Archive for the 'social media' Category

New Patent Changes Social Media

Facebook on Tuesday was awarded a patent for a social network news feed, setting the stage for a future battle with its social networking peers over similar technologies.

The patent is specifically for “dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network” and effectively grants Facebook the opportunity to pursue other social networks who it deems are infringing on the company’s patent.

In my opinion, this is a amazing ruling. Just think of what could result from this patent.

Communicate with a New Generation

 

 young-genWe have a whole new generation that prefers learning in a non-sequential, mosaic way. This new generation is influenced by media and the Internet and saturated with endless sound and video bytes. I have experienced this first hand in the lives of my own children. Their life is lived out in a big media bucket. They can learn and interact with information in a much more informal and dynamic way than I could at their age.

Information seeks and finds us whenever we are, we don’t have to look for it. With Social Media we are always aware of news, entertainment and even the lunatic fringe. This stuff finds you and me every minute of the day!

So how do you communicate with this new generation?  Embrace the new media and speak their language, don’t hard sell.  Be transparent and real. 

How did we get to be a generation filled with electronic media and want to learn in a non-sequential way?  Read this earlier blog post – Communication with young adults

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

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Internet Marketing Checklist

So how can you market on the Internet. Do you need a bigger, badder web site? What can you do to get traction?

social-media 1. Create a website with content

The secret to a successful website is to get people there and give them a reason to come back.  You can do this with content. Have content before you concern your self with SEO and web site promotion.

2. Tap into Your Expertise

Include content that showcases your talent and expertise.  Talk about what you know… you will present yourself as an expert. It showcases your “know-how-trust” factor. Cement your credibility as an expert.

2. Market to Your Existing Customers

Instead of just focusing on getting new business, turn your attention to your existing customers. If you treat all your clients as special, they will feel special — and be likely to tell someone else about you.

3. Build Relationships

Build relationships with your clients and prospects. Social Media is a great way to extend your reach. Don’t sell with social media. Build relationships, let the selling come later.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

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Embracing the Social Media Groundswell

surfing It’s every companies dream to ride a big wave.  How do you do that with social media?  I like to think about conversing at a friends dinner party with people you know and have just met.  You would not hard sell someone at the party your good and services –would you?  It’s socially unacceptable.  So as you build your social network today, here are some tips to help you surf the coming swell with awareness.

 

  1. Social Media Groundswell is about person-to-person activity.
  2. Don’t be “the company” be a person. 
  3. Be a good listener. 
  4. Be patient, transform your company, one person at a time.
  5. Be passionate, it’s contagious.
  6. Stay on your toes … adjust and learn from connections.
  7. Stay real. If you become prideful people will know.

Twitter – follow or unfollow

I got an email this morning from a concerned client. People were following him on twitter that didn’t appear to be good followers – they had totally different interests! This client is in the media business and had welders and swimmers following them.  Should I unfollow them, they asked?

six-degrees There are several thoughts regarding twitter followers. I believe in the theory of 6 degrees of separation. I connect to people with similar interests.  So I follow people daily on twitter that are talking about subjects that interest me.  You can do this too with twitter search – it is very powerful.

We are all part of the human web and the twitter followers I target are connected to my key word values. The people I follow are targeted based on content in their tweets or tweets they re-tweeted. As your network grows people will find you. Either people like me will retweet your posts and create new follows, or just stumble upon you and follow. When you build a twitter network people will follow you that do not appear to be targeted. But if we go back to the 6 degree theory – if you follow someone with 10,000 followers how many of their followers could use your content or even possibly be a business connection?

Yes, I do un-follow people.  If tweets are rude, constantly selling, crude, etc. See my article: http://bit.ly/cy6wn9

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SoundWorks adds a new DO

SoundWorks is beginning the year with new audio talent.  We are committed to continually building our team with fresh ideas and great skills. 

SoundWorks welcomes Dee Oberle to our staff. Dee brings her expertise in audio engineering–specifically post-production, video game development, live production, and video editing —in addition to knowledge in a variety of software applications to our vivid mix.

View Dee Oberle

Like many people in the industry, Dee was inspired to pursue a career in audio after working with the sound team in her junior high youth group. She jumpstarted her career by receiving training from veteran engineers at Madison Media Institute.

On staff at Post Effects/Answers Media, Dee worked alongside Halo Composer, Mike Salvatori, on a series of projects including podcasts for Accenture and redesigning the audio on the Wide Load logo.

Dee’s audio portfolio with Dallas Audio Post Group includes Foley for Catacombs: Directors Cut, editing for educational company Voyager Learning, and third party post-production support on Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood.

As a sound designer, Dee worked with Gearbox Software under the direction of internationally acclaimed composer for Doom III and the Brothers in Arms Series, Ed Lima.  She earned a credit on the AAA title Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Other products developed at Gearbox include:  Borderlands and several yet to be released projects.

Additional work as freelancer includes the Lil’ Flip- Kim Kardasian video shoot, worship services at Willow Creek Community Church, TV Man, Inc. and several short films.

Software expertise:

  • · Pro Tools
  • · Sound Forge
  • · Logic
  • · Final Cut Pro
  • · Soundminer
  • · Vegas
  • · Reason
  • · Radar system
  • · XACT
  • · Nitro-SoundMaker/Composer
  • · UnReal Editor
  • · Photoshop
  • · DreamWeaver

Please leave Dee a welcome comment below or welcome her in person at the next Sound Works mixer coming soon.

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Health instructions for 2010

apple-health Your Body

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat your veggies.
3. Eat more fruit 
4. Eat more raw natural foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less processed food.
5. Read Fit For Life by Harvey Diamond – it will change your life.

Your Social Media

1. Work Facebook and Twitter
2. Blog your knowledge or passion
2. Work it – connect and converse to build relationships
3. Don’t hard sell
4. Keep your conversation informative and fun

Your Image in 2010

Perhaps we need to refer to the new year as twenty ten, it is more concise and simple. I ran across an article that inspired me and thought I would write about this on January first, twenty ten.

creative_image Many of us have learned that good looks add to success in the workplace but too many fail to realize that cultivating the perception of youth and a hip attitude is also very important. It’s no secret that we live in an age-obsessed society.  Don’t follow these rules to impress a young person. Your goal is to  create a more youthful perception about yourself. So how do you do it? Here are some of the concepts form the new book, “Bulletproof Your Job”:

Rule #1: Crest Whitestrips. This is a surface and shallow cosmetic-based tip. But people just don’t understand that having coffee-stained teeth doesn’t do you any favors. Then smile. Smiling makes you look and feel younger.

Rule #2: You need to be on Facebook. No friends? You already have one: just facebook me (dwightcook.) I will be your first friend.

Rule #3: Know how to use Google and Wikipedia and use them. Bookmark these sites on your computer, and set one as your homepage.

Rule #4: Watch an episode of “Big Bang Theory.” Discuss and Repeat.

Rule #5: Peruse your local Apple store. Learn the difference between an iPod Classic, iPod Touch and iPod Nano. You also need to what itunes and  podcasts are all about and then you are on your way.

Rule #6: Do not disclose your past. Keep it to yourself. These are the “good old days!”

Rule #7: Don’t talk about how you’re addicted to Starbucks.  Nobody cares and it won’t make you seem younger.

Rule #8: Keep up to date with Entertainment news and Sports. Set them as a favorite or add it to your custom home page on Google, Yahoo or Bing. This can help you with current relevant conversation.

office_image Rule #9: Learn how to text message and do it.

Rule #10: Lose the newspaper. Young people get their news online.

Rule #12: Make eye contact. Eye contact is so critical to being perceived as young; don’t be afraid to use it.

Rule #13: Never refer to your grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Rarely mention your children – these topics make you sound old.

Rule #14: Go to the gym. 

Rule #15: Never use ancient words like “groovy, dy-no-mite, or tubular.” Use current vocabulary.

Rule #16: Get a TiVo or DVR. Know how they work.

Rule #17: Record yourself to see how how old you sound. You will probably be your own worst critic. Note that youthful people talk much snappier.

Rule #18: Dress is very important: always dress age-appropriate with no frump factor.

Rule #19: Give your hairstyle a hard look. Get a young stylist to help with your look or ask a young family member that will be honest with you to help.

Rule #20: Skip cologne and wear deodorant. Young people don’t wear scented oils or strong cologne. You don’t want BO, so don’t skip that deodorant.

Rule #21: Make younger friends and hang out with them.

Communication with young adults

 

America is now full of non-readers and on average adults read less than one book a year. I recently read a book, Flickering Pixels, which I mentioned in an earlier article which reinforces how new generations prefer learning in a non-webleo2 sequential way influenced by our media saturated world.

We no longer search for information, but information now seeks and finds us, whenever we are. With Twitter and Facebook feeds I’m constantly aware of news, trivia, the important and the ridiculous seems to search for me every second of the day. For those of us in media, it is apparent that abundant information saturation is changing habits:

Parents must instill a strong moral and ethical code within their children. There are not enough Internet and TV filters to shelter our children’s eyes and ears. We must get to their heart before media and friends take over.

Employers this generation is not lazy! However they live life in the moment, and relationships, causes and even pleasure will not be postponed for the sake of a career. The dollar is not their motivation.

Educators no longer control the gateway of knowledge because anyone with a computer or smart phone can access any information in seconds. Educators need to help students think and make sense of the all of the available information.

Publishers will survive this culture shift if they produce and distribute content beyond the printed page. If people are not reading books they are watching YouTube, reading blogs, listening to podcasts, reading Social media and sharing sharing their thoughts online.

Is Augmented Reality a good marketing tool?

What if you could drive people to your web site or create buzz like a viral video? Augmented reality (AR) uses a connected web cam, shape recognition, and 3D art.  Put it all together and you have an interactive experience that people love.

What is Augmented Reality?

Wikipedia says: “Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.”

This is a new technology but many uses I have seen are a bit lame or just not practical.  My first experience with augmented reality was with promotion leading up to the release of Sony Pictures District 9.  I heard about it on NPR and then saw the movie poster with the AR shape at the Sony store. The video below is pretty cool for an early use of AR and I expect it to grow in use.

Best Buy printed a Sunday newspaper insert with an AR shape and it was a bit disappointing.  See http://bestbuyin3d.com/, I hope that Best Buy includes shapes for each product in the circulars and with AR we can see it in 3D (without balloon ads) and click to get more info. Now that would be useful!

GE used AR to show wind and solar energy in 3D – http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality, pretty cool but still not a real practical use of AR.

The Star Trek movie did pretty cool promotion of the movie using AR!  This looks like fun, but alas I am a but of a Star Trek nut. Again, I think that once the newness wars off AR like this will cease to wow us.

Layar Augmented Reality

Now, I am truly excited, a Netherlands Company called Layar has developed a AR browser to enable the Google Android phone, using it’s web camera, GPS and shape recognition to display layers (or is that layars?) of information super imposed over the camera image.  Imagine being able to point the camera at a restaurant  and being able to see it’s menu. Or looking for real estate and able to see prices by pointing your phone camera at a property?  I can see many practical uses for this technology and yet it has the wow factor big time.

It’s unfortunate but it’s not available in the US until it is released in Europe.  I saw that the Layar browser is being ported to the iPhone.  Is the Blackberry to follow? Layar, I am ready for this – fantastic idea! Sign me up!

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