Tag: Video

Business Marketing: The Power of Video

Three focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital world, there are a myriad of ways to market your business. A powerful tool for doing so is video. The following contributed post is entitled, Business Marketing: The Power of Video.

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Picture by Free-Photos from Pixabay – CC0 Licence

Video marketing is an essential component of most small and large companies’ marketing programs. Over the years, creating a video has become much more accessible to SMEs. Allowing them to make use of what is one of the most attractive content marketing techniques available.

With 75 million Americans watching videos online every day, videos maintain a profound influence in attracting and engaging customers. To find out more about how video marketing could benefit your business. Whether you own a startup that’s focusing on breaking even, or a long-established company, seeking to modernize your current marketing strategies. Below you can find a few reasons why videos are crucial.

Higher Ranking On Search Engines

Search engines like Google favor platforms online that host videos. Videos are respected as a valuable form of content by search engines. Providing the video created is appropriately optimized, it can work wonders for lifting the ranking of your, for example, company website. To optimize a video correctly, while uploading the video online, you must fill in the metadata and include relevant keywords.

Influences Purchasing Decisions

People are much more likely to purchase a product if there is a video demonstrating its use. It gives a customer’s buyers confidence as they can witness a product in action. According to Social Media Today, 90% of customers stated a video is fundamental in their decision-making journey, on whether to buy something. A video demonstration provides the viewer with a better understanding and appreciation of its functions and benefits.

If you have a smartphone or video recorder, you may be tempted to create your own video. However, it’s advised you source and partner with a Video Production Company that can curate quality and professional moving pictures for your business instead. Reason being, suppose you create a video that is inferior in quality, featured in bad lighting, or there’s a problem with script continuity. It shall tarnish a customer’s opinion of your company and the advertised product or service. Thus seeking an experienced video production company is crucial to eliminate this risk.

Easy To Digest

The public prefers watching videos because they’re easier to digest compared to written content. The accessibility and engaging qualities of video make it a popular medium for businesses to use and consumers to view.

It allows companies to present and inform users about their products adequately. And, better yet, customers are more likely to remember a video over stand-alone content and graphics.

Simple To Share

A business video can be distributed more or less anywhere online. A company website, a Youtube channel, a blog, and on most social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo.

With video, you can extend the reach of your business online and increase brand awareness. While you work to upload and distribute your video across the web, once your target audience sees it, (providing it’s relevant to them, informative, engaging, and entertaining), consumers are likely to share it!

To unlock the power of video as a useful marketing tool for business, companies need to seek a production team with experience creating compelling motion pictures for enterprises.

Recruiting During The COVID-19 Pandemic: Top tips For Holding Video Interviews

Two key focuses of my blog are Organizational and Management Discussions and Technology. The Coronavirus/Covid-19 Crisis/Pandemic has at least in the short-term changed how organizations are run and how workers are hired for example. During this time, new staff members are being interviewed and onboarded using video interviews. The following contributed post is entitled, Recruiting During The COVID-19 Pandemic: Top tips For Holding Video Interviews.

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While we are all becoming accustomed to video calls within our teams and with external partners, having others come into the company can feel different. The recruitment process is a complex one, that needs a personal touch. From judging the firmness of their handshake and how they walk into a room and command attention, interviewing takes into consideration many non-verbal cues. However, if handled correctly, it is more than possible to manage the interview and recruitment process without meeting the candidates in person. You can even read their body language without that ‘hands-on’ sense.

Here, we look at some tips to help you get through a video interview and pick the right candidates for your position.

Image credit: Pixabay CC0 License

Ask questions that are relevant but unconnected to the position

You might be wondering how you can ask tangential questions, but still relevant, but it is more than possible. The more that you can find out about your candidates and how they would approach certain situations and what they think about particular things can tell you an awful lot about them. However, you may want to avoid asking them questions that do not directly correspond to the job responsibilities, as these may be well-rehearsed and not as meaningful. One question you could ask, for example, is about their relationship with their previous or current employer. How they answer that can be very telling.

Make clear your expectations

When everyone involved in the process, including the candidates, knows what to expect, it will go a whole lot smoother. When people know in advance what will happen, they will come better prepared to talk about their relevant work experience and bring the appropriate resources or certification. It is also helpful to give them an idea of how long the interview or the recruitment process will last, as this keeps them – and you – engaged.

Impress them

Remember, an interview is to benefit both parties. You, to see if they are a good fit for your business, and for them, to see if you are the kind of company that they can envisage themselves working for. You have the upper hand when it comes to an in-person interview; they are visiting the workplace and see other employees and get a sense of who you are and the brand you represent. When you conduct interviews remotely, you do not have that footing, so just as they need to impress you, you need to impress them. Making sure your video stream is as high-quality as possible is just one part of that as it gives the candidate a good idea of how professional you are to work for. Also, think about your own appearance. It may seem shallow and frivolous, but first impressions DO make a big difference. Did you know, for example, that blue is the color that you are recommended to wear to make an impact?

Video interviewing is not all that different from face to face interviews. Making sure that the technology works, that everyone knows the process, and that you look for the nuances that really give you an insight into the candidate is key to a successful interview.

4 Important Security Tips When Video Conferencing During The Lockdown

Two key focuses of my blog are Current Events and Technology. The Coronavirus/Covid-19 Crisis/Pandemic has further pushed digital forms of communication to the forefront. In terms of businesses and organizations of all kinds, video conferencing has become critical. It isn’t without its security concerns though. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Important Security Tips When Video Conferencing During The Lockdown.

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The COVID-19 crisis and the resulting lockdown have had a huge impact on businesses around the globe. All businesses are having to find new ways of doing things, and many of them are using online tools to keep themselves going. Video conferencing software is one of the most important online tools that people are using right now because it allows everybody to stay in touch when face to face meetings are not an option. However, when you are discussing sensitive business matters and sending important data online, it’s vital that you consider security. There have already been a lot of issues with video calls being hacked, so it’s important that you take steps to protect yourself. These are some of the best ways to make sure that your video conferences are safe.

Image From Pexels CCO License

Use Managed VoIP Services

There are a lot of popular video conferencing tools, like Zoom or Google Hangouts, that many businesses and consumers are using to stay in touch with people during lockdown. However, these free pieces of software are not always suitable for business purposes and if you really want to ensure security, you should use managed VoIP, or voice over internet protocol services instead (click the link to see more information). A professionally managed VoIP will give you access to all of the video conferencing features that you need and they are a lot more secure than the consumer options.

Waiting Rooms

Whether you are using a managed VoIP service or a simple piece of video conferencing software, you should always use the waiting room feature. This feature puts people into a separate waiting room and then the host can see who they are before admitting them to the meeting. That way, anybody that shouldn’t be in the meeting can be blocked from entering.

Passwords

Most video conferencing software allows you to set a password that users need to input before they can join the call. It’s vital that you use a password on any meeting, no matter how trivial it may seem. If you are using software that allows you to create your own password for a meeting, make sure that you use a strong password that is not easy to crack. If you have a password in place and a waiting room, it’s incredibly difficult for anybody to access the meeting.

Do Not Allow Screen Sharing By Default

One of the best things about video conferencing software is the ability to screen share, but it can also be dangerous. If somebody manages to enter the call, and one of your employees is sharing their screen with lots of sensitive information on it, that’s a big problem. When you set up a call, do not allow screen sharing by default. That way, you can make sure that the call is definitely secure before you activate screen sharing, and ensure that people are only using it when absolutely necessary.

Video conferencing software is a great tool that is helping businesses adjust to the lockdown, but it is important that you follow these tips to make sure that you are secure.

3 Commandments Of Successful Video Marketing

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Video Content/Media Creation. Writing is not the only form of content creation. In our modern Digital Age, video content creation has become just as prominent as traditional written content. If done correctly, it can prove to be very lucrative and powerful. The following contributed post is entitled, 3 Commandments Of Successful Video Marketing.

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Pixabay (CC0 Licence)

The importance of video content in marketing has been one of the most-discussed subjects in business over the last few years. Around the middle of the decade, you couldn’t go more than a few minutes without hearing the phrase “pivot to video”; and indeed, plenty of content providers went out of their way to leave behind text – only to later find out that this was a mistake when it actually led to declining page views. Slowly but surely, the message that seems to be filtering out of the content world is that video is important – but what’s really important is how it is used.

If you’re aiming to put content out there that people will want to use, and share, then – as well as not relying purely on video content – you also need to make sure that the videos you do make are engaging and memorable. So let’s take a look at the commandments of video content – the rules you’ll need to stick to for your content to be successful:

#1. Make it unique

As the decade draws to a close, we are seeing more and more people becoming celebrities purely off the back of video content – which draws more and more viewers to the platforms they use. That’s an opportunity for anyone creating video content to harness a potentially huge customer base – as long as your content doesn’t fade into the background. Make it visually arresting by working with the likes of Zaini Media to create memorable animations – and because even something as simple as the video thumbnail can make a difference to views, consider how you can make images that stand out from the crowd.

#2. Be an engaged creator

One of the internet’s unspoken commandments is “Don’t read the comments”. It’s an understandable rule, too – anyone online who so much as breathes a personal opinion into cyberspace can end up at the mercy of trolls – but it’s one you might need to break if you want your content to win people over. In fact, not only should you read the comments, you should reply. Before too long you’ll be able to filter out the useless comments, and engage with the people who are there for the right reason; this is how you build subscriptions and get more visibility. That is the kind of growth that can be self-sustaining.

#3. Be topical, but don’t be controversial

If your niche is in the news for whatever reason, this is the ideal time to make and release a quick video offering your informed take on the news story. If, for example, your niche happens to be in the “healthy eating” field, and a story emerges about a new “superfood”, you can make a video offering the benefits of your knowledge. The more topical the story, the better the possibility your video will go viral. Just one word of warning; step away from more controversial treatments of any subject, as these can cause videos to be downranked and demonetised. That may bring worthwhile attention if you’re a topical channel, but it’s the death-knell for marketing content.

These three commandments are among the most important things to remember when trying to make an impact with your video marketing content. Stick to these rules and you won’t go too far wrong!