Promotional Videos

We are entering the second half of our quarter in COIN 72, an online class in Web Marketing taught by Mimi Will at Foothill College. My final project will be creating a plan for the reorganization of the narfe65.org website that I created in 2005. As I begin this process, I started searching for "competitive organizations", to see how they deal with the challenges of online marketing. Granted, a non-profit association of members is VERY different from a commercial establishment or company. However, some of the same principles will apply. We need to attract members, and keep them active and interested in maintaining their membership. To accomplish that goal, we must "sell" our organization, our ideas, our goals. We must motivate our members to feel a part of "us". And we must fulfill the needs of our members.

One of the organizations I discovered when I conducted this search for "competitors" to NARFE was NFFE, the National Federation of Federal Employees. In the process I came across two promotional videos that I think do a fine job of promoting their organization.

The first one is from HUD members, who explain briefly what they do, and why their work matters:




The second video is more specific about what the organization has done lately. It is more upbeat, and more motivating.



Both videos are good examples of the advantages of using video for an organization and/or a business - Video gets multiple messages across in a way that attracts its viewers, as it informs, entertains, and motivates with its brief message.
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Stumbling On

I've been invited by a friend to join StumbleUpon. Should I? Meanwhile, I am getting multiple messages from Google about their new "Privacy" policies. I've been to their Dashboard, and am appalled at how much personal info they have already collected. They have bought up so many companies whose services I use, and then they've joined all this info together, and present it to the world. I am not comfortable with this! But do I want out? And do I want to add one more Internet option?


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AdWords 101

We are now entering week 5 of Web Marketing, and Chapter 4 of our textbook is on pay-per-click advertising. This seems to be where it's at for commercial Web sites, though I'm not entirely sure how it works. I know we all see the results, when ads show up on the search engine results pages. Classmate Samuel shared the following link with us: http://www.google.com/adwords/seminars/adwords101.html. It kind of makes sense, to go to the online expert to see how its done. Here's a video to get you started:


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Social Campaigns

Here's an interesting idea - Constant Contact's offer of free social campaigns. This offer connects with (creates?) a Facebook page, and allows businesses to set up offers to reward those viewers who "like" them.

With Social Campaigns, you create, publish, and promote special landing pages on your Facebook Business Page - the Like Page and the Reveal Page.

To read more about how a business can use this tool, check out Must Have Menus introductory page on social campaigns with Constant Contact.


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AnyMeeting Free Web Conferencing

Here's a good idea - free web conferencing! The reason I signed up for Web Marketing is to learn more about adding some interactive tools to the website of our local chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (http://narfe65.org). Here's one of the tools I will consider:


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iStudiez

Here's another tooltip from Denis: iStudiez, from iStudentPro.com. I downloaded the Lite version through the app store on my iPhone. If I like it, I might even pay the $2.99 for the full Pro upgrade. Then again, I may not need it, with only one class/quarter. Thanks, classmate!
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Here's an organizing tool suggested by classmate Denis. I have to admit, it has the best intro video of any of these software tools that I've seen. And, it looks eminently useful! Will download it now...


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