Engage Your Audience With UStream
Grow your business, search engine optimization | Comments (0)
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In a previous post, we cited audio podcasting as a great way of presenting your message, giving you a way to repurpose content while offering a valuable add-on handy enough for your readers to take with them on the road. Then, we dealt with the visuals when we touched on using videos to get to the top of Google‘s search results while beefing up your content’s value and increasing your audience.
Aside from these benefits, including videos in your brand strategy, whether hosted and embedded within your site’s four walls or published via a third party video service, is also a good way to kick your campaign up a notch.
This week, take a crack at one the few handy video tools other than YouTube, Vimeo or MetaCafe to serve this purpose, among others.
The popular video publishing and sharing site UStream follows nearly the same philosophy behind YouTube, in that it provides its users with their own channels as a platform to give everyone their more than 15 minutes of fame with social network aspects thrown in for good measure.
The difference, however, is that aside from being far more feature-rich, Ustream also lets you easily stream live videos online even without expensive video equipment or professional broadcasting experience. With this service, you can create and save video footages and, of course, broadcast live videos to your demographic.
Ustream’s popularity has elevated it from a mere video sharing service to a platform for brand promotion, reputation enhancement and a launch pad for upcoming talents to share to the world what they have to offer.
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| Journalist and Web celebrity Alison Rosen interacting with her fans on her Web show‘s UStream page. |
Reality show starlet Tila Tequila, comedian Joe Rogan and musicians Macy Gray and Diddy/Puff Daddy/Sean Combs/whatever-he-calls-himself-nowadays are but a few of Ustream’s celebrity users who have been using the service either as a video diary repository or simply as a channel to reach their fans at a more personal and interactive level.
It yields considerably bright videos and the audios are also decently good and clean however, the quality of your resulting footages also depends on the Web cam and microphone you’re using. To optimize audiovisual clarity, it’s best to arm yourself with a good Web cam, a fast Internet connection and, just like what we recommended with audio podcasting, an external microphone. Also, before you start recording, find a well illuminated room or wait for a bright and clear enough day if you intend to stream outdoors.
What makes Ustream more compelling is its inclusion of highly interactive components to keep conversations free-flowing and organic in the background. While the ubiquitous comments section is also here, your viewers can also record video responses. It even aggregates real-time conversations taking place in Twitter, Facebook, AIM and MySpace to help you track what people in those networks are saying about you and your videos.
Essentially, UStream’s normal usage would have your audience visit your own designated UStream profile page. They don’t need to actually sign up with the service to view your videos though to be able to get access to its full features, you can recommend that they do. On the other hand, they can also log in using Facebook Connect or by using their Google, Yahoo or OpenID login credentials.
Directing your audience to your UStream page is sufficient if you intend for your videos to simply push your brand forward for better awareness. But if you want a piece of the site traffic as well, you can also offer your pre-recorded footages by embedding the UStream player on your site and then spreading the link via your social networks.
Popularity: 9% [?]
RSpears @ April 15, 2010
