Building an Audience-Thrilling Videoblog

There are few people in Social Media who know how to connect with their audience the way Robert Scoble does. If you are interested in building a following of loyal fans DON'T MISS ROBERT SCOBLE in Vegas at The New Media Expo . Online video content creators please join us in Las Vegas August 14-16, 2008.

Building an Audience-Thrilling Videoblog
Track 4: Audio and Video Creation: "How To" Techniques for Making Compelling Content
Instructor: Robert Scoble of FastCompanyTV
Description: You have a camcorder, or, maybe even a cell phone with a video camera. You post your videos up online and perhaps even participate in "life streaming" and video communities like Ustream, Seesmic, or Justin.tv. But you don't have as many viewers as geek star Chris Pirillo and you're wondering how to take your videoblogging/life streaming up a notch. This session is for you! Robert will cover writing a better blog, why photography is important, working various communities to get exposure and promotion and how to get noticed by doing all of this well. This is an opportunity to learn how to build a videoblog that will get noticed in an ever-crowded field and have fun creating it.

Robert Scoble Hates DirecTV

Popular Video Blogger Robert Scoble Twittered tonight "since Comcast is listening now. Can you bring HD into Half Moon Bay? Zip code 94019. I hate DirectTV"

Will this influencer shift others away from DirecTV?

Will he get HD from Comcast?

Do you think Robert Scoble has that much power?

Does Twitter make that kind of interaction with a cable company possible?

Let me know if you hear the Comcast trucks roll into Half Moon Bay.

Micro Celebrity

Pop17, a daily exploration to track, analyze and understand the new cultural phenomenon of online micro-celebrity launched today. It includes some Internet fame survey results from interviews in NYC asking people if they have heard of Robert Scoble, Homestar Runner, LisaNova, Tila Tequila, Rihanna, Perez Hilton, Tay Zonday, Chris Crocker, Smosh and Lauren Caitlin Upton.

Micro Celebrity status is a pretty funny thing. I've received many free drinks and dinners just because I have a popular online video but that only goes so far. Last year at MacWorld I hung out with Rocketboom's Andrew Baron one night and we went party hoping getting into parties and party VIP rooms until we came upon a MacWorld party where we were not on the list and they had never heard of Rocketboom or French Maid TV. We asked if it was a MacWorld party and they said. "Yes." We asked what company was sponsoring the party and they explained that it was a party for the people who put the booths together for MacWorld - They were the convention people who produced the MacWorld EXPO. Andrew and I didn't get in to that party.

Two years ago I was walking the trade show floor at the New Media EXPO with Robert Scoble and everyone was saying hello to him "left and right" until we got to a very crowded Nokia booth where they were showing a new camera phone that recorded video. Now I had met the guy from Nokia (who was from Finland) before at a Podcast Academy but Robert had not. I could tell that Robert really wanted to get his hands on that new camera phone and he introduced himself to the guy saying, "Hi, I'm Robert Scoble." The guy from Nokia introduced himself saying, "Nice to meet you." Then the Nokia guy went on to chat with other people who want to see the camera phone. Robert introduced himself again and I chimed in and explained who Robert was but it was kind of like explaining a joke to someone from another country. The Nokia guy had no idea who Robert was but he did take Robert's card and I wouldn't be surprised if Robert did end up getting one of those phones for free.

Last year at NAB I was hanging out with my best friend Ted who runs a camera company that's pretty popular in the motion picture industry and we went bar hopping in Vegas and the drinks were free because the bar tenders knew who Ted was but eventually we came to a bar where they had no idea and the drinks were pretty expensive.

Ted and I have been at the same conferences at the same time many times and in the old days when no one knew us we would go to parties together and have a blast. Now neither one of us wants to leave our circles of friends and go to the other one's parties because no one will know us there. Ted and I talk about it and how it's fun being a big fish in a little pond and how we are both having the most fun professionally that we have ever had we just wonder if the day will come when we can enjoy our "Micro Celebrity" status at the same party at the same time together.

The Latest in Online Video Advertising YuMe

Robert Scoble "wanted to find out what the latest is in video advertising." Jayant Kadambi, CEO of YuMe networks shows him the latest. If you're in the video business you'll want to watch this one.

The Real Number for 800-GoFedEx

So if you have a new or used Blackberry Pearl, a Blackberry 8800 series or a Blackberry Curve and you try to dial 800-GoFedEx you might not get connected to the phone number for Fedex (800)463-3339 because you don't have the old letters on numbers that old phones have. The real number for 800 Go Fed Ex is 800 463-3339. Why is an online video guy blogging about the real number for FEDEX? Well...

Today I needed to call FedEx and ask about shipping a FedEx package to Canada. So I Googled "phone number for FedEx" and got 888-GO-FEDEX and not the real fedex number of 800-463-3339. I kept Googleing and along the way I discovered 1-800-GOOG-411, Google's new 411 service. I called GOOG-411 or 1-800-GOOG-411 or 1-800-466-4411 and asked for FedEX. Its automated voice recognition service didn't understand me and sent me to San Francisco where I then asked for "Federal Express" and it connected me to FedEx. I went through a series of automated questions and finally got to a human, got my question answered and was on my way to the nearest local Fedex drop box. On the walk to the fedex drop box I thought about how I must not be the only person going through this problem and that got me thinking some more...

But as I was googeling all this I discovered the GOOG-411 video up above that I thought I should share because it's a great example of what small businesses should do with online video. It's fun, simple and does a super job of explaining what GOOG-411 is and how you can use it. It also has a little interactive contest attached to build community.

So other than the GOOG411 video the reason a video guy is blogging about FedEx's phone number is that I thought I would blog about fedex using different spellings of FEdEX to see if it brought me natural traffic through Google Search.

We'll have to wait a few weeks to see how this little experiment on contextual search works out. It's not like blogging about Robert Scoble, Mark Zuckerberg or Andrew Baron from Rocketboom where you know it will get you a few clicks just cause everyone is using their Google Alerts to track those boys.