Promotion Expertise Through Video

Despite the ongoing recession, life at Latimer Hinks for me is particularly busy. As well as the ongoing promotion of Latimer Hinks we are experimenting with a new media for us - video.
As more individuals/businesses acquire fast broadband connections, video has become a powerful marketing tool, 24/7. We thought we'd "have a go"!


Video
1) Tim Haggie, managing partner chaired a meeting to discuss the property market. See my previous post which includes a link to the property video.

The aim of the discussion video is to show Tim as an expert in his field - Commercial Property and to keep his "finger on the pulse" of what is going on with the property market in our region.
The video has been posted to youtube and various other sites as well as being sent to Clients/referrers that may have an interest in the discussion. The "get together" also provided the opportunity for leading surveyors and estate agents to perhaps build on their business relationships.

2) Neil Stevenson, partner at Latimer Hinks met with John Littlefair (wind farm owner) to discuss how lucrative wind farms can be and how Latimer Hinks can help. Neil is an expert in agricultural law, with particular interest in alternative energy. Again, we hope the video - the Answer is Blowing in the Wind will show Neil as an expert in a niche area.

As you probably know, YouTube monitors how many times the video has been viewed. This will eventually be of great interest and only time will tell if we pick up any business through video promotion.

I am on the look out for video hosting sites that specialise in a particular area. For example Alternative Energy. I can then post to sites with members that have a relevant interest.

All of this posting takes an awful lot of time - i'm looking for quicker ways. I do bookmark with sites such as Stumble, Delicious, Furl, Digg etc and i do see the success through google analytics - so, it's worth it!

Latimer Hinks Website goes to Word Press

We have a new website!

When I originally started this blog I began to travel on a very steep learning curve.

I learned about Technorati, Feedburning, Widgets - all of which seemed to be a foreign language to begin with! But by trial and error, alot of patience and a willingness to learn Social Networking Guineapig started to reap a few rewards (for which one was being shortlisted in the North East Digital Awards for Best Use of Blogging)

Anyway, since then I have been involved with the redesign of the Latimer Hinks website. I wanted the new website to be:

• interactive
• user friendly
• easily amended

After discusions with our design company - The Ad Agency, they suggested a website which would basically be (non technical speak here) a Word Press Blog with a Website Front.

This means that:

• news releases can be bookmarked more easily through bookmarking buttons.
• All content can be changed by me, I can add/delete pages/images etc - at no agency cost
• I can (and have) claimed the blog on Technorati and i'm about to "burn a feed"
• There is already an RSS button for people to subscribe to.

Hopefully, all of this will encourage an increase in our postition when it comes to search engines.

I may even get to grips with adding some widgets - eventually!

Stilletto Boot Camp - Pure Technology, just for the ladies!

Yesterday I attended a presentation on Pure Technology, part of the Stilletto Boot camps for women. The group was quite small and the format for the presentation was forum/discussion style - which worked really well. Ideas/suggestions were bounced from the panel as well as the attendees.

I must admit that at first i felt like a "fish out of water". Most attendees worked with film/media so I imagined them to be quite savvy and up to date. There was also a lovely lady who owned a B&B by Hadrians Wall - Holme House. But as the afternoon wore on, we all found we had something to say.

The expert panel consisted of:

Judith Peacock - Further Consultancy (technology, marketing, databases etcetc)

Joscelyn Upendran - de Burca (e-learning and business)

Zahra Zomorrodian - FNA Films (video production/film makers)

Jo - Ki-media (emails marketing, website optimisation etc etc)

Some items discussed:

• How social networking is now taking over email as a marketing medium


• Keywords/keyphrases and placement. Top tip - don't use "click here", give the link a name (which will be picked up by search engines)
• What do you consider to be a good online experience
• Youtube, marketing videos
• Viral emails
• Emails and the legal issues (which Joscelyn will respond to)
• What is web2
• Is it worth having a business presence on Second Life?
• How to promote your blog
• Bookmarking
  

Judith is going to summarise the afternoon's discussions and forward the information along with links. I may be able to let you have a look!

The session drew to a close and as I was leaving Judith and Joscelyn asked if Latimer Hinks would be interested in publicity for our blogs/digital presence. Apparently for a law firm in the UK we are quite forward thinking and progressive! I said we would be VERY happy to... so watch this space!

I am now going to join the CopeBusiness Forum and use this to share knowledge and further our social networking!