With the way new media is taking off these days, you’ve probably noticed that video is no exception. People are trying to become stars via YouTube and other major video sites, and they’re actually making a decent attempt at it too.

I’ve personally found video to be very effective. Last year, I had a brainstorm to start a YouTube show called “3 Minutes with Mandee”. They were 3 minute clips of me sharing about my day. Then, I decided that “3 Minutes with Mandee” sounded a bit corny and was longer than I liked, so I changed it to “A Minute with Mandee” and added a new twist to the videos: they would be one minute tips about blogging, networking and social media.

Boo yah. When I made the switch, people starting listening to what I had to say. The short clips, paired with the cutsie series name, started to get popular. I wouldn’t say that I’m terribly well known yet, but these videos are definitely being viewed and getting comments on a regularly basis.

So, let’s say that YOU want to start a YouTube series like me. It’s not hard at all. You have a couple options…

I recently ran across a website through one of my Facebook friends, Kate Buck. Given my last post about online reputation management, and my past spews about poor customer service, you’re probably catching on that I can be pretty picky about the kind of treatment or service I receive from a business.

I have a general rule of thumb. Make one mistake, I’ll probably let it pass with a smile because everyone makes mistakes. No biggie. Two mistakes, and I’ll still hold my patience pretty well. Hit 3 or more…well, either you need more training in your line of work (forgivable) or you’re just plain not valuing your customer. If it’s the latter, I’m done.

While I recognize that the lack of good service is many times due to lack of proper employee training, I still want the company to know that I expect them to step up their game. Sometimes I take the time to write a letter to the company. Other times I just tweet about it and hope someone hears my frustration and makes an attempt to fix things.

People talk, whether it be good or bad. What are they saying about you and your brand?

That’s what online reputation management is all about. You want to do your best to keep your audience happy so your reputation won’t be damaged. Sure, there some people who are going to talk smack no matter what. Bad attitudes sometimes won’t go away even with the best possible solution presented, but it’s always the right thing to address all problems immediately, with hopes to solve the issue.

Here’s an example:

You go through the drive thru at McDonalds. The person at the window takes your money and says your meal is going to take a few minutes. They ask you to pull ahead and wait. 5 minutes go by. 10 minutes. Where is your food? It finally comes and you haul your car out of the parking lot, burying your hand in the bag to grab your chicken nuggets. But wait, where’s that apple pie you ordered? Not…in…THE…BAG?!

First of all, many of you may have absolutely no idea what an Alexa rank is or what it does. I grabbed a bit of history from Wikipedia to educate you:

Alexa Internet was founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat. The company’s name was chosen in homage to the Library of Alexandria, drawing a parallel between the largest repository of knowledge in the ancient world to the potential of the Internet.

The company offered a toolbar that gave Internet users suggestions on where to go next, based on the traffic patterns of its user community. Alexa also offered context for each site visited: to whom it was registered, how many pages it had, how many other sites pointed to it, and how frequently it was updated.

Alexa’s operation includes archiving of webpages as they are crawled. This database served as the basis for the creation of the Internet Archive accessible through the Wayback Machine. In 1998 the company donated a copy of the archive, 2 terabytes in size, to the Library of Congress. Alexa continues to supply the Internet Archive with web crawls.

In 1999, Alexa was acquired by Amazon.com for about $250 million in Amazon stock as the company moved away from its original vision of providing an ‘intelligent’ search engine. Alexa began a partnership with Google in spring 2002, and with the Open Directory Project in January 2003. In May 2006, Amazon replaced Google with Live Search as a provider of search results. In September 2006, they began using their own Search Platform to serve results. In December 2006, they released Alexa Image Search. Built in-house, it is the first major application to be built on their Web Platform. Excerpt from Wikipedia

So that gives you a little history about Alexa, but the real question going through your mind is, “What can it do for me?”

There’s a first time for everything, right? Such was the case during the filming of this video, “Mandee vs. the Fish”. I haven’t been out fishing in quite some time, and when I caught this bullhead a few weeks ago, I decided to complete the job from start to finish.

I’d never gutted a fish before, which made for some interesting footage.

Okay, so maybe I don’t have 50 gazillion followers on Twitter. I don’t even have 1,000 Facebook fans yet. But what I do have is big vision.

Mark Hultgren posted a comment to my Google Buzz this past week that got my attention. He said, “You’re more influential than you think” along with a web link. Hmm, that’s gotta be good, right? I clicked it and found myself at Fast Company’s new Influence Project, which is giving online users the opportunity to have their photo featured in their November issue. A free PR stunt for myself? Well where do I sign up??

I was immediately intrigued by the concept of this project. In fact, I quickly discovered it was a popularity contest. Once I registered, I was provided a unique URL to share with my online followers that would show just how much influence I had on the internet. The best part? My picture would get increasingly larger with each click, and the one who had the most clicks and signups would be awarded the title of 2010′s Most Influential Person Online.