Friday, October 30, 2009

Google Wave for Filmmakers?

Here are some ideas about filmmakers might use Google Wave in the production process.

ReadWriteWeb story

Some other tools for collaboration are Market7 (which I think is much more sophisticated and very good) for the small, mid-sized and large producers, and Scenechronize, which is targeted for studio-sized projects.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Screenr - Way Cool Way to Make a Mini Video Screencasts - And Tweet Them


The problem with Twitter is that 140 characters means haiku or link - i.e. you write something very short OR you link to a page with more info.

Screenr is a new ap designed to make - quickly and easily - little screencasts you can tweet - quickly and easily. It's like a micro version of YouTube but with screencasts and Twitter. It's about as micro-contenty as you can get.

See the one minute intro video here.

Could be unbelievably helpful for business...help desk is the most obvious function, but probably there are gazillions more. What ideas do you have about what you would use it for?

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Do MORE With LESS: Web Video Marketing Club Launches!

I'm launching a new thang - it's called the Web Video Marketing Club and it's online at (guess what)...www.webvideomarketing.com



I will be teaching classes in person through the club at Techliminal, a tech salon in downtown Oakland, at 268 14th St.

Here's the schedule:

One Day Intro Workshop
Monday, Nov. 2
Monday, Nov. 16 (repeat)
$95

Six Week Evening Class
Wednesday nights, starting Nov. 4 (through Dec. 9)
6:30 - 8:30 pm
$295

Signup on the Club web site or via mail. See Club site for details!

I will still be teaching the UC Extension classes but those are only available in SF. The East Bay classes should be more convenient and are more affordable.

Learning how to use web video to market your company is probably the best use of your marketing dollars (or almost no dollars) you can make since this is the most persuasive media that is going to make the biggest impact for the least amount of money with your customers. It also helps you leap ahead in search results pages. So make this year the year you get with the program and take a class to see how to get the most out of your marketing dollar.

PS Signup for the free emails at the Club site too - you will receive links to presentations and more valuable content not available elsewhere.

Web Video Marketing for Retailers

I spoke this morning to the Oakland Merchants Leadership Forum, an interesting group composed of district merchants and Oakland economic development folks, about web video marketing for retailers. The other speakers included Jody Colley, publisher of the East Bay Express, who will be launching some major new cool opportunities for local businesses online in the early part of 2010. They currently offer web video production services and display on their site, which Jody says has been getting great feedback from the merchants who are using it. Prices seem very good to me.

Stu Sweetow, of AVConsultants.com, was the other panelist and showed us the fun stuff he and his crew can do at their Grand Ave. storefront. Green screen on a budget! Cool effects! Web videos for as low as $175! Wow - all this from a very experienced outfit with lots of personal attention.

I pointed to the fabulous success of the Parkway Theater in using video for its business - its homegrown Coming Attractions videos which set the tone. Doing a search on the Parkway Theater in Google search, selecting videos, more than 300 popped up. None were made by the Parkway - which just shows what incredible word of mouth you can get from a fanbase. That's the kind of marketing every retailer should want.

It's interesting to consider how slow local retailers have been to adopt web video. (Or even web sites.) Don't they know where their customers are? Let's hope the light shines through - maybe this will be the holiday season they'll get online. Hope.

Shari Godinez is the program manager for OMLF. You can learn more about the organization here.

I have been asked by Shari to join the OMLF marketing committee - which should be a great way to get more involved in this vibrant community.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Google TV Ads

It's real, it's happening and you should check it out - Google TV ads.

Here's the basic overview:


And a great success story:


There are more videos that illustrate Google TV and more success stories online at the Google TV ads channel on YouTube or the Google TV Ads web site.