(Can’t see it? click this).

If you can’t see the video, click here.

(if you can’t see it, click here.)

I got this via Maura’s site after she complimented my recent Twitter avatar.

What’s this have to do with anything? Nothing. Except, maybe, if you think about it: Twitter is a serendipity engine for the web, and maybe there’s a story in understanding that power. There might not always be profit, at least not in the business sense, but maybe there’s a lot more wealth in these hidden kingdoms than what you’re thinking about right away.

Just a thought.

Beyonce is swell. Her video is interesting. These two ladies do it all in one take:

You don’t have to like the song. Just realize that these two ran with this. These two did it all in one take. These two bring more passion to the video than any producer could have made.

Make your products someone else’s.

Is YouTube bad for TV and filmmakers?

It gives me a sense of what’s interesting to you.

Know what sold the most in January? YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts.

I’m happy for a few reasons. One, the book is really useful. Two, both authors dropped me a line pretty much the day I posted my review, meaning that they’re really plugged into the blogging world (which makes me happy, and I don’t care if that’s a selfish feeling, but hey, if you’re blogger-friendly, I’m more likely to like you back). Three, the book is really useful. I mean, I’m not sure I’m going to “top the charts,” but I can tell you this: what I’ve learned from that book (though I don’t always follow the lessons) has made me a better video producer.

Finally, I’m happy because something I promoted helped these authors sell another 40 books, and I’m excited for them.

You know, and Darren has said this on many occasions: no one’s quitting their day job on the money Amazon pays you for affiliate links. Some of those copies of that book gave me like.. 17 cents a copy or something (third party reseller). But that wasn’t the point for me. Once it adds up to beer money, hey, pretty cool. But in the mean time, it gives me more things to think about.

So, get that book if you want to know more about video making:

And if you’re interested in things like stats and behavior, what other geeky ways are you tracking it? Are you using CrazyEgg to heatmap your sites? Have you tried Woopra? Do you care where your people come from? (I sure do!)

This can be just fun, too, you know.

YouTube helped me figure out how to pair my new Jawbone bluetooth headset with my iPhone 3G. That video answered a little technical glitch that was keeping me from getting the job done. The instructions on paper? Not so good. Not as easy.

YouTube is my MTV. It’s my Saturday Night Live. It’s my.. oh, did you click that last one? It’s my movie trailers.

It’s my way to check in with friends’ happenings.

So, it’s a lot of things. It’s education. It’s marketing. It’s conversation. It’s mind blowing.

And it’s a channel for conversation starters, messages, business, and more. You pick what you want to do with it. You decide. But if you’re not thinking about it in 2009, at least giving it thought on your various potential business communications opportunities, you’re missing a chance.

Photo credit, mikecogh

What it CAN be about:

What the naysayers see:

What you and I see:

When your boss can’t see it, it’s because you and I haven’t told the story well enough. We haven’t shown the right examples. We haven’t delivered the benefits that we see as obvious because we’ve seen the tools used well.

You and I can still work to improve on that, don’t you think? We can keep finding more Case Studies and filling out our storytelling ability. We’ll keep telling the story until they see it better than we do, until our ideas have handles and they take those ideas and make use of them.

We can do that, right?

By the way, Paolo knows about Zunes, too. : ) He works with Microsoft on their podcasting platforms.

But a guy playing guitar in the bathroom? I’m right there with him:

What if YOUR media was that personal?

Thanks to Sandy for turning me on to this song.