Hi5 and freindster aren’t generally used by professional marketers. Craigslist is a classified advertising site and doesn’t accept uploads. That leaves 12 of the top 100 most highly trafficked sites on the planet available to us marketers.

Video sharing, photo sharing, social networking and free blog sites. It’s where millions of potential prospects to your business are hanging out. You need to be found.There’s a great new software program that makes it easy for you to drive traffic to your websites using these platforms - - Contentbuzz.com   

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is the format that enables regular updates and subscription to web based content.

To help newcomers understand the principles of RSS feeds, a good basic tutorial can be found at http://www.whatisrss.com

I think you will find the following video helpful

In this post we discovered - How to Create a Youtube User RSS Feed

I would like to introduce you to more Video Sharing sites that enable the creation of RSS feeds that you can use to promote your video channels.

The Video Sharing Sites

1. Youtube

feed://www.youtube.com/rss/user/[insert username here]/videos.rss

Example:

feed://www.youtube.com/rss/user/videowildfire/videos.rss

2. Blip.tv

http://myaccountname.blip.tv/?skin=rss

Example:

http://videowildfire.blip.tv/?skin=rss

3. DailyMotion

http://www.dailymotion.com/rss/myaccountname

Example:

http://www.dailymotion.com/rss/videowildfire

4. Revver

http://api.revver.com/rss/user/myaccountname

Example:

http://api.revver.com/rss/user/videowildfire

5. Vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com/user:myaccountname/clips/rss

Example:

http://www.vimeo.com/user:videowildfire/clips/rss

You can Ping all the Blog and Rss Directories using a free service such as Pingoat, or professional strength software such as VideoWildfire.com, which has an RSS submitter as one of its modules.

To further extend the reach of your marketing campaigns you can join and submit your feeds to “feed aggregators” such as www.feedage.com.

Distributing them across as many of the Video Sharing sites as you can is the first step.

You can now take the URL of the video that you submitted to Youtube and promote it on other Social Media sites.

Social Bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us and Social News sites such as Digg and Stumbleupon.

You can then embed the link on some Social Networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Gather.

To give your campaign an extra boost to gain extra traffic and higher organic search results you can leverage the power of RSS marketing.

Rss feeds are used to enable people to subscribe to your blog, podcast, video blog etc. So that every time you add new content your subscribers are automatically updated.

If you think of your Youtube channel as your personal TV station, an RSS feed will enable your viewers to subscribe to it and be automatically notified when you add new videos (episodes).

It’s not widely known that you can create an RSS feed to promote your user account on Youtube. For whatever reason, (possibly to make people use their own internal subscription method), Youtube has decided not to provide one automatically.

This is how to do it.

Simply insert your own “user name” in this Url

feed://www.youtube.com/rss/user/[insert username here]/videos.rss

For example, the Rss feed for the username “videowildfire” is

feed://www.youtube.com/rss/user/videowildfire/videos.rss

You can now take this Url and submit it to the Social Bookmarking and Social Networking sites.

You can also submit it to the Blog and Rss directories.

There are free services that you can use, such as Pingoat, or professional strength software such as VideoWildfire.com, which has an RSS submitter as one of its modules.

In a future video I will show you how to create more Rss feeds, from other Video Sharing sites, that you can use to promote your business.

Have you currently got a marketing plan that you follow religiously every day? Probably not!

Well, the good news is that by creating and distributing short promotional videos, with a dash of social media marketing, that is really all that you need.

Video submission software can organize your video marketing campaigns like nothing else. Make and submit as many well optimized videos as you can, and see your business explode!

Youtube, allegedly, now gets more traffic than Google search. Could you do with some of that traffic? If you add all the traffic that the other popular video sharing sites receive, you’ll get some idea of the vast potential of video marketing.

From all the page views that you get from these sites, a percentage will follow the link to investigate you further. Notice that I said “you” and not “your offer”. Unless you’re a well known brand, you will need to build a level of trust between you and your potential clients. Viewing one of your promotional videos is the best way of starting an online relationship with your prospects.

In marketing terms this is called “lead generation”. Typically you attract a prospect to your landing page where you offer “something of value” in return for their name and email address. You can then continue to build a relationship with them, increasing the bond at each stage. You sell yourself first and then you sell your product.

By using professional Video Submission Software, you can submit your video to 50 sites in a fraction of the time it would take you to do it manually. Would that be a productive use of your time?

So what other benefits are there of using Video Submission Software? Well, apart from organizing your campaigns and saving yourself an enormous amount of time and effort, it saves you hours and hours of boring, repetitious work. Submitting your videos to the sharing sites involves an enormous amount of form filling – using software, virtually 95 per cent of this will be done automatically!

Using software, you can typically join 50 sites, and respond to the verification emails in under an hour. Would you consider undertaking this task manually? Probably not!

How long would it take to submit your videos to 50 sites? Let’s assume that you’ve joined all the sites, prepared your metadata, and that your connection will upload at 1mb per minute.

A short 10mb video would mean that you would be tied to your computer for well over 8 hours.

Using submission software, you just need to enter your metadata (title, description and tags) once, point the software at the location on your computer, click “submit” and go to bed.

Next morning have a look to see if there were any upload failures, correct them, job done. Move on to the next video.

Video Submission Software will work tirelessly on your behalf for as long as it takes.

With the growing trend of Blended Search, there is also a much greater chance of your video getting picked up by the major Search Engines. Have you noticed how Google generally includes at least one video on their front page?

The benefits of a wide reaching video marketing campaign don’t end with increased traffic and higher search engine listings.

What are the long term benefits? Well, they are very difficult to quantify, as a viewer of the video on a certain day may not be a candidate for your offer at the time, but they may be in the future, or they may recommend the video to a colleague or family member or in 5 years time to their children!

Is there a better way of branding your Company?

In Conclusion - Can Video Submission Software Help Your Business?

Well, by using the latest video marketing technology to plan and execute powerful campaigns, video submission software will certainly help to promote any online or offline business large or small.

Promoting Your Video is to Promote Your Business.

Download your free Video Marketing report the “Video Ads Blueprint” at http://www.videowildfire.com/lpindex.asp

with an Unrivalled Marketing Management System for Unlimited Traffic and Profits

VideoWildfire is The Most Advanced and Comprehensive

Web 2.0 Submission Software Ever Created for

Video and Social Media Search Engine Optimization

Main Features:

Enables unlimited campaign management – Ideal for SEO and Advertising Agencies

Manages your accounts and submits your video to 50 Top Video Hosting Sites

Manages your accounts and posts to 25 Top Social Bookmarking Sites

Manages your accounts and posts to 15 Top Social News Sites (some of which require you to enter a Captcha)

A built in “pinging” tool, that submits any RSS feed to 25 Blog/RSS Directories. Use it to ping your blog entry or your Youtube feed etc… etc…

Gathers statistics from the Top Ten Video Sharing sites(more coming soon), hourly, daily or weekly – it’s totally under your control – View them or download them to Excel.

Captures an image (snapshot) of the last page of each site that was submitted to – this would typically display a message specifying that your video was successfully uploaded, or the last error message from the website. For example – if your title contains invalid characters, a message will be displayed to that effect.

Video Buzz Browser

If you’re really serious about promoting your Videos and Blogs, we provide you with a one click tool that enables you to manually join and submit to another 209 Social Media Sites for

Back-links, Traffic and Profile Exposure.

Features:

50 Video Sharing Sites

9 “New” Video Bookmarking Sites

45 Videocast (Video Podcast) Directories for your MRSS Feeds

25 Social Bookmarking Sites

80 Blog Directories

For full details of this amazing software - go to VideoWildfire

Show Notes:

How to use the amazing new version of the VideoWildfire - Video and Social Media Submission Software.

Create and manage unlimited accounts at 50 Video Sharing Sites, 25 Social Bookmarking Sites, 15 Social News Sites and 25 Blog and RSS Directories.

Read the blog - Step by Step Guide to Using VideoWildfire V3 for Your Online Marketing Campaigns

VideoWildfire.com, the popular Video Submission Tool, has released an awesome new version that includes easy joining and submission to 40 Social Bookmarking and Social News sites to add to the 50 top Video Sharing sites.
Also included is an easy to use RSS submitter that sends any of your feeds to 25 Blog and RSS Directories.

VideoWildfire is the most comprehensive Web 2.0 submission software ever created for Video and Social Media Search Engine Optimization.

Currently in use, successfully, by:
Internet Marketers
Search Engine Optimization Companies
Travel Industry Professionals
Real Estate Professionals
Advertising Agencies
Auto Dealerships
And many more businesses, authors, bands and non-profit organizations looking to raise their Online credentials.

It has been specifically designed to meet the requirements of Google’s Universal, or Blended, search.

Video is fast becoming the media of choice for online information seekers – Google is well aware of this, and from my research, is currently including Video in their Search Results about 20% of the time. I predict this figure will grow and grow in the future.

NOW is the time to adjust your SEO tactics and Marketing Strategies, to take your enterprise forward.

We offer a Marketing Management and Submission tool like no other, based on:

Strategy 1 – Video Distribution
Easily join and submit to 50 top Video Sharing Sites

Strategy 2 – Promotion of Your Videos, Blogs and RSS Feeds
 Easily join and submit to:
        25 Top Social Bookmarking Sites
        15 Top Social News Sites
        Ping any RSS feed to 25 top Blog and RSS Directories

Our system will leverage your marketing efforts, and save you hours and hours of your valuable time.

By using the software, you will learn more about Video and Social Media Marketing than by purchasing any training material for sale anywhere on the Internet – and much quicker.

We have produced a 100 page report as an introduction to Video and Social Media Marketing called The Video Ads Blueprint – available at Http://www.videowildfire.com/lpindex.asp.

With the Video Marketing sector booming, VideoWildfire.com has released a 98 page report that gives marketers everywhere the information they need to set up powerful viral campaigns.

Titled “The Video Ads Blueprint”, it explains, with step by step simplicity, how short promotional video ads can be the spearhead of an online Social Media Marketing Campaign.

The 98 page guide explains techniques that will substantially increase traffic to their website, improve their overall search engine rankings and increase the online profile of their organization.

Video Marketing is a relatively new industry that has seen exceptional growth over the last couple of years, and is on course to grow even faster in the foreseeable future.

Internet marketing has never been more competitive, a constant struggle to attract attention and create relationships with potential customers.

The report helps clients discover the leading-edge strategies that will take their businesses to the next level.

There are two case studies presented, an auto dealership from New York and an indie band from Chicago. We illustrate how to set up campaigns, optimize them for the search engines and how to get widespread video distribution.

The techniques illustrated can be used by affiliate marketers, pro bloggers, consultants, cosmetic surgeons, churches, non-profit organizations, online trainers, florists, hoteliers etc.

The report is specifically designed to show marketers, both online and offline, the benefits of creating short promotional videos, and how, by using submission software, they can seriously leverage their marketing efforts.

Shaun Hurley, the Senior Developer said:

“The report coincides with the release of the latest version of our popular Video Submission tool, VideoWildfire. It’s got many great features including submission to the top 50 video sharing sites, including youtube, googlevideo, myspacetv, facebook, gather and dailymotion. Also included is a tool that submits your advertising message to 25 Social Bookmarking sites, 15 Social News sites and 25 Blog and RSS Directories. The system is a serious time saver.”

Virtually any online or offline business can benefit from Video Marketing, download the “Video Ads Blueprint” and find out how.

VideoWildfire.com is a software company located in Marbella, Spain, that specializes in the design and development of Social Media Marketing systems for online and offline professional marketers.

The free download of “The Video Ads Blueprint” can be found at http:/www.videowildfire.com/lpindex.asp

In each episode, industry expert Shellie Hall highlights relevant news, tells you about hot products, surveys some of her favorite Web sites, and more.

This is a good example of a business Videocast. A regular weekly show that focuses on industry related news with a few tips and tricks thrown in. A little about them and then I’ll try and make a few remarks as to how they could improve and leverage their marketing efforts.

In their own words:

Welcome to CreativePro.com
If you’re a creative professional in search of information, education, inspiration, or communication with other creative pros, you’ll find it here. Wondering what we mean by "creative professional"? Anyone involved in the conception, direction, design, or production of communication materials. That includes print designers, photographers, illustrators, Web designers — you know, people like you.

My first impression - good production, maybe the lighting is a bit flakey, has she really got such a tan? Excellent presentation by Shellie - love her to death.

Let’s have a look at one more example:

How to Create a Videocast. Nov 2007

They have produced over 30 videos for their Youtube channel and seem to attract an average of 400 to 500 views. I think this is a shame as the content and presentation deserve more.

Let’s look at it from a Video Marketing point of view and how they could do better.

What are they trying to achieve? (or should be)

1 More traffic to their website Creativepro.com

2 Higher rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN live

3 Backlinks to their website for higher Google PR

4 Creating relationships with their target groups of customers

5 Getting their BRAND out there

What can they do to achieve their objectives?

When is a Videocast a TV show? The first thing I would do is change the name from "Get Creative Videocast" to "The Get Creative TV Show". Youtube is a video sharing site and Viewers, by and large, watch the videos there and then. A videocast is generally an RSS feed that contains embedded links of a video, that can be distributed to iTunes and other Directories that cater to the "on the move" crowd who may download it to their ipod and watch it on their way to work or in the gym!

How do people find you on Youtube? The first point I would make to the Get Creative team is to change the category that they put their videos in. The Entertainment category caters to the funny bloopers or girl in a mini-skirt brigade. I don’t think that their "targeted traffic" would be hanging out there. Maybe they could experiment with the "How to" or "Education" or "Technology" categories to search out potential customers.

Use of keywords. My research shows that the tags used in the description have limited value with both Youtube and Google. They are much more likely to be noticed in either the title or the description itself. A title such as "03.03.08 Get Creative" is a really wasted opportunity to be found. They could put some of their tags in, for example "graphic" and "design" which are far more likely to attract viewers.

In the description they could also add more keywords and a hyperlink to a prepared landing page where they could be offering a free "How to" PDF in exchange for the name and email of the prospect to maintain the conversation created.

I noticed that many of their videos are 8 or 9 minutes long. I would suggest that the average Youtuber has an attention span of between 2 and 4 minutes. Maybe they could be cut into two or more episodes - enabling more keywords to be targeted in the title and description.

As regards the content, I think people don’t object to a sponsor’s message at the beginning and end of the video, but in between want to be either educated or entertained. I haven’t watched all the videos so I’m just talking generally, I would rather see more "how to’s" than news items.

A couple of suggestions on a creative level.

1. On Youtube the thumbnail is taken from the center of the video. Maybe a slide could be inserted that would be more eycatching.

2. The extremely tidy bookshelves could be replaced occasionally by a Greenscreen so alternative backdrops could be introduce to add a little variety.

3. The videos I watched could have been improved by some creative use of a musical introduction and ending?

In Conclusion:

I hope my comments have given Shellie, and indeed anyone who wants to use short promotional videos to promote their business, some food for thought and has found them helpful.

She may well consider using our VideoWildfire Submission Software to leverage the effort she puts in to the creation of her great videos. We can promote her videos at 50 Video Sharing Sites, 25 Social Bookmarking Sites, 15 Social News Sites and 25 Blog and RSS Directories.

Excerpts From Their Latest Press Release:

1. Today, as part of its redesign efforts, CreativePro.com formally introduced Get Creative, a weekly creative news videocast for designers, photographers and other creative professionals.

Comment:

Here they actually define the groups of people they are targeting. - fantastic information!

Rather than taking a broad brush approach to their videos, why not devote a series of episodes for, for example, photographers. Map out any number of videos that teach all levels of photographers about the hardware and software that they need to use - using video marketing techniques to draw them into a conversation with the company.

2. "With this videocast, ‘get creative’ is not only something to do — it’s something to see," says Hall. "Since our videos are hosted on YouTube, we can reach a wide audience and bring new creative pros into the fold. My goal is to be a YouTube Featured Video. I hope that doesn’t mean I have to film a kid playing with a light saber or a cat using the toilet like a human. But I’ll do what I have to for my viewers!"

Comment:

Great to see companies large and small appreciating the potential of promotional videos. It does take a lot of work to plan and create them. My message to Shellie would be that there is a much "wider audience" out there than limiting herself to a Youtube channel.

3. "I’m excited to have Shellie as part of our team," says Terri Stone, CreativePro.com’s Editor in Chief. "Her energy is infectious, and she really knows her stuff. It’s a great combination for the CreativePro.com audience."

Comment:

I agree. Shellie makes an excellent presenter.

Tags: videocast, case study,