Recently I had the opportunity to go back to First Properties of the Carolinas and speak about small business online marketing and use of technology. This is a firm that has seen my full curriculum of classes including 90 minute classes (each) on Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn, Blogging & SEO, and Video & YouTube. The last time I was there was about a year ago, and they asked me to come back and do an “Update Class”.
I jumped at the opportunity because it forced me to take another close look at the topic myself. I put my own thoughts down on Evernote and then scoured my favorite tech sources to confirm or debunk my thoughts. The mission was to find, “what has changed about small business online marketing in the last year”? Not surprisingly (to me at least) not much has changed in the way we need to be using technology for our businesses.
Social Media IS and will CONTINUE to be important. The Top 5 Social Media/Networks are still Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. I have been saying this for years preaching their importance in the order just mentioned. Sure, Instagram and Pinterest are all the rage right now, but as of this writing, I’m not seeing where these are as effective of tools for businesses. Google+ requires a mention, but it doesn’t look like it will ever be engaging enough to dethrone any of the top 5.
One thing that HAS changed is Twitter. Twitter was once a friendly small town where you passed people on the street and said hello to familiar faces. Twitter is now huge and (continuing the analogy) is like a massive city. There is so much white noise on Twitter, it is not as effective of a business tool as it once was. Many businesses are just spewing their message with no intent on creating community or engaging people who might actually be listening. Spammers are slowing ruining Twitter. Once was a day when you could interact with a friend on Twitter and not have to receive 2 @mentions from spammers. I also think it’s funny that the mass media, who once relentlessly poked fun at Twitter, are now boasting about how awesome it is. To watch TV lately, you’d think Twitter was invented in 2012. Welcome to the party guys, 6 years late. Having said all that, I still think Twitter is important (very important). It’s just that you will have to work even harder at building community around your brand with all the spam and white noise.
It is because of this that I think YouTube has leap frogged Twitter into the number 2 slot of the Top 5. Video is the magic pill for short attention spans. So much more can be said in one minute of video than with thousands of words of text. Speaking of magic pill, video is also the magic pill for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but that’s another post for another time. So without further delay, I want to share 3 videos. None of them are produced by Amazing Video Tours so credit is given to the sources. Enjoy the videos!
Video Above is an updated 2012 version of a video you may have already seen. Brought to you by @equalman
Facts about Online Video brought to you by YouOnGroup.com
Smartphone – Google Mobile Marketing Stats by: MarketMobile.com
The videos say it all in about 8 minutes but if you want the bottom line, here it is: Social Media is NOT going away, VIDEO is hugely popular and more important then ever before, and if you don’t have a smart phone, you have missed the boat.
Hope this helped shed some light on where technology, social media, and online marketing trends stand. If you are playing catchup, don’t worry, we have dozens of FREE “How To” Social Media and Technology videos to help get you up and running. < — Just click the link!
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