Last week we mentioned that failing to use video in your Social Media efforts was kind of like trying to ride a pig in the Kentucky Derby.  If you could get your pig entered… you might be able to finish the race… heck, you might not even finish last if another horse breaks their ankle… but the point is, you’ll never finish first…

Here’s why:  In the history of the world, there has never been anything as powerful and effective at communicating as video.  Online video started slow… picked up steam with the advent of YouTube I’m 2005.   Now video is easy to use online, is growing quickly, and there’s no end in sight.  You can create free animated videos on Youtube, create your own video at home with your laptop, there are just so may ways to play!

So just how effective is video?  My favorite statistic is that the average person will spend less than a minute on a website.  That same person will spend 6 minutes on the “average” website with a video.  In other words, do you want people in your house for 57 seconds or 6 minutes?  Well, if it’s a potential customer… 6 minutes please!  Statistics overwhelmingly show that video sells products better than ads, web banners, and (gasp!!!) even blogs.  So if you’ve been thinking about video as a possible addition to your Social Media arsenal, what are you waiting for?  Get off the pig and get onto a thoroughbred.  Call Hot Dinosaur today and see how we can help you get started.  And may God bless your day.

Andy Video

Video Brandologist

p.s. YouTube  was started by 3 former PayPal employees in 2005.  Boy I wish I had come up with that one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most common FB mistake is to not post with a purpose.   Know your purpose before you post.    Begin with the bigger picture and then work backwards.

What is your purpose in life?  What is your purpose within the different areas of your life; such as your relationships, spirituality, finances,  and other e-commerce business goals, physical appearance and health for example?

Now that you are clear about these points, what is your personal vision and value or mission statement to support this?   Does it clearly support your purpose in life?  If so, are you striving to be  congruent in what you say and do in all areas of your life within the context of your values and actions?  I pose these same questions to myself and will share with you in my future blogs my answers in the hope of demonstrating these points and how they relate to positive messages and posting with a purpose on FB, even if that purpose is to make people laugh out loud and have fun doing it!

Of course, posting effectively with a purpose does not always need to be a direct function of or for our purpose in life.  But certainly what we do in life, even the smallest acts such as an innocent post, will ultimately proceed our personal motives and objectives lending positive or negative exposure at times.  And often can and will make a huge difference in our messages being heard or responded to, when done with the right purpose in mind.     It is a simple action that does have the ability to support our personal values in life and to share our philosophy, goals or even our vision within our social networks.

The social media “post with a purpose” take away from this I believe,  is that we can begin to realize our small daily actions like posts on FB, collectively help support and convey our overall purpose in life and or smaller objectives that may add value to others.  As we realize that, we may begin to direct our actions based on what and why we post, accordingly.  Rather than taking random actions that are without purpose.  Certainly,  this point becomes quite valuable when we begin to use social media and posts on the internet to develop long lasting and trusting relationships that return our good will and often become e-commerce or career opportunities over time.

Do you post with a purpose or are you simply a  drifter in cyberspace without a clue?

I would love to hear your thoughts… so let the banter begin. If you have an interesting comment or some helpful hints for all of us concerning great Facebook posts and success stories,  here is the right place for the right message, right target, right now.

We all know the inherent dangers of the web.  Google has made millions off of this treachery.  And Facebook too.  Millions of people waste countless hours watching videos on YouTube.  No matter what you are in to… you can find it on the web.  And that can be good… or bad.

Well it so happens I discovered a new site on the web this weekend that sucked me in for hours.  It’s called  fiverr.com, and the premise of the website is simply that you pay somebody five bucks to do something for you.  And you wouldn’t believe what people will do for five bucks!  It’s ingenious, because it combines the wackiness of YouTube with serious business enterprise.    Want to send a holiday greeting to a friend?  The Beer Gut man will write a customized message on his giant belly, and send you the picture.  Need a cartoon of yourself for your website?  Hundreds of people on Fiverr will do it for just $5.  And there are plenty of Social Media junkies on there too.  I came across one entry where a pretty girl offers to be your girlfriend on Facebook… for a week!  She’ll post lots of nice messages for all your jealous friends to see…  Unbelieveable!!!   And that’s the wacky stuff.  There are people who offer to be your virtual assistant for two hours for $5…  You can get some pretty cool videos customized for your business for $5… and the list goes on and on.  I challenge you to go to the site, and spend less than 5 minutes there… I don’t think you can do it.  I’m betting you’ll be mesmerized like I was.  And… I predict that within the next six months, everybody will know about fiverr.com.

Now, I don’t know how long this site has been up, but it’s still in the beta phase… but if you poke around the site for a bit, you’re guaranteed to get a laugh or two, and you might just find some help.  And as intriguing as it is… it’s also kind of sad.  Because when you really dig into it… you’ll find some very talented marketing people, video editors, graphic artists and more.  What’s sad about that, you ask?  It’s sad because it’s a direct reflection on the state of our economy… and how desperate people are for money.  Oh, did I forget to mention?  Most of these offers come from people right here in the good ole’ US of A.  You know, the place where we have difficulty finding illiterate high school kids to work at McDonald’s for $8 or $9 bucks an hour?  And there’s some wickedly clever and talented people offering services for $5 that are going to spend more than an hour delivering what they promise…

If nothing else, fiverr.com proves this:  You can take our jobs away… but you’ll never take away our creativity…

The headline pretty much says it all. We will discuss this in more detail next Friday. Go out and make it a great weekend, and may God bless you and your family.

What is “brandology” you might be thinking?  So let me be the first to enlighten you with the definition of Hot Dinosaur’s newly coined term, since you will not find the word, brandology in the Webster Dictionary, yet.

The best way to comprehend its intended meaning and application would be to break the word brandology down as follows…

• an identifying mark or label on the products of a particular company; trademark
• the kind or make of a commodity: a new brand of tea
• a special kind: his brand of nonsense

“Internet Video Commercials level the playing field of otherwise expensive television advertising…with our video expertise the barrier to entry for television-like commercials has been significantly reduced without the trade off of high impact quality advertising to targeted audiences via the unlimited internet.”

Rhonda Reeve

Digital Brandologist – Hot Dinosaur

Video Brandology is a discipline which combines the  proper use of video and marketing to successfully create, drive and magnify your brand.  It’s a term that I coined this year in an effort to differentiate the outstanding videocentric marketing that Hot Dinosaur generates, from the myriad of other video related products and services that are confusing and often less than effective in video marketing and branding.

Based in Southern California, with Hollywood  in our own backyard, I can assure you that there are many talented editors, photographers and filmmakers floating around.  However, it takes more  than filmmaking skills to produce an effective, results-driven video.  It takes a complete understanding of marketing and brand posititioning.  Conversely, there are intelligent marketers who produce videos from a non-digital marketing perspective.  Often, I find that these well meaning marketers figure out the easiest and most efficient way to produce a video with little or no attention to the full power and impact of a video.  A great example of this would be taking a powerpoint presentation, slapping a voice track onto it and calling it a video. This approach while better than nothing, nevertheless falls short of great video and brand positioning.    That’s where Video Brandology and Hot Dinosaur enters stage left!

With over 30 years experience marketing businesses and TV networks, the staff at Hot Dinosaur Digital Marketing Agency leads the way in combining an effective marketing message and our expertly crafted videos.

We are the nation’s leading “Video Brandology” experts.  Chief Video Brandologist “Andy Video” won multiple International Marketing Awards as a Marketing Vice President for Warner Bros., and has been helping companies of all sizes enhance their digital footprint within their highly competitive markets .

To learn more about our brand expertise, you can sign up for and receive a free whitepaper on 5 Amazing tips for improving your Social Media presence on the internet.

Andy Video