How To Look Good On Camera-For the Guys

Last week I posted a video about how women can look good on camera and this week I am posting one for the guys. I think I may have done a good Albert Nobbs impression, but please feel free to comment on the video and tell me what you think. If you have questions or suggestions please include those too.

How To Look Good On-Camera-For Guys

Next week, we’ll focus on more technical aspects of how to look good on-camera with amazing director, Nikila Cole!

 

How To Look Good On Camera-For Women

Sorry for the delay folks, turns out that YouTube needs a lot more time than you’d expect to make editing changes using it’s editing application. Nevertheless, here’s a link to this weeks topic  How Women Can Look Good on Camera Next week we’ll focus on the gents.

Enjoy please share and provide comments!

 

Sofia

Going Vlog

Hi everyone,

I know it’s been some time since I’ve written, but as I posted last year I am going to start doing LifeInMedia as a Vlog rather than a blog for a couple of reasons:

1) I personally think it gives me the ability to practice what I have been preaching in this blog all along

2) It’s just a lot more up my alley, and frankly it’s my blog and I can do what I want to

So here is a link to the first video LifeInMedia Vlog Introduction which I hope you will enjoy. I will be posting new videos every Friday afternoon for your enjoyment. Please feel free to comment on YouTube itself.

 

Thank you and see you soon!

 

Sincerely,

Sofia Stefou, writer of LifeInMedia

The Importance of Ad Networks for your Online Video

I’ve been watching a number of local company online videos these days that are mildly interesting in content area, are severely lacking in the number of views department and probably in the ROI department too. Here are some things to consider once your video has been completed and is ready for distribution:

1) You Get What You Pay For

Creativity, high quality and customization comes at a higher cost than cookie cutter, generic, boring-looking things. That is true of most things in life I would say from business cards, to shoes, to housing etc. The more you pay the more you get, and often times this means that the life of the product is extended long past your initial investment. This is no different when it comes to video advertising.

2. Just Because You Have a Better Mousetrap Does Not Mean People Will Beat A Path to Your Door 

Okay, so you have a fantastic video that is creative, speaks to your target audience, and is of very high quality. Now what? Yes, you should put it on YouTube, yes you should use metadata to tag your video, yes you should use social media tools to promote the video, but you’ve got to go one step further if you really want to get some traction on that video then you need to consider investing in a video ad network strategy.

Ad networks work similarity to television advertising networks except that they troll through thousands of websites to figure out where to target your ads based on who your gearing your video towards. (Granted you could do this yourself but it would take an enormous amount of time, and probably a lot more money as you’d be negotiating directly with the owners of the websites you were looking to advertise on and don’t have the kind of volume that ad networks could guarantee thus giving them the ability to negotiate lower ad rates.)

Some of the more popular ones I found were Tremor Video, Spotxchange and BrightRoll and YouTube (always my favorite!) that promise to get your video out to as many websites as possible, some of them also promise actual results! Please keep in mind that Tremor and BrightRoll cater to larger companies with large marketing budgets. For smaller companies with smaller budgets I would recommend looking toward YouTube or Spotxchange as realistic ad network options. Don’t forget that there are even smaller more specialized networks that you should also take into consideration (for example real estate seems to have a bunch of them)

One of the other things that that ad networks offer that you’ll want to be aware of is the stats behind your video advertisement. What’s working and what isn’t working in your video? do you need to make some adjustments in one area or another? who’s watching? all of these factors are important with regards to your other marketing activities as well as what to consider when creating your next video campaign.

That’s what I got today, will be back with more insights later next month.

P.S. will be looking to start doing this blog via vlogs starting January 2012 so stay tuned for that!

Why Small Business Owners Should Have an Online Video

I was recently reading an interview with Mari Smith, Facebook Guru Extraordinaire promoting her new book “The New Relationship Marketing” (which I really want to check out btw) and something she said about online video marketing really struck me. Here’s what she said:

When you see someone on camera in an online video, we get a better feel for a person’s avatar. You can see the body language. You can sense whether the person is being congruent with their message, etcetera. So it’s a way to actually “up” the relationship factor. It’s a way to actually feel more connected and more intimate with the person when they’re speaking on camera, especially live.” Mari Smith

What I found interesting about her statement is 1) that it is totally true 2) I think it also relieves some anxiety you might feel about meeting someone who you are looking to do business with for the first time. I’ll give you a recent example, I was supposed to meet with this lawyer in a few days (no, I am not in any trouble at the moment!) and I was a little nervous about what he might be like, so I went on his website and found a couple of videos of interviews with him about various topics. Those interviews gave me a really good sense of what type of person he was, (okay granted they were a little too long and I didn’t end up watching all of them in their entirety) but it gave me a better idea of how to approach him, and definitely made me feel a lot more at ease when I finally met him in person the next day. It made me much more likely to want to work with him, because I know this sounds crazy, but I felt like I kind of knew him already. I liked his values and philosophies and felt like this was someone I was going to like..a lot. Turns out all these things were true and in fact upon meeting him in person I liked him even more than I have expected.

Now, the thing is the opposite could have been true. I could have, after watching the video hated his guts and may have gotten a bad feeling about him. THIS IS ACTUALLY OKAY. It  would have a been a good thing because then I wouldn’t have wasted my time going to see him, nor would I have wasted his time as he tried to talk to me into his services, while I secretly knew in my heart of hearts this was not the person for me. Seriously, online dating sites should consider doing this. Their match-up rates would be through the roof!

I really see this type of online video marketing as a great opportunity for a number of different professionals including: lawyers (haha!), real estate agents, web site developers (seriously it’s hard for anyone to distinguish who to work with), insurance brokers, sales professionals, SEO experts (again hard to know if you are good to work with), consultants and the list goes on.

So if you fall into this category of small business professionals perhaps you’ll want to consider adding some type of video on your website.

Your video isn’t going to promote itself: Tips on How to Reach Your Target Audience

I was just reading an article about 5 tips that can help you manage your video expectations by Kevin Edwards http://video-commerce.org/2011/10/where-the-rubber-meets-the-road-5-tips-to-help-manage-your-product-video-expectations/ great read if you have some time. One of the things that struck me is that while it’s important to have a strategy about what you’re creating and why, but you also need to plan where that video is going to end up when you finish it. How are you going to ensure that as the most relevant viewers to your product/service actually see the video?

That’s where having a distribution strategy is going to be your saving grace. It’s wise do a little planning before sending out your video into the world wide web. I’ve provided 5 tips that have worked for me.

1. Find out where your desired people “live”

What I mean by that is find websites, blogs, facebook groups, twitter hashtags that your target audience uses to find information about your product or service and try to post your video there. Depending on your content YouTube might not be the only video sharing platform you’ll want to consider.

2. Use every social media outlet available to you

If spend a lot of your time on YouTube commenting on videos and uploading your own, then you’ll be guaranteed that more than a few people are going to watch your video. If, however, you’re an organization that doesn’t necessarily want to spend all your time on YouTube, then one of the best ways to get your video out there is to leverage your social media networks. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and yes even e-mail marketing works to get people watching and hopefully calling.

3. Use as many relevant keywords and descriptions as possible 

You should do whatever you can to make it into as many relevant search terms as possible. Now that Google has changed it’s algorithm to rank video higher than text it works to your advantage, but they’ve also changed it so that the latest information is found at the top of the search, which means you have to strike hard and fast.

4. Use paid networks if you can afford to 

They can really pull you up to the top of a video sharing site for example, YouTube in a short period of time, and now that video marketing is just gaining in popularity the rates are still relatively affordable. Take advantage of this opportunity!

5. Get your friends to share

While it might take more than one promotional push to get eyeballs to your video, don’t do it alone! As friends, family, fans to help but promote the video on their sites, and you’ll reach audiences you never would have been able to otherwise.

Hope you find the info useful! Let me know if you’ve got any great ideas that have been working for you.

Are You Surprised? Online Video Ad Recall Higher Than TV

I’m not sure if anyone caught the latest article on ReelSEO.com http://www.reelseo.com/tv-online-video-attention-levels/ check it out if you have time, a very interesting read. Essentially, the gist of the article is that based on a limited study (48 people in total I believe) Online Ads are recalled by viewers 2 times more than Television ads. Wow! Pretty significant stuff! (Graph Below)

I realize that this is such a small study that it may not be considered scientifically significant, however, I want to talk about my own TV ad versus Online Ad consumption patterns and see if you agree with me.

I’m going to use the example of me watching one of my favorite shows, CBC’s Being Erica, both on my television set and my desktop computer.

Scenario #1 Watching on a TV Screen

Me tucked into my comfy black leather chair complete with footstool engaged in the show. Television commercials start rolling in..

My thoughts: Since I have a good 2-4mins now’s a good time to get a snack, check my  iphone for messages or just cruise the internet. My head is not even in the direction of the TV screen at this point, so I have no idea what commercials are being played, and even if I did there are so many of them they’ve become a massive blur.

Conclusions: So many opportunities for distractions from snacks to mobile devices let alone DVR It’s a wonder how anyone remembers any commercials at all. Makes it much harder I would think from a creative standpoint to be able to actually break through the clutter.

Scenario #2 Watching On My Desktop Computer

Computer is in my room, where I can watch by myself. The kitchen is a little further away from my room so I have to get snacks ready ahead of time, and I have be in front of the computer to actively press play or stop, etc. Busy watching when Online video ads start rolling in….

My thoughts: On this particular show last episode I watched there were only 3 ads played (that I remember, one of which was an ad for UPS, the other two could have been for Chevy and Tetley Tea Infusions, but that could also be me mixing them up with product placement on the show, which seems to have an even higher recall than both TV and Online Video Ads in my case). 3 ads means I don’t have time to run to get a snack, play with my phone or even open up a new tab on my computer to do something else. I have no choice but to watch the ads therefore I am guaranteed to at least remember one. 

Conclusions: I remembered one out of the three ads that were played, as well as the fact that Chevy and Tetley had logos on the top right corner of my screen so I could click on them at any time if I was interested. (I did not click on them at this time). Considering I didn’t remember any commercials from my TV viewing experience (usually I only remember commercials that my friends are in) one out of three ain’t bad.

From my own anecdotal evidence and the study I mentioned, I think we might be one to something with this online video stuff. Agree or Disagree?

 

I say leverage the video content you have

I’ve been reading lately that the key to video success is to continually post video on YouTube and distribute it through your social networks. While I agree with that strategy for SOME people I don’t know that it really applies to everyone. Here’s something  to keep in mind. When you’re creating video, depending on the kind of video you are creating. it can be a big commitment to keep up all the time. Not to mention really difficult to keep people engaged week after week. (Kudos to those that are able to do it) Viewers  expect to see content from you on a regular basis and eventually are going to want to see better and better quality. If you can keep up with these demands then more power to you, if not, then consider doing one or two really great videos and then use them throughout your marketing activities. It can be just as effective, in my opinion anyway, and requires a lot less time and commitment.

Take for example , if you are doing this as an opportunity to present your product/service. Sometimes online video doesn’t lend itself well to more than a couple of videos. If this is the case for you, then my suggestions is create a couple of really good quality videos and then market the heck out of them. Get as much leverage out of what you’ve got.

If you have the budget dollars, then I would highly recommend using YouTube’s promoted video program as a part of your social marketing strategy. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it should be your only strategy. I am still a very big advocate of twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and e-mail marketing, but in particular if as I said you are not someone who wants to start creating your own YouTube channel with content that is constantly updated, then I say the promoted video program is probably the fastest way you’re going to get the views you’re looking for.

If you are someone who has a lot of creative ideas for what to do with your video and the time to spend producing, uploading, monitoring and then thinking of how to create more videos, I really applaud you. I really enjoy creating videos, (primarily to help other people succeed) but find my ideas usually come to me in the middle of the night, on a sporadic basis, not really enough to sustain a viable YouTube channel.

What are your thoughts?

Using Video to Crowdsource Live Event Questions

I am sorry for not posting over the last two weeks, things have been hectic with a couple of projects and they’ve been keeping me really busy. Please forgive. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I ran across this video for the movie 50/50.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BritishFilmInstitute#p/p

The BFI London Film Festival is giving people a chance to ask questions to both the movie’s actor Seth Rogen and writer Will Reiser. YouTubers  have the opportunity to submit questions via video response or comment on the BFI YouTube Channel, while other get the chance to vote on their favorite questions through Google moderator. Both Will and Seth will then answer questions in person at the festival which will be streamed live on YouTube Oct 14th at 1:25pm.

As of the writing of this post the video results are 851 views 23 questions and 121 votes. I suspect as we get closer to the actual date the number of views and questions will go up, but we’ll see how things go. Not all that great numbers not horrible. I suspect there would be more traffic once other social media sites get involved (I found out about this through my Facebook news feed)

I like this idea because it allows people to participate with the filmmakers even if they can’t be present at the festival itself. Hello TIFF are you listening? and I like the fact that the questions are being crowdsourced so that they will be answering the questions that the majority of audiences think are interesting rather than people who stand up and hog the interview with their obscure questions which most people could care less about. Keeps things rather interesting. What I hope the festival and YouTube will do is during the live stream allow people to continue to ask questions and vote on them as many times as possible. Great questions tend to come from what the interviewee has just said or some tangent that they’ve gone off on and it triggers a question from the audience. Often times those are the best and most engaging questions of that particular event. My hope that YouTube and the BFI will not squeeze out this type of spontaneity from the event.

I think this is a great idea for other organizations to consider when they have a conference or event of some sort, although I would like to see all other forms of social media incorporated into the event including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. At SXSW earlier this year I attended a talk where the moderator took live questions from Twitter. I thought this was pretty effective and some great questions and comments came out of that experience. If we could have an event where questions were asked ahead of time on all the popular social media sites before, during and possibly after the event, in my humble opinion this would revolutionize the way we participate in live events. It would be amazing! Sometimes you have great questions before the event, sometimes you have them during and sometimes you come up with something afterwards. Wouldn’t it be great to have someone assigned to organize all these questions and get answers for the post popular ones?

Looking forward to this happening at any future live events I attend. What are your thoughts on this idea?

 

 

Google AdWords for Video..Can’t Wait

I read about this development recently and I am super excited about the possibility that Google will be creating a new video ad management system for the little people. Yippee! Now I am not normally a fan of AdWords because I don’t personally like it for my business, but I can totally get behind a AdWords system for videos. Definitely more up my alley. Here’s a little video about the program to whet your appetite. (sorry having some trouble embedding the video today, so you’ll have to click on the link to watch it)

 

 

 

Adwords for Video is still in beta version at the moment so I can’t get in and play with it just yet, but here’s what I’ve learned so far about it:

It works just like AdWords

It uses the same auction-type system as AdWords to place videos on YouTube and Google Ad Networks and you only pay when viewers watch your videos. (Great to know that they understand impressions don’t mean all that much these days). You have the ability to set your budget, target your video to specific locations, age, interests, keywords, topics and specific publisher placements. (I am in heaven!)

Viewers Have A Choice In What Ads They Want to Watch

There are 4 different options that viewers have: TrueView In-stream, TrueView In-search, TrueView In-display and TrueView In-slate

TrueView In-Stream is pre-, mid-, post-roll ads on YouTube partner videos. You only pay when the viewers watches at least 30 seconds of your video.

TrueView In-Search is based on keywords and category searches. Reach the top of the promoted videos search results. Pay only if viewers watch.

TrueView In-Slate is part of YouTube partner videos that are over 10 minutes. Viewers can choose 1 out of 3 different ads to watch or watch regular commercial breaks

TrueView In-Display are promoted against related content across YouTube and Google Display Network. You only pay for who watches your ad

Metrics Let’s You Measure Performance

You have the ability to see who’s watching your video, how long they are watching it, call-to-action activity and performance and thus gives you a chance to tweek your campaign to make it that much more effective.

Am so excited about this new feature. I have put in a request to be a beta tester. Fingers crossed they accept me!