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Ustream iPhone app review

Posted 12 Dec 2009 — by tturnbull
Category Social Media - General, Videos

While putting in a few hours the other day to research new technologies I may want to incorporate into social media future projects, my colleague, Mike Olaski, came across a the new Ustream iPhone app. Of course, we had to test this out, but didn’t have high expectations as most new high-tech apps always have a few bugs that make you quit using them after a few minutes. And, of course, both of us are still sporting the iPhone 3G which, of course, does not have a video recorder built in.

For those of you that are not familiar with the service, Ustream allows anyone with a Webcam to broadcast live video to a private or public audience. In this case, the iPhone acts as the Webcam; all you need is a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. (If there’s no connection available, you can record your video and upload it to the service later.)

uStream Broadcaster

So, the two of us downloaded all three of the new Ustream iPhone apps (Broadcaster, Viewer, Recorder). The Broadcaster app was the most intriguing as it was claiming to be able to stream live video as well as a number of other cool features.

To our amazement, the app worked seamlessly and soon we were watching each others live streams on our personal Ustream channels. Obviously, the quality of the video was not exceptional, but considering that we were recording video and audio on a iPhone 3G, the two of us had all kinds of ideas in our heads on how we could leverage this new tool!

Here’s a peak at some of our live video recordings over the past few days (again, keep in mind that we were just testing, so there is no real theme here. But, it will give you an idea of how the new app works!)

Mike’s Ustream channel – http://ustre.am/98fL

Trevor’s Ustream channel - http://ustre.am/698u

Features

The fact that this app allows you to stream live video to the internet with an iPhone 3G is cool enough, but there are a number of other features that really make this my favorite new iPhone app.

Broadcasting – You can choose to broadcast the video “Live” where the feed is sent instantly to your personal uStream channel. Or, you can choose to record “Local” where your video is recorded and saved on your phones harddrive
Geo-location allows you to record where the broadcast originated and then gets included in your description when you are done recording
Polling - this feature allows you to ask viewers a question and get an instant “Yes” or “No” response (Although I haven’t used this feature, I think it could be quite useful if you have a large audience and want to put out a quick poll. However, the simple Yes/No options are quite limiting
Live Tweet – There is a Twitter “share” feature included that allows you to sync your personal Twitter account to the app. By simply pressing this button, an automatic tweet is generated that looks something like this. “I’m broadcasting, from my iPhone, live on Ustream. Come watch! http://ustre.am/698u”
Saving – Once you are finished broadcasting, the app asks you if you’d like to save the video (By clicking “Yes”, it takes you to a screen that allows you to give the video a Title and description. The time, location and date are automatically included in the description)
Sharing – Once the video is saved, you have the option to then “Share” the video with your social network through Ustream, Twitter, Facebook, AIM, MySpace and YouTube (Each one of these accounts can be linked to your Ustream account by logging into your Ustream profile online)

I recorded a short video to test out the SHARING feature. If you check out my social accounts listed in the sentence above, you’ll see that this video was automatically posted to all of my personal social accounts as well.

Conclusion

There have been a ton of amazing advancements in technology this past year, but this app could be one that changes the way organizations, businesses, brands, sports teams, athletes, etc use social media. One of the biggest challenges of social media is the time commitment. Many people fear, and are hesitant to engage in social media because they feel they are busy enough with their own daily lives to get involved. The idea of managing multiple accounts and making sure that you are not neglecting one vs another is challenging to say the least (if not impossible).

I research and use social media tools in my everyday life as a social media consultant, so when I come across an app like this, it gets me very excited!! The fact that you can stream live video to the internet with a phone that does not include a video recorder is amazing enough. But, what makes it even better is that you can link all of your social accounts to the app and with one push of a button, send your video out to your entire social network.

Since downloading and testing the app, my head is spinning with ideas on how to incorporate this into my future projects. I look forward to sharing those ideas with everyone very soon! In the meantime, once you’ve had a chance to try the app yourself, please let me know what you think by leaving a comment!

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Tags: "Live Streaming", "Mike Olaski", "Trevor Turnbull", Facebook, iPhone, MySpace, sharing, social media, Twitter, Ustream, YouTube

HNIC (NHL – Inside Hockey) – The Effects of Twitter, Facebook and other Social Networking Websites

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Posted 03 Nov 2009 — by tturnbull
Category Social Media - Sports, Videos

While researching the latest news surround Social Media in Sports, I came across this video produced by Hockey Night in Canada (Inside Hockey). In the video, Elliotte Friedman (HNIC Reporter) talks about the impact social media is having on sports and the NHL in particular.

Some key points from the video include:

Tampa Bay Lightning become first team in any sport to announce a trade via Twitter (before releasing thru any other media)
Ted Leonsis (Washington Capitals owner) discussed how he predicted that traditional media (TV, newspaper) would be in deep financial trouble. Also acknowledged that the fan base would become big contributors of content. He is quoted as saying: “It’s not a matter of should you acknowledge bloggers, its imperative that you embrace bloggers and use social networks to your advantage”
NHL players were shown videos warning them of the impact social media can have on their reputation as “high-profile athletes”
Ted Leonsis discusses the fake Twitter account setup under Washington Capitals defenseman – Jeff Schultz. He says his reaction was not to try to shut it down, but rather, to encourage Jeff Schultz to establish his own official Twitter account.
NHL star, Keith Tkachuk, was the victim of identity fraud
Sports Agent, Allen Walsh, announced via Twitter that his client, Scott Hartnell, would not be suspended for his butt-end on Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang.
Ted Leonsis states ” There is a lot more positive that will come out of being authentic, reaching out and being interactive with your fan base than being stand-offish. This is not going away, it is only going to get more personal, it’s only going to get more interactive. Prices are coming down, technology is getting better…..this is like oxygen…..get used to it!”
NHL is considering implementing rules on when it’s players can and can’t use social media.

Needless to say……the best part about this video is Ted Leonsis’s quote stating that there is way more upside to being authentic and participating in social media….rather than trying to stop it. I recently wrote an article on the Washington Capitals approach to Twitter after visiting with Nate Ewell (Washington Capitals Director of Media Relations) at the Capitals exhibition game vs the Chicago Blackhawks. See what Nate had to say about their approach to Twitter: http://sportfanconnect.com/day-3-capitals-vs-blackhawks-nhl-twitter. As you’ll notice, the leadership and vision of Ted Leonsis resonates throughout the whole Washington Capitals organization.

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Tags: "Elliotte Friedman", "Jeff Marek", "Ron MacLean", "Ted Leonsis", Facebook, HNIC, NHL, Twitter, YouTube

My WestJet Experience (via Twitter)

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Posted 26 Oct 2009 — by tturnbull
Category Social Media - General

I thought I’d share my recent experience with WestJet as it was one that started sour and ended sweet!

Let me start by saying that I (along with many others) have been quite frustrated by the recent “re-launch” of http://westjet.com. That being said, I can only imagine how frustrated Westjet must be in having to field all of those calls while their online booking system is not working properly.

I was scheduled to fly from Saskatoon to Vancouver tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct 27th) on a flight that I booked some 2 months ago. As my plans have changed due to my recent sports tour/holiday (http://sportfanconnect.com), I found myself needing to cancel my flight as I will now be leaving tommorow from Ft. Lauderdale to Vancouver. In the past, the process has been very simple:

Log into your online account
Enter your confirmation number and confirm your identity
Cancel your flight within 2 hours of flying and get a full credit (minus the $50 change fee – which is one of the lowest among all airlines)
If that fails, you could always call the 1-888-WESTJET call centre and, in most cases, have your problem solved within 5 minutes.

Today, however, that was not the case. Being accustomed to trying to solve my own problems online…I first went to the website to try to cancel my flight. Not possible at this time. So, I resorted to Plan B and called the 1-888 # and was informed via prerecorded message that the average wait time is now “60 minutes”!!! No, not 6 minutes…….6-0 minutes!! So, not thinking there were any other options, I decided to wait it out.

I made it to about the 30 minute mark when my call was finally answered……only to be told that the person I was talking to couldn’t help me because my ticket was booked before the did the website re-engineering. So, back on hold I go ;-) Another 30 minutes later, I hear silence (usually a good sign because I think it means that someone might pick up on the other end). But, this was not the case……..CALL DISCONNECTED!!!! (Note the all caps which translates to….not impressed!!)

So, once calmed down, I started to weigh my options:

Get back on the phone and wait it out
Track down an email address so I can at least have record that I was trying to cancel my flight….but couldn’t reach anyone (that proved to not be an option as I couldn’t find an email address on their website)

At this point….I didn’t like my options. Then, it hit me……………why not try Twitter??? They seem to be engaged in conversation with most people that try to talk to them on Twitter. So, it was worth a shot!

I went straight to my Seesmic Desktop application and entered the following message:

trevorturnbull: @westjet tried calling in to cancel my flight tomm…on hold for 1hr then got disconnected. Cant find an email address on your website

Here was the Direct Message reply (approx 10 minutes later):

Westjet: Email us at twitter@westjet.com and we’ll see what we can do to help

I promptly followed up with an email explaining my situation as well as a copy of my email confirmation with the reservation number and all my contact info. Here is a screenshot of the conversation that followed on Twitter.

Being in the business of social media consulting, I come across examples of best practice all the time. But, when you have a first hand experience like I did today, a person really starts to understand the power of social media. I think the biggest lesson learned from this is that it is one thing to say you “do” social media as a company, but it is another thing to actually do it well! This is a shining example of how to do it right. Westjet is not just using a social tool like Twitter to broadcast messages in the way that traditional media works. Rather, they are taking the time to engage in the two-way conversation made possible through social media.

I have always been one to check Westjet first when looking to book flights. My previous experiences have all been good, so, I’ve never had any reason to jump ship (unless they don’t happen to fly to my preferred destination….but that is becoming few and far between nowadays with the addition of many US flights now offered by Westjet.

I’m sure there are many people that have felt frustrated with Westjet over the past few weeks. We are all so used to technology just “working” that when it fails, we don’t know what to do with ourselves! Westjet’s use of Twitter is a great example of how all companies/brands/teams/etc can use social media to create engaging experiences that result in loyal customers. I’d like to see a radio ad or brochure do the same thing ;-)

The only thing I would suggest to them is that they more prominently promote their Twitter account through all of their other marketing channels. I make fun of traditional media…….but the reality is, you need to combine your efforts in order to reach as many people as possible. Therefor, cross promotion between their TV, Radio, Print, Online and Social marketing is key for maximum success. After all, I’m sure my parents wouldn’t have thought to ask their question on Twitter like I did today. But clearly, THEY SHOULD KNOW THIS! And, the first step is educating people in as many ways as possible.

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South Carolina Stingrays – Facebook

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Posted 17 Oct 2009 — by tturnbull
Category Videos

South Carolina Stingrays – Facebook

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Tags: East Coast Hockey League, Facebook, South Carolina Stingrays

Sports & Social Media – NHL TweetUp

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Posted 13 Apr 2009 — by tturnbull
Category Social Media - Sports

In my role as a Account Executive with zu (www.zu.com), I am responsible for staying up to date on the latest trends in website development, social media and mobile application development and work to implement strategies that will benefit my clients. Over the past few months, I have been focusing most of my efforts on working with sports teams and am fortunate to have a great working relationship with one of our clients, the Calgary Stampeders. We are currently working on a number of social media initiatives with them and I look forward to sharing these initiatives with all of you in the near future.

So, all that being said, I’ve finally got around to starting my blogging about the good, bad and the ugly in social media as it relates to individuals, corporations and sports teams. As social media marketing is slowly being integrated into sports teams marketing mix, I believe the early adopters will benefit the most as they will be trailblazers in bringing the fans closer to the team and it’s players and in turn, will retain fans through tough economic times. Although the thought of joining the conversation is intimidating for many Marketing and PR professionals, the reality is, people are already talking about their team……and until they join the conversation, they won’t be able to react to any of it. I look forward to sharing my ideas on how teams can join the conversation using social media, how they can sell tickets in tough times and how they can retain fans in good times.

NHL Tweetup

To kick off the greatest time of the year (NHL Playoff time!), Michael DiLorenzo (Director of Social Media Marketing with the NHL) and Schuyler Baehman (NHL PR) helped organized the first official “NHL Tweetup” in celebration and anticipation of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. @dani3boyz and @goaliegirl were the brainchild for this idea and contributed greatly to the success of this initiative. The Tweetup event took place in 24 cities in the US and Canada. The event went down at 7pm EST on April 15th in Anaheim, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, Hartford, Montreal, Nashville, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Regina (Sask.), San Jose, St. John (NB), Toronto, Vancouver and Washington DC.

I am kicking myself right now because this would have been a great event to coordinate here in Saskatoon. As some of you might know, Saskatoon, Sk, Canada will be home to the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships this coming December. zu will be assisting the planning committee with social media initiatives leading up to the event and a Tweetup is definitely on the list of things to do. We look forward to joining in on the next Tweetup (which I have heard is going to be scheduled around the NHL draft). If you are interested in keeping up to date on news leading up to the event in Saskatoon, you can become a fan at the official Facebook Fan page and offer your opinions and join the conversation on Twitter.

I’d like to give praise to Michael, Schuyler, @dani3boyz and @goaliegirl and all the other hard working volunteers for putting on a great event. The NHL (along with the NBA) seem to be taking the lead when it comes to connecting with fans through the use of technology. I came across an article on Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog where she interviewed Michael DiLorenzo about what he has learned thus far through social media engagement and what he plans to do with what he’s learned. Michael made a number of great points in his interview, but here is a summary of the key points I took from his interview.

“There’s a temptation to use these emerging platforms as just another way to speak *at* the public, not *with* the public.”
“Both individuals and businesses are learning as they go. I don’t think that’s a great crime, as long as they follow a few simple rules: listen, engage, be authentic and be (reasonably) transparent.”
“I thought some fans might appreciate a direct line into the League office. What I’ve learned on this point is that I have to be vigilant in responding to fans that contact me. They’re all important to listen to and acknowledge.”

All great points………….and it is refreshing to see that someone like Michael is humble enough to admit that he is still “learning as he goes” as well. There are many people out there that claim to be experts in social media when the reality is, it takes years of experience, making mistakes and learning from those mistakes to become an expert. I look forward to future posts on Michael’s blog (www.fromtheblueseats.com) about his experience with the first official NHL Tweetup event. I’m sure the next one will be an even bigger success and I, for one, am looking forward to participating in a future TweetUp event in Saskatoon.

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Tags: 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships, calgary stampeders, Facebook, mobile development, NHL, nhl twitter, Saskatoon, Social Media - Sports, social media development, Tweetup, website development, zu

Showcase Of Beautiful Sports Websites

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Posted 09 Apr 2009 — by tturnbull
Category Social Media - Sports

By Steven Snell, April 4th, 2009 in Design Showcase | 79 Comments | Forum

We recently showcased beautiful websites from the fashion industry, and in response to reader requests, we’ll do the same thing here for sports websites. This article showcases the most beautiful website designs from the North American sports industry, including ones for news, teams and leagues, sports apparel and more.

Trends In Sports Websites

As in any industry, sports websites have their own trends, as you will see below. However, because the websites showcased here fall into a number of different categories and serve different purposes, not all of the trends we discuss will be relevant or applicable to all types of sports websites.

1. Large Photos
Many of the best sports websites include a lot of images and photos, and many use large photos in the background or a featured area. News websites obviously include a lot of smaller photos to accompany current stories, but team websites and sports apparel websites in particular often rely on large photos as a prominent part of their design.

2. Colorful
Naturally, team and league websites are typically very colorful and highlight their official colors. Apparel and product websites are also frequently colorful.

3. News Area
Even websites that aren’t news-focused, such as team and league websites and those of individual athletes, typically contain recent news items on the home page. As more sports fans turn to websites to get their news and stay up to date on their favorite players and teams, news and blog sections provide an opportunity for easy communication with few barriers.

4. Featured Content Area
News websites of course have certain sections in their layout for headline news, but even team and league websites now provide content in feature areas of the website. In many cases, this featured content area works in conjunction with the news headlines mentioned in the previous point. Most of the featured content sections have a slider or similar effect that moves readers from one featured item to the next. Most also allow the user to override the slideshow effect and control what content is shown in the featured area.

5. Network
Many of the leading sports news websites are part of larger networks. You will see many of them pointed out in the news section. Sometimes the sports section of the network is on its own domain, other times it is part of the main news website’s domain.

To see the full article with screenshots of some great sports websites, check out http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/04/showcase-of-beautiful-sports-websites/

_______________________________________________________________________

Not on the list…….but definitely worth a mention is a sports website designed and developed by the company I work for…… zu.com communications. zu collaborated with the Calgary Stampeders to launch a new website that features a sleek design and extensive video and audio capabilities. A continuously updating flash header introduces Stamps fans to the team with current season images taken from the field.

The site also features news, an Insider blog, a Locker-Room blog, extensive player interviews, profiles, statistics and video and audio material updated daily from games and practices. The team dedicated significant resources to offer their fans fresh content that is unparalleled in the CFL.