YouTube Direct: Friend or Foe?
If an organization is savvy, it will make this new tool a friend. Disregard it, it could become a foe.
There has been quite a bit of buzz this week surrounding YouTube Direct, a platform that narrows the gap between news organizations and anyone with video-capture capabilities. Thanks to digital cameras that shoot video, the economically priced Flip video camcorder and the fact that many cell phones can now shoot video, that means A LOT more people just became citizen journalists.
The new tool allows media organizations to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users.
If you work in or with your communications department or agency, then you may be familiar with the idea of pitching stories to, or having stories broken by bloggers. You may have also heard horror stories of disgruntled customers sounding off on blogs, Twitter or Facebook. You also hear great stories about customers promoting brands themselves through those same outlets. Imagine all of this in video, and figure in that these videos may have just gotten exponentially easier for news organizations that hit your key demographics and stakeholders to upload and share.
There is a lot of exciting opportunity that YouTube’s new tool presents. Only time will tell whether or not this really takes off and how much the media will really put it to use. I imagine it will take off, though, since everyday people like you and me can capture a video faster than a news crew can arrive on a scene, and because having video to accompany a story makes the content much more rich and the story much more authentic.
The Washington Post, ABC-News, NPR and the Huffington Post are among the media outlets that have already used YouTube Direct.
Consider what doors this development opens, as well as what you need to be careful of. If you do not do regular YouTube searches related to your brand, you could be missing out on something that just got a lot easier for a news organization to find… for better or for worse.
Everyone is doing it…Or are they?
With all the hype today about Twitter, everyone who’s anyone is on it and actively using this new social media channel to its full capacity, right? Think again.
According to an AdAge article, 76% of Twitter accounts are infrequent users. I guess that shouldn’t really surprise me since it does take extra effort to make the most of this tool, but I just assumed that these big name companies have the resources and time to invest as well as the know-how to execute. I guessed wrong.
So, my point in all this is that it is not too late to start taking an active role in your company to increase the chance for success. As long as someone is held accountable for keeping up with it, there is a lot to be gained.
Whether you use Twitter as a newsfeed, brand-builder, sales channel, thought-leadership vehicle, or as a customer-service tool, just get started and keep the momentum going.
In closing, I would just like to say to all you slackers out there, get your assets in gear.
Government agencies and private-sector: still not sure about social media?
This is mostly for Government agencies and contractors, because I know many of you are still unsure. There is no way I could possibly cover everything you want or need to know in this one blog post, but I want to at least graze over a couple of points and perhaps this will expand out into a series so I may go more in-depth on particular points. For now, however, I want to make just a few quick points that I think are thought-provoking enough, even in their simplicity, to get your organization serious about social media engagement:
- Government is using social media. Whether you are the Government or it is your customer, you should care that agencies aren’t just thinking about it any more, they are engaging. Many have started blogs and Facebook accounts. You can even find Government agencies on Twitter in what I consider to still be an early adoption stage. GovTwit is a great resource to see which agencies have already arrived to the party.
- If you don’t stake your claim soon, someone else will. Or perhaps they already have. At least getting your organization set up with a few basic social media accounts (with a verification seal if it is available with the service) ensures that no one else takes your name and either acts as an imposter or in the case of businesses, stakes the claim on your name or acronym that they may share with you, forcing you to go for “second best.” Staking your claim also applies to the fact that whether you are participating in social media or not, other people are and they are talking about your organization specifically for better or for worse. If they aren’t, it is only a matter of time. Better to get set up now so that you can monitor and engage. It is incredible how quickly rumors can be put to rest if you can respond yourself in real time!
- It is okay if you think it is overwhelming. I can’t even list every social media platform… and it is a part of my job. The fact is, you are doing something wrong if you are on them all. Just like any new tactic, it should be backed by strategy. Getting started with social media is less overwhelming if you take a step back and think about where your target audiences are participating and which tools help you communicate what you need to. For example, is recruitment a big goal? Then there isn’t a good reason for you not to be engaging with prospects on LinkedIn and Facebook for starters. See where it takes you from there rather then trying to take on every social media site at once.
- Everyone who is pushing you to get on social media is very aware there are security and productivity concerns. We are not blind to this fact. This is why it is important to involve your IT and security personnel every step of the way, as well as to set up a formal social media policy to be shared organization-wide. Not sure where to begin with a social media policy? Begin with my first blog post. If you do a search for social media guidelines, you’ll find many great examples. View several because some are more comprehensive than others.
- The purpose is pretty simple, use social media to reach a goal. Got goals? Sure you do! Yes, some people do use their personal social media accounts to broadcast what their cat is getting into or that they are on their way to a meeting, but those people do not represent all of social media. Also, sometimes those people talk about other things, such as their government, employers, etc. So, they could still be your audience. But I digress… my point is that when an organization sets up an account, it is successful when there is a purpose. I am not encouraging you to get online just for giggles. I want you to use it to reach a goal. Set it in the beginning, and then decided how much time you need to invest to realistically meet that goal. Finally, measure for success!
- Final words: IT IS ALL FREE TO SIGN UP!!!
Drug Money
In 2008, pharmaceutical companies spent more than 50 billion dollars on drug promotions. Put a different way, that’s 50,000 Super Bowl commercials, or one enormous diamond-studded statue of the Cialis bathtub couple.
As it turns out, drug companies spend vastly more money on marketing than they do on research and development.
But to be fair, it takes a whole lot of ad dollars to sell brand-name drugs. After all, they’re legally identical to their “bioequivalent” counterparts.
So here’s what’s happening: after the initial drug patent has expired (20 years pre-clinical trials), drug companies have to spend billions to maintain their market share–which isn’t easy when Plavix costs five dollars per dose, and the Plavix biosimilar costs three cents.
But with a 50 billion dollar budget, the marketing works, and consumers (particularly American consumers since we’re one of, if not the only nation that doesn’t regulate drug prices) end up buying the brands they see on TV.
Only now, Senators Franken, Brown, and Whitehouse are proposing an end to the federal tax deduction for prescription drug marketing, as part of the current health care reform legislation.
Not surprisingly, the 4As and the AAF are up in arms, since this type of policy change could increase the cost of drug marketing by 35%.
Franken argues that tax payers shouldn’t have to subsidize pharmaceutical marketing campaigns while their own health care options remain cost-prohibitive.
I’ll be floored if this type of stipulation is ever approved in the Senate. But if it is, it’s bad news for a host of other ad agency cash cows that might lose their marketing tax deductions (fast food, alcohol, cigarettes).
Then again, if we started penalizing every business that’s detrimental to society, they’d have to close down Las Vegas.
Death by Marketing Metrics: How Walmart’s Funeral Caskets Prove Social Media Monitoring Isn’t As Certain As Death.
It was the perfect brand storm. Just in time for Halloween, Walmart entered the lucrative world of online funeral casket sales, following in the footsteps of Costco. The move sent buzz metrics surging: millions of hits, site visits, tweets, and even positive product ratings. In short, everyone was talking about discount funeral caskets and the smiley-faced retail icon. Most importantly, Walmart’s social media monitoring tools showed the greatest spike in customer interest since the Snuggy first hit shelves.
But soon a macabre reality hit home. Most of the positive social media activity had come from the iPhone/generation Y-Not community, hardly the target buyers of caskets. Worse, a large degree of the positive social response was, in fact, vicious sarcasm (including fake product reviews poking fun at Walmart’s virtual funeral parlor), a concept that social media monitoring tools are woefully unable to detect.
What can we learn from this marketing case study?
- Social Media Metrics are only as good as the people who interpret them. All activity should be highly scrutinized in order to ascertain whether the target audience matches the target demographic. Misguided buzz is worthless, unless you believe that college kids are replacing their beds with comfortable padded coffins.
- Even the most advanced software analytics have a difficult time discerning intent. When Walmart declares a spike in positive product reviews without having marketing professionals vet the data, the knowledge gained is as meaningful as a “How to Win the Lottery” book.
- As Albert Einstein once said, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” And he said it before Twitter.
Bottom line: As corporate marketers and their agencies oversee the strategic shift to digital media (with the promise of more accountability and measurability), they must always remember that no computer or offshore $2/hour data monitor will ever replace critical, expert analysis. Forget that, and we just might end up financing our own marketing caskets.
(Kudos to Craig Daitch’s column on www.Adage.com)
For All the Other Google Addicts
Hello, my name is Michael and I’m addicted to all things Google. Yes I am excited about the Droid since I am with Verizon, yes I do 99.9% of my searches on Google and yes I love most of Google’s apps (sidenote: check out Sketchup if you haven’t’ already).
I ran across an interesting list of Google facts today that I thought I would share. One of my favorites is definitely the image of the first “Google Machine” below, and yes, that is made with Legos. The second interesting fact is for all of you who every now and then use the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. Did you realize that button costs Google around $110 million a year in lost revenue from redirecting visitors past the AdWords ads and straight to a website?
For those of infatuated with Google like I am, the list is a good afternoon read.
Ps: I love you
This week I attended a Photoshop conference in DC, put on by Mogo Media. It was phenomenal. In two days, I learned a wealth of information that I have already begun to put into practice. Keep in mind that I have been using Photoshop for years, and I am already highly skilled. It just goes to show you how quickly software is updated and how much Photoshop can do. I encourage everyone to keep learning, whether it is through online tutorials, webinars, blog posts, conferences, or any other form of communication.
Here are a few things I came away with:
- Keyboard shortcuts are your friend. It is amazing how much faster one can work when they have memorized many standard shortcuts. Huge timesaver, especially for switching between different tools, and also knowing how to get around problematic situations.
- What you don’t know can hinder your creativity. The more technical knowledge you have, the more opportunities open up to you, particularly in design. It can be hard to bring your ideas to life when you don’t know what is possible, or how your idea can be executed.
- Adobe Bridge and Camera Raw are very useful and powerful tools. I have never really seen the need to use Bridge, and I really never knew much about Camera Raw until this class. The options available for photo manipulation in Camera Raw are extraordinary, and the organizational benefits of Bridge are eye opening.
- Non-destructive adjustment layers are the only way to design. Once you learn how to take an image and make tons of adjustments without ever affecting a single pixel of your original image, you will have improved your workflow tenfold. It is a faster way to work, especially when clients come back and make changes throughout a project.
- Don’t be afraid to try different things. There really is no right or wrong when it comes to making adjustments to your images. It comes down to whether or not those choices support your end goal, so be creative and don’t be afraid to experiment a little. You will be amazed at what you can come up with.
- If you can think it, most likely you can do it. Photoshop is unbelievably powerful, and when used in combination with Illustrator and InDesign, the sky is the limit.
I hope I have encouraged everyone keep learning and update your skills, even if it is in another program such as Word or Excel that you might be using on a daily basis. The additional confidence is invigorating.