Barbara Walters Price

Marketing Info You May Have Missed

• Adding Custom Content to New Facebook Pages - Ducttape Marketing (always useful, how-to information)
• Which Social Sites Are Best for Which Marketing Outcomes? [INFOGRAPHIC] - Mashable (Very helpful graphic. Use as part of your social media marketing strategy.
• Easily See the Incoming and Backlinks to Your Site - BlogAid (Mentions a handy module that I sometimes overlook)
• Three Tips for Generating Blog Post Topics -- Fast! - Dianna Huff's Newsletter (Great stuff)
• One Person Every Corporate Blogging Program Needs - Content Marketing Institute (This post is for larger companies/firms. Many of the professional service firms I know don't have the capacity for this position. However, the advice on how to set up and think about your blog is great.)

• LinkedIn announces LinkedIn Today "which delivers the day’s top news, tailored to you based on what your connections and industry peers are reading and sharing." For more info, see the video below. I use Paper.li to generate a "daily newspaper" which pulls from the people I follow on Twitter. I find it quite helpful and am anxious to test out LinkedInToday.

 

Helpful Resources on How to Record Your Own Videos

Last week, while searching for resources on how to record and edit your own business videos, I ran across an October 2010 video from Ian Brodie and posted about it.

This week, Larry Bodine posted "How To Create a Professional Video Studio for Under $1,500." Sweet. Thanks Larry.

Great advice from both.  If you are interested in using videos in your marketing efforts, check out my post (and be sure to read the comments where Ian graciously provided specific information about the equipment he uses) and Larry's post.

"The QR code has become the shortest distance between curiosity and information retrieval"

In an opinion piece on Mashable, Hamilton Chan tells us Why QR Codes Will Go Mainstream. I agree. The heart of the article:

... hyperlinks are now making their natural migration from desktop monitors to objects in the real world. We no longer need to be tethered to a desktop computer in order to use the internet to interact with the world around us. When you see something that you want information about, you no longer have to make a mental note to look it up later on Google. You can simply point your smartphone at the object and obtain the desired information without typing or speaking. In essence, the QR code has become the shortest distance between curiosity and information retrieval.

The beauty of QR codes is that they are an open-source and freely licensed standard. They cost nothing additional to add to printed materials and can be scanned by free readers on all smartphones and even some feature phones.

There is a lot of buzz surrounding QR codes yet some wonder why they are not more popular or better known.  Hamilton makes an astute observation:

Given our late adopter culture, tech trends should be expected to take a while here in the U.S. CDs were popular in Asia long before they made a dent in America. The same was true of DVDs, mobile phones, and now QR codes. Given this predisposition, the only way forward for any new technology is to be relentless in providing inherent value and easy uptake. By experimenting with QR codes early, advertisers can become adept at engaging with users on a mobile basis, so that when QR codes do hit the mainstream, they will be ready.

In the comment section on this opinion piece, several people where surprised that more people didn't know what QR codes are. The majority of the people I interact with daily (very bright financial professionals within an age range of 24 - 50) have no idea what a QR code is or how to use it. They are all tech-savvy. So, there are lots and lots of bright people who haven't heard or paid attention to this technology.

Because you've read this far, you can now say that you're not one of them. Consider how a QR code might work for you and your practice (or at least you personally).

To help, here is a good overview from Sundance Marketing Solutions. (Download a QR code scanner, and try the technology out on the QR codes on the "Questions" slide in this presentation. I think this is the easiest use of QR codes for professional service firms.)

QR Code Marketing Presentation

View more presentations from SunDance Marketing Solutions

Marketing Info/Wisdom You May Have Missed

• Using Surveys to Automatically Create Reviews and Referrals - Ducttape Marketing (simple idea that can be transforming for your practice)
• Law Firm Marketing Tip: 3 Radically New Ideas for 2011 - Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog (Not sure these ideas are "radical" but they are good and every fee-earner or marketer in a professional services firm should consider them)
• Give Better Interviews - Chris Brogan (if you have considered interviewing others as part of your marketing content mix, this post is food for thought)
• Who’s Really Scanning All Those QR Codes? [INFOGRAPHIC] - Mashable (Professional service firm marketers are thinking about how to use QR codes effectively. This is an informative infographic.)
• Social media… terrific, but not a replacement for your website - B2B Web Strategy (my thoughts exactly)
• SalesCrunch.com Lists the Top 50 Sales Blogs - Sales and Sales Management Blog ('nuff said)
• 20 Examples of Great Facebook Pages - Hubspot Blog (good examples but where are the professional services firms?)

Google's Personal Profile Takes Inspiration from Facebook

Google announced today that they have redesigned their Google Profile pages.  They now resemble the Info page on your Facebook profile.  Per Stan Schroeder of Mashable:

The new Profile looks a bit more like the Info page on your Facebook profile, with your photo in the top left corner, essential information about you below, while a scrapbook of photos and more detailed info about your occupation, employment, education and whereabouts dominating the biggest part of the page. The new design is not groundbreaking in any way, but it’s much nicer than before and it gets the job done.

See the example of the new design.

If you haven't already, you can set up your Google Profile by clicking here.

To edit your profile, visit profiles.google.com.

Other resources:

Decide what the world sees when it searches for you (Google Social Web Blog)

Share Your Online Identity with the World with enhanced Google profiles (TechBU)

Are you struggling to produce quality videos? Great advice from Ian Brodie.

I found Ian Brodie through the wonder that is the blogosphere.  Ian is a marketing consultant and consistently produces great content.  As a CMO who is struggling to produce business quality videos, I went looking for rescources, and I found a post from October 2010 by Ian helpful.

Entitled "Three Critical Mistakes to Avoid with Business Videos," Ian, through a video, discusses these mistakes:

1. It is important to look into the camera. (Memorize or get telepromter software - his explanatory comments go into more detail)
2. Make your gestures natural. (This can be one of the hardest things to do when recording a video. It feels so unnatural to speak to a camera instead of another person so Ian's advice is to practice, practice, practice. Your efforts will make a positive difference on how the video is received.)
3. Use an external mic.  (Ian notes that people tend to focus on picture quality and not sound quality when most cameras can produce good picture quality for the web.  However, if you use a camera with an internal mic, your sound quality can be horrendous, forcing you to reshoot the video, so use an external mic and make sure that your camera can support an external mic.)

Check out the comments to this post for further good information.

We have found that for us, if we can record in our offices rather than going off-site, we have a greater chance of getting the video completed, rather than just talked about, so I am interested in what kind of camera Ian uses and particularly, what kind of lighting he uses.

Another tip that I'll add is to keep the video short (Ian's is 3:11), to the point, and full of useful content.  Don't make it a commercial.  No one will watch.  If it's a long video, people will get bored and won't watch.  When developing content for the video, think about your ideal client and speak to a problem that they have and give them solutions.  That's the best content you can produce.  Then post to YouTube and Vimeo and have the video available on your website.

I'll keep you posted in our journey to produce videos.