This weekend I’ve been having lots of fun researching online video. It’s one of the strategies in social media communications that I have yet to fully embrace and while I use platforms such as Camtasia, Articulate and have tried out Oovoo, I’ve not recorded my own video from situations where I have been “on location”. You can listen to a podcast I recorded recently about getting started with online video.

How to create video that is compelling and engaging and which will support your brand essence be that your corporate brand, employer brand or personal brand is the place many of us start.

But how do you then ensure that your online video is “onbrand”; how do you actually embed your brand identity and call to action into your video; where should you host your video; and how can you achieve this without costing you a small fortune?

Then are a vast array of platforms from hosting your video to live streaming - it’s enough to make your head fuzzy like eating too many chocolate Easter eggs!

We’ve been doing some test runs over the weekend which has been interesting - so get ready for some video’s here in the not too distant future.

This next Monday on Biz Growth Live, my guest was to be Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book, but unfortunately Debbie can not join me as she is just finishing her house move and on Friday we had to postpone the session to a later date. Debbie sends her apologies to everyone.

So I got to thinking, if I am wondering about all these questions about online video, perhaps some of my Biz Growth Community are too. So I contacted my Facebook friend and someone who is an expert in video podcasting, Sherman Hu to see if he would join me as our guest expert this week.

Sherman is in the middle of a huge project so I was thrilled when he said he would join me this week.

If you’d like to join me and find out about online video, where to start and how it can support you in expressing your brand online, then you can register for the free Biz Growth Live call which will be taking place on Monday 24 March 2008 at 6pm in Ireland and the UK (2pm ET).

And if you have questions for Sherman or myself about how to master online video to bring your brand to life you can either post a question in the comments section or on our live questions page.

I also want to share with you a video clip from Stephen Fry a great British actor, comedian and author which I found on the terrific video sharing site VideoJug (their tag line is “life explained on film”). In this clip he covers:

- His defintition of Web 2.0

- His thoughts on the quality of user generated content

- How will Web 2.0 change traditional television

- What excites him about the way technology is evolving.

Stephen has a blog and podcast too if you want to connect with him through social media.


VideoJug: Stephen Fry: Web 2.0

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So you have your data base of clients and prospects which you nurture and develop over time. But have you as valuable a list of your media contacts?
 
Your media database is a critical part of your business development toolkit and includes contacts in traditional and new media - people who can assist you in extending your reach and with whom you develop relationships over time so that when you have a media release ready about your new product, service or even book, you have a community of people you can connect with.
 
Think of it this way – if you were in public relations, your media database would be the life blood of your business.
 
So what details should you keep in your media database? Here are the 12 data fields you should retain about each of your media contacts:
 
1. Name
 
2. Who they work for – including if they are on staff or are freelance
 
3. Their work address

4. Their business email address

5. Their business or personal blog url
 
6. Their landline and mobile number

7. Their field of interest and expertise

8. Details of any personal projects they are involved in – for example one journalist I know has a private art gallery and really appreciates it when I refer people to him
 
9.  Notes on how they like to receive information
 
10. A record of what you have spoken to them about and details of when you were featured in their article or show
 
11. Who referred you to them or how you connected originally
 
12. Mutual business contacts, hobbies and interests.

Make sure that you retain details of any projects you speak to you media contact about including the dates when you last connected and the outcome of that connection.
 
Your media contacts should include reporters, editors, radio and TV researchers, publicists, and even ‘A list’ bloggers and podcasters as our media connections today can and should cross traditional and social media.
 
You can build you list of media contacts by reviewing newspapers and journals which are read by your target audience, researching radio and TV stations, online publications and using Google news alerts.

Remember that your media database should be a living document, as in today’s fast changing world of the media, many of the key points of contact are often working on a freelance basis and move from one media outlet or project to another.
 
Your relationship with one person in the media can also impact the chances of you working with other contacts. For example, if you demonstrate that you are not a great radio guest on one show, you can be sure that the show host or researcher will let other people in their industry know to give you a wide steer.
 
Do not forget the number one rule of networking applies to the media too, not just your business contacts. Be generous in your support to help your media contacts do their job and they will help you too. Make sure that they know you can connect them to your personal network when they have a story that has to go to press quickly or they need a spokes person on a specific subject?
 
Get yourself known as a connector and you can be sure that your media contacts will help you connect to great media opportunities too.
 
© Krishna De, 2007. All rights reserved. This article is extracted from Krishna’s publication “How To Be A Media Magnet”.

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So you are thinking about launching a podcast to connect to prospects and attract more clients. But how do you make sure that you deliver content that will be relevant and seen as of value?

Here are 7 rules of podcasting to generate more leads, more clients and more profits:

1. RESEARCH YOUR MARKET

Review other podcasts in your niche and providing content for your target market. What appeals to you about the structure of the podcast and the content that you know your listeners would find compelling? What ideas does that give you for your podcast so that you will be differentiated from your competition?

2. DETERMINE YOUR REVENUE MODEL

Are you going to offer all of your podcast available at no cost; or perhaps you plan to provide a shorter version for no cost and make the extended version available as an information product that you sell as individual recordings or bundle together in a membership community? Determining your revenue model is an important early step when determining a profitable podcast strategy.

3. KEEP YOUR CALL TO ACTION SIMPLE

If you decide to promote your programmes, products and services in your podcast make sure that you provide compelling and valuable content in your podcast which then will entice your listeners to purchase your information product.

Making the content too much of a sales pitch will make sure that your podcast community will not grow.

4. MAKE YOUR PODCAST EASY TO ACCESS

With the majority of people accessing podcasts through websites and blogs rather than iTunes, make it easy for people to either stream the podcast and listen to it with at their PC or download it to their computer.

5. ENCOURAGE FEEDBACK

Make it easy for your listeners to get engaged with your podcast. This may be by leaving messages on an audio line, posting their feedback at your podcast site, joining your podcast Facebook group or even dropping you an email.

Take time in each show to refer to your listeners messages, answer their questions and thank them for being part of your community.

6. FIND A GREAT TECHNOLOGY PARTNER

If you want to learn the ins and outs of podcasting, then seek out a great programme which will help you get off the ground faster than searching out all the resources yourself.

Alternatively, find a technology partner who will manage the recording, editing and publishing of your podcast so that you only have to focus on the recording schedule and content.

7. PROMOTE YOUR PODCAST

Make sure that you let people know you produce a podcast and what they can look forward to in the content. Use traditional and new media outlets along side word of mouth strategies online and offline to promote your podcast. Then track your subscribers through tools such as Feedburner and enjoy seeing your podcast community grow.

THIS WEEK’S ‘BIZ GROWTH’ ACTION STEPS

Podcasting is a great way to deliver valuable content to your ideal clients, employees and other stakeholders and business partners.

Consider how you can include podcasts in your marketing and communications plan then

Remember that just like article marketing where you can re-purpose your articles into other information products, your podcasts could help generate interest in your products and services, can be re-purposed into a live event, be transcribed to become chapters of your book or repacked into a CD home study programme if you leverage them appropriately.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

If you want to discover how to create your own information product empire from white papers to audio programmes, join me for the “PASSION FOR PRODUCTS” series of teleseminars starting on September 24, 2007.

And why not join me on Kilkenny on the 29 September 2007 at PodCamp Ireland if you want to learn more about podcasting, blogging and new media at Ireland first ever PodCamp?

© Krishna De, 2007. All rights reserved. This article is extracted from Krishna’s home study programme “Marketing On A Shoestring Budget”.

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As someone who both creates media plans for my own business, my clients and for the professional associations I am involved in, and someone who gets an ever increasing number of pitches from people to promote or advertise on my blogs and podcasts, I was delighted to be referred by David Meerman Scott to a great article by Mark R Hinkle on “how to pitch a blogger“.

If you are in the field of marketing or public relations, do not underestimate the power and influence of bloggers to help you spread the word about your business - be that a product, a service or even a book.

And while Mark wrote the article about bloggers, you can also take the same approach for podcasters.

As I reported, blogs are considered by consumers to be a more trusted resource than advertising and email marketing. Continue reading

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With the announcement of the Irish Blog Awards tomorrow, many people have been busy behind the scenes, not least Damien the founder of the Irish Blog Awards.

As I mentioned previously, the bloggers in the Irish Business Blog category are collaborating in creating a special report about business blogging in Ireland where we will share tips and best practice from our own experience of authoring a business blog. Watch out for that report in the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday the 6 finalists for the Business Blog category of the Irish Blog Awards met by telephone conference and we have recorded a podcast sharing our insights on the subject of business blogging in Ireland as a tool to build your brand online and as part of our marketing strategy.

You can access the audio here - you can either stream it from your PC or download the audio to your PC or save it to your MP3 player.

On the business blogging podcast you will hear our views on:

• What is a business blog
• what encouraged us to start a business blog
• how much time we invest in blogging each week
• the platforms we are using to host our business blogs
• the business benefits we have realised through business blogging
• how business blogging fits into our marketing and communications strategy
• how we have built traffic to our business blogs
• our personal perspectives on business blogging in Ireland
• what we wish we had known before we started our business blogs
• and one piece of advice we would like to others who are considering starting a business blog.

We enjoyed collaborating in this way and have decided to start a regular business blogging podcast where we will be sharing strategies and tips on the subject of business blogging and also inviting business blogging experts to share their favourite tips and business blogging advice.

Do share your thoughts on our first business blogging podcast by posting in the comments section. We would love to hear from you if you have found other strategies that have worked for you in developing your business blog.

And of course if you have any questions about business blogging, do post them and we will be delighted to reply to your questions.

Resources to get started blogging

Here are some recommeded resources if this business blogging podcast encouraged you to start blogging

• TypePad - the fastest and easiest way to start blogging today and referred to in the business blogging podcast and was how i got started blogging
• Andy Wibbels - a good friend and blogger extraordinaire provides training for the new blogger using the TypePad platform. Andy is also the author of the Amazon.com best seller “Go Blog Wild: a guide for small business blogging“. Do tell Andy you are a friend of mine.
• Sherman Hu - offers online turtorials if you want to useWordpress as a blogging platform (Wordpress is the platform Biz Growth News is hosted on)
• Mark White - known as The Blog Coach can help you set your blog up - he is based in the UK and is someone I refer my clients to. He has been instrumental in helping me with my blog extreme makeover. Do tell Mark I sent you.

Thanks to the people who made the podcast possible

This podcast would not have been possible without the engagement of the 6 finalists in the Business Blog category of the Irish Blog Awards 2007:

• Krishna De
• Ann Greene
• Brian Honan
• Kieran Murphy
• Damian O’Broin
• Connor O’Neill

We also would like to recognise the support of:

• Brian De-Alker of the Soundwave Studio who created the podcast
• Pat Phelan and hisAll Free Calls service which enabled us all to connect to our conference room
• Damian Mulley, without whose vision the Irish Blog Awards would never have been born.

Media note: The ‘Ireland Business Blogging Podcast’ was hosted by Krishna De and features the finalists in the Business Blog category of the Irish Blog Awards 2007.

This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. In the case of re-use or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. These conditions can be waived by permission from the copyright holder.

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