Hello and welcome to Media On Q Episode 4 Hyper Syndication Part 2. My name is Carlos Quintero. Today we are going to explore techniques that are useful for those of us who are content producers. So if you create content for your blog, website, social media posts or even web video for YouTube or Vimeo…this will be right up your alley. This is part two of a two-segment podcast. In part one, which is Media On Q Episode 3 Hyper Syndication Part 1, I share information with you about where exactly you can find your target audience as well as an overview of how RSS feeds can help you. In part two, we’ll talk about how to target content to Computers, Tablets and Smart Phones and even Television sets. I’ll also share with you and possibly remind you about the important point in successful marketing and we’ll make sure to cover some tools that can help you keep everything running. What’s the idea or functionality behind Hyper Syndication? Well, hyper syndication helps you create content once and distribute it across many digital platforms or in simple terms do more with less. While Hyper Syndication is a simple and straightforward process we’ll have to involve and use several different technologies to effectively execute this strategy. What we’ll go over is how to piece these tools together in order to get the only thing that ever matters in marketing and that is RESULTS. I run a digital media company in the Midwest called –Media On Q. My name is Carlos Quintero, Media On Q CEO and founder. Once again thank you for joining me. Remember you can always share your comments or provide feedback directly at mediaonq.com. Targeting Computers Let’s go over how to target computers. With Hyper Syndication you should definitely want to target people while they are at their computer as this will most likely be the largest audience. Sure, I agree mobile phones need to be included. I will cover mobile next. The fact is that most people spend a great deal or large percentage of their day sitting in front of a computer. That is more time than any other activity in their day. So we’ll need to have a reliable content delivery solution that’s cross platform in place. What I mean by cross platform is that we will be able to deliver the content to Mac, Windows and Linux computers. We don’t want to force people to download special plug-ins or apps so that they can consume our content. Video content and the broad range of services that are readily available can help you target the computer audience. With services like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook Video and Google+ Video Players you can upload your video to these services and know that they will provide great reliable cross platform delivery for your content. There are several other services out there like Blip.tv and Veoh. What you’ll want to do is find video sharing services that offer their own set of Hyper Syndication tools making it easy for you to deliver your content. It is important that you keep one thing in mind. We are living in a volatile market. In my career, I’ve seen many companies and services come and go…you don’t want to put all of your eggs into one basket and always remember to back up your files. Another option that you will want to make readily available to your audience is a single click share option to their social media, email or blog. This simple convenience can rapidly extend your reach. One other area that you’ll want to pay attention to as you explore video sharing services is their distribution services. For example Blip.tv allows you to distribute directly to iTunesand also has the ability to target multiple devices all from a single interface making it easy to use. Needless to say, this is a major selling point for Blip.tv. I will be brief with this point. I am going to guess that there is a high likelihood that you are not a lawyer or an attorney – I am going to suggest that you read the terms of service for any and all of the video or content sharing sites that you choose to use. In short what you’ll find is simple. If you are using someone else’s network, servers and technology to deliver your content – you basically agree in very broad terms to allow them to use and distribute your video as they see fit. It is not all bad…simply keep in mind that you will probably not own exclusivity rights to that content moving forward. Meaning, you are not going to make money off of the royalties and won’t be able to claim that someone took your idea and put a twist to it… Here it is in a nutshell for you. Let’s take YouTube as an example. 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day…that is more video than what most of us can imagine. Now, most of us know that Google owns YouTube…and neither YouTube nor Google have time for law suits, particularly from content providers…So in their terms of use and user generated content agreements, they make sure that they are protected. Keep in mind that while I used YouTube as an example they are not the only company who takes these types of steps to protect themselves. I only bring this up because if you have specific types of content that could generate royalties…it is worth you taking the time to consult with someone who has your rights and best interest in mind before you start publishing your content on the web. The trade off on the positive side is that services like YouTube will compress your files so that they are available across all the various digital platforms and screen sizes… Targeting Portable Media Players There isn’t a better way to target portable media players than podcasting, in my opinion. Now with Podcasting – there are a lot of things that you may not have thought about such as normalizing audio so that it sounds great in the car or through ear buds plugged directly into your phone. If you are interested in learning all of the ins and outs on podcasting I would suggest that you look up The Podcasters' Studio and Podcasters' Roundtable with Ray Ortega or The Audacity to Podcast with Daniel J. Lewis both of those guys are incredibly selfless in the amount of information they share and frankly will help fast track you toward getting your podcast off the ground. Daniel J. Lewis also offers podcast cover art services, which you may find useful. While I am at this, it is also worth mentioning that if you need a professional sound to your podcast production you should check out Music Radio Creative with Mike Russell. The guys I’ve mentioned will all help you get your content ready for iTunes, and other podcast delivery sources as well as help you avoid the pitfalls that could hamper your delivery effectiveness. If you’re able to take advantage of what a well produced and delivered podcast can do, you will see results that will outperform every major television network’s delivery. Why is that? The fact of the matter is that people who subscribe to podcast want the information on that very specific subject or niche. The second best part about podcasting is the simple fact that it is still in it’s growth phase…which means there is very little competition…You can see why that would be a benefit right? Another selling point for a podcast is the fact that this type of media can be consumed on the go…smart phone, car, bus, train, plane or boat… And there’s more. The podcast secret sauce is the fact that your audience will support you…consumes your content AND will share your content with others. Now, who out there is independently wealthy enough to turn down free publicity and marketing? Is there work involved? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. Am I seriously asking you to consider podcasting? Yes. So hopefully you are considering podcasting as a way to get your message and brand out there. You’ll need to submit it to iTunes…that is one of the services where you’ll want your message to be made available and again to learn more search for The Podcasters' Studioand The Audacity to Podcast, as they will guide you ever step of the way. Make sure to pay attention to the requirements to submit to iTunes and the tips on how to be found on iTunes as well as how to ask for feedback… If you choose to podcast, you will need a dedicated media host like Libsyn or PodHoster, there are more but again, if you take a moment and listen to The Audacity to Podcast or The Podcaster Studio they will give you a coupon code which you can use to get a free month of hosting from Libsyn. There are two simple reasons as to why you would want to pay for podcast media files to be hosted. The first is to receive the most accurate reports on your media’s consumption. The second is frankly the ability to deliver the media in a reliable way to your audience…People don’t like to wait or tolerate struggling to get to the media they want…the web is all about how the user wants to use it and we need to do what it takes to make the user experience easy. Targeting Television Sets Let’s talk for a moment about how to most effectively target the holy grail of media – The Television Set. That for most publishers has been sort of the Holy Grail…guess what, it is now easier to get into the living room than it ever has been before. Seriously, it is. Portable electronics can now push their content to television sets…making it much easier to reach the television. Not to mention the smart TVs or DVD slash Blu-ray players, which can stream media from YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv and other services. With that said. It is important that you understand that there are some limitations toward delivering HD content to television devises. If HD is what you have in mind you will have to make a decision between 720 and 1080. Keep in mind that if you take the average living room size, more often than not 720 content will look better than 1080. The newest phones do support full 1080…but let’s use Apple TV as an example. If your content is formatted for 720 it will be delivered at 720. If you are delivering at 1080, it will be converted down to 720 before it hits the television set. The only other factor is that producing and providing content at a full 1920x1080 will add cost…so you’ll have to make the decision as to what will be adequate enough for your brand’s message. All this said, I believe that this is an area that will continue to get easier and easier to get into, so you should consider a host which will allow or make it easy for you to publish your content to television and Blu-ray players which support streaming media. Now that we know it can be done…when it comes to delivering your content to television sets, one service stands out above all others and that is Blip.tv. Granted, you would have to take advantage of their pro (meaning paid) offering which currently runs at $100 per year. The upside – you log in to their control panel and you can target specific devices or networks. Once logged in, you will see a tab that is labeled distribution. This will allow you to target multiple accounts. For example, you will be able to target the Sony Network – Blue-ray players and television sets. You would have the chance to submit your content for approval. While there is no guarantee that it would be approved; it is the easiest way to have the opportunity to submit your content to these major hardware companies. Basically, what you are doing is petitioning to be accepted into their network. Picture this, Sony accepts your brand’s content; do you have any idea as to how many devices they produce and distribute in a year? Your content can be on every single one of these devices…is it worth it? I would argue that it is. The Importance of Branding In this podcast I’ve talked about the importance of going where people are…that is Hyper Syndication. Putting your content in social media services like Facebook Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo and Blip.TV are all good ideas. There is one thing you should keep in mind. All of the social media websites have their own branding strategy in place, which in summary will work toward bringing individuals back to their own websites. What you’ll need to think about is visual branding. Chances are you already have a logo and possibly a color palette that you use for your organization or product. Using that consistently throughout all that you do, your website, your blog, your video, your social media, your favicons…and so forth are all things that will make sure that people can find you. While it may seem redundant to always be so rigid and think about branding but the fact of the matter is that it does matter. You can’t be too blunt when it comes to visual branding. You want people to know whom you are and where to find you period. Now, I don’t mean flashing text and all sorts of obnoxious graphics, I mean a consistent look and feel to your brand, message and content. You should always make sure that people know who you are, where you came from, what you are representing and how to get a hold of you. Visual branding will help cover all of that. Let’s for a moment talk about, having a call to action in your media’s branding message. A call to action is something that is critical in any and all media campaigns. A call to action tells your audience exactly what they need to do and how to get it done. When it comes to social media, you don’t want to give your audience too many choices. It’s not go to this website, follow us on Twitter, find us on Facebook, subscribe to our Podcast…that is simply too many action items. You want to give your audience one maybe two things to do. If you go beyond that, you’re going to create confusion and potentially ruin your campaign and effort’s results. If there is nothing else that you remember from this podcast, please remember this… The modern media producer needs to engage their audience and get them involved. A clear call to action with one action item is the right way to do it. Essential Tools to keep it All Running Once you start hyper syndicating your content it will be awesome as it will be everywhere. That is the good side of Hyper Syndication. The other side would be that because your content is now spread across multiple platforms and web services…how do we get people back to your original content? This is where Lijit comes into play. Lijit is a search engine that will tie all of your social networks together and provide a search engine, which is powered by Google to gather up the results pointing them back to your original content. There is another plus to this cool tool. Lijit, will give you detailed analytics and stats specific to your content’s consumption. I’ve yet to mention the best part. Lijit is FREE. RECAP Hyper Syndication is a straightforward concept and process. After listening to this podcast you’ve realized that using technology like RSS Feeds allow us to tie blogs, video-sharing sites, social media all together. Remember, that what it really comes down to is having a consistent network. Once you take the time to set this network up, it’s not that hard. Things can essentially run on autopilot. This means you post once and it goes out to 10, 20, or even 50 different websites. This is great because it serves the cardinal need, which is make sure that your message is delivered where your audience is. Whether you’re an individual publisher, a small business or a large corporation, the use of hyper syndication techniques can go a really long way to extend your marketing brand message and promise. Taking the time to set up the network is going to free up your publishing efforts, leaving you much more time to both create new content and respond or reply to all of the great new leads you’re attracting. My name is Carlos Quintero. Feel free to check out more on Hyper Syndication at MediaOnQ.com.
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