Issue #762 Nov. 2, 2013
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Make a Video from Your Tweets
- Did You Get the Video Cheat Sheets?
- Hashtags Help People Find You
- Hound Video of the Week
This Weekend in the Hound House:
I can’t decide where to put the beautiful oak chest of drawers that Pauline Fichtner gave me this week. Pauline is the mom of Christine Buffaloe, my friend who was here for a month. Chris refinished it awhile ago and it’s in perfect shape! You can see it at my Facebook profile.
1. Make a Video from Your Tweets
You’ll love a fun, free tool I found that lets you create a short video of your Twitter profile.
Before you use it, watch the video I created for you, demonstrating how I did it in just a few minutes. You can see the first version which I don’t like much, and the second version that’s a lot better.
The blog post also gives you 11 ideas for sharing your video all over the Web. It’s a wonderful way to let people know very quickly what you tweet about and why they should follow you. I love the fact that you can pick some of your favorite tweets to insert into the video.
One place I’m including the link to my video is within the descriptions on my YouTube videos. Hop over to the blog right now.
2. Did You Get the Video Cheat Sheets?
If you’re creating a YouTube channel, don’t make all the same mistakes I did when I started almost a decade ago:
–Telling myself the site is way too confusing to worry about much more than uploading videos. YouTube, owned by Google, gives you opportunities galore to use those videos to pull traffic, convert the traffic to leads and, later, turn those leads into customers.
–Leading people from the end of a video to a page where I try to sell them something. Instead, I should have been leading them to a blog post or an opt-in page where I give them something valuable in exchange for them signing up for this newsletter. Or sending them to a Facebook page where they can Like me and find my other great content.
–Dashing off a quick sentence or two for the description. I should have been taking advantage of that huge hunk of real estate–about 5,000 characters, the equivalent of a 900-word article! It’s the perfect place for keywords, links and helpful information that will position me as a publicity expert.
–Ignoring or giving short shrift to tags (keywords). I never knew I could used as many as 23 tags and pull a lot more traffic.
I made so many mistakes that it’s embarrassing. How I wish I had known Jeff Johnson way back when! While I was fiddling around with the site, he was raking in leads. Today, he’s giving away a free copy of his brand new “Tube Traffic Secrets” Cheat Sheet. It’s the all-new, “completely updated for 2014” version, hot off the presses!
Grab your free “Tube Traffic Secrets” Cheat Sheets, along with a brand new training video.
Even though the training is free, I’m promoting this as an affiliate who earns a commission if you buy something from Jeff later.
3. Hashtags Help People Find You
The hashtag, the symbol #, is the new search tool. It brands your company, a product, a service, an event, even a book. And it can strengthen your publicity and marketing campaigns by attracting thousands of new followers in your ideal target market who are searching for the kind of content you provide.
But hashtags can be annoying, obtrusive and confusing if you don’t know how to use them correctly. Here are three tweets packed with so many hashtags that my eyes glaze over:
.@tranzducer #original #creative #AmericanElectronica #music reviewed at #OpenSalon bit.ly/Tranzducer
They’re baaaaack. #monstercereals #fruityyummymummy #cereal #halloween #cl vine.co/v/hdpOiMw1Z5w
RETWEET If you’re a #author #writer #poet #blogger BookTrailerCOMPETITION: marsocial.com/2013/10/marsoc… #ASMSG #F4F #Follow ALL who #RT #poem
Nine hashtags in that last one!
Publicity Hounds have been asking me lots of questions recently about hashtags and how to use them. I’m hosting a webinar from 4 to 5:15 Eastern Time on Thursday, Nov. 7, on “How to use Hashtags, the New Search Tool.”
The webinar will give you the basics, as well as advanced techniques, on how to use the tiny symbol that has already become one of the most powerful ways to find content online.
4. Hound Video of the Week
Cuteness Alert: Lots of little puppies going up and down stairs, and a few rolling down, too.
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