The Journey blog series as part of its social responsibility will be releasing free information technology notes for students as well IT professionals. Initially, focusing on the basics.
You know the type. He created a Facebook account in 2009 and hasn't touched it since. No profile picture. No status update. Occasionally, someone tags him in a photo, but does he even receive the notification?
Try this one: She waits, quietly. She doesn't "like" things, and she definitely doesn't comment. In fact, she rarely does anything at all besides slink through Facebook like a jungle cat, silently judging your waistline in your beach vacation pictures
*The Journey blog series as part of its social responsibility will be releasing free information technology notes for students as well IT professionals. Initially, focusing on the basics. STAY TUNED :)
*The Journey blog series as part of its social responsibility will be releasing free information technology notes for students as well IT professionals. Initially, focusing on the basics. STAY TUNED :)
Mobile communications has come in just a short span within the human civilization...yet its impact and the way it makes our lives change... Profound.
In IT, mobile communications is made possible by various components... One of them is a subset of IT known as 'networking' as well as 'data communications'.
The Journey blog series as part of its social responsibility will be releasing free information technology notes for students as well IT professionals. Initially, focusing on the basics.
I have been approached a couple of times by businesses and individuals on the concept of YouTube and its impact as a marketing tool. First and foremost, I must remind that I am not so much interested on sharing on HOW to do a good eye catching YouTube video...as it is something that I feel is a rather 'subjective' matter which is more a subject of creativity rather than technical skill set. Here I would like to touch first on the 'considerations' before embarking on YouTube as a marketing tool. Increasingly YouTube has grown into a powerful marketing tool for almost everything, from weddings, to celebrations, politics, films, dramas, singing careers, you name it....and yes...even for products and services. YouTube has in fact become a hot site to promote almost everything. However, especially from the business perspective, not every business (or everyone) gets acceptable results/ROI from their YouTube marketing videos. One thing clear in YouTube marketing is that it has allowed organizations, businesses and even individuals alike to be more effective and 'convincing' than conventional 'print based' advertisement as it allows for more effective 'SHOWING' rather than just plain old 'TELLING' to occur. It is important to note that success on YouTube depends on what you intend to establish/achieve with your online YouTube videos. So, my advice is, before you start shooting with your smartphones/video camera/tablets consider answering the following questions first:- 1. Should your business even be on YouTube?
Do you actually know what is your business all about, and do you actually want it to be on YouTube? It is important to note that not every business is suitable for YouTube. As a rule of thumb, if you can't show your product or service in action, don't put it on YouTube...if you can.,,,great...than you have a chance. For example, if you sell or manufacture screwdrivers, its pretty easy to demonstrate it on camera, but if you sell a 'part time baby sitting' service or 'high-school tutorial service'...it takes extremely high imagination and creativity to demonstrate that on a YouTube video (meaning...difficult to make a good 'marketing' video).
Even if you could somehow make a video (that demonstrates your service), an important thing to bear in mind is...you need to set a clear goal on what it is you want to establish with the particular video?.. Your goal will determine what type of video you should ideally produce. 2. Do you want to attract new customers or support existing ones? Most organizations/businesses find YouTube as a good medium to attract new customers (even political parties :p). Normally, this is done by showing a particular product and demonstrating how it works, than direct the audience to an official website for more information or close in a sale. As YouTube has yet to allow direct link from video to 'site', than the common practise is to superimpose on screen the 'official site URL' and to also include it in the video's text description. A YouTube video is also being commonly used as a medium to provide support or additional information to existing customers. For example, if you provide/sell a product that requires some form of assembly (like a tent), you may produce a video that shows how to assemble it properly. A how-to-video can be more effective than printed instructions, and is capable of decreasing the number of post-sale customer support calls. 3. Do you want to EDUCATE or INFORM? Based on observations, it can be generalized that the most successful YouTube videos tend to accomplish one of these three things:-
INFORM,
EDUCATE, or
ENTERTAIN.
It is also noted that although Entertainment videos (think GangNam) are the most likely to go viral and create spinoffs/parodies...it is the most difficult to create.
Which is why most business/organizations focus on making videos that aim to INFORM or EDUCATE.
Informative YouTube video: a specific video that can provide specific details on a particular product/service/company/or simple topics of interests to potential customers. For example, the recent Malaysian election saw an avalanche of videos with interesting topics to entice voters to either vote for/against a particular political party. (Or if you run a home stay or bed and breakfast business, you could perhaps do a short video tour of your facility)
Educational YouTube video: a specific video that normally shows customers 'how to do' something, normally in a step-by-step manner. For example, how to assemble a D.I.Y. table.
Depending on the nature of the business being run, each business will naturally gravitate towards a YouTube video that is either informative or educational in nature. For example, if you ran a home based catering business, the video could be an informative video that show your top dishes in an attractive settings, or an educational video that show customers how to cook their own versions of your favourite recipe.
All in all, the choice/decision of either Informative video versus Educational video (or even Entertainment video) falls largely on your personal style and (personal/company) image to be portrayed. However it is important to NOTE that YouTube videos (unlike conventional marketing) is a soft selling approach. Here, direct commercial messages is normally and largely REJECTED, so as a tip, if your video can offer something useful and/or memorable, than you're in a position to create your own unique branding in the long run.
“How many
times a day should I post on Facebook?” Unfortunately there is no magic number,
however research does suggest that 2-5 times per day is key.
Anyone can
handle this posting schedule for a week or two, but the real winner on Facebook
are the organizations that keep it up – every single day (or at the very least,
Monday through Friday). Consistency always wins on Facebook.
Because
your fans visit Facebook at different times of the day, one post per day simply
isn’t enough – most fans won’t even see it. Instead, post several different
types of content throughout the day. These can include short videos, quick
tips, links and questions, to name a few.
Stagger
your posts at different times to reach more fans. And never forget to include a
call to action – words like click, comment, share and like will increase
engagement.
Plus the
more you post, the more feedback you’ll get on what kinds of posts work best,
and use this information to post more of what your audience really wants.
One extra
tip: For maximum engagement, keep your posts around 80 characters or fewer. A study by Buddy Media showed that posts
with 80 characters or fewer received 27% higher engagement rates. That’s big!
#Be
Consistent
I know this
sounds boring….but based on experience you know this is the truth.
Too many
people think that social media success comes when you set up a Facebook
business page. Or they expect their YouTube video to go viral or believe that
one blog post will generate hundreds of leads. It doesn’t work like that.
Because of
the low barrier of cost to social media, everyone will have at least a Facebook
page, one blog post and one video under their belts.
Success
comes from being consistent – consistent with your messaging, consistent across
your social media outposts, and most important, consistent in delivering
quality content to your audience day in and day out.
Don’t flame
out like a shooting star; be as reliable as the rising sun.
#Learn how
to use ‘Custom Tabs’
You may
have seen some Welcome pages on Facebook that encourage new visitors to Like the
page. You may even be given an incentive such as free report or in Tim Ferriss’
case a free chapter of his book. This is sometimes referred to as ‘fan-gating’
meaning only fans see special content.
(sample custom tab) NOTE: Custom tabs can be built via free applications such asShortStack
Measuring
social media has a 2-fold return. First, it will allow you to do more of what
is working and less of what isn’t. Second, it will allow you to address the
question management (particularly if you're doing this for a company...or your (not so smart) Boss) are asking: “What’s the ROI?”
Successfully
measuring your efforts will require some upfront work to make sure you can
collect the data and that you have a framework for presenting the data in a way
that top management executives care about.
If there
are daily executive reports that you need to do, have a look into it to find
metrics that matter most and figure out how you can collect similar data for
social media.#Prepare
Now for Tough ROI Questions
Measuring
social media has a 2-fold return. First, it will allow you to do more of what
is working and less of what isn’t. Second, it will allow you to address the
question company management are asking: “What’s the ROI?”
Successfully
measuring your efforts will require some upfront work to make sure you can
collect the data and that you have a framework for presenting the data in a way
that top management executives care about.
If there
are daily executive reports that you need to do, have a look into it to find
metrics that matter most and figure out how you can collect similar data for
social media.
ShortStack is a simple yet powerful tool that can be used to create custom contents for Facebook pages and websites. Because it is a SAAS (Software As A Service), there is no need to download/install/configure anything on your computer. Everything is done online, so that's quite good news on the condition that you have pretty good and stable Internet connection.
Nonetheless, as a form of CMS (Content Management System) tool, it is quite easy to handle, but not as intuitive as it is claimed to be. To get a hang of Shortstack, still requires some bit of work and tinkering. Good news is, it is not that complicated once you get the hang of it, and like anything, mastery of ShortStack is a function of practise, and the more good news is that, its quite easy to master, and you don't have to be a technical guru...once you get the hang of it, its sort of like using 'Word'.
Pretty sure there could be money to be made here, particularly with so many people jumping into the 'facebook/website' based business opportunities. To get started, you can get a free account first by accessing their website. Some reading is recommended for you to understand how to maneuver around it.
Shortstack is highly recommended as a tool for serious Facebook marketing approaches.
Below are links to some of the reading materials to get you started in the right path. There's also quite a comprehensive collection of video tutorials available. The video below is a start. Have fun :)
