Apps and Sites to Track Your Social Media

By | advertising, content marketing, digital marketing, SEO, Social Media, Utah | No Comments

The most successful marketing companies are constantly tracking their social media statistics in order to achieve greater success online. Social media stats help brands see what they’re doing right, as well as what they can improve on to boost their engagement. This is why marketing companies help their clients by utilizing proper tools provided online.

If you’re looking to expand your social media arsenal, we can tell you what tools to look for.

In-App Statistics

Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook provide companies with in-app statistics that they can use to get a general idea of how their content is doing. These stats will show you things such as website and profile clicks, as well as impressions. The reports are not as detailed as a full web report but they still give you quick and convenient information.

Some of our favorite apps include Analytics Pro, Hootsuite and Reports Plus.

Google Analytics Pro: an app for the popular web application Google Analytics that presents data in a meaningful way, rather than just simply listing your data in an unorganized fashion.

Hootsuite: A Social media management platform used to submit messages to a variety of social media services including Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.

Reports Plus: An app that allows a business to securely access and transform data to gain new insights on content performance.

Website Tracking

If you’re looking to get a more detailed social media report, you may want to consider using websites to analyze your statistics. Marketing companies often opt to use websites such as Social Bakers, Sprout Social, Report Garden and Google Analytics to examine social platform growth. Another great thing about these websites is that they can self-generate a report for you, which compares growth from all your accounts.

Social Bakers: A global, AI-powered social media marketing company that measures everything from social media to your audience in one simple place.

Sprout Social: A website software that helps your brand improve in social engagement, social marketing, customer care and data intelligence.

Report Garden: Aids marketing companies in creating performance reports, invoices, campaign budgets, site audits and more.

Google Analytics: Perhaps the most popular statistic tracking website out there; it tracks and reports all website traffic.

There are tons of tools out there that are available to help marketing companies track their statistics. While these are some of our favorite tools, you should definitely experiment with several apps and websites to find out which one works best for you. If you need help managing your social accounts and tracking analytics for your accounts, make sure to contact us here at Fusion 360, we can help take your company’s social media to the next level, it’s what we do.

Three Ways Pinterest Can Dramatically Spike Your Engagement

By | advertising, content marketing, marketing, SEO, Social Media | No Comments

Pinterest might not be the first platform that comes to mind for most businesses looking to grow their social media presence, in fact, a lot of companies solely focus on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, did you know that Pinterest can significantly spike your engagement?

In order for your engagement to skyrocket, you have to build a connection with your audience. You have to provide them with valuable information within your content that they’ll love in order to earn their trust. So, how exactly can Pinterest help you achieve amazing engagement rate? Marketing companies have narrowed down the three major ways that Pinterest can be beneficial to your brand.

You’ll Reach a Younger Audience

It’s important to understand what kind of audience you’ll be reaching on the social media platform that you’re marketing on, and when it comes to Pinterest, marketing companies have found that this platform reaches younger demographics. The average age of the audience on Pinterest is usually under the age of 40. With over 100 million users, 80 percent of people on Pinterest are female — there is, however, a growing male population. As you use Pinterest, you’ll notice that it also offers businesses an analytics tool. This tool allows marketing companies to examine the demographics, as well as engagement numbers.

Higher Share Rates

On Pinterest, shares are called pins and marketing companies have found that around 80 percent of pins on Pinterest are repins of already created content. This being said, original content on Pinterest is bound to get a crazy number of shares; on the other side of things, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where original content is flooding the platforms.

It’s Easier to Find Informational and Visual Content on Pinterest

While Instagram is the go-to for video and picture content, you’ll hardly find things like infographics and visual diagrams. This type of stuff may not sound exciting, but there are a lot of people looking for these items based on their own research needs and sheer curiosity. Sure, Instagram is a good platform to browse if you’re just mindlessly scrolling through; it’s a platform that is filled with pictures and videos of people’s lifestyles, adventures and hobbies. However, when people want informative visuals, Pinterest is usually the place to go. Marketing companies know this and create infographics specifically for Pinterest, which directs more engagement to their brand. Like the other platforms, marketing companies will tell you to use relevant hashtags and keywords to increase the chances of your content being seen.

Pinterest is an underrated platform when it comes to digital advertising, but it will give your brand a boost over the competition if you can utilize it properly. If you’re looking to grow your social media following and want to see more engagement, contact us here at Fusion 360 for your social media needs.

Different Kinds of Video Your Company Needs

By | content marketing, SEO, Social Media, Utah, video production | No Comments

Video content is one of the best assets your company can have. Video helps your company to stand out and, when done right, can grab viewers’ attention and keep them engaged in your content. People have short attention spans, so if you can create an engaging and entertaining video for your audience, then you will be able to provide them with all the information they need about your company or product in a short amount of time.

Video production companies like us — Fusion 360 —know that different kinds of video serve different purposes, which is why we like to create an assortment of different videos for our clients. If you are thinking of creating video content for your brand, here are the different kinds of video that your company can utilize in order to stand out more.

Brand Film

A brand film is one of the most important video assets you can have. Brand films help tell the story of your company, as well as your personality and your goals. Brand films tell exactly who your brand is, diminishing others’ varied ideas about who you are.

Video production companies know the importance of a brand film, which is why they like to capture their audience’s attention within the first ten seconds. They will include interviews from company employees and client testimonials to keep it personal and connect with the audience.

A brand film should also portray your companies strengths. Figure out what makes your company unique and do your best to show that in your brand film. If you don’t know what to talk about in your brand film, video production companies can help you come up with some ideas and write a script to perfectly capture your brand image.

Promotional

Promotional videos are a great way to introduce new products or services or even invite people to a conference or webinar. Think of a promotional video as an invitation. You are inviting your audience to take part in whatever you are promoting through a video.

Promotional videos typically have a call-to-action in them, which encourages your audience to buy your product or sign up for your service. In addition, promotional videos tell the audience what’s in it for them. Do your best to really build up whatever you are trying to sell or promote.

How-To

How-to videos are really popular, especially if your audience is excited and ready to learn about your product. The great thing about how-to videos is you can get creative with them. Rather than providing a set of instructions, you can show your audience exactly how to use your product. Video production companies recommend focusing on the essentials when creating how-to videos. Too much information or detail can result in a long, perhaps boring video.

Social

If your company is on social media, which you should be, creating social videos are a must. Platforms like Facebook or Instagram have the auto-play feature, which allows videos to start playing automatically while scrolling through your feed. Because of this feature, videos immediately grab the viewers attention.

When creating social videos, the most important thing to keep in mind is to make them short. If people are scrolling through their social media feeds, they probably won’t have time to watch a longer video. If you do have a longer video, video production companies recommend posting a teaser on social media and then linking back to the longer content.

No matter what type of video content you decide to create for your brand, it will be powerful. Video content is one of the top marketing tools right now and has the ability to help your brand get a good amount of attention. If you are looking for a video production company to create some video content for your company, look no further than Fusion 360. Our award-winning video production team has the tools and skills to create an amazing video that will show off your brand. Give us a call to get started on your video content!

The Benefits of Hiring an Agency Over Doing It Yourself

By | advertising, content marketing, digital marketing, SEO, Social Media | No Comments

Marketing is an important aspect of any business, and when it comes to growth, there is no better way than by investing in marketing. Marketing can be intimidating, especially for smaller businesses, but if you don’t start, you can find your business suffering when it comes to drawing in more consumers, reaching sales goals, and overall making an impact in your respective industry. So, do you go in blindly trying to market your brand yourself, or do you turn to marketing companies to handle this aspect of your business?

While it may seem cheaper and simpler to handle marketing yourself, you’ll find that it can actually turn out to be the complete opposite− you don’t want to sacrifice any manpower on your team, and you also don’t want to exceed your budget in the hiring department, so here are some benefits to hiring a marketing agency over trying to do everything in-house.

Save Serious Cash

This should be one of the most beneficial factors to your company. You don’t want to spend unnecessary funds, and you definitely don’t want to exceed any budgets, so this is where marketing companies will come in handy. The costs that come with running an in-house marketing team can be pretty hefty, and if you’re on a restrictive budget, you might not be able to assemble an experienced group of professionals. The staff costs alone might be as expensive as outsourcing your marketing needs. Things such as content management software, marketing software, benefits package, and other marketing equipment costs can add up quickly on top of employing a marketing staff.

Professional Experience

Since marketing companies are experts in what they do, you’ll be getting quality work done. These agencies are comprised of talented teams who are experts in their respective fields, so you can rest assured that any task you throw at them, they’ll be able to handle with expertise. By hiring an agency, you’ll also avoid the hassle of trying to interview and pick out capable employees.

Avoid Overworking Your Existing Staff

If you decide to bypass hiring a marketing agency and are not able to hire a marketing team due to costs, you might end up overworking your current team by trying to train them in the marketing. Marketing companies can help ease the workload of your staff by allowing your team to focus on their day-to-day work.

Benefits of a Marketing Company’s Outside Perspective

Not only are these marketing companies going to help market your brand, but they can provide you with valuable insight on how you can improve your current efforts. Since they are experts when it comes to what consumers are looking for, they can help establish you brand even further, strengthening connections with your current consumer base while bringing in new customers as well. These marketing companies will evaluate your current strategies, techniques and brand voice overall and give you pointers on how the business can be improved.

Staying Up-to-Date

Perhaps one of the best things about hiring a marketing agency is that your branding and content will always be kept up to date. Since marketing agencies are always in the digital loop, you won’t have to worry about outdated tactics, lingo or presentations to the public.

There are multiple benefits that come with hiring marketing companies, and they generally outweigh the few benefits that come with marketing yourself. If you’re ready to take the next step in your marketing campaign, contact us here at Fusion 360.

Best Ways to Advertise in 2019

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Marketing trends evolve every year, and if marketing companies ignore these changes, they can find themselves struggling to stay at the top of the digital marketing food chain. 2019 is no different. If you want to see results and keep clients coming to you, you are going to have to switch it up and adapt to the new trends that 2019 is bringing to the world of digital advertising.

So, will you take initiative to change the way you advertise, or will you fall into the pit of digital media mediocracy? If you’re ready to take your game to the next level, here are the best ways to advertise in 2019 to ensure your company a year of growth and success.

Take Advantage of Voce Search Optimization

Marketing companies are always looking for the best and most relevant ways to advertise, and voice search has definitely become a staple in modern search engines. It has been projected that by 2020, 30 percent of web browsing will be screen-less, and that number will only keep rising. With the sophistication of operating systems, it’s important to make sure that your company utilizes the technology that is voice search optimization. The best way to do this is by extending the keywords your content targets and reworking them into phrases that someone would use when using their voice search option (for example, when they look for things such as the nearest gas station or restaurants). This will work best if you are able to make your phrases sound natural, but craft them carefully so that your services come up when these phrases or keywords are said.

Invest Time and Money into Audio Ads

While video may be the dominant form of advertising, audio content is becoming more convenient to consumers. If you take advantage of it now, you will ultimately see more of a result in more traction. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to invest all of your marketing budget into podcasts, talkshows or streaming music players, instead, a smart way for marketing companies to approach this method is by taking one blog post a week and uploading it to your website through a program such as the Wix Podcast Player. This is a great way to combine storytelling and advertising. As you begin to get more comfortable with narration, you’ll begin to see an increase in the quality of these audio ads.

Make Visitors Feel Welcome by Using AI

While this may sound difficult, it’s actually a simple addition that you can add to your website to make your customers feel more welcome. In simple terms, you should opt to add a live chat feature on your website. If you don’t want to have a 24/7 live staff on payroll, you can also create automated responses to some frequently asked questions so that that user can be taken care of in a more interactive manner.

Don’t Stop Building on What You Have

This last method is more of a tip rather than anything else, but if you’re using tactics that are working, there is no need to toss them out the window. So, the best thing that marketing companies can do is to create a hybrid strategy that combines new, as well as older, functioning strategies.

These are some of the trending tactics in 2019 that are going to help your company thrive! See which tactic relates to your business and don’t be afraid to give it a try!

The Perfect Length for Your Video Ads

By | digital marketing, SEO, Social Media, Utah, video production | No Comments

Perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions when it comes to video ads is what the perfect length is. How do video production companies know how long their ads should be in order to be effective? Is there a formula, a secret number? Well, it all comes down to your advertising goals. Different lengths are good for different ads, and you’ll have to determine what it is you’re trying to achieve in order to determine the perfect length for your project.

So, when deciding what the perfect length will be for your videos, you may want to inquire with local video production companies to see what they think about your campaign, and how they can help you narrow down what your ad should look like. Here are some tips on how long your video ads should be, and how video production companies have narrowed down time frames to a science.

Recognizing the Different Time Frames

There was a study done by IPG Media Lab and YuMe that measured the impact of the different video lengths on different consumer groups. Here are the findings from this study and how the groups react to various video ad lengths.

Short Ads (15 seconds): Shorter ads have a bigger impact when it comes to established brands, millennials and mobile platforms. It was found that longer ads shown to these age groups had very little impact on the brand in terms of favorability and purchase intent, clocking it at an underwhelming five percent.

Well established brands don’t need more than 15 seconds to push a product or service, as their impact in their respective industry has already built that trust and reputation with their consumer base. When it comes to short ads, there is a formula: short ads + short content + a small screen (mobile device) = a BIG impact. Long story short, mobile ads need to be kept short, as well as ads targeting millennials and ads that come from big brands.

Longer Video Ads (45 seconds): New brands benefit from longer ads because they still need to show any potential consumers what they can offer in terms of services and products. It was found by this study that these longer videos had a great impact on brand favorability and purchase intent by as much as 40 percent.

Video production companies also recommend using these longer ads if your brand has a complex message to convey to potential audiences. Just as shorter videos are effective on mobile devices, longer video ads are effective when it comes to desktop computers and television platforms.

Long and short video ads are effective ways of advertising, but the perfect length depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and who you’re trying to target. If you’re looking for a video production company to help you come up with the perfect video ad, contact us here at Fusion 360 Studios. We’re experts when it comes to video advertising, and we’re ready to help bring your perfect ad to life.

Sources:

https://www.balcomagency.com/blog/whats-best-length-video-ad

Three Common Flaws You Will See in Lower Quality Videos

By | SEO, Social Media, Utah, video production | No Comments

DIY video production has become more and more popular as we’ve been exposed to higher grade video equipment, editing software and production equipment. As a result, in an addition to seeing a significant increase in the amount of video content that goes out onto the internet, we also see more videos that should be high-quality but are not.

While it is true that anyone in the world can upload video content to the internet, it’s also worth noting that not every video online is going to be good or even decent. The fact of the matter is, the online videos you see that are truly high-quality are likely produced primarily by super talented professionals and video production companies.

You can’t deny that when you’re watching a poor-quality video that you just want scratch your eyes out or maybe even plug your ears. Unfortunately, in a time where we have fancy cell phone cameras and software available to create visual masterpieces, everyone becomes a self-proclaimed video expert, photographer or professional. We are here right now to help anyone to recognize common flaws and make sure they avoid making the same mistake themselves.

Not Using Proper Microphones

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in video production is poor audio recording. Just like you would invest in a good quality camera, you should always make sure to use a high-quality microphone when filming anything! Your audience doesn’t want to listen to static, poppy, unintelligible dialogue, and neither do your editors.

There are countless options when it comes to microphones; video production companies trust brands such as Rode, Audio Technica and Shure to capture crisp, clean and audible sounds.

Using Too Much Digital Zoom

Zooms and Close Up shots are crucial in video production, but there is a better way to get a closer look at that important object or person than always using the digital zoom on a camera. One other huge mistake that DIY video production individuals may make is not taking the time to physically get closer to a subject for zooms and close-ups. When you zoom in digitally, you’re basically taking the same image and stretching it out, which can lead to pixilation and a loss of quality.

Professional video production companies recommend that you get up close and personal to capture intense and beautiful close up shots; you won’t sacrifice quality and your video won’t look bad.

Editing Mishaps

This is probably one of the worst things you can do in the world of video production. Uploading footage with mistakes in the editing is probably the best way to ensure your video’s failure. You have to take all your clips and run them through an intensive editing team to clean them up; even the best video production companies have to edit their work together, and it is definitely nothing to be ashamed about. In fact, double checking your work in the editing process will not only ensure that your video comes out crisp, but also a second set of eyes on the work. This second set of eyes might provide some good feedback and thoughts on how to make the video look even better.

So, if you’re looking to create a successful visual masterpiece, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t make these three common mistakes. If you need help creating a high-end video for your brand, make sure to give us a call here at Fusion 360 Studios ⎯ video production is what we do best, and that will show in your next production.

Social Videos vs. Brand Videos

By | Social Media, Utah, video production | No Comments

Video content is one of the driving forces of today’s digital world, and with the ever-expanding video styles, it is confusing when you try to distinguish the difference between all the entangled video formats. You might feel confident in recognizing and defining a social video, but what about a brand video? And are you sure that brand videos are never used as a social video?

Well, if you are confident in answering that, then hats off to you but if you have any uncertainty, then let a video production company, like us, start unraveling for you.

Difference

As mentioned before, it’s not hard to recognize a social video, but that might be because you are likely seeing them as you are peruse through one of the many social media channels. Immediately, you’ll see that these videos are shorter in length — whether it be a 5-second ad on YouTube or a 10-15 second story on Instagram, the content is delivered quickly. These videos can be a little longer if they are making a formal post then they can run up to a minute or two depending on the type of post, but rarely will they ever exceed a two or three-minute mark.

These videos can be behind the scenes, short PR blips featuring something new, interviews, and videos that enclose some kind of question or giveaway. The majority of the content posted on various social channels by companies may not need a high-quality video from some video production company but occasionally it might be nice to promote something that requires a higher level of production. Typically, a higher-quality video like this would be a little longer and be used specifically for branding purposes, but usually social videos are just used for current consumers to interact with and stay engaged with the company; the brand videos purpose are a little different.

Brand videos are used to help potential client and customers to learn more about a company. Usually, a company that is making a brand video will reach out to professional video production companies to help them create the quality these videos need. Essentially, brand videos create a first impression; even when an individual or client may be familiar with the company before they see a brand video, the video will likely provide new information and therefore create an impression. These videos can be a little bit longer and usually feature the company as a whole or a specific product. While some brand videos are used as commercials on television, you’ll actually find brand videos on companies’ websites and being used in presentations with potential clients.

One Better Than Others?

To summarize, the main difference between a brand video and social video is their purpose. While there are obvious differences in length, quality and style, the social videos are used for engagement and navigating traffic to the company, and brand videos are used as a formal way to present valuable information about the company and/or product. It really is not a question of whether one is better than another, they are both different and should both be utilized. Creating the majority of social videos might be able to be taken care of in-house, but brand videos will have a lot more success (which is critical, obviously) if a video production company assists.

If you want to see some examples of brand videos, then check out this video from Smith or this one from Apple — they both explain who their companies are and a critical aspect about what makes them unique. If you want to see a social video, well, go to Instagram and look up a company of your choice and there you go! For any other video questions or inquires for a video production company, visit Fusion 360, today!