As Shannon had posted last week, the gang here at Overlay.TV is headed off to SXSW in Austin, Texas today. Shannon also encouraged y'all (Texas style!) to drop by our Platinum Booth during Interactive for a visit, and that we'll have tons of freebies and give-aways and, on the final day, the best thing of all - FREE BEER! What Shannon forgot to mention was that if you do swing by our booth (located at station 317/416 by the way ) you'll also have the opportunity to get laid ... *ahem* I mean get Overlayed. What does this mean exactly? Well I think that y'all will just have to c'mon down to our booth and find out for yourselves We'll be posting more once were down Austin way, so stay tuned for updates. Soon you’ll be able to tell all your friends - I GOT OVERLAYED @ SXSW!
For now, please sit back and enjoy the Overlay below:

beer · I Got Overlayed @ SXSW · Interactive · overlays · SXSW

In theses times of economic uncertainty celebrity endorsements, for some, may be very hard to come by, and frankly fiscally irresponsible. But fear not my cash strapped friends, well known online personality iJustine, aka the Internet, is here to help. iJustine is willing to schill your products for you, and do it for FREE! iJustine and Overlay.TV have partnered together to create the first free online celebrity endorsement tool, and it's not just for the business minded. Users who just want to share their opinions or review consumer products can also use iJustine as their celebrity mouthpiece, because after all everything sounds better when it come from someone famous! And it's ridiculously easy. Just go to ijustine.overlay.tv and ... wait! I'll let iJusitne tell you herself:

Here's an example of what your iJustine endorsement or review could look like:

advertising · celebrity · consumers · endorsement · iJustine · internet · Product Placement · products · review

Over the holidays one has time to think about things. Looking back on social media trends of the past year, such as increasing Twitter usage, and the current economic situation, one finds one’s self asking the following question:

Can companies afford to use Twitter?

In situations like the current economic downturn companies are looking to reduce cost and/or increase productivity. We’ve all heard that social media is being touted as a low cost means of establishing an online presence. Company profiles are showing up on Facebook and executives are communicating with customers on Twitter. Services like Twitter are free to use. Free is good. But how much does it really cost the company when corporate executives use Twitter?

Before I start on the analysis, let me say we love Twitter. Having said that, I took a look at the Twitter usage of three executives: a light Twitter user with an average of 20 tweets per month; a moderate Twitter user with an average of 110 tweets per month; and one heavy Twitter user with, on average, over 500 tweets per month (names withheld to protect the guilty).

Now let’s assume that it takes one minute to post a tweet. Let’s also assume that for each tweet we post we read five others. Each tweet we read is not going to have the same response time.  If we read five tweets for every one we post, one tweet may take three minutes to read if, for instance, we are directed to external items, another may take one minute, and the other three may take thirty seconds. For arguments sake, let’s say that for each tweet we post we spend about 5.5 minutes reading other tweets.

Therefore each tweet posted is equivalent to 6.5 minutes of one’s time. For the light user that translates to 70 minutes of Twitter usage a month. For the moderate user that’s 385 minutes and the heavy user it is 1,750 minutes per month.

All of these executives work at the same company yielding 4095 minutes, or 63.25 hours a month on Twitter-related activities. That is 819 hours a year. If each executive has a loaded cost base of, on average, $88/hour that’s an investment of $6006 per month or $72,072 per annum.

That is a significant investment in a “free” service.

That’s not close to the total investment either. If you have an environment where the executives are using Twitter the employees of that company are likely following them on Twitter as well. If the executives are accessing Twitter at work, so are the employees. The cost of using Twitter is thus even higher than $72,072 for the company.

There are lots of arguments in favor of using Twitter. Companies can track what people are saying about their product and respond in real time. It provides branding and PR opportunities as well as the ability to track trends. Twitter also allows corporations to put a professional yet human face on their company, be it through customer service representative or an executive. It is another opportunity to build relationships. The list of great things that Twitter provides goes on and on.

Twitter definitely has value, I’m not questioning that. Rather, I’m questioning whether or not Twitter provides the best value in time and money spent for your company. What could those executives do with their 819 hours a year to build the business? What could your employees be doing in those untold hours they spend tracking the executives on Twitter? If you had $72,000 to invest in your business what would you do with it?

corporations · economy · Facebook · online presence · PR · social media · twitter · value

Contribution. Sharing. Interests. Passion. Talent

The new faces of social media are sharing their passion and talent in forums that make the seemingly impossible possible. How do you go beyond words to express your love of something? How do you connect your contributions to those from people in over 100 countries simultaneously? How do we obfuscate technology and deliver community experiences that create engagement levels never before seen and at the same time give people a reason to stay up late, practice their potential and ultimately share this with the world?

We do it by delivering an experience that resists the urge to describe itself, and instead offer a single point of entry and action (similar to the iPod 'wheel' or the Google Search button) that allows for a common and shared experience that is immediately accessible - in this case "Create Your Own".

I give you first exhibit A - the new faces of social media - and if you click on any one of them (below) you will see what they shared just minutes or hours ago at the Jonas Brothers Vocal Booth. Forget the technology for a minute and focus on what was going through the minds of these very passionate community members from all around the world as they sang along with their favorite boy band, crush in, and hearts out.

Consider a few things as you ponder this - this wall of faces represents a very small 1-2% of the actual tens of thousands of participants who engaged in the experience. Beyond the bravery to share their version of a song sung by their heroes with their heroes and thousands of fans who are tuning in to watch the versions (many visitors now watch as many as 20 or more of the videos) they also overcame network, technology, bandwidth and hardware issues that would daunt most of the leaders in this space that are more than twice the age of our contributors here. It is one thing to soapbox, but it is indeed quite another level of sharing to sing when you are up on it.

These days we too often focus on the why or the how and not the what of social media. And when we think about the who, it would be great to focus on who really benefits from all the work, theory, technology and effort that goes into building great experiences.

These are a few of the new faces of social media. As a parent we can be proud of our children safely sharing their talent and passion with the world at large, and in my very humbled opinion they are worthy of nothing less than a standing ovation of heartfelt applause for their considerable effort and passion.

(reposted from http://bitpakkit.com )

experiences · faces · Jonas Brothers · Overlay.TV · sing · social media · technology · Video · youth

Wendy is my friend, and has been my friend for many years. She has seen me through a lot of hard times, always making me feel better about myself in the process, and now Wendy needs my help. Wendy has gone and made a video, a viral video, that is not doing as well as she had expected and, hopefully, I can lend a hand.

The Wendy to which I am referring is of the eponymous fast-food chain Wendy's. And I wasn't joking when I said she's been a good friend and helped through some hard times. The Big Bacon Classic, or Combo #6 Biggie fries with Coke as it's known in the drive-through world, has been my go-to meal for many years now and has seen me through many a bad day. So naturally I was delighted when they introduced their Baconator, which was brought to my attention through some extremely clever commercials describing Baconator eaters as "meatatarians." Funny stuff.

Anyhoo, I was sent this article from Advertising Age about "Crazy Lettuce," a viral video Wendy's has developed and its mixed reviews from the online community. So here's where maybe I can lend Wendy a hand regarding "Crazy Lettuce." At the end of "Crazy Lettuce" there is a URL to meatatariansunite.com where you can sign-up and get a coupon for a dollar off a Baconator sandwich. Delicious. The problem was that when I read the URL I read it as 'meatatarian institute dot com' and not 'meatatarians unite dot com' and of course did not get the right website when I typed in the URL, a step which is frankly annoying even if I had typed in the right address. It would be much easier if you could just click on the URL right in the video and be taken right to meatatariansunite.com, or even better have the coupon hidden in the video itself. If only there was a company that could do that. Oh wait, I work for a company that can do that! Here is the Overlay.TV take on "Crazy Lettuce." Find the coupon, or if you can't (which I doubt) then just click on URL at the end of the video. Enjoy.

· advertising · Baconator · Crazy Lettuce · Overlay.TV · viral video · Wendy's

One Friday the Overlay.TV crew and I used our lunch time to partake in the annual Greek Fest. Trays of Greek goodness, including gyros, souvlaki, spanakopita, and baklava were devoured by our team. Then with full guts we all headed back to work ... if you could call it that. As is the case on many an afternoon after a hearty lunch, 2 o'clock hits and I'm ready for a nap, and I know I'm not the only one.

I work in a typical IT office where the work environment is open-concept, desks scattered about without partitions, and even those who are lucky enough to have an office, their doors are rarely shut, so napping at one's desk is not really an option. Gone are the days of Don Draper, when you could shut your door and take a quick afternoon kip without anyone the wiser. I've seen it hit many a time in afternoon meetings that go on a little too long, everyone gets a little punchy, and there's always the one guy in the corner, his head bobbing and weaving, as he desperately tries to maintain his tenuous grip on wakefulness. What's a guy or gal to do when the afternoon sleepies get the better of him or her? Is an office nap room the answer?

Our CEO's answer to that would be a resolute NO. I believe Rob's exact words were "If you need to take a nap at work, then you probably shouldn't be at work." Touché. Probably why he's a CEO and I'm not. But there is an ever increasing school of thought that thinks taking a nap at work may actually increase productivity, and that a nap room just may be the answer.

One of my co-workers thinks the idea is silly, and that if you to need to recharge then you should just go home and take a nap. But that is not necessarily a convenient option for some, if for instance you live far away, or you don't drive to work. I live not too far, but far enough that walking isn't an option and I don't drive. I'm certainly not going to spend valuable napping time on the ol' chariot of the proletariat (that's the bus for all you car folks) just to take a twenty minute nap.

I have to say that while I find the idea of being able to take a midday nap appealing, there is something socially awkward about napping next to one's co-worker, it's just a little too familiar. But the work landscape has changed to one where flip-flops and jeans are acceptable work attire for most, so perhaps shared nap time with a co-worker is not such a bizarre concept and nap rooms will become as common as washrooms in most office places, but it is still a long way off from being the norm.

For now I'll just sleep under my desk.

Find out who else is napping at work and why:

Who is Napping?

The Nap that Refreshes

On-the-Job Naps Might Cut Risk for Heart Problems

More Bosses Encourage Napping on Job

Delphi Question: Nap Room

France to Let Workers Nap on the Job

Bangkok Office Introduces Daily Nap Time

And check out MetroNaps a company that "enhances workforce productivity through mid-day napping equipment and education." Neat.

nap · nap rooms · office napping · productivity · recharge

I will let the video below do the talking. Feel free to turn the Overlay off using the second button on the top left, but I propose that if product placement is going to be integrated into the storyline of a video then the advertiser should be able to assert that the video/product be clickable.

I love Black Eyed Peas, and I love this video - so I added a few links to the various CDs that I could find with Overlay.TV affiliate partners. Feel free to edit this video, share it, or add the products yourself so you can collect a commission when someone clicks on the products.

After all, RIM probably didn't know we were going to do this - we all might as well cash in!Neilsen has recently released their Product Placement stats. Here are the top dogs:

No tags

Today I start blogging at Overlay.TV and I wanted to set the stage with an idea I have been working on for some time about the problem with context. My colleague Nadav Zin also spends a fair amount of time thinking about this and we bring different and balanced perspectives to the ideas, challenges and what this means for Overlay.TV, and all social media platforms in general.

I will be posting a deck and paper I am working on in the next month or so about "living in video" but I think it only fair that I point to one of the great thinkers, Dr. Michael Wesch from KSU, and the most important platform ever in the history of the internet for study of this issue, YouTube. I have Overlayed Dr. Wesch's video below with some links to the various subjects he discusses to make it a hopefully more useful resource (and to give it some context).

This video is not the point. The subject of the video is. Michael discusses what he calls "Context Collapse" which is the phenomenon formed by millions of anonymous viewers watching millions of anonymous clips, which may or may not have a thread that holds them together. This is compounded the comfort level of the new announcers/stars, the skillset to derive a level of quality in production and implicit semantics of the distribution of this content. What is most interesting about this compound fracture of media as we know it is that it really doesn't matter. What matters is that it is happening, and the volume to which it is happening outpaces the entire history of ABC every six months.Lev Grossman from Time Magazine sums it up with his thoughts on YouTube comments quite well. "Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and naked hatred."

What can be inferred about the content from the thoughts of the viewers?

What can we learn from how people do what they do online now?

What is the long term impact of this shift in media centricity?

I want to explore these semantics more. I want to learn and therefore live with this in mind in all that I do. I think we have only begun to scratch the surface of what this means, but I absolutely intend to keep on scratching.

anthropology · anti-pattern · comments · context · michael wesch · online video · pattern · semantics · youtube