Polka music and new media are an unlikely pairing. But you’d be surprised at the number of online listeners we have at Pioneer 90.1 for The Saturday Morning Barndance polka show.

This Saturday, we’re adding more new media to the Czech Mix as we present our first ever live video stream on radionorthland.org. And this isn’t just webcam video. In the DIY spirit of new media, I’m using an antique 1994 video switcher I found in a closet to mix video from four cameras as we present a live broadcast from Gunderson Commons at Northland’s Thief River Falls Campus.

The hosts of the Barndance radio show have invited Karl and the Country Dutchmen from Wisconsin to play for the live Christmas party broadcast on Saturday morning.

The group has previously performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

If the past three years’ events are any indication, we expect to have over 100 polka fans at the college. These are very generous people who donate about half of what the radio station takes in each year from listener donations.

Pioneer 90.1 Operations manager Ben Kosharek and I set up the station’s UStream account and embedded it into the station’s website yesterday. It was unbelievable how easy it was to take the switched video from an output on a digital recording deck, feed it through firewire into a computer, and connect with UStream. We had a live stream up and running in about two minutes.

Ustream also allows us to record the broadcast and archive it on our Ustream page or upload it to YouTube. The site has a live chat feature, and allows a streamer to update Facebook and Twitter right from Ustream.

UStream takes all the technical work out of streaming video so we can concentrate on creating great content. I plan to use it for video streaming other Northland events in the future.

So if you’re in the area Saturday from 7 to 11 AM, stop in for the Barndance Christmas Party. Or check us out on Pioneer 90.1, the video stream on radionorthland.org, or on Sjoberg’s Cable channel 13.

This is going to be fun!

Part 1 looked at understanding your target audience, and some things to think about as content creators.  Part 2 looked at production quality, and in this final part 3 some tips on getting a better page rank for your video.

Less than 20% of marketer use keywords in the filenames of their videos, the number are even smaller for those that use advanced techniques like writing keyword-rich captions and annotations or creating online video libraries.

Blended Search is a method by which many search engines use now for videos, images etc.  By optimizing your videos you can more easily get your video to a first-page organic ranking on Google.

There are few interactive marketers that spend time on video optimization which means many of the videos in Google’s index are not well optimized – so if you do, you increase your chances significantly.

Tips to optimize your online videos:

• Insert keywords into your video filenames
• Host your videos on YouTube and embed the YouTube videos in your site.  Google algorithms look at how many times a video is viewed, and views from the embedded video on your site will add to your YouTube view count as well
• Optimize YouTube video by adding keywords into your video title, descriptions, and tags
• Embed videos into relevant text pages on your site.  The text on those pages will help the search engine figure out what your video is
• Create a video library on your site, so Google will know where to find your video content.  Add keyword-rich annotations for each video in the library.

Blog post by Juliette Tai, Director of Research & Competitive Intelligence, Greenlight360

Resources: paidcontent.org, streamingmedia.com, mashable.com, blogs.forrester.com

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I just had an interesting conversation with Larry Ritzo, president of the Drayton, North Dakota Chamber of Commerce.

Ritzo is also publisher of the weekly newspaper in the town of about 900 people. Of his subscribers, half are former Drayton residents who have moved out-of-state but stay subscribed because they want to remain up-to-date on Drayton events.

It was that fact that lead Ritzo and e-commerce consultant Larrie Wanberg to create http://www.draytonchristmas.com/. The site uses live streaming video to bring out-of-towners back into downtown Drayton for a host of Christmas activities, including the Old-Fashioned Christmas celebration held last weekend at the Drayton Community Center.

The site uses UStream, a  streaming site that allows anyone with a webcam (or a video switcher with multiple cameras) to “broadcast” live to the web … for free. The site has a broadcast schedule for last weekend’s activities that included church services, a Christmas auction and a visit from Santa Claus.

There’s also a page of links to local businesses, opening these small shops to customers worldwide.

Ritzo said that he and other Chamber members are in the beginning stages of learning about the tools of new media. They used a simple one-camera setup from the Old-Fashioned Christmas event. The video was streamed to UStream over a wireless router that Ritzo attached to the side of a building across the street.

In future years, the webcasts could easily expand into using multiple cameras with graphics.  

Just a few years ago, this kind of internet broadcasting would have been very expensive, if not impossible, to pull off. Today, the tools are essentially free. Add creativity …  and a small-town Christmas celebration can reach a worldwide audience.

New episodes on FATBIDIN.TV!

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Doug recently started shooting a series of web based videos for Smashing Productions. Doug plays the recurring character of Richard, a depressed man who learns to use assertive behavior and speaking in everyday situations in order to uncomplicated his life and ease his depression.

One video has been shot and three more are still in production. The videos will be available online soon. More information to follow.

Part 1 looked at understanding your target audience, and some things to think about as content creators.  This week production quality.

Content quality

In some cases you don’t want to overproduce, for example, a home movie clip that’s put up on YouTube shouldn’t be perfect and produced, it’s the imperfections that make the video authentic and connect with the viewer.

With the popularity of professionally produced media, e.g. TV shows now being available on the web – these videos have the eyeballs because they bring with them a built-in audience, and to protect their brand they have to supply high quality video online.

ESPN provides the same production value as they do on TV, but there are times where they may do things differently. “One size does not fit all.”  For instance, when they increased the production value of fantasy sport shows their eyeballs increased as well.  To the audience it meant that ESPN was treating fantasy sport shows more seriously like their NFL Countdown.

Major media companies have a distinct advantage – they really already have all the right “tools” – the production crew, the equipment.  These companies have realized that producing for online shouldn’t be any different than television.

Revision3 CEO, Jim Louderback contends that high quality isn’t important just to these major media companies.  If you want to create episodic programming and want to continually draw in viewers you need to maintain high quality.  If you’re a one-off video, then quality isn’t so important.

Richard Glosser, executive director of emerging media for CondéNet says it’s important to think about the shelf life of the video you’re producing.  Daily updates of what’s going on in the stock market are generally only useful for a certain amount of time vs. a How-To video which has a much longer shelf life.  So the key is balancing quality and cost, you want to produce the best quality you can at a reasonable cost.

Another thing to balance or think about in some cases is – some video is better than no video – this is particularly true for streaming live events such as a sporting event, a concert etc.  MTV had great success with the Jonas Brothers concert – they handed out a bunch of mobile phones including to the Jonas Brothers, and then streamed all the backstage mobile videos, and concert footage they got from these phones.

Louderback believes what’s even more important than high quality video is audio.  If the audio is crappy, no one will want to watch it.  So having good mics is very important as well as knowing or understanding the acoustics of your studio or shooting location.

Steve Garfield, a well respected video blogger agrees and lists:

1. Think about audio
2. Think about framing
3. Think about holding the camera steady

Be it an expensive camera or a mobile phone camera – he puts a lot of consideration into video production.

Oh the flip side, Kevin Nalty, marketer and YouTuber, thinks differently -

“I try to work on my production quality, but it’s not a high priority,” says Nalty. “I don’t give a crap about lighting, and I’ll put my camera on a tissue box to get a shot. Where I work hard is on the editing and timing because that’s what can harm videos. I probably spend zero time planning a video, 10 minutes shooting it, and an hour or so editing it. And I think that’s kind of right, though maybe I should spend less time planning. I’m not like Hitchcock, drawing up a storyboard. I’d never start if I did it that way.”

HD or not

This too is a matter of shooting the highest quality possible as it’s easier to compress from high quality, but you can’t get HD out of standard definition.  For major media companies it’s easy for them to do HD for everything; for the rest of us, it’s a matter of where you plan to distribute.  Many sites do not yet support HD so if you have no plans to ever distribute to an HD site then it’s not particularly necessary to shoot in HD.

Video length

One thing’s for certain – the shorter videos have a better likelihood of going viral.  These are the ones that get shared, get blogged about, and put on social networks.  These are also the videos we would watch in our extended viewing hours, e.g. in the office during lunch, or for a brain break during the day, or even on our mobile phones.

Long form has its case as well.  Events definitely keep viewer attention.

New media is not the same is traditional TV, so don’t expect the TV format to necessarily work – 22 minutes of content with several ad blocks.  Louderback states –

On the internet you can be 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, whatever. Just do enough for what you’re trying to do and the story you’re trying to tell. People say it’s got to be short-form, but we’ve found that if it’s the right content and the right host, people will watch for half an hour and even longer.”

This is what it all really comes down to.  The Internet is not television.  So it does give us the freedom to do so much more than what is done on television currently.  If all we need is 8 minutes for a storyline, new media can do that.  We should be happy that the Internet allows us that freedom.

Formula

Well, there is no formula for success in this space, not yet anyway.  Major media or not – everyone is faced with the same issues – providing content that draw in viewers, keeping abreast of viewer feedback to assist with production decisions.

This is a new frontier that we’re in, and it’s great!  It can be daunting, but look how exciting it is, the creative freedom we have by not being boxed in to a 22-minute slot.  Interestingly enough, it almost puts us on even standing with the major media companies.  Yes, they have mucho budget, equipment and crew, but for those of us just emerging into this business, we’ve put out some pretty amazing content and have had to be more creative about it because of lack of funds.  We also have the flexibility of not following traditional rules…major media has to be pretty sure of something before they decide to move forward.

In the end…

For the major media companies – quality is of utmost importance because they need to protect the brand, also they have the manpower to be sure their videos meet their network minimum standards and requirements.  It’s also important that they put out content regularly so they can build a following, have people subscribe or bookmark it, and then it must be distributed so that viewers can access it when they want it.

For the emerging new media companies – I couldn’t have said it better than Revision3 CEO, Jim Louderback

To new media startups: “Here’s the thing—we all think we’re really smart, but we’re not,” says Louderback. “We create a lot of stuff, and we think it’s really good. But the audience is really smart, and you’ve got to listen to them. Some stuff we’ve done and [we] think, ‘Oh we’re brilliant.’ Other stuff, we think that, but we put it out there and say, ‘Oh, we’re so stupid.’ The important thing is to not sit around and tweak and hone and make it the best it can be. If you’ve got a good idea, put together a pilot and get it out there. In the end, it doesn’t matter how smart you think it is—the audience is going to tell you what they like.”

In Part 3, a few tips to get your videos found on the net.

Blog post by Juliette Tai, Director of Research & Competitive Intelligence, Greenlight360

Resources: paidcontent.org, streamingmedia.com, mashable.com, blogs.forrester.com

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NOVEMBER 25, 2009
From eMarketer.com

In October 2009, Eyeblaster reported that creative was the key to more engaging rich media ads. Based on the research firm’s “Online Video Advertising: Doubles Engagement, Boosts ROI” bulletin, video grabs attention and has a lasting impact.

Rich media ads with video had a higher dwell rate than those without, and almost double the dwell time.

This translates to fewer impressions needed for the same results. For example, Eyeblaster found that two exposures to a video ad campaign produced the same dwell rate as three exposures to nonvideo rich media ads.

Unsurprisingly, in-stream banners were most likely to be fully played. They far outpaced the start rate and fully played rate of all other video ad formats.

Other creative decisions also influenced effectiveness. Video ads initiated on rollover performed best, followed by auto-initiated ads. Ads that only began playing when a user clicked did worst.

The performance of video ads also varies according to the content it appears with. Video ads did best when placed next to e-mail, news, finance, sports and music, but fell behind in social network and gaming environments.

A good chunk of my Design Studio course was spent working on a hypothetical project for a client. The Maine Academy of Modern Music is a non-profit in Portland that offers classes and camps for young musicians. The project began with a client meeting, followed by logo design and website development.

Two different homepage designs were created, incorporating the logo. The client was looking for something fresh and fun, that felt like rock and roll. Ideally the site would make kids excited to join and make parents feel safe about letting their kids participate.

Click any of the images of view them full size.

After the first drafts of these homepages were completed I chose to continue working on the second homepage design, including mock ups of two internal pages.

What really pushed this design forward and got me excited about it was making the photoshop buttons for the site. I ended up making a ton of them to use in a process book that detailed all of the steps taken in completing the project.

I’m mostly pleased with how this project went. I found I learned more about Photoshop than anything else, and also warmed a little to the idea of Web Design. The experience of working with a client felt a little lost in the process, because while we met with them initially for a briefing the final designs weren’t considered by them and it became a more personal project in the end.

Interesting interview on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning — covers where the phenomenon is now and what stands in the way.   Better to be a little media guy than a big one right now.   It all goes back to the classic business school question:  If you were going to build a system from the ground up, would it look like what we have now?   Doubtful.

Just a question of when.

PBS is making lots of video content available online.  Here’s an interesting article in the NY Times today about The News Hour revamping its production model with a web focus.

Here is what I did over Thanksgiving break:

For fun, and for practice: a short stop motion piece that gave me an excuse to spend a day being creative for the fun of it.

As charities and NGOS (non-governmental organizations, aka non-profits) have to kick up their fundraising efforts, many more or turning to video to create an emotional connection between potential donors and the people their donation will help. We have been filming “Slum Girl Soccer” (aka “Goals for Girls”) which follows the struggles of teenage girls to play a sport that is off-limits to them in Argentina: soccer. We have received a grant from the INCAA (Arg. film board) to make a feature film, but in the meantime have been supporting the NGO Soccer Without Borders by making a short video fundraising appeal. Check it out!

And here is the feedback we got from Soccer Without Borders:

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The new media industry is still in the process of being defined.  Unlike traditional television there is no “formula” for creating a successful program.  New media in many cases is still a “hit or miss” process for all in this industry.

There is no doubt that online video has become more mainstream in recent years.  According to James A. Pitaro, VP of media at Yahoo, states that 47% of the U.S. now watches online video.  In September 2009, 11 billion videos were streamed which is up 24% year over year.  Of the videos being viewed more and more are original web videos.

Because web videos have become more mainstream, companies are moving towards some sort of video model – this includes major media as well as the smaller start ups.

Given that there’s no clear cut way of being successful in new media – several companies have disappeared despite having well known names attached to them.  For Yahoo – they have found success with their short-form videos with shows like Yahoo! Sports Minute, Prime Time in No Time.

So what are some of the lessons learned?  How can you benefit from these past mistakes?

It has to be more than a good idea – go where the fish are, find the popular

Make sure the idea is relevant for the Internet.  Stick with trends, people or brands that are already proven.  Ok, so it’s not the most original idea, but this can drive successful online content.  Major media companies take advantage of this concept – it’s easy for them, their shows have a built-in audience, for example, creating an Internet program based on a popular TV show like the After Show, for the show The Hills, or Big Brother After Dark for the Big Brother show.

Develop your own voice, your own identity.  Find something you can own.  If you choose to be a comedy site, decide if you can compete with the major sites that are already out there – funnyordie, MyDamnChannel, YouTube etc.  Or choose as niche a topic as possible.

If you have a host for your show, find someone who’s engaging, someone who knows the subject matter, who’s the expert, who’s passionate, and can relate to the viewer – don’t just find a body that can read a teleprompter.  The host need not have Hollywood or TV experience.  A different style and skill works for online video according to Revision3 CEO, Jim Louderback.  It’s more important to find a personality that can create a community around their interest.

Pay attention to the feedback of your audience

Research, research, research – if you do that, you should come up with what your target audience wants.  As an obvious example, Yahoo’s Finance site decided based on – search, and click-thru-rate that most of their user-community was doing tech stock searches – this led Yahoo to create a daily tech stock program called TechTicker and is their most watched finance program online.

Knowing what your audience wants to watch, you can engage and cater to those viewers and get more feedback which will prove very useful for video productions.  However, feedback isn’t always useful, helpful or nice – it is at this point where you have to choose comments from the median.

Also note that comments vary from site to site.  Comments on YouTube where there is a broad set of viewers may have more free-flowing comments that are not quite as on-point as a smaller more specific site.  This is where it becomes a task of reading between the lines to try and find the truth in the feedback.

Involve sponsors early in the creative process

As early as possible, get an advertiser involved with your idea, and co-develop the idea together.  Make sure to strike the right balance so as not to turn off viewers by over branding.  For a small startup, easier said than done.  I see this as more for the companies that have established some sort of reputation where a sponsor finds you interesting, and has potential…but that’s my 2 cents.

Be quick

Your web content must be timely.  Yahoo employed “fast twitch” programming – their Primetime in No Time recaps the previous evening’s prime time TV shows.  Every night, the host watched East Coast feeds of the shows, writes and then tapes the show to air hours later.

Live or near-live programming will need resources and skills; otherwise, the information is not valuable.  Beyond live video, it’s just as important to continue to provide access to the video.  What viewers want most is not when to watch a video (like linear television), but know that they can watch the video when they want to watch it.

Super-serving fans vs. attracting new viewers

Super-serving is a buzzword that determines much of the decisions around what content goes online.

If they like it – give them more.  If you’re doing a good job at providing “more”, then you’ll likely retain your audience and develop a reputation as the place to go to for that type of content.  But be careful not to super-serve to a point that you’re hindering audience growth.

Adding new content gives you the opportunity to reach new viewers beyond the current followers.  If you know your audience, it makes it easier to determine what their online video habits might be.

With the exception of sports sites which enjoy some exclusivity and niche viewers.  Generally, content drives success less than distribution and syndication, so it’s key to distribute through multiple channels so that audiences are able to find it.

Don’t spend a lot

It is possible to create quality content without an enormous budget or even have your own studio.   Sure, money can solve a lot of problems, but this forces us, content creators, to be creative and look to solve problems in new ways rather than just throw money at it.   Also, as I’ve written in past blogs, advertising money is not yet there in new media, so we have no choice but to product content dirt cheap.

In part 2, the article continues with production quality.

Blog post by Juliette Tai, Director of Research & Competitive Intelligence, Greenlight360

Resources: paidcontent.org, streamingmedia.com, mashable.com, blogs.forrester.com

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