If tweets showcase 140 characters and pictures are worth a thousand words, where do videos fit into the grand scheme of visual pleasures?
This year — on Twitter at least — videos have taken a backseat due in part to the increasing popularity of photo-sharing services like Instagram and Picplz. Although video-sharing sites and apps are playing second fiddle at the moment, a handful of Twitter users swear by their video-centric tweets.
“I share videos on Twitter because let’s face it, sometimes you can’t come across in just words,” says comedian Bradley Laborman, a frequent YouTuber and creator of BradmanTV. “Me tweeting, ‘This HOT DOG is UH-MAZING,’ is not as effective as me posting a quick video where I serenade the hot dog and scream to the sky how amazing it actually is.”
From a business perspective, company-made videos and user-generated videos have proven to be powerful marketing tools. For example, referral traffic from YouTube to the Shorty Awards website this year was higher than Google’s referral traffic to the site because many nominees created video campaigns.
“The scalability of making a great looking video clip is nuts in 2011 and will continue to get easier and easier,” says Natan Edelsburg, supervising producer for the Shorty Awards and vice president of Sawhorse Media. “A year or two from now it will be irresponsible for everyone to write a press release or make a big announcement without complementing it with some kind of short video clip.”
Whether for business or personal use, indulge in these four video-sharing services that launched or added new features in this past year. In the comments, let us know which apps you use to share your own videos on Twitter or other social sites.
Socialcam‘s tagline is: “Shoot, tag and share it with your friends … instantly.” The app, which is tied to Justin.tv, lets you sign up with your Facebook account and then share videos on multiple outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and even Google+.
In fewer than five minutes, I signed up on my Droid X, recorded a 34-second video, uploaded it and shared it. Had I recorded friends in my video, I could have tagged them even if they weren’t Socialcam users. “We hope tagging will insert a level of shareability that will wow everybody,” said Matthew DiPietro, vice president of marketing and Communications at Justin.tv.
“We built it very specifically for friends and family,” DiPietro added. “However, that’s the exact same thing that Mark Zuckerberg was thinking about when he launched Facebook, and Facebook is a much more widely used platform now.”
Laborman uses Viddy, an app that allows you to capture, “beautify” and share 15-second videos.
“It’s basically the Instagram for video users,” Laborman says. “You shoot a video, you add a filter and you decide whether or not you want background music on the video.”
The process is simple: Click the “Share” button in the middle of the navigation panel to upload a video from your gallery or shoot a new one. Trim the clip to your liking and apply effects using “production packages.”
Viddy’s iPhone app, which launched in April and has been downloaded 500,000 times as of May, is compatible with iPod touch and iPad but requires iOS 4.1 or later. Viddy’s website says Android, Windows and BlackBerry versions of the app are in the works.
Web-based screen recorder Screenr launched in 2009, but the service recently added new features that address users’ concerns about sharing video comments via tweets.
“Previously, comments on Screenr were tied to your Twitter account and forced you to tweet your comments,” Screenr said in a blog. “Users told us they often wanted to make comments without tweeting them. Now, Screenr has bulit-in commenting so your comments stay just on Screenr. And don’t worry, there’s also a separate Tweet button if you still want to tweet your comments.”
To create a video, Mac or PC users can adjust the video frame to a size of their liking and then click record to walk viewers through an online activity. Screenr automatically provides a shortened link to the video to quicken the sharing process.
If you like sharing trendy videos on Twitter, Zocial.tv is the site and app for you.
Zocial.tv aggregates the most-shared videos on Twitter and Facebook, separates them into categories (i.e. music, sports, education) and creates top 25 lists sorted by today, yesterday, the week or month. The site’s sharing tool — powered by ShareThis — lets you share any of the videos on Twitter and other social sites. You also can +1 or “Like” a video.
Using the Zocial.tv website (above), I shared a video that was already in the top 25 Thursday morning in the music category. The Zocial.tv app is available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and requires iOS 3.1 or later.
More About: screenr, socialcam, twitter, viddy, video, web video, Zocial.tv
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Here’s something that might seem counter-intuitive. Free iPhone and iPod touch games generate more revenue than their paid counterparts on Apple’s 15 billion download-strong App Store.
The new finding comes from mobile analytics company Flurry. It analyzed the revenue generated by the top 100 grossing games on the App Store in January and June.
As it turns out, freemium, or free-to-play games generated 65% of all revenue from the top 100 grossing games in June. The majority stake represents a near complete flip-flop from January according to Flurry’s data, when 61% of revenue from the top 100 was coming in from premium, for-charge games.
It would seem that mobile application developers would be best served by adopting the freemium model, which hooks users with a free download and includes ads or in-app upgrades to generate revenue. Still, the data does not support a definitive conclusion on whether the revenue reversal represents a shift in consumer purchase preferences or a marked change in how developers are monetizing their applications.
Flurry tracks more than 90,000 apps on the App Store; it claims to be able to measure revenue generated per ranked position in the App Store top grossing category.
More About: apps, flurry, flurry analytics, games, iphone apps, Mobile 2.0
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Mobile games are the most popular type of apps amongst smartphone users, according to the latest report by Nielsen.
The report shows that 64% of users who downloaded an app in the past 30 days have downloaded a game.
Weather, social networking and apps that fall into categories of maps/navigation and search are also very popular apps, followed by music and news apps, as you can see in the chart below.
Perhaps even more importantly for app makers, smartphone users are most likely to actually pay for mobile games — more than they would for any other app category. Out of all users who pay for apps, 93% are ready to pay for a game, 87% are willing to pay for entertainment apps, and 84% are willing pay for productivity, as well as maps/navigation and search apps.
On the platform front, iOS is still the king when it comes to mobile gaming. Users with iPhones play games approximately 14.7 hours each month, while Android users play around 9.3 hours per month.
A recent study by PopCap concluded that 52% of U.S. and UK adults have played a game on a mobile device, and that approximately one-third of mobile phone owners play mobile games with some degree of regularity.
More About: App, apps, mobile games, Nielsen, smartphone
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Gabe Zichermann is the author of Gamification by Design and chair of the upcoming Gamification Summit NYC, where top leaders in the field – such as those profiled here – get together to share insight, key metrics and best practices. Mashable readers are invited to register with special savings at GSummit.com using code MASH10.
Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems. In other words, it means taking the best lessons from games like FarmVille, World of Warcraft and Angry Birds, and using them in business. Whether targeted at customers or employees, across industries as diverse as technology, health care, education, consumer products, entertainment and travel, gamification’s impact can already be felt.
While some have criticized the concept of gamification as shallow or demeaning, the initial findings from gamification specialists are nothing short of astonishing. Regardless of your business model, the following seven gamified innovations should inspire you to strategize via game analysis.
The first incarnation of the location-based networking field was littered with carnage, leading many to write off the entire concept. But Foursquare’s founders, veterans of the now defunct Dodgeball, succeeded with an ace in the hole: game mechanics. Exposed to the concept while working at Area/Code (Zynga’s recently acquired New York City-based game design shop), Dennis and Naveen concluded that mobile social networking would work if you were to change the dynamic from multiplayer to single player.
Instead of depending on the action of the crowd to provide intrinsic reinforcement (e.g. “Hey, you’re around the corner. Let’s grab a beer!”), Foursquare overcame the empty bar problem by becoming a single-player game. The user competes for badges and mayorships whether or not anyone is there to meet him. In the process, Foursquare proved that location-based networking wasn’t doomed to fail, that simple game mechanics can affect behavior, and that you can engage 10 million customers — all while raising $50 million.
When you listen to NextJump CEO Charlie Kim describe his zeal for physical fitness, you immediately understand the energy that has propelled this interactive marketing platform into one of the nation’s fastest growing businesses. But keeping fit isn’t just Kim’s personal goal — he told me it’s also a practice he believes his employees should value as a tool for improving their lives, reducing company insurance costs and preventing employee absenteeism. To achieve those goals, NextJump installed gyms in its offices, and built a custom application that enabled employees to check in to each workout. Ultimately, they rewarded the top performers with a cash prize. After implementation, around 12% of the company’s staff began a regular workout regimen.
But Kim wasn’t satisfied. By leveraging the power of gamification, he retooled the fitness “game” to become a team sport. Now NextJump employees could form regionally based teams, check in to workouts and see their team performance on a leaderboard. Leveraging the game themes of tribalism and competition had an astonishing effect on behavior. Today, 70% of NextJump employees exercise regularly — enough to save the company millions in work attendance and insurance costs over the medium term — all the while making the workplace healthier and happier.
In many countries, speed cameras snare thousands of drivers each year — a quick shutter flash earns a miserable ticket in the mailbox. In some countries, particularly in Scandinavia, ticket amounts correspond with the driver’s salary, rather than his speed. But Kevin Richardson, game designer at MTV’s San Francisco office, re-imagined the experience using game thinking.
His innovative Speed Camera Lottery idea rewards those drivers who obey the posted limit by entering them into a lottery. The compliant drivers then split the proceeds generated from speeders. Richardson used gamification concepts to turn an negative reinforcement system into a positive, incremental experience.
When tested at a checkpoint in Stockholm, average driver speed was reduced by 20%. If the plan were scaled across the U.S., the results could mean thousands fewer injuries, millions of dollars worth of reduced costs and substantial environmental benefits.
Psych is a popular program on the USA Network, but these days, creating value for TV advertisers means connecting to the web and social media in creative ways. Enter Club Psych, the online brand platform for the show, and among the first major media platforms to get gamified.
The brainchild of NBC/Universal executive Jesse Redniss, Club Psych implemented gamified incentives to raise page views by over 130% and return visits by 40%. The resulting rise in engagement has generated substantial revenue for the company, bringing registered user counts from 400,000 to nearly 3 million since the launch of the gamified version. The media conglomerate has since embraced the strategy across properties, bringing gamification to ratings leaders like Top Chef and the The Real Housewives.
Other content publishers, like Playboy, have seen similar results. Their Miss Social Facebook app has achieved an 85% re-engagement rate and 60% monthly revenue growth with gamification.
Getting product feedback is a costly and challenging effort. Therefore, most marketers have come to loathe ineffective surveys and expensive focus groups. Enter Crowdtap, the hot New York City startup launched earlier this year that reached $1 million in revenue and 100,000 users in just over 90 days. The company offers consumers gamified rewards to complete research tasks and to share brand advocacy with others — something mere market research simply cannot do.
Through the use of gamified, virtual rewards, the company has been able to raise average user participation by 2.5 times, thus reducing research costs by 80% or more for key clients. By targeting consumer rewards along a motivational (not demographic) axis, CEO Brandon Evans reports that competition-oriented users are four times more likely to create quality comments and 12 times more likely to refer others to the platform. Instead of competing against the system, they challenge themselves and peers to excel — an extraordinary achievement by any measure.
Modern life is wasteful, and easy fixes are rare. By tapping into people’s desire for reward and competition through gamified experiences, governments, utilities and entrepreneurial powerhouses are rewriting the rules of sustainability — and making the world a better place.
In a Medford, MA pilot program, households competed in an energy smackdown in which the winning family managed to lower its carbon footprint by 63%. In a program called Putnam RISE, Indiana families are making thousands of pledges to reduce power usage through a competition. The schools whose families conserve the most energy receive a cash prize. And across the country, incentives experts at Recyclebank are using the power of gamification to radically improve home environmental compliance. So far, they’ve utilized game mechanics such as points, challenges and rewards to drive breakthroughs. For example, the project has seen a 16% increase in recycling in Philadelphia, where the recycling rate has broken 20% for the first time in history.
As former globetrotting business executive turned elementary school teacher, Ananth Pai has seen it all. But when he inherited his class in White Bear Lake, MN, Pai realized there had to be a better, more engaging way to teach. So he grouped students by learning style, and retooled the curriculum to make use of off-the-shelf games (both edutainment and entertainment) to teach reading, math and other subjects. Students play on Nintendo DS and PCs, both single and multiplayer, for example. Their overall point scores are tabulated and shared using leaderboards.
In the space of 18 weeks, Mr. Pai’s class went from below third grade average reading and math levels to mid-fourth grade. The classroom success is supported by video interviews with his kids, who say “Learning with Mr. Pai is fun and social.”
In addition to these seven great tips, dozens more success stories pour in each week, underscoring the tremendous investment of time and money into gamification. Gartner Group estimates that by 2015, 70% of the Forbes Global 2000 will be using gamified apps, and M2 Research forecasts that U.S. companies alone will spend $1.6 billion on gamification products and services by that same year.
Gamification spans the gamut — from the hundreds of startups that launch with game mechanics incorporated into their products, to the big brands that make gamification a hallmark strategy. Regardless, the message is the same: the future will be more connected, more social and more fun than ever before.
More About: competition, foursquare, game mechanics, games, gamification, incentives, social media
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We recently brought you an in-depth tutorial on how to use the iPhone’s built-in HDR functionality. Now we’re taking a look at an iPhone app that helps create high dynamic range images.
Pictional’s TrueHDR goes beyond the iPhone’s built-in HDR abilities. It can help you capture better images and even improve images you take on your compact camera. Pictional’s co-founders Michael Parker and Yuanzhen Li explain how the app came about.
“Everybody has had the experience of taking photos that are either over or under-exposed and don’t look anything like what your eyes saw when you took the shots.”
They realized that the iPhone’s tap-to-focus also adjusted exposure. They could then meld two images with different exposures to come up with a result that preserved details in bright and dark areas.
Parker and Li have chosen 10 images created with TrueHDR that they feel showcase the app’s capabilities. Take a look through the photo gallery to see them, along with Parker and Li’s comments, and link us to any of your HDR creations in the comments below.
“Almost postcard-like in its perfection, this photograph beautifully shows off the capability of TrueHDR to capture a potentially … challenging range of light: Sunlight, mid-tones and shadows.”
“We were captivated by the sense of depth, along with the range of light and contrast, from the hill in the foreground to the distant meadows. The sky and the shadows from the clouds lend nice contrast to the image, contributing to a subtle landscape painting feel.”
“This photograph struck us as having an almost surreal quality. We especially like how the photographer used TrueHDR to capture the range of brightness in the scene, from the two lights on the left to the portions of the actors’ faces that are in shadow.”
“This photo captures the gorgeous lighting on the coast of Molokai. It has great composition and depth and was made from four iPhone photos — two sets of over-exposed and under-exposed pairs were merged in TrueHDR into two HDR photos, which were then stitched together into a panorama.”
“The photographer has used TrueHDR to beautifully capture the lights, snow, blue and purple layers of the sky and the foreground bush.”
“The lighting and viewpoint of this photo give us a sense of being there — standing on a dark, cobble-stoned street … with the soft light reflecting off the stones guiding the eye to some unknown adventure awaiting through the archway ahead. The use of TrueHDR helps the photographer capture the contrast and tonal range between the dark street and the bright archway.”
“The barren, abbreviated trees create some questions and a sense of curiosity for the viewer; the trees’ tops direct your attention to the details in the clouds and the green draws your eye back to the lower portion of the photograph. This is another example where the HDR aspect is essential but doesn’t overwhelm, letting the viewer consider the subject material rather than the technique.”
“This TrueHDR photo gives the feel of a Dutch masters painting, with a nice range of tones and contrasts.”
“There is a nice sense of depth to this photo, with the sheep dotting the peninsula lending a sense of scale. The use of TrueHDR helps the photographer naturally capture the range of contrasts between sky, clouds, ocean, grassy peninsula and sheep.”
“The futuristic buildings give this photograph an otherworldly feel, as if you landed on another planet. The photo captures both the sky and the materials and [the] play of light on the structures. It would have been hard to do justice to the huge range of brightness without TrueHDR. Here we also show the “before” pictures on the left — the over-exposed and under-exposed photo pair before they were merged with TrueHDR.”
More About: App, apple, gallery, hdr, iphone, iphone apps, iphoneography, iphotography, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, photography, Photos
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Google+ is already available on Android and on the mobile web, but the search giant’s social network will soon make its debut on iPhone and iPad.
As Google technician Erica Joy revealed on Google+, “the Google+ iPhone app has been submitted to the App Store (no not today, sometime prior to today) and is awaiting approval.”
We knew the iPhone app was coming soon, but we didn’t think the iOS app was already completed and submitted to Apple for approval. Based on previous experience with the approval process, we believe that the Google+ iOS app will debut sometime in the next two weeks.
Google+ is still in private beta and requires invites to access. Despite that restriction, Google+ has quickly become the hot topic of the social media universe. The reaction to Google’s social initiative has been mostly positive, but the company will have to prove that it can differentiate itself from Facebook while retaining users. Neither will be easy tasks.
[via app store, apple, Google, Google Plus, iOS, iOS app, iphone app
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The owners of Apple’s iPad now have 100,000 apps to choose from, Macstories reports.
This is quite an accomplishment given that the original iPad was launched less than a year and a half ago, in April 2010. In March 2011, there were 75,000 apps available for the iPad; it took roughly three months to reach the magic 100,000 number.
For comparison, there are less than a 1,000 apps available in the Android Market for Honeycomb, the Android variant aimed specifically for tablets (bear in mind that many Android tablets are based on other versions of Android, such as Gingerbread and Froyo, which makes it hard to calculate the exact number of tablet-specific Android apps).
As for Apple’s iOS platform in general, which the iPad shares with the iPhone and iPod touch, it recently reached half a million approved apps.
[via 000, 100, apple, applications, apps, iOS, ipad, ipad apps, Tablet
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Android users, rejoice: Path, the social network previously available only to iPhone owners, is now available for you to download.
I say rejoice because Path has become my go-to social network for connecting with my family and closest friends, even above Facebook. (Incidentally, co-founder Dave Morrin was an early employee of Facebook.)
It’s dead-simple to use: Snap a photo or 10-second video on your mobile device; tag your location, activity and who you’re with; and share it instantly with your friends — or up to 50 of them, anyway. All of your friends’ updates, or “moments,” will appear in a newsfeed on the home screen where you can respond using emoticons and comments.
Unlike just about every other social network you know, Path limits the reach of your network to 50 people (although you can adjust your share settings to cross-post updates to Facebook, as well), altering the way you interact with the network. What I would normally refrain from sharing with my 845 “friends” on Facebook, I’m often quite eager to share with my inner network on Path.
What’s more, my friends and family don’t need to be on Path to receive my updates. I can opt to have my posts delivered directly to their inboxes.
Scan the QR code below to try the public beta on your Android device (requires Android 2.1 or higher), or watch the video for a further overview of the service:
More About: android, beta, invites, Path, Path for Android, social network
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Android users, rejoice: Path, the social network previously available only to iPhone owners, is now available for you to download.
I say rejoice because Path has become my go-to social network for connecting with my family and closest friends, even above Facebook. (Incidentally, co-founder Dave Morrin was an early employee of Facebook.)
It’s dead-simple to use: Snap a photo or 10-second video on your mobile device; tag your location, activity and who you’re with; and share it instantly with your friends — or up to 50 of them, anyway. All of your friends’ updates, or “moments,” will appear in a newsfeed on the home screen where you can respond using emoticons and comments.
Unlike just about every other social network you know, Path limits the reach of your network to 50 people (although you can adjust your share settings to cross-post updates to Facebook, as well), altering the way you interact with the network. What I would normally refrain from sharing with my 845 “friends” on Facebook, I’m often quite eager to share with my inner network on Path.
What’s more, my friends and family don’t need to be on Path to receive my updates. I can opt to have my posts delivered directly to their inboxes.
Scan the QR code below to try the public beta on your Android device (requires Android 2.1 or higher), or watch the video for a further overview of the service:
More About: android, beta, invites, Path, Path for Android, social network
For more Startups coverage:
Android users, rejoice: Path, the social network previously available only to iPhone owners, is now available for you to download.
I say rejoice because Path has become my go-to social network for connecting with my family and closest friends, even above Facebook. (Incidentally, co-founder Dave Morrin was an early employee of Facebook.)
It’s dead-simple to use: Snap a photo or 10-second video on your mobile device; tag your location, activity and who you’re with; and share it instantly with your friends — or up to 50 of them, anyway. All of your friends’ updates, or “moments,” will appear in a newsfeed on the home screen where you can respond using emoticons and comments.
Unlike just about every other social network you know, Path limits the reach of your network to 50 people (although you can adjust your share settings to cross-post updates to Facebook, as well), altering the way you interact with the network. What I would normally refrain from sharing with my 845 “friends” on Facebook, I’m often quite eager to share with my inner network on Path.
What’s more, my friends and family don’t need to be on Path to receive my updates. I can opt to have my posts delivered directly to their inboxes.
Scan the QR code below to try the public beta on your Android device (requires Android 2.1 or higher), or watch the video for a further overview of the service:
More About: android, beta, invites, Path, Path for Android, social network
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