Harvard Explores the Future of Social Media

by Jill Butler, Content Development Specialist

A remarkable social media experiment is happening on the campus of one of America’s most prestigious universities.

Harvard University has made Justice, one of the school's most popular courses, available online. Professor Michael Sandel is an internationally renowned mind, and explores political philosophy through thought-provoking topics such as same-sex marriage, civil rights and whether lying can ever be good. It’s a great way to educate Harvard students, but then, distance courses are nothing new on any university campus, even before the internet.

If the story stopped there, Applecore wouldn’t be writing a blog post about it.

Because this course isn’t only a course for Harvard students. This is available to anyone with the inclination and an Internet connection.

Each lesson—which run about 55 minutes each—has been loaded onto YouTube and posted to its website, which also features reading lists, pop quizzes and a discussion circle.

So really, it’s like you’re attending Harvard, but without paying the sizable tuition or stirring from the comfort of your own home.

What’s the Why?

My first thought when I heard about this was trying to figure out why Harvard would do this. And after much reflection, I think it can be explained in a word: exposure.

After all, the press coverage of this virtually unprecedented move by an Ivy League college has been extensive, and very positive.

But isn’t Harvard essentially trading their intellectual advantage for a couple of press releases? After all, prestige and exclusivity is what makes Harvard an impressive note on your resume, not that just anyone who’s willing to listen can benefit.

This is where the extraordinary part comes in.

Harvard Leads the Future

The Ivy League hasn’t exactly built a reputation for going with the flow. Introducing this high-production, universal course offering demonstrates that Harvard is not just some stuffy out of touch institution unable to keep up with new media and the latest technologies.

But what’s more, this website could go a long way for improving public opinion of the school, which goes a long way in a recession when many people question spending thousands more on an education which no longer guarantees success. Now, everyone can have a taste to see what all the fuss is about.

And let me tell you—this online course is not filler. It’s thought-provoking and intellectually vigorous, demanding you pay attention from the word go. It’s a great chance to see why a Harvard education is so valuable.

Where’s the Real Lesson?

But most of all, this legitimizes social media in a way that is unprecedented. YouTube isn’t just clips of animals doing funny things; Harvard University, the creme de la creme, uses it to teach its students! Comment boards aren't just a haven for slang; it can be the birthplace of carefully considered philosophical discussion!

This goes a long way in demonstrating the real future of social media. When YouTube was first introduced, did anyone really imagine that it would be adopted by a prestigious college to explore complex ideas of human development? To reach and educate a global audience?

Beyond instant messaging, Facebook pokes, or retweets, this makes it clear that the future of social media is as limitless as our imagination. Or perhaps, more accurately, our ambition.

Tourism: A Social Media Butterfly?

As promised, here's the Applecore article that ran in the June 2009 issue of the St. John’s Board of Trade Business News Magazine. The theme of the month was Tourism, and since that's a subject which we know well, we just had to weigh in!

Tourism: A Social Media Butterfly?

Social media – it’s a phrase that people are beginning to recognize! In fact, many people use social media every day, though they may not call it that. Social media is an umbrella term for all the technologies that allow social interaction online. In other words, it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs, and it may just be the best way to talk to consumers.

Social media has been an area of marketing many businesses have been more reluctant to adopt, for lots of reasons: they worry about losing control, about getting caught up, about taking on too much too fast. But it’s getting easier and more essential than ever to get involved. Otherwise, as consumers demand that companies engage in more direct interaction, we risk being left behind. A new business model is developing that gives more power to the consumer.

But it’s nothing to be afraid of! For industries like Tourism, which is not only the world’s largest industry but also a top online sector, learning how to have these conversations with travellers is crucial. The statistics are compelling: 3,000,000 messages are sent over Twitter every day, Facebook is used in over 170 countries, blogs have 346,000,000 daily readers and YouTube boasts over 100,000,000 videos. In most cases, start-up costs are minimal. With all this potential for consumer/company interaction, social media is becoming the natural, low cost platform for marketing a destination in a way that is honest, informative and transparent.

NewfoundlandLabrador.com is a great example of a tourism destination using social media. The province’s online tourism destination marketing has grown to include social media distribution channels like a YouTube channel, a Facebook page with almost 5,000 fans, a custom Twitter account, Travel Blog, a Virtual Scrapbook that features user-uploaded photos and comments/ratings.

Think of how far a good review can go when it comes to social media and trip planning! Online features like user reviews, peer to peer communication and fan comments hold a powerful influence over the average traveller. For example, a Jupiter Research study says 58% of potential travellers trust content from users, like consumer ratings or traveller reviews, for trip planning. The same study also said 36% named this user content as an influence in the final decision-making process, ahead of factors like brand awareness (21%) or even a friend’s recommendation (14%).

Beware of the “island effect”—or, letting social media platforms stand on their own with no interaction. Using social media right means connecting each channel – embedding your uploaded YouTube videos into your Facebook page, posting links to your blog on Twitter, redirecting from YouTube to your website. Each bridge you build between your “islands” makes it easier for the user to experience all your business has to offer.

So dive in—just take your social media in steps. You don’t have to master every platform at once. When it comes to social media, getting started is the hard part— riding the learning curve is fun and exciting. Remember--social media is a powerful marketing engine, but one that needs regular fuel and a willingness to learn.

Originally published in the St. John's Board of Trade's Business News Magazine, June 2009. All rights reserved.

Learn more about the St. John's Board of Trade.

Just One Question....

500 people in Times Square were asked a simple question: what is a browser? Let's see what happens.

For the record, a browser is a computer program used for accessing websites or information on a network (as on the World Wide Web). And you could have asked us; we totally knew that already.

June 1-7: Tourism Awareness Week!

This past week has been something that naturally catches our eye: June 1st - 7th is Tourism Awareness Week, sponsored by Hospitality Newfoundland & Labrador. Tourism is such a huge industry—not only internationally, but online as well. Not to mention that it’s always been such a vivid factor in the economy of Newfoundland & Labrador.

The week was host to many talks and seminars about the direction that the tourism industry is moving in, capped off with a luncheon on the 3rd attended by the Honourable Clyde Jackman, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation. Spreading tourism awareness is an exciting topic, especially since there’s never been a better time to spark conversations about the future. The industry has been taking huge steps online, embracing social media and interactive communities.

Of course, Applecore had to get in on the action as well. We were so inspired that we've written an article on that very subject, to be published in the St. John’s Board of Trade Business News Magazine. We decided to tackle the subject of social media and why it works so well withtourism, since it’s a topic we’re exploring every day. Social media—things like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and peer reviews—are making amazing leaps in the industry and shaping the future of how people travel.

Check back next month for full details, but here’s a teaser for now: the future of social media and tourism relies on being flexible, transparent and ready to have a conversation with potential travelers. How can you prepare?

To be continued…!

The Degrees of Social Media

by J. Butler, Content Development Specialist

As of this year, Birmingham City University will be offering a one-year Master's program priced at about £4,400 ($7838.87 in Canadian dollars).

The subject matter? Social Media.

It's no joke. Students will be able to perfect their netiquette in exchange for university credits. Arguably, most students spend a generous portion of time they should be studying on Facebook or YouTube, so it seems like a time-saver to simply surf the web for the sake of academics (ha ha). Students enlisted in the program will be taught the ins and outs of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Bebo, as well as how to maintain a blog and produce podcasts and other media projects.

Course convener Jon Hickman calls the courseload "very relevant and very scholarly," exploring "the techniques of social media, consider the development and direction of social media as a creative industry, and will contribute new research and knowledge to the field."Social media will be studied through an intensely academic eye, with a focus on scholarly research and critical analysis. Hickman feels the course holds a great deal of appeal for students, particularly those intent on entering fields like journalism or PR.

While many already in the industry have lauded the course for focusing on the scholarly aspects of social media (without any limited focus on results or metrics), the question remains: is it worth putting in that much time, money and effort for the program, especially when you consider the practical experience you lose by being in school? As Dan Thornton from Way of the Web so succinctly points out:

Certainly anyone already established in a social media role at a managerial level should be able to tick pretty much all the boxes the MA aims to deliver - and are those roles going to be offered to those graduating the course, or people more like myself who spent time in journalism and publishing, gaining additional experience in marketing and social media, before making the switch?

In addition, some students have complained the coursework is too basic, as many of those enrolled have been self-taught for years. Some critics derisively call the programs a "Master's in Facebook." But, I've heard of plenty of new, experimental college courses in my time, and enrolled in even more of them (including one on comic books, one on the philosophy of modern horror films and a course in circus stunts) and more often than not, they get off to a wobbly start. Usually all these wobbly starts levels out and the course either works, or it doesn't. If the course is truly a worthwhile "academic exploration of communication," as Hickman says, then it will surely survive the criticism once it finds its stride.

See It Here: The Birmingham City University MA in Social Media

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

This is truly worth a few minutes out of your day: Wired.com's Gadget Lab has posted some footage from a high-speed camera, along with an article that details the history of a camera that can shoot up to 86,000 frames per second--keep in mind, the average movie reel only needs 30 or so. From the article: 

A hummingbird’s neck is structured like a bucket holding liquids that slosh back and forth to stabilize its head. Because it evolved this way, the bird has an adaptive advantage to find flowers and food that other animals can’t reach.

This accidental discovery was observed not by human eyes, but through the lens of a super high-speed camera. It’s just one example of interesting phenomena revealed when video is played back in extreme slow motion. The hummingbird clip appeared in an episode of Time Warp, a show whose premise is to make the ordinary extraordinary with one trick: slowing it down.

“We’ve evolved for 5 billion years just to do what we needed to do to be alive … and we can see 30 to 50 things a second,” said Jeff Lieberman, co-host of Time Warp. “With high-speed cameras we can see a million things a second, and we’re looking at everyday things and seeing an entire world that exists underneath.”

Typically costing upward of $100,000, high-speed cameras are capable of shooting at amazingly high frame rates, stretching a single second into minutes of super slow-motion playback. In order to achieve this feat, each of these cameras draws its powers from a unique, highly advanced complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) — or, in simpler terms, an extremely beefed-up pixel sensor. The cameras were designed for military testing, scientific research and other industry applications.

The article features some truly amazing footage of a hummingbird, a tattoo, a high dive, and blowing bubbles, all in slow motion. But what I really recommend is checking out the footage of a gigantic 12-foot wave, from the inside out--a BBC promo for their upcoming series South Pacific.  

High-Speed Cameras Reveal the World Inside Time (Wired.com)

Britain's Got Buzz

by J. Butler, Content Development Specialist

By now, it’s hard to scroll down any kind of social media blog, news outlet or networking site without hearing at least one mention of viral darling Susan Boyle. This inspiring story has attracted attention from online and traditional media alike; the singing sensation even nabbed an interview on Larry King. 

On the off chance you haven’t heard of her, she’s a 47 year old unemployed woman from Scotland who recently appeared on the UK show Britain’s Got Talent (a variety show seeking the most talented people in the country). It's a classic story of triumph and defeating expectations: her frumpy appearance, down to earth manner and drab clothing had the judges and audience preparing their most effective eye rolls. But when she opened her mouth, a truly stunning rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from musical Les Miserables filled the theater—and every person in that place who had judged her prematurely was left speechless. 

It’s always hard to pinpoint why a particular online element ever becomes viral, but why is this one in particular so popular? It’s fast becoming one of the most watched YouTube videos of all time, slowly gaining traction on YouTube mainstays like Obama’s victory speech or Tina Fey’s infamous Sarah Palin appearances. 

Graphic from Mashable. 

It’s hard to say exactly why, naturally, though plenty of online sources have tried to figure it out. Cal Thomas called her a “phenomenon” that teaches a superficial media to focus on inner beauty first. Kendall Allen of MediaPost Publications chalks it up to the human need to feel something—from metaphors to media—at a instinctual gut level. 

I think when the dust settles on this Susan Boyle chapter of social media, what will remain as the more remarkable story may not be her considerable vocal talents—but the reactions of an online community to hearing it. 

Uploading YouTube Backgrounds

By Gregory Pike, Web Developer

As it stands right now, YouTube really limits your ability to control to appearance of your Channel. A Channel owner has no more than the power upload a background and change a few colours. Many developers have come to realize the power of using backgrounds to define how the channel appears (take Applecore's YouTube channel for example) but even that has major limitations.

To change this, you'll want go to your Account, and find Channel Design. You should see a screen like this: 

 In order to set a background on your YouTube channel, first you need to upload the image directly to the YouTube server. Unfortunately, this means they control a number of factors. The image has to be a PNG, JPG, or GIF and it has to be less than 256kb in total file size. When you upload a file it will be converted to JPG and compressed.

Scroll down the Channel Design page, and you should find this option: 

Browse and upload your image (which should fit the restrictions). But even if you follow all of these guidelines you may still encounter this error:

 “Please upload a valid background image.”

Now, the file we were uploading was not only a PNG but it was also only 37kb (we also tried a JPG for good measure). We were left trying to figure out what could have caused this error.

After much searching and double checking, we found it. There seems to be a hidden restriction on the dimensions of the background image. We continued to receive this error as long as our background was 2400 x 4800 pixels. When we scaled the background image back to a height of 3600 pixels, we had zero problems uploading it as a background for our YouTube Channel.

So when you go to upload your own background, keep this mind if you encounter that dreaded error message. It will save you valuable minutes of your time you'll never get back. 

Watching The Future of TV

by J. Butler, Applecore Content Development Specialist

The days of appointment TV are looking like a thing of the past.

In recent years, viewers have found themselves with more choice than ever when it comes to television, with even basic cable clocking in at nearly 75 channels. More specialty channels crop up every year, with interests so finely tuned that you have to wonder who exactly tunes in (are there really enough viewers to justify WealthTV?). But something else has changed about TV: it's not just what we watch, it's also become a choice of how we watch it. 

The writing on the wall came when Tivo first appeared on the horizon. It eclipsed the sometimes unreliable, unwieldy technology of VCR, replacing tapes with a hard drive and human forgetfulness with automatic recording (which meant that viewers would never miss an episode of their favorite shows). A pioneer in digital video recording, Tivo allowed viewers the freedom to watch their favorite shows whenever they had the time, instead of making the time.

That, it turns out, was the first wave.

Now, the internet has taken it one step further, bypassing the need for a subscription or even a special device. With the advent of YouTube, Hulu and other online resources, the only thing many viewers need to catch up on their favorite shows is a speedy internet connection. In just one year, the percentage of Americans watching some prime time TV on their computer screens instead of their TV sets went from 6% in 2007 to over 20% in 2008.

The effects of this shift aren’t hard to see. Saturday Night Live made history this year with Tina Fey’s infamous impersonation of Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin; by the following Wednesday, NBC.com reported the skit had become their most-watched viral video ever, with 5.7 million views. 

So the times began a'changing. No longer would you need to rely on external sources—such as the daily newscast or commentary programs—to catch all the highlights of the day. Miss Obama’s inaugural speech? No problem; just catch it later on YouTube. With that, history has been broken down into democratic snippets, letting everyone catch up in their own time. With the explosion of these easily uploaded, accessible video clips, the viewer is allowed to create their own highlights. 

Other networks have figured out ways to profit from this shift. New episodes of CW favorite Gossip Girl are available for purchase on iTunes the next day for $1.99, and the show’s popularity has exploded as a result—but only online, as the broadcast version consistently under-performs. The explosive online success of Gossip Girl has been called a preview of TV 3.0, and the larger networks have gradually followed suit, as ABC made popular shows Lost and Desperate Housewives into downloads for iPods, as well as streaming select episodes for free on their website. Rival powerhouses NBC and CBS quickly did the same.

This hasn't proven a huge moneymaker yet (at least not compared to the usual revenue from advertising sponsors, TV stations and cable channels) but the networks seem determined to stay on board this potentially lucrative bandwagon. It's a wise move indeed, especially as the Information Generation (that is, those born from 1980-2000 who grew up using computers) become the overwhelming majority. This kind of instantaneous delivery system is poised to only increase. 

What might be the next step in television's horizon? Telling stories in a way that lets everyone play along. A Finnish network has developed Accidental Lovers, a new romantic drama. The twist? Its concept puts the viewer in a pivotal storytelling position, encouraging text messages to influence the outcome of the story:

On the screen, viewers will see their text messages and will hear the characters respond to their messages. A glowing heart will show whether their messages are warming or cooling the hearts of the romantic couple, and viewers will see the relationship develop according to their wishes. 

If the romance doesn't progress as viewers wish, they can try again later as four runs of the programme will be broadcast showing 12 different evolutions of the love affair. Each one will be different, with each reacting to the viewers' wishes. 

Such a concept could mean the revival of appointment television once and for all—and a whole new meaning to how we see interactive media. 

Google Does it Yet Again

by J. Butler, Applecore Content Development Specialist

Google has become such a mainstay that it would hard to remember a world without it. In fact, the day that we all knew Google wasn’t just the latest technological trend probably came sometime in July 2005---when “Google” entered the English language as a verb:

goo·gle • \gü-gəl\: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.

 These days, Google is consistantly the leader of the pack when it comes to innovations. In late 2006, they bought the online video site YouTube for US$1.65 billion in stock. Come September 2008, Google launched Google Chrome, its own web browser.

Late last year, Google announced the introduction of Google Flu Trends, a service that will take the IP addresses of users searching for flu-related queries, compile them, and track the active areas of flu outbreaks weeks before the official data from the Center for Disease Control is released.

As of May 2008, Hitwise reports that Google is the most used search engine on the web accounting for 68.29% of all US searches, way ahead of the closest competition—Yahoo, for example, trails behind at 19.95%. But did you ever stop to think about the path Google took to become the household name that it is today?

Older search engines would only rank the importance of a site by how many times a search term appears on it—if you searched for “apple pie,” you’d be given pages based only on how often “apple pie” appeared on the site…not based on the overall quality level.

But Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two PhD. students out of Stanford University, had a bigger dream: to devise a ranking system that could accurately reflect the relevance and quality of a website.

And so, in January 1996, Google began as the research project of two students. The germ of their idea was a search engine that could create a more accurate ranking system by looking at the relationships between websites rather than just the web content alone. Revolutionary? We think so.

After much testing, the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on September 4, 1998 (making them Applecore’s slightly older brother). Their unofficial corporate motto? “Don’t be evil.”

            Google’s approach paved the way for Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). Search Engine Optimization is just what it sounds like—it’s enriching a website with the right tools (like keywords, links and content) to place it higher in the page rankings of Google and other search engines. Using SEO properly is two parts science, one part art, helping to achieve top rankings organically (at no cost). SEO has transformed into an incredible tool for attracting both the right kind and the greatest volume of traffic for a website.

It’s an exciting wait to see what other innovations Google will cook up next, because with every new invention comes inspiration from seeing people be their most creative, most insightful selves. 

The Motrin Moms Mobilize

by J. Butler, Content Development Specialist

Is there really no such thing as bad publicity?

A few weeks ago, the internet was buzzing with one tale of social media gone horribly awry. The story became notorious almost instantly: Motrin, manufacturer of painkillers, was at the center of the controversy, with a well-armed, plentiful group of consumers opposing them: mothers.

It began with a simple 30-second spot and a handful of print ads over the course of one weekend. Motrin, aiming for tongue-in-cheek clever, was sympathizing with the joys (and aches) of being a new mother: namely, the backache, muscle pain and headaches associated with carrying your child around in a sling instead of in a stroller or pram—often called ‘baby-wearing.’ While their message was sincere (“we feel your pain, let us help”), their approach proved too glib for so sensitive a topic: the message that emerged was “attachment parenting is trendy and tedious.”

As the video started circulating the internet, and almost as soon as blogging moms saw it, a powerful reaction began to brew. The ad, clearly intended as sly, harmless fun, was instead hitting a nerve. Calling baby-wearing a “supposedly” good bonding method, the ad implied that one of its chief benefits was making the wearer look like “an official mom.”

Many viewers thought it disrespectful to parents, and condescending to child-rearing. These outraged parents took to the streets of the information highway and protested loudly, on very public venues such as their blogs, Twitter, and YouTube. They began a thread on Twitter (#motrinmoms), collected the complaints and turned them into a YouTube video that had nearly 21,000 views within a handful of days. In other words, they got organized—and got themselves heard.

Motrin responded quickly by removing the offending video and issuing a formal apology on their website (see a play by play of the weekend’s activity here). The lesson here is clear: the instantaneous nature of social media means a new kind of responsibility for those who create content online. There’s never been a better time to speak up and harness such a powerful medium, because customers are now engaging in an active conversation about the products they use. Instead of using an apology to merely appease customers, mistakes can be used to spark a dialogue that could have endless potential in the future.

 

Source: Web Strategist

The First Interactive Election in History

With the flurry following the election results of the past week, it's no wonder that many industry insiders are pointing out the importance of social media in Barack Obama's campaign. These snapshots of social media stats, taken Nov. 3, 2008, show the figures behind each candidate's online standing:

Facebook

Obama: 2,379,102 supporters
McCain: 620,359 supporters

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

MySpace

Obama: Friends: 833,161
McCain: Friends: 217,811

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

YouTube

Obama: 1792 videos uploaded since Nov 2006, Subscribers: 114,559 (uploads about 4 a day), Channel Views: 18,413,110
McCain: 329 videos uploaded since Feb 2007 Subscribers: 28,419, (uploads about 2 a day), Channel Views: 2,032,993

Obama has 403% more subscribers than McCain
Obama has 905% more viewers than McCain

Twitter

Obama: @barackobama has 112,474 followers
McCain: @JohnMcCain (is it real?) 4,603 followers

Obama has 240 times more followers in Twitter than McCain

[Stats taken from the Web Strategy Blog by Jeremiah.]

Even just glancing at these statistics make it clear that Obama dominated the social media stratosphere. And given that the 2008 election had a record turnout, with media coverage that looked more like the Oscar pre-show, it seems clear that using this kind of platform grants access to a wide, diverse group of individuals who are ready and willing to listen.

There's a lesson about the future of interactive marketing in all this. The success of the Obama campaign, and its seamless integration of social media with other, more traditional campaign tactics, serve as a excellent reminder of the growing importance of social media, and how many companies must learn to embrace these new trends if they want to get their message heard, like Obama...or be left behind surrounded by unheard, mixed messages like McCain.

Using Annotations in YouTube Media

YouTube has long been a major centre of social media for organizations.

This year they unveiled Annotations, an interactive way for users to be engaged throughout their videos. Any videos uploaded by an organization contain the ability to display speech bubbles, notes, tags, or links to other YouTube videos as per that organization’s wishes. These Annotations can be dynamically placed anywhere on the viewing area of the movie for any desired duration. This presents a greater ability to inform or reach viewers.

More than just the added benefit of informing viewers, this new service provides the ability for users to completely interact with the video they are watching. For example:


In this video, the viewer is actually able to play the game and select an outcome.

Possibly one of the best features of this added service to YouTube is its ease of control. To edit Annotations go to the Edit video page or My Videos page as shown below and click “Annotations” under the listed video.



This will bring you to a page with four Annotations options, (Speech Bubble, Note, Spotlight, and Pause Annotation), a panel for editing your Annotations, and a preview video.



The owner of the video is able to drag Annotations around on their video, change the duration of the Annotations, and even insert links from that Annotation to a relevant YouTube video, like with the Shell Game video above.

Types of Annotations

Speech Bubble – This should be pretty self-explanatory. It is a speech bubble you can place in a video to make figures in that video look like they are saying something to the audience.

Note – This is for describing the video or providing a tidbit of information relevant to the video.

Spotlight – This works similar to tagging systems in photo galleries. The owner of a video can put a highlightable box over any figures in the video and when the viewer hovers over that box they see who or what is in that frame.

Pause Annotation – This will pause the video for any duration of your choice. A pause timer will appear on the video to allow the viewer to gauge how long the video will be paused for. This can be done to provide time for the viewer to read text or select a link.

Online Video Market Evolves, Begins Morphing Into New 'Storytelling' Device

YouTube and related technologies alerted the marketing world to a powerful new tool that speaks to the heart of what marketing has always been about: the art of conversation between brand and client. Applecore has always operated from the philosophy that in order to mobilize audiences or change behaviour, as a marketer it has to target hearts and minds – cognitive and emotive – simultaneously. Online video has provided us with one of the most effective methods of achieving this.

In a world of keyword clouds and content searches video has been standing in the back row, depending on clever content creators to direct traffic to the magical movie. Video tagging and content-rich descriptions are the beginning of overcoming this minor hurdle. In short, video is changing, video makes for powerful conversation and online video is growing.

At the recent OMMA Video conference in Los Angeles, the following article was released:

A year or so after the online video advertising marketplace emerged in earnest, experts on both sides of the table say it remains a vital but messy, complicated and often difficult-to-evaluate business--although it clearly is the future of what Madison Avenue has historically considered its dominant, persuasive advertising medium: television. Those were the conclusions of speakers and panelists participating in the OMMA Video conference here on Wednesday...

[ Read Entire Article ]

Economic Uncertainty? Grow Out Of It!

Depressed along with the markets? Don’t be—it’s time to grow out of this crisis and into your next opportunity.

At a recent conference in Seoul, Sir Richard Branson said, “There are enormous opportunities when there is a crisis. In a situation like this, it’s absolutely essential to conserve cash. I think companies that do have cash owe it to their country and the people in the company to actually invest that cash in order to grow out of the crisis.”

Obviously our entrepreneurial solutions of the past 8 years got us to this point, so why wouldn’t the same tricks turn things around? The cowardly response is to cut: cut staff, cut training, cut marketing or anything else that would allow only the bare bones of an operation to continue.

The creative mind looks for opportunity.

Internet marketing offers a creative way to thrive in a crisis. Search engine marketing allows you to say exactly what you want to say to whom you would like. You reach a highly motivated person looking for your solution. and can additionally measure every result and change mid-stream if it fails to show results. If they don’t play, you don’t pay.

Invest in your website’s content management system (CMS) : By creating a CMS you take control of your content. No delay at the marketing department, the designer, the printer or publisher. You say what you need to say immediately. The cost? Only your time.

Online video has become the tool of the masses. Created with any variety of technology—a cell phone, a pocket camera or, if you like, a high definition camcorder with studio lights— and edited on the fly. Continue the brand conversation with your audience in the social web-o-sphere – on your website, YouTube, Facebook, Google Video. The opportunities are endless.

If you're worried about rivals poaching your clientele, you have an advantage: you already know your customer. Continue the conversation online through e-marketing. You control this distribution channel and the cost is minimal. All these online marketing endeavours are measurable, they are flexible, lean and nimble.

Still asking ‘why?’ Maybe you should try asking ‘Why not?’

In tough economic times, you’ll see some of your competition disappear. That’s only natural: in Branson’s words, the best always survive in a crisis. It is time to find the ‘E’ in creative, and outlast them all.

Supercharge Your Web Site with Video

All smart entrepreneurs know that in order to compete today you need a robust Web presence. But not everyone has yet embraced online video, which (according to many Web gurus) can increase your site's traffic and boost your sales. To learn more, I talked to Benjamin Wayne, president and CEO of Fliqz.com, a company that helps small and mid-sized businesses integrate video on their Web sites.

Rieva Lesonsky: It's quickly becoming a YouTube world. How can adding video to their sites better help entrepreneurs compete and grow?

Benjamin Wayne: Video can help businesses in three ways: drive increased traffic, drive more interactivity and page views, and drive increased [sales] conversion.

[ Read Entire Article ]