You’ve put a lot of time and effort into making a great video that promotes your brand – but it will get you nowhere if nobody sees it. YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine and, according to one statistic, the amount of video content uploaded to YouTube is equivalent to 176,000 new feature films each week. Your video can easily get lost in that sea of content, but only if you let it.

Here are three steps you can take right now to boost your YouTube views:

1. Give your video an appropriate title. This is a major part of YouTube’s search algorithm yet, surprisingly, it is often neglected by content creators. In a nutshell: Don’t use puns or word play, be straightforward, contain keywords related to your message and put your brand name last.
2. Describe your video. Frontload the description with important keywords and a deep link to your site (include URLs with http:// so that it will be clickable). Something to consider: Only the first 27 characters are immediately visible to viewers. If they want to see the rest of your description, they’ll have to click on the "more info" link.
3. Tag your video. This is where you can really give your video an edge in search. You’ve got 120 characters and, ideally, you should use them all. Choose a mix of general and specific words to tag your video.

 

While you’re going through these steps, think about your audience. YouTubers are more likely searching for entertainment than for things to buy. Consider current cultural and YouTube trends (hot topics, political awareness, celebrity gossip and popular videos) and reference those trends in your keywords, if applicable. Investing 10 minutes of time to optimize your video for YouTube search could make the difference between 3 views... and 3 million.

Maria Brenner - Video Production Specialist

Celebs as media? There are many ways to promote your brand with celebrity endorsements... the latest to hit the scene is Twitter. Not only is it a great way to kick-start the conversation online, but it also allows you to measure ROI, like you would on any paid advertising, by tracking new discussions prompted by the campaign.

There is evidence that celebrity endorsements work. The Journal of Advertising Research published a study that found that sales for products endorsed by athletes go up by an average of 4%. A study by The Nielsen Company indicates that those who respond to celebrity endorsers on social media are far more likely to follow and respond to brands on social media.

But be aware of the rules of transparency that must be obeyed. The FTC requires celebrities, experts or anyone endorsing a product to clearly indicate they are affiliated with the company they are endorsing. On Twitter, for example, the FTC insists that endorsements must contain words like "ad" or "spon" to indicate to consumers that the tweet was paid for.

The practice is an interesting way to integrate social media, video and paid display advertising online to launch a new product. Learn more in this video interview with Arnie Gullov-Singh, CEO of Adly.

 

Dan Shulman-Means | Broadcast Intern

Imaginative, interesting, inspiring, observational and even scientific, Everynone's Symmetry struck a chord with a deep and creative look into the simplicity and balance of virtually everything.

Opposites: actions and reactions, karma, or whatever you want to call it. Displaying questions rather than answers. In the end, there's something to be learned from Symmetry.

Present-day technology has allowed us to create social networks, find answers faster than ever, shop, play games, watch re-runs of Alf, and listen to any musical genre conveniently from our homes and on our mobile gadgets. Even though there's an end to every fad, product, fashion etc., what's happening in between? How are we evolving to the changing environment? And how did consumers' wants or needs change alongside it? What are brands doing to be that opposite — or are they creating balance?

There is no right or wrong. Whichever side you choose, it's different for each of us — whether you're peanut butter or jelly, consumer or creator. Are you creating a reaction to people around you? If so, how and what are you leaving behind? Start taking action and maybe you'll get the reaction you hope for.

Check it out!

Everynone is a filmmaking team compromised of Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercadante and Julius Metoyer III from New York.

Alon Burgin | Art Director

 

CityVille, one of the most popular social network games, has seen the number of monthly active users reach 77 million — more than the total population of France and Sweden. This and other relatively new social games are accelerating the trend with their simplicity and high level of engagement.

Ads on social games have recently overtaken standard banner ads, providing much better click-through rates. More visible ad insertion and high engagement rate can strategically enhance brand awareness and promotional marketing. New technology platforms support "in-game advertising," and application software (a.k.a. apps) have started to play an important role in technology usage and engagement.

Some studies report some mind-boggling numbers about social game players — up to 66% of tablet owners play social games on a daily basis, followed by 57% of smartphone owners. Social networks have already altered the way people interact. Given recent technology developments, social games have become more reachable and targeted for advertisers.

Source: appssavvy

Deniz Kahriman | SEM Specialist

A new social media site is bringing together like-minded people with products they love in a fresh and innovative way. Retail marketers, meet a possible new best friend - Pinterest.com.

Pinterest allows users to organize and share images they find on the Web. The site uses a pinboard to allow users to pin up these visuals and share them with other users in a completely socially networked environment. If you find someone whose boards you consistently like, you can follow them. People are using Pinterest to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, organize recipes, promote favorite books and art, plan travel itineraries, share great ideas — you name it. For retailers, Pinterest provides a pin it button with HTML code to place on catalog sites, allowing users to easily pin their favorite products from your site to their pinboards with the click of a button. The site's user base is multiplying exponentially as awareness grows, which may make the decision to partner with Pinterest now a wise move to increase the social awareness of your products.

Tori Young | Team Leader

I learned the essentials to being a good PR pro when I slung drinks at a seafood dive.

Be persuasive, clear and enthusiastic

Whether it's greeting a guest who sits at the bar or securing approval on a PR proposal, both are best done with energy and sincere enthusiasm. Be clear about what you have to offer. Explain the drink specials or components of a strategy and believe in what you are recommending. If you know it's not in the client's best interest, charm won't help.

Anticipate needs and consolidate your trips

By the time the raw oysters arrive, make sure lemons to squeeze are already at the table. Similarly, don't make the client ask for something you should have handled. Be efficient. Don't send dozens of emails with one-off questions. Respect your client's time and consolidate communications. On your trip to the kitchen for another side of butter, grab that margarita refill. You'll work smarter, and the client will feel well-fed and tended to.

The bar is your domain, you lead the strategy

Sometimes bar patrons can be a bit unruly. It is up to you to maintain decorum or adherence to the strategy. When clients ask to throw in ad hoc initiatives or pull the plug on a program prematurely, you must diffuse the situation. Decisively, yet gently, remind them of stated goals and aligning to meet objectives. Be confident in your authority to maintain order and be more than an order-taker. You are there to provide counsel and guide them through the experience — whether dining or PR.

Roxana Janka | Public Relations Specialist 

It can be amazing, allowing you to view and interact with an object or scene in all perspectives. So why isn't it used by more brands? Well, there are a few reasons: It has a bad history, some don't believe it's necessary on the web and others consider it to be nothing more than eye candy. Yes, it's certainly not new, as it's been around for more than 20 years but, early on, it was just too dense and too soon to be practical. Adobe tried it with Atmosphere, Macromedia tried it with Shockwave, Microsoft tried it with Chromeffects. The great news is that Web 3-D is improving quickly. Good programs now exist, like Unity, a new game building product that can handle huge numbers of polygons and rich textures. It allows programmers to work in JavaScript, a language they already understand. Bottom line is that it will always exist, as there are simply too many industries that need it — gaming, healthcare and science to name a few. And there are too many uses, including augmented reality, CAD data engine building and virtual reality. It's a safe bet we'll be seeing more and more of it to come.

Affinity programs are designed to promote a long-term relationship and affect shoppers' buying habits. Three out of four Americans participate in some kind of rewards program — but the trick is winning them over.

Choose an appropriate strategy. Referrals to new customers are good for one-time services; amount of money spent is better for multiple transactions or regularly used products.

Target the right people. Half of sales can come from the top 10% most frequent shoppers. Gather as much information as you can about this group. When do they shop? What are they buying? What rewards would they value? It can take as many as 20 new customers to make up for the loss of a loyal customer, so keep the ones you have!

Offer tangible goals that are within reach. Customers should be able to reap benefits within the first few months of participation, and rewards shouldn't be too difficult to redeem.

Find out what your competitors are doing. What works in your sector or at least what's been tried already. Look for things you like and what you could improve.

Promote it. Through employees, email, advertising and PR. A combination of efforts is most effective.

According to Experian's figures and study on the factors that influence purchase decisions, online consumer reviews come in as the third most authoritative, with Yelp.com as the consumer portal leader. Reaching 45 million visitors in January 2011 and displaying more than 13 millions reviews, Yelp can be an effective tool that companies may want to consider. And it can be well utilized three ways:

1. As a reputation management tool. Seeing what your customers say about your business may help you to improve your customer service and your overall business.

2. As a promotional asset. When you get positive and high ratings on Yelp, you can display it on your website by integrating Yelp's badges or buttons. It also shows that you are paying attention to what your customers say.

3. As an online media channel. Create a Business Owner Account to post special offers an promotions, as well as other news about your business.

Regarding Yelp feedback, it is important to not take reviews personally and reply to them with care.

Finally, don't consider Yelp as a the most reliable and accurate source for measuring your customer satisfaction, as Americans are still more influenced by the old fashioned word of mouth (with 54% considering it as a powerful influence). Also, disgruntled customers are generally more likely to post reviews than satisfied ones.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, known for his documentary, "Super Size Me," is back -- delving into entertainment-based marketing in his newest movie, "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold." Spurlock's new film is a behind-the-scenes look into entertainment-based product placement, marketing and advertising. The best part is that he financed it completely through product placement, marketing and advertising - starting with the title.

In the film, he illustrates how brands need to tell their story through entertainment to connect with their audience, not merely repeat their name or product benefits.

It's all about engagement. To demonstrate, the film includes several clips of television shows that simply have the character repeat the brand name and flash the logo on the screen. The consumer is more resistant to forced messaging but, when branded-entertainment becomes seamlessly integrated with its medium, the brand is communicated much clearer and more effectively. For example, cereal boxes, like Cheerios, were blatantly displayed in Jerry Seinfeld's apartment in Seinfeld and were passively woven into the show's plot so audiences were aware of the cereal-loving friends but not bombarded with blatant messaging.

Spurlock's film promises to be entertaining and good reminder about how marketers need to change old habits to truly connect with their target audience.

Watch the trailer.

Shari Lesser | Public Relations Specialist

With more than 175 million users, 95 million Tweets per day and 370,000 new registrations daily, it is important to understand how to best leverage your business's Twitter presence. In 2010, Twitter revealed new ways advertisers can target users with their Promoted Products.

Promoted Tweets allow account holders to get their Tweets in front of users who do not already follow their account, but follow similar feeds. These are regular Tweets that are targeted at users who search for keywords attached to a Promoted Tweet.

Promoted Trends are used to spark or magnify a conversation by allowing accounts to feature a Trend related to their business at the top of the Trends list. When users click on a Trend, they are taken to the conversation for that Trend, and the account's Promoted Tweets display at the top of the timeline. It comes with a Promoted Trends Dashboard to track a campaign's performance.

Promoted Accounts help account holders build a base of followers. As part of Twitter's account recommendation engine, Who to Follow, Promoted Accounts draw attention to conversations that users are likely to follow by identifying users who follow similar accounts.

To date, Twitter has partnered with a few, select advertisers, but they plan to roll these platforms out to a wider audience, so stay tuned!

Rachael Himovitz | Team Coordinator

Presentations direct the way we do business today, so why not dominate the practice - by using tablet computers (like iPads) to enhance the interactivity of your presentation?  Businesses are increasingly running presentations on tablets, which often prove to be more productive and efficient. Whether it is a structured sales presentation or a simple brainstorming session, here are a few iPad apps that can change the way you do business.

1. Power Presenter lets you display a presentation (Keynote and PowerPoint included) that's been converted to a PDF file. When presented, you can mark on the slides and then e-mail them to your audience.

2. GoDocs grants access to Google Docs, which many people use as repositories for group project files and to share Word and Excel files.

3. Sadun's Whiteboard is simply an electronic whiteboard - and it can be projected to an external TV or projection screen with the right hardware. This whiteboard app offers many pen colors, marker widths, and the ability to add text and photos.

4. Corkulous provides an electronic corkboard, on which you can place photos, Post-It notes, contact info and to-dos. It understands its role as an idea board so it provides the flexibility to email corkboards to others and to lock them for privacy.

5. Office 2 HD is a Microsoft-compatible app that allows you to create and edit Word and Excel files on your iPad - and the developers have an update in the works that will add PowerPoint.

Source: Mashable

Courtney Carr | Team Coordinator 

How do you measure the success of your brand's social media efforts? It depends on your goal.

It's tempting to simply look at your fan and follower count; however, unless your only goal is to win a popularity contest, it's not always the best way to measure success. For example, retailers don't measure the success of their store solely by the number of people that walk through the door.

It's important to differentiate activity from results. Gathering fans is an activity; whether or not those fans sign up for your newsletter or respond to your offer and buy your product is a result.

So whether your brand is already using social media or you're just about to jump into social media, it's important to remember to approach it with a clear strategy. Figure out what you want from social media, set an attainable goal, use the medium in a way that will benefit your brand and help you reach that goal, and then measure your success.

Read more here.

In light of the current logo uproars faced by both GAP and MySpace, now is an opportune time to address the perennial graphic design question asked of advertisers: Can you make the logo bigger?

We've all heard it. There are even several spoofs about it on YouTube. But, making the logo bigger isn't a branding strategy. It's just a logo - not a way to get into the hearts and minds of today's fragmented consumers who need to be engaged with your brand.

If you think your logo is too small, stop and ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the ad on strategy and memorable?
2. Does it stop the reader and engage them with an offer or information that piques their interest?

If the answers are "yes," customers will want to know where they can get your product or service. Aha, the logo. It doesn't matter what size it is or if it's even in the ad. In fact, according to Hey Whipple Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan, ads without any logos at all are often the most powerful. Why? Customers don't buy logos, they buy benefits.

You're probably familiar with terms like graphic design and website design, but what about user-experience (UX) design? What does this encompass?

UX strives to create interfaces that meet users' needs, no matter what the platform - website, mobile site or iPad app. UX designers translate business goals into easy-to-use tools for users. They work meticulously, deliberately and step-by-step to fulfill those goals.

For instance, when redesigning a website, UX designers consider the site from the user's perspective. They collaborate to organize the site map and then draw up graphically spare wireframes to show where things should live, what the purpose of each section should be, and the overall paths a user should follow - all while regularly checking in with the programmers to make sure they're not trying to build the impossible.

Only after the website's entire architecture is laid out does the graphic design work begin. No one builds a house without a blueprint, and UX design is no different. It lets companies focus on how customers will use their website and ensures that few (if any) surprises will occur by the time a site launches because the structure and flow were thought through beforehand.