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YouTube’s Move Toward Original Content Takes Another Step Forward

by Jerry Battiste · 2 comments

lori r taylor, revmediamarketing, social media, social media marketing, branding, product branding, networking, oneclicksociety, social caffeine, mobile marketing

Just About Everyone On The Web Watches YouTube Videos

The fact is, when it comes to videos on the Internet, nobody does it better than YouTube. By better, I mean more of it, in more ways, not necessarily the quality of the videos they host.

YouTube has been talking about improving the quality of the videos they offer viewers for some time. In fact, they have often likened what they are doing to the way cable television offered viewers more channels than conventional television. YouTube‘s problem, however, has been finding ways to nurture and develop original content that wasn’t quite so hit-or-miss.

This week they took another step toward their stated goal by announcing a new plan to generate 25 hours of original content per day with a very specific network of content producers. The growth of this content will be fostered through the use of $100 million in seed money it had already committed to the project.

Their goal is to have 96 new, additional, original channels up and running by the summer time. Just like with all YouTube channels, viewers can subscribe and be notified every time a new video is posted. Unlike conventional television, or even what they are doing at Netflix and Hulu, these YouTube videos are expected to be about 10 minutes long. This is perfect for mobile viewers who want to watch something while they wait in the doctors office, or on the train for their morning commute.

By supplying the seed money to these content producers YouTube is making their business model much easier. Where once they had to create a video and wait for it to begin producing revenue before making another, these producers can make several videos and have them all chugging along at the same time-or have a series of videos ready to go, so viewers get regular updates. YouTube is also planning to share revenue produced by the videos with the content producers, so there is still an impetus beyond the seed money for them to produce original content.

This YouTube plan has been coming for some time, but it appears with this latest announcement that it will be here sooner than we thought.

 

The cash has enticed some of TV’s biggest stars, including “Fast Five” director Justin Lin, who directs episodes of “Community,” ”CSI” creator Anthony Zuiker and Nancy Tellem, the former president of CBS entertainment.

Zuiker is teaming up on a horror series for YouTube after observing his own family’s behavior. His three pre-teen sons spend more time on phones, iPads and computers than watching TV these days.

“We want to jointly take the risk with YouTube and roll the dice on the future,” Zuiker says. “The old regime is going to falter because everybody thinks the TV is the only device that really counts, and that’s just not the case.”

For producers, it’s a chance to create shows that are completely free of meddling from major studios. They can also stay relevant with a younger crowd whose viewing is moving increasingly online.

Click here to read the complete Associated Press story on YouTube’s most recent announcement.

Social Web Gaining Ground On Traditional Web

by Jerry Battiste · 0 comments

lori r taylor, revmediamarketing, social media, social media marketing, branding, product branding, networking, oneclicksociety

What Do You Do With Your Online Time?

Check this out: comScore just released a report showing social media usage accounts for 20 percent of all the time spent on the Internet. According to comScore social media is the most widely used Internet feature in the world. When you dig a little deeper into the findings the facts are even more amazing: Facebook now reaches half of the world’s online audience and accounts for a full 75 percent of all the time spent using social media.

As if Facebook wasn’t already a dominant feature in the social media world, this latest report makes Facebook even more relevant for social media marketers and for anyone attempting to reach the widest possible audience.

Another interesting finding from the comScore report is that micro-blogging is now being recognized as a disruptive force in the world of social media. In other words, the same way social media was a disruptive force for traditional media, micro-blogging is causing traditional social media (is it even old enough to be called ‘traditional’?) to do a double-take. Services such as Tumblr and Posterous (which recently expanded its features in the form of ‘Posterous Spaces’) have been gaining new users each day, seeing month over month increases in visits.

Another interesting finding of the report is that more than half of all mobile device users in the United States, a full 64 percent, access social media via their device at least once during the month of October and with almost half of all mobile device users reporting they accessed social media at least once per day during the same period.

If you are a social media marketer this latest report helps you further establish the importance of using social media to reach a global audience. It also strengthens the argument that mobile is the future of social media. But the real interesting tidbit for me is the way micro-blogging services are now being considered a “disruptive force” for social media. Mobile may be the next frontier when it comes to marketing, but the social media tools we use to take full advantage of this new frontier seem likely to be micro-blogging services, and what form those micro-blogging revenue streams will take. The social media marketers who are among the first to master these new tools, deliver real measurable results for their clients stand the most to gain.

In the meantime, do yourself a favor and start investigating on your own. Don’t wait for someone else to lead you–grab a machete and set off for the Undiscovered Country on your own.

Top 10 Most Engaged Social Networking Markets Worldwide
The widespread adoption of social networking highlights the global appeal of this online activity. Of the 43 markets individually reported by comScore, 41 markets saw at least 85 percent of their respective online populations visit social networking sites in October 2011.

Analysis of the most highly engaged global social networking markets revealed that Israel led all countries with visitors spending an average of more than 11 hours on social networking sites during the month. Argentina ranked second at 10.7 hours, followed by Russia (10.4 hours) and Turkey (10.2 hours). The United States, at 6.9 hours per person, did not even rank within the top ten countries for social networking engagement.

Click here to read the entire comScore report.

Social Media Trends Of 2012: What’s Next

by Jerry Battiste · 1 comment

lori r taylor, revmediamarketing, social media, social media marketing, branding, product branding, networking, oneclicksocietyAre You Ready For A New Social Media Trend?

Prognosticators abound making them my favorite target. It’s hard to miss when the web is so crowded with them. Whenever I see someone talking about what’s coming next I wonder why they are wasting their time blogging when they are obviously so precognitive they should obviously be playing the lottery.

This year we saw so many social media trends come and go (mostly) it’s hard to keep track. QR cdes were last years’ “next big thing” but they have failed to produce the type of results marketers were looking for. Sure, they had their moment in the sun, but with too few people actually making full use of their capability, either because they don’t know how or doubt the results they might receive as a result. Micro-blogging sites Tumblr and Posterous saw an increase in use, as predicted last year, in fact the new Posterous Spaces saw an astounding 15 percent increase in use, but this might have had more to do with the increased use of these platforms by smartphone users looking for a simpler interface than any intuitive design changes.

And then there was the increased use of video as a social media marketing tool. With YouTube consistently ranking in the top ten most used search engines and top ten most visited web sites who didn’t believe that video would see a rise?

So what will be the new trend next year? And will your organization be ready to grab hold and ride it for a full 8 seconds?

I could post my thoughts on what’s coming next, but what’s the use in that? If you regularly use social media you can see the trends yourself. The tools you use every day, if they’re popular with you they’re probably popular with others as well. The increased use of these tools will likely result in further innovations, more wide spread use and a greater flexibility in the ways users can access them.

But what about the trends we can’t predict? Last year we all thought Netflix would be “the next big thing” instead they embarked on a mission which seemed bent on self-destruction, resulting in a significant drop in subscribers, a looming and very possible revenue loss, and a $1.5 million pay cut for their CEO Reed Hastings. We also saw some social media celebrities, folks like Ashton Kutcher who was once the darling of Twitter, put their digital foot in their in their mouth and relinquish control of their social media accounts to impersonal management groups as a result.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not believe it’s possible to exist in a world where no one tries to predict the Next Big Thing. That’s how we invent, produce and create new and exciting things to amaze and astound us all. But there needs to be some conventional wisdom applied to the information we take in and the sources we use to predict these trends. Don’t tell me what I can figure out on my own. I don’t want to know what you think might be hot next year based on what is happening now. I want to know what’s cooking in the coding basement–so to speak. What’s coming that I’m totally not going to see? What’s the new device that’s going to rock my world, or the new web site that is going to turn social media on its head?

No, really–you tell me: What do you think will be the hottest trend of 2012? Leave a comment below:

How Businesses Can Get The Most From Google+

December 23, 2011

You Have A Biz Page On Google+ Now What? It is far too easy to get so caught in securing space on the ever widening social media landscape that you forget to properly manage them. I will forgive you for now, but you better get a handle on it for next year. Chief among the [...]

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Can Social Media Save The World?

December 22, 2011

Yes It Can! My boss, Lori Taylor does a great deal of social media marketing work for clients all around the world. She loves helping her clients reach their goals through the use of social media marketing. But her true love is the work she has done for Disabled American Veterans (DAV). By leveraging the [...]

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Is North Korea Ready For Social Media?

December 20, 2011

A Change Of Leadership; A Change Of Direction   Following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il the world is watching the situation closely. Both for political and social reasons, and from a commercial point of view. Specifically, social media marketers are wondering if the nation will now open its digital borders to [...]

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Don’t Wait For A Reason To Set A Social Media Policy

December 16, 2011

Once The Horses Are Gone From The Barn, What’s The Point In Closing The Door? University of Iowa faculty have been discussing at length the need for a social media policy. Much of this discussion has taken place via social media, where all the world can see them battling back and forth, although to be [...]

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Local Businesses Lag Behind Social Media Trend

December 15, 2011

Social Networks Can Be Built Around Anything A recent Pew Research Center poll seems to show that people are not using social media to find local business information. I am not here to dispute their findings, but I would like to talk about what I feel is the root cause of this problem. There is [...]

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Social Media Is The Future Of Marketing

December 14, 2011

It’s Also The “Right Now” Of Marketing Prognosticators abound. They espouse their knowledge of future events, meaning to awe us with their foresight and ability to tell us what’s going to happen long before it happens. My opinion: If they’re so good at knowing the future why haven’t they won the lottery and retired already? [...]

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Facebook Rises To Top Of Android App List

December 13, 2011

Facebook Continues To Grow With a reported 800 million monthly users (and growing) Facebook is showing no signs of slowing down, much less stopping. In fact, as more users begin using their smartphone or mobile device to access their social media networks, Facebook is once again rising to the top. A recent Nielsen survey shows [...]

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