Dude, Blog Your Business!

I have often talked about the power of video in promoting a business of whatever size. This is a great example. Tom Hinchey and I recently made this video for Christy Miller.  Her business, Desert Flower Does, provides  a service similar to those reality TV shows ‘Queer Eye‘ and ‘What Not to Wear‘ – except for the free $5000 credit card to spend of clothes of course!  Rather, Christy helps you to make the most of the wardrobe you already have. If you are trying to ‘power-dress’ on a budget and want to maximize the effectiveness of what you have, or want to add a few pieces that will increase your credibility with your clients or business partners, then Christy is certainly the person to call.  We wanted to create a video for her that would be entertaining while effectively getting across to prospective clients what it is she can do.  We are very pleased with the result. It is certainly much more effective than the text and photos she currently has on her website – and the video can be on her site and working for her 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  The ‘Reality TV’ comparison is actually a very good one.  The easy and cheapness of video on the web effectively makes it possible for anyone to market themselves via their own online ‘Reality TV Show’.  Love them or hate them, and a lot of people love them – just check their ratings – they can make for compelling viewing, and what better way to attract potential customers to what you are offering than by people being able to see it? It can be effective for virtually any business, even if it is just to help prospective customers get to know you  better and make you more approachable.  Any Phoenix-based business should give either us, or Tom a call and see what video could do for your business.

April 26-28, 2009, San Francisco, CA: The Nonprofit Technology Conference is THE place to engage around the technology issues that face the nonprofit sector. “Nearly 1200 people will come together from across the country and around the world to connect with our peers, learn from our heroes, and change the world. It’s true that our sector will face remarkable challenges in the coming year. Joining us for the 2009 NTC will put you among those poised not only to meet those challenges, but to rise above them”.   Thanks to Mashable’s events guide for the story – Note: Mashable readers can get the NTEN rate ($200 off) when using code Mash09NTC to register!

Tom and I have a particular interest in this event because we persuaded The 3000 Club to enter three of the videos that were created for their blog into this year’s NTC video competition – one of which was our spoof e-Harmony ad  (above), aimed at highlighting the business networking opportunities that  3000 Club membership provides.  The winners get an all expenses paid trip to the conference – that would be nice!  We’ll let you know if we win anything – or not!  The other entries can be seen here – A moving endorsement by Anna Gonzales, and Founder, Lon Taylor tells the 3000 Club Story.

As we have discussed in previous posts, video can be the most compelling content for your blog, and getting that video into your blog post couldn’t be more simple. Firstly, you should upload your original video to your YouTube account – that way you are using their bandwidth rather than your own – and like all good things on the internet, it is free. Once your video is uploaded to YouTube you will see two sets of code for sharing that video – a “URL link code” and an “Embed Code”. The URL is a link that you can copy and paste into an email or website that, when clicked, will take that person to the video where it is in YouTube. For your blog, you don’t want take people away from your blog, you want them to be able to play the video directly from the blog. For that you use the ‘Embed Code’ – it “embeds” that video into where ever you want it to go. Simple copy the embed code – then, in your blog’s dashboard (this one is WordPress), make sure you are on the HTML view of the ‘Write-Post’ box and then simply paste the embed code at the top of the page. It should now look like the picture above. Thats it – you are done! Write a few lines of text to explain what the video is about and publish. Your video will appear and be playable in your blog. You can also change the arrangement on the page by left, right or center justifying, or you can alter the size that the video appears in your blog by altering the height and width parameters in the embed code. Its as simple as that.

Charities and non-profits often have a great story to tell, especially when there is a lot of on-going volunteer activity. If a non-profit relies on donations from individuals it is important that they can communicate their story to potential donors – especially in our current economic climate. The YouTube phenomenon has demonstrated that video can be the most compelling of all forms of online content. Marry that to the delivery power of a blog and you have the most cutting edge online marketing tool you can get.

The beauty of a blog is that it is designed in a way that is easy to maintain. If you can maintain it yourself then it isn’t going to be expensive to keep going. What we do is provide the vehicle and the knowledge to maintain it – even in terms of shooting your own video. If you can get a sponsor to pay for it in the first place, even better. It is a win win for both parties – the traffic driven to your blog by your compelling story can benefit the sponsor by having his name on the blog – and you, the non-profit, have an amazing vehicle to attract volunteers and donors alike. Let us show you how.