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New Media News Every Morning

Votigo launches online social video and photo contest community

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votigo.jpgVotigo, Inc., announced the official launch of its free, online community that allows any business, band, organization or individual to create and customize their own online video or photo contest. Votigo believes strongly in the benefits of online contests as an entertaining way to encourage customer loyalty and build community in a controlled environment.

“Contests provide marketers a great way to engage their customer base and safely participate in social media,” said Mike La Rotonda, CEO and co-founder of Votigo. “Votigo makes it easy for any company, large or small, to set up and customize their own contest in a matter of minutes. And for users creating their own contests, it’s an exciting and fun new way to showcase and share their photos and videos.”

In addition to user-generated contests, Votigo is currently running sponsored contests for several partners including Michael Eisner’s PromQueen, The Motley Fool, and Santa Cruz Snowboards.

Originally posted on April 19, 2007 @ 11:28 am

Barbie gets it, finally

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barbie.jpgJust at a time when kids prefer to go online and join virtual communities and play with their virtual pets, Mattel is launching today its site for BarbieGirls.com as the first-ever global online community designed exclusively for girls and celebrates another “first” for the Barbie brand in launching new forms of media and entertainment.

“Since 2000, Barbie has been a leader in emerging media – from the launch of Barbie.com which now celebrates 65 million monthly visitors to the tremendous success of our direct-to-home entertainment, dating back to 2001 when toy-driven entertainment for girls was a breakframe idea,” said Chuck Scothon, general manager and senior vice president, Girls, Mattel Brands. “Barbie again leads with the introduction of Barbie Girls and what promises to be the next generation of girls’ play with a first-of-its-kind experience.”

Designed to be a safe place for girls to play and interact online, the beta version of BarbieGirls.com gives girls the creative power to customize their own virtual character, design their own “room,” shop at the mall, play games, hang out and chat live with other girls. Later this month, the entire Barbie Girls platform and the full range of the BarbieGirls.com web site features will be revealed at a global launch event.

Originally posted on April 19, 2007 @ 9:28 am

Social Network Flapdaddy.com partners with Honestech on video editor

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Flapdaddy.com an online community and social networking website with live video broadcasts and a talent contest offering customizable personalized web pages, video, audio, and communications features targeting individuals with talents to share (Editor’s note: Whew! They’re offering a lot!), announced that it has partnered with Honestech, Inc. to offer a free 90 day trial version of Honestech’s award winning Video Editor 7.0 to it’s registering users. Available by download from the registration page on Fapdaddy.com, the Honestech Video Editor is a powerful suite of video editing software that can assist you in compiling a professional looking movie from your existing personal videos, digital still images, and audio files. With its user-friendly and intuitive interface, Honestech Video Editor 7.0 is simple enough for first time users yet powerful enough for experienced pros.

Flapdaddy.com offers live and stored video broadcasts for registered users whom can upload their own content and are able to promote their favorite videos, themselves and friends world-wide. Premium users can easily upload their own videos of their performances including; music, bands, animation, video shorts, or any other talent, send invitations for viewing and voting to friends and virtually market themselves to internet users throughout the world. Personal talent, group talent, faux talent, Musicians, Comedians, Actors, anyone with talent can participate.

Originally posted on April 20, 2007 @ 9:40 am

Interesting Uses Of Twitter

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twitter.jpgSmart Mobs has a collection of recent posts reflecting upon Twitter: Global distribution of Twitter users, Twittering churches, and Who really benefits from broadcasting via Twitter?.

The most tweets are apparently coming from Tokyo, then New York and San Francisco. This is based on the first 300,000 tweets collected by Twitterment via the Twitter public timeline API. Other countries that have a top ten city are Canada, Singapore, and Spain.

Twitter has many alternate uses, and has the potential to become an extremely valuable messaging service, but it’s lacking in social networking features. One proposed use of Twitter is to send out short prayers or nice thoughts. The congregation could subscribe by SMS text messaging on their cell phones.

While this could be an interesting idea and would no doubt draw subscribers to the feed, doubling or tripling the 140 character limit would make a difference. I think 140 characters is too restrictive, even with the conversion of long URLs to tinyURL forms. Maybe even have the ability to include a graphic – though of course that may lie danger.

If someone does put together a Prayer Twitter feed, I can’t help thinking that there might be a nice tie in to GodTube or a similar service. No reason there can’t be a multi-faith Twitter-like service, except maybe religious politics.

Originally posted on April 18, 2007 @ 11:57 am

IAC launches online initiative for Black Community

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IAC announced that it will launch an online destination for the Black community featuring topical content, relevant services and a platform for community interaction. Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. has been appointed CEO of the initiative, which is scheduled to launch in January 2008 and will be based in Charlotte, NC. The yet-to-be-named site aims to bring the best the Web has to offer to the U.S. Black population, specifically catering to the community’s distinct needs and interests. It will be part of IAC Programming, created in 2006 to grow branded online content properties that engage passionate communities.

“There exists enormous opportunity in today’s online landscape to provide Blacks with an experience that engages their unique communities through a collective voice,” said Mr. Taylor. “There are 40 million African Americans in the U.S., and we estimate an additional 20 million Blacks from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. IAC is poised to provide exceptional content and services for this growing and underserved population.”

Originally posted on April 18, 2007 @ 10:45 pm