Entrepreneurs exist in a world where there is no glass ceiling. Instead, our hopes must lie dormant in the idea of an enterprise, which must be built piece by piece from scratch. Without resources, financial and otherwise, we trample on, finding ways to make the most of what little we have to make something amazing from almost nothing. In Caine’s case, one man’s recycling was his raw material. See how far the entrepreneurial spirit took one boy in living in East LA.
This week’s blog article comes from onlinevideo.net and it touches on the key elements all businesses must consider when using online video. You want to make the best impression possible on the first impression. With so much competition on the web, businesses have one chance to engage their target market successfully. Appearance is everything, your video is a representation of your brand, your audience and your overall mission.
What does your video say about your brand?
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By Grant Crowell
How many times have you found yourself in this situation: You visit a company’s website, one that has video on it’s homepage, and the video leaves you with a worse impression of the brand than you had before? Maybe your experience was so bad that you shared the site with others.
The brand never saw it coming. The question is, did its marketing team understand what they were getting themselves into?
Ask most marketers today what it takes to succeed with online video, and they’ll say things like production, storytelling, advertising, SEO, and social media. They’re right, yet what they often miss is the fragile link that decides a video’s fate: a user-friendly experience.
The website is the strongest online presence consumers associate with a brand. Whatever video you place on it (especially on the homepage), that video speaks more for your company’s identity than any YouTube video or social media page. It also speaks to what you think of your audience — something that goes beyond the content itself. This is where web video usability comes in.
Online video usability is the practice of providing a simple, consistent, and relevant design to help your intended audience experience the video on your site. Like general usability tips, it speaks to ease-of-use, completion of tasks, and overall impression. It involves all of these components:
Online video can leave your visitors with a considerably stronger impression than can other media, and those visitors are likely to share that experience with others (for good or bad). There’s are several reasons why:
Without giving proper attention to user experience, even the most professional content and marketing activities can leave consumers with a negative impression, something that will diminish your video production and marketing efforts. Without first providing a positive user experience that includes ease-of-use and meeting expectations, your visitors won’t engage and certainly won’t convert.
So what can you do? Always provide your users with a professional-quality video experience on your website — whether it’s on the homepage or a thank you page. Make sure you score positive marks in all these criteria:
Companies that are serious about online video need to think hard about user experience, just as they do for every other part of their business. Once you better understand how to deliver a strong experience, you’ll have the tools to optimize your online video strategy, making users more likely to engage and convert.
I hate networking events. Loathe them. I don’t do small talk. However, put a camera in my hand I will ask you your most intimate secrets with such curiosity and care. And surprisingly, you will reveal things you’ve never shared with anyone. Not to be used against you, quite the contrary, to be used for you.
In this over-saturated social media frenzy, aren’t most of us are dying for real connection? We crave it. I can’t connect doing “small talk”. I want to know what gets you out of bed, what turns you on, what makes you sad. Getting right to the core of who someone is is not only the most exciting part our work, it is what allows others to connect and really see YOU.
As much as I despise networking events, you may be surprised to know, my entire business has been built on networking. I stumbled upon the Foundation Course with Amy Swift Crosby founder of SMARTY with a mere idea for a business, and I knew I had to know more. Amy is one of those women (if others even exist) who can go from talking PR one moment to merchandising the next to marketing a new baby food co. as easy as some channel surf. This skill combined with all the strong female personalities connected to the array of businesses is only a glimpse into the genius of this woman. She doesn’t skip a beat in coming up with mouth watering taglines moments after hearing an elevator pitch, the way most of us offer a requisite God Bless You.
We all need a SMARTY network in our lives; she shares in her MyStory Film, “I want to create a safe space for women to bring their dreams.”
Don’t we all need a place where we can connect, be real, let go of our surface self and let our dreams fly?
This Sunday is Mother’s Day. Show your mom that you are appreciative of all her hard work. In the end, it’s all for something. Happy Mother’s Day!
This week want to share the reasons why your video marketing is ineffective from our friends at inc.com. These days, anyone can make a video with their iphone, android or flip camera. Here are some tips to help you use video to its fullest potential. Check out #1 “It’ not about the customer.” we like that one.
How are you using video? Are you being effective?
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By Kevin Daum
I’m about to waste a minute of your time. Don’t be offended. It happens a lot. In fact, chances are you’re already wasting other people’s time or you wouldn’t have clicked on this column. Every time you post a video that’s dull and doesn’t communicate a meaningful message, you waste your precious marketing resources as well as the time of the few people who view it.
Don’t take it personally; most marketing videos are boring and useless. Companies are spending tens of thousands of dollars on videos that look “professional” (my euphemism for boring) in hopes of boosting search engine stats or increasing leads. But sadly, most videos do little more then embarrass the marketers who didn’t vet them before posting.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t even have to scrap the snoozer of a video that already cost you thousands of dollars to produce. Here’s an example:
A successful London dentist, and aggressive marketer, Dr. James Goolnik, has struggled converting viewers into customers with his office-made videos. So he hired a professional video company who created this 1-minute video below. The camera work is pretty, but the video is not very effective.
Here’s why you and the customers did not respond positively to this video, and how to fix it.
At Goolnik’s request, I created a revision using techniques in my new book Video Marketing For Dummies.
While Goolnik has been properly prolific with his videos on his channel, few have gained steady traction over time or even much more than 100 hits. This video with very little promotion is growing at hundreds of hits monthly and largely in his London target market. The video helps Goolnik stand out from the other dentists and most importantly, without diminishing his professionalism, makes a visit to him seem like fun, an unusual word to associate with dentistry.
Effective videos are the Awesome Experience, the convergence of need, entertainment and the unexpected. Otherwise they will fall flat and waste your time and money. You can makeover your boring videos into roaring videos just as I did for this one with these simple considerations.
If you have a video you think is awesome or one that needs help, send me a link. I will praise or critique it with helpful suggestions and maybe even promote it in my upcoming columns for all the Inc.com readers to see. Prepare for brutally honest feedback that will help your wallet rather than your ego. If you think your videos are up to it, send them to me at kevin@roaringvideo.com.
I’ll let you know if your video is ROARing or Boring and tell you how to make it better.
Do you ever wonder what happens when you’re not around? Our favorite video of the week comes from the brilliant mind of Sean Ohlenkamp. This creative stop motion video took 4 full nights to shoot with a team of about 15 – 20 people.
Next time you pass by your local bookstore stop in and get in touch with that story lover inside of you. Beware: you might catch yourself wondering what goes on there at night.
This Friday’s Favorite Video comes to you from TED Talks. Not our typical show and tell, trust me when I say it is worth the investment. Friends and family from far and wide have been calling and emailing with sharing their own profound connection to this video. It resonated so deeply with me I had to share it with you…
How is a TED talk at all related to what My Story does? It is the foundation of everything we do.
Our clients are often resistant to share their own vulnerability, and it is very thing that allows for that connection, allows for someone across the world to fall in love with a company and want to support them.
It is the art of what we lovingly refer to as “intentionally flawed.” In fact, I wanted to name our sister company Intentionally Flawed Films, until everyone around me screamed bloody murder.
This TED talk is packed with heart, humor, connection, courage, and yes… vulnerability.
Are you living wholehearted?
Do you allow the world to truly see you?
We would love to hear your thoughts on our facebook page!
You may have already seen it, but we have to share it as our favorite video of the week. This stunt was used to promote the launch of the TNT network in Belgium, and boy did it catch on. In just one week it has received more than 25 million views.
How do you engage your audience?
Earlier this year Technorati featured a great video done by H&R Block to help promote their brand as well as tell the story of one of America’s most determined cities. This spot is a prime example of how brand storytelling has emerged as an integral part of a brand’s marketing arsenal.
What story are you telling?
Hopefully you have completed your tax returns in time for this year’s deadline (April 17). If not, we have a few videos for you to watch while you procrastinate from our friends at Adweek.
Our Favorite Friday video of the week sits at #1 from Jackson Hewitt. Who would have thought slow mo jiving would be so cool?
Words can entice, image is important, but they ain’t everything. Feast your eyes, and ears, on this masterful spot by Esquivel.
Simply spectacular.
Happy Friday!
We are eager to share this post from Fast Company. Today, a story can be told and can reach millions of people in a matter of seconds via the Web.
Why is this so great for brands?
More than ever before they are able to connect with their target market sometimes immediately and effectively through branded storytelling.
What does this mean for the consumer?
Storytelling is really in their hands. Through social media and new online platforms the power belongs to the consumers to share the stories and actually shape the stories of brands.
How is your story being told by your target market?
Any marketer worth her salt has always understood the power of storytelling. Stories are the blood that pumps through any vital community. They document our histories, they educate us, they entertain us, and at their best they inspire us into action.
All great brands tell stories. The best even become stories. For decades the best marketing and advertising work has brought these stories to life and found ways to share these stories with as many people as possible, in the most compelling fashion, but what is changing is the nature by which these stories are shared and even constructed. We’re evolving from storytelling to story sharing, and we’re on our way to story making.
For the last decade or so, there’s been a gradual shift in how marketers think about stories. Beyond thinking about how the brand tells the story, they’re increasingly focused on how people share the story of the brand. Powered by the phenomenal efficiencies the Internet and social media platforms have created, people are able to more readily share stories with the extension of their own audiences, networks, and communities. The factors that influence personal distribution of sharable content are, I believe, still grounded in powerful storytelling.
But the story-sharing period we’ve been going through has put the “reader†(as in target consumer) in a more powerful position to influence the trajectories of where the story is shared. This has led to far-reaching and often uncontrollable dissemination of a brand’s story. And this is why every CMO in the country has been so obsessed with social media over the last few years.
Looking ahead, I think we are entering a new era in which “story making†will become more important to brands. Consumers now demand greater involvement in almost every aspect of their lives as the Internet has empowered them to know more, control more, and do more. They want to be collaborators in creating the story with the brand, and I think this has enormous marketing potential. Anyone who’s played–or watched someone play–a first-person shooter game sees the allure of a story that is created in real time through the decisions of the gamer. Television is becoming more social, and programming is becoming more participatory, thanks to second-screen experiences and interactive platforms that let the interactions of the audience determine the arc of the story. And the idea of crowdsourced and user-generated advertising content has been in full exploration for the last few years–with limited success.
All of these things are pointing to the future, where the story of a brand gets created and shared through the personal stories of connected participants, where enlightened companies share the narrative, provide the prompts, and relinquish total control.
Iconic brands like Starbucks or Burton or MINI will have an unfair advantage on this because they are so connected to their communities and have an inherently collaborative spirit. Other marketers and agencies will need to follow their lead, finding inventive and effective ways of enabling (and promoting) these new collaborative stories and shared experiences.
Young creates the most stunning table linens you have ever laid eyes on. She has revolutionized the way party décor is done. She is a 5’ ball of fire, brimming over with so much passion and zest, I could hardly believe my good fortune of being able to work with her. No white polyester linens here, it is couture all the way. Oh and don’t worry about spilling red wine, blood, ink or anything else on her ready for the runway fabrics, she created a business within a business, specialized dry cleaning to get out even the toughest of stains.
In 7 years of working with Terri, a maverick in her own right (featured in the a new book Women of True Grit), Young and Terri’s collaboration has launched Wildflower Linen as the go to place for Oprah, the Emmy’s, the Golden Globes, the Oscars and now THE White House. We say THE White House because Young tells a funny story about when THE White House called and she didn’t believe it was really THE White House, she thought it was a joke. No laughing matter when First Lady Obama herself wanted to see Young’s linens. She’s a huge fan.
Do you have a mentor that helped propel you to new heights?
Sharpie: Favorite Video of the Week
Why we love this: Who doesn’t get excited about chasing your dreams? It is one thing to have wild dreams but what about turning those dreams into a reality?
I’m coming to learn that it is more rewarding to experience and fail than not know at all. We spend so much time wondering what could be or should be, and in doing so, we lose sight of the dreams that motivate us.
If you try and fail, you will learn more about yourself than you could ever imagine. I challenge you to fail harder and gain knowledge from defeat.
Once you have made your dreams a reality, you will look back with fulfillment and remember your fateful decision to just try.
In the words of Boey:
“The difference between a dream and reality is just doing it… If you have a dream just go for it – don’t wait.â€
What are you waiting for?
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Agustin Manalo, Creative Manager
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. The first spot features Lauri Burns, who founded the Teen Project, which is an initiative that houses homeless teens. We were honored to work with Lauri and First Team to help her find a home for her adopted family.
It’s not about real estate, First Team gets that. Â It’s not ever really about what you are selling. We don’t buy products or services, we buy what we believe and we buy an emotional state.
Think about it.
How does that handbag make you feel when you carry it, what does it tell the world about you? The car you drive, what does your Prius say to the world about you. How do you feel when you slide into the driver’s seat of a Porsche? The same for a house, it is not just a house; it is our safe place, our sanctuary, a reflection of who we are, what we believe and how we feel. That’s what we are buying. Every time. An ice cream sandwich is never just an ice cream sandwich.
Share with us how you make meaning in your own life or business. What are you really selling? If you aren’t sure, start with why you do what you do.
I used to hate Valentine’s Day (aka Singles Awareness Month) so much that I started throwing Chocolate and Champagne parties, just to have something to look forward to every year. Never underestimate the power of mixing white, milk and dark chocolate along with some sparkling bubbly and sharing it with those nearest and dearest to you to overcome years of disappointment.
I discovered, the world is my valentine. My best friend’s daughter, my neighbor, my fabulous My Story team, my mom, I love them all. Â I want them all to be my valentine, and not just on February 14th, all year long. Â When something doesn’t work, perhaps change the way you see it. Ask a new question, get new insight, throw a friggin party, a little cocoa bean and sparkling delight never hurts either.
Today we share our tips to practice the art of seduction through passionate storytelling in business, but we urge you to practice it with those nearest and dearest in your life, particularly your tribe. Â A powerfully written story, like chocolate, can be hard to resist.
Enjoy…
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By Ann MeanyÂ
Yes, chocolate is great, but central to the mystique of Valentine’s Day is the power and importance of the cleverly written word. No other holiday relies quite so heavily on the seductive spell of language. Whether it’s a poem, a greeting in a card, or even a short message — such as an email, a tweet, or a candy heart phrase — content reigns supreme when it comes to Valentine’s Day.
The same elements that make a Valentine’s Day message successful can work for content marketers, as well. Even a message on a piece of candy could teach us something.
Authenticity is one of the most important aspects of communicating well. No one responds positively to an insincere Valentine’s Day message, and readers of a blog, website, or newsletter are no different. Being authentic means you really have to think about whom your audience members are, and then write about what’s important to them (here are some tips). Your focus should be on meeting your readers’ needs, solving a problem for them, providing information, or maybe just entertaining them for a few minutes, all while using conversational language and avoiding impersonal corporate speak.
For example, if you’re writing a post about new tax preparation software, show your human side:
Don’t be dull. If you want to capture a reader’s attention in a short time with limited space, make sure the words you use paint a spectacular picture. Allow readers to employ all their senses — they should be able to taste the sweetly bitter, dark chocolate you are writing about, feel the sharp pricks of the freezing rain you mention to set the mood, or hear the rapid-fire, staccato rhythm of popcorn popping that builds intrigue or tension in your story.
For instance, what if you’re writing about an innovative new showerhead? Do more than just rattle off the features of the product. Describe what it actually feels like to use it — “a refreshing summer rain,†or “a luxurious waterfall.†Help your audience imagine the benefits rather than just telling them what they are. Once you’ve created a picture for your readers, your content (and your brand) will be harder to forget.
A Valentine’s Day card doesn’t usually say, “You are loved by me.†Changing it to “I love you†heightens the impact of the statement. An active voice — when the subject of the sentence is doing the acting — is clear, concise, and helps readers get right to the point. It also energizes your writing and eliminates ambiguity and wordiness. Active content is easier to read, and will engage your readers longer.
Think of it this way: Many of your visitors are hastily skimming, and won’t bother to plow through wordy, complicated text. An active sentence such as “The waiter dropped a whole tray of mojitos†captures attention more quickly than “A whole tray of mojitos was dropped by the waiter.â€
Almost every Valentine’s Day message has an underlying motive: to get the reader to take another action (“Say yes,†“Be mine,†etc.). Marketing copy has the same goal. What’s the next step you want your readers to take? Maybe you want them to think about what you’ve written and engage with your site by leaving a comment or question, find out more about your company or just talk to others about what they’ve read. Whatever your goal, make it clear to readers what the intended next step should be so that your carefully crafted content will lead to further action. (Here are some more helpful ideas for pulling prospects in.)
When wielded in the right way, words have tremendous power to influence and persuade. But a dozen roses never hurt, either.
You’ve heard it all before, web video is the way of the future and will soon replace television advertising as we know it. Ok, ok, we might be getting a little carried away with that statement. Our friends at B2C.com seem to think that 2012 is the year that marketers embrace branding videos in their social marketing efforts.  If you’re not convinced that you need online video marketing, check out reason #4. The numbers might just surprise you…
What do you think – does your business need online video?
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By Mike Lewis
No other tool in your marketing toolbox delivers the bang-for-your-buck like video content.
From our ebook Biggest Social Marketing and New Media Predictions for 2012, Jay Baer, social media strategist, coach, speaker and all-around good guy, shared that 2012 will be “the explosion in short-form multimedia, as companies start to truly embrace video and mobile photography.†With predictions like this, we asked: Could 2012 be the year marketers embrace video in their social marketing efforts? We think yes, and here’s four reasons why:
Since May 2011, there are more than 48 hours of videobeing uploaded to YouTube every minute. And as of December 2011, YouTube boasted more than a trillion videos viewed this year alone. With 71% of all online adults participating platforms like YouTube, video sharing is up 38% since 2006, 28% of which share on a daily basis.
2. Video Sells to the C-Suite
If you think that video marketing is only suitable for end consumers, then think again. Senior executives watch videos to make purchase decisions. A Forbes Insights report points to 65% of senior decision-makers visiting a vendor’s website after watching a video. In fact, 83% of the surveyed senior executives report watching more online video today than they were a year ago, with 75% indicating they watch work-related videos at least weekly. Younger executives (those under 40) are more likely to make a purchase based on video alone. It is clear that video is becoming an essential way to connect with and sell to both senior decision-makers and end consumers.
3. Video is Essential for Inbound Marketing and SEO
Hosting videos on your site is a great way to attract and engage visitors. Visitors spend an average of two more minutes on websites that host videos than on sites that don’t. Video helps to increase a website’ quality score too. A ‘long click’, which leads to more time spent on site, results from higher quality content, ultimately enhancing user engagement. In fact, video can increase your chances of getting on the first page Google’s search results 53 times.
4. Video is Killing the TV Star
A Bright Roll survey early this year reveals 65% of marketers plan to reallocate campaign dollars from TV to online video. Over 25% see online and mobile video as the two areas that will see the overall largest spend increase this and next year. Most marketers report taking advertising budgets away from television and display. Marketers plan to spend more on video because it works – video drives sales.
For instance, meet Old Spice, the men’s body wash and deodorant manufacturer. About now, everyone has likely heard of the Old Spice campaign, The Man Your Man Can Smell Like. This one commercial, originally aimed for television, generated 5.9 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours of its launch. It got 20 million views three days, 1.4 billion impressions over six months. The ROI? Sales increased by 107% over six months.
GoPro, which makes mountable cameras, goes after current customers who are posting cool and interesting videos to YouTube using their cameras. One video, watched six million times in two days, showed a buck leaping across a mountain biker’s trail in Africa and knocking him to the ground. Quoted in a New York Times article, Stephen Baumer, GoPro CIO, said this: “The content ends up selling the cameras.†He went on to say, “these consumers, to our delight, are advertising on our behalf.â€
Integrating Video into your Marketing Mix
We partnered with MarketingProfs to bring to our community of savvy marketers a new free white paper on Why Video is Essential to Your Marketing Mix. This resource focuses on examples from leading brands using video marketing to increase their visibility, attract new users and increase sales. You will learn how video can help you reach a specific audience, keep them engaged longer, and bring your brand to life in ways previously unimagined.
Here are a few of the examples shared in the whitepaper:
We welcome your thoughts, reactions and feedback. Let us know how do you approach the process of video creation and promotion? What are your top video tips and tricks? Has video helped your company? As we embark on 2012, we promise to continue to provide deeper dives into best practices, successes, and notable trends to help you, social marketers, do more and do better. Comment on this blog, on Twitter at hashtag#AwarenessSMM, on Facebook at Social Media Marketing Best Practices, or LinkedIn at the Social Media Marketing Mavens Group.
My Story was hired to craft 13 spots for First Team Real Estate. Our story is about Lauri Burns, founder of The Teen Project: a home for abandoned teens.
Lauri demonstrates the power of story to create a movement not only in her community but nationwide. Many would shy away from a history of sex abuse, drug addiction and prostitution, but Lauri has shared her story to fuel a movement with Oprah, CNN, and CBS.
She’s fostered over 30 abandoned children; to many she is the only mother they had ever known. In 2007, she founded The Teen Project, which served as a place for homeless teens to go when they left Foster care. In just a year, The Teen Project successfully raised $250,000 in donations and continues to grow.
As I listened to the hope and excitement in these young girls’ lives who are all now in college and pursuing careers of their dreams, it proved that the power of one person can make a difference. Their stories got inside me, carving out a space in my heart, aching for more. Teen homelessness was never my cause, isn’t this a choice they made? I learned they had no one, no parents for encouragement and nowhere to go. I kept wishing there was something like this in my neighborhood.
Ask and watch what shows up–shortly after our shoot, Lauri announced the opening of a “Drop Center†in Venice Beach, mere minutes from my home by foot. The space will serve as a resource center for teens to be fed, check email, look for work, and most importantly have a place to go. The center will also be a hub to acquire valuable skills ranging from meditation to interviewing for a job.
There are mutliple opportunities to share your gifts and talents; to make a significant difference in the future generation of our community.
The ribbon cutting will take place at 76 Market Street in Venice on Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12pm. You just might be surprised what gifts you have to offer and how many lives you can affect.
Who would have thought a brand video would turn into a volunteer opportunity? Never underestimate the power of story.
For more information:
The Teen Project: http://www.theteenproject.com/
The Teen Project Venice: http://theteenprojectvenice.blogspot.com/
First Team Real Estate: http://www.firstteam.com/
Can the power of storytelling really change laws on Capitol Hill? These physicians seem to think so.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.
We crafted 13 spots for First Team Real Estate in Orange County. We documented the stories of how First Team Real Estate helped single mothers, displaced families, service members and others find a place to call home.