Podcasters and Bloggers: are you promoting your content with videos? 

It’s an excellent way to get more visibility for your podcasts and articles. This is a tactic I’ve used on and off for a few years. It’s ideal for podcasts since you already have an audio file. And, for articles, you can record a short summary to use for a video.

Podcast to Audiogram

1. Edit a short clip (3-6 minutes) of audio from your podcast episode. As you see in the example below by Melanie Benson, the audiogram is created by joining an image with an audio file, waveform, and transcription to create a video. (source: Podcast Insights)

2. Using Canva or your design tool of choice, create an image in 3 sizes (to use on various social media platforms): landscape (1280 x 720), vertical (1080 x 1920), and square (1200 x 1200) with the podcast title, name of the episode and your name or guest’s name and URL for where the listener can find the full episode (probably on your website).

3. Go to Headliner and create a video with your audio file and image. For the most flexibility, use the landscape version so it will work best on YouTube and IGTV. For IGTV you will also need the vertical image to use for the cover photo.

4. Upload the video on social media with a call to action to go listen to the episode at your preferred location.

Article to Audiogram

Here’s a video I created by reading a summary for one of our articles on the IF Insider:

1. In Canva (free and fee), create an image you can use as a template for future YouTube (1280 x 720) video thumbnails.

2. Using Audacity (free), record a short summary of the article.

3. Create an audiogram on Headliner (free and fee).

4. Upload the video to YouTube.

What else can you do with the audiograms?

1. Post the audiogram video file (mp4) on Facebook and LinkedIn as a native upload (not the link from YouTube). If the video is under 4 minutes you can also post it to Twitter.

2. Create a verticle cover image for IGTV and post the audiogram video there and share it on your Instagram profile and feed.

3. Transcribe the audio with Rev, or Otter so you have a transcript you can post with the video on Medium and LinkedIn if it makes sense for the content.

4. Post the video and transcript on your blog. 

Remember, an audiogram is a video and videos get more visibility and better engagement on social platforms.

Are you willing to try this repurposing and content distribution system? If so, post a link in the comments to the audiogram and I’ll share it with my community!

There you have it! One piece of content (podcast episode or article) repurposed into an audiogram and shared in many formats to attract the most attention and drive more traffic to your desired online destination. 😊

If you’re struggling with the why, how, and what content to create so you get found in search results by your ideal clients, let’s talk. You can book a one-time, affordable Ask Denise Anything consult and we’ll discuss the system you can put into place for creating content your audience wants.

Questions and feedback welcome in the comments, too.

Blog Post Photo by John Bowe on Unsplash

The post How to Promote Your Content with Audiograms + Checklist appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

If you’re starting to read the “what’s going to be hot in 2020 for digital marketing” articles, you’ll see videos have a prominent place. It makes me laugh because “video” has been touted as the next hot thing for over a decade.

Now, though it is mainstream, I’d say. Every social media platform accommodates video now. The stats prove that consumers watch and want more video content. This means if you’re not creating videos for social media, for your blog posts and for your marketing, then you’re missing out on a lot of business.

Last week on the Ask Me Anything Community Connect Call, the first question asked of me was “what software or apps should I use for creating videos?”

At that moment, I was using two video tools: Facebook Live and the BeLive video app that enhances your Facebook Livestream events.

The question got me thinking though about all the video creation software and apps that I’ve used since I made my first (terrible) video in 2005.

Then I dug in to review what video apps I’m using today, on the cusp of 2020. Some I use more than others. Some are new to me. Some are similar so it’s up to you to experiment and find the tools that are right for you.

Here’s the list of tools I use for creating videos:

I’m not a videographer so I use my smartphone or webcam for “shooting” videos. I’ve been using the Logitech webcam for years and still recommend it. There’s a newer model than the one I have, but it’s still working just fine since I bought it in 2012.

“…in addition to adding videos to your social networks and on your site, live videos on Facebook Live and Instagram Live get watched 3x longer than videos that aren’t live. It’s time to take streaming and live video ads seriously in 2020.” Source

As I mentioned above, I’ve started using BeLive for my FB Live videos. I had wanted to use if for a couple of years but balked at getting locked into another monthly payment. You can easily schedule your live streams and your audience can get reminders when you go live. You can add lower thirds and crawling text along the bottom of your video, and you can pin comments and questions from your viewers to the video. It’s a better experience for both you and your audience.

Zoom is my go-to online video conferencing tool. I use it almost every day for client appointments, webinars and training, and meetings. You can record interviews or your own talking head videos. Recordings are automatically saved to my laptop and include an mp3 file along with the mp4 and any text posted in the chatbox during the recording.

Loom and Dubb are two tools I use to record personal videos that I send via email. I also use them to shoot screen capture videos for quick, short tutorials. Loom has a free and a pro plan. Dubb is like Loom on steroids. You can embed URLs as part of a call to action and customize your video landing pages. I’m using it now more than Loom because of it’s enhanced features.

One of my favorite ways to create quick videos is to convert blog posts to videos – like a blog trailer that I use to promote my blog posts. A couple of years ago I jumped on Lumen5 an A.I. powered video creation platform that turns blog posts into engaging videos. It was a bit clunky and the videos need some editing, but it was so cool to be able to cut my time and energy and easily create promo videos. They still have a free version but it is very limited.

I have recently purchased InVideo which is a more robust alternative to Lumen5. You can import an article and quickly create a video. They have thousands of templates you can start with for creating videos for social media.

Another similar video tool is Wave.video which I’ve experimented with as well. It’s similar to InVideo though it doesn’t have the feature for creating a video for from a blog post, article or script. They do also have lots of cool templates.

Finally, the last tool I use for creating videos out of audio files is Headliner. This is a great tool for podcasters. Though I use it to create promo clips from my Community Connect calls to post on social media. Podcasters use it to create videos from clips of their podcasts to promote their podcasts.

Upload a short audio clip, upload an image and click a button to render the video. I use the short videos on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram IGTV. With a call to action to go to the full episode, you’ve created a compelling teaser for your content. I use the free version, and there’s a pro version as well.

There you have it. These are the video tools and apps I’m using right now in 2019 and will continue to use in 2020 until something new and shinier is launched! 🤣

As with any tool you invest in for your business, make sure you know what you want to do with it and make your decision based on the business goals you want to accomplish. Read the reviews, experiment with the tool and make sure it works for you and that you will use it! That’s the most important thing…taking action to use what you have to get the word out about how you serve your audience. Videos make a big impact so figure out what you WILL do, decide on the right tool(s) for you and then take action!

If you have questions and would like to discuss the right path to take for your business, book an Ask Me Anything call and we’ll get things figured out.

In the meantime, in the comments below, let me know what types of videos you’re doing for your business and tell me about your favorite video tool.

P.S. I wrote up a checklist for how I repurpose the Community Connect videos that I shared with members of the Marketing Trailblazers. If you’d like me to send you a copy too, post a comment with “Send Me the Checklist for Community Connect Teaser Video”. I’ll get it to you within 24 hours.

Article updated on January 8, 2020.

The post 9 Video Apps and Tools I Use And Recommend appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

“This is the year of video!” Have many years have we heard that proclamation? I created my first online videos in 2005. They were terrible. And, I just kept at it. I won’t say my videos are great now, and for many purposes, that’s OK since the range of video options has grown to the point that video can be created from easily in the moment to being professionally produced.

Recently my good friend and colleague Lou Bortone asked if he could interview me for his series, Women Who Rock, to discuss how successful women business owners use online video in their businesses.

The interview is just a tad over 9 minutes and I’ve posted the lightly edited transcript below if you prefer to read instead of watch video.

Below the transcript, I’ve linked to the tools mentioned in the interview plus a few more that I frequently use.  If you want to skip to the resources scroll down to the links or click here.

= TRANSCRIPT =

Lou Bortone: Hey, it’s Lou Bortone, and welcome back to our Women Who Rock Series and one of my favorite women of all time and longtime friends and colleagues is Denise Wakeman. Hi, Denise.

Denise Wakeman: Hey you, Lou. I’m happy to be here with you. Love the topic.

Lou Bortone: Hey. I know. We go all the way back to The Blog Squad days, I guess.

Denise Wakeman: Yeah, it’s been a long time.

Lou Bortone: Yeah. I just saw you on … Facebook always shows those memories and stuff like that. I just saw a picture of you and me and Felicia at Adam Urbanski’s event from nine or 10 years ago.

Denise Wakeman: Wow. I think that’s the first time we met in person, even.

Lou Bortone: Yeah. Yeah.

Denise Wakeman: Because you were close enough to LA that it was like, “Oh, I’m going to meet you.”

Lou Bortone: Yeah. So that was fun, Facebook reminding me like, oh, my God, I’m 10 years old, how did that happen? But … So I know you’ve been off on some incredible adventures. Good to see you again. What I’m doing with this series of videos is really just talking to folks briefly about how they use video in their business, if they have a favorite platform, and I know you were an early adopter and one of the really first people to use and talk about videos, so tell us a bit about that.

Denise Wakeman: Well, oh, gosh. I think it was back in 2005, I was working with Tom Antion. He was my mentor in The Blog Squad days, and he was talking about video and that we needed to get started doing video, and so my partner at the time, she and I started doing video. And I think, actually, I need to go back to my YouTube channel, that first video might be there, and it was horrible. It was horrible, but it sort of got things rolling in the whole idea of there has to be at least some content on video. And in 2005, it was a lot harder to do video, or not harder, but it was just more complicated, especially if you’re not a videographer and you don’t have experience in film and television like you do. I mean, I don’t know, I just point-and-shoot.

Lou Bortone: And the files were enormous and ridiculously big, and …

Denise Wakeman: Yeah. And remember the flip camera?

Lou Bortone: Oh, yeah, I still have one somewhere around here.

Denise Wakeman: I do, too, somewhere also. I think I have like three different versions of the flip camera, and then the next one was a [inaudible 00:02:44]. I can’t remember what it was.

Lou Bortone: Oh, like Kodak Zi8 or something like that.

Denise Wakeman: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s it, that’s it. And so I so I think I have one of those around, and, I mean, I don’t even know where they are, but now, it’s our phones. That’s the camera I use for everything, for video, and … well, I also use a webcam when I’m on the web like this. So, I would say that since 2005, I haven’t been totally consistent with creating videos, but I’ve always used video in some way, shape or form, and there are so many more options now that it makes it much easier. You don’t have to be a talented videographer to put something decent out.

Lou Bortone: Yeah, and it’s funny because I’m already seeing things like 2019 is the year of video. I’m like, “Yeah, you’re about 10 years too late,” but that’s okay. So what would you say to folks who are starting out and they’re like, “Oh, my gosh, I should have started so long ago,” and …

Denise Wakeman: Hey, there’s no time like the present, right? There is that Chinese proverb, when’s the best time to plant a tree?

Lou Bortone: Right.

Denise Wakeman: 20 years ago. What’s the second-best time to plant a tree? Today.

Lou Bortone: Right.

Denise Wakeman: So it doesn’t matter what happened 20 years ago or that some people have been doing it for 20 years or more, you just start now.

Lou Bortone: Yeah.

Denise Wakeman: And we all started at zero. We all started at not knowing anything. And now, the learning curve is so much shorter.

Lou Bortone: Yeah, it’s kind of point-and-shoot at this point.

Denise Wakeman: Exactly.

Lou Bortone: So do you have a preferred platform? I mean, do you like Facebook Live, recorded videos or?

Denise Wakeman: Well, I like doing live video. I’m not that crazy about Facebook Live, and maybe it’s because I haven’t implemented all the third-party tools because I’m just tired of paying for third-party tools.

Lou Bortone: Yeah, I hate all that stuff.

Denise Wakeman: But I like using live video for more intimate reasons, processes or programs. So something like this, doing interviews, doing consulting … I use Zoom all the time for one-on-one consults, for my group programs, mastermind groups, tutorials, that sort of thing. So I really love the idea of being live on video with people versus Facebook Live where it’s just me talking and hoping that people show up and type something into the comments. I don’t really like that aspect that much of Facebook Live. So as for a platform, probably I do more recorded, and then the live is for more intimate video.

Lou Bortone: Yeah. I know, and there’s no right or wrong answer to that, really, it’s just personal.

Denise Wakeman: Yeah.

Lou Bortone: Me, I’m a little more of a control freak, and if I’m doing Facebook Live, I mean, I do it, but if I see like, oh, my God, and old girlfriend from high school’s watching, I get a little freaked out thinking what if more of them tunes-in, really. So, no, I don’t want her to watch. So. But yeah, I mean, but there’s, I mean, it really is personal preference, I think. It’s really there’s no wrong or right way, whatever way you can get your message out and you feel like it resonates, so.

Denise Wakeman: Yeah. Yeah. And I really like a lot of the tools now that are available to create videos, so it doesn’t always have to be me. I know you’re really great about showing people what’s new … in that arena, but I like creating these videos that are based on the AI of pulling in your blog post and creating beautiful … I like doing blog post trailers,

Lou Bortone: So you do like Lumen5 videos and things like that?

Denise Wakeman: Yeah. Lumen5. I also really like Headliner. Headliner to take an audio file and then make a video out of that by uploading a video, or an image, or a series of images.

Lou Bortone: Yeah.

Denise Wakeman: That’s pretty easy and it gives a different kind of feeling to the video than even a Lumen5, like a blog post trailer, or something like that. So I like that and I really love that that these tools now allow you to create your video in various formats.

Lou Bortone: Right. Yeah.

Denise Wakeman: You’re not just stuck with landscape anymore, you can do square videos, you can … and sometimes it’s just the tweak of a button and it just reformats it.

Lou Bortone: Yeah.

Denise Wakeman: It’s like, ah, this is fantastic.

Lou Bortone: Yeah. And in the old days, oh, I got to edit that, and I’ve got to change the aspect ratio, and all that stuff.

Denise Wakeman: Yeah, then it looked like crap for me.

Lou Bortone: Oh, that’s definitely gotten easier. Tell us what types of things you’re working on and what you’re looking forward to in the new year? That kind of thing, and the last thing, where people can find you.

Denise Wakeman: I am continuing my focus into the new year on building my Marketing Trailblazers community, which is a community for online business owners who want to have a safe place to talk about marketing, answer questions, get feedback. It’s a little bit of teaching, but it’s mostly conversations about how we can help each other make sense of all these things and the changes that are always happening, that’s been a big topic of conversation in the community now. So I’m really focusing on building that because the community really is about the sum-of-its-parts.

Lou Bortone: Right.

Denise Wakeman: And so, that’s going to be my primary focus for the new year, but also I do a lot of mentoring and consulting and helping people with their social media marketing, too, which I love also. So where else can you find me? @DeniseWakeman, everywhere, and denisewakeman.com for my website and blog posts.

Lou Bortone: Awesome. Well, thanks again for talking with us, and we’ll catch up with you soon.

Denise Wakeman: Okay. Thanks, Lou.

= END TRANSCRIPT =

Links to Resources and Recommended Reading for Online Video Marketing

Blog Posts and Book

How to Win More Attention with this Awesome Video Checklist

How to Promote Your Blog Post with a Simple Video Trailer

Are You Afraid of Doing Live Video?

The Video Godfather’s Top 10 Proven Video Marketing Tips – guest post by Lou Bortone

Video Marketing Rules: How to Win in a World Gone Video! by Lou Bortone

Video Tools

The list below are the online video tools I use, have used (I experiment a lot!), and recommend. Some are free. Some have free trials, then you have pay if want to keep using it and want more features. I always advise that you start with a free trial and test the tool before committing any money to it. If you love, buy it. 

Dubb  – similar to Loom. Use it to create videos you can send via email. Great for video emails and tutorials. More robust features than Loom, with a call to action feature you can add to your video.

Loom – similar to Dubb, but without as many features. Good for video email, tutorials. 

Lumen5 – Love this tool. Use it to create videos from your blog posts. It uses AI to create videos from your text and images. You can edit with your own images and also tweak the text. Great for starting a draft video that you can then refine, add music and call to action. I use it to create videos to promote new blog posts and programs.

Headliner – Use this tool to create a video from an audio file. Very cool way to promote podcast episodes.

Zoom – I use Zoom nearly every day for one on one consults, group mastermind meetings and webinars.

Rev – transcription service for transcribing videos (like you read above).

There are many, many other video tools that do similar things. The trick when you find one is to try it. If you like it, keep using it. If you don’t like it, move on and experiment with another one.

If you have questions about why or how to create online videos for your business, post them in the comments below. If you’re looking for support and guidance with your online marketing, including video marketing, take a look at the Marketing Trailblazers Community and join us!

The post Women Who Rock – Using Online Video in Business appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

It’s not “fake news.” The stats don’t lie.

Video marketing isn’t going away. It is the most effective way to market your business… today and into the foreseeable future.

*Consider this:

• Video on social media generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
• 4X as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.
• 52% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.

There are many more stats to support the fact that using visual content to tell your stories gets better results than almost any other media. It makes sense then, that the ultimate form of visual media is video. 

That’s why I’m giving away 7 copies of Lou Bortone’s book, Video Marketing Rules: How to Win in a World Gone Video.

In addition to the images and other visual content you’re using to market your business, I want you to have the best resources for getting started with video or up-leveling your current video marketing game plan. To help you out, I’m including a 30-minute visual marketing strategy session for each winner. ($150 value)

Click here to enter the giveaway! 

Ends on April 30, 2018, at 9 pm PT.  Seven winners announced on May 1. Good luck!

Recommended Reading

The Video Godfather’s Top 10 Proven Video Marketing Tips

*Stats provided by Lou Bortone (Source: LiveStream.com/blog)

The post Video Marketing Rules! Enter Giveaway to Win 1 of 7 Books appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.

Have you ever published a blog post or status update, or video and then realized it was terrible? Maybe not the content, but the format or presentation of the content? What do you do? How do you handle it?

In the case of live video, on Facebook, for example, you may not know the video sucked until after the fact. Like the video below.  I’m sharing with you to share a lesson and a point. Under normal circumstances, I would never put this video on my blog.

But when I realized that I wouldn’t normally share it, I also realized you may have experienced this too and that I could share some ways to “turn a lemon into lemonade” — to paraphrase a bit.

You’ll see that the quality of the video is terrible. And, the audio is fine. There are a lot of challenges with creating live streaming video and this happens to be mine. 

[ssp-video]

I was so excited when I learned that Facebook had enabled live streaming from desktop vs. a mobile device. Using a webcam is more stable and easier for me. The problem is that live streaming eats up a lot of resources and I’ve discovered I don’t seem to have fast enough upload speed. Or, I had too many programs running in the background, or who knows what. The video sucks.

The problem is that I don’t see that the video is terrible until after I end the live stream and the playback is ready on the Facebook page. 

From terrible video to repurposed content

As mentioned in this post, I have a system in place to repurpose my videos, if I choose to. To quickly recap, this is what automatically happens after I finish recording on Facebook:

1. The video is uploaded to an unlisted playlist on YouTube so I can review it, edit the description, or decide to delete it
2. The video is saved on my blog as a draft post (as in this case using it in this post)
3. The video is saved to folder on Dropbox
4. The audio is stripped from the video and the mp3 file is saved to a folder on Dropbox

In the case of the above, the video on YouTube will not be published. However, all is not lost. The audio is good and I have some options for using it in other ways.

• Get the audio transcribed on Rev.com 
• Use the transcript as the basis for another blog post
• Post the audio on Soundcloud
• Create a video using images and add the audio soundtrack
• Post the new video on YouTube
• Post the new video on Slideshare
• Share the new video on social networks

Sadly, none of this repurposed content solves the “crappy video” problem. More experimentation is required to discover how to get the best quality video based on my circumstances (I don’t have a lot of choices when it comes to ISPs). I may end up having to use my smartphone instead of my laptop if that’s going to give you, the viewer a better experience. We shall see.

The Takeaway

I hope you get from this that there are so many options for your content. Embracing experimentation opens up your opportunities. When you look beyond what you may perceive as a failure or less than perfect result, you may see alternatives or new ways to get your ideas, message, and content out to the world. 

Embracing experimentation opens up your opportunities. Click to Tweet

My live video sucked. I could have trashed it and moved on. 

Instead, knowing the options, I adapted so I could get a new message out. 

Here’s my call to action to you: look at the sucky content you’ve created and discarded. 

Is there a new way you could use it?

Can it be repurposed to another format?

Is there a lesson learned that you can share?

Your time is precious. If you’ve spent time creating a live video and it didn’t turn out the way you planned, spend a few minutes thinking about how you can adapt it so you don’t feel like you wasted your time. Experiment with a new way to get the same message out. At the very least, get the video transcribed so you can create a blog post or series of tips from your message.

I’m curious, what do you do when you create a video that doesn’t meet your standards? Please share your tips in the comments!

The post What Do You Do When Your Live Video Sucks? appeared first on Adventures in Visibility.