The Weekly Debrief: 27 July 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive 

Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.


PBS Interactive recently attended a YouTube “Partners Summit” where, during the course of two days, YouTube staffers walked through a number of strategies and tactics for ensuring that our YouTube videos are seen by as many people as possible. Kevin Dando, Director of Digital Marketing and Communications, gives a rundown of the specific items that he found interesting or helpful regarding YouTube videos.

Day two of the State of Now/#140 conference opened the stage to a mixed bag of presenters. Panels and speakers ranged from celebrities to entrepreneurs to philanthropists, all of whom use social media to engage and grow their audience.

@PBSInterns explore cool (and practical!) videos, covering topics ranging from where good ideas come from to how Google search works. Plus, watch a clip that has many characteristics of “great” video.

This week Thomas Crenshaw, Director of Technical Product Management, presented a webinar on PBS Interactive’s improved localization algorithm for PBS.org and the PBS mobile apps.  The improved service will more accurately localize visitors to pbs.org.


Follow the Links Below to Keep Reading:

• Notes from YouTube’s Partner Summit / Tips and Tricks for Optimizing Videos on YouTube
• #140conf Takeaweays Part Two: Connecting through Social Media
• FYI Friday: Videos Worth Watching
• Wordless Wednesday: Localization+

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• The latest from PBS Digital Studios: Bob Ross – remixed: http://to.pbs.org/SUQDgo  #ThisIsYourWorld #HappyLittleClouds (please RT!)
• PBS Localization Webinar: This week PBS Interactive presented an improved version of our localization algorithm for PBS.org and the PBS mobile apps. This upgrade removes many of the issues currently being experienced because of our heavy dependence on Nielsen data, which has proven to be inconsistent.  The improved service will allow us to more accurately auto-localize visitors to pbs.org. View the webinar archive to learn more!
• Online Closed Captioning Webinar: PBS Interactive has been working to institute new technology and workflows to help facilitate adding closed caption files for local COVE content. If you missed this week’s presentation, you can still view the webinar archive to get details about the new supported CC formats in COVE, how to get your content ready and next steps you can take now.
• Closed Captioning Contacts: PBS Interactive is compiling a database of station closed captioning contacts from your local websites. If you need to update your information, please do so using the new Local Content Form.
• #CookForJulia: PBS Food is hosting a multi-platform content and promotional initiative celebrating the life and influence of PBS chef and pioneer Julia Child, who would be celebrating her 100th birthday on August 15, 2012. Watch the archived webinar to find out how your station can get involved.

FYI Friday: Videos Worth Watching

Last week, we talk about the importance of being social, and this week, we’re changing it up a little. Take a look at these cool (and practical!) videos, covering topics ranging from where good ideas come from to how Google search works, and tips to improve calls to action. Plus, check out a clip that has many characteristics of “great” video.

Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson  
Compiled by Barry Blitch

How does innovation occur? How can we be more creative? These are age old questions that touch all spheres of our lives and businesses. Author and innovative thinker Steven Johnson explores these questions and provide his insights through a simple yet fun graphic representation.

How Does Google Search Work? by Matt Cutts
Compiled by Ida Rosenthal

Matt Cutts, a Google employee on the Search Quality team, has a created a long series of YouTube videos addressing a couple dozen questions, one of the most popular of which is featured above. Check out Google Webmaster’s YouTube channel for a one-stop shop for more webmaster resources that address topics ranging from indexing to understanding the role of social networks in SEO.

Improving Social & Subscription Calls to Action by Rand Fishkin
Compiled by Paul Lopez

Whether it is to donate, or just to follow you on Twitter, everyone has their own way of trying to get more interaction with their audience. In this video, Rand Fishkin gives eight tips to making your calls to action more effective. Some of those tips include: limit the choices, promote when action is likely, and create an expectation and then fulfill it immediately. The rest of the tips, plus explanations of them, can be found by watching the video. For more videos, check out the rest of SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday series.

How the Media You Consume Can Change Your Life by Miss Representation
Compiled by Brionne Griffin


This cause-and-effect video gives a thought-provoking look into the relationship between girls and media. Videos such as this are attractive to viewers because they combine visual appeal with strong messages in order to educate, inspire, and engage people from all walks of life. So what exactly is that “je ne sais quoi” that separates a “good” video from a “great” video? The folks at Hubspot dissected some of the web’s most popular videos and found the common qualities many viral videos share. From keeping it short, to leveraging user-generated content, to making it funny, the full list can be found here.

Wordless Wednesday: Localization+

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive

Yesterday Thomas Crenshaw, Director of Technical Product Management, presented a webinar on PBS Interactive's improved localization algorithm for PBS.org and the PBS mobile apps.  The improved service will  more accurately auto-localize visitors to pbs.org. Watch the webinar archive to learn more.

Notes from YouTube’s Partner Summit / Tips and Tricks for Optimizing Videos on YouTube

Kevin Dando, Director, Digital Marketing and Communications

Several of us at PBS were recently invited to a meeting at YouTube for a “Partners Summit” where, during the course of two days, a number of YouTube staffers from many divisions walked us through a number of strategies and tactics for ensuring that our YouTube videos are seen by as many people as possible.

Here’s a rundown of the specific items that I thought you might find interesting or helpful regarding YouTube videos.

Throughout the meeting, the YouTubers reinforced (very often, in fact) that their main goal is to keep users on the site, watching as many videos as possible, and its algorithm will reward channels and videos that are shown to be engaging and hold users’ interest, and lead users to watch other videos.

To that end, YouTube gave a number of tips for helping to make videos more discoverable.

•    Metadata is incredibly important – YouTube video titles, descriptions, tags and thumbnails can’t be an afterthought – you must be strategic about all these pieces of metadata. Here are some specific metadata tips from YouTube’s Partner Playbook.

•    Also, YouTube is focusing on emphasizing the importance of channels as content distributors. Individual videos are important, but the overall performance of your channel should be something you’re tracking on a day to day basis.

On that note, if you’re not already, you should be making it easy for people to subscribe to your YouTube channel so they can know when you upload new content. You can see good techniques for how to do this on the PBS Digital Studios PBS Idea Channel page (http://www.youtube.com/pbsideachannel).  See how the “subscribe” button is really prominent there?

•    You should also urge users to subscribe to your YouTube channel on your Facebook page, on Twitter, etc.  Are you putting your YouTube channel’s URL in your station’s email sig, etc?  Think of all the opportunities you have to make sure people are seeing (and subscribing to!) your YouTube presence.

•    Playlists are also amazingly important --even if it means creating playlists that include content from other channels (not yours).  Be creative. Use smart curatorial skills – make people interested in coming to your YouTube channel not only because of your videos, but because your playlisting other videos you think your users might like, too. (Remember, too, that adding videos to playlists updates your channel’s feed, which everyone can see.)

The PBS YouTube channel, for example, includes a number of featured playlists on its homepage that showcase videos from the PBS Off Book and PBS Idea Channel YouTube pages. In this way, we can cross promote our other channels and drive traffic to them, as well.  They, in turn, have prominent links to the PBS YouTube channel on their pages.

It’s possible to create a topical playlist that can be used for other purposes. (if news is breaking about a certain topic, consider creating  create a quick playlist on that topic -- then promoting it. This is especially smart if your station does news programming.)

•    Remember to post notes to channel’s subscribers, but be judicious.  This isn’t something the PBS YouTube channel has done much of, but because of this YouTube meeting, we’re going to being doing it more, especially in connection with our biggest promotional

•    Use video annotations wisely -- especially to encourage subscriptions. Put annotations/notes at the end of your videos suggesting that people subscribe to your channel.

•    Custom thumbnails – YouTubers emphasized repeatedly how important it is to have engaging thumbnail images, comparing them to a book cover.  Soon, all users, not just partners, will be able to upload custom thumbnails for individual videos. Remember however, to look at how your custom thumbnail will look scaled down to actual size.

In the discussion of custom thumbnails they showed us this slide with their suggestions and examples:

 

•    Publishing Schedules: Publish strategically and release videos at opportune moments and around tent-pole events.

•    Here are some other scheduling tips in a slide:

Also, watch what your competitors are doing, and what videos are trending in general, and use that information to your advantage. See a trend developing – think how your videos can leverage that trend.

Three sites favored by YouTubers for learning about what’s hot in viral videos are:

1. www.vidstatsx.com
2. www.viralvideochart.com 
3. www.reddit.com/r/videos

If you have any questions about any of this, please contact me.

Part Two: Connecting Through Social Media

By: Jen Carter, PBS Interactive


In case you missed it, in part one of this series we looked at social media engagement advice and stories that came out of the recent State of Now/#140 conf. 


Day two of the conference opened the stage to more of a mixed bag of presenters. Panels and speakers ranged from celebrities to entrepreneurs to philanthropists. The common thread among all these sessions was that that they use(d) social media to engage and grow their audience.


Social Media and Connection
Some of the most popular sessions included the Chopra family and Alicia Ybarbo and Mary Ann Zoeliner, Producers, Today Show at NBC News and co-authors Today's Moms. 

(L-R): Jeff Pulver, Deepak Chopra,
Mallika Chopra and Gotham Chopra

The Chopra family discussed a number of topics ranging from views on technology and societal engagement to their new YouTube channel, Chopra Well. Their big takeaway regarding social media was that they hoped to use all the different platforms for promotion and engagement to inspire people and manifest change.


The Today Show producers, Ybarbo and Zoeliner were discussing how Sh*tty Mom, a humor book which aggregates all those less then perfect parenting moments and how to make them work for you. They use social media outlets, mainly Twitter, to connect to those parents who may want to share the reality of being a parent, juggling a family and work and life in general. Some of the technics and parenting tools they mentioned are similar to those found on PBS Parents.


Philanthropy and Social Media
As mentioned there were a number of philanthropists who spoke at the conference. All use(d) social media to spread the purpose of their mission. One of the most intriguing stories from that day came from 13-year-old Wesley Prankard who said, “I'm a kid that wants to help kids. I think that whenever you see wrong - you should help make it right.” His story began when he heard about a girl in a school system in Attawapiskat, Ontario, Canada, near to his home. The conditions of the school where she attended were not what he thought they could be. His campaign for change was a success and it helped launch him and other interested parties in to his current work. Social media played a major role in his success, as he became connected with people from across North America.


Go Brand Yourself
Arnt Eriksen, Creative Director, and Social Media Evangelist, spoke on branding in a social media market and how he has seen it evolve. He spoke about the process of branding and engagement, which follows this path: Attention (to your brand), Interest (in content), Desire (to learn) and Action (the act of participating). When you introduce social media, you have to also consider this process: Find (how users locate your product or service), Like (strategize on how to you get people to trust your brand), and Love (expand and share interest in your brand to others in the system). He stressed that ultimately you shouldn’t do everything in social media, but at least do something well. Complete perfection is the enemy of good marketing and promotion in the age of social media.


More Storytelling Information
All of these stories were centered on how each person used or views social media as a cultural tool used to stimulate and cultivate communities around an idea, interest or goal. Even after separating this topic into two posts there was still a ton more to share, so if you are interested in learning more, view live stream of conference here.


Next Steps? 
So now what? To get you started on strategy building here are some related blog posts we’ve recently released: Twitter, Tips and Tricks and FYI Friday: The Power of Images; or check out our Social Media Engagement best practice guide.


Is your station Living Social? If so, how? Tweet us or share comments below.

The Weekly Debrief: 20 July 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive 

Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.

Going into its second year, PBS.org is recruiting six stations to participate in its 2013 Online Film Festival. Building off the success of its inaugural run in March 2012, the 2013 festival will feature more films and more content partners – there is a call for entries from PBS stations.

DISQUS, a turnkey commenting product available to your station at no additional cost beyond your member dues, has released an upgrade that looks to introduce a host of new and updated features.

Compiled from the latest research by leading outlets including comScore and Pew, this resource provides an overview of mobile platforms, users, and usage in the mobile landscape.

At the recent State of Now/#140 conf, host and social media innovator Jeff Pulver, gathered together social media advocates and enthusiasts from all walks of life to sit, listen, and share their stories with one another.

@PBSInterns explore tools that can improve your social metrics, tips to manage a social media community, techniques that will make videos more shareable, as well as a new social media website called news.me.

PBS Interactive welcomed the Digital Opportunities Task Force for a two-day in-person meeting at PBS headquarters in Arlington, VA.

Follow the Links Below to Keep Reading:

• PBS.org Seeks Stations for Online Film Festival Program Pilot
• Introducing DISQUS 2012
• UPDATED Mobile Metrics & Landscape Resource
• #140conf Takeaways Part One: Connecting Through Social Media
• FYI Friday: The Importance of Being Social
• Wordless Wednesday: PBS Welcomes the Digital Opportunities Task Force

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• PBS Localization Webinar: July 24, 2:00 - 3:00 PM. PBS Interactive is working on an improved version of our localization algorithm for PBS.org and the PBS mobile apps. This upgrade removes many of the issues currently being experienced because of our heavy dependence on Nielsen data, which has proven to be inconsistent.  The improved service will allow us to more accurately auto-localize visitors to pbs.org. Register for the webinar to learn more!
• Online Closed Captioning Webinar: July 25, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET. PBS Interactive has been working to institute new technology and workflows to help facilitate adding closed caption files for local COVE content. Get the details about the new supported CC formats in COVE, how to get your content ready and next steps you can take now. Register for the webinar for more details.
• #CookForJulia: Do you love Julia Child? See how your station can get involved in PBS Food's multi-platform content and promotional initiative celebrating the life and influence of PBS chef and pioneer Julia Child, who would be celebrating her 100th birthday on August 15, 2012. Continue.

FYI Friday: The Importance of Being Social

Photo Credit: Dell Inc.

In last week’s FYI Friday, we discussed why mobile matters. This week, we’re exploring tools that can improve your social metrics, tips to manage a social media community, techniques that will make videos more shareable, as well as a new social media website called news.me.

5 Essential Spreadsheets for Social Media Analytics by Ann Smarty
Compiled by Ida Rosenthal

Metrics for social media can be tricky to measure, especially when many tools are expensive and time-consuming to use. Ann Smarty provides a great list of easy-to-use (and free!) scripts that can help you better track social metrics on a budget:

1. GetTweets lets you quickly export Twitter search results into a spreadsheet which you can filter.
2. FacebookLikes script evaluates Facebook user interaction with URLs, including like count, share count, and comment count. 
3. FacebookFans retrieves the number of fans for any Page ID, plus it adds a nifty pie graph to represent the data.
4. If you want to monitor your reputation on social sites, there’s a script that will list Google search results, as well as Twitter and Facebook counts for the terms you provide.
5. Lastly, there’s a script that will let you extract and archive your “friends” and followers on Facebook and Twitter. 

To access all these scripts yourself, check out the full article for links to Google Spreadsheets that you can copy and paste. All the spreadsheets in the article already have the script in them, so it’s one less thing to worry about!

26 Tips for Managing a Social Media Community by Debbie Hemley
Compiled by Barry Blitch

When you work with social media for your station, you’re managing a community. Therefore, it’s helpful to remind yourself what helps foster vibrant online groups. To start, put yourself in the place of the audience. Why do they visit your site or social media platform? What are you providing them? Generate new content that is memorable by showcasing your audience themselves. Think of social media as helping to tell the story of your station. Participate in conversations with them by being honest, responding quickly, and remembering to thank them.

Wonder if you’re doing it all, or doing it right? These tips from Social Media Examiner provide a clear, helpful guide covering a range of topics from what to look for in a retweet to content generation. Use it as a go-to checklist when managing your social media community.

Tips for Creating Business Videos That Customers Will Watch By Linda Sedloff Orton
Compiled by Paul Lopez

“Our brains are wired for motion," says John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist and author. By creating videos for the web, stations can use this logic to enhance the audience's interaction with them on social media.

Consider adding a call to action in your videos, either in the video itself or surrounding promotional material. Also, don’t forget to advertise on a variety of platforms with some way of tracking success. Check out the article for additional advice about creating a top notch video for your online audience.

News.me
Compiled by Brionne Griffin

You want to know what’s popular on Facebook and Twitter, but let’s be honest, no one wants to spend hours mining through status updates to find news gems. Well, the obvious solution is to hire a personal assistant who will spend all day searching and sorting, then report back to you on what trending topics are circulating the Web each day. Yeah, we all wish…

Enter News.me, a free service that aggregates the top stories from your social feeds each day. Sign up with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, go on about your day while news.me sorts through thousands of links shared by your friends and then open your inbox each morning to find a customized email with “Your Top 5 Stories” and a blurb accompanying each. It’s like your own personal assistant!

Part One: Connecting Through Social Media

By: Jen Carter, PBS Interactive


There is a never-ending supply of social media strategy, marketing and promotional best practices, engagement initiatives, conferences and seminars, and the list goes on and on. It’s enough to make ones head spin. But what is the point of social media and how are people connecting in innovative ways?


The one thing to remember is that social media is about storytelling. At the recent State of Now/#140 conf, host Jeff Pulver, social media innovator, gathered together social media advocates and enthusiasts from all walks of life to sit, listen and share their stories with one another.


Rise of the Social Consumer
During the two-day conference dozens of stories where shared. The first day, businesspersons such as Robert Stephens, founder Geek Squad, discussed the Rise of the Social Consumer and how brands/companies can leverage these trends. Stephens stated understanding a user is paramount to success (Tron anyone? (2:18)). He also expressed that the social consumer isn’t always the most socially active. So while you are thinking about social media engagement, factor in how to engage with the non-hyper-social users.


Solving the Mystery with Social Media
Other speakers included Dan Lewis, Director of New Media Communications for Sesame Street, who discussed how they used social media to find the first Gordon. If we have learned anything from the Mr. Rogers Remix and Sesame Street: Share it Maybe videos, people love the classics and these often-nostalgic moments can be leveraged in the new media world. The search for the first Gordon campaign was no different. At the start of the campaign, the video, which features this mystery man, was posted across Sesame Streets’ social media outlets and eventually the family of the first Gordon came forward.


Social TV…Hype or Hip?
Panels from that day included, Caroline Giegerich, Founder/Editor, Daily Marauder; Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus; and Rishi Malhotra, Managing Partner, 212Media. The panel discussed the trend of social TV. We’ve seen this on shows that have tweets, posts or comments pop-up during programing. The panelists view was that there would be a line, for most users, where they find their content is being disrupted. More often then not users will continue using smart devices to consume social media while still watching there favorite program, hopefully it’s a #localPBS show.


Leveraging Social Media in Education
One of the most dynamic speakers of day one was Kevin Honeycutt, a music teacher, who is “out to change the world…one classroom at a time.” His philosophy is similar to that of many in Public Media, which is to bring interested parties interesting information. Honeycutt showcased how he leverages social media to engage and include students who otherwise feel intimidated by learning a new instrument, for example. He feels that because kids think digitally, by not utilizing social media, you are amputating kids’ digital limbs and businesses or institutions are losing a potential connection.


More Storytelling Information
There were honestly too many interesting and innovative sessions to share in one blog post, so, if you are interested in hearing more about this conference and social media engagement initiatives, check back on our blog for part two of this series.


Next Steps? 
Can’t wait to get started on social media engagement strategy building? Here are some related blog posts we’ve recently posted: Twitter, Tips and Tricks; FYI Friday: Engaging your Digital Ecosystem; and FYI Friday: Mobile Matters; or check out our Social Media Engagement best practice guide.


Is your station Living Social? If so, how? Tweet us or share comments below.

The second installment of this post will be published on Monday, July 23rd, 2012. Be sure to check back then.

Wordless Wednesday: PBS Welcomes the Digital Opportunities Task Force

By: Jen Carter, PBS Interactive

PBS welcomes the Digital Opportunities Task Force for a
two-day in-person meeting at PBS headquarters in Arlington, VA.
Stay tuned for updates.

PBS.org Seeks Stations for Online Film Festival Pilot Program

by Eric Freeland, Director of Online Programming and Promotions

Now going into its second year, PBS.org is recruiting six stations to participate in its 2013 Online Film Festival. Building off the success of its inaugural run in March 2012, the 2013 festival will feature more films and more content partners – there is a call for entries from PBS stations.  

The 2013 Online Film Festival will showcase up to 30 short films over three weeks next March. The films will be distributed on PBS.org, the PBS Video Portal (COVE), PBS mobile apps and YouTube. Also, now with the inclusion of local content, the film festival will be made available for stations feature on their COVE portals, websites, and YouTube Channels.

Stations who are interested in participating in this pilot program must fill out a short survey: http://svy.mk/LsHmf7

Deadline: Friday, August 3, 2012.  The surveys will be reviewed by members of the PBS Interactive staff and up to six stations will be selected.

The stations selected will join ITVS, POV, and the five members of the minority consortia: The National Black Programming Consortium, The Center for Asian American Media, Latinos in Public Broadcasting, Native Americans Public Telecommunications, and Pacific Islanders in Communications.

FAST FACTS ABOUT THE 2012 PBS ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL

• Reached more than 10-million people via social media channels
• Received more than 320,000 streams
• Received national attention from USATODAY, GIGAOM, The Huffington Post, and ReelScreen

Check out the festival's 2012 sizzlereel. If you have any questions about participating to 2013 Film Festival, feel free to email me.

Introducing DISQUS 2012

Have you heard? DISQUS, a turnkey commenting product that is available to your station at no additional cost beyond your member dues, has released an upgrade to their website commenting tool which looks to introduce a host of new and updated features. The upgrade, DISQUS 2012, introduces brand new functionality and improves upon prior versions in the hopes of creating the best commenting experience for your users.

This new or updated list of features includes:

• a clutter-free interface that helps the eyes focus on the discussion;
• real-time formatting from top to bottom, based on new architecture;
• new voting features which looks to encourage richer discussions by letting the community surface the best comment;
• a Discovery theme which aims to help users explore new discussions and stories;
• customizable views which allow users to create the commenting experience they would like.

For a full list of new features click here.


We recommend you check out this 2-minute video to see other new features. You can also visit PBS Food to see DISQUS 2012 in action.


Beginning Wednesday, July 18, 2012, stations actively using DISQUS commenting on their websites will be able to opt-in to DISQUS 2012.  The upgrade option will be available on your DISQUS Admin Dashboard upon logging into your account. While we have successfully tested the upgrade on PBS Food, we have not been able to test all scenarios. So if you decide to upgrade, please click around and make sure it works for you.


If your station isn’t totally sold yet on these features or prefer the older version of DISQUS, you simply do not opt-in to this newer version when you log in to your DISQUS dashboard.


For more information on the available features visit their website.

PBS Interactive has also purchased customer support with DISQUS that’s available to your station at no cost. To contact DISQUS customer support you can call 415-238-4409.

If you have any general questions, please feel free to reach out to us via PBSI_stationservices@pbs.org.

Mobile Metrics & Landscape Update

by Barry Blitch, PBS Interactive Intern

What’s the primary function of mobile devices? If you think it’s communication from person-to-person, well, you’re partly right. In fact, over two-thirds of our time spent on mobile phones is used for non-communication activities (Atlantic). This is one of the surprising facts we learned when updating the Mobile Metrics & Landscape deck on the PBS Interactive Station Guide. Compiled from the latest research by leading outlets including comScore and Pew, this resource provides an overview of mobile platforms, users, and usage in the mobile landscape.

The past year saw many milestones in mobile due largely to the increased availability of WiFi, 3G/4G service, and aggressive device promotions. We reached a major turning point in which more Americans use smartphones (46%) than basic feature phones (41%, Pew). Not to be overshadowed, 19% of Americans own a tablet, and these devices are spreading exponentially. It took seven years for the U.S. to reach 40 million smartphones in use, but less than two years to reach the same number of tablets (comScore). Android and Apple are the two major players in competition, as the former leads in overall platform and the latter leads with the iPhone 4 as top smartphone (comScore).

Why is this particularly important for stations? Because the latest mobile devices aren’t your mother’s cell phone and laptop. Video viewing via mobile phone has increased 35.7% over last year (Nielsen). Over half of tablet users watch video or TV content on their devices (Multichannel News). They get to this content via apps and mobile websites. With the average user spending 94 minutes/day using apps and 72 minutes/day (Mashable) with mobile and desktop web, it’s difficult to ignore. Mobile platforms are rapidly becoming the norm—a major touchpoint through which we experience daily life. The good news for stations is that mobile users are supplementing this time with their regular media diet, becoming omnivores of content across multiple screens.

What’s your experience with Mobile content? Share with us the lingering questions and helpful tips in the world of Mobile at your station.

While you’re getting up to date with the new Mobile Metrics & Landscape deck in the PBS Interactive Station Guide, make sure to check out our other Mobile resources:

•    Mobile Key Trends and Executive Summary - A cross-department resource for understanding the opportunities and challenges of mobile, including best practices for positioning your station accordingly. 
•    Behind the Touchscreen: Tales of Station Mobile - A collection of stories, experiments and lessons learned from the Mobile Working Group so you can see how other stations are approaching mobile. 
•    Defining Your Station’s Mobile Presence White Paper - Your guide to building a mobile strategy and defining your mobile presence. Intended to be shared and workshopped by stakeholders at your station.

The Weekly Debrief: 13 July 2012

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive 

Welcome to the Weekly PBS Interactive Station Products & Innovation Debrief, designed to give PBS stations a rundown of Interactive updates and opportunities announced this week on our blog.

Jasmine Bulin, Senior Manager of Interactive Media at PBS SoCaL and former PBS Interactive New Media Editor, created a news ticker to better showcase PBS NewsHour content. See how your station can implement the tool.

Check out PBS Interactive's unconventional take on traditional television promos.  The goal of this experimental pilot is to create effective 'call to donate' pre-roll ads tailored to an online audience. The 15 second pre-roll ads give instructions to click on a donation link that will be tied directly to that local station’s fundraising page.

This election year, PBS is planning a multi-faceted approach that aims to raise awareness of its election coverage by branding and organizing content across all platforms – on air, online, and on smart phones and tablets. Learn more about #pbsElection programming and tools and see how your station can get involved.

@PBSInterns discuss the evolving demographic of cellphone users, the rise of "dual screen viewing," how to motivate viewers to be more engaged, and why mobile matters.

Images can convey a message quicker than a long article. @PBSInterns discuss ways to improve mobile photography, create more engaging photos for social media use, and utilize new image-tracking features on HootSuite.

Ashley Carufel, of the PBS Food team, baked Interactive-themed, Nutella-stuffed cupcakes for Tuesday's PBS Interactive department picnic at a local park.

Follow the Links Below to Keep Reading:

• PBS SoCaL's Step-by-Step Guide to News Tickers
• Prosper + COVE = Call to Donate Experiment
• PBS Election 2012: Trusted. In-depth. Independent.
• FYI Friday: Mobile Matters
• FYI Friday: The Power of Images
• Wordless Wednesday: Interactive Summer Picnic

At-a-Glance: PBS Interactive Product and Services Updates

• PBS Localization Webinar: July 24, 2:00 - 3:00 PM. PBS Interactive is working on an improved version of our localization algorithm for PBS.org and the PBS mobile apps. This upgrade removes many of the issues currently being experienced because of our heavy dependence on Nielsen data, which has proven to be inconsistent.  It should allow us to more accurately auto-localize visitors to pbs.org. Register for the webinar to learn more!
• Online Closed Captioning Webinar: July 25, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET. PBS Interactive has been working to institute new technology and workflows to help facilitate adding closed caption files for local COVE content. Get the details about the new supported CC formats in COVE, how to get your content ready and next steps you can take now. Register for the webinar for more details.
• #CookForJulia: A multi-platform content and promotional initiative celebrating the life and influence of PBS chef and pioneer Julia Child, who would be celebrating her 100th birthday on August 15, 2012. This webinar outlines the digital, broadcast and communication elements of the initiative and how your station can participate and potentially integrate into your August pledge plans.
• Cookie Monster has endearingly asked if you’ll “Share It Maybe” — the latest, and our personal favorite, cover of summer smash “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen. Watch the video.

FYI Friday: Mobile Matters

In last week's FYI Friday, we shared some tips about the power of images. This week, we explore how the demographic of cellphone users evolved over the past few years,;the rise of "dual screen viewing" and how to motivate these viewers to be more engaged; and why mobile matters.

Live TV Viewing Unlocks Greatest Benefits of Social TV Activities by Viacom


Compiled by Brionne Griffin

Picture this: You’re on the couch watching the latest installment of your favorite show, when your favorite character tells a whopper that leaves you aghast. Outraged, and curious if everyone else feels the same, you pull out your cellphone, open up Facebook, Twitter, or GetGlue, and jump into the conversation. Tagged as “dual screen viewing,” this phenomenon of watching television while using social apps on mobile devices to interact with friends and other fans, is growing by the day.


A Viacom survey entitled "Social TV: Viewers C's the Moment" found that, "viewers engage in an average of seven different types of social TV activities–online or offline–on at least a weekly basis."

Of these, the most common were: watching TV with others (85%), searching for supplemental content (61%) and viewing TV show clips on social networks (58%). The study found that consumers engaged in social TV activities primarily by communicating, consuming content and checking comments. Viewers commented that they want to feel like they're part of the experience, and having features like check-ins to specific shows, episode teasers, behind the scenes snapshots and extras, and live interaction with the stars and creators will motivate them to be more engaged.



5 Years Later: A Look Back at the Rise of the iPhone by Sarah Radwanick, comScore


Compiled by Barry Blitch



Remember when smartphones weren’t the norm? Of course you do, it was only five years ago. Think back to yesteryear...2007...when the iPhone was first released by Apple. It has since transformed the landscape of the mobile phone industry and arguably leaving a mark as a cultural phenomenon. Chances are, you or someone you know wields an iPhone or a competitor device, seeing how smartphones surpassed feature phones in usage earlier this year.



This article from comScore examines the proliferation of the iPhone, which created the “foundation for the rise of the mobile media consumer.” Five years ago, barely 9 million Americans owned smartphones–now 110 million do. 

Though the early adopters skewed toward younger, wealthier males, today the iPhone has expanded its demographic reach. The iPhone’s iOS (operating system) is currently in a heated rivalry with Android, which is now the most popular in terms of platform. This battle is important in terms of how mobile media consumers receive their digital digest of content.

 


Want to learn more about the mobile landscape? Stay tuned to the SPI blog to see our release of the new mobile deck on the Station Guide, coming soon!

Why Mobile Matters by Steve Mulder and Keith Hopper, PCMag.com 


Compiled by Paul Lopez       



According to PCMag.com, approximately 44 percent of all Americans use smartphones. Having a presence on the mobile platform is essential for any station. With such a huge audience literally at your fingertips, it is important to engage with them in different ways using the mobile platform.



For many public media stations, mobile means one thing: apps. 

We all know mobile is important, and many stations have launched successful 

mobile apps that engage your audience with audio,  news, and more.


But here’s the truth: If your app is the only component of your mobile strategy,  

you’re missing the boat.

Read More on for more insight and information on mobile usage.

Wordless Wednesday: Interactive Summer Picnic

Yesterday, the Interactive Department took a step away from conference rooms and computer screens to enjoy a lunchtime picnic at a nearby park. Ashley Carufel of the PBS Food team brought these adorable, Nutella-stuffed cupcakes. After chowing down on these babies, we burned off our collective sugar high with games of soccer and bocce ball.

PBS SoCaL's Step-by-Step Guide to News Tickers

by Kelsey Savage, PBS Interactive

As the 2012 Election begins to heat up, PBS SoCaL wanted to explore how they could better showcase PBS NewsHour content. They were already promoting streaming of NewsHour live on their website, but were aiming to create better publicity on their homepage. Their online team decided to create a news ticker that features PBS NewsHour headlines, as well as local weather updates.

Jasmine Bulin, Senior Manager of Interactive Media at PBS SoCaL and former PBS Interactive New Media Editor, created the news ticker and says “the code is pretty simple and can be duplicated on just about any websites with some tweaks”. So far, the PBS SoCaL team has noticed that the time spent on their homepage has increased and it took her just a little over an hour to implement the ticker.

#Localpbs can download this ticker or something similar to your station’s homepage. Read through Bulin’s step-by-step process, outlined below, for how she included this ticker on her site.

First I downloaded a free scrolling news ticker built in Javascript by Mio Planet. In addition to some code to place on our website there was also a file to download and place on our server.

Once we had the code and the file on our server we followed the Mio Planet instructions to place static text into the ticker. Then we used an RSS feed parser to output the PBS NewsHour Headlines RSS feed to HTML and replace the static text.

We needed the parser to convert the headlines into a single string of text for the ticker to display them properly. We used AJW Feed Parser for ExpressionEngine to do this effortlessly. In the future we would like to use an aggregator that combines and parses multiple feeds so that we can include our local news or other producers in the ticker.

Since the NewsHour Headlines feed does not include weather, we found an easy solution with a Google Weather plug-in for ExpressionEngine. We placed the code for this in front of the code for the RSS feed in the text area of the Mio Planet ticker.

The last thing we included was a conditional statement that will show “Watch PBS NewsHour Live 3pm-4pm PT” with a link to the live stream of PBS NewsHour on our website as the first message of the ticker between 3pm and 4pm PT. Our code specifically leverages ExpressionEngine conditionals but anyone can create conditionals using JavaScript or php.

Bulin did note that PBS SoCaL "used some tools that are specific to ExpressionEngine because these helped us skip several steps but there are identical tools for other CMS solutions like WordPress. There is also documentation and tools not specific to any CMS for converting RSS to html, the Google Weather API, and conditionals.”

Will your station add this to their website? Do you have any questions about how to implement this? Feel free to leave a comment or two.

PBS Election 2012: Trusted. In-depth. Independent.

By Josie Keller, PBS Interactive

Over the next several months, while commercial broadcasting focuses primarily on breaking election news, PBS will be striving to provide in-depth information on the candidates and issues that will inform voters and help them make an educated choice on Election Day. With November 6th drawing ever closer, I sat down with Andy Halper, Director of Election Coverage, News & Public Affairs, to learn more about #pbsElection programming and tools and see how local stations can get involved in the action.

Andy immediately emphasized, “One of the most important things a local station can do is to provide good election coverage…it’s a great public service.”

This election year, PBS is planning a multi-faceted approach that aims to raise awareness of its election coverage by branding and organizing content across all platforms – on air, online, and on smart phones and tablets. So how can #localPBS stations best leverage PBS’s incredible election content? Andy suggests a dual sided approach that provides local content complementary to the national programming* and makes use of the NewsHour’s Digital Election Tools.

Stations can easily piggyback off of PBS’s marketing efforts by creating local versions of national programming, such as a local spin on Frontline’s “The Choice,” focusing on Mayoral candidates rather than presidential candidates, while simultaneously implementing the digital tools developed by the NewsHour to supplement election coverage.

“PBS has been, and still is, at the forefront of technological change in the industry,” explains Andy, and this election season, PBS NewsHour will play a key role in linking national and local news by fully integrating on-air and online content with a sophisticated push to multiple platforms in new ways. The Digital Election Data Center, an outgrowth of the Digital Map Center, can be used by public media producers, stations, and news consumers, often as a second screen experience. The digital tools are designed so that stations can embed them on their local sites or use them for reporting purposes.

Additionally, Hari Sreenivasan, PBS NewsHour Correspondent & Director of Digital Partnerships, will head up a number of community outreach efforts to encourage a diverse audience to engage with that content. These efforts include Listen to Me, a YouTube-based project soliciting one-minute videos about what’s really bothering people this election year. These videos will be incorporated into the political and economic data that undergird the interactive Map Center. Stations will also have the opportunity to use these videos to animate and illustrate the stories they are working on locally. NewsHour is currently working to enlist interested stations, as well as a number of blogs and public media consortia that appeal to specific audiences, to encourage non-traditional users to participate. Check back for a follow up blog post on the project and how your station can get involved.

Still not sure how your station should best navigate #pbsElection coverage? Search connect.pbs.org for “Forum Post: Local Election Plans” to see what other stations have planned.

*For a full list of national #pbsElection programming, go to connect.pbs.org, click “Systemwide Announcements”, and filter by Subject: “PBS Election Coverage 2012.”