Vlogging, Video Logs, YouTube & TubeMogul - Creating Videos for your Practice or Business
Posted by Salem Global on Jul 28, 2009
We have spoken about blogging, creating a diary on the web for you and your business and your medical practice, but now its time to step it up to the world of multi-media. With the disk space and data capacity of your computer surpassing the 200 Gigabyte hurdle and approaching the Terabyte, you now have the room to create, edit, store and distribute video to your audience. Somewhere out there, there are statistics that show how many videos there are on YouTube and how much space it takes up. (I have no idea how accurate this page is or when it is from but it is quite interesting - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090722200032AA3kQaH)
Regardless of all of those fun statistics, my goal is to get you business from your Internet marketing. So go out and get yourself a Flip Cam and start promoting yourself. Either set up your flip cam on a tri-pod or on top of something or have someone hold it. (The only problem with having someone hold it is shaky hand syndrome.)
Now start talking about yourself, your firm, practice, company etc. Talk about everything we have been writing about for the past 10 years. Make sure it is relevant to your business. Don’t ramble on about social stuff. Save that for your free time (ha!) Be sure to focus on what services or products you are selling and/or promoting. As an example, look at SalemGlobal’s YouTube channel.
Then buy yourself Pinnacle Studio or Adobe Premier Elements and edit your video. Don’t forget to brand your video with your URL and phone number.
Next, get yourself an account at TubeMogul.com and distribute your video there. It basically takes you from one Youtube account to dozens of others. And then blog about it and put it on your website.
Remember, the more places you are, the more chances people will see you and get to know about your products and services. All you need is one person to watch your video to call you and become your customer.
Next week we can get into specifics about industries and tips for optimizing your video. If you are in a specific industry and need help or advice, just let me know. Email me, call me at 212-993-5828 or visit www.SalemGlobal.com.
Blogging for Doctors (healthcare and medical practices and offices of all sizes)
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Jul 21, 2009
When I was thinking about what to write for this post, I was thinking that I should title it “Doctor’s Blog,” which made me laugh because my staff and I were joking around about the rivalry between Star Trek and Star Wars and William Shatner and well… He used to end each show with “Captain’s Log.” And really - so should you. (But as you can see I went with the blogging for doctors which also makes me laugh because it sounds like “bowling for doctors.”)
As a doctor you are either seeing patients or treating patients. You are consulting with them. You are meeting with them, evaluating their aches and pains and hopefully just seeing them for “well” visits. I know from my own experience with doctors over the past years when I have been relatively “well,” that I get asked the usual questions regarding breathing, exercise, activity, stress etc. etc. Then they look in the ear, nose and throat, take my blood pressure and I am on my way.
What I described above is NOT what you should be writing about. I guarantee you the worst and most boring blog if you stick to the above formula. What you need to do is talk about the special cases. Describe the person - obviously with professional courtesy and confidentiality in mind. Tell your audience whether they are male or female, age and issue. Obviously, whatever your specialty - orthodontist, dentist, plastic surgeon, podiatrist, dermatologist, eye doctor, lasik etc… you will want to customize your blog to whatever is the ailment or situation of the day. How crooked this guys teeth are or how bad this woman’s eyesight is. Then you should share with the audience what evaluation you are giving, solution and procedure. Blog about preparation (Lasik candidates have to put eye drops in their eyes and drinks lots of fluids). And then what recovery will be like and what to expect.
I will never forget when my brother in law (who is a dentist in Larchmont, NY -www.21stCenturyDentist.com Dr. Joel Levy) told me about a patient who is a good guy, came in after eating a burger with EXTRA ONIONS! He laughed about it, I remembered and that could’ve been a great blog piece.
So if you are a doctor or know someone that is, and you or they would like a free consultation or some advice on how to blog. Just let me know. Email me, call me at 212-993-5828 or visit www.SalemGlobal.com. Next week we will get into a new topic and series regarding Vlogging or video logs - creating videos for your practice or business.
Customer Service Management Sets You Apart From The Competition.
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Jul 15, 2009
Many businesses think customer service is just one aspect of their business and it often gets lost as businesses focus more on product development or sales or marketing. But in today’s market there is so much competition, and often the competition is better than you or offers exactly what you offer. So how do you differentiate your business from your competition?
Customer Experience Management or CEM is a business strategy that focuses and redefines your business from your customer’s viewpoint. It involves all aspects of your business, from marketing and research to product development and pricing. Today all it takes is one bad experience to hurt your company. For example, Eric writes a popular blog about technology. He is looking to purchase a new HD television. After much consideration he picks out a “PannaSony” Plasma TV, purchases it, sets it up and begins watching. Halfway through the first episode of Mad Men, half his screen goes black. He calls customer service and waits on hold for hours before finally he reaches someone who is no help to him, All it takes is one blog post on Eric’s blog for thousands of his readers to hear about how bad PannaSony’s customer service is.
Enter Strativity. Strativity can help your company implement a Customer Experience Management strategy and improve your company’s customer experience and in doing so improve the company’s reputation for service, which will set you apart from the competition. With good customer service Eric, the blogger, might still write a blog post about his new TV’s issues but instead of a post bashing the customer service at PannaSony, he writes about his pleasant experience on the phone with a real person and how they sent someone to install a new model within a week.
A positive experience published in a blog can go a long way to sway potential customers or clients and the first step is to actually make your customer service the best it can be. And for that there is Strativity.
Blogging for Lawyers
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Jul 14, 2009
There are many different types of lawyers and in the SEO world lawyers are also referred to as attorneys. It is important for lawyers to include the word “lawyers” in their blogging, as well as the phrases, “attorney”, “law firms”, and “legal”. There are thousands of searches for all four of these specific keywords. In addition, you also have to include the type of practice that you specialize in. On a related note, attorneys are actually forbidden, legally, to mention that they specialize or are experts in anything. So when blogging about your particular law practice you must be careful to do so in a legal manner.
The types of lawyers that we are familiar with are general business lawyers, immigration attorneys, personal injury lawyers, matrimonial and divorce lawyers and real estate attorneys. Notice how in this particular tip of the week I have mentioned all types of lawers, all categories of specialty and the one missing link is your location. Unless you are Bruno (aka Sacha Baron Cohen), who needs a national, if not international, lawyer to take care of all his legal issues with the rancorous, off the beaten path antics that he tries to get away with in his movies, lawyers ordinarily look for local clients. And as we all know because we’ve mentioned it many, many times, the five ways of saying New York are: NY, NYC, New York, New York City and Manhattan. So obviously if you are in California or Miami or Chicago you should not only mention the state but also your particular town or city. Now we have covered all the keywords that you should use in your blog post; now you need to actually blog.
Lawyers frequently complain that because of confidentiality they can never advertise or write about themselves. But nowhere in the law is it written that you can’t make up hypothetical and theoretical case studies and certainly if you have been practicing for ten years or more you should have a rich history of cases that you can draw on. So depending upon your legal expertise, you should blog starting with the words, “years ago I had a client who…”
Next week we will talk about blogging for your healthcare or medical practice and if you would like particular advice send us a question and we’ll answer it in this forum. And as always, if you need help starting a blog or maintaining one, just give us a call at 212-993-5828 or check out our website at http://www.SalemGlobal.com.
Getting Down to Business at Breakfast Time - SG’s Next Networking Event Coming up on July 23rd
Posted by Lila Corby on Jul 6, 2009
The Business Networking Breakfast held by SalemGlobal is an increasingly popular event where business professionals throughout the tri-state area are provided with the opportunity to connect with each other in a way that will allow their businesses to expand and achieve economic growth. These breakfasts occur twice each month, and they continue on due to the events popularity and success. Check out what these breakfasts are all about by viewing the video below, which was filmed at our most recent business networking breakfast.
SalemGlobal’s next Business Networking Event is coming up in just a little over two weeks, on Thursday, July 23rd. Do something productive this summer by attending this event and meeting people that will help your business to reach new heights. Due to the popularity of this event, you must RSVP no later than 3:00 pm on July 22nd at www.BreakfastNetworking.com in order to guarantee yourself a seat (and a bagel).
Blogging For Your Business
Posted by Aryeh.Landowne on Jul 6, 2009
Blogging for your business can be a daunting task. People don’t know what to write about their companies or their businesses even though they are truly experts in their own fields. They also are afraid to start a blog because they are afraid of the commitment. They think that they have to blog daily about something and they know that they don’t have the time to do that and someone somewhere told them that if they don’t maintain the blog it will “look” worse than if they didn’t have a blog at all. Well, I am here to tell you that YOU TOO can blog WORRY FREE from now on. About whatever topic you want and whenever you can.
First of all, SalemGlobal certainly does have a blog and we upload a minimum of one blog entry per week. We write a website marketing tip of the week and though we send it out in our newsletter, we also repeat it on our blog. If you break this down, this means that you really only need 52 tips or informational pieces about your company.
If you don’t have 52 tips that you can share, you can also write about your clients and customers. You don’t have to mention their names but you might want to. Just think about if you promote a customer of yours and get them business. They will be your customers for life! If you have 52 clients, then you already have information for a whole year. Finally, probably the easiest thing for you to blog about is the services that your company has and performs. SalemGlobal blogs about all 19 of our different services from domain name research to meta data implementation to Pay Per Click management, to video and blogging, etc.
Industry news and commentary is also an easy way to get more content for your blog. For us, when Bing came out from Microsoft, our commentary and analysis became that week’s blog entry. So take a look at the newspaper, industry journals and trade publications online and I guarantee you will have what to write about.
The combination of services, customers and case studies, in addition to industry news, tidbits about the people in your organization and best practices can help you write in your blog weekly.
Next week we will write about blogging for specific industries. If you would like some tips for your specific industry or company, email us and maybe we will feature you in our tip of the week. If you want help in starting a blog or maintaining one for you, just give us a call at 212-993-5828 or check out our website at http://www.SalemGlobal.com.
Happy Blogging!