Blog

By Christine Rochelle

I recently told everyone that they should hire someone to be a digital face of their business.

I can sense the panic that any business owner would have in entrusting their brand in the hands of some blogger, social media specialist, or whatever you want to call it. In order to clearly state why this concept works for any brand, I’ll point out the advantages by shutting down the 5 basic fears that businesses have with putting the responsibility of their brand marketing on the shoulders of highly visible team members.

Fear #1 – Hiring an employee to represent your brand online could result in disaster due to poor brand representation. This is why you hire a professional blogger, not your nephew or your friend’s kid who is a recent college graduate looking for a job. People do this for a living for businesses and are successful.

In fact, out of 160 million blogs, 21% are business blogs with people behind them. Creating processes that hold your team accountable such as a content calendar and a social media policy are the key in a winning structure for both employee and employer.

Fear #2 – If they ever leave the business I then lose everything. The Internet has shrunken our attention spans significantly. I’m not saying to have your digital faces be interviewed by ‘The New York Times’ or have sip coffee alongside Kelly Ripa. Although, that would certainly be some great exposure.

Your digital face is posting on social networks and blogging daily. Swap one blogger out with someone else and while of course you suffer a loss as you do with any other employee as long as you maintain those three principles – consistency, relevance, engagement – then with the help of our Internet ADD you should be just fine. Do you not hire sales people because you might lose them one day?

Fear #3 – Having a digital face to my company doesn’t offer any real value to my existing structure. In fact, it has both internal and external benefits to your existing structure. On the external side of the coin, the concept allows your brand to be more human and thus easier to digest and relate to for consumers. Strong customer relations certainly lead to stronger sales.

As far as your current internal structure, it allows you to constantly define your goals for your staff and share valuable knowledge that keeps them on the same page. You are able to execute both those goals using the same networks they already comfortably use in their personal time and comfort leads to an increase in team collaboration.

Fear #4 – It devalues the business brand. Currently, most businesses devote the majority of their budgets to outbound marketing, or traditional marketing. This form of marketing is business-centric, not consumer-centric. Whether it is skipping TV commercials, tossing unopened direct mail to the trash, using the Yellow Pages as a step stool, or adding their numbers to the “Do Not Call List”, consumers are experts at avoiding outbound marketing.

Connecting with consumers through online networks originally created for them and getting on their level by putting a face to your business brand is not only effective it is also extremely cost efficient.

Fear #5 – It has never been done before. Completely false. Small business entrepreneurs have welcomed this concept because they didn’t know any other way, from restaurants to retailers. Blogger Julia Allison claims to have invented the idea of “lifecasting” or blogging about all aspects of your life with subtle product reviews from product partnerships.

The ‘New York Times’ was revitalize, at least for younger generations, in part thanks to media journalist Brian Stelter who blogs and tweets every step of his life but in and outside of the office. Of course I can’t forget Matt Cutts, the internet celebrity that is the apple of every SEO geek’s eye, who is known for his down to earth videos and blogs that are part a reflection of Google’s culture and certainly a part of his own online personality.

The Responsibility Is on Your Shoulders

Once you embrace the best practices of inbound marketing you can, with ease, build an internal team with online personalities that match your business culture that utilizes the current popular networks to connect with consumers.

Internal team members can present content matching the three marketing principles that users respond to the most: consistency, relevance, and engagement We are also quickly being reassured that it is highly likely that whatever an online user likes, the search engines like.

Bringing your digital marketing strategy back to the basics and hiring a blogger or online personality could revolutionize your online brand. Or it could do nothing. Either way, that responsibility will fall on your shoulders. I say the risk is worth taking.

PCG Digital Marketing (PCG) joined in this year’s JFK Career Options Day specifically for people with disabilities.

The JFK Career Options Day was held April 17, 2012 to help those with disabilities gain job experience and find desirable career opportunities.  The event shows attendees how to build their resume, seek out available jobs and offers insight into the different areas of the workforce where their skills could be put to use.

Steve Murphy, Marketing Strategist for PCG spoke to attendees about the rise of Social Media Marketing and how the industry can be an exciting area of growth for potential job seekers.

“Many people who love to be on Facebook and Twitter all day are surprised to learn that they can make their passion their profession,” Murphy says.  “A career in Social Media Marketing is exciting, ever-changing and most of all fun.  This is a great career path for anyone who is interested in customer service, generating new ideas and learning more online.”

People with disabilities remain unemployed at a rate nearly double the national average. Their participation rate in the labor force is only about 20 percent, compared to nearly 70 percent for people without disabilities, according to March statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The JFK Career Options Day has been held each year for nearly three decades.  Organized by JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, it is one of the ways the institute helps people with disabilities get job experience and put them in jobs.

For information on a career in Social Media marketing at PCG Digital Marketing, please email Steve Murphy at steve.murphy@pcgmailer.com

by Wes Germain

We all know by now that Google loves video and has been favoring video in SERP results, but up until recently, the only video sharing platform I’ve seen has been YouTube. The day has finally come where another video hosting platform has made an appearance before my eyes: Vimeo. Also included is a “new” symbol indicating how fresh the piece of content is.

This has been going on for quite some time, but with a YouTube to Vimeo ratio of almost 100 to 1, it is no wonder that this is the first I’m noticing it.

Now, if you’re thinking that you want to be everywhere and optimize every chance you have to show up in search results, I wouldn’t suggest duplicating all of your video content, running to Vimeo, and reproducing what you have. Google has stressed its dislike of duplicate content, and although Google’s crawlers currently only scan text, I still wouldn’t suggest duplicate video content as best practice.

Over time we have seen that Google likes to diversify its Page One results. Could this be a factor in another platform ranking other than YouTube? Do I think it will start to show up more often? If I knew the correct answer, it would suggest that I know Google’s search algorithm. If that were the case, I would be sitting on the Atlantic in a yacht rejecting calls. Until Google releases official information, we won’t know.

At the end of the day we can’t hear this enough: “Content is king.” Across all of the platforms you use, optimize your content for the user and their experience. The search term used above is “Toyota Corolla New Haven.” The Vimeo video undoubtedly has strong relevance to the search term. Don’t lose sight of the fact that Google’s core value is to provide the most relevant information to your search term.

So, what do I suggest you do then? Divide and conquer.

Create two videos per subject and post one to each platform, as a sort of informal A-B test and closely monitor which ones rank. If your titles and descriptions are the same, you may be able to figure out additional factors that determine whether a YouTube or Vimeo video will appear in search results. If nothing else, you ensure that no matter the situation, you have your bases covered.

Have you optimized your Vimeo uploads?

The colored boxes above indicate the designated areas that the user will see when viewing your videos. To make the most use of this space, try to come up with catchy titles and long tailed keywords. Then add a description with a call to action at the end of your brief explanation of the video.

Lastly, add some tags to your video. Be careful not to add too many as it is similar to the concept of keyword stuffing and Google may disregard its relevance. Most of all, have fun and think about what would be most helpful to the user.

If you try this out, let us know how it goes! Share with us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PCGDigitalMarketing or on Twitter at @pcgdigital.