SVG Produces Promotional Video for NFC Cluster with the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge

On Monday November 7th, the NFC Cluster Group, a collection of Boston-Area supporters of the development and commercial success of Near Field Communication, held an event at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel with over four hundred attendees. We were among those in attendance. The MIT Enterprise Forum, a producer of educational events promoting entrepreneurship, put on the event. While similar to Bluetooth’s data transfer technology, NFC’s transfer rate is slower and its working distance is much shorter. Why then does the NFC Cluster Group exist?

Unlike Bluetooth devices that need manual configurations to identify each other, NFC connects devices automatically in less than a tenth of a second. It uses much less energy, can be paired to an unpowered device, and its shorter range reduces the likelihood of unwanted interception. Possible applications are vast, but (credit) card emulation, “tagging” the world around us, and instant connectivity are the big selling points.  The NFC Cluster Group, through the MIT Enterprise Forum is looking to partner the hardware (chip) developers with software (app) developers to help grow this  NFC technology.  To that end they hired Skillman Video Group to produce a high quality promotional video with interviews from board members, app and hard ware developers as well as some pretty heavy hitters such as PayPal and Verizon.

With proper optimization, data indicates that video content yields a 53% better chance of getting on Google’s front page.  However, at Skillman, we believe that video for video’s sake is dangerous as quality DOES matter to your audience. As video becomes more important and easier to shoot, organizations can’t afford NOT to have it.  Contact us today to see how high quality video content can help with your online marketing initiatives.

That’s a Wrap!

For the past four months I have been fortunate to hold an internship at Skillman Video Group. I came here after working as a professional in film, television, and commercial production for a number of years. I’m working on a career shift and SVG was the perfect place to combine my production experience with my social media hobby. What happened with me and SVG over the summer?

Big things:

When I took the internship I wanted to make a marketing video for SVG that was more ambitious and cinematic than their previous videos. I brought my skills as a set designer, contacts with actors, and access to cinematographers and wardrobe stylists together for the Old Timey Marketing project. I’m quite proud of what I did, and it is helping us find new clients. I think it shows that SVG can make movie-like videomercials for clients that want to stand out.

I had the privilege of attending a Muslim Ramadan service in Chelsea when SVG shot a fundraising video for a community center. I’m not a religious person, but it was still a powerful, moving experience. And we shot some amazing footage. I doubt I’ll ever have another opportunity to go. You can read all about it here.

Social Media does work for SEO. Our page rank has risen, which is good. Getting people to follow you and comment is tricky, no matter how good the content is. I looped in a few new subscribers and I think it’s paying off. Read all my posts here.

Small things:

Managing a multi-platform social media campaign is not that difficult. A few hours a week. More businesses should do it.

I discovered many interesting social media and viral video campaigns and got to blog my analysis of why they work. Some interesting and inspiring ideas.

Anchor links, micro sites, pingbacks, landing pages, etc.

I got a much needed brush-up on Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack.

I hadn’t used a Lowell lighting kit since college, so I got a valuable refresher course on lighting from Andrew, our usual Videographer.

Now that I’ve attended client meetings I can add actual “agency experience” to my resumé.

Until you ask, the answer is always “No.” Most people are really happy to help you out with locations, props, wardrobe, camera, etc.

I’m excited that I’ve got these new skills that will propel me into new career choices. Thanks SVG!

Are You Blogging? Our Webinar @ Cambridge Chamber of Commerce

This month Skillman Video Group used live, interactive, social media to talk to local businesses about interactive social media. Cambridge Chamber of Commerce hosted our webinar discussing the importance blogging for businesses. From the comfort of their offices and homes, attendees could watch and talk with SVG’s Principle, Christina Skillman, as she delivered her presentation over the internet. The webinar format allowed viewers to interact with Christina asking her questions on the web. It was a great interactive experience. Webinars are now another social media tool we’re using at SVG.

SVG has  talked about blogs and other social media many times on our own blog: link, link, and link. A blog is an easy way to start using social media to market your business, interact with customers, and increase search engine visibility. You can use it to announce new products, discuss developments in the field, gather market research from readers, and illustrate your expertise. Frequent blogging increases traffic and wins new customers. This is what we do here at SVG everyday and it works for us.

The online audience understood why they needed a blog and  Christina recommended a few solutions to get them blogging: hire an internal social media expert or outsource to social media marketing companies like SVG.

Next month we’ll be doing a presentation on SEO at the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. Subscribe, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to hear more. Check out out a sample of the slides from the webinar. We created our presentation using Prezi, an online presentation creator. Prezzi is a exciting new application that has remained presentation software with its zooming interface. There was lots of new interactive technology this month at SVG.

Social Video Media Marketing for Job-Seekers

The Boston Globe recently featured an article by Scott Kirsner, “Social media advice for job-seekers, from CEOs, HR execs & recruiters,” in which Kirsner posed the following two questions to company CEOs, hiring managers and bloggers alike:

1. What should candidates be doing with social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs to improve their chances of getting a job?

2. What shouldn’t they be doing?

Each company representative responded with particular examples of social media efforts they find compelling. HubSpot CEO,  Brian Halligan, recalls a video job application that got the applicant an interview with the company right away, because it “bounced around [the office] like wildfire.”

Bouncing like wildfire isn’t always a good thing for prospective employees. Some executives and recruiters think social media sites hinder an applicant’s chances: think inappropriate Facebook wall photos!

All in all, the interviewees, especially the execs of internet marketing (unsurprisingly), think social media marketing (of oneself) is a positive way to reach out. It’s “inbound job searching,” in which the company finds the applicant online.

Your online persona, that includes you’re the look and content of your website, microsite, blog, and various social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, can be extremely public if it’s popular enough. Search engine optimization and video is the easiest and most effective way to enhance your online image so companies will give you the chance you deserve!

Even better if you can put together a clever video about a prospective employer’s products or services then you might be able to hit a home run. Not only can you get their attention for yourself but you can showcase your knowledge and excitement for the company and show you are a team player and can communicate the benefits of the company. What better way to get hired. Call Skillman Video Group today when you are ready for your close-up?

TwitVid = Twitter + Video

Twitter is cool, right? Celebrities, businesses, non-profits and average-joes all use Twitter to spread their message 140 characters at a time. Web video is cool too. You can use it to advertise your products, ask for money, rant about politics, and show cute kittens.

What if you could combine the two? That would be internet coolness squared! Or would it?

TwitVid combines the two social media applications nicely. TwitVid has some interesting SEO tools, time saving integration features, mobile apps, and general buzz. TwitVid makes it easy to share videos with your followers and generate discussion amongst your friends, partners, clients, and customers. It has stuck around longer than most other Twitter video services and received a lot of capital investments. TwitVid has some impressive business and celebrity users and partners.

Building a service around Twitter seems a little opportunistic: take something popular and add video to it. That’s bound to be a success. The trouble is there are many other services doing the same thing and it won’t be long until Twitter makes its own video service. Maybe that’s the founder’s plan: get bought by Twitter. It also lacks Twitter’s original communication gimmick that made it so popular: restrict messages to 140 characters.

We’ve been sharing our videos and clients videos through links on Twitter for a few years without this added application. You can post advertisements, marketing videos, video blog, and all other business video tools to Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc. and link them on Twitter. SVG embraces social media and marketing trends in our work everyday, but TwitVid leaves us feeling a little underwhelmed. With so many other social media options you have to manage your outlets carefully. It may, however, be the greatest web video service of all time.

We’re going to try it ourselves for some of our projects and see what you think. Follow us on Twitter for updates on TwitVid.

The Trouble With Social Media

I could start by talking about why you need to embrace Social Media at your business, but someone else already did that here. If you already do, good for you; call us for a video sometime. If not, it’s probably because you think you don’t have the time.

Is it really that hard to do social media?

If you look at lists like this and don’t know where to start (or stop), it can be. As your company expands its social media web to more sites it can be difficult to maintain all of them. Luckily most websites offer automatic integration. With integration one Tweet or blog post or video is reposted automatically to all your accounts. One click will update five websites.

Even better, though, is to figure out which sites best suit your company rather than try to use every one. Are you a non-profit?  Perhaps Kickstarter will connect you to other fundraisers, donors, and young idealists. Want to reach the college crowd? Try Facebook. If you are an artist you could use tumblr to host your daily portfolio additions. Want to converse with celebrities and try to get them to endorse you (good luck)? Try Twitter. Is your company involved in current events, news, and the law? You could you could host relevant articles and columns with your commentary on del.icio.us. LinkedIn is practically a requirement for B2B organizations looking to find new clients and partners.

The trick to making social media easy is finding your audience on the web and setting aside a little time for conversations with them. You can do as little or as much as you’d like, but you need to do something. Soon. This is what we do everyday at SVG: help companies and organizations communicate.

It can’t be harder than this, right?

How Video Ties “Past,” “Present,” and “Future” Marketing Together

“Is the Corporate Website a Digital Dinosaur?” asks ClickZ author Lauren Price. Well? Is it?

Executives might think  company and business Facebook pages will “soon replace corporate websites as the center of the commercial world,” or that Twitter will outperform traditional websites. But whatever the latest medium, social video marketing has a proven record to reach perspective clients online with outstanding results.  The beauty of internet marketing is that you can combine all the elements in a unique, purposeful way. Draw your clients from your corporate website videos to your twitter page; link to your blog and videomercials; and stay connected to the marketing strategy of the future with Skillman Video Group.

Social Video @Kickstarter

Ever wonder how to build a company around an invention without fabulously wealthy Venture Capitalist friends?  Kickstarter leverages the power of web 2.0, social-media, and video to crowd source startup capital. Artists, designers, entrepreneurs, activists, and storytellers appeal to the world-wide-web for funding and launch their ideas from the collective small donations of many. In the past few years I’ve been watching Kickstarter quickly become the place for DIY creative startups. They host every kind of project including technology, theater, food, comic books, and so on. Non-profit and for-profit are both welcome. It’s a bold, new model for business and art.

Kickstarter is also an unlikely host to a wide variety of marketing video examples. Each and every Kickstarter project must have a video pitch. They place videos above all other content. Kickstarter recognizes that video is essential to marketing your ideas. According to Kickstarter (and SVG), everything can be marketed with video even electronic prototype kits and mead and whatever your company offers. Designers and entrepreneurss profiled in a New York Times article talk about how important videos are for getting funding because the Kickstarter crowd is tech-saavy netizens. Anyone who finds you on the web expects video, and if you don’t have it you are behind the curve.

The site hosts every genre from documentary style to movie trailers to humble webcam-style. Some just use flashy imagery. Most are very simple. The trick is to match up the style and content with the brand and message and connect with your audience– things SVG is really good at. We’ve made videos in nearly every one of these styles for a wide variety of clients and worked in fundraising videos.

Marketing videos may be the most important  part of Kickstarter’s success and that of their users. It follows that it will be essential to your company or organization as well — not just for making an appeal to customers and clients, but also for SEO and brand. We’ve talked about this many, many times on our blog. If you don’t have video, you might be dismissed or ignored.

If you don’t know where to start with marketing your company, follow Kickstarter’s lead, check out a few examples there, and call Skillman Video Group.

The Next Step in Social Video is Google+ Hangouts

As you might already know, Google bought YouTube back in 2006, and the company has been working on integrating the two sites ever since.  One of the latest features allows users to watch YouTube videos with up to 10 friends via Google+. This is accomplished through Google+’s “Hangout” feature, so it all happens in real-time. Imagine being in Boston and watching your friends in San Francisco reacting to your favorite funny video!

Here at Skillman Video Group, we know that word of mouth is one of the primary means through which people receive information about new products. Generally, consumers trust the opinions of their friends, family, and co-workers. If your friend strongly recommends a certain restaurant, you’re probably more likely to dine there in the future. Similarly, if your friend recommends that you watch a particular online video, you’ll likely check it out.

With the increased emphasis on sharing content, creating an excellent video that will keep viewers entertained is now more important than ever. It can be a daunting task to produce a video that people will want to share with their friends, but fortunately for you, Skillman Video Group is up to the task! Whether you’d like your video to be humorous and informative, or formal in nature, our team of experts will ensure that you are completely satisfied with the finished product.

Marketing Videos for Mediators

Yesterday Skillman Video group shot a legal marketing video for Massachusttes Dispute Resolution Services in Salem, MA. This is a mediation firm that arbitrates disputes between parties outside a courtroom. We redesigned the firm’s website this summer and founder Brian Jerome. wanted to create a video that would let his potential clients get to know him and his firm a little better.

This legal marketing video was unique because it was directed soley at attorneys seeking mediation, not the general public. The average joe has no real need for a mediator, but other firms use them extensively. This meant that Mr. Jerome spoke in a more business-like manner free to use terms of art. Direct, professional, and approachable was the best way to convey the message that his organization is unbiased, fair, experienced, and trustworthy. He didn’t have to be flashy or inviting or cute because he didn’t need to appeal to the masses.

MDRS reminded me most of our B2B clients: They have a small target audience, in this case only other attorneys, and are free to speak in depth without fear of alienating laymen. In B2B videos professionalism speaks for itself.

We went in and made a quick, attractive set in an otherwise dull conference room using what was available on location. One of SVG’s talents is making fast sets from nothing. For some of our best set design check out our social video on youtube.

Now that we’ve done web design and video for Massachusttes Dispute Resolution Services, they are considering doing a series of videomercials or social videos with us about more in depth, specific topics. What might you want to learn from a series of legal marketing videos? Check out some of our other work for law firms here.

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