When thinking about fusing video and social media, YouTube is normally the first thing that pops into your head, and with good reason. The site offers original content (see Afro ninja) along with full movies that have made their way online. Facebook, however, seems to be emerging as a possible new launch site for videos and could be a better option in the future when compared to YouTube.

Just this week, Absolut Vodka jumped on the bandwagon by teaming up with Jay-Z for a documentary about the rapper that was set to debut on Absolut’s fan page. The price for admission was becoming a fan of Abolut Vodka on Facebook and, of course, your friends seeing that you have become a fan of an alcohol brand on a social media site.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=340070081191&index=1

The embodiment of a true social screening comes in the documentary “Earth Days”. The film documents the American environmental movement from the 1950′s to the first Earth Day in 1970. After making the rounds at the Sundance Film Festival, it will debut on Facebook on April 11, 2010. The date of the film’s release also happens to be 11 days before Earth Day. In those 11 days, you could choose to spread your new found earth saving knowledge via social media. Unlike the Absolut/Jay-Z, where there’s more pointless promotion than social media, “Earth Days” executive producer Mark Samels and director Robert Stone will be interacting with users while the film takes place. Participating in the discussion will be as simple as posting a question on the wall.

Also with “Earth Days” debut on Facebook, there is hope it will bring in traffic to PBS. On April 19th, PBS will present the film on their television channel. PBS hopes that the buzz from the Facebook viewing will trickle down and help the network boost viewership. Imagine that – social media helping to bring viewers to a  television channel. Who would’ve ever thunk it?

In the end, “Earth Days” is nowhere close to being a ground breaking, awe inspiring film and, for the most part, it focuses on a lesser known holiday. But these  social screenings could be a step in the right direction by mixing community and multimedia.  Music videos, movies, and video game trailers could use Facebook as a tool to get instant feedback while allowing users to interact with producers and content developers on a less daunting level. Research from Chitika shows about 9% of users on Facebook gravitate towards entertainment while on the site, andvif social screenings start to catch on, those numbers will rise indefinitely. Keep your fingers crossed.

Brooklyn, New York is a borough that marches to the beat of its own drummer. It’s a musical mix-tape microcosm in its own right with talent always seeping from the seams and, thanks to Joe Revitte, its streets. His lone dollar van is just one in a herd of dozens,  but there is one little difference. As  it makes its way over pot holes and through traffic lights, music artists inside pour their souls out to a film crew, complete with hidden microphones, and the occasional passenger. This is Dollar Van Demos, the brainchild of Joe Revitte and his wife, Iara.

Here I talk to Joe Revitte about Dollar Van Demo’s and the impact social media has had on the production.

SR: For those who don’t know, explain what a dollar van is and how you work with them.

JR:  Dollar Vans provide cheap transportation ($2) to areas under served by public transportation.  They’re basically commuter vans operated by mostly Caribbean immigrants (especially from Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago, but also from several countries in Africa). Since the bus service is slow and the subway reaches only a half-way distance, the dollar vans help transport several thousand passengers per day between their homes to their jobs, shopping, and school.  The vans run only on one route but can stop or pick up riders on any corner. We run with a van on Flatbush Avenue (basically Brooklyn’s “Main Street”) and the dollar vans can be found on other main thoroughfares in Brooklyn and in Queens. We work with a van operated by Black Street Van Lines owned by Winston “Youngblood” Williams, whose company’s vans are legal, insured, and permitted by the Taxi & Limo Commission (TLC) of New York City.  The vans have a deserved reputation of driving at top legal speed, packing the seats full of passengers and pumping great reggae, hip-hop, and soca music from their speakers.

Next to YouTube, what would be your favorite social media site and why?

It’s hard to say, but I like how MySpace allows musicians to completely customize their pages with all of their images and music, I like how Facebook offers smart organization of connections and messages, and I like how Twitter allows instantaneous communication.  We consider every social network to be important to our ever-growing network of connections. One thing I’m really proud of and have a lot of fun doing is re-tweeting and communicating directly with Dollar Van riders on Twitter since some of the messages they send are uniquely hilarious (see our Twitter feed for proof).

How do you go about building such a great fan base on your social media sites?

By working really hard and continuing every moment to work even harder.  We basically make sure we’re continuously contributing to “the feedback loop” where if someone connects to us, leaves a comment, etc. we try to reciprocate with a short, positive reply.

McDonald’s recently borrowed your idea, how did that happen?

After this guy subscribed to our YouTube channel in November, I sent him a message via YouTube thanking him for supporting our channel. He was gob smocked that someone would be thanking a subscriber in such a way and he revealed that he worked for a Chicago advertising agency. He said his client, McDonald’s, was about to launch their new “Dollar Menu at Breakfast” and asked us to collaborate with them. We licensed our concept for two commercials that starting airing nationwide in January starring Joya Bravo and Wordspit. This is proof of the amazing connectivity of the Internet!  The “behind the scenes” footage and the spot starring Joya Bravo can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, okay, not really World Domination, but be assured that dominating the Internet has probably been brought up in meetings between  Zuckerberg and crew at Facebook. comScore just released the latest Media Metrix rankings for the Top 50 U.S. Web Properties, and Facebook jumped from the 16th most popular site in July, 2008 to number 5 in July, 2009, displacing Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Interactive, owners of  struggling MySpace.

The top four slots in 2008 and 2009 were occupied by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL.

Top 10 U.S. Sites, July 2009, as ranked by comScore

Read the rest of this entry »