Creating Video for the Web: Examples, Strategies, and Pitfalls

I come from a tradition where creating video requires expertise.  The web has changed that, both for traditional media and emerging, evolving media.  Now that we’re all brands and we are all the media, McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” rings true more than ever before.

Brown's Aggressive Web Buy Crushed Coakley, Drove Volunteers

Following a whirlwind campaign and an election upset in Massachusetts, Republican Senator Scott Brown's digital strategist has finally sifted through the results of his online ad efforts. Two months after the election, Rob Willington's takeaways aren't far off from the things he stressed before the election: digital efforts like online ads and text messaging should push real world activism, and campaigns should be willing to cede some control to supporters.

Five Insights into the Behaviors of Social Media Users

We do a decent amount of social media coverage here at Ars, but not everything that happens with Facebook, Twitter, and the like is worth its own story. Sometimes, though, we happen across things that make us say "huh, that's interesting." It turns out there are a lot of things we thought we knew about social media users, but not all of them are true. Here are a few tidbits we gathered that may surprise some of you. 

Foursquare Hits 347,000 Check-ins in a Day

With legions of mobile, tech-savvy individuals invading Austin, Texas for SXSW, Foursquare experienced an extraordinary day yesterday, recording a record-breaking 347,000 check-ins.

In response to the boom in usage, the developers added a new badge called Super Swarm. There was already a badge called Swarm; it was awarded when 50 people checked in at the same location at the same time. Super Swarm is achieved when 250 people check in.

And here's a little insight into why people are watching less TV ala Seth Godin...

But It's Better than TV

At the local health food store lunch buffet, they offer stir fried tempeh.  I never get it. Not because I don’t like it, but because there are always so many other things on the buffet that I prefer.  That's why I don't watch TV. At all. There are so many other things I'd rather do in that moment.

Social Media Reshaping Politics in Arkansas

The social media are changing the political playing field, and their impact has never been more evident in Arkansas than in recent weeks.

Twitter, Facebook and blogging have allowed anyone with a computer to be part of the political landscape, to immediately respond to events and to throw out facts, conjecture, gossip and innuendo.

Add Private Notes to Tweets and Group Emails with Bccthis

Quick Pitch: Bccthis is an innovative technology that provides new levels of communication for email, micro-blogging and social networking services.

Genius Idea: If you’ve ever worked in an environment that shares a group mailing list, you know that at some point, side conversations about a certain topic start to take place off-list with a number of the participants. Sometimes you might want to add more background details or make clarifications, other times you’re — we’ll admit it — making fun of something the author of one of the threads said.

3 New Ways to Measure the Social Web

When most people think of web analytics, they think about pageview tracking; basically, measuring which pages on a website are being viewed. Pageview tracking is a well-established technology, but it’s no longer meeting the needs of many of the most well-known companies in social media. Companies like Facebook (Facebook), Zynga, Slide, and RockYou are spending tons of resources building their own internal analytics tools.

There’s a reason for this: Social media is highly competitive, and the biggest advantage you can have is data. To improve and grow, these companies need to gather as much information as they can, and they need more than simple pageview tracking.

In the following sections I will cover three of the most important things to measure for social applications.

Seth Godin on Email Marketing

Seth Godin has an insightful blog post up where he very succinctly describes the fundamental difference between spam and permission-based email campaigns.

A spam campaign feels like a smart idea, but over time, the more you use it, the less your brand is worth. A permission campaign, on the other hand, only grows in value, until it gets big enough that you can build an entire business around it.

Earning permission is a long-term, profitable, scalable strategy that pays for itself. Think about how much better off a brand would be if it took the time to make promises, keep them and be transparent about its communications.

♥-ing Huckabee, Now More Than Ever

Way back in August 2007, I wrote about a blog called Mike Huckabee President 2008. As one might expect, the purpose of this particular was to support Huckabee’s presidential campaign. Nothing too spectacular about that, except that Mike Huckabee President 2008, launched February 15, 2005, was almost certainly the first unofficial blog supporting any 2008 candidate. In fact, it predated the official launch of Huckabee’s campaign by nearly two years.

We are now even earlier in the present presidential election cycle than we were then, yet we can already note the existence of Mike Huckabee President 2012 (to which, you may have already noticed, the old site redirects).

Bullhorns Are Overrated

They cost too much and they don't work very well.

Most people ignore them, they don't last very long and they're undependable.

Anil Dash has discovered that having ten times as many Twitter followers generates approximately zero times as much value.

The goal shouldn't be to have a lot of people to yell at, the goal probably should be to have a lot of people who choose to listen. Don't need a bullhorn for that.

Chicago Pizza Guy Creates Social Media 'Domino' Effect

When it comes to social media, it takes a lot to impress Amy Korin.

Her resume includes digital strategy for global companies like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Sun Microsystems and Zappos.

But her local Domino’s Pizza joint left her “completely shocked.”

First, Organize 1,000

What's difficult? What's difficult is changing your attitude. Instead of speed dating your way to interruption, instead of yelling at strangers all day trying to make a living, coordinating a tribe of 1,000 requires patience, consistency and a focus on long-term relationships and life time value. You don't find customers for your products. You find products for your customers.

The Rumors Are True: We Spend More and More Time Online

Survey results published by Harris Interactive suggest that adult Internet users are now spending an average of 13 hours a week online. About 14% spends 24 or more hours a week online, while 20% of adult Internet users are online for only two hours or less a week.

To put things in perspective: Harris surveyed 2,029 adults by telephone for an entire week in July and October 2009, and has been doing these types of polls since 1995.

A New Holiday Tradition: Track Santa Online

Since 1955, when Sears mistakenly printed NORAD's phone number in its catalog instead of the number of its Santa hotline, NORAD has offered Santa-realted services by phone. Now, working together with Google, NORAD continues to offer the same service online during the holidays. Starting at 2 p.m. ET (GMT -5) on Christmas Eve, the newly enhanced Santa Tracker will go live.

You should also search for Santa Claus at the North Pole via Google 411 from your phone. You'll be surprised at who picks up the phone.

Merry Christmas.

Google Will Take on Apple With Own Mobile Phone

WSJ reports: Google will circumvent the wireless carriers when it begins to sell its own cell phone next year, according to various published reports that say the Internet company will market the device -- dubbed Nexus One -- directly to consumers who would make their own deal with a carrier. The move, Google's latest challenge to Apple, allows the company more flexibility to offer its own services but risks angering the telecoms that now carry smartphones based on its Android software, according to industry observers.

5 Creative Ways to Use Your Twitter Favorites

If you look at most Twitter users’ Favorites, this feature is often completely empty or seldom used. Many people simply don’t know the power of this tiny tool! There are so many creative and useful ways to get mileage out of selecting tweets to favorite (others’ and your own).

Un-Facebook Yourself

Sometimes, social networking is just a bit too social. If you're feeling vulnerable on Facebook, the web's biggest social hangout, you can easily take control over who can see your information.

What Matters Now: Get the Free E-Book

Now, more than ever, we need a different way of thinking, a useful way to focus and the energy to turn the game around. I hope a new ebook I've organized will get you started on that path. It took months, but I think you'll find it worth the effort. (Download here).

The Wall Opens a Bit More: Facebook to Publish User Updates to Twitter This Week

A lot has been said recently about Facebook’s decision to re-write its privacy rulebook to encourage users to be more open about what they share. Privacy implications aside, at least it appears that Facebook is eating its own dogfood. First CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a bunch of person images, and now comes a big new feature that everyone should appreciate: Posting individual status updates to Twitter.

Top 10 Ways to Get Your Business [or organization] Ready For the Holidays

A few weeks ago, we jump-started the holiday shopping season with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Like us, you probably browsed the shops and sites for the coolest products and best shopping deals for your holiday purchases. But if you're a business or an advertiser, you probably know that some of the biggest shopping weekends of the year are approaching — and you need to get your business ready for the rush!

Event Planning Online: 14 Essential Tools

Free tools make planning events easier than ever. From the first stages of planning through post event followup, there are tools for every detail. The following list offers a taste of some of the best resources out there. You can think of it as a toolkit for planning events of all shapes and sizes. Let us know in the comments what your experience is with these tools and what others you’ve found helpful for organizing events in the past.

Discover the Truth About a Site's Online Traffic

You can find the traffic of a popular website (and compare it to another site) by entering the URL into compete.com. Or quantcast. This data is far more accurate than the charts Alexa offers, because most of the sites being measured cooperate. I'm pretty proud of Squidoo hitting the top 100 sites in the US.

For Conservatives Online, Plenty of Commentary But Not Enough News

A number of the conservative movement's prominent online figures are battling to be the right's equivalent of Talking Points Memo or Huffington Post--political organizations that report hard news. Many believe that to truly harness the power of the Web, political organizations must report their own news, rather than comment on reporitng from traditional outlets.

"The left needs Daily Kos, but they also need the Huffington Post," Politics Daily columnist Matt Lewis told Politico. He praised the roles of activists and opinion commentators on the right such as Red State's Erick Erickson, but noted that the conservatives have not yet matched the left's capability for original reporting.

Predictions for 2010

This post is partially a response to Rouli Nir of Games Alfresco who wrote five predictions for 2010 in Augmented Reality. My site isn’t Augmented Reality specific, so I’ve posted three separate lists of five predictions each.

The first list has five predictions for Augmented Reality in 2010, the second has five predictions for the Internet in 2010, and because we’re at the beginning of a new decade, I’ve made five decade-long predictions.

It's Official! 'Winning in 2010" Now an E-Book Ready for Download

As you might could tell from the promo graphics popping up all over the site, the just-concluded How Candidates Can Use the Internet to Win in 2010 series is now a single publication ready for (free) download.

With five chapters covering the essential online tools and tactics that state- and local-level campaigns can use to find supporters, raise money and turn out voters in next year’s elections, the PDF/e-book provides a straightforward guide to leveraging both new and old online tools to win in 2010. Download now or browse by chapter, and don’t forget to spread the word.

Why Does Google Search Love Examiner.com?

If you type the name of a celebrity — say, Angelina Jolie — into Google News, chances are that somewhere in the top five results, you'll get a story from Examiner.com. This is particularly true if the celebrity is in the news that day. For early December, that means searches for Tiger Woods, Sandra Bullock and Weezer on Google News consistently brought up Examiner.com stories in the topmost results. And in those stories, by the way, there was very little actual news.

The Reason Social Media is Difficult for Most Organizations

Dating is a process. So is losing weight, being a public company and building a brand.

On the other hand, putting up a trade show booth is an event. So are going public and having surgery.

Events are easier to manage, pay for and get excited about. Processes build results for the long haul. 

Political and Issue Advertising on Hulu

Interesting email in from Campus Progress the other day — as part of a student loan reform campaign, they’re running ads both on cable and on the TV/video-viewing website Hulu. The email itself focuses on encouraging recipients to watch the ad and spread the YouTube version virally via Facebook and Twitter, though it also includes a carefully couched fundraising ask as well (obviously not as much of a priority when you’re sending to college students). The landing page fits the email perfectly, with prominent post-to-Facebook-and-Twitter links plus an email-Congress (and presumably list-building) angle as well.

1080p HD is Coming to YouTube

We're excited to say that support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is on its way. Starting next week, YouTube's HD mode will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source, up from our maximum output of 720p today.

As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content. For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience. 

Is One-Way Communication Enough in the 21st Century?

Once I heard about a man who was considered an excellent communicator. He always returned letters and phone calls, and remembered to get in touch with people he had not talked to in a while. Quite impressive to accomplish that reputation without the techniques we have today. Most people did not know the keys behind his skills; discipline and continuity. Every Tuesday leaving work and spending a few hours with his family, he went to his study and did all his correspondence in one night. Sure, this might seem a bit strict and impersonal, but no one knew, they just admired him for always getting in touch.

How good are we really at communicating today? What do you do and how well do you do it? Could you become better at emailing old associates, contacting them more often? What opportunities did you lose because you did not follow-up?

How to Lose and Argument Online (8 Easy Steps)

# Have an argument. Once you start an argument, not a discussion, you've already lost. Think about it: have you ever changed your mind because someone online started yelling at you? They might get you to shut up, but it's unlikely they've actually changed your opinion.
# Forget the pitfalls of Godwin's law. Any time you mention Hitler or even Communist China or Bill O'Reilly, you've lost.
# Use faulty analogies. If someone is trying to make a point about, say, health care, try to make an analogy to something conceptually unrelated, like the space shuttle program, and you've lost....

An Internet Politicos Guide to David Plouffe's "The Audacity to Win"

Here at e.politics, we're happy to read things so you don't have to -- though it this case you should, because  David Plouffe's The Audacity to Win is a great read and one hell of a glimpse into the strategy, tactics and execution of a remarkably successful political operation.

Suspecting the book's value as a resource in the future, I took extensive notes as I read through it -- essentially creating an index of every substantive mention of online politics in the book, which I've reprinted below as a resource for y'all, along with a few links to relevant e.politics articles (the current edition of the book doesn't include its own actual index, unfortunately).

Quantify and then Qualify Your Social Media Relationships

Corvida has an awesome post on Chris Brogan’s blog called Decreasing Our Connections While Increasing Our Networks. The basic rundown of the post (which you should go read) is her exasperation over the amount of “friends” she has over various networks and the lack of a deeper and real connection. This conversation surfaces quite a bit when I am speaking to groups of people about social media. Where do you draw the line on relationship building in the social media environment?

Do Congressional Partisans Use Twitter More? Better?

With the help of Klout.com, a web service that analyzes Twitter usage and influence, I've been looking at the full list of Members of Congress using the tool, looking for potentially interesting relationships in the data. With about 125 House Members now using Twitter (roughly 2/3 Rs and 1/3 Ds), many of them on a daily basis, there's a rich data set to look at. I've uploaded Klout's rankings of the House Members to ManyEyes, so if you want to entertain yourself by finding out where your favorite congresstwitter rates, go ahead.

The Tacky Techie Conundrum

Our Culture (high and popular) is usually created by people who are happy with the systems the world has given them. Magazine editors don't spend a lot of time wishing for better technology. Opera singers focus more on their singing than on microphone technologies. Novelists proudly use typewriters...

...If you take a look at this chart, you can see the danger anyone who introduces new technology faces. While you'll attract Les Paul and the 37Signals guys, you're more likely to attract spammers, scammers, opportunity seekers and others that will bring our culture down as easily as they'll bring it up.

The Platform vs. The Eyeballs

This might be the most subtle yet important shift that marketers face as they deal with the reality of new media. Marketers aren't renters, now they own.

For generations, marketers were trained to buy (actually rent) eyeballs.

A media company assembled a large amount of attention. A TV network or a magazine or even a billboard company found a place you can put an ad, and they sold you a shot at reaching their audience...

How to Measure the Value of a Fan or Follower in Social Media

It’s hard to justify the time spent on social media account management. But there are ways to measure the real value (monetary or otherwise) of fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter. These top two social media websites offer free advertising, an open customer service and communication platform and a demographics database all wrapped up in one, so knowing the value of fans and followers can be a big help when deciding how much time should be allotted to social media efforts. Here are some of the ways to measure how much Facebook and Twitter users are really worth.