Point Oh!

In another example of how online video can be a good promotional tool, the new video podcast series Mahalo Daily has gotten me to take another look at the social search engine, and Jason Calacanis project, Mahalo. In case you’re not familiar with how Mahalo works, it’s somewhat like the Wikipedia of search engines in that editors can edit the search results for each popular search term.

For example, since I’m a glutton for punishment, I searched for Joe Torre, the ex-Yankees manager, and it turns out that an editor named Ray Manukay has already populated the results with video, news, vital stats, a timeline and even links to Joe Torre merchandise. Compare this with what you get when you search for Joe Torre on Google or Wikipedia and you can start to see how Mahalo, if widely adopted, could become a serious time saver. It’s also worth noting that in an age of increasing SEO and SERM, Google’s search results could become more and more like advertising in the coming years and it may take a social engine like Mahalo just to cut through the clutter.

But I’m not writing this because Mahalo is a great service, which I’m now convinced it is. I’m writing this because I used to think Mahalo was crap. Since the now defunct Silicon Alley Reporter used to be a big part of my life as a late-90′s dot-com PR guy, I’ve always kept an eye on Jason Calacanis, the founder of the publication (and Weblogs Inc.), for his next project. Naturally, when I started seeing Mahalo referenced on his Twitter feed and on some of the Web 2.0 blogs, I immediately rushed to check it out.As with many start-ups that rely on user generated content, Mahalo was underwhelming at launch and I couldn’t imagine why I would want to use it. After a couple visits I pretty much dismissed it and removed it from the coveted “Innovation” folder on my Firefox toolbar.

Clients often don’t understand why they need to be content producers but Mahalo Daily is a great example of why it makes sense. While Mahalo Daily isn’t going to replace Rocketboom as my favorite daily video podcast, Veronica Belmont is entertaining enough to add to my iTunes and give it a shot. The one I watched today got me to click over to Mahalo and my perception of the brand was changed. Over time, if the content holds my interest, I will probably re-engage with the brand several more times and, if the technology is good, I might start adopting it. This would never have happened if they chose to do banner ads or paid inclusion on search engines.

The bottom line is that your content is a major factor in defining your brand and Mahalo Daily is, in a roundabout way, showing me why I should be using Mahalo more regularly.