COM0015- Post #4: Out Of Box

The need to stay fresh and interesting has always been important in social media marketing, regardless if you are selling a new product or promoting a non-profit organization. With the exponential growth in technology and information the demand for an innovative way of getting your message across. There are several exciting and unexpected tools that I’ve found to add video in the field of online marketing and social media. These tools make it easy to record and edit videos for social media marketing and ad campaigns. For example…

ScreenFlow – ScreenFlow is an easy-to-use screen recording and editing software for Mac and my favorite. ScreenFlow allows to record the entire screen while also capturing my video camera, iOS device, microphone and computer audio.

• Snagit – While Snagit has video recording and screen-capture ability, it doesn’t have the extensive editing features of other software. This is an easy, lower cost solution and  excellent option.

These are excellent desktop and mobile tools we can use to create Facebook and Instagram videos.

• Facebook Slideshow – The  Facebook Slideshow tool recently rolled out to Ads Manager and Power Editor. If we have limited time and resources, it’s an easy way to create eye-catching ads with still images.

Magisto – Magisto is a free app that automatically turns our everyday videos and photos into beautifully edited movies. It’s perfect for sharing on social channels and using in video ads. Magisto uses its own Emotion Sense technology to create a video trailer from the best parts of the video footage. You provide the footage and Magisto analyzes it and puts it together in a way that elicits an emotional response and tells a story.

Using these tools from the toolbox for my social media marketing and ad campaigns really helped me to improve my visibility, reach and conversions.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/14-video-tools-for-social-media-marketers/

 

 

 

Assignment #5: Event Participation – Webinar : Video Goes Social: Why Video Marketing Matters — And How To Do It Right

I’m a video making professional – corporate, live, advertisement and educational. The majority of my work has been in making videos for social channels, exhibitions, events and TV. The traditional advertising industry is declining slowly and online video marketing on social media platforms is taking place. To keep me updated on new trends, I’m taking part in various events and webinars on video marketing.

I attended a webinar February 25th called “ Video Goes Social: Why Video Marketing Matters and How to do it Right” by Mari Smith – Social Media Thought Leader, Patrick Gillooly – Director of Digital Communication of Monster and Cameron Uganec – Senior Director, Growth Marketing & Education, Hootsuite.

The webinar was approximately about an hour, discussing the following points:

• Why you need to move to a video-centric mindset for your social strategy
• Effective ways to create (and find) engaging video content to share
• How other brands are using video successfully—and what you can learn from their results

For success of social media strategy, Marie Smith highlighted some key points of Live Videos. This includes:

Optimize your Live Videos

1. Plan ahead of time 
2. What is the primary takeaway?

• What is the main call of action?

2. Short, compelling TITLE
3. Encourage viewers to SUBSCRIBE
4. Acknowledge commenters

• Engage your community while LIVE

5. Broadcast for 5-20 minutes or more

While it’s good content on live videos on social media, one thing I was really appreciative about this webinar, was addressing possible tips to produce impactful videos by Patrick Gillooly. This includes:

Produce impactful Videos

1. Catch attention in first 3-seconds

• Focus on quality from the first frame

2. Storyboard
3. Storytelling

• B2B or B2C = P2P people to people
•  As TIMELY & RELEVANT as the content your friends share.

Unfortunately, the webinar did not allow an opportunity to interact with the audience, but was just limited to questions and answers. I have one major concern with webinars that Face to Face interaction and personal understanding are lacking in online events.

Nonetheless, this is a good professional development exercise to improve the skills for social media.

https://hootsuite.com/webinars/enterprise/video-goes-social

COM0015 – Blog#3: Professional Networking Now And In The Future

Starting a professional network by video filmmaker is a tough work. You’ve to know how to market yourself online and in person. I spent four years as a Marketing Executive for a video production company before I started my own in 2013. The principles I learned in that can be easily applied to anyone starting a career in a video industry.

I did a research to know exactly what other video filmmakers strengths and weaknesses, I was able to develop a professional networking strategy around that. Although, I was able to enter into these new markets to establish myself quickly, setting apart from others.

Present Strategy for developing professional network online and in person:

I launched my website, opened accounts on twitter, Facebook, Instagram and joined LinkedIn that show my services and the reel of corporate videos.

One thing that I’m marketing is the specialization in motion graphics to give a 3D look of the entire video. I don’t undercut my price for the professional work and really trying hard to do the best work for the client.

In this industry, I look at social media as a way to connect with the professionals to ask questions, answers questions and participate in discussions. Engagement is the rule for the social media marketing. Twitter and Facebook are the best channels to interact with both- current clients and potential clients. In between, I keep uploading my work on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and so on.

I don’t view other filmmakers as the competition – instead, have the opportunity to reach out to them on YouTube, Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn  develop meaningful relationships. I cross- promote their work on social media and get a new audience.

Networking, online or person is the key component for making any individual or business successful. Getting out, meeting face to face with clients, video production company owners and trade organizations. I got referral jobs by going to these events and meeting with owners.

 

Future activities & commitments:

It’s now easy for me to find professionals, clients and people who share same interest through social media and networking. I’m aiming to build an audience that will take an interest in my work and invest money in advertisements.

Planning to post on social media, insider access of my work — in photos or video clips, show them shooting, the editing and graphics room.

• Every post on social media can be seen, shared and, eventually, judged; this all reflects on me and my professional work. Make sure with the content and shared videos are high quality, professional and attractive.
• Try to push my content on social networks and spread the word about the new campaign and advertisements on YouTube.
• In addition to talking to friends, fans and fellow filmmaker, take the time to read and like other pages on Facebook and Twitter to know what people are saying about issues important for me.
• Being a video filmmaker, I have to try new things on the video blog, quiz about the campaign and experiment with new ideas. Social Media is a place for me to tell stories and just finding a new way to tell these stories — sometimes, in 140 characters.

 

 

COM0015 – Blog #2 Strong & Weak Organisations

This post highlights two organisations that would fit into the unique social media strategy and one organisation that needs to adopt a social media strategy.

#1: Sharpie

The permanent marker company doesn’t just use social to market its product – it uses it to build a community of creative customers who can come together to share artwork, feelings and stories. It’s working well for Sharpie, too. Through social media and other marketing efforts, Sharpie continues to create innovative ideas from customers’ artwork, and stories that resonates well with users.

Look at the marketing ideas Sharpie employ on Twitter, blog, Instagram and even formed their own community.

Mix up your background images: Sharpie incorporates various images on display.

Increase loyalty with customers. Smart marketing tactics know that satisfied, loyal customers drive business. One way to increase loyalty and retention is to focus attention on your customers’ creativity.

 Tell stories about customers.  Sharpie tell stories about their customers on a blog, and they use the blog to inspire creativity from their fans.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-creative-social-media-marketing-mini-case-studies

#2: Canadian Lung Association

Social media has proven to be so powerful that many non-profit organizations have implemented it in their communication and marketing strategies.

Having a strong online presence is especially important for the Canadian Lung Association (non-profit organization) whose causes rely heavily on their supporters.

• Engage and Connect

Social media networks are the perfect platform for asking questions and opening up discussions with your audience. Opening up the dialogue with the followers make them feel as their voices and opinions are being heard. This contributes to strengthening your non-profit’s relationship with supporters and building your online community.

Moreover, social media is a great place to thank your supporters publicly. Tagging them in photos and posts not only makes them feel appreciated, it also allows your posts to be shared with their followers, thereby extending your reach to their audiences.

• Drive Traffic

Most of your supporters will only check your website for updates, meaning they only think of you and your cause periodically. Having them like your page on Facebook or follow on Twitter provides an opportunity on their feeds and give them daily reminders of your mission. Social media is a great tool to attract traffic to your website, and subsequently attract donations, volunteers, and raise general awareness for your cause.

• Shareable Content Means More Exposure

The more content you share on social media, the more people will see what your organisation is doing and motivated to get behind it. Given how easy it is to share content online, social media is a place to create momentum for your organisation and any campaigns you may be running. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is an example of an amazing social media campaign. Over $70 million dollars have been donated to the ALS association to date, a hike from the $ 2.5 million that was donated during the same time period last year.

https://manoverboard.com/top-5-reasons-why-non-profits-should-use-social-media/

 

COMOO15 -Post#1-Tools & Sources

I agree that, finding an ideal listening or monitoring site is a challenge for everyone. There are hundreds of listening and monitoring sites available in the market. Luckily, many monitoring sites is free so these free options are great for getting insight that we need.

 

 

Amongst these Listening and Monitoring tools, I really like Hootsuite and Google Trends to use for social media. There are great user friendly features in these tools that are simple to use and understand. As a beginner, it allows me to be able to read and understand data graphs being taken out from my monitoring efforts of social media, and in return I can work on it.

Google Trends offers a lot of information on current hot topics, analysis of the topic and what impact a topic has in today’s online media.It’s helping people to get world’s reaction to a particular topic and what they are interested in and eager to know.

The other social media tool I really like is Hootsuite, I find it easy to use and help me to keep a track 2 free profiles, twitter and Facebook. I can monitor what people are saying about the brand so I could respond immediately. Hootsuite is a user friendly “Social Media Management” tool and many businesses manage their multiple networks for post updates or replies.

 

 

COM0014- Blog #7: Personal Reflection

A story can cross the barriers of boundaries, culture and time –  past, present, future and allow us to draw similarities between ourselves and through others.

Everyone has a story. We connect the world, add meaning, relate and understand others. Stories communicate with the people, connect to each other and create meaningful narratives. If we connect ourselves with the story, means something is common between us. The same applies to corporate and personal branding. Brands that create more meaningful narratives raise much more followers, social conversation and engagement. Their messages are good enough to talk about therefore the most successful brands are often the best storytellers.

Through storytelling we build relationship with our audience. When we share our story, we inject our personality into our thoughts and convey our emotions. If the story is well-weaved, audience will get involved and want to know more. Audience will keep reading till they finish and want to hear more. This way we connect our audience to keep coming to our website to read our content.

Today, to sell your brand it is not enough to tell the audience “hey I sell jewellery”.  You need to tell a compelling story to the audience about the jewellery that they will understand and connect to you. So, social media has changed the way audience connection and interaction with brands. We see brands in Instagram posts, friend’s facebook pictures and not necessarily at the shopping centre.

A really good brand story ad sells the product without even the audience realize the need they buy it. This brand story communicates its values and beliefs and customers experiences. Dove’s ads are the perfect example, they created an educational campaign to tell women “You’re More Beautiful Than You Think”.

Going forward, I would like to tell stories that would motivate consumers to engage with my company. This is the way to show what we do great that highlight to our consumers’ needs and understand them. So, we can contribute and motivate them to make their life happy in a meaningful way.

COM0014-Blog Post #6 Do People Know Your Story?

Being an independent director of corporate videos and TV programs, now stepping into a new field of social media, it is important to keep the personal brand uniform as a creative audio-visual producer adding new skills.

In the span of 15 years, I’m busy in experimenting with different formats of Television — documentaries, interviews, travelogue, news coverage and finally promoting companies. My personal brand has been as a video film director which will take the responsibility for the entire process of filmmaking from research to script to shooting to editing, till the final film. I prefer to think as a captain of the ship to look after the entire production and being able to understand and plan all the elements of the film. This makes me more responsible as to coordinate with the professional members of the production team.

However, with the technical knowledge of filmmaking and a Masters degree in Mass Communications, I had already made 4 documentaries, 3 personality profiles, field producer for 2 years in a news channel and completed 10 corporate videos. Now, the internet and social media have taken over the traditional media, therefore I am also planning to step into new media and expand my wings in a new era of advertising.

More and more professionals are entering into social media and doing well in the field , so to make my personal brand strong in social media I would like to take practical training under a social media company. Along with my vast TV production experience, the focus on new skills will make my personal brand different from others.

COM0014 – Blog #5 : Personal Brand

Within two years, my friend became a big name in the industry of wedding and corporate events. Now, she is an adviser for theme based corporate functions. Initially, she made her profile on different channels of social media, and keep writing her views on stage set up, color combination and items for the  event.  Through social media, she got the opportunity to share her expertise in writings and show her work through pictures. I thought to share simple tips to build a strong profile on social media.

 

1. Before you develop your profile, you ask yourself why are you so different from others and what you want to be known for. Social media is full of entrepreneurs in your field, it’s best to specialize yourself in a specific field. With the focus on one element, you will have more opportunities to flourish in your specific field and your target audience will be a particular group.

 

2.  When  you’re making profile, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, tries to keep the same name and profile picture. Because the consistent profile  helps other to search  easily and the same picture will help others to remember you. Every time you change your Facebook profile your twitter profile photo changes.

 

3. It’s important to take part in social channels, post everyday to your social profiles so the others will get to know you and your brand better. This availability will make you great brand and will get familiar with your expertise that is the key to gain influence and followers.

To post consistently or sharing every day at least 3 times per day on Facebook, 3 times on Twitter, Google + 2 times, so it’ll be best to decide the ideal frequency of posting to social media on your own for different channels.

 

4. Join chat groups, share good articles or participate in discussions to make a professional connection with others. Sharing consistently will help to get attention from others. Along with this, engagement in social media will attract others to you and your brand.

 

COM0014 – Blog #4 B2C Case Study

Zulily

When I think of my B2C company who is active on social media, I decided on Zulily.  A designer look fashionable clothing which focuses on online marketing campaign that really drives their products and personally always catches my attention. This immediately perked my interest into short analysis as a B2C case study.

Zulily engages with the consumer over Facebook. Zulily doesn’t just promote their product by ads, but present a savings that encourages the consumer to click and find out more. Zulily focuses on designer look dresses on an affordable cost. The company does a really great job at catering to their audience by reducing the cost.

Zulily is very active on their website and their eye catching advertising and promotions are the strongest tool for the company. The  seasonal items are placed with all merchandise sectioned off in groups – Women, children, men, and home. The company is also active with email marketing, where I receive at least one email a week that features promotions. I personally think it is a very effective tool because I purchased based on email.

Seasonal sale and promotions have a time period that produces a sense of urgency to buy before the particular promotion ends. One more thing keeps happening on their website that everyday promotion begins with new items and in order you will be getting a coupon.

Zulily seems to be doing well across various platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and snapchat. They do not post too often on YouTube and have smaller audience, but they do have an informative presentation of items.

Instagram and Pinterest both post pictures of their items on display and on models. They also do promotions through Instagram that increases engagement with their audience.

Facebook, however, is slightly different from all other platforms. Facebook has the largest audience base, with just over 2,982,463 followers. With such a large audience, they continually have success across North America and abroad.

All in all, Zulily does a great job at connecting personally with their consumers while advertising their product at different platforms. They get to the heart of the audience what makes the product so great and connects them through product to change their lifestyle. One area Zulily needs to improve on listening and interacting with audience on Facebook.

 

 

 

 

COM0014 – blog #3 Target Audience for Facebook Advertising

As a Facebook user I thought no one clicks on Facebook ads. I was wrong after reading a report that Facebook has made $4 billion this year from advertising.

How do the audience click your ads and more importantly convince the target audience to buy the product. However, the biggest advantages to advertising on Facebook that you could target highly online engaged people who are using desktop, mobile and tablets. In fact, deliver relevant messages to specific groups.

Many advertisers fail at Facebook because their products are not a good fit. You should always refine your ad’s target audience based on Facebook profiles include age, gender, relationship status and education . They are display ads,should be used to generate demand, especially friends on Facebook are there to connect each other, not to find products to buy. The businesses that are doing well with Facebook advertising ask users to sign up, not to buy the product

As an advertiser, you should always make your ad according to location, demographics and interests of the target audience. Location allows you to target the audience in the country, province or city. Moreover, targeting the ideal audience by their interests, hobbies and behaviors by identifying the information they’ve added to their Timeline, the pages they like, websites they visit and apps they use.

Apart from location, demographics, interests and behavior, the most important is the eye catching image with the right content. Never try to use low quality images or stock shots. Buy them or get it done by professionals to create the best ad on the screen. Use pictures  and topography best work for your target audience and the product.

Despite the best effort to make Facebook advertising is the right channel for business. The most important points are to give users’ best conversation and try to keep track of everything.