1. TubeReplay

This site features a super-simple premise. TubeReplay will play a YouTube video over and over again, until you stop it or go mad — whichever happens first. Just enter the URL of the clip you want repeated and the site will do the rest.

2. DragonTape

DragonTape allows you to remix YouTube videos into a seamless mixtape. Search for the clips you want, drag and drop to set up the play order and then share the playlist with friends via an auto-generated URL, or embed it with the code provided.

See all 12 Hacks at Mashable.

Your Basic Blog

Frank Reed, owner of FT Internet Marketing, who blogs at Frank Thinking about Internet Marketing, says your blog should be part of your website, which will boost the search engine optimization of your site. “It becomes a body of work that tells your story better than your resume,” he says.

The idea of writing makes lots of small business owners break out in hives, but you don’t have to be Shakespeare. A great blogging strategy is to simply post a link to other content with a paragraph about why you think it’s important, Reed says. Don’t be afraid you’re driving people away from your own site. “People who share information get the most benefit,” he says. “You become an information broker.”

Read the full post at American Express Business.

1. Think about your audience. If you create a video without your audience in mind, it will be a waste of your time.
2. Script the video. At the minimum have an outline for what the video will say and a storyboard with scenes mapped out.
3. Make sure you have the right equipment. This could mean hiring a videographer to film the commercial and editing yourself.
4. Promote the video using any and all channels available.
5. Track the results. This could mean tracking views, click through’s, or any other metrics.

Read the whole article at American Express Business.

At home we have a problem with our neighbor’s yard, Grove Park Inn’s golf course, causing major runoff problems almost every time there is a burst of rain. This particular time I decided to step outside and make a little video with my cheap Flip video camera. It ended up being the lead story on the 6 o’clock news that week. This is how that happened, and how you can use video and social media to get some attention:

1. Capture simple video of something “remarkable”
2. Upload video to a sharing site like Youtube, etc.
3. Write a short blog post about and embed the video on the page
4. Mention it on Twitter, Facebook etc. (There are tools that can tie all these accounts together and make sharing easier.)
5. Get other people to mention it on Twitter, or “retweet” it
6. Get noticed by people with popular blogs (In this case it was Ashvegas)
7. Get noticed by local mainstream media such as the newspaper or TV stations
8. Agree to do the interview when they call, even if it’s inconvenient

I’ll admit that it may be a little harder to promote your business the same way, but not impossible. Surely you have something, at least occasionally, that will be interesting to a lot of people. But you have to put it out there, and give it a promotional nudge if you want people to see it.

If you don’t have a blog for your business, get one now. There are numerous free options and you don’t need technical skills. So there are no excuses. Then get a cheap video camera. We like the Flip product line, but the are other good brands and cameras out there for less than $200. Now, what are you going to video and blog about? We have a mind map about content creation that may help.

Video of newscast at WLOS.com

Post at Ashvegas blog

The backyard Flip video that got the social media ball rolling:

AVL Marketing is an Asheville marketing agency. We can help you tell your story.

We want to help as many small business owners as we can with their marketing needs. Many of the people we talk to are not able to afford the comprehensive marketing package we provide for our current customers. The full-service marketing package is ultimately the best value, but, again, not everyone can afford to do that. So, we’re going to break the mold here and try something completely new.

The details are still being worked out, but generally speaking it will be a streamlined service, that will be very affordable, and will allow almost any small business to tap into the power of modern marketing using blogs, email and video (oh yeah, there will be some killer reporting too). These are the essential elements, and the foundation for SEO and social media. Other services will be available on a la carte basis.

Stay tuned to the site for more details in the coming weeks. Or, even better, jump on our email list and we’ll keep you updated.

Here’s a quick lesson in using social media to market your business from my 12 year old (almost 13!) son Mars. He likes fingerboards, tiny skateboards you can ride using your fingers. Turns out millions of kids like them. And apparently a lot of those kids have Flips or other affordable ways of making videos to show off their skills and creative ideas for “skate parks.”

Just Google “fingerboarding” to see how popular it is. Most of the search results will be for Youtube videos. Many of these fingerboarders now have very popular channels on Youtube. These kids don’t know a world without the web and social media. Sharing and interacting online is completely natural to them.

Fingerboarding as a hobby has now branched into kids making their own boards, from scratch. There are even videos about how to do this. So serial entrepreneur Mars, who is always making something, decides he is now in the manufacturing game, albeit at the hand made level. He has some friends on Youtube who have become fingerboarding new media celebrities. This is how Mars plans to pull it all together to sell his product:

1. “Sponsor” some “celebrities” by giving them his products to use
2. Ask the celebs to “endorse” his fingerboards by using them in their next video, get a mention
3. Funnel that traffic to his own Youtube channel or Etsy store

Some high level steps to using social media for business, that every 12 year old already knows:

1. Interact, engage, comment, compliment, make friends in the networks that make sense for you
2. Create your own related media (tweets, videos, blog posts, etc.) to show you’re legit
3. Partner, sponsor, joint venture, with players bigger than you to tap into their audience

That is all for now. Tell me in the comments if there is something you want me to talk about.

If you’re considering using online video for marketing or even just presenting information I highly recommend downloading this tutorial from Andy Jenkins and Frank Kern. It’s a full hour of Andy explaining everything from the technology you need (not very much in fact) to scripting and editing for maximum effect. The image here is a snippet of a massive mind map Andy created as a tool to help make successful video making a repeatable process.

I listened to it live, there were some glitches, and the sound could be better, but this is some very solid content. Well worth the hour.

You can get it here:

http://www.andyjenkinsblog.com/JumpStart/