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Spreecast has just launched and is a social networking video tool. Whilst Google+ hangouts have become increasingly popular (including with the Muppets!), and Ustream, Bambuser, Livestream and so on allow you to stream your video live, Spreecast adds in the social element that has been missing from Livestream etc, and the record and broadcast side that is missing from Google + Hangouts.
The application is simple to use, and allows up to 4 people to appear on screen at any time, with a chat facility beneath for the audience to further contribute to the conversation. The opportunities that this type of application provides are probably infinite, and from the success of audio apps for broadcasters, such as Blogtalkradio, it is likely that the video versions of such apps will skyrocket.
However, we should think of this not simply as a marketing tool eg creating content to share with website visitors, but also to consider how tools such as this can be used within the company to enhance internal communications. For instance, if a meeting is held between four of the people within a team, the entire conversation can be shared with the rest of the team, the company or, where appropriate, with the world at a later date.
Spreecasts can be public or private, as well as live and/or archived. You can also pre-schedule a spreecast and invite specific people to join. This takes webinars and phonecasting, for instance, up to a whole new level and allows dialogue and interaction to take place.
From a content creation point of view, there is now no need to meet up in real life in order to gather together your top experts on a particular subject to share information with your customers. And once made and archived, you can make the content available through your website, Twitter, Facebook and so on, reaching a wide audience from a single event.
The simplicity of the toolbox, plus the functionality being offered, make this a sweet solution for those wishing to get into broadcasting, video production, as well as video conferencing. The addition of the social media marketing options such as Twitter and Facebook mean that you can share a Spreecast very easily to your followers or to those who you may wish to get involved in a discussion whilst it is ongoing.
There will be more on Spreecast shortly and hopefully this blog will shortly have some examples from the Clickthrough team with thoughts on Spreecast and goings on in the Internet Marketing world this week. This is a new app but the plans for the future as discussed at 35mins in this Spreecast mean it is definitely one to keep an eye on.
The big announcement this week has of course been Google+ and the limited field trial. Not so limited that people still aren’t managing to sneak in through various back doors! The general consensus from those within the field trial is positive, although obviously the entire reason for the trial is to find bugs and gather feedback so there are plenty of critiques, complaints and suggestions doing the rounds. And Google are responding in double quick time and making changes faster than users can find things to be critical of!
However, overwhelmingly it seems that the vast majority of the (lucky) early adopters want to see Google succeed; if only, to stop the behemoth that is Facebook, which 6 years in, does seem to be suffering a middle-age crisis for many.
There does seem to be a need for an integrator i.e. a one stop shop for everyone’s multiple so-me activities to be easily found, and perhaps Google + is attempting to be this. Add-ons, plug ins and apps will obviously need to be developed, and probably outside Google, just as Tweetdeck was developed for Twitter. It seems that few twitter addicts are likely to give up Twitter for G+, any more than many of us will stop using email, the phone or a letter when these are clearly the right tool for the job.
It would seem that Facebook are going to make an exciting announcement on July 6th, and the money at present is on a video chat with Skype built into FB profiles. There are other possibilities, but this is about the only announcement that will right now derail the buzz about Google’s Hangouts, which seem to be catching on at a rate of knots.
Facebook has made a few other changes this week too, such as adding the possibility of Klout for brands on Facebook. The vast majority of the non-so-me world have probably never have heard of Klout unless their Twitterstream mentions it, so this measure of influence has just taken a big step from the business world to the land of consumers. Klout’s announcement about Facebook integration means that brands can customise the user experience to any brand page according to their Klout score. One has to admit this is a clever move for Klout, extending their reach to consumers, whilst giving brands even more reason to take note of Klout.
This is a nice win-win for the social media world and pushes Klout, which many have been derogoratory about recently, back towards the forefront of activity in the so-me world. Not just for businesses, who should be at least monitoring their Klout score for an idea of how effective their social media activities are, but also for consumers who may well begin to see brands differently once Klout is introduced into the social networking experience.
Whilst many have to date seen Facebook as a purely social experience, the fact that most TV ads now have “Follow us on Facebook” shows that businesses, whilst relatively slow on the uptake, have finally realised that FB is a route to wallets, sales and “brand love”. What businesses need to do far more quickly than they did with Facebook is get into Google+ as soon as possible. Because Google + is not about social networking per se, and this is only one of the many changes coming from Google over the coming hours, days, week and months.
If your company has been relying on SEO, then you need to know that even Google is no longer relying on that. Read the next post!
There seems to be a commonly recurring theme in the blog posts recently about how important it is to talk to and listen to your customers. It really is not all about SEO if you want to win business, market share and higher search engine rankings – it is about adopting a holistic policy to marketing online that hits all of your potential customers and audience’s buttons.
Do they want to talk on the phone or do they prefer email? Do you actually know what your customers prefer? Do they want to see a live person and ask questions or do they want to peruse your FAQ, manuals, How to guides etc online at their leisure? Do you offer all the potential choices so that each customer can interact with you and your company how they choose to, rather than a limited set of choices that may not be to that potential customer’s taste?
Years before Facebook etc, I fell over Cyworld – (this is the link to the US version as the original Korean site is too hard for the average non-Korean speaker to work out!). You can basically create your own virtual existence, there is a fantastic monetization method for Cyworld to generate real world cash from virtual world spending, and bearing in mind that Cyworld is now 10 years old, it was waaaaay ahead of its time.
What fascinated me was the involvement of certain savvy businesses. The site was the world’s first social network, it looks totally bizarre to our eyes – too fanciful and cartoony, and yet here were businesses playing the game. They had got in there, created mini-hompies (mini homepages) and were engaging their potential customers in live chat, video conferencing, competitions, give aways, discussions about products, you name it. (You need to remember that Korea has one of the best networks in the world so bandwidth for them is not an issue and they take things like video conferencing as a given and have done for years.)
The point is though that most Western businesses just haven’t got this yet. Still. A decade later.
You need real-time interaction with your customers. Most business websites still have an olde worlde contact number on their site. Very few have yet added Live person text chat, let alone webcams etc so customers can see who they are talking to.
So, today’s task is to investigate TinyChat. The potential of this free tool for ANY business is enormous. If you don’t get it immediately for your business, consider these options:
* Run a once a week webinar or chat where consumers can talk to a techie, a sales rep, the CEO of the company, a real live person. Let them voice their concerns, ask their questions, give you feedback on your products, service, website etc. Make it a two way conversation.
* Let existing customers persuade potential ones of the benefits of your product. Tie it in to your affiliate program so your virtual sales reps can earn money from their involvement.
* Struggling to get a focus group together to review a product? Do it online through TinyChat. Who needs to rent a room in a hotel or conference venue when they can all sit in the comfort of their own homes and talk to each other online?
* Hold a conference for your sales reps or affiliates dotted around the country so they can share what they have learnt about selling your product, the competition, difficulties with marketing collateral, strategies that work etc.
* Do you sell information products? Hold a brain storming session and find out what people actually want to know and where this overlaps with your experience. Then get writing!
I could come up with ideas of how to use Tinychat for ever, for any business. And it’s free.Set up a room, tweet to your followers that you will be holding a session on xyz that you know will be of interest, plan it so it is interesting and engaging, and have a pile of links/white papers/coupons/money off offers etc ready to share with them that meet your core goals, and away you go.
If this doesn’t create a buzz amongst your customers and differentiate you from your competition, read the blog tomorrow for another idea for any business! There are hundreds of high tech opportunities for online marketing available to play with ……..
