Category — Blogging

For a few years now, I’ve been answering people’s questions with video.  It takes a little long to do, but it leaves them with a tool they can refer to over and over again.  In a way, it has made our lives easier.

Here is one I created on setting up the basics of a WordPress blog.

It is also a way for me to experiment with the video player tools that are available.

People ask me over and over “What can Twitter do for me?”   They vary from people with no online presence, people running for elected office, to business managers, and more…

Watch this video then I’ll expand on what Twitter can do for you.

Since this video was created, Twitter has evolved into a more mainstream communications tool.  But, what can it do for you?  I believe Twitter can help you do four things:

• Listen
• Share
• Discuss
• Drive Action

Listen

You can use Twitter and its offshoots to monitor what is going on in the Twittershere.   If you have a hot topic, you can search it and see what people are saying about the topic on Twitter.  You may think this is no better than searching on Google, but searching the Twitter stream gives you a near real time picture of people’s thoughts and opinions on a particular topic.   If you work for a brand or are the brand, these near, real-time searches allow you to respond in a timely manner to those tweets.  How surprised will a customer or constituent be when they get a quick response from you?  Here are my favorite Twitter Search tools:

• Search.Twitter.com
• TweetScan.com
• BackTweets.com – shows all the tweets pointing back to a particular URL regardless of the shortening tool.

Share

This is what most people do.  Most people answer these two questions with their tweets:

• What am I doing?
• What do I find interesting?

Answers to the first question may turn some readers off.  “I don’t care that you are having a hot dog for lunch.”  But, there can be a benefit to sharing some of the smaller bits of your life.  Over time, followers will learn more about you.  They will learn things that you wouldn’t put into a blog post, email, or a letter to the editor.  The mosaic of your 140 character tweets will produce a clearer picture of who you are.  Your followers will get to know and hopefully, like you.

The second question is where you can add value for your followers.  When you regularly tweet items of interest, you increasingly become a “trusted agent” for your followers.  They trust your judgment and will use you as a filter providing them with value.  That is usually in the form of links to information valuable to your follower.  It could also be nuggets from a conference or book.

Discuss

As the number of your followers grows, you can ask them a question through Twitter.   This can result in an ongoing discussion in the Twitter stream.  I’ve seen these questions grow into twitter “discussions” that evolve into blog posts which get fleshed out into ebooks and eventually into actual books.

Drive Action

Sadly, many people use twitter only for this.  They continually pitch sales to their followers.  This is not adding value for the follower.  This is asking something of the follower.  I recommend giving value first.  Only after your followers know, like, and trust you, should you ever ask them to take action on your behalf.

So, if you are new to twitter, start by listening.  Then, add value by sharing what is important to you.  Ask your followers for their opinions.  Finally, when your followers know, like, and trust you, you can ask them to act.

(Affiliate Link)

• Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera
• Samson SE50T Headworn Micro Miniature Omni Directional Microphone
• Stereo – Mono Y adapter
• Remote for Zi8
• Extension Cable (Affiliate Link)

Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera

Of all the mini-flash based “Flip” style cameras, the Kodak Zi8 is the only one with an 1/8 inch stereo microphone input jack.  This allows me to use external mics to record excellent audio.  The menus in the camera allow me to adjust the input levels of the external mics

Samson SE50T Headworn Mic

These mics are remarkably small with excellent audio.  They are adjustable and relatively stable on the ear.  The Samson model is cheaper than the Audio-Technica head mics that I also own.   These mics are omni-directional so they will pick up any ambient noise.  If these “pro” quality mics are still to expensive, you can substitute a “Skype” capable computer mic with an 1/8″ plug.  I have used the Logitech “Clear Chat” model with noise canceling capabilities in noisy environments with great results.

Stereo – Mono Y adapter

This is an important part of the setup and requires explanation.  With my setup, you will be able to record two people on the separate, stereo tracks.  In the post production editing, you can adjust the levels if needed.  I’ve found two vendors for this Y adapter.  Go to www.Markertek.com search for model Y-MPS-2MF then scroll down the page to the correct model number.   Cablemart also has a model in Amazon.

Other Options

A tripod, remote, and extension cable for the mic cords are all helpful, but not required.  Another useful microphone is the Audio Technica ATR-6550 Video Camera Condenser Shotgun Microphone (Affiliate Link).  This shotgun mic can be hand held and provide more traditional interview style presentation.  It requires a single AA battery and will plug-into the Y-adapter.

Update:  Here is a quick video to demonstrate a Logitech “ClearChat” headset mic used with the Kodak Zi8 with a gas powered weed trimmer running in the back ground. This really shows the advantage of using a headmic with this camera.

If you’ve found any other solutions, please add them in the comments.

Critical mass – New definition: When the comments to a post add as much value as the original post. See Jeff Jarvis’ post on Google SideWiki. Scroll through the comments. He clearly has critical mass. The discussion in the comments is as important as the original content.

That’s where the rub is. Google just introduced the SideWiki to the mix. Where you may have had a vibrant community commenting on your website where all visitors to your site could see the discussion, Google’s SideWiki may start to siphon off some of the comments. Commentors will have to choose where to leave their comments. Comments may live in two places. Two separate communities may begin to evolve around a website. You may have comments on your website and you may have comments that exist only in Google SideWiki. If you were close to critical mass before, you just hit a major set back.

Google’s SideWiki is new. The full effect has not been realized yet. It is, however, something website owners need to be aware of. Community and critical mass are the target.

This Technorati Report is a must read if you are in the new media space.  Or, even if you aren’t, yet.  In the business environment, blogs are not to be overlooked.  This report makes that clear.  It focuses on blogging, but podcasting and videocasting will certainly follow a similar trajectory.  The report is broken down into five sections

1.  Who are the Bloggers
2.  What and Why of Blogging
3.  How of Blogging
4.  Blogging for Profit
5.  Brands and Blogging

This report validates what many of us have been saying about the new media space.  Blogs are not only growing in numbers, but also in validity.  Ninety-five percent of the top 100 US newspapers now have reporter blogs. Bloggers are regularly quoted by mainstream media.  Rick Sanchez at CNN regularly fields questions and comments through Twitter and Facebook.  The main source for the Natalie Holloway story was a blogger.  Pay attention.  Blogs are here.  If you aren’t leveraging a blog for business, you will be left behind. 

I was just reading Paul Colligan’s latest post about growing your podcast’s audience. He made some great points and I agree with all of them. It prompted me to discuss my view of how to make money with podcasting.

“One legged stools don’t work very well.”

Producing a podcast and waiting for the big bucks to roll in is a failed strategy. The podcast can’t be the sole “product.” When I talk to people about starting a podcast, I make it make it clear the podcast can be a product, but it is ALSO a channel – a tool. It has to be part of a bigger plan – one leg of a many legged stool. The podcast has to point to other legs of the stool – a website, vidcast, forum, book, Facebook page, email sign-up, meet-up… There can be many legs to the stool. Each of these legs must support the other legs of the stool. It is the combination of all of those channels and spaces (read: legs) that will help build stable platform where you can build a following that can lead to income.

Notice I said “following” and not “audience?” You may have people who don’t listen to the podcast, but read the blog. Or, who discover, buy, and read your book. Or, who follow you on Twitter and buy your next book.

As Paul Colligan points out, it is very hard to generate a real income just by advertising in podcasts. If advertising in your podcast is your main focus, then you are selling your audience’s attention to the advertisers. Your audience is your product. If you don’ t have an audience, you don’t have a product. Your efforts should focus on audience generation. As Paul points out, you can’t depend on anyone else to do that for you. Your focus should be on building an audience outside of the podishpere.
If your income generation plan is broader, to include premium services, books, affiliate programs, paid gatherings, then your time should be spent on fostering the relationship with your narrower, niche, following. A smaller faithful, following can produce more income than a larger transient audience.

With all this said, we are still VERY early in the growth of new media. Tell me how you do it…

At a time when big corporations are trying to adapt to all the change in their business environment, many are taking small, incremental steps when bigger steps are needed.  One of my favorite quotes is by Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel:  “Innovate or die.”  True, but with my twist…

”If your internal rate of improvement is less than the rate of change of your environment, you will die.”

You can adapt reactively or innovate proactively.  I prefer to be proactive.  Big business can fall into a comfortable, internal state of continuous improvement.  The company feels that it has a viable improvement program, but the whole codified, improvement process itself can stifle true innovation.  External change forces can be evolutionary, disruptive, or even disasterous.   A company’s internal devotion to innovation has to at least match the rate of change of the external environment. 

My friend C.C. Chapman wrote a blog post for Entrepreneur.com about the Boston Globe’s use of their photo content and photo staff.  C.C. had some great, low cost, low risk ideas the Boston Globe could use to leverage their current and future assests.  Innovate.  Embrace the new technology faster than the competition.  Innovate now rather than playing catch-up when it is too late.  “Innovate or Die.”  C.C. sounded a little sad and frustrated with the Boston Globe.  He shouldn’t be.  He is an innovator.  He is proactive.  He is willing to take risks.  He is certainly changing faster than his business environment.  C.C. will thrive.  The Boston Globe, I’m not so sure about.

“Should I stay or Should I go?”  This was the gist of a recent email from a friend.  My friend had a concern that a conference wasn’t exactly in line with their area of interest. 

Here is my philosophy…  Life is about relationships. 

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Just because you can, does that mean you should? The costs associated with blogging and podcasting are so low, the question can become “Why don’t I make it longer?” or Why don’t I put out more content?”  Just because we can podcast for 87 minutes straight, does that mean we should? Traditional media has been constrained for a long time by the commercial break. We’ve all been trained to adjust our behaviors around those breaks. But, now consuming what you want, when you want and where you want, has erased the need for the traditional structure of our media. But, back to the question. Should we? Is some structure good? Is some time constraint and frequency constraint good?

As is my normal approach to things, I’m firmly on the fence about this. There is room for everyone. Some people will go too long; some people will go too short. Notice I didn’t mention a time. One person’s “too long” may be another person’s “too short.” If we are trying to grow an audience and produce something of value to someone else, then we are in a service industry and have to pay attention to what the audience wants. Does the listener want it longer or shorter? Does the listener want it more often? It always depends on the listener.

Don’t let the False Economy of the cost of production allow you to create something just because you can. Unless, of course, that is what you want to do without regard for an audience.  Let the audience drive the length and frequency.

So, with that in mind, am I blogging often enough? Long enough? Should I be podcasting? Audience, let me know. 678-884-0524.

Here is my brain dump of links I sent out to others today:

• Twitter Creators Video - Robert Scoble inteviews.
• Robin’s Twitter – If you know what this is, follow me.
• Taxes and Podcasting – Wired Magazine article
• Association for Downloadable Media – Proposed Standards for Advertising and Audience measurement
• New Media Expo Registration – Click to register.  I am a paid speaker, but have to refer people to be in the paid speaker pool.

Give me your thoughts on any of the above in the comments.