Tumblr, the popular blogging platform, today launched a blog called Storyboard that will feature content creators who use Tumblr blogs. The blog will feature interviews and a behind-the-scenes look at the people behind compelling Tumblr blog content.
The announcement came on the Tumblr Editorial blog, where Chris Mohney, Editor and Chief at Tumblr, outlined what the Storyboard blog is all about. From the blog post:
We’re excited to announce the official launch of Storyboard, our new hub for in-depth conversations with Tumblr’s creative community. We’ll be posting regular features on creators working in and around Tumblr’s massively diverse cosmos — writers, musicians, animators, scientists, artists, archivists, chefs, comedians, or anyone else with a great story to tell. Today we’re talking about Michael Stipe, the New York Times, Afghanistan, and the design mechanics of the Tumblr Dashboard.
Mohney stated that Tumblr will publish stories and story ideas for the Storyboard blog from the Tumblr community itself. Stories posted to Tumblr with the accompanying hash tag #storyboard will be considered by Tumblr editors. “And if your story really works, we’ll ask to expand it for publication on Storyboard itself,” said Mohney.
Tumblr will also be hosting a meetup in New York City this Thursday, May 10 at Powerhouse Arena. From 7-9 pm Tumblr will serve free drinks and hang out with several “Tumblr celebrity mystery guests.”
The video below, prepared by Tumblr, gives a good overview of the type of content likely to be seen on the Storyboard blog. Be aware that the video contains some strong language due to the titles of some popular Tumblr blogs being mentioned. Take a look at the video and leave a comment below letting us know what you think about the Storyboard blog.
In a news world placing a greater emphasis on “premium video content,” the Huffington Post is set to launch an online streaming news channel with the hope of competing with entities like CNN and MSNBC.
According to Forbes, the new channel will be called the Huffington Post Streaming Network and will kick off with a preview held in AOL’s HQ in New York City on February 2nd.
The new network will structure itself like cable news networks and provide real-time news and discussion. This means that Huffington Post reporters and editors will appear on camera to discuss events as they happen throughout the day. The channel is also prepared to feature on-air editorial meetings and social media integration, to give viewers an up close and personal look into how the news passes through HuffPo and out to consumers.
It’s not going to be a 24-hour news network, according to the sources. Live footage will be cut and re-broadcast to fill some time. But apparently the new HPSN will have more live coverage than competitors like the New York Time and the Wall Street Journal have with their streaming web programming.
To advertisers, video content is becoming a key priority, and that’s the big motivation behind this move. Huffington Post’s newsroom sports over 300 members, so the new project is most definitely feasible.
Can Huffington Post leverage this new channel to compete with traditional cable news outlets? Let us know in the comments.
As Yahoo takes the plunge into original scripted content, they probably couldn’t have picked a better person to hold their hand.
That’s because the first series the company will distribute comes from Hollywood favorite Tom Hanks. According to the AP, his program, “Electric City,” will debut this Spring, streaming exclusively on Yahoo.
Hanks has been working on Electric City for years, and after a couple mutations, the project has wound up as an animated series (original ideas for the series involved puppets).
Electric City is set to feature a post-apocalyptic landscape, and focus on a futuristic-city that is described as “seemingly peaceful” (sounds compellingly sinister?) The show will tackle various socially conscious themes like energy consumption as well as hot-button topics like freedom of information and crime in a future world.
The entire series has a 90-minute running time, similar to the length of a feature film. But it will stream in segments – 20 different episodes, each about 3 or 4 minutes long. Hanks’ signature is stamped all over the project, as he sports writing and producing credits and will even voice the lead character in the series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Exact financials have yet to be disclosed, but Yahoo’s executive VP Ross Levinsohn joked,
“This is the most money we’ve ever spent on a scripted show. Of course, it’s also the first scripted show.”
Yahoo is in the process of expanding their reach in the world of content. In December, they announced the launch of a new comedy channel that will kick off with an exclusive show from Bill Maher, called “CrazyStupidPolitics” and will broadcast from Silicon Valley.
Electric City will debut as a full-fledged internet series, equipped with interactive features and “social media connectivity.” It will also be available in multiple languages, including French and Spanish.
If you go by Google’s edicts of gaining good rankings, content is king. The thinking goes like this: if you make stellar content–be it with simple text or more content-rich material–links will come your way. Now that the NFL is entering its full-swing mode, at least for the preseason portion of the schedule, one of the most vibrant personalities in football provided us with some amazing web content, courtesy of an frustration-filled explosion/tirade.
The outburst was captured in animated gif mode by the always-vigilant content generator who goes by the name of “bubbaprog.” The creator in question runs the 30FPS and Gifulmination sites, and these properties do a fantastic job of capturing compelling sports screenshots that wind up being used by multitudes of sports blogs and sites with related content.
Before discussing just how effective such a simple method of content generation is–simply turn your computer into a DVR and record, clip, and save–we should really take a look at the incredible animated gif of Rex Ryan and the rage he feels when something on the football field doesn’t go to his liking:
And that’s just preseason, folks. Imagine Ryan’s potential reactions when something goes wrong against the Jets’ nemesis, the New England Patriots during the regular season. For some reason, images of heads exploding come to mind. You know, something from the Scanners movie.
Of course, Ryan could be reacting to the fact someone showed him the following picture of his starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez, taken during a recent GQ photo shoot:
For his choices in self-expression, Sanchez has been taking something of a proverbial Internet beating.
Sanchez is another example of someone who, for better or worse, generates mad amounts of entertaining web-based reaction, but since this about Ryan and, more to the point, the valuable web content produced at his expense. As you can see in the animated image above, Ryan is almost hypnotic.
Oh, his outburst was well-received by the Twitter crowd, too:
While the content Ryan is an has been responsible for is second-to-none, enjoying his rage is not the only reason for this post. Great content comes in many, many different forms. Be it a well-written how-to from Matt Cutts or a humorous video on Funny Or Die, great content comes in many forms, as is the case of Rex Ryan animated gifs, and as bubbaprog’s web properties demonstrate, sports images clearly fit the bill.
Every time 30FPS or any of its brother sites features a screenshot of note, just about every sports blog worth its salt uses the content and is very generous about linking back to the source. Backlinks and pageviews. What else can a web marketer ask for, especially when so very little work is involved.
Granted, you have to know how to make animated gifs and you have to have the know-how to turn a computer into a DVR, but once these steps are accomplished, you’re now in a position to create unique content of which, there is a demand for. For further verification of such content’s effectiveness, just check out 30FPS’ backlink profile.
In it, you’ll find backlinks coming from The Big Lead, various Yahoo Sports blogs, and SBNation, just to name a few. Backlinks coming from these three powerful web properties that focus on sports are the kind of quality links every web marketer in the world is looking for. And look, all it took to achieve these acknowledgments is the ability to produce screenshots and animated images of whatever sport of interest is in season.
With that in mind, it wouldn’t be the least big surprising if that Rex Ryan animated gif was all over the sports blogosphere today.
Concerning strategy, does this mean web marketers should just chuck it all and focus on creating screenshots of scenes related to their industry of interest? Perhaps not, but it does demonstrate that effective web content is not limited to well-written white papers and how-to dissertations. The key here is to expand your horizons to see if there are any other areas of leverage-worthy content you may be overlooking.
Some sports figures transcend their chosen profession and become larger-than-life figures. While such elevations are normally saved for the athlete, every so often a coach joins the fraternity; although, in the case of Les Miles, it’s something different. Miles may be one of the only coaches to become famous for the outlandish stunts he pulls — and normally succeeds at — during football games and for absolutely nothing he does off the field.
He’s not suave like Phil Jackson, pontificating about the merits of Buddha. Nor is he gregariously loud-mouthed like Rex Ryan. No, Les Miles is famous for being Les Miles, and for those awesome plays he calls. And for coaching LSU to the BCS Championship. And for eating grass during the game, like so:
So when word leaked about a viral video of Les Miles playing basketball against his children, complete with dunks and blocked shots, it’s impossibleto ignore. Just ask Spencer Hall, proprietor of Every Day Should Be Saturday, the best college football blog on the market.
The video, which leads this post, is apparently something viral for Nike and Converse, which is owned by Nike. That makes sense seeing how the video’s title is “It Must Have Been The Shoes” and for the fact that Miles is wearing both Nike and some awfully famous Converse during. While the video is indeed enough to whet the most discerning appetite, there is, of course, more where that came from. LSUFreek chimes in with an awesome animated gif:
Aside: If you haven’t heard of this awesome web image artist, changethat.
Other areas of genius, courtesy of the always-interesting Les Miles comes from the aforementioned Spencer Hall, who offers a humorous shot-by-shot breakdown of the magnificent video. A highlight of Hall’s post:
Everyone looks extremely uncomfortable with this arrangement except for Miles, who you’ll notice claps at home the way he does on the field: hands straight, eyes filled with glee, and with a silver turnkey rotating slowing in the middle of his back. His daughter is torn between her obligation to sing the anthem, and her burning desire to put a foot in the ass of the audience and let rip with her pitch-perfect rendition of the Nicki Minaj verse from “Monster.” Miles the Younger on the right knows her dreams, and is hoping she’ll bust a rhyme and shock the world. That’s what would make her happy. When she acquiesces to her father’s wishes, a small part of him dies as the anthem sounds in the air.
Not only is Hall’s commentary its typically funny stuff, it also includes a screenshot of Miles hanging on the rim after he dunks. That, alone, is worth the price of admission:
Hall’s accompanying text only makes things that much better:
We will make it our mission to not only go to Baton Rouge this fall, but also to get someone drunk enough to get this image of Miles dunking a basketball tattooed on their body for all eternity. We also would bet a hundred dollars cash money that Les Miles tore something in his groin doing this, and would double the bet to include Miles telling his doctor “I think I popped a cockspring, doc.”
To quote Charlie Sheen, Miles and Hall are both winning. Miles for the video and Hall for the commentary. One can only hope Miles continues down the viral video path, and if this is indeed a Nike-backed production, perhaps they should include Hall the next time they do something with Les Miles.
Also, if this is Nike, it’s pretty obvious they have a handle on this who “viral content” thing. Campaigns like Leeroy Smith and the Kobe Bryant/Aston Martin video immediately come to mind. Too bad none of them can compete with the awesomeness on display from Les Miles.
