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TechJournal South (@TJ_South) reports on a new University of California, Davis (@ucdavis) study of “buzz” marketing on YouTube that says the quality of videos aren’t as important as “seeding” them to influential people (bloggers, tweeters, etc.).

The study’s author, Hema Yoganarasimhan, professor at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, says seeding information in social media outlets through handpicked agents is crucial.

“It’s not the number of people; it’s focusing on the right people,” she explains. “They need to ask who are their friends, and who are their friends’ friends — and how are they positioned in the network?”

While a close-knit community may be committed and loyal to a dispenser of information, that community may generate low video popularity in the long run, the study showed. That’s because people in a close-knit community don’t interact much with outsiders, resulting in few interactions with 2nd- or 3rd-degree “friends.”

The study, Impact of social network structure on content propagation: A study using YouTube data, finds that while 1st-degree friends are important for initial marketing, 2nd- and 3rd-degree friends are essential for “viral” spread.

The study says video ratings are important — but it doesn’t much matter if the rating is good or bad. Yoganarasimhan’s analysis shows that video quality, as measured by viewer comments and ratings, have little effect on viewership in the long run. However a video with any rating is likely to have more viewers than one with no rating.

Read this in full.

Tim Schmoyer (@timschmoyer) of ReelSEO (@Reelseo) offers 6 tips in “How to Connect with Key Video Influencers in a Social World.”

1. Become engaged in other creators’ blogs and videos....

2. Be genuine....

3. Start with your niche....

4. Collaborate with others at your level....

5. Give a glowing review....

6. Invest the time....

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategize and produce videos that effectively communicate your brand’s message to your target audience.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The Audio Publishers Association (@AudioPub) (#JIAM2012) has declared June Audiobook Month.

Author Cathryn Prince (@CathrynPrince) writes on her blog about the magic of audiobooks.

I didn’t think about audio books as something for me until I started commuting about 45 minutes to and from an adjunct teaching job. I’m not teaching at the moment, but as Dr. Frasier Crane said: I’m listening. A lot. I discovered a whole new world in audio books. I imagine audio books to be the distant relative of the serial shows of radio days.

Read this in full.

The above video is Jim Dale (@JimnJules), the voice of all the characters in the Harry Potter audiobook series. As a narrator, he's won a Grammy Award (2000), 5 Grammy nominations, and 7 Audie Awards.

NPR Books (@nprbooks) offers a list of audiobooks “that’ll make the family road trip fly by.”

See the list of winners in The Audies competition, the award that “recognizes distinction in audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.”

For a behind-the-scenes description of the making of an audiobook, see Publishers Weekly’s (@PublishersWkly) “How Chef Marcus Samuelsson Records an Audiobook.”

More reporting about audiobooks is available on PW’s audio blog, Listen Up (@PWAudio).

If you’re interested in audiobook reviews, subscribe to AudioFile (@AudioFileMag), the magazine that covers the world of audiobooks.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to create an audiobook for your content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

At a media event today in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced its new tablet, Surface (@surface) (#Surface), which, when it debuts (a release date was not announced) will feature a 10.6-inch wide display with Gorilla Glass, its own kickstand, Bluetooth, front & rear camera, a full-size USB port, dual Wi-Fi antennae, a multitouch full-size keyboard, a stylus which writes freehand on the screen, a trackpad, and presumably Microsoft Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) — and yet is only about a half-inch thick. Models will come with either 64 gigabytes or 128 GB of storage.

Its capacity as an e-reading device was left unexplained. Microsoft has invested $300 million investment in Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader, though B&N was not part of today’s announcement.

Read coverage by USA TODAY, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, VentureBeat, and The Verge.

Somersault (@smrsault) helps you stay abreast of new technology and its impact on publishing.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The above film, EPILOGUE: the future of print (@EPILOGUEdoc) (vimeo channel) by Hanah Ryu Chung, is a documentary that explores the world of print books, scratching the surface of its future. Chung says:

The act of reading a “tangible tome” has evolved, devolved, and changed many times over, especially in recent years. I hope for the film to stir thought and elicit discussion about the immersive reading experience and the lost craft of the book arts, from the people who are still passionate about reading on paper as well as those who are not.

Also see our previous blogposts:

• "Paper is Stronger than Tech and Now its Aroma Comes Bottled"
• "Home Libraries Despite the Ebook Era"
• "Birth of a Book: The Handmade Bookbinding Process"
• "Book Seller Believes in Video's Marketing Power"
• "A Video About a Poster Masks a Bookstore's Promotion"
• "Video: What Books Do After Hours"
• "The Technology of Storytelling"
• "Photos: The 20 Coolest Bookstores in the World"
• "Introducing the New Book"
• "Even E-reader Owners Still Like Printed Books, Survey Finds"
• "In a Flood Tide of Digital Data, an Ark Full of Books"
• "The 'End' of Print and TV."

If you love books like we (@smrsault) do, we invite you to make our SomersaultNOW online dashboard your personal computer homepage (see instructions).

New data from Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ (@PwC_LLP & @pwc_press) Global Entertainment and Media Outlook predicts ebooks will constitute 50% of the US trade book market by 2016.

Reporter Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) writes in paidContent (@paidContent) that PwC expects total book spending in North America to remain relatively flat; “1.1% compound annual rate” of increase between 2011 and 2016.

PwC thinks that while total spending on print trade books will decline, the ebook market will be growing fast enough by 2013 to offset those declines. In the US, the company estimates that “around 30% of adults had at least one portable reading device [an e-reader or tablet] in the first quarter of 2012.”

By 2016, PwC expects, “ebooks will account for half of total spending on consumer books” in the US and the total US consumer book market (print + digital) will be worth $21 billion, up from $19.5 billion in 2011.

Read this in full.

According to PwC’s blog, the E&M Outlook says 3 behavioral changes are driving global shifts in industry structure and value:

1.    From print to digital: Electronic books’ share of total global spending on consumer and educational books will rise from 5% in 2011 to 18% by 2016.

2.    From fixed to mobile consumption: Global mobile Internet access increased from 26% of total Internet access spending in 2007 to 40% in 2011 – and will grow to 46% by 2016.

3.    From West to East, and North to South: Total revenue growth to 2016 in Central and Eastern Europe/Asia Pacific will be almost double that of North America/Western Europe. And growth in the southern Latin America/Middle East/Africa market will average more than twice that of North America/Europe by 2016.

Read the news release.

In the video below, Marcel Fenez, Global Leader, Entertainment & Media at PwC, explains how PwC sees this time period as being “the end of the digital beginning.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you take advantage of publishing’s digital growth for your content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

NPR (@NPR) is now co-producing the TED Radio Hour (@tedtalks), a weekly program of interviews and presentations centered on a common theme. A recent program featured the topic of ideas and innovation. Take a break to be creatively inspired.

Is The 'Eureka' Moment A Myth?

People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments, but author Steven Johnson (@stevenbjohnson) says the lightbulb moment is greatly overrated. He says ideas initially take form as hunches. They don't come into the world fully realized.

How Do Introverts Share Ideas?

In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as author Susan Cain (@susancain) argues, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

What Happens When Ideas Have Sex?

Author Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) says, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas — basically "ideas having sex with each other." The sophistication of the modern world lies not in individual intelligence or imagination, he says, instead it's a collective enterprise. That means it's not important how clever individuals are; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help inspire creativity for your branding initiatives.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Innovation tab.

Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) of paidContent (@paidContent) reports, ”Digital reading company Kobo (@kobo) is launching a competitor to Amazon’s KDP and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt!: Kobo Writing Life, a free self-publishing platform for independent authors and publishers.”

Jane Litte at Dear Author (@dearauthor) reports that Kobo is paying a 70% royalty on ebooks priced between $1.99 and $12.99, and a 45% royalty on ebooks below $1.99 or above $12.99. By contrast, Amazon pays a 70% royalty on KDP ebooks priced above $2.99 and a 35% royalty on those below $2.99. And she notes that authors can sell their books with or without DRM.

Read this in full.

Read the news release.

Below is a video of Michael Kozlowski (@Goodereadermike), editor-in-chief of Good e-Reader (blog) (@Goodereader), interviewing Kobo’s Michael Tamblyn about Writing Life (see the blogpost).

See our list of self-publishers.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your ebook/pbook content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Today is Memorial Day in the USA, when we honor those Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice of valor in war.

On Saturday, 200 buglers gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to remember the 150th anniversary of the composing of Taps during the Civil War.

Taps was created in 1862 at Harrison’s Landing, VA by an officer in the Union army. It has been played as an unofficial part of military funerals since the end of the Civil War. See the NPR story about it.

An article on Marketing Charts (@marketingcharts) says QR Code scans by consumers were up 157% in Q1 2012 over Q1 2011, according to a report by Scanlife (@ScanLife), the mobile barcode solution provider.

Read this in full.

That’s good news for the town of Monmouth (Wikipedia entry) in Wales (pop. 8,877) which recently embarked on the "Monmouthpedia" (@Monmouthpedia) project — a community-wide 6-month project to affix QR codes to all its landmarks, organizations, and even people, and write Wikipedia entries on each of them, which the codes link to. Adweek (@Adweek) says:

The idea came from a TEDx talk in Bristol, where a Wikipedia editor suggested that Wikimedia's UK chapter should "do a whole town" using QR codes. Residents and businesses in Monmouth stepped up, did all the legwork (there are more than 1,000 QR codes in total), and introduced Monmouthpedia this weekend.

A Wikimedia blog entry says:

Lest you think this is a passing interest, the town of Monmouth is in it for the long haul. Many of the QRpedia codes are printed on ceramic plaques that should last for decades. The information in articles is backed by the Wikipedia community and will be continually improved and expanded. Physical guides and maps will become outdated, but the Wikipedia articles will always be able to be updated. This potential for on-site access to up-to-date information in any language is what makes the Monmouthpedia model so exciting.

A simple concept and coordinated effort put this Welsh community on the social media map. Does this spark any dreams you may have for your own brand?

Read the Wikimedia blog entry in full.

Read the Adweek article in full.

Read coverage by psfk (@psfk), by Amanda Kooser (@akooser) for cnet, and by Joseph Volpe (@jrvolpe) for engadget.

Also see our previous blogpost, "Small Swiss Village Hits it Big with Facebook Fans."

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategize unique promotions for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

As reported in the study Demystifying Social Media (#mcksocial) by Roxane Divol (@rdivol), David Edelman (@davidedelman), and Hugo Sarrazin (@HugoSarrazin) in McKinsey Quarterly (@McKQuarterly) (YouTube channel), brand owners seeking to make the most of social media must learn to “monitor,” “respond,” “amplify,” and “lead” on these sites.

·         Monitoring brand buzz is the core function of social media as it applies throughout the purchasing decision journey.

·         Responding to positive and negative comments is crucial for brand protection. “No response can be quick enough, and the ability to act rapidly requires the constant, proactive monitoring of social media—on weekends too. By responding rapidly, transparently, and honestly, companies can positively influence consumer sentiment and behavior.”

·         Amplification involves designing marketing activities to have an inherently social motivator that spurs broader engagement and sharing. It means offering experiences that customers will feel great about sharing, because they gain a badge of honor by publicizing content that piques the interest of others.

·         The fourth role of social media is to “lead” and encourage behavior change.

Read this in full.

Another study says the quality of customer service offered by US brands on social media strongly influences buying habits. The 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer says the average person using social media to get customer service is subsequently willing to spend 21% extra on a brand if the service is “excellent.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you effectively market your brand, both online and offline.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Branding and Marketing/PR tabs.