If you’ve taken the big leap and joined the ranks of the online video marketers, congratulations! The first video is always the most difficult.

But now that you’ve produced your first video, what’s next? How do you not only maximize the marketing from that video, but also create new video marketing opportunities? Unless you want to succumb to the dreaded “one and done” syndrome, you’ll want to create a strategic marketing plan for using video regularly in your business.

As with any plan, you must begin with the end in mind. What are your business objectives for video? Is it to grow your list? Build your brand? Drive more web traffic? Enhance your credibility? Your goals will determine your direction.

If you said “all of the above” to the video goals we just listed, here are some ideas for maintaining your video momentum…

1. Create an “expert tips” series to share your expertise. Short, 1 – 2 minute “how to” videos are a great way to increase your credibility and expand your influence.

2. If you’ve got a blog, add a videoblog post every couple of weeks. The search engines love video, and your readers will be treated to a dynamic change of pace from your traditional blog posts. Extra bonus: Video is much more personal and compelling than print alone!

3. Get some face time. Use a personal video message or video email to go “face to face” with your clients or prospects. Sending a video greeting, birthday wishes or a thank you video have much more impact than yet another regular email. If you want to stand out and be memorable, use video!

4. Make it an event. Whether you’re promoting a webinar or launching a new product, nothing makes a bold statement like video. Adding video to your promotional plans makes your webinar or launch look more like a special event. Again, it’s the best way to break through the online clutter and make sure your message gets noticed.

5. Go Live! You can do a live webcast or offer a “Q & A” video session using free platforms such as Livestream or Ustream.tv. These web resources make it easy to fire up your webcam and go live whenever you want. A live webcast is dynamic, engaging and highly interactive. (You may want to do a test run first, just to get comfortable with the format).

However you decide to use video, it will put your marketing on overdrive and accelerate your results. The secret is consistency and strategy. Make a plan and stick to it. Anyone can make one video. The real winners online will be those who make online video a regular part of their marketing efforts.

Guest Author: Lou Bortone is an Online Branding Specialist and video pro who helps entrepreneurs and service professionals build breakthrough brands on the Internet, so they can have more visibility, credibility and profitability. Lou delivers innovative online branding strategies, including video production and editing, social media marketing and online video consulting.

Lou is a former television executive who worked for E! Entertainment Television and Fox in Los Angeles. He is also an author and ghostwriter of six business books, a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and a Book Yourself Solid Certified Coach.

Find out more at www.LouBortone.com, and for online video info and resources, visit: www.OnlineVideopolis.com.

Do you want THOUSANDS of friends/followers within days/weeks?

Please become a liker of my Facebook page because I need to reach 1000 likers!

Make money FAST using social media…

Let me show you how I made $100K in one day using social media…

Learn how to grow followers FAST on Twitter…

Anyone can make money using Twitter…Learn how NOW!
Any of these sound familiar? I have lost count of how many of these messages I receive per day. I am sure you have too. Tired of them yet? I know I am!

If you spend any time on any social media site, you will find that there appears to be a race to see who can have the most friends/followers or who can find the quickest and easiest way to get rich using social media. There are schemes that can help you get thousands of new people to follow you on sites like Twitter.

There are even sites that sell friends by the thousands. If any of these come across your e-mail or your social media accounts, please IGNORE them. Two words: “Buyer Beware!” And, if you are sending out these messages, please STOP!

I am a natural born writer, so writing has always come easy to me. But, when I had to start writing articles everyday for my blog, for my newsletter and for article submission – I quickly ran out of article topics.

Then one day as I was reviewing all of my articles, I realized that there was a structure and a formula behind each article I wrote. By recognizing these formulas I’m able to write an unlimited amount of articles – and write them in record time. And, If you want to overcome writer’s block and start writing articles faster, then you want to model proven article writing formats.

Here Are 10 Different Blog Post Templates That Will Help You Overcome Writer’s Block So You Can Write Articles Faster…

1. Myth Buster Article Template — With this template, you crush your prospects’ preconceived thoughts and notions about a subject. Take 3 myths people have about your industry. Explain to people why it’s a myth. And, then show them what can happen if they clear this myth from their mind.

2. Top 10 Article Template – Have you ever seen a Jay Leno, David Letterman or any other late night television show that doesn’t have a “Top 10″ segment? Well, neither have I! It’s because people love top 10 lists. So give readers and prospects what they want.

3. How-To Article Template – It’s no secret that “how-to” articles and blog posts are some of the most sought after, linked to and bookmarked content online. People want useful information and they’ll reward you by promoting it to others when you provide it. It’s also one of the easiest articles to write.

4. Step-by-Step Article Template – If you think writing a how-to article is easy especially if you’re using article templates, then you’ll think the step-by-step article template is a cinch. In how-to articles I start off with the problem or pain that my prospects are experiencing. Then I give them a solution and end with the results. In a step-by-step article, I like to sell the dream. I want to instantly connect with my prospects’ desires, wishes and needs. So, I explain the results up front that can happen if you follow my advice that I give in the article.

5. Quiz Article Template – Why do you think magazines publish quizzes all the time? Why do you think the quizzes you find on Facebook are so popular? It’s because people love taking quizzes, unless it’s a pop quiz in school. So, why not use a quiz format for your articles that will enable you to do a soft, pre-sell for your products and services. When readers answer “NO” to your questions, you’re implanting thoughts of “Maybe, we should be doing this.”

6. 3 Mistakes Article Template – When you mention mistakes within your title and throughout your article, you will automatically grab attention. People will think in their minds, “Am I doing this right? I better find out!”

7. The Why Article Template – How-to articles are great. And, as I said before, it’s the most popular article template. But sometimes, when you give too much of the “HOW,” you give prospects no reason to go to your website for more information. So, why not write an article that focuses on the “WHY” and give prospects a reason to visit your website and join your list.

8. Differentiate Yourself Article Template – I created an article entitled “How to Choose an Article Submission Service.” Within this article, I created 10 questions that prospects should ask. Now these questions were designed to show everything that my service includes that no one else offers. It educated prospects and at the same time, it pre-sold my article submission services.

9. Failure to Success Article Template – Did you ever notice how speakers (especially those who sell from the stage) would always tell you about their hardships? Why do speakers do this? Because we want you to connect with us. We want to show you that if we can achieve success, so can you. By opening up and revealing your failures or your scars, you add realness to your written words. People will look up to you and they will want your guidance.

10. What I Learned From Article Template — Through my years as the article marketing expert, I’ve learned that I can connect almost anything – no matter how unrelated it may seem – to various secrets that I teach my clients, subscribers and readers. For example, I’ve written articles such as “7 Article Marketing Lessons I Learned From Being a Martial Arts Champion,” 3 Lessons I Learned From the Mother of a Fearless PR LEADER,” and “5 Relationship Building Lessons I Learned From My Parents.”

Guest Author: Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners, authors, entrepreneurs and speakers who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, you can get 3 of his favorite his instant article writing templates that will help you overcome writer’s block and write your articles in 30 minutes or less. Get your free article templates now: http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com

Infograph by GO-Gulf.com – Dubai Web Design Company

QUESTION:

“Mirna, what’s your take on Facebook these days with the privacy concerns? I didn’t like seeing my FB photo, name, text box pop up online.” — Pam W.

ANSWER:

Good question, Pam!  Several people asked me the same thing, since I did not react much to the changes.

As briefly mentioned to you on Twitter, I think users should have the right to choose if they want to show others what sites they visited. However, I also see Facebook’s perspective on helping brands and other businesses boost their viral marketing efforts since this will also support the site’s growth.  To a certain extent, they were not thinking of the average Facebook user because they ended up causing a tremendous amount of confusion and commotion.

Although I think Facebook and other social networks do a very poor job at educating and listening to their users, I do believe it is the users’ responsibility to protect their own privacy.  Everyone online should be focused on having fun, educating themselves about social media and working on their strategies, instead of wasting too much time worrying about the Facebook changes.

We have to all remember that a huge part of using social media is transparency. It is our choice to make whether we want to use social media or not; and we decide what to share and how visible we want to be.

As you know, I share a lot of content and consider myself to be very visible online. But, I am also a very private person and don’t like sharing my entire life with the world.  Although, I allow everyone to get to know my personality, I am very strategic and extremely cautious with what I post or discuss on social networking sites.

If privacy is still a concern, here are a few tips when using any online tool or website:

- Use common sense.  If you do not want your competitors or great great grandchildren to see something, do not post or discuss it.

- Take the time to check the privacy policies before using a social media tool or application.

- Be responsible and use privacy settings when joining social networking sites.

- And last but not least, if you are using sites like Facebook for business, please remember to use them as supporting tools only.  Too many of us are concentrating way too much on these tools instead of focusing on what is truly important — our business strategy and our websites.

If you still have concerns, questions, and comments regarding privacy, please post them below.

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

Eriq Qualman, the author of “Socialnomics” has done it again!  A new version of the Social Media Revolution video was released yesterday.  Check out below!

“In social media you aren’t going to get it right the first time, so you need to learn to fail forward, fail fast, fail better.” – Eriq Qualman

Are you ready for the revolution yet?

His passion, motivation, professionalism, generosity and success are contagious to the social media world! Ramon De Leon (@Ramon_DeLeon) is no longer “The pizza guy to know in Chicago”. He is “The pizza guy to know in the world.” The operating partner of six Domino’s franchises in Chicago is now a world-known, sought-after speaker due to his social media presence.

Ramon’s passion for social media has not only changed his business, but also changed his life. He certainly does not live the life of a typical franchisee partner. I asked Ramon for a brief interview so you can hear the passion for yourself.

The 20-minute interview turned to 40 minutes, but felt like four minutes because he is so engaging (I can talk to him about social media for hours).  His enthusiasm for social media is magnetic! No wonder people want him to speak in conferences all over the world to share why he lives and breathes social media, and why all business owners should too.

This interview is not to be missed…let’s listen to Ramon’s amazing tips and hear what he has to say about social media…

Read the blog I wrote in 2009 about Ramon: Chicago Domino’s Owner, @Ramon_DeLeon More Than Gets Social Media…He Breathes It!

I will be posting more case study interviews like this on a regular basis. If you are using social media successfully in your business and would like to be interviewed, please reach out to me. I love hearing social media success stories!

You can also listen to other recent interviews below:

Case Study: Dippin’ Dots’ Powerful Social Media Strategy Leads to One Million Fans on Facebook

Case Study: One B2B Increases Business One Tweet at a Time

Video marketing is one of the faster growing types of social media. While text based apps like Twitter are thriving, people still love to watch videos online and YouTube is still the king of the video world, whether you like it or not. The main reason for this is simply sheer size. The site has millions of videos and hundreds of thousands of users. According to their fact sheet, about 10 hours of video is uploaded every minute!

The power of a video site this big is that you can use it to get your marketing video in front of not dozens, not hundreds, but tens of thousands of potential clients. Of course, it’s a bit of a job to make sure that many people actually see it, but once a video goes viral, its traffic will soar. This is one of the biggest reasons more and more large corporations are turning to the social video site to promote their companies. Why are they doing this? Here are the main reasons.

1. Exposure. With millions of viewers, YouTube offers a ripe arena for presenting information to the public. Since videos show up in Google searches, companies can set up their own videos and channels and have these appear in search results when they are properly tagged.

2. Interactivity. Social media is big with companies because it allows the clients and users to interact with the company, something that simply didn’t happen before. For those businesses that are embracing this new medium, their users are free to share their videos (in most cases) and comment on them, making it a medium that is far more approachable than an ad on television.

3. Price. Being able to produce videos on a relatively low budget and upload them to YouTube for free is something that any business can do. Though we are seeing a rise in the number of big corporations showing their videos and ads on video sites like YouTube, this is only recently because they are actually placing them there. For years, people would upload their favorite movie trailers, clips and television ads . . . but now the businesses responsible for these are realizing what a sweet deal free exposure is and are willingly adding their brands to the video site.

If you haven’t started in on video marketing, it’s definitely a good idea to look into it. After all, companies like Volvo, Universal Music, Lionsgate and Electronic Arts can’t be wrong with all their advertising dollars!

Are you using YouTube to ptomote your business? Please tell us about it.

These days, video is really growing on the Internet. Where text was once the content of choice, that’s not necessarily true anymore. Video and audio are becoming extremely popular and the fact that more people have faster Internet now means that videos can be more complex and longer than the 30 second bites from before.

While video is an excellent way to show people what you do or promote your business, many don’t realize that videos can also boost traffic and increase SEO. Not sure how that works? Here are some tips for you.

1. Choose your video site carefully. There are a myriad of video sites out there, but the bigger ones will give you more Google juice. Search engine optimization is key, so YouTube is a good place to start since it is already huge with the search engines.

2. Make a meaningful video. While you can still gain traffic from a short, useless video, ideally you want something that will go viral. The more sites that pick up the video, the better. Humor is something that will always go over well and tends to get passed on, so if you can pull it off, this is a great way to go.

3. Use tags. All video sites will let you fill in tags to describe the video, so use your keyword phrases in this section. This will help them come up in relevant searches, as well.

4. Write a great description. This is what people will be looking at to decide if they want to watch your video or not. The description can have a main keyword phrase in it, but don’t overdo things. You’ll get the best results with subtlety.

5. Write a killer title. Your video title should be something that makes people sit up and pay attention, but still include your main keyword. Remember that this is one of the best places to boost SEO, always with the right title.

Video marketing isn’t new. How you use it for SEO is definitely a technique that is just starting to become popular, however. If you want to boost search engine rankings, you can start by creating some viral videos to drive links and traffic to your site.

Social bookmarking has become a great tool in building web presence and promoting a business on the Internet. In addition, if you place your links wisely and know which social bookmarking sites offer dofollow links, this strategy will also help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

What is Social Bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is a method for web users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of tags or keywords on sites such as Digg or Del.icio.us. This helps you in accessing bookmarks from any computer with online access. These bookmarks can either be public or private. If public, your favorite bookmarks visible for others to view and follow as well, hence the social networking aspect.

Social bookmarking is a very simple strategy to learn and practice, and there are 100s of site that offer bookmarking. Again, we have included a Common Craft video to explain social bookmarking in plain English—see below. We love these videos!

How does social bookmarking help with SEO?

Social bookmarking helps search engines find and rank content through links thus providing a channel for the promotion of content. If you place your links well on dofollow social bookmarking sites, this will help increase traffic to your site and assist with your link building efforts, thus increasing search engine rankings and possibly even PageRank.

The links usually spread to many web sites without much effort on your part. In a way, you can think of it as another form of viral or guerrilla marketing. Keep in mind, since social bookmarking links are categorized by topic with tags or keywords, traffic coming into your site is highly targeted. This ultimately brings repeat visits from qualified consumers and potential buyers.

So, by submitting your links to social bookmarking sites, you are increasing the chances of people seeing the link and visiting your site. However, use cautiously and do not spam these sites because this will end up hurting you in the long run!