The cross-media power of tagging is demonstrated in C-SPAN’s capture of the Democratic Convention across social media sites. Integration begins with their Convention website portal, setting the pace for the rest of the branding. C-SPAN’s Twitter hub page presents a feed of the results of twitter talk that is using the tag #DNC08, short for Democratic National Convention 2008.

http://dnc08.c-span.org/?page_id=1579

Below are the pages C-SPAN created using social network sites, carrying the branding visuals across most of the social sites where C-SPAN built its presence. Comparing C-SPAN’s YouTube and Qik pages, design customization is not surprisingly more flexible on the older YouTube where C-SPAN closely modeled their YouTube page to their website design and navigation.

URL personalization is cool — a new trend that many of the social network sites now offer, though not yet available on Facebook. Example is http://twitter.com/cspan

Qik’s claim to fame is streaming live video to the web right from your phone, compatible with over 40 different types of phones. Qik launched its software on its website for public use in December 2007 but only now seems to be getting noticed, possibly because of the recent release, ease-of-use, and popularity of the iPhone G3.

With a click of an icon on your phone, you can stream video from your phone directly to your Qik webpage. Using Qik, you can turn the live stream into a recorded video that you can then embed onto your website and blog. You can also upload to YouTube. From Qik you can send notifications to your Twitter followers to go check-out your new recording.

C-SPAN coverage of Democratic National Convention using social media sites to build buzz:

Online C-SPAN Convention Portal:
http://dnc08.c-span.org/

C-SPAN Twitter Page:
http://twitter.com/cspan

C-SPAN Convention Hub Compiling Twitter Remarks and Stats:
http://dnc08.c-span.org/?page_id=1579

C-SPAN.org Portal Site:
http://c-span.org/

C-SPAN on QIK:
http://qik.com/groups/421/

On YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/cspan

LinkedIn has valued itself at $500 million and both LinkedIn and Facebook are letting employees sell off a portion of their vested stock. LinkedIn reports its annual revenue at $100 million. Facebook for 2007 was $150 million in revenues, but projects this to reach $350 million for 2008. Friendster, largest social network in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia, announced that it raised $20 million in investor funding.

Resources:

Venturebeat.com
kara.allthingsd.com
www.socialtimes.com