Archive for the ‘Video’ Category

Posted on September 10, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

LiveStream launches custom interactive events with Facebook & Twitter similar to uStream

LiveStream’s new service features:

• Fully branded user experience on your website, syndication partners website, Livestream.com and Facebook.
• Viral At The Core – Through chat, your viewers promote links to your live event and destinations using Twitter and Facebook status updates.
• Social At The Core – Watch within Facebook, build followers for your Twitter profile and Facebook pages/applications.
• Scalable – The Livestream Platform can handle hundreds of thousands of simultaneous viewers.

More info: http://cdn.livestream.com/services/customevent/

Here’s a screen shot from Ustream’s Facebook live event page.

Ustream’s service features:

• Ability to customize headers and banners
• Live interactive video to promote upcoming projects and engage fans
• Ability to chat with millions of fans simultaneously
• Facebook live stream box allows fans to communicate with their favorite brands and artists and to spread their comments virally among friends

More info: http://www.ustream.tv/facebooklive

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Both services seems to target bands and artist who want to broadcast live and interact with fans on Facebook and Twitter. While I think this is a great idea and plug for both platforms including Facebook. My question is why host a live video on Facebook when you can host the event on your main website? But I do get the simplicity factor since bands, artist  and people spend so much time on Facebook, so just add the ability to host a live video show directly from a fanpage. hmmm

Has anyone used either one of the services from within FaceBook and you’re not a in a band or a music artist? If so how was your experience?

Posted on July 22, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Producing a live video show? It’s better on your blog than Twitter & Facebook

There’s a live video streaming trend where you start your live video show, broadcast and tweet or you login to Facebook, start your live video show and post to your status that you’re live. It’s easy, fast and a great way to let your followers or friends know that you’re live streaming in “real-time”. New twitter live stream web apps such as Twitcam, camtweet and ustream.tv mashup with Facebook have launched recently providing these new instant web broadcasting sites giving non-technical Twitter and Facebook users an easy way to broadcast. But why not broadcast live from your own website/blog to maintain branding and vistor retention? It’s just as easy to send a tweet saying go to “YOURWEBSITE.COM” to watch me live vs saying I’m live now go to this camtweet.com/url or even go to ustream.tv/channel/YOURNAME.

For example take a look at Gregory NG Freezerburn live page at http://live.freezerburns.com . He has the Ustream.tv embeded video player and live chat window below the player. I’m sure that when he starts to broadcast that he’ll send out a tweet and a facebook messages as well on his fanpage and personal status update. But by hosting the live video on his site visitors have an opportunity to see some of his other post, links to resources and his brand stays in front of his visitors eyes. Also I’m somewhat surprised with the recent growth with music artist and athletes using ustream.tv that their marketing agency, agent or managers haven’t setup live video shows on their individual website versus having it go to a ustream.tv/channel/yourname url. They are loosing tons of website traffic opportunities.

There are special cases if you’re reporting breaking news or if you’re mobile and using live video services like Qik.com to send video to Twitter. But when you have an opportunity to send eyes to your website, my recommendation is to do so. I’m not saying never use CamTweet or even services like TinyChat that now offers live video conversations but depending on your website and branding goals host your live shows on your own website.

How are you live video streaming online?

Posted on July 7, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

5 iPhone 3Gs video tripod options for mobile videographers & better mobile video recording

1. ZGrip Pro for the iPhone.

5. mini spring clamp
This is my home made solution. I went to my local camera shop, Peace Camera and purchased a mini spring clamp tripod mount that will hold my iPhone.

The clip will attach to my tripod for stable video recording.

Posted on June 23, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Tuesday on Talk Social News: Live video streaming and promoting your broadcast.

For those of you who don’t know, Monday thru Friday, Kipp Bodnar and I record a daily video/audio podcast called Talk Social News. We started off as a weekly podcast around September of 2008 where we would interview leaders in online technology and social media. We have interviewed people such as Louis Gray, Martin May, Allen Stern, and Peter Shankman and went on to record a daily podcast from SXSW 09. After SXSW we decided to make the transition from a weekly podcast to a daily video show lasting around 10 minutes each, still providing an audio mp3 file to listen to. Since we have moved to the daily video format Kipp and I have recorded over 61 daily video podcast on Talk Social News.

Today on Talk Social News podcast, Kipp and I discuss something I’m very passionate about, real-time live video streaming. (WayneSutton.TV coming soon) We mostly talked about desktop live video streaming services like ustream.tv and livestream and ways to promote your live broadcast using social media / social networking sites. Take a look at the today’s show and let me know what you think.

We’re also looking for sponsors / advertisers, if you’re interested send us an email at contact@talksocialnews.com.

Also see: What equipment do I use for recording video & live streaming and My 4 favorite WordPress Video Blogging Themes

What live streaming video site do you use? Do you watch or create live video shows?

Posted on June 20, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

My 4 favorite WordPress Video Blogging Themes

Last week on my Facebook wall I was asked to suggest a good WordPress template to use for a web site television show. Below are my 4 favorite WordPress Video Blogging Themes.

1. eVid wordpress theme – http://www.elegantthemes.com – Membership $19

2. TV Elements – http://www.press75.com- 1 Site License for $75

3. WooTube – http://www.woothemes.com – 1 Site License for $70

4. Quommunication Video - http://quommunication.com/video/ – 1 Site License for $75

Also See:
6 Brilliant WordPress Themes For Video Blogs or Vlogs
Best Video WordPress Themes

What is your favorite WordPress Video blogging theme?

Posted on May 15, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Social Networking Etiquette: The interview and questions. What would you do?

On Monday, I was interviewed by Fox News 8 ( Bob Buckly & Stewart Pittman @Lenslinger out of Greensboro, NC about Social Networking Etiquette. You can watch the entire interview and segment on social networking etiquette below.

We covered a lot of topics during the interview but Fox focused on a few questions.

1. What should you do if you’re boss want to add you as a friend on Facebook or any other social network?
2. Have you ever been dumped on myspace or any other social network?
3. What do you say when someone ask you, why are you tweeting or sharing your life using twitter or social networks?

Let me know in the comments.

Sites Mentioned in the interview:
Twitter
MySpace
Brightkite
Facebook
Linkedin
Friendfeed

Posted on February 17, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

A look at social media and the future of the film industry: Joshua, Napoleon, Hill & Jane Fonda

I’m sure by now you know how the music industry is doing and it’s need to embrace the internet for more direct one to one relationships between the artist and the customer.  But what about the film industry? How will the film industry use social media to market  movies and continue to sell out theaters.  Here’s a look at three examples of using social media, online video and the film industry.

I recently attended BarCampCharlotte and met Joshua J. Mills @JoshuaJMills who’s the founder of Filmblazer @filmblazer. Joshua will be starting the Two-week Turnaround Tour or T3, that’s a community filmmaking project where he’ll travel to 14 cities over 7 months and write, shot and screen a short film in two-weeks. Joshua stated at BarCampCLT that in the future you’re going to be able to make a movie for $100,000 vs millions and compete with Hollywood. I posted the message on twitter and it seems that others agree.

This brings me to Napoleon Wright, Napoleon is a Filmmaker, director, producer and founder of Becauseus. Napoleon recently filmed and produced a Raleigh-Durham Hip-Hop documentary called: “One Day, Introducing Kooley High” .  The documentary is a 40-minuted film that chronicles a day in the life of Triangle-based rap group Kooley High and their desire to be heard. It was filmed throughout Raleigh-Durham, N.C and is produced in association with M.E.C.C.A. Records.

Napoleon released a few trailers on youtube and vimeo and the film was premiered at the Galaxy Theater in Cary, NC on January 24, and it  was sold out . Here you have a guy with a passion, time and skills to produce a movie way less than $100,000 and sell out a movie theater. I won’t say that he only used social media marketing to promote the movie because having a strong offline local community played a strong roll in the success of the premier, but using social media help spread the buzz about the premier to make it successful.

I had a chance to interview Napoleon early this year about the film, how he got started and what next, now that he’s produce a successful movie project. Take a look.

If you want to watch the movie “One Day, Introducing Kooley High” . here’s a link to the trailer here and the movie here.

What about current Hollywood actors; what are they doing while we’re seeing a trend of great independent films being produced and doing well on the internet? I’m not sure about everyone else but Hill Harper @hillharper and Tom Arnold partnered with upcoming producer Christopher Angel to make a film called “This is Not a Test” . While on a live chat with Hill and Chris they were talking about how they used social media marketing to promote the movie.

For more about “This is Not a Test” check out the movie website here or watch the trailer on youtube here.

As I’m closing out this blog post, I took a quick look at James Andrews @keyinfluencer facebook profile and I see that he helped legendary actress Jane Fonda to launch her blog and twitter account: @Janefonda . Hollywood is going social, get ready.

What are your thoughts on the future of the movie industry using social media marketing?

Do you think we’ll see more actors using social media to produce and market their own films?

Are you working on any video projects?

Posted on January 19, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

I have Crocs around my neck & why social media might sell you a pair. How to manage a national brand.

Last weekend, I attended the Chicks Who Click (CWC09) conference in Boulder, Colorado. Don’t let the name fool you, the conference featured some of the smartest women in social media, marketing and entrepreneurship.

Photo  by GirlOnTheBand

It was organized by  Denise Smith a marketing and events specialist and Gwen Bell a brand manger, a few men were in attendance also. One of those gentlemen was George G. Smith Jr. ,Crocs social media specialist.  If you’re not familiar Crocs, then take a look at the picture below and I’m sure you have seen a pair of Crocs somewhere. 

Photo by Zé Eduardo

If you didn’t know, Crocs is based out of Boulder, Colorado and it was truly a win for them to send George to the Chicks who Click conference. As Crocs social media specialist,  George was frequently asked questions about brand management, using social media to engage in various online communities and deal with the thousands of people who say “I hate Crocs” online everyday.

 

Another big plus for Crocs was sending George to the conference with a lot of swag. I’m talking buttons, cell phone cases, stickers, pouches and more. It doesn’t end there, everything George was wearing during the conference was made by Crocs and conference organizer Gwen Bell had a pair of “hot” red Crocs boots that most of the ladies attending the conference were wowing over.

Photo by cr8tvjen 

Needless to say, Crocs was well represented at the conference, and everyone who attended, if they had a negative opinion of Crocs before they attended CWC09, they left with a positive one. 

So how is Crocs using social media? For one, they have George G. Smith Jr., a young smart, funny, (see Baby Got Back karaoke video by George) who “gets it” . George is on Twitter as @georgegsmithjr, and is very active in listening and engaging with people who are having conversations about Crocs on Twitter. But George is not just using Twitter, hes has some social media listening tools (I’m not going to reveal) setup to know when anyone is mentioning Crocs on the web, plus he’s blogging and participating in Facebook groups, even a few that may surprise you such as the “I Dont care How Comfortable Crocs Are, You Look Like A Dumba**” group with over 1.3 million members“. Ouch!  How does George deal with a such a large community with groups that either love or hate Crocs?

Well, rather than me try to tell you everything I’ll let George tell you. While in Boulder, Colorado I had a chance to interview George about Crocs and social media while we visited Lijit’s office (thanks @tarable). Here’s a list of questions I asked George about Crocs and social media:

• So how do you manage the brand of Crocs when you have people who love them or hate them? For example someone tweeted: @trixie360 yeah, why does he want to uglify America? This country is already obese and ignorant… do our shoes have to be hideous too?
• How did you become the crocs social media maven?
• What is your favorite pair of crocs and color?
• As Crocs being a national brand and a non tech company, what challenges do you face explaining to everyone the value of social media to people within your corporation who don’t get it?  For example: @YannR on Twitter was talking about why Crocs doesn’t blog. What’s the reason behind that?
• If you could build the ultimate Crocs social media campaign with an endless budget what would you do first, and which existing social network would you try to reach first and why?
• You have your twitter account that you’re active on; Will you begin using the @Crocs Twitter account soon or do you think it’s more about building the personal relationships with individuals representing the company versus the company tweeting?
• Why would you suggest  other non tech companies to get involved with social media?
• What would be the number 1 reason you would tell someone why to buy a pair of Crocs?

 The interview.
 

 

I must say that I’m really impressed with George and what Crocs has allowed him to do with their brand. If you own a national brand take note of what it takes for your company to use social media:

1. If you don’t get it, hire someone who does.
2. Make sure the person who’s representing your brand is passionate about your product or company
3. Understand the tools, the communities and how to participate in them
4. Use offline meetings/conference to build your brand and support your local community
5. Listen to and engage to both positive and negative feedback about your brand online.
6. Have fun and enjoy what you do.

Just in case you didn’t catch the end of the interview, I made a promise to George that for the entire year of 2009, I’ll wear my black Crocs badge/iPhone case at every meetup or conference I attend (I have Crocs around my neck).

 

Thus starting “my Crocs 09 tour” flickr group.  So if you see me at a conference or meetup let’s take a picture for George. Here’s me and Peter Shankman from HARO. Next stop for my Crocs? The inauguration.

Need help understanding social media? Contact me.

Posted on December 20, 2008 - by Wayne Sutton

Poll: Help pick my video intro & why I use Vimeo

If you have seen any of my videos on WayneSutton.TV then you know they’re live shows via Ustream.TV and not pre-recorded. We’ll starting after Christmas I’ll be producing a few non live videos for the site and I’m working on a video intro, outro and intro music too. Below are two samples of the intro and I’m looking for your feedback.

The first video is a fade in single word text with a swipe animation, it’s around 14 seconds long. The second video has a fade in to stick text animation that’s 6 seconds long.

Update: The two videos below do not have any audio. thanks via @barrycunningham

Vote in the poll or leave any feedback/suggestions in the comments. If anyone wants to help with the video intro, including audio or special effects feel free to contact me.

intro 1

WayneSutton.TV video intro sample 1 from Wayne Sutton on Vimeo.

intro 2

WayneSutton.TV video intro sample 2 from Wayne Sutton on Vimeo.

The Poll

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Speaking of Vimeo if you’re a current user, you can add me as a friend here: http://vimeo.com/waynesutton. Also I just create a WayneSutton.TV video channel on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/waynesuttontv

A few people have asked me on twitter why do I use Vimeo over Youtube or other video hosting social networks, a few of the reason are below.

• I love Vimeo’s embed player, it’s clean, simple, flush with the page
• Vimeo was one of the 1st video social networks to support HD video uploads
• Vimeo has HD video embedding options
• Vimeo is simple, it’s easy to upload videos
• Vimeo has multiple community building options: channel, groups, albums
• I like Vimeo’s video options to embed custom upload thumbnail, add flickr photos, etc
• Vimeo Plus http://vimeo.com/plus options are great and worth the $59.00 a year

But there are a few features I don’t like about Vimeo or I wish they had such as:

• Video encoding is slow if you don’t have a plus account (I’m a plus user) & it still can be faster.
• Vimeo doesn’t support video comment insertion like Viddler
• You can’t link to a time spot in Vimeo like you can with Youtube
• More options for image/logo overlay
• The ability to support pre-roll video ads

If Vimeo would add or work on those features, they’ll be almost perfect. IMOH

Which Video social networking site do you use and why?

Posted on December 19, 2008 - by Wayne Sutton

Using video to extend your brand and relationships. The interview that was a year in the making.

The who:
Today I had a chance to interview Pam Spaulding (@Pam_Spaulding) of Pam’s House Blend. Pam has been featured on CNN, Washingtonpost.com, live blogged from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Tavis Smiley and more. Her blog Pam’s House Blend which was started in 2004 has become more of a social network with over 120,000 visitors a month, plus includes guest writers, multi-media content and has one of the most passionate readership on the web today. But what does Pam blog about? Pam’s House Blend which started off being her personal blog now covers politics, Lesbian, Gay, BIsexual & Transgender (LGBT) rights and played a major roll this year contributing to the blogosphere as being the site to read about the differences in presidential candidates pertaining equal rights for LGBT.

The history:
Earlier this year when I had started doing online video interviews for the local TV station a lot of people in N.C. were saying Wayne you have to interview Pam. We’ll the year went by and I eventually met Pam for the first time at one of President Elect Barack Obama town hall events in Raleigh, N.C. before he was elected, we shook hands, exchanged business cards and the months flew by.  After that we crossed paths again at a new media/tech conference called Converged South in Greensboro, NC where I did get a chance to cohost an interview for 30THREADS.com of Pam. Then this week President Elect Barack Obama announced that he selected evangelical pastor and author of “The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration and the LGBT community was very upset and sounded off their frustration on twitter.  Which lead me to Pam’s site and I contacted her team to see if she was up for an interview to talk about the situation.

The interview:
The interview took place at Brian Russel’s Carrboro Creative Coworking office and asked Pam a series of questions about her blog, her role at the DNC, citizen journalism, LGBT reaction to Rick Warren, challenges of being a female blogger, main stream media rejecting and embracing blogging and what’s next for her in 2009. We also talked about the social responsibility that she and I both have as African-American bloggers to education our communities and culture. I won’t go into details Pam’s responses because I want you to watch it on http://waynesutton.tv .

The outcome:
So you may be asking yourself what does this have to do with extending your brand and relationships? For one, Pam has a huge following and a different community that I have. Plus she’s well respected by main stream media, journalist, reporters and the local community in N.C. and by interviewing her it ads to my credibility. She operates in different circles that I seldom reach and by interviewing Pam people who never heard of Wayne Sutton now know that I exist and are more likely to do a little research to see who I am and what I do. Also not being in a mode of trying to control content both my site WayneSutton.TV and Pam’s site Pam’s House Blend hosted the live interview at the same time using Ustream.TV. After the live show both of our sites share the saved show to where her readers and mine can watch the show if they missed the live stream.

The effect:
Immediately after the live show I started getting emails from my google alert from a few sites that I’ve never heard of before and a few other local bloggers in N.C.
A Blog Around The Clock – Pam Spaulding on Waynesutton.tv
Gay Blog Headlines – Live on WayneSutton.tv
2015Place.com – Combined Gay News Headlines

Lessons Learned:
Although Pam and I are entirely two different individuals but at the same time we have a lot in common.

• Pam’s a lesbian and I’m straight
• Pam blogs about politics and religion and I try to stay away from that conversation (except today)
• Both of us are African-American
• Both are bloggers
• Both reside in N.C. (Pam’s lives in Durham and I live in Raleigh)
• Both are passionate about what we do.
• Both want to education our race and community about online technologies
• Both have big plans for 2009.

But despite our differences, Pam and I respect one another and have a new found relationship. The feedback from the show has been great so far except me talking to fast…. I’m still in beta mode by the way.

The new beginning:
Pam it was an honor to interview you today, and thank you for your contributions to bridging the gab between the bloggers and main stream media. I’ll see you around N.C. or at a future conference in 2009.
The challenge for you:
Think outside of your social network and try to think new ways of reaching audiences that you’re not connected too now.

Are you willing to interview or have a discussion with people who don’t entirely agree with in a public online forum?

Posted on November 9, 2008 - by Wayne Sutton

Presentation: The Video Revolution, proof why video will take over the social web.

The Video Revolution presentation on how sharing and streaming are changing America. via SlideShare user Griner.
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