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14 Ways to Promote Your Latest YouTube Video

If you’re like me, you put a lot of time, effort, and thought into your YouTube videos.  Even if you don’t, since YouTube is the second most searched engine in the world (and owned by the #1—Google), there is good reason to make the most of each upload.

Here are the 14 tasks bloggers should do whenever you upload a YouTube video to your YouTube channel.

1. Add an SEO-optimized title: Your YouTube video title is essential in helping your video be found, so use appropriate keywords.
2. Add an SEO description: Include a description that isn’t keyword stuffed, but does include your main keywords.
3. Add your website link to the description: If you have a website or blog, be sure to provide a link back to that.  You can also include links to all of your social media channels.  When posting links, be sure to include the “http” or the “https,” as that’s the only way YouTube can automatically hyperlink it.
4. Maximize your tags: so many people do not maximize the number of tags that they can have. Tags are your keywords, and they are critically important to being found. Include any relevant tags. Then, check back in a month or two to see how that particular video is being found—and change out some of the tags that are insignificant. For your long-tail keywords, be sure to include them within quotes, like “Business Blog Writers,” so that they’re searched as single phrases, rather than three separate words.
5. Post on Pinterest: In August, Krizia taught us How to Add Your YouTube Videos to Pinterest. Note that Krizia also suggests branding every video that you have on your channel because Pinterest allows people to watch the video directly on Pinterest. Unless they have motivation or reason to find out more, most viewers will not click through to your YouTube channel.
6. Like your video: The number of likes on your video helps it gain popularity, so by liking it, you’re just helping it get the attention of the audience you’re trying to target.
7. Share it on Facebook: Whether you have a Facebook page dedicated to your blog or website, or whether you just use your personal Facebook profile, you will want to share your video there for people to see.  You never know who they will share it with—this is how many videos have gone viral. If you are posting a video that involves a company, take the time to tag them in the post with the video link.
8. Share It on Twitter: As usual, you want to shoot a link to your video out to all your Twitter followers. Be sure to include relevant hash tags and, if your video features a company and its product, then you definitely want to include their Twitter handle in the tweet too. For example, when I upload a product review for Floppycats, I then send out a Tweet like this, “Ragdoll Cats Chow Down on Eden Foods Bonito Tuna Flakes—Floppycats http://ow.ly/cU6Gp @edenfoods #cat #cats”.
9. Share it on Google+: YouTube is owned by Google and so is Google+. They like each other, so make sure they like your videos too.
10. Share it on LinkedIn (if appropriate): If your video is business-related and will help your efforts to grow your business, then you certainly want to share it on LinkedIn.
11. Schedule it to post on HootSuite monthly, for the next year: I like to come up with a Tweet or a Facebook posting for each new video, and reschedule them for release once a month for a year. As a blogger, it shows companies you’re promoting that you are looking to maintain your relationships with them, and also helps an old video enjoy new life every month.
12. Create a video response: Search for a video that is similar to yours, and rather than writing a comment about it, create a video response that will attract the audience you want.
13. Write a blog post and embed the video: More than likely you are trying to get Google to love your website and want to put it at the top of their search engine results. So make them love it more by embedding your YouTube videos into your blog posts.
14. Add it to a playlist: Whether you have already established playlists, or need a new one for this video, add it to a playlist using a relevant keyword from the video.

They’re the essential 14 steps, but are other things to do when you post a video, like adding annotations, asking people to subscribe, and adding transcripts, as Deepak covered in SEO Your.

source: problogger.net

 

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How to Optimize Your YouTube Video for Maximum Traffic

When companies plan their marketing strategies, they often make the mistake of ignoring YouTube as a possible channel for lead development. Social media, PPC and other fields are accepted as vital, but YouTube? How much marketing use is the world’s foremost provider of cute kitten videos?

Actually, YouTube represents fertile ground for lead generation. People tend to forget YouTube is in fact a social platform just like as Facebook and Twitter with sharing capabilities, comments and likes as part of its features. While the video site’s search page is now the second most popular search engine (and thanks to Google’s acquisition of YouTube, intricately connected to the number one search option).

Why Upload to YouTube?

Many companies choose to host their videos on their own websites instead of uploading media to YouTube and then linking within the website. This is, quite frankly, a mistake.

Why?

The video adds value to your website, but only enriches user experiences if people visit the site.

A video hosted on your own website only gets viewed by people who come to your site, limiting how many people find and view it.

If you let YouTube host your videos, people are more likely to find them, and if their response is favorable, they’re more likely to visit your site for additional information.

Social Media Strategies and YouTube

Many of the social media strategies used on Twitter and Facebook work equally well on YouTube. YouTube users can:

“Like” and “Favorite” individual videos

Leave comments

Subscribe to channels

This much like following Tweets or Liking a Facebook page. These features offer opportunity to engage your audience in dialogue, and not just in the comments section. Your videos give your company a human face no amount of tweeting and Facebooking can match, because the viewer sees and hears you. Some videos spark video responses, offering opportunity for a very public and interactive dialogue.

Cross-Platform Interactivity

YouTube supports cross-platform interactivity with a wide range of social media platforms. Viewers can easily link your content to Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, StumbleUpon and Blogger with a few clicks, increasing the organic growth of your content.

So here are some simple tips on how to optimize your YouTube video for maximum traffic.

Source: jeffbullas.com

11 Simple Ways To Protect Your Privacy

Privacy is an increasingly rare commodity these days. Just search for yourself on Pipl.com - you might be surprised at the number of companies that claim to have information about your family, income, address, phone number and much, much more.

That's because your personal information, including your email address, phone number and social security number, is worth a lot of money to legitimate businesses and bad guys alike. The bad guys just want to steal from you. Companies want to know as much about you as possible so they can sell you more products and services or serve you ads that are highly relevant to your demographics and preferences.

So take these simple steps to protect your valuable personal information.

1. Don't fill out your social media profile.

The more information you share online, the easier it’s going to be for someone to get their hands on it. Don’t cooperate.

Take a look at your social media profiles and keep them barren—the people who need to know your birth date, email address and phone number already have them. And what exactly is the point of sharing everything about yourself in your Facebook profile? If you care about your privacy, you won’t do it.

2. Be choosy about sharing your social security number—even the last 4 digits.

Think twice about sharing your social security number with anyone, unless it’s your bank, a credit bureau, a company that wants to do a background check on you or some other entity that has to report to the IRS. If someone gets their hands on it and has information such your birth date and address they can steal your identity and take out credit cards and pile up other debt in your name.

Even the last four digits of your social security number should only be used when necessary. The last four are often used by banks an other institutions to reset your password for access your account.

Plus, if someone has the last four digits and your birth place, it's a lot easier to guess the entire number. That's because the first three are determined by where you, or your parents, applied for your SSN. And the second set of two are the group number, which is assigned to all numbers given out at a certain time in your geographic area. So a determined identity thief with some computing power could hack it given time.

3. Lock down your hardware.

Set up your PC to require a password when it wakes from sleep or boots up. Sure, you may trust the people who live in your house, but what if your laptop is stolen or you lose it?

Same thing with your mobile devices. Not only should you use a passcode to access them every time you use them, install an app that will locate your phone or tablet if it’s lost or stolen, as well as lock it or wipe it clean of any data so a stranger can’t get access to the treasure trove of data saved on it.

And, make sure your computers and mobile devices are loaded with anti-malware apps and software. They can prevent prevent criminals from stealing your data. We recommend Norton Internet Security in our computer security buying guide or stepping up to Norton 360 Multi-Device if you have mobile devices. And, you'll want to double up your protection on Android devices by installing, since we found anti-malware apps are dismal at detecting spyware.

4. Turn on private browsing.

If you don’t want anyone with physical access to your computer to see where you’re hanging out online you should enable "private browsing," a setting available in each major web browser. It deletes cookies, temporary Internet files and browsing history after you close the window.

Every company that advertises online is interested in knowing what sites you visit, what you buy, who you’re friends with on social networks, what you like and more. By gathering information about your online activities they can serve you targeted ads that are more likely to entice you to buy something.

For instance, the Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ buttons you see on just about every site allow those networks to track you even if you don’t have an account or are logged into them. Other times information collection companies rely on embedded code in banner ads that track your visits, preferences, and demographic information.

If you truly care about your privacy you’ll surf the Internet anonymously by hiding your IP address. You can do this using a web proxy, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Tor, a free open network that works by routing your traffic through a series of servers, operated by volunteers around the world, before sending it to your destination.

5. Use a password vault that generates and remembers strong and unique passwords.

Most people know better than to use the same password for more than one website or application. In reality, it can be impossible to remember a different one for the dozens of online services you use. The problem with using the same password in more than one place is if someone gets their hands on your password—say, through a phishing attack—they can access all your accounts and cause all sorts of trouble.

To eliminate this dilemma, use a password manager that will not only remember all your passwords, but will generate super strong and unique ones and automatically fill them into login fields with the click of a button.

LastPass is an excellent and free choice.

6. Use two-factor authentication.

You can lock down your Facebook, Google, Dropbox, Apple ID, Microsoft, Twitter and other accounts with two-factor authentication. That means that when you log in, you'll also need to enter a special code that the site texts to your phone. Some services require it each time you log in, other just when you're using a new device or web browser. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great overview of what's available.

Two-factor authentication works beautifully for keeping others from accessing your accounts, although some people feel it’s too time consuming. But if you’re serious about privacy, you’ll put up with the friction.

7. Set up a Google alert for your name.

This is a simple way to keep an eye on anything someone might be saying about you on the web. It’s just a matter of telling Google what to look for (in this case, your name), as well as what kinds of web pages to search, how often to search and what email address the search engine giant should use to send you notifications. Set up a Google alert here.

8. Pay for things with cash.

According to Business Insider, credit card companies are selling your purchase data to advertisers. Don’t want companies knowing how much booze you’re buying or other potentially embarrassing habits? Buy things the old fashioned way—with coins and bills.

9. Keep your social network activity private.

Check your Facebook settings and make sure only friends can see what you’re doing. Go to the settings cog in the upper right hand corner of your screen, then click on Privacy Settings >> Who can see my stuff.

On Twitter, click on the settings cog, then Settings. From there you can adjust all sorts of privacy settings, such as a box that gives Twitter permission to add your location to tweets as well as the ability to make your tweets private, meaning only people you approve can see them. You can also stop the microblogging platform from tailoring your Twitter experience based on other sites you visit.

If you use Google+, go to Home >> Settings. There you can adjust things like who can interact with you, comment on your posts or start a conversation with you.

10. Don't give our your zip code when making credit card purchases.

Often stores will ask for your zip code when you're checking out with a credit card. Don't give it to them unless you want to donate your details to their marketing database, warns Forbes. By matching your name, taken from your credit card, with your zip code, companies can more easily mine more information, including your address, phone number and email. address.

11. Lie when setting up password security questions.

“What is your mother’s maiden name?” or “In what city were you born?” are common questions websites often ask you to answer so as to supposedly keep your account safe from intruders. In reality, there’s nothing secure about such generic queries. That’s because someone who wants access to your account could easily do some Internet research to dig up the answers.

Not sure you can remember your lies? You can create “accounts” in your password manager just for this purpose.

Do you know any other good privacy tips? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: techlicious.com

 

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Search Engine Optimization

SEO Unique to Your Landscape

At TopRank Online Marketing, we know that Search Engine Optimization isn't a one size fits all solution.

Rather, we blend our proven SEO process with your unique business objectives creating a truly customized and results-oriented program.

Our methodology for success leverages proven tactics that comply with the guidelines set forth by each of the major search engines to ensure quality, relevant traffic and rankings.

The TopRank SEO process shown below, has been applied to design hundreds of internet marketing programs for clients, helping to increase sales, leads and search visibility. See what TopRank clients have to say.

 

 

 

Our integrated search engine optimization and blog marketing services will enable you to gain credible, relevant visibility on search engines, news sites, portals and industry publication websites. We focus on quality content and quality visibility, creating exposure opportunities for your website that generate much higher conversion rates.

At TopRank, we also emphasize the value of brand awareness within target verticals. You will get to work with the extensive TopRank Online Marketing & SEO staff to develop and deploy the best online strategy for your business.

In addition, TopRank's sophisticated team of SEO specialists can 'speak geek' with your web development team or hype it up with marketing staff.

source: toprankmarketing.com

7 Examples of What Happens When Your Twitter Account is Hacked

It’s always a worry that you’ll tweet from the company account and realise you’ve spelt something wrong or left a word out.

But what happens to those unfortunate businesses who have their entire account hijacked – often with disastrous consequences.

It might be funny for us bystanders, but for the company who’s just announced something they shouldn’t have – it’s less of a laughing matter.

This is sometimes due to an unhappy ex-employee or you have annoyed a customer and they are out for revenge.

So what are the consequences when your Twitter account is hacked or hijacked?

Here are 7 examples both humorous and serious.

#1. HMV

HMV’s demise at the hands of iTunes and music piracy was a sore point among many devout music-shop lovers, and even more so within its staff. When the company went into administration, the closure of many shops around the UK followed, which naturally included a wave of redundancies.

In a passive-aggressive display against this, HMV’s Twitter feed filled up with the #hmvXFactorFiring – a blow by blow account of the firings going on at their head office.

Higher echelons of the company swiftly resumed control, and the rebellious tweets were deleted – but not before they got the last word (and the last few tweets): “Under usual circumstances, we’d never do such a thing as this. However, when the company you dearly love is being ruined, and those hard working individuals, who wanted to make HMV great again, have mostly been fired, there seemed no other choice.”

After the mysterious tweeter was dispatched, HMV tweeted an attempt at damage control, clarifying that there had been redundancies – just not in the stores, and adopted both the revolt’s hashtag, #hmvXFactorFiring, as well as their own, #savehmv.

#2. PayPal

One of the world’s largest online payment merchants came under attack from an unhappy customer, who used the business’ Twitter account to complain about its service. Considering that PayPal holds over 100 million credit card accounts, the company were quick to announce that it was only Twitter that got hacked, and nothing with personal details.

The hacker angrily tweeted about PayPal freezing their account, and linked out to paypalsucks.com, an anti-PayPal site that seeks to expose the “nightmare of doing business ‘the PayPal way’.”

While the offending tweeter is still unknown, the company had a large amount of cover-up to do when they resumed control over the account.

#3. Burger King

The fast-food giants were hacked by someone with less of a grudge and more of a sense of humour. Their Twitter icon was switched to McDonalds’ golden arches, and it was ‘revealed’ that the company had been bought out by their rivals.

Burger King’s Twitter feed became inundated with tweets referring to drugs, American rappers, and McDonalds. The social media team managed to gain control fairly quickly, and the following day revelled in the attention they got: “Interesting day here at BURGER KING, but we’re back! Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!”

Luckily for the burger giants, the disaster turned into a social media success, and gained them over 60,000 followers.

#4. Jeep

The iconic car manufacturers were hit in a similar way by hackers. With a theme like Burger King’s attack, the Twitter account announced that “We got sold to @Cadillac because we caught our employees doing these in the bathroom”, accompanied by a picture of a bottle of painkillers.

Following the takeover tweet was various links to hip-hop sites and rappers. The social media team were quick to delete the offending tweets, and put the issue to bed. They handled the entire incident with a great attitude – evidently highlighted by their tweet to Burger King, “.@BurgerKing Thanks BK. Let us know if you want to grab a burger and swap stories – we’ll drive.”

#5. Fox News

To the delight of many around the world, biased American news channel Fox, had their Twitter account hacked. Rumoured to be behind the tweets was the hacker collective, Anonymous.

The Fox News Politics accounts tweeted that President Obama had been shot in the head and killed, and Vice-president Joe Biden had taken over in his place.

In an interview with Think Magazine, a member of a similar group, Scriptkiddies, said that “Fox News was selected because we figured their security would be just as much of a joke as their reporting.”

#6. The Guardian

In a prolonged attack on media organisations, the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the Guardian’s various Twitter accounts, including Guardian Stage, Guardian Film, Guardian Books, and Guardian Music.

The Guardian wasn’t the only major account to be hacked: the Financial Times, CBS News, BBC News and Associated Press took a hit as well.

The SEA are a group supporting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad in the ongoing civil war.

Despite having the skills to hack into huge global institution’s accounts, their wit is slightly lacking, leaving the original, well thought out message, “Syrian Electronic Army Was Here”.

#7. Associated Press

While the Guardian got away lightly in their encounter with the Syrian Electronic Army, Associated Press weren’t as lucky: following the tweets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1% in several seconds, as investors panicked.

The SEA posted several tweets, announcing the bombing of the White House and the subsequent injuries to President Obama.

American news station CBS were also hacked, tweeting “Terror is striking the #USA and #Obama is Shamelessly in Bed with Al-Qaeda”.

What about you?

Has your Twitter account ever een hacked or hijacked? What happened and what did you do about it?

Look forward to hearing your stories in the comments below.

source: jeffbullas.com

 

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Why Do You Use Social Media?

There are many reasons we do things. Some of us exercise to keep fit, others do it because they just love the high of the endorphin rush as they get into the zone.

The why of starting a business for some is because of the challenge but for others its all about the money.

Some of us read because they are driven by the joy of  learning. Others pick up a book because they want to be entertained by the journey it takes you on. I still remember diving into books about pirates, tropical islands and sunken treasure and be lost for hours as my imagination took me to faraway lands.

If you ask a base jumper who leaps off  1,000 metre cliffs why they do it, despite the high risks involved and possible death. They will tell you it makes them feel so alive.

Sometimes we don’t even know why but we just do.

Successful companies start with a why

Companies with visionary CEO’s such as Apple with Steve Jobs understood that the why was important and Simon Sinek with his best selling book “Start With The Why” summed up Apple’s vision this way.

“In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo and thinking differently. We do this by making our products beautifully designed and simple to use. We just happen to make great computers. Do you want to buy one?”

Other leaders such as Walmart’s Sam Walton said that he wanted to make quality goods affordable and available to rural USA. Herb Kellerman of SouthWest Airlines vison was to bring air travel to the common people. Bill Gates vision was of accessible information for all.

Understanding the why can be important in motivating you to continue the journey despite the setbacks and obstacles. Sometimes the more why’s you have the bigger the motivation.

So what are some reasons we use social media?

Curiosity One of the reasons I joined Facebook was the curiosity to see what my friends and colleagues were up to. What were they doing in London, New York or Katmandu. The ability to peek and peer into other people’s lives is sometimes enough to get them to sign up to Facebook or join Twitter. Nothing like seeing what someone is posting or tweeting to catch a glimpse into their world.

Fun One important reason that drives many of us to use social media is that is just plain fun. Watching a viral video on YouTube that is so cool you just have to share it is just plain fun. Pinterest pins with their beautiful images and photos are addictive for many. Instagram with its fabulous filters turns photography into a visual fun parlour.

Learn Social media provides platforms and portals to dive in to and learn. It could be an ebook, blog article or a Slideshare presentation. It could be a YouTube video that reveals the secrets of basket weaving or how to use WordPress. Never has so much information been at our fingertips that can teach us everything from Photography to playing a guitar or even maths.

Experiment There is a lot of people experimenting with Facebook posting and publishing to see if image A works better than image B. Do pictures of cats produce more engagement?

Sometimes it is just fun to hit publish and see what happens.

Communicate Most of us enjoy communicating whether it is on Skype, Google+ hangouts or via a Twitter tweet. Some like it short and sweet others want to have a a good long chat. The ability to keep in touch is now global whether you want to do a video in your pyjamas or hide behind an audio stream.

Make money Making money for some is the big motivator . The social global networks can accelerate the opportunities to monetize your passion through increased online attention and connections that social media provides.

Build a business The challenge of building a business from scratch is for many people good reason enough to create an online business that is powered by the marketing leverage of social media.

Build a tribe Remember the schoolyard and some of us just loved having a gang of friends with similar interests and the bigger the better. With social media it is now possible to build a world wide community of followers that love what you do.

Express yourself In the past expressing yourself was restricted to singing in the shower, playing in a band at the local pub or painting in your studio at home. Now your writing, images, art, videos and music can be shared around the world with a click.

Make a difference Some of us may even want to make a difference in the world. The motivation of creating a legacy that changes people’s lives for good can be a huge motivation. Starting a blog and building a tribe can accelerate and spread your message at a pace and velocity that wasn’t possible before.

Search engines are indexing your content and making it visible to the world. This content will be online until someone turns the electricity off.

Creating content online that educates, adds value to people’s lives and inspires is something worth aspiring to.

What legacy do you want to leave behind? What is your why?

Want to Learn How to Make a Difference with your Blog and Social Media?

My book – Blogging the Smart Way “How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media– will show you how.

It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 120,000.

source: jeffbullas.com