In social media marketing is pays to be up on the latest and greatest websites that seem to be popping up almost daily. Research has become a very important tool and is deeply integrated into my day-to-day. As part of my research I am always on the lookout for new ways to market our clients and during my travels I happened upon these two sites, JibJab and Animoto.

JibJab and Animoto are what I consider “Mashup” sites, combining different mediums to produce quality content. In the spirit of the “Social web” these sites make it easy and fun for everyone regardless of your technical “know-how”. You can quickly and easily create videos to share across your network of friends or embed in your own Blog or website.

JibJab helps you to create personalized video and images by superimposing your face onto their eCards and pre-made videos templates. They describe themselves as a service that:

“helps people share laughs. From viral political videos like “This Land” to Sendables eCards and personalized videos starring You!”

From doubles figure skating to leprechaun’s break dancing, they offer a good-sized catalog of video and images to choose from.

Take a look at my first attempt below:

Animto allows you to quickly and easily create video slideshows from video clips and pictures. There service allows a user to:

“automatically produce beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips and music. Fast, free and shockingly easy.”

They offer a bit more customization then JibJab allowing you to add music or text. It also has a cool “remix” feature that re-creates your video randomly. Here is what I did for with for one of our clients using images from their photo contest.

There are a lot of reasons why I love my job, it’s challenging, it allows me to be creative everyday, and it keeps me on the edge of leading technology. Most importantly every once and awhile I get to play!

If know of any of cool social “time wasters” you think I should check out post a link in the comments and I’ll take a look.