Please join Firm Media as we discuss “The Now Revolution” that is Social Media. In this three hour workshop we will look at the evolution of Social Media and discuss the importance of embracing real-time creative thinking in order to help your brand capitalize on business opportunities. This is a hands on workshop, so please bring your laptop. Continental breakfast will be provided.

Ontario Convention Center
2000 E. Convention Center Way
Ontario, CA 91764

Check-In: 7:30 AM / Event: 8:00 AM-11:00 AM

Register Now

Firm Media CEO Christopher Suchanek will be speaking for the International Coach Federation on social media for business. During the presentation, attendees will learn how to promote their businesses and deepen customer relationships via social media.

Mark Your Calendars!

This is just one of the exciting upcoming events that Firm Media will be speaking at this year. We’re also staying heavily involved c al and regional business development and marketing initiatives, organizations, and causes throughout Southern California and the surrounding areas. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook for updates, news and conversation.

Firm Media CEO Christopher Suchanek will be speaking on Internet Marketing. Christopher will focus on results-oriented strategies that can be utilized right away by the Academy of Dentists. From social media to web design, this is going to informative evening.

Mark Your Calendars!

This is just one of the exciting upcoming events that Firm Media will be speaking at this year. We’re also staying heavily involved in local and regional business development and marketing initiatives, organizations and causes throughout Southern California and the surrounding areas. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook for updates, news, and conversation.

When you say “Social Media” people think of Facebook, Twitter and Google+.  LinkedIn does not always spring to the top of mind.  I suspect this is because LinkedIn, despite its numerous changes, is still considered to be a Rolodex on steroids for jobseekers and recruiters, rather than an active, vibrant social network and marketing tool.

If you haven’t visited LinkedIn lately, you might want to drop back in.

1.  LinkedIn has improved its “Contacts” section.  Unlike Facebook (that has a unintuitive “friends” section and complicated “List” and messaging system,) and Twitter (that is even less intuitive “List” app,) LinkedIn has a very intuitive system that allows you not only to “Tag” (sort) your contacts, but add notes, and then use that information to message your contacts either individually or in groups.  You can also add additional contact information beyond what LinkedIn provides you, allowing you to use LinkedIn more as a CRM and business tool.

2.  LinkedIn added “Signal” allowing you to monitor LinkedIn’s Updates for any keywords or search terms you desire:

• Your Company Name
• Your Name
• Your Twitter Handles
• Your Competitors
• Industry Search words
• Your Products
• Your Services
• Potential Clients

Not only that, but you can save the searches which makes monitoring easy.  I have found that Signal will pick up LinkedIn (and Twitter) updates that Google Alerts will miss.  Information you can use to create new relationships, stem the flow of negative responses, refine your offers, keep up on what is happening in your industry, etc.

3.  LinkedIn Today is like an intuitive, focused version of MSN.com for business professionals.  LinkedIn News keeps you informed news websites, blogs, tweets and newsletters, and learns by your interaction with it (based on what your connections and industry peers are reading and sharing) what you are really interested in reading.  That saves you time while delivering you the news you need (and can then share with your LinkedIn and Twitter tribes).

4. “Skills” allows you to add your own unique skills to your LinkedIn profile.   I use Skills to find keywords for my clients to optimize their profile (Related Skills) and to find Industry Influencers and thought leaders I can add to my network.  Skills also shares relevant companies you might want to follow and groups you might want to join.

I haven’t even mentioned the “Old” tools LinkedIn still offers:

• Groups
• Polls
• Events
• Applications
• Jobs

Any one of which has incredible business potential.

• Inbox
• Answers

Whether you are a B2B or B2C, LinkedIn has the networking, marketing and promotion tools you need.  Use it to stay informed.  Use it to connect and build relationships with strategic business partners (employees, clients, vendors, etc.) Use it to position yourself as an expert.  Use it to promote your products and services.  LinkedIn can do almost everything that Twitter and Facebook can do, but allows you to focus on your business audience.  So take a look at LinkedIn again.  Its not the stolid conservative old boys network people think it is.  It focused, dynamic, informative and quite frankly, might be invaluable to your business.

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Learn more about the latest in social media. Get in touch with Firm Media for your next project, and connect with us on Facebook.

At Firm Media, we develop online videos for our clients for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, we’re helping them get exposure for their products or services. Other times, we’re sharing the features and resources available on their websites. Either way, our aim is to create an engaging experience that incites viewers to action.

Once a video is complete, we could just launch it on a website and call it a day. However, our goal is to reach customers wherever they are online. Otherwise, it’s like creating a television commercial that only airs in the client’s store.

We have a process for promoting online videos that produces great results:

1. We create attractive, succinct online videos that our clients love.

1. Once production is complete, we identify topics covered in the video. We try to match these ideas to keywords that we have targeted for our client’s search engine optimization program.

1. Firm Media integrates these keywords into compelling titles and descriptions for the video. Also, we code the video in a way that helps search engines recognize its subject matter. That way, when someone searches online for a topic related to the client’s business, the video will be more likely to appear in the highest results.

1. We distribute the video through multiple platforms. YouTube is probably the most well-known, but we also take advantage of services such as Viddler, Vimeo, Metacafe and Daily Motion. Each site attracts a sizeable audience, shares content with online users in different ways and offers different technological advantages.

1. Finally, we add the video to the client’s website and social media. Users who view the video at these locations are encouraged to take action, whether it’s contacting the company, making a purchase or exploring the site. Also, on-page tools invite visitors to share the content with others.

By integrating search engine optimization, third-party platforms and social sharing, we are able to reach a wider audience and to drive more views than if the content were only available on the client’s website. Our thought: if you’re going to have a great video, make sure everyone who matters knows about it.

Here is some of our work promoting online videos for clients. Take a look, and get in touch with Firm Media to learn more.

Today, we cover how to get from, “Let’s make a website video,” to seeing it live and in all its glory online.

At Firm Media, we create videos that convey the purpose and features of our clients’ websites. Our aim is to tell their stories in an engaging way that will lead visitors to make a purchase, hire their services, or take another action.

Below, we describe our basic process for making videos. The availability of high-quality, low-cost hardware and software means that do-it-yourself types can take on the project themselves. However, without strategic and technical experience, you may spend more time and money than if you had hired a professional, and your work may not represent your brand as well.

Step 1: Plan

When we create a video for a client, we are telling website visitors a story that will lead to action. If we were to begin shooting without a plan or ordering up animation without knowing first what we want to say and how, it would waste a lot of time and lead to a poor result.

Instead, we define how that story should play out on-screen by using an interview/workshop strategy. In this process, we work with our client to develop a message and begin to formulate a series of sequences for the video. Also, we determine what elements are required for production.

A website video may incorporate any of these elements:

• Live footage
• Text and graphics, like an animation of action on a website
• Audio, including the narration of the video
• Other effects, motion graphics and/or transitions

From there, we decide how to source the material we are going to need. This may include working with the client to pick locations for shooting and deciding which staff to interview.

Step 2: Produce

If a website video relies solely on animation, graphics and voice-over, it is not necessary to shoot live video. Instead, we will spend more time gathering the virtual resources, arranging for voice talent and working with clients to create and refine content.

Assuming that we need live video, we arrange everything for the day of the shoot. That means

• Day-of talent such as a make-up artist and/or host
• Equipment like lighting, cameras and green screens
• Locations that are prepped and secured
• Clients ready to be on camera

A schedule is crucial both to the video and to our clients because it identifies when we will be shooting. Where we will shoot and who needs to be present. It saves time and moves the production along more efficiently. We stick to this basic plan once we have it in place. If someone comes up with an inspired idea, we’ll take it into consideration, but we avoid having to create solutions on the fly.

In the final step, we publish. We aim for website videos that are between one and two minutes. Our goal is content that is short, compelling, and conversion-friendly.

Two points are important here. First, a video should lead to a preferred user action. Some examples:

• Providing a telephone number to call the company
• Inviting the visitor to explore a website’s products for sale
• Encouraging the user to register for the site or friend and follow via social media

We tie this conversion message to the website by placing navigational elements, forms or other information on the same webpage as the video. This encourages the visitor to take action.

Second, the video should be an extension of the client’s brand. From a visual standpoint, video titles and color palettes should be in line with the website. Also, the video’s content should match with the company’s identity. We are aiming to tell a story through the video that reflects a client’s brand, whether it wants to emphasize professionalism, local experience or creativity.

Feel free to take a look at examples of our website video work on behalf of clients. Then, contact us to see how we can help you.

Facebook is undergoing a series of updates that may affect how you interact with social media. In Part 1 of our series, Firm Media addressed the new Facebook features that are poised to take on Google+, the search giant’s social network.

However, competition with Google+ is not all that is motivating Facebook’s recent moves. As you will read, some of these updates attempt to resolve long-standing problems with Facebook. These changes may also help cement the world’s largest social network as the hub of interaction on the web.

Significant Facebook Changes

In addition to the features we’ve already covered in Part 1—including Friend Lists, the Subscribe Button, and Chat & Video—here are other Facebook updates about which you should know.

Newsfeed Revamp

Since Newsfeed was launched, users logging into Facebook had been greeted by their friends’ most recent activities. The drawback? Just because those posts were the most recent ones didn’t mean you would care much about them (”John Smith likes eating peach cobbler”? Good for you, “John”, but we have more important things to read about.)

The revamped Newsfeed presents you with “Top Stories.” Facebook states that posts in “Top Stories” appear based on several factors other than the time they were posted, including:

• How often you interact with the friend who is posting.
• Whether the post has many comments or “likes.”
• Intriguingly, what type of story it is. This could mean that content such as Friend 1’s engagement would rank higher than Friend 2’s photo of breakfast.

Ticker

Because the Newsfeed values posts that are important more highly than posts that are most current, Facebook decided to keep users up-to-date with friend activity by adding a new profile pane: the Ticker.

In the Ticker, you are notified each time a friend “likes” an update, subscribes to a page, or comments on a post. This solves two problems users had with the old Facebook:

1. It removes less important material from the main Newsfeed.
2. By seeing activity as it happens, you can more easily interact with friends online in real-time.

The Ticker gives you a way to connect with friends at that moment, such as typing a quick message or video chatting. Also, Facebook has announced plans to integrate with a variety of online media, from streaming music to movies, so that friends can share in the Ticker what they are listening to or watching. Some services may even allow you to watch or listen together with the friend by clicking on activity in the Ticker.

Timeline

Facebook is a repository of all of a person’s relationships and activities. The Timeline aims to highlight this information in a more meaningful way than the current user profile page.

Timeline provides a collection of photos, posts, and applications that share your story with others. Think of it as a customized scrapbook filled with multimedia that builds on your profile and information from your friends. Timeline is in beta now and will be opt-in when it launches.

Impact on Business

We mentioned in our first post that changes to Facebook have left some users unhappy. Reasons include:

• The complexity of new features.
• Problems with the new page layout.
• The need for greater privacy control.
• Less exposure for brands and businesses.

This last point is one of the most concerning to companies and their social media teams. The changes in Facebook’s design and Newsfeed provide less room for page activity updates and advertisements, all of which help businesses reach new customers.

There are reasons for companies to hold out hope, though. For one, the sheer size of Facebook’s audience means that they should remain invested in the social network. For another, companies can expect these changes will eventually provide them with new opportunities to reach and engage with customers. After all, this is the website that gave businesses greater exposure through social “liking” and free Facebook Pages. The Ticker, the new design, and the updated Timeline page may all have benefits to companies as well.

Your best bet: Stay connected with ongoing trends and establish a plan that will help your business make the most of what is coming next.

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Learn more about the latest in social media. Get in touch with Firm Media for your next project, and connect with us on Facebook.

If you have signed into Facebook recently, you may already be aware of new changes to your personal profile. Social media and marketing professionals will want to take note of these updates. Just as “liking” content and location-based sharing have affected business strategies since their implementation, expect that these features will also have a long-ranging impact.

Over two super-sized posts, Firm Media explains these updates and reasons behind them. This go-around, we cover the Facebook features that may compete with Google’s new social media network, Google+.

Facebook Changes and Google+

In case you are unfamiliar, Google+ is the search giant’s way of connecting web users to one another and to content they want to share. Some of the Google+ features include:

• Circles: Select and group users with whom you want to share content.
• Hangouts: Video chat with up to ten people at a time.
• Search: Rate Google search results for better personalization.

Google’s entry into social media has stirred a lot of online debate over whether Facebook is in danger of losing devoted users to the new network. Facebook’s recent update has launched new tools that are poised to compete with Google+’s most popular offerings. Read below about some of these features.

Friend Lists

In what appears to be a direct response to Google+ Circles (and, likely, ongoing requests by Facebook users,) Facebook has added new functionality to Friend Lists.

Now, you can define whose posts you see and who views your posts by creating groups. These groups can include close friends, acquaintances, or people you know through other relationships. One nice feature is Smart Lists, which will add new friends you make to groups on an ongoing basis using factors such as their workplace or school.

Subscribe

One of the big advantages that Google+ has had is that it allows one-way connections. A user can add someone to his Circle—a business leader, a tech icon, or an entertainer, for example—and get updates, links, and posts from that person. The public figure does not have to connect in return, and the larger his or her audience grows, the more social influence he or she wields.

Facebook has matched this functionality by creating a new opt-in feature: Subscribe. The Subscribe button allows individual users to broadcast their posts to anyone who wants to connect. Like Circles, Subscribe lets you hear from and share with others even if you are not friends.

Type Chat and Video

When Google+ launched, Hangouts instantly became one of its most valued features. This group video chat tool allows friends and co-workers to catch up through casual conversations. The feature went hand-in-hand with the Google+ Messenger application, which lets groups hold impromptu “type chats” within their Circles.

Facebook has partially integrated these two features. Now in Facebook, users can type chat with a group or video chat directly with another Facebook user. Unlike Google+ Hangouts, however, Facebook does not yet allow groups of users to video chat at once. Facebook’s tool is powered by Skype, the popular web video service. Based on the reach of Skype’s audience, there are interesting possibilities for crossovers between the two.

Looking Ahead

Making changes to functionality is an important step for Facebook to remain competitive, especially now that Google+ is open to public registrations. However, these changes come at a cost. Users have already expressed concerns about the complexity of the new features and the need for greater privacy control.

Still, Facebook’s audience size—over 750 million people—means that Google+ will have to continue innovating and finding ways to attract users away. Also, Facebook is not content with just matching Google+ through these updates. In addition to the features above, users can expect:

• Changes to the Facebook Newsfeed.
• A new tool, the Ticker, which allows for real-time updates à la Twitter.
• A completely new layout for user profiles.

Learn more about these features in Part 2 of our blog post!

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Get the latest social media updates and learn how these trends impact your business. Contact Firm Media and connect with us on Facebook.

Firm Media CEO Chris Suchanek will be speaking at an event in Riverside, California for the Estate Planning Council of Riverside County on social media for business. During this presentation, attendees wil learn how to promote their businesses and deepen customer relationships via social media.

Mark Your Calendars!

This is just one of the exciting upcoming events that Firm Media will be speaking at this year. We’re also staying heavily involved in local and regional business development and marketing initiatives, organizations and causes throughout Southern California and the surrounding areas. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook for updates, news, and conversation.

Chris Suchanek and Thom Meredith will be speaking at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Employers Association of America on social media for business. During this presentation, attendees will learn how to promote their businesses and deepen customer relationships via social media.

Mark Your Calendars!

This is just one of the exciting upcoming events that Firm Media will be hosting this year. We’re also staying heavily involved in local and regional business development and marketing initiatives, organizations and causes throughout Southern California and the surrounding areas. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook for updates, news and conversation.