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Final Voting Round For Kia’s ‘Who’s Next?’ YouTube Contest Opens Today
Mon, 09/06/2010 - 15:30Back in July, Kia Soul launched their ‘Who’s Next?’ YouTube talent search, in which they asked contestants to submit videos that showcase “how they roll.” YouTube celebrity judges narrowed the contestants down to ten finalists and YouTubers voted to select the final four. Today, new videos from each contestant will go up on the Kia Soul YouTube channel and viewers will have the opportunity to vote once again to determine who will make it on to the next round.
The four finalists include David Kalb, a master of basketball trick shots; Charlie Puth, a kid who sings about sunglasses; Travis Betz, a receptionist that makes short films while working as a receptionist; and Dan Bakst, a regular guy with a quirky animated roommate with antlers. I’m interested to see what videos they will come out with next, as the competition moves closer to the finale. I am a little confused as to how David Kalb, the basketball trick shot extraordinaire, made it into the mix. I thought the goal of the competition was to find the next “YouTube Star” or vlogger, like celebrity judges ShayCarl, LisaNova and SMOSH. David is certainly talented, but will his personality shine through in his next video submission?
Check out what the YouTube celebrity judges had to say about the four finalists in the video below. Will you vote later today in the Kia ‘Who’s Next?’ competition? Who’s got your vote?
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KickApps Integrates Web/Social Media Development
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 21:00KickApps is a social media web site authoring and social content management system system. Web publishers and marketers can develop branded communities, social applications and interactive widgets — both on their domains and across the social web — to drive customer and employee relationships and grow online audiences. Content, user experience and social graph can be consistent across all platforms. The platform includes KickApps AppStudio, a drag-and-drop interface that lets nontechnical users build highly customized online experiences.
After the jump — what you need to know about KickApps.
The application in a sentence
KickApps’ platform is a web-based social content management system (sCMS) that enables Web publishers and marketers to develop branded communities, social applications and interactive widgets that can be implemented both at their domain and across the social web.
Ways the product benefits social media campaigns
- KickApps manages all online assets — editorial content, user-generated content, etc. — under a single, unified content management system. Publishers do not need to attend to the interoperability and resource issues associated with managing multiple point solutions.
- As a centralized content management system for both traditional editorial content and social experiences, an element built with the KickApps App Studio can carry social data, such as comments, ratings, tags or social sharing buttons, as well as the Facebook “Like” button. Both the content — and the experience around that content — can be replicated across environments, including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others. Data about those interactions is in a centralized database.
- Brands can build custom Facebook fan page tabs that share unified design, content and social data with an iPhone app, a branded on-domain community and distributed widgets.
- Administrators can monitor traffic via tools like mood ratings and Facebook activity feeds; drive engagement via applications such as “Ask an Expert” and badges; and promote sales via comments and ratings.
Coolest feature
The KickApps AppStudio is a web-based development environment with adrag-and-drop interface that lets even nontechnical users create customized online experiences in both Flash and HTML5 formats. This helps companies speak to their audiences across multiple platforms, including Apple’s iDevices, which do not support Flash standards.
Feature rundown
- The platform is a hosted SaaS solution; there’s no implementation needed.
- Marketers can respond to feedback, bubble up the most engaging experiences and create engaging experiences. These include user generated content and contests, surveys and rich media that allows contribution and interaction via plug-in partners adap.tv, ClipSync, Meebo, Tweetedia and others.
- To help identify influential community members, KickApps’ platform uses a points and levels system — which can assign value to any interaction a customer has with content from the community. Data can be kept private and used exclusively by the community manager or made public to establish user prestige among peers.
User profile
The ideal KickApps customer is an organization that has an audience which communicates or uses the web to get informed or inspired.
User review
“We’re interested in reaching our audiences wherever they are, regardless of the devices they’re using,” said Marc Siry, SVP of Digital Products & Services for NBC Universal. ”Thanks to KickApps, we’re able to deliver video content that looks great on either HTML5 or Flash-supported devices. In addition, the drag-and-drop authoring process helps us create content experiences quickly and easily, without our having to learn a new coding language.”
Pricing
Monthly fees start at a minimum of $5,000/month for our enterprise-level clients and scales based on usage.
Compared to competition
According to the company, “Because users expect a social relationship to content, traditional CMS players — which do not manage rich social functionality — fail to meet the evolving needs of the market. The KickApps platform creates numerous connections between users and an organization’s editorial content, and allows brands to take back control of their customer data that has largely been co-opted by social networking sites.
“Implementation options are a key differentiator with KickApps. Sites can be built in a matter of days or tightly integrated into an existing CMS system using the REST APIs in a matter of weeks. KickApps has the most comprehensive built-in feature set which provide a future proof social media platform that can be easily updated and modified as usage behavior, new devices and new social networks emerge.”
With an ever-increasing number of social media marketing options, brands and agencies are searching for solutions to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their campaigns. This series reports on significant product releases and updates to assist in selecting the most appropriate tools to meet individual objectives. We recently presented Kony Solutions, PSS CREDboard, FaceTime Socialite and Converseon.
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How To Use YouTube Annotations To Maximize Your Subscribers, Views & Overall YouTube Success
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 19:50YouTube Annotations are one of the most invaluable tools offered by the video site and, interestingly enough, are also one of the most overlooked by online video content creators. If you aren’t using Annotations in your YouTube videos you are missing out on some great opportunities for maximizing your subscribers, your views, and the overall success of your YouTube videos and channel. Read on to learn how to use YouTube Annotations to maximize your YouTube success.
Before we get into the different ways you can use YouTube to maximize your subscriptions, views and overall success I want to give a brief overview of how to add annotations to your videos. After you’ve uploaded a video to YouTube, head over to view the video on its YouTube page and click ‘Edit annotations’ at the top of the page.
When you click on ‘Edit Annotations’, you will be directed to the YouTube Annotations Editor. From this page, you can add all types of annotations, including speech bubbles, notes, spotlights and pause annotations. Click the icon with the plus sign in the lower left corner of the video to begin adding annotations. You can then click and drag things around in the time bar below the video to specify when you want your annotations to show, and for how long.
Annotations can be used to add text to your videos to let your viewers know about updates and other information about your video, to create interactive YouTube campaigns and to link to other videos, channels, subscription pages and more on the YouTube site.
Encourage Viewers To Subscribe With An Annotated Subscribe ButtonYou can use annotations to encourage viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel by adding a subscribe button. You can do this in a couple of different ways. The first is to make your own subscribe button in a design program and add it to your video where you want it to appear before you export from your editing program and upload to YouTube. Once your video is uploaded you can add a Spotlight Annotation in the Annotations editor. Drag the spotlight around the button you created in your video and then click on the link icon. In the ‘Link Type’ dropdown menu, choose ‘Subscribe’ and enter your YouTube user name. When users click on your annotated subscribe button they will be directed to a page where they can subscribe to your channel.
If you haven’t incorporated a subscribe video into the design of your video, not to worry! You can add a Note, Spotlight or Speech Bubble Annotation, type the word ‘Subscribe’ into the text field, and link to the Subscribe page in the same way we illustrated above. You can check out the video below from Rocket Boom NYC to see how a subscribe button works. It looks like they created their subscribe button using a Spotlight Annotation with text field. When you scroll over the rectangular area in the bottom right of the screen you’ll see the word “Subscribe” appear.
Use Annotations To Link To Videos, Playlists, Channels & MoreWe’ve seen how annotations can help you to increase your subscribers. However, annotations are also great for increasing the number of views on your videos. How can you do this? You can use annotations to link from the video that is playing to other videos on YouTube, to your personal YouTube channel, to playlists you have put together and more.
If you didn’t use annotations to link to other videos that you have created then viewers might just leave the YouTube video page when your video stops playing and move on to the next thing that catches their attention. However, if you give viewers the option to click and watch your content from within the video itself then you are increasing the likelihood that they will move on to watch another one of your videos. It’s always a good idea to keep these sorts of links for the end of your video, so that users don’t click away to watch another video before the original one finishes playing.
This week we released an Ultimate Guide To Viral Videos on YouTube and used annotations to tie everything together. The guide is made up of eight separate video compilations and all are linked together from a menu, which appears at the end of each video clip. Each of the videos represented in the compilations also link back to the original YouTube clips using annotations. Check out the Best Pets & Animals video below to see how we used annotations to link our videos together. The menu at the end begins at 4:14.
Use Annotations To Encourage FeedbackAside from getting loads of subscribers and video views, you’d probably also like to hear feedback from viewers, whether the feedback comes in the form of a private message, a comment or a video response. You can plant the seed for viewer feedback using annotations. There are several ways to do this.
For starters, you will notice that if you click on the ‘Link’ icon when adding an annotation then you have the ability to create links for viewers to click to send you a personal message or to submit a video response. You can also create a note, speech bubble or spotlight asking viewers a question and inviting them to answer in the comments, or with a simple phrase like, ‘I’d love to hear what you think, leave a comment!’
Many viewers don’t have commenting, video responding, or message sending on their mind when they watch videos on YouTube. However, if you use annotations to ask them to comment or respond then they will be a lot more likely to do it.
Involve Your Viewers In The Annotation ProcessWhile most video creators choose to create their own annotations and leave it at that, you can also open up the floor to your viewers to make notes and annotations on your videos. Of course, this isn’t right for everyone but it can be a fun way to get your viewers involved. With collaborative annotations, your viewers can write messages and place links directly on your video, for a sort of interesting, interactive experience.
To get your friends or viewers involved with collaborative annotations, share the link that is available at the bottom of the YouTube Annotations Editor. You can also add a “Collaborative Annotations” link from the dropdown member. However, if you are going to open up the floor to viewers to add annotations then be prepared for a few spammy or mean annotated comments.
Have you seen any videos on YouTube that utilize annotations really well? Feel free to share interesting uses of annotations that you have seen in the comments.
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Interview: Snaptu Turns Any Mobile Phone Into A Smartphone
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 19:00Snaptu is a mobile application that everyone who owns a mobile phone absolutely needs to know about, particularly the 4 billion users out there without a Smartphone. What this free app does is bring masses of apps available to iPhones to your regular cell phone, even a $20 dingy old thing you got in Thailand, as long its Java enabled and has internet. The company was founded 3 years ago and has acquired an astonishing 14 million users so far. It works on 2,500 different phone models and contains access to many web hotspots with the most recognizable being Facebook, Twitter, Picassa and Flickr. At this stage in their popularity, mobile operators actually seek out Snaptu for rights to install it in their phones because it offers major appeal for consumers who aren’t already in the smartphone scene.
The technical details of why and how the app is so easy to use are a bit daunting but the core idea is that Snaptu is a cloud based application. This gives virtually any phone the power of a server and automatically circumvents device fragmentation. This prevents operators and device manufacturers from having to develop and maintain multiple versions of mobile apps for their phones and prevents users from having to download each app individually and constantly upgrade them. Another perk is that you can add as many apps as you want without downloading.
I had a chance to get a quite detailed presentation from Snaptu’s VP Business Development, Lior Tal, and I have to say that I didn’t know I could do so many neat things on my old-school Nokia.
Social Times) What is the value proposition of Snaptu?
Snaptu) For the user, it’s the availability of the best internet content regardless of device and the lack of hassle. For carriers and mobile device manufacturers, it’s the easiest way to get the top social networking and lifestyle apps to their entire device portfolio without having to worry about fragmentation and with the fastest time to market. Snaptu apps are always updated, as they run in the cloud and don’t actually reside on the phone itself. Case in point is India’s largest mobile operator Airtel that offered Snaptu through their app store and received a half million downloads in less than 6 months.
ST) Which phone models use Snaptu most?
S) Nokia series 40 and pretty much any other Nokia device (available on OVI), Sony Ericsson, Blackberries (available on App World), as well 2500 various phones from all manufacturers.
ST) Android and other Smartphone operating systems are becoming increasingly popular – is this a problem facing Snaptu’s popularity?
Snaptu constantly moves ahead with the evolution of the mobile Internet market. At the moment, 95% of the devices out there are not I-phones or Android. We already see Android based devices developing quite a fragmentation, and as Android popularity increases, we will be there as well.
ST) What is your main demographic?
S) The countries with most usage are Indonesia, India, U.S., U.K., South Africa, Brazil, Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, China, Russia, Philippines and Venezuela. 37% of our users are female and 65% are male. The most popular age group is 18-24 and then 25-34.
ST) On any non-smartphone phone, can I do everything on Facebook and Twitter that I can from a computer?
S) Well, almost everything. We are constantly improving the applications and adding more features based on user feedback. For instance, we recently added the ability to get Facebook notifications and soon we will come out with some quite exciting new features.
ST) How is Snaptu different than its competitors?
S) Some technologies that tried to resolve the fragmentation problem used to exist but pretty much died out along the way such as ‘Widget Engines’. Our real challenge is reaching mobile users who don’t know they can use internet on their phone or think it is complicated. Snaptu is so easy to use that if people knew about it, they would certainly use it.
ST) Can you describe Snaptu’s business model?
S) At the moment our revenue source is mobile advertising through integration to leading ad networks. Our servers can serve ads into any Snaptu app instantaneously without requiring the content owner to interact with the ad networks. These networks include Google’s AdMob, inMobi, Yoc and many others. Down the road there are many more exciting products which will be introduced into the Snaptu platform, allowing content partners to monetize their mobile apps, much like the actual iPhone app store.
ST) Are you undergoing marketing efforts to acquire more users, what are they?
S) Snaptu’s viral growth is amazing; our users are doing incredible work sharing Snaptu with their friends and we’re on any major app store. We already have 4.5 million users of facebook on Snaptu, and over 850,000 followers on Twitter though this should grow and we need to reach more masses of mobile phone users.
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YouTube Charts Now Searchable By Category
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 18:21When YouTube launched YouTube Charts last month, a new interface that ranks the top videos on YouTube, they turned to viewers to ask what features they would like to see added to Charts. One of the most common questions that viewers had was, “Why doesn’t YouTube Charts rank videos according to categories?” YouTube has now responded to these viewers by adding new functionality to their Charts, giving viewers the opportunity to search by category.
On the YouTube Charts page of the video site, viewers still have the opportunity to search Most Viewed, Most Subscribed and Most Liked videos by Today, This Week, This Month and All time. However, an added feature lets users browse the highest-ranking videos according to category as well. Users can browse the top videos in All categories, Autos & Vehicles, Comedy, Education, Entertainment, Film & Animation, Gaming, How To & Style, Music, News & Politics, Nonprofits & Activism, People & Blogs, Pets & Animals, Science & Technology, Sports, and Travel & Events.
YouTube viewers also have the option to click on a new ‘Play All’ link at the top of each list, which plays all of the videos in the current chart in order in a playlist. Set your criteria (i.e. The Most Viewed Pets & Animals Videos of All Time), click ‘Play All’ and sit back, relax and enjoy the show. The screenshot below shows what the playlist for today’s most-viewed videos in all categories looks like.
It will be interesting to see if YouTube continues to upgrade and add features to YouTube Charts over the coming months. What else would you like to see YouTube add to their Charts and rankings?
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Consumer Watchdog Uses 540 Square Feet to Lampoon Google
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 17:40Consumer Watchdog, the consumer group that has long a thorn in the side of Google over privacy issues, has taken its fight against the company to new heights.
On Thursday, the group began running a JumboTron ad in New York City’s Times Square that depicts Google CEO Eric Schmidt as a maniacal ice cream truck driver happily delivering free ice cream to children, while at the same time collecting information, spying on them and conducting full body scans to absorb private information through “Google Analytics.”
The 15-second plug, titled “Don’t Be Evil?,” is scheduled to air 36 times per day through October 15.
Consumer Watchdog cited two recent moves by the search engine giant as the impetus behind the ads: Google’s collection of personal data through its Street View cars and the company’s decision to publicize users’ Gmail contacts on its social networking application Buzz.
Google’s Schmidt frequently makes waves with his impassioned and outspoken defense of how his company handles private information, saying, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” And, more recently, suggesting to the Wall Street Journal that one day young people will be ‘entitled’ to automatically change their names once they hit 18 in order to protect themselves from youthful postings on social media sites.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based Consumer Watchdog says its goal with the videos and accompanying Web site, InsideGoogle.com, is to prod Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to create a ‘Do Not Track Me’ list that would operate similar to the ‘Do Not Call List’ currently in place to protect consumers from aggressive telemarketers.
John Simpson, the group’s director, says the public is on their side, citing a poll conducted on the group’s behalf that found 80% of Americans support a ‘Do Not Track Me List,’ while 86% favored options that would allow them to stop anyone from tracking their online searches and purchases.
Consumer Watchdog began its intense monitoring of Google in 2008 after receiving a $100,000 grant from The Rose Foundation as part of the Google Privacy Rights Project. The group has not made public any additional sources of funding since then.
Google largely dismissed this latest attack from its nemesis, responding to the campaign with only a brief statement.
“We like ice cream as much as anyone, but we like privacy even more,” the spokesman said, “That’s why we provide tools for users to control their privacy online, like Google Dashboard, Ads Preferences Manager, Chrome incognito mode and ‘off the record’ Gmail chat.” All of these tools can be accessed by users at www.google.com/privacy, he added.
Of note, and not without irony, Consumer Watchdog also made the video available on YouTube, which is owned, of course, by Google.
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5 Upcoming Trends In Web Video Marketing That You Need To Know About
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 16:54As online video sites are growing in popularity, web video marketing is becoming more and more of a necessity for brands looking to get their name and message out there. But web video marketing isn’t what it used to be—simple video commercial spots, sidebar ads and pop-ups are being replaced with more technologically advanced breakout ads, interactive video campaigns and more, and analytics and ad targeting are becoming more comprehensive as well. Read on to find out about five upcoming trends that you can expect to see from web video marketing and that you should become familiar with if you want to maximize your brand’s web video marketing success in the future.
As technological advancements are made in the field of web video, plain old commercial spots just won’t cut it anymore. Viewers are becoming less and less impressed with cut and dry video campaigns, now that more brands and companies are introducing interactivity to their video campaigns.
Interactive video advertising gives audiences the opportunity to click and engage within the video player itself—clicking to get more information, play games, download coupons and more. According to Zvika Netter, the CEO of Innovid, who I interviewed earlier this summer, interactivity in web video ads not only makes audiences feel more excited and engaged by the ad, but also gives audiences the opportunity to willingly spend more time with the brand online.
Companies like Innovid provide companies and brands with a platform for creating interactive online video campaigns, and YouTube annotations give brands the opportunity to make their own branded interactive adventures. As consumers see more and more of these types of interactive advertisements they will come to expect them in place of plain old videos. You can check out an example of one of Innovid’s interactive campaigns on our original interview post, and watch an interactive YouTube campaign from Blendtec below.
HTML5 Campaigns Will Offer More Creativity Than EverHTML5 video is new on the scene, and we are only just beginning to see the types of campaigns that it can be used for. Earlier this week, indie band Arcade Fire released a HTML5 music video with Google Chrome. The video, The Wilderness Downtown, is a truly amazing experience, giving viewers the opportunity to enter their childhood address, which takes shots of their childhood neighborhood and incorporated them into the video, choreographed pop-up video windows, sharing features and more.
Within hours of the video’s release, it was spreading like wildfire on Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the social web. People love to see new and innovative campaigns, and HTML5 video is definitely opening up new doors for interactivity and creativity. The technology is still new, but I am sure that as more and more brands and creators get wind of the possibilities offered by this technology it will become a standard for advertising campaigns.
Brands Will Break Out Of The Box With YouTube Breakout CampaignsOne of the coolest new trends in advertising is YouTube breakout campaigns. Brands are partnering with YouTube to create cool branded advertising pages that literally break out of the box, taking over the entire YouTube interface. We have covered a variety of these campaigns, including the first ever YouTube game by Samsung; a promotion for The Expendables, in which Sylvester Stallone literally blows YouTube to bits; a Cadbury campaign with round YouTube video players; and, most recently, a Tipp-Ex whiteout campaign that lets viewers interact with a hunter that doesn’t want to shoot a bear.
Viewers love seeing brands break out of the box and get creative. When you are watching what looks like a typical YouTube video and suddenly vines grow out of the screen, or a character reaches out of the video player you are pleasantly surprised and want to share the link with your friends. There are already a growing number of these YouTube breakout campaigns and we are likely to see many more in the near future.
Augmented Reality & 3D Will Let Consumers Explore Products From HomeOne of the coolest things you can offer your customers is the ability to explore your products in a new and exciting way from the comfort of home. With 3D manipulation of images and augmented reality, brands can let users check out their products from all angles from their computer screen.
Earlier this year, Olympus launched a cool augmented reality campaign to give viewers the opportunity to explore their PEN camera using a paper marker that could be downloaded and printed out from the site. When held up to a web cam, the marker was turned into a 3D camera that users could use to explore how the PEN camera worked. Check out the video below to see how the PEN campaign worked.
Enhanced Analytics & Targeting Will Increase Effectiveness of Video MarketingAs video advertising becomes more mainstream, analytics are becoming more involved as well. Advertisers can find out not only how many people are viewing their ads, but what part of the world they are in, how old they are, whether they are male or female, and even data about what websites they are visiting, videos they are watching and more. This is allowing video advertisers to gauge the success of their campaigns like never before.
Advertisers are also able to target their ads with much more specific targeting tools. On YouTube, for instance, advertisers can target campaigns to specific viewer demographics, specific tags or categories, and even to specific videos. YouTube also recently added a feature that allows advertisers to put age restrictions on their videos to target their audiences even more specifically.
As more and more technological innovations are made in web video, we are likely to see a huge increase in creativity and innovation in online video advertising. What would you like to see more of in the world of video marketing?
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This Week In Viral Videos – September 3, 2010
Fri, 09/03/2010 - 15:54Happy Friday viral video fans! It’s that time of the week again where we bring you a selection of the best viral web videos. This week our picks for the top viral videos include a talented dog, the very first live action rocket jump, a bunch of beach-goers in formal wear, a potty-mouthed music video, a cool interactive YouTube campaign and, of course, that Double Rainbow guy we’ve all grown to love. Check out all the videos after the jump.
This week a video of one of the most talented dancing dogs you’ve ever seen has been making the rounds on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social web. The video, which has over 1.4 million views so far, features a dog in a dress dancing Merengue. Haven’t seen it yet? Check it out below.
Cee Lo Green – F**K YOU (Official Video)Remember the video for Cee Lo Green’s song ‘F**k You’ that was on our list of the best viral videos last week? It looks like that video, which simply spelled out the lyrics to Cee Lo’s song, was only a teaser. This week the official video was released and, while it hasn’t come close to the 4.4 million views the original clip received, it is well worth watching. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for the official music video to hit the millions.
The Rocket JumpAccording to Wikipedia, “In first-person shooter computer and video games, rocking jumping is the technique of pointing a rocket launcher or similar explosive weapon at the ground or at a wall and then firing and jumping at the same time. The rocket’s explosion propels the player to large heights and distances, reaching places not normally accessible.”
In a new video from YouTuber freddiew, we see what a rocket jump would look like in real life and it’s pretty darn cool, if I do say so myself. The video, which was uploaded just two days ago, has over 600,000 views so far.
Improv Everywhere – Black Tie BeachThis week Improv Everywhere released a video of their latest mission, Black Tie Beach. In Black Tie Beach, several hundred pranksters spent a day at Coney Island / Brighton Beach in New York wearing their best black tie attire. I would have loved to witness this in person.
NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!A new interactive YouTube campaign launched by Tipp-Ex has been the talk of the YouTube town over the last couple of days. The campaign, called ‘A hunter shoots a bear!’ is one of the best interactive campaigns we’ve seen on the video site. A hunter, who does not want to shoot a bear, whites out “shoots” from the title and invites viewers to type in what they’d like to see and they are directed to a video of the very thing they typed in. To check out the campaign, start by watching the video below.
“Double Rainbow” – Windows Live Photo GalleryThe Double Rainbow guy is back, but it looks like he’s sold out. He’s the star of a new commercial for the Windows Live Photo Gallery and it definitely doesn’t have the same magic of the original clip. I decided to put it on the list this week not because it is one of the “best” virals of the week, but because it could possibly be one of the worst and I want to know what you think about it! So check it out below and give us your opinion in the comments. Do you think the Double Rainbow guy sold out?
BONUS: The Ultimate Guide To Viral VideosFor those of you who weren’t paying attention, this week we released our own Ultimate Guide To Viral Videos. You can start with the video below and click on the menu to watch a variety of compilations of the best YouTube videos of all time including the best news bloopers, best Epic FAILS, best pets and animal videos and more. Enjoy!
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Now You Can Shout at Your Phone Productively…Android Adds Voice Check-In For Foursquare
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 23:00Ever have the urge to shout at your phone? Want to grab that coveted “mayor” badge in Foursquare? Now you can do both at the same time if you have an Android 2.0 or higher, thanks to the new collaboration that lets you use update your Foursquare account by voice. The technology already existed for Facebook and Twitter, and so it was just a matter of time before location king Foursquare could get in on the action.
Android users can thank Vlingo for this capability; you can download the app for free at their Website. In addition to checking in via voice, you can use the app to locate your friends. That is, you can be strolling through a neighborhood by yourself and ask “Who’s nearby?” to see who you can connect with. You can also ask where your friends are in general, and then haul yourself to those locations. After the application gives you a list of where your friends are, you can seamlessly press their names and shoot them a text or call to set something up.
You can tell from the way the app works that it is designed not just for your convenience, but to promote social media updates. When you speak to your Android to tell the Vlingo app where you are, it then prompts you to choose which platforms you want to update — whether you want your Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare followers to know, or just one or a combination….it’s up to you to decide. And inevitably, the app also provides a “Share Vlingo” button to tell your friends about it.
Although for now the Android is the only device that you can update in this way, Vlingo promises to expand to other mobile types in the future. It seems like the Vlingo app might be more fancy and fascinating than actually useful — speaking doesn’t actually take that much longer than typing. Would you want to check in via voice?
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Buy Facebook Credit Gift Cards at a Target Near You
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 22:20Virtual goods have slowly begun making their way into mainstream society. Target today is announcing that it will be carrying Facebook Credits gift cards nationwide, making it the first brick-and-mortar retailer to do so. With the virtual goods industry blooming, both Facebook and Target expect these cards to become hits as gifts. More after the jump.
Facebook Credits are becoming increasingly widespread with the major social game developers having adopted them in most of their games in some form. Facebook Credits are currently supported by over 150 popular social games and applications, a number that will only go up and contribute to $2Bn in revenue Facebook’s rumored to do this year.
“At Target we strive to delight our guests with exciting, new products every day, so we’re thrilled to be the first retailer to sell Facebook Credits gift cards,” said Mark Schindele, senior vice president, merchandising, Target. “With social gaming becoming increasingly popular, Facebook Credits gift cards provide an easy and convenient option for Target guests to purchase virtual goods.”
Facebook Credits gift cards will be available starting Sept. 5 and come in three versions: $15, $25, and $50, with the $15 card exclusively available to Target. Eventually, i see Facebook Credits penetrating society and becoming the most popular form of social currency out there.
“One of Facebook’s goals is to create a great place for games – both for people who love to play and the developers that create fun and engaging social experiences,” said Dan Rose, vice president of partnerships and platform marketing at Facebook. “Gift cards are easy to use and very popular. We’re looking forward to launching in Target stores and giving people the ability to purchase Facebook Credits for their own use or to give as gifts to their friends and family.”
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LivingSocial Rolls out Hyperlocal Deals in DC, NYC Neighborhoods
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 21:40 LivingSocial is one of a handful of major daily deals providers fighting for dominance in the group coupons/local deals space – and they’ve just added a new tool to their arsenal to try to beat out the competition. While they have had a presence in over 20 major cities for several months now, LivingSocial has just announced their new hyperlocal deals targeting not cities but neighborhoods. These deals are even more location-specific than others. Read below the jump to see if you are in one of the first neighborhoods to get your very own daily deals.
LivingSocial is targeting neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. area and New York city. Specifically, residents of The District, Montgomery County and Northern Virginia in the D.C. area and those living in Uptown, Midtown, Downtown and Brooklyn New York can now enjoy deep discounts on restaurants, bakeries, cafes and other (extremely) local shops.
CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial Tim O’Shaughnessy says of these new hyperlocal deals:
“The new localized Deals program will bring more relevant offers to users, providing savings on their favorite neighborhood restaurants, bars, spas and shops. We’re particularly excited to launch this program in our hometown of Washington, D.C., and in New York City, where we know that if you live in Tribeca, sometimes the Upper West Side might as well be in another state.”
Users of the LivingSocial discount service living in the NYC and D.C. neighborhoods can choose to see the daily deal for their immediate area or the larger deal for the entire city. This means that they can choose from two daily deals instead of one.
LivingSocial currently has a userbase of 85 million people, and a presence in over 25 markets in 3 countries. These new hyperlocal deals are likely an attempt to reach people in areas that are highly populated, offering them closer, and more convenient, discounts. This could propel LivingSocial’s reach to over 100 million users over the coming months as it is rolled out in other markets.
In direct competition with heavyweight group buying services like Groupon, time will tell whether the hyperlocal model that LivingSocial is adopting will catch on among its competitors.
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iPhone Revolutionizes Political Canvassing
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 21:10Politicos, well at least Democrats, everywhere rejoice.
Organizing for America (OAF), the political arm of the Democratic National Committee, today announced an upgrade of its iPhone app, just in time for November’s contentious mid-term elections.
The new tool takes what was once the bain of every field workers’ existence, canvassing, or the organizing of door-to-door campaign visits, from campaign headquarters to the voters’ own pockets.
After downloading the iPhone app, campaign volunteers can quickly pull up data on voters in their area, including maps to where voters live and lists of voter contacts. They’ll also have access to breaking news alerts, talking points and interactive literature to share with voters at their doors.
Most importantly for campaigns, the new app allows volunteers to send real-time feedback and door counts directly back to campaign headquarters.
This latest merger of politics and technology shows campaigns are moving beyond just YouTube and Facebook to see social media as a way to smartly manage the flow of information so crucial to any political campaign.
The OAF hopes this new tool, which they term ‘revolutionary,’ will end the days of blurry-eyed field workers pulling all-nighters hunched over maps drawing and redrawing canvassing routes, and eliminate the long nights of interns manually entering data brought back to the campaign office by volunteers.
Interestingly, it is the Democrats who have come out charging with this new technology. They, of course, led the way in 2008 under Barack Obama’s campaign but had fallen behind Republicans in this election cycle. Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts was the first candidate to apply GPS-type technology to canvassing in his surprise win to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
The OAF tells Politico’s Playbook its volunteers will “begin using the tool as part of their regular canvassing efforts beginning the weekend of September 10-12.”
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Tipp-Ex Lets You Make A Hunter Hump A Bear In Interactive YouTube Campaign
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 20:40More and more brands are breaking out of the box with YouTube takeover campaigns that jump out of the video player to utilize the entire YouTube interface. We’ve already seen a variety of neat campaigns from Samsung, Sylvester Stallone and The Expendables, Cadbury and more. Now Tipp-Ex whiteout is getting creative with a cool, new interactive YouTube takeover ad campaign called ‘A hunter shoots a bear.’
The Tipp-Ex campaign features a video called ‘A hunter shoots a bear’, in which the hunter yells “Hey! I don’t wanna shoot this bear!” and reaches out of the player to grab a Tipp-Ex whiteout Pocket Mouse and whites out the word “shoots” from the title. Viewers are invited to write whatever they want into the whited-out area of the interface and click play to watch as the hunter does what they say.
I tried a variety of different terms, including ‘A hunter “dances with” a bear’, ‘A hunter “eats” a bear’, ‘A hunter “hugs” a bear’, ‘A hunter “humps” a bear’, and ‘A hunter “sings to” a bear’. Surprisingly there were videos for all of these, though to be fair the bear actually farts on the hunter, and not the other way around, and the hunter humping the bear is blocked out with a “Parental Advisory” logo. But all in all, I’d say this is a pretty impressive campaign! And for those of you smirking because I made the hunter hump and fart on the bear, get over yourselves– you know you were thinking about it too.
If you haven’t seen the Tipp-Ex campaign yet, you can check it out on the Tipp-Ex branded YouTube Channel. Let us know what you think in the comments. What did you make the hunter do, and was there a video for it?
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Twitter Makes Changes to Apps, URL Wrapping
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 20:00 Over the coming weeks, Twitter will be rolling out two major updates to its service. These updates will impact how third-party applications (such as desktop applications, websites and smart phone apps) access and interact with your data, and how URLs are displayed in the necessarily restrictive 140-character space allotted for your tweets. Below the jump, details on these major updates.
The first update makes some changes to how users authorize third-party Twitter applications. Before this update, users usually authorized each application through a separate process, and were required to log-in to these applications from a page away from Twitter. After August 31st when the new authorization update came into effect, applications will begin to use OAuth to access Twitter accounts.
OAuth enables Twitter applications to access users’ accounts without directly asking for, or storing, their passwords. Twitter notes that desktop and mobile apps might ask for a password once after this update is in full effect, but will not need it again. This update is intended to make applications more secure and centralized. Users can view a list of all authorized apps under the “Connections” setting in their Twitter account.
The second update is intended to make URLs more manageable for users wanting to share links. While there are already services like bit.ly out there that shorten URLs, Twitter is expanding its own URL wrapping service, t.co. Links shortened with t.co will still show the domain and part of the URL so that users know what they are clicking on, and users will be quickly routed through Twitter’s malware checker before being processed on to the link itself. This update will be slowly rolled out for some users over the next few weeks, and should be available to everyone by the end of the year.
What do you think of Twitter’s new updates?
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New Video Gallery Samples Ridley Scott’s ‘Life In A Day’ YouTube Submissions
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 19:10On July 24, YouTubers around the world shot and submitted video footage of their lives for Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald’s ‘Life In A Day’ project. ‘Life In A Day’ aims to document the lives of twenty individuals from around the globe in the first crowd-sourced YouTube documentary. The final film will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, but before then you can preview some of the 80,000 submissions in an interactive video gallery launched on the ‘Life In A Day’ YouTube Channel.
Due to the huge number of submissions, ‘Life In A Day’ had to be creative when coming up with a way to showcase them all, and make them easily searchable, so unlike the regular list of videos you’ll find on most YouTube channels they went the interactive route. Videos are displayed on a globe and are searchable by tags, geography, mood, time of day and more. The most popular tags include loving, eating, funny, home and family. Viewers can click on popular search terms ranging from activities to places, emotions, environment, weather, events and people. You can also watch two videos with opposing themes at once, called comparisons. Popular comparisons include happy/sad, creating/destroying, indoors/outdoors, excited/depressed, angry/lonely. I think it’s a pretty unique way to display all the submitted footage and one can literally spend hours sifting through videos to see what people around the globe were doing on July 24, 2010.
The submitted footage ranges from interviews to personal dialogues to people who simply filmed their daily routine from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed on July 24. It is definitely well worth your time to browse through, check out some of the videos and see the creative way in which ‘Life In A Day’ has chosen to display them.
Have you seen the footage displayed on the ‘Life In A Day’ YouTube Channel? What do you think about the interface and do you have any favorite submissions?
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Consumers’ Surprising Take on Online Privacy
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 18:00Is the current debate over online privacy more media hype than true consumer concern?
Yes, according to a new study released jointly by Upshot, a Chicago-based marketing agency, and BrainJuicer®, a consumer-driven consultancy firm. Their research found that, when presented with providing personal information in order to receive a useful service, consumers cared more about receiving a highly personalized, high quality and relevant service than protecting their privacy online.
The results come in stark contrast to the debate over online privacy blared across the media in recent months, from the blogosphere to traditional media. That drumbeat of coverage has seen Facebook to address its privacy settings, led MySpace and AOL to simplify privacy settings and introduce parental controls and pushed legislators on Capitol Hill to introduce online privacy legislation.
The study’s authors say they undertook the study for the benefit of marketers, who they feared were being scared away from offering more enhanced personalized online services by all the negative publicity.
Branded by the firms as a “Social Experiment,” the study presented more than 600 consumers with three service concepts – personalized deal finding alerts, cash rewards for using green transit and a virtual, personal shopping experience. The first, ‘experimental cell,’ was presented the services in the context of the privacy issue, while the second, ‘control cell,’ was asked to give their opinions about the services in terms of the personalized experience they offered.
Consumers had ‘very few’ concerns over giving up control of their personal information, as long as they received something useful in return. Those who declined the services did so because they didn’t see the product as useful, not because of privacy. Even the few who did cite privacy concerns cared more about financial security than sharing their general personal information online.
What’s the result for the marketers the study’s authors sought to allay? Upshot gives them four takeaways for offering better online services:
1) Free your creativity.
2) Market the benefits.
3) Be transparent, but not apologetic.
4) Don’t abuse their trust.
As for consumers? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see.
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10 Most Talented Dancing Dogs On YouTube
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 17:20Over the last few days, a video of a dog dancing Merengue has been spreading like wildfire on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social web. This dog does a better Merengue than I do, for sure, and she appears to be content with performing, her tail wagging all the while. Too many people upload cruel videos to YouTube, in which they force their dogs to dance or pass off a sick or hurt dog as a “dancing dog”, so we decided to put together a collection of 10 dancing dogs with real talent. These ten dogs know how to move and love to perform. Check ‘em all out after the jump.
The Dancing Merengue Dog clip made its debut on YouTube just three days ago and already has over 400,000 views! Have you seen it yet? If not, watch below.
Carolyn Scott & RookieCarolyn Scott and her dog Rookie were the original YouTube dancing dog stars. Their dance routine, choreographed to ‘You’re The One That I Want’ from Grease, has been viewed over 6 million times. It’s definitely one of the most impressive doggy dance routines I’ve ever seen!
Tina and Chandi – Britain’s Got Talent 2010When Tina and her rescue dog Chandi performed on Britain’s got Talent they blew the judges and audience away. The video has also blown YouTube audiences away, with over 2.3 million views since it was uploaded in mid-April of this year. Embedding for this video has been disabled, but you can click here to view it on YouTube.
Kate and Gin the dancing dog – Britains got talent 2008Tina and Chandi aren’t the only human-dog dancing duo that achieved a name for themselves on Britain’s Got Talent. In 2008, Kate and Gin’s James Bond dance routine put dancing dogs on the map as well. This video only has 558,000 YouTube views, but it’s still pretty impressive.
Sparky the Dancing DogSparky doesn’t boast the same exciting choreographed moves as some of the other dogs on our list, but he’s still pretty talented in the dance department. Also, the production value of this video is fantastic. I’d like to book some lessons for my dog with whoever taught Sparky his moves!
Big Dog Dancing Great Dane – Canine FreestyleI don’t know about you, but when I think of dancing dogs I generally imaging smaller dogs and would never expect a big dog like a Great Dane to get up and start doing the cha-cha. The following video proves that dancing isn’t just for frou-frou dogs.
Dog Dancing ShowNow this video is just strange. I don’t know if this dog is dancing or running for his life, as his owner chases him around with a knife and a Scream mask. But the dog had me with his backwards walking, leaping, crawling and rolling.
Charlie Chaplin dog danceWatching these videos makes me wonder whether these dog owners have lives outside of training and dancing with their dogs. This Charlie Chaplin routine looks like it took a lot of work and practice!
Britains got talent – line dancing dogsHere’s another Britain’s Got Talent dancing dog video for you. Aside from the dog who just sits on the ground the entire time and the dog that goes running across the stage instead of dancing, these dogs are…well…maybe a little impressive? I like what Simon Cowell has to say about them: “Girls, reality check! The choreography was hideous; the costumes didn’t work; you’ve got a major problem with three of your dogs; I think we need a little bit of work with the choreography, but there is potential.” Simon gave the line dancing dogs a “yes.”
Pepper Dancing to Achy Breaky HeartAnd here’s Pepper the dancing dog and her owner Sandra Davis to dance us out with Achy Breaky Heart. Enjoy!
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Twitter Trumps Traditional Media in Discovery Hostage Crisis
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 16:36Yesterday the media found itself in a breaking news situation when an armed man broke into the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland — Twitter users were able to break the news first. The story contained several alarming elements, including a large building filled with endangered employees, an unknown enemy and hostages. As The Washington Post pointed out, Twitter was the first place where not only words, but also telling images were released about the story’s various threads.
Twitter users outpaced formal reporters on the scene, since there were witnesses on location who could post updates as soon as they saw perpetrator James Lee. TwitPic boasted a cell phone picture of James Lee in the Discovery building yesterday afternoon as well as a picture of the SWAT team that reported for the emergency. Of course, the advantage of Twitter and related services like TwitPic is that you get thousands of individuals who have the ability to contribute small pieces of the story from their own perspective. For instance, this Twitpic image of the Discovery building yesterday shows an almost eerily quiet intersection — interesting to see in light of the extreme danger on the premises.
The basic Twitter set-up, with its famous 140 character messages, was also pivotal to yesterday’s news stream, as people either tweeted that they were safe or expressed fear and hope for Discovery affiliates they knew. The #Discovery hashtag created a group for related messages on the hostage situation:
The actual crisis came to an end after the police shot James Lee, but Twitter has transcended its role as a news-breaker in this story; the site is now hosting conversations about the strange and scary event. Lee, who is now known to be an environmental terrorist of sorts, has inspired both serious and slightly comic tweets. Some of the more serious messages have aimed at providing helpful updates, like “building is open today, according to Discovery and police spokespeople. Police still investigating in lobby.”
Then there’s the person who tweeted yesterday, “The gunman at the Discovery Channel got taken down. I didn’t think there was anyone who could dislike Shark Week. Myth busted,” a message which got over 100 retweets.
The official Discovery account didn’t provide any updates during the emergency, but did offer this message late last night: “We are very relieved to report that everyone in our headquarters is unharmed & thank you for your support.”
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ESPN & YouTube Want To Give You A Shot At Being On SportsCenter
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 15:37Hey sports fanatics, get ready to qualify for the chance to appear in a highlight on ESPN’s SportsCenter! According to Broadcasting & Cable, the sports network is preparing to launch a new promotion on YouTube that will encourage fans to submit local sports highlights of themselves, their friends and their families. The top highlights will be broadcast on none other than SportsCenter. The YouTube launch looks to be the beginning of a major social media campaign for ESPN, bringing Facebook and Twitter into the mix as well.
According to Jon Lafayette of B&C, Senior VP and General Manager for Digital Media at ESPN, John Kosner, the sports network is taking a hint from the fact that sports fans are relying more and more on social media to discuss sports, from games to favorite players, trade news and more. Kosner said, “There is a lot of ad sales interest in social media programs on ESPN.com and on ESPN Mobile.” The YouTube campaign will be the first of these commercial social media programs, but Kosner said ESPN is talking about similar campaigns on Facebook and Twitter as well.
ESPN isn’t completely new to the social media scene. They have managed campaigns on Facebook, including giving Facebook fans the option to share their NFL draft picks in their news feeds, and the implementation of Facebook chat in their coverage of the World Cup. However, they plan to push forward in the world of social media even more. They plan to launch a new social sports game, created by Playdom, called ESPNU College Town, which gives players the opportunity to build their own college campuses, Sims-style.
However, I have a feeling that once the ESPN-YouTube campaign launches it will be great for SportsCenter and ESPN as a whole. I can just see local sports stars, the high school quarterback, the neighborhood rugby champion, uploading their highlights in the hopes of being broadcast on SportsCenter and getting discovered. Not to mention the increase in viewership of the show, which will most likely result from people tuning in to see which YouTube clips made the cut. Details about the campaign and its launch date have not yet been announced, but we will keep you updated.
Will you submit a local sports highlight clip to YouTube when the ESPN SportsCenter campaign begins?
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Superscout Takes Your Job Search Social
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 01:28Superscout is a recruitment and career networking community inspired by social network innovations. The site calls itself a social network for jobs, designed to “connect great job candidates to great employers and keep them connected.” It caters to employers, recruitment agencies and candidates, with all users able to create content-rich profiles and build networks displaying their public Superscout activity and messages/news from those within their networks.
Exploring and tracking is anonymous, until either an employer or candidate reaches out for a meaningful connection. While remaining anonymous, candidates can add companies to their career network to receive news and job updates. Conversely, their anonymous profile can be searched for by any company, even if not logged in, and those that are logged in can nudge candidates to view a particular job. Only when candidates apply to a job do they reveal their full profile to the employer.
Superscout feels its platform enables both employers and candidates to convey their culture, personality, brand, skills and portfolios. Employers can build networks of candidate followers, while candidates can track companies in which they have an interest. The site is presently for free for candidates, as well as for company promotion and job posting. The developers of Superscout tell Social Times they intend to keep the core service free of charge for candidates. While not revealing their income model, they said, “We will soon be implementing a business model that turns the current pay-to-post model on it’s head.”
Superscout also reports they are working on linking to the API’s of sites where candidates can showcase their work, such as dribble, prezi and scribd.
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