Completed orders are stacked ceiling-high today. Their last stop at YesVideo, as they wait for their dedicated UPS truck to arrive for their trip back to their rightful owners.
This week we are featuring a photo from Erika Price Designs.
This past March, some of our Blog Ambassadors paid YesVideo a visit to meet the team and tour YesVideo’s headquarters in Santa Clara, CA.
After a day of fun to get to know one another, and a first-time-ever “Easter Egg Hunt YesVideo Tour”, the Ambassadors got to learn YesVideo from the ground-up. Before their farewell, we sat down for a little unscripted Q&A to reflect on their visit.
Thanks for the great memories, Bloggers!
For this week’s Throwback Thursday (and in celebration of Wedding Season), we’re featuring a clip from Denise DiFalco, one of the winners of our April Blogaversary Clip Submission Sweepstakes.
Denise has transferred several videotapes with YesVideo, and she shares this video with us. A clip from the day she was united with her husband, Harold. Congratulations Denise & Harold!
What’s your most memorable wedding moment?
The YesVideo Norcross team of over 30-strong runners after completing their race at Susan G. Komen Cure for the Greater Atlanta this past weekend. Proudly uniting to raise awareness and fundraising the fight against breast cancer.
This week we are featuring a photo from Amy at The Breezy Mama.
I’ve lived in Las Vegas since I was six, but Chicago, where I was born, has always felt like my hometown. I don’t even remember much about my life there since I was so young, but yet I’ve always had a homesick feeling in the back of my mind whenever I think about it.
Since the memories of my life there are almost twenty years old, they’ve become somewhat diluted over time. I notice that when I remember what my old apartment looked like, it’s from the perspective of someone barely over three feet tall. I remember bits & pieces in flashes, and while I have a few photos from my childhood that help piece things together, there is still so much more that remained fuzzy.
I recently had a home video transferred to DVD using YesVideo. I let my Dad pick out a tape since he knows what they all are & I haven’t seen any of them in years- and some I’ve never seen at all. My Dad happened to pick the tape that included many of our highlights from the last year I lived in Chicago, when I was just 5 and 6, and it was just amazing to see.
The tape {now DVD} included some fun memories like meeting Sandra Bullock while she filmed “While You Were Sleeping” around the corner from my house {that’s her in the picture above, with my Dad & I}, and our final trip to Disney World. It also caught some adorable {if I do say so myself} clips of me as a little girl. In one clip I was dressed in my Halloween costume, singing the songs that I had learned in Kindergarten that day. In another, I’m discovering my Easter Basket and hunting for eggs throughout my house. There’s even a clip of my best friend from Kindergarten, who I still talk to today, dressed up as Dorothy {I was Ozma} playing hide & seek with my action figures, which my Mom hid for us.
The clips that meant the most though were the ones that anyone else would find remarkably boring. When I lived in Chicago, I lived in a two-flat: one house with two apartments. My Great Aunt lived downstairs, and we lived upstairs. When we moved to Vegas, she actually moved a few weeks before I did. When she did, she moved with my Grandma {her sister}, and I was heartbroken. I knew I’d see them in just a few weeks, but to a five-year-old three weeks may as well be ten years.
On the day that they moved, my Dad took the camera and did a video tour of her {now empty} apartment. I was able to see every inch of the place from an adult’s perspective- and while the couch with the bright orange & green afghan was noticeably absent, the memories of years spent in that apartment came flooding back. When the tour was over, I saw myself as a little girl, saying goodbye to my Aunt & Grandma.
My Grandma has since passed away, and watching the heartbreak in my eyes as I said goodbye rehashed some of the pain of her passing. However, it was worth it to see her again. To hear her voice as she said she would see me soon, and not to cry, was breathtaking. It’s been almost five years since she passed, and I still miss her everyday. But now when I find myself thinking about her, I know I can still see her on our home movies.
While the home movie I had transferred wouldn’t interest anyone else, it means the world to me. It brought up old memories I had forgotten about, it allowed me to remember my Grandma {and my childhood pets even}, and even to see a bit of my son in myself at that age. I just can’t wait to see what the next video has!
What forgotten memories have you uncovered with your YesVideo transfers?
This post was written by Shell Feis, blogger at {Not Quite} Susie Homemaker. Shell lives in Las Vegas & blogs about her transition from sorority girl to mom & wife. You can follow her #YesMemory #PhotoADay progress on Instagram & Twitter or find her on Pinterest!
This week we’re featuring a clip from Tom Mitchell, one of the winners of our April Blogaversary Clip Submission Sweepstakes.
He shares a priceless 8mm movie film clip from the celebration of his Grandparents’ Golden Wedding Anniversary, filmed in 1968. 50 years married, and full of laughs and smiles!
Have a clip to share? Write to us at yvsocial@yesvideo.com to be part of our YesVideo Customer Feature segment!
Priceless family dinners would not be the same without Mom. Thanks for all your love & care, Mom! Happy Mother’s Day!
Vintage 60′s 8mm film footage YesVideo archives.
We asked bloggers to share with us some of their mom memories. The photos they submitted were beyond amazing. Countless and priceless moments shared with their moms and children. Some photos dating back to the 1970′s.
Photos Submitted By:
Candice from Fashionably Organized
Kadi from Our Seven Seeds
Dwan from MommaDJane
Robin from Simple Green Organic Happy
Elizabeth from Edvacation
Sandra from West Philly Mama
We are announcing our very first Pin it to Win it giveaway! We love Pinterest, who doesn’t? Our favorite Pinterest board is our Blast from the Past board. It is entertaining to look back over the past decades and relive some of those memories… or laugh at ourselves, what were we thinking?
To celebrate the month of May and of course, Mother’s Day, we are giving away a tranquility gift basket and a $100 gift card to preserve your family memories. We want YOU to win with these easy steps.
Just follow YesVideo on Pinterest and pin any image from our site using the hashtag #MomMemory in the description of your pin (so we can find your entry). Ta-da! It is that simple and now you have entered to win the prize with a value of $180 to treat yourself this spring!
There is no limit of entries into the giveaway. Remember to always use the hashtag #MomMemory within the description so we can track it and give you credit. All pins must point back to our site, either at yesvideo.com or blog.yesvideo.com to count.
You can browse our blog to find some useful resources you may want to save to Pinterest, pick one of your favorite custom DVD themes to pin or pin the below 15% off discount.
For example: (click the pin to see it live on Pinterest with details in the description)
Source: yesvideo.com via YesVideo on Pinterest
Source: direct.yesvideo.com via YesVideo on Pinterest
The giveaway ends on May 31, 2013. This giveaway is solely sponsored by YesVideo. This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Pinterest. A winner will be selected by random from the hashtag #MomMemory on Pinterest.
Good luck and Happy pinning!
Today’s post is brought by YesVideo’s CEO, Michael Chang – Providing his digital video expertise to support his insight on why the social media giant, Facebook, should make its towards video technology. This article was also featured on Wired.com’s Innovation Insights.
We joke that we’re not friends unless we’re Facebook friends – but there’s some truth to it, isn’t there? Facebook has firmly entrenched itself into the lives of the majority of Americans – in fact, more than 163 million Americans –52 percent of us – currently have accounts.
We’ve grown accustomed to “liking” our friends’ statuses; we send out birthday greetings; we follow the pages of companies and personalities we like; and of course we share our own updates, photos and links, a surprising number of which are related to cats. On average, Americans use Facebook for at least 13 minutes a day, every day of the year. Certainly, Facebook has answered the call to most of our digital needs – and via Facebook ads, the social network appears to have found the answer to their revenue needs.
And yet there is one area in which Facebook could provide a stronger user experience, and make money at the same time: video. I believe there could be a real revenue opportunity for Zuckerburg and Co if they move now to make a real play in the space and show YouTube that they have competition. Facebook hasn’t shied away from battling Google over the years. This is apparent with Graph Search, literally aiming to best Google at its cash cow core. But going after video could potentially cut into another rapidly rising Google asset.
While it’s true that we all can upload videos right now to Facebook, the process isn’t as quick and easy as it could be. And while we can link to videos hosted by streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, creating and editing video on Facebook itself is not really an option. Facebook falls short in their assumption that we will always post something that’s already been created elsewhere.
In so doing, Facebook essentially steps back and defers to YouTube, making the tacit assumption that YouTube “owns” videos. But users of Facebook and YouTube currently spend about the same length of time on both sites each day, so there’s no clear superiority between them. We use Facebook to connect with our friends, and we watch videos on YouTube for entertainment; but these separate categories of “social” and “video” are becoming increasingly blurry.
YouTube has been making strong attempts to become more like a social network, enabling its users to set up personalized homepages where they can browse channels and set up personalized subscriptions. It tells us which videos our friends have recently shared on their Google+, Twitter and Facebook accounts. We can even post private videos on YouTube that only our friends, not the public, can see.
But Facebook is still chugging along as though nothing has changed, despite the changes in the environment. Its video capability remains so wobbly that it actually has a video instruction page entitled “Bugs & Known Issues.”
But there are some ways that Facebook can beef up its video strategy, and monetize the offerings as well.
Here’s how:
1. Video birthday cards
Facebook already reminds users about their friends’ birthdays. They have a fine system in place that sends out reminders and encourages us to quickly post birthday greetings on the walls of birthday celebrants.
In addition to these simple greetings, Facebook should consider allowing users to send video cards – Vcards – to friends also. Simply surround an embedded video with a decorative golden frame that bears a birthday greeting, and make it postable. Imagine Grandma’s delight and surprise when she receives a framed Vcard showing her twin grandkids jumping up and down on the bed, shrieking “Happy birthday, Nana!” Or if your best pal happens to be an aspiring musician, post a framed Vcard on his wall showing his favorite rockstar in mid-shred. The possibilities are endless; all Facebook needs to do is provide a small assortment of custom frames with a line for a customized greeting.
As for revenue, perhaps each user could send one Vcard free per month or year, and after that, a small cost is associated to it.
2. Provide rudimentary video editing tools
People truly want a quick on-and-off user experience, and it’s not particularly swift or easy to edit a video. But Facebook could make it easier than it is by offering novice users a suite of user-friendly, step-by-step, instructions for “Editing 101”. The results might not win Sundance awards, but they would be superior to uploads of untweaked smartphone videos. If the instructions could be made simple enough to be mastered by a fifty-something grandmother, or a 13-year-old, it would be a huge act of technical empowerment that would result in countless happy users.
Vimeo, for instance, welcomes novices and gives them fun, hands-on lessons in elementary editing on its “Vimeo Video School” pages. Vimeo would be another great acquisition target for The Social Network. But Vimeo isn’t the only option…
3. Acquire a video streaming site
Facebook paid at least $715 million for Instagram in order to better enable its users to post edited photo uploads. Perhaps it’s time for Facebook to consider purchasing one of the many websites that enable video uploads. Possible acquisitions could involve popular video hosting sites such as MetaCafe or Break.com, or live-streaming services such as Justin.tvor Ustream.
An acquisition of this type would allow Facebook to charge for certain content (or channels) that is exclusive to their users.
4. Improve Facebook’s video chat
Facebook video chat is often plagued by strobe-like intermittent motion as well as by visible lag-time between when you see your friend’s lips move and when the words are actually heard. Facebook needs to focus their time and energy on making this experience smooth and fun.
By improving v-chat and providing more sophisticated editing tools, Facebook could bring in more people like amateur and professional videographers and filmmakers. These folks could then use the network not only as a way to let their friends know about the short film they made, but also edit it, and post it easily. They could also host Q&A sessions with their fans. Imagine the millions of hours of engagement that a more robust video offering would provide for Facebook – and increased engagement translates to increased advertising opportunities.
It’s time for the world’s largest social network to improve its overall video experience and to encourage content creation by its users. And if they do it right, I believe there will be real revenue opportunities for them.
Do you think video could be a boon for Facebook? If so, how?
Read more: http://insights.wired.com/profiles/blogs/facebook-s-next-business-should-be-video-4-ways-zuck-can-make?xg_source=activity#ixzz2SC4DZ61X
Follow us: @Wiredinsights on Twitter | InnovationInsights on Facebook
Michael Chang is CEO of YesVideo, the global leader in video transferring and sharing. He is responsible for defining the company’s market vision, and leading his team to continued success by creating innovative products and services for the millions of consumers that YesVideo serves.
Previously, Michael cofounded Greystripe, the largest brand focused mobile advertising network, and also served as CEO. ValueClick acquired Greystripe in 2011. Michael also worked at Incubic Venture Capital and was responsible for investments in Internet and software companies. Michael holds an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a BS in EE from Carnegie Mellon University.
