I’ve participated in a few “Ask The Experts” panels in the past few months and couldn’t help but notice that Social Media is quite the hot topic right now. People are very keen in learning how to use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc… Most attendees are curious about how it works, why anyone would invest the time and energy, what’s the ROI and if it’s the right avenue for their business. These are all good questions and there are simply no easy answer. It really depends on who your audience is and where they are.
A funny thing happened to me last Friday which demonstrates how complicated and unpredictable it is to explain the power of Social Media.
I have a Twitter account and follow mostly designers and WordPress developers. This allows me to find out about latest tips, tutorials and website development news. Cameron Moll posted a tweet to a “mesmerizing” YouTube video which caught my attention. I clicked the link and watched a video taken at Kuroshio Sea which is the 2nd largest aquarium in the world.
The video is indeed breathtaking, but I was curious about the music. I watched and listened to the video a couple of times and wanted to find out who was singing. Using my iPhone, I Shazammed it and got the name of the song, band and album. A quick search on YouTube led me to a video of Barcelona singing live in San Diego. I watched a few more videos and decided to visit Barcelona’s page on MySpace. Listened to a few more clips and then I was off to iTunes and bought the album.
I’m not sure that a marketer could have predicted this, but I’m convinced that Social Media is worth investing in.
Earlier this year the folks at Automattic launched www.WordPress.tv, which is a new website to learn about all things WordPress. I just had a quick look and it looks like the list of videos is quite extensive (Click the how-to link for the list of videos. Personally I’m not sure this tab is appropriately labeled, but hey, I found the list.) The site also has a WordCampTV section where you can watch videos, slides and listen to audio clips.
This site is definitely worth bookmarking and investigating further.
In the web world flash is a bit like Marmite. You either love it or hate it. Certain sites do benefit from animation while others just don’t. Regardless of what you may think, you have to admire the animators who create this stuff. The following video is a great example of the creativity that’s out there. …And if you’ve ever had to work with flash, you may relate to the experience.
Enjoy and happy holiday.
Disclaimer — There’s an übber cheesy commercial before the video… Who comes up with this crap?
Named after Jazz Musician John Coltrane, WordPress 2.7 was released yesterday and promises breathtaking beauty and inspiration. I haven’t downloaded yet, but will do soon….
In the meantime check out the promotional video. It’s pretty sexy.
The web wouldn’t be what it is without the ability to search. My home page is set to Google and use it to search for everything. Finding information is often quite tedious because there are so many web pages out there. Luckily a few tricks are available to allow you to refine your search.
Lee Fever at Common Craft has created this wonderful video explaining how web searches work and offers tips on how you can avoid being swallowed up by the web.
With the start of a new year comes the time to make resolution. Most of us will plan on losing weight, exercise more and get organized. Professional organizer, Linda Chu, asked me to write a piece about using the web and get organized and we sent out the newsletter yesterday. In this article I mentioned my top three free online tool to de-clutter my desk and brain; Ma.gnolia, Ta-da lists and Flickr.
Coincidentally, common craft released another great video explaining how photo sharing works on the web.
With the popularity of YouTube growing, entrepreneurs are understandably excited by the potential of the medium. I’ve consulted with people who are looking at taking their basic web sites to the next level of web marketing, and heard things like “We’ve got to have video. Video is so popular now.” To which I say: maybe. It depends on the video and how you use it.
Unless the video content on your site is somehow great, nobody cares about that video except you and maybe your Mom.
“Great”, on the web, means meeting a need. That need can be to have a laugh, to learn something, to be inspired.
In other words to truly leverage video on the web, you have to create videos that will draw your customers to view them. At it’s best, the video will help new people discover your website.
A fun example of this is The Human Flipbook by the restaurant chain Ebert & Gerbert. This is so creative & wonderful, it was mentioned on a site that I subscribe to. Because the video was embedded in the page at Do Something Pretty I didn’t even realize I was watching a commercial until the end. By then, I was so impressed I didn’t mind.
Still confused about podcasting? The folks from Ask a Ninja have created this hilarious video which may not help you understand podcasting, in fact you may be even more confused, but it will make you laugh.
Have you ever wondered what life would be like if it was like the Internet? The folks at Elastic Path have come up with great videos to illustrate this fact. The following hilarious video shows what shopping would be like if it was like on-line shopping.
Web 2.0 was coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004 and refers to a perceived second generation of web-based services such as social networking sites, wikis and communication tools. I’ve heard the term here and there for a while now, but was never quite sure what it meant. I came across this video on youtube yesterday and thought that it explained things very well.
