Category Archives: Videos

Marketing With YouTube

Marketing With YouTube(Photo by Esther Vargas)

If you’ve worked hard to get your website ranked well in Google (or if you’re just starting out, and trying to get your website ranked highly), don’t forget to create a video for your business (even if your business isn’t highly visual or you are camera shy). While Google is the #1 search engine, the #2 search engine is YouTube! The following are some basic tips I suggest to my clients:

  1. Title. Treat your video’s title like you treat your home page’s title. You want a title that will entice someone to click on it and also support your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). Make sure that you use proper keywords in the title.
  2. Description. Like the title, you want the description to be a balance between human-enticing text and appropriate industry buzzwords. Your description should support your title and promise to the viewer (why should they watch it)? Be sure to include in your description a link to your website – since that will help your search engine ranking (a good “backlink”).
  3. Keywords. YouTube allows you to also describe your video using additional keywords. If you’re not sure what to use, start by looking at your competitor’s video keywords.
  4. Audio. If you can, use a microphone to reduce background noise. We forget that a poor looking video with good audio is watchable. A beautiful video with poor audio isn’t.
  5. Video. Unless you’ve hired a professional who knows better, use a tripod to ensure your video isn’t shaky.

If you’re marketing something high-end or with a high-aesthetic, hire a video professional to ensure that your video quality is consistent with your branding promise. Otherwise, your first video doesn’t have to be perfect. The goal is to showcases the experience a prospective client is likely to have with you.

No one will know how many times you goofed up in recording your video. Don’t be too hard on yourself on how you look or sound. Simply having a video is likely to set you apart from your competition.

Speak With Passion: Your Storytelling Structure

Storytelling Structure

Photo by Alan Levine

When you consider how to tell your story, you’d do well to follow some of the more popular storytelling formats. Using these age-old formats helps to shape expectations and therefore easily have people know how to receive your speech.

The sales speech is basically a long advertisement for a product or service. It’s goal is to have the listener take a specific action. Sales speeches generally showcase the risks of not buying and the rewards for buying your offering. These may combine elements of biographical speeches, but instead of simply connecting with the listener’s emotion, you want to connect with the listener’s wallet.

A lecture demonstrates how to solve a problem. A college lecture, for example, will start with a question, and offer best practices for solving the question. A cooking demonstration shows how to make something delicious. The format of the lecture is a “cookbook” for solving the problem so that you can go home and reliably reproduce their results.

The inspirational speech is best exemplified by Martin Luther King’, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Inspirational speeches are ideal for when you want your audience to share your vision. The format is a series of short contrasts: this is what life is like today, but this is what life can be like. The contrasts showcase the divide, and your speech can focus on the steps the listener can take to obtain your vision. These speeches need to be kept relatively short, otherwise they become sermons that people will tire of (too many contrasts become repetitive and few speakers can enthrall their audience for a long time).

The biographical speech shares your personal history with the audience, using specific anecdotes to highlight key points you wish to make. Biographical speeches are great for showcasing how a series of events contributed to the learning you’re imparting, and the stories help the audience remember your “teachable moments”. These speeches can be much longer, but can suffer from the “Yeah, that was your experience – and it doesn’t relate to me at all” feeling. It’s important to somehow take your specific story and generalize it for others to learn from.

The fairy tale is the most ingrained form of storytelling, since these are the stories we heard when we were young. Fairy tales have both a specific format (every day…until…and because of that…and because of that…and ever since then…) and an underlying moral. A fairy tale is a powerful storytelling structure since it allows you to combine fantasy and reality in a simple package with a powerful punch. Crafting a fairy tale is hard – since you really need to distill the characters, their actions, and reactions to their essence to make it truly fairy tale-like. Otherwise, you story becomes a biographical speech, which doesn’t pack the childhood innocence-like feeling you’re trying to evoke.

While it might be tempting to mix-and-match the structures (a fairy tale that’s also a sales speech), be very careful doing so. Your audience won’t know what you’re trying to convey, and are likely to internally have resistance to enjoying your story. Instead, if you want two structures, put them back-to-back, creating a separate “chapter” of your speech.

By matching your speech goals with the right storytelling structure, you make it easier for your audience to “get” your message.

For some great examples of some of the speech structures, I suggest watching Nancy Duarte’s TEDxEast talk:

Business With Passion: Sand & Sky

Trailer:

Episode theme: People who make a living doing things that seem like child’s play.

Kirk Rademader has been sculpting sand for over 12 years, 8 of those professionally. He has worked on several very large sand projects overseas and has recently returned from extended projects in Turkey and Portugal. He has won many sand sculpting championship titles, and appeared on Travel Channel’s Sand Blasters: The Extreme Sand Sculpting Championship.

Website: www.sandguy.com
Phone: (510) 459-9469
Email: Kirk@sandguy.com

John Collins has been folding paper and making paper airplanes for over 40 years. He’s gone around the world teaching the science and joy of paper airplane making. In addition to publishing two paper airplane books (Gliding Flight and Fantastic Flight) and an iPhone App, on February 26, 2012 his airplane design broke the Guinness Book of World Records for airplane distance (226′ 10″).

Website: www.ThePaperAirplaneGuy.com
Email: via Contact Form

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Business With Passion: Anachronisms

Trailer:

Episode theme: People whose old-fashioned businesses would seem to have no place in our modern culture.

Andrew Hoyem founded Arion Press in 1974. Considered one of the most accomplished printers of today, Hoyem is also a published poet and exhibited artist who occasionally includes his own writings and drawings in Arion books. The concepts for all Arion publications originate with Hoyem, who chooses literary texts, commissions new work from writers and artists he admires, and designs the books, including their bindings and typography.

Contact: arionpress@arionpress.com
Website: www.arionpress.com
Phone: (415) 668-2542

Art Rogers has been helping families tell their stories with photographs since 1975. In his Point Reyes Station studio and in the homes and gardens of those he pictures, he crafts museum-quality portraits to capture the special moments every family cherishes. By returning to photograph the same people in the same setting years later, he helps create family history in a very personal way. These portraits transform yesterday and today into stories about generations. The result is a work of art that celebrates change and preserves the passage of time.

Contact: artrogers@mindspring.com
Website:
www.artrogers.com
Phone: (415) 663·8345

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Create Your Business Video Easily With Slideshows

Business Video Tips

Photo by Jurvetson

I was talking with a client the other day who was interested in making a video for their website, but was concerned about cost/effort necessary. They knew that people watch video voraciously, and they wanted a video, but wasn’t sure they they could make something that they loved.

One simple technique is to take a series of photos of you (or your business) “in action” to show the key visual points to highlight. Then, write a voice over script so people can hear your voice and your visuals. You won’t need any fancy camera gear (just your digital camera), any fancy lighting, a video crew, or even fancy microphones (you can probably get by with the built-in mic in your computer – or invest in an inexpensive USB microphone/headset).

Next: sequence your slideshow using your computer’s software. You could use Microsoft PowerPoint

or Macintosh iWorks’ Keynote:

or, if you’re familiar with video editing software iMovie (Macintosh) or VideoSpin (Windows). Odds are, you have at least one of these programs on your computer already.

After recording the video, consider distribution. You could host the video (keep the file) on your website, upload it to a video sharing service (such as YouTube) and then embed the video onto your website, or even embed it into your emails (either directly or place a link to the video in the email). Because video is well-received, make sure it’s also easy to find by composing a well-written description of the video for search engine’s sake.

As with any new project, start small and gradually improve the quality and content of your work. Don’t try to create a masterpiece initially – you’ll need time to learn what works for you and your customers.

Business With Passion: Fun & Games

Trailer:

Episode theme: Guests who make a living infusing more fun & games into people’s lives.

Dan Zelinsky (a fifth generation San Franciscan) is the owner of Musée Mécanique – one of the world’s largest (over 200) privately owned collection of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade machines in their original working condition – all of which can be played by visitors. Peep shows (early San Francisco scenes/bawdy comedy), fortune tellers, photo booth, and several games of chance and skill are among the many arcade attractions with several nickelodeons, music boxes and the original mechanical farm. A hand crafted carnival is fully automated… dozens of fascinating attractions and distractions including a sensational 1914 San Francisco exposition gypsy fortune teller. And of course, Laughing Sal. Any worn or broken parts are manufactured on the premises and most repairs are done in house by the Musée Mécanique staff. He can often be found roller skating inside the arcade.

Contact: dan@museemecaniquesf.com
Phone: (415) 346-2000

Michael McGinnis is an artist and inventor of Perplexus – a complex, 3-dimensional labyrinth that can be traced by a ball bearing. Working on Superplexus and its derivatives is a lifelong passion. Michael has an MFA in sculpture and teaches at Santa Rosa Junior College, where he is also the Art Gallery Exhibits Specialist.

Contact: mmcginnis@santarosa.edu

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Business With Passion: The Making Of The Pacific Sun

Trailer:

Episode theme: How does a local free weekly newspaper continue to thrive for almost 50 years?

The Pacific Sun was founded in 1963, and is the second longest running alternative weekly in the nation, behind only The Village Voice. With a readership of around 80,000, the paper is distributed at over 400 locations throughout Marin County, California.

Guests include:

  • Jason Walsh, Editor
  • Gina Channell-Allen, Publisher
  • Beth Allen, Art Director/Production Manager

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Create A Business With Passion

Part 1:

Part 2:

Trailer:

Episode theme: Inspiring the students and alumni of Dominican University (San Rafael, CA) to create a business with passion.

Jay Hamilton-Roth (Producer, Business With Passion) is a marketing strategist who helps small businesses brainstorm, design, and implement effective marketing plans that connect their business with their passions.

Email: tv@ManyGoodIdeas.com
Website: TV.ManyGoodIdeas.com
Phone: (415) 389-8920

Holly Stiel is a trailblazing service philosopher who innovated a method of training based on her 17 years as a world-class concierge. Her clients include: Disney, Nordstrom, AVEDA, American Express, and has been the spokesperson for The Visa Signature card. Stiel’s 30+ years of service experience have been parlayed into four  books and three award-winning instructional DVDs.

Email: Holly@ThankYouVeryMuchInc.com
Website: www.ThankYouVeryMuchInc.com
Phone: (707) 884-4278

Bruce Burtch is a nationally-recognized cause marketing catalyst. He helps for-profit and nonprofit organizations develop win-win partnerships which maximize their strategic marketing and fund development. He designed and directed the most successful cause marketing program on emergency preparedness in the country through a partnership between the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the American Red Cross, resulting in 1,000,000 people being trained in emergency preparedness.

Email: bruce@bruceburtch.com
Website: www.BruceBurtch.com
Phone: (415) 454-0839

Neal Gottlieb started Three Twins Ice Cream in 2005 with $75,000 in lieu of returning to business school. The company started with one small shop in a tucked away San Rafael, California shopping center that Neal manned himself, without the luxury of any employees for the first few months. The company has grown rapidly from its humble beginning and now includes 3 stores, a farmers’ market business, and a dedicated organic ice cream factory in downtown Petaluma.

Email: threetwins@gmail.com
Website: Three Twins Ice Cream
Phone: (415) 577-0144

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Business With Passion: San Francisco Fleet Week (Part 2)

Part 2 Trailer:

Part 1 can be seen here.

Episode theme: The people involved in making San Francisco’s Fleet Week 2010: Navy personnel from the USS Makin Island, organizers, and the heart-thumping airshow performers (including the U.S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron – the Blue Angels).

The Blue Angels’ mission is to enhance Navy and Marine Corps recruiting efforts and to represent the naval service to the United States, its elected leadership and foreign nations. The Blue Angels serve as positive role models and goodwill ambassadors for the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps. Team interviews: Major Brendan Burks (Fat Albert Lead Pilot) and Vincent Dunhill-Cooper (Blue Angels Crew Chief AO1 (AW/SW)) Website: Blue Angels Official Website

Donna Flynn started in aviation when she obtained her private license in the winter of 1987. She soon followed that with a commercial license in 1989. While working through her licenses she caught the airshow bug by volunteering at the Vanderhoof International Airshow. Along with another partner she started Showline Airshow Services Ltd which specializes in the air bossing and flight operations of an air event. Donna has completed over 280 show and media days at over 35 sites in Canada and the United States. She has worked with all the North American jet and skydiving teams. Some of her show sites include San Francisco’s Fleet Week, Saskatoon’s famous Veteran event, The Canada Remembers Air Show, Niagara Falls, ON, Fort St. John, BC, Peace River, AB, Vandenburg AFB, CA and Klamath Falls, OR.

Joe Sobczak has been a test pilot, instructor pilot, and fighter pilot in the United States Air Force, an experimental test pilot for NASA, and is now a Flight Test Captain for United Airlines. He has over 10,000 hours and forty years of flying experience and is a outspoken advocate for pro-active aviation safety.

Stephen Teatro (executive producer of San Francisco Fleet Week Air Show) is an employee of the Air Show Network – the leader in air show entertainment where air show fans can expect the finest in aerial entertainment, ground displays and consistently excellent guest services.

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Business With Passion: San Francisco Fleet Week (Part 1)

Trailer:

Part 2 can be seen here.

Episode theme: The people involved in making San Francisco’s Fleet Week 2010: Navy personnel from the USS Makin Island, organizers, and the heart-thumping airshow performers (including the U.S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron – the Blue Angels).

The USS Makin Island (LHD-8) is the last of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships. It has a hybrid engineering propulsion plant (which includes two gas turbines and two auxiliary electric propulsion motors). Since 75% of a amphibious ship’s life is spent under 12 knots, the hybrid system saves lots of gas and money. Crew interviews: Lieutenant Commander Joel Stewart, Lieutenant Junior Grade Lauryn Dempsey, Electrician’s Mate First Class (EM1) Arnel Senatin,  Air Traffic Controller First Class (AT1) Corey McRath, and Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Walker Lawrence. Website: USS Makin Island

Tim Weber discovered aviation at the age of 13 and has since flown a variety of aircraft including: Ultralights; WWII Stearmans; the legendary Pitts Special, the exotic Russian YAK 55M and several types of jets including the F-16. Tim’s aggressive flying and natural ability have enabled him to become one of the top airshow performers in the United States. In addition to flying, Tim has incorporated his love of music into his airshow routines by writing and performing original music for his performances. Website: Tim Weber Airshows.

George Silverman received his Navy wings in Mar 1971. In his 20 year career in the Navy, amassed 465 carrier landings and 189 combat missions. Now serving as Flight Test Captain for United Airlines – one of 18 pilots who perform all of the high risk flying for the airline. Types of operations include, post maintenance test flights, new aircraft acceptance flights, diagnostic flights to help troubleshoot airborne discrepancies and damaged aircraft ferry flights to repair sites.

Gordon Bowman-Jones (The Voice of Aviation) was born in England and raised in Australia. From New England to New Zealand and Tennessee to Tokyo, air show fans have been thrilled with his vivid narratives and engaging style for more than twenty years. With more than 2000 hours of time in the air, Gordon Bowman Jones has owned and flown numerous aircraft from Auster’s and Ercoupe’s to Messerschmitt’s and MiG’s, even the GULF blimp! He has pursued a lifetime of flying interests, including gliding, sky diving and aerobatics. Website: Air Show Time / Email: gordon@gobojo.com

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