The general reaction is to go to YouTube first when looking for videos. We are all admittedly used to the Google associated video service as being the dominant place to find and upload user-generated videos. However, if you take some time to look around, you might find that there are other substantial video sites, such as Vimeo, that may compete with YouTube as the prime location for your business videos.

Content
The two video sites have differing regulations for content uploaded to the site. Vimeo will not allow commercial videos, gaming videos, pornography, or any non user-generated videos. YouTube, on the other hand, is more lenient. Both sites will delete any videos they deem inappropriate, but with a smaller, more selective collection of videos, Vimeo may have the advantage here.

Video Quality
Vimeo is known for higher quality video than YouTube, and might have the highest quality video on the internet. So if you are trying to use videos for viral marketing and want to convey a message, quality may be important to you.

Video Uploads
While you can upload almost any video file to either service, they differ in the length and file size of the videos. For YouTube, you can only have a maximum length of 10 minutes and file size of 2GB. With Vimeo, there is no length maximum, but the file size can only reach 1GB.

Video Views
YouTube wins this battle. There are over 1 billion video views on YouTube daily, which means your video could reach a lot of people. YouTube may have the number advantage, but Vimeo has a more refined selection of videos. Depending on the content and purpose of your video, Vimeo may benefit you in the long run. Your video will be among more professional, higher quality videos, and there is the potential for higher-quality comments and interaction by viewers as a result. In addition, videos on Vimeo are downloadable, so viewers can save your video and watch it later.

If you are contemplating where to post your company’s videos, consider these things before making your move. Think about the type of video, and the goal and purpose of the video. In the end, you may decide to post it on both networks.

Social media marketing can be looked at as a stand-alone marketing plan, and should be approached with the same attention to detail as your overall marketing plan. While this type of marketing strategy is important for any business in today’s world, it is extremely essential for franchise businesses.
If you own a franchise of a company, you are typically stuck with pre-made marketing plans that usually have a national reach in mind. The corporate company may provide you with marketing materials and plans for new products and campaigns, but it is still important for you to focus on your local marketing and advertising. One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is with social media marketing.

Your corporate company probably has a website for your brand, and may even have your location information listed, but it doesn’t give you much (if any) freedom to personalize it for your location. There are features of your business that probably vary from location to location, and you want to be able to reach your specific customers and target audience to market those things.

Benefits of a social media strategy

1. Allows you to connect with your local audience on a personal level
2. Gain insights and feedback directly from those you serve
3. Present your business as a trusted local resource

How to get started

1. Custom Facebook Page for your location – creating custom pages allows you to have more control and more content available to your local customers.
2. Twitter – connecting with your customers on twitter can help you to gain feedback directly from the people you serve and help you to improve your products or services
3. Google + - create circles to target market niches as well as boost your social search engine optimization.

If you have the opportunity and resources to market your franchise locally, take advantage of the social phenomenon. It is a great way to connect directly with consumers and market your franchise as an individual business as well as a corporate entity.

You have to play by the rules.

Promotions and giveaways are great ways to interact with your fans and gain more visibility for your business on Facebook and other social networks. But if you are going to do a contest, it is important to play by the rules.  Developing a social media promotion takes some research and planning before you can share publicly that you are giving something away.

Before you launch a Facebook promotion, check out Facebook’s rules and guidelines https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php. There are certain things you are and are not allowed to do on Facebook. For example, you are not allowed to collect entries through Facebook comments or photo uploads, but you can use an official Facebook app to announce and run your contest. As the admin of a page, it is your responsibility to read and understand these rules before starting a contest or giveaway on your page. Facebook has the right to reject or remove any page that does not follow their guidelines.

5 Tips to Create a Successful Contest:

1.    Define your goal
2.    Come up with a creative and interesting idea
3.    Utilize other social networks
4.    Keep the length of the contest in mind (typically 2-4 weeks)
5.    Measure the results

By taking the time to prepare your contest and make sure that you have followed the guidelines set by Facebook, your contest or giveaway may be a successful promotion for your business or company. You could gain valuable interaction and feedback from your current customers and even gain some new customers and fans.

For more on this topic, see this article posted by Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/03/05/facebook-promotion-guide/

"Rachel has a love for all things creative. She is passionate about what she does and loves to create new things."

Social networking has gained tremendous ground as a significant element in any business’ branding and marketing strategy in recent years.  Did you know, though, that the benefits to social networking on your business may actually reach further than you realize?  In fact, your Klout Score can tell you a lot about the impact you currently have, and may help drive you towards goals you wish to reach, in your own social networking.

“The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action.  Every time you create content or engage you influence others.” (www.klout.com/corp/kscore)

So, what are the benefits to uncovering and studying your Klout Score?  The Klout Score is based off of information from social networks and gauges 3 basic trends:

• True Reach (the number of people you influence)
• Amplification (to what degree you influence these people)
• Network Impact (the influence of those in your True Reach—how often they share and respond to you). 

The Klout Score itself is based on a scale from 1 to 100. 
An individual Klout Score is determined by a business’ ability to drive action.  The scoring does not come from follower totals or counts taken from friends and likes.  It focuses solely on the ability of your social networking strategy to drive action. 
To sign-up to use Klout, you must connect through a social network—currently Twitter and Facebook are the primary methods available on the Klout website (www.klout.com).  Once you have signed-up and begin using this scoring method, you will be eligible for Klout Perks, Klout information, and even Klout widgets and badges to share your Klout Score. 

For anyone looking to capitalize on their business impact through social networks, Klout is at least worth a second glance.  Klout is a great way to rate your business on your ability to drive action and influence rather than numbers of followers, friends, or likes you may have.  To gauge the true impact your social networking has for your business, as far as leads, interaction, and maintaining your customer base, you may get a lot from just a little Klout.

Now you may be familiar with the most recent Facebook change to the Timeline profiles, but it is time to switch over your business pages to the same look. Facebook launched their Timeline for businesses this morning, giving business page owners the opportunity to preview the new look or make the switch for themselves.

The new business page will look like the profile pages, and is designed to give business owners more flexibility to show off their brand and identity.  This new layout allows you to choose a cover photo that can display your logo, products, or personalities. The timeline also allows you to feature your company history, highlights, and milestones.

In addition, there have been some added benefits for page admins as well. There is a new admin panel that will display at the top of your page if you are an admin and can be hidden or expanded. This panel will show you notifications of activities, stats, and messages.

The Timeline layout will make your pages more social and engaging, giving you a better opportunity to utilize this as a marketing outlet.  We have updated our page to the new look. Have you? It will be to your advantage to preview your page now and be ahead of the trend. All pages will automatically change by March 30th.  If you think you are ready to learn more about the change, check it out here.

"Rachel has a love for all things creative. She is passionate about what she does and loves to create new things."