YouTube Helps Builds Your Online Presence

YouTube is not just used to spread funny or bizarre videos throughout the web. Many businesses are utilizing this social media site as a powerful marketing tool by creating their own YouTube channels to promote their brand.  A YouTube channel can greatly advance your online presence, but just like any other online content, it needs to be properly created and maintained.

Why is YouTube so popular? 

Typically, people are much more inclined to view a short video than read through a long article.  It adds more enjoyment and entertainment to the message you are trying to send.  YouTube has also become one of the largest search engines online and a very successful social media outlet.  People can easily share and send videos, creating the same viral results as Facebook or Twitter.

Follow these steps to quickly and easily set up your YouTube channel:

1. Create a YouTube account to set up a channel.  You might already have a personal account, but if you want to use a YouTube channel to promote a business or product, it’s best that you create a new account used for business.  The username you establish on YouTube becomes part of your channel URL. Select something that relates to your business name that is memorable. For example, BioPlasticsCompany has a username of bioplasticscompany and their YouTube URL is www.youtube.com/bioplasticscompany.

2. Sign in to YouTube using your new account and choose the channel link from the drop down menu.  This takes you to the page where you can manage all the different aspects of your channel.

3. Design your YouTube channel with SEO techniques in mind. Use keywords in video titles, descriptions, and tags.

Be sure to use your channel tags in your company description.

4.  Before you upload any videos, brand your channel by creating a look and feel that aligns with the goals you are trying to accomplish.  Use the Themes and Colors tab at the top of the channel page to change the design.  Upload a background image and choose your own color scheme.  Click on “Show Advanced Options” to see more choices.  

5.  Once you’ve finished the design of your channel, you can begin uploading videos.  Be sure to treat these videos as you would any content on a regular website.  Your videos should be the best quality that you’re able to produce.  You aren’t at a disadvantage if you don’t have a professional production team.  With today’s technology, anyone can create a video – just be sure to have a plan for your filming strategy.

6.  When you begin designing your videos, have a consistent format.  Think of your videos as chapters in a book – they should fit together and be relatable.  This can be achieved by structuring your videos in a similar way and adding your logo to each video. Remember, you want to use your YouTube channel to develop your brand.   

7.  When a visitor opens your YouTube channel, one of your videos will be featured prominently on the screen, while the other videos are listed as thumbnails on the right.  Choose which video to feature and whether this video will autoplay. 

8.  Once your YouTube channel is up and running, promote it through other outlets, such as your website, newsletters, or social media pages.  Post links to your channel and embed videos on sites like Facebook.   

9.  You’re work isn’t done after you’ve created a well-developed YouTube channel with a good following.  The channel requires maintenance just like any other site.  Keep things current, upload new videos as needed, and engage your followers!  Just like Facebook or Twitter, the best way to keep people interested is to get them talking.   

The best way to achieve success using a YouTube channel is to treat it like any other website or social media outlet.  Spend time to develop a good marketing strategy that addresses all of your company’s needs.  If you can create an effective YouTube channel, that integrates with your other marketing materials, then you can reach your target audience and enhance your online presence.

Comment (0)

5 LinkedIn Things to Do Today to Improve Your Presence

We spend a lot of time talking about LinkedIn to our clients and seminar attendees. One comment we often hear is that people are busy and don’t want to take the time to update their LinkedIn profile. 

A comprehensive LinkedIn profile is a great way to build your web presence, generate leads, job hunt and more. Start by asking yourself why you have a LinkedIn presence. What is your goal? Are you trying to gain new business? Improve your company’s search engine rankings? Connect with prospects? Get a job?  Then design (or redesign) your profile accordingly.

Improving your profile may not be as hard as you think if you break it down into steps and try a few every week. Here are 5 simple tips to help your LinkedIn profile reflect the professional you really are!

1. Join a group. Try joining one or more that are related to your field or the business areas of your customers. You will get a better understanding of not only what’s happening in your market, but issues your customers face that you can potentially solve. Also consider exploring groups associated with your college alumni and local and national networking groups.

2. Ask for recommendations. Including referrals on your profile reinforces your professional identity online and adds a personal touch. Try reaching out to colleagues, customers or even former bosses. You can choose which ones to display, but we recommend no more than 10 - 15, otherwise it dilutes their effectiveness. And make sure you return the favor.

3. Complete your company profile (or work with your marketing person to do so on behalf of your company). Company pages provide a way to describe your products and services, identify team members and give people an easy way to contact you. Once it is complete, you can create LinkedIn ads to promote it, and include your custom url in your marketing materials.

4. Create a powerful "headline." This is the text directly beneath your name (or your company’s name) on your LinkedIn profile. You have 120 characters available to describe what you do, so use keywords that describe your business or you. Most people look at this headline when they are searching on LinkedIn, so don’t neglect it!

5. Identify 5 Facebook friends with whom you have not yet connected via LinkedIn and extend an invitation to connect. This extends your network, and can possibly build your business. How else will you get referrals from friends and family if they don’t know what you do?

LinkedIn has been around longer than Facebook or Twitter, although it often gets overshadowed by these social media giants. Spend some time researching its capabilities in the LinkedIn Learning Center and pick 5 new things to do every week. You might be surprised how effective LinkedIn is and how simple it is to maximize your LinkedIn presence!

Comment (0)

At OnMark’s recent Social Made Simple seminar, we had an attendee pose a great question: If you sell a service, and not a “widget,” what’s the best way to use social media?

This is often particularly challenging to those in the heavily regulated financial, healthcare or banking industries. But before you give up entirely on integrating tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter into your communications strategy, consider doing a little research and testing out a few simple ways to use social media in the service industry.

Do Your Homework

The service industry is competitive. Check to see what your competitors are doing online and in the social media space. If aspects of their approach align with your business goals, try putting your own twist on it.

Also, if you are in a highly regulated industry, you may have advertising and marketing rules that apply. Make sure you are aware of these before embarking on a social media strategy. Your staff needs to be on board and have clear policies regarding their use of social media under your company’s brand.

Move Your Offline Methods Online

You likely have several marketing assets in print format. Try repurposing these for online use, where it makes sense, but make sure you adjust the message accordingly. For example:

1. Tune-up reminders. Whether you are an accountant, a financial advisor or a body shop, your customers can benefit from regular tune-ups related to the service you provide. This could include a quarterly budget review, or a tax reminder. You can put these messages on Facebook and/or Twitter on a regular basis.
2. Improved customer service. The more open channels of communication you offer, the better your service is perceived. Where are your customers going online when they have questions or feedback? Be there, and be prepared to respond using the same social channel.
3. Lead generation. Develop relationships outside of your service that can lead to referrals. Think about offering personal information about yourself and your hobbies that might open up a dialog with someone new. Once they have a relationship with you, it opens the door to referrals.
4. Education. Instead of selling your services, educate your customers about a “lifestyle”-related topic that indirectly aligns with your service offerings. For example, an insurance company can use social media to talk about safe driving. A hospital might use social media to discuss nutritional information.
5. Consider starting conversations online and finishing them offline. If a customer poses a question that involves sensitive information, have a service representative phone them directly, if possible, and post a response that says you will do so.

This year, a few major firms such as Morgan Stanley and Securities America announced they will allow their employees to use social media.

Another helpful article is “How to Engage in Social Media in Regulated Industries.”

Comment (0)

At a recent seminar, we heard a social media expert say that marketers need to spend at least 10 hours a week researching, posting, Tweeting, monitoring and responding in order to execute a successful social media strategy. This guideline seems reasonable if social media management is a key aspect of your job description, but what if you wear other hats like many of our small business clients do? Does that mean your social media efforts are wasted if you can’t even spend a fraction of that time?

At OnMark, we’ve become skilled at customizing online marketing strategies to both business goals and internal resources. We believe that while 10+ hours a week may be ideal, it is not realistic for many companies and that there are ways to manage these social media efforts, achieve results and still focus on your core business.

So what if you only can dedicate 2 hours a week to social media? What should you do to make the most of your time?

Start small and focus on the Big 3: Email, Facebook and Twitter. There are an overwhelming number of social media outlets, many of which may or may not make sense for your company. But if you opt to tackle the ones people are the most active on, you’re off to a great start. Consider establishing or enhancing an email marketing program. Set up a Twitter and/or Facebook account and get a conversation started on around something that is relevant to your target audience. 

Use a free social media monitoring and management tool like HootSuite (http://hootsuite.com). Using HootSuite’s dashboard feature, you can monitor and post to multiple social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. You can also write and schedule messages ahead of time so they are sent when it makes the most sense for your audience.

Establish a monthly “editorial calendar” in advance. Take one hour and brainstorm or send an email to various functions in your company and enlist their help. What are the most frequently asked questions they receive? What are important industry trends and news items you can comment on or post links to in Facebook or Twitter? Mix in some seasonal and/or personal entries and you’ve got a good mix of messages that you can cycle through as needed.

Sign up for Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) and other tools to automatically receive email updates on what’s being said about your brand, the competition and your industry. This service delivers the information to your in-box daily or weekly. Regularly scanning the alerts helps keep social media messages timely and can give you ideas on what others in your industry are doing with their social media strategy.

Consider outsourcing the more time-consuming pieces, such as strategy development, measurement and ongoing planning efforts. There are benefits to letting an online marketing expert help define your overall social media strategy since they have access to the latest tools and resources. You are the content expert so your input is critical, but this gives you the opportunity to influence the overall direction without spending the time researching and developing the plan and budget.

Comment (0)

If you think about it, email is truly the first social media tool. It enabled one to many communications with groups of friends, family and coworkers around all kinds of topics. Since the use of Facebook and Twitter has exploded over the last few years, many of our clients are asking: How do we balance the 3 largest social outlets within our company’s marketing plan?

Recently ExactTarget, a global online interactive marketing provider, conducted research about people’s perceptions, commitment levels to brands and the expected roles of the 3 big social channels. One key take away is that a majority of US consumers are not only active on the big 3 social outlets, but most people are active daily.

Following are a few key findings:

Email as a Social Tool – People want to receive messaging that is relevant to their needs. They expect the content to have value-- whether that be educational or offer-based. Consumers want email frequency to be based on value as defined by the volume of email received in their inbox.

• 95% of US online consumers use email
• 83% of US online consumers say they check email at least once per day.
• 18% of consumers say they never open email from companies
• 70% say they always open emails from their favorite companies

Facebook as a Social Tool– Consumers expect fresh, new content with personality that has a moderate frequency, as they want their personal interactions to be the dominate stream. The age of the consumer greatly influences their overall perception. Consumers aged 24 and younger are less tolerant of advertising messages and are more likely to have “liked” to learn more about a company.

• 73% of US online consumers have created a profile on Facebook.
• 65% of US online consumers are currently active on Facebook
• 68% of Facebook users check Facebook at least once per day
• 64% of Facebook users are “FANS” of a company (Do they use this Fan term still?)
• 55% of Facebook users have “liked” a company and then later decided they no longer wanted to see that company’s posts.
• 51% of FANS say they rarely or never visit a company’s page after “liking” them

Twitter as a Social Tool– Consumers turn to Twitter for its updated stream of short information. People want a moderate flow of information and quick responses when questions are posted.

• 17% of US online consumers have created a Twitter account.
• 9% of US online consumers are active on Twitter.
• 64% of active Twitter users check Twitter at least once per day.
• 71% of Followers expect to receive marketing messages from companies through Twitter.
• 52% found Twitter to be pointless

Download the full ExactTarget report

Comment (0)

OnMark and cars – What’s the connection?

The OnMark team took a break in July for a bit of summer fun…the convertible kind of course. (Big smile!)

Thanks to all of our loyal customers and supports over the years, we’ve been successfully growing. We thank you for your business! We look forward to continuing to develop online marketing tactics that help your business grow.

Your Friends,

Kristy Amy, Anne Hassel, Kim Kelly, Wendy Leetch and Chris Rich

Comment (0)

Facebook trials “Facebook Questions”

At the end of July, Facebook introduced a new feature called Facebook Questions.  Using this new feature, Facebook users can pose a question to the entire Facebook community and receive a broader set of answers as well as learn valuable information on a wide range of topics.   

This feature will allow users to upload a picture and post a poll.  You will also have the ability to pose the question to a specific group of users. For example if you have a question on what type of camera you should buy, you can tag it with “Photography” allowing the most relevant people to answer your questions. 

Right now it is only available to a limited number of people, but Facebook is aiming to bring this to the general Facebook community in the near future. 

Comment (2)

Ford breaks the marketing mold and goes social for new car debut

If you are a car enthusiast, you might have noticed something missing from this year’s auto show: the unveiling of the 2011 Ford Explorer. Instead, on July 26, 2010 Ford opted to use Facebook to showcase the new vehicle. In addition, it featured a sweepstakes where one lucky Facebook fan will win a 2011 Ford Explorer. This is the first time a major car company used social media for a new product launch.

While Ford has always enjoyed high visibility on the web, its use of social media, such as the Explorer Facebook sweepstakes, is also leading to print and TV coverage. This is a great example of building a communication strategy around the goals of a campaign (e.g., increase brand awareness, engage with customers, be creative, etc.) versus simply using every social media tool out there just for the sake of using them.

Our team at OnMark Solutions prides itself on thoroughly and comprehensively evaluating your e-strategy. We recommend using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, if it makes sense to your business and is aligned with your company’s communication goals. There are many other online ways to communicate with your customers and prospects. They all should work together to achieve the maximum ROI on your marketing dollars.

So whether you’re in the driver’s seat or you’re a passenger, ask yourself the following 5 questions when you’re deciding if social media is right for your company:

What are your customers talking about and how are they talking about it?

Do you have the staff to support ongoing updates and monitor messages about your company?

Do you have a clear understanding of your objectives and how you want your company’s brand to be positioned?

How will you measure the performance of the social media tools?

How will social media be integrated with your other communication vehicles, both online and print?

If you need help determining the answers to the above questions and evaluating what e-strategies fit your business goals, give us a call. We’ve been told we add high value at a reasonable cost, simplify seemingly complicated online tools and get things done. How can we help you drive your online presence? To read more about  the Ford Explorer Facebook campaign, click here.

Comment (0)