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Master The New Net, online videos, social media, susan rice-lincoln, Video Share Sites
Most people equate online video with YouTube. While YouTube is a huge giant, there are other video share sites out there. I recently ran across an excellent review on Top10 Reviews about video share sites. Here are some of the highlights:
Originally started in Israel, Metacafe is now based in California and enjoys a huge following in the US as well as other English-speaking countries. The site’s excellent content is easy to find while the community is vibrant. .
The videos submitted to Metacafe are reviewed by a panel of 80,000 community members, One big advantage of this system is the lack of duplicates, making the site feel orderly, well-organized and uncluttered.
Metacafe’s popularity is in part due to the fact that it pays people for posting videos. Once 20,000 people have seen your video, Metacafe will pay you $5 per 1000 views. If your video gets millions of views, this is obviously a very interesting option.
This video share site specializes in humorous videos. In addition, you can find videos on sports, entertainment and the military which attract its predominantly male audience. But if you are looking for humor (whether you are male or female), this is a great site to visit.
This video share site boasts more searchable categories than any other. You can search by category, search box or even use Google’s advanced search feature. The quantity of videos is large and the quality excellent. It tends to have more informational videos than other video share sites.
Google has one of the largest viewing windows, taking up to one-third of the monitor. Despite its size, there is still plenty of room for comments, ratings and playlists.
True to Google, it is easy to navigate with a user-friendly and clean interface.
This site is one of the most popular and entertaining. The videos tend to be more professional and specializes in newscasts, commercials and short films. The downside of this site is it does not offer a lot of features for amateur video producers.
Yahoo’s site has great content although there is very little original content; most of the videos have been pulled from other media or video share sites. Much of the content you will find is taken from TV or movie trailers rather than content created by normal, everyday people.
Revver collects videos from other video share sites. It gives all videos a rating similar to movie ratings: G, PG and PG-13. This is one of the few sites that offers to pay you money for your videos. They do this by attaching a discreet ad to the end of your video. If anyone clicks on the ad, you get 50% of the revenue.
This site is popular both as a video share site and as a social networking site. It has become a place for videographers to showcase their short films and original videos and thus has more original content than other video share sites.
You can upload a maximum of 500 MB per week with a free account. If you pay, the upload limit goes up to 5 GB. Vimeo doesn’t offer any tools to help you edit or alter your video once uploaded. On the positive side, Vimeo can accept a wide range of file formats.
This site is a great place to meet people from around the world. There are chat rooms and video chats
Stickam is also easy to navigate. You can view videos by category or use the search box and the videos upload quickly.
One great feature is that you can upload your video and pictures from your cell phone.
Master The New Net, online videos, social media, susan rice-lincoln, TubeMogul
We are all looking to save time, particularly when it comes to managing our social media programs. One great way of doing that is by using tools that help us automatically share information to several sites at the same time.
Tubemogul is the leading tool which will help you share your videos to all the key video share sites. I recently ran across a Squidoo article which describes the benefit of using Tubemogul. Here are some of the highlights of the article:
As we all know, no one can resist the power of video. Video can help you share information about your company, your products, your ideas and YOU in a quick and entertaining fashion. Video is an excellent way to boost your profile online that everyone should be using. .
Not surprisingly, most people equate YouTube with video online. But as I have outlined in some of my recent posts, there are many other video share sites besides YouTube. They may not be as enormous as YouTube but this is a positive; hey offer you the benefit of making a bigger splash in a smaller pond.
The problem is if you have to upload your video individually to each video share site, this will quickly become cumbersome, time-consuming and inefficient.
Enter Tubemogul. With Tube Mogul, all you have to do is upload your video once and it will be automatically uploaded to dozens of video share sites. With one push of the button, you will have a huge presence. Even better, the service will also give you information on how your video performs on each site. You can begin to understand when, where and how often your videos are watched so you can really get a grasp on the impact of your video campaigns.
In sum, if you are creating videos online, you should be using Tubemogul.
Master The New Net, online videos, social media, susan rice-lincoln
Everyone loves watching a good online video. But what about posting videos yourself?
Video has evened out the playing field. Video used to be only available to big companies with big budgets. Now, with easy editing, inexpensive cameras and universal broadband, video is open even to individuals and solo entrepreneurs.
Here is a list of how you can use video-fast, easy and effectively:
1. Go out and buy yourself a Flip camcorder. They are the best invention since sliced bread and a 2 year old can operate them. They are inexpensive (a little under $200) and have surprising high quality. The best benefit is they have a built-in USB key so once you have filmed, it takes all of 2 seconds to upload your video to your website, YouTube and beyond.
2. Record all your FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) that you normally post on your website. Its much more fun to hear the FAQs read out by someone you can watch than to scroll through a long list.
3. Write a list of the 20 best tips you can give to your audience. Then make a video (not more than 90 seconds long) about each tip. Post them on your website, YouTube and other video sharing sites,
4. Interview experts or even customers in your industry. . Keep your interviews short.
5. Use video to show off your latest product. If it’s a physical product, you can record with the Flip. If it is an online product, consider using Camtasia.
6. Post your videos throughout your Social Media space—not just on YouTube.
7. If you know someone is really happy with your product, send them a Flip as a gift and ask them to record a customer testimonial. They will love you for it. And future customers will love viewing the testimonial.
8. Select your favorite blog posts and record yourself reading them. Post them on YouTube and other video sharing sites.
9. Before you press the record button, know EXACTLY what you want to say.
10. Be sure to include a call-to-action—tell people to go to your site, to subscribe to your newsletter or to buy your product. But tell them to do SOMETHING
Master The New Net, opportunity, social media, susan rice-lincoln
A few weeks ago in France, there was a huge hurricane. It happens once in a blue moon. But the winds sweep through and we all just sit tight until its over. And when the wind finally subsides, we creep out of our houses to assess the damage.
This last storm wasn’t anywhere as destructive as the famous storm of December 1999 which ripped off roofs and downed chimneys. But this time, when I ventured out of my house, I was heartbroken to discover that my favorite tree—a majestic old pine- had simply fallen down.
I sat and stared. And I wept.
We all have landmarks in our lives. We learn to love them, we lean on them, they provide us with comfort. And when they disappear, we mourn them, realizing that it in some small way our lives will never be the same again. I know this was just a tree. But for me it had been a daily reassuring site and a place of memories.
One thing that is crystal clear to me when I speak to my friends and colleagues around the world, is that I am not alone. For so many, the old landmarks are gone. So much has changed. For so many of us, our belief in basic institutions like banks and governments and corporations have been left in tatters. I know so many people in their 40s and 50s who have been rudely awakened in recent years, realizing that even though they played by the rules, they have lost out. The old landmarks just didn’t live up their promises whether in the form of ruthless employers, inadequate medical plans or the obscenity of greedy bankers who behind our backs had been busy playing Russian roulette with our money-our retirement funds, our mortgages, our savings and our hopes for a secure future.
But as a half-glass full person, I believe that where there is disappointment, there is always opportunity. So, where my lovely old pine used to stand, I have now created a brand new vegetable garden which in a few months will yield lovely fruits and vegetables for my family and neighbors to enjoy.
Loss means opportunity. And today, despite the wreckage, I firmly believe there is more opportunity than ever before for people to re-create their lives. Social media , to my mind, is a vegetable garden with no limits. In it you can share your passions, your areas of expertise and create vibrant communities—a launching pad for new businesses, new ideas, new products and services.
I am convinced with every end comes a new beginning. And with today’s Social Web, you don’t have to look hard to usher in a new definition, a new life, a new business that will replace the old ways of doing things that –when all is said and done—may not have been giving you the life you really wanted after all.
Master The New Net, Perfection Obsession, social media, susan rice-lincoln
I believe that successful social media is a mysterious, magical blend of strategy, tactics (i.e. tools) and the right mindset. But of the three, I think ‘getting the right mindset’ is what stumps people the most.
One of the biggest psychological obstacles in social media is the notion that we must be perfect. All the time. And to all people. This Perfection Obsession has dominated corporations for years and has trickled down even to small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. We want to portray ourselves as perfect. We want to show off our companies as having no blemishes and no faults. And we are frightened to death that someone, somewhere might pull the curtain back and find out that we are really just the little old man in the Wizard of Oz.
This Perfection Obsession mixes badly with social media. Why? Because social media is social. . It is all about interactions between people. And, human relations are anything but perfect. They are messy and contradictory and full of good , bad and in-between emotions. Human beings—their thoughts and feelings—cannot be packed up neatly in a little box and pushed out in neat, manageable, bite-sized pieces. That was the old way—the traditional thinking behind mass media and advertising. And that way of thinking is going the route of the dinosaur.
So, let’s all forget about the Perfection Obsession. (The secret is out anyway—no one ever thought either you or your company was perfect).
Aim instead for another mindset. Honesty. Integrity. Transparency. Let people see your mistakes. Talk about them. People will not think the less of you for it.. To the contrary, humans, oddly enough, like humanity.
Oddly, in all areas of our lives, we are drawn, like moths to flame, towards the perfection of imperfection. So celebrate your imperfection. Everyone will appreciate
Posted on April 9, 2010 in The Basics by admin
Blogs, Headline, Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln, Writing Skills
One of the first rules in writing online is to craft a powerful headline. And the headline in turn should be fully supported by a series of strong sub-heads.
Why? People no longer read. They scan. They look for the gist of an article or blog post but rarely pour over the detail.
But a powerful headline is not enough. You need to also be sure that your headline captures the FULL message you are trying to share with your post or article. Or you risk grabbing your reader by the lapels and then leading them down primrose lane.
I recently learned this lesson the hard way. I wrote a blog post which I then shared throughout the Social Web entitled, “Has Barack Obama Lost His Magic?”
Was this a powerful headline? Probably. The problem, in a sense, was that it was too powerful and didn’t really capture my post’s full message. It didn’t sum up what I REALLY wanted to say.
Most who read my headline plunged headlong into a diatribe about politics in America, Obama’s strengths and weaknesses, the two-party system, etc. I am almost embarrassed to say that even though I posted the blog at least four weeks ago, there is STILL a LinkedIn group engaged in a full-on, bloody political battle as a result of the post.
But my real objective in writing the post had relatively little to do with American politics or the Obama presidency and everything to do with social media. What I was trying to explore was how Obama used social media before and after being elected. During the campaign, it was as though he (and his staff) had switched on a magic button, creating a vibrant community and highly charged emotional connection with their supporters on mybarackobama.com After the campaign, that same site has become lackluster and stiff, not to mention boring. And I wanted to explore with my readers why this had happened.
But most of my readers never got beyond my headline. They ran away with the subject in whatever direction they wanted. My question about Obama and his use of social media more or less remains unanswered. By the way, I am not blaming my readers. It was me who wrote the headline, not them.
The morale of the story? A powerful headline is certainly imperative in today’s speed-reading world. But it is not enough. Make sure your headline also fully captures the FULL message you want to convey. Otherwise, your reader-who may never make it to the end of your post- will walk away with ideas and impressions you never intended to convey.
Posted on April 7, 2010 in Social Media by admin
Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln
Everyone waxes eloquent about the power of social media. If you know what you are doing, you can create a loyal following, generate excellent leads, boost your profile, build brand awareness, establish yourself as a thought leader and build your business beyond its traditional geographic boundaries.
But what is the bad news about social media? Probably the biggest negative about social media is that it takes time. And a lot of it. Even if you limit yourself to a couple of tools (blogs/Twitter), social media will still constitute a several hour a week commitment. A chunk of time which most of us really don’t have.
All of this brings me to my next question. Is it acceptable to delegate some of your social media efforts (i.e. writing your blog posts or Tweets) to someone else? Or is this against the spirit and grain of social media altogether?
There are two very firm schools of thought on this issue. The first is scandalized by the thought that anyone would even CONSIDER letting someone write their social media communications. To the purists, delegation is tantamount to treason. By delegating out your own communication, you are untrue to your voice and deceptive to the social media communities you want to connect to. Delegation is deceptive. . It is not genuine-and being genuine, open and transparent is the point of social media in the first place.
The opposing school of thought says, Why not? If you are in control of the message (i.e. directing people what to say), why can’t you let someone ghost-write for you? As long as that person is familiar with you, your tone and manner and the thoughts you are trying to share, what is the harm?
I personally stand somewhere in-between. I disagree with the purists that you can’t ever delegate out some of your social media. However, I feel hesitant when people just want to shove the task off to someone else because they can’t be bothered.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue as, given the time commitment necessary to create a winning social media program, it is a crucial issue for big and small companies alike.
LinkedIN, Master The New Net, social media, social network, susan rice-lincoln
Is it just my imagination or has the tone and manner of LinkedIn changed in recent months ?
LinkedIn has always been my favorite social networking site. Despite its size (60 million and counting), it has always felt like a place where business issues could be discussed freely, where people create solid business networks, build their reputations and eventually hook up for business ventures and possible job opportunities.
Lately, all of this has eroded. I am getting dozens of promotions from LinkedIn connections on a daily basis. People are hawking their products and services. It is starting to feel less like a business community and more like a business marketplace. Maybe its just my imagination but it is beginning to feel like the good old days of pure business social networking are fading away at Linkedin.
Let’s be honest about social media. We are all struggling with the sweet spot between how to socialize and share generously with our communities and how to sell. At the end of the day, we do want to sell—our ideas, our products, our services, our consulting.
But, in my mind, there is a correct-albeit slower- way to do this. You meet people on a social networking site like LinkedIn. You talk to them, get to know them and even trust them. If you want to carry that relationship further, the best way to do that is to direct them to your blog and/or website. Once there, they can join your opt-in box and you can continue the conversation through a weekly ezine or the odd email. It seems to be the appropriate place to begin introducing your products and services. Because when someone opts in, they are saying they are willing to hear what you say and open to your sales pitches. And if they don’t like what they hear, they always have the option to opt-out. Permission marketing, pure and simple.
Branding, Master The New Net, Mastering Web 2.0, social media, susan rice-lincoln
In all the obsession over the Web 2.0 world, no one seems to talk about branding anymore.
This confuses me.
To me, branding is the backbone of social media. Social media without branding is another word for chaos.
At its simplest, a brand is a symbol that can come in many forms: a logo, a name, a color..
But the brand symbol is merely shorthand for an important and unique set of associations and expectations.
Facebook, Apple, Google and Zappos are all good examples of clearly defined brands.
But a brand doesn’t have to be a company. It can be a person, too. Oprah Winfrey. Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp are all good examples of ‘people’brands.
Even countries are brands. France is a brand. So is Australia or Sweden.
Each of these brands are linked with a set of associations. Each stand for certain values, principles and qualities. Each engender emotions.
The word ‘brand’ derives from the old Norse word BRANDR which means to burn.
The first brand names date from the 16th century. To distinguish one whisky from another, whisky distillers burned their name on top of each barrel. On ranches in the U.S., brands were famously ‘burned’ onto the side of the livestock.
A brand means to burn, to etch an image, to make a permanent impression in the minds and hearts of your customers, prospects and community.
Without knowing who you are as a brand, you will be absolutely lost in social media.
You won’t know what your conversations should be, who you should talk to, what is appropriate and what isn’t.
Some people/companies just intuitively know what their brand stands for. For others it is more difficult and need help at understanding who they are.
In any event, be sure to get it right. Be sure you understand the very unique set of associations that belong to you or your company before you start walking down social media lane.
If you don’t, you will most surely fail in a Web 2.0 world which puts a high premium on authenticity and consistency.
Customer Service, Master The New Net, social media, susan rice-lincoln, twitter
Confused about how to use Twitter? Twitter is a really excellent customer service and communication tool for all types of products but works extremely well if you are a hotel—no matter what size. Here are three examples of how hotels-big and little-have used Twitter to boost their business.
Example One: Hyatt
@Hyatt Concierge uses Twitter as an active customer service tool. Acting as a virtual concierge, @HyattConcierge assists guests with any of their needs—just like a ‘real-life’ concierge would do. For example, through Tweets, Hyatt can help people get theatre reservations, find the right restaurant and make spa appointments.
Example Two: Omni Hotels
Omni Hotels practices a pro-active approach on Twitter. By monitoring people’s Tweets, they can then offer guests surprise perks. For example, Keven Colon, a pastor from Superior, Colorado twittered about the fact he was going to meet up with his friends to watch the Final Four college basketball championships at the Omni Interlocken Resort near Denver. The Omni marketing department noticed the tweet and contacted the hotel. When the group arrived, they were surprised to discover they were given complete VIP treatment; a table had been reserved for them with a great TV view and that they were even offered a free round of beers.
Example Three: High Peaks Resort
The High Peaks Resort is a small resort in an undiscovered area of Lake Placid, New York. They used Twitter to offer a special promotion. For 46 days, they offered a special rate for 46 minutes each day based on the elevation of one of the 46 High Peaks. For example, a rate based on the 4867 foot elevation of White Face Mountain would be $48.67. Each day between 9 and 5, High Peaks Resorts alerted friends and followers through its Twitter profile when the daily rate will be available. Once posted, the special rate of the day was bookable for 46 minutes on the High Peak Resorts website.
The promotion program was incredibly successful. Not only did High Peaks attract hundreds of new Twitter followers, they had a lot more reservations and excellent feedback from their new guests. Another positive result was that it educated a lot of people about the High Peaks region and thus helped create long-term relationships and loyalty.
What about you? Any ideas of how your hotel can use Twitter?
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