ONLINE PRESENCE: CREATING A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION AND BUILDING YOUR BRAND ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS BACKGROUND Online presence is vital in the digital age we live in. It is a direct reflection of yourself or your organization. Right now, CNC has a already begun to create their online presence. CNC participates in multiple social networks, blogs and has a website that is easy accessible. On the front page of their webpage they currently have a video that was made as a student project a few years ago. Joshua shared the video with us and expressed that he thought it would be a good idea for us to take on making a new video as one of our objectives. After evaluating their existing video and their goals, we found that this introductory video would play an important part in people’s first impression of the organization. Unfortunately their current video was not accurately representing CNC and their values. The video is long and the quality and tone do not match those of CNC as an organization. Within our meetings with Joshua, the information he handed over behind the Google Analytics we found our target audience had already started to traffic the CNC webpage. Within my secondary research, I began finding a lot of research about the impact of having a video. Forrester Research reports that video increases a web page’s likelihood for a front-page Google search result by 96 percent. This is huge. It is even more vital for CNC to have a video, and one that accurately represents CNC, because video usage online has increased by 85%. OBJECTIVE Concept and create detailed plan for a new CNC introductory video that is an accurate representation of CNC and appropriate for professional audience. EXECUTION Create a concept/script for an attention grabbing and professional quality video that reflects Competition Not Conflict’s mission, professional image and caliber of work that they do. STRATEGY Use a tone that speaks towards a professional level audience. Tactic 1 Use footage and examples that are outside of only the college level. Tactic 2 Use footage that shows strategy, intensity and commitment that goes into competitive sports. STRATEGY
Create a video that reflects Competition Not Conflict’s mission and accurately communicates CNC’s professional image and caliber of work they do. Tactic 1 Use high quality, HD video to make sure people get an accurate and positive first impression. Tactic 2 Feature Joshua for an explanation of what CNC is, the definition of healthy competition vs. unhealthy competition and the goal/mission of CNC. Tactic 3 Use clips and stills from NFL videos that talk about competition/conflict problems. ONLINE PRESENCE RECOMMENDATIONS Although Joshua did not ask us to take on social media specifically, as part of our recommendations we suggest strategic social media along with the release of the video online. This is very important to optimize and receive the greatest benefits from creating and having a video on your website. Kimberly C. Ramalho, the Global Communications Director for the Water & Process Technologies division of GE Power and Water, recently talked about SEO in an article for Forbes magazine. “SEO, SEO, SEO – embed the title of your release with
appropriate keywords that link back to your organization’s website;” she says, “this helps increase SEO for the release and – more importantly – your website,” she said in regards to news releases. The same concept can apply to anything you put out on any social network. A simple Tweet has the potential to serve as equal to an unintentional news release. Step one is the creation of the video, which Joshua has made clear to us that this is wanted and needed, but step two is getting people to see it. There is already some traffic coming to the website, but CNC has the potential to gain much more with strategic social media for SEO. We recommend not only following these organizations, but retweeting and at [@] mentioning them. A retweet is powerful because it gets an organizations attention when a simple follow can go unnoticed. Multiple retweets will really get the attention of an organization and also make it more likely for organizations to retweet CNC in return. Using@ mentions is a great way of starting a conversation and relationship with these organizations.
Creating and placing the video on the CNC website and using these strategic tactics within CNC’s social networks will increase the likelihood that other organizations will Tweet and share links to CNC’s website or video or retweets. This is very important while establishing these new relationships amongst professional organizations. According
to According to The Social News Room, “earned media on a website generates more value than just the initial placement: Video content placed by companies and public relations agencies on a website has an increasing chance of being syndicated to other websites.” According to Meritus Media, “The social element of online video is strong in the executive suite: More than half of senior executives share videos with colleagues at least weekly, and receive work-related videos as often.” Here are some potential strategies and tactics for these recommendations. STRATEGY Strategically use social media to spread the video online, draw in and connect with with professional sports organizations. Tactic Begin following national, professional sports organizations, teams and other university sports programs on Twitter. Tactic Retweet and @ mention these organizations to initiate conversation, begin a relationship and gain their following in return. Tactic Link to national and professional sport organizations. Tactic Tag key words within blog posts for search engine optimization and generate traffic to blog and website.
SOURCES Ramalho, Kimberly C. “The (Still) Relevant Press Release,” Communication For the Corner Office, Forbes Magazine. 31 March 2011.http://blogs.forbes.com/kimberlyramalho/2011/03/31/the-still-relevant-pressrelease/>. SEO for news releases. Linking to website increases traffic. “Online Video Use On Media Sites Jumps to 85%” The Social News Room.2 May 2011. http://www.press-feed.com/blog/?p=289 Online video use on media sites and news stories jumps to 85%. Earned media online [links or mentions from third party sources] are more valuable than initial placement. Video placed by companies and public relations agencies on a website has an increasing chance of being syndicated by other websites. Online Corporate Video Making Inroads as a Marketing Tool” Meritus Media. 28 May 2011. http://falkowinc.com/online-corporate-video.html Using video on your website increases the likelihood of being shared by corporate executives. Video increases a web page’s likelihood for a front-page Google search result by 96 percent. This is huge.