Loveland Chamber Expo 2011 BOOST Video

This video was produced for the Loveland Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 Business Expo on October 27, 2011. It aired during lunch, and on occasion during the event.

I am honored that Jodi Inabnitt, President of the Chamber, asked me to create this video for the lunch. I had a total blast creating it and learning some new special effects in order to evoke feelings of fun and excitement to carry people through lunch and into the expo. Of course this video is not one person’s achievement; this video could not have been possible without the generous gifts of time given to me by everyone represented in this video, and I thank you all profusely!

I’d also like to thank Luke Hitchcock for creating such an inspirational logo for the event, and I look forward to working with you again for more phenomenal graphic design work.

If you market your business, you should be marketing with video. If you don’t think video can help grow your business, or you don’t know HOW video can help your business, then please call me for a free consultation and I can share with you several ways video can help BOOST your business!

If you need any of these services, I can personally, professionally, AND CONFIDENTLY recommend any of these people to give you top quality service!

Luke Hitchcock, Luke Hitchcock Design, 513-310-8124
Marsha Burton, Oasis Golf Club and Conference Center, 513-583-8383
Jesse Powell, Sam’s Club, 513-677-5020
Nancy Kaufman, Huntington Bank, 513-683-0970
Darian Gaines, Image Cleaning Systems, 513-583-8885
Jan Phillips, Evolving Design, 513-293-1090
Robert Zins, Julian’s Deli, 513-583-1725

I gave this 10 minute presentation to a networking group recently. It’s about how people do business with people they know like and trust; that trust is built through communication, and we communicate more through body language. Words attribute 7% of our communication, where body language accounts for 55%. That’s over half!

So guess what marketing tool communicates the best: VIDEO!!

Video captures not only body language, but eye contact as well, which is also critical to building trust. By involving as many of the senses as we can, and video involves them all, you increase the chances of your message being remembered–true communication. Studies show people retain 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, but 50% of what they read and hear. The power of video comes from not only capturing all those elements and involving all the senses, but video also adds the element of emotion. And when you engage your audience through emotion, then you are truly starting establish trust, which builds the relationship.

Please leave me a comment below about how you communicate. Have you found a greater response to your videos?

Increase the effectiveness of your LInkedIn profile by adding the power of video. Chances are you are on LinkedIn and realize the high value of this popular social network for making connections around the world. Beyond just the “find a job” function, LinkedIn is also valuable for finding and doing business. Unless you’ve been off the planet for the past couple of years, you also certainly understand the rising popularity of video, But did you know you can put video on your LinkedIn profile?

Now it is a little bit of work, as Grant Crowell from ReelSEO states in this article, and, unfortunately, it must be a video you have on Youtube; you can’t directly upload one from your computer, like WordPress does. I did have a little bit of trouble setting this up. For some reason the Google Presentations app wouldn’t install. LinkedIn kept saying I had too many apps installed and to remove one before installing another. However, after some deductive reasoning, I realized I had checked it to install on my LinkedIn Company Profile, and I haven’t set one up yet. Still, it was a very misleading error message. Uncheck to install that, and all is well.

But this is a means to get video on your profile. And the subsequent value is incalculable: establish yourself as an SMO by offering expert advice in your field; do a demo video on a tool or principle; record a State-of-the-Company address to inform about what’s new; promotional videos; and don’t forget about the ever powerful testimonial videos.

If you would like to explore what video could do for you, either on LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube or your website, contact me. I’d be glad to help.

Well, that time has finally come and gone…again. For the last two years, I’ve been on the Expo Committee for the chamber helping plan this event. As summer ends anticipation grows for the Loveland Business Expo at the end of October. Last year was a rousing success, and WAY so much fun, that there was great anticipation for this year.

Expectations Met?

Well, this year didn’t turn out exactly like we’d planned, but we count it as a success nonetheless. We ended up with a new client on Tuesday that wanted a video to play at the expo on Thursday. And to me, client-trumps-expo. Every time. (and they were ecstatic with the video, btw). But it did affect our preparations for the expo. We were not able to get to the expo until noon to set up (we did set up the greenscreen itself on Wednesday night). But the technology was another matter. While Don did a lot of troubleshooting, and we were finally ready to go about 2pm, I still made a point to talk to people and promote our community website AllAroundLoveland.com website. That is why there aren’t more pictures or video of the event. My thanks to Jim Sutter for snapping this one of us. You can see in the (huge!) tv that we were playing some promotional videos. My thanks, also, to Richard at Loveland Bed and Breakfast for letting us borrow that beautiful HD tv! (definitely check out his cabin for a luxurious getaway–and tell him I sent you!)

Greenscreen Effect

So we had a harried start, but a fantastic time. We demonstrated the greenscreen effect in video. The subject stands in front of a greenscreen and the software tells the computer “where you see green, replace it with this video”. A couple weeks ago I shot some footage of downtown Loveland and downtown Montgomery. As I was standing in front of the greenscreen, Don replaced the green behind me with the video I’d taken; so it looked like I was standing in downtown Loveland when I was in the booth. Several people thought we had a camera set up downtown and were doing it live.

It All Comes Down to Lighting

Now, things weren’t perfect. In using a greenscreen, lighting is extremely important, and the expo setting was not as amenable to that as we’d hoped. But we were able to achieve the effect and everyone was excited to see it. We only recorded a small bit of it but because the quality was so poor, I prefer not to publish it! I’ll do some sample recordings in the next few weeks to show it better.

It’s Always Worth It

Overall, while it wasn’t what I’d been envisioning for the past year, the actual goal was reached. I wanted to be noticed, for people to say, “I’ve been watching you all day and just have to ask, what ARE you doing?” which definitely happened. We also made several contacts for warm follow-up. If just 1 turns into an actual client, then the work was worth it.

We are already planning what to do for next year and, while it will be simpler than the past two years, it will be just as fascinating and fun.

On our way home from yet another fun dinner with friends, the conversation with my husband became reflective as we continued to discuss new media and new media friends. It dawned upon us that the group we had just dined with, we had met because of Twitter. Not necessarily directly ON Twitter, but at the very least because of it.

We’ve only been on Twitter a couple of years, but it has become an indispensable tool in our lives. Once a month, also for the last two years, we have been a part of New Media Cincinnati, started by Daniel Johnson Jr. It was at our first meeting that we heard about Twitter. [As a side note, my husband, being the geek that he is, had us signed up for Twitter before that meeting was over.] It took a couple of months to kinda get the hang of it; it was still about 6 months or so before I began to see it as a unique business tool; and now, it is essential.

The dinner I just mentioned was after the regular monthly New Media Cincinnati meeting. Six of us got together, ate, then sat around for at least another hour talking. We laughed so much, just sharing and enjoying each others’ lives. However, we are all also friends outside of a NMC context. We get together for dinner, or go shopping or to a movie. We’re not just “tech friends”. That’s where, for me the line is between acquaintance-friends and real friends. (To be clear, there are many others we know through NMC – and perhaps only see once a month – that we consider to be true friends. They just didn’t make dinner.)

But it was because of Twitter at that first meeting that we know these people. Some found us through NMC, through a friend that brought them to NMC, we met on Twitter and invited…all sorts of Twitter-related avenues. If not for Twitter, we all would not have met. But because of Twitter we did meet, and are now true, IRL, F2F friends. Our TFF’s. Even if you think Twitter is just a huge waste of time, you never know where true friendship may come from.

If you would like to find out more about the value of Twitter, don’t hesitate to comment.

Vickie – @editVDO
Don – @drscefiers

I recently had an experience at a networking event that set me off, just a little. So I decided to share it as a little networking tip from me to you as to why you might not be getting as many connections as you think you should…

Well, now that I’ve had some time (ok, almost 3 weeks), I’d like to share some of my reflections of the business expo I just participated in.

Short version: Awesome! You need to be a part of it next year. Great value; great exposure; great fun (at least to me).

Long version:
When I first heard the Loveland Area Chamber of Commerce was having a business expo, I immediately signed up. I was a little worried the price would be too high (they generally are at all expos. The “little guy” can barely ever participate.) But when I found out it was only $149, I was elated. I even joined the planning committee. That was a lot of fun, and gave me the opportunity to see how things run behind the scenes, and just how much work goes into pulling off one of these events. Plus getting to work with other people in the chamber, getting to know them and them to know me, was a golden opportunity.

Now, my plan for the booth (actually it was a double, corner booth) was a little more complicated than most. It was not going to be “just set up your information on a table and they will come” kind of thing. I wanted to teach people something. Give them some knowledge they need to know.

Well, that specific part of my plan didn’t work out quite so well, BUUUT, we did end up talking to people all day; to the point that I hardly got to sit down. I walked away with a small stack of cards, and of that, about 5 serious follow-ups. THAT was a successful event.

I have been in contact with these people, and a couple of the projects are coming to fruition. If 1 turns into a full-borne project (and it will), then it was worth the $$, time and effort.

So I’ll be posting the event soon for next year’s expo, so If you’d like me to put you on a mailing list so you receive that info, JLMK (just let me know).

~vick

Second Saturday is our favorite weekend every month. That is when we get together with other professionals and non-professionals that are all interested in social media. And when I say “interested in,” I mean interested in. Most are not doing it for an income; many are not even doing it as consultants; most are doing it because they just plain love it, at the core at least. And everyone’s specific interest is a little different: some like blogging; some like web design or programming; some are into photography; some are into marketing; some like video/audio production (that’s me!); some are looking for jobs; some do it as part of their jobs; some do it as their jobs; some as freelancers. There is a wide range of interests, age demographics, and knowledge levels but we all come together, once a month, to learn just a little more.

Sometimes there’s a presentation of sorts, sometimes there isn’t. But even when there’s not, there’s always sharing.  That’s the true story of social media here–different ages, knowledge, and interests–coming together. In what other way could this happen: a diverse group of people such as this come together and become friends? Or how could they have even met, save for social media?

We share our problems because chances are someone in the room has already been through that technical issue or that “wall” of some sort. And then we chat. Many people, at some point, actually first “met” online. Meeting online is a wonderful way to meet new people without having to get past the guards. You know, our own personal “what do I say; how do I look; do they like me” phase that we all go through when we first meet sometime. Chances are, when you’ve met someone online, you’ve met because you already found that common ground. Then when you finally get to meet in person, you’re truly meeting a friend. By then you may have already chatted about many different topics–family, careers, stress–whatever you click on. So now  when you meet, you can move past the small talk stage and move on with establishing the real friendship.