Using Twitter For Video Syndication

Something that I have noticed recently is that Twitter is quickly becoming a platform for video syndication.

Why is that? Well I have been working on a series on screencasting, and in the course of my research I have found half a dozen websites which make screencasts directly for syndication on Twitter. I introduced one of these sites here.

Twitter, if you are familiar with the social networking service, is basically a public log of you answering the all important question: “What Am I Doing?” I have heard it best described as a gigantic cocktail party where you can browse through dozens of conversations and choose to add your input here and there, and connecting with people “for lunch the next day” where you can have a more in depth conversation.

The conversations on Twitter do not get all that deep because of the limit of 140 characters, but it is common practice to start the conversation on Twitter and then take it elsewhere, to a blog, a chatroom, IM, forums, facebook, and now video.

Sharing video through Twitter provides a unique interface for broadcasting your videos because of the time-relevant nature of Twitter.

Here is a scenario which might make sense to you:

You see a news-worthy event in action. Thinking quickly, you whip out your telephone and start video recording the event. Using your phone’s software you upload the video to Youtube which then, if you have it setup, turns around and pings your following on Twitter about the new video. You have just reported on this event without even touching a computer!

Another interesting scenario would be something like:

You are a small HVAC company, you know that people are often negligent in getting their HVAC units maintained so when you run across a particularly bad one, you take a quick video with a flip camera, pointing out everything that went wrong and how they could have avoided it with a little maintenance. You then upload that video to Twitter later, pinging your following, and starting a conversation. This becomes the launching board for a conversation on HVAC maintenance and a way to sell more of your services to prospective and former clients.

One final scenario which this could have an impact on:

You see a Tweet on Twitter which you’d like to reply to but no matter how hard you try, you just don’t know how to condense your response into a 140 character statement. So, instead of writing up a blog post and giving them a link (because people often won’t read through a blog post if they don’t feel like it) you take a quick video with your webcam with your feedback and then link them to the video. This is a way to keep the conversation around Twitter without really dragging people away to your blog, or someplace else where they may be less inclined to follow.

But these are just a few of dozens of situations where a video shared on Twitter could be VERY useful.

Screenr.com which I have mentioned already is a wonderful way to record a quick message without having to get in front of the camera, but you could also rig up Youtube to automatically share your videos on Twitter.

Another interesting website which I have happened on recently is one called TwitVid which is a quick and easy way to share videos through Twitter. unlike Screenr.com you can easily upload videos to TwitVid and you can also record live from a webcam. So it makes a nice compliment to recording screencasts at Screenr.

These integrated services give you a quick way to push your videos out to your Twitter following.

Do you use Twitter? Have you ever tried pushing video out to your following? I would love to hear if you have experimented with that at all and what the results have been. I am planning to syndicate a lot of videos through Twitter as I produce for this blog and so I am going to be doing a lot of experimenting myself. Hit me up in the comments and lets get a discussion going .

God Bless,
-Dan