Don Schindler

Executive Reputation Coach & Digital Marketer

Tag: youtube (page 1 of 2)

How do you set up a YouTube Channel for your farm or business?

YouTube-Transparent-Logo-3

YouTube is the 2nd Largest Search Engine

While I go into the benefits of setting up a channel and posting videos in “What can YouTube do for your Farm or Business?”, I’ll repeat the main topics here.

Videos can:

  • bring people closer to the real thing.
  • see how the farm runs.
  • help you get found in a sea of information out there
  • make a big impact without costing you a lot of money

But now we have to see how this YouTube thing works. Let’s get to it.

1. Creating an Account on Google

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Let’s get started by creating an account. Google owns YouTube so you will need to set up a Google account first at google.com. If you already have a Google account, you’re ahead of the game.

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2. Uploading a Photo

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Once all your account information is filled out, it’s time to upload your photo or take it with a webcam.

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Choose a picture where people will be able to identify your face clearly. This picture will be used for all of your Google accounts.

 

3. Sign into Youtube.com

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Now that your account is set up you need to switch over to YouTube and sign in.

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You will be asked to re-enter your password to the account you just created on Google.

 

4. Select your Topics

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What do you like? A list of topic and subtopics will pop to help get you started with videos you might enjoy watching. These topics will not make or break your suggested videos so you can skip this step if you like.

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Once you start searching for videos YouTube will suggest similar videos for you on its own.

 

5. Select My Channel and Create Your Channel Name

In the upper right hand corner click the drop down menu and click My Channel.

You will be asked if you would like to use your Google account name or if you would like to create a name for your YouTube Channel.

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If you have a blog or brand name, it would be helpful to keep your channel name the same instead of your personal name. Once you have decided what to name your channel you will want to fill in some useful information for your future viewers.

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YouTube provides a helpful checklist to get you started.

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Fill in the about section with a description of your channel, links (blog, website, etc.) and other channels you would like to feature. When you choose a picture for your channel art pick something that represents the theme of your channel.

 

6. Select your Account Settings

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After you go through your checklist you will want to read through your settings.

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You want viewers to find your videos and channel with ease, so set your YouTube settings accordingly.

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When you are done with your account settings take a look through the features on your Dashboard.

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Channel settings are as important as your account settings.

The video manager and analytics will come into play once you upload a video.

 

7. Upload a Video

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There are multiple places to upload your first video from your main page, but they all work the same way.

After your initial upload, you will only have the main option next to your search bar.

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Once you are at the uploading screen, you will have the option to upload, use a webcam, create a slideshow video using photos on your computer, record a Google + Hangout (a topic for another day) and make edits to the video you are uploading.

Select a file or record your video.

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If you selected a file, you will need to wait for it to upload, but while you wait fill in all your video information.

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After your video uploads choose your thumbnail and if your video needs stabilization. You will only receive this option if your video is shaky.

 

8. View Your Video

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You can now view your video, but if you opted for stabilization this is not the final video. You will have an orange banner across your screen with the remaining time on stabilization. If the stabilization distorts your video you can delete it and upload it again.

Below your video you will find all of your videos information displayed, info and settings tab, and postproduction tabs (captions, enhancements, annotations, etc.). If you are happy with the way everything looks, let’s take a look at your analytics.

9. Analytics

Right now you won’t have any analytics, but this is where you will be able to view how well your videos are doing.

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You can view anything from your most current metrics from last week to a lifetime (every video you posted) of videos. It is important to see how well your content is performing in order to find out what content your audience likes or does not like.

You can even see how long someone watched your video. If your posting 5-minute videos but your audience only tunes in for 2 minutes, you now know to make shorter videos. Well that’s the basics.

Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or need something explained in more detail.

What Can YouTube Do For Your Farm or Business?

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Peterson Bros. are famous for music parody videos

So what’s the second largest search engine in the world?

Where do people go when they need a “How To”?

When you see a video on Facebook, what platform is probably hosting that video?

When you do a Google search for anything, if there’s a video there where’s it coming from?

You guessed it. YouTube.

More than 1 billion people worldwide use YouTube each month on their computer and mobile device. YouTube is in 61 countries and languages, allowing you to view stories from around the globe.

And you don’t have to be a videographer to post a video to YouTube all you need is a camera (or your phone) and some time.

So how can YouTube benefit you and your farm?

It brings people closer to the real thing.

It’s more than just a photograph and text. Seeing a calf walk for the first time is definitely different than just reading about it. Especially if you don’t think you have the words to describe that kind of joyful experience. Brenda Hastings, The Dairy Mom, gives a farm tour in just five minutes.

They can “see” how you keep milk safe.

Your “how we keep milk safe” video can show the great lengths you go to make your product. Or maybe you want to show how the cows are cared for or give your audience insights on a new farming technique you learned.

It’s another great way to be found (and help control your digital profile).

For instance Dairy Carrie has done a great job of using her brand name across all her platforms. She is easy to find on YouTube and all of her videos give insight to her as a brand personality while still getting the message across that she loves dairy.

One of her top videos received over 73,000 views and was under 2 minutes long.

You don’t need a big budget to make a big impact.

You can show the fun side of farming with music and graphics like the Peterson Brothers. With humor and parody, they are getting across a message to a younger generation (that really like the 1-3 minute format) and build that relationship. It’s all about trust and if they can see you, hear you and laugh with you, you’ve got a good chance of earning that trust with them.

 

Your audience is out there waiting to see what it’s like to live on your farm – why don’t you show them?

Top Reasons Why You Should Be Using Hootsuite For Your Farm

Hootsuite Logo

Getting Your Owl On

Are you tired of jumping from website to application to mobile to keep up with all your social media networks?  Well, Hootsuite may be the answer you are looking for to integrate all your networks.

Hootsuite will take most of your main social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, etc…) and linking these networks together so you can become a super engaged farmer and social media influencer.  You can monitor, listen, engage, follow, like, love and link yourself to others digitally through the platform.

While this takes some time, the integration allows you to only have to login to one website or application and quickly navigate conversations and keep abreast of what important conversations are happening in both your network and the digital world.

You may think, that’s great. I don’t have time to learn something new.  Well, it’s not that hard and I’m here to show you what it can do and how you can do it yourself pretty quickly.

1. Monitor Multiple Networks via Tabs – Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and WeSEE: Search (Pinterest, Cinemagram, TheFancy, Weheartit).

With tabs, you can easily jump across multiple networks and applications.

Within these tabs, you can set up separate streams for each tab.  I’ll show you how to do this a little later in this post.

Here’s a sample of the networks you can add tabs for.

Engage in Multiple Networks –
– Twitter
– Facebook
– Facebook Pages
– Google+ Pages
– Linkedin
– Foursquare
– WordPress
– MySpace
– instagram
– youtube
– salesforce

Not only can you monitor what’s going on through these networks but you can also listen and engage – this allows you to keep track and respond with speed without having to go through multiple networks.

Here’s a video from Hootsuite (all the videos on are on this page are from Hootsuite University on YouTube and I recommend you check them out) on how to set up and connect your networks and tabs.

Adding Social Network

You can also add Facebook groups so you can watch their conversations as well.

How to add groups

2. Monitor Multiple Streams – Lists, searches, links and groups

If you are using twitter.com, then you might find it hard to keep up with all the conversations from the people you are following.

As we went over in the Twitter 101 class, I discussed the importance of setting up separate lists for the people that you follow – so you can discern the different conversations going on on twitter.

Without it, you’ll just have everyone grouped together and if you are following many people (say over 100, it might be impossible to keep up.

So I use hootsuite’s separate streams to view these different lists in real time. You can also rearrange these lists so you see some lists right away on your dashboard. You just have to drag the list to where you want it on the page.

I also set up streams for searches. I have keyword searches going on for terms and hashtags that are important to me. You just add your keyword terms like “dairy cow” and that search will start.

And I can set up a search on our websites so I can see when people link to our websites – this way I can thank them. You can do this just by adding the website in the search field like “http://dairygood.org” and it will come back with searches of people linking to the website.

Setting up lists, keyword searches and links

TIP: If you need more than 10 streams for your lists or groups, then just set up another tab.

They just added this video about setting up lists on your web dashboard.

TIP: You can search for keywords inside of your streams.

3. You can engage through a single platform instead of using multiple websites/applications.

With me, I engage mostly with others on Twitter via Hootsuite. But that’s because that is where most of my engagement is but you can go through almost all platforms and hootsuite.

Here’s a video on how to post in Hootsuite.

How to post in Hootsuite

BTW, if you want Hootsuite to stay current, I recommend that automatic refresh every two minutes. You can find this feature on the top right just below your first tab. You have to change the setting on each individual tab – there is no universal changing of the refresh time.

Refresh manually or time your auto refresh

Refresh manually or time your auto refresh

Twitter
With Twitter you can “Reply”, “Retweet” and “Direct Message or DM” then under the little drop down you can also “Reply All”, “Favorite”, “Send to Email” and “Send to Conversation”. Let me break those down.

“Reply” and “Reply All” – You can converse with others on twitter.
“Retweet” – You are passing along another’s info to your followers.
“Direct Message or DM” – You can privately tweet (like email) to another. But you must be following the other person and they must be following you.
“Favorite” – Saves a tweet to your favorite section so you can keep track of the tweet.
“Send to Email” – Email tweet and it’s information to another.
“Send to Conversation” – This is if are part of an organization that is using Hootsuite collectively (connected accounts). More about that under the Pro/Enterprise in this post.

Facebook
With Facebook, you can like or comment but you can’t share.

I’ve added Most Recent (which isn’t your lists and it is unfortunately not allowed yet but they say they are working on it), Photos and my Wall Posts (this also shows when people tag you).

TIP: If you added your page and are updating it through Hootsuite, it is rumored that your posts will be downgraded because you are using a third party app. I would test this with your page (post through the Facebook site then post via Hootsuite and monitor reach through insights.

Linkedin
With Linkedin, you can add All Updates and My Updates. You can comment on people’s updates and you can “like”, “save discussion” and “send an email”.

You can also add Instagram and Youtube but you need to add them as Apps.  Here’s how you use the App Directory.

Instagram
With Instagram’s app, you can do a lot. You can see your home stream, see what’s popular, check out your own photos, love a pic, do a search (it’s just most recent), disconnect or get help. That’s a lot of features inside of hoot suite.

YouTube
With YouTube Free, you can add subscriptions and do a search. The search is very robust and you can do keywords, location, username, category, time, sort by and language.

4. Free, Pro or Enterprise
With a free account, you get the basics and that’s all most people need. But if you are looking to make hootsuite part of your farm or state/region, then a pro account for $9 a month might be worth it.

With a pro account, you can have unlimited social profiles (instead of just five), one additional user, one enhanced report (you get several reports for free but you must use their tools to post to other networks), advanced scheduling, unlimited apps, rss feeds (with Google Reader goinåçg away, it might be worth it), Google Analytics integration, Facebook insight integration.

5. Cross-Platform – desktop, tablet, smartphone
One of the best things I like about Hootsuite is being able to use it across platforms without having to learn complete new systems. You can install the app on your phone or tablet and use it the same as the desktop. Another great thing is that they can be set up slightly different – you don’t have to follow the same lists or searches and the changes don’t effect the other platform.

6. Emailed reports
For free you can get your URL click through counts and where those people are located. You’ll also get your top referrers and most popular links.

Another free report is your profile that includes follower growth, keyword over time and your most popular links with text.

7. You can manage your lists inside of Hootsuite instead of just using Twitter.
There is actually many ways to handle people and lists within Hootsuite.

You can follow and put them into lists via the Profile Pop-up.

And you can add or remove people you follow from lists via the Contacts section through the List Section.

Keeping these lists organized will help you in the long run. Especially if you are sharing these lists in public with other people.

8. Because it rocks.
Yes, I’m biased with this. I believe that you can and probably should go check out other systems. In fact, there’s a great blog post on the top 7 reasons you shouldn’t be using Hootsuite. But I don’t think any of them are dealbreakers when it comes to helping you cross promote and protect your farm messages across multiple social platforms.

So what do you think? Do you like Hootsuite? Are you going to try it out to help control your social media networks?

How Social Media Works

Social Media Makes Friends - photo credit StuSeeger

People ask me all the time if Social Media is effective or how it works.  I try to explain but usually I blow it because I get all passionate about it and it comes out all confusing.

But I caught two things just a few minutes ago that reminded me how simple it really is.  Here’s one of them – From Mitch Joel of Twist Image (love his podcasts on iTunes) via Mashable article.  (It’s around the bottom of the page)

“True story: the CEO of a major organization and I are having breakfast and he’s asking me about the implications of Social Media from a B2B perspective. As I go through how important those natural voices and conversations are [to] the decision makers, he starts laughing and cuts me off. Here’s why: about a month prior to our meeting, his CTO came to him with a fairly advanced technical upgrade that needed to take place along with the pricing and deliverables. Without having much knowledge of the potential new supplier, the CEO found himself doing some online searches for what others have thought. Beyond the jargony-corporate website, the CEO was much more taken by the Podcasts, YouTube testimonials, Blog posts and Twitter chatter about the product.

Without realizing it, the CEO was entirely reliant on Social Media for their final decision. While it’s easy to think that this is an isolated incident, do [your] own online search for “social media b2b” and you’ll quickly realize that Social Media is probably easier to link to true ROI in the B2B space than it is for B2C.”

I think this is a great example but then I realized how I found the article.  Via Brain Solis’ twitter account who was also mentioned in the article.
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Higher Education Marketing Questions and Answers

How can I help you?

I had this big long blog put together about how I got to ND but it wasn’t coming together the way I wanted it to so I’ve decided to do something else instead.

I get a lot of questions throughout the day about marketing, mostly digital, and social media.  I want to answer those questions here.  So I’ll be pulling stuff from our Linkedin community and questions I get through email, etc…  Don’t worry, I won’t use your name if you don’t want me to.

Topics will include:

  1. Strategic Planning
  2. Websites
  3. Blogs
  4. Social Media
  5. Email Marketing
  6. Measurement

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