Meet my friend Ron Gattis. I am not sure where Ron is now, but I know one thing…he is passionate. His passion is infectious, so much I decided to follow him for three months to tell the real story of Ron Gattis. There is a story within this story…one of passion, heart-ache, and hope. This one has many layers connected, one with a single red-string…he wants to sing again on the “Big Stage.”
These are the stories I want to tell, to find, and bring to audiences. Imagine finding stories like this within organizations, ones with layers, ones with something that provide a connection with so many audiences. Thanks Ron for sharing your passion. This story was produced in 2005.
With the awareness and interest raised for location based Social Media platforms/technologies like Foursquare and Gowalla, I have jotted down and exploration of thoughts. These thoughts and questions I have to think through myself; I have to answer these questions critically before moving forward with the use of these new location based platforms.
Some Thoughts I have been pondering and synthesizing:
Social Media outlets added to the “open source” movement that gives “small” people and organizations a voice.
Social Media transformed us (small people/organizations) as “thought leaders” to drive Internet traffic to our “motherships” for information.
Social Media platforms provided the “small” people/organizations an opportunity to create robust web properties competing with “big box” organizations.
Social Media platforms provided the awareness necessary to create a “mothership” portal where the majority of the marketing messages “flow” through driving traffic to engage with a consistent message.
Social Media technology and open source platforms allowed and empowered “small” people/organizations to compete in the messaging landscape with “big box” organizations.
Social Media has allowed those to use technologies to build “Tribes” creating movements to distribute a message around a community.
Some questions in my head personally and professionally:
Why must “small” people/organizations be willing to use Social Media technologies to disclose locations?
Does Social Media technologies disclosing locations hurt/degrade the value of the brand of the “small” people and organizations…or reinforce the brand of the “big box” organizations.
Does location based Social Media technologies reinforce the “small” people/organizations as “thought leaders” empowering the reinforcement of the “big box” organization?
Does location based Social Media technology reinforce the small individual people and organization “thought leaders” as “thought leaders” since they are proportionally the influencers for “bog box” brands?
Have small people and organizations using Social Media platforms and location based technologies created a paradigm shift in perception transitioning those “small” people/organizations onto the same platform as “big box” organizations. Where does the influence lie and where will it lie in 10 years?
Who are the thought leaders?
Who really maximizes the true benefit of these location based platforms? Is it the groups publishing where they are located or is the organizations that are being recognized where this constituency base has chosen to locate and ultimately publicize? Some organizations are providing “rewards” for those soliciting their location using these technologies, but who is the thought leader here? Or do we care? Or is it just fun to say we are going to a movie and then to another place for a milkshake?
Organizations like hospitals might frame the benefit from these platforms with their marketing support staff providing their location especially for small doctors offices that lie under the umbrella of services. This is where organizations, “big box” organizations could benefit from internal staff providing location based advertising and raise awareness both from a public (business to consumer) and internal (business to business) position, informing other internal groups where and what is offered internally.
So what is the story behind these location based platforms? How are you using them? Are you doing more that just adding to the fad of saying what you are doing and where? Have you thought about the true marketing implications of these technologies and platforms? Are you telling your story or helping others with a bigger message? What are your thoughts? And will this become another place like Twitter where people get excited and then the honeymoon stage drops off like a bad relationship?
So it is my goal this year to look beyond the my current universe and begin to find other avenues beyond Flash video. Yes….for the past two and half years, I have been using Flash Video (FLV) to compress and distribute video content. Why did I start using it?
Well, at one time we were using WMV (Windows Media) as the primary platform, our current Director of IT had us on a windows platform and it made sense. It was clean, flexible yet we were missing a major target audience, the Mac World. From a user standpoint, Flash Video had a bigger penetration rate plus it looked real clean with HDV content. So off we moved to Flash video. The downside, the compression time TAKES FOREVER! WOW! But, it was flexible and had many robust player options, and every developer under the sun was creating so many options for Flash Video.
With the advent of the iPhone and other mobile computing devices (including the upcoming release of the iPad), Flash video is barely supported. It is funny, I moved to Flash to reach the Apple users, now those same Apple users are going to force me away from Flash video. So, now it is my goal to deliver high-quality video outside of Flash Video…for the sole reason of reaching mobile audiences.
How are we currently reaching mobile audiences, well there is this great new place called YouTube. Yes, god bless these souls. They are the work around. Upload the video content to your YouTube channel, then grab the readily available embed code for your web page, and SHIZAM….you can have most of the mobile devices access your video content. Yes it is a Flash player, but since they have contracts with major mobile platforms like the iPhone, you can play video embedded into your website if it is hosted on YouTube. The problem, once you upload the content…it is no longer your content, it is owned and operated by YouTube. Yes, this free distribution channel doesn’t want to be liable if their servers take a big ole hiccup and your audience can’t watch your favorite video of Uncle Al busting his ass coming down the stairs or your corporate video that needs to play in front of investors.
So really, this year is dedicated to more than just moving away from my technological dependency of Flash video, but also my hosting/contract dependency of YouTube. I want to find a place to store my content, distribute it to the targeted audiences, and maximize the quality my clients pay me dearly to provide. Now, thanks to H264 codecs…this is possible.
So far, I have only found one place that makes sense….I think, Sorenson360. I have looked at Brightcove, Ooyala, Veeple, and Kaltura….but Sorenson360 has my vote right now. This is why…pretty simple. I set-up a trial account, uploaded an H264 Quicktime (.mov), it asked me if I wanted to distribute to the web and mobile (I said yes), it gave me a simple embed code, I dropped it into my blog, pulled out my iPhone, and behold…my video play instantly on my iPhone. ***Side note, Brightcove and Ooyala have harassed the snot out of me since i signed up to check out their trial area. Actually Brightcove was very nice, but not Ooyala.***
I am looking forward to HTML5 and the opportunities it will bring. But I am a one man type of show. I can hire some developers to create a platform to upload, compress, and distribute content for my clients…but Sorenson360 did this within a matter of minutes.
Video distribution should not be what limits us to provide a message to an audience, it should enable us to reach larger audiences. It should provide a pathway to reach groups of individuals regardless of the “technology” they use to access information. It is my goal to embrace technologies to reach these groups. The same is true for Social Media technologies, they are a tool and it is up to us as practitioners to use them if it meets the needs of the audience. We have a story to tell!
BTW…I already know how to host, compress, and distribute video content on dedicated or virtual servers. I understand the ROI for the use CDN’s and the Amazon’s Cloud to encode and distribute video content. But, I am one man that likes to focus on telling stories, not managing a server network. It is time focus on my core competency…telling rich stories.
So many people ask me what I studied as an undergraduate while at Clemson. Yes…this creative person has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics…YES. I also studied statistics and art and architectural history. How in the world did I end up doing creative work telling visual stories. Hmm. If you sit back and think about it for a second…math, art, architecture, and even philosophy are interrelated. I also have a Master of Arts in Professional Communications where I studied audience analysis, usability testing methodologies, and classical rhetoric. This all plays together…in some twisted far off universe called Bobby’s world!
I am a visual storyteller. When I pull out the camera, I assess the audience. When I look through the viewfinder, I look at the screen in proportions. The eye is attracted to perfect numbers. That is why you see cathedrals using the rule of thirds and even sevens. The screen to me is divided into thirds where this “theatre” allows the eye to flow naturally top to bottom, left to right (in the western culture). If what is on the screen is not appealing to the eye and the senses, then you have lost the first battle in engaging the audience. I try to avoid centering the main focus of the screen, I try to either left or right justify. I also like to edit shots together in sequences of thirds so that the cadence reflects the natural tendency to think in thirds.
A visual storyteller uses sound. When I pull out the expensive camera, I use the expensive microphones and headphones. I like to “shoot for sound”. When I am acquiring an image, I am listening to my surroundings looking for the opportunity for the sound to enhance the image. When I am “shooting” a waterfall, I want the microphone to get as close as possible to the waterfall to capture that crisp image. Then I like to edit these sounds together in a cadence of some logical sense. Sometimes with quick actions, I will edit a sequence together using sound in a series of threes. In order to have an effective sequence for the audience to follow, the sound must be crisp. ***Rule of thumb, if editing together a sequence does not work visually, use some type of sound during the point of the visual edit to distract the eye.
When I create a video, I want to create a visual experience. I want you to forget that the editing process has happened and you are guided through this little documentary. Using proportional shots with sound editing provides a clear path to engage the audience. People want stories, people want an experience, people want rich media…but this media can only be acquired by the audience only if you can make them forget they no longer have their peripheral vision. Think of the best movie you have seen in the theatre. If you are really enjoying the movie, you forget your surroundings. Your peripheral vision has been “forgotten” for that brief period. You have engaged with the story-line. What made it go away?
You only have one shot to engage today’s audience. User-Centered Design tells us that audiences are jumping through online content faster than the synapses in our brain can tell us to click somewhere else. What allows the audience to engage with that piece of rich media. What makes our bounce rate go down? We have only one shot, just one shot to get it right. People will click away. So we have to create media with the same creative fashion we create beautiful pieces of fine art. We have to use the knowledge we have of the human eye and senses. We know the eye likes warm images, images that keep you from looking away. Fine proportions and and clean images that seem so natural to be unnatural. We have to use rich sounds that feel crisp enough to flow right next to us in our seats. We have to edit in a parameter that lends to a cadence that appeals to the visual cues the eyes and ears desire.
Using math is fun. Creating rhythm is fun. Telling a story is fun.
FYI…if you want to learn more about how engineers and mathematicians came up with 16×9 widescreen television, here is an article: CLICK HERE.
I received an email today that challenged a remark I made during a meeting. The question asked about the importance of listening and asked for tips/thoughts/advice. This made me think, what makes us good listeners and how can we become better listeners in-order to engage with our audiences.
Here are some thoughts that I used in response to my friend!
To know your audience, to effectively communicate…we must listen so that we may adjust/address our discourse.
To listen, we must ask. We must be willing to empower our audience and engage their conversation. So we ask questions to learn about our audience.
We are observant, we look at our surroundings where we communicate so that the visual cues provide context to the conversation.
We find a connection point. People exchange in conversation because of some common ground. We look for these commonalities and use them to form reflective conversation.
We bite our tongues. When we listen, we do not try to complete others’ sentences but provide simple gestures so that the audience feels us engaged.
We provide emotional reinforcement. It is okay to laugh, cry, and even get mad during a conversation. Emotion is the result of a successful conversation.
We make our audience feel important, we make them feel like they are the thought leader. This requires us to do a little homework and understand who will engage in conversation; so that we can be prepared with questions about that person so we can make them feel important.
We create a silence so that the audience feels the need to fill the void. Sometimes we ask questions or even prompt discussions, but we are not willing to let the person answer. Create a silence in the discussion that provides a rigid opportunity for the audience to feel the need to remove the silence.
Most importantly, be genuine and honest with the ones you are communicating. Honesty provides connection and builds credibility.
Lastly, tell stories, good stories. People connect with stories, rich stories with layers. When you tell a story, people want to share their stories. Then just sit back, listen and enjoy the moment.
Listening is one of the toughest things to do. It is a skill that can be refined during an interview process. When I worked as a journalist, I learned the hard way. I would have to go into households of families who had lost a loved one with cameras and equipment to get an interview. I learned to make them feel comfortable enough to share their deepest moment of lose with the camera recording. I learned to find something in common so that the conversation was not empty and provided context, plus I wanted to earn their trust. I would look around the room and find a picture, book, something that I could identify so we could establish some common ground. Then, I was honest in my intentions, and allowed them to make the decisions how the interview/conversation would continue. I made them feel like the gatekeeper, empowering them as the dominant in the conversation.
Listening can be fun, learning from listening is powerful. If we looked at engaging in conversation as an opportunity to learn from those whom we converse with daily, we could create a bigger knowledge economy.
OK…I figured it out after chatting with the people from Hootsuite how to add the a Fan Page to Hootsuite.
Open Hootsuite (log in)
Go to the bottom and click the Settings tab
Go right under the update/status bar and click Social Networks
Go to the right hand side of the screen, right under your Avatar and click +Add Social Network
A pop-up menu will appear and right under Facebook, you will see Pages (You probably need to add your personal Facebook profile to Hootsuite first)
Click Pages and then select Connect with Facebook
It will ask you again to Connect with Facebook, click it again when prompted
Another pop-up window will appear to ask you to log into Facebook, provide username & password and click Connect
Another pop-up window will appear listing all of the Fan Pages your are a part of, select the Fan Page you want to add to Hootsuite
Another pop-up window will appear that asks you if you want to allow publishing for Fan Page you want to add to Hootsuite, click Allow Publishing
It will then take you back to the pop-up window that lists all your Fan Pages with the one you want to add to Hootsuite selected, click Add to Hootsuite
There are so many layers to a story, and those layers can continually evolve regardless of time!
I was riding home from Charleston, SC a few days ago. The wife and I were tired and it was getting close to 8pm, a long day visiting my sister-in-law Susanna at the College of Charleston. As we were navigating the back-roads of this I-385 detour, my iPhone began ringing with an unfamiliar phone number displayed. This self-employeed businessman never passes up an opportunity to talk about business, so I answered. The gentleman introduced himself and called me by my name…he said, “My name is Gary and I helped your family three years ago when I worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Columbia.” This begins our little journey.
This story ultimately begins with a trip. My wife’s family is notorious for packing a car full of family and that car is notorious for breaking down at the worst of times. This time it was a hot spring day, Friday afternoon traffic in Columbia, SC. Seriously, 5pm traffic on Interstate 26 towards Bowman, SC. Bowman was their destination, where my wife’s grandfather had passed away. They needed to be at the funeral home before 6:30pm, to greet family and friends the day before the funeral. Stuck on the side of the road, they do what they normally do…call me. Being two hours behind them, I did what I knew best…call Enterprise Rent-A-Car, because they have a simple motto, “We’re Enterprise, we’ll pick you up!”
So I called the nearest Enterprise based on their location, it was a branch at the Columbia, SC airport. Gary from Enterprise answered the phone and I explained the situation. He broke protocol, took a Town and Country van, dropped it off, helped them exchange cars, and my family was on their way arriving in Bowman right at 6:30pm. He stayed with the car until the tow truck arrived and then got a ride back to the branch office. It was this can-do attitude and service that has now earned a lifetime customer, yes…I am a card carrying rewards member of Enterprise.
After hearing this story, I wrote a series of letters to his boss, the corporate office, and the southeastern manager. A series of thank you notes. It probably took an hour of my time. He had the time to help my family, I had the time to tell Enterprise…because of Gary, they now have a loyal customer.
Back to the phone call. So while talking to Gary on the phone, he began telling me that it was those letters that prompted him to call me. He was calling to thank me. He told me that those thank you letters changed his life. HOLD ON? I asked, “what do you mean, changed your life?”
He continued explaining; because of that letter, he was immediately promoted to a marketing division. After a while, and a few downsizing efforts, he was laid off. I immediately perked up and wondered where this conversation was leading. He went on to explain that he took some time to consider what was next after Enterprise. He had enjoyed investing his retirement package at Enterprise and began helping family and friends with their portfolio. This prompted him to begin researching the business of investments. After a series of meetings, many certification tests, several interviews, and a long training process…it was decision time for Edward Jones Investments. He went to meet with a VP of Edward Jones, and as a part of his application package for his own branch, he included this very letter from that I wrote to Enterprise. The VP basically told him that this letter was the only thing he needed to make his decision.
So Gary was calling me on this day, March 1st to thank me. You see, it was March 1st…this day that his branch in Lexington, SC was opening for the first time! He had reached his dream, to own his own business, be his own boss, and help people. He was thanking me for writing that letter. What he did not realize, while he was thanking me, tears were running down my eyes. I was actually thanking him, because this story, this day brought a new meaning to my life. It was this day he had changed my life. His one phone call, his few minutes thanking me made me see the world in a difference way. He had once again made a serious impact in my life.
It is amazing what a thank you note will do. It is amazing the residual effect from a single gesture. It is amazing the layers to this story, that connected us once again. I have yet to meet Gary, but I will be making a trip to shake his hand. Thanks Gary, thank you for being you. You are an inspiration!
This post is dedicated to a few people:
To Denise Weathers, my mother-in-law who is no longer with us but made a tremendous impression on Gary that day!
To John Warner who taught me the value of a simple social media called a thank you note!
To Bob Dotson who has helped me learn the value of the red-string and finding those stories with layers.
So I was searching around for this option and could not figure this out. But thanks to a search and a comment in a post from Andreas Stephan, I was able to figure this out!
“TweetDeck supports this natively. Took me a while to figure that out: Go to you FB account in Tweet Deck, you can add pages at the bottom of the account settings. You wil then be able to post to your fan page directly from TweetDeck. Hope this helps some people.”
Here is a step-by-step process for integrating the ability to update your Facebook Fan Page via TweetDeck. FYI, you need to be an administrator of this Fan Page to make this an option.
First, you have to add your Facebook Account to TweetDeck:
Open TweetDeck
Go to the upper right hand corner and look for the wrench – CLICK
Select Accounts
Click Add New Account
Select Add a Facebook Account
Provide the necessary information to add your Facebook Account
Save
Add the Fan Page to TweetDeck to update in the status bar:
Open TweetDeck
Go to the upper right hand corner and look for the wrench – CLICK
So I have been thinking a bit about all these various discussions relevant to Social Media and how to measure success. People want a metric…they want to measure something! Whether it is the “SIZE” of the community, the number of leads, or the amount of revenue generated, etc.
I just read an excellent blog post by Amber Naslund titled: “How I made $100K with Twitter.” This was such a great post, but what I walked away from this post was this simple point, you get as much as you put into it. I know that sounds so elementary, but it is so true.
“The magic in making money with social media isn’t that the site or social network becomes a revenue center itself. I didn’t sell stuff on Twitter. I gave people access to me and my expertise, and paid attention to when the time might be right to talk business.” Amber Naslund, Radian6
So what are we trying to measure? If we are business people, we want to know that we will get something in return for the time we invest into this medium. If we are a large company, we want to measure the scale of time as it directly relates to the revenue or sales it generates. If we are a cause or advocacy group, we want to measure the reach of our message; basically how many people we can communicate and get them reciprocate the message.
This is what I want to measure:
Connectivity is increasing: I want to know that my community is growing and I can continue to connect with other smart people.
Revenue is increasing: I want to know that the number of people I am reaching has some direct effect on the revenue I generate.
Generation of New Ideas: I want my ever increasing connectivity to help me to become more innovative.
My “Competition”: I want to be able to engage and watch what my “competitors” are doing as they innovate.
Reciprocity: I want to know that if I am sharing, others are sharing back.
Clicks: I want to measure if people are clicking what I want them to click.
I think of the ole education story. Remember back when we went to college, and it was hard to get up in the morning for that 8am class. Sometimes we would skip and wonder what we missed? Then there are some of us that might have been perpetual skippers and wonder why we could not get good grades. I was one of those people. But my academic advisor told me this, your success in the classroom dramatically increases if you just show up for class. Think about that statement for a second. Your success can be attributed to the amount of time you engage.
I think the same thing is true for any portal of conversation you choose to find value. The more you engage in the conversation, the bigger return. The key word here is conversation…not dictatorship. People want conversations, opportunities to grow, listen, and to be heard. People want to share with like minded people. If you are in the business world, they want to share business with people that understand how to solve their problems. This goes back to listening .
So here is my metric: I can directly correlate the number of times I listen to the amount of meaningful conversations I have, whether it is business or personal. If I listen, I can help people solve problems. If I am a good listener, then my network is big…AND if I can’t solve the problem, there is someone in my network that can probably help solve that problem.
What stories are you listening to today?
BTW, here is a good discussion Social Media ROI from Olivier Blanchard. I think the guy is smart and has figured this out.
So today was the day! Yes, and it was what I least expected! A few weeks ago, I had the tremendous opportunity to meet up with someone cool, the one and only Kamran Popkin from SWAG Club. This guy is more than just about great SWAG, but sharing some fun and connecting people. He invited a few of us for a corporate trip out to the BMW Performance Track in Spartanburg, SC next to the BMW Manufacturing facility where they build the X5’s for international distribution.
As I got into my little red 1991 BMW 325i convertible, and made my way to Spartanburg, I had no idea what was in store for the day. As I pulled into the facility and made my way inside, I was greeted by some close friends who had also decided to attend this day. From there, it was lunch, some ground rules and off to the track. OK…ground rules and off to the track…YES….we are going to RACE BMW’s on a performance track. No weird Interstate driving where we are worried about blue lights. Yes, it was the petal to the metal. BTW, one of the attendees was late today because he was pulled over on the way to the day’s activities, he was a little PUMPED! Rightfully so!
So…four tracks, eight different BMW’s, 38 attendees and time for loads of fun. We started with driving the X5’s on an off road track where you can take the SUV through 2.5 feet of water, on steep inclines, and even on two wheels, YES..TWO WHEELS. My partner for the day was Wendi Hil,l whom is also a marketing professional. From the moment we jumped into the X5, it was a day off holding onto the “Ole Shit” handle accompanied by loads of laughter and screams.
So a few things that rocked my boat: 1) Racing a BMW 650i on a timed track.
We were able to drive a black 650i on a timed track where we could unleash the 4.8L 360HP V8…and charge around the track in uniform chaos with a partner in the car. Here is Wendi as she drove around the track, a video from my iPhone. Notice the intensity in her eyes and the shake in my hand as we scream around the track. If you listen, you can here the scream of the engine!
2) The Instructor “Hot Run” – AKA Check your Britches Run!
This is where the instructors get to take us ego driven goof balls (after we think we have mastered the track) and show us how to really drive a BMW M5 on this “Performance Track.” Umm…OK, my head still hurts, I never thought that I could ride in a car where the only forward motion that was created was when the car was sideways. What do I mean, this M5 spent more time moving up the track sideways than actually wheels pointing forward. After slipping and sliding, a few 360’s, my head hurt from laughing so hard! My hand was permanently engrained into the “Ole Shit” handle above the window. IT WAS AWESOME! It is amazing the performance and safety of a BMW M5.
3) The BMW 135i 3.0 Liter Twin Turbo
This little two seater actually has four seats, but the two in the back are the insurance seats. But, this little firecracker on the open track made me get on the gas in the open straight-aways and get on the brakes before those sharp turns because of this amazing power. WOW! Man does it have torque! This was my favorite car of the day, and at the nearly $30K price tag, WOW!
All I can say to my friend Kamran Popkin, thanks a BUNCH! He knows how to through a party BMW style! What a great pre-birthday present!
