Comments on: The ultimate in free user marketing http://steveouting.com/2008/01/31/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing/ Journalist, consultant, entrepreneur ... Musings on digital media, Web 2.0/3.0, & news in the Internet era Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:43:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: shawn smith http://steveouting.com/2008/01/31/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-3783 shawn smith Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:29:17 +0000 http://www.steveouting.com/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing.html#comment-3783 Nice find Steve. I haven't seen pop17 before. Live video is the buzz around some of my papers too. I think I might be interested in a constant feed from inside a newsroom, but as a producer it's really hard to promote something as live video - especially for breaking news. Training users to know they can come to a site for live video is one thing if it's given adequate promotion, but users of most news sites will never be able to depend on a news website for live video of a breaking story. The resources aren't there, and I wonder if the desire from users is there either. I like the idea of live streaming, but I think it has to be constant for it to be worthwhile. Promotion of a single live event just doesn't seem like it would make sense to me. Nice find Steve. I haven't seen pop17 before. Live video is the buzz around some of my papers too. I think I might be interested in a constant feed from inside a newsroom, but as a producer it's really hard to promote something as live video – especially for breaking news. Training users to know they can come to a site for live video is one thing if it's given adequate promotion, but users of most news sites will never be able to depend on a news website for live video of a breaking story. The resources aren't there, and I wonder if the desire from users is there either. I like the idea of live streaming, but I think it has to be constant for it to be worthwhile. Promotion of a single live event just doesn't seem like it would make sense to me.

]]> By: Zac Echola http://steveouting.com/2008/01/31/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-3782 Zac Echola Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:40:36 +0000 http://www.steveouting.com/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing.html#comment-3782 That said, most colleges have a locked contract with local radio, TV or both. Forget about pro sports completely.<br /><br /> If you can figure out how to do live high school games in your coverage area, you\'ll pretty much guarantee yourself as the market leader. Then it\'s only a matter of waiting and hoping for a market to follow. That said, most colleges have a locked contract with local radio, TV or both. Forget about pro sports completely.

If you can figure out how to do live high school games in your coverage area, you\'ll pretty much guarantee yourself as the market leader. Then it\'s only a matter of waiting and hoping for a market to follow.

]]> By: Zac Echola http://steveouting.com/2008/01/31/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-3781 Zac Echola Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:35:45 +0000 http://www.steveouting.com/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing.html#comment-3781 Over the past year some of our properties have experimented with streaming live video for high school games. We\'ve also done streaming of concerts put on by newspaper properties in our company.<br /><br /> I see the value, clearly, but the manpower, bandwidth, and organization it takes to stream video doesn\'t quite mesh with audience size and advertiser enthusiasm--yet.<br /><br /> Part of the problem is technological; For a reasonably high quality game, you\'re going to end up cutting out a lot of users on DSL and wireless ISPs. The infrastructure just isn\'t quite there in many places.<br /><br /> Secondly, it flies in the face of what makes the Web go strong. Live games seem to have a mediocre spike in traffic during the game early on and then fall to near or absolutely zero after they\'ve been archived. The game highlights, however, do much better than the entire game, which appears to be a better way to harness long tail value.<br /><br /> I think there\'s better ways to use live video, such as in breaking news situations, though the technical hurdles might be too high for many newspapers depending on the cell and Internet infrastructures in their coverage areas.<br /><br /> Lastly, because of these reasons, I don\'t know if the trend should be encouraged yet. Papers, especially weeklies, that aren\'t publishing news content to their sites routinely shouldn\'t focus on live video. Neither should papers that don\'t have a solid grasp on video, either. <br /><br /> Experimentation is good, but focusing too much effort into it when you could be spending your time with higher ROI endeavors will lead to disaster. Over the past year some of our properties have experimented with streaming live video for high school games. We\'ve also done streaming of concerts put on by newspaper properties in our company.

I see the value, clearly, but the manpower, bandwidth, and organization it takes to stream video doesn\'t quite mesh with audience size and advertiser enthusiasm–yet.

Part of the problem is technological; For a reasonably high quality game, you\'re going to end up cutting out a lot of users on DSL and wireless ISPs. The infrastructure just isn\'t quite there in many places.

Secondly, it flies in the face of what makes the Web go strong. Live games seem to have a mediocre spike in traffic during the game early on and then fall to near or absolutely zero after they\'ve been archived. The game highlights, however, do much better than the entire game, which appears to be a better way to harness long tail value.

I think there\'s better ways to use live video, such as in breaking news situations, though the technical hurdles might be too high for many newspapers depending on the cell and Internet infrastructures in their coverage areas.

Lastly, because of these reasons, I don\'t know if the trend should be encouraged yet. Papers, especially weeklies, that aren\'t publishing news content to their sites routinely shouldn\'t focus on live video. Neither should papers that don\'t have a solid grasp on video, either.

Experimentation is good, but focusing too much effort into it when you could be spending your time with higher ROI endeavors will lead to disaster.

]]> By: Alan Steele http://steveouting.com/2008/01/31/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-3780 Alan Steele Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:33:49 +0000 http://www.steveouting.com/the-ultimate-in-free-user-marketing.html#comment-3780 The traditional mediacos are missing a huge opportunity RIGHT NOW in the current presidential election cycle.<br /><br /> Imagine how many people would be interested in tuning into a live justin.tv-like feed of what is going on real time with their favorite candidate. The traditional mediacos are missing a huge opportunity RIGHT NOW in the current presidential election cycle.

Imagine how many people would be interested in tuning into a live justin.tv-like feed of what is going on real time with their favorite candidate.

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