What is Visible Measures? Measuring the Popularity of Videos on the Web

What is Visible Measures? Measuring the Popularity of Videos on the Web

I teach several different marketing and advertising college courses.  It can be a challenge to keep up with all of the different social media advertising trends.  Companies want to be able to know that their message is being seen.  One way to find out if your message is being picked up is through a company called Visible Measures.  Visible Measures is the independent third-party measurement firm for Internet video publishers, advertisers, and viral marketers. According to Forbes , “Visible Measures is a New York firm that counts the popularity of videos on the growing list of sites hosting them, of which YouTube continues to be the most important.”

On their site you can sign up to receive free public beta for trends and track the hottest viral videos on the web.  Once you sign up, you can chose a category such as media, dining, etc. You can also refine your search by agency, brand and even get specific about things like humor, reality, spoof, etc.  It will then generate a list of the top videos based on your parameters based on the dates your select.  I picked media for the week of September 6 and one of the top videos it picked up was YouTube Turns Five . . .see below.

Do you want to know the top 10 ad campaigns, top 10 film trailers, top 10 webisodes or those in 100 million view club?  They have the charts.  They have a paid program you can sign up for to find out even more detailed information.  Are you interested in following the Old Spice campaign?  You can type in Old Spice into their search bar and it will pull up a list of their videos, show their rank and their reach. 

To keep up with what Visible Measures has to offer, you can sign up for their blog by clicking here.

5 Useful Sites For Help With WordPress

Collection of WordPress statistics:  http://en.wordpress.com/stats/

WordPress TV visual resources for all things WordPress: http://wordpress.tv/

Video press – Upload and share videos on WordPress – converts your video into multiple formats:  http://videopress.com/?ref=wpcom

WordPress beginners guide: http://www.wpbeginner.com/category/beginners-guide/

How to create a slide show in WordPress: http://wordpress.tv/2010/04/14/using-slideshows-on-wordpress-com/

E-Textbooks and Ipad

In a previous blog, I wrote about e-books vs. traditional books. I personally have been happy with using an Ipad to view books and texts.  I guess I am not the only one.  Cost is still going to be an issue though for many. Check out the following from an NPR.org article:

For a few years now, people have been expecting electronic textbooks to take off in a big way: They’re cheaper than traditional textbooks, easier to carry around in a backpack, and seem like a natural progression for students who have grown up playing and working with digital devices.

Despite all that, traditional textbooks have prevailed — until now. The game changer, according to Matt MacInnis, may be a little thing called the iPad.

MacInnis is the founder and CEO of Inkling, a company that designs textbook software for the iPad. He says the iPad has allowed for the reinvention of the textbook.

Can Spell Check Make Things Worse? The M…

Can Spell Check Make Things Worse? The Most Misspelled Words wonderful info. Never took time to think about using spell check like that. Thanks for the great info.

Can Spell Check Make Things Worse? The Most Misspelled Words

Today’s Ask Dr. Diane:  What are some of the mostly commonly misspelled words?
I post a lot of information about spelling and grammar for my students.  There are certain words that many people tend to misspell.  For a list of the top 100 misspelled words, click here.  I often ask students to quiz their family and friends to see how they do with some of the more commonly misspelled words . . . For fun, ask people to spell the following words that seem pretty simple and basic to see how well they do.  I think you’ll be surprised at how many times people misspell these:

Calendar

Embarrass

Questionnaire

Accommodate

Definitely

I think a lot of students tend to rely heavily on the spell check function.  The problem is, if you don’t really have a good idea of how the word you are looking for is spelled in the first place, spell check may offer solutions that are not even close to the word you had intended.  I often have students send me an email saying something like, “I apologize for the incontinence.”  I kind of think they were looking for the word inconvenience .  .  . but I guess you never know.

For some extra tips on improving your spelling, check out an article by powa.org by clicking here.  Here are some tips from that article that may be helpful to you:

Suggestions for Spelling Improvement

1. Don’t look words up while you’re composing. Wait until your thought-flow runs its course. As you write, highlight or mark any words you aren’t absolutely sure about. Then later when editing, your attention will go right to these words and you can look them up all at once without interrupting and losing track of your thoughts. By looking up words later, you also can concentrate on learning to spell them correctly so you won’t have to look them up again. You might even consider keeping a list of Target Words to concentrate on.

2. Every time you write a word ask yourself whether you know how to spell it. There are only two possible answers to this question: yes and no. Maybe, probably, and I think so all count as no. If the answer is yes, keep on writing, but if the answer is no, mark the word to look up. Most spelling errors come not on words like “cataclysmic,” which you know you need to look up, but on words like “front,” where you think the odds are with you.

3. Notice what part of the word you’ve spelled wrong. Hardly ever do you spell a whole word wrong. Usually one or two letters need to be changed. Find the trouble spot by comparing the dictionary version with the version you’ve already written down. Sometimes a memory prod will help you get those letters right next time. For example, you might learn to spell “environment” by remembering that it has the word “iron” in it.

4. Watch out for words that sound like other ones. Here the problem isn’t so much spelling as using the wrong word, as when someone says, “I don’t care weather it rains.” Besides “whether” and “weather,” some other frequently confused words are listed below. These words are especially treacherous because computer spell-checkers won’t pick them up.

a — an — and
our — hour — are
accept — except
personal — personnel
cite — site — sight
quiet — quite — quit
cloths — clothes
roll — role
desert — dessert
soul — sole
do — due
than — then
led — lead
there — their — they’re
loose — lose
to — too — two
moral — morale
wear — where — were
new — knew
who’s — whose
no — know
your — you’re
past — passed