Thursday, February 11, 2010

Meet "Grow Alabama"

Our newest client has a daunting but exciting task: bringing back produce farming to a state which used to feed itself.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Sharing a Video Directly to Blogger

So, I went to the landing page on the LA Marathon site, clicked on "get code" and then selected "Blogger" from the drop-down. What you see here is the result!

Facebook Ads Convert Web Traffic to "Foot Traffic"

The Los Angeles Marathon was looking for a way to make more use of social media and draw more attention to their videos. Zoom Communities stepped in to help.

With the help of their webmaster, Cory Glauner of WebDog Services, we created a special landing page, just for this campaign.

On that landing page we placed a Brightcove player that contained three videos the LA Marathon had already produced. PLUS we also took two of their shortest videos and stitched them together, effectively resulting in a two-in-one video that we placed in the player as well.

The Brightcove player contained several sharing features, including sharing by email, embedding blog code, and posting to a Facebook page or as a link in Twitter. (Learn more about Brightcove here.)

Those who encountered the video outside of the landing page (due to sharing) could always find their way back to lamarathon.com, just by clicking the logo or the related link below the player. The client knew that getting more people to their website would result in more registrations over time.

We researched Facebook member demographics and learned that 30,000 Facebook users have "marathon" in their profile in some form. For six weeks we deployed Facebook ads that targeted those users.The results were astounding! The videos saw an average of 260 viewers a week.


What's more, the group's Facebook fan page increased from 1,700 fans to 2,400 fans -- an increase of over 40 percent!

As an added bonus, by loading the videos into the Brightcove system, we were able to report to the marathon marketing team that when someone watched a marathon video, they were likely to watch a majority of that video before clicking away. Brightcove's video analytics can be used to fine-tune a video to make it longer or shorter depending on length of engagement.

The marketing director of the LA Marathon, Peter Abraham, had this to say: "(Zoom's) strategic thinking and targeted outreach program helped us increase registration and grow our social media footprint. I would happily use (them) again."

A Zoom Facebook Ad Campaign costs just $500 to set up, plus the cost of the ads ($100 per month minimum), plus 25 percent of ad costs in order for us to maintain the campaign and run reports for the length of the campaign.

Included in that price are the following features:
  • Work with client to identify specific demographic market (geographic area, gender, age, interests, etc.)
  • Provide estimate of number of FB users that fall into that demographic.
  • Set up campaign budget and targeting according to best pay-per-click practices.
  • Write text for at least two ads promoting your company/product/service.
  • Help identify and create the images to go with the text (added graphic design fees MAY apply).
  • Ongoing management and optimization of campaign.
  • Provide analytical reports once per month detailing ad performance, # of impression, # of clicks, demographic breakdown of respondents, and more.
The advantages of Facebook advertising are several:
  • Ideal for advertisers who want to target a specific demographic group.
  • Highly accurate demographic information because users have an incentive to truthfully and completely describe themselves and their interests.
  • Target by location, gender, age, interests, keywords, relationship status and more.
  • 350+ million worldwide users, 90+ million in the United States provides a huge market even for businesses targeting a small fraction of Facebook users.
You can choose to concentrate your Facebook ad dollars within a single month, or spread your ad dollars over several months.

Contact us for a free consultation to see if a Facebook Ad campaign is right for you!

Oh, and all this talk of marathons has our president, Eric Larson, training for one. "I'm going to try to do a half-marathon in Nasheville in April, 2010, then pick a full marathon for the Fall or early Winter 2010. Zoom on!"

Words to Remember, from a Master

Today we gratefully celebrate someone whose words are relevant far beyond the movement he is best known for.

Martin Luther King, Jr., is quoted as saying:

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."

May you be inspired today.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Zoom Teams with Newspaper to Add Video, Social Media

One community newspaper will be connecting its advertisers to an ever-growing Internet audience in 2010.

The Mountaineer in Waynesville, N.C., has teamed with two multimedia companies, Stellar Media and Zoom Communities, to give the paper's advertisers an even wider reach than they already receive through its print products and website by integrating video and social media advertising options.

The deal marks the beginning of a new business model that newspapers can use to prosper in the online, digital age, said Eric Larson, president of Stellar Media and Zoom Factor, Inc.

"Newspapers are experts at developing an audience and connecting advertisers with that audience in an effective way," Larson said. "This is the same kind of linkage, but using the latest tools."

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are just a few of the website tools that advertisers will be able to integrate using the new advertising options.

An award-winning newspaper reporter in the 1990s, Larson founded Stellar Media in 2005 as a way to promote businesses and nonprofits using video. The company has since won numerous awards, including Best Multimedia in 2008 from the Public Relations Association of Western North Carolina, and a Wallie Award in 2009 from the Carolina's Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society.

Zoom Communities, a division of Zoom Factor, Inc., was created in 2009 as a way to take advantage of online distribution tools to promote businesses, nonprofits, and their communities. The company has been developing a comprehensive video and online sales and marketing program which newspapers can integrate into their existing advertising packages.

The Mountaineer was founded over 125 years ago. In 1979 the Daniels family, owners of the News and Observer in Raleigh, purchased it and formed the Mountaineer Publishing Company Inc.

In 1990, Adelaide Daniels Key, the daughter of the long time editor of the Raleigh News and Observer, John Daniels, purchased The Mountaineer Publishing Company from the family chain. Her son, Jonathan Key, was hired in 1991 as General Manager. In 2000, Key was named publisher of The Enterprise Mountaineer. Two years later he purchased the company.
Other publications owned by the publishing company include the Biltmore Beacon, a community newspaper for the Town of Biltmore Forest, Biltmore Lake, and Biltmore Park.

Learn more about The Mountaineer Publishing Company at http://themountaineer.com.

Zoom Factor and Zoom Communities company information can be found at http://zoomfactor.com and http://zoomcommunities.com.

For additional information, please contact Eric Larson at ceo@zoomcommunities.com.