YouTube for Business

Hello, and welcome to our Seventh Social Media Blog.  Today - we are getting all creative and going multimedia.  This time we look at YouTube for promoting your business.

YouTube is a video hosting web site that will host up to HD quality videos up to 15 minutes in length, longer if you validate your account – and all for FREE.  Once your video is uploaded to YouTube, you can easily share this content via your social media channels, attach video’s to your LinkedIn Profile, company pages etc.  And easily embed your video’s on your websites.  Moreover – viewers can easily share your video too.

Why host your videos on YouTube ?  Well....

1.  YouTube is the world's largest video sharing website (300 hours of video loaded every minute)

2.  YouTube is the world’s second largest  search engine.

3.  YouTube is owned by Google

4.  It’s FREE, and you get analytical data on views, demographics, sources etc

Why use Video for Business?  Using video allows you to engage with clients allowing them to get to know you and your business.  Using video turns a static website, or profile into a dynamic, multimedia presence.  Video makes a viewer use more of their senses making your message more memorable.  And right now it is unlikely your competitors will be using video – so you can grab competitive advantage.

If you’re Worried who would watch you video, here’s some tips

1.  Introduce yourself and your business

2.  Make your video informative, educational and engaging

3.  DO NOT simply sell

4.  Consider offering training or instruction / user guides

5.  Close with a call to action and don’t forget Links to your web site

And finally – there are SEO benefits from using YouTube.  You can add keyword ‘tags’ to your YouTube video, these tags are indexed by search engines, remember Google own YouTube, which greatly enhances the chances of your video being found, not forgetting to use those important links back to your web site.

Google Plus Features

Hello, and welcome to our Fifth Social Media Blog where we will explore the features of Google+. 

 

Last time we introduced Google Plus.   In a sentence, Google know ‘Social is Key’ and Google+ is all about being social.  Google+ makes it easy, very easy, to publish content rich information and get your messages in front of potential customers.  This time we will introduce some of the features of the Google+ web site

Stream - Simply a news feed of the latest content shared by the people you’re connected to on Google+, same as Facebook's news feed.  Posts are listed by age, you can “like” a post using google’s “+1”.  You can share posts with people you’re connected to.  You can post status updates via the “Share what’s new...” box.   And sharing pictures, video and web links is ... trivial. 

Circles – A crushingly simple way to organise your connections into social groups, “Professional”, “Family”, “Friends” etc.  This way Google gives you more control over who see’s your output and your content, by sharing posts only to members of a circle.  This works in both directions, you can control what content appears in your “stream” using Circles.  Making sharing online more like sharing in real life - different conversations with different people.

Hangouts  - Easy, quick video conferencing with up to 9 other people.  Organised, pre-arranged or casual by inviting people in your Circles that are already on line. Cool enough, but recent developments include – Integration with Google Docs, Sharing PC screens and a communal Sketchpad.  Update - Hangouts are now a separate tool available outside of Google+

Mobile – Google Plus has a mobile app (Google own the Android Operating System).  As well as Hangouts and Stream, two interesting app’s are - Messenger which allows a number of separate conversations to run simultaneously in one simple group chat.  Instant Upload which seamlessly and instantly uploads pictures to a private Google+ album, similar to Apple’s iCloud, but using DropBox.

Communities - This is Google+ equivalent to LinkedIn Groups.  Simply a forum to connect with people united by a common subject or interest.  Great places to meet people to network with, to share your content, to find other people's content, to discuss matters, ask and answer questions.

Pages - Have your business on google for free.  You can now have a Google+ Business Page, where your customers, and potential customers (as now you can be found on google searches, google maps, google+ and mobile)  and can connect and keep on top of your news and posts.  

Events - Google Plus Events contain the expected, usual, user-friendly features you see in typical online invitation sites, if you have used Facebook Events, then Google Plus Events will feel familiar.  

When you create your event, you get to choose from a number of different themed photos, or you can upload your own pictures or logo’s.  You get to name your event, give details  and instructions. And the remember this is Google so the location and directions can be viewed via Google Maps or Google Local - easily.

Where Google Plus Events wins over other online invitation offerings what Google refer to as Party Mode functions.  Where guests can contribute their own pictures during and after the event. And prior to an event, invitees can add comments.  Google Plus Events can be private to groups of individuals and circles, or made public for all users. You can search and browse public events, allowing an unrestricted number of Google+ users to access.

Searching – And finally Google Plus inevitably has excellent search functionality, some say its the next Google!!