Couple of tips:
- If you’re able to, watch it in 720p
- Once you’ve watched it once, watch it again keeping an eye on the bride-to-be’s expressions and reactions in the top right corner.
Showing posts with label online marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online marketing. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
In this week's viral video - The bar has been set, this is the greatest wedding proposal ever!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
7 New Facebook Changes Impacting Businesses
Article by: By Andrea Vahl
Facebook pages are changing. And that means your business strategy will need to change.
In fact, Facebook has made many new changes that will impact anyone with a Facebook page.
These changes emerged from Facebook’s fMC 2012 Conference.
The overall message was that Facebook is looking at pages as a “mission control” point (which is where the MC comes from in the conference title).
Here is an overview of the changes and how brands can take advantage of some of the new features.
#1: Cover Photo and Profile Image
Obviously one of the biggest changes that we all knew was coming was the cover photo. No more photo strip across the top. You now have one large image to showcase your page. This image must be a minimum of 399 pixels across to be used as the cover photo. But you can have a photo cover designed to take advantage of the extra space you get. The cover photo maximum dimensions are 850 pixels by 315 pixels.
The new Timeline cover photo.
One of the biggest restrictions is the fact that you can’t have any calls to action in your cover photo. You can’t tell people to like or share your page or have any contact information at all, including your web address, phone number or mailing address. Get the full details about cover photos here. These restrictions will require some creativity in drawing attention to your business without some of the methods that have been used in the profile pictures recently.
The profile picture size has been changed to 180 pixels by 180 pixels. It appears next to every post in the news feed as a 30 pixel by 30 pixel picture. The profile picture is best used for your logo or other eye-catching picture without a lot of words.
#2: Larger, Highlighted and Pinned Posts
One of Facebook’s mantras during the conference was the way we tell stories with Facebook. To help you tell your stories, the pictures and videos are now larger and more eye-catching.
You can also highlight a story (by clicking the star icon in the upper right of a post) so that it spans all the way across the Timeline as shown in this Lexus post with a video.
Use Highlight to emphasize a particular post.
You can also pin the story to the top of your Timeline for up to a week. To do this, click the pencil icon in the upper right of the post and select Pin to Top.
Pin a story to the top of your Timeline for greater emphasis.
#3: Setting Company Milestones
Another thing you can add to make your Timeline more interesting is Milestones. You can tell people about big events in the life of your brand or company.
All you need to do is click on the line that runs down the middle of your Timeline and select Milestone. Then you can fill out the information as shown.
Add Milestones to tell your company's story.
Because the posts from your fans are in a separate area, your Timeline is now more focused on your story.
People may be spending more time reading your Timeline rather than just coming to your page to ask a question. The more visually engaging you can make your Timeline, the better.
#4: New Applications
One of the biggest changes is the removal of the default landing tab.
Applications are still available and if you have created a custom welcome tab or added any other special application, it hasn’t disappeared.
You now have 12 applications you can showcase and only the four applications that you move to the top row will appear prominently. You cannot change the position of the photos, so technically you only have three applications that you have control over in that top row .
Choose which apps you want displayed by placing them in the first three rows.
To move your apps around, first click the down arrow next to your top row of apps to display all of your apps. Next, click the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the app. Then select the app that you would like to swap positions with. As mentioned, you cannot change the position of the Photos app.
Change your app position.
Many people are lamenting the disappearance of the default landing tab, but the new app buttons give us an opportunity to be creative. You can change the photo that appears for the app and you can rename the app to give a call to action as shown on Holdren Design’s page.
Use an eye-catching image and rename the app to have a call to action.
Another good use of custom images and tab names.
To change your app photo, again display all of your apps with the down arrow button next to the top row of apps and click on the pencil icon. Scroll down to the Edit Setting selection and from there you can add a custom tab image.
Select Edit Settings to change the name of the tab and use a custom tab image.
Select Change to upload a custom tab image.
The custom tab image is 111 pixels by 74 pixels.
You can have an enticing call to action in your custom tab image.
#5: Facebook Offers
Only a few companies have access to Facebook Offers currently, but it will be rolled out soon. According to Facebook’s Offer Help section, they “expect to make Offers available more broadly soon.” Facebook Offers are like Facebook Deals on steroids.
The post is sent through the news feeds of your fans, which is much more visible. There are easy ways to share the Offer, both through the post itself and then when the Offer is claimed. Fans get the Offer by clicking the Get Offer link, see the terms and then click the blue Claim Offer button as shown.
Click Claim Offer to get the coupon sent to your email.
Because Facebook has everyone’s email address, they are able to individually email your Offer to the person who claimed it. Unfortunately, the page does not have access to those emails through which the Offer was claimed, but at least the word is spread about your Offer.
The person who claims the Offer receives an email showing how to redeem the Offer and the terms.
Facebook Offers could be a huge win for small businesses offering things like a “free webinar” or consultants offering a “free 15-minute consultation.”
The danger is making sure you have the bandwidth to deliver the Offer. There didn’t seem to be any way to cap the number of Offers that were claimed. Einstein’s Bagels had close to 30,000 people who claimed the BYGO sandwich offer. Not too difficult to fulfill if you have 500+ locations and you anticipate that some won’t redeem the Offer at all—but still, you don’t want to get into a bad situation with fulfillment problems.
Facebook gives some good tips on ways to make your Offer successful by telling us to “make discounts substantial”—20% off or even free—as well as setting a reasonable expiry date to “let people have a few days to see and claim the Offer.”
The other question is when Facebook Offers will be widely available. Facebook stated, “Offers are only available to managed advertising clients.” Once this is rolled out to more pages, it would seem that every page would want to create one if it was free. Plus it appears that Facebook may not be vetting the Offers before they go live. Offers may become too much of a good thing, but that remains to be seen.
#6: Facebook Insights, Admin Panel and Messaging
Another change with the Timeline is the location of the Insights. You can now access them by clicking on the Admin Panel in the upper right corner.
The Admin Panel tells you about new notifications and gives you access to the "back-end" of your Facebook page.
The Admin Panel has much different navigation than before, but everything appears to be there.
Access your Insights through the Admin Panel.
You will still be able to see the old-style Page Dashboard if you click the Manage drop-down menu and then Edit Page.
Click Edit Page to see the old-style Page Dashboard.
From the Admin Page, you can also invite your email contacts, invite friends, share your page and create an ad from the Build Audience drop-down menu.
Use the Build Audience drop-down menu to access several options on getting the word out about your page.
Facebook has done a nice job of giving us lots of options to learn more about the new page design from the Help drop-down menu. During the Preview, the Help drop-down menu links to tutorials, but once you publish your Timeline you will have access to some different options.
One of the capabilities will be to easily request a name change for your page. This name change is the title of your page, not the custom URL you may have set for your page. You can still access this form here. Great news for people who have changed their company branding, have had a misspelling in the name or have other tweaks they have wanted to make.
Request a name change for your page
One of the most interesting developments of the new page Timelines is that we can now get more information on other pages that have changed to the new Timeline. When you click on the Likes box, just underneath their Timeline cover photo you cansee the most popular age group, a People Talking About This Trend graph and their most popular week.
You can now see more Insight information about any page that has the new Timeline.
Companies could possibly hide the Likes box by swapping it to a lower position than the top 12 apps that are accessible to the public. But that would also hide the social proof of how many people like your page.
Pages will also have the ability to receive messages from fans. The Message feature can be turned on or off from the Manage Permissions area of the Admin Dashboard.
Enable the Message button from the Manage Permissions area.
The Message button is enabled by default so if you want to disable it, you will have to uncheck the box. Messages can only be initiated by a fan—they cannot be initiated by the page to a fan. The page can reply to the message sent.
#7: Facebook Advertising
Another new announcement that was covered in the fMC Conference was some changes to advertising. The ads will be larger and the product names are the Reach Generator and Premium on Facebook. The Reach Generator is designed to reach more of your existing fans than you currently are reaching through the news feed.
Mike Hoefflinger, Facebook’s director of global business marketing, said thatcurrently pages only reach about 16% of their audience each week with posts. With the Reach Generator ads, pages can reach 50% of their fans each week and 75% each month. Beta testing done by brands such as Ben and Jerry’s was able to reach 98% of fans and double engagement.
The Reach Generator ads are designed to connect to your existing audience and will include the Page Post stories. The ads will not be based on CPC or CPM models, but will be an “always on” ad. These ads will be shown on the right side of the page and they will also go into the news feed and mobile streams. Learn more about this product in Facebook’s Reach Generator Guide.
Premium on Facebook is designed to distribute your stories to new connectionsand will be shown on the right side of the home page, in the news feed, in mobile streams and when someone logs out of Facebook. Find out more in the Premium on Facebook Guide.
Again, there were lots of big changes to pages that came out of the fMC Conference. Read more about their guides here. Ultimately, the Timeline look needed to come to pages and there are a lot of ways we can use it to our advantage.
What do you think? Now it’s time to weigh in with your thoughts about all the changes. Leave your questions and comments in the box below!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
WeTubeU - Social Proof Is The New Marketing
As I’ve written about before, we’re in an amazing period of the consumer Internet. Despite a shaky economy, many web companies are in hypergrowth. This is reminiscent of the five-year period over a decade ago when companies like Amazon, Netscape, eBay, Yahoo, Google and PayPal were built.
One challenge, which isn’t new, is the battle for consumer attention. If you’re looking to grow your user base, is there a best way to cost-effectively attract valuable users? I’m increasingly convinced the best way is by harnessing a concept called social proof, a relatively untapped gold mine in the age of the social web.
What is social proof? Put simply, it’s the positive influence created when someone finds out that others are doing something. It’s also known as informational social influence.
Wikipedia describes social proof as “a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect the correct behavior for a given situation… driven by the assumption that the surrounding people possess more information about the situation.” In other words, people are wired to learn from the actions of others, and this can be a huge driver of consumer behavior.
Consider the social proof of a line of people standing behind a velvet rope, waiting to get into a club. The line makes most people walking by want to find out what’s worth the wait. The digital equivalent of the velvet rope helped build viral growth for initially invite-only launches like Gmail, Gilt Groupe, Spotify, and Turntable.fm.
Professor Robert Cialdini, a thought leader in social psychology, has many examples. In one study, his team tested messages to influence reusing towels in hotel rooms. The social proof message –“Almost 75% of other guests help by using their towels more than once” had 25% better results than all other messages. And adding the words “of other guests that stayed in this room” had even more impact (also an example of how A/B testing of small details matters).
In another study, a restaurant increased sales of specific dishes by 13-20% just by highlighting them as “our most popular items”. SP also works on your subconscious – it’s the reason why comedy shows often use a laugh track or audience; people actually laugh more when they can hear other people laughing.
Five Types of Social Proof
If you’re a digital startup, building and highlighting your social proof is the best way for new users to learn about you. And engineering your product to generate social proof, and to be shared through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, YouTube, Pinterest and others, can multiply the discovery of your product and its influence. Think of it as building the foundation for massively scalable word-of-mouth. Here’s a “teardown” on various forms of social proof, and how some savvy digital companies are starting to measure its impact.
1) Expert social proof – Approval from a credible expert, like a magazine or blogger, can have incredible digital influence. Examples:
- Visitors referred by a fashion magazine or blogger to designer fashion rentals online atRent the Runway drive a 200% higher conversion rate than visitors driven by paid search.
- Klout identifies people who are topical experts on the social web. Klout invited 217 influencers with high Klout scores in design, luxury, tech and autos to test-drive the new Audi A8. These influencers sparked 3,500 tweets, reaching over 3.1 million people in less than 30 days – a multiplier effect of over 14,000x.
- Mom-commerce daily offer site Plum District also reached mom influencers thru Klout, and found customers referred by influential digital moms shop at 2x the rate of customers from all other marketing channels.
2) Celebrity social proof – Up to 25% of U.S. TV commercials have used celebrities to great effect, but only a handful of web startups have to date. Some results:
- In 1997, Priceline.com was one of the first web startups to use a celebrity endorser –William Shatner – not a travel expert, but seemingly obsessed with saving consumers money. It has been a huge win; Priceline now has a $23 billion market cap, and the fee Shatner took in shares is estimated to be worth $600 million.
- Trendyol, the fastest-growing fashion ecommerce company in Turkey, regularly launches merchandise campaigns with the endorsement of celebrities. This practice increases site traffic by 2.5x and product sell-through by 30%.
- ShoeDazzle launched with celebrity Kim Kardashian as chief stylist. Her involvement helped leapfrog the company to an estimated $25m in 2010 and $70 million in 2011 sales, plus a recent $40m financing. Celebrity endorsement by Jessica Simpson and aesthetician Nerida Joy recently helped Beautymint attract 500,000 visitors in the first 24 hours of its launch.
- The most authentic (and cost-effective) celebrity social proof is unpaid. For home décor siteOne Kings Lane, a 2010 unpaid mention in Gwyneth Paltrow’s influential blog GOOPprovided a 90% lift in daily sign-ups vs. the previous 4 days’ average. Celebrity use onTurntable.fm by Sir Mix-A-Lot and producer Diplo generated viral buzz, helping the company skyrocket to 140,000 active users in just 4 weeks.
3) User social proof – Direct TV marketers are masters at sharing user success stories. (fascination with this was actually the inspiration for this blog post). Companies mastering this digitally include:
- More than 61 million people visit Yelp (working on an upcoming IPO) each month to read user reviews. And reviews drive revenue; a recent HBS study showed that a 1-star increase in Yelp rating leads to 5-9% growth in sales.
- User-generated videos (UGVs) are a growing and important social proof phenomenon. Early visitors to Shoedazzle watched more than 9 UGVs on average, helping catapult sales; and user testimonials on YouTube drove a 3x conversion rate vs. organic visitors for Beachbody, the makers of P90x fitness.
- Negative user social proof is also important to track. The first negative user review on eBayhas been shown to reverse a seller’s weekly growth rate from 5% to -8%. It also hurts pricing; a 1% increase in negative feedback has been shown to lead to a 7.5% decrease in sale price realized.
4) Wisdom of the crowds social proof – Ray Kroc started using social proof in 1955 by hanging an “Over 1 Million Served” sign at the first McDonald’s. Highlighting popularity or large numbers of users implies “a million people can’t be wrong.” Some digital examples:
- Fashion e-tailer Modcloth enables its community to “Be the Buyer” by voting on which styles they think Modcloth should sell in the future. Shoppers take strong cues from the community; styles with the “Be the Buyer” badge sell at 2x the velocity of un-badged styles.
- Callaway Digital Arts finds that when any of their kids’ iPad apps is listed as a top 10 most popular app in the iTunes App Store “Top Charts,” daily downloads vault 10x over the prior week – but being the No. 1 most popular app drives 30-50% more daily downloads than being No. 2.
- Greentech company Opower uses social proof to help reduce electricity consumption. It works: Opower sees an 80% response rate to e-mails citing how a household’s use compares with the neighborhood, which has driven more than 500 million kilowatt hours of savings so far.
5) Wisdom of your friends social proof – Learning from friends thru the social web is likely the killer app of social proof in terms of 1:1 impact, and the potential to grow virally. Some examples:
- Friends inviting friends to play through Facebook and other social networks helped Zyngagrow from 3 million to 41 million average daily users in just one year, from 2008 to 2009.
- Moms, arguably the most valuable demographic on the social web, rely heavily on friends and family recommendations. A recent Babycenter study showed moms rely on the wisdom of their friends 67% more than average shoppers; and they rely on social media 243% more than the general population.
- Friends referred by friends make better customers. They spend more (a 2x higher estimated lifetime value than customers from all other channels at One Kings Lane); convert better (75% higher conversion than renters from other marketing channels at Rent the Runway); and shop faster (they make their first purchase after joining twice as quickly than referrals from other channels at Trendyol)
- They also make better contributors. People who see content from their friends onTripAdvisor contribute personal content to the site at 2x the rate of others, and are 20% more engaged than other users.
Building Your Social Proof
Will one form of social proof work best for your company? Maybe, but companies like LegalZoomhave found that a “mixed salad” of various types of social proof is most effective. The beauty of the web is you can test, learn and iterate quickly to find what works best.
To note, I don’t think a social proof strategy will be effective if you don’t start with a great product that delights customers, and that people like well enough to recommend. How do you know if you have a great product? Track organic traffic growth, reviews, ratings and repeat rates. And measure your viral coefficient – if your site includes the ability to share, what percentage of your daily visitors and users share with others? How is the good word about your product being shared outside your site on the social web? Do you know your Net Promoter Score, and your Klout score?
In the age of the social web, social proof is the new marketing. If you have a great product waiting to be discovered, figure out how to build social proof around it by putting it in front of the right early influencers. And, engineer your product to share the love. Social proof is the best way for new users to learn why your product is great, and to remind existing users why they made a smart choice.
P.S. FOMO, or the psychological phenomenon known as “Fear Of Missing Out,” is also a form of social proof. As people are wired to learn from others, they are also wired to want things in short supply. FOMO is a great forcing function on decision-making, as evidenced by the incredible growth of ecommerce flash sales. A friend at another venture firm has posted on his office wall “Is it FOMO, or is it real?” because it also happens in venture financings. Maybe a topic for a future post.
Monday, October 3, 2011
YouTube Marketing Tips for Better Engagement and advertisement.
Jason Weaver is the CEO of Shoutlet, an enterprise social management software company he founded. He has been involved in social media strategy development since its inception for brands that include Disney, SC Johnson, and eBay.
In addition to its incredible success as the de facto portal for video uploads and viewing, YouTube is itself a community. For brands, it provides an additional viable opportunities to spark discussion with followers. It’s a place to build relationships and create a space for users to converse with each other about branded content.
Just as Facebook has become an incredibly popular place for brands to maintain a dialogue with their customers, YouTube offers a similar opportunity, although the conversation is driven primarily by video content. Treating YouTube not only as a platform for video distribution, but as a forum for engagement deepens the customer experience.
So how do companies make the most of the conversations happening on YouTube?
1. Start With Great Content
Whether you’re a popular consumer brand or an emerging B2B company, engaging content that prompts discussion and social pass-along requires outside-the-box thinking to make an impression (pun intended). Like any other content provided to social audiences, videos on YouTube must be engaging and compelling enough to spark those discussions and encourage sharing.
A classic example of this is “Will it Blend?” Blendtec’s famous video campaign that purées popular gadgets is an ingenious way to captivate viewers while demonstrating the power of the product. The ROI equaled its creativity, with sales jumping 700% since the campaign started four years ago. Great content brings users to your channel and your videos; engaging them once they arrive is another challenge.
2. Don’t Post Your Videos and Run
Pairing good content with a commitment to engaging viewers and commenters will help strengthen those relationships on YouTube. Old Spice is a fantastic example of how great content worked in conjunction with a smart response strategy. After an intensely popular run for its initial commercials, Old Spice took the relationship building potential of the YouTube community to a new level by creating 180 individual video responses to those who commented on the originals. It’s now highlighted as one of the most successful interactive campaigns in history, with 40 million impressions in the first week and a 107% jump in sales after the first month.
3. Know Thyself
Understanding what your brand voice is and what your goals are will shape how your brand interacts in this space. Are you aiming to be a resource for your customers with how-to videos? Be ready to respond to questions and be as helpful in the comments as you are on film. Going strictly for the fun factor? Take a cue from Old Spice and approach your responses with the same attitude in your content that got the discussion going in the first place.
4. Use Data to Inform Your Actions
Pull lessons from platform-specific data points, such as what people “like” and “dislike” on YouTube. Initiate discussion about what’s popular and what’s not. Your viewers are voting with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down — try to get a dialog going about why.
5. Cross-promote
There are discussions happening on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, often about the same content. If you post the same video to Facebook and YouTube, draw on conversations happening in other spaces.
For example, when you post a video to Facebook that’s seen traction on YouTube, point it out in a post:
“10,000 people in Acme’s YouTube community ‘liked’ this video. What do you think? Tell us here and join the discussion on YouTube.”
You’ll expose different parts of your community to other opinions and potentially encourage others to join the conversation regularly on more of your company’s social pages.
Like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube can be a fertile ground for interacting with your customers. Its features and content may differ, but the basic principles for interaction remain the same. Keeping this in mind and taking a savvy approach to YouTube responses can help your company make the most of this incredibly popular social space.
Monday, August 22, 2011
How to get the best audio for your video production
Chances are, if you or your business is using social media to reach out and interact with consumers, you’ve either already got content on YouTube, Vimeo, etc., or are seriously contemplating it. Whether it’s a 1,2,3, one stop production house like animoto.com, or something a bit more in depth, video is where it’s at, and if you’re not there already – what are you waiting for? Don’t just take my word for it. Market research firm eMarketerrecently published an outlook that will see spending on online video advertising grow more than 48% this year alone, reaching a cool $1.5 billion. By 2014, eMarketer is projecting numbers in the $5.5 billion ballpark. And while I’ve seen a number of outstanding tutorials on how to write a killer script, when and where to deliver your message, I’m hard pressed to find a decent outline regarding the production of crystal clear audio behind your video. Let’s face it…your production could be all the eye candy you could ever imagine, but if the audio isn’t up to par, who’s going to watch it? First, it’s important to recognize that there are a wide variety of microphones suitable for audio for video. We’ll focus on two: Condenser microphones and Dynamic microphones. Condenser microphones are those large mics you see in every radio broadcasting and sound recording booth. One of the primary differences between condenser mics and dynamics mics is that condensers require an external power source (phantom power) in order to properly function. I won’t get into the physics behind it, but just know this: Condenser mics are more suited for a studio environment. They require external power, don’t like to be moved very much, and are generally quite temperamental. With that said, in a studio environment, their sound capturing qualities can’t be beat. If you’re doing a screencast, slideshow, or any other vocal work where the speaker will not be seen, a condenser mic is the way to go. Dynamic microphones on the other hand are the ones that you’re most probably familiar with. If you’ve ever made an announcement over a PA, or been to a live music event, I guarantee you’ve been watching a dynamic mic at work. Because of the way dynamic mics function (electromagnetic induction), they do not require an external power source, are highly resistant to moisture (heavy breathing?), and can be acquired for a relatively low cost when compared to condenser mics. If you’re going to be featuring an on camera speaker, a dynamic mic should be your weapon of choice. But what about my on camera audio, you say? Fair enough. If you’re planning on producing a video where the speaker is no more than 3-4 feet maximum away from the camera, you’ll get decent audio. But what if your subject is more than 4 feet away? Perhaps demonstrating a product, or better yet, what if you’re doing an interview? What if there’s noise happening to the sides of, and behind the lens? Here are four unique audio capture methods that can be used to vastly improve your audio for video. Bonus tip: If you’re recording audio/video at an event that’s being broadcast via a PA, seek out the audio engineer, and see if you can’t tap into the main mixing board feed for optimal audio. If you’re shooting video featuring a speaker (or two), a handheld, dynamic mic is a great way to instantly improve your audio. Not only does it bring your audio infinitely closer, but it can also give a nervous presenter something to hold on to; an anchor, if you will. The Shure SM58 is older than the sun, moderately priced, and I’m pretty convinced they’re made from some super rare asteroid metal, as these mics are virtually indestructible. SM58 or not, in a handheld mic, you’ll be looking for one featuring a cardioid pattern. Avoiding the rocket science here, a cardioid pattern looks much like it sounds; heart shaped. It will pick up the signal being placed directly in front of it, and avoid sounds behind it. This is one of the key components of better audio for your videos, as we’re focusing only on you, and eliminating as much of the background noise as possible. For your production, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably don’t have your own boom operator handy, so if you’d like to go the shotgun route, make sure that your camera has a mount for it. Alternatively, I’ve been known to go ultra-low budget, break out the duct tape and a broom handle, and the final viewer was none the wiser. Antics like this are pure gold when it comes to the b-reel. Given their “hands free” nature, a large number of lavalier mics are available in wireless combinations. It’s also worth noting that lavalier mics are condenser mics, which mean they require an external power source to function. Therefor, not only do the wireless transmitters sound a sound signal to the receiver, they also provide battery power for the microphone itself. Now, if you just jumped over to Amazon and your jaw hit the floor when you saw what a wireless lavalier mic costs, fret not…there are more affordable solutions. If you’re doing a product demonstration, a talk, an interview, etc. where you know you’re not going to be doing a lot of moving about, a wired lavalier mic solution can arrive at your door for under $40. I personally use and love Audio Technica’s ATR 3350’s. I have a pair of them and consistently use them for video interviews. Now that you’ve reviewed and selected the idea mic for your production, it’s time to get some sound in the ears. But hold up there chief…what’s your format? If the camera you’re shooting with has an external microphone input, carry on, as your sound will most certainly line up with the video. But what if you’re not so lucky, and still want great audio? This is where the handy recorder comes in. Since we’re trying to accomplish as high quality audio as possible, first and foremost, make sure that you’re recording audio in an uncompressed format (.wav). This audio will be compressed later on, so why not start with as high quality a source as possible? But isn’t mp3 quality good enough? Yes and no. For a final output to YouTube, mp3 quality is perfectly acceptable. Remember, mp3 is merely an encoding format for a lossy audio compression algorithm. If you’re recording video and audio for a 1+ hr. long presentation, ok, I’ll cut you some slack here, but get a bigger memory card next time. Regardless of which format you choose to use, there is one key setting that you absolutely must not overlook: Sample Rate. The audio sample rate refers to the number of times a sample of a constant sound source is taken over a unit of time. This audio sample rate must match the sample rate settings of your video project. The most common mistake is recording audio in 44.1kHz, a standard audio CD sample rate, and trying to match it to a 48kHz recorded video. When you do this, your audio track and video track will begin to slip out of sync, gradually becoming further and further apart over time. If you’re shooting in HD, chances are you’re working with AVCHD, or .mt2s files, which by default record audio in AC3 format, which in turn defaults to a 48kHz sampling rate. Try saying that 3 times fast. To simplify – 9 times out of 10, you can’t go wrong with 48kHz/16 bit on for your audio settings. And if you happen to be that 1 out of 10 chance where your camera records audio in 44.1kHz, remember, you can always down sample audio, but never up sample. When it comes time to synchronize your superior externally recorded audio, you’ll need a cue to line it all up. Other than scene information, time code, and color references, one of the most important factors in any professional video production is the digital slate. Amongst the variety of reference points this provides to film makers, the audio engineer depends on that classic, “Clap ….and…action”. In your very own “post production” you can use this clap sound and video footage to perfectly synchronize the two. By applying any one of these simple audio procedures, the difference between on camera audio, and using an external sound source, or microphone, should be as clear as day and night. And whether they know it or not, your viewers will appreciate that you went the extra mile to ensure that they could not only see what you have to say, but hear it as well.The science of microphones
Connections
Types of microphones
Handy Recorder
Handheld mic
Shotgun mic
Lavalier mic
kHz and Bits
Slate it
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