As I am thinking about what small biz needs for 2016, one huge marketing trend stands out, and that is VIDEO. Now I know what you are thinking… “Ugh, Fuse! That takes so long! It’s hard, I don’t like being in front of the camera, I would need fancy expensive equipment, and then there’s editing, so I don’t think I can do it.” Well, my creative entrepreneur biz buddy, this is the one marketing trend you can’t live without! Video is here to stay, PERIOD. As live streaming becomes more and more common, small businesses that are not incorporating video into their marketing will sink. But the good news: it’s in many great formats.
WHY VIDEO?
Video takes your brand to a whole new level. It creates a much bigger connection between owner + customer. Video helps with personal branding. Even huge brands are utilizing video because they know that personal branding is important in order to gain customer confidence and loyalty. The 3-D world is way more diverse and fun than the flat, two-dimensional world of just written words on a blog. Humans are nosy as hell! Seriously, I mean look at reality TV! Human beings are nosy, and they want to see behind the scenes. They want to know where people shop, what they eat, what are they are up to, how they reached their goal, or how to use an app or tool.
You will always get higher engagement in stats with video. If you use Facebook, you can see that using a video about your business will increase your reach by a ton. I did an experiment with a video, and the reach increased by 400%. Just check the stats of the platform you are using to see that video does get you more reach!
Video can be quite easy to create and implement. In the past, video was tougher. You did indeed had to have a YouTube channel, you had to learn editing, you had to optimize your YouTube videos, then you had to upload the video and also share your video. But now, we’ve been introduced to the age of live streaming and it is a game changer!
WHERE TO USE VIDEO?
Here are some places you can add video marketing for your business. P.S. YouTube still rocks because it is the second biggest search engine in the world.
1. Instagram. I love that you can do the video snippets on Instagram, and I love that you can add a filter on those videos. Here are some ideas on what you can post on Instagram:
- A message to your fans just saying hi
- Introducing them to a new challenge you are hosting
- Sneak peek of a class or service you are offering
- Office tour
- A glimpse of a great blog post you did – so scroll through your post
- Behind-the-scenes video of you at work
- Something new you have found and that you’re excited about
- Cooking a meal and some preparation ideas
- Your design process sneak peek
- A cool event you are attending, like a concert
- A mini promo video of what you do: think your tagline
- A weekly quick tip
- A message for your tribe
2. Periscope. Periscope is a great platform where you can live stream from anywhere by using your phone or iPad. You can have a more formal video in a workshop style, showcase a conference you’re attending to showcase another speaker, or you can have a casual scope. It’s a wonderful way to get in front of a new audience, especially because it’s connected to Twitter. I already have 1,300 followers and have been introduced. I wrote this blog post here on how to get started with Periscope and how to rock your first scope if you decide to broadcast.
Here are some some folks you should check out on Periscope. You can see the kinds of different scopes they do to see diverse examples.
Maya Ellious – She does “robe scopes” where she’s wearing her robe! Yes, she is, and she chats on a business or personal topic for anyone teaching and offering services, classes and online workshops. The top industries I see are : Business to Business, Beauty, Wellness & Wealth.
Afton Negrea – She does a weekly scope on the app of the day and has wonderful tidbits of knowledge of how to use social media for your business.
Max Goldberg – Max does meditation scopes.
Joanne Pham – Joanne is the founder of Perigirls, an 11k-member women’s networking periscope group, and she scopes her daily activities, food, and inspirational scopes, too.
Larry Becker – Teaches great video tips, and you should check him out if you want.
3. Twitter. You can add up to 30 seconds of video on Twitter, and it also gives you a much better reach. See these examples below.Many folks on Twitter send video messages to their new followers. The other day, I received a great one from Susan, who took the extra time to check out my profile and tell me she is excited to learn more about DIY SEO, so she will be following my Tweets. You can also do a contest announcement, virtual parties, and many other ideas listed in the Instagram section.
4. Facebook Biz Page. If you have not seen it before, but Facebook Business Pages are sucking right now. Small business owners are complaining left and right about their lack of reach, and I even confessed that I was pretty much giving up on my FB page, which has over 5k fans. Why? Because it is a time waster, and I was not seeing results. I do know that video posts get way more engagement than regular posts, so if you dig your Biz page and want more Facebook Biz page engagement, then start using video. Also, your video should not really be very long. I suggest about a minute to a minute and a half.
5. Facebook Group Page. This is something I began doing for my own Facebook Group. I actually don’t see any group leaders utilizing the power of video to lead their groups. You can do weekly challenges, praise a super fan, or just share inspiration with your tight knit tribe.
6. Facebook Ads. A Facebook video ad will get you more views and will be more appealing for viewers. I suggest you talk with a Facebook Video rep so they can give you some ideas on what you can do. The cool thing is that you can do just a Power Point presentation of your portfolio with some text and music if you don’t want to appear speaking in the actual video. Again, don’t make the video very long.
7. Facebook Live. Very similar to Periscope, Facebook Live first gave access to celebs and folks with huge followings, but now it’s available for anyone. I am not a huge fan of it, just because it’s for people that you’re friends with already, so how does it help me get new fans? It does, however, help you connect with those that you do have on there, so I say try it out.
8. Blab. Blab is an online platform where you can have your own live talk show. It is via Google Chrome only, and you can add up to 3 other guests. These guests can be random strangers that find your show, or you can invite your audience. To me, this is also like having a live podcast, and it is very cool. I did some Blab episodes last year, and you can check out some awesome topics that Erica H. Vincent and I covered here.
UPDATE! Sadly Blab is no more and Facebook Live plus Insta Stories is a bigger player now.
9. YouTube. I have been itching to get back into YouTube, and I do get tired just thinking about it… but the good news is, I have done over 140 broadcasts on Periscope now, and I can repurpose those scopes and add them to YouTube. You can subscribe to my channel here. Grab my Youtube Mini Guide to learn how to optimize your videos for Youtube at end of the blog post.
10. Vlogs. Vlogs stand for Video Blog Posts. You can record yourself a video-entry type blog post instead of writing out a huge blog post… oh, like this one. So if I wanted to, I could have recorded myself sharing all of these tips with you guys, and then uploaded that video on YouTube and embedded it here.
One quick and dirty tip is: If you are on a Mac, just use quicktime and hit Edit > New Screen Recording > and this records you live. You can also use Quicktime to film your screen if you do your vlog in a more presentation style format. So then I can edit these movies in iMovie by just adding a title, hitting command+B to trim down, etc. Export video then upload. Ta da, it’s quite easy.
11. Newsletters. You can send your email list, a “hey how you doing” video (can you hear my Jersey accent here?), do you want some coffee talk? No, okay. Moving on. So, you can send a video message to your audience, share some news, or send a special vlog just for your newsletter list only.
12. Live events or workshops. If you’re a blogger wanting to grow your audience, make money online, and create courses, then you absolutely must follow Regina. She provides the most amount of value any online teacher has ever provided, and she is the real deal. Legit! She hosts awesome live events for her audience, and they are a huge success. She uses Google Hangouts to host these events and has great tips on how to host your own event here.
13. Snapchat! Snapchat started out as a sexting tool for the younger generation, but now it is hitting the biz world like a tsunami. Small businesses are having huge success with using Snapchat to engage with their audience and customers. Someone to check out and follow on Snapchat for marketing ideas and how to use Snapchat effectively is of course, the one and only, Gary Vee.
14. Facebook Profile Photo now supports video snippets. Pretty Cool! I used the app Boomerang to do my current Profile Video on Facebook and love it.
15. Instagram Private Message! You can directly send some one a video on Instagram so like a video message as you do on Twitter but I love that it is private. I have recently started to use it to engage with fellow bloggers and fans and they are loving it. Also serves as a messenger for online buddies that live very far away and at different timezones. You see not every one has FB messenger installed either, so this is a cool alternative.
Speaking of video, if you want my Youtube Mini Guide, then you can sign up and get it here.
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