YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. If you want to upload a video on the Internet, pretty much anyone will default to the web’s standard. And why shouldn’t they? YouTube has been the platform for viral sensations, from huge brands (Old Spice) to kid musicians (Justin Bieber).

The wisdom: “Go where the people are.” It makes YouTube tempting, especially as it continues to expand its features and reach. But there are some things that YouTube can’t do, or doesn’t do so well. There are plenty of other high-quality video platforms with competitive features or specialized markets.

Last night on Twitter I was talking to Craig and Greg Lexiphanic about YouTube, particularly in the context of Government 2.0. Mashable offer seven alternatives to YouTube - from Blip.tv to yfrog. One of the benefits of some of the suggestions is that there is less spam and trolling, which is one of the problems of YouTube. (Craig actually suggests government departments switch off comments on YouTube, because of the moderation overhead.)

This doesn't mean YouTube isn't the right place for some content. Such as Zombies...

Personally, I think the choice of YouTube should be based on the kind of engagement you expect. Content that is of interest to niche audiences, controversial or wasn't designed to be sharable or engaging (i.e. reposted public education TV adverts) may mean that YouTube isn't the right place or it shouldn't be the only place.

I thought this comment on the Mashable post was interesting:

It’s important to place your videos in multiple places, especially if you want to reach a broader audience. You never really know where people are going to discover your content. I’ve put short videos on YouTube that got very few views, but got significantly more on Flickr.

Interesting that the article didn’t mention Facebook as a place for videos. I get tons of activity when I post a video to Facebook.

BTW To Mashable's list I'd also suggest 23video, which offers a complete video site service.

the challenge for advertisers and marketers is to stand out above the general internet noise and create what the industry calls a value proposition for their brands. In this, Facebook has emerged as a crucial platform for social interaction with 750 million users worldwide, as has Twitter with 250 million. But simply having a Twitter "hashtag", which more easily identifies subjects being discussed, or "liking" something on Facebook are no longer enough.

"We are starting to move away from the mad arms race of [increasing] fans on Facebook,"

Timely article from the Guardian. There is a school of thought around social media marketing that basically calls for business and organisations to get online and then follow a strategy of what I call, "getting loud with social media". Success will follow if you can overcome your fears of the medium - you just need to be on it for this to happen.

Today I've been browsing around looking at some major Australian brands and organisations that have an active presence on Facebook. Its pretty a disappointing picture to be honest.

For one well known consumer brand, a recent Facebook post attracted well over a hundred "Likes" and about 50 comments. Sounds like a great reaction? When you look at the actual comments, the largest categories were complaints (6%) and wants (14%). The brand itself was absent in the conversation, but at least some of their fans (3.4%) did at least bother to reply to questions and comments from other people. As a potential customer looking in, there is no evidence that the brand actually cares or is listening to feedback - a missed opportunity.

Another well known and family-friendly brand has a wall full of spam posts and in appropriate comments (e.g. mentioning alcohol) in breach of their own community rules, mixed in with genuine fans/customers. However, there is evidence at least of that brand engaging with people on customer service issues. That good work in customer service and the promotions on their page is being undone by poor community management and moderation.

In another example, a major industry association has attracted about 130 "likes" in about 6 months for their page. Sure, its not harming them but its not adding much value in its current form either.

Personally, in Australia at least, I see smaller consumer-orientated companies doing a much better job of engaging but with a smaller audience. Like Frisk Espresso, who I discovered in Perth recently. They only have about 1,500 fans but the engagement is better at that scale. Its important to recognise that their fan base is probably built on an excellent customer experience in the real world and through promotion at their shop front (that's how I found them). Rather than faking it and expecting noise on social media to make their online engagement successful, they are working social media more smartly than many large (and well resourced) brands. And I'll be back at Frisk when I'm next in Perth.

However, I'm prepared to be corrected. Have you got an Australian example where getting loud with social media (i.e. getting lots of followers or likes) has worked? Or maybe you've got a horror story of where this strategy has crashed and burned?

if a newbie gets a comment to his / her first post within the first week, he / she is 41% more likely to come back and engage again.

Interesting statistic. Welcoming and responding to new users is a well established technique, so its good to see that many of the old patterns apply today. However, the speed of microblogging stream may add an extra dimension of difficultly to the community management task.

A nice short article that actually shares some good advice on listening to social media. The author puts forward the following six guidelines to help you avoid making assumptions about the trends you see the data:

1. Learn about the competitive landscape;
2. Look for unexpected themes;
3. Dip deeper into the stream;
4. Look for user experiences;
5. Learn why negative words are coming up; and
6. Learn about conversation dominators.

These guidelines are mostly applicable across all kinds of social media and not just Twitter.

Of course when it comes to listening to social media, it helps if you target something specific like the iPad launch, which attracted over 500,000 tweets. :-)