socialmedia

New Social Media eBook - And a Funny Blogger Outreach Video

leelefever — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:46:58 -0500

Wouldn't it be nice if every author actually lived in the world that they wrote about? It's one thing to be an observer, but yet another to be a resident. That's why it's my pleasure to point you to a new ebook by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo of Capulet Communications.

It's called "Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook". You can learn more (and purchase it) at SocialMediaReady.com. This video provides a quick overview too.

I've known Darren and Julie for years and there are few people whose words I would trust more regarding social media marketing. Why? Because it is their world. Through their work, their blogs, their goofy satire sites and sites like DearRockers, they've been there every day for years.

As part of the roll out, they created a Common Craft inspired video called "Blogger Outreach 101" with Sachi and I in starring roles - as horses (I think!). You'll just have to watch it and laugh...Darren reminds us that he think it's "just awful." We are flattered nonetheless.

[Disclosure] I provided a quote and some very small input as a part of the ebook's development.

New Social Media eBook - And a Funny Blogger Outreach Video

leelefever — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:46:58 -0500

It's called "Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook". You can learn more (and purchase it) at SocialMediaReady.com. This video provides a quick overview too.

[Disclosure] I provided a quote and some very small input as a part of the ebook's development.

New Social Media eBook - And a Funny Blogger Outreach Video

leelefever — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:46:58 -0500

It's called "Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook". You can learn more (and purchase it) at SocialMediaReady.com. This video provides a quick overview too.

[Disclosure] I provided a quote and some very small input as a part of the ebook's development.

New Social Media eBook - And a Funny Blogger Outreach Video

leelefever — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:46:58 -0500

It's called "Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook". You can learn more (and purchase it) at SocialMediaReady.com. This video provides a quick overview too.

[Disclosure] I provided a quote and some very small input as a part of the ebook's development.

TeacherTube: An Educator's Workaround for Online Video

leelefever — Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:44:48 -0500

It's easy to assume that YouTube and similar hosts are open to everyone but it's not the case for a lot of professionals. We hear from people almost every day that need a way to access our videos off the web because their organizatio/school restricts access to websites like YouTube.

We recently became aware of TeacherTube, which is a video sharing site that has become a workaround for educators who can't access YouTube videos on the web. Many schools may block YouTube, but allow access to TeacherTube because it's an educational resource.

The site is a clone of YouTube with more advertising. For it to work in the educational world, there seems to be two big issues (besides quality content):

1. Convincing schools to unblock TeacherTube

2. Making sure that TeacherTube remains a safe resource.

I asked Adam Smith, the co-founder, about how schools work to make sure Teacher Tube is unblocked.

To answer your question, we absolutely will work and continue to work with schools to help unblock TeacherTube, however the TeacherTube Community Members usually beat us to it. If any members campuses are blocking TeacherTube, they can email me direct at adam@teachertube.com and I can provide server information and/or generate a letter to the school’s technology director.

I also asked about how TeacherTube remains safe for the educational setting.
When we started the design phase of the website, site monitoring was top priority. That is why we keep the quote at the top "Keep it SAFE! Flag all Inappropriate Videos." Once our member number grew over 20,000+ in the first three months, we new we had to add [flag as] inappropriate features and ask the TeacherTube Community for help. On all videos we added inappropriate video and comment flagging capabilities. So we not only have our staff constantly look over inappropriate content, we now have over 45,000+ members watching and flagging inappropriate content.

I've become a fan of TeacherTube because many of our fans depend on it to help educate others. It's nice to see that they've been able to scale and stay relevant by working with a dedicated community of users.

Find Common Craft videos on TeacherTube here.

TeacherTube: An Educator's Workaround for Online Video

leelefever — Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:44:48 -0500

The site is a clone of YouTube with more advertising. For it to work in the educational world, there seems to be two big issues (besides quality content):

1. Convincing schools to unblock TeacherTube

2. Making sure that TeacherTube remains a safe resource.

I asked Adam Smith, the co-founder, about how schools work to make sure Teacher Tube is unblocked.

Find Common Craft videos on TeacherTube here.

TeacherTube: An Educator's Workaround for Online Video

leelefever — Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:44:48 -0500

The site is a clone of YouTube with more advertising. For it to work in the educational world, there seems to be two big issues (besides quality content):

1. Convincing schools to unblock TeacherTube

2. Making sure that TeacherTube remains a safe resource.

I asked Adam Smith, the co-founder, about how schools work to make sure Teacher Tube is unblocked.

Find Common Craft videos on TeacherTube here.

TeacherTube: An Educator's Workaround for Online Video

leelefever — Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:44:48 -0500

The site is a clone of YouTube with more advertising. For it to work in the educational world, there seems to be two big issues (besides quality content):

1. Convincing schools to unblock TeacherTube

2. Making sure that TeacherTube remains a safe resource.

I asked Adam Smith, the co-founder, about how schools work to make sure Teacher Tube is unblocked.

Find Common Craft videos on TeacherTube here.

A Sickening Review of Viral Video Tactics

leelefever — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:57:17 -0500

This almost seems unreal - maybe it is. Dan, a Stanford student, has a chance to make a guest post on TechCrunch about his viral video company. What does he do? He proceeds to make it stunningly clear how misguided and irresponsible his "viral video" tactics are. It reads like a manual for new media douchebaggery.

Some examples:

Blogs: We reach out to individuals who run relevant blogs and actually pay them to post our embedded videos. Sounds a little bit like cheating/PayPerPost, but it’s effective and it’s not against any rules.
Forums: We start new threads and embed our videos. Sometimes, this means kickstarting the conversations by setting up multiple accounts on each forum and posting back and forth between a few different users.
MySpace: Plenty of users allow you to embed YouTube videos right in the comments section of their MySpace pages. We take advantage of this.
Commenting - Having a Conversation with Yourself: A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to create some sort of controversy in the comments section below the video. We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this).
Dan finishes with this bit of perspective and advice...

You simply can’t expect to post great videos on YouTube and have them go viral on their own, even if you think you have the best videos ever. These days, achieving true virality takes serious creativity, some luck, and a lot of hard work. So, my advice: fire your PR firm and do it yourself.
I think I speak for you when I say O_M_G. Dan has the nerve to call his advice ways to acheive "true virality". Doesn't he know that what he's doing is blatantly artificial? I'm floored.

Update: Dan posts again TechCrunch. This time he's saying that he doesn't use all those techniques, he was just saying that that some do. I don't buy it, though I do know Dan has big regrets about his original post. I'm not sure why, but his words and those that support him eat at me in a fundamental way. I've wasted too much time on it already, but I may have to write more just to get it out.

A Sickening Review of Viral Video Tactics

leelefever — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:57:17 -0500