I’ve just been checking out  Gary Vaynerchuk’s new venture: Obsessed with Samantha. My first impression was the incongruity of the TV like opening credits sequence on the web. Whilst undoubtedly they give the show credibility and a high class feel, I just found them annoying – I just want to get straight to the content. The fact that I’m viewing the show on the Obsessed with Samantha website already gives me context, so the credits are not necessary. The site uses Viddler as its video platform and the quality of the HD stream is very impressive. In full screen mode on my laptop, it’s just like watching TV. I was not convinced by the ‘Oprah’ format of the videocasts, and felt the conversational tone of the half-hour interviews lacked energy – however I’m clearly not part of the target audience.

However the site has a great lesson for all videocasters and everyone should be inspired by Gary’s extraordinary hustling skills. Gary has made a deal with Caffe Notte Wine Bar. In return for banner space and a dedicated page on the site showcasing the venue, he gets to shoot the episodes of Obsessed with Samantha there. This is a classic example of a win-win deal. From the venue owner’s point of view, the page showcasing the bar and its video is fantastic. It really makes you want to go there, and is immediately more appealing than the picture of the bar you get from its ageing website. In addition, the venue gets significant exposure. For Gary and Samantha, this high class location gives a professional feel to the show and projects quality and credibility. Now think: -where could you negotiate to shoot your videocasts?

David Armano has posted a great diagram on his blog that synthesises one of the consequences of social media fragmentation by using the metaphor of influence ripples.
Although as Karl Long has pointed out ‘one conceptual problem with the ripple concept is ripples disappear, where as the ripples in the blogosphere form permanent records of [...]

Jeff Jarvis has published a very interesting article in Business Week reviewing the changes made by Dell to become a company that engages with its customers online. The transformative changes were initiated after a 2005 public relation disaster when a blog storm engulfed the company. Among the transformations made is the launch of a dedicated [...]