Question

Topic: Just for Fun

Twitter Micro-vlogging Next?

Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 5/17/2009 at 4:15 PM ET 500 Points
I have been playing with several of the new twitter related video sites popping up such as "twiddeo.com" and "12seconds.tv" for links to my twitter posts. Twiddeo is well branded but not really short video. 12seconds is true short video as the name implies.

The question is will twitter use line extension branding to launch a "12 second video" product in addition to it's 140 character text product.

The next iPhone is expected to launch next month with much better camera capabilities ... could be a boom to short video sharing. Would you prefer to "see and hear" a short form message, or stick with reading text, or have the best of both worlds?

feel free to expand on this question as you see fit.

Thanks

Steve
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  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/17/2009 at 8:34 PM Accepted
    Dear Steve,

    Q: "What is predictable in the world of social media?"
    My answer: Change.

    What's hip today will be soooo 20th century three months or six months from now.

    And six months from then, and a year from now.

    Many new social media/social network sites spring up in the hope that they'll be snapped up by Google for a bajillion dollars. Others have better, bigger purposes. Because of this, some will endure and thrive. Others won't.

    The success of social media/social networks will depend on the social virus nature of the site, the application, or the thing the site allows people to do.

    I say "social virus" because the success of any given social media/social network depends on how swiftly they can increase their infection rate (for infection read, popularity).

    That's how these things grow. Organically. They morph. They mutate. And each time they change, the neural strength of their network increases. Their success depends on their ability to create not new social interaction but new neural interactions.

    I think social media/social networks succeed (and will continue to succeed) because they connect to a deeply rooted part of our DNA: to be significant. THAT's the key.

    I also think that when it comes to the take up rates of new sites, the question people will ask themselves is "How will this network impact my significance, my visibility?".

    Whether people admit or acknowledge it or not, they want to know how something will make them look in the eyes of other people.

    The higher their use of any given social network places a person in terms of significance, in terms of a social hierarchy, the more popular that social network will become. And it's this that will impact the infection rates—the popularity rates—that the network needs to thrive.

    You Tube thrives because it gives everyone their 15 minutes (or, more accurately, their 10 minutes) of fame. So the significance it permits is huge. Hence its popularity. Likewise Facebook. It tells people "Look at me. People know me. I have friends"

    Ipso facto: I have significance.

    Give people significance in any setting and they'll come back for more. And with them will come others, looking for the same thing.

    Just my two cents' worth. But perhaps it's complete tosh!

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 5/17/2009 at 9:04 PM Author
    Not "compete tosh" at all Gary, seems in line with what the majority of expert bloggers are writing about the social media phenomena.

    Back to micro-vlogging, here's a link to a 12seconds.tv post:
    https://12seconds.tv/channel/KennyandtheSkull

    Do you think Twitter will be satisfied watching these third party micro-vlogging sites continue to grow. Or will Twitter integrate this service into their brand family?
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/17/2009 at 10:08 PM Member
    Dear Steve,

    Well, thank you. I've not read any of the other blogs on the
    theory of social media; the thoughts above are my own. But it's refreshing to see that my thoughts gel with those of acknowledged experts.

    I think if they have any sense, Twitter will be all over this like a cheap suit! They'll improve it, expand the time line (possibly up to 30 seconds), and include options to do all kinds of other things although at the moment it's way too late at night for me to think what these things might be.

    Interesting stuff.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA





  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 5/18/2009 at 8:49 AM Accepted
    Text (so far) has the technological edge of searchability.

    In English, people speak (on average) 160 words/minute, which means 32 words in 12sec. Tweets (on average) have about 15 words (in 140 chars), so content-wise, more can be conveyed in 12sec (plus the visuals add content).

    Obviously, if Twitter sees significant growth from video-twittering sites, the easiest thing is to acquire these companies and increase its market share with the latest "in" thing.
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 5/18/2009 at 2:25 PM Author
    Jay,

    I didn't consider the searchability aspect, I know we can tag video content with keywords to assist in search.

    I completely agree with the acquisition strategy, but maybe not an acquisition of "12seconds.tv". It seems the length of time for a "vid twit" is in question ... 15seconds.tv or 20seconds.tv. Research can answer this question.

    Thanks for the post.

    Steve
  • Posted by michael on 5/18/2009 at 5:40 PM Accepted
    Steve,
    Personally....text. I know for certain that some of our target audiences are not going to wait for 30 seconds to load a 12 sec video.

    Michael
  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 5/18/2009 at 6:49 PM Author
    Good point Michael. Not sure what the load times will actually turn out to be.

    If you click on the 12seconds link in my above post, the load time is 2 seconds flat on my mac ... pretty good.

    Steve
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