SVG shoots viral instructional video for Brewster Home Fashions

A couple weeks ago, Skillman Video Group shot an instructional video on wallpaper installation for Brewster Home Fashions, a Boston-based manufacturer and distributor of fine wall coverings and home décor. This video will be posted to Brewster’s website to enhance their online visibility and web-based marketing. As mentioned previously, on Wednesday we built the set for this video, using drywall flats, paint, and a little elbow grease to give it the appearance of a real room in a home. It was the first time SVG had built a set for a shoot, working with the client to ensure that the space was optimal. By Wednesday night, the set was ready to go, with white walls just begging for a fun, new wall treatment.

The stylistic choice for this instructional video was  shots of our talent, Lauren,  putting up the wallpaper in her

“room”, and a narration recorded separately to be added in later. The video covered the most common issues a homeowner might have when installing wallpaper, such as insuring the first sheet is straight, successfully navigating around a corner, and working around outlets, light switches, and doorways.  A scripted narration is a great option for a how-to video; it ensures that the instructions are succinct and easy to follow, and takes the pressure off the on-camera talent to get the information out and allows him or her to focus on doing the job right.

Once again, a video like this can be a great way to introduce potential customers to your company. The use of a real customer like Lauren with the straightforward instructional narration gives the client a look at the beautiful wallpapers Brewster Home Fashions has, and the simple, stress-free application of the product.

This two-day shoot was a success, and the “room” looked fabulous after it got a makeover with a fantastic Brewster Home Fashions wallpaper. We were able to shoot some more footage for our “behind the scenes” video, which will give people a glimpse at the process from start to finish. Check in soon to see the final product!

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?

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.

New Social Media, Branding, and Website Services at SVG

Is your company or organization looking for new marketing ideas? What comes after we shoot your video? SVG now offers a number of new services that might interest you. If you are reading this blog or following our tweets then you have already seen a few of our new services in action.

When was the last time you updated your website? Gitte Lindgaard of Otowa university found that web surfers judge your website within 50 milliseconds. In that time you have to show your visitors that you are active, up to date, and care about your image. If your visitors judge your website as old and unattractive they might go elsewhere. If your website still looks like it’s hosted on geocities it is definitely time for an update. Many companies update their website every two or three years just to avoid being seen as stale. SVG can build you a new website with a Content Management System that allows your to integrate your video and social media campaigns.

Do you have a social media campaign? Not only can you keep current customers up to date on new products, events, services, developments, etc. but you also show visitors that your company is active. SVG will set up your Blog, Facebook landing page, twitter feed, marketing emails, and any other social media outlet you want to investigate. SVG will collaborate with you to find the best social media outlets to reach your potential customers and open new markets.

Web design and social media play a huge role in our most important new service: SEO. SVG has an SEO guru who can leverage your blog, website, and video to boost your company’s visibility on search engines. SVG can help your customers find you on the web.

SVG works with our clients to develop your brand, website, and social media to create the first impression you want. We have the resources to give you a total marketing package — a serious advantage. You can read more about our services here. Take a look at our portfolio to see how we’ve helped other clients market themselves.

Google + Makes the Rounds

This past week, Google unveiled its new social networking platform, Google+, to selected users.

The site features much of the same functionality as Facebook and Twitter, but with a twist. One can still chat with friends, share photos and other content, and follow brands or celebrities. However, Google+ aims to mimic how relationships work in the real world, namely that people relate differently to different groups of friends. For example, if I found an article about a new development in online video marketing, many of my friends would not be particularly interested in hearing about it. However, with Google+, I could easily choose to share the article exclusively with my friends at Skillman Video Group. In this way, Google+ places emphasis on the commonalities between friends, rather than simply having a large number of “friends,” which in the case of Facebook, more closely translates to acquaintances.

Although this functionality is not yet available, Google plans to allow businesses to create their own pages on Google+ in the near future. A wide variety of companies, from mom and pop stores to huge multinational brands such as Coca-Cola and Nike, have already found great success using Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites as marketing tools. It is easy to see why these firms would be excited about this groundbreaking new social network from the leader in the search industry.

As the social media space continues to grow, it will become more and more difficult to maintain your business’s web presence, as it is still vitally important to keep each account updated with original content in order to keep your audience engaged. Each social networking site brings fresh challenges, but also vast opportunities! If this all sounds a bit overwhelming, let the social media experts at Skillman Video Group help you out! We will advise you on which sites would be most beneficial to your businesses, and we will set you up with visually appealing profiles loaded with content. Call us today to find out more!

SVG Video Of The Week: What is a Facebook Landing Page and How Do You Create One?

A landing page is the first webpage that someone will see when they click on the main link to a website. It is the first page that a user “lands” on, so to speak.  As a default, Facebook sets its landing page to the Facebook wall, so any account, whether for business or personal use will send people to the Facebook wall unless settings are otherwise changed. Now eventually you do want people to see your Facebook wall, but it can sometimes be a bit much with the pictures going across the top, and posts from others, as well as comments and advertisements. That’s why it is a good idea to consider creating a “Facebook Landing Page”.

Creating a landing page on a Facebook business page is a great way to make a positive first impression. Using images and text, the landing page can be seen as an advertisement to give viewers an idea about what your business does and why people should care. As with most social media, the more engaging landing pages will have the best success. The more a company connect with a viewer the better chance that someone will want to know more about the business and thus proceed on to look at the Facebook wall, photos, and discussions. Also, most standard landing pages will feature a “Like” button, so having a good landing page can help to generate more “likes” and better buzz for businesses! SVG is currently in the process of creating a unique landing page for our Facebook account so be on the lookout for that! http://www.facebook.com/BostonSocialVideoMarketing

Here is a link to an article showcasing well designed landing pages: http://bit.ly/ibGpGX

ALSO, here is a video on how to create a Facebook landing page:

SVG Social Media Platform of the Week: “Postling”

It is clear now that social media is here to stay and represents an important way for any business small or large to connect with their customers. It seems like every so often a new social media platform pops up that everyone must be a part of in order to be successful. Facebook started it, but not long after Twitter and LinkedIn became essential as well. That is why the focus this week will be on “Postling”, a free program that functions to allow you to view and update all of your social media accounts from one website.

Since we operate multiple social media accounts here at SVG, we understand it can be very inconvenient and often times frustrating to have to sign in and out to 3 or 4 different social networking accounts every day putting up pictures and videos, tweeting, retweeting, posting blog entries, responding to any comments, and the many other never-ending duties that go along with maintaining a social presence online.

As mentioned, what “Postling” offers is the ability to see everything that your business does with social media all on one page. One of example of how it can help is that it supports websites such as yelp, so a company can receive notifications when someone writes a review about them. Overall, it should cut down on the amount of time that needs to be spent going back and forth between social media outlets all day, because while social media may be important, people still have businesses they need to run. So for those who have troubled being organized or want to be even more put together with their social networking, “Postling” is something to check out.

Let us know about any other social media management sites you may have heard of and what you think about our “Social Media of the Week” posts.  Remember that Skillman Video Group can help you craft a Social Media and Video Marketing campaign that will not only increase traffic to your site, but also increase conversion rates from web site visitors to business prospects.  Call today to learn more!

Cick the link here to see a complete list of all Social Media Management programs: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/03/19/list-of-social-media-management-systems-smms/

5 Tips for Running a Facebook Business Page

At SVG we are always looking to learn from others about the most effective ways to utilize social media platforms. Through research, I have gathered here 5 simple but important pointers about running a facebook business page. Take a look and let me know what you think or if I left anything out!

1. Interact: Make sure that you are interacting with the people reading your facebook page by posing questions in order to create a discussion. The more you communicate with your followers, the more you will appear to them as a real person and not just some business trying to push their product.

2. Mix it up: Don’t post only status updates or only discussion questions on your facebook wall. Be sure to include a healthy balance of video, pictures, and helpful links in addition to the discussion questions and updates.

3. Get Connected: If your company is on LinkedIn, Twitter, or runs a blog make sure that you provide links to them on your Facebook page and vice-versa. Use Twitter and LinkedIn to draw people to your Facebook posts and discussions and use Facebook to get allow others to follow you on Twitter. The more social media outlets you are involved in, the more exposure you will receive, so make sure each social media platform compliments the other. Here is an example: Hey check out the Skillman Video Group Facebook page here: http://on.fb.me/h3cjbA

4. Be Social!: It’s called “Social” media for a reason. If someone posts on your wall or likes your Facebook page, you should highly consider returning the favor. Also, you can’t just wait for others to find your page, you must go onto other pages you think are relevant or may be potential business clients and post questions or introduce yourself. The more you are able to productively put your name out there, the more people will know about your business.

5. Keep It Up: Once you decide to establish your presence in any social media realm, be sure to keep posting, adding links, and creating discussions on a daily basis. Once you begin on a social network platform and start interacting, people will begin to see your profile and learn about who you are and what you do. If your social media page doesn’t stay relevant with new and fresh updates or videos, you may lose the interests of your followers.

A lot of times we know it is difficult for small business owners to keep up with the constant demands of Social Media.  Call us today for a free consultation to see what ways our all-inclusive service “Social Video Marketing”  can give your Social Media campaign some focus and bring in a higher return on investment.

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