Well fresh from my success on Monday, I've been speaking to even more people than normal - every reason to speak to a customer should be taken! - and there are a number of things that have been coming up again and again and again. Just about all of these can be summed up in a single term - Social Networking!
Social networking is somewhat of a phenomena that has skyrocketed in the past year or so but that has always been around since the rise of the internet - anyone remember Friends Reunited?
As its such a broad topic I'm going to touch on one subject at a time, the first area I want to talk about is video.
Now video is something that I've been investigating and working on for a number of months now, and speaking to you guys this week has made me realise that I probably need to cover it immediately rather than wait for my series of videos is launched in a few weeks.
The results of video integration has been in for a long time now, and let me tell you, they are all good!
Bearig this in mind, the question you should be asking should no longer be "should I be using video on my site?" but "what video can I produce to maximise my results?"
Let me explain. The phrase "producing a video" can sound a little daunting and gives many people visions of directors, sound men and millions of pounds worth of cameras in a brightly lit studio, needless to say they immediately associate producing a video with a high cost.
The truth is, creating a video for most people will only cost you your time. The massive availability of mobile phones, webcams and digital cameras and camcorders together with websites such as youtube Google Videos and Video Jug mean that producing and publishing a video on your site is not only free, but pretty easy as well!!!
Okay, so you can't just grab your mobile phone, record something and upload it, just like you wouldn't open word type something and mail it out to people, you need to think about a focus and a purpose. How could video help your site? What would your customers find useful? What message would you like to get across?
This last point is the most important to consider, if you have a compelling sales pitch - a real USP - then just including it in the text on your site might mean that many people miss it - take a photographer for example, what they write on their site will almost certainly be reviewed after their pictures have passed the initial test, if at all - by including this in a short video somehow, you'll maximise the number of time the message gets heard, increase the liklihood that it gets taken in and, as a result, increase the number of enquiries that come from your site.
I'll leave you with this thought:
"Never before has something been worth committing more of your time to plan and implement on your site."
As I mentioned earlier, my range of videos and video tutorials will be going live very soon, one of these videos will be advice on producing a video so if this post has grabbed your attention, give me a call and I'll keep you updated with progress.
Until next time
Edward
