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Posts Tagged ‘YouTube’

Fan Engagement Lessons From the Top 5 Brands on Facebook

December 19th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

According to the Track Social blog, the most successful brands on Facebook have a mix of 4 critical elements: presence, audience, engagement and buzz. So what are the global brands of Facebook, Disney, YouTube, Coca-Cola and MTV doing to engage with their audience and create buzz?

I visited their pages, and here’s what I learned:

Facebook: Clever

Talk about engaging content! The first post I saw was the story of how Jay Jabonet began a campaign on Facebook to buy a group of children in the Philippines a boat so they didn’t have to swim to school anymore – the post included a video. Facebook also has a really fun “X is like Facebook” series (Halloween and pools, for starters), which I think is very clever.

Disney: Visual with a purpose

Their timeline is full of visual content with purpose: photos of the newly opened Fantasyland at Walt Disney World – with a link to buy tickets. A happy family decked out in Disney gear to promote a sale at the Disney Store online – with a promo code and link to the site. There are also lots of fun stills of characters from movies, along with their more famous quotes.

YouTube: Funny

It’s hard to go wrong sharing funny videos on your Facebook page – like Mariah Carey singing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” backed up by Jimmy Fallon and The Roots playing toy instruments. They also share company news you can use – like Virgin America will be offering selected YouTube series as part of their in-flight entertainment.

Coca-Cola: Brilliant branding

From Coke’s adorable polar bears promoting My Coke Rewards to an endless sea of Coca-Coca bottles (“like friends … the more the merrier”) to promoting the (RED) album in support of World AIDS Day, Coke really mixes it up while not losing sight of what their brand stands for.

MTV: Celebs

If MTV’s timeline is any gauge, pop culture is extremely engaging. Right now, MTV’s cover photo is the Jersey Shore cast – with a reminder of what day and time it airs. Their timeline includes a “Last Fans Standing” contest, a picture of Mike’s abs, photos of One Direction and Justin Bieber, and a promotion for their “Big and Best of 2012” livestream performance on December 12.

What brands (big or small) do you find most engaging on Facebook, and why?

Image courtesy of visualphotos.com

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Tags: Branding, Coca-Cola, Disney, Facebook, Marketing, MTV, social media, YouTube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

How B2B Marketers Are Using Social Media

July 30th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Marketo published a great infographic (see image) they created with ColumnFive based on the results of a social media marketing survey that Social Media Examiner conducted. More than 3,800 marketers shared how they use social media – and what kind of benefits they are reaping.

A whopping 93% of B2B marketers use social media, an increase of 10% from 2 years ago, and those marketers are experienced: 38.5% of them have 1-3 years of experience using social media.

See how you stack up against them:

Benefits of social media marketing

69% gathered insights on the marketplace
60% improved their search rankings
56% acquired new business partnerships
53% developed loyal fans

Top 6 social media networks used

Facebook (87%)
Twitter (84%)
YouTube or other video site (56%)
LinkedIn (87%)
Blogs (66%)
Google+ (44%)

Looking forward, they want to improve their efforts in 3 areas…

LinkedIn use (76%)
Blogging efforts (71%)
Facebook fan building (68%)

…and they want to learn more about

Measuring social media effectiveness (77%)
Converting activities to sales (72%)
Learn best practices (74%)

So, how do you compare? Leave a comment below and let us know what social media networks you use and how they are benefiting you.

Image courtesy of Social Media Examiner

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Tags: B2B marketers, blogs, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Marketing, social media, social media marketing survey, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Yesmail Study Uncovers How to Drive Engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

July 17th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Want to know exactly how to drive engagement on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube?

Well, you’re in luck, because Yesmail Interactive conducted a study of 20 leading retail brands (Gap, American Apparel, H&M, Urban Outfitters, etc.) from January 1 through March 31 of this year, and they made some interesting discoveries on what you can do to drive consumer engagement and build brand loyalty.

Jason Warnock, VP of Marketing Intelligence & Measurement at Yesmail, walked me through the study’s results:

Facebook

Day of week: The majority of marketers were posting on Facebook on Fridays, but engagement was pretty low that day. Surprisingly, Tuesday campaigns generate the highest level of engagement, yet that day was fourth in terms of when campaigns were deployed.

Time of day: Another surprise: the time between 10pm and midnight had the highest level of engagement but was the least utilized by marketers. Apparently, that is when the target demographic of 18-35 year-olds are on Facebook.

Frequency: The 5 most engaging brands posted once/day, and the 5 least engaging brands posted twice/day.

Most engaging content: Photos generated the highest level of user engagement, proving that a picture says a thousand words. Photo content, however, makes up only 43% of all campaigns deployed. “This explains why Facebook was so eager to acquire Instagram,” Warnock noted.

Video, meanwhile, was only utilized by 6.5% of all campaigns, even though engagement was almost higher than for photos.

Effect of email on Facebook campaign engagement: When an email campaign was deployed right before a social media campaign, brands saw a 50% improvement in Facebook engagement, while 2 emails led to 100% improvement.

Twitter

Day of week: Though 20% of all Twitter campaigns were deployed on Friday, they garnered the lowest engagement. Turns out Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the best days to tweet.

Time of day: Think super early in the day. The times between 5 – 6am and 7 – 8am garnered the most engagement. “Just like the emails at the top of your inbox get read first, the tweets at the top of your Twitter stream get read first,” pointed out Warnock.

Frequency: The best engagement came from 2 tweets per day, while the lowest engagement came from 3 or more tweets per day.

Most engaging content: Asking Twitter follows to retweet something in exchange for a giveaway; mentioning or quoting a celebrity; or tweeting a famous quote all garner the highest level of engagement.

Effect of email on Twitter campaign engagement: Twitter enagement is 20% higher if an email campaign goes out that same day. If you send out 2 email campaigns, Twitter engagement increases 40%.

YouTube

Day of week: Mondays generate the most engagement, though that day lagged in the bottom 3 days of when campaigns were deployed.

Video length: Shorter is definitely better: Videos that are 16-31 seconds long generate the highest level of engagement. Any longer, and people stop watching.

***

Warnock said this study had inspired Yesmail to produce more information like this on a monthly basis – and I look forward to sharing upcoming findings with you!

Image courtesy of Yesmail.

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Tags: email campaigns, Email marketing, Facebook, Jason Warnock, Marketing, social media, Twitter, Yesmail Interactive, YouTube
Posted in Email Marketing, Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

How to Measure Your YouTube Video Marketing Efforts

July 10th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

Did you know YouTube has a built-in analytics tool called YouTube Insights? If you’re using YouTube at all as part of your online marketing strategy, you should definitely be tracking how your videos are doing.

Following is a rundown on the most useful features of YouTube Insights:

Number of views

Of course, the best way to know whether or not people like your video is by the number of them who are watching it. This info is clearly displayed under each video, so use this basic metric to better understand what content is resonating most with your audience.

Ratings

Again, under your video you’ll be able to see the number of likes and dislikes your video has gotten. Click on it, and you’ll also see comments and favorites. This is another great way to measure the effectiveness of your videos.

Discovery

Click on the bar graph on your Ratings page to see where your traffic is coming from; sources are listed in chronological order. Use this information to determine where to promote your upcoming videos.

Demographics

Click on the view more statistics button on the graph to get demographics of your audience. Again, this information can be used to tailor videos and make them relevant to your audience based on their age, gender, and geographical location.

Drop-off rates

It is really useful to understand where in your video you lose viewers. If everyone stops watching your video in the same place, why? Was it too long, boring, confusing?

Sharing

Videos go viral when people share them en masse. Take a look at the sharing statistic to see which videos are shared most and use that insight to tailor the subject of future videos.

***

What is your favorite or most successful B2B or B2C video on YouTube? Share a link in the comments below!

Image courtesy of hmtweb.com

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Tags: analytics, Marketing, video marketing, YouTube, YouTube Insights
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Survey Says: Inbound Marketing, Social Media, and Blogs Are Surpassing Traditional Channels

April 9th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

In January, HubSpot surveyed almost 1,000 professionals about their businesses’ marketing strategies. Below are some of the findings, which drive home the fact that inbound marketing, social media, and blogs are the way to go.

Focus on Inbound Marketing

Businesses are tweaking their marketing strategies to focus more on inbound marketing, which involves pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a company and its products using blogging, content publishing, SEO and social media. These channels have the advantage of providing a low-cost alternative to pricier tactics like direct mail and purchased advertising. In fact, companies that focus on inbound marketing experience a cost per lead that is 61% lower than those of outbound-focused companies. Businesses are leveraging this advantage; of the companies surveyed, 89 percent are either maintaining or increasing their inbound marketing efforts.

Traditional Channels Slip

More traditional marketing channels – such as trade shows, direct mail, and telemarketing – are decreasing in value to businesses. HubSpot’s survey showed that 30 percentof respondents judged these channels as less important than newer ones. Not only are these channels becoming less influential in marketing strategies, but they also tend to be more costly than Internet-based forms of marketing.

The Rise of Social

Businesses are becoming more social – they are increasingly using blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to get their message out and to engage with customers. Both the 2012 and the 2009 HubSpot surveys showed increased importance for these social platforms. Company blogs were most cited as the social channel that is “critical” or “important” in both 2012 and 2009. Facebook gained importance by a margin of 15 percent since 2009, and Twitter gained 15 percent. However, other social media channels have decreased in importance, including StumbleUpon and Digg.

The Importance of Blogs

As I mentioned, blogs are holding steady as the most important social media channel. In fact, 25 percent of survey respondents said their blog was “critical” to their business. Blogs offer tremendous SEO value, as fresh content and links are supplied through a steady stream of blogging. Blogs also allow companies to feature new products in detail, highlight upcoming events, and show a more personal side of the company to customers and prospects.

How about you? Has your businesses shifted its marketing efforts to more social channels such as Facebook and Twitter? Are you giving your blog the time and attention it deserves?

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Tags: advertising, blogging, content creation, content publishing, Digg, direct mail, Facebook, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, seo, social media, StumbleUpon, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Social Media Small Business Success Stories: Part 2

February 16th, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Social Media Success Stories

In the first part of Social Media Small Business Success Stories, I highlighted four companies that have shaken things up online to create results-driven social media marketing campaigns. This article introduces you to four more success stories, to give you ideas on how to make their strategies your own.

Success Story 5: You can probably imagine that a company called Social Media Explorer nails it on the social media marketing front. This company is a B2B agency that teaches – you guessed it – social media marketing techniques and provides information products. Here are the secrets to their success:

Social Media Explorer uses Intent, a Twitter plugin, directly on their homepage to show users whether they are already following the company on Twitter. Are you making it easy enough for website visitors to follow you on Twitter or Like you on Facebook?
The company features numerous guest authors on its blog, and it promotes them by prominently highlighting authors’ social profiles to encourage reader interaction. Do you give social love to guest authors to help them expand their influence and feel appreciated?

Success Story 6: Take a moment to visit JarvieDigital to enjoy gorgeous photos and learn a couple of social media tips. Scott Jarvie is a professional photographer and namesake of the photographic method, The Jarvie Window. Here are his social media strategies:

Of course, Jarvie has exceptional photos on his site, but it’s his use of these photos that makes him a social media success. He uses different strategies to promote his services on Facebook and Google+ through photo sharing. Have you thought about the unique challenges different social networks present for your social media strategy, or are you trying to apply the same strategy to completely different communities?
Jarvie shares resources on his website and social sites to demonstrate his expertise and to grow his fan base. Are you freely sharing resources to establish yourself as a thought leader and to encourage more follows and Likes?

Success Story 7: Point your browser to SEOMoz, a search engine optimization and social monitoring service provider. This company uses its technical expertise to help it stand out socially. Here is what they do:

SEOMoz uses gaming mechanics to generate participation from their site members and writers. When these users post, comment, or Like content, they earn points to distinguish their expertise. How can you make engagement more fun and addictive on your own site?
The company knows to use social proof to build trust and credibility. Their home page features the logos of companies that use SEOMoz so everyone can see they’re in good company. Do your clients showcase your success? Consider using well-known clients to establish trust with visitors by using social proof.

Success Story 8: EasyLunchboxes is another example of a solopreneur using social media to compete on a higher level. This blog by Kelly Lester helps parents find healthy solutions for packing lunches for kids to take to school. Take a cue from Lester by trying these tips:

When users visit the Facebook page of EasyLunchboxes, they are greeted with a custom welcome tab explaining what the page is all about and why users should become fans. Don’t forget this valuable piece of Facebook real estate by seizing the opportunity to encourage visitors to take the next step and Like your page.
Even though she is a busy mom and an actress, Lester has taken the time to deliver unique content through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and her blog. Her marketing plan includes strategies for each of these platforms, as well as integration across all her social media channels. Have you thought about your social media marketing plan in pieces and as a whole? Even though different strategies should be used for each platform, they should all integrate into a cohesive communications plan.

The companies highlighted in the previous two articles range in size from small to large and span across various industries. Use their stories to inspire you to create your own story of social media marketing success.

Do you have your own success story to share with our readers? Please leave a comment below.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Tags: blog, custom Facebook tabs, EasyLunchboxes, Facebook, games, Google, guest authors, Intent, JarvieDigital, Kelly Lester, Marketing, photos, Scott Jarvie, SEOMox, social media, Social Media Explorer, social proof, Thought Leadership, Twitter, YouTube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 3 Comments »

5 Ways to Get the Most From Your Blog’s Sidebar

February 2nd, 2012 :: Monika Jansen

The sidebar occupies valuable real estate on your blog. In fact, it’s the second most important space, which is why you should spend some time evaluating and tweaking it.

Your sidebar is the place where readers can subscribe to your newsletter, sign up for your webinar, or follow you on Twitter. Here are five tips for improving your blog’s sidebar so your readers will do just that!

1. Get readers to interact with your social media sites.

Using your sidebar to encourage blog readers to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter is an effective way to use this space. Try posting the latest news and trends on social media–not just from you, but from your fans and the people you follow, too. You can also ask readers to log into your site using Facebook, for example, to encourage interaction and content sharing directly from your blog.

2. Use photos to instantly personalize your blog and build trust.

When you include photos of yourself or your employees, readers can immediately feel more connected to the writers responsible for your blog. Photos offer a glimpse into the personalities behind your blog, and they build trust by showing the faces responsible for the words. A bonus is that the eye is drawn to images of faces, so you can be sure to get more attention for whatever additional information the sidebar provides.

3. Lead readers further into your site.

Sidebars are meant to get your readers to take action, which will help you make money. Think about what you want readers to do. Are you trying to build an email list, get people to purchase your webinar, or hire you for your web design services? Use the sidebar to navigate readers toward these actions by including eye-catching graphics or inspiring copy with links to the places on your site that convert readers to customers or clients. Just be sure to keep the sidebar content enticing, but not distracting – you don’t want to take away from your blog’s main content.

4. Encourage users to sit and stay awhile.

Your blog’s sidebar can be leveraged to make your site addictive to readers. Think about how YouTube sucks users in by showing a continuous stream of related content in its sidebar. You can use this tactic on your own blog by showcasing content readers might also enjoy in your sidebar. As they click on links, continue showing them different articles, videos, and other components of your site so they will stay and explore everything you have to offer.

5. Let your brand shine through your sidebar.

The look and feel of your sidebar can help to reinforce your brand, especially when blog articles, full of copy, begin to look the same. If your brand is clean and modern, use graphic design elements in the sidebar to develop your persona. Or, if you like to keep things quirky and fun, be sure the sidebar copy reflects these attributes. I discussed using photos above, and a fitting image of you or your employees can go a long way to establishing your brand equity.

Have you seen any head-turning, hard-working sidebars lately? What was it about them that made you sit up and take notice?

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Tags: blog sidebars, blogs, Branding, Marketing, newsletter sign up, photos, social media, Videos, webinars, YouTube
Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »

3 Ways SEO Will Help You Optimize YouTube Videos

December 16th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

We all crave a YouTube success story. We upload videos about our products or services – perhaps a new product demo or an interview with the local news channel – and dream of the millions of hits we’ll get overnight that will lead to a huge increase in business.

In reality, over the next few days as you eagerly check the stats, even after posting a backlink to the video on your website, in your blog, and on your Facebook page, you sheepishly realize your video is, to put it mildly, not exactly a Number One hit. Out of 14 hits five are from your immediate family and three are from your employees.

Fortunately, there are a number of small tweaks you can make to get the most out of your YouTube videos. It’s all about understanding search enginge optimization (SEO) and marketing your video as dynamically as you market your company, products and services. A great example of this can be found in The Sales Lion’s “Video Marketing and YouTube for Small Business Success: Anyone Can Do It.”

1. Pick the right keywords

Use Google’s Keyword Research Tool or a similar free online product to figure out what customers are searching for – and pick up some pointers in Greg Jarboe’s article on Search Engine Watch, “YouTube Keyword Tool and Video Optimization Techniques.”

Some of the search terms people use are odd and nonintuitive, so don’t skip this step. If you sell toasters, and you don’t know that your potential customers search for “bread griller,” that missed connection is costing you views.

2. Add your keywords everywhere

Clever and pithy video titles don’t get pulled up in search results, so feel free to make it long enough to include all of your search keywords. For example, “Bread Griller Toaster Heater” is going to draw in more hits than “Our New Product!”

Follow the same rules for the video description, tags and your company profile. The more frequently your keywords appear, the more often potential customers will be directed to your video.

3. Give them information they need to take action

Now that people are finding your video, give them enough information to make an impact and spur them to take action. Upload your transcript to make your video extra-searchable, include call-to-action overlays to let potential customers know where they can go for more information, add your website address to your video, and include an annotation to direct people to other videos or subscribe to your channel.

Image courtesy of creative design agency Arrae

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Tags: keywords, Marketing, Search Marketing, social media, Videos, YouTube
Posted in Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Video and Mobile Marketing: Just-Released Stats and What They Mean for Your Business

August 9th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series Inbound Marketing

In the first of this two-part series, I shared data on inbound marketing and online advertising and how it related to your small business – all based on great marketing statistics in the just published “The Marketing Data Box.” In this, the second post, we are looking at video marketing and advertising.

If you have thought about producing and sharing videos online as part of your marketing strategy, consider that Americans watch 14 hours of online video each week. That translates to an average of 179 million Americans watching video each month.

Based on those numbers, it is pretty safe to say that video marketing is a good idea due to its high level of engagement. It probably comes as no surprise that YouTube is the dominant channel (77% of market share), trailed way behind by Hulu (6%) and Bing (4%).

It is also worthwhile to consider advertising using online video ads, as they reach 45% of the U.S. population an average of 32 times per month. Obviously, you need to make sure your target market is in the demographic mix of any online video channel before committing.

If they are using Hulu, you might want to advertise there, as that video channel generated the highest number of video ad impressions at nearly 1.1 billion.

What about mobile? We are all very reliant on our smartphones to do just about anything–well, at least the 31% of us who have a smart phone. Nielsen found that Americans spend 38.5% of their smartphone usage time on email. Social networking is a distant second (10.7%), which, quite honestly, surprised me, but only because so many people I know update Facebook constantly while on the go.

If you want to reach smartphone users, think about finding a mobile game developer. Some 44% of US mobile phone users have played a mobile game at least once; 33% of respondents have played a game in the past month; and nearly a quarter (24.6%) have played in the past week, making them “avid mobile phone gamers.”

“The Marketing Data Box” is a quarterly series published by Watershed Publishing’s Data Insights, based on HubSpot’s data and using graphics supplied by MarketingCharts.com.

Image by Flickr user garryknight (Creative Commons)

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Tags: advertising, Facebook, Hubspot, Hulu, Marketing, MarketingCharts.com, mobile games, mobile phones, smart phones, Social networking, The Marketing Data Box, video marketing, YouTube
Posted in Marketing | 1 Comment »

7 Reasons to Start Using Posterous for Online Marketing

June 1st, 2011 :: Monika Jansen

I have a serious love-hate relationship with social media, mostly because it can be a time-suck, so anything that makes managing or using social media easier, I’m all over. And because I’m a big texter and emailer, I really only use social media when absolutely necessary (haven’t been on my personal Facebook page much in a couple of
months, and I miss it exactly this much).

So this is basically my way of saying that I just discovered Posterous, and it’s awesome. The service lets you manage more than 20 social media platforms simply by sending an email. You can update LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, YouTube – and the list goes on. For small business owners crunched on time but devoted to social media marketing, this is a lifesaver.

Here are 6 more reasons to use Posterous:

1. It is ridiculously easy to use. To do anything, from opening an account to updating social media accounts to sharing an article, you just email post@posterous.com. If you only want to update one social media account, like Twitter, you email twitter@posterous.com.

2. Customize it to your heart’s content. Posterous has a layout similar to a blog, complete with a customized url. You can customize the look, too; always nice
to have that option (this is one of the reasons I hate Facebook—everyone’s page looks the same because there’s only one layout).

3. Add pages, just like on a website. I’m looking around Posterous, and I found the account for a DJ I’ve never heard of, but that doesn’t matter. His site is great. He has 10 pages set up on his account, including a Dates page listing upcoming performances and a Media page containing videos of him performing.

You can add links to a ton of stuff about you: blog posts you’ve written, websites you’re associated with, content on Slideshare, whatever. And of course you can also create an About Me page.

4. Easy way to set up an online photo album. When you email a photo or photos, a photo gallery is automatically created. No more downloading photos from smart phone or camera to hard drive that you then have to upload to whatever site.

5. Write and publish blog posts from your smart phone. Forget dragging a laptop around with you to events just so you can blog about what’s happening. The whole email thing makes it possible to write and publish blog posts when you’re at a conference, meeting, seminar, etc. Just write a blog post in an email and send it off. It’s instantly published.

6. Engagement made easy. You can set up your Posterous account so you will receive alerts via email if someone DMs you from Twitter or posts to one of your other social media accounts. Super handy when you’re on the go and not sitting in front of the computer all day.

The only downside: Their mobile app is available only for the iPhone and Android.

***

Now that I’m done drooling all over Posterous, do you think you’ll start using it?

Image by Flickr user yoppy (Creative Commons)

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Tags: blog, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, online marketing, Picasa, Posterous, slideshare, social media, Twitter, Website, YouTube
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 5 Comments »