This week I was asked to speak at the Social Media University conference in Milwaukee about “viral video” on the web. I don’t believe there’s a special formula to follow that magically equals viral distribution, but I think there are many things you can do to set yourself up for success.

In the slide deck below (the one I presented at the conference), I discuss the following topics:
* Where we are today with web video (scale, how we consume it, how we share it, etc.)
* Examples of certifiably viral videos (some are good for companies, some are bad)
* 3 components of a video strategy to extend your reach
* Creating video: Some things to consider
* Sharing video: Hosting, embedding, share buttons, and distribution
* Tracking video: Analytics packages to track your video success (helps you prepare for the next one)
* The future of video on the web: Mass distribution and real-time streaming

The presentation was video taped, so I’ll place that here as soon as it’s ready. I would love to hear what you think in the comments, or on Twitter. Be sure to view the presentation in full screen mode.

File this one away with my series of posts focused on Information Overload…

One major gripe I’ve had with Twitter for some time now (and I know I’m not alone here) is the inability to group the people you follow into certain categories. Let me explain.  Currently I’m following (receiving updates from) upwards of 600 people on Twitter.   It can be assumed that they are all worth listening to from time to time – otherwise I wouldn’t have clicked “follow” in the first place.  But the experience of watching a big newsfeed tick by with the updates from all these people is a little daunting, and clearly inefficient.  How can I focus with all this noise?

Right now, some of my main interests are startups, photography, Milwaukee (”represent”), and business intelligence.  Sometimes (almost all the time actually) I’d prefer to read about only one of these subjects, not all of them at a time.  For example, if I’m in a creative mood, I could be eager to see what people are saying about photography or design.  Now, I could do a twitter search for “photography”.  While this might return some decent results, it just shows me a list of recent tweets mentioning “photography”.  This completely negates the time I’ve put into finding people who actually know what they’re talking about.  I’d much rather just see the recent updates from all the people who I consider experts.  And now I can – using the Tweetie iPhone app, with the process described below. [note: This works just as well with Twhirl for the desktop if you don't have an iPhone]

Tweetie is like many iPhone Twitter applications that allow you to see the recent updates from the people you follow.  What sets it apart is that Tweetie allows you to use many different Twitter accounts.

Here’s how it works:
1. Download Tweetie (it’s $3, but worth it)

2. Make a list of topics you’re into.
Maybe include on the list some people on Twitter who clearly know what they’re talking about when it comes to that topic.

3.  Create a new Twitter account for each topic
(in this example, i’ve appended “a_” to the name.  It will help my list of accounts sort nicely alphabetically later)

4. Log into the account created for a topic, and follow the people who say interesting things about that topic. For example, with the account I created for Photography, I followed @simonmcconico, @jakedavidrohde, @RachelK, @photocampmke as a good start.

5. Add your real account, and your “topic accounts” to Tweetie

Now you’re all set!  In my example, I can pop into the Photography account to see what the photography tweeps are talking about…

Or if I want to see what’s going on in Milwaukee, it’s as easy as checking the Milwaukee account…

One critical feature of Tweetie is the ability to reply with any of your accounts.  So If I’m viewing all the Milwaukee updates, I can still reply as @blakesamic.

Just another battle won in the war against Information overload.  Let me know what you think in the comments.

Do it at YourFonts.com

Tonight I’m trying some cross processing techniques that I first saw in a tutorial from Layers Magazine.

“Cross processing (sometimes abbreviated to xpro) is the procedure of deliberately processing photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film” – Wikipedia

It’s a fairly simple process in Photoshop, achieved with a new curves adjustment layer.  The three steps were as follows:

1. Alter the red curve: raise it in the highlights and lower it in the darker portions of the photo

2. Alter the green curve: raise it in the highlights and lower it in the darker portions of the photo

3. Alter the blue curve: lower it in the highlights and raise it in the darker portions of the photo

You can tweak the curves until you get the desired effect…

If you know of any particularly good Photoshop tutorials, let me know.  I’m trying to pick it up after working with Macromedia Fireworks for years.

After doing my six month stint in Europe, I came home to a mess.  I’ve been systematically checking off different areas of my place to get everything de-cluttered and organized.

Some of these before pictures are down-right embarrassing, but I think they really illustrate how far some zip ties and a shelf can go for your sanity!

A few things I’ve come to understand:

• * Clutter breeds more clutter.  Cleanliness/organization breeds more cleanliness/organization.  Think about it — you’re more likely to do the one dish when the rest of your kitchen is spotless than to do that dish if you’ve already got a stack of others piling up.
• * When you do a project like this, it’s best to focus on one area at a time.  Make a checklist of problem areas and attack them on different nights.  You’ll just get frustrated if you try to do it all
• * It’s best to gather everything from the problem area (drawer, closet, whatever) in one spot, get rid of what you’re not using, and put what’s left back in a logical, organized way.

Enough talking, here are the pictures:

Closet Declutter

After installing two shelves:

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Entertainment Center Declutter

After managing all the cords with some zip ties:

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Desk Declutter

After insalling a cork board under the desk and fastening all that clutter to it:

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And “Voila!”.  There you have it.  Let me know what you think in the comments.  If you’ve got similar projects like this, link to the pics.

Everyday we’re getting slammed with information from every angle, so I’m always looking for better, more efficient ways to make sense of it all. Last week I found myself deleting dozens of email alerts and notifications from Facebook, Twitter, and various banks.  While this information is arguably important, I’ve decided that it’s clogging up my inbox and making me slower to respond to emails from friends and family.  I’ve devised a scheme to solve this problem.

Since I’m increasingly mobile, like a lot of people, I chose to use the iPhone as the centerpiece of my “Communication Segmentation” plan (note: term originally coined by Tad Johnson).  iPhone makes it extremely easy to add new Gmail accounts to your email application, so I decided to make multiple Gmail accounts – one for each of these communication types.  I registered all five accounts in one day, so it would appear that Google doesn’t care if you do this.

1. Personal Gmail: I get all my regular email here from friends and family.  I tend to filter out any kind of advertising, etc. and send those emails directly to the archives.

2. ActionsTalk Gmail: I have a few things routed here now.  Since I set up a Twitter account for ActionsTalk (my startup spotlight website), I’ve got all the alerts for that account going here.  Any new comment alert coming from the site (ActionsTalk.com), and emails from sponsors or startups are also sent here.  Lastly, I used search.twitter.com to set up an RSS feed for any time someone mentions “@ActionsTalk” on Twitter.  I pump that RSS feed through xFruits using their RSS to Email generator and voila… I get an email any time we’re mentioned.

3.  Twitter Gmail: I do all the same stuff with this email account that I did with #2, but this time I have all the alerts for my personal Twitter account fed in.

4.  Facebook Gmail: I’ve got all my alerts from Facebook here like new friend requests, notifications of wall posts, photo tags, etc.

5.  Finance Gmail: I now have all my email from any of my bank accounts sent to this email address.  This includes bill pay reminders, spending threshold alerts, etc.

Bottom line: This system took about 30 minutes to set up.  After about a week of using it, I can say that it has made me much better at reading and responding to emails.  I can clearly see how many of each type I have, and I can deal with them at my leisure. Give it a shot, and let me know what you think in the comments.

Light painting is brand new to me, but I saw a few examples scattered about the Internet, and decided to try it last night.

Here are a couple of the better pictures:

And here’s how you do it:

Ingredients:
1. Camera that can be set to have a long shutter
2. Flashlight
3. Pitch Black Room

That’s it…

Ok, so if you’ve got all that, it’s easy. Put your camera in a stationary position, set the shutter speed for something long – like 30 seconds.

You don’t want anything screwing up your photo, so put a timer on it (to reduce camera shake from pushing the button) and turn off the flash.

When you start the shutter, you can begin to “paint” with light. You just shine the light on anything you want to show up in your picture. If you want something brighter, then shine your light on it longer. If you want bright streaks of light, shine the flashlight in the general direction of the camera. Try to not shine right at the camera though… or you’ll end up with some weird twinkle effects – but maybe you’re into that.

Here are a few more photos from my first attempt at light painting…

Link to your best light painting photos in the comments section

You can find almost anything for free on the Internet these days, including education. So if you’re a motivated self learner, and it’s the actual knowledge you’re after (not a paper to hang on your wall), here is a round up of sites to get you started.

Business Courses
* Medical Product Quality System- free course from UC Irvine
* Fundamentals of Business Analysis- course that analyses the relationship between business and IT
* Capital Markets- course examines several aspects of the global capital markets
* Macroeconomics for managers – broad overview of macroeconomic theory and policy

Technical Courses
* Conceptual Physics- a YouTube channel stressing conceptual physics knowledge (rather than complicated mathematics)
* Search Engine Technologies- another YouTube channel with many video lessons
* BioMedical Engineering- This course provides an overview of medical devices, FDA regulatory issues, biocompatibility and sterilization technology
* How Stuff Works- Learn how many things around you work, simplistically explained

Language Courses
* Mango Languages- Great interactive tool with lessons from native speakers and memory building exercises
* French En Ville- some basic French lessons to help you get around
* Spanish Espacios públicos – some introductory Spanish
* Chinese 101 – an introductory Chinese course with video lectures
* English Grammar- an advanced English course

Other Resources
* All of the UC Berkley YouTube courses
* Stanford iTunes courses
* MIT OpenCourseWare (download the docs for 1800 classes!)
* Notre Dame OpenCourseWare
* University of Texas at Austin Map Collection (Geography)
* Learning Space – Modern Languages

Enjoy!