Using Online Video: If You Film It, Will They Come?

I have been working on a video project for a client for some time now. The client had an opportunity to reach an influential part of its niche market through a proprietary video channel, so we set up a weekly video shoot to repackage the clients’ research and produce three-minute videos to post to the vertical channel. Research shows that videos have a very high impact on SEO and, when used properly, can have a huge impact on web visibility.

Although we have been refining the quality of our web video productions and the content, we haven’t been able to get the viewership we want from YouTube, or our vertical video outlet. So it’s time to regroup and rethink our video strategy as an extension of our conventional social media program.

This particular client has limited staff and resources (well, who doesn’t), and they service a very conservative market. Therefore they have been slow to adopt social media as part of their marketing program (despite my nagging). However, this new video program provides an ideal opportunity to jump-start their social media program, offering high-quality and informative content to targeted followers through multiple online channels.And there are some serious SEO advantages when you use video in the right way. I recently ran across an interesting presentation by Mark Robertson, CEO of ReelSEO, on how to optimize video for online search. Mark offers some interesting points. I’ve reposted his webinar presentation here for your edification.

So what are the next steps for my client’s video program? Well, I plan to take some of Mark’s tips to heart and use our video productions as a focal point for our social media outreach. I do believe that video can be a great asset to any online marketing program, if you have great content and can use it properly. The challenge is to know when and how to apply it.

How do you use video to promote your brand or your client’s brand? I’d like to know.

PR Pros Need to Practice What They Preach

When I launched this blog a few weeks ago, I cited the problem that many marketeers have finding the time and resources to service their own marketing needs. It’s interesting that Marc Hausman, founder of Strategic Communications Group, cited the same issues a few days later, and even used a similar headline, “Fallacy of the Cobbler’s Shoe-less Children.”faucet_Full

As Marc notes, there are a number of agencies out there that fail to practice what they preach. They deem social media and networking as a business strategy, as long as they aren’t too busy doing something else that makes real money. Marc cites two agencies who let their blogs languish while they were pursuing paying clients. As many agencies (and clients) have discovered in this economic recession, you can’t abandon your marketing strategy or your pipeline will dry up.

One commentator to Marc’s blog noted that the best agencies have a dedicated marketing team to make sure that marketing the agency’s services doesn’t fall between the cracks. I have seen that work in some settings, but most agencies are resource-constrained and the rank-and-file has to find a way to build agency marketing into their daily routine. I have worked on the marketing committee for a few agencies, and we managed to build in web redesign, collateral updates, social networking, and other tasks into the day-to-day routine – it’s all part of the MBOs. In fact, it should be part of your DNA.

In fact, I am writing this blog while I take a lunch break from developing a new business proposal. You can always find time to market yourself if you make marketing a priority.

So thanks to Marc and those other PR professionals who walk the walk, as well as talk the talk.

Social Media? Sister Marta Kagan Explains It All For You

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

Interested in social media? Don’t understand social media? Trying to determine the real market value of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn? Well welcome to the club.

The pundits abound, and everyone is trying to make sense of the online media phenom. Which is why I wanted to share this presentation from Marta Kagan of Espresso. She calls herself a bona fide marketing genius, and she admits that she swears like a sailor, but she has a fresh (albeit off color) perspective on social media.

Is the revolution coming? Is it here already? And who will be the first against the wall? I’m adding social media to my client recommendations, for the obvious reasons that Marta highlights here, but it’s only one component in a comprehensive PR/marketing program.