Should we use Social Media? Is it right for our business?
The majority of new aviation businesses will at some point consider what presence they need to have online. They will start with a website and then ask themselves the question should we use social media? Is it right for our business?
The answer to this question will depend on several things. There are plenty of aviation businesses that have no need of social media and many that don’t even have a website.
If your already have a lot of clients and your order book is filled with repeat orders from that client base then time, effort, and money spent on a website might be wasted. Similarly, marketing through social media will be low on your list of priorities.
On the other hand, you can achieve all your goals with just one social media account and a very basic brochure style website.
Flying into Cyberspace
If you are to realise your long term business goals you may need to lay some foundations now. Creating a website and making your mark in the world of social media may not pay any dividends in the short term, but further down the line you may wish you’d started earlier if you delay the entry into cyberspace.
If you’re in the aerial photography business a website, Instagram, Flickr, Vimeo, or YouTube account is the obvious place in which to showcase your completed projects.
Videos in particular are seen very favourably by Google in SEO terms. An active YouTube channel is a big plus, but SEO benefits are engineered by paying particular attention to the title, description, tags, and even the thumbnail.
You may have created a superb video with excellent editing and accompanying music, but if you haven’t given attention to the way the video is listed in YouTube then you may be missing a lot of traffic.
Sharing your work
Sharing your work on social media can expand your brand and attract potential leads. If you niche is aerial photography and perhaps Lidar then you might want to share you work with appropriate hashtags in order to draw the attention of prospective clients.
It’s worth doing a little research before choosing the right hashtags. If you want to attract the attention of decision makers in certain geographic areas then the choice of hashtag is of paramount importance. Quantity is important too. 1-3 hashtags is about right, but more than four can seem like a confusing message.
With your carefully crafted aerial photography video uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo you can share this on Facebook, Twitter, and your LinkedIn company page using your choice of hashtags. If it’s of sufficient quality and interest viewers will also share it, but you have no control over which hashtags they will use.
Generating Passive Income
It costs nothing to open a YouTube account and you can quickly learn now to upload your choice videos as each is completed.
If your videos are of interest to the many millions of viewers with an insatiable appetite for new material then your video may well become a source of passive income through advertising.
Monetising videos in this way is easily done provided that the images, video, and music used is licensed correctly. It’s simply a matter of managing your YouTube account settings for each video submitted.
Anyone can learn to do all of this, given enough time, but if your time is already filled with other tasks why not let someone who has already learned the ropes do it for you.
Contact me to discuss how we can make best use of YouTube and other social media accounts to showcase your work and attract new clients.
