This is true of any creative profession… videographers, photographers, web designers, graphic designers, copywriters, and so on…

Gotta love Dilbert. It is funny though how many people ask for SEO because they recognize the need for it, but don’t realize what it involves to implement and manage properly. That’s why this comic really speaks to us marketers on so many levels…

Hi all,

I just wanted to highlight some upcoming events that my company is sponsoring…

WordCamp
First is WordCamp SLC 2010, this Saturday at the University of Utah. Over 100 people have PAID, and many more will be there on Saturday! WordCamp is essentially a conference about the open source WordPress blogging platform for developers, enthusiasts, and marketing professionals (this site uses WordPress, and my companies’ other sites are in the process of being converted to WordPress). Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of WordPress will be the keynote speaker (and dozens of other speakers and presenters are attending from all over the country).

My marketing company, YEA-NAY, is one of the sponsors for the event, providing video production services to the organizers (the videos will be published on WordPress.tv). The conference is all about WordPress development, and we’re all very excited about it!

For more information on WordCamp, visit their site.

the Uber-Cool Video Workshop
This is the third workshop I’ve done, but this new workshop is a new and improved format that I think will get participants even better results in marketing. (yes, shameless self-promotion, absolutely!)

Visit this site for more information on the video marketing workshop.

You can also download/print our workshop flyer.

Grand Opening & Open House
YEA-NAY will be announcing some big expansions next week (which I will share here as well), but until then, I wanted to give everyone a heads up that we’re planning to offer an open house & grand opening ceremony at our new location in Salt Lake City. We currently have an office there, and the grand opening will be geared mostly toward the new studio we’ll be opening in that same building.

Visit this site for more information on the video studio.

What does Youtube want to be when it grows up?  I’m not sure, but looking at everything they’re doing, you can bet they’re not necessarily focusing on a single niche market, and when you’re big like that, you can afford not to!

Currently, Youtube provides a place for people to post their own videos, up to 15 minutes in length (they just upped it from 10 to 15 minutes yesterday), and up to 2 GB in file size.

But wait… there’s more!  Youtube also has some of the fastest servers to serve up this video content, they also provide the highest resolution available.  Just over a year ago their maximum allowed resolution was 720p.  About 6 months ago they upgraded to 1920×1080… and last month, Youtube shocked every ISP in the United States when they rolled out 4K.  Youtube also does livestreaming for certain events, but they may expand that service in the future.  They also have a partner program, allowing brands to customize their channel pages beyond the normal user customization features (look up almost any Fortune 500 consumer products brand, the White House, etc. and you’ll see what I’m talking about).  They have the most robust video advertising program online.  Youtube is going places… but what does the future hold?

Here’s my theory:  Youtube wants to be the platform where everything video-related happens.  They want news organizations publishing content here.  They want music videos, live sporting events, live concerts, television shows, and yes, even movies.  They want educational content.  They want to be TV online… forget Netflix, forget DVR, forget theaters: enter Youtube.  Just look at Google TV and Youtube Leanback.  TV is their goal–and not just one screen, they want to own every screen: mobile, PC, and TV– Youtube wants to own the concept of TV.  Why?  Um… it’s only the largest source of advertising revenue in the world, period.

What other reason would Google want direct fiber optics to the home?  Yeah yeah- they have their other services… but being able to deliver TV to the entire world with the overhead of servers and the people to run them is a big business.  Granted, they’ve only started to figure out the money side of things over the past year or so, but with Google behind them (Google earning most of it’s revenue through advertising), they can take that model beyond where any other internet video property can go.

Through Youtube, Google is building out another cash cow to keep them going on their mission.  Yes, Google owns search advertising, but in the world of advertising, search is a small part.  Despite what the bloggers around the world say, radio and television ad spending still dwarfs Google’s share of the search market.  Google understands this, but getting into the broadcast market is very cost-prohibitive.  They know this, but they also know that the internet will eclipse the airwaves eventually, and they want to be there when it does (and they’re doing everything they can to get it there faster, promoting faster internet, internet-capable televisions, etc.).

It will be interesting to see where things go, but that’s my prediction (I’m on a run with these predictions… but I know Google pretty well… I’m a fanboy, remember?).

References:

Just Google any of the above mentioned facts and you’ll find the information you need.

If you have registered your business on Google Maps before (business listings are now called Google Places), then you may have received an email today about a new initiative Google is launching, called Google Tags.

If you sign up by tomorrow, you can get one month of free promotions using Google Tags on your Google Places account.

From the looks of it, Google Tags adds some functionality to your Google Places profile and allows you to run promotions which appear as an additional graphic on Google Maps in search.  I have yet to use it personally.

These tags do NOT have any effect on your search rankings, so don’t think that (video still raises your rankings on Maps, however, more on that later).

Google Tags can be used for specific promotions, but they can also be used to simply promote certain features or aspects of a business which may stand out to someone who is searching.

As always with anything relating to search engine marketing, always do keyword research (and for this especially, local keyword research) to make sure you’re not throwing money away.

But for only $25 per month (flat fee!), this could be a great marketing tool if the market is there.  Remember, if you need any help setting up your campaign or doing research, Utah’s coolest marketing company is always available… (shameless plug for my company…).

Google launched Google Tags officially back in May 2010, but are now starting to promote it more heavily.  The bulk of Google’s revenue is generated by their advertising products, and they’ve been trying for the past ten years to find and build something else to generate revenue, because advertising revenue alone won’t be enough to sustain the tech giant.  This is still advertising, but it’s innovative and built on the back of another of their free products (Google Maps/Places).  That’s smart business.