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December 27, 2014
Examples showing how screencasts can help different types of business
Screencast videos are already a big hit in the education industry. Tuning into a video demonstration gives your audience a step-by-step guide, showing them exactly what to do.
This is exactly how big providers such as Khan Academy and Treehouse got started.
But screencasting doesn’t just have to be about how-to videos, it’s also a powerful tool that can be used to create clever customer-focussed videos or provide feedback on client assignments.
This means that the technology has applications across a range of industries for businesses of all sizes.
What is a screencast video?
Essentially, screencasting is recording your computer screen and adding audio to it.
Screencast programs usually highlight your cursor to make it clear to your viewer where the focus of attention should be.
Screencast videos can be sold as a series of tutorial products or uploaded as a how-to…
YouTube overtakes Facebook to become the most visited social network
Not content with being the second largest search engine, earlier this year YouTube beat Facebook to become the most visited social media site in the US.
Yes, you read that right. Research from Compete PRO, which operates one of the largest consumer panels in the US, indicated that unique visitors to YouTube edged ahead of Facebook by over 1.3m visitors in June 2014. While this may come as a surprise to many readers, it’s been on the cards for some time as this graph from Compete illustrates:
You can see that YouTube and Facebook had been slogging it out over the previous few months but finally sometime between May and June this year YouTube got the better of them.
This news mostly slipped under the radar at the time, mainly due to the way the major research…
Going Social - what does it do to your brain?
Gone are the days when we received advice from our friends and neighbours on a ocial media treet corner, or perhaps at the most recent neighbourhood block party because face-to-face conversations are becoming a thing of the past. I must admit that I have texted my friends from the next room on more than one occasion.
Back when I was an adolescent, baby boomers like myself grew up with telephone conversations with a phone which was anchored to the kitchen wall, and further restricting us with a twisting and tangled cord. Now landlines are also becoming extinct with almost half of us ditching them completely for our wireless and hand-held devices.
Enter the world of Social Media
This is where social media comes into the picture, as now our dialogues have shifted to these platforms.…
8 ways to integrate social media into your email marketing
Rather than email becoming obsolete, widespread use of social media updates via email has, in many ways, reinforced how email is an even more powerful marketing channel. I'm sure many of you already use email and social media separately to help promote your business but how many of you integrate your social media and email marketing?
Including and promoting social sharing or share with your network options in an email campaign is beneficial for a couple of reasons:
They extend the reach of your emails: The more people who share your email, the more potential you have for opens, clicks and conversions.
They provide an opportunity for list growth: The more eyes on your emails, the better chance you have of gaining new subscribers.
So how do you integrate email and social media? Here…
Plus a clever Facebook cover image trick
With ever lowering Facebook reach, fan acquisition on Facebook is increasingly less of a desirable goal. Yet I do believe that the platform still has a major role to play for many brands, not least because of the ubiquity of the platform, but also for its simply awesome targeting potential.
Savvy brands are using the platform to acquire new potential customers, but not necessarily as fans, instead they are using Facebook's wealth of advertising opportunities to data capture email addresses for their own databases.
Page admins have moaned long and hard about decreasing reach - how hard it is to reach fans which many have paid to acquire. With the end of like gating and further algorithm changes afoot in January (Facebook will drastically reduce the reach of Pages that have a tendency to post promotional content with limited "context"), it is most certainly time to…
A review of key features in LinkedIn
Although B2B marketers tend to focus more on reaching and interacting with their audiences on LinkedIn, this infographic reminds us that there are opportunities on Facebook too.
The infographic from Marketing Mojo explains some of the basics when it comes to weighing up options for advertising across LinkedIn vs Facebook. For more advanced users, refer to our social media hub for LinkedIn and Facebook features.
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Facebook plans to filter out "promotional posts" in the News Feed from businesses and brands from January 2015
Importance: [rating=5]
Recommended Link: Facebook announcement: Facebook's overly promotional page posts in News Feed
Getting your brand status updates to reach your fans is becoming more of a challenge as Dan Bosomworth recently noted in this post on techniques to increase organic reach in Facebook.
This new change which Facebook say is due to research where their Fans told them that were looking for more personalised posts in their News Feed from friends and 'those they cared about', with less promotional content. Their alert says:
'What we discovered is that a lot of the content people see as too promotional is posts from Pages they like, rather than ads', according to Facebook.
Of course the cynics amongst you will think this might have something to do…
Will 'Facebook at Work' reduce the power of LinkedIn?
Importance: [rating=5]
Recommended link: Facebook at Work
This is an interesting development, particularly for B2B marketers, but also for all of us who use LinkedIn to progress our careers and seek jobs!
The development has not been widely reported other than in an FT.com article from 16th November which described the forthcoming new service like this:
"Facebook is secretly working on a new website called “Facebook at Work”...
The Silicon Valley company is developing a new product designed to allow users to chat with colleagues, connect with professional contacts and collaborate over documents, competing with Google Drive and Microsoft Office, according to people familiar with the matter.
The new site will look very much like Facebook – with a newsfeed and groups – but will allow users to keep their personal profile…
A 40 point checklist for marketing with Instagram
With over 20% of Internet users with Instagram accounts, it could pay to take a closer look at Instagram, particular for consumer marketing. If you are a new adopter of Instagram for marketing or seeking reassurance you are using Instagram correctly, this efficient Instagram marketing infographic summarises the basics well. It covers ensuring your profile is up to date, through to engagement techniques with mentions, visual content (photos and videos) and how to manage Instagram campaigns.
You can also check out our Instagram Marketing Hub and guide for more in-depth information on how to improve your marketing.…
Understanding your social media site integration and improving its impact on your inbound marketing
Social media is now a truly established inbound marketing channel, with capacities to re-engage a customer base and influence huge audiences. So much so, that links, buttons and widgets that connect websites to profiles are ubiquitous. Indeed, there is barely a site hosted without them.
I think it is safe to assume that the vast majority of people will consider it best practice to have them on websites, yet how many of us think consciously about their potential impacts on a website?
Creating distraction and exit points without motive
Linking to social media accounts from websites can, of course, be hugely advantageous for a business. However, having scoured websites from a wide range of sectors, it is noticeable that many do not use them in ways that channels users sensibly.
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