I’m always on the search for the most efficient tools for my clients to use – here are some keepers!
FLIP VIDEO:
For anyone that wants to be able to digitally record fast and on the go – I highly recommend the Flip Video Camera, a sleek hold in your hand HD Camera. What I love about it – is the fact that you can push a button, film, plug in the built in USB Connector to your computer, edit, and upload to You Tube, Facebook, or anywhere you desire in moments! The quality of the footage is stunning for such an affordable camera. For a couple hundred bucks, you can brand yourself Anytime! Anywhere!
PANAVISION IPHONE APP:
As much as I also love caturing video on my iphone – it just got a whole lot more exciting with Panavision’s first iphone app!
Panascout, simulates the cinematographer’s viewpoint from a professional cinema camera. Filmmakers/Location Scouts can now capture the cinematic qualities of any location and record the true metadata, including GPS, compass heading, date/time, voice notes and a sunrise/sunset readout for the present location on their iphone.
VIDDLER:
For all the You Tube lovers, and Vimeo Fans, another up and comer is Viddler, a great place to upload your videos, especially if you are getting into VLOGGING (Video Blogging).
Gary Vay-ner-chuk (Wine Library TV) is a big fan of this! Check it out! It’s easy to get started, and a great place to start growing your brand!
http://www.viddler.com/
TUBE MOGUL:
And finally for those of you video taping and uploading separately to Facebook, You Tube, Vimeo, etc.
A great way to save yourself some time and energy is to visit Tube Mogul! http://www.tubemogul.com/
As their slogan states – they GET VIDEOS WATCHED! Here you are able to upload your video once, and it will then upload it to all of your various online social media locations for you (Facebook, You Tube, Vimeo, Viddler, etc. and more +).
This I have found to be efficient and easy to use!
Is there a tool, social media site, or app that you enjoy or can’t live without? If so, let me know! I’d love to hear from you!
Just like exercising, thinking about social media isn’t good enough – you actually have to get in the trenches and do it to get results! So what are you waiting for???
Getting social online is the Biggest Shift since the Industrial Revolution! You can’t afford not to be a part of it.
Actor Isaiah Mustafa (former receiver for the Seattle Seahawks), has become the Old Spice Guy or “the man your man could smell like”. The Old Spice Commercials launched during the US Super Bowl, and have continued to garner rave reviews, here’s the latest one:
Executed flawlessly what’s not to love? But here in my opinion, is where their PR team had even more extreme genius! Instead of communicating through Social Media on Facebook, and Twitter through writing, Old Spice is specially selecting questions and comments from their fans, and posting VIDEO RESPONSES on their You Tube Channel. Not just one or two… TONS of them… and they are all incredible different and funny!
Here’s an example of one of his latest replies (one has even included a marriage proposal on someone else’s behalf):
What an amazing audience connection! These personalized videos have allowed viewers to become part of the Old Spice World and personally connect with the Old Spice Brand. Many people are now tweeting -Â asking questions and leaving their remarks, in hopes that the Old Spice Guy will choose their message. Aha! Online viewers of the Old Spice spots have become ambassadors on a multitude of levels, spreading the viral videos at lightning speed. Video views continue to climb, and the writers must be having a ball with these responses, as they seem to get more and more funny by the hour… Yes – by the hour! They have continued to post with a steady stream of video responses… Old Spice means business! Old Spice Guy does not sleep…
Part Game part Marketing Tool Extraordinaire, Businesses, Restaurants, Coffee Shops alike would be smart to incorporate Foursquare into their Marketing Business Model.
Now, Foursquare is not likely to achieve the success of Twitter in the coming months, (Foursquare has about 1.5 million users / Twitter about 25 million users / Facebook 500+ million users – now with a goal to reach for 1 billion), however it certainly has all of the right ingredients to make a big splash in the Social Media Marketing World, and is proving to be a big hit!
Now I will admit, I was resistant in the beginning to start getting involved in Foursquare… yet another social media site to add to my every growing list… But I am now realizing the Pro’s certainly outweigh the Con’s. I just have to start remembering to “Check In” to receive a possible Badge and/or points. Lately, I always seem to remember to do this when I am driving away – which kind of defeats the purpose, and since it has GPS attached to it – also provides inaccurate info. (For example I was trying to check in to a Winery that was not yet listed) There are many places that I visit that are still of course not involved in this yet – so I find it a little time consuming to type in the info. of the Check In location for the first time…
This is why I would recommend TO ANY BUSINESS to add themselves as a Check In to Foursquare and become a verified location. For more information follow this link: http://foursquare.com/businesses/
Foursquare’s overall goal is to get people to explore new places, or frequent their favourite hot spots, and then reward them for doing so, with badges or incentives/discounts/specials. If more businesses provided an incentive for checking in to loyal customers or “Mayors”, I think there would be more of a buy in from more people, rather than the early adapters.
Still a newby to Foursquare, as I was not ready to commit, I started to study its relevance. In short here are the Pro’s and Con’s as I see them:
CON’s to Foursquare:
- Everyone knows where you are all the time (or at least when you check in)
- “Checking in” becomes Another task to add to the ‘to do’ list
- Overall, this has been widely used by the early adapters, given some time, it has the potential to be the next Twitter but is not there yet…
PRO’s to Foursquare:
- You can link Foursquare to your Twitter Account
- People get to know places you like to frequent, therefore getting to know you better
- It becomes competitive as you “Check In” receiving new badges (like getting a gold start in school when you were a kid), and also competing for Mayorship of locations that you visit regularly.
- This is certainly a growing community with alot of potential incentive
For the Business Owner: Your patrons have become your ambassadors, spreading the word ABOUT YOU, FOR YOU, FOR FREE!
For the Business Owner: Foursquare offers businesses real-time venue stats (time people check in, number of unique visitors, gender, and more… This is FREE Focus Group info that didn’t cost you a cent!!
For the Patron: Many Businesses are starting to offer incentives – Mayor Specials, Check-In Specials, Frequency Based Specials, Wildcard Specials and more – just for showing up!
For the Patron: If you are not from the area, and you are checking in, or even if you are from the area – Reading the Tips & Tools is a great way to get information fast about a venue, about what to try and/or experience. It is a convenient and fabulous way to learn about the ‘favourites’ of the location right away!!
All in all, give it a try! You can’t knock it until you’ve tried it… Time to CHECK IN…
CMO.com's Guide to the Social Media Landscape http://www.cmo.com/social-media/cmos-guide-social-media-landscape
When I started MS2 Productions in 1999, I never dreamed of tools like You Tube, Vimeo, Twitter, Facebook, the iphone or Skype… I just knew I loved the magic of a video camera, and how you could use it to tell a story and communicate the many facets of emotion to an audience. Now I can’t stop dreaming BIGGER than ever and thinking of the overall Big Picture and what it means for the future of marketing and businesses both large and small.
Now, we have greater exposure to technology, stimulating more creativity than ever before – we also have the most control we’ve ever had over who sees our message and where it gets exposed. Bad for television stations, but great for businesses wanting to take advantage of online Branding Exposure / SEO / Customer Connections and overall Traffic generation to one’s website.
If you are the CLO (Chief Listening Officer)for your company or just trying to figure out the world of Social Media and what tools would work best for you… I came across this fabulous chart put together by the folks at CMO.com – It is their take on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to 2010 and the Social Media Landscape… In my opinion, Video will always be the best way to share your message with your world of potential customers… You have so much control over the medium – and the context of emotions you want to convey within the story you want to tell… But you don’t have to take my word for it… See what CMO has to say…
