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Google Video Launches for Internal Business Use

This morning Google is launching Google Video for business, a customized video platform aimed at businesses for internal use. Think training vides, HR videos, etc. (anything that isn’t outside facing). The product is included in Google Apps Premier Edition for free, with 3 GB of storage per user account. – TechCrunch – Google Video Launches for Businesses

This launch will obviously have a limited use for now, but if you’re looking for a video service/vendor for internal use, Google might be a good vendor to check out, especially if you have users who are familiar with YouTube (it has similar functionality).  I’m guessing that Google will look to expand this in the future and possibly become a competitor in the online video industry – it’s just a logical jump from owning YouTube.

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Using Social Media for Long-Term Results

If you’ve had any success with using social media to increase the traffic to your website, you may have noticed that you usually get a spike in traffic which often goes back to original levels.  While getting a spike in traffic might be nice (or not nice if it crashes your website), if your traffic goes back to the original levels, you’ve lost an opportunity to convert some of those people to long-term visitors.  Traffikd has a good article with some ways to try to convert traffic spikes from social media into long-term visitors – Social Media Marketing: Getting Long-Term Results.  A summary of things to consider from the post:

  • Subject of your posts
  • Tone of your Posts
  • Targeted Social Media
  • Timing
  • Potential Impact
  • The Needs that are Met by the Post

While Traffikd’s post focuses mostly on blogs, these techniques can also be used on your business website.  It is important to maintain a customer-centric design by keeping the needs of your customers in mind with your content (and your design, layout, etc.).  The customers who visit your website are who provide the return on investment (ROI) for your website.

What’s worked for your business website in terms of social media?  Please share in the comments below.

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Ruby Hoedown – What isn't a Cloud

Robert Dempsey has an excellent talk up on Confreaks where he looks at the Ruby language accessing Cloud computing.  As Robert knows, Standard Operating Procedure for a high level talk is to define the terms for the audience.  For this group the term ‘Ruby’ was a given, so he wisely focused on the Cloud.  Lemme recap what he lists as NOT being a Cloud if…

  • You cannot buy it with your personal credit card
  • They are trying to sell you hardware
  • There is no API
  • You need to rearchitect your system for it
  • it takes more than 10 minutes to provision
  • you need to specify the number of machines you want up front
  • you own all the hardware

This, in my opinion, is an excellent primer for evaluating that ‘Try our new Cloud Computing Service’ pitch your VAR is feeding you.  I can only add one point of my own, as in my mind it is not Cloud Computing if…

  • The the business model hinges on lock-in

Value Added Networks (VANs) can have a cloud-like smell to them when they branch beyond simple traffic passing and on into backend processing, but I have difficulty reconciling the lock-in potential.  If you cannot shift your system to a new Cloud provider easily, then I believe you are dealing with an entirely different animal.  Buyer Be Ware.