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Google is 1, Who is 2?

Internet Video

The second most popular search engine in the world may surprise you, even though you use it daily.

The second most popular search engine on the web might surprise you.

It is not Yahoo! or Bing and it is definitely not Google, which is the most popular search engine on the web. The red ribbon in search engines goes to a site you wouldn’t expect, but probably use daily.

For the past three years, YouTube has been right behind Google in web searches.

YouTube is actually the third most visited website on the Internet worldwide, behind Google and Facebook.

When you consider every search query on YouTube (over 4 billion each month) is for video, you can see the want and need to view videos on the web. Videos and YouTube channels are becoming just as popular as websites, and thus just as important for businesses.

Because of the popularity of video searches, SEO (search engine optimization) is extremely important on YouTube. Just like it is important to get your website high on a Google search, it is essential to use SEO to get your video high on a YouTube search and generate views.

Here are some quick SEO tips to keep your video popular on the second most popular search engine in the world:

  • Do some keyword research. Search the title you are thinking for your video and see if any similar videos exist.
  • Know your audience. Understand who you are trying to reach and use keywords that will target that community.
  • Links. A link to your website in the description is a great way to generate web traffic off a viral video.
  • Be sure to tag your video with appropriate keywords; however, too many tags will make your video too broad and not target a specific audience.
  • Likes and comments, the more the better. This can give you insight on how your video impacted someone.

Video is clearly becoming an essential part of the Internet and the power of video seems to be increasing as fast as YouTube’s 500 million users can type… or watch.

What are some other ways SEO can be used with YouTube?

York Nonprofit Contest Winner

aideM Media Updates

Shadowfax, a York nonprofit organization that specializes in supporting individuals with disabilities, won our nonprofit contest we’ve been holding over the past couple weeks. Congratulations Shadowfax!

shadowfax

Several weeks ago we started a contest for York nonprofit organizations. The winner was to win a free video from us here at aideMMedia. Over the first three weeks we accepted nominations.

We received nine total nominations, all of which were deserving York nonprofit organizations.
During the final two weeks of the contest we posted the organizations’ logos to our Facebook page, and decided to let the public pick a winner by "liking" the organization they thought was most deserving a free video from us.

Shadowfax got off to a strong start and never looked back, finishing with an impressive 38 "likes" at the contest’s conclusion yesterday, and winning the free video.

Several other organizations challenged Shadowfax such as Bell Socialization Services, Inc., which finished with 15 "likes," and Easter Seals with 13 "likes."

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our contest and we hope you had as much fun as we did. A big congratulations goes to Shadowfax and we really look forward to working with the organization to make an awesome video about an awesome organization.

Thanks again, and keep an eye out for other contests we may do in the future similar to this one!

Remembering 9/11

aideM Media Updates

A day we can remember, largely in part to video.

AideMMedia will be shooting a video Sunday at a Clipper Magazine Stadium event remembering those lost in the September 11 attacks.

It was one of those days you will remember for the rest of your life. A series of chaotic events blended together in a nonlinear order that found a corner of the human brain and are impossible to erase.

The memories of September 11, 2001 do not seem like long ago. However, over the last 10 years, the country went to war, we elected a new president, and we all got a decade older. Time has passed.

But 10 years later, we still remember.

This weekend we will all remember differently. All around the US ceremonies are taking place to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks.

September 11 is largely remembered through video. It’s amazing the amount of cameras that were rolling on that infamous day to capture the iconic pictures that are now engrained in our memory. It was one of the first major historic event in which cameras were everywhere. The images are from every angle and allow us detail the confusion and make the day clearer.

Today, video is still a big part in remembering the attacks. With TV specials and tribute videos, the 10 year anniversary is surrounded with video.

Here is a well-done video about how some of the survivors remember the 9/11 attack a decade later.

The video below, which was made a few days ago, is from the perspective of the air traffic controllers on September 11.

We are shooting a video at Clipper Magazine Stadium on Sunday honoring those lost in the attacks 10 years ago. The event is called "Never Forget 9-11… The Spirit of America," starts at 9:00 a.m. and will feature music by military bands, tribute videos, children’s activities, keynote speakers and more. How did you spend 9/11/2011 ? Did you take some time to remember the event that affected all of us 10 years ago?

York Nonprofit Contest Nominations

aideM Media Updates

We have received nine nominations for the York nonprofit contest! Voting starts today, and will go for the next two weeks. “Like” the logo of the nonprofit organization you want to win the free video on our Facebook page.

Here are the nine nominations for our York nonprofit contest! Remember to "like" the logo on our Facebook page of the organization you want to win the free video! Voting is open for the next two weeks.

YorkSymphony

Professional Videos Gone Viral

Internet Video

Some of the most viral videos of the past year have been professionally made. Check out the videos, and see the impact these videos had in sales numbers for the companies.

Last week we highlighted the commonality of video in today’s world. I’d be willing to bet, just about everyone you know (excluding those over the age of 80, no offense) has access to make their own video.

These amateur videos are sometimes awesome and have the ability to go viral (as seen last week with the wedding dance video). And these homemade shorts are the videos people most closely associate with YouTube. However, six of the ten most viral videos on YouTube last year, according to salon.com, were actually professionally made.

The Old Spice video above was launched in February of last year and has over 35 million hits.

Last July, Old Spice launched a YouTube video campaign that was the fastest growing online viral video ever. The video had almost seven million views in the first day, and over 23 million hits within the first day and a half. By the end of July 2010, Old Spice increased its sales by 107 percent.

Old Spice is one example of how powerful viral video marketing can be. Even without factoring in TV ad time, Old Spice commercials have reached tens of millions.

This proves that professionally made videos have just as much potential (if not more) than the amateur videos we usually recognize as "viral." (i.e. Double Rainbow, Charlie Bit My Finger, etc.)

The beer industry has also done exceptionally well in the viral video community. Recently, Heineken has launched several videos on its YouTube channel that are too long to air on TV. "The Date" which is a video about a "legend" impressing his female date at a restaurant is a minute and a half long. This video has received over eight million views since its creation three months ago.

The genius "Most Interesting Man in the World" ad campaign that Dos Equis started four years ago has also thrived in the online viral world. Dos Equis often puts their commercials on YouTube (and sometimes exclusively on Youtube) before sending them to the TV market.These humorous videos have done exceptionally well. Since airing the commercials, Dos Equis has seen increases in US profit each year, and sales tripled in Canada in 2008 alone.

The video below was added five days ago, and is already closing in on a million views.

These companies show us how valuable viral videos can be. Youtube, although commonly seen as a place for people to upload amateur videos, can also be used for companies to reach millions of people using professional videos without advertising costs.

Do you have any good ideas for a viral video? What are some of your favorite professional viral videos?

Your Moments: Video was There (Part 1)

aideM Media Updates

People have been using video since its creation to capture important moments, but as video becomes more accessible, it is capturing every moment.

Your first steps, video was there. Your birthday parties, video was there. Your graduation, video was there. Your wedding day, video was there.

It seems during the most important parts in a person’s life, video was there.

Video allows every detail of life’s moments to be captured and kept away exactly how they occurred. Nothing else on the planet can do this. Video doesn’t go faulty after time like memory, and it provides far more detail than words can describe. Video is truly unique.

Now, everyday more frequently than the last, people are using video to capture memories. Memories they don’t want to get lost in everyday stresses, memories they want to be able to relive, with people they don’t want to forget.

As cameras become cheaper, social media becomes bigger, and smart phones become smarter– video will become broader. It has reached the point that video is no longer capturing just the important moments, it’s capturing every moment.

Six years ago the first ever Youtube video was uploaded and called "Me at the zoo." This simple video started a revolution; now people can share every moment, whether it be as basic as a zoo trip or as important as a presidential speech.

Now, because it’s everywhere, video is capturing unexpected events as they unfold. While filming a horse show recently, we caught a special moment between a couple.

Today, it seems no matter what the special moment is in your life is one thing is for sure.

Video will be there.

Anonymous: The Batmen of the Internet

Internet Video

A vigilante hacking group is trying to make a worldwide impact on the web, standing up for personal freedom.



They are referred to as a group vigilante hackers. A secret organization that will go after anyone that restricts the freedom of the public. And they call themselves Anonymous.

A week ago, Anonymous went after the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco after BART blocked cell phone service in its stations to prevent a protest. BART police have been the subject of controversy for the past couple years, killing two passengers in alleged unjust circumstances. Anonymous was not part of the original protest, but as soon as the group found out BART was blocking the freedom of information from the public (cell service), they became involved.

This piqued my interest, mainly because the more I researched Anonymous the more the whole thing seemed like a comic book. I went on Anonymous’ Youtube channel to find a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask (famous from "V for Vendetta") talking to me in a distorted voice about ending world hunger and world catastrophe. Incredibly eerie? Yes. Skeptical? Of course. But also, intriguing.

As I learned more about Anonymous, the more powerful they appeared. They hacked BART’s website, making in unusable, two days after the protest, just like they promised.

And this was far from their first attack.

In April, Anonymous took down the Sony Playstation Network for several days after Sony filed a lawsuit against a hacker for jailbreaking the system (making it able to run other operating systems). Days later, Sony agreed to drop the lawsuit.

In June, several people were arrested in Orlando for feeding the homeless. Less than a week later Anonymous followed up its promise on Youtube and took down various websites in the Orlando community, just leaving a message on each site– "Boycott Orlando."

However, these vigilant attacks were not all good. In the BART hack, Anonymous released the contact information to a couple thousand users of the BART system.

Sony users couldn’t play Playstation online for days.

Many of the sites hacked in Orlando had nothing to do with the arrest.

Too often these attacks are hurting the people Anonymous meant to help.

Now, Anonymous released a video about an attack on Facebook. The organization plans to hack Facebook November 5th, because it believes the social networking site gives out too much personal information.

But regardless of the result, these attacks show an incredible power the resides in the Internet. A whole subculture of good and evil has been created online. A real-life comic book.

To us, this means online video is only going to become more popular and more valuable. We are excited to see the future of web and video’s impact on it.

Is Anonymous doing more good or bad targeting organizations that are depriving the public of freedom?

Solar Tower: Future of Energy?

Technology and Equipment

We have a lot of high-powered equipment at our downtown studio. Because of this, we are always interested in renewable energy. An Australian company is currently building a new green power source in Arizona that combines wind and solar energy. It’s called a solar tower and it could be the energy of the future.

Recently, we made videos for two local solar energy companies and hope to work with them in the future. The videos can be seen inside this article.

At Blue Tiger Studios, using professional lights and high-powered computers we have the potential to use over 15,000 watts of power at the same time. That is one reason why we are always interested in renewable energy.

We hear the term "renewable energy" a lot today. And we most commonly think of wind, water, and solar power. But a new concept is combining wind and solar power to create an efficient and completely green type of energy.

An Australian company, called EnviroMission, designed what they call a solar tower– a massive power source that relies on solar energy to create wind. Earlier this month, Arizona took impressive green energy initiative in approving the construction for a solar tower, which is expected to be completed by 2015 and will produce power for 150,000 homes for 80 years.

The concept behind the solar tower is relatively simple. The tower would be massive, over twice the height of the Empire State Building, to create a vast temperature differential between the top and the bottom of the structure. Surrounding the tower would be acres of solar panels which would send heat to the ground level of the tower. The chimney effect, which says heat will rise, will cause the air to rush to the cooler part, or the top, of the tower. Essentially, the solar tower is creating its own wind. Inside the tower are wind turbines which would rotate, thus creating energy.

Not only would the solar tower be environmental friendly, it would also be cheap to maintain. Once the tower is built, EnviroMission says it would cost absolutely nothing to run. There is no feeding stock. There is very little maintenance. It just uses the sun.

However, there are some drawbacks to this new technology. It can’t be built just anywhere. The tower needs plenty of solar panels and obviously prefers to be in a hot location that gets a lot of sun. Construction is also costly. At $750 million, it would take about 11 years of running to pay for itself.

The new concept is definitely cool. Or maybe hot? And we love to hear how people are using clean energy.

Check out the nifty video they have produced to promote their ideas:

Recently we began making some informative videos for some solar based electric companies. Keares Electric, is a central Pennsylvania electrical contracting company that has began the "Coatesville Solar Initiative" (CSI). CSI is pushing to install a 40 acre solar farm next to Coatesville High School. The solar farm will be used to power the school entirely, giving them a reduced rate. The solar farm could also potentially power a lot of the Coatesville VA hospital as well. We have been shooting some informative videos for them to educate people on the benefits of the program.

Paradise Energy Solutions is located in Gap, PA, and they specialize in the installation and maintenance of solar panels for homes and businesses. We have helped them with video on some of their informative presentations and testimonials with successful clients they have worked with.

Hopefully the solar and renewable energy movement keeps its momentum here in PA, we would love the opportunity to make some high end, entertaining videos with more of the WOW factor for some of our local clients.

If you have any questions about CSI (Keares Electric) or Paradise Energy, check out their websites to learn what they are doing to improve our planet and save people money on electric costs.

How do you try to reduce your carbon footprint?

How Not to Make Your Own Video

Digital Cinematography

Eli Baldrige, blogger for aideMMedia, recently attempted to make a homemade commercial. In the process he lost his brotherhood, sanity and two weeks of his life. Read what he did wrong and check out our list of things to take into consideration when making your own video.

shaunediting
Sean from aideMMedia editing video at the studio

AideMMedia is shooting a video this week that offers advice to the home-filmmaker, student filmmaker, or DIY small business filmmaker/marketer.

A straw, that cools hot liquids to the perfect drinking temperature.

Now market it. Go.

Last Friday, my brother came to me with this predicament: He recently patented a straw that allows people to drink coffee or tea without burning themselves. Now, he wanted a video to show to potential investors.

Being a college student, with no real equipment except a 9-year-old family video camera that looks like it was used to make silent films in the 1890s and a slow laptop with missing keys and basic editing software, my hopes were not high. Actually, my hopes didn’t exist. Factor in our sibling rivalry, and this project seemed to be headed toward an inevitable failure.

coffeeI found an old spot light in the garage, which I think my grandfather used to use for deer spotting, and hadn’t been touched in a decade. There were more species of spiders living inside of it than the Amazon. This, was my lighting.

Digging through an old electronic drawer, I found a telephone headset that had a mic hook-up. Surprisingly, my brick-of-a-camera had a mic input. This, was my sound.

This was amateur.

Our first mistake was not making a timeline or storyboard. We got the equipment out, and stood in my living room with our hands in our pockets dumbfounded on what to do next.

We decided to spend two hours filming coffee being brewed, only to throw out all but a four-second clip during editing. The footage turned out to be more wasteful than the galloons of coffee we just poured down the drain.

instructional videoI also filmed an interview with my brother explaining the invention. With no real guide or script it ended with my brother peeling out of the driveway with his middle finger in the air due to, lets just say, "artistic differences."

  Now not on speaking terms, my brother filmed the rest of it on his iPhone (which, for the record, was better quality than my camera). He emailed me the clips and I put together the two-minute long commercial.

It turned out decent. But the decency was at the expense of my brotherhood, a week of my life and my sanity.

I told Derek about the experience with my first commercial and he gave me some pointers. Turns out, we are shooting a video here at aideMMedia offering advice to the up-and-coming/student filmmaker,home-filmmaker and DIY small business/in house video makers. (Why couldn’t I have waited a week to make my video?)
 
Here are some things you should think about  and plan when you attempt to make your own video:
(All of these topics and more will be covered in our informative course)

  • Organization and planning
  • Scriptwriting and storytelling
  • Basic camera functions
  • White balance/color temperatures
  • Shooting techniques and styles
  • What equipment is best for your use
  • Lighting
  • Audio
  • Editing
  • Encoding
  • Authoring (DVD BLU-RAY)
  • Distribution to audiencesshaunediting
 

By the way, my brother and I are speaking again. At least until he comes up with another invention.

Have you attempted to make any videos yourself? What challenges did you face? What did you feel went well with your project(s)?

The Power of Twitter Around the World

Technology and Equipment

With the recent riots in London and violent flash mobs here in the US, Twitter has flexed its power on both sides of the dispute. Can Twitter be the solution to the problem it helped fuel?

Follow aideMMedia on Twitter!

Flash riots in London. Group thefts in Philadelphia. Organized mobs in Los Angeles.

All costly and devastating, and most organized on Twitter.

What is usually thought of as a non-malicious networking tool, can be just as easily used as a networking tool for chaos.

Youngsters in London are taking the streets and looting stores, and by using social media and Blackberry messenger, the rioters are able to stay a step ahead of police with mass messaging. Neighborhoods are left looking completely unrecognizable; burned to the ground. There have been several hundred injuries and even some fatalities. Prisons are full. It’s complete pandemonium, and it was all started by social media.

More locally in Philadelphia, flash mobs have turned violent. Teens have been collaborating in large numbers while robbing department stores and mugging innocent people on the street. It is the sheer size of these groups which make them almost impossible to stop, and this, too, was completely formulated on Twitter.

In Los Angeles, a DJ tweeted he was hosting a free block party. This turned out not to be the case, but after thousands of angry people showed up to the alleged block party, police had to get involved and fired beanbag guns into the crowd.

Viral photo on Twitter of the #riotcleanupHowever, this is not all bad. These events show us how powerful of a tool Twitter can be.

Because as much as Twitter is being used for destructive purposes, it is also being used to clean up the problem. The hashtag #prayforlondon was the number one trending topic worldwide at the peak of the riots. Another trending topic, #riotcleanup, is providing people with details about neighborhoods looking for help. (The picture above shows people on the street rallying for the cleanup and went viral on Twitter.)

Not only does this say something about the helpfulness of mankind, this says something about Twitter… and it’s power.

We’ve seen this first hand here in Lancaster. As social media has grown, downtown Lancaster has boomed. And although it’s a stretch to say these increases are directly correlated, a simple search in Twitter of "Lancaster First Friday" shows us tons of tweets from businesses and people in the community coming together, proving Twitter is having some impact on Lancaster’s growth. And as Twitter grows, so will its impact.

As long as there is freedom on social media platforms, they will be used for negative purposes, but lets hope more people use it for positive. And they will.

How can we use Twitter locally in a positive way?

Follow aideMMedia on Twitter!