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Facebook’s New Subscribe Button Means More Exposure For Online Video

Posted Sep 15 2011 by in Facebook, Online Video, Social Media with 0 Comments

Facebook has unveiled a new feature called the Subscribe Button that enables users to receive publicly visible status updates from people who aren’t on their friend list. This same feature will also allow users to customize the updates they see from those who are on their friends list, a further elaboration on the current basic feature of being able to block a particular friend’s updates from showing up on the News Feed.

A comparison of a subscription versus a page.

Facebook’s official announcement states that the new subscribe feature can be used to:

  • Choose what you see from people in News Feed
  • Hear from people, even if you’re not friends
  • Let people hear from you, even if you’re not friends

As far as being able to choose what shows up in your News Feed, the Subscribe Button will give you three choices regarding the amount of content you’d like to see:

  • All updates: Everything your friend posts
  • Most updates: The amount you’d normally see
  • Important updates only: Just highlights, like a new job or move

The Subscribe Button also allows you to hear from people who you aren’t friends with, like celebrities, artists, political figures and journalists; which has much more accurate connotations than becoming their friend, or liking them. One way to conceptualize Facebook’s new Subscribe Button is that it’s very similar to following someone on Twitter.

This a huge move forward for Facebook in the individuals control over their own content aggregation. Instead of your news feed being full of your friends’ exclamations of joy about their day off from work, or woes about their procrastination habit, you’ll be able to receive more developed and curated content; like links to news articles, information on newly released films or music, or important political speeches or events. Additionally, any Facebook user who wants to share their public updates with a wider audience than just their friends list can opt in and add a subscribe button to their profile, so this feature is not limited to celebrities or organizations.

An example of Facebook's subscription option

What does this mean for video? Ostensibly, the new Subscribe Button is going to aggrandize the sharing of video via Facebook in a major way. In the past video has been limited to sharing among friends as posts to their wall, or via a private message. Now, users are granted a much higher level of control over who they’re receiving content from, and profiles who have a large number of subscribers will be able to push their content out to a much larger audience. Considering that Facebook is the 3rd highest ranked site for online video views (according to comScore.com) we can expect to see video sharing to increase drastically with the rise of the Facebook Subscribe option.

Catch Our Webcast of Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour Philadelphia!

Posted Sep 2 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Webcasting, Wizards of the Coast with 0 Comments

The entrance hall at the Philadelphia Convention Center

Our fearless leader Aaron Booker is on the road again, this time stationed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to provide IT and webcasting services for the Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour tournament! Magic is a nearly two-decade-old collectible card game played by thousands of people worldwide, sometimes with thousands of dollars of prize money on the line. This Sunday’s tournament is sure to be extra-exciting, because the gurus behind Magic are rolling out a whole new gameplay format that promises to level the playing field.

To watch the webcast, head over to this page on Sunday, September 4th by 11am EST. Here’s a handy way to find out what time you can tune in in your time zone:

  • Los Angeles: 7:45 a.m.
  • Chicago: 9:45 a.m.
  • New York: 10:45 a.m.
  • Rio de Janeiro: 11:45 a.m.
  • London: 3:45 p.m.
  • Paris: 4:45 p.m.
  • Berlin: 4:45 p.m.
  • Rome: 4:45 p.m.
  • Moscow: 6:45 p.m.
  • Tokyo: 11:45 p.m.
  • Sydney: 12:45 a.m. Monday

Remembering Jim Locke

Posted Aug 24 2011 by in SBS with 0 Comments

When we lost Jim Locke this month, we lost a pillar of the SMB community. Jim was a great man, who never ceased in his efforts to grow the community and develop strong relationships with vendors and SMBs. Jim was the president of IT consulting firm ResultWorx, and received the SBS’er of the Year Award for his work with SMBTN.

Jim leaves behind his wife Marilyn and son Brian. Following Jim’s vision that Brian go to college, SMBTN has set up a fund to allow Jim’s SMB community friends to contribute to Brian’s college fund. To learn more, go to http://www.smbtn.org/JimLocke.htm

Below are some moments in Jim’s life which we captured on tape. Please join us in remembering Jim.

Congrats to the MSPmentor Top 250!!

Posted Aug 10 2011 by in Joe Panettieri, Managed Services, MSPmentor with 0 Comments

What do all the names below have in common? They were all chosen as part of MSPmentor’s Top 250 “executives, entrepreneurs, experts, coaches and community leaders shaping the global managed services market.” This list, which is currently in its fourth year, is produced by Joe Panettieri’s team at MSPmentor and Nine Lives Media, Inc. What else do these esteemed companies have in common? They’re all clients and/or partners of Varvid! We’re proud to be able to work with so many individuals and organizations that are being recognized in the community.

Congratulations!

Ashutosh Tiwary, Chairman & CEO, Doyenz

Rick Bahl, President, Quality Systems Solutions Inc.

Arnie Bellini, CEO, ConnectWise

Linda Brotherton, CTO, ConnectWise

Renee Bergeron, VP of Managed Services & Cloud Computing, Ingram Micro

Jane Cage, COO/CFO, Heartland Technology Solutions

Mark Cattini, CEO, Autotask Corp.

Chris Chase, CEO, JoomConnect

Carlson Colomb, Director, Business Development, Level Platforms

Stuart Crawford, Chief Marketing Officer, Ulistic Inc.

Len DiCostanzo, Senior VP, Business Development, Autotask Corp.

Jeannine Edwards, Director of Community, ConnectWise

James Foxall, President, Tigerpaw Software

Dave Foxall, Owner and Founder, Tigerpaw Software

Jim Hamilton, VP, Member Relations, CompTIA

Kevin Hoffman, CEO, eFolder

Ted Hulsy, VP of Marketing, eFolder

Lisa Jenkins, Segment Marketing Manager, Commercial Services, Cisco Systems Inc.

Jay McBain, Senior VP, Strategy & Community Development, Autotask Corp.

Kent McNall, CEO, Quosal

Michael Minnich, CEO, NetGain Information Systems

Rick Murphy, Managing Partner, Cogent Growth Partners

Bob Penland, CTO, TruMethods

Gary Pica, President, TruMethods

Rob Rae, Director, Partner Development & Operations, Level Platforms

Alex Rogers, President, CharTec

Dan Rosedahl, General Manager, Corporate Technologies

Christy Sacco, Director of Operations, HTG Peer Groups

Peter Sandiford, CEO, Level Platforms

David Schafran, Managing Partner, Cogent Growth Partners

Scott Scrogin, President, HTG Peer Groups

Doug Sikora, Director of Software Development, Tigerpaw Software

Corey Simpson, MSP Partners Community Manager, CompTIA

Arlin Sorensen, CEO & Founder, HTG Peer Groups

Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA

Erik Thorsell, President, Success Computer Consulting

Jason Tierney, VP, Product Development, Corporate Network Services Inc.

Eric Webster, Chief Revenue Officer, Doyenz

Dan Wensley, VP, Partner Development and Marketing, Level Platforms

 

Why Outstanding Mobile Platform Support is Critical

Posted Aug 9 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Video Delivery, Webcasting with 0 Comments

Everyone knows that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Well, I like to think of any multi-platform software or service as a chain – if one of the links (platforms) in the chain is weak, well… it’s time to get a new chain. I bring it up because I recently read a blog post by Jeremy over at Never Stop Marketing about an experience he had with the AdobeConnect live conferencing software. Jeremy was testing out the software, trying to connect with a colleague, but the colleague only had mobile devices handy. AdobeConnect didn’t support mobile, so they had to use a different service. That’s why, in Jeremy’s words, it’s important to think “mobile first.”***

In today’s connected world, mobile devices are ubiquitous. One third of American adults own a smartphone, according to a recent Pew study. In the tech industry, that fraction seems much closer to 100%. I see tablets everywhere at conferences, with the iPad dominating usage even in our Microsoft-based ecosystem. However, mobile interfaces and support often continue to lag behind their traditional PC/Mac counterparts. As Jeremy and I agree, this is wrong. Mobile is critical and should be your best-optimized system – because it may be your user’s only option.  For video, we prefer our clients’ viewers to watch our work on the best screen possible.  We’re proud of what we do, and we know that bigger screens make high quality video look better. However, nothing is more critical than the viewer watching the video, regardless of screen size or computing type.

At Varvid, we offer video production, editing, hosting, and webcasting services, and all of those follow our “mobile critical” principle. Our workflow is optimized to deliver files ready to upload (H.264) to mobile oriented delivery platforms, and we make sure that all videos hosted with us are available for playback on mobile devices. When we choose partners for video platforms and webcasting, we pick providers who share our idea that mobile support is paramount. With webcasting, which is decidedly not compatible with mobile by default, we make an extra effort to provide mobile support to the market leading devices. A recent webcast that we worked on was streamed online in four different formats – including state-of-the-art HTML for iOS devices.

How are you supporting your mobile device carrying clients? Does your helpdesk support those users?  How well? AdobeConnect can stand to lose a couple users – can you?

*** For what it’s worth, AdobeConnect is now optimized for mobile, but first impressions are what stick with clients and potential clients.

Why You Can’t Afford Not to Have Captions on Your YouTube Videos

Posted Jul 22 2011 by in SEO, YouTube with 0 Comments

These days, every SMB wants SEO to boost their ROI so they can make an IPO and eventually, one day, STFU and BBQ on a warm, sunny beach somewhere. But what we’re all finding is that it’s not that easy. As Google and Bing continually re-structure their search algorithms, some time-tested strategies break down, and some new strategies emerge. The important thing, as the plethora of new social media experts know, is to ride the tide between consumer activity and technological advancement – to pay attention to what’s being searched for, and how those searches work.

Recently, YouTube added the Caption & Subtitles functionality to all YouTube videos. It’s simple to use – you just type out a plain-text file of everything that’s said in the video, and upload it to YouTube. But here’s the exciting part – YouTube’s given us yet another SEO opportunity, in addition to titles, descriptions, and keywords: your video can now be found by searching for a phrase present in the subtitles.

And the potential SEO benefits are only one reason to add captions to all your videos – you never know who your next client will be. Perhaps theres a deaf business owner in your city right now, who desperately needs better IT support. Maybe they’ll search and find you, and maybe they won’t – but if your video has captions, the chances are better that they will.

So don’t waste another minute! You spend time and energy thinking of the right keywords and phrases for your website, why not spend a little more writing out some subtitles? I think I’m going to get started right now.

Why Webcast? Why Not??

Posted Jul 18 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Webcasting, WPC with 0 Comments

If you know Varvid, you know that our passion is taking your video and putting it on the Internet. You might know us as the people who interviewed you at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in the past few years. You might know us as the people who are helping you leverage the power of video for your website. What you might not know is that one of Varvid’s oldest and most reliable lines of business is webcasting.

What’s Webcasting?

Webcasting is the Internet-everywhere, always-connected companion to standard event videography. In today’s modern world, you can’t be everywhere at once – but now you can have access to the Internet and a hand-held screen at all times. Varvid is here to make sure that event attendance and visibility isn’t limited by the size or location of the venue – we can show anything to anyone, anywhere. In the past, we’ve provided live webcasting services for such events as Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour, Sea to Ski, Fight Night Rounds XII – XV (in association with 360 Productions and GoFightLive.tv), and, most recently, Worldwide Partner Conference 2011.

Past ‘Casts

Last week, we partnered with the Microsoft Partner Network and Mimecast to provide awesome, informative webcasts, three times a day, from the floor of the Worldwide Partner Conference. Some of the roundtable discussions were even hosted by our very own Aaron Booker! It was a terrific experience all around, and would have been even without the 2,000+ daily views. But what was really exciting for us was integrating Facebook into the entire process. Through Aaron’s digital wizardry, we were able to display the live stream directly on our Facebook Fan Page, enabling viewers to become better acquainted with Varvid while enjoying our live coverage. And did we get likes? Oh yeah, we got likes.

Casting Our Webs into the Future

So what’s next for Varvid and webcasting? Well, our friends at Fight Night Entertainment are up to their old tricks with Fight Night Round XVI at Swinomish Casino, August 13th, and we’ll be there in force with360 Productions and GoFightLive.tv. And the technology for webcasting is evolving all the time: some musicians have started using Facebook to host live concerts, with admittance payable in Facebook Credits.ReelSEO‘s Grant Crowell considers it a revolution. Beyond that, well, make us an offer. Webcasting an event can be a great way to create buzz and get exposure. Whether you’ve already got a video crew, or would like us to find you one (we know some real pros), we’re ready to help you share your event with the world.

Video SEO is Paramount to E-Commerce Success

Posted Jul 18 2011 by in Online Video, SEO, Sunday Sky with 0 Comments

An e-commerce video solutions provider called Sunday Sky recently released their report titled “The State Of Video In E-Commerce – Q1 2011” which delivers an overview and update for the latest trends in the ways online retailers are using video. The study shows that more and more e-retailers are turning to video for their marketing needs, and online video is on the rise both in terms of production by providers, and views by consumers.

The report focused on online video’s presence in top e-retailers’ websites, video indexing by search engines, SEO impact of using online retail videos and revenue potential of an effective online video strategy, which gives a comprehensive view of the online video world. One of the major findings was that even with the number of retailers who mass-scaled their videos increasing by nearly 50%, an astounding 68% of retailers still have not implemented an online video strategy. This statistic illustrates the online video landscape impeccably as it reinforces a trend we’ve noticed at Varvid, that the companies who “get” video and who’re investing are seeing results at an exponential rate, while those who don’t “get” video are being left in the dust.

Other important data show that the number of people subscribing to online retailer’s YouTube channels increased by more than 20% and most video results for retail-related keywords are continuing to only be posted solely on YouTube. This indicates substantial growth of viewership and engagement, especially in the domain of e-commerce an online advertising. A particularly crucial finding is that certain keyword categories (like “computer gaming”) have a higher presence of video results than others (like “office supplies” or “furniture”) which shows the pragmatism involved in what a video communicates, and the importance of keywords and research.

Video should not be created for the sake of making video; if the time, effort and resources are being allotted for a video project, it’s crucial to decide on how it will function in your overall marketing campaign. Knowing which keywords and topics that are receiving more views should play a major role in the planning and execution of your videos because if you don’t have a strategy for your video work, it’s most likely doomed to slip into the abysmal depths of the internet and find very few views, if any at all.

Varvid Facilitates Webcasting at WPC 2011

Posted Jul 12 2011 by in Varvid Team, Webcasting, WPC with 0 Comments

This week’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles is not only the biggest IT industry conference in the world, it’s also an event rich with ideas, opinions, and innovations. Of course, not everyone can make it to California for a week out of the office. Fortunately, Varvid, in partnership with the Microsoft Partner Network and Mimecast, is here to facilitate a whole week’s worth of free webcasts that boil down WPC’s big announcements and insights into three round-table discussions each day.

You can tune in to all the shows at the Microsoft Partner Network site, at our sister site Varvid.tv, or on Facebook.

Here’s the schedule:

MONDAY

1pm – 1:30pm ~ Feat. Mary Jo Foley, Ray Wang, Kelvin Kirby, Patri Salonen, Mark Drapeau, and Angus Fox ~ Hosted by Katlen Tillman

3pm – 3:30pm ~ Feat. Peter Sandiford & others ~ Hosted by Aaron Booker

5pm – 5:30pm ~ Day in Review ~ Feat. Judy Kolde, Eric Ligman, Birger Steen, Dux Raymond Sy, and David Saele ~ Hosted by Katlen Tillman

TUESDAY

1pm – 1:30pm ~ Winning with the Cloud & A World of Smart Devices ~ Feat. Angus Fox, Justin Pirie, Anders Tolle-Schulz & others ~ Hosted by Katlen Tillman

3pm – 3:30pm ~ Evolution of Microsoft Partner Network ~ Feat. Dave Seibert, Ro V. Kolakowski, York Hutton & others ~ Hosted by Aaron Booker

5pm – 5:30pm ~ Day in Review ~ Feat. Liza Sisler, Balz Wyss, Eric Ligman, Stuart Williams, Anders Trolle-Schulz, and Peter Bauer ~ Hosted by Katlen Tillman

WEDNESDAY

1pm – 1:30pm ~ TBA ~ Hosted by Katlen Tillman

3pm – 3:30pm ~ Seeding the Cloud ~ Feat. Harry Brelsford & others ~ Hosted by Aaron Booker

5pm – 5:30pm ~ Day in Review ~ Hosted by Katlen Tillman

THURSDAY

1pm – 1:30pm ~ TBA ~ Hosted by Katlen Tillman

3pm – 3:30pm ~ Peer-to-Peer Partnering & WPC 2011 Wrap-Up ~ Feat. Arlin Sorensen & others ~ Hosted by Aaron Booker

Meet the Hosts

 

Aaron Booker is the co-founder and President of Varvid, a video production company dedicated to helping IT professionals leverage online video for their businesses. Aaron has over thirty years of experience in the industry and prides himself on staying abreast of developments and happenings in the IT world. Aaron hosts webcasts at 3pm daily. Follow his tweets at @aaronbooker.

 

 

Katlen Tillman is a digital marketing professional whose collaboration-centric approach has led to successful outcomes time and time again. Katlen hosts webcasts on behalf of the Worldwide Partner Group at 1pm and 5pm daily. Follow her tweets at @katlen.

Varvid Webcasts Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour in Nagoya, Japan

Posted Jun 10 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Webcasting, Wizards of the Coast with 0 Comments

This weekend, Varvid‘s Aaron Booker will be on-location in Nagoya, Japan, providing top-tier webcasting services for the Magic: the Gathering Pro Tour competition. The tournament, put on by tabletop gaming heavyweight Wizards of the Coast, will host hundreds of internationally-ranked Magic players. These pros will duel it out all weekend long for a chance to take home part of a whopping $230,000 prize pool! Tune in to the Top 8 live stream here: http://www.wizards.com/webcast, starting Saturday June 11th at 6:45pm PST (9:45pm EST), and we’ll keep you updated with pictures, screenshots, and highlights from the event.

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