Why you need it…

“86% of US internet users view online video content a month… “while less than 80% of US internet users visit social networks in that same period, explained Greg Jarboe, co-founder of SEO PR at the Social Media Success Summit 2010. In his interesting, content-rich, 30 minute talk, “3 Reasons You Need A YouTube Marketing Strategy (& Tips to Help You Generate Results)“, Jarboe noted that YouTube.com has often been forgotten in the online marketing mix. But given the high percentage of users, You Tube offers a tremendous opportunity for marketing, and therefore ignoring it is a bad mistake.

Jarboe underscored the fact a YouTube strategy is needed if marketeers are to “avoid pitfalls and seize opportunities“.

YouTube Marketing Pitfalls

1. The first pitfall Jarboe mentioned was the tremendous competition on YouTube.com: “24 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every minute” . To help us understand the huge amount of material this is, Jarboe further explained:  “More content is uploaded to YouTube in 24 days than ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC [American TV channels] broadcast in 24 years!“
2. Another pitfall Jarboe noted was the fact that YouTube itself is constantly changing. To keep up with You Tube we should read the YouTube blog.
3. If we want stand a chance of reaching the huge online audience on YouTube, we need to be aware of another YouTube pitfall:

Audience Attention Span. 

• Jarboe noted that on average videos only get 100 views in a month; the videos that get over a million views are only 1% of all the videos uploaded to You Tube!
• He further explained how typical viewers watch for 60 seconds and then the majority leave. In fact, he pointed out that viewers can be lost even after the first 10 seconds! When we put a video up on YouTube, we must remember that viewers are:

“Just a click away from going somewhere else!”

So what can we do about this short viewer attention span?

Jarboe highlighted 5 points. The videos we put up on YouTube:  

1. must be compelling
2. get to the point right away
3. keep the audience engaged
4. need to keep moving
5. shouldn’t leave the punch line for the end of the video – there might not be anyone watching! (When I heard Jarboe say ”punch line” I thought of our call to action, sales pitch, moral of the story, website addressetc. We have to find ways to work it into the video sooner.)

Opportunites & Tips in Using YouTube as a Marketing Tool 

In explaining the opportunities of using YouTube as a marketing tool, Jarboe pointed out 2 case studies, VoyageTV and Piper Aircraft.

With the help of his company, SEO PR, VoyageTV was able to move from 6 views a day of all their videos on You Tube to 2,000 in a month.

How did they do this?

By optimizing! so that the videos would get found on YouTube Search. Jarboe noted that YouTube search is different from Google search and the videos need to be optimized for You Tube!

With the Piper Aircraft case study, Jarboe told how this company wanted its potential audience to know about its new aircraft. It put up a YouTube video and before the plane was even available, it had already sold 12 aircraft online!

So YouTube videos can drive sales!

Optimize Your YouTube video

1.  Use the YouTube Keyword Tool: it lets you find out the terms people are using to find videos on You Tube. Search for the keywords that you can use with your video
2. From this search, include those keywords in:   

•  the video title: 120 characters can be used
• the video description: 5,000 character can be used. Jarboe encourages us to be as detailed as possible as all words, even long tail keywords, help us get found 
• tags. 120 characters can be used. Tags, Jarboe said, are the KEYto the YouTube algorithms

More Strategies and Tips from Greg Jarboe for YouTube Marketing  

Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR.com concluded his presentation at the Social Media Success Summit 2010 by presenting several more practical tips and strategies:

• You Tube has a “Creative Corner” to help video makers create more compelling content
• On YouTube “Insights” check out “Hot Spots” which will show you where on your video your audience stopped watching. This is extremely valuable information as it enables that video to be re-edited or that information to be taken into account with future videos.
• Allow your video to be embeded in other sites and blogs.
  • Jarboe pointed out that 40% of YouTube video views come from embedded videos in blogs. 
  • YouTube counts the views of the videos embedded in blogs or websites
  • The views from embedded videos can almost double your view stats. 
• Finally Jarboe encouraged us to Promote our videos
  • on our websites
  • embed them in press releases
    • when they are played in embedded press releases – it increases our YouTube.com view stats.

Greg Jarboe’s talk at the online Social Media Success Summit 2010 was short but content-rich. Here I have only given you the highlights.

If you want further information from Jarboe about YouTube Marketing, check out his book, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day.

Social Media Success Summit 2010

 If you are interested in getting the Greg Jarboe’s full recording and transcript – as well as all the other talks given at this 25,000 attendee online meeting – go to Social Media Success Summit, check out their line-up of great speakers and see about enrolling for the recordings and transcripts of this year’s summit or future summits. Each year the SMSS  just gets better and better!

Enjoy Being Online!

Eileen

 ”How To Use Twitter As A Marketing Weapon”

This was the title of Alltop’s Guy Kawasaki’s hard-hitting, no-nonsense Keynote Address as he opened the 2010 Social Media Success Summit on May 4. 

What is the Social Media Success Summit?

     The 2010 Social Media Success Summit, whose theme this year is “Delivering & Engaging Customers With Social Media” was founded by Michael A. Stelzner.  This year it brings together 24 noted social media experts, such as Mari Smith, Chris Brogen,  Steve Rubel, Darren Rowse, Ann Handley, to name just a few. 

The Social Media Success Summit (SMSS) began on May 4 and runs through May 25. However, unlike other summits or conventions the SMSS is totally online. However, it does provide networking as other conventions do, as well as social media connecting. And for busy people who can’t attend the sessions live – the SMSS also provides replays and transcripts.

Guy Kawasaki’s Keynote Address

In his talk Guy Kawasaki highlighted about 7 vital ways that companies can employ to use Twitter as a marketing tool.

1. Monitoring:
   Kawasaki gave practical examples of how Twitter search could be used to find one’s keywords, name, brand, competition.
2. Engagement:
   Once found, the marketer could then reply to the tweet and engage the peeps in conversation.
   Kawasaki encouraged his listeners to check out the Twitter account who are paying  close attention to the creative ways people are using Twitter and sharing this at their Twitter account.
3. Selling:
   Under this point Kawasaki gave examples of how companies are using Twitter as a marketing tool. Dell Outlet he pointed out alerts its customers to coupons, discounts, tips and tricks. He also noted under this point that Dell found out that it is far better to have peeps who are following you because they want to – Dell Outlet found out that an increase in numbers did not necessarily mean a corresponding increase in sales.
4. Support:
   Companies, Kawasaki highlighted, are using Twitter as a way to give technical support to customers. He also pointed out, with a few examples, how big companies are monitoring what people are tweeting about them and responding.
5. Prospecting:
   Kawasaki showed us, through screen shots, how we could use Twitter’s advanced search feature to find targeted prospects, even in  our own geographical area.
   He emphasized that to get more followers it is essential to tweet about what your audience will find interesting. 
   Kawasaki said that he get more followers by tweeting interesting links.
6. Where to find Interesting Links:
   Kawasaki described and shared 3 sites that he says provides him with his interesting story links:
   - www.alltop.com 
   - www.StumbleUpon.com
   - www.SmartBrief.com 
7. Marketing Campaign:
   Kawasaki shared, explained and discussed various tools that he recommends to create Twitter marketing campaigns:
   - www.ObjectiveMarketer.com
   - www.TwitterFeed.com 
   - www.TwitHawk.com
   - www.TweetDeck.com
   - and the plugin/button TweetMe which he said should be on all our posts as it can change our lives.

 At the end of his address, Kawasaki took about 3 questions. A few things that stood out in his answers to his questioners that I would like to share with you:

• He pointed out a fact that Dr. Kevin Hogan has also highlighted, i.e., have articles on your site that solve or answer the persons’ problems.
• Think BIG picture, that is, if you know that there is another site that has the answer the person needs – you send them to that site and tell them to read the article. In this way, you will have gained a friend, enhanced your credibility and you will gain more followers.

 This post has been longer than planned but I wanted to share with you the highlights of Guy’s address as I found it really useful. (Now to go put a TweetMe plugin on this site… )

Enjoy Being Online,

Eileen

Take a look at this video to find out how to make them.

Take a look at the power in this group of apps!

Click here for the link to the  Digital Juice – Reallusion WidgetCast Offer – Watching D. Eric Frank pop out on thecomputer screen blew my mind away!  I just love all this new software coming out for Web 2.0!!!

But my real question was would it work with WordPress.org????

I asked D. Eric Franks at Digital Juice who wasn’t too sure, but sent me to a link with demos so that I could experiment on WordPress…. The answer????

YES, IT DOES!!! Check out the demos below….

Pop Widget Sidebar with Java:

Gallery Without Java Script:

Fixed Widget:

Full Screen Slide Show:

NOW, take a deep breath and just imagine what you can do with these….. on your website, on your blog, in your emails….. !!!! (I also tried out the email possibilities and it is very impressive as a marketing tool, special logo birthday, holiday or special occasion e-card, etc….)

Really, as I see it, the possibilities that this software offers, well, your creativity and the sky’s the limit!

OK, if you feel you first want to try out the software before you purchase, click here for Reallusion’s WidgetCast 15-day Trial Download.

Ok, you other folks who use a different CMS…. how did the Trial or the program work for you?

Oh, by the way, Reallusion says that these WidgetCast can be used on the social media, too, e.g., Facebook….

Anyone want to share some of their widgets…. Put a link to your creative handiwork in the comments box below and share your site and your genius!

(I get no commission on this, by the way; but Digital Juice and David Hebel and his team are great people with great products – check ‘em out!)

Let me know what you think about this process…. Did it work for you?
To create this glare you will need to use image manipulation software, such as, Gimp, Gimpshop, Photoshop.

But you want your own background….

And you’re ready to work at a bit more advanced level….

Here’s a quick, simple and clear video explanation of how to easily create your own custom background theme. First you create your image with software such as Gimp, GimpShop or Photoshop, then you upload it into your Artisteer project….

Take a look at this video and then let me know what you think….

Take a look at the video and then leave your comments and let us know what you think:

But you
- don’t have time…
- don’t know HTML code…
- don’t know CSS code…
- are colored-blind…
- are “creatively-challenged”….

Artisteer has come to the rescue – with an automated theme generating software that gives you a choice of pre-fab themes…

AND if YOU want greater control over your theme…

Artisteer will let you design, tweak and change your theme(s) to your heart’s content…

Here is a video that explains how EASY it is to select and upload  a new theme for your CMS, i.e., your Content Management System.

You can download a free, watermarked trial demo to try it out.  http://www.artisteer.com/?p=demo

But first, take a few minutes and see how easy website/blog theme creatin a meet

Let us know what you think by commenting…

It appears to make theme creation so e-a-s-y!!! I’m going to put it through its paces and let you know how it goes….

In the meantime, I post some of the videos so you can take a look and experiment with the demo if you want to….

After you try out the Artisteer demo, post a comment and let us know what you think….