The new Autoshare feature on Youtube makes it easy to let your Facebook Friends and Twitter followers to see your actions.

Choose the actions you want to share with your community and Youtube will automatically share your activities with your social network(s).

This could be a really useful way to automatically update your social networks when you produce a new video, comment on a video associated with your travel region or business interest or even rate a video.

Youtube Autoshare: Just one more way social networks are becoming more and more interconnected.

Apple announces iPod Nano and iTunes Upgrades

Apple transformed the marketing of tourism when the iPhone became the connected device of choice among digital travelers. Today, Apple announced a number of new enhancements to iTunes and their most importantly the Apple iPod nano music device.

iPod Nano – Video

iPod Nano, the small little music player that fits into the smallest of Christmas stockings will bring video into the hands of everyone. Last year I wrote about how the Flip Video camera could be an important tool for getting video to market your tourism business.

The current Flip Video has 4 gigabytes of memory.

The new iPod nano will record video on a flash drive with up to 16 gigabytes for less than $200!

Couple that with a device that is syncs with your computer via iTunes and has one click upload to Youtube capability and you are making it easier than ever for anyone to create and share video.

The device will clearly be marketed to youth – it has no still camera capability, nevertheless, there are important implications for travel and tourism businesses.

With Video on iPod Nano, Video will be Ubiquitous

91% of people who have cell phones have them with them within arms reach 24 hours a day. Stats aren’t available on how in-touch people are with their Flip Video camera, but its a safe bet that they have their portable music player a lot closer, a lot more often (most are iPods of course).

What that means: It will be as convenient for iPod nano owners to shoot video as it is for cell phone users to make phone calls.

Get it?

iPod Nano spurs questions for Tourism

iPod Nano announcement means it’s time for a few important questions the tourism industry needs to start thinking about (if you aren’t already):

• How are you going to encourage your guests to share video that inspires other travelers?
• How are you going to monitor social media for video representation of your region, property or experience?
• How can you include the needs of digitally connected travelers to make sharing of content easier? Think wifi and power needs. (Please tell me you are still not charging for wifi access?)

What questions come to mind for your region or business?

Links:

• Get video from your guests
• Flip Video & social media post

At tourism marketing workshops I have been telling everyone to start recording video for the Web in HD format for two years. Checking my feed from Lifehacker and noticed Gina Trapani reporting that YouTube has adjusted the the video clip player’s size from a 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9 (HD TV format). As a result, many clips that were recorded in standard definition 4:3 ratio will now have black bars on either side to fill in the new space.

If you listened to the advice I was giving you back then you would have seen black bars at the top and bottom of your videos.  Now however, you’ll notice your HD videos in 16:9 format now fit the Youtube player perfectly.

Instead, you’ll notice the black bars (pillar boxing – in video lingo) on any Youtube video that was filmed in standard definition.

How to Get rid of the black bars when you post to Youtube?

To get rid of the black bars in your videos, be sure to record and edit all future videos in HD or 16:9 ratio. That way, your video will play completely filling the viewer.  Voila, no more black bars!

Unfortunately, there is no way to get rid of the black bars on existing standard definition videos

Tell a story.

Bring the authentic people, places and activities to life online with words, photos, audio, video!

This week I’ve been working with my collegues Celes Davar, from Earth Rhythms in Manitoba and Nancy Arsenault, dean of the faculty of hospitality and hotel management at Royal Roads University in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland working with Atlantic Canada hospitality businesses helping them develop new tourism experiences and learn how to market them online.

Have you noticed that the worlds most popular video sharing site YouTube has increased the maximum Video Clip Upload Size to 1GB. For those of you who have been waiting to start capturing video for your tourism business in High Definition until you had somewhere to use it, the time may be right. YouTube is also testing a new video upload tool.

I know, I know, in the midst of what may be a deeply serious economic crisis does it make any sense to go out and get HD equipment, including a new computer to be able to manage the editing requirements the large HD files require?

Well, here’s hoping that in the next two weeks, Apple’s scheduled announcement includes some goodies like new faster, brighter, cheaper laptops. I know two folks in this office who are chomping at the bit to upgrade, and for HD editing, it might be time.

Apple will also (you heard it here first!) roll out a new version of Apple TV, that neat little appliance that is a computer that connects to your internet and your HD TV. It makes it super easy to sit at home and watch Youtube videos as well as download movies and TV shows to watch when you want. Now with new HD capability in uploading your Youtube videos, it might be time for Apple TV to catch on.

So we’ve got our wish list….. by the way, we’re still keen on the Flip Video camera which records up to an hour of video on its 2 GB flash memory card. Editing this type of video for your web site is super fast, and the video is clear and bright.

Youtube has a new feature that makes it easy to add music or text to your video. The new services are available on the Annotation Link that is visible when you preview your videos in your account. Just a few clicks and less than a minute later and your video has been significantly upgraded.

Best of all, any changes that you make with the Annotation panel are overlaid on your video, so if you ever want to remove your changes or edit them, you can see the results right away without having to go to the trouble of uploading the video again to Youtube

How might you use this new feature to make your phone ring?

• Consider putting special offers right on the video.
• Have a contest and embed winning codes throughout your online videos, encouraging guests and prospects to engage with your brand by watching your videos.
• Overlay current dates or availability for upcoming events. Your video will keep fresh for years because you can continuously update the music or text annotation to keep it current.
• Use calls to action
• Include your phone number!

For example, this video showing how to start a fire could be used to promote an upcoming wilderness survival course.

“Mention this video when you sign up for Aug. 15-18, 2008 Wilderness Survival Course and save 15%!  Call toll free: 800 953-3343″

Got any ideas on this topic? How could you use this new Youtube feature to improve your videos and grow your relationship with your ideal guests?

Youtube announces that everyone has free access to the demographics information that detail in broad terms who is watching your video? Individual users can’t be identified, but information including age, gender of Youtube users is available.

Click on the “Insight” button under “Account > My Videos.

How does google find out who’s watching your Youtube videos? Simply, everyone who has a Youtube user account enters this type of demographic data into their account…. the more google asks, the more information can be aggregated and shown to users. Of course this brings up two important questions for social marketing.

• How much information is too much information for google to ask?
• How reliable is the information in Youtube profiles?

From my best guess, I’d say that Facebook users are generally probably pretty honest about the information they share… hey, their friends are watching. That surely keeps most people honest. With Youtube, I wouldn’t guess that the user data is all that accurate. It’s a more loose connection of people. Although I upload dozens of video to Youtube, I don’t generally notice who is commenting on the videos and don’t appreciate them as friends in the same way I do with Facebook.

How about you? How accurate is the data you enter into your profile across the social networking sphere?

Learn more about Google’s free analytics tool – Insight for Youtube from Google at:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/demographics-now-available-in-youtube.html

My daughter Natalie and I are in Halifax where we went out for dinner last night. She posted this picture of me to Facebook this morning – and left a comment on it for me. There just happened to be a live music event happening at the Pub. Ever the Twit, she pulled out her camera, took a few pics, unknown to me – shot some video and interviewed the band – on her little camera! Later, she posted the video to Youtube and Facebook and joined the bands social networking page at Facebook. She did this for Fun. For Free. . . . and the band, well they couldn’t be happier.

We’re living in an era where the idea of creating content online is vital to your business. The bad news is that most tourism businesses have never even heard of many of the current technologies and their potential impact on your business . . . (my recent post to link tourism industry via Twitter made that loud and clear)

The good news is . . . there is a whole generation of Twits out there who use these technologies to social network all the time! I call them the Twits! Todd Mafin calls them the Facebook generation. Whatever you call them, these young people hold the key to your business success. Your ability to recruit them, and more importantly retain them is key.

Here’s how to recruit a Twit:

In your application process ask:

• about their youtube channel,
• where they blog (not if, where)
• which social networks they use.
• have ever made a mashup video or
• arranged an event on facebook?
• Do they IM or use Twitter?
• Do they share photos online with friends?
• Ask which podcasts they listen to

Get the most out of them to enhance your business and retain these Twits:

Make your Tourism workplace Twit-friendly by encouraging:

• posting of your events on your blog and social networks like facebook
• posting of videos on your youtube channel
• blogging on your blog
• updating your business facebook page
• making daily posts to your Twitter account
• taking photos and creating online image libraries

Make these a part of the job description of every person you hire this summer and you’ll have happy Twits and a booming Web 2.0 presence for your tourism business.

Your competitors will wonder how you have the time to create all that Internet Marketing content. As for my daughter, sorry, she’s already been recruited – unfortunately, I have to find someone to fill her shoes.

By now you know the importance of editing your Google.com/maps listing. Edit your listing and be sure to include keywords that describe your services. Savvy readers of this blog already have some great photos that they have added to their listing!

Now, Google is embedding YouTube Videos into Business Listings. If you’ve got some great videos, be sure to post them to youtube, then add them to your Google Maps listing. Each business listing can add up to 5 videos. If you haven’t got five good ones, just post your best videos.

If you haven’t yet captured video to promote your tourism business, what are you waiting for? Sheesh!

Remember, just as I described in the podcast earlier today, people want to see Video! Heck, it’s like putting a free TV commercial on your listing. Can’t imagine Yellow Pages doing the same thing soon, so I’ll make this post short so you can get to it!