blog

There’s a website in Kansas City called FinditKC.com -  http://finditkc.com/

They bill themselves as Kansas City’s first online video business directory.  FinditKC was developed by a Chris Olsen, an ex TV anchor, reporter, producer, and videographer, and Ben Palmatier, a tech guy/web guy. They’re smart, really nice guys with a great idea.

What they do is to shoot and host video stories about local Kansas City businesses. The stories are more like a TV feature than a spammy propaganda video.  It’s informational content that helps viewers make informed decisions, and helps business owners effectively tell their story.

FinditKC offers help with social media marketing, email, websites and the like, a total solution. They host the videos on YouTube which allows advertisers to embed or link the content through other marketing. They’re helping tell business owners in Kansas City tell their story, build buzz, and land new business.  If you’re in business in the Kansas City area, please check them out.

I think local media around the U.S. could take a lesson from these guys. Newspapers, radio and TV stations have tools and resources to follow the lead of FinditKC.  Local media also has sales boots on the ground and huge local traffic they can channel to video pages.  They need to be a part of the total social media marketing solution, including video, SEO, email, VLOG’s, instead of just being space vendors.

Video marketing and its supporting avenues should be an integral part of traditional media’s sales tools.  But the reality is, too many publishers and station owners want to do things they way they always have, not investing in the time, training, and equipment they need.  Fundamentally, traditional media have a single marketing function – to help local business owners tell their story and land new customers.

Video does this better than any other tool.  It tells stories better, shares passion, helps SEO and search rankings, can be used in online display ads , email, webpages, Facebook, etc.

The guys in FinditKC are doing it right.  Newspapers, radio and TV people – what are you doing?

I’m currently refining my new live program “The Video Marketing Revolution” and will have it ready for all in early 2012.  If you’d like to book a date or a webinar, let me know ASAP as dates fill fast.

FinditKC has some great stats on video marketing that you may want to check out here – http://finditkc.com/video-statistics-the-impact-of-video.

Share on Facebook

Welcome to my blog!

I plan to use this blog as a vehicle to further my mission; which is, to help newspapers reclaim their position as the primary local marketing venue.  I believe that newspapers today are poised at a critical junction.  Revenues for most newspaper are soft, circulations are declining, and the public perception is that they’re at death’s door.

But I see a different picture.  I see newspapers’ today audience as larger than they’ve ever been, with in-paper and online numbers  as huge.  A senior VP at a huge dot com told me that he was envious of newspapers position – that they had huge local audiences, the trust of the public, salespeople on the ground with local relationships, and all the tools to totally dominate the local marketing scene. They only thing they lacked was the online know-how to transform those huge audience numbers into revenue.

The solution, I believe, is to fundamentally change the way newspaper create and sell advertising and marketing services. And that, my friends, is what I plan to dedicate my time to.

I’ll post both in written form and video form my observations, insights, and ideas for how newspapers can engineer a renaissance and retake their position as the dominant local marketing force.

All I ask is that you keep reading or watching, contribute to the conversation, and spread the word.

Share on Facebook