At home we have a problem with our neighbor’s yard, Grove Park Inn’s golf course, causing major runoff problems almost every time there is a burst of rain. This particular time I decided to step outside and make a little video with my cheap Flip video camera. It ended up being the lead story on the 6 o’clock news that week. This is how that happened, and how you can use video and social media to get some attention:
- Capture simple video of something “remarkable”
- Upload video to a sharing site like Youtube, etc.
- Write a short blog post about and embed the video on the page
- Mention it on Twitter, Facebook etc. (There are tools that can tie all these accounts together and make sharing easier.)
- Get other people to mention it on Twitter, or “retweet” it
- Get noticed by people with popular blogs (In this case it was Ashvegas)
- Get noticed by local mainstream media such as the newspaper or TV stations
- Agree to do the interview when they call, even if it’s inconvenient
I’ll admit that it may be a little harder to promote your business the same way, but not impossible. Surely you have something, at least occasionally, that will be interesting to a lot of people. But you have to put it out there, and give it a promotional nudge if you want people to see it.
If you don’t have a blog for your business, get one now. There are numerous free options and you don’t need technical skills. So there are no excuses. Then get a cheap video camera. We like the Flip product line, but the are other good brands and cameras out there for less than $200. Now, what are you going to video and blog about? We have a mind map about content creation that may help.
The backyard Flip video that got the social media ball rolling:
AVL Marketing is an Asheville marketing agency. We can help you tell your story.
“A member of City Council” – That would be me. I passed it along to the City Manager, and we’ve begun inquiries.