YourOpenBook.org says, “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. Whether you want to or not.”

Created by Will Moffat, Peter Burns and James Home, Your Open Book was developed to demonstrate what they feel is wrong with Facebook’s privacy settings… that they are hard to find and even harder to adjust. The developers of Your Open Book  are proposing the addition of a simple privacy slider to each user’s Facebook profile page and they have created this free search tool to call attention to their proposal.

Meanwhile, I think their application can also be used in lots of different ways to connect and communicate. But, it’s a lot like joining the dark side, when you start invading the privacy of strangers. Nonetheless, you might use it to search for mentions of a brand name, a restaurant or a geographic location. The possibilities are endless.

The Recent Searches on Your Open Book are updated continuously and display something like the following typical example:

(3900 per hour)muslim terrorist skydive nipple ocs alberta NSFW obama liar ottawa “i had an abortion” i hate my boss ecstasy nigger feet drunk doctorate program asian partyhot pics cute redhead crackers

Want to see what people share on Facebook with the entire world — perhaps without realizing it? There’s a new site that makes this easy, Openbook.

Consider just exactly what that means as you sit there with that remote in your hand, as you turn on the pop-up blocker in your browser, as you skip past the commercials with your Tivo and put your phone number on the no-call list.

Now, a business needs to develop and nurture meaningful relationships in order to make sales and these relationships must be authentic. The public has actually grown hostile towards old-school snake oil sales-techniques like green-washing. And once that door slams in your face, it is very unlikely that it will ever open again.

Providing a way of “opting out” of any e-mail list is now a legal mandate so your content has to be of genuine value. As a business communicator, your message is now continually under evaluation. And your only hope in this day and age is to be about something… real.

Doing good makes for good business. I am often accused of being too political, always speaking out about issues that affect me. There are two ways to approach this “condition” from a business perspective. One way is to try to present a well-crafted neutral “business face.” The other is to be honest and open about your beliefs and trust that you will attract as many people as you might “offend” by being about something that is possibly controversial.

Gilbreath says, “There are lots of compelling reasons why doing good makes good business sense, starting with an increase in sales.” He cites one 2008 behavioral research study that shows, “a whopping 87%  of consumers will switch from one brand to another that’s comparable based on its association with a good cause.”

Despite the fact that permission-based marketing may be a new concept to many,  Gilbreath says it’s so 1990’s – based on the theories of Seth Godin. Now it’s about Marketing with Meaning. If you are having a positive impact on people’s lives then, of course you will continue to be granted permission to co-exist in their social network. My next post will dig deeper as I read this great new book: The Next Evolution of Marketing.

Most of my clients are quite ill-informed when I ask them, “What is the second most popular search engine, right behind Google?” They seem incredulous when I reply,” It’s YouTube.”

Here’s the first video ever posted on YouTube, seen more than 2.5  million times in 5 years.

Today, as a birthday salute, the BBC reports the following YouTube statistics…

• December 2005 8 million videos watched a day
• January 2008 10 hours of video uploaded every minute
• October 2009 1 billion views per day
• March 2010 24 hours of video uploaded every minute
• May 2010…

YouTube hits 2bn daily downloads reports the BBC’s Maggie Shiels. She explains that TV remains in comparatively good shape when you compare average time spent on YouTube at 15 minutes vs TV’s 5 hours per day.

But, 15 minutes a day spent on any one Web site is quite a different story, one only out-performed by Facebook, currently clocking in at 55 minutes of average user-time per day. There are a wealth of statistics that demonstrate that video improves conversion rates, decreases returns, improves search optimization and even increases open-rates when embedded in e-mail!

We incorporate video production into all of our current client’s Web-marketing campaigns and the proof keeps coming in that having a broad social footprint – one that includes video – is key to reaching your audience. Does your marketing plan include having a YouTube Channel?

Links:

eCommerce Video Drives Conversion, Sales and Traffic While Reducing Returns reports on a wealth of documentedc statistics like…
Internet Retailer reports that visitors who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy than visitors who do not, based on OnlineGolf.com results. (Internet Retailer, April 2010)

Videos embedded in email can grab attention or cause deliverability problems and rendering nightmares. Most marketers believe the latter, but a few say their data speak otherwise. See how in 2008, a marketer increased conversions more than 50% by embedding video in emails. Includes deliverability and subject line test data. Plus, what’s the best video length to use.

Today, I had an opportunity to sit in on a marketing pitch being delivered to one of my clients by a radio advertising salesman. I was there for an eventual meeting about the development of my own plan for an “integrated” advertising campaign – one that would include earned media in the form of traditional press releases, coupled with a strong emphasis on the rapidly emerging forms of social network media.

In that later meeting, I would provide the following quote from Sut Jhally, Professor of Communications at the University of Massachusetts and founder of the Media Education Foundation:

“Advertisers have to go to where the audience is… if they want to sell products. They have no option but to go where the audience has gone. If the audience has gone online, gone to iPods, gone to Facebook – wherever the audience has gone – that is where advertisers must go.”

As I listened to the “old-school” radio pitchman trying to encourage my client to buy his packages of “spots,” I envisioned the sharp changes that are sweeping over the worlds of journalism and marketing, as we transit from broadcast to networked media. I saw those radio spots floating away in the breeze like the dry seeds of a dandelion blossom…

Maybe they would land somewhere on favorable ground and sprout forth as a new plant. Most of them would simply blow away like dust in the wind.

I realized that I had come to help my client plant and grow a garden. That’s the profound difference between traditional broadcast media (radio, TV and newspaper advertising) and networked social media… In the old school, we continually threw out spots, hoping someone would eventually see or hear one. In the new school we intentionally plant and cultivate a growing presence in new media resources that remains and grows larger in size the more time we invest.

I am talking about new social media tools like:

• a blog-based Web site with an ongoing stream of fresh content,
• a well-crafted business presence on Facebook (500M members),
• a YouTube channel (2nd most popular search engine) with homespun videos,
• micro-blogging your message and joining in the conversation taking place on Twitter,
• learn about sites like FourSquare and the rapidly expanding dimension of location-based technology
• pay attention to public review forums like Trip Advisor, Yelp and others,
• take advantage of the free and ever-evolving set of Google’s gardener tools.

The difference is apparent… it’s no longer a question of “if“ you decide to employ new media. As newspapers shrink and disappear right before your eyes and radio audiences now listen to what they want on iPods and smart phones, it’s now a matter  of “when” you decide to plant that garden.

How does your garden grow?

Contact Social Media Consultant, Stephen Kastner to discuss the most effective ways to plant and grow your social media garden.

Politics aside, the campaign connects two new resources detailed below that employ Twitter to promote and maintain their cause. These resources are free and can be used by anyone with a campaign to call attention to:

Twibbon is the easiest and most powerful way to promote awareness of your cause on Twitter. The service overlays a small icon (candle and NO WAR banner in the footer of the example image above) that you create, onto supporters’ profile images to create what they call a ‘Twibbon,’ making an “impactful” online statement. The user’s Twitter account automatically tweets to let everyone know about their new affiliation.

Act.ly Petitions co-developer Jim Gilliam says, “I saw Clay Johnson’s post last week about Twitter being the future of email marketing. I’ve always found it’s easier to show than to explain, so I built a petition site (with Jesse Haff, the designer from Brave New Films) that takes full advantage of Twitter.”

Here’s how it works. You sign a petition by tweeting it, and other people can sign the petition just by re-tweeting it. There’s no need to go to the act.ly site, except to start a petition. If you are re-tweeted, you get credit for the referral, and will show up in the “Smokin’ Recruiters” link on act.ly.

The Act.ly site also has beta versions of…

Retweets
Have something you want a lot of people to tweet? A link, pledge, thank you, you name it.

Events
Start one event in your town, and watch it go viral as people host their own events all over the world.

Yes, of course you can use these tools to promote your products, your business and your public awareness campaigns. Advertising using social media is simply a new type of public awareness campaign. Right?

And, that’s not all. The Kodak Zi8 has…

• a swing out USB arm, that’s flexible
• a removable lithium-ion battery that can be charged in or out of the camera
• expandable SD/SDHC card slot for up to 32 GB, so you can swap and keep shooting
• a large 2.5″ color LCD screen
• built in electronic image stabilization
• 5MP still photo capture
• improved low-light performance
• smart face tracking technology

The biggest flaw with most pocket cams up ’til now has been poor sound quality. Users have been pleading for someone to add an external mic jack. Thanks to Kodak for listening!

Old media is scrambling to become new media while new media keeps expanding and improving. I am watching Jay Leno’s last night show this morning on NBC Direct.  I don’t watch network TV anymore… as a rule. But, I got here via Yume. And, I am enjoying the show, in part for the clever use of video in both the Leno Show and in the embedded advertising.

The fact remains that this is still an attempt to put old media into some ill-fitting new shoes. While the pros in the Leno Show’s editing booth have concocted some funny video clips, the developers at NBC and their counterparts at Mitsubishi need to go back to the drawing boards, ‘cuz this is a miserable way to try to watch a TV show. By maintaining their control over the content, they have succeeded in destroying mine.

After reloading the locked-up automobile ad, I figured out how to step past the 30-second roadblock to get to the second segment… and the Leno Show streamed on. The second ad from Honda had a larger video footprint, looked better and worked without locking up my screen. The third ad was a major improvement built with Flash rollovers – like the fourth ad.

Meanwhile, on the open-source social media network, major businesses like Pepsi are abandoning the Super Bowl and investing in growing their own social media footprint. Small businesses can do the same and even faster… because this is marketing at the grassroots level where handmade and homemade are often more successful than major corporate productions as evidenced by NBC, Mitsubishi and Honda.

LINKS:
Social Media Spending to Hit $1.3 Billion This Year

Alonzo Bodden on Leno…

Brilliant!

For more than a year, YouTube has dominated Yahoo for runner-up status behind Google in the search engine popularity rankings as reported by research firms like Comcast. Partly due to the fact that YouTube videos are now included among the standard Google search results, with Google claiming 65% of search market, nonetheless there is another shift taking place which deserves reflection.

Since learning of the shift, I have started using YouTube as a primary research tool. When I want to see how something is done, I search YouTube. Taking this cue to the next level means incorporating this realization into your own Web design strategies and marketing practices. People now expect to see video included as one of the components in an effective Web site.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you must add the cost of professional video production to your budget. Windows and Mac both include video editing software in their basic installation packages and there are lots of additional, free tools online. With more than 15 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, homegrown video has become a populist media form.

Chad Hurley, the co-founder and chief executive of YouTube explains, “That’s the equivalent of Hollywood releasing more than 57,000 full-length movies every week.”

The hardware isn’t expensive either. The Creative Labs Vado HD 8 GB Pocket Video Camcorder is a bargain at $114.99 on Amazon ($199 list). The HD signifies High Definition, that it shoots in widescreen format (16 x 9 as opposed to the earlier 4 x 3 TV standard) at 720p (image size 1280 x 720) at 30 frames per second progressive scan; recorded as MP4 files.

How would you like to get the camera for less than $15? This particular deal gets even better the deeper you dig. The Amazon fine print says:

Special Offer: Save $100 on the cost of this product when you agree to join Audible.com’s AudibleListener® Gold program for 12 months starting at $14.95 per month.

The base price is currently $20 cheaper than the Flip UltraHD Camcorder – plus the Creative Labs Vado unit has a larger 2″ display screen and a much better wide angle lens. Chris Pirillo rates Creative Vado at the top in this great set of three comparable videos:

The Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera would be another good choice based on price at $99, but it comes with such little memory and has poor low light capabilities.

If it’s time for you to begin experimenting and learning to create and upload videos, be sure to watermark them with your Website’s URL and post them everywhere at once using Tubemogul. Check out DesignWise Films and Video Production for more specific articles on video production and marketing.

Word-of-mouth is the new emerging standard in marketing, displacing the top-down model that once gave print and broadcast media it’s power and revenue. People trust word-of-mouth before traditional advertising so it’s only natural that as the reach of conversation through digital social media increases, the shift away from print-media accelerates. Building a collection and using the tools in your toolbox is an ongoing devotion that pays direct and immediate benefits.

With Tinker I can see a branching categorical listing of posts by topic and follow news and the upcoming in an Event Stream. I can also research and find Twitter users by profession, category or interest.

Now if only the developers would fix it so I can login and make a new account I can get started… whew!

“It’s Alive!” I feel like Colin Clive in the 1931 classic, Frankenstein – the scene where the monster comes to life… I discovered Tinker and wrote this post on October 7, 2009 and have been returning like a puppy to check on it again and again to see if I could actually create and account and fulfill all of the promise it implied… Today it finally works!

Yes! I now have a working Tinker account. Yes, I can accept Beta and all that it implies. Yes, I am excited… cuz this is just like Christmas and I am unwrapping my new set of Tinker Toys – how appropriate a metaphor. This rocks!

Justin in just 4 secs

In May, 2009, Particle, the San Francisco based start-up funded by Justin Timberlake, launched Robo.to – a 4-second video  application that allows mobile device or Web cam users to upload and simultaneously post video snippets to their social networks. Twitter, facebook, flickr and other useful sites are all in one place and you can publish to all of them at the same time.

Mobile robo.to users not only get to see the faces of all the people in their address books, they get a mini-video of what they are up to!

TechCrunch explains, “The site also prominently features a spot for a ‘video avatar’ – a brief video clip that’s meant to take the place of traditional emoticons or static photos, which you can broadcast to a number of popular online services. It’s a neat concept, reminiscent of the moving photographs from Harry Potter.”

The Robo.to Features Blog at: http://massive.ly provided the following means of adding an ever-changing video status widget to your site or blog: “Just cut and paste the embed code from your share ‘Share my Face‘ page and you’re done. It automatically displays updates to displaying your latest. If you dare, you can also make some tweaks to the code settings and customize it to your needs and desires.”