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How to create GIFs of live events in seconds. Creating high quality GIFs in seconds is a great way to make live video shareable on Twitter, but many people don’t know how to do it. A perfect example of when this might be useful is for when events are unfolding live; be it a police chase, the State of the Union or a gadget unveiling.

By being able to stream a video and quickly create GIFs from that video, it means there’s a shareable moment that others can join in with. By creating GIFs as the llama chase unfolded, it let everyone participate in the live stream and re-share the best parts with their friends. Creating these GIFs is actually shockingly easy for OS X users through a free a piece of software called GIFGrabber. This lightweight app provides a target zone for your captures and makes it as easy as resizing that zone and hitting ‘capture’ to grab a high-quality GIF. When you’re watching a live stream or video, you just need to position it over the top of what you’re watching and keep your trigger finger ready for capturing.

Xiaomi And Shunwei Capital Make $300M Strategic Investment In iQiyi, One Of China’s Largest Online Video Platforms. Xiaomi, which announced earlier this month that it plans to invest $1 billion in online video content, has been very busy spending that money. The hardware maker confirmed today that it and Shunwei Capital have together made a $300 million strategic investment in iQiyi, the video platform that is majority-owned by Baidu, China’s largest search company. Xiaomi said that this is its largest investment to date. Baidu also said that it had increased its investment in iQiyi, though it did not specify the amount. The investment follows Xiaomi’s strategic partnership earlier this month with Youku-Tudou, the value of which was undisclosed. For Xiaomi, partnering with iQiyi, which like Youku-Tudou is one of China’s largest online video platforms, means that it will have more content to provide as it tries to entice more users into its multi-screen ecosystem of mobile devices and smart televisions.

In terms of hardware, however, Xiaomi still has plenty of rivals. WhereToWatch Helps You Find TV Shows and Movies to Stream Legally. Hollywood’s industry body organization, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has launched a platform designed to highlight the ease of finding and viewing content legally online. WhereToWatch, along with a number of alternatives like CanIStreamIt, provides an easy way to find out if the movie or TV show you want to view is available to stream or purchase (download) online. Using it is easy, you can just search for a specific title or peruse by show/movie by categories including ‘Most Popular’, ‘Coming Soon’ and ‘Now Playing’. In addition, the site also offers some behind-the-scenes footage thanks to content from thecredits.org, and also serves up movie trailers from YouTube. However, while the platform returns results from on-demand and streaming services, it doesn’t include TV listings where the shows might also be playing.

It’s also, obviously, of most use to people in the US, as availability of shows on each service varies according to different countries. Evernote Raises $20M From Japanese Media Giant Nikkei, Forms Content Partnership For Evernote Context. Evernote announced today that it has raised $20 million in new capital from Nikkei, the Japanese media conglomerate that publishes the influential financial newspaper Nikkei, as well English-language Nikkei Asian Review. In addition, the Nikkei will also start feeding articles into Evernote’s Context feature, which launched last month. Context brings information from third-party sources into the app so users can read news articles and other content alongside their own documents and notes. Nikkei is the first international news source that has been integrated into Evernote Context and the partnership is expected to become available to Evernote Premium and Evernote Business subscribers by early 2015.

Evernote Context looks at data in your files and feeds you news articles and other information that it thinks you will find relevent. Evernote’s partnership with Nikkei is also interesting because it’s a reminder that a good portion of its international user base comes from Japan. 5 Demand Generation Best Practices for E-Books and Guides. B2B marketers know that online audiences are driven by two motivations: (1) a strong desire to learn and (2) a desire to generate results for their companies. That’s why business leaders are investing so heavily in content development as a key demand generation best practice — to bridge the gap between customer education and sales.

According to one report from the Content Marketing Institute, 93 percent of B2B marketers are investing in demand gen resources like infographics, blog posts, whitepapers, and even videos. What’s happening, as a result of this rapid proliferation of content, however, is an overload of information, with B2B audiences feeling overwhelmed with more resources than they can possibly consume. The smartest marketers are skeptical about their efforts — suspecting that their content programs are falling short in generating real results. 1.

The challenge that many marketers face is that they’re targeting the wrong stages of the conversion funnel. 2. 3. 4. 5. Xiaomi To Invest $1B In Online Video Content. Xiaomi just announced on its official Weibo account that it plans to invest $1 billion in online video content to support its smart television ecosystem. The investment will be overseen by two Xiaomi executives who have considerable experience building online content. They are Chen Tong, the former editor-in-chief of news portal Sina.com, who Xiaomi hired away last month, and Wang Chuan, the director for Xiaomi’s smart TV products, including the Mi TV and Mi Box. Before becoming a co-founder and vice president of Xiaomi, Wang founded Beijing Doukan Technology in 2010, which develops reading and video apps, including the Doukan online bookstore, which Xiaomi acquired in 2012.

Xiaomi’s smart TVs, which first launched in September 2013, are part of its plan to create a hardware ecosystem around MIUI, its Android skin, which syncs between its smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and smart wi-fi routers. At stake is China’s rapidly growing smart TV market. Google Acquires mDialog To Improve DoubleClick’s Video Advertising. Google Launches New Platform to Connect Businesses With Customers. Google wants to create a better business directory and, this time, they mean business. On Thursday the tech giant launched Google My Business, a one-stop way for merchants to manage their presence on a variety of the company's properties including search, maps and Google+.

Business owners that had been using Places for Business or Google+ will be transitioned to the new platform. There is also an Android app that can be used to manage business information and respond to customer reviews. "The Internet is connecting more businesses with their people every day. However, our users tell us that finding these loyal customers can be complex and time-consuming. We believe it shouldn’t be," Google posted in a blog entry. Google lauds the program as a way for businesses to better understand their customers and cater to their needs.

The program is a simple way for Google to compile accurate business information that its various properties can then use to improve its other properties. Relationship Marketing: How to Secure Guests Who Become Allies. Do you want to grow better relationships with market influencers? Are you wondering if interviewing people can help your business? To learn how interviewing people can help build power relationships for your business, I interview John Lee Dumas for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner. It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting). In this episode, I interview John Lee Dumas, author of the book Podcast Launch and host of the EntrepreneurOnFire podcast—a top-ranked business podcast. John shares how he got started with his podcast, how he attracts so many top guests and why he chose his format and niche. You’ll discover the benefits that come from the relationships you build through podcasts before, during and after the show is released.

Listen Now Here’s how: 1. The Metric of More: Why You Shouldn't Just Focus On Growth. Paul Jarvis is a Web designer and bestselling author. His upcoming book, The Good Creative, explores 18 traits of the world’s most interesting and respected creative professionals. Say you look at your stats and see you received a single visitor to your website today. Awful, right? Maybe you didn’t write that good of a post, you’d think. For most creatives (even those of us who don’t have a heavy online presence), this sort of thinking can easily creep in.

Here’s another scenario: you’re at a coffee shop and start chatting with a stranger. Or something like this happens: My band had just played a show, to maybe a dozen people somewhere in the middle of Canada (I forget exactly where). One person in a coffee shop. This is why I think metrics, when applied to our creative work, can be detrimental. Quality vs. quantity Not enough Twitter followers, reach on Facebook, mailing list subscribers? The problem with “the metric of more” is that it’s dehumanizing. Create meaningful connections. The Complete Guide to Choosing a Content Calendar. 1.9K Flares Filament.io Made with Flare More Info'> 1.9K Flares × Do you know what you’re posting, sharing, and blogging this Thursday? How about two Thursdays from now? Thursday of next month? Thursday of next year? We don’t have things figured out quite to that extreme here at Buffer, but we do have some idea of what’s ahead. What calendar do you use for your social media marketing and content creation?

We hear a lot of interest in calendars from our community, so I dug around to find some of the best tools and templates for premium and free content calendars, as well as the elements that make a good one—the who, what, when, where, and why of planning out content a week-at-a-time, month-at-a-time, or year-at-a-time. The psychological draw of a visual content calendar We recently held a webinar with the team at Twitter, and included in the webinar slidedeck was a slide of a content calendar.

Turns out, the calendar was just a graphic. 1. 2. Hick’s Law is similar. 1. 2. 3. Forbes Time Inc. The Importance of Visual Content. Tom More is CEO and Founder of Slidely, a popular creator of Slideshows, videos and imagery. A picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to capturing your audience’s attention, you want to take full advantage of every chance to communicate your message. Short attention spans have made lengthy explanations less effective – so how do you keep interest?

Show, don’t tell. Use effective visuals to power up your communications, boost engagement, and spark up your social media. Here’s why you must integrate visual content into your marketing strategy and communications. An apple a day helps memory stay If a message is released to the public but no one remembers it, did it really happen? Communicating does no good if it’s not retained by your audience. Studies show our brains not only process visuals faster, but they retain and transmit much more information when it’s delivered visually.

Boost engagement with visuals and see the results Put the social back in social media. 5 Ways to Connect With Your Fans Using Visual Content. Do you give your customers the best information in the simplest way possible? Are you connecting with your fans through visual content? Pictures and video can inspire and amaze your audience in a way text just can’t. In this article you’ll find five ways you can use images and video to connect with and add value for your audience. Your Audience Craves Visual Content Our brains love images. Did you know we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text? If you have an important message you need to convey or just want to stand out from the crowd, visual content (whether it’s a picture or a video) is the way to go. Stand out from the crowd by sharing images that convey your story. Don’t worry if you aren’t artistic.

Here are five ways to use visual content to build a deeper relationship with your fans, followers and customers. #1: Elicit Emotion With a Good Story Using compelling visual content to tell or extend your story sparks emotion in your audience. . #2: Make an Impression With Quick Thinking. Mashable. Shutterstock, the stock photography firm, is branching out into music. The New York-based company introduced Shutterstock Music on Tuesday, which lets companies pick background music for videos, commercials and podcasts, among other uses. The company's site lets you select music by genre, mood and tempo. Prices start at $49 for a standard license (broadcast audience cap: 1 million) to $419 (unlimited audience).

The site now offers 60,000 tracks, thanks to a deal with Rumblefish, a music licensing warehouse. Wyatt Jenkins, VP of product for Shutterstock, says an established business already exists for linking deep-pocketed advertisers with well known artists' work (like the Rolling Stones catalog, for example). The small- to mid-size market is comparatively underserved. "We saw a sweet spot in the market in terms of licensing," Jenkins says. Shutterstock will vie with established companies in the category, including AudioMicro and Pond5. Have something to add to this story? 6 Steps to Build a Social Listening Dashboard. Do you want to streamline your social listening? Are you looking for tools to help you find and share content? Tracking social mentions, finding interesting content and following industry news is important, but time-consuming. In this article you’ll discover six ways to optimize your listening tasks and the tools to get it done.

Why Social Listening? To build community, start conversations, deepen existing relationships, keep up with brand mentions and watch for customer service opportunities, you have to listen. As you probably know from experience, social listening can be a job in and of itself, nevermind your other social media marketing duties. There are many parts to effective social media marketing. A few changes in your listening tactics can have a real impact on your daily productivity. Before you start setting up your new social listening routine, make sure you have something to work with. I suggest you put that information into a master spreadsheet so it’s easily accessible. Yahoo’s 18-year-old Prodigy Nick D’Aloisio on the Future of News.

Yesterday, Yahoo announced that its “atomized” news digest was being made available on Android, and in virtually every market in which Yahoo is active. It’s a bold move for a product that has only been available for less than six months. Behind the ambitious project is Nick D’Aloisio, the 18-year-old who sold his company Summly to Yahoo a little over a year ago for a reported $30 million.

Since then, he’s been working within Yahoo to integrate the technology, and bring his nugget-sized take on news to the masses. Following the launch of Canadian and International editions of the resulting Yahoo News Digest, TNW caught up with D’Aloisio to talk about the next steps for the service and how the humble newspaper will still inform our news consumption in the future.

It’s been quite a journey already to get this far, can you fill us in on a bit of that journey? Nick D’Aloisio: For a bit of context, the journey basically began when I joined Yahoo, about this time last year. It is. How GoPro and Tesla Hacked Digital Marketing. Commenting Platform Disqus Introduces Sponsored Comments. The Best Length for Every Online Content. Harvard Library Is Hiring a 'Wikipedian in Residence' 7 Tips for Igniting Your Content With Social Media. How to Make your Content Stand Out: Give it Muscle. A guide to getting everlasting traffic with keyword research. OpenX launches the first global exchange for real-time bidding on native mobile advertising. 29 Free Internet Tools To Improve Your Marketing. When You Fly, Beck's New Album Is Free. New Tech Site Re/Code Is Now Live.