PR 2.0: June 2007

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Defining Social Media



After publishing, "The Future of Communications - A
Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing," I decided to take a short break. I wanted it to reside online for people to discover before it was pushed down the page with every post to follow. Afterall, we do have a very short attention span these days and the important posts that exist across the blogosphere are unfortunately quickly forgotten.

But that's the point of the manifesto. There are conversations taking place across multiple networks, and each are vying for our attention, which increasingly thins with every new network, app, and tool that's introduced.


So, how do we ensure that conversations don't leave us behind?

We engage and continually participate.

There has been a fundamental shift in our culture and it has created a new landscape of influencers and an entirely new ecosystem for supporting the socialization of information – thus facilitating new conversations that can start locally, but have a global impact.

Social Media is, at its most basic sense, a shift in how people discover, read, and share news and information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, tranforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many.)

It is an evolving phenomenon that has captivated some, intrigued others, and is feared and underestimated by many. But if you're new to this discussion, where do you go to learn about the basis for Social Media or simply its definition? The current "go to" reference is Wikipedia, and as I mentioned in previous posts, it is misleading, incomplete, and uninformative.

There are many of us who have spent the last year defining and defending Social Media as a legitimate classification for new media as well as documenting the tools that facilitate the socialization of content, including Stowe
Boyd, Robert Scoble, Jay Rosen, Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Shel Israel, Todd Defren, Brian Oberkirch, Chris Saad, Jerry Bowles, Deb Schultz, Marianne Richmond, JD Lasica, Rohit Bhargava, Jeremy Pepper, Greg Narain, et al. However, we always seem to run around in circles defining it and re-defining it, over and over again.

I originally stated that the Wikipedia definition was in dire need of reform, otherwise we're doomed to continually run through these cycles of explanation and defense, instead of focusing on foward-thinking, collaboration, and development. A more informative and clearer definition will benefit those new to the conversation as well as strengthening and uniting the effort of those visionaries who will continue to carry the flag forward.

The time is now to define social media and I would like to invite those part of the bigger conversation to contribute to the common collective.

Here is the current definition on Wikipedia:

Social media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives.Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs to allow users to interact. A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Gather.com (social networking),YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Miniclip (game sharing).

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I took the current description and offered some suggestions based on my beliefs as well as points from other thought leaders. I tried to keep it simple as not to overwhelm, but embrace those read it.

1 - social media describes the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, and vlogs.

A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace and Facebook (social networking), Twitter and Jaikue (presence apps), YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Upcoming (Events), Digg and Reddit (news aggregation), Flickr and Zooomr (photo sharing), Blogtv, Justin.tv, and Ustream (livecasting), Stickham, YourTrumanShow (episodic online video), Izimi and Pownce (media sharing), del.icio.us (bookmarking) and World of Warcraft (online gaming).

2 - Social Media is the democratization of content and the understanding of the role people play in the process of not only reading and disseminating information, but also how they share and create content for others to participate. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in a conversational format between authors and people.

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I invite your feedback and encourage you to help continue the conversation. My goal is to take a draft of the collective input and submit it to Wikipedia for a more global review.

Additional Resources:

My previous post on Social Media and why it is a legitimate category

Doc Searls and Robert Scoble join me in the conversation about Social Media

Stowe Boyd on Social Media

Chris Heuer on the importance of Social Media

Stowe Boyd and Greg Narain on social terminology





Tech PR War Stories and The Social Media Manifesto



This week, I joined the Tech PR War Stories
podcast with David Strom and Paul Gillin to discuss my recent article, The Future of Communications - A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing Manifesto.

While many discuss the need to engage, or review the benefits and disadvantages of social media, I'm focusing my efforts on the specifics of conversational tools and the sociology of transparent engagement to help those who want to learn how to participate instead of market.

This week David and Paul talk to Brian Solis, a PR executive who has been
writing the PR 2.0 blog here and author of a social media manifesto that nicely pulls these technologies together. We spoke about ways that PR pros can get smarter about using the new media tools, how the role of listening has become more important, and ways that comments can help drive blog and Web site traffic. How do you teach old PR dogs the new Web 2.0 tricks?

Download the podcast here. (15:05)

Monday, June 11, 2007

The Social Media Manifesto – Integrating Social Media into Marketing Communications



Click here to read this article in ThinkFree docs.

While I was preparing my presentation for “Starting the Conversation,” a social media
workshop hosted by SocialMediaClub, I wound up drafting version one of the manifesto for helping marketers adapt to the rapidly evolving realm of social media.

In the past, I’ve spoken at PR, tech, and communications events about Social Media and how companies can engage in the conversations taking place with or without them. As much as I wanted to look into the future, I was rooted in the present as a means to connect it to the past. There are just too many new things to introduce to people and even more reasons why they should care.

The discussion usually centered on the tools enabling social media instead of analyzing the shift in how information is distributed. From there, the natural progression was to understand who would be responsible for these new strategies and how they would sell it to management.

There has been a fundamental shift in our culture and it has created a new landscape of influencers and an entirely new ecosystem for supporting the socialization of information – thus facilitating new conversations that can start locally, but have a global impact.

Monologue has given way to dialog.

Social media has created a new layer of influencers. It is the understanding of the role people play in the process of not only reading and disseminating information, but also how they in turn, share and also create content for others to participate. This, and only this, allows us to truly grasp the future of communications.

The socialization of information and the tools that enable it are the undercurrent of social media and ultimately the social economy.

Content is the new democracy and we the people, are ensuring that our voices are heard.

What we’re talking about here is how companies will best manage an integrated communications strategy in the not too distant future. It is about putting the “public” back in Public Relations and realizing that focusing on important markets and influencers will have a far greater impact than trying to reach the masses with any one message or tool.

The key point here is that Social Media has yet to reveal its true impact. While many are defining its future, the majority of people around the world have yet to embrace it and participate. This means that it’s only going to become more pervasive and as such, become a critical factor in the success or failure of any business.

The evolution of social media is also forcing an incredible transformation in PR and corporate communications – its most dramatic to date; even more significant than the introduction of radio, television and motion pictures.

With the injection of social tools into the mix, people now have the ability to impact and influence the decisions of their peers and also other newsmakers. Social media is not a game played from the sidelines. Those who participate will succeed – everyone else will either have to catch up or miss the game altogether.

Engage or die.

What does the future of communications look like?

First it’s an understanding that social media is about sociology and less about technology. It’s a mashup of new and traditional media that spans across advertising, PR, customer service, marcom, sales, and community relations.

In order to succeed now and in the future, is to bridge the gap between early adopters and everyone else.

Now, however, it’s about conversations, and the best communicators start as the best listeners.

This is where the future of communications takes shape.

It all starts with respect.

Listening is marketing.

Participation is marketing.

Media is marketing.

Conversations are marketing.

Comments are marketing.

These are pretty powerful statements and they are the essence of the future of marketing. They combine traditional marketing, conversational marketing, participatory marketing, and more importantly, the ability to be successful in dynamic relationships with multiple markets.

Let’s start with figuring out who’s in charge of the conversation? Is it advertising, PR, marketing communications, customer service? It’s all of the above.

How do you integrate this into the marketing fold without either getting laughed at, or worse, fired? Perhaps CEOs, directors and investors will read this and force the change to stem from the top, down. But in most cases, change will be driven from bottom, up and from the middle.

The best companies will let go of their message and control of gate keeping in social realms and trust it with their employees to carry forward. Don’t get me wrong, traditional marketing can still run as it has, it just now needs a more complementary role with all new media activities. There also needs to be a more cognizant process for understanding the people who comprise the markets you’re trying to reach.

We need leaders. We need champions.

What the CMO, chief marketing officer, was to Web 1.0, such is the new role of community managers in the new world of Web 2.0 and social media. This is the role that keeps the company ear to the ground in order to determine where the conversations are taking place and where they should participate. They are on the front lines of listening and engaging in conversations across the Web.

The next step is to realize that messages are not conversations. This is where most companies fall down in traditional marketing. People just don’t speak or hear things that way.

As Doc Searls once said, “There is no market for messages.”

This is a hub between the company and its customers. It’s the new customer service, fusing marcom, PR and customer relations, all in one department.

Everything we’re integrating into the marketing mix is aimed at sparking and cultivating not only conversations, but relationships. It’s humanizing companies and their products and services so that they matter to people.

Focus.

Jay Rosen wrote a great essay entitled, “We are the People Formerly Known as the Audience,” that introduced an entirely new concept of reaching people – ultimately influencing marketing.

In order to reach people, we have to figure out who they are and where they go for information. In the process, you’ll quickly discover that there is no magic bullet for reaching everyone - all at once

The best communications programs will reach out to traditional media, a, b, and c-list bloggers, people, and communities equally. But it requires a new mindset.

Social media is about speaking with, not “to” or “at” people.

This is about doing PR in a way that both works in a conversational medium and doesn't demean and insult the intelligence of everyone involved. This is a sea filled with sharks – most of which would love nothing more than to have PR pros for every meal of the day. To succeed here though, is the future of integrated communications. This concept introduces the Long Tail of media and the new regime of influentials in the micromedia.



Integrated Marketing – The Tools

The future of marketing integrates traditional and social media elements. The new mix will include what you know along with the tools to succeed in social media and customer relations.

They can include blogs, social networks, wikis, lifestreams ala Twitter and Jaiku, video, livecasts such as Veodia and ustream.tv, news aggregators such as Digg and Reddit, social media releases, videos, and podcasts. There are also opportunities for companies to participate in virtual worlds, such as Second Life.

Remember, the future of communications introduces sociology into the marketing strategy. The technology is just that, technology. The tools will change. The networks will evolve. Mediums for distributing content will grow.

As you participate in each of these new discussions, the key ingredient to ensuring transparency is realize that whatever you do, is less about the company, per se, and more about how your customers can succeed in their business or how people can simply improve their personal lives. They learn. You learn. It’s about building a community around them – literally. The rest are just tools to facilitate the conversation.

With everything you do in social media, you have to participate in order to build bridges that connect people and the company.

Blogs - I’m pretty sure that by this point, we’re all pretty familiar with blogs. What we should all know however, is that they are not effective when used as a corporate platform for marketing messages. And also, they’re not a channel for featuring ghostwritten posts for company executives. The best corporate blogs are genuine and designed to help people. Make sure to pay attention to the comments as well. Some of the best conversations take place in the comments section as people react to what you wrote as well as the feedback from their peers.

Trackbacks can not go unmentioned here. As you blog, make sure to send trackbacks to any outside blog post that may have inspired your post. This builds tunnels between the blogs allowing new readers to discover your content.

Social Media ReleaseOriginally introduced by Todd Defren, the SMR is a new way of facilitating conversations, while also packaging content in a more concise format, rich with media and other social tools (it also recently celebrated its first anniversary).

The social media release, aka new media release, is not a miracle pill to cure the ills of poorly written press releases. It is merely a tool that is most effective when combined with a strategic arsenal of relevant company blog posts, traditional releases, relationships, and an emerging category of press releases that tell a story (written by people for people using SEO to reach them).

Social media releases are designed to get the conversation going, providing readers with the ability to disseminate information and multimedia, bookmark and share the content, and in turn, spark threads. They also serve a purpose of providing new media influencers with the information they need, in one package, in order to write a full story, their way – without having to carve out the BS of a traditional release or pitch.

News releases can tell the same story in different ways – appealing to specific markets and the users that define them.

Here are a few examples for your reference:
HP

Geocommons

Virtual Thirst

VNR 2.0 - Video is the new frontier, again. I recently introduced the idea of reinventing the VNR (video news release), which is designed to help viewers humanize companies and also explain the value of their products or services in a way that speaks to them directly.

‘Un’ produced videos that tell stories are incredibly viral when placed in online communities and also on the corporate Web site. The more produced they feel, the lower the interaction and sharing ratio. The more real they are, the greater the dynamic and propensity for sharing.

These videos can be short demos, screencasts (a demonstration or walkthrough on screen), entertaining snippets or collages, mini episodes, etc.

Create a channel on Youtube, tag each video with the key words you think people are searching, and watch the views skyrocket. I recently uploaded a simple screencast, which generated 55,000 views in one week.

Social Media Newsroom - Todd Defren who introduced the original template for a social media release also introduced the concept of a social media newsroom.



This allows press, analysts, bloggers, conference organizers, and also customers to discover, subscribe, and share corporate news, bios, images, video, RSS feeds, del.icio.us links, blogs, tags, IM accounts, etc.

Social Networks - Building a dedicated social network, which could be considered a more sophisticated and easier to use discussion board, is imperative to service and relationships. Take a look at services such as Ning in order to quickly build and launch a network if you need to take matters into your own hands.

But just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. You have to start by recruiting. Go find your customers and bring them to you. Also make sure to maintain a presence in other social networks – where relevant – so your customers can also find you.

Also take a look at Dell’s Ideastorm for mashing up a digg-like community around customer ideas.

For more on the subject, take a look at Jeremy Toeman’s smart and useful post on DIY Viral Marketing Activities.

Podcasts and Video Blogs – Podcasts and video blogs are easy to produce and can provide a world of value to customers. They can focus on company milestones, executive interviews, customer success stories, how to’s, and anything else that may be worthy. Not only can they be hosted on the company’s web site, they can be placed in a variety of content distribution networks such as itunes, to reach people using the tools of their choice.

Wikis – Wikis are important to facilitate collaboration in a more friendly, socially-focused content management system. It’s not just about teams and document management. It can now provide a forum for inviting content and suggestions from customers.

Microblogs, Lifestreams (Workstreams) and Flow Applications – Twitter, Jaiku, and tumblr aren’t just for geeks. They represent a new channel for channeling aggregated information and listening to customers. Often referred to as microblogs, these new tools are designed to share short updates, whether you’re publishing new information, content, or media. People “add” people and companies as friends when they want to learn or stay up to date with their activities. More importantly however, they also can collect RSS feeds from almost every important network and blog that you produce and participate. These collected streams can represent a channel of focused information specific for the people you want to reach.

Again, these are just a few examples where conversations are taking place. Not one represents a collective community for your customer-base. You have to understand where they are, what they’re looking for, and why – in order to reaching them.

Livecasting and video casting – There was a time when only the elite or Fortune 500 companies had access to video production and the ability to mass broadcast. Now companies are building networks and the tools that enable you to broadcast video live or as episodes, which can facilitate 24/7 or episodic livecasts on the Web and through mobile appliances. Video segments allow companies and customers to engage in a whole new way. All it takes is a notebook, a fixed broadband connection (or even EVDO for mobile casts), and either a Web cam or a camcorder.

Companies such as Veodia and Ustream enable livecasting anywhere, anytime. While kyte, Mogulus, and BlogTV facilitate episodic broadcasting.

For business, these tools are ideal for (whether live or not) for webcasting training sessions, HR and executive announcements, product reviews, marketing events, lectures, conferences, speeches, panels, etc.

Media – Artwork, and all media in general should be placed in social communities for customers to find and use. Some of the more successful companies are sharing less-polished, more customer-focused exclusive content in communities such as fickr, zooomr, Izimi, Photobucket or all of the above.

Also collage tools, such as SplashCast, allow you to integrate all forms of media into one portable, rich, and captivating video. SplashCast enables anyone to create streaming media 'channels' that combine video, music, photos, narration, text and RSS feeds. These casts can be placed on blogs and in social networks.

If you want to read a killer case study that gives us a glimpse of the future of integrated marketing, take a look at what Marshall Kirkpatrick and Alex Williams did for the Splashcast launch.

Here are the highlights:
  • Goals: Drive traffic, demonstrate the potential of our publishing tool, encourage people to enlist as SplashCast publishers
  • Daily blogging, not only about company news but interesting industry news as well
  • Sending trackbacks to other blogs, where posts that are related to theirs are linked for their readers to discover
  • Link, link, link
  • Leaving thoughtful, value-ad-focused comments in response to posts on other blogs, where our names are linked to the SplashCast site added in the URL field of the comment form
  • Placed relevant bloggers at the center of their PR strategy
  • Lead to more than 250 blog mentions within 48 hours of their launch
  • Attended events and building relationships with other social media producers, who will remember SplashCast when writing about related subject matter
  • Used Twitter to stay abreast of what other people are doing and keep friends up to date on SplashCast
  • Engagement with and inclusion in relevant topical aggregators.
  • For example, a Google search of Techmeme.com for SplashCastMedia brings back 1,400 results - made 15 appearances on the front page of Digg
  • Enjoyed more than 1,000 publishers register for an account at launch, we doubled that in our first month to 2,000 & doubled it again in our second month to more than 4,000. SplashCast player loads are now approaching 5.5 million
Crowdsourced News aka News Aggregators – Tools such as Reddit, digg, Fark, etc. represent the ability to spike visibility and traffic. Making the front page or earning the highest amount of votes for these sites is an art – and a lot of missionary marketing. It’s important to first develop a trustworthy reputation by submitting, promoting, and voting stories not related to your company.

Social Bookmarking – Social bookmarking sites, such as del.icio.us, ma.gnolia, diigo, and stumble upon, also offer a unique way of creating a resource center for reporters, bloggers, and customers by saving key sites, reports, user experiences, or any relevant information on the web to help place your company and its value proposition in clearer perspective when compared to competitors.

Relevant tags allow other people to discover information, bookmark it on their own and also read through your bookmarks.

Social Calendars – Nothing beats participation and relationship building like doing it in real life! Social networks aren’t only limited to content, they also allow people to find and share events related to their interests. Upcoming and eventful are great ways to reach potential customers by introducing relevant events, by location, to people who may or may not have discovered it on their own. Companies use these tools to invite people to demos, open houses, webcasts, trade shows, etc. Tags also play an important role in attracting visibility.

Virtual Worlds – This is an interesting category unto itself. Many companies are extending their presence into virtual worlds, with Second Life ranking as the most popular of the bunch – but certainly not the only world to participate. This truly requires participation prior to any form of marketing, as these worlds have a unique culture that requires experience – the kind of experience only possible through residence and participation.

To succeed in social media, we can’t be gatekeepers or handlers.

Like with all forms of social media, companies sometimes make the mistake of attacking it with the same rules as they do with traditional media. In the recent case of Intel’s launch of its island through a virtual press conference in Second Life, we learned what not to do.

Many attending media complained that the news of Intel's launch was already released prior to the conference and that nothing new was reported in the event. Even worse, reporters, analysts, and bloggers felt that there was an “us versus them” mentality typical of traditional press releases. According to Metaversed, “The overriding feel I got from attending was one of ‘we will talk, you will listen.’ Indeed, one of Intel's inept handlers actually told the audience to shush, and show some respect, for daring to converse.”

Defining the Future of Integrated Communications – Getting to Work

Below are your action items for placing your company on course for the Future of Integrating Marketing and embracing the world of social media to enhance relationships with press, bloggers, customers and all other unforeseen influencers:

  • Experiment with social media as a person before jumping in as a company spokesperson
  • Talk to the corporate marketing team, discuss the options, and divide and conquer
  • Listen – find the tools that work for you (technorati, GoogleBlogSearch, Google Alerts, BlogPulse, etc.)
  • Determine where your customers participate, listen, read, and speak with them on their terms
  • Assign a community manager or multiple managers and start commenting, reading, writing, sharing, and participating
  • Participate as a contributor and not a marketer
  • Create company profiles and share relevant content on every important social networks – don’t forget to manage your presence in each one
  • Create videos, screencasts, and demos and upload to YouTube
  • Broadcast and receive relevant updates through Twitter, Plazes, or Jaiku
  • Webcast relevant videos
  • Podcast and/or host a video blog
  • Set up del.icio.us profiles for corporate bookmarks, industry trends, competition, and press/blogger coverage
  • Create special Linked in profiles for company executives
  • Establish contacts in all major IMs for specific company contacts
  • Expand the company blog to support multiple spokespersons
  • Add a blogroll that links to other relevant sites and ensure that each post trackbacks to other resources and references to increase visibility
  • Participate in comments
  • Create blog profiles in Mybloglog and Bloglines to reach dedicated users
  • Build company and campaign-specific profiles (where appropriate) on Facebook, Myspace, etc.
  • Develop your own social networks specific to the company and current activities a la Ning and Ideastorm
  • Host a regular talk show on blogtalkradio or blogtv
  • Create an account and Digg relevant stories – not just related to you
  • Write more than one release – experiment with social and SEO releases and create new distribution methods to get them in front of customers – the wire services are no longer the only game in town
  • Analyze Web statistics to measure traffic and referring sources
What does the future of integrated marketing and communications look like? It’s a mashup of new media and traditional media – all with the common goal of engaging people and influencers on their terms. The difference is that by listening, reading, and participating, corporate marketing will be smarter and more approachable than ever before. This is how we humanize brands, create loyalty, and earn customer's business.

Let businesses be measured by their actions and not their intentions. In the world of social media, companies will earn the community of customers they deserve.

The Social Media Workshop
workshop was hosted by author/consultant Shel Israel and Social Media Club Founder Chris Heuer, with and insights from social software & marketing strategist Deborah Schultz, Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang, and Giovanni Rodriguez, founder of Hubbub.



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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

You.tv, A Series on Lifecasting - Part III



In the first post, we explored the meteoric evolution in online video, dating back to Web 1.0 with JenniCam, We Live in Public, and DotComGuy and now in Web 2.0 with the launch of the incredibly popular Justin.tv.

In the next chapter we dove into ustream.tv, which is the first online network to combine Youtube with 24/7 livecasting capabilities aka lifecasting aka livestreaming, a la Justin.tv.

Since the last article, You.tv continues to blossom into a full-blown media category that is rich with tools, networks, and people looking to share their life on camera with a few friends or the rest of the world. This post will explore the rapid evolution of the lifecast and the current ecosystem that supports it.

You.tv, as I call it, is the celebration of online video and the ability to share ideas, realities, and creativity, not only the web, but also on iPods, multimedia players and cell phones. You.tv is everywhere and it is a phenomenon that is transforming everyday people into producers and a new generation of reality TV stars.

After all, this is a snapshot in time where we are all stars in our own mind. It's the way we (the majority) are conditioned to go through life each and every day. Almost everything we consume, view, participate in, demand, evaluate, share, or even how we view ourselves, is driven by a fundamental reliance on popularity and our secret or public desire to be liked more than other people. Whether it's fame, narcissism, vanity, or just a genuine enthusiasm for the new technology, lifecasting is making it almost too simple for everyday people to command an audience. And, as the rise of social networks made stars out of regular people, lifecasting will also produce a new crop of uploaded talent, whether you're ready or not.

As you.tv makes it way across the bell curve, it will also contribute to the conditioning and stroking of our ego until the impending need to ctrl-alt-del our perspective.

But lifecasting doesn't stop with people. The technology and the infrastructure that drives it will also influence how traditional media, Hollywood, sports, Corporate America, and all related industries broadcast and share content. Yes, expect the Tiger Woods cam, the UPS driver cam, the Rosie O'Donnell cam, and the CNN cam.

There are already live shows that are demonstrating the breadth and potential for lifecasting - which for the most part will all be categorized as livecasting because the only difference is the content, not the tools used to broadcast it.

Within the last two weeks, Justin.tv officially launched a lifecasting network with four new shows, including the very popular Justine Ezarik (iJustine) and SF hip hop radio station, Wild 94.9, which also represents first sign of potential business applications.

Tech influencers, including Robert Scoble and Jeremiah Owyang have leveraged the technology to livecast from prominent events. Chris Pirillo, The Technology Evangelist, New Media expert Robin Good, and Tech juggernaut Leo Laporte livecast their tech shows. Photo sharing site, Zooomr recently launched their new product over a series of livecasts and also continue to use it as a community relations tool. We've also experimented with it to send livestreams from some of the many events we attend.

There are countless examples already out there, many of which will now see the light of day as each of the existing and emerging companies spotlight their successful customers and usage applications. It's the early adopters who show the rest of the world how to embrace and leverage new technology after all.

With that, let's take a look at the new set of livestreaming platforms that facilitate You.tv.


Kyte is TV out of the box, which is less about 24/7 lifecasting and more focused on episodic reality content. With kyte, you create your own live TV shows and broadcast them on your own interactive channel, on your website, blog, social network or mobile phone. You can share your channel with your friends and collaborate with them so that they can also be a part of your shows, by adding their own content, voting and chatting live with other viewers.



Veodia positions itself as a live TV studio in your browser. I've used Veodia live from recent events and it is a close comparison to the functionality of ustream.tv. Both facilitate 24/7 or episodic lifecasts on the Web and through mobile applicances, however Veodia is concentrating on bloggers and businesses with a focus on professional quality, whereas, ustream.tv is appealing to the masses.

Using MPEG-4 / h.264 technology, Veodia’s high-end video broadcasting service caters to both professional bloggers and business users in search of a simple way of creating and distributing TV-quality video while preserving full control and ownership of their content. For business, it is ideal for livecasting training sessions, HR and executive announcements, product reviews, marketing events, lectures, conferences, speeches, panels, etc. For professional content producers or broadcasters, it could be a killer way to live cast independent TV shows, interviews, performances, etc., since the stream is portable.



Like Kyte, Magnify.net also lets people build their own online TV channels for lifecasts. However, it takes some snooping to really find out that, not only is it so much more, it really seems to be the first video network that allows you to share your videos and the videos that you like - even if they're hosted on other networks - on through your own online channel. Not only can you create your own content, but it also helps you discover other related videos across other networks, allowing you to build a full-featured channel in a community environment. And, they share the ad revenue with you. Magnify stands in a space unto itself combining the best features of Youtube, del.icio.us, and Myspace.




PocketCaster is an interesting application that will have interesting implications. In a sense, it enables livecasting from any broadband-enabled cell phone.

Much in the same way that camera phones impacted citizen journalism, PocketCaster will create a new regime of mobile, anywhere, any time news and event casters. I was introduced to PocketCaster by Rafe Needleman of Cnet's Webware at a recent Web 2.0 event. I was talking about the You.tv market and he pulled out his phone and started livecasting the conversation. Send out the URL and people can watch the cast streaming from your phone.

It also allows you (as the director) to monitor video feeds from several sources, live and archived, to select which feeds to webcast to viewers. You can also embed GPS information which is displayed on a Google map next to the video.



blogtv is a new network that directly competes with ustream. In a sense, it allows anyone with a Webcam to start lifecasting through their own online channel. People can watch the live stream or watch archived videos. I first heard about blogtv on Twitter when Jeff Pulver announced a series of lifecasts. Blogtv also breaks down the content into several channels, which are more like categories, including, My Life, Music, News, Travel, Comedy, Arts, How to, Sports, and Tech.



YourTrumanShow is an upcoming reality online TV channel that picks up where the movie left off. While they haven't officially launched yet, it gives people the ability to create their own online video channel to broadcast their own reality programming, while also providing an intelligent network to link fans and other similar producers together. It combines the movie premise, TV guide, lifecasting, and social networking, all in one entertainment community. Disclosure: YourTrumanShow is a client.



Mogulus is a full blown web TV studio,
giving users the power to create live, original television programming, all done on their own global broadcasting channel. Before the online live video movement, the production control room was one fixed location, and all collaborators and video had to either be in the same building or remotely connected via satellite or other high speed expensive connections. With Mogulus, the production team can be in any location with broadband connectivity and still work together as if they were in the same room.

While this has appeal to the You.tv crowd, it more than likely will better service prosumer, education, and business markets. You can mix videos, add animated television graphics, employ multiple producers from different locations,


References:

- You.tv Part I
- You.tv Part II

- GigaOm's NewTeeVee captures the latest trend setters in online video. Liz Gannes is one of the leading authorities in this space.

- Also Shel Israel recently wrote an insightful post on why he believes ustream will change the mainstream. He's right. While ustream does have a pretty incredible head start, I'll step back and say that ustream, Justin.tv, combined with the services listed above, will and are changing the mainstream collectively and how we watch, share, and produce new content.



Tuesday, June 05, 2007

TwitDir is the White Pages for Twits aka People on Twitter



When Twitter originally launched, it offered an integrated, basic directory search function. For one reason or another, it vanished over night. It was a disappointing move as I, like many, relied on search to catch up with friends that we knew were on Twitter, but we were all too busy to remember the IDs, let alone add them to our email signatures and business cards for future reference.

TwitDir is one of the many cool third party apps that reintroduces directory search into Twitter, allowing all of us to, once again, find other Twits to follow.

TwitDir Screen Shot

But, it's also much more than a mere directory. Not only can you look up people, but you can also search topics to see who's writing about the things you care about. This is especially important for those tracking the most influential voices on any given subject. Hopefully they'll include bios in the search function. As of now, they do not.

And if ego comparisons are your thing, TwitDir maintains an active list of Top 20 followed, updaters, favorit'ers, and followers.

The Twitter phenomenon continues. Try not to resist...it will consume you sooner or later.

Add TwitDir to your friends on Twitter.

Add me to your Twitter list.

Bookmark this blog




Monday, June 04, 2007

New Media Release Cast #15 Now Online - Evolution of the Press Release



It's been a while since we last recorded the NMRCast, but with the growing discussions around the new media release, we felt it was time to reignite the conversations.

The NMRCast was initially started to document the evolution of the press release in today's social landscape. It reviews the strategies and experiments driving the social media release aka new media release so that PR professionals can learn from each other in order to improve how we share news and information with the public, and in turn, how they share it with each other.

Todd Defren, from SHIFT Communications joined Shel Holtz and me to talk about the one-year anniversary of SHIFT’s social media press release template. We also discussed SHIFT’s template for a social media newsroom, my "how to write" an SMR guide, the lack of social features when using wire services to distribute SMRs, and the status of the social media release working group.

We also covered recent examples of SMRs in action, including the Virtual Coke, SpiralFrog, Real Networks, and Geocommons campaigns.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Relevant Links:

The new Social Media Release site, home of the social media release requirements

Google Groups mailing list for New Media Release discussion

Social Media Release discussion live from the NewComm Forum in Las Vegas

Shannon Whitley's PRX Builder

Also, for a refersher on SMRs, please read, "Everything You Wanted to Know (or Should Know) About Social Media Releases."

Subscribe to the NMRCast feed here.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Starting the Conversation on June 11th in Palo Alto


Artwork by Hugh McLeod of Gapingvoid

All too often I hear from proactive people that want to engage in social media, but don't necessarily know where to start. Then there are those who do participate through blogs, social networks, and other social tools, but aren't quite sure how to tie it all together into a bona fide business-oriented campaign.

Over the last year I've been speaking quite a bit about social media and how to not only engage, but why you should. For the first time, however, I will be doing so unplugged. The room is intimate. The speakers are among the most vocal and visionary in the world of social media and it's an all day exchange.

This workshop is being hosted by author/consultant Shel Israel, with additional instruction and insights from social software & marketing strategist Deborah Schultz, Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang, Social Media Club Founder Chris Heuer, Social Media Evangelist Howard Greenstein and me. Giovanni Rodriguez, founder of Hubbub, recently completed a study of 50 social media business cases and he has agreed to make his first public presentation of them.



“Starting the Conversation” is a day-long, hands-on, interactive workshop to help professional communicators ‘get’ social media programs started painlessly and effectively in the corporate workplace.

Click here for the agenda. To register, click here and enter "BRI" as the promotion code for an additional $100 off the ticket price.

For more on the subject, please see posts by Jeremiah Owyang and Shel Israel. Also, see Under the Radar's post on the workshop.