Is That a Video Production Studio in Your Pocket?
Today at my Toastmasters group, I gave a speech on “How to Market Your Business on a Limited Budget.” I did this for a few reasons. The first is that I speak with lots of business owners on a weekly basis, and some of the folks that run smaller business or are sole proprietors, often have little to no marketing budget. The second reason is that most of the people in my Toastmasters group run a business or have a job where they need to generate leads.
I discussed several marketing strategies that one can implement for just an investment of time. Towards the end of my speech, I held up my iPhone and asked “does anyone know what this is?” Next, the answer came to me, and I said “it’s a portable video production studio” as if it were rehearsed (I was planning on saying smart phone.)
I went on to share how no one with a smart phone has a valid excuse for not doing video marketing. I shared a story about how last week during a training, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, shot a quick video of someone from the audience and uploaded it to YouTube, all within 5 minutes and only using my iPhone.
I have said before that to me smart phones aren’t really phones anymore. They are computers with a phone application. As a business owner, one of the best uses for your smart phone is shooting quick on the fly videos that you can use in many segments of your marketing. You can use them in blog posts, you can create educational videos, and best of all, you can capture customer testimonials on the spot.
So, do you have a smart phone? If so, are you using it to market yourself and your business? If not, why not?
I encourage you to implement video marketing into your business as soon as possible. If you need some coaching along the way, feel free to contact me.
How People Often Miss The Mark With Social Media
Many times when the topic of social media comes up in discussions with business owners, I often hear them say that they want to be able to build social media contacts outside of their friends and family. In fact, when I speak on the topic of Facebook Marketing, the biggest question I hear is “how do we build fans?” My response is to start with those you know because those are generally your best sources of referrals anyhow. Often people are resistant to come across as a marketer or as self serving to those they know personally, and other times people simply don’t want their friends and family to know about their business for whatever reason.
Today, I guess the message became a bit clearer during a brainstorming session with a colleague. People are often so concerned with finding ways to connect with strangers (people they don’t know on Facebook or other sites), that they lose site of the massive potential to grow their business through those they know by leveraging social media.
I guess there are those situations where someone may have a side business and they don’t want their co-workers or clients to know about it, and I guess I understand that. What people need to keep in mind however is that SOCIAL media is about relationships. Relationships are not formed by ads, but by interaction with people. I am not saying ads don’t work, but I am saying that relationships build more solid business connections than ads do, especially in a social arena such as a social media community.
When I think of my personal successes in connecting with business opportunities via social media, most of them have been through relationships with those I know and have connected with because I am pretty open with those that know me about what I do.
Social media can be a great platform for educating your friends and family. They may know what you do, but they don’t know what you know. If you have had a viewpoint that says you want to connect with those you don’t know as opposed to those you do know, I strongly encourage you to consider allowing your friends and family into your social media world. You might be surprised at what it does for your business.
Viral Video Marketing Made Simple with VideoN5
Have you put off video marketing because you thought it was too difficult? I want to tell you that it’s really not that difficult. All you have to do is make a decision to do it. You can use your cell phone to shoot a simple video and upload it to a free YouTube account so there really is not an excuse for not doing anything at all.
What can help however is having a system and I want to share with you a new system that is launching today called VideoN5. This video marketing platform was created to take all of the hassles out of video marketing, and give you the opportunity to make your videos go viral through sharing tools such as email marketing and social media. The idea is that with this software, you can create a video marketing campaign in 5 simple steps (hence the name, Video in 5.)
Today is the official VideoN5 launch party and I will be attending the kickoff event shortly (starts at 5:30PM, AZ time.) I am proud to be a sponsor of the event and excited to be an affiliate partner with VideoN5 as I know this is a much needed solution for small business owners.
Since today is the launch, you can check out the software for just $1.96 for the first month and then $39.95 per month after that (you need to use promo code: J6WZ7T2.) After the launch tonight the price will go up, so even if you are just thinking about using this software, I would register; you will be glad you did. Visit http://www.videon5.com/ to get started and use PROMO CODE J6WZ7T2 to get the introductory pricing.
If you need any assistance with video marketing (or any other kind of digital marketing), please contact me.
Google Follows Facebook with +1 Button
Seeming to follow in the footsteps of Facebook’s “liking” of a status or a Facebook business page, Google is implementing a “+1″ button where users can “vote up” a search result that they like. According to their “learn about +1” video, they will allow for integration of +1 into websites in a similar fashion as we now see Facebook like buttons. The program is currently being rolled out slowly, but you can sign up for it at http://www.google.com/experimental/ if you want to check it out. Below is a screen shot of a blog post that I gave the “+1″ to and I have encircled both the indication that it has been “voted up” (or 1 up’d) as well as the +1 button.
Now, when I look at my Google profile, I see this listed under the tab labeled “+1′s” (you can click the image below to enlarge it.)
Given that social media activity such as tweets and (Facebook) likes are having an impact on organic search engine optimization, I am sure this will play into rankings as well. Stay tuned!
How Twitter Helped Me Get a Website Restored
Over the weekend, I noticed that one of my websites was offline. It’s not a mission critical site which is why it was not monitored more closely (in case you are wondering), but it is a site that generates income and one that I was getting ready to upgrade.
I noticed that the web stats had dropped to zero for the past few days and I knew there was a problem. I tried to visit the site and it was down so I called the web hosting provider (I will be nice and not out them… but you can certainly see my Twitter history if you know how to find it) 
Anyhow, I was told that it was a known issue and being worked on and therefore I could not have a support ticket, but that I was welcome to call back and endure another 5+ minute hold time if I wanted an update. Let’s just say, it was less than stellar customer service.
Knowing the power of Social Media, I Tweeted about the issue and named the company in the Tweet, so they would see the message. After not getting a response, I followed up with another Tweet saying that I was surprised that they did not monitor Twitter, given how large of a company they were. Within a few minutes, I was contacted via Twitter asking for my ticket number. I told them the issue and that I was told a ticket could be created… at which time they created a support ticket and told me the issue would be resolved that day.
The next day the issue still persisted and I replied to the support ticket asking for an update because they did not meet the time frame they had said they would. I then Tweeted that I was still frustrated that after 4 days of a website outage (which is simply unacceptable), I still did not have a status. I am sure you can guess what happened next. I got a Twitter message saying that someone would call me to try to resolve the issue, and of course I got a phone call. No one could tell me what magically happened, but they were able to get my site back up within minutes of that call. They said they did a work around to get mine up but that the others on my shared server were still offline. I guess I am surprised that no one else had a problem with their website being down for days.
What’s the moral of the story? Don’t underestimate the power of Social Media. As you might imagine, a few web hosting competitors and affiliates saw my posts and contacted me via Twitter with hosting offers. I went to respond to one to thank them, but they failed to follow me (on Twitter) which means, I could not communicate with them. Well, at least they were on the right track…