YouTube Tricks: How To Render In Perfect MP4

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Nikc Miller

I’ll admit that the name of this post is kind of a joke. In Google Analytics (an app we obsess over) I see that people commonly search for “how to render in perfect mp4” only to land on our company website. In reality, that’s not such a bad thing because we really do render in perfect mp4 with a wonderful hardware based encoder (just ask us, we’ll tell you all about it)! Yup, renderin’ perfect is something that we know how to do really well, so why not give the people what they want? So here it is:

HOW TO RENDER IN PERFECT MP4! (Ta-da)

First off, I’m taking it that you wanna render your video in mp4 to place it on YouTube, Vimeo or another video hosting service. Keep in mind that these sites change their preferences on what seems like a daily basis. So just because these are the best encoding settings today, doesn’t mean they will be a year from now. Secondly, I’m just gonna assume that your video was produced in HD.

So here are 3 settings that “The YouTubes” LOVE right now:

Keep Your Frame Size Consistent
Why: Youtube’s HD settings go as high as 1080p. So if your video originates in 1080p, congrats! Upload it full frame. If your video is smaller, don’t try to enlarge it in the encode. If it’s 720p, keep it 720p. 480p to 480p and so on. It will look its best at its original size and accordingly on all smaller sizes.

Encode At Datarate Of 5mb/s For Video
Why: Logically, it makes sense that a higher bitrate video would produce better looking video. However, YouTube is going to transcode whatever you upload to its own max bitrate (about 4mb/s). So encoding at the higher bitrate is just gonna mean larger file which ultimately means a longer upload with (arguably) the same results.

Use A .Mov Or .Mp4
Why: A lot of sites will tell you that your video has to be a MP4. To tell you the truth the file extension MP4 or MOV doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it’s compressed with the H.264 codec which is usually associated with the MP4 extension (Confusing huh?). Whatever you do, please just don’t upload a Windows Media file (.wmv)!

New Features with iFrames for Facebook Fan Pages

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Rick

As of February 10, 2011, Facebook made it so that Fan Pages would use iframes rather than the previous FBML (Facebook Markup Language). Facebook Fan Page admins and developers saw this as a change for the better. It makes creating stylish, interactive apps or Fan Page tabs much easier than it used to be. Instead of learning Facebook’s experimental (and confusing) FBML code, a developer is now able to create an external web page using basically any standard web programming language he or she desires (HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc.). This means you can display almost anything you’d like in your Facebook Fan Page, except for Flash applets. This includes full web pages with navigation, videos, music, image rotators, etc.

Now, whenever a new Fan Page tab is created, regardless of the content, it is classified as an app that you add to your Facebook page. This is great if you have multiple Fan Pages for different products or services, and you’d like that app to be on all of them. Instead of having to add or change the FBML tabs and copy/paste or even re-write the code, you can just add the app you created with the click of a button. Also, these new iFrame pages are dynamic, meaning if you change anything about the page that’s linked to your iFrame, it will change on your Facebook page instantly, without even having to log in to your Facebook to update them. Again, users with multiple Facebook pages will find that this is much easier and saves loads of time.

With the limited promotional options available within Facebook, the incorporation of iFrames into the Facebook development framework is truly a blessing for marketers and web developers. It essentially allows you to create a very customizable window to an “outside” web environment where you have more control over the design and function then you have “inside” Facebook. The use of standardized web development tools provide enhanced abilities to track and report on user engagement.

We are excited about the ways we will be able to incorporate promotional video, web forms, and targeted landing pages for clients within their Facebook Fan Pages. Let us know if you want more information, of have ideas for developing with iFrames within your Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook > The Internet?

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Nikc Miller

While perusing Twitter the other day, I found an “alarming” fact that I’ll paraphrase here:

“One of the world’s largest brands publicly announced that it would rather drive traffic to their Facebook page than their web page.”

Gasp!

I followed up with the Tweeter to no avail, so who knows if it’s true or not. Regardless, let me talk about why this isn’t (or wouldn’t be) so shocking after all.

Why would you, as a brand, want to get more hits on your Facebook page rather than your website?

1. Facebook Gives You A Captive Audience

Having an active Facebook page is your opportunity to have a captive audience tuned into your “channel.” Sure there are comparable solutions in the web world; you can gauge your analytics; you can see how many unique visitors are on your website everyday; you can even create a Feedburner account to see how many subscribers you have. Unfortunately all of this data provides faceless numbers and zero opportunity to really know who your fans are.

The benefit of having Facebook “fans” is knowing that at any given moment you can broadcast a message that you know will reach your audience. The results are near-instantaneous: If your message fails, you know immediately.

2. Facebook Gives You An Open Forum (if you want it)

The key to reaching your audience on Facebook is message portability. Not only are you reaching a captive audience, but they have the power easily share your message throughout their base. This is a bit more difficult to achieve from your website.

Furthermore, having “likes” on your Facebook page gives your fans an opportunity to communicate with each other. You might notice a bigger opportunity: the forum is your opportunity to communicate directly to your fan-base.

I mean this in the most personal sense. Websites are generally used for sweeping statements and basic info. With a Facebook page you can respond directly to your fans’ needs.

3. Facebook Gives You The Ability To Show Your Fans That Your Message Is Worthwhile

Perhaps you gained a fan because they like your product, restaurant, or store. On a whim they tuned into your channel. That doesn’t mean that they will stay. This is your chance to prove that your messages are worth hearing. You can do this by offering a great deal once a week or maybe just by being genuinely engaging.(Actually, both is a nice approach!)

The great thing is that actively maintaining your Facebook page puts you in a more active role in front of your audience. Instead of relying on updating your website once a quarter and updating your blog once a month, you end up on the frontlines with your fans. Before you say “Well my webmaster said he can make all of that happen on my website with a couple of simple design changes and a few widgets!” Think about it. Websites are great and they remain a very needed tool in your brand marketing. But to deny the fact that web audiences are spending a humongous amount of time staying on Facebook is to deny yourself an opportunity to really reach those people.

Join Render Perfect on Facebook!

SPAM Lives In Social Media Too

Posted on May 25, 2010 by Nikc Miller

“Please just delete the message if you do not want it”
-actual message from a Facebook spammer

The words Social Media tend to conjure up images of birds chirping, tweet-ups, keeping up with grandma, and perhaps happily drumming up more customers for your business. But let’s not forget the golden rule of communication on a mass-level: your message has to be wanted. It’s a bit confusing that while a ton of people are up in arms about the ever-changing Facebook privacy policy, I hear few people complaining about the easily-abused message system within Facebook.

Let’s say, I am a SPAMMER (most people will picture a brooding ominous figure ala Dr. Claw, but in this case let’s picture the SPAMMER as a well-meaning yet tasteless event marketer.) I create an event that I think is really cool and I want everyone to know about. I invite all of my friends, and perhaps encourage a few close friends to invite all of their friends as well. I then, very quickly, have 1000 or more people invited to my event. Here’s where the fun starts. I can now send ALL invitees a message, over and over again.

Is there a way to stop getting these messages? Sure, but its not as simple as just hitting UNSUBSCRIBE. You have to navigate to the event and remove yourself from the event manually. That doesn’t mean I can’t throw you back on the list whenever I want to.

What’s the lesson here? Well, nothing really. As long as there are popular forums for mass communication, there will always be those folks who choose to ignore permission-based marketing and abuse the system. But my prediction is that it is not the privacy policy, or the ever-present rumor that Facebook will someday charge a fee that will kill the popular sharing site. Rather it’s these tiny loopholes that allow marketers to easily abuse the system that will have people leaving in droves. People navigated away from Myspace because it was way too easy for bands and everyone else to SPAM them. It’s only a matter of time before Myspace’s spammers move aggressively to where the audience is.

Keep it Short, Cut Your Ego

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Nikc Miller

Imagine you see an ad on Craigslist:

Two free tickets to the soldout show tonight. First come, first served. Contact Glenn.

You email Glenn the poster, and it turns out YOU’RE FIRST: You win the tickets!

But instead of recieving instructions on how to get the tickets you recieve this:

Hi,
Thanks for responding. I’m glad that you are interested in the tickets. For 45 years, I have been giving away tickets to people just like yourself. I pride myself in being the premiere ticket giveawayer in the whole Mid Atlantic region. But don’t take it from me, here is a list of satisfied people who have received free tickets:

“I’ve been getting tickets from this guy for years! It’s great!”

-Mary from Boston, MA

“Amazing! I don’t know how this guy does it!”

-Bob from Washington DC

….The email goes on and on.

You didn’t ask for this. In fact you could care less about how many years this guy’s been giving away tickets, who he’s given away tickets to, or any of that. You entered a promotion and you just want the free tickets!!!

For Glenn, it is super important that he gets his name out there. He is proud of his history of giving away tickets and making people happy. But as important as this all is to him, and maybe even to the people he’s done business with in the past, it is information that is useless and down right annoying to you: the guy who just wants some tickets.

In an alternate situation, you recieve an email from Glenn that gives you clear instructions on how to receive your tickets. You recieve them, have a good time, then you tell your friends about Glenn and his awesome ticket giveaways. Everyone wins.

When starting an incentive-based promotion or a giveaway, keep the message simple and direct. If you have to cut anything from the message, cut your ego, your history, and your case studies. Accept the fact that you are running a promotion. There’s a big chance that the majority of the people entering your promotion will not care at all about your product, they just want to win a sweet prize.

These are the people you win over with class.

Breaking Up A Company’s Twitter Presence Is Hard To Do

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Nikc Miller

Neil Sedaka was right: Breaking up is hard to do.

Since we started our company Twitter account about a year ago we’ve had the same discussion in the board room about once every month.

The conversation is one I like to call the Person vs Entity debate. It involves questions like:

• What’s the most successful way to represent corporate culture on Twitter?

• What remains off-message and personal to the employees of the company?

and classics like:

• What crosses over? (or more importantly: What absolutely does not?)

Starting today we’re changing how we do things on Twitter. The @RenderPerfect account which has been maintained by Nikc Miller of Render Perfect will now become a bulletin board of things that are important to the company as a whole:

•Innovative video news

•Amazing stories about the success of our clients

•Updates of new blog posts

•New product updates

Our additional employee Twitter accounts will feature more personal interactions, introspection and promotion of the things that we think are cool about video, marketing or anything (music, film, news etc.)

To use the once laughable but now uber-cool Venn Diagram approach:

Obviously, we think about this stuff alot. So tell us, what ways has your company found success in using Twitter?

By the way, we’d like to express a HUGE THANK YOU to all the people who have checked out this blog, our YouTube e-book, and our Twitter profile. We’ve had a great time sharing info back and forth with you. It only gets better from here!

•••

Follow @RenderPerfect to follow Render Perfect the company.

Follow @ryanspin to follow Ryan Spindler, President/Creative Director of Render Perfect

Follow @nikc_render to follow Nikc Miller, After Effects Artist at Render Perfect

Promote Your Video Using Su.pr

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Nikc Miller

If you want to give your web video a kick-start, the first thing to do is to start promoting it. The go-to sources for content promotion are email, Twitter, and Facebook. And while those sources are good you may want to consider launching it into yet another web 2.0 filter: StumbleUpon

Until recently, I was pretty unfamiliar with StumbleUpon. But just a few months ago they released a new link-shortening tool called Su.pr. Su.pr links up to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, shortens your links and promotes your content through these portals. But it also releases your content into StumbleUpon world, upping the chances that your video content will be seen and promoted by random web viewers.

Here’s a brief overview of how simple it is to use Su.pr (I mean, you were gonna shorten that link anyway):

1. Shorten It

Assuming that you already set up your Su.pr account and linked it to your Facebook and Twitter pages, take the link that you want to shorten and place it in the Post box.

Press “Just Shorten”

Voila you have a nice short link!

2. Tweet It

The Post box works just like Twitter, counting down the characters you have remaining. I recommend writing a message that at least describes what your link is about.

Click ‘Post’. Your Tweet and Shortened Link will show up on your linked Twitter and/or Facebook account.

3. Stumble It

Now the fun part: go into your Su.pr stats and add in the info that will increase the odds that people browsing StumbleUpon will actually see your content. Clarity is key here. If you are adding a sports video pertaining to sports history and basketball, you want to make it easy for StumbleUpon’s engine to guide the right people to your content.

Su.pr stats will tell you how many people clicked on your link via your Tweet. The number underneath tells you how many additional clicks your content has gotten just from being posted on StumbleUpon.

4. Try It

If you’re curious to how StumbleUpon presents the content, check out my link:http://su.pr/7zVsbg

With additional techy stats, and an API that allows you to shorten links through your domain, Su.pr is a formidable tool in launching and promoting your viral videos and content across the web.

***

If you like this article than check out:

What Can Facebook Do For Your Business? - A primer in setting up a Facebook Fan Page for your business. Gaining fans and providing content by automating your blog feed to the page.

Use The YouTube Beta Channel - A guide in branding your video channel by using new (understated) features in YouTube.

Secrets of New Marketing – A bit of Seth Godin wisdom about the new marketing philosophy of content distribution.