Live from Anywhere - It's Livecasting

Chapter 15

Safko, The Social Media Bible

Livecasting, the live broadcasting (streaming) of audio and/or video on the web, has been around since the early 1990s. It’s hard to imagine the experience for on-line audiences, given the slower connection speeds common in those days. Remember dial-up? Like much of the World Wide Web experience, however, livecasting has evolved from a passive experience of receiving information via the web to a truly interactive experience, with do-it-yourself technology such as BlogTalk radio commonly used now.

Safko mentions JenniCam, the webcam that followed a young woman as she went about her life. I remember watching Jenni occasionally for a couple months after she appeared on Late Night With David Letterman. A novel idea at the time, but perhaps not as lively as Letterman’s monkeycam.

At first impression, the business possibilities of livecasting seem more limited than some of the other social media in Safko’s book. Other social media simply seem better suited or more effective at doing what we want social media to do for us: finding audiences (who become prospects and customers); building relationships (and eventually trust), building community (establishing a relationship with customers and prospects). Maybe this is because some of the other social media have more users.

Livecasting seems more suited to communicating within an organization or business than for outside relationships. In my experience, participating in or conducting meetings with the help of Adobe Connect or other web-based technology (such as Polycom) has been the most common use of livecasting. Potential uses include meetings, training, and other similar internal communications. Anybody who has taken distance education classes from UNL probably has experienced livecasting.

But the potential is also there for using livecasting to interact with the world at large (in ways other than livecams or radio talk shows). Commercial users might be able to build some excitement or support their customers by setting up livecasts around products: introductory roll-outs, demonstrations, troubleshooting, Q&A, and so on. It could be an effective way to build community. Actually, it brings to mind an old-school type event, the live remote radio or television broadcast. The idea is to build excitement by stationing your DJ or anchor at the sponsor business, and originating programming from there with a healthy dose of promotion included in the news, music or whatever.

Then again, if livecasting has not generated the buzz that some other social media have, maybe it’s just because the right person hasn’t come along with an original idea and a bit of flair to carry it out.

Thumbs Up for Microblogging

Chapter 14

Safko, The Social Media Bible

Just as we usually say Kleenex rather than facial tissue, so do we say (and think of) Twitter rather than microblogging. In a very short period of time, Twitter has become a generic term for microblogging (just like Google has for searching the web). According to Safko, microblogging is text messaging, and it began with the advent of the blog. Twitter was one of the first, now the dominant, providers of microblogging.

While it’s easy to equate tweeting with microblogging, Safko says that microblogging can also include social media interactions as notes on photos pasted on Facebook. And sometimes microblogs stand alone, but sometimes they serve to promote and direct audiences to larger blogs (macroblogs?).

But with any social phenomenon comes the clucks and expressions of concern over its effects. With microblogging these include the trivial nature of most posts; our growing obsession with microblogging and social media in general, presumably at the expense of direct, in-person  human contact; micro spam; and, related to the second  item, the fail whale, in which the network infrastructure that supports so many people’s obsessions becomes overwhelmed by the volume of it all.

Many see microblogging as a symptom of our hyperconnected and ADD-ridden society. Others point out that people, including some of the great authors of all time, have been microblogging for hundreds of years. Undoubtedly true, but they probably didn’t have the audiences todays twitters have, nor did they share the trivia of their daily lives.

This chapter gives several good examples of how microblogging, and specifically  tweeting, can be put to use by business, political organizations and other institutions. It can give the appearance of very personal service (mainly because it creates a two-way conversation with any customer who cares to follow you, making it possible to listen to customers’ concerns). Thus, the company or organization can appear to be responsive. If it is sincere, responsiveness will be more than appearance. And that response can be quick. Finally, and this applies especially to politics but also to businesses, it allows you to make your followers constantly (or almost so) aware that you are still out there.

By the way, I had hoped to say this in 140 characters, but I couldn't.

Got Video? (Video Sharing)

Chapter 13

Safko, The Social Media Bible

By this point, Safko’s book is beginning to sound like a Nike commercial. His primary message: Just Do It.

As he has in the previous several chapters, Safko provides a light dose of history and how-to information, but reminds the reader that providing a nuts-and-bolts explanation of, for instance, video editing, is not the purpose of this book. It is to survey the social media landscape, familiarize the reader with some of the possibilities of each respective media, and steer them toward the internet points of departure.

Safko’s main advice this chapter to help you get your videos online:

• Find your existing VHS tapes and convert them to video
• Make new videos.
• Start uploading at YouTube and several other sites.
• Wrap your video in an RSS feed to make it easier for people to keep finding your material.

One of the most eye-opening parts of this chapter was the Expert Insight by George Strompolos of YouTube. IMO, this was one of the most concise, clear and useful Expert Insights so far. Some of them have suffered from excessive back-patting, jargon and lack of editing. But Strompolos gave a fairly clear and concise explanation of how YouTube’s partnerships program works. If you are generate content for YouTube and attract eyeballs to your videos, you have the opportunity to make some money. The number of people watching videos on YouTube, though, was what really made my jaw drop. Twenty hours of video uploaded every minute, and more videos uploaded to the website in the last three months than the big three TV networks have aired since 1948.

The lessons for somebody involved in marketing or communication:

1. Whatever formats you are already using (news releases, print or broadcast ads, direct mail, other social media, etc.), add video to the mix.
2. Make videos that have a little flair – whether it’s a WIIFM payoff for the viewer or just amusement, it needs to stand out and attract eyeballs.
3. Figure out a way to tie the videos into what you do, business-wise. Like Blendtec.
4. And leverage RSS and other social media – Facebook, Twitter, etc. to get people to your video.
5. Repeat regularly.

Watch Out for Vlogs (Video Create)

Chapter 12

Safko, The Social Media Bible

As Safko says, video blogging has a higher WIIFM quotient than most of the other social media that the book has covered in previous chapters. The more stimulating the experience, the more engaging it is, and the better we comprehend and retain.

So, if “content is king,” as the author asserts in numerous places in this book (and I agree that it is), video has some real advantages. The content does not even have to be rich in useful information. Since video is more entertaining by its very nature, a video blogger can find and keep audiences with content that relies more on entertainment and no so much on substance. People are drawn to videos.

On the other hand, this chapter is a little more technical than some of the previous chapters. Video relies more heavily on some of key technological advances, such as compression, bandwidth, faster CPUs, more disk space, and streaming technology – than some other social media to even be feasible for the average  user. And people who use video face more challenges in getting an acceptable product online. As Safko says, planning and editing play a larger role in producing the end result. The equipment and software can be more expensive than that required for other social media, and the learning curve is steeper.

Video has some real potential for Extension, where I work. Safko documents the incredible growth and popularity of YouTube, and a large segment of that popularity is how-to videos. Extension is full of experts in a number of fields. In the past, this expertise has been shared via printed publications, group presentations, demonstrations, open houses, etc. Videos have a real potential to become one of the primary outlets for education of this kind.

Got Audio? (Audio Sharing)

Chapter 11

Safko, The Social Media Bible

Safko spends much of Chapter 11 explaining how iTunes and Podbean work. The reason businesses should get involved is fairly narrow and simple: to create a conversation with customers and prospects. This can help create the perception that the business is an expert in the field. Word of mouth among customers and prospects can create more prospects, and potentially more customers. It makes a lot of sense. Low cost, potentially good ROI.

This was a learning experience about iTunes, which previously I knew as the software that manages my iPod. And sometimes I use it to create mix CDs. But it has capabilities that I wasn’t aware of: the ways in which media files can be managed and organized; the ability to stream internet radio; the strong degree of integration with QuickTime, iLife and other Mac applications. (Have I mentioned that  I am about 95 percent PC and 5 percent Mac when it comes to computer use? I am a PC user except when I need to edit video, basically.) And I’ve never considered creating a podcast, so I had no idea how easy it is to upload them via iTunes. My perception was that a potential podcaster had to submit them for approval or something,or perhaps pay.

And Podbean sounds free and easy. Definitely a subject for further study.

Actually, this chapter has left me with a project to set up a podcast with some ready-made content that could use wider distribution than it’s currently getting. As a communications person with UNL Extension, one of the things I do is record audio files consisting of 30-second lawn and garden tips from UNL Master Gardeners, volunteers trained by Extension who then share their expertise with others. From April to September each year, I work with volunteers to record five 30-second Public Service Announcements per week. These are then e-mailed to radio stations throughout western Nebraska.

I also used to upload the PSAs to the Panhandle Research and Extension Center web site, simply creating a link to each audio file so site visitors could play listen to them. But since a reorganization of web sites in IANR, this hasn’t been an option. The obvious alternative would be to create podcasts with these tips, probably grouping five at a time (a total of 2 ½ to 3 minutes) into one podcast. These can be uploaded weekly via iTunes or Podbean, and promoted via the Panhandle Research and Extension Center web site, as well as Facebook and other methods.

Talking about the Podcast

Chapter 10

Safko, The Social Media Bible

On page 192 Safko says podcasting – recording digital audio files and distributing them via the internet – “is fun and fairly simple because everthing you need to be able to podcast is either built into your computer (hardware) or free to download (software).” Assuming that the would-be podcaster can learn to use Audacity to record audio (and that’s a safer assumption for younger people and techno-geeks than for most senior citizens – I agree with Safko that it’s not hard to get into podcasting.

 But in my opinion he underestimates the importance of using a microphone of acceptable quality. Many built-in computer microphones are much lower in quality than USB microphones costing as little as $30 or $40. I would put  more emphasis on using a quality microphone than does Safko, if you want to build an audience. As the author says, it’s good not too sound too polished and professional, because people will wonder how much your message cost and who’s paying for it. But your message will not attract much of an audience if it doesn’t meet some minimum standards for well-recorded audio.

Safko and I are on the same page, however, when he asserts the importance of including a WIIFM message in podcasts, and the Expert Insight interview subject also notes that “content is king.”

For businesses, the value of a podcast is mainly building a local following and conveying to that audience that you are an expert. This should improve profits indirectly, rather than directly.

For Extension, the area in which I work, podcasting is a natural medium to adopt. Extension is full of experts, sometimes people who are the most knowledgeable in their field, so strong content is a given. Sometimes the podcaster needs to remember to make the content clear and simple enough to be understood by a lay audience, concise enough to not drive away potential audience, and always include the What’s In It for Me message.

Safko’s step-by-step instructions for planning, recording, editing and publishing podcasts were helpful. Finding one’s audience and making it grow could be difficult, though, and this places a lot of importance on factors like search engine optimization and using other social media (e-mail campaigns, Facebook, RSS, etc.) to make potential audiences aware of what you are offering.