The Weekly Walk: Are You Wagging at Me?

Chicago Dog Walkers Reader

Article of the Week: Tails are for More than Sweeping

A study suggests that a dog wagging its tail can indicate to other dogs if it’s friendly or not. NPR, Slate, The Washington Post, and other publications recently ran articles about the study. Dogs were shown videos of dogs wagging their tails to the left or the right. When the pooches saw another canine swinging its tail to the right side, they were more relaxed and their heart rates remained about the same. However, when the pooches saw another canine swinging its tails to the left, they became anxious, which you can see on the video the in The Washington Post article. Researchers hope these studies will give humans a better idea of how to calm dogs at the vet or in other high-stress situations.

Joke of the Week

Q: Why do dogs wag their tails?

A:…

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When Does A Business Go Beyond The ‘Start Up’ Title?

As Chicago Pet Video is now entering the end of year two in business, I’m starting to think about how to classify ourselves. We’ve seen significant growth in the level of clientele we serve and larger business accounts, as well as more complex, and ultimately more rewarding work. However, I often still use the term ‘start up’ business when referring to our company.

What exactly does the term ‘start up’ mean, really? I use it to explain the fact that 2 of my employees still sit at a large table in lieu of us purchasing them desks – after all, we can’t spend all this money on fancy furniture, I need to make sure the business stays profitable. Also, I use it explain away the fact that pets run rampant in the office and it’s okay, it’s usually extras we’re using on a shoot, and a part of our culture. And I use the term ‘start up’ as it kind of just sounds cooler somehow, like I turned my back on corporate America and chose this as a way of life.

But this all begs the question, how much longer can we continue to call our business a start-up? Is it a certain sales point? A certain number of clients? Number of employees? When we get the fancy coffee in the kitchen instead of the cheap stuff?

I’d like to think that we can consider being a start up as a state of mind – staying lean, focusing on the basics – which is producing great work and keeping our clients happy. As we outgrow this new phase and enter our adolescence, I want to keep those values strong and continue to push boundaries with our creative video campaigns and technology – Total Pet Expo TV was a success we’re super proud of! We really want to be the premiere video production company that specializes in working with animals and animal-related businesses which means we may have to start accepting some responsibility which comes with being a company that sticks around past the start up phase, like offering health insurance, increasing educational opportunities, and allowing ourselves to take a vacation periodically. I feel blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful and talented people that help ensure our high quality work every day, now it’s time to relinquish control, at least a little, so I can start to focus on continuing our growth and future success.

-Andrea Fischetti, Managing Director of Chicago Pet Video

Have a question? email us at info@chicagopetvideo.com

How To Do Facebook Hashtags

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Hashtags have been on Facebook for a few months now so it is important to understand the RIGHT way to use them. But, before you can use them you should know how they work.

Hashtags are created when you type a word or phrase (without spaces) after a pound sign (#). The pound sign is referred to as a hashtag when used online through social media. By adding a # to a word or phrase you are making it a searchable link. Then readers can click the link and see who else is talking about a specific topic.

The purpose of hashtags is to make posts more visible. A person searching under that hashtag topic is able to see all the posts, including those they have not yet “liked.” Therefore your company’s page can be more visible to new customers, always a perk!

Our Top 3 Tips:

1. DON’T Over Use

When hashtags are used too often in a post, it makes them harder to read and they can get over looked. Also, avoid using hashtags more than 1-2 times per post.

2. Privacy Settings

Privacy settings are still in effect with hashtags so if you use a hashtag on a post that can only be seen by a specific group, then only that group will see it, even when it is being searched.

3. Promotion

Facebook hashtags can be used to promote your brand, product, event, contest, or special discount offer. Creating a hashtag can help your promotion catch on more quickly with consumers.

Be careful if you are running a contest to only promote the contest through Facebook’s approved contest rules. For example, it is okay to spread information and awareness about the contest through a hashtag such as, #WinAChewToy. However, it’s against the rules to allow contest entries through that same hashtag.

Some Examples:

Friskies

• Friskies is using the hashtag #CatJobs and having customers post photos of the work their cats do around the home. It’s a way to build engagement with their followers and the cat community.

Earth Rated PoopBags

• Earth Rated Poop Bags uses #earthrated and #poopbags to reach potential new customers searching for the brand.

Pup-Peroni

• Pup-Peroni has a wonderful and very easy hashtag of #pup to reach both those searching for the company and as a nice alternative to #dog, which comes up with a massive number of results.

To see more examples of hashtags on Facebook, we invite you to visit our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/chicagopetvideo

Do’s & Dont’s of Making Sales through Social Media

Think of social media outlets as online focus group just waiting to be tapped for ideas. The more value you provide the more likely they’ll be willing to participate and contribute. The average visit in an online B2B community is 10 minutes with 1 visit every 5-7 days. Finding these online platforms gives companies an opportunity to strategically connect with potential customers in a meaningful and deeper interaction.

Join An Online Community

• DO establish an authentic persona for yourself, which is ultimately going to represent your brand.

• DO nurture the community, provide valuable insights, stay on top of current trends in order to create critical mass and active contributions among members.

• DON’T bombard the communities with posts asking them to visit your site and purchase your products. In other words don’t just drop your sales pitch in as a post for the day.

• DON’T repeat posts. Don’t post the same word-for-word update across all 5 of your social media channels. Don’t send the same tweet out every day at 11am. Switch this up, create that authentic and transparent voice behind your brand.

Find the Best Place to Connect with Prospects

• DO the necessary research to find out where your audience is and where they are having conversations.

• DO spend time on blogs and comment sections, you’ll be surprised at how many people are already talking about you or what you do.

• DON’T spend a majority of your time on Facebook if you’re trying to get the attention of C-Level executives.

• DON’T waste time on platforms that aren’t relative to your audience. If there’s no engaging conversation happening it may be best to leave that platform behind.

Get the Most Out of LinkedIn

• DO research into the different groups. Many of these groups are extremely niche and often relate directly to your product or service. LinkedIN is great for B2B sales.

• DO provide valuable information and answers to members that are asking questions, become an expert in your industry.

• DON’T post incessantly to the point where you’re going to get yourself bashed by other members or even banned from the groups.

• DON’T use the generic LinkedIn message when connecting with someone. Put some thought into why you believe a connection to that person would be valuable for both of you.

Build the Relationship

• DO spend time developing relationships. Good relationships will turn into leads!

• DO share content that resonates well with your audience. The more they can identify with your posts the more loyal they’ll become to you, so much so that they’ll share with others extending the reach of your relationships.

• DON’T ask a lot from your fans. Be mindful of their space and news feeds. Too much begging and asking could cause them to leave you.

• DON’T stay silent if a mistake is made. We’ve all seen them happen, when a company Twitter account gets “hacked” or a thoughtless post gets posted at the wrong time. The worst thing you could do is stay silent during a case like this. Fess up, own up to your mistake and don’t lie to you followers. Don’t underestimate the power of a sincere apology and when possible, make light of the situation.

As a consumer, what are some of your biggest pet peeves that you see brands do?

Video Marketing For Your Pet Business

Online video has become a first stop for many customers. Early adopters of video have gained an edge over their competitors and a direct channel to speak with their customers that used to only be accessible to larger companies who could afford expensive TV ad placements. The combination of imagery and sound, when done well is an invaluable and powerful communication tool for brands and their products and services. Even more so when you can add an emotional attachment to it. Here are four main ideas you should focus on when creating video.

Delivery of Core Marketing Message:

A large majority of videos have served as an avenue for product demonstrations however they can be used for much more that. Many companies have gotten extremely creative when using video for important company announcements and updates or as a way to distribute their core marketing messages. This is a prime example of a company who made an announcement that was simply just a merging of themselves with another company – although their main focus was not to entertain, there is a personal touch that many viewers may appreciate.

Entertain Your Viewers:

Rather than producing multiple marketing videos for products, why not create something that your viewers will enjoy and feel obliged to share – because it’s just that dang funny and entertaining? Nowadays people’s attention spans are shorter than ever. Twitter’s new video sharing app, Vine offers a perfect opportunity to create videos that are meant to be viewed quickly with the hopes of increasing shares. Check out General Electric. For somewhat of an ‘unsexy’ and boring brand, they are really hitting the spot when it comes to creating shareable content. This post in particular was liked by 46k+ people and ‘revined’ (shared) 37k+ times on the Vine App.

A Destination for Viewers:

Try making your videos a destination for something. Whether it’s sharing a new recipe or offering them a sales tips of the week. Give your listeners a reason to tune into you at the same time every week. Don’t just pitch your product, make it a goal of yours to establish a people-friendly channel that is full of information and solutions to meet a need of theirs.

Simplify Your Ideas:

About 65% of people are visual learners. Companies need to realize that many people learn  by seeing something rather than listening or reading. When informational and interesting facts are paired with beautiful and intriguing design, such as video, people are much more likely to understand and pass it along to others. Creating a video can help simplify a concept while making it much more relatable to the consumer.

Have you experimented with video for your company’s products or services? What has been your experience? Pros & Cons?

Pet Industry Tips for Trade Shows

Pet Industry Trade Show questions answered by pet business expert, Andy Darmohraj, Senior VP of American Pet Products Association. Global Pet Expo is the largest pet product trade show in the world with over 1,000 companies coming together for 3 days.

He leaves us 3 main pieces of advice:

1. Plan ahead! With trade shows giving you such a limited amount of time, planning ahead is crucial to your success. Check out the trade expo’s website, find exhibitors you’re interested in meeting with and set up appointments during your time there.

2. Prepare for a long day.

3. Have fun, there’s a reason you got into the business you’re in. Network, network, network!

Prior to attending let buyers know that you’re going to be there whether that’s through direct mail, advertising or sending out a brief email blast. Include a small teaser or something that will encourage them to visit your booth! Trade shows are one of the best places to find the newest most innovative products out there. Make sure you make your time worthwhile and establish connections that will continue to add to your success.

CPV meets Bryan Bickell, Founder of Chicago Loves Pits

What an honor to sit down with Bryan Bickell, one of the Blackhawks most highlighted players during the Stanley Cup playoffs for an interview with Chicago Pet Video. Despite being wrapped up in this heated series of games, registering eight goals and five assists for 13 points in 17 of the playoff games, the 27-year-old and his fiancee were happy to talk about their charity group Chicago Loves Pits and the so-called “bully breed” dogs. The video (to come) is part of a series of videos that we’re putting together on different popular dog breeds, this one specifically focusing on the pit bull breed, one that’s especially close to Bickell’s heart. The video will be available on PetMD’s website along with a second video with our very special interview with the two.

Founded by Bickell, his fiancee Amanda Caskenette and animal advocated Alicia Boemi, Chicago Loves Pits is dedicated to promoting awareness, starting conversations, sharing the truth, and opening minds and hearts to encourage rescue and adoption of Pit Bull type dogs. With the help of Adopt-a-Pet.com, Chicago Loves Pits was an idea that turned into a reality. In 2012 Chicago Loves Pits launched its first campaign featuring two billboards located in prominent areas of Chicago that bore the headline: Bryan Bickell is the only fighter in this family. From there, Chicago Loves Pits has grown into a registered non-profit organization.

Thank you to Bryan and his fiancee, Amanda for taking the time out of one of your busiest weeks of the year to show your dedication and passion for such an important four-legged friend of yours.

Video for SEO and Why it Works

Optimizing your videos to reach your intended audience and match what people are searching is extremely important when it comes to building out a SEO strategy. YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google with more than 100 hours of new video content uploaded every minute compared to 48 hours just two years ago, a clear sign video is on the rise. Maximizing a video’s search exposure should be a high priority for companies and brands if it’s not already. According to Forrester research, videos are 50 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google results than any given text page in the index.

Here are a few important tips to best optimize your videos:

High Quality Content: This may be the most obvious way to optimize your video, but it’s one of the most important. Videos have a very strong selling point when it comes to niche markets. Keep your content as relative and informative as possible to your specific audience.

Tags: Refer back to any keyword research you’ve done (with Google’s Keyword Tool) and make sure you tag the video with any of the terms you’ve deemed to perform well. Tags allow you to add extra words that wouldn’t fit naturally into the description. Keep these limited to 2-3 words at most, separated by commas.

Title: Spend some time creating the title of your video. Anyone seeing it for the first time should be able to get an idea of what they’re about to view just by glancing at it. Make sure the main keyword(s) you are targeting for are somewhere within your catchy and clear title.

Description: A good video description contains relevant keywords. Search engines will index it and rank it higher when a keyword-rich description of the video is included, this also helps viewers get a quick understanding of your video prior to watching it. Be careful not to pack it full of irrelevant keywords, this could immediately deter a customer away.

Ease of Embedding: Make it simple for users to access the code that allows them to embed the video on their own website or blog. Add visable share buttons on your website below the video to create a quick and easy way to pass it along. Both of these will help to increase backlinks and shares which overall helps to boost your rankings in search engines.

Google Sitemap: Submit your video to Google Sitemap as a way to let search engines know what pages on your site need to be indexed. See Google’s guide for Creating a Video Sitemap.

Powerful, relevant and engaging videos that are optimized for discovery are vital to boosting your brand’s awareness and will truly have a huge impact on your SEO strategy if done right. You will find that it’s worth investing the time into producing, creating and promoting a good video in order to increase your ROI.

How To Integrate Video Into A Robust Content Marketing Strategy (Guest Post)

Steve Farnsworth's Old Blog

Video is powerful because it shows there are people behind your business, which is important for building a strong brand that people can relate to. But how can you integrate it into your content marketing strategy effectively?

Know Your Audience

Before you can put together a video that will be relevant to your audience, you need to know precisely who that audience is. It’s important not to try to appeal to everyone – instead, figure out your archetypal customer. Two tools to help you do this are Sally Hogsheads 7 triggers of fascination and a simple guide to creating a customer persona. This’ll smooth out the rest of the process, because it’s much easier to figure out what to say to one person than to 1000.

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★ How To Integrate Video Into A Robust Content Marketing Strategy ★

Know Your Reasons Why

Why are…

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Marketing Tips for eRetailers

Episode 4 of Pet Professional series web show, “Your Pet Business.” Marketing Tips for eRetailers questions answered by pet business experts, Robbin & Joe Everrett, radio hosts of Pets Teach Us So Much.

Also featuring Seth Kammueler, co-owner of Perry Dog, as the featured new pet business. Host is Andrea Fischetti from Chicago Pet Video. For more information and other episodes, visit: www.chicagopetvideo.com