The Bella Buzz: Successful Web Design, Internet and Social Media Marketing Strategies from Desiree Scales, CEO--Bella Web Design, Inc.

Amani Channel Talks About the Power of Video Content on the Web

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Desiree and Joe talk with an award winning video producer, Amani Channel on this week's episode of The Bella Buzz. The discussion centers around the use of video on web sites, things to consider when producing a video, as well as a little insight into Amani's background.

Amani has created a video podcast at My Urban Report.com spanning 170 episodes so far. He also serves in the role of host on Mediaconnection.TV (keep an eye out for Desiree's appearance in the coming week!). It all keeps him busy along with his position as social media evangelist at PBA.org where he is working on a project called Lens on Atlanta to be launched soon.  We are glad to have him as a guest on the podcast.

Video is great for informing, educating and persuading an audience, so we all highly recommend the use of video for any web site. Bandwidth, computer graphics cards, compression algorthms, cameras and editing software have all converged to make producing a video a much more reasonable endeavor.

Right off the bat we get to the cost of producing video for small and medium sized businesses.  As usual things depend upon the desired outcome, but as a rule of thumb in the video production world, a guideline in use has been $1000 per minute of finished video. 

This budget number includes three phases of video production ... Pre-production where the planning takes place including length, scripts, talent, music. The second phase is the production itself where crew is on location with lights, audio, extras on a scheduled day.  The third and final stage is the post-production where editing takes place.

We have discussed during previous podcasts the use of a Flip camera and Amani has also found uses for this inexpensive yet versatile piece of equipment.  He likes to use them on speaking engagements, how to videos or intimate interviews to capture an event and easily post to the web.

The challenge of monetizing content continues to exist for video on the web.  Video intended to support the customer service or sales efforts of a small business are not going to face this challenge, but video sites for informational or entertainment purposes are going to need to determine the audience threshold for things such as pre & post roll or overlay ads if they intend to cover the costs of producing and hosting video.

We reiterate the fact that a good video on the web is 2 - 5 minutes long.  Anything beyond that we run the risk of losing the interest of the audience.  If there is enough content to produce something longer, analyze how it can be broken into multiple posts so that there is shorter videos and more posts to distribute.

Speaking of distribution, a service such as Tube Mogul will help to get that video placed onto website communities build around video and niche audiences.

Don't forget to consider the audio when you are creating a video. Terrible audio will destroy any great content that you have captured.  Desiree recommends the Blue Tooth microphone for her Sony HD video camera. A Flip camera does not have an external mic or audio jack so be careful when using that device for capturing your message.

In the end, the key to any successful video is to concentrate on delivering the message as effectively as possible.  High Definition footage, the best audio equipment possible, with the greatest talent will still have a hard time achieving the intended results if the message is not clearly defined.  Know what you are trying to say and who you are saying it to, represent the brand ...  in the end the rest will start to follow.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

What Any Business Can Learn from "United Breaks Guitars"

If you aren’t one of the 4 million people who have already watched this video, take a quick look above. Its a song about how Dave Carroll, a musician, had his guitar broken by my former employer, United Airlines. (The back-story is herehttp://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story/united-breaks-guitars if you’re interested.)

Think about it, this video has been viewed on the Internet over 4 MILLION TIMES! That’s a lot of press. Steve Jobs would kill for that type of coverage for his iPhone. It shows us how powerful the medium of video can be when put in the right hands.

Dave’s creative way of making this situation known, and having some fun while doing it, paid off and got him the attention he needed to get United to pay for a new guitar.  Its also pretty obvious that Dave isn’t stupid. He used this video to create exposure for his brand (himself) which was probably his motive in the first place. Another good use of social media. If it worked for a working musician like Dave, think about how you could use this creatively for your own brand?

So, what’s the takeaway? What could have United done to avoid this PR nightmare?

First off, let me state that the general public only has this song and Dave’s side of the story. United has yet to publish a reply or response as to what really went down. This alone is something United PR Department might want to rethink. Transparency is the order of the day and people expect to hear both sides, right or wrong.

If United had hired a Social Media expert or had a SM Department, they might have avoided this mess altogether by catching it earlier. The expert would have been charged with monitoring the airwaves through tools like www.socialmention.com orhttp://search.twitter.com (where the video spread fast) and have seen the smoke before the flames blew out of control. That’s the other side of the social media coin, companies can use the same social media tools Dave used to monitor and take action early in the game when there’s trouble, but they have to be watching and aware.

What it all comes down to is: Treat your customers right in the first place. The best time to create a great customer experience for someone and make a lasting impression is when the customer is upset. From Dave’s point of view, he just wanted compensation for his broken guitar. For an airline that charges $12,000 for a round trip ticket to China from Chicago, I think they could have afforded to handle this with a bit more finesse. (Pun intended.) If they had taken care of the customer in the first place, this would have never happened. The best insurance is to put your customers first, especially in this day and age where word can spread quickly online about a bad experience.

I would love to think United could still have a sense of humor about it and have some kind of “musician’s discount” or a funny giveaway with a music theme. That might diffuse the situation a bit and show that they can play the game just like Dave did. I think United might want to think about creating a fun video which explained a little more in depth what really happened. In the end, I don’t think they will lose a massive quantity of customers over this, but this video isn’t going to go away unless they pull out the big guns and call the lawyers in. That wouldn’t look so good either. Let’s face it, this isn’t the first time this has happened to a musician on any airline and it won’t be the last. United just messed with the wrong one. We live in an age where there is no bad publicity. Maybe they should just hire Dave to do their next commercial or to be a regular entertainer in their on-board entertainment package. Wouldn’t hurt.

Personally, I think the guy should take www.petairways.com next time. He’d probably get a little more respect and some better customer service. They’ll probably even throw him a bone and scratch behind his ears. After all, isn’t that what most customers are looking for? Just a little more attention…

Dave, if you’re reading this, next time you fly you might want to rethink checking that guitar. Better yet, whip it out during the flight, get a video camera…well, you apparently know the rest…

For those of you traveling in the future with musical instruments, here is a great blog post with some travel tips http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32031049/ns/travel-tips/. 

How to Find Time to Create Quality Content--You CAN Find the Time!

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This edition of The Bella Buzz podcast focuses on the development of quality content as a primary component of an online marketing strategy.  Hosts Joe Magennis and Desiree Scales take a step back from focusing on social networks and distribution channels for attracting a community and talk about ways in which businesses can look at new forms of content development.

Many times during the initial planning stages of launching a web site or a blog the immediate push back we hear is that a business owner "does not have time" to create and maintain content on a consistent basis.  As the evolution of online marketing continues, we are stating flat out that time for content creation must be allotted in order to achieve any of the business objectives for that web site.  Whether it is using a content creation agency like Fluid Media or personally handling the responsibility, a strategy for getting content to the website and consequently the search engines must be developed.

For those businesses where the content speaks to a very specific niche audience, B2B businesses for example, content development will most likely fall to internal resources with possibly some outsourced help regarding production. 

Businesses need to look for other forms of content outside the normal boundaries.  For example, a business could look to develop a Wiki as part of their online presence, which would help provide educational information to their audience. A wiki can provide an evergreen form of content bringing collaborative resources together, so it doesn't all fall to the company to provide content. The growth of this Wiki constitutes a valuable asset for that company over time.  Businesses have to think outside of comfort zones when it comes to content!

Another opportunity for businesses are instructional videos.  Low cost episodes can be produced and distributed very simply online and will help to break down certain barriers and comfort zones, allowing owners to speak directly to their target customer. Also consider customer testimonials as a form of rich media content for your site.

User generated content (UGC) is a secret content development strategy right out in the open on the web. Consider a site like Joe's Baseballisms.com  where users are solicited to create videos themselves to tell about their relationship with the game of baseball. As these videos are produced and submitted, they can be distributed to the various social networks such as the Baseballisms YouTube Channel, The Facebook Fan Page, and the content becomes a part of the overall experience of visiting the web site. 

One factor to consider when developing content on a consistent basis is that our consumption habits have changed towards smaller sized portions.  If you have alot to say, break that content up into tinier posts so that you increase the frequency of distribution (good for search engines, RSS subscribers, etc.) and you maintain your audience's attention for each post you submit.

We somehow morphed our conversation into powerpoint presentations in front of an audience and some experiences regarding the Do's and Dont's. The dont's are obvious regarding reading from the slides and including tons of bullets and text on each slide.  Desiree points to Steve Jobs for using great slides and recommends the book Presentation Zen.

Finally, to point to last week's episode of the Bella Buzz, our guest Svy Nekrasas Director of Marketing at Bella Web Design, was able to help crystallize the business model thinking for Fluid Media by identifying that it all starts at the content level. When the content has been developed properly the next step is to determine the best networks to use for distribution.  It does not make sense for Fluid to work with clients on understanding the networks and how to participate if a complete inventory and creation strategy has not been completed.

How do you handle the task of content creation?

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

The All-Powerful Share Button in Social Media

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Desiree Scales, CEO of Bella Web Design smoothly segues into our Bella Buzz podcast topic this week, using the Share button for distributing content. With co-host Joe Magennis, principal of Fluid Media in Atlanta, we chat about the mutually beneficial practice of sharing, re-tweeting and forwarding content on the web.

The greatest reward for content producers is to create something that readers, viewers or listeners find compelling enough to pass along to their social networks. As the momentum builds for the content, it continues to get shared with others on the strength of the message or entertainment value that it brings... the content becomes Viral. 

It is an unrealistic expectation to intentionally design content to become viral or share-worthy.  A small business owner should never embark on the process of creating content hoping that it will become the next "Chocolate Rain" video which has received over 38 million views!  Content should be developed strictly with the intention of communicating a message to a target audience.  If that audience deems the content to be worthy of sharing with others, they will pass it along in order to provide some value to the next recipient.

The share functionality has actually been with us on the internet well before the tools of Web 2.0.  The simple act of forwarding an email was the first level of sharing that we encountered.  Now that we are in the social era of internet services we have Re-Tweets on Twitter, we have numerous Share plugins for blog posts such as Share This used on both bellawebdesign.com and befluid.com and we even could consider a Trackback or a Link as a form of sharing content from someone else's blog.

Think about it for a second. How valuable is it to you as a content producer to have your audience share your content within their own circle of influence? Since we are much more likely to trust the content passed along from someone we know, we are much more likely to consume it.  If you employ the old shampoo commercial axiom of "tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends", your message will be transmitted far beyond your own social graph and will start to carry serious significance in your niche.

As with all things social these days, we are also living in a very collaborative environment. A good practice is to contribute to the distribution of other people's content by using the share button yourself.  Re-tweeting, Stumbling or Digging an article, linking to a blog post in Facebook or on your own blog will not go unnoticed and might lead to a reciprocal sharing of your content. 

Don't forget to use the reporting functions from URL shorteners such as Bit.LY or the dashboard within Share This to determine if you are producing the right kind of content. Witnessing small share numbers might indicate that you need to refine your content so that it communicates more meaningful information to your audience. You can also use the Hootsuite service to review the success of your campaign ROI, shared items is another measure of effectiveness.

We are interested in finding out from you what you would like us to share, we would love to see in the comments any topics or ideas that we can address in the podcast.  Thanks for Listening!

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Why Adding Video to your Web Site Adds Major Impact

 

Guest Blogger: Tara Jones, ReelDwellings.tv
Tara is the co-owner of ReelDwellings.tv and also a television anchor on WSB-TV. She has years of experience in front of the camera and shares her views of video on websites and the trend we're seeing more of. ReelDwellings.tv specializes in real estate video as well as video for small to medium sized businesses:

A picture says a thousand words, so imagine what video can say? In today's high-tech world it's becoming easier to stand out from the crowd. All the bells and whistles are there, you just need to know how to use them. Or more importantly, find someone who does--with impact.

The need for video in today's market place is undeniable. It is the best way to introduce yourself to a future client other than personally shaking their hand. You are the best salesperson for your business because you hold the passion and drive that makes it successful. What video does best is bring that passion to life and showcase it to the masses in a format with which people automatically connect. After all, isn't that what marketing is all about? Targeting a select group of people and hoping for some kind of marginal return. Many times, with video, that return is immediate. Clients, like Bella Web Design, tell us that video adds another dimension to their site that was previously absent. Having that streaming video on your home page is an excellent introduction to potential new clientele. 

So what if you hate being on camera? Then don't do it! If you are incredibly uncomfortable it will come across on screen. There are plenty of creative ways to showcase you and your business without shoving a camera in your face. Having said that, no one feels 100-percent comfortable in front of the camera. Even the most seasoned anchor or reporter will get a few butterflies before news time. It's perfectly normal to be nervous. But don't sell yourself short. You are the business owner and as such, know your business the best. You may surprise yourself and be a natural in front of the lens.

Bottom line, think outside of the box. Determine what will set you apart from your competition. Video is a tool that will help you achieve your goal to set your company apart from the rest on the Internet. Statistics show more than 40% to 60% of Internet traffic in the near future will be from video. Are you in front of the lens yet?

Take a Video Tour of the Pink! Corporate Office of Desiree Scales, Bella Web Design

We've had so many requests to see the pink office, I captured it on video this morning and did this little tour! Enjoy:

Bella Web Design Customer Testimonial Caught On Flip Video!

Pam Adams, from Constant Contact (a Bella Web Design business partner) and Kimberly Douglas from FireFly Facilitation (a Bella Web Design client) both attended the National Speakers Association Speakers Academy event this weekend and happened to bump into each other. Pam had her trusty Flip Video Camera on hand and was able to tape a great testimonial Kimberly gave about both Bella Web Design and Constant Contact. Kimberly talks about the custom designed Constant Contact template our company designed for her on the tape. Take a look:

This is yet another great way to add videos quickly and easily to your website. All Pam did was send me the raw file, I uploaded it to our YouTube Channel, and posted the code on this blog and on our site. I think I'll go pick up my new video camera today so I can capture more of these great customer testimonials!

Bella Web Design Goes Hollywood! (Well, YouTube at least!)

Well, I've been preaching about putting videos on websites for over a year and now I've finally followed my own advice:

Our new video is finally up on our site and on YouTube! (I'd like to thank Michael Forrester at Forrester Media for his help in shooting and producing this video. Thanks to Elizabeth for editing!)

http://www.bellawebdesign.com/intromovie/movie.html for a better quality version or click below! Hope you enjoy. Please leave feedback for me!