The other weekend, though, I was compelled to at least loosen my grip on the status quo and take a deep bow in the direction of the tsunami that is heading our way. Here’s the scoop. I looked in on my two girls (12 and 10, respectively) when I heard blaring music shaking the foundation.

I opened the door (without knocking because, well, I can). There they were, TV on full blast, watching some show where the latest quasi-pubescent heartthrob, Justin Beaver (I know his name is Bieber, but I do that just to mess with them), was guest starring. Each had their laptop (spoiled like you can’t imagine) on YouTube watching this kid “sing” really deep and meaningful songs. They also had him on their iTouches (is that the plural, or iTouchae?). One was on the phone talking to her friend, who was apparently watching / listening to the same Bieberpalooza and the other was texting about the same. In short, it was a platform agnostic, social networking, wireless, audio / visual, crowd sourced, simulcast of all things Beaver (again, just to make my kids nuts). The only thing missing was this kid live, in my house, rocking out (generous on my part) to my screaming girls and their digitally connected fan club. Of course, that came several days later when they saw him live (and, as we all know, Bieber live is like seeing The Boss live in the late 1970s—only the four hour set replaced by 3 four minute songs, primarily about school and gum). Told you they were spoiled.  By the way, while engrossed in their little BieberFest, they never even noticed I was there.  I hate Justin Bieber.

I think this is what Zach calls “living digital”.

The next day, I was telling this story to a bunch of folks at a charity event. A crowd gathered. I’d like to say that this occurred because I am a devastatingly handsome, social vortex creating, brilliant raconteur. Turns out, they all had their own recent digital life epiphanies. One 27 year old woman said her 22 year old brother thinks she is a digital dinosaur (by the way, this gal knows her stuff).

A youngish grandfather told me how his son’s 6 year old borrowed his Blackberry and asked Granddad how to make an exclamation point. Granddad’s direction to “look for the button with the black dot on the lower left side” was met with (six year old mind you) “Granddad, why didn’t you just say that I should use the ALT key?” Finally, when another youngish grandmother (do I kiss ass well or what?), told me that she saw her 2-year-old grand child “thumbing” a toy block as if it were a mobile phone while playing, the light bulb went off. If my girls and babies are doing all of this now, one can only imagine what is ahead.

Yes, Zach, you are correct. You win. The wave is a comin’, what we think is the future now will encounter obsolescence in moments, and thank the stars that we don’t “only make big splashy network TV shows anymore”. Tech will change story, story will change tech, our willingness to adopt the new will spread endlessly like the universe and alter, impact and dictate all of the above.

That said, a month or so from now when I can have things simply beamed into my head, thereby reducing my mind’s eye to a vestigial, outsourced, hunk of my gray matter, I think I am still going to want to go to the movies. Now if only everyone would stop with the damned cell phones glowing, ruining the moment and distracting me from the Academy Award winning acting dynamo known as Megan Fox.

Crackberry photo: nkpix

1.  Craft an informative, relevant and entertaining brand story

All the technologies, websites and social networking tools are useless unless there is a compelling message.  Everyone has access to these tools, but it’s the understanding of these tools as they relate to your brand story that really make them valuable.  It’s also very important to know your audience and their threshold for total running time.  You can often get people to pay better attention and watch more of your content if you break it into smaller bite size chunks.  This will also help people distribute your content more readily if they like it.

2.  Know your audience and what brand messaging they respond to

There’s a growing sea of content and audiences continue to fragment.  While it may take some time and some leg work, you can now find out where your audience is viewing related content on different video platforms and social networking hubs.  Locate the passion centers that are relevant to your messaging and connect with these audiences by using familiar language and terminology.  Get to your audience at their time of need and you will have loyal participants for life.  Forget the ways of spam!  Now it’s about being personal and specific.  Find the relevant groups on Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and Flickr and reach out to these people.  Engage them.  If it’s great content, they’ll thank you for it.

3.  Shoot in HD

TVs are already shipping with Ethernet ports and the days of Internet TV are upon us.  While it may be somewhat more efficient to shoot on standard DV for web use only, the name of the game today is future proofing your brand story and messaging.  Once your high quality content is in the digital ether, it will be there for years to come.  If you are shooting efficiently, there will be footage you may not utilize right away and can monetize through other channels and platforms.  Additionally, your footage you shoot for online use may eventually appear on a 42″ OLED in somebody’s living room.  The way to stand out, is to make sure you have a high quality story that is shot on HD so that you can maximize your budget and your brand’s reach.

4.  Utilize interactive storytelling techniques

TV audiences are considered “lean back” as they don’t invite participation (unless it’s high quality and emotionally charged content!).  The new “lean forward” audience DEMANDS to be engaged.  Now that you have an interesting story, what elements are you going to include that will allow your audience to interact with your messaging and play along?  Make a list of all the relevant social networking tools that can be used to enhance and amplify your brand messaging.  This may come in the form of a widget, Facebook application, or iPhone application.

5.  Craft a relevant distribution strategy

The Joe Digital equation: High Quality Content + Strategic Distribution = Loyal Participants was born out of the idea that all great content can and will resonate with audiences only if it’s brought to them at their time of need and on the appropriate platform.  You might think that making a video and putting up on YouTube is a distribution strategy, but think again.  By the year 2013, we will be drowning in video content.  Know your audience and research where they are interacting with your messaging and video content.  In some cases you can put your video up on the larger sites like YouTube, but you will have to do an incredible amount of marketing to drive the eyeballs to your video if your audience only plays on MSN or Yahoo.  In this new digital playing field, it’s not about volume, it’s about loyalty.  Find out where your audience lives, get to them at their time of need with something interesting, authentic and relevant and they’re yours forever.

Photo Credit: Rick M

So, arguably, these guys are the collective Jefferson and Lincoln of UGC  video for both their declaration that content and distribution would no longer be in the hands of the few and for their technological proclamation that delivered on the promise and set the online video space free. Two giant sculpted faces down and two to go (the three of them will just have to learn to share).

But long before the launch of YouTube, the first large-scale UGC video success story had already been alive and kicking for over 15 years.  It was 1989, when a then little-known television producer had a notion, a bit of technology and an understanding of the inherent human desire for self-expression and more than occasional idiocy.  Meet the George Washington of UGC, the creator of “America’s Funniest Videos”, Vin Di Bona.  (Note:  I worked with Vin as his President of Worldwide Development for almost five years.  However, that doesn’t make any of the following any less true.)

In 1989, Vin was already quietly making pioneering efforts in the television format business.  While it is common place today to have prime-time filled with Americanized versions of foreign television hits like Idol, over two decades ago, Vin was busy establishing the first significant ties between Hollywood and overseas producers and broadcasters.  He was one of the first producers to import a foreign format for American television. On one of his many trips abroad, a bit of “technology” gave him a notion.  He noticed that the Japanese were rabidly into the newly developed home video camera and knew that the wave would be coming to the States.  A few glimpses into what people were capturing on video later, and the rest is history. For every somber wedding vow captured on tape, there were many more brides passing out and grooms calling their betrothed by a different name.

The show launched in 1989 and soon Vin and his production company were receiving thousands of user generated video submissions per week. And so, a franchise was born.  The show is still running on ABC, 20 years later—the longest running entertainment program in ABC history.  It has been sold to countries all over the globe and has single-handedly created a universal fear among men, any time a kid, a baseball bat and an exposed crotch are anywhere in sight.  Think about it.  An entire television juggernaut based completely on submitted content. So Vin gets carved in stone on the far left of the UGC Video Mount Rushmore in the GW slot—the Father of UGC, long before the acronym existed.

So who gets the last spot?  Who will be the Roosevelt of UGC? He spoke softly, carried a big stick and moved the US into an expansionist adventure. The analogous next phase in UGC will be finding editorial, commercial usage and creative indexing solutions for the morass of material floating about.  Whoever can harness the raw power of UGC, expand its influence in branding, entertainment, building community, and expanding the inalienable right to free expression will get my vote.   Now get to it.

Peter J. Schankowitz