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How does video help your website’s SEO?

Posted on by Erin Reynel

Over the past few years video has become integral to content marketing in any business. 

Why? Video delivers information to users in a short and concise format! 

But there’s more to it than that, and it comes down to the who-owns-who of the web. Read on to see what we mean.

Video is important for your SEO and here’s why

Ok, first, what is SEO?

If you have a website, blog or online store, then you probably already know what SEO is and why it’s important for your business. But just you need a refresher, here are the basics of what SEO means:

  • SEO is short for search engine optimization
  • Search engines include Google, Yahoo, Bing and a few others you’ve probably never heard of 
  • Ranking higher with search engines will help your target audience find you
  • That’s because people type certain words into a search engine to find content they’re looking for. These words are called keywords
  • Google is the most popular search engine, serving over 90% of the worldwide web traffic

So that’s the basics of SEO. Now let’s get back to the role video plays in all of this. 

Embedding videos into your website can help you get found by search engines, especially Google.

Here’s how:

  • Google’s algorithms are increasingly prioritizing websites that contain video content.  
  • Website users are more likely to stay on a web page that features a video and the amount of time someone spends on your website improves your Google rankings. 
  • Increasing on-page engagement sends positive signals to Google, so having a video with valuable content on your web page can help your Google rankings. Engagement is counted when someone clicks “play” on a video.
  • Whenever possible, Google displays videos in its SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This especially pertains to query searches like “how to…” and “what is…”. Try it yourself: ask Google a question and it will likely pull up some educational videos. 
  • Backlinks increase your search visibility so if your video becomes popular with its viewers then they are likely to share the link. This creates backlinks.  

Super duper important fun fact: Google owns YouTube

In short, video helps your Google search ranking, because Google wants you to watch YouTube videos. 

Why? Companies advertise on YouTube.

And also, video is fun to watch!

If you decide to create some kick-ass video content and upload it to YouTube, make sure your audience can find your video by using keywords and phrases in the title and description – this will help match your viewer’s query. 

Types of video content your business could create

  • Explainers: Guide your viewers through a process or answer common questions about your business. A great way to build up customer trust and credibility. 
  • Vlogs: A diary-style video typically filmed by one person on their own webcam or camera.
  • Webinars: Create an online event or presentation for your audience.
  • Ads: Take the traditional route and create a scripted video advertising your product or service. 
  • Customer tutorials: Teach your customers on on how to use a product.
  • Interviews: A spotlight with 1 or 2 people like an influencer asking and answering questions.
  • Product videos: Introduce your audience to a new product by featuring it in a video.
  • Live: Doing something exciting? Take your audience with you – go live on social media!
  • Reviews: You can’t create this yourself but consider sending some free samples to an influencer and perhaps they’ll create content reviewing your product.

If you’re ready to create some AWESOME video content then check out our blog and follow these 6 simple steps to get more eyes on your YouTube videos!

P.S. our team at Legendary Social Media creates awesome stop-motion videos for product-based businesses. Let us know if you’re into that!

Five tips to create awesome videos for social 

Posted on by Erin Reynel

Stats show there are 100 million hours of video watched per day. This means that consumers are eating up video content on the daily and the possibility of reach is huge! 

81% of business owners are using video as a marketing tool – that’s up from 63% from last year. It’s clear that video is becoming the winning way to consume media online. 

Creating, editing and finding time to record can be fun and easy with a few simple steps. 

Executing these five tips may make creating video more fun and possible for your business! 

One. Drive with emotion 

By figuring out who your consumer is and how their brains work, you can create content that will tap into the emotions of your customers and inspire them to share information, be helpful or express themselves. Interestingly, the reason why people consume information is widely based on their psychology and the numerous factors that play into this. 

Two. Create videos that are fun to watch!

Ensuring that your videos are clean, well presented, aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand will keep you ahead of the competition and ensure that your viewers are engaged! Don’t be afraid to take risks; purchase some props, clothing or backdrops that are in line with your brand and get creative! 

Three. Make your brand relatable

Showcase your brand culture, a BTS look at your process, your employees, your day to day tasks, anything that shows viewers that you are just like them. However mundane it seems, people like to connect to you on a real level! The day to day tasks will show people that you are tackling the same obstacles as them and have them feeling like they are part of your journey. 

Four. Call to action 

A call to action is a reminder for viewers to keep themselves informed and in the loop! At the end of every video, remind people to tweet, comment, share or follow. This small reminder will keep people involved in your community and sharing your content! 

Five. Tell a story 

Planning ahead will help remind you of your message. It can be information or inspiration but your video should tell a story either about your brand, yourself or your product and be less focused on the marketing details. 

 

With more people consuming video online than ever before, creating and executing creative videos for your business doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Make it fun, tell a story and always remember the end-user! 

Fans want to be entertained, informed and inspired. Want to know if your content is making an impact? Check out how to measure your social ROI.

Want more views on your YouTube videos? Here’s how:

Posted on by Erin Reynel

Want more views on your YouTube videos? Here’s how: 

So you’ve got your YouTube channel up and running and you are ready to start posting videos in your unique way, and become a viral star. 

2 billion people watch videos on YouTube every month. So, a huge potential reach! 

But how do you tap into that audience on such a competitive social media platform? Here are six pro tips: 

 

Follow these six simple steps to get more eyes on your YouTube videos: 

One. Establishing an audience and zeroing in on them: 

Who is your audience? What do they like? Remember that nifty social media style guide you wrote a while ago? It’s a good time to revisit that. It’s also a good idea to have a plan with clear goals and a solid content strategy that will speak directly into the eyes and ears of your audience. 

The content you create needs to be specifically targeted to what your audience loves to watch, so do your research to see what your fans are into, and what they don’t like.

A good example is this video by Jackie Alia, a famous YouTuber and makeup artist. Her video about how to tie and wear headwraps and turbans is talking specifically to hijab-wearing women and has zeroed in on a specific niche of women: 

 

 

Be like Jackie Alia. 

 

Two. Improve your videos’ YouTube SEO and get up in the search ranks 

YouTube is a really great platform for posting and sharing videos, but it is also an optimized search engine that doesn’t look at the content of your video. Instead, it ranks your videos based on how you optimize the tags, category, description, and keywords for each video you post.

Researching and creating a list of your industry’s keywords or using Google Keyword Finder can be super helpful. 

Compile a list of your nice’s most used keywords and insert those words in your metadata (video titles, description text, subtitles, tags). 

Creating more content in line with those keywords is another sure way to release content that jives with your people! 

Three. Be unique with your content 

Although we are ALL inspired by someone or something, directly replicating your favourite YouTuber isn’t going to get you your own unique fanbase. 

Did your favourite YouTuber make a video about how they clean their house? Then maybe your video is about how to clean your house with all-natural products, or how to buff the taps in your washrooms to get them extra shiny. 

The content you are creating, although done before, should be specific and unique to you and your brand. Use your voice to create something different! 

Four. Customize your thumbnails 

We are visual creatures. Youtube video thumbnails are designed to make viewers stop and want to watch your vids. When users are scrolling through YouTube your thumbnail should be interesting and entice your viewers to click play! 

Try using a clear and close up portrait of your face or adding text to your thumbnail, adding a filter to your videos to keep your look specific and on brand or making it uniquely visually appealing. Remember, you want to be the one who stands out in your niche! 

 

Five. Keep your videos streaming by creating playlists 

The goal here is to keep people watching your content. To keep people on your channel in YouTube, create a playlist of your videos that will continue to play after the last has ended and reduce the risk of them darting off to another page. 

 

Six. Be social and build relationships! 

Increase the likelihood of someone re-visiting your channel by engaging with your fans! Chances are you will begin building relationships with your fans, which will make them want to watch more videos overall. Build authentic, genuine and sustainable relations with viewers by: 

  • replying to comments 
  • including other people’s content in your videos
  • running contests 
  • making reaction videos to comments or other videos 

 

Building your following takes time but getting started is always the first step to a more successful, more watched, and more liked YouTube channel. 

 

What Facebook’s upcoming changes mean for social media in Vancouver

Posted on by Erin Reynel

Yesterday Facebook confirmed that big changes are coming to its platform.

There was tons of speculation, but no official word from Facebook about what the changes would look like. Until now.

In short, users’ news feeds will utilize a new algorithm that will prioritize friends and family over public content.

But what does that mean for small businesses that are on social media in Vancouver?

If you have a Facebook Page for your business, fasten your seatbelt. You’re going to want to be strapped in for this.

The increased importance of advertising for social media in Vancouver

Facebook is going to make us “pay-to-play,” so to speak, if you want any engagement on your Facebook Page moving forward.

Think of Facebook like a new format of advertising, like newspapers or TV. Want your content to be seen? Open your wallet.

Until now, businesses could show their content to their fans organically, or use small budgets of just a few dollars to get a broader reach. But once the new algorithm changes come into effect, businesses are going to need to significantly increase their advertising budgets. Every post will need to be “boosted” and $10 is simply not going to cut it anymore as now all businesses will be spending more $$$ to be seen first.

Should my business stop posting on Facebook?

Definitely not.

Facebook is still the most effective social media platform for running ads, directing traffic to your website, and engaging with customers particularly in the 38-55 demographic.

If your current Facebook strategy is to pump out as much content as possible, now is the time to change things up. No one is going to see that content, so not only will it be a waste of time but Facebook’s new algorithm will punish you for spam-like behaviour.

The content that will continue to make it through to people are the posts that encourage and foster conversations between friends. It will now be more important than ever to focus on creating quality content and ensuring that it is seen by the right people.

Now might be the time to try something new, like live videos which tend to receive 600% more interactions on average over regular videos.

What about Facebook groups?

We’re thinking Facebook groups will be the next big thing in marketing on Facebook. Groups are a community-based collection of people that can be created around a feature that your business offers.

Problem is, adding people to groups can be difficult. You can’t automatically add people to a group – instead, you could ask, on your Facebook Page, that people join, and offer the link. Then, advertise the post that asks people to join.

These are early days and more information is likely to come out soon about best practices.

If you are interested in establishing a group for your brand, contact Legendary Social Media Vancouver.

What about Instagram?

Some see Instagram as the last bastion of organic reach.

While there are still good opportunities for your content to be seen here, Instagram is owned by Facebook so our money is on Instagram going to a “pay-to-play” formula in the near future, too. Instagram updated its algorithm in 2016 to more closely match Facebook’s – which reduced organic visibility of posts to help favour paid content.

Today, growing an Instagram account is harder than ever. It takes some serious dedication to increase your followers organically.

Now might be the time to change up your strategy and include new types of content, like Instagram Stories.

Social media in Vancouver is changing, but that doesn’t mean game over for small businesses
Facebook is simply becoming another ad platform. While it may still be effective and highly targeted, it does mean that businesses will need to spend more to take advantage of the benefits – at least until the next major social platform comes along.

If you’re a small business that needs help with social media in Vancouver, now is the right time to ensure that your business stands out and the best way to do so is to enlist the help of social media experts like Legendary Social Media Vancouver.

We’d love to help your business in the ever-changing landscape of social media.

Why Instagram video is your ticket to social media success

Posted on by Erin Reynel

When it comes to using social media for business, Vancouver brands can put video to work for them.

Don’t let the idea of video intimidate you: armed with an iPhone/Android and an Instagram account, you’ve got what you need to stand out, deliver an interesting/entertaining message, and get noticed by would-be customers.

The whole idea here is to meet your customers where they are (on their phones) and give them the media types they love (video) to tell them a bit about your brand’s story. If you make an impression, chances are you’ve got a customer in the bag.

Instagram is the most accessible and easily managed social media platform for your video. So without further adieu, here’s how (and why) video is a must-have weapon in your Vancouver social media arsenal.

 

Video drives engagement

Did you know that Instagram gains higher brand interaction than any other social platform? Video grabs more eyeballs AND more engagement than static photos or images. If your competitors haven’t yet embraced using video in their social channels, you have a great opportunity to stand out and separate yourself from the rest of the pack.

When it comes down to it, engagement (likes, shares, comments) means people are interacting with, and therefore remembering your brand. And an interaction one touch point on the road to earning customers.

 

“Snackable” social media: Vancouver brands, take note

People really like short-form video content. “Snackable” sized content.

Remember Vine? At just six seconds, Vine videos really nailed a niche and provided a dynamic element of motion to an otherwise static social experience. However, once Facebook purchased Instagram and then rolled out video on the platform, the die was cast. RIP Vine, it was a fun ride. But the concept of short video lives on!

Six seconds might be too short, but video that’s under a minute is easy to digest for your time-starved customers. And easy for you to make!

 

Be where your customers are, show them stuff they like

Look around at the people with their noses glued to their smartphones. Most of them are watching videos as they blindly cross intersections and bump into telephone poles. Video is what people love, so let them eat cake. Video gives you the opportunity to really personalize your interaction with your customers by getting face-to-face time with them (in a virtual sense) and show them what your brand is all about!

Need some direction to start your social media marketing plan? Start here.

Ready to try Instagram video for your social media?

Nice. Here are six tips to get you started.

  1. Keep it short. We’re not making documentaries here. Think goldfish attention span – 8 seconds is hardly out of the question. You can run up to 60 seconds max, but don’t overlook the value of 10-15 seconds.
  2. It doesn’t need to be expensive. Video used to take weeks to produce and cost thousands of dollars. When publishing for social, shooting on your phone will absolutely do the job. Broadcast quality isn’t what’s important: the goal is to show your customer something entertaining, interesting, or emotional! The point is, don’t let technology hold you back. It’s all right there in your hand.
  3. Frontload your first 2-8 seconds. Grab your viewer’s attention! Give them a reason to pause in the moment to view your content or set their expectations for why they should stick around longer.
  4. Don’t tell too much in one video. Remember, we’re building short-form content here. Make more videos to tell more of the story if you need to.
  5. Platform differentiation. Video has a place on all your digital assets. While the attention span for social is shorter, long form content fits really well on YouTube or your website.
  6. Plan it out. Plan a series of videos you’d like to make, then review your plan. Do the videos complement each other? Is the theme consistent? Are you moving your customer toward some type of action. Then, plan each script. And finally, shoot and post!

 

Need a little help to start? Connect with our Vancouver social media agency

Video content is what your audience is expecting – it adds an undeniably dynamic element to your brand content. If you are looking to build more video into your social media marketing strategy, Legendary Social Media Vancouver is ready to help you out! Drop us a line here.

Get better website SEO with ‘cornerstone content’

Posted on by Erin Reynel

Now, more than ever, it’s important to have great website content. That’s because Google recently rolled out a new algorithm that helps sites with great content and quality links, and demotes those who use sneaky tricks to get ahead.

It means good news for businesses that go about ranking on Google the ‘white hat’ way!

Well-behaved websites get rewarded

One of the greatest articles I have ever read about how to get better website SEO, or getting your website to rank high on Google, is this one:

How to Create Cornerstone Content that Google Loves by Copyblogger

We recommend you read their article. It was written in 2007, but rings more true now than ever!

In short though:

  • Your site should be set up to communicate what you do, to someone who knows absolutely nothing about your business.
  • Create pages that explain the aspects of your business. Build those pages around keywords.
  • Useful, high-quality content with lots of media (text, pictures, videos, infographics and links) is what you’re aiming for with each page and blog post.

Better website SEO with links

Legendary Social Media tip: Use internal links! Every time you blog, link to this ‘cornerstone content’ you created. It’ll help build rank authority within your website!

Awesome new visual content marketing stats for 2016

Posted on by Erin Reynel

The amazing people at HubSpot produced an article recently about the power of visual content marketing. Visual content is an aspect of content marketing that involves adding photos or videos to your text, whether that’s on your blog or the text on the static pages of your website.

Think about how you use Facebook. Are you more likely to look at and interact with your friends’ posts that have photos or video, or just plain text? For most of us, visuals are more engaging. They grab our attention quicker and keep that attention for longer.

The same principle applies for websites. Below are some stats about the appeal of visual content, and a few resources to help you start building visual content for yourself.

Visual content marketing stats:

Source: HubSpot

  • 80% : The amount by which your audience’s willingness to read your content is boosted, when you add coloured visuals.
  • 65% : The percentage of people who retained the information they read after 3 days if an image was paired with that info, versus 10% without visuals.
  • 94% : The amount of extra views that content with relevant images gets, versus content without relevant images.
  • 65% : The boost to your click-through rates for emails with a subject line that says “VIDEO”
  • 40 : The number of times your content is more likely to be shared on social media if it’s paired with relevant visual content.
  • 2.3 : The number of times more engagement your Facebook posts are likely to get if they’re image-based, rather than text-based.

How to create visual content marketing assets:

There are some great tools out there to help you create visual content for marketing your business, and the even better news is that most of them are free!

At Legendary Social Media, we use Canva. Others use Picmonkey, and for those who have Photoshop, it’s a great tool.

We recommend branding each of your images with your logo or watermark. That way, when your content is shared online, people will always know that it came from you.

You can check out our blog post called Tips for Creating Awesome Visual Content about some really great visual content tools that will help you create awesome videos, images and live feeds.

You can also check out this blog with more details on the importance of visual content marketing for your business, or comment below if you have questions or feedback!

A better way to advertise on Facebook? About video ads

Posted on by Erin Reynel

This blog post is part of our Lessons from SMSS15 series. Legendary Social Media is taking part in Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Success Summit, which is the world’s largest online social media marketing conference. This blog series covers the points and ideas we’ve taken from the course that we’ve deemed to be eye-opening and highly useful for other marketers and for small- and medium-sized businesses. To discuss any of the ideas in these blogs or other ideas about social marketing, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

It’s interesting that last night in the Social Media Success Summit 2015, one of the really great talks was about video ads. The reason was that earlier yesterday, I had filed three vlogs that I meant to post on my blog in the near future, and to my Facebook page.

Instead, the talk by Amy Porterfield explained why video ads are so effective at grabbing people’s attention, and how to make them work for you on a shoestring budget.

The main point is that virtually anyone can create video ads for almost no money. In fact, all you need is a personality and an iPhone. Porterfield’s example was of an Instagram queen who filmed her hugely effective video ad with an iPhone in phone hand and a coffee in the other, while walking down the street. Just like that.

Porterfield explained that there are five crucial elements that must be in your video ad to make it effective (her presentation focused on video ads, but I’d say that these ring true no matter which platform you’re advertising on with video):

  1. Start the ad with an obvious “yes” question – a question your audience will definitely say “yes” to.
  2. Then, tell people who you are, and why they should care who you are.
  3. Now, make a promise about what you’re going to give them.
  4. Include a “so that” statement. This statement should solve a pain point or a problem for your audience.
  5. Finish off with a call to action. This could be to subscribe, download, click a link, call or buy.

Then, it’s on to the nitty gritty of how to publish the ad properly. Porterfield recommends using Facebook’s Power Editor for Facebook video ads. Set your objective as either Video Views or Conversions, and have the ad appear in users’ mobile news feed.

She also recommends clicking on the “Create audience from people who view the video” button to save people who watch 10 or more seconds of your video into a custom audience. You can market to this “warm” audience again in the near future!

Want to know more about creating video ads, or any type of social ads for your business? Get in touch today!

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