My Writings. My Thoughts.

Live Social Broadcasting vs. Unique Live Streaming Experiences

// September 1st, 2010 // Comments // Educate, Video Marketing

Hopefully this post is educational for those of you considering live streaming or collaborative video experiences as means to market your businesses.  For full disclosure, one of clients is a live streaming video software company, Kulabyte, and the idea for this post came about while working with some of their customers that are trying to startup a new streaming channel, event, or make the shift from using social streaming tools to creating unique branded streaming experiences.

When considering a live video streaming experience you should know that there are numerous solutions available but, for the sake of simplicity we can break the options down into two categories; a) Social Broadcasting and Streaming Platforms and b) Unique Experience Services.  Both types of solutions have advantages and limitations; therefore choosing a technology direction depends completely upon your objective.

Considering that your objective may be to maximize visibility and grow an audience, live social broadcasting platforms like UStream, LiveStream, Kyte and JustinTV are great for providing you a standard set of tools and an audience base by which you may be able to grow viewership.  These tools are inexpensive and simple to set-up.  Plus, these tools provide you the capability to propagate your content into other social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Dogster and others ( Hey, I’m tired of only hearing about The Facebook & The Twitter :-).  These solutions can also provide you the ability to design what I’ll call low-level custom solutions however; there is only so far that you can take their tools in most cases but some allow more flexibility than others.

In the case where the objective is to create a highly unique user experience there are a myriad of tools and options to consider from building your own video production and streaming architecture to developing customized dynamic (adaptive bitrate) video players and selecting media content management systems.  Creating a unique experience is undeniably more costly but provides you more control from a brand differentiation and experience perspective, which is typically a direction for more professionalized content productions or large companies or organizations that can afford to spend available capital in these areas.  However, this is not to say that creating a unique experience is not possible with the social broadcasting platforms - it just depends upon the level of customization, what you can bring to the production and your business objectives.  Social broadcasting platforms can be utilized in conjunction with a customized solution to broaden the reach and add value for the unique experience.

So, what exactly is a unique streaming experience?  Consider live streaming experiences such as; Fox’s Online Motor Sports Property SpeedTV.com, the classical music web property Medici.TV, or business think tank conferences like TED.com.  All of these web properties have custom designed production workflows, streaming architecture, unique user interfaces and backend content management systems that must be assembled.  Below is a diagram of what one must consider if they wanted to produce a unique event experience with the equipment and assets required to produce content on the web, over mobile devices and set-top-boxes.

Live Mobile Streaming Signal Flow

Video CMS’ run the gamet from Brightcove, Ooyala, Kaltura, MediaSilo, Kyte and more.  Then, you have to consider your Web CMS such as; Drupal, Expression Engine, WordPress and others.  The reason I point these things out is because many, many startups or businesses that are trying to extend their marketing awareness are jumping into the streaming video space without much knowledge of what goes into managing the live and post-production video creation process.  Another thing we have not even touched on is the content distribution networks and their value but instead me explaining I’d rather send you here to read more about CDN’s and their value.  Since I’ve touched on a number of things here, I’d like to do a follow-up post based on questions and feedback as to what is important for you and your streaming video requirements or assumptions.  Chime in below and let me know what’s on your mind.  I think what I might cover on my next video marketing track is discuss video engagement technologies for business.
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Startups and Sales Processes - The Magic Behind Market Traction

// August 24th, 2010 // Comments // Educate

Just finished my Perfect Push-up & Pull-up workout.  Now it’s time for the 2nd startup shift - you know the one where you squeeze in everything you can until you just can go anymore kinda shift.  Is it really all about working smarter, working longer or just a matter of making progress and getting things done to get the snow ball rolling?  Honestly, I don’t really know yet ’cause I’m trying to get snow ball compact enough so it starts rollin’ faster and faster.

Well, what I’d like to share tonight is a couple of observations that I’m experiencing and seeing right now working with 4 different startups including my own.  Each of these companies are in slightly different stages but all trying to find their optimal product/market fit.  What I have been seeing for the past couple of years working with startups is that they all lack a systemized sales process that works for their business.

Mind you that each of these companies have smart people behind them and many of them are technicians or subject matter experts in their own right.  And, I guess this is one of the things that makes building a startup company so hard.  You just have to know and do so many things and you have to do them well enough until you can get to the next level so that you can hire someone better than you.

So, sales process.  Fortunately for me, I’ve been involved in big corporate cultures and startups working directly with customers and what I’ve found to be most valuable is that if you truly communicate the value and benefit of your product/service to “the right customer” in a systematic fashion you can usually get to the point of making the act of selling second nature.  Still, this takes a lot of listening to and understanding what your customer is telling you they want to buy - often times not what you think you’re selling.  This applies to online and traditional sales funnels.

Consider the following two 5 step sales models.  The first comes from E-Myth’s 5 Steps to Smarter Selling, which is more relative to a traditional face-to-face transaction.  The second comes from Lean Startup & Customer Development Methodology and uses a web analytics company as the example.  They are different in some respects but they both are focused on listening and learning as the key activity of the sales process.  To me, the most important attribute that the Lean Start Methodology takes further is the detail of identifying common or anticipated outcomes from each stage or customer response and a plan to measure or learn from the customers action or inaction.  This is critical to adapting and making your sales process more efficient.

Since these graphics are a lot to take in I’ll pause an let you read and reflect what’s on you mind in the comments below.

5-steps-to-smart-selling

sales-funnel-matrix

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Spreading Happiness Experiment: Help Chip Count The Number Of People His Video Impacts

// August 21st, 2010 // Comments // Inspire

Let’s have some fun together with a little experiment.  Watch this video and then share it with your friends using the ShareThis widget below.  By doing so we can track how many times the video was shared.  I’m also going to post this experiment link on Digg to see what happens as I am curious to see what effect Chip’s message could have on people.  Let’s assume a Share or a Digg is a vote and counts as a person that was positively impacted by the video.

How Is Digital Media & Technology Changing Our Lives?

// August 20th, 2010 // Comments // Inspire

It’s a question with many answers both good, bad and indifferent.  Digital media is both shrinking our world and widening the gap on many levels.  It’s interesting that I have more friends in other countries that I talk to on a regular basis than I do the neighbors in my local community.  Why is that?

Could it be that it’s because the internet has become our community?  Is it a bad thing?  Good thing?  Does it matter?

The word “community” is derived from the Latin word “communio”, which means “to share in common”.  So, is it a bad thing that I just don’t have that much in common with my neighbors and do so more with a friend in London or a friend in Austin.  Is digital technology having a disruptive or productive influence on our lives?  Or, is it just an evolutionary shift in our world?

Whatever the case, there is no wrong or right answer but there is cause and effect. How we choose to adapt to the shift will inherently effect our circle of influence today and generations to come.

If you can, take some time to watch this speech at Chautauqua with Fred Ritchin and consider his message.

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Video Interaction Technology: Is It Really Being Utilized?

// August 16th, 2010 // Comments // Educate

iphone4-facetimeCelebrities are using interactive video technology to build their brands and connect with their customers.  What is limiting everyday business people from doing the same?  Are there barriers?  Are people who are’nt celebrities just not that interesting?

Do you have to be a thought leader to use interactive video technology?  I’m asking these questions because I’m curious about why some technologies are adopted by some market segments and others are not?

With the development of interactive video technology platforms such as Kyte’s and the release of the iPhone 4 FaceTime feature, I’m curious to know what you think creates the right mix of elements or benefits to provide for product/market adoption?

The video phone was tried by AT&T almost 30 years ago - I think - and it failed.  Was the market just not ready for it then?  Was the value case just not presented to the customer correctly?

Painful problems that are met with valuable solutions are commonly the most successful business cases however; does interactive video technology solve many pain points?  I can think of a few:

  • Travel reduction
  • Relationship building
  • Sharing moments with time displacement

I’m sure there are many more you can think of but in the case of Apple, Kyte & Skype - what specific problems do you think these companies solve with their technologies? Further, what other markets could these companies service with their tools?

I’m interested to hear what others think and this post is designed to help us think about not just interactive video technology but more importantly product/market fit as entrepreneurs.

Update - 8/16/10

Facebook launches Facebook Live .  Looks like Facebook will be exploring how to better communicate with its user base and building stronger value for their platform by hosting a live show that a) promotes users of the platform b) communicates what it is building feature wise and c) showcases events that it is part of or hosting.  To stay relevant, do all business need become content producers in order to educate and build deeper connections with its market segment?

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Startup Entrepreneurs! Learn Lean Startup & Customer Development

// August 12th, 2010 // Comments // Educate

This past week I got dive into the principles of Lean Startup and Customer Development more.  I first learned about Lean Startup & Customer Development from Craig Daniel over at VisibleGains.  I also attended my first Lean Startup Circle meetup in Austin hosted by Capital Thought and facilitated by fellow Bootstrap friend Ash Maurya.

I have to say that I am really intrigued by the principles and philosophical framework of Customer Development.  As a startup entrepreneur it can really help bring focus to what you should be working on and when.  I know first hand how hard it can be to mentally sort things out that you have to do in order to grow your company.  To me, Customer Development, is a system that almost any entrepreneur in a broad range of business industries — not just High Tech — can follow.

If you are working on a venture I would highly recommend that you digg into Customer Development and Lean Startup principles.  Brant Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits did a great job putting together, “The Entrepreneurs Guide To Customer Development” and I’d recommend it as a great starting point.  I certainly looking forward to learning and sharing more in my personal journey.

customer-development

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Clover Sites Makes Websites Super Simple

// August 12th, 2010 // Comments // Business Resources

Clover Sites Makes Websites SimpleI came across these guys the other day and just wanted to share them with you.  If you’re a small business owner that wants a great looking and inexpensive website that you can launch in a matter of a minutes or hours by yourself (depending on your content) then Clover Sites might be your answer.  Plus, they’ll automatically give you a mobile site version which is pretty nifty.

I think they have made things very, very simple for new business owners at a very affordable rate with complete hosting and lots of flexible features (video, podcasts, photos, in-page editing and much more).  The only draw back from my perspective is that it’s built entirely on Flash which is not great for Search rank and they provide you very minimal control for doing a rich search strategy.  This is one area that is very important and its the ONE area that is crucial for generating site traffic, especially if you depend on your site being a major lead generation tool.

Consider what is most important for your business and take the Right Action at the Right Time!  Check it out and let me know what you think.

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