Top Online Destinations for Video

As we have seen over an extended period of time, Video streaming is certainly growing, as evidenced by the fact that recent Nielsen data shows that in the US alone in May, The American public screened more than 15 billion videos, which was an increase of 2 percent from the previous months previous record of 14.7 billion streams.

As well the number of online viewers also increased from the previous month by 3 percent to 145 million unique viewers.


Of the prime online video destinations, MSN/WindowsLive/Bing experienced the most significant growth in unique viewers (+29%), followed by Fox Interactive Media (+21%).

Simply put this enduring trend is a key indicator to the need to be actively involved in the video sharing space as it is an area that individual consumers and corporations alike, continue to search as they seek to gain valuable information and insight around their issues, concerns and ultimately decisions they need to make.

Please let us know how you're going about using video. We'd love to get your ideas.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

Creating Events on LinkedIn

This week during a seminar I gave in Melbourne the question was raised about how can LinkedIn be used to help generate publicity for important corporate events.

This is a very important question and it still surprises me that so many people are unfamiliar with the amazing power of LinkedIn Events.

With LinkedIn events any member can create at no cost an event that will be visible to anyone referencing that subject or looking to attend a meeting in that particular area, by simply filling in the simple form document as shown below.

But as well as that indirect type of exposure, LinkedIn also gives you the means to directly alert people in a number of different ways.

Of course you can let your own direct network know by simply sending a message to them.

As well you can use the group facility to let either existing groups or your own group made up of members who may have an interest in this in this topic.

Once this is done, it is likely that individuals will continue to disseminate this information further to their own respective networks.

And of course we should remember that a big advantage of LinkedIn over other networking sites is that when you participate in group discussions, the system generates an email to each member that captures that message. Not bad PR for no cost.

As well, if you want to you can also use some paid LinkedIn advertising in the form of their sponsored links which are comparable to Google's Adwords.

Suffice to say if you need some strong word of mouth for a professional event, LinkedIn can certainly help drive the good word for you.

Can you think of any other LinkedIn or external strategies that would further help here. Please comment and let us know.

Also don't forget to check in at our website on:
www.roadscholarstraining.com to keep up with the latest in all aspects of marketing and training.

And until next time,
Good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

New Twiitter URL Shortener Facility Now Operating

After a lot of waiting, Twitter has unveiled its new, automatic link shortening
facility.

AS we all know the main limitation of micro-blogging platforms like Twitter, has always been its maximum allowable 140 characters. Now you may argue that this is a bonus in that it forces you to be focused and succinct, but none the less it is a modest amount of words.

Therefore it will now be easier for Twitter users because this new update to Twitter will make it easier to share links with others they are tweeting.

Specifically Twitter has now announced that the new built-in link shortening capability will automatically shorten long URLs down to 19 characters.

This is highly significant when you consider that around 80 percent of Twitter's activity is done around people clicking on links.

In the past we have of course had other popular, link-shorteners like:
Bit.ly, TinyURL and Google URL, which also have provided users an additional benefit in link analytics, which at this stage Twitter’s URL shortener doesn't offer.

To use the service all you need to do is write your link as part of your tweet in the Tweet box and then press tweet.

I have no doubt that Twitter will match the analytics part quickly as well.
Anyway, what are you thoughts on this initiative. Do you think it will be a help for you? Let us know.

Until next time. Good luck and good marketing.
Daniele.

Social Media Update: Twitter's New Follow Button

Recently Twitter released its new: 'Follow' button, designed to make it simple to follow any other platform with no effort or fuss.


To add the button you simply obtain the HTML code and paste it on to your site or blog.


Using the Follow button will allow you to be instantly notified in real time, of all updates made to those blogs, websites, or other social platforms you routinely visit, without the need to have to go there directly to check.

As well this button now includes the additional functionality of allowing you to access the actual profile of the individual or group by clicking the username next to the button.

The commercial potential of this new function for businesses is of course clear to see as you can now add this new feature to all you key platforms and ensure that each part of your social media marketing strategy is being seen and potentially shared by interested parties within your target market.


History has shown that anything you can do to drive the message to your customers and prospects is preferable to needing them to routinely come to you, as time is always at a premium as we all know.

The Twitter 'Follow' button is not an original idea by any means but a logical progression for the micro blogging giant and a useful addition to its growing bag of tricks.


Let us know how it goes for you.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

The Real Aim of All B2B Social Media Has Always Been to Provide A Centre of Excellence

As all my clients that I work with and students will tell you, I have always been a huge proponent of the philosophy that B2B social media is and has always been about provide a centre of excellence that interested parties or individuals gravitate around and form a community that over time further engages with one another.

So in light of this I'm very pleased to see that recently:Industry Analyst Jeremiah Owyang posted a piece along similar lines and defined a Centre of Excellence as:

A program deployed by companies trending in the advanced levels of social business maturity. The Social Media Center of Excellence (CoE) is a centralized program that provides resources, training, and strategy to a variety of business units that are deploying social media in order to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and provide standardization. This team is often run by the Corporate Social Strategist, who’s the business stakeholder and program champion. To learn more, read the full research report on this role, and a list of these budding professionals.

I think this was a brilliantly written piece and articulates what most social media hubs dont have. Namely a well defines reason for being.

Suffice to say that I believe that this is absolutely correct and that every one who aims to have a blog, Facebook fan page, You Tube channel, etc, needs to sit down first and answer the question: 'where and how will my platform stand out'.
In answering this key question you also answer the real question of why will people want to keep coming back again and again to be part of what you're offering.

If you haven't already done this, start now.

What are some of the things you came up with.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Daniele.

Submiting Website URL's To Search Engines

This week a client asked me an interesting question about submitting URLs of websites to major search engines. Specifically whether or not it was important to do it or if submitting had become a redundant task in the modern day.

I think the short answer to this important question is that technically you don't have to submit your URL as the spider (or locator) search engine programs will ultimately after it is propagated up on to the net, will find your site and list it appropriately.

However let me also add this that if you do submit it manually to each of the main search engines including Google, Ask, Bing, Yahoo, etc. the process will be quicker.
As well it is always advisable to do so if you are adding pages to your website that you want indexed for the search engine.

There is no doubt also that if you have a large website with potentially dozens or even hundreds of pages, it is also very important to provide a site map using webmaster tools to aid the search engine spider to better understand exactly what each page is and how it all links together with all the other pages on your site.

So in the end the answer is you don't have to submit it, but there is some upside if you do.

Until next time. Good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

The Need for a Consistent Avatar

Recently I had a word to a long time client about the fact that she is missing a huge opportunity to further brand herself and by association, her business by not having an appropriate avatar of herself for the various networking sites and platforms that she already is part of or will be part of in the future.

Remember that Social Media is just that social. People want to see who they are dealing with and just as important, they like consistency.

So knowing all this it is very important to pick an avatar that is appropriate based on your target market and by extension the types of sites they are likely to see you on.

This can be done with a standard (2D) picture and in most cases this is what it is.
Occasionally you will see examples of people using humorous avatars from well known TV shows or even 3D avatars from virtual software tools like Second Life (owned by Linden Lab, but again this would depend on how serious you needed it to be.

Suffice to say it is something that is the norm, is expected and most definitely needs to be commensurate with the positioning of your brand and your audience.

What are your thoughts on what a good avatar should be? Feel free to comment.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.