Phil Dailey was unemployed and thought he would try out a new video service to better explain his skills to prospective employers. He figured he would simply show up at the studio and talk about himself for a while. He was surprised to find that the company he used, ProVideoJobSeeker, worked with him to write a compelling script and coached him in his on-camera presentation skills.

Doing business in heavily unemployed Michigan, ProVideoJobSeeker.com certainly has many nearby potential customers. And this Detroit-area company provides a unique service in its one-minute videos for those seeking employment. It’s more than just a “talking head.” Shown behind the job seeker can be seen photos, graphics and even an image of the person’s resume. The overall effect is an attractive and professional-looking presentation.

“Only a few years ago, the cost would have been several thousand dollars. Now, you can have Super Bowl quality at a fraction of the investment,” says Dick Bradley, company owner. The company’s “e’mercial” is produced for $285. The video can be linked from one’s email or website, or displayed on Vimeo.com, which, although not as popular as YouTube, reaches a more professional audience. The video can also be embedded on one’s personal website or posted on social media sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn.

“We feel that the purpose of an ‘E’mercial is to showcase the ‘Real You,’” says Bradley. “And the best way to do that is for you appear in your own ‘E’mercial.”

Facebook has gained a lot of attention lately as a marketing tool. It was recently announced that 300 million people worldwide now use this social media tool. That’s the entire population of the United States.

The Chicago Tribune last week recounted the story of Tim Ireland, a Chicago area real estate agent who uses Facebook to attract new clients. The agent is happy with social media and says he cannot afford a website (whoops - since I’m a web designer, I guess I shouldn’t say that).

“For me, Facebook works,” Ireland said. “I don’t post listings [of homes] there, but I do talk to 60 to 70 percent of my clients there.” He gets to know people there and builds a relationship of trust.

Another person interviewed, Patrick Shaver, a builder of custom homes, was invited to a Ferrari unveiling through his LinkedIn account and met several people there who became clients. The article talked about other real estate professionals and builders who use these two sites, as well as Twitter.

Another realtor, Kim Kerbis, says her monthly postcard mailings are still worth the expense, but her website is still her deal clincher. “I tell enough about my background so a client might see that we share an interest such as film,” Kerbis said of her site. “That starts a relationship.”

Website Decision

If you had to choose only one, is a social media presence more important than a website? It depends on your industry and your resources. Which do you have more of - money or time? If you have money, you can afford a website. If you have more time, then spend it with social media.

Most businesses need a website because they must display a large amount of information about their product or service in an organized manner. Real estate agents often do not have their own website, since they usually have a profile as part of their franchise’s website. Other businesses, however, would leave a bad impression if they didn’t have a site.

We at TreeFrogClick can help you with your social media and website needs.

A new study says that Americans’ trust of the media is the lowest it’s been since at least 1985, and that’s not surprising considering what happened this past weekend.

The large grass-roots conservative groups that marched on Washington, D.C. on Saturday went underreported. The Chicago Tribune said that “tens of thousands” came to the protest, which consisted of people unhappy with threats of a growth in socialism, spending and left-wing policies in the government.

WLS Radio’s Don and Roma, conservative talk show hosts in Chicago, however, said today that hundreds of thousands had come to the demonstration.

People have a sense that their news is sometimes pitched in a certain way. A Pew Research Center survey released Monday, reported in TechNewsWorld on media credibility, shows that now just 29 percent of Americans surveyed believe the media gets the facts right, the lowest since 1985.

“Those downward trends may intersect with rising chart lines for the use of Web sites and blogs as news sources,” TechNewsWorld said.

It’s all the more reasons why small businesses and non-profits should utilize even more their websites, blogs and videos.

Videos Watched More, Too

Also, Americans are watching internet videos more than ever, according to a recent report. Time spent watching these videos increased 46% in the second quarter, compared to a year ago, according to a Nielsen report, as reported in the Chicago Tribune Sept. 11.

Another recent report found that people are using the internet to relax and get their minds off the recession. “This fits within a broader trend of the internet increasingly becoming a go-to source for people to relax, take it easy and have fun,” said Aaron Smith, of the Pew Internet & American Life project.

Check out the solemn, prayerful scenes in the new video produced by TreeFrogClick about the Poor Clares of Santa Barbara, CA. They’ve gotten 88 views in less than a week.

Or listen to the grand-sounding Bach in the background of the video we just made for the Benedictines of South Texas.

Is social media really all that it’s cut out to be? I have to admit, I am skeptical when I read about the promises of tremendous success in selling a product or service just by chatting now and then with people you have never met. Who has the time to do all this?

I’m going to review several ways that I use social media and what kind of results I get. And I’ll try to be honest.

First of all, this column is sent out both to a newsletter list, and it is posted on my blog at SpunkyBiz.com, so I get double results for a single effort. Most of our clients at TreeFrogClick are on the newsletter list, so it’s a good way to keep my services on their mind, as well as to inform them on how to use the internet. It takes me about an hour and a half to both post the article on the blog, get the artwork, and send it via email. Occasionally I post it on one of the free press release sites.

I also have a profile on FaceBook, which for me has put me in touch with a lot of old friends and school chums. With most of these people, I have to admit, the renewed relationship really doesn’t go anywhere, but I did get a message from a friend recently who is putting me in touch with a potential client whom I’d like to serve.

Another popular approach, Twitter, is a very fast-moving message board, and the advantage here, so far, is that I find good business writers that I follow that provide an education in my field of online promotion.

In our YouTube channel, at GodCalls, which is for single persons looking for a religious vocation, our  seven videos have been viewed 1,100 times in about four months, which is a lot of exposure.

Yes, It Takes Time

The big difference between social media and paid advertising is of course, social media takes a lot of time. It means building relationships with people rather than simply paying a fee for a static ad somewhere.

“Social media is all about sharing, opening up, being transparent, providing real value to our customers. It’s about long-term relationships, not short-term campaigns,” says marketing expert Mark Ivey.

Since many small businesses and non-profits don’t have a lot of time to converse with others, or the time to learn it all, this is where our services at TreeFrogClick come into play.

Advertising is changing. Social media is worth it  — and it may help to hire an expert.

In the movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL, the spaceship’s computer, says, “Dave, is something wrong?” Dave, in fact is thinking about pulling the plug on the computer, which controls every aspect of the ship, and HAL senses this.

This is what ran through my head while testing the online software of ArticleVideoRobot.com, an ingenious service that brings together text, sound, music and a synthesized voice to make videos. There is something wrong — we need the next generation of the voice synthesizer to make that part of it work well.

The software’s strong point is that video production is very quick and efficient. After playing around with it a bit, I uploaded a short article I had written on website promotion (see the PDF, Seven Proven Ways to Drive Visitors to Your Website) and made a three-minute video in 13 minutes. Much shorter than the 10+ hours it takes me to make a two-minute video. Of course, I would want to edit it too, but that was not allowed with my free two-week trial of the service.

Pulls It Together Quickly

ArticleVideoRobot breaks the article into individual slides, puts in headline text, and you simply add pictures and music. The problem is that the automatic speaking voice sounds stilted. I chose the voice “Brian” over “Dave” because it seemed better technically. There are two women’s voices to choose from as well. Some words don’t work well. The voice “Katherine” did a hatchet job on the pronunciation “Wikipedia.”

In all fairness, I have to say that you can upload your own voice-over, as well as photos. You can choose from their stock photos and background music selection, or you can use your own. There is a lot of flexibility. You can choose one or two pictures per slide, and can play around with which text is displayed. The transitions are chosen for you, and it all fits together nicely. I guess you could spell out the unusual words phonetically to get a good pronunciation.

The software can grab articles you have already published, and it can push the video out to 17+ video sites. A real benefit is that you can also download the video as an AVI or Flash file, something that YouTube does not allow. ArticleRobotVideo packages start at $47 per month for 50 videos, so if you plan to make a lot of videos and can figure out a good voice-over solution, it’s a good deal. It’s clear that we are moving toward more online video, so we need to keep up to speed about it all.

All eyes were on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor this week during her confirmation hearings, and she showed just how pervasive are online videos. She criticized the way people interpreted her public comment, seen on YouTube, to law students that the court is where “policy is made.”

The tape tells the truth. The exposure of such slips now are no longer dependent on the mainstream media - they can be put up by just about anyone, and then easily viewed by all. Indeed, her 35-second gaff was viewed a quarter of a million times, and this was only one of many copies of the clip showed on YouTube.

The Government Accounting Office is using YouTube to communicate with Congress and the people. Businesses are using online video sharing sites such as YouTube, and even companies such as Xerox are not too stuffy to make a humorous video to get its message across - and the video got 100,000 views in two months. Video cameras are now advertised with the feature, “uploads to YouTube.”

A new two-minute video produced by our company, TreeFrogClick, for the Peoria Franciscan Sisters attracted 300 views in its first four days. It could be that the video went “viral.” No, that’s not a disease, but it means that people told others about it and linked to it in their messages to friends.

We are planning to roll out another similar video in the next few days, and we have more in the works. Give your company or non-profit a visual presence with an online video.

Can it be? The FDA and 27 states have ordered a major pharmaceutical company to take back claims about their birth control pill, making Natural Family Planning seem all the more attractive. Read our story at Couple to Couple League of Chicago.

Yaz pill not what they say.

Think you might be pregnant? The very thought makes one’s heart beat. Read our ten-point checklist of signs that you might be pregnant at The Couple to Couple League of Chicago.

When I worked as public information director for a Natural Family Planning (NFP) organization, I used to get snickers when I told others what I did. And I don’t mean candy.
Now, a survey shows that when couples understand how their sexual life is a communication of love, they take a real interest in NFP. See my article on the NFP Chicago website.