Establish Trust With A Front Page Web Video

Putting a web video on page one of your website is not about information, it is not about product presentation, it is about trust establishment. As this article will explain, giving visitors to your website a chance to see you the owner – face-to-face in a web video – will immediately begin to establish trust in you and facilitate their decision to want to do business with you.

It may be a surprise to realize that people can have trust in someone who is unethical or even criminal. Having trust is more about believing in another person. However, the degree to which one person trusts another is a reflection of belief in the other person’s honesty, fairness, and benevolence. Important for establishing initial trust in business is that fact that a failure in trust is more easily forgiven if it is due to a failure in competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty. As a result, sometimes a business providing inferior services may fare better with their customers than a company providing superior services – at least temporarily – if people feel the first company is honest and means well.

The phenomenon of trust is summed up in the following definition. It is described as a “heuristic decision rule, allowing the human to deal with complexities that would require unrealistic effort in rational reasoning.” Lets break this definition down. Heuristic processes are trial and error approaches to problem solving which begin with the most accessible solution and go on to another solution, only if the first solution doesn’t solve the problem. In terms of business, if a customer finds himself interacting with a business owner that he intrinsically wishes to trust because the owner appears benevolent, good-natured, and well meaning – then the customer will prefer to trust the owner and do business rather than get involved into complex rational thought about what might go wrong in the business relationship.

So, what does this have to do with putting a video on page ONE of your website have to do with trust?. When a surfer goes onto your website and thinks about doing business with you – someone he’s never met – he can rapidly be won over by a short online video of you talking with him. If he is engaged by your story and connects with your personality then he will immediately wish to trust you and do business you – because that will be the easiest solution for him to take.

And this leaves us with one more important take-away lesson. A front page video needn’t trouble itself with a description of company features and benefits. It simply needs to provide a relevant reason for the user to trust the owner / business. A short 1 to 2 minute story, passionately told by the owner saying that he established the family potato chip business 30 years ago because he wanted to provide people with a crispy chip that wouldn’t lose its favor in the package is a fine example that will win trust right away.

16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing

By Amy Porterfield
Social Media Examiner

There’s no doubt that online video marketing is on the rise. Numerous studies and statistics prove that video works. In fact, Forrester Research found that videos were 50 times more likely to receive an organic first page ranking than traditional text pages. That’s a pretty impressive stat!

Online video marketing is attractive to many businesses today for numerous reasons. Making videos and posting them online is fairly inexpensive. Plus, online videos stay online forever. If you spend the money to record once, your video could still be getting views a year from now.

In addition, social media sites and video go hand in hand and most sites encourage video posting and sharing. The viral video opportunities are endless when you use the right strategies to create and post your videos online.

If you’re new to video, or have been thinking about flipping on your camera for the first time, here are some tips and strategies to get you going.
Six Quick Tips to Optimize Your Videos

Once you record your video, follow these tips to make sure it reaches your core audience and gets the views it deserves.

#1: Make your title count

Just like a headline to a blog post, video titles can pull powerful traffic. There are two main reasons why the title is so important. One, a great title can instantly grab a viewer’s attention. Two, when you use the appropriate keywords in your title, you are more likely to show up on search engines when people are searching for your topic. And remember Google owns YouTube, so there’s a story connection between video and searching.

#2: Provide excellent content

Take some time to think about your ideal viewer. What do you know that they’ll find valuable? What can you teach them? “How-to” videos are extremely successful because not only do they offer great value to your viewer, but also you’re able to showcase your knowledge and skill, thus positioning yourself as an expert. This is key as you continue to grow your brand.

Also, no matter how good your content is, it won’t matter if your video is too long and you lose your viewer’s attention. Try to keep them short.

In late 2009, ComScore reported that the average video was 3.8 minutes in length.

#3: Include your URL in your video

When you edit your video, take advantage of the different editing features. One easy feature is to add a text box to your video. This is where you can display your website address and it’s a great way to get exposure.

Here’s a screen shot of Mari Smith’s YouTube channel. Notice how she used a text box in her video to display key information, including her website URL at the end of her video. Smart move!

For the remainder of the article click here.

Storytelling remains Cosby’s foundation | The Augusta Chronicle

Whether writing, acting or performing his legendary standup material, Bill Cosby’s goals are always the same — he wants to communicate, educate and, most importantly, connect.

By to the gospel of Cosby, when you connect, people listen, and when they listen, they can learn. They also, in his experience, will listen better while laughing.

Cosby was born and raised in Philadelphia, received a degree in education from Temple University, and broke into the business at a time when a black comic was an anomaly. He said that desire to connect drew him to comedy from an early age.

“Where did it start?” he asked rhetorically in a recent telephone interview promoting his two stand-up performances on Sunday at Bell Auditorium. “Where did this understanding, this desire to be funny, come from? It’s certainly not something I understood growing up, but I loved hearing it. I studied it, studied how to make people laugh. It was the same as a kid playing a violin or acting or working to become a doctor. I was drawn.”

Conversationally, Bill Cosby the man is similar to Bill Cosby the performer. He’s a natural storyteller, letting information spill into tangents, sometimes seeming to meander and yet always managing to circle the narrative wagons around his point.

He said early professional inspiration came from Bob Newhart, Mel Brooks’ and Carl Reiner’s 2,000-Year-Old Man sketch, and Dick Gregory. He said he also owes a lot to an anonymous stranger encountered at a Chinese restaurant.

Click here to continue reading: Storytelling remains Cosby’s foundation | The Augusta Chronicle.

Video engagement on social networks, a pattern emerges.

Interesting insight comparing social networks and online video engagement. Looks like more fuel for the Twitter-splosion. Also, notice even at the high point we’re not past 2 minutes.

See for yourself here.

4 Online Video Marketing Survial Tactics For Your Small Business

Have you noticed that the number of companies now switching their operations online is increasing all the time? E-commerce is now overtaking regular means of trade in various sectors. If you want to maximize your profits online then it is essential that you understand and implement the latest techniques in internet marketing. In 2010 this will need to involve a knowledge of the latest video marketing tips.

As of the beginning of 2010, do you know how many websites are live on the internet? The figure has now surpassed one hundred million. If you have a small business that operates on the internet then it is fundamental to keep ahead of the competition. The potential to make money online is vast, but not without keeping up to date with the newest trends in marketing.

The following tips are vital if you are going to maximize the number of hits your site receives:

1. Now some of the most popular sites on the internet are video sharing portals. There isn’t a net user in the world that has never visited You Tube. To increase your traffic you will need to enhance your visibility. If the customers aren’t coming to you then you need to go to them. By putting together a fun and interesting clip for You Tube you will be able to reach a wider audience.

2. Understand the target audience. If you are offering a service or selling products online then you should identify the market demographic in which you expect to receive the greatest number of sales. When designing the video be sure to cater to their specific tastes.

3. Grab attention. Today with so much choice when it comes to browsing the net it is important to be able to keep the attention of surfers. Any video you make needs to be short and snappy. Do not make it overly promotional; if possible try to advertise your message subliminally.

4. Put together informative videos such as guides. Many people use the net to look up information. For example if you have a website selling cookery products you could put together a short step by step video of how to bake a cake or make a pizza. This will attract visitors who then may be interested in your products. Also, such pages will stand a better chance of receiving high search engine placement.

To be sure to maintain a strong foothold in the online world in these times of increased competition and economic uncertainty then video marketing is a must. Please take action now and implement these tips I just gave you. The life of you business may depend on it.

7 Online Video Tips Every B2B Marketer Should Know

By Kipp Bodnar, Social Media B2B

Making and distributing good B2B video content takes time. It isn’t a quick process to arrange a video shoot, edit video and then upload it to the social web. This work though can come with a substantial pay-off if as a B2B company you understand how to do the little things to maximize the effectiveness of online video.

When it comes to online video several issues exist. Search engines don’t index the content of video well. People can’t always watch video at work because of firewall issues and out of date software. Today’s tips are to help fix some of these issues and to make sure that ROI of online video is maximized.

7 Online Video Tips Every B2B Marketer Should Know

1. Always Include URL In A Video Description – This first tip is so simple but so many businesses don’t do it. Most video sharing sites including YouTube, allow the first 30 characters of a video description to be an active URL. Not only does it make it easy to generate leads back to your site from videos, but this links also count in Google’s PageRank system. Meaning if you publish a lot of video and put links in each of them your organic search ranking in Google will be improved.

2. When Blogging A Video Include A Text Summary – This is a tactic that may add a little more time to getting your video published, but is completely worth it. A good example of this is what the folks at HubSpot TV are doing. Under each of the video is a series a bullet points that summarize what the video covers. While this is great for people who can’t watch the video it also provides text for search engines to better index your video blog posts. Adding text with video is a valuable inbound marketing opportunity.

3. Three Short Videos Are Better Than one Long Video – People have short attention spans when it comes to the web. As marketers providing content it is important that we understand this. Online videos should be short, ideally around 3 minutes, or even shorter. If you have a 10 minute interview, then break it up into smaller interviews. Besides improving the chances that more people will watch it, it also provides the opportunity to focus headlines that fit with different messages within the video.

See the remaining tips at: Social Media B2B

The 7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy

Below is an excellent recent post by Jay Baer from his blog Convince and Convert. It speaks volumes about the value of putting a plan first, not the tools. And, while Jay does not say it directly, his step #6: How Will You Be Human?, speaks directly to why your story is so important. Your story makes you human to your audience. At the core people connect with people through stories. So, indeed let your guard down when engaging through social medias. Tell me a story. Tell me why you’re passionate about what you do or sell, and I just may join you in your passion.

Great post Jay! For more and to see Jay’s SlideShare on this topic go to Jay’s blog post at Convince and Convert.

The 7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy

Before you begin, commit to worrying about social media tools last, not first. Why? Because tools will change. They always do. There was a time when Netscape seemed invincible. Yahoo, too. Myspace also. If you fall in love with tools, you’ll constantly be changing directions, with no real plan to guide your way.

1. What’s Your Pitch?
The elevator pitch is dead. Can you describe what your company does in 120 characters or less?

2. What’s the Point?
What type of program is this? Awareness, Sales, or Loyalty? Pick one.

3. What’s Your Relationship with Your Audience?
What does your audience know about you today?

* Nothing
* Aware of you, but never acted
* Acted once
* Repeat actions/enthusiasts
* Advocates

Pick up to two of these segments to focus upon, but make sure they are adjacent on this scale. It’s too confusing to have a strategy that targets advocates AND people that have never heard of you. That would be two strategies, not one.

4. How Does Your Audience Use Social Media?
Using the Forrester Social Technographics Ladder, understand how your target audience (as defined by gender, age, and geography) uses social media. If your audience skews older, you may not want to engage in a lot of “make a video” contests, since that segment indexes low on the “Creator” scale.

You can play with the Social Technographics Ladder data right here:

5. What’s Your One Thing?
What’s the soul of your brand. What’s the one thing that defines you – and it’s not features and benefits. Volvo = Safety. Apple = Innovation. Disney = Magic. What’s on the other side of your = sign?

Note: This is not easy to figure out. You may need to engage in some brand anthropology, and have an agency help you find your one thing.

6. How Will You Be Human?
Social media is about people, not logos. How will you let down your guard? If you’re a small company, congratulations, this should be pretty easy. If you’re a big company, how can you act small again?

7. How Will You Measure Success?
Lots of ways to measure social media success, so make sure you determine your key metrics BEFORE you get started. I recommend picking three solid metrics to track. Appropriate metrics differ based on what your objective is for the program. See Jay’s slide deck for details.

Now, you can worry about tools, and outposts, and social media tactics.