fbpx

Stephen Johnson

 by

What is social video???

So I have been thinking what makes video social? Yes….what makes our video content connect with audiences in a social, fluid environment. Well, it is my opinion that it comes down to technology and content. Seriously, there has to be relevant content that relates to an audience in a way that makes them have the desire to share. Then, once they want to share…it has to be supported by technology that does not prohibit the ability to share.

Recently I have been harping on Flash Video and how it marginalizes certain audiences…and this is all about technology. If I have a device and a friend shares a video with me, I click to watch and cannot view the content because the technology does not support Flash…then the video is not social.

So when I think about the technology aspect of social video, it can be broken into two arenas: enabling the ability to share the video and enabling the ability to search and find the video. But before we get to technology…let’s try to talk about characteristics of social video. So let’s think through this a bit…ways we can make our video content social.

Content:

  • The video message has to be compelling.
  • The video message has to have an action item.
  • The video appeals to our emotions.
  • The video message makes us want to share.

Technology:

  • The video has to be hosted and compressed so that it plays fluidly in majority of online environments.
  • The video player that displays the video is using the latest technology to meet your target audience’s devices needs. If it is HTML5, Flash, Quicktime, or what ever…it needs to be able to reach the largest section of audiences to consume the video content.
  • The video content has to be associated with searchable terms. We know what it means to make our webpages rich with searchable words…but now our video has to SEO rich. So whereever it is hosted, it must support searchable tags and video descriptions.
  • The video content must have a permalink to link directly to that video. You do want people to share your video, so it must have a link to post on social sites and email for reference.
  • The video content must have rich embed options. You want the masses have the ability to embed your video into your blogs, websites, and other online media outlets.
  • The video content needs to have the ability to have a title that is associated with the video. Places like YouTube and Vimeo provide that option to make the content searchable.

Let me give you two examples:

1) IT-oLogy Open House:

I worked on a project a few months ago with the sole purpose of telling the story of a new brand at an open-house. IT-oLogy was formerly the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management. They were launching their new brand at the open house for their new building. So we produced a video that had all their partners and supporting agencies describing IT-oLogy in their own terms. We made the video fun, goofy, yet appealing to the 250 plus people that would attend.

When I showed up to make it play on their new big screen, the people were still installing the technology that supported video playback. So…we uploaded it to YouTube in full 1080p and played it on a big 50 foot screen from YouTube. They had the bandwidth to support the higher quality and it played well. When we uploaded it to YouTube…we made sure we named it properly, gave a rich description, and implemented logical tags. When people left, they wanted to go find the video. Why…because it was cool plus most of the people in the room knew the people in the video and wanted to share with their co-workers. They were able to embed in their blogs, email the YouTube link to their friends, share it on social outlets. A quality message maximizing technology to enable sharing.

2) My Class at Clemson

I was putting together a presentation about finding your passion. I found this great video called “Where good ideas come from.” I wanted to share it with my class during my afternoon session. I like to use my business Facebook page as a place to save cool links that I might want to comeback to later. So I posted the YouTube link to my Facebook page with a description of it’s intended purpose. So when I got to class, I pulled up the video from my Facebook page and played it for the class and they loved it. Afterwards, I noticed that a conversation started happening on Facebook under the link I posted.

The conversation was around entrepreneurship and where great ideas come from. People from the academic world, business world, entrepreneurs, etc. were commenting and discussion the underlying theme behind the video. At the same time, before I could email the link to my students, one of them posted the link to their Facebook page thanking me for sharing in class. That means that they were able to do a Google search for the video, find it, grab the link from the video, and share with her friends. Steven Johnson was the speaker in this video and a group called RSA Animate produced the visuals. These people not only inspired me to share with my friends, students, and colleagues….but they also inspired and enabled others to share. The content was engaging and inspiring and the technology was seamless to enable the ability to share.

What are your thoughts? How are you using video socially?

 by

Where do those good ideas come from? Stories?

I was watching this great video that is the animation of Stephen Johnson speaking…and I began to think. Where do good ideas come from? He takes us down a path to show us that they start with a hunch…this hunch can take years and years to grow. But what ultimately brings this good idea to life is this idea of connectivity.

But to me…it is more than just connectivity…it is the sharing of the ideas with others, the language exchanged. Mutual discourse leads to innovation. Yes, we can be connected to one another, but we have to bring that idea to a path of articulation. Let’s think for a second. Two people can have the solution to the other’s problem…and their collaborative efforts could yield the tremendous result.  But they have to do more than meet, they have to share. We can be invited to some of the greatest conferences with the brightest minds, and those bright minds can stand side-by-side in that room and never share.

Connectivity does not solve the problem. Or maybe it does. Well…those good ideas come from the articulation of those ideas when connectivity is achieved. One of the tools I teach at Clemson is the classic elevator pitch. I found this nifty little tool from Harvard’s Business School which is called the HBS Elevator Pitch Builder…it identifies:

– What would you most want the listener to remember about you?
– State the valued phrase as key results or impact.
– What is the unique benefit?
– What are the goals?

Now this is not perfect when trying to move beyond connectivity to communication…but it provides a barometer for the conversation. How do we break through the connectivity, to find those relationships we trust, and freely exchange the ideas that lead to innovation? Let’s take Twitter for example. Millions of people online using a portal to freely express ideas. You can share, you can listen, and you can sit and watch. By merely opening a webpage and logging into Twitter…you are connected. But what does it take to share an idea openly? What does it take to engage with a conversation inside this massive paradigm of social interactions to exchange ideas. Yes, it provides connectivity…but it can be the same as screaming your idea out loud in a crowd of millions.  Bringing language to your idea is hard!

I remember having this idea a few years ago after graduate school. It is a cool idea that I think one day will come true. My father encouraged me to go after the idea, but I was scared. He told me to just write it down and share it with others. But who would I share it with? How would I explain the idea. I did not have the language to articulate this idea and the network of people to share it with to bring it to life. Bringing language to life, giving life to an idea is more than connectivity…it is learning to articulate that idea. It is learning to articulate that particular idea at the right time when connectivity presents itself.

That is why storytelling is a great thing. It is the ability to articulate an idea in a way that connects with our audience. To help the audience see an idea in their context. When we share, when we articulate an idea, when give voice to our thoughts…we are telling the story of our idea. Bridging the gap between two connected people is language…the story of our idea.

Stephen Johnson’s Book: Where Good Ideas Come From