December 23, 2009

Videoblogging as ‘a life-altering experience’

Videoblogging as ‘a life-altering experience’ from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

I used to be heavily involved in the videoblogging movement back when video on the Web was just starting out in late 2004. I was one of the first 50 members of the Yahoo Videoblogging Group (now about 3,000 members) and launched Ourmedia, the first free video hosting and sharing site, in March 2005.

Video creation and sharing went mainstream in 2006, so much so that Mashable reports YouTube Is the Top Social Media Innovation of the Decade.

So I love to highlight people who have successfully incorporated video into their online lives and can evangelize its import without getting preachy.

I shot this video interview with Sukhjit Ghag back during the 140 Character conference in New York. Since then Sukhjit (pronounced sook-jeet) has become the social media rep for Sony Electronics (@SonyElectronics on Twitter).

Sukhjit talks about how videoblogging has gone mainstream and how liberating it is compared with her past career as a television producer-writer. She calls it “a life-altering experience.” Her most important piece of advice? “Just forgive yourself — just do it!” Don’t get caught up in the technology — it’s simple to use a Flip cam, Kodak Zi8 or Nokia video-enabled video camera to capture slices of everyday life.

Watch, download or embed video on Vimeo Continue reading →

December 8, 2009

Radian6 and the Yellow Brick Road for brands

A chat with the CEO of Radian6 from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

CEO Marcel LeBrun on how companies should listen, monitor and engage with customers

I‘m still getting out from under the atomic dustbin that is my home office. It’s been an insanely busy year, from the relaunch of Socialmedia.biz as a distributed consulting firm to the launch of Socialbrite.org as a nonprofit learning hub to my organizing the Traveling Geeks trip to London last July, so I’m just now getting to a number of fantastic video interviews I should have published weeks ago.

I sat down with Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6, the well-respected social media monitoring company — he calls it “a listening and engagement platform,” which is an apt way to describe it — at the 140 Character conference in New York. Another in Jeff Pulver’s Twitter-centric 140 Character conference series is taking place in Tel Aviv today.

“More and more companies are realizing that the social Web is transforming how they interact with customers.”
– Marcel LeBrun
CEO, Radian6

Often, brands start out by trying to use interruption-based push marketing approaches on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. It doesn’t work. “More and more companies are realizing that the social Web is transforming how they interact with customers,” LeBrun says. “They’re starting to listen to those conversations and engage.”

Watch, download or embed the video on Vimeo

In our chat, LeBrun describes the Yellow Brick Road for brands — a five-step strategy that companies should apply when entering the realm of social media:

• Step 1 is listening. Your brand becomes the sum of the conversations about your company.

• Step 2 is where you move to the responding stage. “You need to let people know that you’re listening,” LeBrun says.

• Step 3 is where you move into full participation once you understand what your customers are saying about you.

• Step 4 is the stage in which you tell your story. “You give people a glimpse into the passion behind your vision and the people behind your company,” he says. Continue reading →

December 8, 2009

Will Twitter suffer the same fate as Netscape?

Yesterday I attended Jeff Pulver‘s 140 Conference in Tel Aviv. I really enjoyed @thekotel‘s presentation, which unfortunately I didn’t film — go to the twitter profile and check it out. Alon Nir is doing a remarkable job there.

The lecture I enjoyed in particular was Yedda CTO Yaniv Golan’s “The 140-characters Netscape,” where he said:

“I believe that in two years the Twitter brand will be in the same position as the Netscape brand is in now: Twitter will be credited with starting the revolution, and paving the road for followers. But at the same time, it will be pushed into a minor position in the market with other players taking the lead or, as is the case with Netscape, will no longer exist.” Continue reading →