Indianapolis Social Media Marketing | Indianapolis Internet Marketing | Digitalia

FINNS AND INTERNET USE

My experience studying abroad in Oulu, Finland left a significant impression on how I understand Internet use (and how important it can be). The city of Oulu provided over 600 wi-fi hot spots for visitors and residents to access, free of charge.

According to Statistics Finland, 79 percent of Finns 15 to 74-year-olds used the Internet during the spring of 2007. Granted there are many other factors to take into consideration (such as tax rates and total population), but it cannot be ignored that such a high percentage of people in Finland use the Internet.

The Finnish were dedicated to open access networks and unbridled exchange of information. With the highest percentage of book borrowers and borrowing rates in the world, Finns understand the benefits of open access and freedom to exchange information.

I hope that more cities and communities in the United States will eventually offer services similar to what can be found in Oulu. Thinking about the possibilities and opportunities in America made wonder about the recent FCC Auction 73, and I can't help but wonder if open access networks are a possibility here in America.

The Finnish are certainly interesting people and their ability to act ahead of the curve is not limited to Internet access. Take a peak into how you might access the Internet in the future – Nokia Morph.

For a quick look at some free wireless hot spots here in America, visit ilovefreewifi.com.

- Reid Bradley

PHOTOSHOP EDITS VIDEO?

That is exactly what I thought when I stumbled upon an article that was a short tutorial on how to edit video in Photoshop. At first I thought there is no way that Photoshop could have the same qualities as Premiere or Final Cut. I had to see for myself. Why would you ever want to edit video in Photoshop and would it be the same as using a pro editing suite? As I fumbled around I realized it wasn’t so bad! If you can use Photoshop then you can easily create really good-looking video!

The plus side of using Photoshop to edit video, besides the cost, is that you can use all of the filters that Photoshop has to offer and apply them to your video. This gives your video an almost “Waking Life” effect. For businesses, you can take a low budget project and give it a high price feel! Most businesses have at least one copy of Photoshop for one of their departments, so using Photoshop to edit video is a cheap and easy solution. If you are just shooting video for the web, you can edit and export using Photoshop.

A plus side for the pro-sumer is that you can kill two birds with one stone. The pro-sumer can use Photoshop for their photography and edit video without buying two different programs. On the high end spectrum, you don’t want to substitute professional grade editing to save a little money, but you can create quick time-saving effects. Some nifty effects are that you can drag and drop in Photoshop where as it might take longer if you were to create it in After Affects. I don’t think I am going to start editing all my videos in Photoshop but it’s something I am definitely going to start using. Check it out!.

- Lain

Do You Ning?

A recent post by marketing guru Guy Kawasaki called “The impact of Social Media on Sales, Support, Marketing, and Branding” got me to thinking about the evolution of social networking and it’s growing importance for marketing and branding.  I laugh thinking about how I scoffed at friends’ attempts to get me to join Friendster years ago, but now I have profiles on at least 6 different social media sites and make the rounds to each one almost every day.

If I thought that social networking was making the world smaller every day, here comes Ning to make it shrink even further! Created in 2004, Ning offers users the chance to create their own specialized social networks, creating small, highly specialized, niche networks.  I use Ning accounts on Smaller Indiana and Musical Family Tree to stay connected to my friends and to help make new friends and business connections. But there are thousands more Ning social networks out there, from dog breeds to alumni groups to firefighter groups to music fan clubs.

At Firebelly, we stay “fluent” in marketing trends so we can put our clients in the best possible position to stay in the consciousness of their community and client base. We’re currently working on building several communities for our clients based on the Ning platform to bring people together without the distractions of Facebook and Myspace. In turn, we’re helping make the world smaller, too.

-Ben

VIDEO FOR YOUR AVATAR: INTERNET MARKETING FOR FILM STUDIOS

Paramount will soon be extending its VooZoo application to virtual worlds such as vMTV and Makena’s there.com. VooZoo was launched on Facebook last month and was available on mobile devices soon after.

The difference between VooZoo on Facebook versus these Virtual Worlds is that while on Facebook you can use VooZoo to display clips on your profile along with sending them to your friends, members of virtual worlds will be able to express themselves with the seconds-long excerpts and one-liners that will be displayed in windows floating above their avatars head. The clips, called VooHoo’s, are inserted into an avatar’s conversation – much like a smiley face emotion would be. Users can purchase these clips for around a dollar fee per pg-13 and tamer clips.

In there.com, the clips will serve to cement the world's relationship with its socially active 20-something user base, says Ben Richardson, Makena's VP of Business Development. "Socializing is the number one thing people do in our world," he said. " We think there is a very viral effect that's going to happen instantly once people see them being used ... our users use pop culture as a form of brand identity."

Perks for Paramount? VooZoo was developed by FanRocket, an agency focused on viral marketing within social media hubs. They plan to market DVDs through a button that appears after each clip is played and hopes are to eventually promote upcoming releases through the application. And if for nothing else, VooZoo will be a great word-of-mouth internet marketing tool, combining users need to interact socially with the fact that the application itself is a message that is directly connected to sales through a small button at the end of each VooHoo that allows you to order DVDs right then and there. Each time the clip is sent out, it acts as an advertisement for that film.

- Julia

SOCIAL NETWORK SPECIFICS

Although MySpace and Facebook may reign supreme in terms of numbers, there are hundreds of other social networking sites out there, targeted at connected people with specific interests, hobbies and lifestyles. MySpace and Facebook are great forums for general networking, but when people want to connect about something specific, their size can be a detriment. Other smaller forums allow users to have more in-depth discussions and really focus on what interest them.

For example, I recently discovered a great social networking site centered around fitness and have since been motivated to find others that coincide with my hobbies. I stumbled onto Peertrainer.com while searching for the “Top Ten Running Songs” (I’m attempted to train for a mini marathon next month. Notice the word “attempting.”) I was pleasantly surprised to find helpful advice and support, in addition to suggestions about the best tunes to pump me up during my runs. There are tons of other sites out there like this one and below I’ve listed a few that struck my fancy.

Travbuddy.com- A site for travelers to swap stories, advice and meet others who share their passion for exploring the globe.

Shelfari- A virtual book club. Write reviews or pick up tips about what to read next (My suggestion: Water for Elephants…. 100% amazing.) GoodReads is also a great place for book lovers.

DiveBuddy.com- This forum exists to connect scuba divers with their next dive buddy. Maybe I’ll meet a cute one that wants to go to Belize…..

-Margaret Henney

RICK ROLLED ON APRIL FOOL'S DAY

Observing April Fool’s Day has become a tradition for many web companies. Much like changing their logos on holidays, pulling a prank on their users on April 1st is becoming commonplace.

YouTube has a good one today. All of the featured videos on their home page today, when clicked, actually link to the music video for Rick Astley’s 1980’s classic Never Gonna Give You Up.

This phenomenon actually has a name. It’s called being “Rick Rolled.” I was “Rick Rolled” last week, when a friend sent me an email saying I needed to watch this video of Barack Obama making disparaging remarks about Hillary Clinton when he thought the cameras were off. “Hurry, before YouTube takes it down” was tacked on to the end of his message.

I obediently clicked the link to watch the video and was brought to the Never Gonna Give You Up video. Huh? I emailed my friend back saying that he had sent me the wrong link, to which he quickly responded “LOL. You’ve been Rick Rolled.”

Random, I know. But some of the best things in life, and online, are random. It’s fun to see YouTube itself is in on the joke today.

For a more in-depth explanation of the phenomenon, check out Urban Dictionary definitions of “Rick Rolled” here.

- Chad