Frame Rate

This news may be a few months old, but it’s important to note. YouTube is now the second most popular search engine, right behind Google. Just type in “YouTube second most popular search engine” and you will come up with dozens of articles. YouTube has surpassed Yahoo! which is now in third place. This should be an eye-opener for everyone who has considered the use of online video, but hasn’t made the investment. Worth considering.

When a company looks at their existing marketing materials (logo, brochures, website, videos, etc.) they might wonder why they should invest the time and money to re-brand their image. After all, the existing brand has worked for several years now. Here are some things to consider regarding the need for an updated brand:

1.       Re-branding is a part of a company’s life cycle.Usually, existing marketing materials, logos, etc. are good for 5-10 years. After that time period, businesses evaluate existing materials and will re-brand…

·           to reflect current design themes

·           to embrace current marketing strategies

·           to announce the transition into a new phase of their company

·           to communicate the company’s vision for its future

 

Think of how quickly our world is advancing, especially in the technological realm. A computer you purchase today will be obsolete within the year. A corporate video produced with today’s technology will look a lot different from one produced in 1995. And so it’s important for businesses to assess their brand and its effectiveness every 5-10 years in an effort to remain competitive and current.

 

2.       Re-branding tells your audience that you are committed. A business that takes the time to update its marketing materials is a business committed to the long haul. You want your clients and potential clients to feel safe and secure, knowing that you will be around for years to come. When the public sees that a company has taken the time and invested the money to re-brand, they understand that this is a company that is looking to the future and plans to increase its strength and position in the marketplace.

 

3.       Re-branding is about looking your best. A company’s credibility among audiences depends on the image they put forth for public consumption. Presentation is everything.

a.       When a candidate walks in for a job interview, the way he/she looks is important.

b.       When your employees show up for work, how they present themselves is important.

c.       When company representatives go out for sales or service calls, the way they look and act is important.

d.       When customers, clients, or potential clients come into your office building, how it looks is important.

Everything reflects back onto your business, either positively or negatively. It’s easy to overlook the current status of your brand with other daily tasks filling your calendar, but it’s important to take the time to review that brand on an annual basis. Updating that brand communicates two things…

·        Your company is growing, and

·        You are concerned for its reputation.

 

An updated brand can positively affect public perception about your company encourage them to do business with you.

Before any marketing and advertising project, it’s important to do the research. Find out all that you can about your client and how they do business. Find out all that you can about how they perceive themselves and how they want the public to perceive them. Find out about their short and long-term goals and their overall mission. But most importantly, find out all that you can about your target market.

Yes, it’s important to learn about your client, but it’s more important to learn about your audience. If you put together a great ad, but it doesn’t speak to your audience, then you haven’t accomplished anything. In fact, you might do severe damage to your client’s brand and create a PR nightmare. Consider the online Motrin campaign from last fall that offended so many moms. In the ads, Motrin speaks to the audience from the perspective of a mother — a mother who needs pain relief from carrying her baby in a sling or papoose, or other baby carrier. It sounded good, right? Moms need relief sometimes. However, for moms who actually use and love their baby-carrying devices, the ad completely missed the mark. They found it offensive and insulting and Twitter feeds lit up with posts from moms who have nothing but great things to say about their baby carriers. Motrin may have had a decent idea, but they seem to have fallen way short of connecting with their demographic.

More and more people, businesses, organizations, etc. are using Twitter to communicate with the world. Using a maximum of 140 characters, users answer one simple question, “What are you doing right now?” It’s another form of social networking, but many are now using it in their own marketing efforts. I currently have a Twitter account, and although I’m fairly new to the Twitter-verse, I’m hoping that it can be another way of getting my company’s name out to the public.

Type in “Using Twitter for Marketing and PR” in your search engine and you will find a number of web pages giving out advice on how to use Twitter to market your business. Of course you will also find a number of people who feel that Twitter should be used as a social outlet only, not a selling platform. Just look at the advice from the site HowToUseTwitterForMarketingAndPR.com

Regardless of where you fall in the debate, it’s obvious that some business owners have seen tangible results from utilizing Twitter. A coffee shop owner in Houston, Texas credits Twitter with doubling his clientele. News outlets use Twitter for keeping the public up to speed on the latest headlines. Job sites around the world are now using Twitter to help people find the job they’re looking for.

The bottom line is that social networking is still in its infancy and there are no hard and fast rules for what you can and cannot do with a utility like Twitter. However, social etiquette that we use everyday in our face-to-face conversations should certainly carry over to a portal like Twitter, if you hope to gain a following and expand your network. Consider these Twitter Do’s and Don’ts.

The panelists of Freelance Radio frequently discuss social networking sites on their podcast, and they have some great insights into what you should and shouldn’t do with these tools. Bottom line is that if you want to be listened to, you have to contribute something to the conversation. Don’t simply set up a blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, etc. and sit back and wonder why you have no readers. Get out there and write comments on other blogs. Contribute. Become a part of the conversation.

When the original iPhone first launched, I thought to myself, This thing is incredible, but I’ll never get one because it’s too expensive. Then, last summer the iPhone 3g launched at $200. At that point my interest in this little gadget went up quite a bit. Still, I waited. And for people who know me, that’s a difficult task to achieve. I’m always drawn to the latest gadget. I finally jumped on the bandwagon in December and I’m glad I did. Not for its entertainment value, per se, but for its marketing value.

In my line of work, it’s much better if you can SHOW people what you do, rather than just TELLING them. So, I loaded my phone with some of my demo reel samples. Now, when I’m out networking or meeting with potential clients, I’m able to instantly show them the latest thing I’ve been working on. Not only are they impressed with the work, but they’re impressed that I can show it to them on my phone. Plus, when you’re in a large group, the iPhone gets attention. That’s another plus for me. People will come over to see what we’re watching and I have an opportunity to market my business even further. Use tools that are available to you and you can market your services in new and unique ways. And remember, video will always grab someone’s attention.

I just recently jumped on the Twitter bandwagon in a continued self-marketing effort. You can follow Parc Entertainment on Twitter by clicking here. As businesses start to slow down for the holidays, it’s a perfect time to examine your own identity and marketing efforts. So, I’m staying busy writing blogs, uploading reel samples, and increasing my web presence. I’m also looking into self-distributing one of my short films for through Create Space. It’s always easy to get discouraged during slower months, but there are still plenty of ways to keep busy and generate income. Take a look at the Freelance Switch blog and their recommendations for staying busy in the midst of a downturn.

And my apologies for the look of the blog. My new website should be up and running soon. After which, this blog will be located on the new site. Stay tuned.

Discouragement and anxiety prevail during a slow economy. News headlines proclaim that companies are making additional cutbacks. Hundreds, if not thousands of employees have been laid off. It’s during these tough economic times that your company’s brand and your marketing strategy become increasingly important.

When the economy is bad, one of the first things on the chopping block is marketing. Pulling back marketing efforts, however, only encourages competitors to step up and fill the void that you left behind. Consider a recent article in the Birmingham Business Journal by Lydia Wilbanks, of Wilbanks-Elam Marketing & Public Relations (unfortunately you have to be a paid subscriber to see the full article, but you will at least get her point). She encourages readers to think of their company long-term. Decreasing marketing efforts is a quick fix, but may prove to have lasting effects once the market turns around.

Or consider Staples, who recently has used news of Office Depot closings to ramp up their marketing campaign. Staples blitzed the market with emails re-printing a Dec. 10th article from Boca Raton, FL in which the reporter states that in 2009 Office Depot will close 112 North American stores. Above the article is the headline, “You can always count on Staples.” This is a great example of how one business is filling the gap left by a competitor, who is seen as unstable and temporary.

Remember that your company’s brand is much more than what’s on the letterhead or the brochures. Your brand helps your company establish and develop relationships. It communicates core company values. It encompasses your mission statement and reflects the vision you have for the future of your business. Now is the perfect time to invest in your marketing efforts because, chances are, your competition isn’t.

Yes you can waste a lot of time on YouTube watching videos with little to no commercial appeal. However, many filmmakers, cinematographers, etc. are using YouTube and other online hosting sites to promote themselves and their work. The goal is to get as many views as possible and to drive people to your site. Now you have the option to embed a link directly into the video. You can do this through a site called Linked Tube. Here’s how it works: When you go to Linked In, you will see a sample YouTube clip on the left and a series of blank fields on the right. Here’s what you need to do to embed a link into your own YouTube clip:

1. Open up your YouTube video and grab the designated YouTube ID. Enter that series of letters and numbers into the first field.
2. Enter the text for the link into the second field.
3. Enter the URL of the website to which the video should link.
4. Enter the “hover title.” This is a brief description of the website that will appear when a user’s mouse hovers over the link.
5. Click “Save & Get Code.”
6. Copy and paste this code into the video when you embed the video onto other sites.

The great thing about this widget is that whenever someone embeds the video to their site and shares it with others, the link you have embedded goes with it.

In these tough economic times, there’s a fine line that businesses walk. They must continue to market themselves or watch as competitors gain a stronger footing. Tough decisions have to be made when income is on the decline. So what should be done? In my experiences many people try to pull all video production work in-house. Most feel that all they need is a decent camera and some editing software, but they neglect to learn the video production basics. The result is a flat, uninteresting piece that fails to convey the message adequately. If you feel that you need to move more production work in-house, allow me to make some suggestions:

1. Make a slow transition. Don’t hand over a consumer grade camera to your intern and say, “Good luck.” Take the time to equip your department with everything it needs to produce a high-quality video.
2. Hire a production company to serve as a consultant. I was recently approached by a potential client who needed to produce some projects in-house. My company was hired to provide training sessions to a company representative so that she could be better prepared to produce her own videos. We will also serve as on-going consultants for future projects.
3. Allow the production company to produce the first piece. This will give you an opportunity to view first-hand how everything works, so that you will feel more secure about handling everything yourself in subsequent projects.
4. Continue to educate yourself. Take the time to learn your gear. Get out and practice. Look at demo reels to get an idea of what others are doing. Read about the production process.

These suggestions will serve as a good starting point, but remember that mastering the production business takes a lot of time and requires great expense. Sometimes, in the long-run, it’s more cost-effective to hire a production company than to invest the time, effort, and money to train your staff and to accumulate everything you will need to make it happen.

When it comes to marketing yourself and your business, the internet offers a wide range of outlets, many of which cost little to no money. Among such outlets are social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. I use MySpace to promote my production company, as well as my domain, ParcEntertainment.com. I also maintain a YouTube channel for my demo reel and I post to this blog.

Facebook and MySpace have, in the past, primarily been used on a personal level. However, more and more businesses, individual artists, musicians, and non-profits are using these sites for promotions. LinkedIn is a site geared more for businesses, enabling users to avoid some of the more juvenile content that pervades the other two sites.

Regardless of what social networking site you utilize the most, it’s important to remember to conduct yourself in a professional, courteous manner when posting to these sites. Word of mouth is still the most effective means of gaining new business and you don’t want an off-color, offensive post to jeopardize your reputation. When someone is reading words typed on a screen, it’s easy for that person to misunderstand your original intent, even if it was simply a joke. So what should you do? Crawl under the proverbial cyber rock and abandon the web? I think that decision would be a little too extreme.

The point of blogging and commenting is to give potential contacts and clients the opportunity to learn about you on a more personal level — your likes, dislikes, your insights. You will simply have to come to terms with the fact that there are some overly sensitive people in the world. No matter what you publish online, someone somewhere will be offended.

However, you must also use restraint when posting comments to another person’s website, blog, Facebook page, etc. If you don’t really know the person very well, don’t assume that they’ll understand your sarcastic joke if you decide to post it underneath a picture in their album. They may be offended. Reserve such jokes for people you know really well; people whom you know will not get their feelings hurt. But also remember that these comments are public. Any rude comments, bad language, or off-color remarks reflect on you, despite your intent. Perception is reality.