Creating Valuable Content: 60 Second Interview with Sol Lipman Founder of 12Seconds.tv

I’ve written about 12Seconds.tv a couple of times (here and here.) Their platform for distributing video content intrigues me. But more importantly, for content creators looking for their next big opportunity to make a large impact, 12Seconds.tv represents one of the most likely hits in the next generation of content creation platforms.

As I’ve explained in the New Media Life Cycle posts, channels like Twitter are in the middle of their escalation phase; where the content quality as an aggregate is at it’s lowest and volume is at its highest. This makes it extremely difficult to make a huge impact. I’m not suggesting you should leave twitter; but you should be putting your creative juices to work on platforms in the Adoption and Gestation phases. 12Seconds.tv is one of those platforms.

Creating Value in the Gestation Phase

12Seconds.tv is clearly in the gestation phase of its life cycle. This phase is marked by the rapid fire generation of a wide variety of content created by loyal users experimenting with the kind of content that proves to be the most effective for the new distribution channel and medium they have created.

To add value in this phase, users must try new types of content, new ways of interacting and the distribution channel must work hard to foster the generation of valuable content by ‘featuring’ or applauding the generation of new and unusual content. In addition, the channel must build tools (features and functions) as quickly as possible designed to foster the new ways in which the channel has discovered value.

60 Second Interviews

I’m taking this concept to heart and trying to find my own use for the channel – and in the process discovering the need for new tools to help me utilize the platform more effectively. In that vein, I am trying something I call, 60 Second Interviews.

Here’s the format:

• Segment one: Brief introduction of the interview.
• Segment two: The first question to my interview subject.
• Segment three: The answer (from my subject) to the first question.
• Segment four: The second question.
• Segment five: The answer to the second question.

Obviously, the five segments add up to be 60 seconds. I’ve chosen Sol Lipman, one of the founders of 12Seconds.tv as my first interview subject.

Here’s the interview in 12 Second chunks:
Starting 60 Second Interviews on 12seconds.tv
Asking Sol Lipman a question. on 12seconds.tv
@tpldrew re: Asking Sol Lipman a question. on 12seconds.tv

Sol’s absolutely right. Value is relative. However, on any new media channel defining what’s valuable is crucial to your success. Your users will figure it out eventually, but without you prodding them, the gestation and adoption phases are elongated – which can be very painful. Here’s the user Sol’s referring to: Imogenheap. Here’s her channel on 12seconds
Sol Interview Question #2 on 12seconds.tv
@tpldrew re: Sol Interview Question #2 on 12seconds.tv

What’s interesting about Sol’s answer here is that they’ve debated this question a lot in the 12Seconds.tv offices. As I’ve been analyzing the 12Seconds.tv distribution channel and comparing it to Twitter’s trajectory, I see some very interesting parallels (which I won’t get into in this post.) However, I think mirroring the Twitter vernacular and even Twitter’s chronological delivery format actually dilutes the value of the collective content on 12Seconds. 12Seconds is actually a hybrid between YouTube (with their video comments) and Twitter (with their linear delivery concept.)

Creating Valuable 12Seconds.tv Content

I think, if you want to create a new distribution channel, and redefine the way people create video content, you’re well-positioned to do it on 12Seconds.tv. What you need to do is look to create a series of short segments that can be mixed or re-mixed to create compelling longer form content.

I’ve tried to do it here with my 60Second interviews, and I’ll try it a couple more times to see if I can get it to catch on. But what’s great about this format for interviews is; you no longer are subjected to long-winded, questions that go nowhere, the answers must be short and to the point, and the interview can be ‘edited’ when you put it in your own context (meaning I could just use Sol’s answer to question #2 at a later date to support a point I’m trying to make.) I find those three things really compelling and exciting about the new medium Sol’s created.

My Thanks to Sol

Sol’s a talented guy, who’s worked tremendously hard to build a great platform with a lot of potential. Thanks so much to Sol for spending 24 seconds answering my questions and contributing to my concept.

My Question To You

Sol’s point has really got me thinking: how do you define valuable content on 12seconds.tv?

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."