A great article for those looking to increase exposure using social media from John Jantsch of  Duct Tape Marketing.  He shares these five tips for marketers who want to gain coverage and exposure through bloggers:

1) Don’t target the usual suspects
2) Listen before you speak
3) Hang out a bit
4) Gift wrap your idea
5) Amplify for them

Of course, we can’t think of a better way to ‘gift wrap your idea’ than by letting us create a video presentation featuring you!

Intrigued? Read the complete article  5 Tips for Getting More Exposure from Bloggers, Tweeters and Fans.

Tags: bloggers, Promotion, Social Media, tweeter.

James Pitaro

Want to start your own web video channel for internal or corporate communications?

Here are some good points from someone who knows a little bit about video – James Pitaro, vice president of media at Yahoo!.  In his post The Do’s And Don’ts Of Creating Original Video‘  he shares lessons learned at Yahoo!.

Although the Yahoo! focus is building online audiences that can be monetized, these are still good points for B2B companies. I particularly related to the observation about ‘Being Fast’ and getting your content out in a timely manner.

Read the The Do’s And Don’ts Of Creating Original Video here.

Tags: corporate tv, tv, Video, web tv, web video.

When you are considering a purchase, who do you ask for your advice?

If your like me, you start with your friends. And you will probably seek out the ones who have some experience or passion related to your purchase. If I want to buy a guitar, I’d seek out a cousin who is a musician. If I want a new telephone system, I’d ask a half dozen of my friends that are consultants, managers and business owners  – the ones that make their living on the telephone..  Depending on the purchase, I would do more research online, on industry sites and forums, and visit your web site.  At this point, I’m ready to buy – for big-ticket items I’ve got a short list and will now call a company rep.

By now your starting to realize that in the early stages I may not spend much time on your site – in some cases I may not even visit it.  So as a marketer, you need to find a way to reach me through the mediums I am using.

Webcasts – audio and slides or video -  not only are good at educating the prospects you know about, but can be a compelling way to help your customers (my friends) and your evangelists (the ones commenting in user groups, message boards, and industry forums) share your story.

You can continue to deliver your webcasts live, but make sure you create an archive in bit-sized chunks and share it with the world – in your newsletter, on your site,  with user groups, on message boards.  Make it easy for your fans to share it too.  Its a great way to keep your name in the conversation and help your friends spread the word.

Tags: archives, conversations, live event recordings, Marketing, On-Demand, Promotion, Video, video webcasts, Webcasts.

TubeMogul is a service that enables you to upload your video once and distribute to the leading video sites. They then provide aggregated tracking statistics for your video.

TubeMogul recommends the following encoding options  if you want to widely distribute your video:

• File format: mp4 or mov
• Video codec: h.264
• Bit-rate: 700 kb/s – 1500 kb/s
• Resolution: 640×480
• Audio codec: mp3

For a detailed list by social media site, take a look at this format listing by social media website.

Tags: archives, event recordings, live event recordings, Social Media, Video.