Marketing Tom - Internet Marketing

Embedding - A Great Way of Bringing Your Other Channels Into Your Blogging Hub

At present there's a bewildering array of Web 2.0 applications, social networks and social bookmarks available on the web, everything from Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook to Odeo, Digg, Basecamp and YouTube. I sometimes wonder how some people keep track of where they're at or where they should be throughout the day.

The way that things are tending to go is that companies have their social side and then they have their business side. At its most simplistic level, the social side builds community and develops loyalty - it often is the area that creates the leads; and the business side is just that - the place where people go to buy, view products, learn and enquire, etc. The social side is the one that interests me and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that companies need to firstly develop a blogging hub and then create social experiences which can be plugged into the blog. These experiences are basically a way of taking the conversation over to another neighbourhood, whilst still keeping a close eye on it.

Quite often it's possible to create a conversation (or borrow a conversation) and embed it straight into your blog - thus offering visitors a media experience which differs from the usual text and photos. Here are some examples of embedding that you may want to consider for your blog:

YouTube
Most bloggers when they experiment with embedded media will generally start by using YouTube.  Take a look at what Blendtec did to demonstrate the durability and quality of their products.

Flickr
More and more people (and businesses) are starting to appreciate the reach and power of Flickr. Here's a selection of images from a Flickr set (http://flickr.com/groups/11604231@N00/pool/tags/sixnations) which are displayed as a slideshow:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Odeo
If you'd like to create a link to your favourite podcast, then why not consider Odeo, which also allows you to customise your Odeo player.

powered by ODEO

SlideShare
If you would like to share your business or personal presentations online, it may be worth considering SlideShare. The presentation below is a favourite of mine as it combines both pictures and sound.

| View | Upload your own

Google Maps
And what list would be complete without Google? (Here's a map of my hometown!).

View Larger Map

The Queen Broadcasts on YouTube

If you wanted to know just how far social media has come over the past year, look no further than the Queen's Royal Channel on YouTube. This year Queen Elizabeth II will broadcast her 50th Queen's Message this year but the difference will be that people  will be able to view the broadcast on YouTube - probably a little after it is Broadcast Live on UK terrestrial TV. The Royal Channel itself went live at one minute past midnight last night and will, like all other YouTube videos be available for people to leave written and video comments. For those who are interested, there are broadcasts from 1957 and some rare footage rarely seen before on teh channel.

Google on Google Reader

Google have come up with a very simple, yet very effective, way of teaching people about the benefits of RSS - obviously with reference to Google Reader. It just goes to show that with some A4 printouts, a "flat" white board and a digital camera you can create great video.

The Rise and Rise of Citizen Marketers

The other day I was told about two very interesting videos on YouTube. One was from Sony Bravia and the other was a spoof follow-up video. The Sony Bravia video was created to highlight the vivid colours of its HD TV and was filmed in Glasgow last year. The video is superbly done and features hundreds of explosions of paint - it follows on from their 2005 Bouncy Balls commercial, which featured 250,000 balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco.

The spoof video is a simple 1-minute clip which  'captures the aftermath' of the paint explosion in Glasgow. I just love the humour of it - there is something of The Office's Gareth (UK version) behind the character. I am not sure who was behind it (possibly some marketing firm) but it seems to capture the very essence of Web 2.0 - individuals seeing something in the media and reacting to. And why not? Today we have the tools - video, blogs and audio - to be able to react very quickly and effectively and get the message out to a huge audience. In this case I think the spoof complements the Sony ad - but I suppose that marketers should be aware that it can also go the other way.

Sony Bravia Advert

Spoof Advert

Video's Reach Extends

The other day I was adding some videos to my Amazon DVD Rental List when I came across a YouTube-style video player embedded on the page. The video was a trailer clip for the blockbuster film 300- Amazon was allowing you to pre-order the DVD already. I'm not sure how they have been doing this but it was the first time I had seen it on Amazon's own site.

It got me thinking that embedded video clips will become par for the course for a wide range of businesses in a short period of time. Got a new product launch - create a clip; a new book release - add the book signing clip; watched your team win football - watch the post-match interview; the list is endless. I can honestly see that videocasting will become mainstream within the next year and it will be done by companies from large multinationals down to small businesses operating in the sticks.

Even publishers, like the Wall Street Journal, are now making it easy for bloggers to add content from the newspaper to their blog - in this case you don't even have to log in directly to your blog to post. And companies like Brighcove are allowing you to create your own video channels, where you can embed video clips on your own site or use clips from third party suppliers. There certainly is a video revolution afoot!

State of the Internet: Mary Meeker

For the past couple of weeks I have been downloading Web 2.0 podcasts onto my iRiver MP3 player. Most of them came from the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, where there were some great 'conversations': Eric Schmidt (of Google), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Bob Parsons (GoDaddy), to name but a few but the podcast which I remember most is the Mary Meeker: State of the Internet, Part 3 one. The main reason is that she delivered 37 PowerPoint slides in around 10 minutes - I have used a number of them on the eMarketing courses that I deliver.

Here are the downloads:
PowerPoint Presentation Slides
Download Audio
Download Video

YouTube to Offer (Google) Ads

As many people have thought YouTube has given in to temptation and will soon be delivering Google Ads to a video near you. John Battelle seems to like the fact that one of the founders, Chad Hurley, describes it as sharing the ad revenue with the founders and not as delivering Google Ads. John Battelle had this to say about a recent conversation he had with Chad at Davos:

I spoke to Chad briefly at Davos, and I am certain he and the folks at Google are deeply studying the best models to roll out ads on the site. My guess is there will be any number of units available (one might be just three seconds long, he told the BBC), and when folks upload their videos, they'll be presented with a choice of the kind of ads they might want to roll into their video, and also, various placement options (ie, before, after, middle, above (?) etc). There will probably also be some kind of passive AdSense play a la Revvr.

YouTube Meets Lonelygirl15

We are certainly entering crazy times. A couple of weeks back I reported that Google's ad revenue will surpass that of UK commercial TV channel, Channel 4 (next year it will beat the biggest commercial channel in the UK, ITV1) and this week Wired magazine is talking about how Google plans to make a dent in the $67 billion that US advertisers spent on TV last year. As you may have guessed this will be made using their latest commercial vehicle, YouTube.

Other interesting articles that are featured in this edition include Lonelygirl15, a behind-the-scenes look at the people behind the most popular online video blog (ever!?).

Another article looks at how Chevrolet asked users to come up with their own video spots for its Tahoe SUV.

NBC Silences Dixie Chicks

Stowe Boyd comments on NBC's refusal to run an ad, which promotes the Dixie Chicks' documentary Shut Up and Sing, because it is "disparaging to President Bush". Well, I'm a liberal sort of guy who thinks that people should be able to judge for themselves, so here goes.

                 

The official Shut Up and Sing Trailer from The Weinstein Company.

This is what Harvey Weinstein, distributor of the movie, had to say:

It’s a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America. The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is profoundly un-American.

From my (British) perspective, I find it deeply disturbing that certain elements of American society should adopt the attitude that they do - burning Cd's? telling people to go France? and (and this really does beggar belief )the American Red Cross turning down a donation of a $1m? Let's not beat about the Bush here (no pun intended!) - the ONLY reason George Bush sent American troops to war was over oil!

Stowe first saw the ad on Technorati and mentions the fact that you can copy and paste the Javascript from the ad into your website, blog, etc in order for it to display there. Neat!

Thoughts on Video Sharing

I picked up my car yesterday from its annual service and the whole experience got me thinking about how streaming video could be used for business applications. The guy at Nationwide Autocentres said that the car had gone through around 150 checks and, unlike many main dealers, they do things like take the wheels off to do a complete check. I don't doubt that they do carry out these 150+ checks but it got me thinking about the possibility of 'adding more value'  to their product by  releasing a link to YouTube, Google Video or even an uploaded file on their own site of some or all of the 150 checks they carried out. That way I can see that they actually carried them out. It's not important that you see the clip, simply that you are able to view it if you want.

I am sure there are many other businesses which carry out routine checks which could quite easily be video taped and uploaded for clients to see. There are, no doubt, a number of logistical problems to doing this but, hey, nothing is impossible for the Google Generation!

Dove and Real Beauty

Digit believes that the message from this ad is:

retouching in fashion campaigns is a 'bad thing'.

Whilst Brand Play thinks this:

Dove has decided to care about something else - a woman's self image. Whether they believe it or not (and I think they do), their communications of late have been charged with a message that has effected packaging, innovation, and advertising.  Amazing what a little brand strategy can do for a decades-old brand that was until a few years ago... boring.

They're both right. See what you think

Disney on Podcasting

There's an interesting interview over on Clickz - Questions for disney's Director of Synergy - between Zachary Rodgers and Michael Petersen. In it Michael Petersen describes the incredible take up of podcasting - 250,000 have signed up - since it lauched in August of last year much of it driven, by the sounds of it, through iTunes. In it he talks about its evolution, the decision to place adverts on podcasts and quite refreshingly just how new podcasting is, even to a company as huge as Disney:

Q. Have you done a lot of research into the medium and how it's used, or are you throwing your hat into the ring more casually to see what happens? The latter, like everybody else right now. It's so new. Through focus groups and conferences that have kids on panels, we know how technologically savvy they are... anecdotally rather than through any hard data.

Rocketboom - Videoblog

I don't think I've blogged about this before, even though I often go on the site. Rocketboom, is a sort of news service offered via streaming video and hosted by rising star Amanda Congdon. Rocketboom offers a daily 'newscast' which covers all manner of issues. According to Wiki (yes, they have an entry on Wikipedia!):

Rocketboom (subtitled: daily with Amanda Congdon) [1] is a three-minute daily videoblog created and co-owned by producer-director Andrew Baron and Amanda Congdon. Actress Congdon appears five days a week as Rocketboom's anchor and host, occasionally doing interviews at interior and exterior locations.

It is extremely addictive, due to the excellent delivery by Amanda Congdon and the diverse (eclectic) content on the show. She tends to interweave standard newsroom delivery with photo, video and web clips and even has a number of contributors (call them correspondents) who create video feeds for the show.

Rocketboom offers that WOW! factor for me and though it can be categorised as light, web entertainment, I can't help think that it should trigger thoughts on how videocasting - streaming or downloadable video can be used by businesses. I have already showed Rocketboom to one of my clients and they came up with some innovative takes on how they could use the technology. Let me know what business applications you can think of.

Technorati Tags: rocketboom | vlogging | podcasting

Podcasting and Search Engines

If you've already started doing your own podcasts, you may be interested to read an article on Clickz, entitled Search Engine Optimization for Podcasts. Drawing on a podcasting session at Search Engine Startegies in Chicago Grant Cowell offers some good tips for podcasters. Here are some neat tips:

Speakers offered the following tips and guidelines for optimizing podcasts:    

• Promote only one feed. "Many podcasters create a podcast, then move over to a different content management system, promote a new RSS feed, and wind up with all of these different feeds out there for every podcast," said Dick Costolo, CEO of Feedburner.

• Optimize the audio file. A lot of people listen to a podcast on their computer as well as MP3 players.  Close the findability gap. "Optimize a landing page for each episode of your show, as well as your category page," said Amanda Watlington, owner of Searching for Profit. "Provide subscription information on the landing pages that's very visible."

• Build correct and valid feeds. "Validate your feeds with feed validator tools," said Watlington. "Remember that iTunes does not redistribute. So you must build a separate feed for iTunes. I like to promote doing 3 separate feeds: a 2.0 feed, a media feed, and an iTunes feed."

• Include a transcript or summary. Whether or not it is a transcript or a summary will depend on the podcast's time span. "If you're giving just a little short tip, that's one thing," said Watlington. "Typically, a summary is all you need for your landing page, a nicely optimized page that covers the podcast's high points."

One thing to bear in mind is that search engines, like Podscope, actually use speech recognition to determine the relvancy of the podcast.

Technorati Tags: podcast | search engines

Pushing the Boundaries of Podcasting

It certainly looks like companies are starting to push the boundaries of podcasting. With the new Apple iPod offering the ability to create video podcasts, the only limit to its use is your own imagination. The audience can be friends, family, colleagues, business associates or even customers. I am currently working on a project to create audio and video podcasts for my own travel blog, Mad About Madrid. Adverblog came across a weekly video podcast from cosmetics company Maybelline, which offers tips on how to get perfect make-up; in addition, you can listen to weekly audio podcasts from make-up artist Max Delorme.

Here are some podcasting ideas:

• Flyover view of the next fairway on a golf course
• Mountain bike trails
• 2-minute recipes
• Wine Tasting
• Museum Guides
• DIY Tips
• Walking Tour video and audio podcasts
• Chat up Lines!!

Technorati Tags: podcasting | ipod

Tony Blair Podcast - the First by British Prime Minister

Tony Blair has become the first British Prime Minister to do a Podcast. In an interview with the Sun's Political Editor, George Pascoe-Watson, Mr Blair talks about new measures to tackle the growing tide of anti-social behaviour in the UK.

Tony Blair Podcast

Podcasting From the Heart of the Catholic Church

Following on from the previous article, you may be interested to take a look at Catholic Insider.Run by father Roderick Vonhögen, catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, The Netherlands he says that between 7,000 - 9,000 listeners sign up for each podcast! Given the wonderful logo, the website actually contains some podcasts that you wouldn't expect to see on a Catholic site:

The Star Wars Chronicles- Episode 04 (works now)
The Secrets of Harry Potter - Episode 06
The story of the Colosseum and Piazza Navona

Technorati Tags: podcasting | vatican | catholic

From Podcasting to Godcasting

The BBC ran an interesting story yesterday about the vicar who is starting to podcast his sermons.The Rev Leonard Payne, Vicar of St Nicholas' Church in Wrentham, Suffolk (UK), decided to post his sermons on to Apple's iTunes Store and was amazed to find that in a short period of time 2,000 people had downloaded them. The initial idea was that people who could not attend sermons, could download them from their own homes. According to diocesan communications director, Nick Clarke:

"This is another example of how the church is embracing technology to keep its message relevant for a 21st Century audience. It's about doing church differently for a diverse and obviously hungry audience."

Technorati Tags: podcasting | church

Lance Armstrong Will Podcast from the 2005 Tour de France

I just came across this on Steve Rubel's Micropersuasion about Podcasts by Lance Armstrong throughout the Tour de France:

Starting July 2, Lance Armstrong goes for a record-breaking 7th consecutive Tour de France victory, and no one gets you closer to the yellow jersey than SIRIUS. "The fans have been so supportive of me over the years," says Armstrong, "and having them along for my last race will make this experience that much more special." Throughout the Tour, SIRIUS will have exclusive behind-the-scenes reports from Lance himself and Armstrong Radio co-host Mark Higgins..

If you'd like to subscribe to the Podcast, visit the SIRIUS Tour de France/ Lance Armstrong Reports page on FeedBurner.

Here are some cycling blogs you may want to keep an eye on during the Tour de France:

Cycloblog - It is a cycling weblog that aims to cover all the major cycling news and races throughout the season.
Tour de France Blog - this is a real Tour de Force of a website - with everything you coud possibly wish to know about the cyclists, the teams and the riders in the Tour de France.
Digital Peloton - another site dedicated to cycling and the Tour de France
Maillot Jeune - another comprehensive blog on the Tour de France
Peleton Blog - This blog is devoted to the news of bicycle racing mostly profesional, but some local (Colorado) racing as well. There are also reviews of bike books non-fiction, fiction, and training guides.
Velogal's Race Blog - Velogal Talks Tour de France and other Cycling Races. I'll be hangin' with Lance Armstrong and the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team at the Tour de France, and also working many of the US races during the cycling season

Effective use of RSS Feeds by Morgans Hotel Group

Whilst searching for hotels in New York, I was pleasantly surprised to see one hotel group, Morgans Hotels, making good use of RSS feeds to keep guests up-to-date on latest offers. Their 'Special Offers' page invites visitors to sign up to their RSS  Feed.

Not sure what a RSS Feed is? Well, here's how the Morgans Hotel group clearly put it:

"A news feed (also known as an RSS feed) is a listing of a website's content in a news-headline format. It is updated whenever new content is published to the site. News readers "subscribe" to news feeds (websites that provide the service), which means they download lists of stories at an interval that you specify (every 30 minutes, for example), and present them to you in your news reader."

And the objective of this RSS Feed?

"Morgans Hotel Group uses this method to make our users aware of the latest special offers, often exclusive to our site, as soon as they are released. There is no cost to receive the news feeds from Morgans Hotel Group."

Great stuff! Judging by a recent article on Robert Scoble's blog, he would be well pleased