Top Real Estate Agent Dawn Dause Sponsors New Home Listing Video Pages On YouTube and Facebook For …

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Dawn Dause, founder of The Dawn Dause Group and #1 RE/MAX agent in Plainfield, IL sponsors the only updated-daily, home listing video sites in existence for the cities of Plainfield and Shorewood, Illinois titled “Plainfield Living” and “Shorewood Living”. The publisher of both city pages is Downers Grove, Illinois resident Mark Imperial, founder of Imperial Action, with offices in Oak Brook, IL and Naperville, IL. Imperial Action is the only Digital Agency specializing in home video listings for Realtors and Lenders with a radio program on-the-air.

Explaining the Home Video Listings process, Imperial said, “We are fortunate to be able to promote these pages on radio, online, along with other media. Folks who want to sell or purchase a home want to know their Realtor is current with all the ways people prefer to research homes, and the number one way has always been videos and photos. By sponsoring both ‘Plainfield Living’ and ‘Shorewood Living’, Dawn assures her sellers and buyers they are covering the biggest places where sellers and buyers are — including Google, YouTube, and Facebook. Our system provides marketing that the ‘big’ real estate sites do not and cannot provide, which I share with agents and lenders on a 10-minute demo by phone”.

When asked the benefits for the consumer, Imperial explained, “You know how when you search for an address of a home you want to buy, you mostly see just static listings? Our videos stand out, and because the buyer prefers to watch a video of the home, they watch and are immediately given the agent sponsor’s contact info so they can call the agent to tour the home. Once they see one video, they are shown more videos from the agent or lender, and the buyer will immediately know that these YouTube and Facebook pages have all of the videos of homes in the city they want to search. For the page sponsor(s), this of course, all leads those folks to the 1 Agent or 1 Lender who sponsors the city page.”

Imperial clarified that the pages are compliant to local Real Estate codes of ethics by stating “The benefit is that our sponsor’s contact information is given first thing on every home listing video. However, if the listing belongs to another agent, to remain compliant, we keep the original agent’s information intact, it’s just at the bottom. Also, since we are a third-party publisher of the pages, we are allowed to promote all the listings in the city, while agents cannot directly do that individually. This is important to know”.

Imperial is bringing the technology to other Illinois cities, as new city pages on YouTube and Facebook are being launched each week. The popularity with Brokers, Agents, and Mortgage professionals has spread due to the fact that they can be the exclusive provider of this level of marketing for their sellers and buyers in a particular city they serve.”

Imperial said, “Because we create new, unique listing videos each day for the city page, we can only do this for one agent, one office, or one lender in any given city. This is due to the way Google ranks video, they will not show duplicate content when people search. Having only one exclusive agent or lender assures the marketing works”.

Imperial explains why only top producing offices sponsor his pages by saying, “Agents like Dawn Dause are #1 for a reason – they understand the whole picture of Marketing and Selling a home, beyond just the tactics – and that’s why they’re successful. They understand the need for 1) Platform 2) Message 3) Audience Traffic. These City Pages offer all 3 elements. Less successful performers only focus on tactics and new gimmicks, which there are no shortage of. Successful offices stick with the fundamentals that work, and apply only the new technology that are rooted in the fundamentals. Most marketing being offered to Real Estate Professionals today are only pieces that are missing the fundamentals of how people buy. Not a criticism because even broken tactics can work a little, however they need to understand the whole picture if they want strong, consistent results”.

Having already secured several big cities in Illinois, including Naperville, Plainfield, and Shorewood to name a few, Imperial is expecting many of the most popular cities to be taken by 2018.

Marketing, Publishing, and Producing media to help match consumers with products and professionals has been the specialty for Mark Imperial for over 23 years.

Summarizing his experience, Imperial said, “In the advertising and marketing world, we know one principle that brings fast and greatest growth — and that is the fact that the most successful professionals have one thing in common: they control a platform, whether in-print, on the radio, TV, or the web. Like Oprah, Dave Ramsey, or even the Real Estate shows on TV. They control the media, therefore control the action, and this gives them tremendous advantage. This is why I choose to focus mainly on Publishing Media that my clients can control, such as Radio, TV, Podcasting and Digital Platforms. Sponsoring digital properties like ‘Plainfield Living’ or ‘Shorewood Living’ are examples of controlling a platform so they are seen as having the power and being the one-and-only choice in that area”.

Mark Imperial is a best-selling author, radio host, Marketer-of-the-Year runner up, and founder of Imperial Action, a customer-generation company specializing in publishing digital media, radio, and video, and the only digital agency of its kind on-the-air. Offices are located in Oak Brook and Naperville, IL. Mr. Imperial has been helping businesses generate clients and customers for over 23 years and his clients are thrilled with their results. Profile: https://goo.gl/JfygMs

Imperial concluded by saying “We are seeing a lot of exposure for these homes, along with the Agents and Lenders who bring these videos to the public, and it’s only getting stronger. We publish all the listings in each city, so the exposure grows quickly starting from day one. The more videos we publish for our sponsors, the more exposure for the homes and the bigger our agents’ footprints become. Everyone wins, from the consumer to the agents, and that’s what will make this a win-win project.”

To learn more about Home Listing Video YouTube and Facebook Pages, to see which cities remain available for sponsorship, and for a 10-minute demonstration of the system by phone, Mark Imperial can be reached by email: mark@markimperial.com or on his agency website at http://www.imperialaction.com/

Mark Imperial’s radio programs can be found at:
http://www.remarkableradioshow.com/

Self-marketing plays role in athletes landing scholarship offers

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The Columbus North and East football rosters annually are stacked with athletes who have the talent to play at the collegiate level.

Since college coaches don’t have the opportunity to see every one of those players in action, whether a college scholarship is offered sometimes rests in the way high school athletes — with the help of their coaches — market themselves.

If someone is a scholarship-level player, they’re probably on college programs’ radar by the time they get into their senior season, East coach Bob Gaddis said.

If a top player doesn’t have a scholarship offer by then, it doesn’t mean they’re not going to get one. It just means that colleges may wait to see game video from the player’s senior season and see what their needs are at that position before offering a scholarship.






“The (football) recruiting process starts so much earlier now, and it’s because of the technology and the one-day camps they can do in the summer,” Gaddis said.

“I’m still a firm believer that if you’re a Division I guy, they’re going to find you. Those guys don’t slip through the cracks, but there’s a lot of guys that go on and play college football that aren’t going to get a Division I scholarship, so we try to tell our guys to market themselves.”

These days, players can make their own digital highlight videos through the Hudl program, which can be uploaded to the Internet. East has its own video crew that shoots from above the press box and from the end zone. The technology allows college coaches to go online and view film on hundreds of players from across their recruiting territory.

To give college coaches a chance to see their players up close in their home environment, both East and North put on two-hour camps one evening each spring.

At the East camp this spring, about 30 coaches from colleges of all levels were greeted with a packet that included information such as each player’s name, their position, height, weight, phone number and email address. Files also typically include the student-athlete’s grade point average and SAT verbal and math scores.

Gaddis said coaches get all of their players’ academic information, and encourage players to look at colleges that are an academic match. He said players can find out important information about colleges and what they offer on the Internet.

“If it’s somebody who wants to be an engineer and play some college football, we tell them, ‘Find all the places within however far your comfort zone is that have engineering, and start a conversation with their recruiting coordinator,’ because it’s easy to find that information now,” Gaddis said.

North coach Tim Bless said live-scout recruiting is infrequent. But because of the video technology, college coaches can see what they need from that video.

Bless said offseason visits to junior days and one-day camps put on by colleges in the summer are big for players.

“It begins with your level of play on Friday night, and then obviously, it’s multi-faceted from there,” Bless said. “What Columbus East and us put on in-house in May is huge, too. That evening is full of college coaches from all three levels, so that’s a benefit that Columbus kids get that not too many high schools get.”

College football coaches have two recruiting windows in which they can evaluate high school prospects. The postseason recruiting window for high school seniors is in December and January. The spring evaluation period, during the final two weeks of April and all of May, is for juniors who will be seniors that fall.

Those periods are when most of the college coaches’ visits to prospects’ schools take place.

Bless said that opportunity for college football coaches to visit schools is unique. In most other sports, a lot of the recruiting is done during the club seasons instead of the high school seasons.

“Maybe basketball coaches are out in buildings. But the other sports, college coaches don’t come to the high schools anymore,” Bless said. “Fortunately, football is maybe the last bastion where your high school performance matters, and that’s how and where you’re recruited.”

Earning the scholarship

Two of Bless’ players at North this season have earned Division I scholarships.

Senior cornerback J.D. Harris verbally committed this summer to continue his career at Northern Illinois. Senior wide receiver Tristan Bailey verbally committed to Illinois State.

Bailey went to camps, including one at Illinois State. He said his performance during his junior year gave him opportunities to do more things in the summer to get his name out there.

Harris, the Bull Dogs’ all-time interceptions leader, said he thinks what he did both during the high school football season and in the offseason had a lot to do with his recruitment.

Sometimes at North and sometimes during visits at colleges, coaches would have him run 40-yard dashes, do different footwork drills and see how he catches the ball. Some coaches came in during the school day at North and watched him lift weights in weights class.

“I definitely think (earning a scholarship) had to do a lot with my regular-season play,” Harris said. “But the offseason was very important for me to get faster, stronger and then working on my footwork. Scouts came and saw me, so that helped a lot.”

Harris had offers from five Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) schools by the end of his junior year. Northern Illinois came through with an offer in early June.

With NIU being the first Football Bowl Subdivison (FBS) school to offer a scholarship, Harris visited the DeKalb, Illinois, campus and gave his verbal commitment.

“It was very nerve-racking up until that first offer, and then the offers started rolling in,” Harris said. “That was a huge weight off my shoulders.”

It was a big weight off his parents’ shoulders, as well.

His father took him to camps at Cincinnati and Toledo and two at Iowa, as well as an opening by Nike at the Chicago Bears training facility. His mother took him to a camp at Syracuse.

Harris’ father James lamented that colleges don’t pay players’ way to campus until they make official visits their senior year.

“Parents make a big sacrifice,” James Harris said. “There’s a lot of travel and expenses involved for a parent’s point of view. Everything comes out of our pocket, from food to the hotel rooms to gas. They can’t depend on the high schools and the recruiting agencies. You have to get your kids exposed. If I knew then what I know now, I would have got him out there a lot earlier.”

James Harris said his son had put together a basic e-mail with highlights on Hudl to send to colleges, but Northern Illinois wasn’t one of the schools he originally contacted. The elder Harris said the Mid-American Conference school found about him through a high school coach — whose identity he has yet to discover — in Indianapolis.

“We were always grateful for that because that was his best offer,” James Harris said. “Coming from a MAC school, that was big for us. NIU was his biggest and best offer. We just thought it was kind of peculiar and ironic that they found out about him through a high school coach out of Indianapolis. We’ve always been appreciative and thankful for that.”

Finding the right fit

Unlike some sports such as baseball and basketball, where top prospects often commit to colleges as sophomores, freshmen or even younger, football players usually don’t commit until after the spring recruiting period of their junior year.

Even then, recruits sometimes switch, or flip commitments. That was the case with 2016 East graduate Harry Crider.

The summer before his senior year, Crider verbablly committed to Virginia. But just before the high school season started, then-Indiana University coach Kevin Wilson came through with a similar full-scholarship offer.

Crider, who liked the idea of staying closer to home, filpped his commitment.

Wilson was fired after last year’s 6-7 season and replaced by defensive coordinator Tom Allen. But Crider, who could have opted out, stuck with IU. He signed his national letter-of-intent in January and the true freshman now is seeing action as the backup center.

Most of the Bull Dogs and Olympians who play college football, however, do it at smaller colleges which are at the Division II or III or NAIA level.

Division II athletes can earn scholarships, but Division III schools give out money only for academics. For those athletes, it’s usually a matter of seeking out colleges more than colleges seeking out them.

Since college football teams play on most Saturdays and often spend Fridays are on the road traveling, they don’t have the opportunity to see a lot of high school games in person.

Allen said he likes to get players to his summer camps to find out their real height and weight and how well they move. But he said the No. 1 variable in recruiting evaluation is the high school video.

“Then, you’re just kind of seeing how they compete,” Allen said. “You base everything you do over the summer off their junior year … What I like to see is, ‘How do they handle adversity? How are they as a leader? What do they do on the sideline? and just all those little intangible things that don’t show up on film.”

Crider said high school coaches typically are good at getting players in front of the right college coaches.

“I worked a lot with coach Gaddis,” Crider said. “He has a lot of connections, and it helps you. He set up a lot of meetings. If you work with your head coach, a lot can happen. You have to be patient and not settle too quick and shoot as high as you can.”

Columbus East and Columbus North each have five graduates currently playing Division I football:

Name;High school;College;Year;Position

Mitchell Burton;North;Miami (Ohio);Fr.;DB

Harry Crider;East;Indiana;Fr.;OL

Joe Gedeon;North;Indiana;R-Jr.;P

Markell Jones;East;Purdue;Jr.;RB

Rhett Myers;East;Air Force;Soph;TE

Steven O’Neal;East;Morehead State;Soph.;RB

T.C. O’Neal, East;Morehead State;Fr.;LB

David Redding;North;Miami (Ohio);Fr.;OL

Drew Schoeberl;North;Columbia;Soph.;OL

Thomas Shoaf;North;BYU;R-Soph.;OL

Texas Church Shooter’s Ex-Wife: ‘He Just Had a Lot of Demons’

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An ex-wife of Devin Kelley, who authorities have identified as the gunman responsible for the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, earlier this month, described his alleged abuse in a television interview.

“He just had a lot of demons or hatred inside of him,” Tessa Brennaman, 25, said on CBS’ Inside Edition.

Kelley had a history of domestic violence; TIME reported earlier this week that, in 2012, Tessa Kelley accused him of beating and choking her, breaking her infant son’s skull and threatening her with a gun. A military court charged Kelley with domestic violence and sent him to a mental hospital in New Mexico, but he briefly escaped. Later that year he pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges, and a year after that was discharged for bad conduct after spending a year in military prison, according to CBS News.

In her interview with CBS News, Brennaman describes how Kelley allegedly threatened her with a gun over a speeding ticket. “He took that gun out…. and he told me ‘do you want to die? do you want to die?’” she recalled. She also said he threatened to kill her and her whole family.

Kelley, 26, who died after the shooting, killed more than 26 people — including an 18-month-old baby — and injured at least 20 others when he opened fire at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on the morning of November 5. Officials said they believe the attack was the result of a domestic dispute, citing threatening messages Kelley had sent his mother-in-law, who was a member of the church.

According to the Associated Press, Kelley was able to obtain the weapons that he used because the Air Force did not relay his criminal past to the FBI. If they had, he wouldn’t have been able to buy a gun.

Roy Moore: Alabama voters will ‘see through this charade’ of sexual misconduct claims

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Alabama GOP Senate Nominee and suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore delivers remarks to the Mid-Alabama Republican Club. This is the first time Moore has spoken publicly since allegations of sexual misconduct with an underage girl. (Cameron Carnes/For The Washington Post)

VESTAVIA HILLS, Ala. — GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore spoke defiantly Saturday morning at a political gathering in Alabama that allegations against him amounted to “fake news” perpetrated by The Washington Post and political opponents engaged “in a desperate attempt to stop my campaign.”

The Post reported earlier this week that four women said Moore had pursued sexual or romantic relations with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.

“These campaign attacks are false and completely untrue,” Moore told an audience of more than a hundred supporters, who gave Moore several standing ovations during his speech at the Veterans Day breakfast.

“More than being completely untrue, they are deeply hurtful to me personally.” He talked about his marriage, four children and five granddaughters. “I have the highest regard for the protection of young children,” he said.

“To be attacked on allegations for sexual misconduct contradicts my entire career in law. I want to make it clear: . . . I have not been guilty of sexual misconduct with anyone. These allegations occur 4½ weeks before the election. Why now?”

Moore said he has been investigated more “than any other person in this country. To think that grown women would wait 40 years to come forward right before an election is absolutely unbelievable,” he said to a smattering of applause from the audience.

He said that details would emerge soon about the claims against him. “We expect the citizens of Alabama to see through this charade,” he said.

Moore arrived the event Saturday morning with his wife, Kayla, amid boos from about a dozen protesters gathered outside, including some chanting “No Moore.” The former Alabama chief justice refused to answer questions as he walked inside.

“I was horrified,” Lisa Wienhold, 56, who was protesting outside, said of the allegations. “I never liked Roy Moore that much, but when I heard about that, I was beyond horrified. . . . There are a lot of smart people who have been on the other side for whom maybe this will be the final straw.”


A protestor speaks to the media after Alabama GOP Senate Nominee and suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore delivers remarks before the Mid-Alabama Republican Club. (Cameron Carnes/For The Washington Post)

“I’m not surprised,” said Lisa Sharlach, 49. “It’s usually the people who are screaming God and Jesus that are the ones with skeletons in the closet.”

Half a dozen Moore supporters acknowledged Leigh Corfman, who said she was 14 when Moore initiated a sexual encounter with her, might have been telling the truth. But ultimately, they said, they do not believe her and are standing confidently by Moore.

“From what I’ve read, it seems like this 14-year-old girl who is now 50-something has a somewhat checkered past,” said Johnny Creel, 56, an insurance broker wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.

“You have to judge a story like that on the credibility of the accuser. … I don’t think it happened.”

Willie A. Casey, one of the few African Americans at the event, said the story is the “hottest thing going in Birmingham,” especially in the black community. But he said the allegations have not changed his position.

“I believe in his biblical principles,” said Casey, 70, comparing the United States to “Sodom and Gomorrah.” “I think in America, we’ve gone so far out of the Bible, someone needs to bring it back.”


Roy Moore Supporter Willie Casey before Alabama GOP Senate Nominee and suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore delivers remarks before the Mid-Alabama Republican Club. (Cameron Carnes/For The Washington Post)

Moore’s comments at his first public speaking engagement since The Post report followed a radio interview with Sean Hannity on Friday in which he addressed the charges of sexual misconduct. “These allegations are completely false and misleading,” Moore told Hannity. He specifically denied the Post report that he had a sexual encounter with Corfman in 1979. However, in the interview Friday, Moore did not rule out that he may have dated girls in their late teens when he was in his early 30s.

Some Republican women who attended the event Saturday said further allegations against Moore could change their feeling about him.

But on the whole, they continue to back “the judge,” they said.

“How come it has taken 40 years for this to come out?” asked Julie Palmer as she sat down inside the library. “Why after all these years?”

Ann Eubank, who helps lead a conservative group called Alabama Legislative Watchdogs, said The Post was part of a political conspiracy against Moore.

“Y’all chose the month before to bring a hit piece thinking you could influence how Alabamians vote. And that’s what makes Alabamians mad. Don’t come down here and tell us how to vote,” she said.

Corfman has said she thought of confronting Moore for years, and almost shared her story during his first campaign for state Supreme Court in 2000 before deciding against it. She worried about how it would affect her children, who were still in school at the time, and was concerned that her background — three divorces and a messy financial history — could undermine her credibility.

Moore, who won the Republican nomination touting his belief in the supremacy of a Christian God over the Constitution, has invoked a defiant tone.

His breakfast remarks occurred as a growing number of national party leaders called for Moore to leave the race before the Dec. 12 election. Two former GOP presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Mitt Romney, called for Moore to step down immediately, while Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Vice President Pence said Moore should step aside if the allegations prove true. On Friday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee pulled out of a joint fundraising committee with Moore, depriving him of a key pathway to securing campaign dollars.

Yet Saturday morning his campaign sent out its own appeal of support for Moore, who vowed he will not give up.

“The Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lapdogs just launched the most vicious and nasty round of attacks against me I’ve EVER faced,” he wrote in a fundraising appeal sent by the campaign under the name of his wife.

“Sometimes I grow tired and weary from the strain of moving directly from slugging it out with the GOP establishment to fighting off the powerful Obama-Clinton Machine’s constant stream of nasty and vicious attacks,” he wrote. “But our nation is at a crossroads right now — both spiritually and politically. . .rest assured I will NEVER GIVE UP the fight!” he wrote.

Republicans have been calling on Moore to drop out of the race even though the GOP wouldn’t be able to get another candidate on the ballot to run against Democrat Doug Jones, who was running a tight race against Moore even before the allegations surfaced.

Moore’s defenders in Alabama and elsewhere have been outspoken in his defense, questioning the Post report and asking why women would remain silent for decades before emerging to tell their stories weeks before the special election to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Stephen K. Bannon, the former adviser to President Trump who backed Moore in his recent primary against Sen. Luther Strange (Ala.), blamed the press, which he described in a speech Thursday night “as the opposition party. It is purely part of the apparatus of the Democratic Party.”

President Trump, traveling in Asia, has not spoken in depth about the allegations against Moore. But his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said: “Like most Americans, the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life. However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”

Read more at PowerPost

Trump careens off script on Russia after Putin meeting

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Donald Trump is pictured. | AP Photo

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on Nov. 11, 2017, while traveling to Hanoi, Vietnam. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

After a week of delicate diplomacy in Asia, the president on Saturday again dismissed U.S. intelligence officials’ claims of Russian election meddling.

DANANG, Vietnam — President Donald Trump stayed on script for more than a week as he crisscrossed through Asia — and then Russian President Vladimir Putin showed up.

After chatting with Putin on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit here, Trump abandoned the diplomatic tone the White House had carefully scripted for his five-country tour, once again contradicting the overwhelming consensus among current and former U.S. officials that the Russian leader manipulated the 2016 election.

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In a 26-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force One, the president managed to dismiss probes into whether his campaign colluded with Russia as an “artificial Democratic hit job,” said he believed Putin’s insistence that Russia did not attempt to interfere in the 2016 electon, and warned that the continued focus on Russian election meddling risks lives.

The president’s comments immediately reignited the politically volatile debate over Russia’s alleged efforts to propel Trump into the White House — and distracted from the administration’s Asia messaging.

« I am disturbed that our president believes a KGB agent and continues to refuse to believe the CIA. I can never remember a time in our history when this was so. I hope Trump’s national security team will be more forceful in convincing the president of the basic facts of Russia’s violation of our sovereignty last year,” said Michael McFaul, a professor of political science at Stanford University, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.

Sen. John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, was unsparing in his criticism of Trump’s remarks, dismissing them as naive and dangerous.

“There’s nothing ‘America First’ about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community. There’s no ‘principled realism’ in cooperating with Russia to prop up the murderous Assad regime, which remains the greatest obstacle to a political solution that would bring an end to the bloodshed in Syria, » he said in a statement. « Vladimir Putin does not have America’s interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naive but also places our national security at risk.”

Despite the unified assessment of the U.S. intelligence community — including CIA Director Mike Pompeo, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser Thomas Bossert, who have said they support the conclusion that Russian sought to manipulate the election — Trump said he takes the Russian president at his word when he denies directing the influence campaign.

« Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe, that when he tells me that, he means it,” Trump said. ”But he says, ‘I didn’t do that.’ I think he is very insulted by it, if you want to know the truth. Don’t forget. All he said was he never did that, he didn’t do that. I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”

Trump dismissed the meddling allegations as driven by Democrats, warning that the heavy focus on the issue threatens the United States’ ability to partner with Russia on key issues. He asserted that the allegations could fray the U.S.-Russia relationship so badly that the country could be less willing to cooperate on North Korea, Syria and other international crises — an outcome that would put lives at risk.

“This artificial Democratic hit job gets in the way and that’s a shame because people will die because of it,” he said. “And it’s a pure hit job.”

“Everybody knows there was no collusion,” he continued. “I think it’s a shame that something like this can destroy a very important potential relationship between two countries that are very important countries Russia could really help us.”

The president said Putin again denied that he had a role in the effort to influence the election during a few brief conversations that the two leaders had on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

« He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times. I just asked him again. He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did,” Trump said, adding that he and Putin, “have the potential to have a very good relationship.”

American intelligence agencies have said Russia interfered in the election with the goal of boosting Trump and defeating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The agencies have also said they have “high confidence” that Putin directed the effort.

« The worst part of this is not that Trump takes Putin’s word over the evidence based analysis of his own intelligence agencies. It is not even that he plays the role of a useful idiot as he kowtows to Putin yet again. The worst part, by far, is that a hostile power is engaged in an ongoing attack on America’s political system and Trump is deliberately stripping the nation’s defenses bare and leaving us exposed to future assaults. It is unilateral disarmament plain and simple,” said Thomas Wright, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution and an expert in national security. « We have never seen this type of weakness in a U.S. president before. »

Mike Morrell, former deputy director and acting director of the CIA, described the president’s remarks as « a setback to the relationship between the IC and its president. »

« I would never trust Putin’s word over the considered, high-confidence judgment of the Intelligence Community. Putin is a trained liar and manipulator. He’s comes across as believable because he is so good at deception. And, the President is biting hook, line, and sinker, » he said. « Much progress had been made in that relationship since the early days, but this will most definitely will be a step backward. »

Trump said he and Putin had « two or three very short conversations” during the APEC summit. The White House had previously said the two leaders would not hold a formal meeting.

Putin and Trump largely focused on Syria during their chats, according to the president.

Following the discussions, the U.S. and Russia released a joint statement on Saturday in which they “confirmed their determination to defeat ISIS in Syria.”

Trump later declined to say whether embattled Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore should resign, adding that he doesn’t know enough about the allegations to weigh in. Moore has been accused of initiating sexual contact with teenagers decades ago.

“Well again, I’ve been with you folks, so I haven’t gotten to see too much,” he said. “And believe it or not, even when I’m in Washington or New York, I do not watch much television. I know they like to say that.”’

Top Three Ideas From the Animoto Social Video Marketing Summit …

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Is your photography business leveraging the power of video to reach new clients? If not, you’re missing out on a great opportunity the likes of which haven’t been seen or may never be seen again. This was the powerful message that I heard at the Social Video Marketing Summit. Having been in attendance I want to share with you what I think are the top three ideas I learned from Gary Vaynerchuk, Brian Peters, Sue Bryce, and Sally Sargood that I think will help photographers take advantage of this medium.

Compete For Attention

Opening up the Summit was Gary Vaynerchuk, who put forward the idea that the number one challenge we all face is gaining people’s attention. Let’s face it, we live in a world where everyone is fighting to get our attention. From news outlets to companies trying to tell us about their latest specials, we’re constantly asked to take time out of our day to watch and listen. Where do you stand in this effort to create attention for your photography business? If you feel that this is an area where you’re not currently competing, the good news is that it can be easier than you think to get started. Start first by recognizing where the attention of your end consumer is at, and where this attention is under or overpriced. Brian Peters talked about how Facebook drives eight billion video views on average per day. Knowing this and having invested some of my own money on marketing via Facebook I can say that serving up your own videos to targeted demographics can be quite affordable. You can also promote your videos on platforms like Instagram for pennies on the dollar if you do it correctly.

Gary Vaynerchuk

So what if you’re one of the masses out there that are intimidated by the idea of creating videos to market yourself? This is where companies like Animoto, who were sponsors of the summit, come in to save the day. Sally Sargood gave a great demo of the platform and showed how you can quickly and easily create these video marketing pieces. As a content creator myself, I think this could be a great solution for anyone that is hesitating to get the process started. 

Brian Peters

The Power of Storytelling

Brian Peters and Sue Bryce really hit home the idea that we have to understand what our story is, as well as what kinds of stories resonate with the viewing public at large. One of the ideas that Brian puts forward is to pull on people’s heartstrings to help create brand loyalty. This is something that I see Sue Bryce doing well, and it may be one of the major driving factors in her own business. They both really drive home this idea that if you focus on the emotional aspects of a story it will have more impact and will likely be shared more organically. I’m reminded of a video by Ben Moon called « Denali » which is a powerful example of what good storytelling can look like. Figure out what kind of stories you can tell and put those in your video, plain and simple. 

Sally Sargood of Animoto

Experimenting Is Key

Getting started is often the speed bump that we hit as creatives. It keeps us from reaping the benefits of using video to create attention for ourselves. The one thing that I felt all of the presenters mutually agreed with was the idea of trying out different ideas, especially if you aren’t sure what kind of content you want to create. Creatives sometimes push off getting started with something unless they know exactly how everything is going to come together, but that can also shackle you from simply starting out and allowing yourself to make adjustments as you go. Sue Bryce really drove home this point as she started with basic videos that had a heartfelt story which she improved on over time. 

Sue Bryce

The Bottom Line

There were lots of great nuggets shared at this summit. Whether you’re in a small or large, competitive market, video is the best way to capture the attention of the buying public. Utilize the tools available to you to make the process easier and you’ll begin reaping the rewards before you know it. I hope to see you all on that journey. 

Is Your Dealership’s Video Marketing Relevant to Its Target Audience?

Video Marketing, , , ,

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. That is, of course, if your content is relevant to your target audience.

People usually agree that video is the most popular content online, and it gives you a tremendous opportunity to jump ahead of your competition by getting it right.

If you think having your staff dance in your showroom while lip-syncing to the latest pop hit is quality video marketing, however, stop reading this article now, please.

Are you trying to get video views, or are you trying to build valuable relationships? Just because thousands of people watch a silly video of your staff embarrassing themselves doesn’t mean that video marketing is helping your dealership build viewers’ desire to become your customers.

If your intention is to increase your search results, boost your position as an authority in your industry, or to enhance the familiarity of your dealership to gain consumer confidence, the more quality videos you have, the better chance you’ll have of gaining the right viewers.

If you’re going to embark on launching or expanding your video strategy online, start with deciding what role you want video marketing to play in creating more opportunities for you to do business. If you want to know where to start, focus on a customer-focused and geo-targeted plan.

Create only quality content that will address strategic business growth goals, and just in your primary market area. You’re not Steven Spielberg, and you’re not producing a blockbuster movie. The goal is to drive customers to engage with you.

Content is critical: It must be relevant, valuable, quality content.

The creative development of content takes time and effort. It doesn’t (always) take a lot of money. Well-researched and well-written content can be shot on most smartphones, then posted online for a meaningful viewing experience.

Focus on delivering a message that provides insight, information, answers, and/or solutions. If you can do this in an interesting and engaging way, your success rate of completed views and dealership contacts will multiply exponentially.

Aside from relevant, valuable, and quality content, it’s critical to have your video served up by search engines as often as possible. To do this, you need to make it as easy as possible for the search engines to recognize your video as relevant to the customer’s search.

Make sure you provide the necessary details of the video—title, description, thumbnail, and a relevant file name—to aid search engines in indexing your video efficiently.

Also, link back to your site in the description or video to increase the chance of the viewer getting to your website, rather than remaining on YouTube or wherever the video is hosted.

It’s also worth noting that video is now given priority in social media algorithms on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Facebook is improving its video capabilities rapidly, and Instagram now serves up live videos. Then there’s Vimeo, Snapchat, Metacafe, Dailymotion . . . the list continues to grow.

Seemingly everyone is in the video space. Are you?

Scott Toland has more than 30 years of marketing experience with local dealerships, regional associations, national manufacturers, and media companies. In 2003, Scott established The Marketing Academy—then a four-day marketing workshop, today an online video platform with more than 200 ideas, strategies, and solutions. Visit TheMarketingAcademy.com.

Previous articles by Scott Toland:

Service: Now Is the Time for Dealers to Get Serious

The Dealer’s Dilemma: Spend or Invest?

360-degree video: A tribute to fallen Vietnam servicemembers – WKBW

Video Marketing,

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — This Veterans Day weekend, a group of Vietnam veterans will spend hours assembling and taking down their traveling memorial wall.

Members of the non-profit ministry group, Point Man Antelope Valley, say it’s a tribute to their friends who never made it home from war.

Viewers can watch the wall being assembled from all angles through a 360-degree video experience. Use your mouse to navigate the video clips below in all directions.

Virtual Reality Advertising. Virtual Reality Advertising

The wall is a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

Inscribed on it are the names of 58,318 people.

Organizers say it took years to raise $102,000 to fabricate the wall. The veterans say it’s their duty to share it with the rest of the world.

« Even if you have no friends or relatives on this wall, and you walk up and you see all these names, it affects you, it will get to you, » said Michael Bertell, President of the AV Mobile Wall.

Donations are used to maintain, store and travel The Wall.

You can also keep up with the wall’s travels on the group’s Facebook page.