The Art of Going Viral with Video ft. President Obama

This past Sunday, Feb. 15, was the deadline for people to sign up for healthcare coverage. While this is a priority for many people across the country, millennials have been elusive and have proven to be a hard demographic to appeal to with this message.

President Obama wanted everyone, especially millennials, to sign up for healthcare coverage. There are two great ways to connect with this powerful demographic: social media marketing and viral videos; so, to connect with Millennials, the President utilized those mediums, especially the video part. Obama and Buzzfeed Motion Pictures created a video to promote Healthcare.gov. 

The results that speak of the video's success are still being calculated; however, the popularity of the video is tremendous, having been watched 15 million times in its first eight hours. By the end of last night, the video surpassed 42 million views.

In the video, we see President Obama doing American-Millennial things like taking a selfie on his iPhone with a selfie-stick, blaming Obama for something (you know the sarcastic phrase, "Thanks, Obama."). However, the point of the video is hidden in his speech practice that is done in front of the mirror.

Obama is no shy person to social media, using it heavily in both Presidential campaigns and for other efforts, such as his Reddit AMA, chats with YouTube stars, and other creative projects.

Does your business need to reach a difficult demographic with its marketing? Does your business want to improve its social media presence? Then email Integraphix and our Chicago creative marketing team can help you strategize! 

Local SEO in 2015: Maps & Review Sites are Key

When you want to do great internet marketing and search engine optimization, for your business, you have to look at optimizing and promotion beyond your website. In regards to a local business, this means considering maps and review sites.

If you only do internal SEO, then you are missing out on some serious promotion for your site. When Google released the Pigeon update back in July 2014, it put more emphasis on local SEO. Directory/review sites such as Yelp now have the possibility of ranking above a business's website.

Do a search for "bakery in [your local city]". You will have to go past map listings and then, likely some Yelp or other review site listings, THEN you will find some websites.

So what can you do to rank well? 

Set up your Google My Business account. List your site and make sure all information is 100% correct. You can create a listing or claim ownership of an existing one. This is a free service and will help a lot.

Utilize Yelp. Yelp gets a lot of flack for "fake reviews. Any review site will (and does) have fake reviews on the site. Guaranteed. However, it is a great place to have your business listed and get good reviews because it can really help with Google rankings. Make sure to claim your business on Yelp.

Optimize any and all listings. Claim your listings. Verify information. Add photos, hours of operation, contact info, vanity URL, and other important information. Our Chicago SEO company makes sure this is done for all clients because it helps so much.

Gather some reviews and testimonials. Have people give you reviews (don't buy them or ask your family members) but when you have a customer, ask them to fill out a review. Also, ask around for some testimonials. You won't want to ask for reviews on sites, as that is often frowned upon.

Engage with people. On social media and review sites, talk to people. Respond to them. The more talking going on and the more traffic, the better it is for your site. This also shows people that your site is human-owned and run, not by robots. As a social media marketing firm, we can tell you that there is a massive difference in popularity and success of companies's online presence between those that are robotic vs. human.

Does your business need to be noticed on the web? Contact Integraphix and see how we can help you! Talk with our digital marketing team about search engine marketing and social media.