Month: March 2014

Livecasting: WatchESPN

As a sports fan, I want to be able to watch as many sports as possible and as much as possible. The problem is TV an only show a certain amount of games at once and a lot of the times they aren’t the games I want to see.

Livecasting

Livecasting is all about creating live content that uses the Internet to distribute or stream that content. As it is known today, Livecasting was made possible by the evolution of smaller, lighter and more energy-efficient hardware, which included more portable computers and greater wireless connections.

Watch ESPN

Accessing live sports and shows from ESPN is now easier than ever for all sports fans with WatchESPN app. WatchESPN brings you 24/7 live programming from your favorite ESPN networks on your computer, smart phone, tablet, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Apple TV and Roku.

Livecasting Networks

ESPN Networks:

  • ESPN
  • ESPN2
  • ESPN3
  • ESPNU
  • ESPNews
  • ESPN Deportes
  • Buzzer Beater

Live Events:

  • NBA regular Seasons/Playoffs
  • The Masters, U.S. Open, The Open Championship
  • College Football/Basketball

 

ESPN Shows

  • SportsCenter
  • PTI
  • Mike and Mike In the Morning
  • SportsNation
  • ESPN Original Studio Shows

History of WatchESPN

On October 25, 2010, Time Warner Cable became the first cable television provider to offer subscribers to ESPN access to a simulcast of the channel through the a website called “ESPN Networks.”On November 22, 2010, Bright House Networks became ESPN Networks second simulcast video provider. Simulcasts of ESPN2, ESPNU ESPN Goal Line, and ESPN Buzzer Beater were added to the ESPN Networks website on January 25, 2011 for subscribers to those channels. Verizon FiOS TV customers began receiving access to simulcasts on the ESPN Networks website on February 17, 2011.A mobile app called WatchESPN, was launched through the App Store (iOS) on April 7, 2011, and the Android Market (now Google Play) on May 9, 2011 allowing subscribers to watch simulcasts of channels based on their subscription.On August 31, 2011, the ESPN Networks website was rebranded as WatchESPN to mirror the mobile app’s name.On May 8, 2012, Comcast added simulcast service for Xfinity TV customers on WatchESPN.

Vine: VidSharing

Another new and upcoming application and video sharing website is Vine. Vine is a mobile app owned by Twitter that enables its users to create and post short looping video clips. Video clips created with Vine have a maximum clip length of six seconds and can be shared to Vine’s social network, or to other services such as Twitter
History
Vine was founded by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll in June 2012. The company was acquired by Twitter in October 2012 for a reported $30 million. Vine debuted on January 24, 2013 as a free iOS app on the app store. On June 2, 2013, Vine for Android was made available as a free app on Google Play.
In a couple of months, Vine became the most used video-sharing application in the market, even with low adoption of the app. On April 9, 2013, Vine became the most-downloaded free app within the iOS App Store.
What is Vine?
Vine is a video-sharing app, but it’s not just any video-sharing app. It’s designed in a way for you to film short, separate instances so they can be linked together for a total of six seconds. Each short video plays in a continuous loop, and are viewable directly in Twitter’s timeline or embedded into a web page.
The look and feel of the app is similar to Instagram, showing you a scrollable feed of all your friends’ vines on the homescreen. You also have your own profile page, which you can customize later after signing up. Vine takes most of your information from Twitter, including name, photo, bio and transfers it to your new Vine account when you sign up.
Vines Best Aspect
Vine gives each user and account something that no other app provides, sharing and liking other peoples videos randomly.
Since it’s still quite new, Vine lacks a lot of features that other apps have, but still offers the basics to make it a mobile social network. There’s an Explore tab, which gives you a list of channel categories to check out. You can browse through the “Editor’s Picks” and the “Popular Now” section to help you quickly find some of the best vines, or you can tap any of the channel icons below to look for specific vines.

YouTube: VidSharing

Video sharing is the easiest and fastest way to start building your social media portfolio. Great examples on vlogging are sites like Vine and YouTube.
The Creation
YouTube was created on February 14, 2005 when three former PayPal employees activated the Internet domain name “YouTube.com” and started to create a video-sharing website on which users could upload, share, and view videos.
The Growth
During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest growing sites on the Web uploading more than 65,000 new videos and delivering 100 million video views per day and out-growing MySpace. And in June 2006, YouTube entered into marketing and advertising partnership with NBC which then completely blew-up the company and grew incredibly.
Purchased by Google
On October 9, 2006, it was announced that Google would purchase YouTube for US$1.65 billion in stock. The purchase agreement between Google and YouTube came after YouTube presented three agreements with media companies in an attempt to escape the threat of copyright-infringement lawsuits. The deal to acquire YouTube closed on November 13, and was, at the time, Google’s second largest acquisition.
More Growth
YouTube has become so popular and huge that the site has its own awards called “YouTube Awards” that were established in 2007. On July 23, 2007 and November 28, 2007, CNN and YouTube produced televised presidential debates in which Democratic and Republican US presidential hopefuls fielded questions submitted through YouTube.
The growth of this company is still one of the largest in the world. Continuing its growth, in November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS, allowing the companies to post full-length films and television episodes on the site, accompanied by advertisements in a section for US viewers called “Shows”. The move was intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney.
Most Recent
On March 21, 2013, the number of unique users visiting YouTube every month reached 1 billion and in 2013, YouTube continued to reach out to mainstream media, launching YouTube Comedy Week and the YouTube Music Awards.
Conclusion
From a college student always looking for new things to discover, if I am ever looking for something new or how to do something, the first thing I do is enter Youtube,com into my search box and I always get what I need.

Colgate University’s Genius Plan

Like chapter 21 of the Social Media Bible states many times, athletes or colleges need to know when and what to tweet to not get in trouble. Colgate University has done a tremendous job of just that.
“Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.” That was Ohio State University third-string quarterback Cardale Jones tweet last fall. Presumably, somebody in the Buckeye athletics department caught wind of the tweet and ordered its deletion, but not before it was immortalized in screenshots and chastised by commentators. Jones’s Twitter account was closed and he was suspended for a game.

  • The Plan

Focusing on the negative clearly only goes so far which is why Colgate University officials are actually encouraging their athletes to use social media often, with a focus on what should be said as opposed to what shouldn’t be.
“Saying ‘don’t use it’ is not going to work,” said Matt Hames, manager of media communications at Colgate. “The really scary thing to a lot of people is now a 17-year-old kid has a device in their hand where they can say anything at any time. You just nudge them in a direction where they think about it a different way.”

  • The Alternative

Instead of tweeting negative things about classes or teachers or games, an athlete might highlight his favorite course or professor, an interesting thing he would like to learn or even a career aspiration.
This is an incredible way to teach minor celebrities a way to be smart with social media and actually gain followers and loyal fans. If you are always tweeting positive thoughts, people will love you especially if you are a college student. A negative tweet could be a loss of a scholarship or even worse, expulsion.
A great way to help yourself is to set a goal make everything you tweet, post, Link In or Instagram reflect that goal. Maybe it’s hard for an athlete to be drafted by a pro team or recruited by a business, or to secure an internship or promote your image in hopes of nabbing a national media feature. Point is, it’s your/their brand, and you/they control it.

Changing the Social Media Mind-Set Challenge

Chapter 21 of the Social Media Bible talks about reputations and changing your mindset to become a professional. When using social media, you have to change one thing.

Overall, we have to realize there is a different mind-set when using social media. Not all uses intuitive, especially when we’ve had two or three decades of doing things differently and having success without new ways. Some techniques are the same and some are different. The key to your success is knowing the difference.

In case of many athletes today, they do not know the difference and therefore pay the price.

There are many examples of athletes not knowing the difference between behaving and being a smart user of social media and those that misbehave.

  • Nyjer Morgan

The first is former MLB player Nyjer Morgan. Morgan tweeted a barrage of remorseful messages to his followers claiming he had cheated on his ex-girlfriend. The tweets included the lines “I did something horrible today nation” and “I’m just a cheater.” Morgan’s “About Me” Twitter information was also changed to “this is dedicated to my x girlfriend I cheated on and left in the streets this page was changed by me.”

  • Cardale Jones

Another great example is of Ohio State University football player Cardale Jones. Jones tweeted “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.” This is a prime example as to how Jones did not make accept the social media challenge and has acted immature as a minor celebrity.

  • Darnell Dockett

Darnell Dockett of the Arizona Cardinals has also been caught on Twitter misbehaving and not changing his mindset. When the play on the field in the BCS title game between Alabama and Notre Dame became inevitable, television cameras panned to the attractive girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron in hopes of keeping viewers interested. Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, sent Webb tweets asking McCarron’s (Alabama starting quarterback) girlfriend if she would like to accompany him for chicken wings and a trip to a gentleman’s club. This is clearly inappropriate and horrible for fans to see.

Reputation Management in Sports

Your reputation as a professional and as a professional athlete is just as important as you winning the game or making money. If an athlete’s reputation is down or he does something to hurt his reputation multiple things will happen. For one, people and fans wont like you and secondly, other teams and players and coaches might begin to dislike you and that could lead to not playing sports anymore.

  • What is reputation management?

In chapter 25 in The Social Media Bible, it talks about reputation management and how it is important to oneself. If someone says something negative about you, don’t you want to know about it? Unlike conventional media, it’s okay to engage. Most of the time the author of the negative press is only looking for engagement.

  • What’s the Rule?

Rule number one: always take the high road. Never condescend, get angry, and respond inappropriately with bad language or attacking the author. They have the right to say what they want, even if it is idiotic or hurtful.
Carmelo Anthony learned that the hard way. Anthony is a professional basketball player with his own brand and he tweeted last season:
• “Happy New Years Eve! Start the year off right with a pair of pre-release M10s.” He wanted people to buy his newly released shoe.
• A fan or Anthony’s tweeted back at him: “@carmeloanthony how about you win a ring you ___ kill me man rooting for you all the ___ time you always disappoint me.”
• Anthony responded with:”@__Kingsleyy5 I didn’t ask for your glazed donut face ass to root for me anyway!!!!”
This goes to show that eve athletes, who get criticized everyday of their lives, cannot even prevent themselves from responding to the negativity about them sometimes.
Professionals and businesses should retweet good tweets and disarm bad ones. They need to use the opportunity to drive customers away from having bad conversations on Twitter and drive them instead to a blog or positive page.
The last tip that the Social Media Bible gives is to never delete a bad comment on your blog. If it used inappropriately, then delete it but if it hurts your feelings, address it.