Video Blogging Can Work Wonders for Your Brand

By on April 30, 2013   /   Branding, Businesses, Digital Marketing, Education, Emineo Media, Web Design  

Many people have a negative attitude towards video blogging. They understand it as a person talking directly at a camera and explaining a strong opinion. Yes, that is video video-blog emineo mediablogging—but not the only kind. Like a written blog, a video blog can be about anything and presented any way you choose.

A video blog is simply an online video documenting something that you want to communicate. It can be used to highlight the following…

  • An interview of the commercial director and/or employees giving information about the company.
  • A tour of business’ offices/plant/farm/lab explaining how things work.
  • Somebody reporting and offering opinions on contemporary news.
  • Reviews of a product, or demonstrations of company products.
  • Something funny, wacky and shareable.

So, what’s the point of blogging? Here are five ways a video blog can boost your brand.

1. Video blogs humanize your company and give your consumers a face to relate to your business. That means that your corporate identity is more approachable—and a more approachable business usually leads to more sales and results in increased consumer trust and brand awareness.

2. Video makes potentially boring content interesting. People are lazy; many choose to watch a video over reading a post just because it’s easier to do. By communicating with your target audience through speech and image rather than text, you are making it easier for them to engage with you.

3. Video blogging gives you the opportunity to engage and interact with your audience. Social media is a great tool for businesses to use to constantly remind consumers of your presence and get feedback from your clients.

4. A video blog demonstrates that your company is web-savvy. If the content is engaging and interesting you will always have people watching it. Remember, if you do it right, consumers will share it and promote your brand for you!

5. Video blogs show that your business is keeping up with technology. With the-ever improving internet connections, more people are watching videos online, whenever they want, and from wherever they want, such as their smartphones. Video blogging lets you stay in touch with technology and create something that is accessible to your audience whenever and wherever they want.

Remember: Your content does not have to center around your brand. It can be about anything you think is interesting or you think others will find interesting.
Still not sold on the fact that video blogging is great for your brand? The following stats may change your mind:

  • comScore report that in the US, 182 million internet users watched online video content for an average of 23.2 hours per viewer during just one month. That number is predicted to continue rising.
  • Marketers used video 81% more they used to and 52% of marketers report to using video with email marketing programs.
  • SEOMoz found that posts that contain videos are three times more likely to attract in-linking domains than a plain text post.
  • KISSmetric’s blog reported that folks who have viewed a product video are 64% to 85% more likely to purchase the product after watching.

Source MyDailyFix

[divider_top]

Content Marketing is the New Branding

By on April 25, 2013   /   Branding, Businesses, Digital Marketing, Emineo Media, Facebook, Web Design  

Branding isn’t your company name.brands_montage_shadow_emineo media2

It’s not a tag line. It’s not a logo.

Branding is just another name for creating a perception.

When marketers ask, “How do we want to brand this product?” what they’re really asking is how they want their audience to think about that product once it comes to market.

A brand is a promise. It’s an expectation of an experience.

The company and tag line and logo and brand colors only exist to call that experience to mind.

Brands can meet that expectation, exceed that expectation … or in the worst cases, fall short of that expectation.

(By the way, the word product can easily be swapped for service, or blog, or newsletter, or any number of things marketers promote. The underlying concepts remain the same.)

Volvo’s name is synonymous with safety, which makes it the quintessential consumer example.

Cisco’s “Human Network” stands out among business-to-business brands.

Cisco makes products that make it possible for people to be connected, no matter how far apart they may be, geographically. ~ Forbes

The Red Cross is a bellwether among nonprofits, with a brand that literally means help is on the way in times of crisis.

The very essence of brands doesn’t lie within your brand colors or site design, even though those are important.

The essence of a brand lies within its meaning. And words have meaning. Words matter.

Volvo’s meaning wasn’t derived from its logo, or even its product design, but by the constant stream of product reviews that published the data on crash tests year-in and year-out.

The brand was built, over time, by third-party validation communicated through third-party content. What other people said about Volvo created the meaning of that brand. The advertising Volvo did just reinforced that meaning.

The rise of user-generated content

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, is now famous for having said,

Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.

As marketers, we try to convince customers and prospects to generate content about our brands. In other words, to talk about us. To create a Volvo-like experience where the meaning of our brand comes from how others perceive us.

How do we inspire people to generate content? To talk about us on Facebook and Twitter, to increase our audience?

Increasingly, we inspire our customers with brand experiences and by publishing our own content.

The uninitiated customer is no more inclined to mention a brand than talk to the shy person tucked quietly in the corner at a cocktail party. If we want our customers to engage us, or our products and services, we have to contribute to the conversation.

Content is currency

Today’s web is an endless 24/7 cycle fed by content and social actions. In this cycle, brands are realizing that content is currency … ~ Bryan Rhoads, global content strategy, Intel

Content is currency — something we trade for our audience’s attention.

That currency becomes more valuable every time it’s shared by someone other than ourselves.

Those shares might be validation. There might be debate. There might be disagreement.

It’s our job to create content worth sharing. How it’s shared isn’t up to us.

If you take a look at this infographic, created by PRWeb, you’ll see an array of content marketing options — each with its own balance of difficulty and value.

Source Copyblogger

content-and-branding-large emineo media

[divider_top]

Social Media Demographics: Who Uses What Platforms?

By on April 20, 2013   /   Branding, Businesses, Digital Marketing, Emineo Media, LinkedIn, Web Design  

A massive survey of internet users reveals trends in social media usage across numerous platforms, ages, races, genders, population density and more. Which social media sites should you be focusing on for YOUR target market?

social-media-demographics emineo media

The Pew Research Center has released the results of a comprehensive social media survey, conducted over several years to evaluate which demographics were using social media, and on which platforms. Which social networking sites emerged on top?

Of the online adults surveyed at the end of 2012:

  • 67% use Facebook
  • 20% use LinkedIn
  • 16% use Twitter
  • 15% use Pinterest
  • 13% use Instagram
  • 6% use Tumblr

A decent amount of Americans appear to be using social media, but which demographics use social media in greater numbers?

It appears that women use social media 9% more than men do, at a whopping rate of 71%. Other frontrunners with the highest social network activity in their demographic include city dwellers (70%), Hispanics (72%) and adults with a household income below $30,000 annually (72%).

The most pervasive and consistent divider amongst social media users remains, unsurprisingly, their age. 83% of the young adult demographic (18-29 year olds) use social media, which is well over double the activity of online adults over 65 years old (32%).

When it comes to age, social media usage has regularly been divided on a sliding scale, with consistently less social networking activity as age increases. This has been the case since the survey began back in 2005. However, there have been several interesting age changes to note…

  • Although 18-29 year olds have always maintained the highest percentage of social media usage, their activity dropped for the first recorded time in December 2012, from 92% to 83%, bringing them lower than their numbers over two years prior.
  • The only age range that increased its social networking usage in December 2012 was 30-49 year olds, who increased from 73% to 77% of users.

This could indicate an increasing trend of middle-aged social media users, a number which may continue to expand as the younger generation ages.

Aside from obvious division of age, there are still certain social media sites that attract specific demographics much more heavily than others. You may be able to better target your specific markets by keeping the demographic tendencies of each platform in mind:

  • Pinterest: Significantly more rural residents, women, Caucasians, people with some level of college education and individuals with a middle to higher income
  • Twitter: Significantly more slanted towards the 18-29 demographic, African-Americans and urban residents
  • Instagram: Greater use amongst African-Americans and Hispanics, urban users, 18-29 year olds, and women
  • Facebook: There’s less demographic distinction on Facebook, since it’s already so ubiquitous. However, there are 10% more women than men, and like most networking sites, it is heavily used by the youngest adult age group.

Source: Pew Research Center

social-media-demographicswho-uses-what-platforms emineo media

[divider_top]