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Bobby Rettew's Creative Blog
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FastCompany: “You Must Be A Storyteller.”

Fast Company’s Kerrin Sheldon wrote a wonderful blog last month titled “Why Short-Form Video Is The Future Of Marketing” and I have to agree.

Let’s Talk Audience
Kerrin went on to make a powerful statement: “To create truly high-quality content, you must be a storyteller. You must be able to pull together a large selection of shots and content and pare it down into a manageable short-form video that will engage an audience.”

This conversation takes me back to a dinner I had with Bob Dotson of NBC. Bob is what I consider a master storyteller and his reputation is obvious from the numerous awards and speaking engagements across the country. He took me to dinner after we worked together on a story in Charlotte. I took this opportunity to become a human sponge and soak up as much knowledge as possible.

Let’s Talk Purpose
Bob explained anyone can tell a story…but if you really want to tell a story that engages an audience, you must find an tell stories with layers. As the storyline progresses in a video…the audience peels back the layers, revealing each little nugget of the storyline. Stories using video are visual communication tools…you just have to know how to find them, especially inside/outside you branded organizations.

I love this short little video interview with Bob:

Bob’s comments get you thinking, why we tell stories and how to find those stories with layers. But back to Kerrin Sheldon’s point about short video content.

Kerrin continues in the Fast Company article to share about this growing market of storytelling:
“I predict the next 5-10 years will be huge for video marketing online. Brands are moving further away from direct advertising, whose metrics that are hard to calculate, and into original video content–content that is created not to sell but to engage. They tell a story and they create brand loyalty. The days of direct consumer advertising is dwindling, and the advent of marketing through storytelling has arrived.”

Let’s Talk Delivery
Let’s at the numbers, here is an online video consumption from June 2012 (Based on ComScore Report):
1) 84.8 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
2) The duration of the average online content video was 6.8 minutes.
3) Video advertising reached another all-time high in June as 11 billion video ads were viewed.
4) Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in June with 154.5 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 51.5 million, Facebook.com with 49 million, VEVO with 46.2 million and Viacom Digital with 38.9 million. Vimeo moved into the top 10 ranking for the first time at #10 with 21.4 million viewers.

So let’s look at the channels to share your content:
1) YouTube: “Everyone knows YouTube and it continues to dominate the market. But unless you’re a professional musician or are looking to score the new huge viral video showcasing your friends firing off bottle rockets from a made-at-home cannon, there are plenty of other places to showcase your videos. “

2) Vimeo: “Vimeo.com is the finest collection of artistic videographers on the web. Without outwardly deleting poor-quality content, Vimeo’s homepage and search results make it easy to find awesome content and avoid the endless amounts of useless crap that often plague the YouTube experience.”

3) Pinterest: “Along the same lines, Pinterest’s new video feature gives curators great opportunities to pin videos to their boards. Even more so than Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest has created a sharing experience so simple and effective, it makes the potential or virility even higher.”

So as Kerrin says, “With ever-increasing YouTube lunch breaks and Vimeo dinner dates, online video is becoming a constant companion–one that every brand is rushing to take advantage of. “

***Image from epicamexico.blogspot.com

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Olympic Spoiler??? This blog post comes to you right on time!

Ok…so the image above was captured at 2:48pm Tuesdayand this article was written at 1:32pm Tuesday afternoon, EDT. Yes…

“The U.S. women’s team has won the gold medal in the gymnastics team final with a superlative performance and an overall score of 183.596. Russia scored a 178.530 to take the silver and Romania won the bronze with a score of 176.414.”

Ok…who cares other than the fact that this is the first time since 1996.

“Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman delivered impressive floor routines to clinch the first team gold for the U.S. since the ‘Magnificent Seven’ won in 1996.”

It is a big day for the US…well, kind of?

Of course, since the Olympics are broadcasted on NBC via tape delay…most Americans will not be able to see this victory until Thursday evening. Well, most Americans…I guess?

Since Huffington Post and most news outlets posted this huge announcement via social media…the Twitter-verse has been exploding with excitement and people complaining about it spoiling the fun Thursday evening.

Tweets from around 3:08 Tuesday afternoon…people still talking spoilers. And even have moved on from talking about the Women’s Gymnastics spoiler.

So here is my question…will you be interested to see the viewership statistics for the television broadcasts and compare them to the NBC/YouTube live streaming viewership? People have the option to watch it live during the day online or watch later on their television.

This world phenomenon is going to have to solidify the distinction between television viewership and online consumption. Also…how much social media has played into the reporting of the Olympics in real time via Twitter, Facebook, and other social outlets?

I am looking forward to Nielsen to release the viewership comparison between online and television and relevant  the impact from the social outlets. NBC Television scored big numbers for the opening ceremonies “with 40.7 million people tuning in for the opening ceremony, making it the most-watched opening ceremony for a summer or winter Olympics ever.” But what about days like today when something big happened in the middle of the day. It will be interesting to see the comparison!

Or will the social space sharing the results in real time turn into a tremendous marketing opportunity for NBC to capture viewership in the evening. People will want to see it with their own eyes.

You think it is a spoiler when Huffington Post and other media outlets posted immediately on their websites that the Women’s Gymnastics Team won?

Spolier alert…maybe people are moving to online viewing and social consumption for real time information. And maybe the networks and media giants have figured out how to leverage the social/digital space to attract audiences to watch on television? I am looking forward to seeing if people enjoyed the real time results via online versus waiting to watch the old tele.

***Image credit…HuffingtonPost.com 

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Are we too social online or are we bi-polar? What is our real story?

On thing I have learned over the past 4-5 years working with groups in the social media/digital space: social technologies has provided one heck of a platform for individuals and brands to become overt, expository, and exclamatory in an expedient fashion. Especially when it comes to taking a “stand” or “position” on a topic.

Reed Smith posed this question yesterday on Facebook: “Is it Possible To Be Too Social?”

Now his context for this question was based on frequency…but with the recent barrage of social advocates overloading our walls from politics, healthcare, and even the recent Chick-Fil-A situation; this has me thinking through a different lens.

I am amazed each day what I read on my news feed, on Twitter, the memes that are posted, and how we de-contextualize information to meet our needs. We live in a cut-and-paste, digital recycle world where we take information and reuse to fit our messaging needs.

I often wonder, would the same conversations that happen online happen offline? Would we be more open to conversation offline or would we use the same “hunt and kill” mentality, hiding behind the keyboard, and sharing our inner thoughts like we do online?

There are so many people and individuals that I meet that are nothing like the personalities they portray in the online space. This bi-polar online/offline life we lead  leads me to wonder…who am I talking to in person.

Admit it, you have fallen victim to his moment of “rage,” getting caught in the moment wanting to one-up a person online, getting caught in a feud that leads to a Facebook thread three screen shots deep. Before you know it…you wonder who was that person behind that avatar that wrote those rebuttal statements…is that me?

So here is the question, what does it mean to be too social? Is it frequency? Frequency has a lot to do with it…and I do not mean the number of times you communicate a marketing message. I mean the frequency of hours we spend online…developing an online brand that does not coincide with our offline personality.

And we as marketers that manage brand’s appearance online…we end-up having multiple personality disorder. We are typing on our Facebook page, then posting for our brand…hoping that we do not send out that party picture to the wrong social account. Admit it…you have done it before. You just have to know how to delete it REAL FAST.

Are we too “Social”? Well, if it means online…the retail brands hope so, they want your attention and want you to advocate for their cause. I would be willing to bet that Chick-Fil-A is happy with the image above…the 811 comments posted (which leads to shares). But would you say that same thing in person to someone you know that does not agree? With that same expository tone? That same shout with conviction? Would you be proud of that commet after your family members, peers, or even work relationships see that exclamation? Or would wait to get online talk about them later?

What is your ethic and where do you stand online and offline…and are they the same voice? Are we telling the same story? I think we (including myself) need to check ourselves at the door from time to time.

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Creative Inspiration Just Strikes…

You never know when it is going to happen. You never know when that creative inspiration will hit us like a ton of bricks. We spend so much time crafting a story, but we must feel it with our bare skin…our breathe…our inner creative being.

Crafting a story is like the best type of “dance” with the audience…we must see the story through their eyes in-order to communicate the final prose.

So many times I find myself looking for the final way to put a piece together. I spend so much creative time thinking about the storyline…especially as it is developing. I craft initial storylines, what I think the interview will say, how the story will evolve…but we always must be prepared for those moments in time that provide us the epiphany.

We can have the best cameras, the best edit suites, the best lighting, the most innovative approaches to capture the story…but it all comes down to execution. Can you pull all the elements together in a way that gives the audience something, that one thing, that when they walk away…they see it through your eyes. They get goose bumps at the right moments!

Then you wonder…do they (the audience) see those tiny moments exposed.

The craft of storytelling is more than a craft…it is a calling.

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We may not like Cathryn Sloan’s tone…but we cannot escape her reality.

I have been reading lots and lots of reaction to Cathryn Sloan’s article “Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25” featured on NextGenJounral.com. I have to say that I applaud her voice and her premise, whether or not if we like her tone.

I read all the negative and hateful reaction in the comments section below her article, most of which came from seasoned marketing professionals. Here is the funny thing about her article and premise she provided…all the negative comments reinforced the fact the her generation is pushing the traditional marketing glass ceiling upward so high…it is shattering.

Also…I have lost lots of respect for many of those seasoned professionals that thought it was fun to add their jabs in the commenting section of this article. Especially the ones that called her generation arrogant. Your negativity reinforced her argument and I am saddened that you felt it was fun to join in and take a swing at the punching bag. Especially a generation we need to embrace.

As a regular lecturer working with both undergraduates and graduate students, I am amazed each day how the social space is a second language to not only Generation Y…but also Generation C.

There is a shift happening in the workplace and Generation Y will soon be replacing the Baby Boomers in the workplace…76 million of them. So what about Generation X…they are the current VP’s of Communications and Marketing working for the Baby Boomers…hoping to land those next positions. They do not want to get jumped.

So let’s look at Cathryn and Generation Y.

Generation Y is the fastest growing segment of the workforce, growing from 14% to 21% over the past four years. Most Baby Boomers will phase out of the workforce in the next 10 to 20 years and Generation Y will rapidly assume the place of the Baby Boomers.

The Gen Y experience is centered around a growing, technologically connected society who are not only learning the common discourse of the web…BUT creating their own discourse in the social space. These discourse communities are the ones driving the advertising market space and they are taking a commanding front seat to not only becoming the lead in purchasing power but social influence.

Gen X is stuck in transitioning from device to device because we were the greatest usability test for this technological era. Gen Y is commanding how these devices are created. Actually…some groups like Neilsen consider the 18-34 age range Generation C.

“The latest Census reports that Americans 18-34 make up 23 percent of the U.S. population, yet they represent an outsized portion of consumers watching online video (27%), visiting social networking/blog sites (27%), owning tablets (33%) and using a smartphone (39%). Their ownership and use of connected devices makes them incredibly unique consumers, representing both a challenge and opportunity for marketers and content providers alike. Generation C is engaging in new ways and there are more touch points for marketers to reach them.”

If you want to look at the infographic from this study…here it is and it is quite intriguing.

Gen C uses technology as their oxygen where networking online is critical with the need for instant gratification. They are and will be multi-focused in work-life. Technology is completely embedded into their daily life and their physical space and technology are well integrated.

So what does all this mean and what does all this have to do with Cathryn’s premise. Let me tell a story. I taught a Business Writing Class last semester and the final project was to work with a large organization to create and social media strategy for an event promotion. The class was split into groups and competed to create the best strategy.

This large organization had been pitched numerous ideas by from well-respected marketing firms, yet they were still looking for something innovative, fun, and engaging for the community. In one month, these 25 college students created six strategies that not only met the needs of the organization, but provided some amazing insight and innovation. They basically blew the socks off this organization, exceeding expectations of the organization that had already been pitched by well-respected marketing firms. Why? Because they live and breathe the social space…they just had to learn how integrate audience analysis and execution.

The social space is not going anywhere. It is here to stay and the next leaders of this space will be the Cathryns of the world. They are confident in their abilities and have an eagerness to show what they have. They also have something much different…they have the entrepreneurial spirit.

Generation C scares the hell out of us not only because of how smart they are, and how connected they’ve become, and how easily they integrate themselves into this social space… but also how expendable Generation X is in this exponentially evolving American economy.

We need to quit fussing and complaining about Cathryn because we might be answering to her one day… sooner rather than later. I already am. One of my former students is now my client in a large hospital system. I have a pretty good time doing business with her.

It is up to us seasoned professionals to help shaped this generation and learn to leverage their knowledge. We may not like the tone of her article, but we cannot escape her reality.

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Always fun working with Immedion!

It is always fun to work with a new client. Immedion just launched their new website, created by Cyberwoven in Columbia. Natalia Muska (Director of Marketing) worked with me as we crafted customer stories that showcase Immedion’s commitment to “Always On” mantra.

We created two initial customer stories based on two companies Vigilix and Sturgis Web Services. You should watch both videos…interesting companies one of which located right in downtown Greenville. Both companies depend on Immedion’s infrastructure to meet the needs of their customer base.

Both stories come from the customers’ voice, allowing each person to tell their story. We chose this direction so that the audience can hear their story instead of the perspective where we “put words into their mouth.” Lots of fun especially with a little fast pace editing to spice it up a bit.

Here are the two videos for you to enjoy…or you can go Immedion’s website to learn more! A screen shot of their homepage is above!

Vigilix

Sturgis Web Services

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Are we truly a divided America or has the digital chasm has been crossed?

I ask you…are we truly a divided America? Have we thrown up the ideological lines in the sand? Or do we just have better access to media and technologies that provide an outlet for our voice?

The digital chasm has been crossed with more American’s gaining access to connected technologies. Internet access used to be this “elite” luxury where the only access was in metropolitan areas, large businesses, and large educational institutions. Now, more and more areas have become connected from rural America to other socioeconomic demographics; more Americans can go online to read and react.

So has access to knowledge and information created a divided nation? Has access to social websites and mobile platforms provided a place for too many people to voice their opinions.

I say we are the vocal melting pot with a diverse cultural impact. We come from so many different backgrounds, experiences, cultures, knowledge bases that now we can share in places we once had limited access. The smart phone has transformed the way we communicate where we can share our thoughts in real time. A Google search provides real time results to peoples thoughts, pictures, videos, and all the relevant information that provides context to our culture..

The social search is alive and well and it is this technological breakthrough that provides those with an opinion a platform to share. Whether we agree, disagree, or react; we are not a part of a division…we are a sum of all parts. Social media is now the platform that crosses all socioeconomic backgrounds, a platform for our voice to be heard.

We now have a place to share our story.

Happy Birthday to a nation that provides the liberty and the knowledge that allows us to share the one thing that makes us whole…our voice.

***Image from ThomasPMBarnett.com

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There is more to the story than just capturing the image.

Here is a picture that has being shared around social outlets, especially among my broadcast journalist colleagues. When I look at this funny little caricature, I am amused by the technological indicator of where we are as consumers, and how we have become a part of reporting the story.

If you look at the picture…ten years ago, you could flip flop this image. The paid photojournalists were on the right and the lay person was on the left wondering what is going on. Now, even our grandmother’s have access to smartphones that capture and record high quality images and video. They even have access to technology like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, YouTube, and a host of other technologies that have larger audiences than a television stations DMA.

It is funny how times are shifting and we as storytellers are having to learn to compete in a space flooded with “that” proliferation of information. It is a new paradigm and it is hard not to get scared of this digital media industry. We as practitioners are trying to find ways to bring value to the craft of photojournalism, digital communication, and documentary storytelling…and separate ourselves in this competitive world of “media.”

I was sharing this photo with a close friend and he asked, “Does this photo make you wonder if there is a timeframe to your industry?” I actually feel it strengthens my mission and my business. There is a distinction between the technology that captures and shares images and the craft of using media to tell stories. It is a difference between the practitioner and the technician.

I am excited to let the community act as the technician with their iPhones and Droids and using their 4G LTE service to share those images. Why? Because I can allow them to share the information and let me tell the story behind the information.

The craft behind storytelling allows “us” to use media(s) to capture, craft, construct, and share a story with an audience…inspiring them to create change. Let’s take the Tsunami in Japan, so many individuals captured this story in real time with their smartphones and share online. The storytellers were the individuals that found the people directly impacted by that wall of water…crafted stories that share the human element of this story. Those are the stories that still grip us and bring context to those images.

Both communities (practitioners and technicians) co-exist and leverage each other’s digital access…the consumer shares the action and the storytellers craft the human element of the reaction.

* Image by Gary Varvel 

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Storytelling…it is all about getting the moments.

Sometimes you never know when a good story is going to present itself…so we have to be prepared. Years and years of training and it never fails, when the lights are just perfect, the shot is just beautiful…that perfect moment in time happens off camera.

I have always been one who likes to debate the technical expertise versus the storytelling techniques of listening. I have worked with some of the best technical photojournalist, creating some of the best images, capturing some of the most amazing interviews. But the best storytellers, best photojournalists are the ones that are willing to break away from that perfect setting and capture that one shot that tells the whole story.

It was just the other day, I was in the middle of a shoot with a family who was going to share their experience with a physician. Perfectly crafted shots, perfectly scripted, perfectly composed…but the real shot was when the little boy ran out of the shot to get a sucker from the nurse. Perfect moment in time, captured because I pulled away and followed the boy. The shot was not perfectly framed…it included lots of the lighting equipment in the background…but it captured that moment in time shared between a little boy and a provider.

I live by a mantra, work by a mantra, tell stories using a mantra…one that I learned many years ago:

Two Shots Ahead
Three Shots Behind
Get The Moment

That simple. I am always telling stories with my cameras thinking about the next two shots I want to capture, the previous three shots I just captured…and most importantly to always capture the moment.

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No Such Thing as a FREE LUNCH – Social Conspiracy Theory!

You see this…yes, this is being passed around online. All over Facebook, people are sharing this…FAST. I think this one image has been shared over 187K times, and we are eating it up and sharing it faster than some funny YouTube video. The viral effect of social conspiracy theory has invaded our online space like funny looking martians…and the idea we are being watched by big brother is ALL AROUND.

Guess what…it is not a conspiracy.

Here is another one of my favorites that people are sharing on Facebook:

“PRIVACY NOTICE: Warning – any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/or the comments made about my photos or any other “picture” art posted on my profile.

You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee , agent , student or any personnel under your direction or control.

The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE”

People are copying and pasting this into their status’s faster than their internet connection will allow them. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE.

This is what I know:
1 – Big brother is watching us –> Google Maps
2 – Facebook is FREE
3 – Facebook is monetizing our data
4 – Twitter is FREE
5 – Twitter is monetizing our data
6 – Google is FREE
7 – Google is monetizing our data
8 – Elvis is STILL ALIVE…maybe?
9 – I just used Google to search “Is Elvis still alive?”

OK…back to the important discussion…

Who the heck are we to use something like Facebook, Twitter, Google and sit back an expect them not to monetize it. When we sign-up, we knowingly accept the fact that we are uploading content, pictures, impressions, etc. and it is going to be used/leveraged to generate their income.

Are we that naive or has Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other online media outlets leveraged the fact that we want more for nothing, while they make it harder for us to opt-out of leveraging our information.

How many people do you know upload all their pictures to Facebook as a primary storage device. Specifically they use Facebook as their photo album. Each picture takes space, it takes bandwidth, it has an ecological impact on our local environments…the data centers that support this information. We as consumers pay NOTHING for this…NOTHING. We are getting so much for NOTHING and yet we expect the businesses who spend billions to support these infrastructures not leverage that information to generate revenue.

When is the last time you gave away all your intellectual power and knowledge for free. Yes, you probably donate your time and energy to certain causes, non-profits, churches, initiatives, etc. But could you do that full time…NO. You have to pay the mortgage, gas, electricity, etc. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

The social documentary is alive and well in the social space(s). So let’s look at the statistics of usage in this free market of online spaces:

Twitter (Stats by Mediabistro.com)
By September 2011, we were tweeting 33 billion tweets per day and 11 Twitter accounts are created every second with 1 million accounts added every day. Guess what…$259 million dollars in projected ad revenue for 2012.

Facebook (Stats by SearchEngineJournal.com)
Let’s look at Facebook…250 million photos uploaded daily with 845 million active users that have led to 100 billion connections. Facebook users average 2.7 billions “Likes” each day, 37 million “Pages” with 10 or more “Likes”, and 20 minutes spent per visit. In 2011, Facebook make $1 Billion dollars with Zynga games accounting for 12% of that total revenue.

Google (Information from StatisticBrain.com and Larry Page’s Blog)
How about Google…last year there were 1.7 Trillion searches with an average of 4.7 billions searches per day. YouTube has over 800 million monthly users uploading over an hour of video per second. Chrome has over 200 million. There are over 350 million people using Gmail and over 5,000 new businesses and educational establishments now sign up every day.

Each day we add to the social conspiracy, we use these outlets to share at the expense of them driving their revenue dollars. Our content, our time and their infrastructure, their revenue. We pay for this service with our content, that is our investment. As an investor, we should openly, knowingly understand how they use our data and use these networks appropriately.

The conspiracy theory is true…they are using our time, energy, content, and effort to generate billions. Just quit freaking out about it and know what you are paying for…each second and each time you use these outlets.

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Craft vs. Service –> technician or an artisan of your craft?

Craft versus Service has been a debate and conversation internally I have been exploring during the growth of my business. This is a big distinction in my mind as I think forward. In the service industry, we find ourselves trapped in a scaling cycle of trading time for money…how much work can we (ourselves and our organizations) spend working for billable hours. There are just only so much time in a day, week, month, and year.

So what is the distinction between a “craft” or “service” and how can we find distinction in our businesses. When I think of a service, I think of billable hours. Providing a service that brings value to another organization that warrants billing for that time. I love this definition on desonance.wordpress.com:

“A service is the seeking and receipt of a specific outcome of a customer across a range of interactions and touchpoints over time.”

This article and definition above is exploring the pathways of services when it relates to the customer and the touchpoints/interactions along the way. I look at those toughpoints/interactions as billable time that the customer and the service provider share in an agreement.

So I think through ways to create greater revenue opportunities for service organizations:

1) Increase the billable rate for the touchpoint/interaction
2) Increase the different touchpoints/interactions
3) Increase the size of the organization

This is a time vs. money equation. This is where we can only spend our constrained time trying to squeeze in more hours to churn out more work. So, does this increased work load for small/entrepreneurial service organizations properly provide a service to our customers that is exceptional.

So let’s look at the craft concept.

A craft is a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work.

I see “craft” as the happy place between “practitioner” of a skill and and the execution of a “technician. These individuals have mastered a skill as technician, can interpret the skill as a practitioner, and have created a crafted approach to delivering a service. This craft, this “art” has only tangible, marketable value via expertise, credibility, and valued results. These practitioners of a “craft” are artisans and have experienced an apprenticeship model perfecting their craft over time.

The craft approach to communication is one that has the ability to create culture and shift thinking. They are leaders in their discipline and take leadership roles in the projects they create. Their craft is not one of billable hours but of final product. Their business model is one of intellectual equity…one that brings expertise to the table.

So where do you find yourself or your organization in this intersection of the “craft” vs. “service” equation?

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Own your media…build the team

I am continuing my thought process surrounding how we as organizations/businesses have to own our media. But this takes on a fundamental thought process and radical shift in how we do business…we have to truly own our media by building our team.

For so many years…large organizations have allowed agencies and firms to own the “brand’s” message. They were tasked and empowered to do the brand research, create the strategy, build the message, construct the media, distribute the media, and track the results. As we move into the digital world, ownership of media assets is coming more and more key to the success of organizations.  This is from ownership of URL’s (domains), website access, video content, and now social media ownership.

I have always advocated that organizations and business should take an ownership role in owning their media and communications. They should not be restricted by third party vendors how to access the online tools that support their brand. This goes all the way down to who owns the right to update social outlets, who can change the website copy, share a Twitter update, create a video message. Organizations (specifically brands) should own their media and how they share this message…but to support this philosophy, their has to be a staff in place to push this philosophy forward.

Large organizations like hospitals and higher education institutions are battling this issue. Who creates the Facebook updates, Twitter updates, video messages, blog posts, etc. Should it be the people that work inside the brand or the vendors that support the brand. I think the vendors should help brands create a strategy and create workflows for organizations to own their branded message and build a community.

1) You have to have a new media/social staff in place. These people inside your organization have to be able to not only understand the marketing/pr initiatives but also be able to have the skills to design, develop, implement, and share the content created. They have to be the ultimate brand ambassadors who not only help create the community…*but* empower others in the organization to share the message. A Community Manager is a good place to begin but you also need:
– New media staff that can create and update web properties (from design to programming).
– Video professional(s) that can create video messages and manage video content managements systems like YouTube, Vimeo, and other private portals.
– Creative writers who not only can create copy for online properties, but help write scripts for video content. 

2) Create an advisory team to support the organization. Hospitals are a prime example of this silo based organization. As a consultant, I spend more time working with service lines and departments that are creating social/web portals that do not meet the organization’s goals. This advisory team empowers, educates, and helps implement organization strategy so the online properties are successful. This team can be made up of representatives across the organization that directly interface with the part of the organization that manages these online spaces. Let them be a part of the strategy help empower them to build the community.

3) Have an senior new/social media team in place that builds community strategy goals and initiatives. This team is a part of the visual branding process and also implements strategies to track success for this online properties.

Owning our media has become ever important, one that is harder now is to wrangle a team together. So many times I walk into an organization and I ask, who updates your website, your Facebook page(s), domains, etc. How can we control our message and be a part of the community when we do not even have controlling access to our digital properties. The organization many times knows their brand message the best…why not empower the branded organization own the process, the media that is shared.

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Story vs. Slogan – Invoking or Addressing our Audience?

I have been watching and reading a blog conversation between a few colleagues of mine surrounding the idea of Story vs. Slogans (Spike Jones and Amy Taylor). This topics absolutely fascinates me and actually plays a role in the discussion I have been having with another colleague Mack Collier surrounding do we address our audience needs or do we invoke our audience.

This discussion takes me back to a piece of scholarship that was written in the early 80′s surrounding the topic: audience addressed and audience invoked. As I re-read the article, I always find myself referring to one final point of Edes and Lusford’s conclusion…

“A fully elaborated view of audience, then, must balance the creativity of the writer with the different, but equally important, creativity of the reader.”

We write in tension but I think we have to find a balance between invoking the audience (creating a division in the writer and reader’s roles) and addressing the audiences’ needs (the reality the audience exist and that the written text is created in concert).

So what does this have to do with Story vs. Slogan…well a lot. But I want to look at something that Spike said in his post from December 2008:

Stories live forever. Slogans live until the ad agency gets tired of them.
Stories are real. Slogans are made up.
Stories pull you in. Slogans try and push out a message.
Stories are deep. Slogans are shallow.
Stories are personal. Slogans are impersonal.
Stories are passed on by word of mouth. Slogans are passed on by ads.

This dichotomy between “Story vs. Slogan” and “Audience Addressed vs. Audience Invoked” has me thinking…are we addressing the needs of our audience by pushing slogans down people’s throats? It sounds more like we are trying to invoke something that is unnatural and detached.

So what really makes a story different from a slogan? Spike wrote that “Stories are real. Slogans are made up.” What makes stories real and slogans just made up. Well, it is the act of listening…because stories are told over and over again: they recount a place and time in history. They connect the very fabric of our being with human emotion. When we tell a story, we are sharing something that is tangible in our hearts and minds that invokes emotion and connection.

I am not a slogan person or a person that relishes the task of creating positioning statements and branded tag lines. I like to capture stories as they happen, capture that moment in time that are true moments, those that help us remember.

Last summer I found myself in Andrews, NC working on a project for the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church… telling stories of rural churches. Every Thursday night, the Andrews UMC has a dinner for the community called the Welcome Table. The illustration of this blog post is not the story of this video, but one little moment in time when I am interviewing the pastor. One of the children walks up and gives him a hug in the middle of the interview…at the most appropriate time. This pastor will be telling this story for years…thus reinforcing the mission of “The Welcome Table.”

We can advocated for stories over slogan’s everyday of the week…but we must be willing to open our hearts so that we can capture those moments in time to share. This is what invokes our audience to share.

Here is the video of “The Welcome Table” for your to enjoy!

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Lion and FCP 6 – Friends After All!

So last October, I was bitching and moaning about the concern that Final Cut Pro would not work if I upgraded to Lion. I did not want to switch over to FCPX…so I decided to figure it out.

Bottomline…I have been able to install FCP 6 on Lion OSX 10.7.3. How did I do it?  Well, I have a Mac Mini that I used as my little test case. I did not want to go through this whole installation process on a system that was critical to my business workflow.

So, I installed Lion OSX on the Mac Mini and ran all the updates. Then I pulled out my Snow Leopard installation disc and popped it in with the sole purpose of only installing Rosetta from the optional installations. Once I installed Rosetta from the Snow Leopard OSX installation disc, then this allowed me to install FCP 6 from the Studio edition.

I installed one program from FCP Studio disc…one at a time starting with FCP and Compressor. Then I installed DVD Studio and the rest of the studio programs one at a time. Then after running the FCP installation, I checked for updates from Apple Updates and completed the updated installations.

The result, I am running FCP 6.0.6 on Lion OSX 10.7.3…all of this on my Mac Mini. I have noticed lots of hits on my website looking for an update from my previous posts about this issue, so I thought I would give an update. So, I will be migrating this to my MacPro’s Lion partition, which is a dual boot system with Lion 10.7.3 and Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I am also going to be upgrading to Avid Symphony 6 on my Lion 10.7.3 Partition.

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Do we tell too much of our story…online?

Do we over tell, over pitch, over blog, and over share? What are the pieces we leave for those to research, find, and ultimately meet us during this storytelling process.

Some of the best storytelling is done in person, offline, and away from digital indexes.

Has the social share captivated us in a way that we are competing with the search engines and our competitors…online. Specifically, we schedule to write our blog posts, schedule the updates, upload the pictures, create the video…we are spending lots and lots of time creating online content to share.

So what are we saving to share during the events, the in-person meetings, in the offline conversations.

I think back to my televisions days when we would cover the daily new stories and when we found a great story…everyone wanted to share it immediately. We would capture a wonderful story that would be perfect for the 6pm newscast yet we were telling in all day saturating the news space, sharing the prime nugget of the story. We would tease it all day, but instead of teasing to watch…we would tell the whole story…all day. By the time it was 6pm, the story had been told over and over with nothing left to share.

There are just some parts of our business, our story, ourselves that are worth saving to share offline conversations. Is it our goal to build lots of fans, followers, “Likes”, etc…maybe? But what happens after that…what more do we have to say. Is it our goal to create lots of videos telling every detailed part of our story…why? Do obtain lots of views…is that awareness?

Those who do a wonderful job with their social/digital spaces build community around a conversation, a dialogue. Sharing our story is like telling a story. We share just enough to tease and engage the conversation. Once the conversation begins, then we share the nugget that creates lasting conversations and relationships.

So I wonder, are  we telling our story just for the search engines or to build a community to have a dialogue?