Video Articles

For some time now, “moving to L.A. to break into the movie business” has been the clichéd pipe dream for most creative young Americans.  I live in Nashville, and I can tell you that a close second is “moving to Nashville to become a country music star.”  But the digital world may be changing all that.  In a few years’ time, the most common pipe dream might very well be “starting my own YouTube channel and making a six figure income,” if it's not already.A new study by TubeMogul—a leading video advertising and analytics platform—reveals that there are at least 10 YouTube stars making an annual income of $100,000 or greater.  The study covered t...
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Want a cheeseburger, but too lazy to chew it? Why not go for Jamba Juice's new Cheeseburger Chill Smoothie? Of course Jamba Juice isn't actually offering a cheeseburger smoothie, but it is a creative way to attack certain fast food chains (McDonald's McCafe) that are getting into the smoothie business - using viral video. The video has garnered over 335,000 views and 497 comments on YouTube alone in the three weeks since it's debut. Check out the video below:Comments range from the whistle-blowers: "Everybody, this is completely fake. Jamba Juice made this as a joke to show how stu...
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Each week I keep a running list of great viral videos I stumble upon, which I then use as the basis for this weekly column.  This week’s list is the longest yet—in almost a year of doing this—with nearly 20 videos that are deserving of mention and further study.  Needless to say, I had a hard time choosing, because there are many great lessons for us to learn from the videos that succeeded in going viral this week.Let’s dive in: The Chatroulette Con I am so impressed with the marketing folks behind the campaign for The Last Exorcism—a horror film from Lionsgate that comes out August 27.  You might have see the trailer for this film on Inception, as I did.  I remember thinking… “Gee, there’s another horror movie I don’t really care about.” ...
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Content marketing is a very effective way to market your brand, business or organization’s products and services in a way that is engaging, relevant and welcome. The idea is to offer people bits of content that are informative, entertaining, useful and have pass-along value. You offer them something valuable in exchange for time spent with your brand with the expectation that they will share your content with others of similar interests. Start thinking of absolutely everything you or your company puts online as content, from quick tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn status updates, photos and blog posts to SlideShare presentations, press releases, podcasts and of course videos. Define your audience, create your content and institute a smart social media marketing strategy for long t...
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Listen to my podcast interview with attorney David Fish, counsel for Carla Franklin, who is described in the media as the "brainy ex-model" going after cyberbullies on YouTube by having legal papers filed to expose their identities. Is there a free-speech case to be made about negative comments on YouTube or does this meet the criteria for defamation?[powerpress]Skip to these time points to listen to individual questions:(01:57) What has been the reaction to this case by the larger media so far? (3:38) How did this get such widespread attention? (4:55) How long has it been since the case was first filed? (6:46) What is the background...
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Welcome to Part 4 of our ongoing Online Video Marketing Basics series.  It’s intended to be a help—a sort of guide, if you will—for individuals and businesses just getting started with online video.  We’ve already covered Why You Should Get Involved with online video, Choosing A Video Style, and the choice between Self-Producing Or Hiring A Professional.Today’s topic?  Equipment.Naturally, if you’ve decided to hire a professional, that person will have their own equipment.  This fourth part of the series is aimed at those who choose to self-produce.I’ve been where you are befor...
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I interviewed Josh Miller of 3PlayMedia, to talk about Congress’ recent passing of two bills that will mandate closed-captioning of television programming over to the Internet. We discuss the questions: Will other “professional” online video programs be next? And, is legislation necessary, or will organizations determine that transcription and captioning of video content has a worthwhile ROI regardless of any mandate? [powerpress] Bills’ Passing Is Step Forward For Web Video Accessibility
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I come from a background in search.  I’m a search engine guy first, and a video guy second.  It’s just how I’m wired.  Which is why ReelSEO is such a great home for me, because I get to write about both.  Today, there’s some news about search engines that isn’t specific to video, but its implications affect people who produce any kind of content online, be it print, video, or other.I read this morning that Yahoo would be switching to Bing to power most of its back end search results any day now.  There’s even supposed to be a “powered by Bing” logo added to the results pages. And I read that with a bit of excitement.  Bing is doing a lot of things right—...
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Can you sue someone for writing an ugly YouTube comment about you?  One woman is about to find out. Her name is Carla Franklin, and she is a former model who holds degrees from Duke and Columbia universities, and she’s filed paperwork to attempt to force Google—which owns YouTube—to reveal the identity of the offending comment’s author.Franklin says the anonymous author used three separate aliases (“JoeBloom08,” “JimmyJean008,” and “greyspector09”) to post hurtful comments about her, such as calling her a “whore,” a “skank,”  and “an old hag.”  She appeared in the videos as part of a promotion for the Columbia Business Schoo...
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Today  everyone’s talking about a piece in Wired Magazine entitled, “The Web Is Dead.” Naturally, they posted the story on their website, and probably in a few other dead media formats as well, like print. The article’s first paragraph reveals that its headline is somewhere between misleading and shameless.  What the authors are really saying is that we’re using the web differently—relying more on apps and less on web browsers—but he’s not saying the web is dead… except in the headline.  In some circles, this would be considered a shady tactic… but since this is Wired, I guess we’ll all just forgive the bait-and-switch.  But what’s really being argued by the authors?Let...
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Does online buzz equate to better ratings for a TV show? Not always. But it can lead to more engagement and now advertisers can measure that engagement thanks to a tool from social media monitoring company Networked Insights who found that media agencies are improving efficiency in their TV buys by 5% to 12% when they consider the social media ripple effect surrounding a TV show.The company's Social Sense TV tool measures online engagement for TV shows across social media and then helps media agencies understand how to value the on-air spots in those shows using that data.This type of measurement will likely herald new ways of buying ads in TV shows by leveraging online buzz.In related...
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When you produce a piece of online video content, you probably pay a lot of attention to the quality of the sound and picture.  You want the best possible presentation of your work.  But sometimes, if you’re like me, you can get ahead of yourself, and fret over the quality details to the point of neglecting your actual video content.New research out of The Department of Psychology at Rice University finds that people who are enjoying what they’re w...
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Facebook recently started streaming live video from the Palo Alto, California headquarters. It's not 24/7 nor is it what you might expect but more a mix of content including interviews and technical talk, etc. But that's not the only video deal in the works at the social networking giant (who is preparing to fend off a Google social network).While Facebook Live is streaming content, not always live per se, from the HQ it's not all that interesting at times. But rumors abound about other deals in the works. Channel Five to be Number One on Facebook The UK has 26 million Facebook users currentl...
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I returned this morning from a very successful eTail East conference, where I hosted a round-table discussion on Video SEO along with Bruce Turner, CEO of Pure Pearls.com. Bruce shared his video implementation experience, specifically the video SEO enablement process, with fellow online retailers.My takeaways were many but I noticed that there were few retailers who were actually implementing a comprehensive video strategy. Those who were had many questions around the entire process.  Video SEO was a topic of concern to all, but not many attendees had yet mastered the basics of crafting and submitting video sitemaps, for example. There were, for me, three key takeaways: 1) All Online Retaile...
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Ethan Zuckerman is a senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. His research focuses on the distribution of attention in mainstream and new media, the use of technology for international development, and the use of new media technologies by activists.

With Rebecca MacKinnon, Ethan co-founded international blogging community Global Voices. Global Voices showcases news and opinions from citizen media in over 150 nations and thirty languages, publishing editions in twenty languages. Through Global Voices, Ethan is active in efforts to promote freedom of expression and fight censorship in online spaces.

In 2000, Ethan founded Geekcorps, a technology volunteer corps that sends IT specialists to work on projects in developing nations, with a focus on West Africa. Previously Ethan helped found Tripod.com, one of the web’s first “personal publishing” sites. He blogs at http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog.

Register today for the Open Video Conference, October 1-2 in New York City!

Photo: dweinberger

So, everyone in the Social Networking realm is all a flutter (bet you thought I'd say a twitter) about a string of spoof trailers for imaginary films based on the creation and usage of the social networks, spawned from a real trailer for a real film, mind you. Since that all falls roughly into the ReelSEO realm, I thought, why not do up a weekender on it. So here you go. Let's see... I suppose we should start with, The Social Network,the actual film that's being made right? What? You didn't know? Are you completely out of touch with reality (maybe it's just me)? Haven't you checked your Twitter page or your YouTube comments? What's wrong with you people!Here, watch this, I'm going to make myself a sandwich....
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I interviewed Jimmy Healey, Senior Manager of E-Commerce for Onlineshoes.com, at the 2010 Video Commerce Summit. What do we talk about? Well why don’t you quit being a lazy bum and actually read my article?? Ha ha.. seriously, we talk about you. I mean, what you should be learning from OnlineShoes.com’s own experience with video in e-commerce. Hey, it’s Friday and going to be my birthday week, guys – cut me a break! OnlineShoes.com’s  Video Strategy – “Anywhere You Can Stick It.” [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHOhCTt6k8Y[/youtube]OnlineShoes.com is the nation’s first and oldest online shoe retailer, started in 1996 online. “We are an active lifestyle brand. W...
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It’s Friday again (that was fast) and time to talk about the week’s biggest viral video hits.  As usual, there are more great examples of success stories than I have room for in this column.  I’ve narrowed the list down to three great videos for this week’s discussion, and a handful of other great clips [...]

Grant Crowell interviews video marketing author and SEO expert Greg Jarboe about YouTube’s time increased of all non-partner videos to 15 minutes. Greg and I discuss what YouTube’s reasons were for the increase, who may already be profiting from the increase, and how YouTube has blurred the line between “amateur” and “professional” videos has blurred because of improved monetization opportunities for everyone.

One of the ways that major websites test possible new layouts and features is through random select live testing–where only a handful of users are shown the new look while the rest of the public sees the familiar one.  And I think that may be going on over at YouTube.  It appears that the video [...]