YouTube has become an online powerhouse. According to Alexa Internet, Inc., it is the third most visited website in the world, with billions of people tuning in daily to watch, upload and share videos with friends and clients.

That’s fine for people who want to kill time by watching the antics of playful kittens or precocious little kids, but what does it mean for a business-to-business marketer who is considering YouTube as a potential sales tool? The answer is “plenty,” because a YouTube channel can actually help your business build brand awareness and strengthen its relationships with current and prospective clients.

Even if you already post videos to your website, it’s important to upload them to YouTube as well. Since Google owns YouTube, your videos will appear higher up on search results related to your product, so they will be exposed to a lot more people. They’re also more likely to be shared, due to the website’s popularity.

Another benefit of developing a YouTube channel is that videos are one of the best ways to communicate with clients and business partners. Most people are visual learners, so they will recall and retain your message better when watching it on a video, and most people also prefer watching video to reading text.

How do you use a YouTube channel effectively?
One way is to film product demonstrations by having a specialist discuss your product in a fun, memorable way. Not only will viewers learn about what your company has to offer, but they will also get a glimpse of your company’s personality through the specialist’s presentation. On top of that, they will get a better understanding of what to expect from the product because they will actually see what it looks like in action.

You can also post client testimonials. Prospective clients will appreciate having the opportunity to learn about your product or services from a relatable source. Testimonials also will spread the word about what clients really think of your business in a memorable, personable way. A quote in an article just can’t capture the enthusiasm that can be found in a video.

Posting live video blogs from tradeshows and conferences, or giving video tours of your facility, are two additional ways to make YouTube part of your marketing mix. Both are great for engaging viewers and sharing information about your company.

How do you make a YouTube video?
The best thing about YouTube is that developing videos is easy and inexpensive. All you need is a flip camera or a digital camera that shoots video. If you want to keep it simple, you can upload a video straight to YouTube without going through the process of editing it on moviemaking software. A lot of YouTube videos are uploaded this way. However, there’s no problem with going all-out and shooting a professional, edited video. Some B2B companies even create animated videos, which is definitely a fun, attention-grabbing idea.

No matter what method you choose, what’s most important is that your video is capable of keeping the viewer’s attention while sharing information about your company.

Once you upload videos to your YouTube channel, be sure to promote them on your Facebook and Twitter pages. Not only is taking advantage of your current social media resources effective, but it also will show current and prospective clients that your company is up-to-date and computer-savvy.

Large companies are already incorporating YouTube into their social media strategies. However, small B2B companies have yet to take advantage of all that a YouTube channel can offer. Even though it is not as common for a B2B company to have a YouTube channel, it is important to create one now to get ahead, as well as to connect with current and prospective clients in a way that is new and memorable.

Allied Barton Security is a great example of a small B2B company that has taken the initiative to stay ahead of the game. Check out their YouTube channel for more ideas on how you can successfully utilize this growing social media source: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlliedBartonSecurity.

With over 4 million members, Foursquare, a geo-location check-in mobile application, is on the rise. Due to the app’s success, B2B companies are now asking whether they should hop on the bandwagon and join this new social media channel. At this point, the real potential for Foursquare remains with small businesses, because it can be used as a tool to effectively addresses the two issues that really matter to growing a business: the acquisition and retention of customers.
So what is Foursquare anyway? It’s a social networking website that allows Smartphone users to “check-in” when they visit stores, businesses, their favorite hang-out spot or even their own house. Users can leave comments and recommendations when they check-in. The app can also be used to find nearby places to visit or to receive discounts from businesses. The person who checks into a location the most becomes the “mayor” of the location.
Now imagine that you are a local hardware store owner. How could you use Foursquare to reward your “mayor” and use him/her to build your contractor alliances? The loyalty of the Mayor certainly deserves a hefty reward. Since that individual is visiting your business frequently, you might consider offering him or her perks like a free window for every six windows he or she purchases. Now in addition to rewarding your mayor, you’re building a customer loyalty program that keeps your biggest contractor coming back for more. That’s a win-win for sure.

The points, mayorships and badges built into the Foursquare experience have been very popular with early adopters. It is all about the gamification of the experience with the business, yet from our viewpoint, badges provide no immediate or long term value to users and aren’t even actual things other than they look cute.
To roll out a Foursquare app, it helps to engage your employees. Ask them to check-in when there are client meetings or events, such as a skill workshop to demonstrate a new industrial power tool. They can also use comments to recommend good restaurants or other attractions in the area. When your employees check-in, they show the personality and enthusiasm of your business to customers and clients, which also helps build your brand.

As with Facebook and other social media applications, you will need to concentrate on starting and growing your company’s “friends-list.” There’s no point in having employees check-in and leave recommendations if your customers aren’t going to see their posts. Just like every other social networking website, Foursquare takes time. It’s all about movement, so it’s vital for employees to check-in as often as possible so clients can see what your company is up to, as well as engage in conversation.

Foursquare is definitely worth exploring for small B2B companies because it’s a free, fun way to help your company standout from the competition. Customers are more likely to recommend your company to others if they have a personal relationship with your employees. Foursquare can also help you maintain your other social networking websites because it can be linked to Facebook and Twitter. Use your creativity and you may find even more ways to tap this tool to grow your business and community.

After 37 years, I’m moving into semi-retirement with the sale of the agency to my business partner. It’s time to go on to the third stage of life—having fun and enjoying one’s self.

I likely won’t be writing too many more of these blogs, but I thought I would take one of these final columns to share something that has made a huge difference in my life—that’s being a volunteer.

When I was a young man, I was active in the Boy Scouts and later at the district and national levels as a young adult. The committee of one local Scout troop asked me if I would consult with them on a leadership challenge. I had no idea at the time that they were looking for a new Scoutmaster to lead a group of inner city kids.

I carefully thought about it and the night before I had to give my final decision I had a dream that convinced me I should take on this ragtag band of kids.

Years later, one of those youngsters was looking for a college internship, which I was happy to oblige. I helped him find his first job, his second job, and counseled him when he was temporarily out of work and on the way to his third job. As the owner of a small start-up agency in the mid-90’s, I was appreciative of his business. As he moved from job to job, we earned more of his business. We retained the previous clients and added his new employers. Over the years, working with him has had a major impact on our agency.

Similary, in the late 70’s, I volunteered to run the placement bureau for the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. I met a lot of folks over the next five years. As my term was up, I turned the job over to the head of a university PR department, with whom I had come to know through the association. Just three months after starting the agency, I received an RFP for a start-up trade association. The university PR head had been contacted for potential referrals, and he submitted our firm’s name. We got the job, and that small association grew five-fold over the years to become our largest client; I considered it our bread-and-butter client. That led to work with several other trade associations, for which we developed a specialty niche.

More recently, I joined a local community board and when we got no responses to a small RFP for communications work, our agency was asked to apply. So we did, and got the work.

One of the reasons I can be retiring at age 59 is because I’ve had good investment opportunities as a result of starting the agency. As I look back, I see literally millions of dollars that have come to the agency as a result of some simple volunteer work that led to future business engagements. I would never have guessed at the time the impact volunteering would have on my life. In some cases, it would take decades to realize. But in the end, I can link early selfless volunteering with great financial success. That was not the intent, but it clearly was the result.

So all of this is to say, when you’re asked to volunteer for a worthwhile project, to sit on a community board, or help with a professional association, jump right in. You may be amazed decades later at how it has positively impacted your life—through increased professional connections, new and long-lasting friendships, and unexpected financial success.

This post first appeared on the Pittsburgh Creative Directory website, a forum for advertising, public relations, graphic design, and photography professionals. 

We get numerous Requests for Proposals (RFPs) each year.  They vary widely — from a new branding campaign, to initiating an ongoing public relations program, to promoting a significant anniversary for a non-profit organization.

How do you know it’s worth your time and effort to answer the RFP?   You don’t; but at least you can narrow your odds.  Try to find out how many received the RFP.  Our rule of thumb is eight agencies or less – and we may consider submitting.  When the Port Authority was looking for an agency to handle a special project a few years ago, they held a Question/Answer meeting where about 100 folks showed up.  Needless to say, we didn’t submit.  Another consideration is prior experience in addressing the anticipated outcomes in the RFP.  If you’ve done it well for someone else, you likely have an edge in the “shoot-out.”

I was once asked by a national trade association to fly to Chicago to make a presentation when they were looking for a new agency.  I knew the executive director and made one comment, “I will only attend if you guarantee you are going to select an agency at the end of the day.”  Ultimately, we didn’t get the work, but he did engage an agency. 

I ask for that agreement because we’ve filled out a lot of RFP’s over the years only to find out later that the group decided to do nothing at all.  That’s a lot of work for nothing; not just for our agency, but multiply it by eight or ten other groups who also submitted. 

Recently, a service organization put us and eight other agencies through the hoops for a rebranding campaign.  Six months later we learned they were “moving in a different direction.”  I should have been suspicious when their RFP requested mountains of information, including organization charts of who would be performing the work.  It was obvious they had used a “canned” RFP format that would have been appropriate for a multi-million dollar project, but this was a relatively small project.  We only submitted because we fulfilled the second consideration – having had previous experience with this type of client. 

On the flip side, I’ve also been on the requesting end of RFP’s as an officer for a non-profit organization.  I recently put one out to only three agencies, all of a scale that fit the needs of the non-profit.  Each knew that only three had received the RFP.  Surprisingly, only one responded, saying they weren’t interested.

Some agencies rationalize not responding by saying it detracts from their clients’ ongoing work.  Why go to the expense of doing speculative concepts and creative work, with a likely less-than-10-percent chance of getting the job?

So, do you invest the time to answer an RFP that may or may not ever be funded?  If you do, try to narrow your odds.  If you don’t, take that time to deliver an even better product or service to your existing clients.  Odds are, they’ll notice and want to do even more work with you. 

About that rebranding campaign — when I told my business partner that we didn’t get the work, his response was, “Good.  They weren’t the kind of client you would want to work with anyway.”

He was right.

–Ralph Yearick

Al Ries and Jack Trout in The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing list law 19 as The Law of Failure. They admonish that failure is to be expected and accepted.

Admitting a mistake and not doing anything about it is a bad career move. Better to recognize your failures early and cut your losses.

Example: American Motors should have abandoned passenger cars and focused on Jeep. IBM should have dropped copiers and Xerox should have dropped computers years before they finally recognized their mistakes.

When we do a new business pitch, potential clients are often surprised to learn that we don’t have an in-house graphics department. We prefer to work with a handful of good design firms that we can select for their expertise. For instance, we do a lot of work related to architectural and building products. We utilize firms that know those markets. Similarly, we choose photographers that specialize in architectural shots.

As American Motors, IBM and Xerox learned, you can’t be all things to all people. At Yearick-Millea, we know our strengths. We’re marketing strategists and writers. We’re also good project managers – from initial concept to successful execution.

As Ries and Trout said, failure is to be expected and accepted. But when you play to your strengths, you significantly reduce your chance for failure.

– Ralph Yearick is CEO of Yearick-Millea

Do you respond to telephone surveys, internet pop-ups and questionnaires that companies are constantly putting out there to obtain customer feedback with the premise of improving their products and services?  I do, because I’m a marketer, and I want others to answer surveys, fill out questionnaires and provide honest feedback when I’ve been asked to conduct a survey for one of my clients.

But what good is honest feedback if nothing changes?  Here is one example.  I just returned from a two-week Caribbean cruise with family members.  What we didn’t know when we booked the cruise was that it was actually two one-week trips back-to-back.  They billed it as the Collector’s Voyage.  We learned that about 10 percent of the folks were in Voyager mode each week, some on the last leg of the voyage while others had just begun. 

The cruise company, realizing that there was some overlap in the weeks’ events, wanted to ensure that the Voyager folks were being treated well and were not put off by repeated activities.  So they surveyed by questionnaires, called on the stateroom phone, visited at meal-time to ask questions face-to-face, and generally kept asking for feedback that would make our cruise more enjoyable. 

Well, when you ask a marketer for feedback, you get it!

I filled out the questionnaires, took their phone calls, and offered suggestions when they visited table-side at dinner.  But some of the very simple things I commented on during the first week, remained as frustrating and unresolved during the second week. 

On one of the phone calls to our cabin from the front desk personnel, I couldn’t help but feel the caller had been given a list of 100 or more folks to call and see how their trip  was going.  His introduction and canned, scripted questions had obviously become a tired routine week after week for that particular employee.  He seemed genuinely startled when I tried to tell him about an issue that could be improved to “make our stay more enjoyable.”  I mentioned that I had put it on the written questionnaire.  He tried to get me off the phone as quickly as possible, ensuring that if I had included it in the written survey it would be addressed.  He said he also would bring it up with his supervisor.

Again, nothing changed.

So what is the point of soliciting feedback if there is no intent to implement change?  It was evident to me that this was just a perfunctory process in the guise of creating good customer relations.  The point is, they didn’t really want the feedback.  They just wanted to be able to say they had gone through the motions of soliciting feedback from all customers in the Voyager category.

Here’s the bottom line:  the next time you ask a customer for feedback, send a questionnaire, or hear a gripe over a luncheon meeting, have a process in place to address their concerns.  Otherwise, you are communicating that you don’t really care about their business.  And most folks can readily pick up on that. 

What the cruise ship company didn’t know was that I’ve been saving my money to take a round-the-world cruise when I retire one day.  While I enjoyed this recent trip for the much-needed vacation it provided, I also was auditioning this cruise line for its amenities as a potential carrier for the world cruise.  And I won’t be traveling alone.  My recent voyages have included from 6 to 12 people.  Small things can have big implications.  Not responding to my feedback, which they solicited, likely cost them the future fares of a half-dozen round-the-world voyages.  They would have been better off to have never asked.

–Ralph Yearick

Remember as a school kid the thrill of a new Number 2 pencil?  Unsharpened.  A full eraser.  Bright yellow.

We did most all of our early learning with a pencil.  Then graduated to a ballpoint pen for spelling tests and other important works.

Today kids pound away on laptop computers and text on cellphones.  The act of writing is slowly slipping away.  Why should that matter?

According to Tom Wasylyk, president of Universal Publishing in Waymart, Pa., and a master penman who has written scores of penmanship instructional books, research shows that the act of writing stimulates the creativity portion of the brain.  However, when keystroking, that part of the brain remains quiet.  Not surprisingly, people tend to remember things they write more than things they key in.

Imagine that.  The simple act of holding a pencil or pen and dragging it over a piece of paper to create letters or symbols stimulates the creative center in the brain. 

Most who read this blog are all creative types.  We’re in professions where the daily act of being creative can make or break the business.  Whether writing advertising copy, white papers, or doing graphic design with the latest computer program, our creative ideas are what differentiate our work.

Wouldn’t you like to have an advantage over your competitors?  It might be as simple as taking a pencil or pen in hand when shaping your ideas.

I have to admit, I’m writing this blog on a computer – keystroking every word.  How much more creative could I be if I were to write it out longhand?  I’m going to try that on my next entry.

In the meantime, I’ll be passing out Number 2 pencils at our next staff meeting. 

– Ralph Yearick

As part of a managerial training session at a major corporation where I was once employed, the instructor gave each participant a short quiz of seven to nine questions and asked us how we would answer them as employees of the corporation.  The questions covered things like salary expectations, bonuses, employee rewards, etc.  We took the quiz and reviewed answers.

Then we took it again.  But this time, we were asked to consider our answers from the viewpoint of being a manager.  Wow!  The answers were complete opposites.

While employees are interested in regular raises, bonuses and appreciation for good work, managers are evaluated on boosting profits, keeping down costs, and managing a workforce that produces optimum results with the least amount of overhead.

Surveys at that same corporation showed that employees would forgo raises if they got an occasional pat on the back.  The president’s response was, “Why should I have to give them a pat on the back.  They get paychecks.  That’s their reward.”  He has since retired and new management transformed that company into a powerhouse in their field.  It was simple – in addition to a more aggressive reach in the marketplace, they demonstrated more progressive thinking about how to manage and reward people.

As a business owner, I am often reminded of that simple quiz when I’m dealing with both employee and customer issues.  I know I have to keep talented, motivated, challenged employees to satisfy the needs of our customers.  I also have to find ways to do that in a cost effective manner.

Similarly, I have to keep the perspective of a client, who wants the best quality of work at the least out-of-pocket expense. 

Good business is a balancing act between the needs of clients and the needs of employees.  A good manager has to put on hats from both sides of the table and see that each feels they are getting value for their dollar or their work.

Steven Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, addresses favorable business relationships.  The Quick MBA summarizes his point quite succinctly:  “Think Win/Win.  Seek agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial.  In cases where a “win/win” deal cannot be achieved, accept the fact that agreeing to make “no deal” may be the best alternative.  In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees and avoid inadvertently rewarding win/lose behavior.”

Taking that management quiz twice so many years ago taught me the lesson of perspective.  To be successful in business, we must always be looking at our products and services through the eyes of our customers, who purchase them, and the eyes of our employees, who deliver them.

– Ralph Yearick, CEO, Yearick-Millea