Why does Dropbox use a 3-year-old animated explainer on their homepage? How did Crazy Egg drive an extra $21,000 a month in new income with its animated explainer video?

The simple answer is that animated explainer videos work!

Keep reading and you’ll find out the step-by-step process of creating an animated explainer video that helps you grow your business.

The Entrepreneur’s Journey

As entrepreneurs we have a constant flow of ideas. But what happens when one idea comes along that we just can’t get out of our head?

We think about it washing the dishes, walking the dog, and taking a shower. Then we talk to our closest friends who agree that it is a good idea.

We’re excited! Really excited! We have enough validation to get started.

What do we typically do?

We immediately think to build a landing page that explains the idea. We soon get early adopters, maybe a writeup on Techcrunch.

Now it’s time to scale this business. We’re ready to invest a little cash.

What’s next? We need a video. Not just any type of video, an animated video.

A video that explains the pains of our ideal customers and how our product/service will solve that pain.

Thus far, everything has gone pretty smooth, but now…

We’re stuck!

How much does it cost? How much input do I have during the whole process? Where do I go to get one created?

Fear not, my fellow entrepreneurs! We are pulling back the curtains and detailing every step of the process of creating an animated explainer.

We understand the benefits of having a video. Dropbox has used the same video for about 3 years now. They’ve run different A/B tests on their homepage and using a 3-year-old video STILL outperforms all other variations (source).

This has led to thousands of new sign-ups every day.

Neil Patel stated on his blog how an animated explainer video drove an additional $21,000 for his startup, Crazy Egg. Neil goes on explain how to properly write a script for your video. It’s a must read.

Okay by now you’re probably itching to read on and get the backstage pass on the process of creating an animated video.

Make sure you go through this whole post, before looking for an animator.

The Animated Video Creation Process

If you don’t like reading, here’s a Google Hangout we created with Media Whale (created SmartShoot homepage video) that walks through the entire process.

How Much For an Animated Explainer?

Let’s get the big question out of the way. How much does a typical animated explainer cost?

We don’t want to say it, but it really depends. It depends on the length of the video and the animation style.

However, we know you want numbers so a typical 1 minute animated explainer will cost about $2,000 to $5,000. Keep in mind that more sophisticated animations can go as high as $10,000.

In regards to the length of the video, we strongly recommend that videos be around the one minute mark as there is a steep drop off in viewers after the one minute mark.

Step 1 – Pick an Animation Style

In terms of animation style, here are four of the most popular requests we get.

Cartoon Style Animation
 

 
White Board Animation
 
 

 
Motion Graphics  
 

 
Cut-out Animation

Before looking for an animator, really scour YouTube and other startup sites to find an animation style that you like. This will help your animator make a more accurate quote on the cost of the animation.

Step 2 – Script Creation: Make 3-5 Bullet Points

Outsourcing the script is the #1 mistake that startups make when creating their animated video. You know your business inside and out, so why hire a freelance writer to create the script?

Again, do NOT outsource your script.

If you’re not comfortable writing the script, then write out 3-5 main points that you’d like to get across in the video. Think about some of the things that really separate you from your competition.

If you’re not sure what makes you different, then ask your favorite customers about why they chose you. I’d even go as far as asking non-customers why they did NOT choose you. You’ll start to see some differentiation between you and your competitors.

Then tell your animator that you will need some script writing help. Most studios are equipped to help you with your script writing needs.

Always end your script with a call to action. Let your viewer know what you want them to do after watching your video. Yes the video is there to entertain, but what you really want is the conversion or sale.

Therefore, always have a clear call to action at the end of your video.

Step 3 – Select a Voice-over

Once you have you the script finalized, then it’s time to select a voice-over.

If you have someone already in mind, then by all means use that person. However, going with your own voice-over won’t save much off the final price. A good voice-over artist will charge anywhere from $100-$200 for a 60-second clip.

If you’d like the studio to find one, then they’ll send over a selection of 8-15 voice-over artists for you to choose from. You’ll receive the first 15 seconds of your script so you can make an intelligent decision.

Step 4 – Character Design / Music

Now it’s time to start creating the initial character design. At this point, you’ll want to send the studio your logo, color scheme and any other design assets that you’d like to incorporate in the video.

It’s important again to show the type of character design that you’re going after. This is a bit different from the animation style. During this process we are going into the details of the actual drawings of your characters.

For instance, you may want a cartoon style animation, but you rather have stick figures than full body cartoons. This again will be a back and forth process that can take anywhere from a week to two weeks depending on how involved you want to be.

In regards to music, most studios will have a library or a website that they use to source their music. Now is the time to think about what makes sense for your video.

Do you want a dramatic musical background? Or something more upbeat.

Try to listen to the music as you’re reading the script. This will help figure out what type of music goes best with your script.

Step 5 – Animation

Now the exciting part!

Once the character design has been approved, you’ll see the first cut of the animated explainer with music.

You typically have two rounds of revisions.

With the first revision round you want to be as thorough as possible. Tell the studio what you like, what you don’t like, and any other changes you’d like. Don’t hold anything back for the first round! Take your time with this round of revision and give as much details about your changes as possible.

Depending on the number of changes, your next revision will come in about 48 hours.

You want to use the second revision round to add the finishing touches and maybe a small change that you didn’t catch earlier.

Step 6 – Keep Video and Main Action Close Together

Lastly, when putting your video on your website, make sure the call to action button is close to your video. Don’t have your video at the very top and the main button at the very bottom.

If your viewer is sold on your business because of the video, then make it easy for them to take action.

Conclusion

Animated explainers are a great way to introduce your product or service to your potential customers. Websites such as Dropbox and Crazy Egg have attributed their success to these animated explainer videos.

By now, you should have a full understanding of all the steps needed to create your animated explainer video, so what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

If you think we missed anything please leave a comment below. Also, if you created an animated explainer video based on this guide, please share it in the comments. We’d love to see what you came up with.

The post Animated Videos: Making an Animated Video Explained appeared first on SmartShoot.

While we all know that content marketing involves creating great content, however don’t forget that curating great content is equally important.

With over 181 million active blogs, how do you find content that is not only relevant but valuable to your audience?

And more importantly how do you find this content in as little time as possible?

Let me show you three tools I’ve been using to get more Twitter followers, more retweets, more favorited tweets, and more mentions!

Here are three tools to help you curate AMAZING content and grow your Twitter following.

1) Prismatic

I hate RSS readers! You read the same content from the same sources every day. Sure they’re great for following your favorite bloggers, but I want to find new and interesting content that I can share with my followers.

And besides how can one source produce such amazing content on a daily basis. They can’t!

That’s why I LOVE Prismatic. When you first set up your account, you get to pick all of your interests and favorite blogs. Then the app does the heavy lifting of curating the best content based on my interests and types of blogs I like.

Since using this tool, I’ve come across some amazing blogs such as Social Media Today, Jeffbulla’s Blog, Hongkiat.com, and many more.

2) Buffer

Are you following people that tweet 20 messages in a span of 10 minutes? Yeah, me too!

First I tell them to quit hogging my feed. Then I tell them to use Buffer.

It’s free for those who only manage one account per social network so there’s no excuse.

Buffer allows you to share amazing content by scheduling your posts. You can add posts to your account and Buffer will automatically publish your posts throughout the day. I absolutely love this tool.

With Buffer you can also see what kind of tweets resonate with your followers, so you can tailor your content respectively.

3) Tweetbot

One of the ten Twitter Commandments is to thank all who mention, share, or retweet ye’s tweets.

And there’s no better tool to do just that than Tweetbot. This is by far my favorite Twitter iPhone app.

It allows you to get notifications whenever someone retweets your message or mentions you in a tweet, so you can quickly thank that person. Remember, more thank yous equal more Twitter prosperity.

Have a gazillion followers? You can set up Tweetbot so you only get notifications of mentions from people you follow.

Bonus tips

I won’t go too much in detail here because there’s plenty of content around the follow topics, but I thought it was worthy mentioning in case you’re new to Twitter.

• When sharing content, mention the author in your tweet. Most share buttons on major blogs only mention the blog itself. That’s great but it’s the author that’s writing this great content so mention them in your tweets.
• Use hashtags, but don’t overdo it! Tweets with one or two hashtags receive 21% higher engagement than those with three or more hashtags. (source: BuddyMedia)
• Analyze your tweets! Buffer can show you the number of clicks, favorites, and retweets each message receives. Find categories that resonate with your audience and add them to your Prismatic.

Conclusion

To grow your social media following you must spend time creating great content, but don’t forget to spend time curating great content.

If you’re only sharing your own content, your audience may feel like they’re being spammed. Use these three tools to make sure the content you are sharing is resonating with your audience.

The post How to Curate AMAZING Content and Grow Your Twitter Followers appeared first on SmartShoot.

When it comes to photography, everyone’s a professional right? Not quite…

Trust me, a few years ago I went with an affordable photographer friend for our family holiday photos. I regretted it. I didn’t like any of the photos and decided to just pay her the hourly rate she asked for.

An easy way to tell if a photographer is a pro or a budding amateur is to see if the main subject of the photo is centered in all the images. Pros know how to frame the subject; amateurs always frame the subject the same way – in the center.

So when it comes to photography hire a real professional not your friend of a friend who just bought a fancy camera. It can make the difference between closing a sale and losing a sale.

In fact, one research that tracked the eye movements of subjects who looked at online home listings found that home buyers spend about 60% of their time on photos.

“Without an eye-catching photo, the battle is lost before it begins. You have to grab people’s attention within two seconds. Do it the way a billboard does.” says Michael Seiler, founder and director of the Institute for Behavioral and Experimental Real Estate at Old Dominion University at Norfolk, Va.

Don’t have a big budget? Don’t worry. Here are three simple ways you can save on your next photo shoot.

1) Schedule Multiple Types of Shoots in One Day

kris krüg via Compfight

At SmartShoot, we see plenty of photo requests ranging from birthday parties to weddings to head shots.

Here are a few of the most request photo shoots from businesses:

• Product shots such as food, jewelry, clothes, electronics, etc.
• Shots of the business (ie restaurant or medical office)
• Live events
• Head shots/portraits
• Photos of customers

Can your business benefit from one or more of the above photo shoots?

If so, consider bulking the shoots. Rather than just shooting photos of your food, have your photographer take shots of the chef preparing the food or take head shots of the owners. You can even get shots of your favorite customers so you can accompany their testimonial with a nice looking portrait.

The bulk of the shoot cost is the photographer’s time so rather than having him/her come out multiple times for a photo shoot plan to have many types of shoots occur on the same day.

But make sure you’re prepared. More on that later.

2) Shoot at your location

Think your place is a mess? Or it’s not an ideal location for a professional photo shoot? Don’t worry that’s why you’re hiring a pro.

Here are a couple of photos to help illustrate the point:

Here is one of the photos from a conference where we shot head shots. That’s me, btw!

Food shot for one of our local business customers.

Whereas anyone can capture beautiful pictures of an ocean view backdrop, only a true professional photographer can capture stunning shots in odd, cluttered, and sub optimal places.

3) Create a Shot List

Mark Grapengater via Compfight

As I stated in tip #1 the less time a photographer needs to be on-site, the less you’ll have to pay.

So make sure you’re extremely prepared. 

Here are a few tips using the popular photo shoots from tip #1.

Product shots including food, physical products

Tip: Prepare the food just in time for the shoot. If you’d like product photos make sure you have them separate from the rest of your products. Lastly, make sure you’ve prepared a location for the product shots.

Shots of the business (ie restaurant or medical office)

Tip: You want to make sure to tidy the place up a bit. Also think about the type of shots you’d like such as photos of the outside of the office, shots of the reception area, your bar area, etc). Knowing exactly what you want shot will immensely save the photographer’s time.

Live events

Tip: Do you want close-ups of the speakers? Are there any presentations that you’d like to focus on? Do you want action shots of the attendees, sponsors, panel discussions, etc. Think about all this and let the photographer know a couple of days before the event.

Head shots/portraits of team or customers

Tip: Make sure you have a schedule of who will be shot and in what order. Also, remind team members and/or customers of the shoot and scheduled time so they can dress appropriately. Lastly, stick to the schedule. Don’t tell anyone cause a delay.

Conclusion

Remember, amateur photographers frame subjects in the center of the photo whereas professionals frame according to the backdrop. It pays to go with a professional photographer.

Don’t lose sales going with an amateur. Let a professional capture you and your business in the best possible light (pun intended). By applying these three simple tips you won’t need to spend a fortune on professional photos.

Did I miss anything? Add your own tips in the comments.

Photo Credit: wili_hybrid

The post How to Save on Professional Photography for Your Website appeared first on SmartShoot.

One of Felix’s photos from a shoot.

We have a rockstar photographer as this week’s SmartShoot Star and his name is Felix Mizioznikov. He’s been with SmartShoot since late 2011 and has done over 100 jobs.

Recently he’s been crushing it with all our partner photo shoots.

Why do like working with SmartShoot?

Felix: Smartshoot is a great company to work for. They offer competitive rates and make the whole process very easy from start to finish. The support team is always is always quick to respond to any issues or concerns.

What are some of your major accomplishments/awards?

Felix: I can solve the rubik’s cube in under 4 minutes. (Steve: what? get out. I couldn’t do it in 4 days!)

What’s your favorite SmartShoot project?

Felix: I love all the partner photo projects. It gives me the opportunity to travel the state of Florida and meet lots of great people and help them showcase their communities.

How did you get started as a photographer?

Felix: I started in stock photography about a decade ago and still actively submit photos and videos. I photographed a few weddings for friends which generated business, then I photographed a few friends houses which generated business, and here I am today…doing what I love:)

What do you shoot on?

Felix: My primary is an iPhone 5 and I use an old 3gs as backup…..ahhhh just kidding.

I shoot with canon. I have a few 5d mark 2 bodies and various canon lenses and speedlites.

What is our favorite film? Artist? Photographer?

Felix: Toss up between lord of the rings and despicable me.

I love nature photography by Peter Lik.

The post SmartShoot Star: Felix Mizioznikov appeared first on SmartShoot.

In fact, a study done by the Institute for Behavioral and Experimental Real Estate at Old Dominion University found that the eye movements of subjects who looked at online home listings found that more than 95% of users viewed the first photo — the one that shows the exterior of the home — for a total of 20 seconds. After that, their eyes tended to flit all over the screen.

“Without an eye-catching photo, the battle is lost before it begins,” says Prof. Michael Seiler, founder and director of the Institute for Behavioral and Experimental Real Estate. “You have to grab people’s attention within two seconds. Do it the way a billboard does.”

Overall, when viewing an online real-estate listing, home buyers spend about 60% of their time on photos, says Prof. Seiler.

While using images shot by a professional photographer remains the number way to truly create an eye-catching photo, there are some less expensive alternatives a business can use.

In this post, we’ll cover the top 10 iPhone Photo apps in the Apple app store.

1. Instagram

Cost: Free

Instagram may be the most famous photo sharing app the Internet has these days. For the first time, Instagram revealed in public their membership data which showed at least 100 million active users in their system. Instagram is an iPhone photo app that lets you take pictures, filter them, and share them directly on social networking sites.

2. Facebook Camera

Cost: Free

Facebook Camera is obviously an app for Facebook users. It is the social network’s newest feature that allows the users to do multi-tasking when it comes to photo and video sharing. It provides an easy way to upload multiple images, edit them, and tag Facebook contacts all at once.

3. Photo Editor by Aviary

Cost: Free for standard; $ 0.99 a month for Premium

Photo editor by Aviary provides a near-professional quality of shots of images. Just like using a regular camera, it has a focus feature. What makes it better than a regular cam is you can add effects and adjust the color of your photo right after shooting them.

The new version 2.0.0 provides better filter effects than any other photo apps with the same feature. It is compatible with iPhone models 3Gs, 4s, 4, and iPhone 5. For users which do not use the app for marketing purposes, they can have a lot of fun editing their images with meme stickers, gags, and so much more.

4. Adobe Photoshop Express

Cost: Free

Photographers and regular camera users know how important it is to know how to use Adobe Photoshop editor. Even the most expert and professional photographer uses Photoshop to enhance their pictures for their business.

The newest editing features of Adobe Photoshop express are:

• Dodge and Burn Tools

• Crystallize Effect Tool

• Pop Color

• Auto Correct

• Pixelate Effect

• Caption and Thought Bubbles

5. Wood Camera

Cost: $0.99

Wood Camera filters photos ad creates a vintage/retro/grunge effect. Some Photo editing apps have filters that can have the same effect. In Wood Camera, however, you can see all the effects of your photo before finally choosing one and enhance it even more. After the filter effects, you can crop and perform various auto editing features.

6. 360 Panorama

Cost: $0.99

Show your friends a complete view of your photo using 360 Panorama. This photo app is designed to offer users a panoramic shots which are above ordinary. Now, you won’t have the difficulty of adjusting your camera lense since you can picture the whole view using panorama shots. This is great when taking header images  for your business website. Best of all, you can take a picture while moving or turning around with this ap and still produce a good quality image.

7. Simply HDR

Cost: $0.99

Photographers and hobbyist now have a new choice of uploading images and edit them with artistic effects. HDR or high dynamic register copies what a professional photographer can have, With the features such as black and white, contrasted HDR, contrasted light, and other editing features, users gave enhance their photographs and even show their artistic side.

With Simply HDR, you won’t have to wait for multiple photos on your system. You just have to activate the app, use it, and have many photos in one image.

8. Hipstamatic

Cost: $ 1.99

Hipstamatic is a digital photo application of apple that allows the users to have a squared photo which looks like it has been taken using an antique film. It has a number of software filters that allows the users to manipulate the contrasts of their shots. The application has simulated lenses, films, and flashes to ensure a high quality and professionally-edited photos.

9. Camera +

Cost: $0.99

Camera+ is something that every photography hobbyist must have. These are the following features that Camera + has:

• Automatic saving for videos and photos

• Cropping feature

• Countdown time

• Black and white filters

• 12 video filters

• Unlimited video recording when camera is set on default mode

• Anti-shake features

10. Snapseed

Snapseed is a powerful auto-editing tool for photographs and images from an iPhone or any iOS-powered device. It has a lot of fun filters and other designs that iPhone owners can make use when creating a collage.

Conclusion

Having at least one of these photo editing applications for your iPhone and other iOS device will allow you to do more with your photos. With all these apps available, it’s good to know that you don’t have to spend hundreds of bucks every time you need high quality photos for your business.

You can be as creative as you can get while maximizing the marketing potential of the photos at low to no cost!

The post Top 10 iPhone Photo Apps appeared first on SmartShoot.

This week’s SmartShoot Star goes to Nick Paonessa who has been AMAZING on SmartShoot. He’s done close to 100 jobs and delivers the best possible content for our customers.

A sample of his work:

What are some of their major accomplishments/awards?

Nick: Graduating NYU and marrying my wife. Professionally, shooting a presentation pilot that I co-produced this year was a major accomplishment. We shot 27 pages in 3 days with a budget of under $10,000 — it’s currently in post.

Why do they like working with SmartShoot?

Nick: I LOVE working with SmartShoot because it removes the burden of having to drum up business myself. I always know there will be a (paying) opportunity to shoot something with. I also love that they handle the administrative work, so I can focus on the creative work. It’s great to feel they are on my team going forward with projects and know they have my back when dealing with the administrative logistics of a project.

What’s your favorite SmartShoot project?

Nick: My favorite SmartShoot project is probably the one I’m currently working on. It’s basically a commercial for a new product which is launching later this year. It has actors and story line and is probably the closest thing to an actual commercial that I’ve shot. This will give me the opportunity to have a commercial with a fairly decent budget under my belt and onto my portfolio, which could lead to more commercials with bigger budgets in the future.

The post SmartShoot Star: Nick Paonessa appeared first on SmartShoot.

Search Engine Journal placed linking to and from unreliable websites such as sites with explicit content as #10 in their article 25 Ways to Get Penalized in 2012. With Google’s Panda update, back link quantity matters less than before. Understanding the effect of SEO as an online marketing strategy is your first step towards getting rid of spam.

In fact, Google publishes a user manual for search engine optimization which contains everything about it and how can an SEO expert can improve his strategy without the danger of the website getting penalized. You can read the full PDF file here.

Here are three ways to prevent spam comments on your WordPress site.

3 Ways to Prevent WordPress Comment Spam

Blogs and websites using WordPress make spam moderation easier for the administrator.

Are you a newbie in moderating your own websites? Here are some tips that can surely keep your WordPress website spam-free!

Tip #1: Use Anti-Spam Comment Plugins

Using WordPress plug-ins to eradicate spam can help you sort out real comments from spam. Website plug-ins like Akismet can help you manage comments without going through them one by one. The note “Awaiting Moderation” will not appear for comments detected as spam.

For WordPress-powered blogs and websites, installing Akismet plugin is very simple. Just follow these simple steps and you can drive spam comments away from your site.

1. To go WordPress Dashboard and click on plugins.

2. Search for Akismet and click activate. Akismet is already pre installed in WP, so all you have to do is to activate it.

3. After activating, a yellow bar at the top will appear that says “Enter your Akismet API Key.” Click on the link and it will redirect you to the Akismet website to purchase an API key. For personal blogs, it comes for free!

The post 3 Tips to Prevent WordPress Comment Spam appeared first on SmartShoot.

On it’s 7th anniversary, the social media platform stated that there are currently 200 million active Twitter users. Such growth is 60 million greater than the number of users they had last year. These 200 million users are said to send in 400 Tweets per day.

What does these statistics mean to you and to your business?

The good thing about “Tweets” is they are brief and concise. Since  users can’t put a paragraph-long post, this can encourage conversation from people who have the same topic as yours, more or less. Therefore, you can engage your customers in a conversation. As subtly as you can, take this opportunity for them to fully convince that yours is the service that they need.

According to Mark Burrows of PRWeb.uk as featured in Yahoo News, 66% of the Twitter users tweet to recommend products and services, while 50 million users are after discounts and promos. Moreover, Twitter allows a convenient way for small businesses to make their presence felt together with larger companies and famous entrepreneurs.

To maximize the perks of Twitter marketing can bring, here’s what every small business owners have to do:

1. Sign up for Twitter

Set up an account for Twitter by filling up all the information asked. Be sure to create a username that’s closely related to the name or your business or the products and services that you offer.

If your the username you’ve chosen is not available, try to be creative by adding numbers or a dash in between words.

2. Follow important people related to your business

Choosing who to follow is an essential step in marketing through Twitter. Make sure that you’ll follow people who will have a future benefit to your business. If your business is about photography, then it is best to follow photography bloggers, famous photographers, or events coordinators. One of them may become your future clients or business partners.

On the other hand, watch out for spammer accounts. Be sure that the people following you are all legitimate and REAL Twitter users and not some spammer who would leave bad links to your profile.

3. Setup a landing page redirecting to your website

In creating your profile, don’t forget to add the URL leading to your website. If a Twitter user views your profile, chances are, they want to read more of your tweets and know more about you. Grab this great opportunity for them to become future customers by having your website on your Twitter profile page.

4. Promote or tweet quality contents only

In marketing your business, it is important to look into quality and relevance of he content. Although it is advised to tweet non-business related topics (such as tweeting about national economy), all content and tweets should be of high quality. It is difficult to post something thought provoking with 140 characters, but stating a phrase of what the content is about is enough.

Retweeting other users’ posts is also a good way of updating your Twitter account. This will encourage your followers to do the same to your posts.

5. Create a marketing strategy

Don’t just tweet for the sake of it. Figure out how you can maximize Twitter as a marketing tool. There are a lot of social media management tools available online such as Hootsuite and Buffer. Utilize these to keep your Twitter account updated.

There are many online activities that you can do with Twitter, such as:

• posting regular promos and special offers for your business

• answering inquiries to customer questions

• posting regular website updates

• notify followers about your latest business activities

Business owners should take Twitter as an opportunity to make their business known to a lot of prospective customers. Marketing it online through social media sites is a cost-effective way of that will surely bring in positive results for your growing businesses.

The post Twitter Marketing Tips for Small Businesses appeared first on SmartShoot.

These numbers could only mean one thing: business owners find social media very rewarding. Thus, several thousands more are looking forward to be part of the social media circle.

The downside, however, is how business owners can really connect with the right people at the right time. To put it in simple terms, businesses with social media accounts are blind as to how their brand is doing in the real world.

In this case, Klout becomes an essential part of the social media experience.

What is Klout?

Klout is a social media analytics used to measure how good you are when it comes to social media popularity. As of now, the analysis of data largely comes from the most popular social networks namely Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Google+.

Klout is currently working on connecting with other social media accounts. So expect more social networking sites soon.

Individuals may benefit from Klout through bench marking  At an early stage, a person can identify his tentative success rate if he plans to engage in business or anything that needs cooperation from a lot of people. However, it is the businesses that can benefit it the most through the Klout Business Portal. This provides them a better understanding of their brand and how their market regards it.

Understanding Klout for Business

Launched in March 2013, Klout Business Portal has allowed businesses to learn more about their brand through measuring their real-world social influence and how influential are their followers and fans are.

The number of your friends and followers may indicate your popularity, but that doesn’t work the same in analyzing your influence. Since Klout is more concerned on how your brand influences, the scoring is largely dependent on the number of likes, tagged messages, re-tweets, and comments. If more people are actively reacting to your posts and tweets everyday, you will have a high Klout score.

Such features are very useful for businesses to:

• monitor their business in terms of influence and popularity

• find out what areas of marketing should be improved

• discover the strengths and weaknesses of their social networking accounts

• communicate with their target market more efficiently

How to Use Klout for Business

Setting up a Klout Business Portal account is very easy and free!

Here’s how you do it.

1. Go to the Klout for Business website here. Click on the “Let’s Get Started” button.

2. A sign-up form will appear after clicking the button. Fill as much portions as possible for a more accurate Klout experience.

 3. Just like your personal Klout account, you will have to connect your business portal to your different social media accounts. After analyzing your social media activities, Klout will display their business dashboard with the new features. They will be having weekly reports in regards to how well you did in social media.

The new Klout Business Portal is designed and innovated to make social media tracking easier for business owners. Using this would offer great contribution in developing plans for social media marketing. As business owners will have a bird’s eye view of what their brands are good or weak at, revamping marketing strategies would be more convenient.

The post How to Use the New Klout Business Portal appeared first on SmartShoot.

This is the final and bonus principle in a 4-part blog series on how to make a viral video based on the four principles outlined in the book The Viral Video Manifesto. This principle is NOT in the book.

Here are links to the four principles:

• Viral Video Manifesto: Don’t Fake It
• Viral Video Manifesto: Think Like a Street Performer
• Viral Video Manifesto: Be Bold, Be Unforgettable
• Viral Video Manifesto: Let Your Brand be Human

There’s a little known secret to the success of a viral video. It’s called promotion.

As Kevin Allocca, YouTube’s Trends Manager, stated in his TED Talk, there are three components to a viral video: 1) complete unexpectedness; 2) community participation; and 3) taste makers.

Taste makers are people in the industry that introduce us to new and interesting things and bring them to a larger audience. In the mainstream media, these are folks like Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart, Daniel Tosh among others.

Within the tech community it’s Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte, TechCrunch, etc. Coverage from one of these people or publications can accelerate the viral process.

The Story Behind Rebecca Black’s Friday

With over 50 million views on YouTube, Rebecca Black’s Friday was one of the most popular videos of 2011. However, for the first several months of the video it garnered very little interest. It wasn’t until Tosh.0 covered it on his show and a popular video blogger sent a tweet poking fun of the video did it become the sensational we all love to hate.

How to Get Publicity for Your Video

Mark Malkoff, a comedian and filmmaker, has created several viral videos and has been featured on The Huffington Post, CNN and Fox News.

He created 171 Starbucks where he visits and consumes part of a purchase at all 171 Starbucks stores in Manhattan within 24 hours.

His video series where he lived and worked in an IKEA store for an entire week brought the most publicity in the history of IKEA and won the PR Week of the Year Award.

How does Mark get publicity for his videos?

He researches a ton about his audience. Who will watch and what will resonate with them? The very same way we marketers build a buyer persona, you should build a viewer persona. Think about all the web sites that your audience visits and the taste makers they follow.

Once you have the list, reach out to the journalists, bloggers and taste makers personally the week before you release your video.

Lastly, you want to aim for coverage on 2-3 web sites. That’s enough coverage to cause a PR domino effect.

To learn more about Mark’s process to promoting his video, listen to his interview on Social Media Examiner.

Photo Credit: paul goyette via Compfight cc

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