By itself, Dotspotter seems to represent a questionable investment.  It’s less than a year old, is not exactly popular, and, in the words of Mathew Ingram, has “a user interface and site design that seems to have been designed by colour-blind gerbils.”  Despite the success of TMZ, I’d rather have an office full of La-Z-Boys.

CBS may also have had its eye on Anthony Soohoo, though; Soohoo was a vice president at Yahoo, and is Dotspotter’s co-founder and CEO.  Perhaps this added incentive to buy will keep people from whispering about a bubble.

Either way, the Dotspotter purchase appears to be part of a trend.  As Valleywag noted, CBS has previously acquired Wallstrip and Last.fm.  It’s created communities, brought content online, and in related news, CBS’s “Entertainment Tonight” just signed a promotional deal with Ask.

CBS may or may not fully understand Web 2.0, but it sure is trying to embrace it.

But Howard Lindzon, creator of Wallstrip, a video podcast that followed that minors-to-majors path by being picked up by CBS for a reported $5 million, suggests more manageable goals that are truer to audience needs.

Lindzon delivered the keynote address this morning at the 3rd Annual Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario California.

The goal isn’t, he said, to take to your show to television, but to let people consume you show where they want. Television, in most cases, is the competition.

But whatever the idea, a person wanting to get into the New Media should enter with a goal in mind, whether it is to get to TV, or to make money from their content.

And just how is that done? Well, he can only speak from experience.

Noting that financial videos were not exactly, well, riveting, Lindzon took the opportunity to create a "Saturday Night Live for Wall Street." He raised about $600,000 and created his show, which looked at just one stock per day, for about three minutes.

How did he make his show stand out? "We embarrassed ourselves," he said, referring to the aggressive means he and his team used to promote the show. "You should put your stuff everywhere." Everywhere includes YouTube, iTunes, DailyMotion, et cetera.

The next step, he says, is good old fashion over-the-phone salesmanship to sell advertising.

Advertising, of course, caused some negative response. But, said Lindzon, "We have a business to run, and if it doesn’t intrude, why not?"

Lindzon said he preferred 2-3 second pre-roll spots and product placement over post-roll ads.

Overall though, a video podcaster needs to enter the game with the end-game in mind, knowing and seeing the goal ahead. And there is a distinct advantage of having your content as part of the New Media.

"Great thing about the Web and podcasts, you do another show tomorrow."

WebProNews video anchor Kara Ratliff contributed to this article.

The announcement comes just after CBS bought the Wallstrip video blog, and made investments in the Joost video distribution site along with ad placement firm SpotRunner.

“Last.fm is one of the most well established, fastest growing online community networks out there,” Moonves said in a statement. “Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS

CBS Snaps Up Wallstrip

Or, as Wallstrip’s founder, Howard Lindzon, puts it, “Yep, CBS has made the absolute genius decision to burn through a piece of their $1.8 billion in Cash Flow to buy/own Wallstrip.”  Lindzon then mentions Jericho, a much-loved show that CBS cancelled, and Imus, the much-discussed DJ that CBS fired.  These obviously aren’t typical we’re-a-happy-family press release subjects, but then again, Lindzon promises he’s “not playing favorites.”

The tone of Lindzon’s post becomes more positive towards the end, however; he calls a CBS price chart “perfect,” and adds, “I like their syndication strategy and I am bullish on Quincy and the Interactive Division of course.”  Wallstrip is, of course, presumably now a part of the Interactive Division.

In fact, CNET’s Caroline McCarthy reports that “host Lindsay Campbell and producers Adam Elend and Jeff Marks will become full employees of CBS.”

But those few tidbits of information are all that’s surfaced so far.  A slightly aged article from Jossip puts the Wallstrip purchase price at about $5 million, yet there’s been no confirmation of that nine-day-old report.

In any event, CBS has definitely acquired Wallstrip; the purchase may make the aging network – Lindzon even calls it “old media” – look just a tad younger.

We all spend time online watching videos on YouTube, or our favorite shows with ZeFrank or 1938 Media (come on, who doesn’t love Yue and that other person).

And, it’s hit Wall Street with Wallstrip, which has a viral video on the daily hot stocks.

Podtech has taken this to a whole new level with ScobleShow, LunchMeet (yay Irina and Eddie) and all its shows, some of which are like SMTs or VNRs. And they have run into the same issues that PR has dealt with in the past.

One of the grand-daddies of the VNR and SMT world, Doug Simon, has started his own vlog. Via email, we did talk about how the future of the VNR is moving online, with companies doing videos in a smart way. With his background, Doug is well positioned to be a thought-leader on how PR and video are going all social media.

But, that’s the thing. Corporations are embracing social media – in particular video, as it is something they can grok – and some are doing it in a smart and clever way. Some of the companies are not doing it in a smart way – I think that’s when advertising messaging gets too involved – but others are.

Look at GM’s I Got Shotgun (a client). Yes, I’m a little biased, but I think it’s great. And, well, when I have a friend that IMs me that he loves the site, that it’s been a black hole of time at work (meaning he’s been watching all the videos), I know it’s hit a sweet spot. It’s the combination of bringing in people to be hosts, the videos that they upload to apply to ride shotgun (car allusion, get it?), and then watching them be fun and goofy at different events.

It’s that desire that we all have to become stars that makes something like I Got Shotgun work – here’s a chance to interview stars at different events, go to those events and get the back-stage pass that you usually would not get.

Or, look at Here’s To Beer. I got a chance to talk to Tom Shipley, senior director of global industry development for Anheuser-Busch, about what they are doing – and it’s pretty cool.

The site was first launched in February 2006 as a category / industry campaign to choose beer more often, over other alcoholic beverages. While it is an Anheuser-Busch campaign, it is not branded for them, but is more a straight forward delivery of all things beer: how it’s brewed, different types of beers, how it pairs with food. While the site had good traffic, it was not repeat traffic, so the new site is more entertainment focused with updated content, and education, such as Beer Connoisseur with the Beer School (interactive videos and classes) that’s a really deep dive into the world of beer.

Part of that has been video-heavy content, profiling up and coming artists and different content – but in a way to think about beer more often. The whole message that’s integrated into the site is that it’s like a monthly ‘zine, with fresh new content on a monthly basis, so people can come back and just go to whatever is their favorite part (new talent, beer school, etc.)

The site has also wrangled in Dave Lieberman to become a beer connoisseur. Lieberman – from the Food Network – has a video blog to showcase what he is thinking about beer. It’s his personality, and has a ton of leeway to do what he wants to do and what is on his mind – also on a bi-weekly to monthly basis. Lieberman is also the voice and talent behind the Beer School section on pairing beer with food.

Plus, they are taking the social mobile route by working with MingleNow on Clink – so you can socially drink, because drinking alone is just sad. Although, tagging a photo of drinking alone would be funny.

Or, well, look at Stefanie Perez. She’s the embed video, and I know her from my blog (yes, people randomly IM me because of my blog). Stefanie lives in LA, she’s a 23 year old Latina from Chicago who was in the military but moved there to become a star. She’s working it, though, by putting together her own videos and posting them on her MySpace page and getting the word out. Oh, and if any agents are watching, Stefanie’s a double threat – English and Spanish.

And, well, that’s part of the greatness of online video. Anyone can become a star, like Brookers or Amanda Congdon – some with talent, some without – but you get a shot at getting out to a whole new audience that might never have found you before. Or, go over and apply to win Network2′s $25,000 contest on how to watch Internet TV.

So my point? Well, that video is part of the mix now in PR. Moreso than before, and probably moreso than ever before. But, just like anything else in social media, it needs to be done well. Yes, video needs to be an integral part of communications – but have it a smart message, not manipulation or astroturf.

How should video be used? First, most importantly, it should be used when appropriate. In this social media rush, firms and corporations rush out to put everything together in one campaign. It does not make sense, though. Video is a great way to get your message across, but companies need to remember to have an honest voice, not messaging. It’s one of my lines about social media – hand it over to PR rather than advertising, because PR is used to talking TO people, not like advertising that just talks AT people.

But, only use video if it makes sense. New demo to showcase? Video it and post it in the newsroom and on YouTube. Just don’t try too hard, and it should be fine. Oh, and check out SplashCast – great service to create video channels.

Comments