In the past couple years, Twitter has become a viable method of reporting and reading about breaking news events.  It gives citizen journalists–and professionals as well–a way to publish news stories as they happen, long before the television news can scrape together an urgent news bulletin.  And video is quickly proving that it has the same power

Excerpt from: 
Blizzard Time-Lapse Shows How Amateur Footage Of News Events Can Go Viral

The flash mob , as a concept, is far from new.  It’s been around for years.  And people have been uploading videos of flash mobs for as long as YouTube has existed.  And while almost everyone has seen at least one flash mob video, the genre is far from dead.  In fact, recent successes might signal that the flash mob has yet to reach the apex of its popularity. In a video released six weeks ago, a group of singers in Ontario staged a flash mob rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah in the food court of a local mall.  As of the writing of this article, the video has amassed 27,367,750 views, which, according to sources , is a new record for flash mob videos.  If you haven’t seen it, and if you’re not completely overdosed on all things Christmas, check it out: Click here to watch the embedded video. For comparison’s sake, consider the group Improv Everywhere , who are largely considered to be the kings of flash mob videos.  Their most-watched video, Frozen Grand Central –in which a large number of participants simply freeze in place for several moments in New York’s Grand Central Station–has only 24,472,619 views.  The food court Hallelujah Chorus has only been online for six weeks; Frozen Grand Central has been up for nearly three years.

See the original post here: 
Hallelujah Chorus Vid Sets Record, Proves Flash Mobs Are As Popular As Ever

Ho ho ReelSEO! For this special Christmas post, I give my review of the video holiday cards I received. I share what I liked, and what I would like to see. Some of them make me a jolly “Granta Claus,” and a few made me act like “Grant the Grinch.” Read on and watch them yourself! Why Do A Holiday Video Greeting Card?

View post:
How To Promote your Business With Holiday Video E-Cards

It’s Christmas Eve, and even though many of us aren’t in the office today going about our normal routine, we can still take a few moments to check out some of the week’s better viral video success stories.  In fact, I’m squeezing in a few more videos that normal this week–consider it a Christmas Bonus. Since I’m sure some of you still have last-minute shopping to do, let’s not waste any time: The Lunar Eclipse Did you see the big lunar eclipse this week?  What’s that?  You say you’re usually asleep at 2 in the morning?  Yeah, me too.  Fortunately for us, Vimeo user William Castleman filmed it all in glorious HD and shared it all with the world.  Take a look: Click here to watch the embedded video. The video, uploaded only three days ago, is already over a million views.  It’s easy to see why.  The event is haunting and beautiful.  But there’s something greater than great camerawork that’s pushing this video’s popularity–history.

Here is the original post:
The Week’s Best Viral Videos & Video Marketing Lessons – 12/24/2010

Steve Garfield wrote a book you might have heard us talk about before , called Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (you can learn more about it or purchase the book on Amazon ).  So when we had a chance to sit down for a few moments and talk about the state of online video, we jumped at it. Click here to watch the embedded video. Get Involved Now, Get Fancy Equipment Later Garfield advocates jumping in with both feet, even if you don’t have a fancy camera .  As he reminds us, 40% of videos uploaded to Facebook are recorded with a simple webcam.  Steve himself records a lot of video using his iPhone.

Originally posted here: 
Get Seen – Simplifying Online Video With Steve Garfield

CES is just round the corner and I’ve got about a hundred emails all talking about how cool some new product is. Everything from a digital cooking thermometer and iPhone App (why someone would ever need that is beyond me) to real, freakin’ robots! But this one I got today sort of caught my attention for ReelSEO readers, it’s mgMedia and Samsung Movies Spain, a four screen (mobile, TV, PC and tablet) streaming video service. OK, so technically a tablet is a PC but it’s somewhere between a PC and a mobile in that some of them have features of both and so some classify them as a new screen, sure, let’s run with that for today

Original post: 
Samsung’s Video Streaming Service Raises More Questions Than it Answers

Back in July, YouTube poured $5 Million back into the source of their success:  the users.  Specifically, the video giant created YouTube Partner Grants, a grand fund intended to help independent YouTube Partners level the playing field with the deep-pocketed major brands.  At the time, I praised the company for investing in its users. And now I have to praise them again . YouTube has announced a similar new venture that will bring a Merry Christmas to many Partners indeed–$1,000 for new camera equipment.  Sweet! The good news is that some Partners will be getting $1,000 credit vouchers for B&H Photo , which they can use to purchase any sort of gear they may need.  It might be a camera, audio equipment, or lights.  Whatever they want.  Now that’s a pretty good Christmas present

More: 
YouTube Gives Partners A Christmas Bonus For New Video Gear

One of my favorite soapboxes of late pertains to video advertising, and what I perceive to be its inevitable merge with regular old videos created for “entertainment.”  Advertisers are embracing viral video in new and exciting ways every day, and I think we should applaud that.  When you dig to the bottom of things, all the viewer wants is to have a good time… to be entertained.

Original post: 
TED Founder Chris Anderson Launches Contest To Find “Ads Worth Spreading”

Here’s a little quick tip (of course I always say that just before I write a 1000 word novel about it) that I discovered yesterday to show you how you can embed YouTube’s newest version of their embeddable video player which more closely matches the newest player on YouTube.

Read the original post:
How-to Embed The New YouTube Video Player Skin And Why

So is it any surprise that retail and eCommerce sites showed massive uptakes last month? Nah, I didn’t think so

Read the rest here: 
Media Metrix November 2010 – Retail Prevails, Google Ad Network Reaches 93 Percent of US Surfers