Keep Acting Like YouTube is About SkateBoarding Dogs

Young people today don't read blogs or even Twitter, their on YouTube.
Who's to say if Charles Dickens were alive today maybe he to would be making videos on YouTube

Youtube is also educating our children in ways that the schools NEVER could. My son (13) gets ALL kinds of info on YouTube. He's fixated on a beat boxer homeless man at the moment. Keeps playing the video over and over. I myself have had a lot of fun in the last couple of months filming "Sharing Sweet Success - The Honey Party" (17 Episodes so far - http://www.youtube.com/user/AmethystWyldfyre) It's fun and good for business!

Chris:
You're absolutely right. As an ad agency we've created funny videos for prospects....sending them links in new business emails. Just one of many uses.

Happy Holidays!
Scott

I just got approved for the YouTube partner program so I can have ads run on my videos. Pretty cool. Now it's a business... not just fun. They offer some cool customization of the channel for partners. I'm at youtube.com/thaipulsedotcom if you want to see what I did. Nothing groundbreaking - just a little more customization and control over design of the page. Found this site from your tweet. Thanks Chris.

I read this and went to email it to myself at work as a reminder to remind myself of another channel we can use it at work and then the next email on my list ironically had this link in it... International artists using YouTube as virtual gallery and promoting work: http://tinyurl.com/9cbzc2

Youtube actually taught me how to use elastic audio in ProTools during my last Audio Production III project... and it taught me better than the professor did!

Anyone who has ever slipped down the rabbit hole that is Youtube.com understands the power of it.

Like you there have been many times I've used Youtube to explain to me how to do something that just wasn't coming across in written word (the most recent being a problem with a wordpress plugin).

It's also a great place to look up obscure 80's music videos that you thought died along with parachute pants =)

Matt

I find Youtube to be useful too. There are so many things that you can learn from them because words alone are not enough at times.

YouTube is also great for market research and virtual ethnography. Great videos there by Dr. Michael Wesch and his team (search his name on the YouTube site). My company, Research Arts, is also using YouTube as a user friendly way for respondents to upload videos they take as part of online research studies. YouTube goes from strength to strength. Not so sure about Seesmic!

it's all about you.

I think it's interesting how YouTube has morphed over the past couple of years. When I first started watching videos, user generated videos and vloggers were what made the front page. There was a war of personalities and who could develop the largest following. Musicians were able to post videos of themselves singing and get themselves a following. Now it seems that the front pages of most popular videos are clips from TV. It's harder to happen upon great user-generated material from inside the YouTube environment. At the same time, there are a lot more ways of linking into good videos through facebook, twitter, stumbleupon, digg, etc.

yeah, I wish I was that good at parallel parking as well. Go Kat. I don't say it often, actually, quite about never. But thanks for posting your thoughts here, CB, its good to read and catch up the whats and the hows and the wherefores.

Chris, you're so right that if your business is not on YouTube in 2009 you are missing out. Not only is it a great way to broadcast a message, but the ability for it to help SEO for your website cannot be overlooked either.

I've just written a blog post about how important it is to use online video in your marketing, even if you are a beginner. Its no longer an excuse to say its too technically difficult now there are great-quality cheap flip-cams, webcams and even fantastic low-cost video production tools like animoto. Most Animoto videos instantly look better than the average tv commercial...

As Frankie Johnson said above, the work of people like Michael Wesch on Youtube was what really drove home the value to me...then I saw Randy Pausch's last lecture, the TED talks etc.

And at the same time, started discovering clips of events from my life, such as classic motorsport which I can now revisit with my father, or Swedish shows my girlfriend wants to show me that I wouldn't be able to watch otherwise.

Youtube is still a broadcast mechanism, but what will be interesting is whether the Vlogging niche stays with it, and the live webcam streaming of Justin TV and UStream, or whether a more conversational platform like Seesmic makes it more valuable.

That is so true. I think maybe Youtube should look at creating a separate channels just for ads and brand promotions.

I just used YouTube last night to add a video to my WordPress blog, after learning that "WordPress standard don't play that." It was either YouTube or a widget ... I decided on the standby. YouTube is also my music reference library and has brought me a way of really understanding operating WordPress.

That said, it's only a tool and can be used for either good or evil. There is, as we've been sayind around here for years, no panacea.

YouTube's potential is endless but it's not automatic. There is sooooooo much boring business stuff just haphazardly thrown together and slapped on it. What would be helpful for me is to talk to folks who understand the elements of effective business videos and ways to get the virus started etc. The "Will It Blend" campaigns of this medium are few and far between so it's critical to understand this channel, how (or even if) it is a good choice for your vertical etc. I need to learn a lot more about this so I don't fall into the "I did a video that sucked" club.

Here are the last two thing we've done on youtube: Robb got a great song for a video for our school's christmas program (view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z1ubrK5gMA) and i watched the Patriot's get a penalty for making a snow angel. hilarious and ridiculous.

I use YouTube for everything when I think about it. Mostly I am thinking about using it to serve my clients. I am changing the way people celebrate Christmas with my Inner Christmas movie and my Inner Christmas meditation. Just look up my name. And I reference youtube video's in my new book Celebrate Christmas! Celebrate You! YouTube is a grabbag of possibility good and bad, delightful and boring, enlightening and stupid. Like life.

Have you seen this video by Mike Wesch? Required watching for anyone who thinks YouTube is about skateboarding dogs.

Mike is an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University and this video is his presentation to the Library of Congress - The Cultural Anthropology of YouTube. I think this video explains not just YouTube, but large parts of the human motivation behind the entire social computing wave.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Enjoy.

TO'B

Hi Chris,

As always, great post. YouTube is also one of the best personal branding resources there is. Video let's you clearly communicate who you are and express your point of view. For people who don't know you, a YouTube video is a great way for them to understand your personal brand - better than an article or a LinkedIn profile (of course, those are great elements of a personal branding media plan too). When we only had face to face communication, it was easier to get to really know people. Then came the telephone - which removed the visual elements of communication (body language, etc.). Then email (and instant messaging) which further diluted the message by removing the audio components (intonation, pitch, etc.). Although it became easier to communicate with people all over the world, it became a lot harder to express a nuanced message that is consistent with your personal brand. Now, with YouTube (and other video products) we can deliver a clear and complete message globally - so people can understand exactly who we are, what we believe, and what we have to offer.

Thanks for the post.
William
www.williamarruda.com

It is great to see YouTube move beyond the exploding diet coke bottles (although mighty cool what a mentos can do!). I have been skeptical that YouTube would stay too mired in the zany to be a serious business tool, but it really can be effective for business. With the addition of higher quality video, YouTube is growing in the right directions.

I'm interested to see how the new attempts to monetize the format will change its flavor. Hopefully YouTube will remain a vibrant center for all sorts of on-demand content.

I have used YouTube to help configure stuff involving my PS3 before. Always helpful.

What it should be, as I've told many at various speaking engagements, is the new way for organizations that have typically been dependent on traditional media to create their own channels and distribute their own news. I know traditional media. I worked in traditional media for years. I tell them that as a former assignment manager at TV stations I was the one who threw their press releases in the recycling bin on a regular basis. If you know the news media isn't going to cover your fund raiser, do it yourself! Heck, they'd only show 15 seconds of it anyway and if there's an iota of breaking news it will not air. Youtube provides control that companies have not seen in the past. it provides power. Come on people, seize the day!

I completely agree with you. It is taking money away from our economy though. They don't make what has been taken away.

I think to some degree-depending on your usage-youtube can be one of the greatest education sources in the world. What I personally have learned there is amazing. I love watching the music vids there as well. It also is a great source for alternative news that you will not see anywhere else. MTV? Yep- from the new stuff to the classic- and it really does make a sat night go fast- LOL- in a hotel room (I travel a lot) I do not have the TV on- but youtube. It is a great branding tool, but also a great family coming together tool. Many families over in Iraq have put up vids to say hello- and also to show new babies, etc. It really is the new media- and gives the power back to the people. (Is that a song?)

To me, YouTube is a toolset. There can and will continue to be dancing monkeys and stuff. But that's not how YOU have to use it.

You know Chris the best use of all is file conversion and streaming of your videos. I turn lots of small business owners on to YouTube just to use as a tool to host and stream their customer testimonials making dead simple to run those on their sites and blogs.

Because I compose music for a living, I've always dismissed YouTube as a marketing tool. I have a basic profile up with a few subscriptions. Your post helped me realize that there are actually a plethora of marketing opportunities on YouTube that I haven't explored. I'm going to rectify that in 2009; thanks, Chris.

Another great thing that can come out of YouTube for business communicators would be the death of the classic corporate video (if it's not dead already!). Only the interesting, engaging stuff rises to the top. So if you want to use YouTube to communicate, you can't get away with a corporate vanity piece.

I was 'friended' recently on YouTube, and that's something I could definitely be more proactive about...
http://www.youtube.com/user/wribbitwribbit
http://www.youtube.com/user/woccom

I'm excited about incorporating video more casually and consistently in everything my company does. Why not? (Just don't point the camera at me...)

Totally agreed. YouTube, just like everything else, is what you make of it. I wasn't a big fan at first, and felt about the same way about Twitter when it first launched. We don't avoid the web because 20% of all websites are of the adult variety, do we? No, we learn how to navigate, filter, and direct our own attention to where we want to go. Just as Twitter is filled with 10,000 posts a second about what meal was just consumed, YouTube is filled with tons of useless crap.

But it's also filled with more diverse information than just about any other site on the web.

Great post, Chris.

Interesting and helpful post, keep em coming, thanks =-)

Youtube is such a great source for traffic...I've never been one to just watch videos on youtube..but there are so many people who actually do its incredible.

Youtube is a great resource for tutorials on things you can't really learn by reading and don't have the time to take a class for. I'm learning how to play my piano by watching youtube tutorials!
It's also a great resource for driving some traffic to your website if you utilize the "how-to" method. Posting up video tutorials can give you some great traffic bonuses.

I learnt to knit via Youtube.

Course... I am not good, but I learnt, nonetheless.

I think this is my favorite blog title of this year.

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