Video - Old City Web Services

Social Media: Why Photos & Videos?

July 5, 2016 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Using Photos on Social Media for your Business

Example of using images as a post for Facebook

Over the years Social Media has shifted to Visual Social Media. This means photos have increased in popularity for social media. This shift happened because our society is drawn to visual content. Photos help your customers relate to your business post and they tell a story. Users are more likely to engage and follow businesses that post more photos or videos. For example, photos on Facebook tend to generate 53% more likes on a post than without photos. What does this mean for you business's social media? It means using images on social networking platforms gets those clients engaged!

Overall, photos help break up content overload. Showing your clients rather than telling is what will get you customers interested in your social network. Pictures are worth a thousand words. For example, if you want to introduce a new product, take a picture of it and share it on your social media. Did you hire a new team member or redecorate your office space? Share it! Showing will leave a bigger impact on them as well as others that are following your clients posts will see your new product, team member, etc. All in all, images make connections and social media is all about networking.

You don't have to be an expert. Don't be afraid - get creative with your visual content use your smart phone, camera, or clip art online.

Here are some ideas to consider using.

[/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"]

Example of using an image of Facebook.

Add words to a picture by either providing a contest for your customers, a daily tip or just add a quote.
Draw a cartoon then take a picture of it.
Make a graph.
Make a video of either the daily life at the office or how you make a certain product.
Use a GIF (animations) you found.
Take a picture of your product and have customers give their opinion. EX: Does this shirt look better in blue or in red? or What should our daily special be today?
Example of using an image on Twitter

Need to see some more examples? Check out our Facebook and Twitter for more examples of using photos and videos in post.

If your business doesn't have any quality images or time to take images, we can help. Contact us today to set up a photo shoot for your business.

Business to Business Marketing: Videos

January 20, 2015 by anoadmin

Many small businesses today rely a great deal on Business to Business (B2B) marketing as part of their business model.

B2B is a marketing practice that allows a business to sell products or services to other companies that resell them, or use them in their products or services.

When it comes to content marketing, a whopping 76% of businesses are using video as part of their content marketing strategy. 72% of those that use it, say that YouTube is their video platform of choice to distribute content for lead generation and brand visibility purposes.

The question is this: is video marketing effective in all cases? Or should it just be one small part of a broader B2B content marketing strategy?

Some upsides to using video in content marketing is that video is easy to combine with a broader social media marketing strategy, and it is easy to share via multiple venues to bring brand or product awareness.

As with all marketing strategies, though, one must know their audience and what will be most effective for who they are targeting. As a marketer of your small business, it's key to understand what will be received well by who you are marketing to.

Video is a quick way to get the message about your services or products out there. But B2B is complex and it isn't always as easy as making a video, pushing it out there, and seeing immediate results, and video marketing isn't a silver bullet. As a marketer of your small business, you should never over-simplify your buyer into one narrow package. Not all buyers are looking for the same thing or using the same process to make a choice of product or service: some rely simply on facts, some on emotion, some on a combination of both. Video is an excellent way to draw in the buyer emotionally but may not provide as much fact as the buyer needs to make a choice. On the flipside, a fact-based video may draw in a buyer based on product description but not draw in an emotional buyer who is looking for a compelling connection when making the choice of which business to go with.

At the end of the day, any marketing strategy for your small business should be nuanced and complex enough to cover the many different people who are looking to use your products or services. At Old City Web Services, we can help guide you in the process of broadening your strategy and help you grow your business in 2015.

Holiday Marketing Tip Challenge

November 20, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

FACT: St. Augustine attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each holiday season.

Whether a visitor stays for one night or all month, it is widely known that during the holidays, tourism in the nation's oldest city is thriving. If you own a B&B, restaurant or tour company, you're probably busy answering the phone and responding to email inquires this time of year.

Even though you're busy, don't forget to engage your customers with holiday marketing initiatives! This season, Old City Web Services challenges you to try at least one of these three marketing tips. Test it out and then shoot us an email or give us a call to let us know if it was a success!

1. Dress-up your Facebook page

As you dress your turkey for Thanksgiving, why not dress-up your Facebook and Twitter pages while you're at it! Create a holiday-themed cover photo that includes one incentive to customers--a promotion, discount or giveaway. What better way to engage customers while getting into the holiday spirit at the same time.

Not sure what a Facebook cover photo is? Old City Web Services specializes not only in custom design, but in Social Media too! Contact Us for more info.

2. Invite your website to the party!

Is your website holiday-ready? Make sure your site is updated with holiday flare, such as photos from Nights of Lights, a video featuring how to make a delicious holiday treat or a new Christmas package/special. Add a minimum of one piece of holiday flare to your website that will let customers know you're the go-to business to visit during their stay in St. Augustine.

Do you have the flare, but not the web expertise? Contact Us for a quote on giving your site that extra holiday glitz you need!

3. Give thanks to your customers

This is the perfect time of year to give thanks to those who love and support, not only you, but your business too! Send out an email to your past and present customers, letting them know you appreciate their brand loyalty. It's almost guaranteed this will bring back at least one new sale or prospect. After all, what harm can it do? If anything, you will put smiles on your customers faces...what more could you ask for?

No way of getting the message out? Old City Web Services can design an e-mail template using your photos, logo and colors & text, upload your contact list(s) and send out a mass e-mail blast to all your customers for you! Contact Us for more info.

Creative use of video online

September 25, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Video has maintained a powerful reputation of being one of the most efficient tools of visual communication. A creative and engaging video is a terrific way to present a product, service or brand and transform the user-experience to a much more interactive level. Because of this, professional, eye-catching videos are becoming increasingly popular in Web design today.

Below are three ways to incorporate video into your existing or new company or eCommerce website:

Video as Eye Candy

Using video as a visual enhancement will give your website that wow factor it may be lacking. It will not only attract visitors, but keep them on your site longer. People are much more inclined to watch a virtual tour of your establishment or a content-driven video explanation of your products than read a drawn-out, monotonous page of text. Placing a professional video on your Home page will gain customer's attention and push them to look further into your site.

Demonstrative Video

How-to videos are one of the most popular types for online usage. What better way to showcase your products or services than to educate your customers in a fun, creative manner. If you sell computer software, demonstrate how-to install the program, what special features it has and why it's beneficial to the potential buyer. If you sell produce or homemade preservatives, you may want to include videos on how-to cook different recipes using your products. This way, people will be more likely to come back to your site and tell their peers to check out your videos.

Use Video to Drive Traffic

Search engines love video. With proper video SEO, you have the potential to drive lots and lots of traffic to your site. By creating a YouTube or Vimeo Channel, you can organize your videos in one virtual location. Users can provide helpful feedback, connect with you and share your videos across multiple social media platforms. Once you embed one YouTube video on your website, your other videos from that Channel will be advertised as thumbnail links after the video has finished. Who knows...your videos may even become viral across the world-wide web, making you the next big YouTube sensation!

Want more advice on how to integrate video into your site or how to optimize your videos for search engines? Contact Us today by giving us a call: 904.829.2772 or emailing us: letusmarketyou@oldcity.com for more information.