Online Video: Stop Waiting and Start Filming

It was December of 2008 when comScore, a prominent Internet marketing research firm, revealed that the number of searches on the video sharing site YouTube had surpassed that of Yahoo. As of January 2010 YouTube remained second only to their parent company Google in number of searches. That breaks down to roughly 3.7 billion monthly YouTube searches compared to 2.7 on Yahoo and 1.8 via Microsoft’s offerings. That is a critical mass of people and your business can no longer afford to ignore them. Take a second and search for your company (or even your own name) on YouTube. Do you like what you see in the results? If not then it is time to create some content. Even if your search returned nothing you have a great opportunity. Online reputation only exists with the presence of information, and a blank canvas is open to anyone. If a person posts something regarding your business on YouTube, in the absence of other relevant search results it will be all that defines you in that space. Why give up that control when it’s so quick and easy to contribute yourself?

Business people need forget what they think they know about video. The Internet, as a medium, and YouTube, as a platform in particular, come with different expectations and standards than television. Videographers and ad agencies have their place, but your cost of entry is generally a camera, a computer, and an idea. As for cameras, it’s not uncommon to find YouTube footage shot with a web cam or a cell phone, so a relatively cheap point-and-click camera like a Flip Video will more than suffice. Most cameras and consumer-level computers even come with free editing software, but given the impromptu nature of online video you might not even use it. Some of the most successful video bloggers, like Wine Library’s Gary Vaynerchuk, forgo editing altogether. If your goal is to connect with people and build your reputation, a “warts and all” approach is humanizing. If you are truly passionate about your subject matter and comfortable speaking about it, then you may not necessarily even need a script.

You will of course want to have a plan so you can stay focused, but YouTube is a social network, not a television channel. You can respond to videos with your own. Demonstrate your expertise and provide value to the viewer by filming step-by-step instructions. You have the opportunity to address your customers with more humanity than you ever could in an advertisement. If you want a great example search YouTube for Sears.ca. The retail giant, despite their vast resources, films unscripted answers to customer questions on the floor of their store with a handheld camera. Their YouTube videos are no more sophisticated or polished than yours would be. This is a level playing field, so why not get in the game?

…from a series of Social Media articles I’ve been contributing to the Business Link newspaper, with editions in Niagara, Hamilton-Halton and Brantford. This article ran in Volume 3, Issue 2, March 2010.

 Adam White (adamwhite.org) is a software developer at JMR SoftwareSystems (jmr.ca) and an editor at Punknews.org. For info, tips and events visit socialmedianiagara.com.

Count Your Conversations, Not Your Followers

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook provide a deceptively simple metric of success: the number of friends or followers you have amassed. However one should never mistake an account with a huge number of followers for an account that actually impacts people. This is particularly true on Twitter, the 140 character messaging phenomenon, where an account doesn’t even necessarily represent a single person (in the walled-garden of Facebook it is a little more cut and dry). This is compounded by the fact that many opportunistic users use tools to automatically find and add followers on the fly. Try mentioning the word “marketing” in a Tweet and see how many accounts tied to marketing consultants instantly follow you. This is not real or useful social interaction, it’s just more spam.

Does the follower count matter? It does, but only as one piece of the puzzle. Unless they are a well known celebrity or tastemaker, a user who is followed by thousands of accounts and in turn follows thousands themselves is probably not a real person. Few human beings could sift through such a massive influx of messages. Ideally a person would be followed by many but only follow a select few. The list of accounts you yourself follow is public on Twitter, and it should be a resource for your audience. It provides an insight into who you find useful, interesting and important.

So what is a better metric for gauging your Twitter success?  Try counting conversations. Count the number of people you reply to who actually reply back. Count the number of times your brand is mentioned by others. Count the number of useful links you pass on to your followers and how often they pass that information on themselves. If you find that you are unable to strike up conversations then perhaps that is a sign that you should reevaluate who you are trying to connect with. As with all business endeavours you should be setting clear measurable goals for yourself and working hard to meet them. Treat social networking the same way, just make sure your metrics are meaningful. 

As a thought experiment, ask yourself if your posting habits on Twitter or Facebook would change if your follower count was hidden If all you had to go on was the conversations you participated in, how would you measure success? You would measure it by how many actual human beings you have impacted. That is how it works in real life, where there is no convenient list of friends, and that is how you should conduct yourself online. Nobody is impressed with your follower count but yourself.

…from a series of Social Media articles I’ve been contributing to the Business Link newspaper, with editions in Niagara, Hamilton-Halton and Brantford. This article ran in Volume 8, Issue 1, February 2010.

Adam White (adamwhite.org) is a software developer at JMR SoftwareSystems (jmr.ca) and a news editor at Punknews.org. Find him on Twitter @adamwhite, at 905-374-2878, or adam [at] jmr.ca.

How Should You React To Online Reviews?

Hotel and restaurant owners know the damage a bad review can cause. When visiting a new city some people wouldn’t dare book a room without first looking up the property on TripAdvisor. Owners are understandably concerned when a scathing customer review sits atop their profile, as the voice of one individual could drive away countless others. How do they deal with this? I’m sorry to say their solutions are not always honest. Fake reviews abound, with some owners attempting to manipulate ratings and bury negative material. These tactics are not only dishonest, they create an arms race between hoteliers and the web developers who want to maintain the trust of their users. In that battle I would put my money on the developers every time.

By reacting in this way businesses risk having their accounts flagged as suspicious or banned altogether. By overreacting they create the perception that they have something to hide, and that lends credibility to bad reviews. Furthermore people have become astonishingly adept at knowing when they’re reading a fake write-up. Don’t fall into that trap! People want to see a business that is receptive to feedback. It is more important to see a human being humbly listening to their customers than it is to see a flawless record. The readers understand that you can not please everyone every time, and they are fully aware that some people will complain about anything. They just want to see that those comments are not falling on deaf ears. It goes a long way to publicly respond “I’m sorry we didn’t meet your expectations, how can we do better?”

Not in the hotel and restaurant industry? Your turn is coming. The big trend in 2010 will be location-aware real-time social networking. This means that your customers will be able to pull out their smart phone while standing in your storefront to review of your business instantly. The phone will know, via GPS, where they are and they will be able to publish their opinions online when they are still fresh. Furthermore they will be able to review absolutely everything, from their mechanic to their dry cleaner. Businesses that never before considered their online reputation will suddenly be faced with it.

There is no one service that leads this market yet, but everyone is jockeying for position. Twitter just turned on geolocation features. Facebook’s version is just around the corner. Funding is flowing to new startups, with names like FourSquare, Gowalla, SimpleGeo collectively raising over $11 million last year alone. Existing review sites like Yelp and Citysearch are becoming more and more popular via their iPhone apps.

There is a generation of consumers coming that will never open a phone book. They will simply pull their phone out of their pocket and ask “What around me has been recommended by people I trust?” Don’t fight these amateur reviewers, they have the power to make or break brands. You need to show them that you are listening.

…from a series of Social Media articles I’ve been contributing to the Business Link newspaper, with editions in Niagara, Hamilton-Halton and Brantford. This article ran in Volume 7, Issue 12, January 2010.

Adam White (adamwhite.org) is a software developer at JMR SoftwareSystems (jmr.ca) and a news editor at Punknews.org. How can you engage reviewers? Contact him at 905-374-2878 or adam [at] jmr.ca.

Getting Started With Social Media? LISTEN.

If I controlled the Internet there would be a mandatory disclaimer on every social media site. You would be vetted as soon as you clicked that first link and we would know you were joining as a business. We would smell it on you. This disclaimer would be the most obnoxious clash of pink on yellow and it would fill your screen. In blinking letters it would scream “Social media is about listening.”

In business we are faced with a growing chorus of hype about social media. We called this phenomena “Web 2.0” a year ago. These are simply websites where the visitors are participating by contributing much (if not all) of the content.  Just ask the ever increasing legion of self-declared experts and consultants soon to be knocking down your door! They will alarm you with startling statistics that drive home the fact that the Internet has changed the game. You will be implored to get with the times and get your business on to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr and any number of others. The enthusiasts, statistics, and headlines are not necessarily wrong —- but they should be telling you to listen before you leap.

Social media networks are named so for a reason. They are populated first and foremost by people and were built for the utility and enjoyment of those people. Any network that gains in popularity does so because it has committed, passionate users who genuinely find it useful or entertaining (often both). While it makes good business sense take your message where the people are, it makes better business sense to walk in the door humbly and understand the locals. While some of these websites may have started with a business plan they have succeeded in spite of it. They’ve succeeded because they were wise enough to nurture a community before exploiting it for profit.

As a business you should approach social networks with the same level of caution. Read what people are saying. Understand the quirks, the in-jokes and the problems that make that community what it is. Get a feel for the rhythm of conversation. Watch others make mistakes. Once you witness them as a member of the community, the last thing you’ll want to do is assault people with your one-way sales pitch. Just because you can, and just because it’s free, doesn’t make it tasteful, tactful or effective. Social networks are about humans engaging one another, and to get a business message out there you need to engage people on that level. You need to learn to care.

Here are a few first steps:

• Ask your kids (you may have to bribe them). This world is becoming their second home and they probably know it better than you.
• Listen for what assumptions they’re making, the short forms and the funny acronyms. These are the rules of the community.
• Watch how quickly they tune out obvious or pushy advertising.

In social media marketing is an ends, not a means. Listening should be your first priority. This series of articles will challenge businesses to get fluent in the growing social media world and learn to build rapport before making your pitch.

…from a series of Social Media articles I’ve been contributing to the Business Link newspaper, with editions in Niagara, Hamilton-Halton and Brantford. This article ran in Volume 7, Issue 11, December 2009.

Adam White (adamwhite.org) is a software developer at JMR SoftwareSystems (jmr.ca) and a news editor at Punknews.org. Where do we take this conversation? Contact him at 905-374-2878 or adam [at] jmr.ca.