Beyond the Blogosphere

This panel dealt with dealt with creating or becoming Internet stars. With the onslaught of consumer/user generated content the panel proclaimed content as "king."

If the content is good people will find it and it will rise to the top. They also discussed the importance of "branding" the content you produce. Serve your online audience. Create content that reaches a specific target audience, once this is done the possibility exists that it will fit a niche product. If so, contact the company producing the product, take the product to the product. It is important to know what you want to develop in terms of video content, this will help in refining your audience and creates the brand. 

The importance of social networks is key in finding the audience you are looking for. If your content deals with "soccer moms" seek those social networks out and target the subscribers to build your audience. However, it was stressed to avoid the temptation of spamming techniques. Building the social networks allows you to create the interactivity with your audience. 

It was also pointed out that online stars make not see success as getting a television deal. In their eyes the future is not in television, but Internet and Web content. In their mind success was not measured on whether or not one broke through to television. The panel agreed that the possibility to earn money via Internet video blogging was just around the corner. The infrastructure for Internet video is on the way and whoever figures it out first will C-I-L-L. Sorry, I couldn't resist that Saturday Night Live reference.

A CNN representative was on-hand to talk about their iReport.com site for user generated content. It offers users the chance to host their own content and brand it as their own. It creates an on-demand world. The legal aspects were also discussed. On-line content does not always relate to being picked up by network television. They encouraged users not to use copyrighted material or cut and paste video material that was not theirs.

The bottom line of the discussion was content. Most people that visit a particular video blog site will probably not visit any other site. They are there for the content you are offering them, serve them with the brand you have created. 

If your audience is everyone, then your audience is no one. You have to find what you want to be. Find your brand.