Category Archives: New Media Marketing

How To Make Your Webcam Videos Good Enough To Market

Andy is the top Marketing Executive at Skeleton Productions, a corporate video production company based in the United Kingdom.  

online video marketing 300x225 How To Make Your Webcam Videos Good Enough To Market Specialising in video marketing, Andy knows his way around a whole host of video and online strategies, targeting brands, businesses and blogs of all niches and sizes. His guest posts discuss a wide array of adoptable topical marketing strategies, from how to grow social media influences, video blogging set ups, quick SEO tips, Internet video hosting and everything in between.  

Admittedly it’s not easy to create videos that resemble Hollywood blockbusters on an everyday Webcam, but you can make impressive video content that is powerful enough to market successfully on the web. Such online videos can make sure you start to generate those high levels of website traffic, improved conversion rates and increased brand awareness so many organisations crave.Businesses, brands and bloggers alike are all rapidly turning to video blogging and Internet video as a resource for marketing their content and message. In the past creating such videos has been reserved for big corporate industries and global brands, but today individuals worldwide are creating effective videos using just a simple Webcam and their computer.

To help get you started creating effective Webcam videos I’ve outlined the five essential ways to make your Webcam video content as successful as possible.

1. Pick Your Location
A good location is essential to recording a great video. Decide whether you want your video to have the feel of an inviting desk-side chat, an engaging corporate business meeting or a casual, laid back living room gossip. Your location says a lot about your video before you even get started. You never want to record a video in a messy room or in a busy area with people walking in and out of shot, as recording in such locations can make your video fall flat from the very start.

Here are some good examples of the styles of background I’m talking about being used by an everyday blogger and a typical business:Business feel. Homely feel.

2. Check Your Lighting
Lighting in any video is very important. Webcam videos in particular are famous for struggling to deal with low light situations and natural sunlight. There’s nothing worse than recording a video to find out it’s been ruined by glares and reflections from your surroundings. If you’re recording has become disrupted by unwanted light or a lack of a light, there are ways to rectify it. The majority of good Webcams come with software, which allow you to adjust the contrast of your video, and many free editing tools in the likes of iMovie and Windows Movie Maker will allow you to correct the brightness in your video too.

In low light situations you can always make use of household lamps and lights to boost the brightness of your video, prior to recording. You’ll never need to go out and buy film standard fluorescent lighting rigs for your Webcam videos, in actuality you’d be surprised just how much difference every day household lights can make to your video.

If you’re still unsure about what constitutes bad lighting and good lighting here’s a few examples: Bad lighting. Good lighting.

3. Tackle Unwanted Sounds
Recording Webcam videos are easily susceptible to all sorts of unwanted ambient noises, from noisy pets to air conditioning hums. When you’re recording your video, be vigilant about the sounds in your environment. Turn off anything that could interrupt your filming, close all the nearby windows and keep all pets out of earshot. Do your best to mute all noises in the area as even your computer could give off disruptive sounds when you record your video. Unwanted noises will divert your audience’s attention away from what’s being discussed and it could even put of viewers from checking out your future content.

4. Keep Your Content Short & Simple
If there are two trends that occur time and time again in the Internet video world, it’s that so many video bloggers hit the record button on their Webcams and unleash a whole world of spiel at their unsuspecting audiences, while others waffle on and on to extremely disinterested viewers.

Internet video is largely so powerful and engaging to online audiences because it’s short and sweet. When you’re recording your Webcam videos try and keep them under the 5 minute mark, in fact keeping them under 2 minutes is absolutely perfect. We all know how distracting the Internet can be and keeping hold of an audience’s attention is always going to be challenge in itself.

Try to ensure your videos are not only short, but simple. If you’ve got a few topics to get across, make separate episodes rather than trying to cram it all into one over the top video. You can’t afford to ‘lose’ your audience in your videos and by over complicating them you’ll be on the fast track to receiving a low viewership for your video. When you keep videos simple you can get across your message clearly and effectively, which is an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

5. Be Human
The best quality of video blogging and Webcam videos is that their one-to-one nature helps to showcase one individual communicating with another. Such videos put aside brands and corporate image and connect with one individual at a time. This is one of the fundamental reasons why video blogging and Webcam videos are so popular.

The viewers of these videos want to see a real person on screen, one human being communicating with another human being. So many video blogs are full of individuals trying to be ‘like’ someone else, or trying to come across as more important than they are. Don’t try to be anyone or anything other than yourself on camera, as audiences can tell with a staggering amount of ease when videos are genuine or not.

Present yourself as a human being, in a location that viewers can relate to, in clothes they recognise and communicate with them in a way they’ll understand. It’s hard to connect with the ‘everyman’ when you’re recording a video in a palace, talking about buying an island dressed in a £10,000 suit.

 By following these five pointers you can begin to create effective and engaging video content on your everyday Webcam that you can use successfully in your next Internet marketing strategy. Whether you’re tackling social media or advertising a product, having great pieces of personable video content in your marketing arsenal that you can host on your website, blog or YouTube Channel will be a fantastic asset to have when it comes to connecting with future, prospective clients.

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How To Make Your Webcam Videos Good Enough To Market

The Intimidating Realm of Social Media

Social media continues to have a large effect on how companies operate.

SocialMediaLandscape 300x225 The Intimidating Realm of Social MediaWhile this new age is exciting, it is leading companies into uncharted territory. For many reasons, companies are treading lightly in an effort to take innovative steps, but cushion themselves in the case a campaign goes awry. But isn’t it time companies dive into the social media realm instead of dipping their toes in it?

Corporations such as Starbucks have experimented with new forms of customer engagement, utilizing social media Websites. Starbucks gauges customer reaction to its product by creating business pages devoted to listening and monitoring to what its customers have to say. This benefits all parties as customers feel they are being heard, and the company has a chance to improve something that needs improving. Starbucks can bounce ideas off customers by posting new trends and analyzing audience reactions. With positive feedback, the company can move ahead with their plan. With apprehension or negative feedback, the company can prevent a disaster before it even occurs.

A recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit has shown that companies “old” methods of measuring customer worth don’t work. Many companies believe that measuring how much customers spend is an accurate portrayal of the only way a customer relates to a company. While at some point that may have been true, customers now engage in brands far more than just buying the product.

The study also states companies need to distinguish between the unwanted noise of customers, and the important business information provided by customers. New ideas and strategies can be drawn from customers reactions through social media outlets, which ultimately could benefit the company. Furthermore, companies need to utilize social media as a tool for gaging customer reaction.

But social media must be used wisely. Take Skittles for example. Marketing managers tried to make customers feel like a part of company using Twitter, but users ended up posting indecent and inappropriate tweets, forcing Skittles to remove the feed  from their Website. While the company had good intentions, it just goes to show that social media can be a company’s best and worst friend. The best way to solve this is to author a protocol with consistent practices for all situations. Crisis management always needs to be present in an ever-changing medium like the internet.

Bottom line? Companies need to just do it– sorry Nike. With customer engagement, AND CONVERSATION, proper listening and monitoring services, and protocols for consistent use, companies will find a happy medium in which their company can grow in a new and exciting way.

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Overcoming Bad Online Influencers for Battlestar

I was part of the online promotion and response team for the Battlestar Galactica miniseries on Sci-Fi Channel back in the day, before they became SyFy.

The USENET Newsgroups (alt.battlestar-galactica for one) were pissed off. It was partly my job to circulate amongst the online communities, circa 2003, to convince a vocal online population of 40-something men that the Sci-Fi Channel interpretation was the last place that the Battlestar fans were ever going to get — the last opportunity — and that they would never get another go, unlike the Star Trek franchise, at reviving the campy 1978-1980 series with original cast.

Part of my argument with the online Original Battlestar Galactica influencers was that Sci-Fi had pushed through the reissuing of the original Battlestar Galactica series into DVD and by offering a Cylon box set.

cylon battlestar gallatica Overcoming Bad Online Influencers for BattlestarAnother part was that both Ronald D. Moore and David Eice were completely committed to the brand and that Sci-Fi was committed to a vision that may have been different in its interpretation but was, surely, as true in its ultimate morals and vision.

In the end, though, my argument came down to, “it has been 23-years since the series was canceled and it hasn’t been picked up by now? Well, you had better get behind this project because this is probably the last — your last — chance at reviving Battlestar — plus, did I mention the cool reissue and remastered Cylon box set?”

It was fascinating to be able to work around the community online, not only on USENET, but wherever the conversation was happening.  It was particularly challenging to appeal to the old guard over the sex change of Starbuck.

apollo richard hatch Overcoming Bad Online Influencers for BattlestarI even had authority to leak the fact that Executive Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick were totally into hiring original cast members, including the fly-in-the-ointment-at-the-time Richard Hatch — none of it rang true, it was such a tough crowd.  Moore and Eick even promised to tip the hat all the time to the old gang, including cheeky references to the old theme, the old Cylons, and any number of playful homages (which they surely did in spades over the course of the series).

Instead of really embracing the idea of a darker, stranger, more brutal BSG, the only argument that rang true was that this Battlestar Galactica miniseries was the last opportunity that these true blue OBSG fans had to any of the above.  They homages would not have time to play out, the guest appearances would not come to pass, and if the miniseries never got picked up, it would be bad for everyone involved, especially Richard Hatch himself (who ended up rocking the role of Vice-President Tom Zarek, by the way!)

How did I end up on this memory lane?  Well, I was inspired by this exerpt of Augie Ray’s article, Can Influencers Be a Bad Influence?

battlestargalactica Overcoming Bad Online Influencers for BattlestarI just wanted to mention that the Battlestar Galactica project was not just left to chance and to the passion of the project and the strength of the vision.  My team and I worked our asses off to make sure we turned the tide of disapproval online well before the airing date of the miniseries.  We stacked the deck, we worked on getting hearts and minds well before, and we at the very least made sure these true blue committed fans of the originale series gave the week-long miniseries a try — we kept up their curiosity and stoked the fire of their interest.

Can I call Viral and Buzz Marketing AKA Social Media Marketing circa 2003 the old days or the glory days?  Well, here the excerpt I spoke about above, Can Influencers Be a Bad Influence?:

Executive Producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick specifically set out to deconstruct [Battlestar Galactica]. Cylons looked like humans, capes and lasers were replaced with military uniforms and bullets, and Starbuck was turned into a woman. In the words of Bonnie Hammer, then the president of the SciFi Network, “It was no longer your father’s Battlestar Galactica. It was provocative, it was edgy, it was dark.”

But what if a certain group of influencers had gotten their way? As Entertainment Weekly reports, Moore got a rocky reception when he showed preview clips at Galacticon, a Battlestar Galactica fan convention. “The clips ended and they booed and they hissed,” he reports. Richard Hatch, star of the original series, agrees, “It was icy-cold in there. It was obvious that no one liked it.” In the end, a Galacticon attendee stood up and asked Moore, “Now that you’ve heard all of this, will you take a pledge now that if this show goes to series, you will make sure it’s more in keeping with what we would like to see?”

Moore could very well have treated the attendees of Galacticon as influencers; after all, this was a bunch of people so in love with the mythology of the show that 25 years later they still traveled across the country to gather. So what was the Executive Producer’s response to the fan’s question? Moore didn’t promise changes to appease the existing fan base. He didn’t even tell the Galacticon fans he’d give consideration to their concerns. Instead, Moore stood before the only group of consumers who gave a damn about the Battlestar Galactica franchise and said, “This is the show. You may not like the show, you don’t have to watch the show, but this is the show that we’re making.”

Rather than listen to the fans of the campy 80s series, the SciFi Channel instead turned to other science fiction fans, many of whom appreciated darker and more serious fare such as the “Matrix” series and cult flick “Blade Runner.” In doing so, they rejected the easy and obvious choice for a group of influencers and instead found the ones that really mattered. At a subsequent Comic-Con convention, the stars of the new show were “pleasantly surprised at the positive fan response.”

Moore and his crew might have been tempted to take same course as the makers “Snakes on a Plane,” opting to involve the existing fan base, turning to them for scripts, and allowing the BSG fans to set a different direction. But they didn’t. Why? Bonnie Hammer summed it up best when she said that fans “can’t drive the creative process.”

Overcoming Bad Online Influencers for Battlestar

Why is PR Slow to Adapt to New Media?

Audio discussion by Joni Wedderburn about the public relations industry’s slow acceptance of the new media phenomenon via the Internet Archive

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The current crop of advertisement methods is too ephemeral

I tell anyone who will listen to me that the current crop of advertisement methods is too short-lived. The moment you spend the money and your ad runs, that is the moment it is either gone to the grave or becomes a patient existing on life support. Either you’re smart and willing to keep it alive, in conversation, online on YouTube for the spots, or on a blog somewhere for the print work — or you feel compelled to keep on throwing money at it ad infinitum, because contextual ads, banner ads, etc, only last as long as you write checks.

What my specialty is is online conversation marketing, online public relations, and online earned media. When you earn peoples’ attention and when they choose to speak about you, your clients, and your services, then you have a gift that keeps on giving — this is content that lasts well past the campaign and into the future. This is both the sort of thing that Google loves — it is SEO catnip — and it is just the sort of content that flows, both upstream to A-list bloggers and to mainstream media and down to your readers, aggregators, and to other bloggers and other blogs.

If you want to see some examples of powerfully successful blogger outreaches, check out International Medical Corps (IMC) 2008, Survivor Corps Operation Survivor 2008, and Fresh Air Fund Summer 2008, Jerry White’s I Will Not Be Broken book promotion. In many cases, these campaigns are close to a year old, yet they still still live in hundreds and hundreds of blogs and feed Google’s index until all of these blogs are taken down. It is really amazing how effective this sort of “advertising” promotion works. What’s better, when the campaign is over and the client “turns off” our tap, the content continues living and isn’t just shut off like it is with banners, buttons, and contextual advertising. Very interesting, very cool, and powerfully effective.

Remember how much fun Communication Arts is to page through? — CA is intoxicating! Well, every ad you make can be as interesting, as long as you’re willing to come out of your art department and share your process, share your experience, share your steps. Keeping those ephemera alive through narrative, sharing, conversation, and story, is what social media is, it is what customer service is, it is surely what branding should be.

Anyway, There is a lot of opportunity in this time of chaos, of this time of transition. The same sort of transition (and opportunity) happened when PCs came online, replacing the IBM Selectric II; when the Internet changed E-Commerce, threatening to eviscerate bricks and mortar stores, and it is happening now, more than ever, with advertising, marketing, and PR.

I call it white knuckle syndrome: holding on to the handholds you have, frozen on the face of the cliff, because you don’t know where the handholds of the future are. This chaos is pretty amazing to watch as the economy pitches and GM bails on Super Bowl.

Advertising knows it needs to jump off the locomotive before it pitches into the gorge (the bridge is out!) but reaching out to the proffered hand of the guy in the helicopter seems pretty risky too. But, as the current handholds become chalky and you start to feel them crumble under your weight, you’ll need to find somewhere else to go, and quick!

To me, Chris Brogan said it best the other day on Twitter, “customer service is the new PR.*” Looking at what @comcastcares has been able to do, customer service is the new PR, the new marketing, and the new advertising.

So, as those handholds start to get chalk and begin to crumble, it is important to at least set your eyes on a new handhold — or maybe a helping hand — before your original handhold turns to powder.

And for you who have yet to do the reading, please check out Cluetrain Manifesto and Naked Conversation.