First, some link-love: Mike Sansone, Drew McLellan, Mike Wagner. The first thing they did was reveal myfeedstream.com to combine content from multiple sources into one.

A blog is a free sample of your brand. People have 2 different brands: default and intentional. To build an intentional brand only requires 2 skills:

1. Be remarkable, unique, creative. You have to believe that you are creative if you don’t feel like you are. If you were ever a child, you can be creative.
2. Care. People are attracted to people that care about them or what that person cares about.

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Rodney Rumford comes from PodBlaze, among other ventures. Video trends and the convergency of video, blogs, community, and connections using VideoSticky.

There are 80-100k new videos uploaded every day. They can’t all be bad, though most of them are. Streamers had greater Internet usage than non-streamers by 67%. YouTube has allowed people to realize that they can deliver content with a new media.

Video engages users and creates longer site visits. If you offer video, you offer extended branding and as a valued resource.

Bloggers have the opportunity to differentiate and lead because people consume content in different ways. Some prefer text only, text and audio, text and video, etc. Why force your personal views upon them…”My web My way.”

Provide context for video content (Yay, I did that last week with my quest video post) and promote deeper people connections. Share a channel of relevant video content with your blog readers. You don’t need to create video to liven up your blog.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

[tag]Ben Yoskovitz[/tag] writes at Instigator Blog and is here today to talk about [tag]podcasting[/tag]: take advantage of your opportunities. Opportunities abound.

Podcasting is easy, but it takes more time than blogging and the comfort level isn’t always there. Start simple with inexpensive equipment and Skype for interviews.

Use Audacity/GarageBand 3 for editing and podsafe for free music. Host yourself or use a hosting service to record, publish, and host your podcast.

Things to keep in mind:

• length doesn’t matter
• quality needs to be high
• use music
• write a script, but keep it an outline
• keep it in a conversational tone
• link to others; best blogging practices
• draw in your audience

What is the future of podcasting? We are all media channels and we have strength in numbers. Niches will rule (Yes!!! I might do something right! Now for the podcast…) Audio books will take root and become or take over the ebook.

[tags]SOBCon, SOBCon07[/tags]

You need to have a unique blog. People will unsubscribe it is not unique. [tag]David Armano[/tag] blogs at Logic + Emotion. Check out his presentation on Slideshare to see the best presentation I’ve ever seen.

How do you define success? A great blog experience combines excellent content with conversation + stimulation. In the end, you connect with your communities. That is one of the best metrics of success.

Blogs as brands. Think of 3 brands. What kind of brand do you want to be like? The unique ones, probably. You’d want to be BMW or Apple rather than Kodak or K-mart.

Do you have a [tag]blog brand[/tag]? Are you representing your [tag]personal brand[/tag]? Read More→