Just when I was feeling mortal for falling off the top 100 most-subscribed YouTube partner list (a fact that ZackScott and PeterCoffin felt compelled to remind me via voicemail), I scored placement on Huffington Post via the lovely and talented Daisy Whitney.

Check out this report from iMediaConnection in Vegas (or LA or SanFran, I’m not really sure), and thanks to Jan for alerting me… she’s constantly validating her top listing on the blogroll below!

You’ll see me dart past during her intro, and the camera work was by the cool and passionate Mike Donnelly from Coke. Please keep your comments focused on her hair, and not about the heady items we discuss.

And Zack and Peter you can suck it because I’m back at 99 on the list, beeatches.

Like me, perhaps, you are more interested in what’s in the video than what site is streaming it.

But no sooner than I identified the “poor man’s Brightcove alternatives,” did I find a comment from Brightcove’s Jeff Whatcot alerting me to the new $99 monthly “express” version of Brightcove that was announced today. Again- this is an offering for publishers to stream video, and not another videos-sharing site for consumers.

VideoNuze’s Will Richmond blogged weeks ago about the proliferation of players in this space. It will be interesting at the StreamingMedia Digital Video event this week to sort it out. Richmond lists the following players. How’s a girl to keep up?

thePlatform, Brightcove, Ooyala, Twistage, Digitalsmiths, Delve, KickApps, VMIX, Grab Networks, ExtendMedia, Cisco EOS, Irdeto, KIT Digital, Kaltura, blip.tv, Magnify.net, Fliqz, Gotuit, Move Networks, Multicast Media, WorldNow, Kyte, Endavo, Joost, Unicorn Media and Episodic

I wonder how many of these companies will find this post as quickly as Brightcove’s Whatcot. Free pixels for any people from these companies that find this post and comment below.

Hats off to Larry Kless (I always want to call him Klessblog) for not only adding a footnote about me to his recent event summary, but to featuring me for my pratfall in 2008.

Would you trust your social-media voice to an improv comic?

I recently told a few hundred Canadian marketers that their social-media expert should be an improv comic, an insight that hit me during my all-night roadtrip to Toronto. Moments later, one former improv comic (from Freshed Baked Entertainment) confided at lunch that he’s using his improv experience to help brands create entertaining content.

This notion mostly went over well, and I pledged to write about it. I’m beginning here on WillVideoForFood.com and I’ve posted it on Scribd (a good way to distribute and SEO-optimize your writing if you can’t afford PRWeb or PRNewswire). If you’re a blogger or publisher, I invite you to use part or all of this with attribution… and hope to fancy it up for a magazine.

I have four sources of inspiration for this concept:

• ImprovEverywhere’s Charlie Todd, who I’m connected to in an odd way that falls between friend and fan. It’s a parasocial relationship, but since I’ve met him and he returns my phone calls or e-mails I’m allowing myself to call dub the “Causing a Scene” author a “virtual colleague.” I was struck with how well he does media, and I attribute that to his experience as both an improv comic and advanced teacher of the discipline. Todd, in fact, was who encouraged me to enroll in the wildly heralded UCB Theater in NYC. I’d later, sadly, become an improv-school dropout because I lost my financial excuse to visit NYC weekly and my dad died. But I’ll do it again.
• I did significant research to prepare for my Improv Comedy course, and learned a tremendous amount in the early classes. My goal was not to become an improv comic, but understand how improvisational skills might translate to my work and life. Like you, perhaps, I often default to “fighting the wind” (arguing the inevitable), which can be empowering but both exhausting and unsustainable. So I hoped to learn new ways to “roll with life” or “go with the flow.” One of my favorite affirmations is “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference” (source). How many of life’s “problems” would vanish if we gave ourselves that rare gift?
• I’ve also had lengthy conversations with Melissa Katz, a former colleague at Johnson & Johnson who oversaw Centocor’s public relations. She’s a former improv comic, and helped me understand how many of the tenets of improvisational comedy translate to corporate or public-relations.
• Finally, David Alger is one of many improv-comics that crystalized the basic “rules” of improv comedy, and I hope to help you see how some of these rules apply to your social-media presence. I quote him simply because he ranked high on Google SEOs for “improv comedy rules,” but there’s no shortage of wisdom on improvisational comedy. I’m quite sure there are dozens of other applicable rules I’ve left out (like being honest, a truism in both improv and social-media).

So forgive me for being an improv-comic dropout, but trust that what I learned in my first portion of the class will help you either find a good social-media expert or nurture one who is. I give you “The Seven Reasons Your Social-Media Expert Should Be an Improvisational Comic.”

(oh- you gotta hit “more” to read them).

1. Yes, And. A basic rule of improv comedy is “yes, and.” A good improvisational comic never contradicts a fellow comic, and instead rolls with the direction his or her stage-mate casts. That means they’re ready to drop their idea of where they WANT to take the sketch, and build on where the other team-members are heading. This, inarguably, is true for social media. You may hope that social-media will conform to your ideas for your brand or company, but you’d better be ready to roll with what comes your way.
2. Don’t Block. An improv sketch dies whenever one or more people “block” or change direction. If I say we’re naked plumbers and you decide we’re not, then we’ve lost our flow. Likewise, social-media experts are doomed if they contradict the voice of other participants. It’s a conversational medium, and nobody wants to be contradicted.
3. Team Play. Standup comics are one-man bands, but improv comics learn to be a part of an ensemble. It’s like the difference between a golf player and a basketball teammate. In corporations, the social-media expert rarely has completely free reign, and answers to executives, marketers and public-relations people. But he or she must also focus on the audience’s needs, and balance these requirements like a good plate-spinner.
4. Don’t Ask Questions. Alger, an improv-comic who teaches the Meisner technique and whose rules are worth a read, reminds us not to ask questions. In improv comedy, that puts the pressure on a teammate. The improv comic should already know the answer. While it’s true that the social-media expert wants to listen to (and engage) the audience, he or she loses credentials if often asking others for answers.
5. Focus on “Now.” Reading Eckhart Tolle, I’ve often been reminded that the unchecked mind likes to live in the past and future (but the only “real” moment is right now). While gurus, futurists, and historians have their merit, the improv comic is acutely trained at the “here and now.” A corporation or brand blogger likewise needs to manage whatever strange circumstances arrive, within a loosely written script. Apply a lot of process or structure on the social-media “voice” and you’ll get something irrelevant to audiences and awkwardly detatched.
6. Change, Change, Change. Alger writes this about change, “Improv is about character change. The characters in a scene must experience some type of change for the scene to be interesting. Characters need to go on journeys, be altered by revelations, experience the ramifications of their choices and be moved by emotional moments.” How true this is in a rapidly moving social-media world. If your social-media guru embraces change, your voice and behavior with crowds will appear fluid and consistent. Unfortunately many public-relations people have a plan and agenda that makes them fairly change adverse.
7. Put Audience First. As marketers we are often “snipers” not “entertainers.” We target people and interrupt them with our message via ads. We tell them how our product will make them feel, and suggest they can’t have that feeling without it. We believe we have “the right” message, and demand it to supersede any thoughts and beliefs of passive recipients. Dozens of years of advertising has taught us that reach, frequency and single-minded messages should prevail. But that “let them eat (my) cake” audacity clashes with a new conversational medium. We need to be curious, flexible, and attentive to the “wisdom of the masses.” And rigidity, panic and defensive behavior produce a childlike fit like Michael Richards (Kramer) exhibited in his infamous racist explosion.

Notice that I’m not suggesting that every brand or corporation’s brand should be “funny.” In fact some voices are educational, serious, compassionate, or provoking. But the skills and DNA of an improv comic are highly consistent with what we want in our social-media “front line.”

Is this notion without flaw? Of course not. Improv comics can be impulsive and “blue.” They can be wonderfully tortured, and not the kind of people to whom a company wants to cede its reputation. Sometimes the brand or company’s social-media messages need to be purposeful and overcome false or biased attacks.

But if you’re fighting with this tenant that social-media and improv comedy are similar, then you’re doing the exact opposite thing that conversational media requires. You’re listening to your own ego and its biases against this, and likely to comment below that I’m full of crap. And that, we’d both agree, is a good example of bad social-media in practice. Unless your argument is funny and informed, and uses the word “fart.”

A friend of mine snapped most of the photos I’m using for my sites, publishing and conferences. I recently uploaded the hundreds he gave me digitally into my iPhoto, and they now rotate and dance across my AppleTV screen saver like some weird self-indulgent ego parade. My wife told me last night that she was forced to watch them while I was in Canada, and she didn’t say that in a happy tone.

Thanks, Joe Shields for the lovely photos and the opportunity to annoy my wife.

Here’s his professional Philadelphia-based photography website. You’ll find my poking head on his gallery.

I’ve long been baffled by the overwhelming alternatives of video-streaming players. It struck me as a commodity market, and one ready for a major consolidation… and I couldn’t understand why anyone would pay to stream videos on their site when so many cool tools are free (which here means “cheaper than $100 a month”).

Larry Kless, who will facilitate a panel I’m on at “Online Video Platform Summit” (Streaming Media West) in a few days, blogged recently about video-streaming. Don’t read Kress’ blog because he fails to mention me (tee, hee), but check the USAToday piece about a maturing space that includes such players as Fliqz, Sorenson Media’s 360, and VideoBloom. Adap.tv is another player, but not mentioned.

So it finally it occurs to me (I’m a little slow when it comes to technology, damnit) that there appears to be a sustainable middle-space between free sites (YouTube, Blip, Vimeo, etc) and more robust corporate solutions (which Brightcove and others are trying to secure).

I urge clients and marketers to post on YouTube regardless of what they choose to stream videos on their tiny little websites. It’s a no-brainer for two reasons: first, because it helps their content optimize on search engines (sorry girlfriend, but Google aint indexing your Quicktime player buried three layers deep on your product.com site). Second, most people will find the video on YouTube video far before ever finding their stupid website… and that may be enough to make a sale.

That said, embedding YouTube videos on your website gives off an amateur vibe. You can’t private label it, it may have related videos that take people elsewhere, and you get limited data. And Brightcove is getting that “if you haven’t heard of us you probably can’t afford us” vibe.

Enter the mid-market players, which will provide far more customization and data without breaking the bank (TubeMogul.com has partnerships with a lot of free sites that also serve this need in various degrees). And here’s how it works:

1. Upload your videos to the sites, sorensonmedia.com, fliqz.com or videobloom.com, where they are hosted.
2. Tweak the video player to include your company name (now you get branding and a less amateur feel).
3. Grab a code to place the video on your site or blog (you can first share the video privately with clients for approvals, which requires a lot of effort on YouTube).
4. Pay a monthly fee. Sorenson and Fliqz start at $99 monthly.

I will still argue that this space is ripe for consolidation, and that most small-to-medium businesses will probably choose their video player based on their choice of hosting provider (the same way we accept whatever damned device our cable or car manufacturer provides). So if I were one of these guys, I’d be developing partnerships with those providers and giving them an upsell opportunity in exchange for an installed base.

I also fear that these players, when finding the low-level market increasingly price sensitive, will have trouble moving far “upstream,” as most dreaded Fortune 500 information-systems or information-technology departments pride themselves on rejecting anything that isn’t enterprise worthy (and only Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, God, Blackberry and perhaps Brightcove know how to pull that off).

Oh sure. It’s vogue to slam poor little Fred. But you know damned well this little Christmas Cash music video will have you singing the refrain just like iJustine’s dad. Try to resist it, and it will tempt you all the more.

For your convenience, I’m linking to the refrain to save you the 1:00 minute it takes to warm up. Fred Cash Music Video.

If there’s one thing more fun than speaking to hundreds of marketers before a giant video of yourself like a “Rolling Stones” concert, it’s to read Twitter “tweets” after you speak.

By searching #mweek and @nalts after my talk on Wednesday, I learned what “stuck” with the Toronto “Canadian Marketing Association” audience. Canadians are nice, and apparently quite addicted to Twitter. They surprised me by almost making me sound intelligent in the quotes they shared.

Here are two of the things people most RT’d (aka retweeted, which here means posting on Twitter or sharing someone else’s Twitter post).

• Viral is dead.
• An impression isn’t an impression unless it makes one (see TechVibes coverage).

Marketing Magazine led with this article titled “Marketing Week Begins with ‘Viral is Dead’ Declaration.” IT Business was struck that a “viral is dead” statement woud come from “a person who owes his fame and fortune to tons of viewers on YouTube.” Then there’s the Canadian Star, which captured one of the most important points I hoped to make:

But advertisers don’t have to spend millions making YouTube videos, like the Evian Roller Babies, in hopes they go viral, Nalty said. The ad features digitally animated babies rollerskating to rock music. Instead, they can use existing YouTube stars, like Fred Figglehorn, the teenager with the annoying high-pitched voice and the online following bigger than Oprah’s TV audience, Nalty said. Fred makes a six-figure income from advertisers on his YouTube posts, Nalty said.

Certainly there’s a robust future of incredible clips that will gain “viral” fame. But my point was that marketers should not waste time and money investing in clips with hope that they go “viral.” It’s rare for a commercial clip to be shared wildly, although Evian’s babies is a recent exception.

Instead, I encourage marketers to chose the more efficient and guaranteed approach of partnering with online-video weblebrities. These individuals have large, recurring audiences and fans. So their sponsored videos are far more likely to travel the web and be seen by millions. I showed the Hitviews case study on Fox Broadcasting as proof. Two of my Fox videos alone have surpassed 1 million views each, which was half the targeted views of the campaign (for “Fringe” and “Lie to Me”).

I was encouraged to speak with a number of creative directors (or former creator directors) that seemed excited about the prospects. I had feared that they’d feel threatened by an online-video “weblebrity” creating videos that aren’t as easy to control. But they seemed to appreciate the idea of giving a popular creator a creative brief, and some room to tailor the message to his/her audience and style.

Here’s the deck, though most won’t make sense without context. Steal away. Spread the word.

But remember two things above all. US/Canada border guards require passports, and don’t care to be videotaped even if it’s on a Hello Kitty Flipcam. Trust me on those.

Time to follow the lead of YouTube’s hottest women. They may be pretty and popular, but they’re not stupid. 

If you have enabled playlists on your YouTube channel, turn them off immediately. Many popular YouTube creators (especially the hot women) have discovered this already — or never bothered creating and offering playlists. Disabling the playlists is the only way to make it easy for a viewer to sort your videos on their own.

Go immediately to your account page, select “edit” under the banner… then uncheck playlists.

 Only if you disable playlists will the user have the ability to instantly sort videos by various attributes like “dated added,” “most viewed” or “top rated” (per image below).

But if you show off your playlists, it takes a rocket scientist to figure out how to sort your videos by any criteria. So they may see that “best of” collection you assembled, but they’ll never find your recent videos. Or they may see your recent videos but not find your best videos. And they may not even find the search field.

Until YouTube solves this (and some of the other major UI flaws) in channel pages, you’re going to have to trust the user to sort by “most viewed” or “top rated” if they are trying to find out if you’re any good (”most recent” is top by default), because the playlist functionality is hostile. 

Also- if “most recent” videos aren’t first, your subscribers won’t want to return to your channel page to catch up, because the new ones are too hard to find.

I hope this helps. I’m puzzled why this isn’t solved by the technical folks, or communicated to people via YouTube. I went back to the original channel-page design for this very reason, and was really frustrated by the design.

For the record, I was working on a client project that required me to grab sample videos from prominent and attractive YouTube partners (iJustine, HappySlip, VenetianPrincess, HotForWords, CommunityChannel) and I saw that they’d all disabled playlists. What? You don’t believe it was a client project? You think I’m just cruising the list of the most-popular and prettiest girls on YouTube? You pig!

P.S. Like the new theme on this Wordpress blog? I learned about it from Chris Brogan, and bought it immediately. It’s all SEO optimized, and was so easy to set up I did it without Jan’s help! It’s called THESIS and you can buy it here.

You have GOT to love this. Tiny banner ads tied to flies, and the insects were set free during a conference. I’m thoroughly impressed in such a strange way. Although I have to wonder what the floor looked like at the end of the day.

I’ve often said that you need to logout of your account to see what YouTube really looks like, since that’s what the majority of viewers are seeing. Let’s look at one of last year’s last Archive.org homepage screen shots of YouTube, and compare it to today’s.

Some differences:

• 2008 has lots of white space and simplicity like Google. Today’s homepage features a film ad that dominates almost the entire “above the fold” region.
• The content featured on 2008’s page is mostly consumer-generated or amateur. Today it’s Crackle content and yesterday was FunnyorDie.
• Last year’s page featured new functionality. Today’s features a “house-ad” for YouTube/Google’s store (watch out for those Lava lamps… they sometimes forget the logo).
• The featured videos, like on Break.com, were new each day and remained constant. Today we see a variety of videos rotating, and many are popular amateur videos (mixed with some advertised content). We’ve shifted from homepage featuring to “mini-featuring” via “spotlight tagging.”
• The biggest change is not evident on the homepage. Now the power-engine behind YouTube views is “related videos,” which can account for a significant portion of views.

Again, YouTube is behaving less like parent Google and more like Yahoo.com or a media company. Perhaps the price it can fetch for a homepage takeover is too tempting to resist. It’s a great way to get a film “top of mind” awareness to jump-start a weekend box offices, or a television debut (and I was especially impressed with V’s custom YouTube ad unit). And who can fault YouTube, which bears the bandwidth cost of so much unprofitable consumer-generated content to lure mainstream users with semi or pro content that can be better monetized?

Still, it’s remarkable what a difference a year can make. From where I sit, the biggest flaw in the user-interface is that it’s not entire inviting to visit the most-popular or genre-specific videos. One tends to use the homepage as a search engine, or be drawn to whatever thumbnail or title that happens to appear below the ad-du-jour.

I’ve suggested before that the day of the YouTube editor is behind us, because the sub-page featured videos don’t seem to garner significant views. However I’d suspect “spotlight” videos are driven not just by algorithms (most-viewed, longest average viewer duration, highest rated, related) but by editor preferences. If I’m right, the editors still have an active hand in deciding what YouTube amateurs find audiences. Interestingly we tend to see a few dozen of the same Partners with the most active rotation, which suggests editorial favor-ability or content favored by “crowdsourcing” as defined by the engineers.