is nothing more important to effective leadership than to build a team underneath you that is so capable, that you can free yourself up to solve higher order problems.
I will repeat that for emphasis. This is really key!
There is nothing more important to effective leadership than to build a team underneath you that is so capable, that you can free yourself up to solve higher order problems.
Donât cover for a weak team
If you are personally stepping in to do the work because you have weak spots (people on your team not capable or motivated enough to step up to do more) then you are holding yourself back as a leader. And you are failing to deliver enough value to your business.
Make them Great
Hire stars, give them big work, support them, and let them excel. Help them be amazing. Create an environment where the team works really well, and the individuals can grow to solve bigger problems over time too.
Why this works
I used to wonder why I was so lucky to always have such remarkable, talented, experienced people want to work for me. What I finally realized is that it was two things:
First, I picked the right people for the right jobs so they could work where they have natural strengths and really thrive in their work. And second, I gave them the room and support to stretch beyond their current capabilities.
So the magic of why they wanted to work for me was that they felt respected and they could be proud of their work. They got to personally achieve more than they knew they could, and got recognized for it.
People like to be amazing and they like to be recognized for it.
In contrast, other bosses did not respect and maximize their gifts and give them the opportunity and support to be amazing.
This feels almost too good to be true, because you end up getting the best people and they move mountains for you. And all you need to do is show them trust and respect and get things out of their way.
I guess the hard part comes along if you feel threatened by great people.
What do you think?
What do you admire about your favorite leaders? Leave your thoughts in the comment box below.
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Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello
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I Need To Blog But I Hate Writing
By Terez Howard
This statement is not true of me. I love writing. I find the written word to be the best way to express oneself.
However, not all share the warm, fuzzy feelings I have for writing.They have more of a love-hate relationship with sentences and paragraphs.
When you recognize the benefits of blogging, then you know that you have to kindle some type of fire for writing or hire a professional blogger.When I don’t know how to do something, I always opt to hire out.
My husband once decided that he could repair our toilet. It was a simple fix, so he was told. Simple for the professional and simple for the completely clueless amateur have two totally opposite definitions. After Ethan “fixed” our toilet, which took a couple hours, every flush included waterfalls down our basement walls and showers into our garage.
We learned our lesson. Always seek professional help. The plumber charged as much as a new toilet would have cost us for about 10 minutes of work. But we got a functional toilet with no leakage.
When you cannot do it, don’t.
Like I said, when you are absolutely certain that your limited skills stop short at creating intelligible sentences, hire out. Don’t feel defeated. It takes a strong, humble person to seek out help when needed.
But let’s say that no matter how you figure your expenses, you cannot afford a good writer. That does not mean it’s time to shut down your blog.
Get some guest bloggers.
The majority of guest bloggers will write at your blog for $0. Why would a writer give services away for free? Because what she gets in return doesn’t have a price.
Jael Strong and I are in the midst of a guest blogging challenge. Yes, we are looking for exposure. But even more importantly, we are looking to make connections with people.
We’re not the only available guest bloggers out there. Others have joined us in the challenge. Take advantage of this free insight, and when you have the funds to hire a writer, you know to whom you can turn.
Just talk
Guest blogging can fill in many of the holes in your blog. You still feel the need to add your own original posts. My best advice is to just talk.
A blog is informal. It’s not a research paper. It doesn’t have to strictly follow every rule of grammar. I’m not saying that strings of run-ons are acceptable or that outside links are not warranted. I am saying that you can loosen up.
Don’t think of your blog as a formal article. Think about it as helpful information you are sharing with a friend. Just talk!
If you still aren’t buying into that tip, then seriously, just talk. Get a video camera, talk and put up some video posts. That is still a blog, well, a vlog to be more correct.
Make sure you’re talking/writing about something that interests you. I find the best way to generate interest is to parallel it with your own life. You might find your love-hate relationship with writing tipping the scale more toward love.
How do you keep your blog fresh?
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Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas. You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger.
Thanks, Terez!
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!
Boring Work? Or Your Missed Opportunity?
Doing the Impossible Wasn’t as Valuable as Doing One Thing
I worked my way into publishing through the back door. First I freelanced for magazines. Then I worked for a developer who built projects for corporations. Then finally one of the publishers hired me. My first title as a really publishing company employee was Executive Editor. I was delighted and excited to be taking on this new huge responsibility.
This happened long before personal branding. Tom Peters had not yet coined the phrase or the idea of Brand You. But if that had been vogue while this was happening, my personal brand for that stage of my career was clear. I even had named my self definition as …
I wanted to be the one person known through the industry who consistently did the impossible.
I liked the charge of solving high-risk problems. I liked the adrenalin rush of winning in a high stakes game when everything seemed unlikely. That’s what challenged my intelligence and my creativity to higher level problem solving.
When I got to my new job, my desk was too empty. My job description and job role said I had to stay in the realm of possibility. The situation was so not me. Impossible situations weren’t happening, because I had more time than I needed for everything. And other people’s impossible situations were hands off to me.
It was boring.
When the situation gets boring, I do drastic things. I started thinking about what it is what we were doing. and a question struck me …
What if I used all of the time I had to do something of a drastically, emphatically, elegantly higher quality?
What if I changed my self-definition to
I want to be the one person known through the industry who consistently delivers the highest quality on schedule on budget.
Doing the impossible consistently didn’t seem as noble or valuable as doing the best quality work in the industry. That simple change in perspective pushed me back into learning.
Suddenly my desk didn’t seem so boring or so empty.
I became a better publisher, manager, product maker and even a better person because I learned the value of a new way of thinking. Any work can offer an opportunity.
Next time you think what’s in front of you is boring, look for the opportunity you could be missing. It could be a doorway to a new way of thinking.
How might a new view of what you’re doing change what you’re learning to get you where you want to go faster?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Michael Jordan, The Old Spice Guy: Why Characters and Celebrities Can’t Humanize Your Brand
A Celebrity Doesn’t Humanize a Brand
I don’t watch TV much, but lately when I do this Hanes commercial with Michael Jordan keeps cropping up.
Does this commercial “humanize” Hanes? Of course not. It’s a traditional celebrity endorsement and if anything, it makes the celebrity look smart and the customer look informed, but not so socially adept. We may want to ibecome a bigger fan of Michael Jordan, but do we want to join a group of the guys who act like the guy talking to him?
Is the commercial really about making a relationship with Hanes or with the celebrity who wears Hanes? I say Hanes built a commercial about humanizing Michael Jordan, not Hanes.
The Old Spice Guy and Mr. Clean
Last year when the “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” Old Spice Campaign came out, everyone I knew passed on it on to someone else. We sat at lunch at SxSW sharing it on our iPhones because the clever copy and innovative camera work made it fun and worth talking about.
And then, the Old Spice Team at Wieden and Kennedy knocked our socks off when the Old Spice Man started answering comments with YouTube Videos.
But did the Old Spice Man humanize the brand? Again, I think not. What is the Old Spice Man? A celebrity work for hire? A human Mr. Clean? A character we can make a relationship with?
We’re still not making a relationship with Old Spice or the people who work for the brand.
Why Characters and Celebrities Don’t Humanize a Brand
Being human is about having humanity — a benevolent compassion for other members of the species. That’s a job that doesn’t stay on a TV screen, in a magazine, or on a website. It’s a relationship that goes both ways. It responds to questions, finds solutions, picks up the phone, answers the email, and celebrates great ideas.
As much as they add personality and glamour, even a sense of the way that people who run the brand want to relate with us, characters and celebrities can’t humanize a brand. They are cardboard cut outs of people not real people we can form a relationship with.
Here’s just a few things they don’t do.
- They don’t listen and respond in meaningful human ways. They don’t ask us about our ideas, thoughts, wishes, needs, or the real ways we use their products. Surveys and questions are about them, not us. How do you like me? Isn’t a relationship building question.
- They don’t act on our behalf. They don’t carry back our thoughts, ideas, and information to the people who make the products, do the marketing, and solve the problems when something isn’t working.
- They don’t have true two-way conversations. They are paid or made to represent the brand in the same that packaging does — to underscore and represent an idea or a feeling in an outgoing direction.
- They don’t build communities. Their work is not intended to help customers connect as people, but rather to connect customers to their products or the brand.
In other words, characters and celebrities don’t build relationships. They keep the brand conversation all about the brand. Humans who only talk about themselves, think about themselves, and work to promote themselves are considered lacking in humanity as well.
It takes real people who love their work and care about real customers, who work with real vendors, partners, and customers to reach real customer goals and solve real customer problems to humanize a brand.
Celebrities and characters don’t do that. People like @AmberCadabra @GeorgeSmithJr @ZenaWeist @vick08 @bsimi @connieburke and @LionelatDell do.
What brand do you know that’s done a great job at showing its humanity?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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