UTB Social Media Seminar from Zack Koczanski on Vimeo.

Coverage of the UTB Social Media Seminar at the Hilton Garden Inn, Oldsmar on Friday September 11, 2009. Sponsored by the UTB Chamber of Commerce, the event drew over 40 people. The topic was “Social Media – does Your Business Belong in This Game?” A well versed panel of experts presented information and answered questions.
This program was part of the Small Business on-going educational offering by the UTB Chamber.

Lots of talk about using video for marketing. YouTube has the majority of the online video audience with 40%. The significant statistic is this: The duration of the average online video was 3.8 minutes. The average viewer on Hulu only watches 1 hour and 17 minutes of video in the month. That means many, many folks watch a lot less than 1 minute of video.

Like a TV commercial, you need to grab the audience in the first 3 to 5 seconds. But it’s more than just the attention grabbing. Your message has to be powerful, memorable, and concise.

The rule of marketing is the same for online video, offline media or social media. These vehicles only work if the marketing works. [The marketing being that you have a powerful, concise, easy to share message. The more memorable or emotional it is the better it can resonate with your audience.]

At the AMA Tampa Bay meeting on Online Video, there were some good examples of video messaging. One was Julia Gorzka’s use of video to get the story out about Tampa’s own tortilla factory (savethetortillas.com).

Another example was Ken Donaldson, who is a relationship counselor. He spoke about the ease of video to get the message out and how he has built his practice through video and blogging.

Like any medium, if the message is boring, you won’t get a response. In today’s frenetic attention deficit society, you not only need your marketing to be ON, but your video better be on some fast servers and load quick!

Social Media is a fluid idea. MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and the other social media applications have a lot of mystery surrounding them.

1. Number one is that these are all just tools to be used. Used for what? To have a conversation.
2. Number two is that social media is mainly about being Social. That means having a conversation, even if that conversation is one to many. People do business with people, not faceless companies. Your profiles should not be a logo, but a real live person.
3. Number three is you need to be Transparent and Authentic.
4. Number four is that your Offline Marketing should be working With your Online marketing. It isn’t two separate strategies.  Online and offline need to work together.
5. Number five is that social media is about engagement, not self-promotion (or what I call puking). It is the sincere application of the Law of Attraction or as Zig Ziglar says, “If you help enough people get what they want, you will get everything you want.”

One of the best things you can do is to tell stories. Authentic stories about your customers, your employees, your company values or policies. People remember and can re-tell good stories. Isn’t that what you want?

Like BarCamp, the principles are simple: Give, Share, Learn, and Network. That’s what social media is in a nutshell.