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10 Ways To Use YouTube Video Marketing To Promote Your Business

In this article I want to demystify some of the tactics best used for optimal YouTube video marketing to empower your business online in the web 2.0 world! Although there are many great techniques to help get you higher views and engagement, I’m going to touch on 10 important points that I feel are non-negotiable when promoting your videos online. Pick Your Niche Those who are most successful with their YouTube video marketing campaigns thrive in a specific niche. Do your best to narrow your niche as much as possible or else risk struggling to cut through the noise. If you’re a doctor or lawyer, focus on your specialty (e.g. Dermatology or divorce law) and position your channel to project that very clearly. If you know your demographic well, the rest is plug and play. You need to show all the signs of being the “perfect place” for the solution you are trying to provide. Brand Your Channel Once you’ve got your channel setup, you will want to get a personalized vibe that matches your brand. Have a consistent image between all your social media profiles and your website. You want people to know they are in the right place [...]

5 Benefits of Social Media For Small Businesses

If you’re a small business owner then chances are you’ve probably already heard about the many benefits of social media for your business.  However why it’s so important may be something you’re still struggling with though.  That’s probably because most business fail to use it properly and so they are not reaping all the rewards they could be.  When used properly the benefits of social media are enormous and this article provides five simple yet valuable reasons why your small business needs social media. 2011 statistics by Nielsen found that social networks and blogs continue to dominate Canada and American’s time online, now accounting for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the internet.  The same study found that 70% of active online adult social networkers shop online and 70% of them trust consumer opinions posted online.  Small businesses everywhere are finding it worth their while to jump into social media and join in the conversations surrounding their business. Although there are many reasons why businesses ultimately decide to utilize social media, here are 5 of the top benefits of social media for your small business. Your Market Is Already Using It More than one quarter of all the [...]

6 Important Steps to Create a Facebook Page

With the sea of constant changes, it can be difficult to cut through the noise and find your voice with your Facebook page. For every success story on Facebook there are 100 frustrated entrepreneurs struggling to make a dent. In light of this, we’ve brought together 6 steps to ensure you’ve got the best head start possible when creating your Facebook page. 1. Create A Custom Landing Page A custom-landing page is your first impression on a new Facebook fan, so make it count! Brands like Red Bull have attracted over 23 million fans with an effective call-to-action the moment you get to their page. They hint at you to like their Facebook page with specific instructions and many arrows plus a blurry, translucent background hiding secret goodies waiting to be revealed. Collaborate with your graphic designer to come up with something professional that is visually appealing and has a proper call-to-action. With Facebook’s recent changes, people don’t have to like your page to comment on your wall so make sure you are reminding them to “like” it. Pro Tip: Add a welcome video to the landing page to increase likes and engagement. 2. The Perfect Profile Picture Don’t underestimate [...]

5 Essential LinkedIn Strategies for Small Businesses

Strategy is defined as a plan of action to achieve a certain goal; therefore LinkedIn strategies simply mean your plans for using LinkedIn must be to achieve a goal. Strategies are a combination of tactics — tips and procedures. Most LinkedIn strategies online are actually lists of successful tactics. They’re usually marketing basics, LinkedIn style. First you must determine your goals and discover what LinkedIn can and cannot do for you to achieve those goals? From my experience most small businesses share the same goal, they are looking to increase clients and contacts in the easiest, fastest and cheapest way. In this article I will share with you five ways in which you can do that with LinkedIn. 5 LinkedIn Strategies You Need To Know 1. Make strategic alliances Small businesses need allies — contacts and connections that can help them further their goals. Allies provide information and help and sometimes they give you opportunities to find just the right business, service or person you need. LinkedIn can help you identify groups you can join and people to follow. Use LinkedIn’s search feature to search for keywords that would help you find your people. Or go to Groups Menu > [...]

Social Media Strategy 101: 7 Tools You Need to Get Started

Social media offers tremendous marketing opportunities for small businesses, yet many small business owners have never bothered to develop a social media strategy. If you’re not already taking advantage of social media, this article will serve as Social Media Strategy 101 for you. If you’ve already started using social media but know you could do a lot more with it, you’ll probably find some pointers here to strengthen your social media strategy. 1. Formulate Your Social Media Strategy The first and foremost tool is your own brain! Take some time to determine exactly what your goals are with social media. Is it to increase visibility, build your brand, attract more customers or some other goal? How will you know that you are succeeding? Directly pitching potential customers on social media sites is a turn-off, but savvy users know that social media can be best used in certain specific areas such as: strengthening customer relations, improving customers’ perception of your brand, enhanced communication with customers to learn more about what they want and like, and of course building relationships and loyalty. 2. Be Seen on Facebook Did you know that Facebook is the most visited website in the world? If you [...]

10 Ways You Can Become An Industry Leader In Your Community And Niche

Whether you are a lawyer, accountant, dentist, coach/consultant, chiropractor, or other health or service professional, being seen as an industry leader in your local market is one of the best ways to increase visibility and credibility, boost sales and have a steady stream of clients and referrals seeking out your expertise.  How can you make that happen? This article will show you! Your local community can be a great place to showcase your expertise and gain visibility, soon being seen as the leading authority within your industry. Below are 10 ways you can use social media and other online and offline tactics to become an industry leader in your community. 1. Start a Blog There is no better way to showcase your expertise and position yourself as a leading authority in your niche than to create valuable content targeted towards your local market.  Provide insightful posts that showcase your knowledge as an industry leader and offer valuable insights and solution to problems experienced by your ideal client. 2. Create a Twitter Account Open connection policies make Twitter an excellent resource for introductions and connections online.  Use tools like Twitter Local or Twitter’s own advanced search feature to find great people [...]

5 Key Factors for Choosing the Right Candidates in the Kelowna Civic Election

There is so much being talked about around our fine city with the upcoming Kelowna Civic Election. People are wondering who is this FourChange Group, and what is their motivation? We’ve been talking about how Kelowna candidates are using social media (using the hashtag #KelownaVotes on Twitter), how many signs various candidates have around the city, but let’s face it, none of this is important. They are all temporary. We need to focus on the real issues. We need to focus on what the City of Kelowna needs long-term. Mayor Shepherd said there is nothing wrong with downtown Kelowna, I don’t believe that is true.  Let’s take what Dale Morton, co-owner of the Kelowna Hostel had to say, “At the hostel we have a lot of young people come here who’ve booked for four- or five night stays. Then they walk around, see boarded up buildings, and the empty stores on Lawrence and Leon. They see what’s going on in the streets, the criminal element, and they just don’t feel safe. They check out the next day. These are world travelers, and they can’t wait to get out of Kelowna. It’s a terrible situation.” I think most people in Kelowna [...]

Your Guide To Understanding All Of The Facebook Changes

Every once in a while, the world is stirred by new Facebook changes. The most recent changes however, has stirred Facebook users more than ever before. Over half of the respondents in a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll said they didn’t like the new Facebook changes —although the main trend seems to be the more one uses Facebook, the less concerned one becomes with new Facebook changes. Here is the lowdown on some of them: Timeline Replacing the previous profile page, the Timeline is the most noticeable change of all—and also the most controversial, because of potential privacy issues. Unlike most timelines, Facebook’s Timeline is vertical, with events starting with your birth at the bottom going up. You can add other life events (marriage, engagement, etc) to it. The top—where you’d expect your profile picture to be—is dominated by a huge 720 x 314 pixel ‘cover’ photo you can customize to complement your profile picture, intersecting the cover photo’s lower left. On the timeline are callouts enclosing various events, likes, comments, photos, links you posted since you joined Facebook. You can control what callouts appear on the timeline and who sees them. On the timeline, apps you’ve approved—even if only once—automatically [...]

How Candidates Are Using Social Media In The Kelowna Civic Election

Since Barack Obama’s big win in 2008 for the US Presidency, social media has played a significant role in many (if not most) of the major political elections around the world.  Not only did Obama build the biggest network of supporters, he did it mostly through social networking efforts and raised youth voter-turnout to its second highest level in history. Fast-forward to the 2011 Kelowna Civic Election and you’ll see that many candidates realize that social media could be the catalyst that ushers them into Kelowna City Council’s seats. Kelowna Candidates on Twitter – Too little, too late? Although many Kelowna candidates are visible on Twitter, most were late to the draw. Although I have noticed a couple of candidates who are up for re-election  seem to have maintained a good presence with high levels of engagement. On the flipside, many of the newcomers are jumping on the bandwagon late and rely on a typical, canned promotional tweet such as, “Vote for me in the upcoming Kelowna Civic Election.” I can guarantee this approach won’t work. You’ll have people hitting for the snooze button faster than they can retweet with that method. So what is working? The Rules of Engagement: [...]