I’m very lucky because people send me press releases about their videos and web video series all the time. They will shoot me an old school blurb about how cool and ground breaking their web videos are and after reading their careful crafted public relations master piece I always seem ask them a couple questions before I watch their video that doesn’t look like it will get many views:

1. Is there a video that explains all this? (Some Big companies with PR firms aren’t using video to explain their videos.)

2. Is there embed code that I can grab and place on my blog? (Some Big companies aren’t allowing their videos to be shared, but they still want them to go viral.)

Nokia on the other hand just sends me a Facebook message, “hope all is well, i thought you might like our latest nokia video.” and a link to their new video, “Nokia’s N8 Foosball Fever – Greatest match ever played?” I didn’t need to ask any questions.

Not only is “Nokia’s N8 Foosball Fever – Greatest match ever played?” a great video that’s fun to watch it does a nice job of product placement and brand integration into the video and has fun interactive links at the end of the video that take you to more videos including a behind the scenes video.

Nokia has always pushed the limits when it comes to mobile devices, I’m glad to see they are doing the same with their web videos, product placement and brand integration. I expect to see a lot of new videos from Nokia this year and maybe even an investment or two in sponsoring original web series from some of our independent online video series producers.

Here’s another one of my favorite Nokia web videos:

At SXSW I caught up with one of my sponsors for French Maid TV Greg Philpott of mDialog™ and he told me about a new mdialog BETA where you share your mDialog™ network on Facebook.

According to Greg, the new beta is ” a faster, better and easier way to record, broadcast and share videos with your Facebook friends and fans – and get instant feedback by creating your own surveys, contests, ratings and reviews. Paired with the mDialog™ application for iPhone, the ideas can keep rolling wherever you go.”

To test it out and post your videos to your Facebook Wall and News Feeds using mLoader™, click here and login into you Facebook account to add the mDialog™ application. Or just sign into mDialog.com and select any video you would like to share on Facebook and click the ‘Add to Facebook’ button on our Socialize window.

Greg has been a great guy to me and has helped me a lot. If you have some constructive critiques that can help Greg make his service fo everyone please let me know.

I had lunch with Cathy Brooks the other day.

Cathy has spent more than two decades working in and around media and communications. It began in 1982 with a job ripping wire copy (yes they actually still had wire copy machines) at the largest all news radio station in Philadelphia, PA. All these years later, Cathy’s experience as a Journalist encompasses reporting, writing, editing, broadcast management, and most recently media training and strategy development.

Currently Cathy helps small to mid-sized Web 2.0/social media companies that need guidance (and access) to the big brands that can use their technologies, she helps with everything from getting them ready for those meetings, to helping make those connections happen. She also encompasses helping these companies identify the places/events at which they need to be seen, figuring out what, precisely that participation should be and then facilitating that participation for them.

For the larger players who are trying to figure out which (if any) new tools in this tech category fit for their needs, she serves as a native guide.

And then there’s the event production side of her toolkit, which spans from helping develop programs to booking speakers, and then helping facilitate the proceedings.

I first met Cathy when she was the MC of AlwayOn OnHollywod and let me tell you she was a fantastic host!

Cathy is also a great podcast host and if you are interested she recently did an interview with me.

Chris Putnam, software engineer at Facebook who runs the video team, talks about its new HD video feature. He also tells Robert Scoble about how he got his job at Facebook, which is quite interesting because it wasn’t with a traditional interview.

This video is a little on the geeky end but there’s still some interesting information from the smart kids at Facebook.