The Digital Practitioner: Storytelling

Showing posts with label Storytelling. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 May 2018

Seth Godin on marketing, storytelling, attention, and the future of work

Unknown May 24, 2018 0

Visual Storytelling

Seth Godin on marketing, storytelling, attention, and the future of work

Really interesting video here from the storytelling and marketing master Seth Godin.

The importance of story cannot be overlooked when bringing your practice brand across on social.

What's your story?

Friday, 10 November 2017

Amateur VS Professional Video Production - Read The Difference

Unknown November 10, 2017 0

Visual Storytelling

Amateur VS Professional Video Production - Read The Difference

Video Production is now among the most important business strategies to help in brand awareness and it also increases sales conversion. Whatever the type of business you are running today, it is possible to leverage the power of video marketing to stay ahead of the competition. A lot of brands have even built in-house teams to carry out productions. Others are using any available camera to shoot amateur visuals.

The only problem is that it is easy to differentiate between amateur and professional content. If you consider how effective this marketing tool is for any campaign, it is not advisable to try and save money while compromising quality. The modern consumer is very keen and will tell between quality and shoddy productions.

Using marketing materials to boost your brand's visibility is very valuable especially in the digital age. Hiring a professional videographer or video production company can in fact save you money and showcase your brand in the right light. Don't make the mistake of using an amateur solution just to save money because it may back fire. Remember whatever you put out there represents your brand and can never be taken back. If you are wondering how it's possible to tell between amateur and professional video production, consider the following.

Amateur vs Professional Video Production Service Providers

Lack Of Diverse Camera Shots - A professional cameraman knows what's visually appealing and they can get as many creative angles as possible efficiently. Such angles help tell your story more creatively and this boosts your brand. With the expertise these professionals bring on board, you have the advantage of more shots and saving time. An amateur is limited when it comes to the number of shots they get because they are not well versed in using the equipment and knowing what angles work best to tell the story effectively.

Poor Audio and Visual Quality - One of the greatest mistakes any marketer can make is creating a poor quality video meant for marketing purposes. With the popularity of visual content on all platforms, it goes without saying that your content might eventually get noticed, but then it will be used to ridicule your brand. This is the greatest danger to any company brand that's online. This mostly happens when you use amateurs for your production. When you have an expert working for you, you are assured of high quality content because the equipment required for shooting is available and their important technical expertise is utilized. What's more, they understand the best environment, and use other specialized equipment such as external microphones and camera stabilizers, tripods, hand held devices to guarantee quality. Other considerations include lighting, which all works towards boosting the quality of video and content.

Unnatural Scripting - If there is no one with script writing skills around, you can bet the final product will not have a clear and concise message. Many ideas that look good on paper can't work when you are producing visual content. If you have ever watched a commercial that you didn't wish to complete due to lack of logic, then go for an expert to avoid making a similar one.

Editing Techniques - Poor editing can kill even the best story line for a video production. For amateurs, there is nothing much to do once shooting has been done, but for a professional, editing is the most important phase.

Looking to get started on your next project? VCM Interactive is a strategic forward thinking team with over 30 years of experience who understands the time sensitivity and cost-effectiveness as well. Contact us for your free quote today!

by: Paul Nandrajog
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9808836

Monday, 6 November 2017

Quick Tips to Boost Engagement on Your Social Media Pages

Unknown November 06, 2017 0

Twitter

Before you plan your next post, start using these easy engagement tips to set your pages on fire!

Read on for our favorite social engagement ideas to boost everything from page likes, post likes, comments, shares, followers, to full-blown stark raving mad fans!

1. Instagram - Boost Engagement & Conversions

50% of Instagram users follow at least one business, the app has continued to grow in popularity since being purchased by Facebook in 2012. Making Insta ideal for communicating your brand's message using visual content - however posting pimped up images is only one part of the equation. If it's engagement you're after (and it is... ), it's important to pimp up the captions that go with those awesome pics!

I've curated the main tips below; if you're after the real nuts and bolts see Aaron's full article at Social Media Today.

Write With an Authentic Tone of Voice - Instagram users aren't expecting a serious tone of voice - they're generally using the app in their free time to look at cool visuals and be entertained.

Include a CTA (Call To Action) - 65% of top-performing brands post on Instagram feature products. Directly instructing people to check out your product or make a purchase can work well on this platform.

Utilize Hashtags - Instagram posts with a minimum of one hashtag generate 12.6% more engagement than those without. Also, I like to use this quick link shortener tool for posts on the fly!

Include Emojis - Almost 50% of captions and comments on Instagram contain at least one emoji. While there's a range of emojis at your disposal, the most popular one is the heart.

Mention Other Instagram Users - It's important to remember that Instagram is a social network. Brands that relentlessly self-promote with little regards to community never do well.

Place Important Content at the Beginning - In a user's Instagram feed, captions are cut off after the first few lines. To see the entire post, they have to click the "View More" button - which they won't if the first few lines are unappealing.

2. Facebook - Boost Engagement, Leads & Sales

Explore 11 of the most effective strategies for enticing your Facebook Followers to get enthusiastic about your page and start encouraging likes, comments, and shares with their closest friends. Facebook is the perfect platform for small businesses to build a relationship with their customers and many are outperforming their big-budget competitors by employing a personalized social media approach.

I've curated the main tips of Andrea's case studies below; if you're after the real nuts and bolts visit Social Media Examiner for her full article:

Move Your Audience to Action - Litographs came up with a fun idea to create temporary tattoos of sentences from Alice in Wonderland. They invited 5,000 people to join the world's longest tattoo chain. This kind of idea is a great way to mobilize your audience and make them part of something special.

Host a Facebook Party - Mamavation is a website that teaches natural wellness and nutrition and champions GMO-free food and products. They have held fun Facebook parties to give away gift certificates and discounts to people who engaged with each post.

Show Personality - Through a Dog's Ear is a small 7-year-old company that makes music to help calm anxious dogs. Their Facebook page is filled with personal photos of the founder and her dogs.

Incorporate Humor - Cool Mom Picks is a website that curates gifts, gear, tech, and resources for moms. They have great video tutorials and they bring together interesting finds in blog posts. They also use humor and show some personality in their posts.

Have Fun - think about using Facebook as it was originally intended: a social site where you let people know what you're doing. Author Erica Spindler does a great job of getting personal and having some fun. Share things that you find funny or you feel are important for people to know.

Be Responsive - Make it a habit to respond to comments and your messenger inbox quickly.

Create a Facebook Event - If you have events on Facebook, re-share them, post in the events to get more visibility and encourage people to join them.

Post to Your Page and Profile - David Newman of Do It Marketing uses his Facebook page and personal profile to market his business, which helps speakers get more opportunities. He's connected with many speakers personally, so it makes sense for him to get extra traction by posting about his business on his personal profile. If you occasionally share your business page posts on your profile, you can extend your reach.

Invest in Videos - Videos are huge on Facebook and Learn Cake Decorating Online uses them effectively on their page. They have a featured video and regular quick videos that get lots of views and engagement. The company also uses the 22Social app to give away a free video class to build the email list and then offer a membership to people who sign up.

Provide Great Local Content Realtors sometimes find Facebook a challenging place to market. Posting images of houses is great, but Realty Austin offers great local content, too.

Go Behind the Scenes - Getting personal on Facebook is a great tactic, but so is giving your community a sneak peek at something no one else can see. The Celtic band Barra MacNeils literally takes people behind the scenes during their shows.

3. Twitter - Boost Engagement & Attract Followers

Social Engagement on Twitter helps to build and nurture a relationship between you and other industry peers and experts. Hearting, retweeting and commenting on each other's quality posts build peer relationships and industry street cred for your small business. Clicks on content you post can drive traffic directly to your site, increasing leads, visitors, and sales.

I've curated the main tips below; if you're after the real nuts and bolts visit Adesspresso for Ana's full article:

Engage with Other Users Content - If you want other users to engage with your content, a good way to start is to always interact with their first. Like, respond to, and retweet your users content when you can, and following them can also help.

Retweet Other Users' Tweets - You want to do this early and often. I'm singling out retweeting as engagement because this is what most users value the most; not only are you liking their content enough to confirm it, but you value it enough to share it.

Keep Your Tweets Brief - We are all forced to keep our tweets relatively brief automatically, with Twitter limiting our posts to 140 characters. This is challenging enough as it is, but limiting our posts just a little more can actually increase engagement.

Share a Variety of Links - If you want to get clicks to your site, the best way to do so is to put links in your Tweets. Also, I like to use this quick link shortener tool for posts on the fly!

Respond When Someone Tweets to You - This is particularly challenging for large brands or brands that have a large amount of engagement (even if it's just when major content goes live), but doing your best to respond in some way when a user tweets to you can go a long way.

Know Your Peak Hours - Just like with Facebook, there will be certain times of the day or days of the week when more of your users will be active on the site or more likely to engage with your content. By being able to find those peak hours and posting them, you'll get more views and you'll be more likely to increase engagement and clicks on your post.

Use Twitter Ads - When you're looking to best engagement quickly, Twitter Ads are a good way to do so, especially if you don't have a lot of followers or followers that often engage with your content. Twitter Ads do cost money (and are more expensive than Facebook Ads), but they can still help increase engagement when you need it. Promoted tweets work best for this purpose.

Always Provide Value - Social media, for many, has become an environment where many users will share every thought that pops into their heads. While non-brand users can get away with letting the world know that they can't decide if they want a coke or a lemonade, brands definitely cannot.

Always Use Hashtags - Hashtags are an essential part of Twitter usage; just like with Instagram, you pretty much expect a Tweet to come with at least one hashtag attached to it. Not only do hashtags offer the benefit of helping a relevant audience find you when they search the hashtag you're using, but they can also increase engagement.

Share Images - Images are an important part of social media; this is particularly true when we're limited to 140 characters.

4. LinkedIn - 5 Ways to Increase Engagement with Your Content on LinkedIn

Fast approaching 400 million users, LinkedIn has become more than just an online resume platform. Learning how to use LinkedIn marketing tips is essential for any small business. LinkedIn is still drastically underutilized making it an easy opportunity to make a splash if your target market is hanging out on this professional platform.

I've curated the main tips below; if you're after the real nuts and bolts visit LinkedIn Business for Pearce's full article:

Keep it concise and prompt an action - Drive higher engagement by keeping description copy <70 characters and feature a call to action. Keep in mind that copy will get truncated on the desktop after 100 characters and likely adversely affect your engagement rates.

Don't just report the news, analyze it - Yes, your audience wants to stay up to speed on industry news and trends. But they also want to know the impact it will have on them. On top of reporting key industry news and trends, take it a step further and offer key insights, takeaways, and your unique perspective.

Repurpose compelling 3rd party research - Creating great, in-depth content is time and resource intensive. Find a 3rd party source that is already developing the type of content that aligns with your audience's interests.

Use the power of video to tell your story - YouTube, Vimeo, and SlideShare videos play natively within the LinkedIn newsfeed. This allows you to engage your audience without disrupting their experience. It also allows you to tell your story in a much more vivid, creative format.

Professionals are people too - While it's always an effective strategy to aim to create content that helps solve your audiences' business challenges, keep in mind that they are also people too. Human interest stories help prove your brand in an engaging, less overt way, as well as diversify the type of content you are publishing.

5. YouTube - Boost Visitor Engagement & Channel Subscriptions

Using YouTube to market your small business, involves creating videos with content your target market will find engaging on some level (entertaining or educational) are the most common formats. While social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have a strong focus on creating, posting, and sharing different types of content, creating content for YouTube means you'll be investing your time in video production and video production only. Learn how to set up and create valuable and engaging content on your YouTube channel to attract an engaged fan base of subscribers to your business.

I've curated the main tips below; if you're after the real nuts and bolts visit bplans for Briana's full article:

Set up your YouTube channel - Setting up a channel couldn't be easier; in fact, if you already have a Google account, you technically already have a YouTube channel, even if you don't know it.

Add a banner and create a trailer - Before you start focusing on putting out video content regularly, it's important to make your page on YouTube visually appealing.

Create videos that show off your brand - Is your brand serious and formal? Prank or joke-style videos are probably a bad fit. On the flip side, if you've built your brand tone around a light, conversational style, don't create video content that feels stuffy or overly professional.

Post your video's on your blog - With YourTubePlayer you can easily generate and customize YouTube embed codes from the video ID or URL with options like autoplay, loop, hide controls, eliminate related videos and much more.

Focus on informational videos, how-to style content, video series, or vlog content - If you have a product or service, feature videos of your product in use. Similarly, if you offer a service, show how your service benefits customers. Informational videos are a great place to showcase your product or service in "the real world," to give customers a sense of what's in store for them if they buy from you.

Feature client testimonials or other customer feedback - When brainstorming what kinds of content you can feature on your new YouTube channel, you may want to look to your satisfied clients and customers. What can they say about your business that would make a valuable addition to your video content?

Pay attention to title keywords - Much of your organic traffic will be search-driven. That is to say, if someone is searching "braided updo tutorial," and you just happen to have those keywords in the title of your YouTube video, there is a higher chance that searchers will find your video.

Subscribe to similar channels and interact with them - One of the best ways to get your YouTube channel out in front of a potential new set of viewers is to leave a thoughtful comment on other YouTuber's videos (ideally, on a YouTube channel that produces content similar to your own). Hopefully, your comment will be upvoted by other viewers, increasing its visibility and therefore potential clicks back to your own channel.

Interact with your viewers - Once you start getting engagement on your own videos, make sure you are reciprocating! Respond to your YouTube comments in a thoughtful way that makes it clear you are tailoring your response to each commenter. Make sure you avoid responses that sound canned or insincere.

Include a call to action and track your success - What is your goal with creating YouTube videos? Is it to increase brand awareness, build up a more comprehensive social media presence, drive viewers back to your site? There are plenty of different goals you could have, and be clear what they are early on. Including a call to action in your YouTube videos is a great way to push people to take the steps you'd like them to take that coincide with your chosen goal.

Finally, remember the goal here is to create a raving fan base. In order to capture and convert all the traffic, your highly engaged posts have generated, you will need a responsive Lead Capture Page.

The team at Her Digital Domain has collectively worked with numerous organizations to connect and promote brands into the digital community.

Our clients ranged from small business owners through to leading brands, who chose us to help with their website development, graphic design, SEO & digital marketing campaigns; assisting them consistently grow their brand, attract more qualified leads and convert them into sales through the delivery of custom marketing strategies.

Visit https://herdigitaldomain.com and talk with us about how we can help you build your custom marketing strategy.

by: Danielle Paphitis
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9801225

Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Seth Godin on marketing, storytelling, attention, and the future of work

Unknown November 01, 2017 0

Visual Storytelling

Get Good At Storytelling and You Could See Massive Results From Your Marketing Campaigns.

As always Seth provides some excellent insight.

All good stories start from an Emotional Core.

Have you Identified This In Your Business?

Storytelling - How Important Is It To Your Brand?

Unknown November 01, 2017 0

Your Why

In this 21st Century there are stories everywhere, moreso than before. On television. In newspapers and magazines. Online. Offline. Everywhere we look and see, there is a story. Enhanced by various tools of technological; stories, whether true or 'fake' news, now move more rapidly. Traversing communities and countries within seconds.

Within this quickly changing information environment, for businesses, companies or corporations need to find a way which enables them and their products to stand-out amidst the noise. Therefore, having the "right" story to promote their brand, helps.

As an ancient art form, storytelling narrates traditional, cultural and social norms providing communities and countries to express through various mediums. Using the vital elements of plot, characterisation and narrative point of view storytelling is used in many ways, as demonstrated through various genres: whether written, theatre, film or video, poetry or music, magazine or newspaper.

Compelling, emotional, motivational, inspiring, negative or positive, a story has the ability to move the reader or watcher from and through various psychological states.

As storytelling is not new and in business moreso and in today's business environment some organisations are mastering the ability to tell tales on digital platforms, resulting in positive outcomes on their bottom-line. Creating a connection with businesses and customers, regardless of demographics, the love of a story enables people to make a connection with the narrative.

Therefore, with this connection or 'brand storytelling' will help to transform any content marketing strategy, enabling the content's power to easily engage their audience. It is advisable to invest in telling story and according to Monte Lutz of Edelman Digital, "as companies begin to adjust to the real-time nature of content marketing, it's easy to lose track of your core brand narrative."

Social media has pushed content to being more authentic and transparent and personal and storytelling is a part of this swing since at a stories core is a great story that engages the business client or customer's emotions recreating an experience for the audience.

There are many corporate storytelling examples which prove how storytelling can be powerful when done good and well. Emotions sell. Oz Content states: Studies show positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments based on attributes. Advertising research reveals emotional responses to an ad have far greater influence on decisions than the ad's content - by a factor of 3-to-1 for television and 2-to-1 for print ads. According to Oz, there are eleven great and powerful storytelling examples: Weight Watchers, Guinness, Apple, Google, John Deere, Nike, Lego, Airbnb, Harry's, Warby Parker and Dove.

So how does one create the best brand ever?

- Create the right story by ensuring there is value in the 'human element' content

- Making stories sincere and real;

- The importance of having a Point of View (POV) from the target groups perspective;

- Have an awareness of what connects with potential and present customers

- Defining and identifying positive protagonists, victors and heroes within the storytelling;

- Keep the storytelling simple, by being able to tell a story in one line.

Finding the human element in a story helps to connect customers to a brand, company or product, so creating a story around that shows how their lives can be better, connecting them at an emotional level.

In today's world, emotional-connecting storytelling content is king resulting in brand awareness and enabling an enhanced bottom-line.

Kwame MA McPherson is an award winning author and content organiser. He is offering a FREE consultation on storytelling and brand building. http://www.kwamemcpherson.com.

by: Kwame MA McPherson
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9798585