I only subscribe to two magazines – GQ and Wired. One teaches me how to look good, and the other gives me food for thought while looking good.
In this month’s (July) issue, Wired ran an interesting article on Facebook. And how it’s becoming a serious threat to Google in how people use the web. For a company so young, it managed to re-direct the spotlight to a social networking site from a search engine.
Oh it will take a while before they eat on Google’s billions in net profit (Zuckerberg hasn’t even found a way to monetize FB), but Facebook now can help drive traffic to your site, the bottomline being, the more people know you and see your work, the more chances of getting booked.
Some notes:
1. Upload videos directly on Facebook if you’ve secured the rights to the music. (Fat chance). So upload only videos with a very small chance of getting sniffed by the copyright bots (instrumentals, obscure indie bands). The value of uploading videos directly to FB is that you have the ability to tag other people. Maximizing viewership.
2. But then you used The Fray’s latest song or Celine Dion(?!) and afraid your account will get suspended by the powers that be. Don’t upload it then. Just make a NOTE. Why a note and not a link? Because you can’t tag friends in links! Only notes!
3. Just imagine if you tag 5 people in the Note (or Video), and they average around 100 friends each, your video’s viewership exponentially increases! Of course you don’t know everybody who attended the wedding, so make sure at least you remember your bride and groom. Tag them and kindly request your bride to tag people in the video. She’d be more than happy cause everybody who’s in Facebook loves being tagged.
4. Make as many friends as you can. Add even ones you don’t know (who invite you). These are all potential visitors to your site. If you’re the one inviting, I suggest having at least one mutual friend first so you don’t send out that stalker vibe. You can always click ignore in the news feed if you don’t want to know what they ate for lunch.
(Six out out my 2,538 friends are hot. The rest are videographers)
5. Make sure you ride the excitement of the wedding day. When the most number of people greet and write wall posts. Take advantage of the “wedding high”. Don’t wait to post until it’s waning. People who do SDEs and NDEs are at an advantage here.
6.. Use Analytics to track down the bump in your site visits and give yourself a pat in the back. You can Facebook some more or you can start editing videos. (Below are stats for my site from May 28-June 27).
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Oh, Bruno makes the cover of GQ this month.
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Good points, J !
I just signed up this morning for a Facebook ‘personal’ account for my company, WeddingClip Videography and then I read this article.
I have a Facebook page and it got over 10,000 fans already but never really had a proper way to update them with . Again, great tips! Thanks for sharing this!
All excellent tips Jason. Videographers need to stop thinking about referrals from each wedding and go after people who have never seen their work, even if they aren’t engaged. Building a fan base is much more important than building a referral base these days.
Hey Jason! Very helpful information. I am not sure there is time left for me to ever look as good as you but I am re-activating my GQ subscription today. LOL Thanks for the info!
Scott! I subscribe to the notion that the older a man gets, the more desirable he is to women. Think Mickey Rourke. NO NO NO, Let’s stick to Sean Connery =)
Thanks Kenny and Ian!
i love this jason, my only concern is trying to market (the client obviously knows what we are trying to do) and them saying okay to it. i just tried to let a bride know 20 mins ago that i can post her highlight on fb and she responded :
is it possible you can email it to me i want to foward it to some people and of courese also want to see , not to sure i want it on fbook
Hey Jason,
Created a note today and added a link to our blog. More people went to the site. Works like a charm. Thanks for the tips!
Congrats k* for making OO7’s Top 6 International babes. A Bond concept video? The wheels are spinning in my head.
- Loyd
Nice article, Jason.
The challenge with FB, as you pointed out, is that most videographers don’t get permission for the songs they use, which can limit which videos can be uploaded.
I do love how you pointed out that tagging increases “ownership”. You’ve reminded me to update my company page on FB and to include some new stuff.
-Shawn
seems like you cant make notes on our company “group” page, or am i missing something.
tried it last night on my personal page worked great, thanks JM
Thanks for checking the article out Shawn!
Loyd! You are more than welcome =)
Adam, don’t get disheartened. You’ll eventually encounter people who are private. Hope the following won’t be. Cheers!
sounds like some good ideas, I’m going to try the note thing. I can’t see where other people can tag people in a note, as you mentioned. I tag the bride in one, but I did a test run with my wife’s account and tagged her in a note, and she had no option to tag other people in the note, too.