When we think of social media, we tend to immediately go to the Facebook and Twitter's of the world but ignoring YouTube channels can be a mistake for the SMB owner.
YouTube
How?
One of the most popular questions we get asked at Carlyn Services is, how do I get a YouTube channel? The good news is, it is a very easy process, simply go here and follow the steps.
Why?
According to Alexa.com, YouTube is the third most trafficked site in the world. That means when your customers are not doing a search, or on Facebook, they are most likely on YouTube. By creating a YouTube channel you give your customers the chance to 'subscribe' to your channel. Once they have subscribed, every time you add new content to your YouTube channel, your clientele will be made aware that you have done so. This provides the SMB owner with a great opportunity to advertise at no or very little cost.
Invodo.com is a great resource for statistics. Here are a couple relating to video and it's importance in converting internet users into customers:
"Mediapost reports that product videos play a key role in consumer purchase decisions, citing a 9x increase in retail video views at the start of the 2011 holiday season. (MediaPost, January 2012)." (http://www.invodo.com/html/resources/video-statistics/)
"Visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not. (Internet Retailer, April 2010)" (http://www.invodo.com/html/resources/video-statistics/)
There are other advantages to creating a channel on YouTube: You can subscribe to your competitors channels and get updates every time they produce new content, ensuring you are aware of anything new or exciting they are doing and you can use your channel to interact with your customer base through the comments to gain valuable feedback.
Here are a few examples of good YouTube channels:
Harley Davidson
Pepsi
Cisco
I've made a channel, now what?
Once you are up and running it is time to begin filling your channel with exciting and fresh content. Every product and service you offer is worthy of a video explaining why everyone needs to buy it from you. Have any experts on staff? Expert advice videos, are amongst the most popularly viewed videos on YouTube. Did your industry recently undergo any new changes? Let your subscribers know by producing a video detailing those changes.
Years ago the SMB owner would have loved to have been able to make commercial's, nowadays all you need is your own camera and you can make and broadcast all the commercials you want. Take advantage of YouTube's channel program and build your brand online.
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Increasing and Retaining Customers Using Facebook
If you are planning on using Social Media to grow your SMB, Facebook is an essential component. A good place to start when determining how to use Facebook for your business is Facebook's comprehensive business guilde; available here.
There are limitations on what you can do with your business page on Facebook but there are still lots and lots of benefits to setting up and actively using a business page.
SEO
One of the added benefits (that sometimes gets overlooked) of using Facebook in your online strategy is that Facebook scores very well in organic search results. Not to mention the backlink of adding your website to Facebook provides additional SEO benefit to your website. Try looking for Carlyn Services Inc, or carlynservicesinc, on Google and notice that Carlyn Service's Facebook page is generally in the first 5-7 results returned. The more avenues for your business to be found online the better it is for your business.
Getting Ahead of the Curve
Right now, Facebook and Search are separate but with more and more people, places and things finding a page on Facebook you have to wonder how long that reality will exist. What I mean by that is, is it going to make sense to leave Facebook and go to Google to look up the closest dentist when every dentist nearby has a Facebook page? More and more people are already using Facebook to find local businesses, get ahead of the curve now and get a Facebook page for your business.
Events, Photos, Specials and Video, Video, Video
Facebook's statistics page tells us that "the average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events." 80! As a business you can't afford to be losing out on business by not having a share in the 80 connections the average user makes. Put on events, create specials and deals, post pictures of employees and customers and most importantly make videos of anything and everything. If you do all of these you are sure to have more connections than most of your competitors.
As we discussed in the Twitter post last week, the importance of video is increasing daily. People love to watch and listen on their computers. Position yourself as an expert in the field of your business and create instructional videos on your expertise. Putting on an event? Videos. Have a happy customer? Testimonial videos. Ever wanted to make a commercial? Hire a video production company to create one for you. They are less expensive than you realize. Videos, videos, videos!
There are limitations on what you can do with your business page on Facebook but there are still lots and lots of benefits to setting up and actively using a business page.
SEO
One of the added benefits (that sometimes gets overlooked) of using Facebook in your online strategy is that Facebook scores very well in organic search results. Not to mention the backlink of adding your website to Facebook provides additional SEO benefit to your website. Try looking for Carlyn Services Inc, or carlynservicesinc, on Google and notice that Carlyn Service's Facebook page is generally in the first 5-7 results returned. The more avenues for your business to be found online the better it is for your business.
Getting Ahead of the Curve
Right now, Facebook and Search are separate but with more and more people, places and things finding a page on Facebook you have to wonder how long that reality will exist. What I mean by that is, is it going to make sense to leave Facebook and go to Google to look up the closest dentist when every dentist nearby has a Facebook page? More and more people are already using Facebook to find local businesses, get ahead of the curve now and get a Facebook page for your business.
Events, Photos, Specials and Video, Video, Video
Facebook's statistics page tells us that "the average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events." 80! As a business you can't afford to be losing out on business by not having a share in the 80 connections the average user makes. Put on events, create specials and deals, post pictures of employees and customers and most importantly make videos of anything and everything. If you do all of these you are sure to have more connections than most of your competitors.
As we discussed in the Twitter post last week, the importance of video is increasing daily. People love to watch and listen on their computers. Position yourself as an expert in the field of your business and create instructional videos on your expertise. Putting on an event? Videos. Have a happy customer? Testimonial videos. Ever wanted to make a commercial? Hire a video production company to create one for you. They are less expensive than you realize. Videos, videos, videos!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)