Here is a slide show with voice over that will be combined with live video and turned into Flash for the Help-U-Sell Franchise Sales website. It’s intended to distinguish Help-U-Sell from ordinary real estate to prospective franchisees. I think the message has broader appeal, though.
The final will will have a talking head (me) running in front of this show, kind of like what your local TV weather person does in front of a moving map. What’s here is just PowerPoint with voice over, converted into a movie and uploaded to YouTube (and then embedded here in the blog). I did this not only to share the video and the information, but also to test what I’ve been squawking about so much lately: that YouTube video can be a valuable tool in becoming attractive to Search Engines.
Tami Patzer taught me (all of us, actually) that Google will index video uploaded to YouTube and will actually transcribe the voice track, turning it into searchable text. This little video is packed with the kinds of phrases consumers and prospective franchisees might use in search strings. Also, Google LOVES video (notice, next time you do a Google search, the prominent placement video is given on the first page of results) so, in theory, I should get more than my share of hits.
All of that is technical mambo-jumbo; but if you’re in business today – any business – and you don’t have someone paying attention to these kinds of issues, you’re missing the boat. By and large, consumers are shopping online and your ability to be found online is directly related to your chances for success. You have to use all of the tools and constantly add to your tool box as you build a solid online presence.
That’s one of the great things about Help-U-Sell that’s not mentioned on this little show: the technical leadership the company provides to its members. We not only own and host our own websites (no outside vendors to mess things up), we have designed them to be easily customized, optimized and localized by our offices. We also hold weekly tech webinars where we continually upgrade and enhance our members’ knowledge about doing business in the Internet age.