The panel was a good mix of speakers. A YouTube rep showed off some lesser known YouTube features valuable to those that manage a YouTube partner channel and social media campaigns. Blue State Digital showed off a pro bono project that leverages user-generated video and YouTube for itgetsbetter.org. National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) offered lessons learned about successful social media video campaigns. One interesting tip was that no matter how emotionally charged an issue may be, sad videos don’t do well in terms of going viral. NRDC showed a video they produced, that I would say prompts angers instead of sadness, and it is one of their most successful in terms of being shared and inspiring action. The best performers, however, are funny videos, thank goodness. I can only handle so many angry activists.

The presenter I found most valuable was Kay Morrison, a senior advisor in the office of web communications at the Environmental Protection Agency. Oh, and she’s also the liason between the Federal government and YouTube or maybe it’s Google. Regardless, that’s pretty huge. Ms. Morrison was the repository of info that every agency needs before plunging into social media, specifically YouTube.

What the other presenters never touched on was the unique challenges of creating content on behalf of the Federal government. They made everything seem so easy because they’re just creating and posting and accepting user-created video and collecting personal information and doing all these things that Federal agencies either can’t do or are afraid to do or are not sure they can do. Reasons or excuses for inaction, no doubt. Enter Ms. Morrison who had answers for all of it. Turns out there is a specific addendum to the YouTube terms of service specifically for Federal agencies that she can get for you. She also has vetted disclaimer language, privacy statements, and even terms of use for how the public can interact with a Federal social media site. For example, I asked Ms. Morrison about moderating comments. Can a Federal agency refuse to post my comment, what with the first ammendment and all? She says yes, and I don’t believe she was off the cuff with that answer. In her words, the agency can choose to not publish a comment, but they would never censor a comment and then post it. And that to me was worth the price of admission right there (that price happened to be zero, but you get me, right?). I’ve heard numerous Federal clients shy away from social anything  just because they didn’t know how to deal with wild/hateful/off-topic comments.

It’s so exciting to see certain agencies, and super stars at those agencies like Ms. Morrison, working to break down barriers that might keep the Federal government from leveraging social media as quickly, or as effectively, as for- and non-profit organizations. The wider the lines of communication between government and the people, the more likely we can truly have government by the people.

Oh, one last, awesome, tip agreed upon by the whole panel and audience. If you are a Federal agency producing a video, do NOT put a senior leader in front of a flag and agency seal and let them read a prompter for eight minutes. Not even two minutes. Just don’t do it. What kind of video would YOU like to watch? What kind of video would your audience and their friends like to watch? Let’s start there.

What compels someone to construct a list like that? Considering the many companies and services mentioned, I’m hopeful makeuseof.com has not become a PR shill. So why? And why would those 40 make this list? Call it coincidence, but Seth Godin wrote a short post yesterday that hits on the topic. Is makeuseof.com an Official Influencer? Were they targeted by marketers? Likely not. With the barrage of Web applications that seem to pour onto the Internet every day, one magical thing still makes them boom or not…and it’s called “do I give a crap about what it does?” As Seth wrote:

…the most effective technique [for viral campaigns] is making stuff worth talking about in the first place. True viral marketing happens not when the marketer plans for it or targets bloggers or skateboarders or pirates with goatees, but when the item/service/event is worth talking about.

Customers, users, visitors, chumps. Call us what you will, but it’s we humans that matter, not what the application does. Make a product worth using, worth talking about, and you just may be on to something. You can try all day to make it viral, to be on as many lists as you can worm your way onto, but if Your Thing does nothing I need, ciao, baby.

I’m interested to see if this marriage between Internet video and broadcast TV will last. It looks like it has potential. One of the more interesting viral segments asks people to submit videos for inclusion in the show. The concept is to put in three words how your week has gone. The first round got my attention.

I enjoyed this idea so much I had to submit my own. Here’s hoping I make the cut next week!

That’s confidence, right? This stuff is so good you just taste it and you’ll want to buy it.

You know what I love about the food court sample? It’s always there. Sometimes on a busy day I just walk back and forth grabbing toothpick after toothpick. Score!

Think they notice it’s me over and over? Think they care? Listen, the chicken is cooked anyway, someone’s got to eat it.

When the day comes that I’m hungry enough, I’ll buy a meal. In the meantime I tell hungry friends to go eat there—ooh, did someone say viral marketing?

And now is when I compare ginger chicken to Web applications.

I just finished an online whiteboard collaboration with my team that works 80 miles away from me, and it was fantastic. “Oh, WebEx,” you say. “Maybe MS LiveMeeting or Adobe Connect.” Nope. Check out vYew, a FREE online collaboration and conferencing tool. It rocks.

Their model is much like the ginger-chicken-on-a-toothpick model (as taught at Wharton). After a simple registration, I get a taste of the chicken, not the whole bird. But I can return again and again whenever I need it. No trial expiration, no watermarked examples.

Much like the generous folks at 37 Signals, which offers up free online tools like Campfire (group chat) and Basecamp (project management), vYew is giving away their product to folks who need just a little bit. Currently, I may only need to use this online collaboration tool a few times a year, but now that the sample hooked me, it means two things:

1. If I need more (more pages, file uploads, etc.) I will become a paying customer to them as opposed to one of the other players
2. I’m telling other people (you) about them

Great product. Great model.