TV in 12 seconds
Relating to an earlier post about Twitter, a relatively new website, 12seconds.tv, has just gone into public beta. The site is the video equivalent of Twitter, offering microvideo, as opposed to microblogging. Tech crunch discusses a new iphone app that enables Iphone users to upload 12 second videos. However this app is more limiting than normal camera equipped mobile phones, in that Iphone users can only submit 12 second slideshows, while mobile phone users can email 12 second videos to the site which posts them automatically.
The success of Twitter, as in any social network, is the community adoption. Millions of people are now using twitter and it continues to grow in popularity. It remains to be seen whether 12 seconds will have the same success. From an early perusal of the site, it does not appear that there is a great deal of exploration of the format. People aren’t uploading videos that they’ve spent a great deal of time on, rather they press record and hit send 12 seconds later. It seems like there’s an opportunity for some more creative usage than simply pointing your webcam at yourself and uttering a sentence, although presumably if you continually utter interesting/insightful/hilarious sentences that may be all that is necessary.
Like Twitter, the value of 12 seconds may lie in it’s preview/teaser offerings, as a way to entice people to click links to more content rich sites. Many twitter users are also bloggers, and will post interesting links they find to their twitter account, which then reinforces their value as bloggers, because they are seen as purveyors of interesting and “follow worthy” content. (For those unfamiliar with Twitter, users can follow people, giving them real time updates of that twitterer’s ”tweets,” 12 seconds includes this same ’follow’ function ). By the same token, 12 seconds may have value for Youtube users, as a means of promoting new videos, or as content filler for the time in between their more substantial videos.
Most importantly, this seems like a golden opportunity for any small business that has news to announce. In much the same way as Zappos (a fantastic company by the way) emails announcements of their latest and greatest products, this format would be great for retail companies looking to show off their newest items. Travel agency’s can announce their new great travel deals. PR companies can make quick announcements. With a little creativity the 12 second format could be utilized to great effect, and if if it’s both interesting and valuable content users will appreciate it. One of the other great assets is the main page automatically displays every new video that is posted in chronological posting order. New videos will be posted for all to see, as well as a user’s followers. As always with social media, good content is of the utmost importance - create good, informative, entertaining/interesting content, and they will follow.
