Published by Patrick on 14 Jul 2009
To learn more about Debra Russell, visit her blog here.
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Published by Patrick on 26 Aug 2008
I’m getting ready to fly up to Vancouver for the 2008 Internet Marketing Conference (IMC). Last year, the conference was held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was the first conference about internet marketing that I attended and it was a spectacular experience.
My workshop was entitled “Monetizing Trust; Bringing Your Audience from Rapport to Revenue” and it was well received by the audience. This year, I’ll be chairing two sessions, both about Social Media. The first is a panel discussion with Warren Sukernek, Jacqueline Voci and Julie Wisdom. The second is workshop devoted to Social Media and the opportunities to integrate multiple platforms to communicate more effectively with your audience.
It’s an exciting time for me. I just finished my book: Make Yourself Useful, Marketing in the 21st Century. And my website now has over 350 pages on content on it. Together, they offer a good synopsis of my expertise along with the credibility to share it with others. IMC 2008 will be my first opportunity to offer my book to the public.
The interesting thing will be to hear the thoughts of other experts in the same field. Social Media has grown to include so many different platforms (including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Utterz, Flickr, Digg, StumbleUpon, Wikipedia, Meetup, all the various forums, BlogCatalog and blogs in general) that everybody has a slightly different angle on the opportunities available. The panel discussion will undoubtedly raise some fascinating possibilities.
When I was in Sweden for IMC 2007, I went out for dinner with 13 other speakers. Between the 14 of us, we came from 11 different countries. I doubt the participants will be as diverse this time around but I’m really looking forward to meeting the other speakers and all the attendees. Conferences like these are incredibly valuable in a networking sense and can quickly add to your business in ways you’d never imagine beforehand.
To top it off, Vancouver is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and the weather in September is hard to beat. I would encourage anyone interested in Internet Marketing to attend this conference. Not only will you meet true experts in the field but you’ll also be introduced to a growing niche of modern marketing that’s far broader than most people realize.
Published by Patrick on 11 Jun 2008
Google and the other search engines have all updated their algorithyms to increase the value attributed to video content. Already, an estimated 40% of internet bandwidth is used to accommodate video content and that’s expected to grow over the coming years. And although many of us probably believe that YouTube is already overrun with competition, the fact is that there just aren’t that many people doing it right yet.
There’s a huge opportunity for people to use video as a way to build their following and push value to their audience. You can use the medium to demonstrate your expertise and give people a sample of your approach. Heck, they’ll even know what you look like! People don’t trust governments. People don’t trust companies. People often don’t even trust websites. What do they trust? People trust other people, and video is a great way to put a human face on your business.
Let’s start with some groundwork. First, don’t think your video has to be super slick. Absolutely not. In fact, studies have shows that super slick videos are trusted far less than lower quality amateur-looking clips. The more “real”, the better. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on this. Just get yourself a video camera with a microphone jack and then get a directional microphone that will deliver good voice quality. Between the two, you’re probably looking at about $350 worth of equipment.
Another thing: people love lists. The top 10 of this. The bottom 10 of that. The 7 biggest mistakes people make. The 5 things you need to remember. Whatever it is, structure your content into a list. It injects automatic structure to your presentation and makes your content easier to understand.
When uploading your video, make sure to include your URL and/or business name in the description. That will help your business name get indexed higher on the search engines. Also make sure you include your keywords in the description as well as the tags. Both will help your video come up higher and faster on the search engines.
Don’t make just ONE video. A single video will quickly get buried amongst thousands of other videos, never to be seen again. Instead, make a series. Make these videos on a regular basis. YouTube and all the other video platforms allow you to create a profile and then attach all your videos to that profile. When someone finishes the video they’re watching, the platform will display thumbnails of all the other videos you’ve produced.
That’s where the opportunity lies. If you have a series of videos up on YouTube, people will find one or another depending on what they’re searching for. But after that, they’ll quickly see the breadth of topics you cover and will likely browse a while longer, getting to know you and your expertise. Before long, their trust level has grown dramatically and they’re ready to do business.
You might be reading this and thinking that this is just one more thing you’re supposed to be doing. One more thing piled on top of all the other things sitting on your desk. You’re too busy already! How could you possibly do this also? Well, if you’re blogging, your job is done. Every single blog post is perfect content for a video and you won’t get knocked for duplicate content because one is in text format while the other is in video format.
I recommend writing your blog post first. Write it out, structure it into a list and publish it on your website. Then turn on your video camera with your computer right beside you and relay the same information into the camera. Don’t even worry about memorizing it. You can reference back and forth. Nobody will mind. It will be mor casual and more “real”, making your audience feel at ease.
Every day, there are more and more video platforms on the internet. Rather than uploading your video a dozen times, each at different platforms, I recommend using a distribution service like TubeMogul. There, you can upload your video once and automatically distribute it to all the major platforms in one step. And it’s well worth the effort because different platforms feed different communities. Also, some get indexed quicker than others and the search engines LOVE fresh new content.
Most people think YouTube has nothing more than rock bands in concert, Britney Spears getting out of a car, amateur fights and people falling off bicycles. It’s true that these topics are well covered on YouTube but there’s far more out there than you might think. You can learn how to play guitar on YouTube. You can learn how to speak German. You can learn how to install WordPress or record a podcast. You can learn just about anything on YouTube.
That represents an enormous opportunity for all of us. Think about your expertise. Think about the value you could push to your audience. Think about the lists of juicy nuggets you could deliver on video to a waiting and appreciative audience. Take some time to write down the different topics you could cover and if you find that you have a lot, go out and buy a video camera. It might be the best investment you’ll ever make!
