Monday, July 27, 2009

8 tips to make your YouTube video go viral

Have you seen Will It Blend? It's a crazy series of videos by Blendtec, a small blender manufacturer. The series has been seen by millions of people. My favorite is Will It Blend? – iPhone. If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and take a minute to watch. This YouTube video has been seen 1.6 million times.

Jjramberg_and_david_meerman_scott

Recently I appeared on MSNBC Your Business with JJ Ramberg to discuss how to make your YouTube video go viral. Viral marketing is the phenomenon of other people passing along your ideas to friends via email or blogs or other online means…for free! You can watch my appearance here. My 14-year-old daughter said that they should have taken away the swivel chair! (You’ll see what she means if you watch).

Here are some tips to make video go viral. Creating a video is easy and it is free to post onto YouTube. All you need is a simple $300 digital video camera and a YouTube account.

Most importantly: Your video needs to be funny or amazing or remarkable or have some fascinating information or be controversial. Basically the video needs a reason for people to pass it on. If you can find pass along value connected to your organization and its products, great. I'm not a fan of stupid contests or celebrity endorsements unrelated to a company and its products.


Tip # 1 – Homemade is just fine
You don’t need to hire a professional. A homemade quality video can work great. But plan ahead and shoot several takes to get it right.

Tip #2 –Your video should be no longer then 2 minutes (preferably less)
Think very short. Although YouTube will accept a video that is less than 10 minutes, smaller than 100MB try to make the video between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.

Tip #3 -- Make your description clear and specific.
To best promote your video, you'll want its text description on YouTube to be accurate and interesting. Use descriptive keywords and language that people will find when they search for videos like yours. And use the correct categorizations on YouTube so people will find it.

Tip # 4 -- Don't attempt "stealth" fake customer insertions to YouTube. 
Some companies try to sneak corporate-sponsored video onto YouTube in a way that makes it seem like it is consumer-generated. The YouTube community is remarkably skilled at ratting out inauthentic video, so this approach is fraught with danger.

Tip #5 – Try a series of similar videos to build interest
Sometimes a series of videos works great. The Blendtec Will it Blend? videos are a perfect example. The even sell t-shirts now!

Tip #6 – Tell everyone about your video!
When upload your first few videos, you are likely to hear a deafening silence. You'll be waiting for comments, but none will come. You'll check your video statistics and be disappointed by the tiny number of viewers. Don’t get discouraged. It takes time to build an audience. Make sure people know it is there and can find it. Create links to your video from your home page, product pages, or online media room. Mention your video in your e-mail or offline newsletters, and create links to your video as part of your e-mail signature and those of other people in your organization. 

Tip # 7 – make sure bloggers know about the video
Sending a link to the video to bloggers or commenting on other people's blogs (and including a link to your video) is a good way to build an audience. If you comment on blogs in the same space as yours, you might be surprised at how quickly you will get viewers to your video.

Tip #8 – Experiment a lot to find something that hits
While I think it is difficult to purposely create viral marketing buzz, it is certainly possible. Create a number of campaigns and see what hits, then nurture the winners along. Think like a venture capitalist or movie studio and try a number of things in order to get that elusive hit.

Good luck. And if you do create a cool video, let me know.

Media Execs Predict End Of Free Internet Content

    Posted on: Sunday, 26 July 2009, 07:32 CDT

IAC/InteractiveCorp chairman and CEO Barry Diller said the era of free Internet content is coming to an end.Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Pasadena, California, Diller challenged traditional Internet business models in which consumers pay for Internet access while content is provided free of charge. 

In the future, he said revenue will be generated from advertising, subscriptions and transactions.

“It is not free, and is not going to be,” said Diller, adding that Web users will have to pay for the content they watch and use.

The transition will not be smooth, he said, and the years ahead will not be easy for content providers.

"We are transitioning from an old form to a new form and those things are always bloody," said the media and technology executive, who also serves as chairman of Expedia Inc. and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.

The Internet is still in its infancy, and while content was initially provided at no charge to the user, the goal was always to find a way in time to generate revenue, he said.

Diller’s comments echo those of other media moguls, such as Liberty Media Corp.’s John Malone and Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger, who say that Web users will have to pay for the content they watch and use.

Diller, 67, whose IAC/Interactive runs the Ask.com search engine and the Match.com dating service, called the view of the Internet as a system of free communications a “mythology”.

He said his own news Web site, “The Daily Beast”, has "done a very good early job" creating compelling content.

The site is not difficult to finance, but "it's going to have to earn its way,” he said.

Burbank, California-based Disney is working on a subscription-based Internet product that the company believes will expand its opportunities in Web sales, Iger said.  The product will allow improvements in online advertising by allowing marketers to target consumers by tracking their activities and interests.

“We have ample evidence both in traditional and new media that people are willing to pay for quality, to pay for choice and to pay for convenience,” said Iger, speaking at the conference on July 22.

“And they are willing to pay for what they perceive as value.”

News Corp., publisher of the Wall Street Journal and owner of the Fox TV and film studios, is also looking to generate revenue through its Internet businesses by charging customers for news and entertainment, according to a Bloomberg report citing remarks from Jonathan Miller, chief executive officer of News Corp.’s Digital Media Group and News Corp.’s chief digital officer.

The Wall Street Journal already charges customers for online subscriptions.

In the future, some companies will offer content that users are willing to pay for, while others won’t, said Miller, and online journalism will increasingly transition to a “paid model”. 

News Corp.’s interactive revenue fell 11 percent to $187 million during the first quarter of this year, led by a 16 percent drop in advertising at sites such as MySpace.

People Still Selling Sex On Craigslist



Posted on: Sunday, 26 July 2009, 07:10 CDT

Millions of people peruse Craigslist everyday for everything from clothes to cars, but recently it has gotten a lot of attention for prostitutes using it to sell their services as well.

Despite promises to eradicate all sexual services being advertised on the site, officials insist that Craigslist is still unable to rid itself of advertisements placed by prostitutes.

Craigslist, often referred to as an online garage sale, is also a centralized networking community for people to find jobs, housing, items for sale, and services, etc.

"It makes me wonder, do they really think I'm sort of stupid, some bobble-head who will think they changed it?" said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who sued the San Francisco-based company earlier this year, accusing it of being the largest source of prostitution. "They seem to insist on being cute and playing games (and) it's getting old."

Sheriff Dart shows no indication that he has any intention of letting up on the issue. He has engaged in a relentless battle with the company along with an attorney general who believes that he could intensify the pressure on the company to really put an end to online prostitution.

They admit that when Craigslist re-categorized the section from “erotic services” to “adult services”, it eliminated the majority of the graphic images, but there is no denying that Craigslist remains a popular way to advertise sex. 

Now that the site is under so much scrutiny, the advertisements have become creatively covert. Many ads offer vague services by women in suggestive poses with statements reading “Just imagine what we could do” or “Your wife or girlfriend won’t do this for you, but we will”. They also list prices that depend on time required for the service.


Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said in an email that he considered the lawsuit to be nothing more than a publicity stunt.

"The citizens of Cook County would arguably be better served if their sheriff spent his time addressing actual crime, rather than using the courts to generate personal publicity," he wrote.

With the enormous amount of criticism and pressure to do something - especially after a man from Boston was accused of killing a woman who had placed an ad on the site -  Craigslist announced its changes in May.

Craigslist promised not only to get rid of the “erotic services” category, but also to pre-screen all submissions to the new section and even charge a fee.

The Craigslist attorney suggested to Dart’s attorney that the lawsuit be dropped, saying that it would be unnecessary with the changes.

However, questions arose about the new category and how the company would manage its content. According to the attorney general, similar promises made to oversee erotic ads were not kept in the past.

"They are so thinly disguised, the real question is how they are permitted to be there if, in fact, the site is doing the screening and policing that they said they will do," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

Dart's attorney Dan Gallagher said that it is impossible to read certain ads and not notice that they are solicitations for prostitution. He noted a particular ad by a woman offering escort services that last as little as 15 minutes.

"They (Craigslist) go to great lengths to say this is just a site so that people can meet one another to fulfill their romantic aspirations," he said. "I don't think having an escort for 15 minutes is a fulfillment of romantic aspirations."

On top of that, Gallagher says the ads are becoming increasingly obvious in their intent than they were under the category of “erotic services”.

According to him, even code phrases for payments such as "150 roses" or "200 diamonds" that detectives once saw are being replaced with the actual price.

Requests for information regarding the Craigslist monitors, such as how many there are, their qualifications and what type of ads they refuse to post, have yet to be given to officials.

"It's painfully obvious they're just blowing me off, humoring me,' said Dart.

Blumenthal said that Craigslist has responded to his requests, but that he is still awaiting answers to many of the same questions asked by Dart.

"At the very least what we want to know what is the list of prohibited terms, what are their criteria and procedures," he said. "If they need it, we will give them a list of terms."

An alliance of 40 attorneys general deliberating and would be able to announce its next move by next week, according to Blumenthal.

The sheriff and his detectives are conducting sting operations and making arrests.

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Number Of Chinese Web Users Greater Than US Population


Chinese state media said on Sunday that after rising to 338 million by the end of June, the number of Internet users in China is now greater than the entire population of the United States, AFP reported.

The official Xinhua news agency cited a report by the China Internet Network Information Center that the entire country’s online population grew by 40 million in the first six months of 2009.

The report said that in the first half of the year the number of broadband Internet connections rose by 10 million to 93.5 million.

Official data showed that about 95 percent of townships were connected to broadband by early June and 92.5 percent of villages had telephone lines that could be used for Internet access, Xinhua said.

China Mobile vice president Lu Xiangdong was quoted last week as saying that when the country's three telecoms operators, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom invest $40 billion in a national 3G network over the next year, rural coverage is expected to improve even more.

The Internet has become a forum for China's fast-growing online population to express their opinions in a way rarely seen in the traditional, strictly government-controlled media.

The government has even increased its control over Internet usage in recent years as the growing strength and influence of the web population has prompted concern in Beijing about potential social unrest.

In one of the largest known Internet blackouts in China, the government cut off online access to most of the northwest Xinjiang region after rioting in the capital earlier this month.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a range of other sites used for networking and sharing content were also blocked from being used.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Digital environments?

Since the late 1980s it has become accepted wisdom that we are living in a 'digital environment', one that embodies a 'law of code' (a law founded on US libertarian values regarding free speech and private enterprise) that will bring nations - and individuals - together in a global market featuring ubiquitous access to information via electronic media. That environment is supposedly both unprecedented and inevitable, although delayed in parts of the world such as Kazakhstan or Zimbabwe that have not inhaled the zeitgeist.

This guide, and by extension the caslon.com.au site, question some of the digital pieties.

The following pages suggest that it is more useful to speak of a range of digital environments, in which culture is often as important as the availability of infrastructure or hegemonies regarding markets, the state, individual autonomy and community.

Few of the digital environments are unprecedented: many of the laments about digital woes (or merely the discontents of modernity) look distinctly traditional and rhetoric about the evils (or wonders) of the net could have come from writing about television, the telegraph or the printing press. Eschatological visions of the Telecosm, the Noosphere or what Nicholas Negroponte acclaimed as 'Being Digital' (sort of 'cool' without taxes or inconveniences such as governments and the distressingly un-hip lower classes) are also misplaced.

Like any description of an environment it is necessarily patchy. We have highlighted online and offline writing about work, gender, the arts, morals, communities and the state