Using My Video Talk to Do a Live Broadcast

Even if you have never done a live broadcast and have no technical experience, My Video Talk has made it very simple and user friendly for people of all backgrounds. In this day and age, live broadcasting is an important tool especially for people doing business around the globe.

Follow these steps to begin making use of My Video Talk's Live Broadcast:

Step 1. Customize your broadcast to go with your brand. To do this you simply log in and just click "settings". Here you will be able to enter important information about your business including your business name, a description of your business, relevant keywords, and your Time-Zone. This section also allows you to select the background color for the header.

Once you enter the information, you will want to upload a company logo. Your logo dimensions should be 300x80 or 225x60. Then type the website address you want people to be taken to if they click on the logo.
You can then upload a banner. Your banner dimensions must be 468x80. Just as you did with the logo, type in the url you want people to be directed to if they click on the logo.

When you are pleased with the look click submit settings.

Step 2. This is an optional step that you should use only if you will be using slides or video in your live broadcast. Click "Content", create a new folder and upload your video.

Step 3. Click on "Broadcast" and then simply click "new broadcast". Select your broadcast schedule. Make sure you set the duration longer than the actual time of your planned broadcast. 2 hours is encouraged, this is valuable in the event you go over the time you initially had in mind. Click submit and then select the broadcast link.

Step 4. Log in, click broadcast, click invite more participants, click invite by email, enter the email addresses and click the plus sign to send your invitations. You can also just copy and paste the link and send by way of your own email account.

Step 5. Click on start broadcast and you should at that point see yourself on your web cam. If you cannot see yourself, merely right click over the video section and then click on settings to be sure the web cam you are using is set as default. You will see an icon of a lock to secure your audio. A green microphone on your video indicates that your microphone is on and viewers can hear you.

To share the content you uploaded in step two just select content.

Congratulations! You are now an Internet Superstar broadcasting live.

My Video Talk Live Broadcast includes additional features not covered here, such as the capability to share your desktop, bring on other people into your live broadcast, display whiteboards, file share, and surveys.

Basics of Video Marketing

Video Marketing is becoming more and more popular these days by businesses of all sizes that realize the potential and advantage of using video to connect with their target audience. Not only is it realized as an effective and powerful tool, it has the ability to connect you with potentially thousands or potential clients and customers.

Video Marketing Perks
By using strong video marketing techniques you can reignite interest in your website and distinctly enhance your brand. In doing so, you want to produce videos that are brief, appealing, offers a clear message, and grabs the attention of viewers and has a strong call to action.

When brainstorming topics and content for your videos, take care to choose the right keywords and descriptions. By doing so, you allow your videos to work for themselves online. If you create a video that is short, informative, and appealing and you add descriptive tags and keywords that are searched online thousands of times a day, your video will be viewed more and more, receiving positive feedback, which will offer you a higher ranking online. Video marketing is essential in link-building. The more websites you post your links to, the more internet surfers you will attract to your page.

Another tactic is to involve your friends and associates in the process of marketing the videos you create. You can do this by sending them to your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo and other contacts or alternatively, you can utilize the services of an experienced video marketing virtual assistant to upload and promote your videos to the different video sharing sites online.

Many people are put-off of video marketing because they tend to get overwhelmed by what they feel is necessary in putting together a successful video marketing strategy. They wrongly feel they need the best and most expensive equipment to get started. In my experience I've found that the most successful online videos have been created by amateurs using simple and inexpensive digital cameras, flip cameras and cell phones. It is not so much the tool used, but the content shared. This means that inexpensive tools are just as effective as pricey ones, provided the video quality is clear and the message strong.

Online marketers can benefit by creating promotional videos, product initiation, personalized greetings and even how-to videos to direct their videos towards a target market and ultimately back to their website or blog.

Why not give video marketing a go? In doing so not only will you be creating a new outlet to express your creativity and expertise, you will also be building your brand and creating unique experiences for your potential customer and clients, brand loyalty and credibility.

What's the Future of Video Marketing

In looking back only a few years, we saw video on the Internet rise at a rate unlike anything in previous years. Today, 80% of Internet users worldwide watch online video, according to a comScore study).
In that same study, it reported more than 167 million viewers in the U.S. watched an average of 167 videos each, while YouTube reached 1 billion views per day - or 41 million views per hour - in the same month (October 2009).

From these numbers, it shows how powerful of a platform the Internet is, and how video marketing is poised to take center stage in marketing efforts.

The Importance of Web Videos
Undoubtedly, you've seen many social video sharing sites popping up, telling us we're in an emerging industry. And, although digital media and online video space is very young, we are definitely seeing the beginning of this space.

Why? Because video engages people in a way that static content cannot. Video boosts customer interaction, drives sales, encourages viral sharing, and builds brand awareness.

With moving pictures, you have a very compelling medium to tell your story and sell a product. You can show prospective and existing customers your product instead of just telling them about it.
So now we're at a time that having video on your website is needed as much as you need someone to code and put up your website.

However, many small businesses are too busy and don't have a "video product manager" overseeing video production or deployment for them. Nor do they usually have the technological knowledge to be able to set up an online video offering themselves.

Well, video is too important to put it off much longer.

With more than 50% of people now looking online for products and services, a website has become an important aspect in connecting with your public.

What is happening here is that video marketing has become the nucleus of online success for companies. It is leading the way for businesses and individuals to incorporate a video strategy alongside an online, social, paid media, PR, and other marketing strategies.

Here's another statistic for you: 52% of people who watched an online video ad took action after viewing the ad, such as visiting the advertiser's website (31%) or searching online for more info on the product (22%). A full 21% went on to make a purchase - giving video ads one of the HIGHEST CONVERSION RATES IN THE INDUSTRY (per Online Publishers Association).

Here are a few companies that I came across that have substantial success with video:

• Zappos (an online shoe and clothing retailer) increased sales from 6 to 30% using video marketing.
• Deloitte (a consulting firm) uses web video to enhance their business with useful videos for current and future employees and company stock holders.
• Jivox (an online video ad platform) used video demos on their website to increase registrations by 25%.
• Fuse Box had 20% higher close rates when sales reps play a video at the beginning of their virtual sales demo.
• Jigsaw uses crowd-sourcing to gather and vet business contact info, a new approach that relies on customer participation.
• Car dealers with videos on their website generate more phone calls and emails from prospective shoppers vs. websites without video.
• FrontPoint Security successfully uses video demonstrations to expand its pool of customers, and monthly sales leads from website increased 250 percent with video.

With success like this, it is a no-brainer that 94% of ad agencies plan on increasing their online video marketing budgets this year (BrightRoll survey).
In Summary....

• Video shows your story and/or product and service.
• Video drives sales
• Video builds your brand
• Videos help position you as an expert in your field.
• Video makes your site more "sticky" - visitors stay longer.
• Video engages people
• Video goes viral
• Video increases website conversions

Okay, I think you get the point.

Tips to Make Captivating Videos

Two things to consider when making a video.

1. Content
Most people use the web cam on their laptop and just record them randomly blabbing about something for 10 minutes and it's just rediculus. If you can't have some hard hitting information for 1 to 2 minutes... then you probably shouldn't make a video. Think of your video as the heading for a news paper article. It's just there to grab attention and then your website text should continue the conversation. It's been proven that websites that have videos on them have people stay on those sites longer then websites with out. So that's good to know. But a pathetic video just like a pathetic website will have people clicking away just as fast as they came.

2. "The Look" (audio video)
Video Part 1: Hey, I don't want to be the guy who sounds so superficial but... not everyone should be on video. NO ONE should do video unscripted and unprepared. With that said, I've seen way to many videos of some guy talking about how he's going to help me make millions of dollars when it looks like he's a middle aged guy sitting on his 80 year old grandmas couch. I mean COME ON! who else is with me on this one. If you are going to be talking about how you are going to help people make all this money. You better have a background that is either a blank white wall, with no holes in it or you should get a back drop. A black sheet, or something that looks like you planned it.

Video part 2: Buy a camera, and you can pick up a lite version of some kind of video editing software or use windows movie maker. It's on most PC's. I personally use a mac and iMovie which is the mac equivalent of windows movie maker, but it's WAY better. Combine that with iLife... which is an upgrade plugin and NOW you can do green screen videos. WHICH are way cool. If you really want to make your videos look great get a mac, a green screen, a bunch of lights and go to it. Then you can make whatever background you want.

Audio: Does your video look great but sound like crap. that's no good either. When buying a video camera buy one with a good mic. Read the reviews and or buy an additional mic. Mic's can be expensive, mine is 200 dollars for the lapel mic and it's not exactly great. I should have just spent the 300 bucks and bought a professional grade one instead of the pro-sumer one. Don't get crazy, you don't need a 3000 dollar mic but a few hundred bucks and your golden. B&H is a great place to buy those kinds of items or eBay. Remember, that no amount of looking good will over come poor audio. It's also not a bad idea to lay down a little background music, but be careful there not to over power the audio from the person speaking.

I hope this helps someone just getting started in video marketing.