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Social Media, Social Media, Social Media: The Key To Marketing
We understand that no matter what industry your business takes part in, social media marketing with video will play an integral role in sharing your brand, your messages, and your products or services. Need to reach a new audience or connect with your current audience? Social media. Struggling to increase sales? Social media. Trying to surpass your competitors and make a profound mark in your field? Social media. This all might sound redundant, but it’s essential that you capitalize on the strong opportunity to connect with your consumers through one of the most influential platforms. Add video to the mix and watch your results skyrocket!

Now, you might be wondering which platforms specifically have the greatest chance of producing the highest returns. Facebook still dominates the marketplace, with nearly 2.5 million monthly active users (MAU). Coming in second place, we see YouTube holding a significant market share of 2 million MAU, while Instagram is home to 1 million MAU.

What Should You Do?
Like we’ve mentioned, social media marketing is a necessity for excelling in today’s digital age. Social media has truly become an indispensable part of everyday life. Defining and reaching your target audiences on each platform will tremendously benefit your business. But beyond that, you also need to ensure that the messages you share resonate with your audiences. Simply knowing where your audiences are located and reaching them isn’t enough; distributing a message they remember will allow you to really make your mark.

At Gemstone Media, we assist you with everything: consulting, defining your needs, developing a strategy, and producing creative digital content that will translate on social media. Your marketing content needs to have a story that not only promotes your brand and services but also makes people remember who you are. That way, they’ll feel more inclined to choose you over your competitor. You’ll witness substantial ROIs on your investment in social media marketing — and we’re here to help.

Clarifying the Most Common Video Marketing Myths                                                                                 

Gemstone Media Inc. is a nationally recognized media production company, we’re a big proponent of video marketing.  We believe video helps your business. Our belief is deeply rooted in analytics and creative storytelling. According to Gemstone’s President, Philip L. Green, in just one year, we’ve seen a 57% increase in the effectiveness of video marketing we have produced for our clients. In the past five years, it’s been an amazing 83% increase. We know that more than 99% of our clients have a significant positive return on their investment. With that in mind, let’s discuss the video marketing myths that Green debunked.

Myth: “Video is too expensive”

Truth: Budget is trivial in comparison to quality content that delivers results you desire

• Video tells your story better than anything- sight, sound, color, motion, and best of all…emotion
• Consumers appreciate and respond to authentic, compelling stories that are engaging
• The value of your message is paramount
• Video drastically increases social media shares and engagement rates
• We work with a wide array of budgets to meet the needs of our clients

Myth: “People won’t watch videos”

Truth: Video is the most dynamic type of content since the beginning of time

• Increases open rates for your communications from emails to social media
• Increases the amount of time spent on your website
• Boosts click-through rates for landing pages on your site
• Encourages social media shares

 

 

Myth: “Video is difficult to track”

Truth: Dozens of resources give all the tracking data you could ever want, all in one place

• We offer enablement platforms to provide comprehensive insights about consumers for our clients
• Video is linear;  we integrate platforms and can tell you what your viewers watched, skipped, and shared
• This data helps shape your understanding of your consumers’ demographic and psychographic characteristics

Myth: “We can’t benefit from using video”

Truth: From CPA’s to Landscapers the bottom line is consumers crave high-quality video content

• 94% want to see more video content from marketers
• 97% of consumers enjoy watching entertaining videos on social media
• Video was the #1 form of content strategy in 2020
• Video works better than anything else

 

 

 

 

 

Myth: “We produce video ourselves on our iPhone”

Truth: Many amateurs can and do, however, our clients know the professional work done by our skilled technicians will be high-quality video and audio production.

They say “it’s like night and day”. 

And, with our award-winning Gemstone creative production team, the process of creating quality video marketing content becomes even easier for you. We guarantee it.

Use video; see results. Gemstone Media Inc. will make you look great. “See the difference”!

What is Live Streaming?

At its core, live streaming refers to the online streaming of media that’s simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real time. Think of those football games you watch, or those live shows, concerts, and conferences. All of them require a media production team that sets up equipment (cameras, lighting, microphones) so that an event can be viewed on a TV, computer, cell phone or ipad as it’s taking place.

Why Live Streaming is a Necessity

Your business needs to stay connected to your audiences and customers. The pandemic is not going away anytime soon. Many face-to-face interactions have become difficult to achieve as social distancing is a necessity. Live streaming is the tool that bridges the gap between you and your clients. As you know, there is  just “ok” live streaming such as what you see on a zoom call  (with poor sound, lighting and fuzzy) or  and “outstanding” live streaming such as what Gemstone guarantees. The production values make all the difference.  In this side by side photo, the news anchor looks clean and clear and sounds great- but the interviewee looks horrible and sounds worse. You don’t have to settle for being “that guy”.

According to a recent survey, 81% of media and marketing executives think virtual gatherings, conferences and corporate communications will be the only option for businesses through 2021. And that’s for all sorts of events, big and small! It’s not just our opinion – take it from Marketing Dive, a website that provides statistics and news about trends shaping the marketing industry.

The “Future of the ‘In-Person’ Business Economy” study found that most industry professionals expect a virtual future for business communications, meetings and events, even after the pandemic subsides. That’s a 42% rise in that opinion from the Spring of 2020 to current day. Most businesses are already hopping onto that trend, capitalizing on the new necessity for high quality videos. As internet, social media, and television use has drastically spiked in recent months, it’s crucial for you to adapt to the new trends so that your business can look and sound “outstanding”, so that you can engage your audience and so that ultimately your business can prosper.

What Can Gemstone Do?

Pretty much…well…everything! We can live stream any type of event to any online platform we can make it look and sound “outstanding”!  Gemstone Media has an award winning creative team of  highly skilled “live certified” technicians. We utilize a proven proprietary system does not require the use of your internet or even power sources. We can even customize an entirely new platform for you, so that your audience can still engage in your events.  We have been recognized nationally for the live stream work we are doing for our cleints. We’ve created a quick video for you to see exactly how we do it: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=623420664939136 

Let us assist you. “See the difference”!

What Does it Mean to Have Integrity?

Former Harvard Business School professor Michael Jensen sheds light on the true meaning of integrity in his research paper, “Integrity: Without It Nothing Works.” Jensen says that integrity is the practice of honoring your word and never giving your word to two or more things that are mutually inconsistent. Therefore, having integrity is a necessary condition for maximum performance; it’s also a pathway to being trusted by others.

Integrity is Business at Gemstone

Here at Gemstone Media, it’s important for us to interpret Jensen’s writing in a business context. We say “integrity has a critical effect on our business:  and it is in the form of increased performance.”

We think of integrity as a law, like the Law of Gravity. When the Law of Integrity is respected, you’ll experience enormous performance increases.  We have experienced a 300% increase in our business because this concept is fundamental to our operations and our relationships.

Gemstone Media’s Commitment to Integrity

We value integrity. It’s not just an abstract idea to us, but rather a critical part of our DNA, a lifestyle; a practice; a way we keep ourselves accountable to our clients at all times. The media production industry can be fast-paced and even cutthroat when competition inevitably emerges. Amid this environment, we still choose to operate upon integrity – always – while many other companies are missing that link and instead prioritizing shiny numbers over you. We have seen many agencies and production companies who made promises that they couldn’t deliver and who didn’t operate with integrity collapse and disappear over the last decade and a half. While we have been steady in our practice and retained more that 96% of our clients.

At Gemstone Media,  we give our word, we honor it. That’s why we offer a 100% satisfaction money back guarantee. Everyone who has dealt with us from clients to vendors to contractors would  whole heartily agree. So, when we say we prioritize our clients and exceed expectations, we do. When we say we’ll meet your deadlines, we will. When we say our advice is rooted in decades of expertise, it is. When we say we’re committed to using only the best equipment and design the strongest strategies to meet your needs, we are. We we say “world class customer service”, we mean it and you can expect it! We put you on the red carpet everytime!

We feel our integrity bridges the gap between impersonality and authenticity. Because we bridge that gap, our clients know they’re not numbers to us; they’re a part of our Gemstone family. The positive results of this symbiotic relationship can be seen in the beautiful professional quality of our productions as well as the smooth as glass production process itself.  You can count on us.

 

 

 

We’re in a Digital Age. It’s Time to Use Video Marketing.

The WHY Behind Digital Marketing

It doesn’t matter if you’re a freelancer, small business, or multinational corporation. Across the board, there’s two major steps in every business: attraction and conversion. The brain processes videos 60,000 times faster than text, giving potential customers lots of information quickly (attraction). More information allows you to better represent what you do or sell, thereby leading customers to make confident purchasing decisions (conversion).

If customers are demanding more video content, why wouldn’t you want to use video marketing?

What Else Does Digital Marketing Do For Your Business?

Well, people are 39% more likely to share your content on social media if it’s delivered via video. Social media is a “must” nowadays – and using it to your advantage will increase traffic to your website. Sure, this requires some investments, but it also lets your company reach new audiences. As the market becomes more saturated, you need to separate yourself from the pack.

Think of it this way: Nearly 5 billion videos are watched daily on YouTube. If you don’t embrace this phenomenon, you might lose large audiences. Videos define your brand and help consumers easily process a cost-benefit analysis of using your company or its products.

Where To Go From Here

Arguably, the most important tactic is to “do it right.” This means having a smart strategy as a foundation for your videos, while also executing it properly. And there’s where Gemstone Media comes into play. With decades of experience, we work with you during every step of strategy all the way through the finished production. Whether it be for your website or internal communication needs, we want to help your business reach its fullest potential. Video marketing is a necessity, and we’re here to do a first class job for you.

We want to share a few highlights that speak to Gemstone Media’s character. We can talk about how we prioritize you, so let’s hear it first-hand from our from folks who know, our clients.

• “Gemstone Media goes above and beyond every time to ensure my company is taken care of”
• “Ultra professional, well organized, reliable, and they are always prepared”
• “Professionalism and attention to every detail”
• “First-class operation run by first-rate people, can’t say enough about how they boosted our business”
• “Gemstone has been amazing to work with…listening to our organizational goals and showing us how to communicate via video”
• “The spirit of excellence show through in everything they deliver”
• “They go the extra mile to facilitate our media- including planning, negotiating, placement and reconciliation. Our sales have grown by more than 50% because of what Gemstone did for us. ”

We could talk for hours on end about the ways we’ve seen video benefit the companies that have hired us – and they can attest to it, too. But sometimes testimonials alone aren’t enough, so we’d like to share the cold hard facts.

	The Numbers	The Explanation
Video Trends	72%	72% of consumers prefer learning about a product or service through video rather than through text.
	81%	81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, which is a near-20% increase from last year. Are you one of them?
	95%	Viewers retain 95% of a message from video, compared to 10% from text.
Video Marketing	300% → 53x	With video, your website receives 300% more traffic and is 53x more likely to reach Google’s front page.
	64%	64% of consumers will make a purchase after watching branded videos.
	2.6x	People spend 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.
	97%	97% of marketers say video helped users gain a better understanding of their products and services.
Social Media (SM) Videos	1200%	SM videos generate 1200% more shares than text and image content combined.
	48%	Posts with video receive 48% more views.
	75M	75 million people visit Facebook’s video platform daily.

The numbers do matter – a lot. But please remember: We do this stuff because we want to help your business reach its fullest potential. We’re passionate about it.

It seems fitting to quote ourselves… “See the difference!” What’s the “difference”? Our strategy. We blend decades of expertise with unique tools to achieve your vision. Some of our many tools include personalized consulting, unwavering honesty, top-of-the-line video equipment, and fast yet detailed post-production. You’re our priority, and video is the vessel through which we achieve your vision.

Statistics obtained from:

https://biteable.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics/?fbclid=IwAR3t1NSJ1RvKfyy3nDLpSYNOeBgkAJxnGO0Go–D0sOyVFLKypjKNult3oI

The what’s what and who’s who:  Media. This word is seemingly abstract and perhaps daunting in that it encompasses a platform through which entire societies escape, or become more connected to, reality. One of the most common sources of media includes television, which in itself contains an abundance of layers and implications. From cord-cutting to greater use of digital platforms, television has rapidly transformed over the past decades. Consumer control has increased, forcing networks to succumb to expectations in fear of losing audiences and ratings.

The traditional television ecosystem includes several big, linear-styled networks that dominate programming with limited consumer choice. According to Guillaume Morel’s “Linear vs. Non-Linear Television” article, a linear system of television is defined as having a schedule, decided unilaterally by someone at the channel headquarters. On the other hand, non-linear television is considered to be more modern, allowing us to choose what time we watch what we want to see. As a result, many consumers are transitioning into the non-linear sphere, drawn by a sense of autonomy that comes with the power of choice and on-demand access to programs.

What’s really happening, and why? National and centralized networks are already witnessing a steady decrease in audiences. In fact, Nielsen reported that over 30% of American households tuned into NBC during primetime in the 1950s, but that figure decreased to only 5.2% in the early 2000s. This decrease is exacerbated by high programming costs, such as an average of $3 million needed to run a one-hour network drama. Thus, networks struggle with charging high advertising rates in the face of declining ratings. Coupled with a competitive television playing field, these challenges accumulate into great levels of uncertainty about sustainability.

A saving grace: It’s easy to overlook local television stations, stereotyped as small players amid the “Big 5” networks. But they may be the key to helping their affiliates stay afloat. The Knight Foundation indicates that here, revenue remains strong, costs are dropping, and the regulatory environment is likely to allow consolidation, which suggests local stations’ strong advantages in the face of the overall ecosystems’s adversity.

Still, though, that may not be enough. More and more, we’ve seen social media play a pivotal role, and it’ll likely become even more useful for local news and non-news programs. As local stations learn to monetize their social media efforts, they might see payoff in terms of reach and increased audience engagement.

What should they do? Despite the potential decrease in traditional, linear television programming, social media will become more than a mere supplementary tool; it will become the backbone to longevity. The possibilities for change are truly endless. The sort of popular addiction to such media opens an array of opportunities for television leaders to infiltrate and advance the programming ecosystem according to profitability and consumer preference. Consumers dictate and act upon their preferences, leaving programmers with no choice but to adapt to demands.

The past: It’s all relative. That’s probably one of the most applicable phrases when talking about technology. We often label the days without streaming services as “simpler times” without considering the context in which past generations lived. Sometimes, they’d rely on routinely scheduled programs, resting assured that their favorite sitcom would appear every Tuesday at 8 PM; other times, they’d browse through vast collections of DVDs and VHS tapes to rewatch a movie for the seemingly one-hundredth time. Albeit in-person mediums, Blockbuster and Redbox quickly became the links to new content, essentially serving as the modern equivalents of Netflix.

Yes, looking back, those days may seem “simple” to us. But for many, those days were colored by unprecedented options and complexities, relative to witnessing and experiencing past limited access to media. Blockbuster, Redbox, and even the television alone were revolutionary to those who knew nothing else, just as our current digital media might become outdated in the years to come.

The present: Who could’ve predicted the massive impact streaming services would have on our access to digital media? 2007 witnessed the emergence of Netflix; 2008, the emergence of Hulu; 2019, the emergence of Disney+. The list goes on, with 165 million hours watched daily across the globe on Netflix alone. All it takes to gain access is internet connection, a device with a screen, and less than 20 bucks per month. It’s like a digital utopia: thousands of programs available with the click of a button. We no longer need gas to get to a video store or remote controls to robotically click through channels.

But is it really all that different? Our media consumption has certainly changed, but upon closer inspection, the similarities are glaring.

Sure, content options have quadrupled. We expect everything to come at an on-demand rate so we can binge watch entire seasons without interruption. We even find ourselves posting to social media to bond with strangers over that one plot-twisting scene. Yet, we still have our routines. We make pacts with our families and friends to watch programs of mutual interest together at specified times. We take our time in choosing what to watch, swayed by ratings and critics. We use media as a way to connect, a way to share laughs and anger and cries. The mediums have changed, but have our behaviors?

The future: History repeats itself. The future is guaranteed to see even greater technological developments and advancements toward the online sphere. Perhaps, the television may become obsolete in similar fashion to Blockbuster and Redbox. Years down the line, streaming may evolve into a powerful medium beyond our wildest expectations. Future generations may look back on 2020 with sentiments similar to our current views on past generations’ access to media. Moreover, streaming in 2020 could eventually be considered a mere stepping stone to future media hubs. However, like we’ve repeatedly observed, we’ll always be drawn to a basic human need: meaningful connection to others beyond the digital realm.