DesignWise Studios of Door County Get a free copy of the new 70-page YouTube Creator Playbook helping you build your video audience online. They promise regular updates… very cool! 5 hours ago · Like · 2 comments

So, this post is serving a dual role: announcing the ebook and also testing this cool little tool called SocialDitto, that lets us embed Facebook posts and comments into the body of an article.

Today, I had an opportunity to sit in on a marketing pitch being delivered to one of my clients by a radio advertising salesman. I was there for an eventual meeting about the development of my own plan for an “integrated” advertising campaign – one that would include earned media in the form of traditional press releases, coupled with a strong emphasis on the rapidly emerging forms of social network media.

In that later meeting, I would provide the following quote from Sut Jhally, Professor of Communications at the University of Massachusetts and founder of the Media Education Foundation:

“Advertisers have to go to where the audience is… if they want to sell products. They have no option but to go where the audience has gone. If the audience has gone online, gone to iPods, gone to Facebook – wherever the audience has gone – that is where advertisers must go.”

As I listened to the “old-school” radio pitchman trying to encourage my client to buy his packages of “spots,” I envisioned the sharp changes that are sweeping over the worlds of journalism and marketing, as we transit from broadcast to networked media. I saw those radio spots floating away in the breeze like the dry seeds of a dandelion blossom…

Maybe they would land somewhere on favorable ground and sprout forth as a new plant. Most of them would simply blow away like dust in the wind.

It is time that universities, online or otherwise, get up to date with their curriculum.

I realized that I had come to help my client plant and grow a garden. That’s the profound difference between traditional broadcast media (radio, TV and newspaper advertising) and networked social media… In the old school, we continually threw out spots, hoping someone would eventually see or hear one. In the new school we intentionally plant and cultivate a growing presence in new media resources that remains and grows larger in size the more time we invest.

I am talking about new social media tools like:

• a blog-based Web site with an ongoing stream of fresh content,
• a well-crafted business presence on Facebook (500M members),
• a YouTube channel (2nd most popular search engine) with homespun videos,
• micro-blogging your message and joining in the conversation taking place on Twitter,
• learn about sites like FourSquare and the rapidly expanding dimension of location-based technology
• pay attention to public review forums like Trip Advisor, Yelp and others,
• take advantage of the free and ever-evolving set of Google’s gardener tools.

The difference is apparent… it’s no longer a question of “if“ you decide to employ new media. As newspapers shrink and disappear right before your eyes and radio audiences now listen to what they want on iPods and smart phones, it’s now a matter  of “when” you decide to plant that garden.

How does your garden grow?

Contact Social Media Consultant, Stephen Kastner to discuss the most effective ways to plant and grow your social media garden.

For more than a year, YouTube has dominated Yahoo for runner-up status behind Google in the search engine popularity rankings as reported by research firms like Comcast. Partly due to the fact that YouTube videos are now included among the standard Google search results, with Google claiming 65% of search market, nonetheless there is another shift taking place which deserves reflection.

Since learning of the shift, I have started using YouTube as a primary research tool. When I want to see how something is done, I search YouTube. Taking this cue to the next level means incorporating this realization into your own Web design strategies and marketing practices. People now expect to see video included as one of the components in an effective Web site.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you must add the cost of professional video production to your budget. Windows and Mac both include video editing software in their basic installation packages and there are lots of additional, free tools online. With more than 15 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, homegrown video has become a populist media form.

Chad Hurley, the co-founder and chief executive of YouTube explains, “That’s the equivalent of Hollywood releasing more than 57,000 full-length movies every week.”

The hardware isn’t expensive either. The Creative Labs Vado HD 8 GB Pocket Video Camcorder is a bargain at $114.99 on Amazon ($199 list). The HD signifies High Definition, that it shoots in widescreen format (16 x 9 as opposed to the earlier 4 x 3 TV standard) at 720p (image size 1280 x 720) at 30 frames per second progressive scan; recorded as MP4 files.

How would you like to get the camera for less than $15? This particular deal gets even better the deeper you dig. The Amazon fine print says:

Special Offer: Save $100 on the cost of this product when you agree to join Audible.com’s AudibleListener® Gold program for 12 months starting at $14.95 per month.

The base price is currently $20 cheaper than the Flip UltraHD Camcorder – plus the Creative Labs Vado unit has a larger 2″ display screen and a much better wide angle lens. Chris Pirillo rates Creative Vado at the top in this great set of three comparable videos:

The Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera would be another good choice based on price at $99, but it comes with such little memory and has poor low light capabilities.

If it’s time for you to begin experimenting and learning to create and upload videos, be sure to watermark them with your Website’s URL and post them everywhere at once using Tubemogul. Check out DesignWise Films and Video Production for more specific articles on video production and marketing.