Highly TOUTed
This is a guest post from Michael Horwitz (@Hova34), one of the fine young interns we have learning the ropes here at BCV.
Recently, NBA legend and future Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, first announced his retirement through a new social media site called Tout; this announcement brought over 500,000 viewers to Tout in under three hours. Tout is a new breed of social media that has yet to be mastered, using video sharing. Shaq’s announcement was heard on television and shown in an ESPN.com article, which gave us a direct link to his Tout announcement. The reason this was so effective is because it showed fans that this announcement was for real, as it came directly from the big man.
Shaq Tout's retirement
Tout already has an iPhone app and is in the process of creating an app for the iPad and Android platforms. So how does this work? You shoot a video, and you “Tout” it. The video gets uploaded to tout.com and can be seen by anyone. Shaq has been utilizing this site to the maximum; he gets a role on the Advisory Board and he also has a stock option for the startup social media company. He has been seen shooting videos at the Taylor Swift concert with his girlfriend, Nicole “Hoopz” Alexander, he’s shot videos of himself working out, or just being an all-out clown. Perhaps the best feature of Tout is that you can jump straight to the most popular “Touts” of the day.
So how can this change the social media world or even the sports world? When you Tout a video, you have the choice to cross-post it to your Twitter account. Since Twitter currently has a much bigger following, more people will view the videos. Now imagine this…
You’re at the United Center watching the Bulls pregame shootaround. You’ve got incredible seats near the floor. You shout out to Derrick Rose, and he approaches you. You bust out your iPhone and record the conversation you and the MVP have for just a few seconds as he signs an autograph for you. Within a matter of moments, you can share that video on Tout. Soon enough, you’ll have a video moment others can interact around and experience while you are still courtside. Maybe your mom can tweet you a question to ask the star as well!
Here’s a perfect example of the potential power of Tout. When the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals on June 12, 2011, a controversial Tweet was sent from ESPN NBA guru Chris Broussard. The Tweet said that LeBron James had a postgame explosion in the Heat locker room. Minutes later, Broussard posted that someone had hacked into his account and that report was not true. Now, for the sake of conversation, let’s say that was true. Chris Broussard could have “Touted” live from Miami that LeBron had an explosion in the locker room. Nobody would doubt the legitimacy of that report.
Tout
There is something to be said for video. When you’re reading an article on a popular site, there usually is a video version of the article attached; most people prefer to watch the video and have it explained to them. Video social network sites, such as Tout, could be on the cusp of being a reputable source of news through social media. What if the people you follow on Twitter, your favorite athletes, celebrities, or even just friends could give you an up-to-the-second live report from wherever they are in the world?
