Educate, Engage, and Inspire Students with Video Using YouTube

December 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

YouTube_for_Schools

Many debates have occurred online regarding Social Media within Education, since its presence has become strongly desired within our daily lives, focusing conversations on integrating Social Media within the classroom as a subject, but what about using Social Media for Education?

YouTube has taken the initiative to just that, creating the ability for the Education system to utilize its site to better educate globally by redefining the way we learn through visualization. YouTube has created YouTube for Schools, a controlled environment that enables teachers and students to capitalize on watching educational videos designed for the classroom.

This is an innovative opportunity, granting schools the prospect to revolutionize the way children learn, since people learn in different ways, some more so visually; this is an opportunity to expand the classroom and open doors for students to access a worldly library, literally.

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Content Creation

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If there’s one thing that’s not lacking on the internet, it’s content. Every day millions of new pages are created. Articles, infographics, blog posts, videos – it’s impossible to digest the tiniest fraction of it.

How are sites like Buzzfeed and Tumblr able to command so much attention when even they are a drop in a sea of content? With thousands of Tweets per second, how can a company or publication stand out? Over 24 hours of new YouTube videos are uploaded every hour. The stats go on and on. Social media promotions can only go so far. For many, having the best of the best content on the internet is the key to marketing success.

Putting the Right Bait on the Hook

Getting traffic and links to a website can easily be compared to fishing. Imagine that every piece of content that you create is a fishing line. Every time you create content, you’re putting another line in the pond. When the fish (internet users) bite your line, you have a new visitor. Some websites are able to put hundreds, even thousands of new lines into the pond every month. Others focus on a handful. Having more hooks is nice, but having the right bait on the hooks is the key.

Look at a site like XKCD. They are ranked 605 in Alexa for US traffic. They are able to do this by posting a dozen or so pieces of content per month. What are they doing right? They have the right bait.

The comic style used by XKCD is an example, but it’s hard to duplicate, particularly for businesses. How can a business increase traffic and acquire more links to their site? It’s a process, but it starts by putting the right bait on the hook. High-quality, virally-designed content is the first step. Having content than can (and should) be shared makes everything else in social media marketing much easier.

Types of Viral Content

When businesses start a blog, they often go in with the impression that if they write stories about their business, their brand, and their industry, the people will come. Unfortunately, the internet is not a “Field of Dreams“. Here are some examples of content that went viral for businesses:

  • Fun Infographics: When in doubt, be funny. It’s an easy way to bring the people in and get them sharing. This infographic by our partners at Column Five broke the bank with 23k Facebook shares for a business that was accustomed to seeing 1/100th that amount on even their most successful blog posts.
  • Useful Infographics: When people can gain knowledge about a topic that interests them, they will share. This graphic nailed it from that perspective by appealing to the Mac vs PC debate. The results were too astounding to print.
  • Timely Articles: When Google+ was only a few days old, there was a high demand for assessments and opinions about it. Would it succeed? Should Facebook worry? We used the good old “Top X List” written in a multi-page format to drive strong traffic and generate excellent links to the site with a timely article about Google+.

These are the “low hanging fruit” of social media promotions, but they’re definitely not the only ways. Videos, timeless articles, how-tos – the list of quality, sharable content types is huge. At Hasai, we have the ability to not only create interesting content but promote it as well. Contact us to find out what we can do for you and your content today.

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Buzz Marketing

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Buzz marketing has been, well, a “buzz word” in both public relations and general marketing since before social media was born. As the internet and social media embed themselves more into our lives, the buzz surrounding businesses and people is amplified tremendously.

Having the right strategy is not simply about broadcasting the loudest. It involves crafting the right messages that can resonate on different channels. It includes sentiment monitoring and properly-positioned responses to everything being said about you, good or bad. It requires an often-precarious tightrope act to walk the line between being interesting enough to share without being offensive and creating a disaster.

In short, buzz marketing in concept is easy but in execution is a practice that is mastered by a select few. At Hasai, we’ve demonstrated time and time again that we can walk the line, blast the right message, and respond accordingly for our clients. It’s not hard in theory. In practice, it’s almost impossible.

The Buzz Marketing Tightrope

In July, 2011, the social media marketing team for the movie “Limitless” tried to walk the line on Twitter. They latched onto a popular but controversial hashtag and attempted to play with humor while selling copies of the movie. The results could be a case study in social media marketing failures.

They should not be faulted for the attempt. How often are movies able to make a splash through social media after they’ve left the theaters. Many do a decent job of getting the initial buzz going, but after the run it’s hard to keep buzz going. They attempted and failed, but at least they took a shot.

The goal in buzz marketing is to be buzz-worthy without offending. There’s a difference between offending and being offensive. Sometimes, depending on the goal and client, being a little offensive is okay. Polarizing messages can often gain respect from both sides and are discussed more often and openly than generic boring messages. Still, crossing the line and offending can be worse than not using social media at all.

Social Media Venues

One of the things that Hasai has done well is to give the proper exposure and build the right kind of buzz by placing content on the right venues. Exposure is often a challenge because what a client finds interesting isn’t always something that large publications find interesting. Positioning a message is often more difficult than coming up with the message in the first place.

Our strategies as we apply them to clients are diverse in style and delivery but use the same basic premise – craft the right message and expose it in the right places.

Contact us now and learn more about what Hasai can do for your business today.

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Facebook Marketing

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As Facebook grows to 800 million users and continues its domination on social networking, most marketing firms and businesses have integrated it as the central piece to their social media strategy. The biggest challenge is in figuring out exactly what to do with it.

At Hasai, we understand that when “the sky’s the limit” many will fail to get off the ground. It’s simple to understand, really. Like a kid in a candy store who sees much more than any one person can eat in one sitting, many marketing firms use a “ready, fire, aim” approach to Facebook that yields limited results.

The perceptions surrounding Facebook fall into two opposing principles:

  1. It’s absolutely humongous and businesses should be using it to reach the masses.
  2. It’s personalized in a way that focuses on friends and family.

The two principles appear completely different, even opposite on the surface, but one feeds the other and visa-versa. A proper strategy uses the sheer size of Facebook to target the personalized nature of the site. Simultaneously, the only way to appeal to the masses is through the viral groundswell that occurs when friends share with friends.

Where Many Go Wrong

The search for a unified Facebook strategy is futile. The combination of goals, resources, exposure, and budget factor into putting together a proper strategy. One size definitely does not fit all.

Every client goes through a rigorous interview and assessment based upon the 4 primary criteria before a single concept or strategy is implemented. The beauty of Facebook and social media marketing in general is that there are many roads to success. Unfortunately, there are even more roads to failure.

At Hasai, we believe in finding the best possible strategy that is custom tailored to fit with the business’ or publication’s needs. We don’t believe in “outside of the box” thinking because we don’t believe that a box actually exists when it comes to Facebook marketing. With no box, everything is outside (and that’s a good thing).

The Solution is Personal

Given the opportunity, we believe we have the experience and insight to craft the right strategy for each individual client. For some, aggressive campaigns to draw in as many “likes” to a page is the first order of business. For others, generating engaging content that can spread quickly is the key. Apps play a role for some but are unnecessary for others.

The key to our style and philosophy is that we examine every aspect of our clients’ online and offline marketing assets and apply a creative solution to determine the right strategies. Facebook is loaded with potential. Don’t waste it. Contact us today and start down the road to social media success.

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