Open APIs (application program interfaces) seem too technical to be truly important. Yet, for communicators they can create a whole new world of opportunity.
The recent trend of social media organizations such as Facebook opening their APIs to outside programmers means popular web apps -- including video -- can now reach members of these communities. Miller TV is a great example.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., recently launched his own video blog to Facebook members through a customized service developed by SplashCast. This makes the congressman’s video channel available to anyone in the Facebook community, and enables Facebook users to embed it on their profile pages.
Miller now has direct access to members of a vast, red-hot online community, where opinions spread like wildfire at the click of a mouse.
But there’s more. Miller also has created a virtual dialogue across all layers of the Web by using the tag "askgeorge." Citizens can videotape questions to the congressman and upload them to YouTube, SplashCast, BlipTV or Google Video, as well as post them on blogs. Miller's team simply captures the questions by searching for the tag.
Miller, who states on his website that he’d like to use Miller TV to “hold a running virtual town hall meeting on the war in Iraq,†has found a pretty ingenious way to do just that -- leveraging online communities and the growing power of Web 2.0 to communicate with his constituents and the public at large.
Professionals in other fields could easily follow suit.
Technorati Tags: george miller, miller tv, video, facebook, askgeorge, web 2.0
You Are Exactly Right
Hey, thanks for writing about Miller TV! Rep. Miller got it just right. He is using tags to reach across multiple platforms. He is making it easy for the customer to engage. That's the key! We're building out lots of Facebook apps. Rep. Miller is a great model that we point to all the time simply because it leverages the Facebook network and promotes the campaign across different channels.
Thanks for the feedback
Great comment, thanks for adding it. I'm looking forward to seeing more from SplashCast, and watching Facebook evolve.
The Facbook audience is 26.6 million strong, and not just young
Just in case anybody still thinks that Web 2.0 sites like Facebook might be only for young people, check out this data from a July 5th MediaWeek article : "Close to 40 percent of Facebook’s audience, or 10.4 million uniques is now 35 and over. That’s nearly 3 million more users than the 7.8 million 18-24 years olds that frequent the site."
And in case anybody's wondering just how big the audience is that Congressman Miller could potentially reach through Facebook, here's more from the same article: "The social networking site – which until last September was restricted to students - saw its unique user base soar to 26.6 million users as of May 2007, up a hefty 89 percent year over year and more than double the 14 million users the site claimed prior to the lifting of all registration restraints..."