Interesting survey - how Global Fortune 100 is using Social Media

I recently came across this survey by PR agency Burson-Masteller on London-based Social Media agency, Fresh Networks blog.

In my opinion, many of the best examples of Social Media leverage are by small to medium businesses. Perhaps this is due to their nimble nature and the entrepreneurial skills of the staff or it could be they are more likely to look for cost-effective marketing tools. Whatever the reason, this survey shows it is pretty rare for Global Fortune 100 companies not to be using Social Media. A whopping 88% of the European companies surveyed are using one, if not more, of the following: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogs. However, in the Asia-Pacific region, this figure is just 50%. Read the rest of this entry »

Defining ’success’ in Social Media

Nobody has the definitive solution for how to measure the success of Social Media. At least not yet.

Sure, you can talk about online ‘buzz’ created by how many blog posts, tweets, videos, status updates etc. that occurred for a certain brand, person or topic, but what’s ‘buzz’? Virtue, a company which does ‘technology solutions for social media marketing’ has just released its second annual list of the ‘most social’ companies in the world on this basis. I was interested in the result, which was, unsurprisingly, the iPhone, but took it with a pinch of salt. Of course, Apple, and others on the list, have built strong online reputations, but ‘buzz’ doesn’t necessarily mean success and it certainly doesn’t guarantee revenue as the mentions could as easily be negative as they could be positive.

Read the rest of this entry »

From your Sony Handy Cam to YouTube in 46 easy steps

Recently I had the task of implementing a YouTube channel for a client.

I was quite surprised with the amount of effort it took to get video from our ‘Sony HDD Handy Cam’ edited and up on YouTube. The first hurdle was the codec that The Handy Cam used, in true Sony fashion it wouldn’t open in any of the video editing software demos I had.

After multiple downloads of various video conversion and editing tools I discovered Sony Vegas which opened the files directly from the cam with no need for conversion to another format. I found Sony Vegas to be a great tool, especially for quick editing of clips for YouTube. Compared to Adobe Premiere (editing software I have used in the past) the rendering / exporting was a lot faster and previewing transitions and effects was faster too.

So for YouTubers wanting to get video from their Sony Handy Cam (and other brands too) online I recommend Sony Vegas, at about $100 US for the platinum version . I think it’s good value.

Corporate Blogging & Online PR ? Bullet PR presentation at Search Engine Room

Here are some edited video highlights of our presentation at Search Engine Room in Auckland November 2007.
There were more that 100 attendees at this inaugural event, mostly from the search industry as opposed to public relations.