Clearcast Digital Media

Another channel- Will there be anything on?

Web video content is improving. Search is improving. Is anyone noticing?

Apparently, yes.

According to the Online Publisher's Association, internet users are spending nearly half their online time visiting content, a 37% increase from four years ago. The study shows that the primary role of the internet has shifted from communications to content. The study is pretty interesting and can be found here.

One of the nice conclusions is further proof that one person's success does not have to mean another's failure. While some in the old media (read: Hollywood) are afraid that this might be the death knell for traditional TV and film distribution models, other glass half-fullers see this as the opening of new business models like pay-to-own downloads (iTunes), subscription services (RSS) and online rentals (Amazon Unbox, among others).

Got a good idea? Get it out there and make it easy for people to find it and get it. But,in the inimitable words of radio and TV host Jim Rome, "Have a take. Don't suck."

Weekend words of wisdom

"It takes just as much energy to wish as it does to plan."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Today, we demonstrate the concept of "link love"

On the topic of blog and podcast promotion, we left out one element in last week's podcast episode: link love. Link love is when you link back to a relevant site that supports what you might be blogging about. Very often, you can let that blogger or website know that you are doing so, and it can produce some rather nice results that benefit both parties. That's why it's called "love." It must be reciprocated. Concept is simple, now here it is in practice:

Our pal Andy at Lotame posted today about the growth of advertising on user-generated content sites. The takeaway is that these sites are experiencing phenomenal growth rates and advertisers better pay attention because this is where the eyeballs are but, more importantly, this is where the active users are. Social media sites' (even this very blog) whole raison d'etre is to get you do DO something while you're there: upload or download a picture, video or song, click on something, post a comment, etc. It would stand to reason that if you can reach these people IN THE SAME WAY THAT THEY ARE USED TO COMMUNICATING, you will probably have some success.

Which brings us to link number 2 from VNUnet.com. The article is entitled "Traditional marketing failing on social networking sites" (Kind of telegraphs what the article is about, eh?) Two key takeways from the article are, 1) "...marketers should be prepared to engage in a personal relationship with users by providing something of value." (Bold mine.) And, 2) "People no longer want 'interruptive' brand communications; they want interactions with their peers and true value from companies..."

It's all about the experience

This week's episode is about how to promote your podcast and more observations about the all important user experience. In our ongoing effort to demystify Web 2.0 tools like blogs and podcasts, we offer up some observations, opinions and cold hard facts.

Listen live here on the blog, or, better yet, subscribe in iTunes. With a subscription, you find out before anyone else about new content and you don't have to lift a finger...

Listen live

Promotion of new media collateral

Inevitably, when we are in the midst of evangelizing to an existing or prospective client we get asked, "What is the best way to promote my blog or podcast?" The answer seems to be a bit of a letdown to clients or, at least, somewhat puzzling: Publish quality content on a regular basis.

Blogs and podcasts are, at their core, a conversation. How long would a conversation last if only one person was talking? When you publish positive content, you begin to build an audience and that audience comes to expect to hear from you regularly. ("Positive" in this context means useful to your readership or listenership.) So many blogs and podcasts are like a bonfire- as Joni Mitchell observed, "I've seen some hot hot blazes come down in smoke and ash." This can be either a welcome or disappointing development, depending on your point of view. The point is, if you want to continue to build and grow connections, you have to consistently bring something to the table. The ephemeral nature of the online community attention span dictates that you stay current and active. But if you are really passionate about your blog or podcast subject, that should not present a problem.

Final thought: you are what you publish. And how often.

Podcasting associations

In the last few weeks there has been some controversy over Susan Bratton's decision to form the ADM (Association of Downloadable Media).

To help determine what course of action the community should take, the steering committee of the Association of Podcasters and Online Media Producers (a working title) have decided to publish this survey.

Please take the survey and feel free to link to it to spread the word.

The train is coming

Peter Leyden of the New Politics Institute recently observed, "The 20th century was the cult of the artiste, the director, the president or the CEO, the mad genius who knows everything and controls everything. But the way our economy works now, it's increasingly made up of all kinds of people contributing at all different levels. Why wouldn't our politics work like that, too?"

Indeed, politics is migrating more and more to the web: netroots, bloggers shaping the national dialogue, voters using the internet to check a candidate's voting record, etc. As an adviser for the 2004 campaign realized too late, "...the dangerous lesson of the web [is] you succeed by giving up control, and that's the inverse of the normal campaign. The most difficult choice is just to wake up and smell the coffee."

Many are scared of the two-way conversation that blogging and podcasting facilitate. Trying to avoid the oncoming train will be scarier still.