HTML5 video is still a mess. 3, possibly 2 video formats, incomplete browser support, and bad UI for Android devices. Not all is lost. If you’re brave enough to create your own HTML5 videos on your site or blog, check out LongTail Video’s HTML5 Reference Guide.
YouTube as HTML5 Video Helper
As I mention in the podcast, YouTube is one way to go to save yourself the encoding hassles. It also exposes your video to the huge YouTube audience and you get optimized video for all devices. KenMorico.com was one of the first Web sites that featured HTML5 video back in June 2010 and I learned a lot of lessons.
The concept of real-time marketing really blows my mind. It’s what happens when you combine the fast-indexing Googlebot with breaking news and large online audiences. Getting noticed with paid advertising only gets you so far. Injecting your company or yourself in the news in real-time gives you tremendous leverage. But to play with the big boys and get noticed there’s a problem. You need to rank well in search.
Some large companies can do this because their Websites have been around for a long time and are usually updated by people in the organization who get paid to do it full-time. Successful individual bloggers with good page-rank will almost certainly outrank any small business. New blogs, even with some search engine optimization, will usually drop to the lower ranks in search pages.
Here’s a great video explaining real-time marketing and how it can be done featuring David Meerman Scott:
While I like reading blog posts and written content in my Google Reader, I love listening to podcasts. I get fatigued doing so much reading — especially during the work week. I really enjoy listening to podcasts at night. I’m a lot more focused and podcasts are just more entertaining and portable. There aren’t many podcasts on the topic of social media, but I found a few with some insightful episodes worth a listen.
Newsjacking | Marketing Over Coffee Podcast - David Meerman Scott’s new book Newsjacking /Newsjacking as Real Time Marketing / The Lifecycle of a News Story / Good Judgement, Newsjacking and Larry Flynt.
Does anyone remember the day blogs died? If you keep up with the social media crowd there’s a lot of linkbait posts describing the end of blogging. They say status updates and new services like Google+ have killed long-form content and traditional blogs. What hyperbole!
Yes, there are new services. Faster services. Services that feed the ego and spin content. I believe short-form content has its place. But after awhile short-form content makes me feel like I’ve been in Vegas for a week listening to the ringing of slot machines non-stop. Twitter never stops. Good content, bad content — it’s just too much and the pressure to Tweet is great because you feel you will be left behind. In fact, if you Tweet or post status updates your Klout score stagnates or reverses. That’s just wrong.
No Filters, No Credibility
That fact that someone even has a blog immediately gives them more credit in my eyes. It shows some commitment and competence – like getting a suit for an interview or certification. Anyone can setup a Twitter or Tumblr account. Great. The double-edged sword is that anyone can create content without filters. With the death of professional journalism we’ve lost our filters. That’s a shame.
Shortform Content, Twitter, and a Harmonic Future?
Can you explain your thoughts in 140 characters? Unless everyone is a Haiku master, I don’t think so. The drivel that permeates the short-form content sites makes me think society has regressed 10,000 years. Blogs enable quotes, research, photo essays, multiple videos, attribution, trackbacks, hundreds of comments, the list goes on. Sure short form is great for events and live reporting like I described in my post The New Digital Storytelling – On the Road with Twitter where I documented a night of public transportation in Houston. I think Jack Kerouac would have loved to see Twitter, but disappointed in its impermanence and superficiality. I think integrating Twitter statuses in a blog post for some event might have some kind of future… letting users experience the best of both.
News Organizations are Not Blogs
Jeremiah Owyang created a blog post titled, “End of an Era: The Golden Age of Tech Blogging is Over.” In it he describes how corporate acquisitions have stymied innovation. To me, to have “corporate” and “blogging” together is an oxymoron in itself. I believe corporations should have a place for content, but I wouldn’t compare it to “blogging.” The same with news organizations that mask as blogs. Mashable and Techcrunch are not blogs. They are news organizations that exist now – a breed of company that can survive in the new economy. Congrats to them. I’ll find interesting content to read / watch / listen to produced by individuals in real blogs.
I’ve seen as blogs get larger, oftentimes the original blogger hires less qualified writers just to feed the Google beast. This is a shame. I lose respect for bloggers that do this. If you build up trust with your audience, treat them well. If you want to see an action movie, you don’t want Sylvester Stallone’s brother instead of Sylvester Stallone… you probably want a comparable like Schwarzenegger or Bruce Willis. Blogs have hired hacks and I think people should let them know. Talent is what gets people in the door and keeps them there.
The I’m Not Dead Yet Chart
Bloggers Struggling
Bloggers are reportedly making less money this year… must be the end of blogging! Oh no! What business isn’t struggling? The S&P 500 was flat for 2011. I think people will look for new ways to tell stories in 2012 and blogging will evolve. I know I am looking for new ways of storytelling. I’m ok with change. I guess that’s why my blog is still here.
Do you know the major social media sites have policies regarding death? Do you know what to do with the online profiles of family members and close friends that pass away? After one of my blog readers responded to my “touching” post Recognize Passed Loved Ones Using Social Media it seemed the digital death topic needed a second look after some social media death policies surfaced.
In the case of Facebook, profiles of the deceased drop out of search. The profile can be memorialized, but if you want to leave a legacy you are going to need plans to keep a website operational after death. In fact, a lot of planning will need to be done if you want to exist online after death. Just like when planning your own funeral, you need to leave someone in charge of caring for your digital life after death.
Facebook Death Policies
Facebook offers to close or memorialize the profile of a departed user upon proof of death, depending on what the user wanted, or what the family decides.
Proof of death includes a copy of the death certificate, and proof that you are the executor, or representative of the deceased estate. When a Facebook member is memorialized, only current ‘friends’ can leave condolence messages and the profile cannot be found via search.
Facebook will not allow you access to the users profile, only for memorialization.
Further details can be found here: Facebook Death Policy
Twitter Death Policies
Twitter allows a family or the executor to close the account, and they receive an archive of all the deceased’s tweets.
Twitter requirements:
Your full name, email address, and your relationship to the deceased.
LinkedIn allows you to close a users account by filling out their verification of death form. However, this form requires an email address registered to the deceased member’s account. Without this important piece of information, they will not be able to address your request.
Years of messages are left on email servers. They should not go abandoned. In fact, some of my favorite reads include Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters Volume 1 and Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters Volume 2 edited by my University of Connecticut Professor Ann Charters. There’s something dreamy about reading someone’s interactions and correspondence with others. Especially when it was written long ago.
Gmail: Gmail will allow a family member an archive of all your email with the following information:
Family member or executor’s complete name
The deceased’s mailing address
Deceased’s email address
A copy of the deceased drivers license or other ID
A death certificate.
Gmail won’t delete the user’s account, but allows family to do so after access is granted. For more info: Google’s Decedents’ Accounts page
Hotmail: Hotmail will send you a disc that contains all of the deceased’s contacts, emails, etc. However, they will absolutely not give you access to the account. They will close the account if the family member requests it be closed.
They require the following:
Family member’s email address.
An address to send data.
A ‘power of attorney’ or proof of executorship, and proof of relation.
A copy of the deceased’s driver’s license or other ID.
A copy of the death certificate.
Full name, address and date of birth of the deceased.
Yahoo: Yahoo is the strictest in its death policies.
No access will be granted, no exceptions. But, if the deceased left their login information with you – you’re in! Or they will refer you to their strict death policy:
“No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! Account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.”
Thanks to William Eve and his blogazine team at Life Insurance Finder for researching the policies. Some interesting articles and infographics on digital death can be found on their blogazine.
Live Forever Online?
Can you live forever online without lifting a finger from the grave? There are some artificial intelligence tools that can make it happen.
With more and more businesses going online the notion of a physical sign on a building like Ford Motors memorializing a person and his/her creation seems distant. After all, everything online ceases to exist when the electricity goes out. That’s why I am really intrigued by Steve Jobs and his creation of Apple University. According to the Los Angeles Times article by Jessica Guynn, Steve Jobs’ virtual DNA to be fostered in Apple University:
…an executive training program called Apple University that Jobs considered vital to the company’s future: Teaching Apple executives to think like him.
“Steve was looking to his legacy. The idea was to take what is unique about Apple and create a forum that can impart that DNA to future generations of Apple employees,” said a former Apple executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve his relationship with the company. “No other company has a university charged with probing so deeply into the roots of what makes the company so successful.”
HTML5 video is still a mess. 3, possibly 2 video formats, incomplete browser support, and bad UI for Android devices. Not all is lost. If you’re brave enough to create your own HTML5 videos on your site or blog, check out LongTail Video’s HTML5 Reference Guide.
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