This document outlines a strategy for a video marketing campaign on social media. It recommends setting objectives and identifying the target audience. It then provides tips for public relations, uploading to YouTube, sharing on Facebook and Twitter, paid advertising, outreach, email marketing, making it easy to share, and preparing for potential issues. The strategy was used for a Go Granny parody video by Network Solutions around the 2011 Super Bowl, which received over 60,000 YouTube views and millions of social media impressions within a week.

1. Strategy for a Video Campaign by Shashi Bellamkonda & Lisa Byrne 02/13/2011

2. How does Network Solutions spell social media success? How about with a 500% increase in .co domain name sales. We classify that as a Network Solutions touchdown (or win) – without running a $3 M Super Bowl ad. How did we do it? How can you as a small business learn from our experience.

3. Set Objectives Decide on your objectives which could be one or all of these Brand Awareness Media Consumer Buzz around products A message that people will share Increased Traffic Increased sales

4. Identify Your Audience WHO are you trying to reach, where are they, and what do they respond to? TIMING is imperative for your launch/release – when are you most likely to grab their attention?

5. Public Relations You still need a traditional press release! And a Social Media release

6. Upload to YouTube Second largest search engine after Google Add relevant tags when uploading Be direct with the title for search purposes Search similar videos and add a comment Add your own video as a response to other/similar/competing videos Engage and respond to people who comment on your video – positive and negative

7. Share on Facebook Create an early buzz by posting status updates relevant to the topic of your video Post a link to YouTube (or landing page) from your Company Page Post from personal pages (employees can help a lot) Link to other relevant Facebook pages

8. Share on Twitter Consider new/separate Twitter account to represent a character or object in the video Create custom Twitter backgrounds and profile images – add to company accounts, personal accounts, new account (if relevant) Search for hashtags relevant to your topic, add them in your tweets Create your own custom hashtag for the video, add to all tweets without or without the video Prepare a number of tweets ahead of time to allow more real-time engagement with reactors Set up search queries around your subject and interact directly with people talking about it Reply to people who interact with you, retweet their comments to continue the conversation

9. Paid Advertising Banner ads strategically placed where your target markets is web surfing Facebook ads can be specifically targeted also (even directly to the fans of competitors pages) Consider print ads (add a QR code they can scan to watch the video, bring print to the mobile in their hand)

10. Outreach to Community & Influencers Work within your community to reach out for assistance, advise your network ahead of time that you are working on something big! Remind them when it releases Consider an outside PR company who can expand this reach to specific online influencers Interact directly with these influencers through Twitter to help create a buzz

11. Email Send as a special update to your current distribution list Include a link to the video in your next newsletter and share some of the successes If you have a large company share it with your employees initially through email Have your team add a link to the video in their email signature, encourage this company-wide

12. Make it Easy to Share Create a dedicated landing page for the video on your website Embed the video (code from YouTube so as not to divide the number of views) Add additional outtakes, production photographs, funny one-liners on this page Include EASY SHARE options and place them prominently on the page. Add This has an ideal button that pulls out (highlights) the Facebook Like button and the Twitter Tweet button for one-click sharing, along with an option to share on multiple sites with 2-clicks

13. Prepare for a Crisis or Controversy You can’t please everybody! Accept that and keep going Consider all possible negative feedback ahead of time Prepare various responses to possible concerns and tailor them to reply on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogs, mainstream media, detailed emails Create talking points should you receive phone calls or meet people in person

14. Other Things to Consider Release a pre-promotional or teaser video Add the video link as status or mood message to your IM accounts

15. Go Granny Parody Video On February 4 th , 2011 Network Solutions® launched their Go Granny parody video featuring Cloris Leachman to coincide with Super Bowl weekend, and won the public vote in the social media sphere. Online sentiment about the Go Granny video campaign is currently at 97.5% percent, and the Twitter stream gained attention from social media notables like Guy Kawasaki, Scott Monty, Liz Strauss and Jason Falls. A simultaneous launch on the website, Facebook page, YouTube channel, blog properties, Twitter streams and in online banner ads was followed by a three day social media blitz. On game day, when GoDaddy revealed its new girl, the social media channels lit up with comments. While Go Daddy took heat for puzzling views with a body double for Joan Rivers, Go Granny /Cloris Leachman was celebrated as a social media sweetheart. View video at http://networksolutions.com/video

16. As of February 12 th , 2011 YouTube: 60k views, 135 likes, 4 dislikes & 84 comments Other Social Media Channels: 8.3M Impressions Media/Blogs : 14.6M Impressions Twitter: 18M Impressions & 2,600 Tweets

17. Thank you Employees Network Solutions Social Advisory Board Facebook fans Twitter community Friends and colleagues Blog readers http://womengrowbusiness.com http://networksolutions.com/blog http://networksolutions.com/smallbusiness DC community