facebook Archives - Red Coyote Services

Should You Use Facebook or YouTube for Your Video Marketing Plan?

With Facebook gobbling up video marketing share, you have a tough choice. Should you use Facebook or YouTube? Find out from i5ww.

Facebook now gets more video views than YouTube. In August of last year, Facebook had 1 billion more views than YouTube.

Does that mean you need to scrap YouTube in favor of Facebook?

Maybe…and maybe not.

Take a look at the ins’n’outs of the two video giants:

YouTube’s Far from Dead

If anyone tells you not to use YouTube because it’s dying, don’t listen to them. YouTube still has more than 1 billion active users.

Plus, according to VentureBeat, their monthly hours viewed are up 50% year-over-year. That points to the strengths of YouTube, if anything.

Facebook’s a Strong Contender – Here’s Why

A Mixpo report shows marketers and agencies are more willing to use Facebook than ever. They’re doing this for two reasons:

Facebook offers precision audience targeting options YouTube doesn’t have
Marketers view engagement as the most important metric, and Facebook delivers better engagement rates than YouTube

But YouTube’s Not Going Away!

That’s because it drives so many views because of its SEO power. It’s going to keep that SEO power because Google owns it.

So the long-term value of YouTube may be far greater than that of Facebook. YouTube brings in about $4 billion for Google, but it doesn’t make a profit. So, it’ll be interesting to see how Google positions YouTube in the future.

So Which Should You Use?

It depends on what you want to do. With Facebook, you tend to get higher engagement rates for shorter periods of time. At YouTube, you get more long-term views.

So if you need to drive more customers in now, Facebook’s a better bet. If your business is doing okay at this minute, go with a mix of Facebook and YouTube.

Some other considerations:

YouTube shares 55% of any advertising revenues your video makes with you. It’s tough to make a substantial amount of money with YouTube videos. But it’s a nice bonus.
Facebook’s already a leading source for small business marketing. It’s a known working quantity.
Facebook’s algorithm, of course, favors Facebook videos over YouTube ones.
Facebook videos autoplay once they appear on user’s screens, but YouTube videos do not.
However, YouTube’s still one of the largest search engines on the web. So there’s still plenty of opportunity to get in front of your B2B audience.
With YouTube, you can optimize your video for popular searches.

The Verdict: No Clear Answer Right Now

There is no straight answer to which of these sites you should use. With competition from Facebook heating up, who knows how Google will respond with YouTube in the future?

For now, you don’t waste your marketing budget with either of these video leaders.

Judging a face(book) by its cover (photo)

[Update: Since the publication of this post, Facebook has changed their cover photo rules. Read the new guidelines here.]

The old adage says pictures are worth 1000 words. It’s therefore no surprise that in today’s ultra-visual society, the value of an image continues to grow exponentially. For businesses that actively use Facebook to market their company, products, and services, an eye-catching and unique cover photo is nothing short of priceless.

In their professional opinion, Facebook recommends that businesses “Choose a cover photo that represents your brand and showcases your product or service. It’s the first thing people will see when they visit your Page.”

It’s also important to consider any rules and regulations as they relate to your cover photo. Although these continue to evolve as Facebook and other social networks constantly adapt to shifts in the marketplace, user expectations, and the world at large, as an internet marketing company that offers social media management services, it is our job to stay informed so that we can protect and promote our clients. After all, if we can’t follow the rules ourselves, our partners might have cause for concern.

With this in mind, remember that cover photos are not meant to be used for promotions, specials, advertising, etc. Instead, they should serve to represent your brand’s identity. Looking to optimize your current Facebook cover photo? Here are a few suggestions with respect to best practices:

DON’T

Infringe on anyone’s trademarks or copyrights
Include contact information, calls to action, prices, or promotions
Reference other Facebook features (i.e., copy asking people to “like” or “share” your page)

Resize your cover photo to at least 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall (keeping in mind that it will load fastest as an sRGB JPG file that’s 851 pixels wide x 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes)
Left-align your photo with a full bleed and 16:9 aspect ratio
Employ the help of an eye-catching graphic or photo reflecting your brand identity (use your logo as your profile picture, as this will display with your Facebook activity)
Have fun choosing a cover photo—and change it often to entice repeat visitors!
Follow i5ww on Facebook for even more social media and internet marketing tips!

What’s in a (user)name?

On one otherwise ordinary Friday night, I sat in front of my computer, eyes darting between the clock and computer monitor. It was an anxiety akin to waiting for my favorite band’s concert tickets to go on sale. What was the cause of my nocturnal angst? At midnight on June 13th, 2009 (yes, I know how long ago that seems now), Facebook would release the ability to create vanity URLs for all member profiles.

The clock changed to 11:59pm, and I furiously refreshed my Facebook home page. My heart nearly skipped a beat when “Now you can have a username for your Facebook profile” finally popped up on the screen. Having googled my name countless times over the years, I was 99.99% positive there was no other “me” (at least not in North America or active on the World Wide Web). But still, the drive to be the one and only—officially staking my claim on a piece of internet history—kept me glued to my seat that night.

While this whole experience may seem trivial (especially for those of us who remember the early days of AOL when usernames often included superfluous adjectives to make the owner sound more attractive online than he or she was in real life), the ability to control the social networks affiliated with your brand is a crucial part of reputation management.

Choose a username

Whether on Facebook or elsewhere, select a username as close to your business name as possible: promoting exposure and consistency for your brand across multiple channels. Usernames hold a lot of influence over search engine optimization (SEO), affecting your rank in search results on Google and other search engines. If your first choice is not available (darn!), consider adding a keyword important to your SEO strategy.

Enlist the help of the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s website to ensure your name was not previously registered by another company. Many social networking sites, including Facebook, will prompt you to confirm you are not knowingly violating anyone else’s intellectual property rights when choosing a vanity URL or username.

Keep the name on the shorter side, if possible. Not only will this help fit your URL onto business cards, etc., but it is also beneficial for a Twitter account. Since Twitter limits tweets to a truncated character count, the more characters in your name, the shorter the message if someone wants to retweet or reply to you.

Check for availability

Utilize a free online tool such as KnowEm or NameChk to verify the availability of your desired username. These programs will check your preferred choice against several social networks and clue you into whether they are available or taken.

Some of these tools will also indicate if your desired username does not meet the social network’s length requirement. KnowEm, specifically, also lists variations of domain names featuring the desired username and their availability.

Although this sounds like a time-consuming process, it will save you a lot of frustration down the road. (Trust me…I’ve learned the hard way!)

Stake your claim

When you finally settle on a username (and slight variations, if necessary), it’s time to start registering! Begin with the most important social networks, which will obviously vary depending on your specific business/brand. The big boys of course are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you have time (I suggest you make some…hint, hint), also sign up for YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare, and a blogging platform (WordPress, Blogger, tumblr, Typepad, etc.).

Helpful hint: create an e-mail specifically for managing your social media accounts (yourcompanynamesocial@gmail.com) to consolidate the large volume of confirmation e-mails you will receive.

When it boils down to it, the best practice is to leave no stone unturned (ahem, no vanity URL unclaimed). Even if you never visit the site again, this will help prevent infringement down the road—a small price to pay to protect the investment you’ve already made in your brand.

New Customers are Online. Are You?

Where do people go to search for a product, investigate a business, or solicit a recommendation for everything from a doctor to digital cameras? Yes, the internet. While this comes as no surprise, it is surprising that many business owners have not yet incorporated internet advertising into their overall marketing strategy. According to a recent report by eMarketer, businesses not advertising online are missing the proverbial boat. Or more significantly, new customers. The logic is simple: People spend more time online today than they do reading the newspaper, watching television or listening to the radio. So, doesn’t it make good business sense to go where your customers are?

Continue reading New Customers are Online. Are You?

Choose a username

Check for availability

Stake your claim

Inflation Buster!