Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube – Which is Right for Me?

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Social media is everywhere. Consumers can go from their home computer, to their mobile phone, to their tablet, to their office laptop without missing a social beat. What started out as an easy way for people to connect with one another has turned into one of the most influential communication mediums ever known. Not embracing social media could prove very detrimental to businesses’ marketing efforts.

But, like most people, you’re probably wondering where do I begin? Do I join ever social network I learn about? Do I have to upload videos to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, and Twitter every single day? Each social network has both pros and cons (just like any other marketing medium) that need to be weighed against your goals.

Here are some brief highlights of four of the top social media networks (if you want to learn more about some of the other popular networks, CMO.com publishes a href="http://www.cmo.com/social-media/2011-cmos-guide-social-landscape" target="_blank">Social Landscape Chart each year outlining the major networks and their best uses).

Facebook

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Facebook is a destination network, in other words, consumers go on the Internet to go to Facebook and spend time on the site. The primary usage is not a means to get to other sites; in fact most users don’t want to navigate away from Facebook. The site has been developed to be an all encompassing platform (pictures, pages, chat, email, video, etc.) and a hub of all social media (you can integrate nearly every other network into your Facebook profile).

B2C businesses are thriving on Facebook by being where their target audience is already conversing and simply joining the conversation.

Twitter

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Twitter is the most popular microblogging site (messages of 140 characters or less) and, like Facebook, it is a great means of communication. You can almost liken Twitter as a text message to your target audience – any exciting news, informative article link, press release, or even a quick “hello, how’s it going,” can quickly be posted in a matter of seconds for your entire following to see.  

Whether you are a B2B or a B2C business, Twitter can provide a great platform for you to converse with your target audience. However, if there isn’t a lot happening in your industry and you don’t have the means to tweet regularly, a different network may better suit your business.

LinkedIn

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LinkedIn is the new digital rolodex and the best network for personal branding and to position yourself and your business as experts in a specific area. With the ability to both create and/or engage in groups regarding specific topics, you can provide your intellect as a resource for the other group members. Just as businesses used Rolodexes pre-Internet, businesses use their LinkedIn connections to help them with their business needs.

If you are targeting business professionals, LinkedIn is the place to be.

YouTube

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The benefits of YouTube are limited only to your creativity. CMO said it well, “Whether you seek to entertain, inform, or both, video is a powerful channel for quickly responding to customer complaints and showing your social-media savvy.” Not only is YouTube great for communicating and building brand awareness, it is also a great tool for SEO.

Any business can utilize the benefits of YouTube.

Now, there are several hundred (if not more) other social networks with many more being started regularly. If you find yourself become overwhelmed with the amount of social media possibilities, take a step back and look at the overall picture. The best question you can ask yourself is, “where is my target market?” If they are on Facebook, go there. If they are on LinkedIn, go there. If they are on a very targeted network specific to industry, go there. Don’t waste your time and energy trying to connect to your target market in networks they aren’t active in.

Still unsure what network to join or if you are on the right one(s)? Comment below and let’s talk about it!

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A Brief Guide On YouTube

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Facts:

• More than 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute.
• Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day.
• More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years.
• 98 of Adage’s Top 100 advertisers have run campaigns on YouTube and the Google Display Network.
• Every minute more than 500 tweets contain YouTube links

All of these facts, courtesy of href="http://www.youtube.com/t/press_statistics" target="_blank">YouTube statistics, make it really hard to call YouTube less than a multimedia powerhouse, marketing channel of choice, and social media front runner. To better understand YouTube and the direction in which they are headed, let’s take a tour of their history (a full history can be viewed href="http://www.youtube.com/t/press_timeline" target="_blank">here).

YouTube History

• April 2005 – First video uploaded to YouTube (view href="http://youtu.be/jNQXAC9IVRw" target="_blank">here)
• December 2005 – Official site launch (8 million videos watched a day)
• July 2006 – 100 million video view per day
• August 2006 – First advertising concepts launched
• October 2006 – Acquired by Google for .65 billion
• June 2007 – YouTube3 mobile site launched
• December 2007 – YouTube Partner Program launched
• January 2008 – 10 hours of video uploaded every minute
• March 2008 – YouTube Insight Analytics tool launched
• October 2008 – 15 hours of video uploaded every minute
• Jan 2009 – Homepage ads expanded from 1 to 7 formats
• May 2009 – 20 hours of video uploaded every minute
• October 2009 – YouTube announced more than 1 billion views per day
• November 2009 – 1080p Full HD launched
• March 2010 – 24 hours of video uploaded per minute
• May 2010 – YouTube exceeds 2 billion views a day

YouTube Case Studies

Justin Bieber: You may love him and you may hate him, but it’s hard to deny the power of YouTube in his story. A few years ago he was just another young teenager with a passion for music. His life changed when his mom decided to start posting videos of him singing on YouTube – initially for just for family, then for an ever growing loyal audience. Once Usher Raymond and Scooter Braun saw the video, they took him under their wings and now he is an A-list pop star. (If you’re a fan of JB, check out one of his first YouTube videos href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csymVmm1xTw" target="_blank">here.)

href="http://www.youtube.com/user/karmincovers">Karmen: A male female duo also has seen success from flexing their vocal muscle on YouTube. Known for remixing covers of top 40 songs, Nick and Amy are now not only making waves in the music industry, they are getting paid by YouTube.

href="http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAYTARDS?blend=1&ob=4">Shaytards: With an impressive 1,000+ uploads and nearly 1 million subscribers, Shay Carl and his family are living their lives on camera and amusing millions of viewers. YouTube has recognized their influence and their impressive interactive following and is now financing the family’s fun.

These are only three of the growing number of YouTube success stories. As made apparent in these testimonies, YouTube is a great medium for marketing, personal branding, and well, just plain to have fun. Do you have any questions or want to learn more about a specific feature of YouTube? Let me know in the comments below.

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How to Use YouTube as a Free Marketing Tool for Your Website

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If you always thought title="YouTube" href="http://www.youtube.com/" target="_blank">YouTube was just to upload cute cat videos or funny human mishaps, then you may be missing an entire area of promotion that is cost effective and will help you reach an entirely new audience of potential customers.

One of the best reasons to use YouTube to market your business is that you can easily learn to make the videos yourself, which puts an effective promotional tool into your hands for free.

In a href="//www.fastcompany.com/3007301/most-innovative-companies-2013/one-billion-people-use-youtube-every-month-says-youtube" target="_blank">Fast Company article, technology writer Addy Dugdale offered some perspective on YouTube viewership numbers:

“YouTube has hit a milestone. One billion active users a month, it announced on its blog yesterday. That’s one in seven of us on the planet watching something on the Google video site every 28 days or so.”

What Are People Viewing?

Almost anyone with a video camera or some basic movie editing software can throw together an upload for YouTube. However, there is little point in creating the movie if no one will bother to view it. Before you create a YouTube video to promote your business, ask yourself what types of videos are trending on YouTube.

Fortunately, YouTube offers a useful tool for figuring out what’s popular called href="//www.youtube.com/user/Whatstrending”">What’s Trending?

You can browse around this page and discover recent uploads, what people are viewing and even read through the discussion forums to find out which videos are creating a buzz.

One type of video that is always popular on YouTube is anything with a cat doing something cute or funny. If you can figure out a way to include a funny cat with your business marketing, then you’re certain to have a hit. Since that doesn’t fit the theme of most businesses, you’ll need to think outside the box.

Some examples of videos that went viral in the last year or two include:

href="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsnb3kUDAw&feature=player_embedded”">Finnair Flight Dance

Takeoff to Bollywood! A Dance Crew surprises passengers after boarding of a Finnair flight to Delhi to celebrate India’s Republic Day on January 26th 2012.

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href="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IJoKuTlvuM&feature=player_embedded”">Harlem Shake

Schools, businesses and groups released versions of the Harlem Shake and many went viral.

src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0IJoKuTlvuM" height="422" width="750" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0">

href="//www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM”">Charlie!

This cute brother duo went viral once, so they released a new video. Although this isn’t business related, it underlines the point that people love cute videos.

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Your first step in creating a video to market your website is to figure out what is trending on YouTube and how you can use that trend to create a commercial or fun video that underlines the product or service you offer. For example, if you sell a hair product, you could create a funny commercial about how a woman’s hair looks after performing the Harlem Shake and how the product fixes her hair back to normal.

Funny or Informational?

Although a whimsical or funny video can easily go viral, don’t underestimate the value of href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/compare-best-five-hosting/">sharing specialized information on YouTube in the form of a tutorial. There are numerous cheer gyms that offer videos on cheerleading routines or how to do stunt and find that they gain new customers from those in their area who view their videos.

A video lesson can be created for any topic you can think of. Keep in mind that the attention spans of Internet users can sometimes be short, as they may be hopping online during a commute on the train or during a lunch break. Keep the video to five minutes or less and you should hold the viewer’s attention.

5 Steps to Getting Your Video Online

1. Create the Video

This step may sound obvious, but there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind as you record your video. You may have to experiment a bit to get the recording just right.

• Make sure the lighting is good. No one wants to watch a video that is so dark that you can barely make out the shapes.
• Make sure anyone speaking talks loud and clear. Have you ever tried to listen to a video where the sound quality was lacking? Frustrating isn’t it?
• Practice speaking parts. Try to deliver your lines without saying “um” or “uh” throughout.
• Get feedback on the video before posting. Once your video is complete, have friends and family view it and offer feedback. They may spot things you didn’t and you want the video to be as perfect as possible before you release it online.

2. Create a YouTube Account

Even if you already have a personal account, it is best to create a separate YouTube account for your business. Since Google owns YouTube, consider setting up a Gmail account just for this purpose. You should also link your Google+ profile to your YouTube home page and cross-promote your videos on as many other social media platforms as possible.

Did you know that according to YouTube facts by Jeff Bullas:

“500 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook [and] over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute.”

Be sure you completely fill in any profile information with your company information. Every person who views your video is a potential customer.

3. Upload Your Video and Describe It

Uploading your video to YouTube is a simple process that doesn’t require a lengthy explanation.

• Log into your account
• Click on the grey “Upload” button at the top of the page
• Browse to and choose your video

Now, this is where your marketing efforts kick in a bit more. In addition to simply uploading your video, you need to describe it in a way that will help it rank well in the search engines and will let viewers know about your business website.

Keyword Titles

Make sure you choose a title that contains the keywords you think people would likely search for that relate to the video and your business. Let’s go back to the example of the ad for the hair product. You wouldn’t want to just title it “Harlem Shake” but “Perfect Hair Even After Harlem Shake” or something along those lines. Use keyword search tools and trending to choose the best keyword title for your video.

Search Terms in Description

First and foremost, the description should explain exactly what your video is about. However, this is also a good place to work in a few of the search terms you believe people may be seeking. Make sure the wording has a natural flow. Don’t insert keywords just for the sake of using keywords.

URL in Description

Include your company website URL in the description of the video. This will allow the viewer to easily find the link and click on it should she want to visit your site for more information.

Tags

Go ahead and reuse those keywords/search terms again in the tags for the video.

Create an Image for Yourself on YouTube

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When you create your business profile at YouTube, be sure to set up some channels and customize the look of your profile page. This is the page that viewers will see when they click on your name for more information. If you take the time to set up channels, you can control what comment goes where on the page.

This is particularly useful if you want to highlight one video over another, especially if it is not the latest video you’ve created.

• Add a custom background
• Set your profile pic to your logo
• Change the setting to “Player View” so you can choose a featured video that will begin as soon as the visitor lands on your page. Be sure to check the box to autoplay the featured video.

Making Your Video Go Viral

While you can’t force a video to go viral, there are some things you can do that will help it do better in the search engines. Keep in mind that the more people who view your video, the better it will rank in the search engines. With that in mind, be sure to:

• Tell everyone you know about the video, both in person and online.
• Ask others to share your video on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• As it makes sense, offer a link to the video in online forums and during discussions on social media. However, be careful that the video adds to the conversation, as you don’t want to spam people. That will drive customers away instead of helping you gain them.
• Make sure the video is under five minutes and gets right to the main point.
• Offer incentive to link back and share your video, but make sure it is ethical and you aren’t just trying to bribe them. For example, you could offer free membership or entry in a contest for each time they share your video link.

When it comes to marketing, there aren’t many things that are free. Creating a YouTube video should only cost you a little time and creativity. However, the potential for impact may be huge, especially if your video goes viral.

Image credit: title="One Hour Per Second" href="http://www.onehourpersecond.com/" target="_blank">One Hour Per Second and href="http://www.morguefile.com/creative/hotblack" target="_blank">Hot Black. 

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