{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} Last night I was travelling back from Amsterdam after speaking at a conference in The Netherlands. As my flight was called I started off on the 10-minute walk to the departure gate and arrived at the same time as another lone traveller. But, just as we arrived at the queue for the security checks he diverted sideways and put his bag on side table. He then proceeded to take off his belt and his jacket. I simply joined the queue. But once he had got himself ready he turned, and shouted at me: "EXCUSE ME," he bellowed. Clearly he thought I had pushed in. "People like you ought to prepare for the security checks and then we'd have fewer problems," he added at top volume. I wasn't convinced we were having any problems anyway; the queue at the X-ray machine was moving normally and, besides which, even if you had gone through the checks, you could see the queue the other side because the plane was not even boarding. But as I stood in place behind him, ready for my bag to be scanned, I had to wait. He had to undo his bag to remove two laptops, get his liquids out and then put everything else back in his bag. Of course I didn't shout at him for being unprepared; I just smiled. People waste so much energy in being angry - and it isn't good for their health. If something angers you online, bashing out a negative comment on some blog won't actually help. It saps your energy, reduces your endorphins and publicly shows you to be negative anyway. Just chill...!
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: How important is video? Video is everywhere online. Indeed, YouTube is now the second biggest search engine, according to recent figures. When people can't find what they want on Google, they turn instead to YouTube to find an answer, before they head off to alternative search engines such as Bing or Yahoo! Furthermore, over 2 billion YouTube videos are watched every month - and YouTube only has around a 40% share of the online video market, according to Comscore. In other words, video is immensely popular. As you read this, 2,200 videos are being watched online at this very moment in time. Every day 184m videos are downloaded. And that does not include the amount of online TV that is watched via facilities like the BBC iPlayer. Whichever way you slice the statistics there is no doubt that video is an immensely important part of the internet. Who, for instance, would have thought that a video showing how electricians can use a tool for wrapping wires would be interesting? Yet, it receives an average of 8 views per day - so far totting up over 7,000 views on YouTube alone. True, this is not viral, but take a look at the statistical graph that YouTube shows for each video like this. In other words, even with comparatively boring topics, video is becoming more and more important online. If video were merely something interesting to add to a website as part of the furniture you would not expect the growth in viewing that videos like this receive. So you cannot afford to ignore video. It is no longer a "nice to have" it is a requirement for your online presence; your audiences expect it. But they also expect text to read, white papers to download, or audio to play in the car while they are driving. Yes, video is fundamental, but so are all these other ways of getting your message across. Online audiences simply expect you to deliver your content in a variety of formats. Video is just one of them - but an important one. My tip is to start as much of your content production with video as you can. If you start with video you can extract the audio. You can also get it transcribed to produce the material for some text-based content. But if you start with text, it is much more difficult to turn that into video.
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: You should always be willing to learn Earlier this week I was presenting a one-day masterclass on social media for business leaders. One of the people in the room afterwards came up to me and asked if I could give him some advice. It turns out this man was the CEO of a major manufacturer whose products are sold in every High Street in the UK. Three years ago, the business he was running had an annual turnover of £100m. Now, in spite of three years of economic woes in the retail sector, the business turns over £300m. He has trebled the business in as many years. Now to me the man who has achieved that sounds like a man worth listening to and learning from. Yet it was this very man who was asking me for advice. And that's the point. In spite of his obvious business skills, he was willing to learn more. And that's probably why his business was so phenomenally successful compared with his competitors. The man at the top simply wanted to soak up more information, more ideas, more knowledge. It was a useful lesson to me; never assume you know everything. By being receptive to new ideas and seeking out as much information as possible you can grow and improve.
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": YouTube For Business
To find out more about this book visit: http://uklik.me/youtubeforbusiness
AND FINALLY: From this week's blog... Google changes its search methods so often businesses can’t keep up Your website needs Google. True, you can get traffic using all sorts of other methods – like offline marketing, emails, links on other sites and so on – but Google does bring significant numbers of visitors to websites. But in an interview with AFP, the French national news agency, a senior executive from Google has revealed two important facts for website owners.... Read More About how these changes at Google affect your business: http://uklik.me/e28sRE
Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web:
grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
