Vlogger Gary Vaynerchuk calls me an idiot, I guess he’s right
Written on October 14, 2008 – 12:23 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
If you’re doing something with technology and you’re not leaving comments on Techcrunch, using Seesmic, you’re an idiot. An idiot!
Gary Vaynerchuk is a vlogger with a good story. He transformed an ordinary New Jersey-based wine store into a world famous online media company (that still sells wines). As you can imagine, Vaynerchuk is recognized as an expert on personal branding. Hence the invites for conferences like Web 2.0 Expo New York and Blogworld Expo. During the latter he said the words I started this post with.
So I’m an idiot. I guess he’s right. The Seesmic comments on TechCrunch really stand out. Everybody can put a name to the face and after a while, people probably start recognizing these video commenters at conferences.
It worked for Loren Feldman, the infamous vlogger from 1938media.com who made fun of tons of A-listers with an army of puppets. I’ve the pleasure of welcoming him at BLOG08 in Amsterdam next week. When I tell people about his BLOG08 keynote, most of them say: “I know him! He’s the cursing guy from the Techcrunch comments” (yes he curses and swears a lot to make his points).
Will I stop being a non-vlogging idiot? And will you?
Since I know Vaynerchuk is right, I’ll have to get started with vlogging. I got the i-sight thing going on, a Seesmic account, and.., tons of excuses not to start. I’m in an office full of people, where do I record the videos? I don’t have time for it. It’s just plain scary. I could go on for a while.
Obviously I’m not the only idiot. You probably are as well. Why aren’t you vlogging? Why aren’t you leaving comments on Seesmic? And is it really the future of blogging?
I hope these questions will be answered during BLOG08, where not only Feldman will speak, but also vlogger and Mobuzz host GabeMac will make an appearance. But I also hope we can start a discussion here. Do you agree with Seesmic founder Loic le Meur, who told me during an interview that my blog conference should be about vlogging, as that’s the future? Let’s figure that out together.
I hope you like that post!
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By Peter Evers on Oct 14, 2008
I’m in an office full of people and quicly check blogs during work hours. If all the comments would be video comments or if the only way of leaving comments would be video it would be plain impossible for me to join the discussion. Video blogging might be a good opportunity for full time bloggers, but would exclude the, let’s call them, office bloggers. Not to mention non-bloggers who like reading and participating.
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I guess you’re right, with the notion that you don’t need a personal brand on TechCrunch, but on mobile sites - where text comments are still ok ;-)
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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Oct 14, 2008
It is just TOO hard to quickly scan all comments under a blog if they are video comments. I looked at a few but discarded the whole phenomenon quickly. There is a very good reason that it works for Loren Feldman. He has a (wicked) sense of humor and is smart. Most other commenters miss one or both of those qualities making it painful to watch.
I guess I’m an idiot too then…
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You have your own talkshow for crying out loud.., that means you’ve some of those qualities too. But it’s interesting that you don’t agree with Gary, as I see you as a personal branding expert as well.
What about vlogging?
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The talkshow is a good example. I’m prepared, have make-up on (yeah) the lighting and audio is handled by experts and I have interesting guests. That makes the content interesting (for some people). A video comment of me rambling on about something I disagree with is seldom interesting…
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By Peter Evers on Oct 14, 2008
@Ernst Jan haha, video commenting on mobile would actually make commenting easier, you could just switch on your camera and start talking. But as Boris mentioned there’s still the problem on the front end. I won’t spend time watching 10 videos, and I would spend time scanning 10 text comments.
And what about the advantage of the backspace button when you leave a text comment?
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By Ørv on Oct 14, 2008
I have to agree with Boris and Peter.
But would tagging video comments speed up the scanning part?
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I’m pretty sure… if you tag your video “sucks” “terrible” “never again” people will get your point
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By Toivo Tänavsuu on Oct 14, 2008
No worries. I am also an idiot. Double-idiot, because today I visited Seesmic for the first time in my life!
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By Chuck Smith on Oct 14, 2008
The trouble is, to do a quality video blog, you should first write a script. Well, if you have to write a script first, you might as well just leave that as a comment.
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By Dan Schawbel on Oct 14, 2008
TechCrunch is extremely popular and they get millions of visitors. When you do a video comment, you get the necessary visibility in order to be known in that industry. The more you do it (consistently), the more people will remember you.
http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com
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yeah, so in that sense Gary Vaynerchuk is completely right. Nobody else is doing it so YOU should do it.
Basically there are two discussions here:
q: is it smart to use video comments to promote yourself?
a: yes, because nobody else does it
q: are video comments cool and a threat to text comments?
a: no, it is nice but not practical
All agree?
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Agree.
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I do think video comments are cool, for community-minded reasons. Also, it takes away the limits of text.
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By Peter Evers on Oct 14, 2008
Ok, so only leave video comments on TC and write a script first. It’s hard, but on TC it’s worthwhile. Nobody ever said managing your personal brand was easy.
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Gary says: “work your balls of” :-)
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Stop watching “Lost”!!
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By Jack on Oct 14, 2008
Gary Vaynerchuk’s comments give quite an insight, but I’d suggest it’s the video commenters who come across as ‘idiots’ as - if GV is anything to go by - they aren’t commenting because they have something to add to the conversation; instead because it’s part of their grand ‘personal branding’ exercise.
Give me non-egotistical commenters any day…
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Gary said that as well, stay away from referring to your own blog and links. Not surprisingly, people who do that, are idiots as well… ;-)
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By Fitz on Oct 14, 2008
Imagine if all these previous comments were video… how many would you have watched? I think the answer is between zero and one. It’s just not practical. Video does not help facilitate conversation on blogs the same way text does. Sorry, Loic.
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imagine one of these comments would’ve been video, that guy/ gal who had posted it would really stand out. I guess that’s the point Gary tries to make.
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By Sebastian Moeys on Oct 14, 2008
Exactly. You can’t scan a video with your eyes the way you can quickly scan a piece of text.
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By Mircea on Oct 14, 2008
Not to mention that if all of us would vlogging then how that can be monitored by aggregators??
What Friendfeed would do without the raw material?
And other comments aggregators like Backtype.com?
They’ll be out of business soon…
And Google and other search engines will have less to index (they still can’t index videos well).
Some people still want to keep the anonymity…some others might want to start vlogging but they are too shy or have the actor’s stage fear sometimes.
It’s the same problem many are not going to talk on the stage at conferences even if they would have something to say.
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