Vlog Wars: Vimeo vs. YouTube

Where was the last video you watched online? YouTube, am I right? Launched in 2005, YouTube is currently the largest video sharing website on the Internet. The website is available in 12 different languages and well known all over the world. In August 2006, YouTube had acquired about 500,000 users and around 6.1 million uploaded videos. In the past two years, those numbers have with a doubt gone up.

BUT video sharing is not just about YouTube. Let me introduce you to Vimeo. Launched before YouTube, in 2004, Vimeo is another video sharing website with somewhat of a better emphasis on networking than the competition. As of 2007, Vimeo had 250,000 registered users and over 300,000 uploaded videos. Much like YouTube, Vimeo allows you to embed, share, store, and comment on videos.

So what's the difference here?

Vimeo videos are actually of much better quality than what can be found on YouTube. Nick Campbell wrote in his photo blog, Grey Scale Guerilla, about the differences seen in the video quality of one of his own movies when comparing the two video hosting websites.

"Notice how Vimeo keeps the skin tones looking warm, whereas Youtube has a tendency to blow out the skin tones and make everyone look too pink? Now that more people have hi-speed internet connection, it’s great to see the quality of video on the web get to a higher level."

Vimeo even has HI DEF capabilities! Instead of the typical 320 pixels x 240 pixels resolution that YouTube uses, Vimeo distributes 1280 pixels by 720 pixels on their High Def channel. Vimeo has made social media history by being the first to make this sort of HD distribution available to users.

Vimeo is also a great place to video blog, if that's what you're into. Musicians like Katy Perry and Josh Groban have jumped on this bandwagon and post fairly frequently to their blogs via their Mac laptops.

Although, currently YouTube is the powerhouse when it comes to numbers, getting exposure and hits, Vimeo has impressive video quality to offer and a more close knit online community. Many users are making the switch. Will you?

In my opinion, Vimeo is where it's at.

Video blogging is extremely important to social media PR practices. In our course blog, Dr. Weisgerber posted a blog entry about the YouTube video channel by Governor Perry's camp about Hurricane Ike Relief. The quality of the video is.. well, YouTube quality.. I think if they had hosted the video on Vimeo HD, the quality of the 30 second spot would have been far better in relaying the message and probably have made a much bigger impact on the its audience.

The Best Corporate Blogs

During our last class, we talked about a number of corporations that blog. Amongst these, were SouthWest Airlines, Whole Foods, and Wal-Mart. Majority of our discussion on these companies and their blogs was negative so I was just curious as to who is really doing a good job at blogging for their company and receiving the most hits.

Thanks to the world's best creation ever, Google, I was able to find a great list compiled by Mario Sundar for his wordpress blog, Marketing Nirvana. He used Technorati Authority to come up with his findings.

Here's the list of the 15 Most Popular Blogs as of May 2008.

#15. Boeing - Authority: 67

#14. Monster - Authority: 73

#13. Kodak - Authority: 105

#12. Delta - Authority: 252

#11. Yahoo! - Authority: 297

#10. General Motors - Authority: 364

#9. Ask - Authority: 364

#8. LinkedIn - Authority: 591

#7. Digg - Authority: 641

#6. Dell - Authority: 799

#5. Yahoo! Search - Authority: 1130

#4. Facebook - Authority: 1478

#3. Flickr - Authority: 1744

#2. Adobe - Authority: 1797

#1. Google - Authority: 8492

Not a shocker to see Google at #1!

Are you surprised by any of the placements on this list?

Heroes Gets Interactive

We've already covered that with social media comes the potential for really great PR. Companies, professionals, celebrities, and television shows are able to interact with their audiences now more so than ever before.

NBC's Heroes, now in it's third season, has a number of interactive opportunities for their fans. Heroes Evolutions is the online place to go for access to all things Heroes. The website reads, "Online, offline, and on your phone, Heroes Evolutions brings the adventure into every corner of your world."

Fans are able to access character blogs, creators blog, past episodes, webisodes, an official Heroes Wiki,and even character MySpace accounts (Claire Bennet). Heroes is now taking things even further and letting their audience have a say in what happens in the online webisodes. People can vote for which hero they want to see star in their own series.

Hardcore fans that want to be even more involved can sign up for SMS (text messages) to be connected with the Heroes phenomenon 24/7. These messages are usually prompts for finding things on the Heroes website and/or new information pertaining to the current story lines of the show.

I think it's just really interesting to see how social media is allowing for entertainment to grow more and more interactive for its viewers. On the PR side, the audience is able to build a closer bond to the show and feel like they really are a part of things, solidifying a solid number of viewers. They have access to the show 24/7. It's something to hold them over for a week until the next episode and keep them involved in the storyline.

This type of technology has even sparked it's own Emmy award category, which was first created in 2000. Heroes is the 2008 winner of the Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media—Fiction Emmy. Definitely an award well earned!

How do you feel about interactive media? Should TV shows just be TV shows? Are character blogs and MySpace pages just a little too much?

Down with the new, bring back the old!

The social networking giant, Facebook, has recently changed their platform to the "new" Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, one of the Facebook founders, posted yesterday on the official Facebook blog that "almost all 100 million people around the world on Facebook are using the new design." Wow, that's a lot of people.

So what's the verdict? Are people into the changes that Facebook has made? All signs point to... NO. A number of Facebook groups have sprung up in response to the unwanted change. Below are just two examples of these groups:

• 5,000,000 against the new version of Facebook - 1,121,409 members

• I Hate The New Facebook (www.new.facebook.com) - 1,341,439 members

These groups are not going unheard! News sources all over the world, such as the Australian Herald Sun and Forbes, have picked up on these stories. Obviously, majority of Facebook users want the old, simple, familiar version of Facebook back that we all have come to know and love.

But will Facebook listen to its displeased members or will it choose to ignore the millions that are not happy with the new format? How do you feel about the "new" Facebook? Would you rather have the option between the two platforms?

Consumer Opinions: The Make or Break-er

When you are looking to buy a new product, chances are you want to know what others are saying about it. With the development of the Internet and blogs as a medium for consumers to voice their opinions, now more than ever, you are able to make an informed decision. There are a number of websites out there where consumers are able to comment on their opinions of products and services such as ConsumerReports.org, Amazon, and eOpinions.com. Blogs and message boards are also used as a great place for consumer commentary.

Product websites also offer consumer feedback. But are these posts as reliable as what you might find on a non-related third party website? A number of product websites allow you to rate your experiences with the product but these comments are monitored and usually altered or deleted if it will negatively affect sales. Dell and Apple are examples of online stores which are suspect of such practices. You never see any truly negative feedback on any of their products. Why is that?

Before you make your next big purchase - do yourself a favor: research, shop around and read up on what others are saying.

RSS is Love.

After learning about a number of Internet inventions in class recently, I've come to the conclusion that the Internet really is here to make our lives easier.

We're in the age of information overload. Because of the Internet, everybody has the opportunity to be a source of information with the use of blogs. Blogs are websites where users can post entries about anything. There are all sorts of blogs out there: news, celebrity gossip, entertainment, sports, consumer commentary, and personal blogs; just to name a few. With all the availability of information on the internet, how can we even try to keep up?

That's where RSS feeds and readers come in to play.

Almost every news source (website or blog) gives you the option to subscribe to their RSS feed (usually, with an awesome orange button like the one pictured above). Once you are subscribed, anytime a new entry is posted on that feed, you are instantly able to see that on your reader. The news comes directly to you, without having to click all over the world wide web just to keep up with your chosen news source. If you have yet to get yourself a reader I recommend Bloglines or Google Reader. It really does make life easier!

After all, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Doesn't get any more simple than that.

Lance Armstrong Blogs His Come Back Plans

On Tuesday, September 9th, Lance Armstrong made an important statement via a video blog post (seen above). Armstrong declared his plans to return to professional cycling in 2009 as a strategy to fight cancer. This video blog serves as a teaser for his appearance and further discussion of his comeback and LIVESTRONG plans in New York City at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 24th.

What better way to inform the world than to post a personal video post on his organization's blog? The 45 second video statement was picked up by television channels and other news outlets worldwide and aired later that evening. It was a great idea for Armstrong to go about blogging this news. His camp has not paid for any publicity or airtime but has already received impressive attention just by blogging. More evidence that the power of social media is astonishing and has a large effect on PR. Which lead me to wonder if the press release was created before or after the blog post? Judging from the quotes used, it was created after Lance's video blog had been made.

Already his blog post has received 550 comments from supportive readers all over the world.