YouTube Marketing for Small Business - Issue 11

If your first thought is, "Everyone is using YouTube," then this

photo credit: andymag via photopin cc

article is for you.  "An idiot's Guide to Using YouTube" states that 99% of businesses are NOT using YouTube.  It's always good to start riding the wave when you are the only one on it, long before it crashes into the shore. Most of us know that any action is better than no action.  The example I most often use is the one where a child is standing in the middle of a road, and hears his mother yell, "Car." If he does nothing, just looking at the car, he gets flattened where he stand.  If he runs left, right or backward, he at least has a chance.  Using YouTube is like that this same article suggests.  Don't let your ignorance or fear of making a video get in your way.  Just Do It.

Wishpond in it's article titled "12 Tips for Using YouTube" suggests that not only should you make a video, but you should include IN THE VIDEO and the description, a Call To Action.  Calls to action can be to subscribe to your channel, giving you access to them over and over again, calling your business or visiting your website or facebook page that will collect their contact information.  The go on to remind you to ALWAYS ANSWER COMMENTS.  Dialog is good for your video.  The old adage, good news, bad news; it does not matter.  They all bring attention to your Chanel.

Finally, there is the step by step flow chart found in "The Small Business Guide to YouTube."  This is s step by step guide bringing you from Getting a Youtube account to advanced marketing, simply by answering Yes or No questions.  I would start here.

One of our first YouTube ads that really helped was to a Social Event at our karate school.  We made it with AfterEffect from Adobe.  This is it.

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Products that Can Help:

YouTube Video Marketing Secrets Revealed: The Beginners Guide to Online Video Marketing

Social Media Marketing Plan for Small Business - Issue 10

Stellar Evolution - click to Read

When I started studying stellar physics back in undergraduate school, I distinctly remember looking at the math involved, partial differential equations, and thinking to myself, "You're screwed."  I knew calculus and differential equations but even the notations involved in partial differential equations looked foreign.  I was out of my element and I knew it.  I had no idea where to start, how to start or even if I could start. That feeling that in the movie the Replacement Players was expressed as "Quick Sand," where you knew you were sinking and even trying to save yourself, accelerated the rate that you were sinking.

As it turns out, it wasn't the death of me.  I had to pick a point, any point, and just move forward.  For me, that point was admitting I was clueless and asking for help.  2 days later, I was out of confusion and into the interior of stars. Social Media Marketing Plans felt like that for me too, and once again, I was wrong.  

At the end of this article, I list two web resources from which I drew this advice, and I suggest you go there for more information and clarification if you like what you read and want to do it.
1) Who are you trying to reach? - For example, in American Express Open forum, I read, "Women between the ages of 18 and 29 comprise Facebook’s primary audience, for instance, while LinkedIn’s users are predominantly males with graduate-level education. Find out where your target customers are networking online." If you are using Linkedin, and you're selling books on why education is a waste of time, you might want to rethink your strategy. 

1a) Sit down and write down who you are trying to reach, and why, then go after the network or networks that touch that demographic. The Pew Research Internet Project list the demographics of most of the major Social Media networks. Start there.

1b) Now make sure that your profiles are completely filled out. It's hard to find you if your information is missing. Buffer Social suggests that you keep your pictures consistent with your business and each other across platforms and that you make sure they are sized correctly. "You can consult a social media image size chart that will show you the exact breakdown of dimensions for each photo on each network."

2) Your USP, or unique selling proposition, needs to be well in hand.  Greg Silva, the CEO of United Professionals, retaught us this vital concept 20 years ago when we couldn't answer the question, "What Makes You Different than Everybody Else?"

Once you know, and can be written down, what makes you unique, you can begin to write social media posts that talk about your "USP," and even know what products you should sell or discount to stay consistent with your USP.

3) What's Your Flavor? You need to know your company's personality, Buffer Social suggest, by asking questions like "If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have?

Once you know what personality you are going to project, you company's flavor, be consistent in all of your posts. Don't let emotions, attitudes or other people or companies drag you out of your personality.  Nobody likes false people or companies.

4) Start slow, but START NOW.

Finally, we suggest something like Hootsuite.com to help you organize your posts.  Its easy, inexpensive, and organizes your own content the way you want it.  One way or the other, however, start.

The 2 Awesome sites we borrowed most of this from are:

American Express & Buffer Social.  Click their name here, and read their take on a social media marketing plan.

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Products that Can Help:

How to Create Your "Unique Selling Proposition" (USP)