A video blog by Roger Stix, Executive Producer at Atlanta Business Video
The Shifting Trend from “Apple White” to Motion Graphics in Business Video by Atlanta Business Video
2012/06/13 By Leave a Comment
Tip on How to Make Your Business Message More Effective: An Atlanta Business Video Blog
2012/06/11 By Leave a Comment
Google: Search Activity Rising Following Revamp
2012/05/30 By Leave a Comment
Google said it has seen a noticeable increase in activity on its vaunted Web-search in the two weeks since the company began one of the biggest search transformations in its history.
People doing Web searches now see a big box of information and photos related to search queries such as sports teams (try typing “San Francisco Giants”), geography (try “Matterhorn”), attractions (try “Matterhorn Bobsleds”), celebrities (try “Pink”), and science (try “Jupiter” or “Einstein”) located prominently on the right of the search results page. Before the change, Google users might have seen relevant search ads, content boxes with information from Google+, the company’s social network, or nothing at all.
The new feature currently draws upon information from sites like Wikipedia, as well as music and movie catalogs that Google has licensed, among other things.
“Early indications are that people are interacting with it more, learning about more things…and doing more [search] queries,” said Amit Singhal, a top Google search executive, in an interview Friday. “It’s stoking people’s curiosity.”
On Tuesday Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds said the company’s internal data continues to show people are “doing more searches as a result” of the revamp, though he and Singhal declined to share specific figures.
Perhaps more importantly, Singhal said that an increase in searches means there also will be an increase in visits to non-Google sites whose links appear in search results and in the new boxes of information that are appearing as part of the change.
Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs online encyclopedia Wikipedia, said Google’s use of Wikipedia information for the new feature was “suitable” and “ultimately we believe that this increases the visibility of free knowledge to more users.” He didn’t have data on whether the site had seen an increase of usage since the Google change went into effect.
Singhal declined to say what percentage of searches were affected by the change, though one person briefed on Google’s plans previously said the shift could directly impact the search results for 10% to 20% of all search queries, or tens of billions per month.
Currently the feature is only available in the English-language version of Google search. Google isn’t sharing its timetable for rollouts to other languages, the company spokesman said.
The change relies on technology called “semantic search” in which the search engine begins to understand the actual meaning of words and shows the key attributes of people, places and things that Google users are searching for. To do this, the company is drawing upon an ever-expanding database of information of about 500 million people, places and things and how they’re connected to one another, also known as a “knowledge graph.”
“For the first time, the search engine understands real-world things,” Singhal said.
Interestingly, the knowledge graph displays data that Google users have generally searched for in the past, Singhal said. For example, a search for “Michael Bloomberg,” the New York City mayor who also is a billionaire, will bring up a box of data including his estimated net worth—something many Google users have searched for previously. By contrast, a search for the less-wealthy former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, does not include a net-worth statistic.
In other words, the search engine can show the “topical zeitgeist” of a particular query, Singhal said. “That’s something that’s never been available to Google users before.”
Singhal said the new feature has had some miscues, such as not being completely up-to-date. For example, initially a Google search for “New York Knicks” gave an incorrect information about the team’s coach, who had been replaced in recent months. And he said Google’s knowledge graph is still “weak in many areas”—namely products.
He said the revamp was a “baby step” toward building the “search system of tomorrow.”
When asked how the new feature was affecting advertisements that also appear on the right side of search results, Singhal said that first and foremost, his team launches new features for the benefit of Google users, not advertisers. But he said the company is “experimenting as to what would be the right page design for cases in which there are numerous ads” that were sold for a particular query.
For example, a search for “Lake Tahoe” brings up many ads on the right side of search results. But users can push down those ads and see an information box about the lake by clicking an arrow button located below a partial map of the lake.
A Wall Street Journal Article: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/05/29/google-search-engine-surging-following-revamp/
Google Introduces Tool to Improve Searches
2012/05/23 By Leave a Comment
Google is introducing a new tool designed to make its search engine smarter. The new feature is called the “Knowledge Graph.” It draws from a Google-built database of more than 500 million people, places and other commonly requested things to provide a summary of vital information alongside the main search results. Google Inc. created the Knowledge Graph in an attempt to provide answers as quickly and concisely as possible so users don’t have to sift through a hodgepodge of Web links displayed on the main results page.
Check out the video from Google for more information:
Hidden Tools Find What You Want on YouTube
2011/10/06 By Leave a Comment
Have you seen YouTube lately, staying on the site for longer than the three minutes it takes to watch the video link that a friend emailed? Chances are the answer will be no.
Though YouTube calls itself the third most-visited site in the world (after Google and Facebook), it works like an efficient courier service, playing content for you wherever you are on the Web, including Facebook, Twitter and email instant messages. But while we’ve been busy watching YouTube videos elsewhere, the site itself grew up.
YouTube has things like personalized channels, more editing options for uploading clips and a full-screen mode for sitting back and watching videos. A lot of these extra features are buried on the site and difficult to find.
I took a deep dive into YouTube, compiling a list of handy shortcuts for navigating this video hub and getting more out of it.
Quick Keys
Sharing videos with friends is one of the most popular uses for YouTube, but sometimes you want to share just the best part of a video. With two clicks, you can trim videos to begin exactly where you want and then share them. As a video is playing, right click at the point where you’d like your video clip to start and select “Copy video URL at current time” to get a URL for the trimmed video. When others open the link, it will start right at the spot in the video where you right-clicked. No longer will a video clip take too long to reach the best part, like waiting for a model to fall on the runway, and leave you hesitant to share it on Facebook or via emails with friends.
Real Deal Musicians
Searching for music on YouTube can be exasperating since so many people upload videos of themselves singing and tag the video with the name of a well-known musician. So while you’re looking for the latest Coldplay song, you find a high school band covering the song instead. To find artists who do publish on YouTube, look at youtube.com/disco, where users can type in artist names to get a playlist of videos by that artist. In regular YouTube search results, the official stamp from YouTube (and wording) signals that an artist is verified—much like the blue checkmark beside popular Twitter users who are truly who they claim to be.
With Video Editor, users can edit existing videos or upload new ones.
Edit Better
If you’ve ever recorded a video shot in portrait mode that you’d rather share in landscape or vice versa, the video can be switched to the correct viewing angle, saving viewers from tilting their heads to one side to watch. Do this with YouTube’s editor in the cloud, youtube.com/editor. Here, people can edit (including rotate) existing videos or upload new videos. Content can be mixed in with other video clips from the Creative Commons site, soundtracks can be added by choosing from a selection of music, and text slides can be dragged in to display between video clips.
If you’d rather use a third-party company for editing, multiple options are listed at youtube.com/create. A company called Vlix recently announced its integration with the YouTube site, bringing its editing features from the Vlix iPhone app—like artsy designs and text slides—to the site. Magisto automatically skims videos for the best footage and creates short clips with that content, and the Xtranormal Movie Maker lets people add text, such as a personal narration, to an animated video. (Never underestimate the entertainment value of hearing your words come out of an animated bear with a robotic voice.)
Personalized Viewing
If you’re tired of hunting for videos to watch, take a look at clips that YouTube thinks you’ll like. Once signed into your YouTube account, if you’ve used the site to watch at least one video in the past, the homepage will show Suggestions below your username based on that past watching history. These suggestions appear as small thumbnail images of each video and include the reasoning behind why a clip was suggested, like “because you watched Lady Gaga and Sting.”
Videos From Afar
To see all of YouTube in a much more handsome layout, try Leanback, found at YouTube.com/leanback. This opens a page that’s meant to be viewed far from your computer, complete with a black background and white text written in large font.
Sign In, Sign In Again
Recently, it became possible to log into YouTube using your Google account username and password (Google has owned YouTube since 2006). Using their Google account, users may browse YouTube, rent a movie and “like” a video. To upload their own videos, subscribe to a channel, make comments on and “favorite” videos and get recommendations from YouTube on content they may like, people must create a YouTube account and use that in addition to a Google account.
Testing, Testing
A site called TestTube, found at youtube.com/testtube, holds many in-the-works projects from YouTube engineers. Here, users can kick the tires of some features that aren’t fully baked. One example is YouTube/slam, which pits one video against another and lets viewers vote on the best one.
Posting Video
It’s important to know the sharing settings in YouTube. There are three: public (anyone can search for and view); unlisted (anyone with the link can view); and private (only people who you choose can view). Any video can always be taken down from the site by its original publisher.
Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal
Strategic B2B and B2C Online Marketing Objectives
2011/06/21 By 1 Comment
What businesses are using video for.
For all companies, success hinges greatly on the ability to continuously identify new clients and keep customers happy—a task often delegated to marketers.
But depending on company type, marketers may be more responsible for one than the other. Findings from Focus Research indicate business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers are more likely to direct their attention to improving client understanding and retention this year than their business-to-business (B2B) counterparts, who are placing a higher emphasis on filling the sales pipeline.
Among B2B marketers, lead acquisition was the top priority for 55% of respondents, followed by lead conversion (45%). Both B2B and B2C marketers were equally focused on building brand awareness.
Over 50% Of Businesses Plan To Use On-Line Video in 2011
2011/05/23 By Leave a Comment
Finding new customers is the greatest business challenge for small businesses, according to a February 2011 survey by Bredin Business Information, and small businesses are turning to a wide variety of online marketing channels to do so and doing a great amount of experimentation as they decide which digital marketing techniques work best for them.
85% of small-business owners say they used websites to find new customers, followed by email and search marketing, each used by about 75% of respondents. Reflecting the increased competition for business, every online marketing channel showed a dramatic increase in usage between 2010 and 2011.
But at the same time as small businesses have expanded their use of online marketing. Survey respondents in 2011 indicated they were much less satisfied with the effectiveness of these channels. Experts attribute this to the rush of small businesses to new marketing channels not using the tools correctly. Website, email and search were rated most effective for customer acquisition, but even these had dropped since the prior year.
“There is a fair amount of learning that has to happen for each small-business owner to know how to use and how to measure online marketing tactics,” Stu Richards, CEO of Bredin Business Information, told eMarketer. “In many cases, businesses are struggling, and there’s an opportunity to educate SMBs.”
Digital Book Distribution
2011/03/23 By Leave a Comment
Digital Book Distribution
I just read about a great new service for self-published authors.
We all know the Digital Literature Revolution is radically changing the way we interact with the “written” word. Not since Gutenberg and the introduction of mass printed books have we redefined our relationship with literature in such a profound way.
“BookBaby” digitally distributes the works of independent authors, poets, memoirists, and publishers, making their eBooks available to digital retailers (like Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble.com, Sony’s Reader Store, and Amazon.com) in all available regions and territories. We’re part of the CD Baby family (the world’s largest online distributor of independent music), which has paid out over 160 million dollars to artists just like you.
BookBaby provides a simple, comprehensive solution to their digital distribution needs. With BookBaby:
You get 100% of your net sales revenue!
Distribute your eBook worldwide, to all of the major platforms (iPad, Kindle, • Nook, Sony Reader) and online retail stores!
They pay out within one week of receiving payments!
Consolidated sales reporting.
You can enhance your eBook with video, graphics and more. BookBaby also specializes in conversion of more complex documents, including tables, graphs, multiple of images, and embedded multimedia files including video and audio clips.
For more information go to http://links.mkt1524.com/servlet/SignUpForm?f=731947&source=BC11DM2 and sign up for the free report.
Atlanta Video Production Company Announces the Promotions of Erin Dyer and Megan Clark to Producer
2011/02/11 By 2 Comments
Atlanta video production company, Atlanta Business Video (ABV), recently announced the promotion of Erin Dyer (partner) and Megan Clark (studio manager and editor) to Producer. Having previously served as the primary producers on many projects, both Dyer and Clark have a vast amount of experience working in this role. Their video production responsibilities include the art and service of filming, video editing, and distribution.
“Both Erin and Megan are a tremendous asset to Atlanta Business Video. The promotions are in recognition of their creative and technical growth as well as professional accomplishments,” explains Roger Stix, Producer and owner of the Atlanta video company. ABV’s high definition video production services include offering a digital high definition film crew, production logistics, on-set direction, editing, graphic creation, and script writing. Video productions include corporate commercials, branding video, and virtual walk-on for Websites.
As a founding partner, Erin Dyer helped launch Atlanta Business Video in 2008. Her educational background includes earning a B.A. in both Film and Psychology at Georgia State University. Megan Clark first joined ABV working as a filming and editing specialist. She is a graduate of University of Georgia with a degree in Telecommunication Arts and Film Studies, which focused on Production, Video Editing, and Film Theory.
Atlanta Business Video offers both On location video services and in studio video productions using the latest in green screen technology. In addition, ABV’s studio services include studio rental, talent selection, and more. The professionals at ABV produces crystal clear videos using the Final Cut HD Pro Software Suite, which is the latest industry standard. They also provide re-editing services of existing videos.
About Atlanta Business Video
Atlanta Business Video is a new kind of Web 2.0 video production studio designed to be able to create professional quality Atlanta video productions at prices that are affordable to even small businesses by using their green screen studio. They offer a variety of services to meet your professional video needs. Shoot on-location or take advantage of Atlanta Business Video’s in-studio video production to create corporate commercials, branding videos, or a virtual walk-on for your Website.
Video Marketing Packages
2011/01/24 By Leave a Comment
Atlanta Business Video’s Video Marketing Packages provide a unique service that blasts your video all over the Internet, and directly to approximately 20 of the top video sharing sites (such as Youtube, Vimeo, Viddler, etc.) with the research to get you found on the first page of Google! The majority of online videos are not optimized, which means the search engines/web crawlers can’t see them. We know how to target and optimize videos to make them attractive to Google and the other search engines. On many popular video sharing sites our submissions are promoted as new submissions, video of the day, video of the hour, genre, etc. Additionally, proper use of the other options available can stimulate additional views.
There are two types of video marketing packages. In option one your videos are posted on the Atlanta Business Video video accounts. In option two, we create personalized accounts for you on each of the video sharing sites.
Video Marketing Package One:
Videos are distributed through our existing accounts on each of the roughly 20 sites that accept the majority of the video genres we produce.
Benefits:
- Videos are more prominently featured due to a priority status of our video distribution arrangement
- Add SEO terms (meta-tags) to the video (supplied by you)
- Titling assistance based on your SEO and targeted markets
- Each video posted includes information on your company (supplied by you)
- Includes a clickable link from your video that allows viewers to go directly to your site. Additionally, this link is recognized by Google which increases your primary website’s SEO ranking
- Video viewer statistics from each of the different video sharing sites (Additional charges apply).
Video Marketing Package Two:
Create your video sharing site accounts at each of the sites to which we distribute.
Benefits:
- Includes everything in Package One through personalized accounts:
- Brand video sharing sites with your theme colors (Additional graphic design is an additional hourly charge)
- Upload a user profile picture to your video sharing site account
- Add a company/personal description to your account (supplied by you)
- Add SEO meta-tags to your accounts (supplied by you)
- Includes a clickable link from your video sharing site account to your website, which increases traffic and improves your website’s ranking
Additional Services:
- SEO Research- For those that have not yet SEO’d your website, or need better targeted SEO
- Install Google Site Analytics- Inquire for information and pricing
- Website Creation- If you do not have a website or need re-branding
- Graphic Design- Logos, more complex graphics for your video sharing site accounts, PowerPoint backgrounds, brochures, etc.
- Photography – Portraits and event photography
Call for Pricing 404.343.3540
