Broadcasting Live Around the World

As the alumni association for the University of Nebraska, we find it essential that we connect with our 175,000 living alumni around the world. With the advancement of the internet and introduction of social media, we’ve been able to start chapters in Malasia and Singapore! Chapter 15 was very intriguing to me as we’re now in the stages of adding live casting to every event possible that we host so we can spread the Husker Big Red spirit across the world for all alumni and friends to partake in.

Our first pilot livecast was at this year’s Football Friday – Spring Game Edition on April 15, 2011 at the Wick Alumni Center.  With one laptop, microphone, Ethernet cord and a simple loggin we were able to stream our event live on HuskerAlum.org.  We were also able to take questions from our 35 viewers that were consistently logged in. This might seem like a small number (which was intended for this test run) but we had great engagement and added another element to our program by taking a question from Justine in Chicago!

For audio livecasting, I often stream into 105.5 The Beat, Southwest Florida’s #1 Party Station (according to their tag line!)  While living in Naples, FL this was my “go to” station for fresh music and new hip hop releases.  I found there are countless artists that never make it mainstream and are not aired in the Midwest. I also found that it took about four months for a new song that I heard on 105.5 to make it back to Nebraska. I also watched the USA Track and Field championships live last week with a link I found on Twitter! That was a perfect way to get sidetracked at work =)

My thoughts on Justin.tv and JenniCam in this chapter:  1) probably the beginning of reality television. I do like that they are not celeberities but still felt their life was interesting enough to share with the world 24/7. 2) I think if I did my Jenny(with a Y)cam, I would talk to the audience verse wearing a “point of perspective” camera. I think making that personal connection of face to face and eye contact is important. Like them, I’ve always thought my life has enough drama and excitement for reality TV!

I think livecasting is only in the early stages and will continue to grow; especially in the corporate world. The ability to also store them on your company’s website also gives people a chance to engagement even after the event is over.

Tweet Tweet

The definition of microblogging is a big vague in the book. From what I gathered it’s more of a MMS (Multimedia Messaging System) than just a SMS (Simple Message System) text. A tweet is considering a microblog as well as text message that might contain a photo, video or voice message.  I do like Mark Twain’s saying of, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”  I try to follow this rule as I feel the less prepared I am for a speech, presentation or even e-mail, the more long-winded I get.

I think there are many advantages of microblogs; especially the two-way communication and instant connection between individuals around the world. However, I do NOT feel that I need to know what each of my friends had for breakfast, how far they ran in today’s workout and see 100 photos of their new pet. I often think I did just fine without knowing every detail of their life for the first 25 years of mine, and to that point, I often “hide all posts” in my news feed from certain people who are obsessed with updating their facebook.  I did find this video which I found to be pretty right on the money when talking about microblogs on facebook but I will say there is some vulgar language towards the end; so feel free to watch at your own risk.

I recently started using Tweet Deck and I think it’s been a world of help! I have it open on my screen when I’m cooking, cleaning or even watching tv and I love that it’s my “hub” for all my social media outlets. This saves me so much time without having to go to each individual website and log in.

On page 260, Twitter expert Guy Kawasaki  suggests “following every person who follows you.”  I guess I’m kind of a privacy freak because I don’t necessarily agree with this (at least on a personal level verse corporate level). I get that on Twitter I’m suppose to expand my networks and connect with “strangers” but I just don’t like everyone knowing every single thing about me; especially if someone’s following me who I don’t know!  Safko goes on to state, “This is the power of permission-based marketing, whereby you choose who is allowed to market and communicate to you.”  To his point with I firmly agree with, I now pay attention to the news more than ever by following exactly what type of information I want to receive and people I want to keep in touch with.

To end I will add a couple ways Jenny Green has used Twitter in the corporate world that’s talked about on page 266:

• I retweeted one of UNL Student Involvement’s NSE tweets and reminded everyone to stop by the Wick Alumni Center for free daily store ice cream after their tours were done that day.
• I tweeted to Ndamukong Suh to show continued support from Nebraska and tell him great job on his summer football camps and speaking engagements to young students (as a former student-athlete and friend)
• And even today, I tweeted @PrudueAlumni for hosting an amazing Big Ten Alumni Conference!

 

Grab Some Popcorn and We’re Off to the Movies!

As much as I love popcorn (which ironically enough I actually had tonight with my dinner), I’m not a big movie watcher. Ask any of my friends and they will tell you, I’m the last one to ever throw a famous line out there or speak in movie quotes as most of the 3rd floor in my office does. This is not because I do not LIKE movies and don’t have a personality, it’s because growing up I was so involved with sports, school, girl scouts, dance team, family time, etc that I never had two hours to go to the movies.  Unfortunately, my schedule remains just as full but now with different priorities (not to mention the $9 that I refuse to pay for a ticket!) However, I may need to start utilizing some of these sites from this chapter.

I was seriously BLOWN AWAY by the list of video sharing web sites on page 249. So much that I folded the page over to come back to after I was finished reading because I seriously thought they all can’t be real. So I went through the list and underlined the six out of near 60 that are listed!  So I started googling the most crazy ones like Crackle, Mail.ru, Viddler along with many others and guess what?  They’re all real and I’m sure there are thousands of more out there! This started a long series of questions and thoughts in my head:

1. How do people know these sites exist and find them?
2. It always amazes me how many millions of developed and awesome websites that are out there that I have no idea exists!?
3. True that each one is specific and unique but do we really need this many? I know they say to spread your eggs among many baskets but is there ever too many options?
4. Will one day the dominate sites listed like facebook, Hulu and pandora tv buyout and control the smaller sites?
5. Who has time to visit, watch and upload to all of these?
6. If I’m selling advertisements, I would assume you’d go for the dominate sites listed above, but I would bet there are some very targeted and LOYAL audience members that only use a couple of these smaller sites which provides a very effective and tailored message.
7. Which do you (the reader) think is best and use the most?
8. What FUN names!
9. What a lot of sites that an embarrassing video of me could end up on!

Another fact that boggled my mind was from the Expert Insight on page 252 where George Strompolos, content partnerships manager of YouTube, states that “YouTube receives twenty hours of video uploaded to the site every minute!” If that isn’t enough proof to show how important videos and vblogs are becoming, I don’t know what is. Video sharing whether it’s live streaming or posting to YouTube is here and no company can deny or ignore that fact so follow the commandments on page 254 and upload, post and have fun!

Where the Hell is Matt?

To continue with my confusion of these chapters running together, I’m going to assuming that audio (an example being iTunes) can be used in videos to create a piece like an iMovie which can then be uploaded to sites like YouTube and then could be considered a Vlog depending on how it’s published to the world? Am I close Professor Bartling? (Using your favorite title!) 🙂

Well regardless if I am or not, I’ll continue with one of my favorite web findings…

While reading this chapter, I immediately thought of the website Where the Hell is Matt?  Not only is this guy a viral celebrity who’s had more than 37 MILLION views on one video, but he’s an awesome entertainer who I truly admire! I first saw this film in at a marketing convention down in Naples, Florida about 4 years ago. It was shown to use as a feel good video but also to capture the power of vblogs and what is capable from an “average joe” and a video camera.  Matt had a passion to travel so he quit his job and started this blog so his parents could track his adventures. A friend began to tape him doing his famous “bad dancing moves” and a couple months later Stride gum got ahold of him after seeing his video and offered a sponsorship for a 6 month trips around the world to all 7 continents to simply dance. He has since made two additional videos but the one below from his third trip, has become his most famous because this time, he asked the natives to dance with him.  This video is also a great demonstration of communication that is talked about in Chapter 12 on page 226 because this non-verbal communication is understood by everyone around the world:  smiles, laughter and dancing.

I’d highly encourage anyone reading this post to visit Matt’s website to be inspired by what a small project just for fun could turn into! Matt now has a geotracking system on him at all times and makes daily journals about his travels. What a great job!

 

And the Beat Goes On…

I’m not gonna lie, I feel the last couple chapters have a lot of overlapping information and now looking back, I’ve probably made some statements that would have been a better fit on a different blog.  Regardless, it’s all coming from the same book and ending on the same blog so I will continue my thoughts and audio and podcasts in this one!

This chapter talks about itunes and audio sharing. I will confess that I had once been a user of Limewire until I knew all the problems and implications it encountered. From that point forward, I have switched to itunes and must say the increase from 99 cents to $1.29 has made quite a significant impact on my purchasing decisions. I know, what’s 30 cents right? But I am one of those people who only gets on about once a month to download new music all at once and those extra cents add up. I seriously made a conscience decision if I really think I’ll listen to the song before purchasing it opposed to the click-happy-fingers I had in the 99 cent days! I really hope this is not like the gas world and prices will continue to rise over the years… Errrrrr 😦

I also use my phone as an MP3 player. I find this extremely beneficial when going on runs outside. Yes, I have an ipod but by using my cell phone, I also have a phone to make an emergency call if needed so I view it as the best of both (safe) worlds!

Along with my iTunes and audio sharing, I’m also a big user of the iMovie application on my MacBook Pro. I’ve never taken a class outside of the couple days we spent in Avid, but being a huge fan of photography, adding pictures to music brings the experience to a whole new dimension due to the addition of another sense (hearing). I’ve even offered to make my brother’s wedding video to be shown at the reception.  (What was I thinking being the perfectionist that I am, knowing this will take hours and it has to be perfect because everyone will know I did it!?) Well, not only will it be one of the most personal projects I’ve done and the most time consuming, but it’ll be great to add in my portfolio that might lead Graphic Fruition with the opportunity of doing more wedding videos in the years ahead.  Here is an iMovie that I did for Scarlet Guard’s End-of-the-Year party last Spring.  I will warn you it’s 12 minutes long, but a great showcase and recruiting piece of what our student organization is all about. Plus, I think it turned out pretty cool!  Enjoy!

Can You Hear Me Now?

At first, I think that I’m not too familiar with Podcasts but when I stop to break it down, podcasts are everywhere. They’re short videos with personal or informational interviews, they’re books on tape that i can listen to in the car or they can be my personal favorite –  a single song in MP3 mode that’s one of the 10 billionth song downloaded from iTunes. It’s amazing how fast those $1.29 songs can add up, just ask my bank account!

Although I’ve never wrote or produces a song, the closest thing to a podcast would be when I worked with former radio reporter Jeff Sheldon to write and record the script for this short video about the Cornhusker Compass, a personalized yearbook and campus guide that’s exclusive to Scarlet Guard members. We visited our ala mater at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications and sat in a sound booth to record his voice over. We then used software to edit his tone and sounds, added pictures, videos and put it all together to come up with this informational piece:

Another cool application is Jing where a person can record their movements/actions on their computer and sharing instantly with anyone around the world. For example, lets say you want to show your mother (who’s not as technologically advanced as you are) how to download pictures from a digital camera and upload them to a online photo album. You would press “capture” on Jing to start recording your actions and then send this file to your mom and she can see exactly what you were doing step by step like she was here with you in person! Going along with podcasts, you can also plug in a microphone and talk through any presentation or demonstration that you record. This is great tool for teachers with online classes all the way to business who take pride in their customer service!

As Safko mentions on page 194, “If your podcasts contains valuable takeaways, your listeners will continue to come back for more.”  So make it entertaining, informational and don’t forget to be real!

Think Before You Post

I had to laugh when I read the “Back to the Beginning” in Chapter 9 on page 176 when they talked about the tedious process of getting pictures from a camera to the computer and here’s why:  Back in 7th grade, my best friend and I lived on Yahoo Chat and at that time we also created homepages and although I don’t remember what website it was through but we were the FIRST two of our friends who had access to a scanner! I remember when I opened the flatbed scanner at my birthday party and everyone gasped. We thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread and spent the next hours scanning prints and uploading them to our site!  Little did we know then how easy a we’d have it one day with a digital camera and USB cord!

I have grown up around photography as my both my grandfather and mother were professional photographers. This past Christmas, my mother received the EOS Rebel T2i by Canon with a 18 mega pixels and it’s AMAZING! Not only can you tell the difference in quality of photos but there are numerous settings, focus points, lighting options and the ability to shoot HD movies which capture 3.7 frames a second. If you’re the photographer for a company where images are important to showcase what you have to offer, it’s definitely worth the extra money for the next step up in cameras.

A major concern I have with this chapter is the lack of information about the con’s of geotagging and something that everyone should be aware of. The book does a great job of discussing meta tags and tracking your photos but a lot of people are unaware that every phone made after 2005 is required to have geotagging on (normally by longitude and latitude). What’s the big deal?  If you are posting photos from your phone to a social media site, people can track your exact location and find where you live, if you’re home or not and your every move.  This online article from NBC talks more about the con’s of geotagging and not to be a debbie downer, I just believe everyone should be aware in case they’d choose to disable this function. (You can remove metadata with free software from BatchPurify LITE.)

Overall, having a presence on the web is huge and I agree positive photographs that display your company in a good light should take every advantage of this free marketing opportunity but make sure each photograph has a purpose!

Wiki-Wiki

Being introduced to wikipedia.org while I was in college, gave me a negative connotation about the website; only because most teacher’s stated they would not accept a sourcing from wikipedia as a credited web site and not to waste our time researching there when writing a paper. What I’ve learned from reading chapter eight is wiki’s

I also didn’t realize the number of wiki websites. I thought wiki was short for wikipedia and there was only one. What I’ve learned is wiki stands for “fast” or “quick” and it’s a type of website where the audience (regulated or freely) can create new pages, input data, change statements or update new information using SML language or “wikitext.”  My one question is with the thousands if not millions of wiki websites out there, who regulates the changes and even in an open forum does someone still have to process them? I’m thinking specifically of wikipedia which hosts more information than an encyclopedia!

More thoughts on wikipedia… Having only used this sight as a quick search reference, I spent some time exploring the other tabs and things offered and came across some interesting findings. Located on the left hand side under the main page, there’s a current events tab where daily information is uploaded along with any breaking news and links to the story. There’s also a random article tab where a new discovery or random item is thrown out there and wiki is looking for people to expand and add information. I would assume this is how a lot of the unique entries are created. There’s also a toolbox to upload your own files and a place to print off sections to create a book if you’re a teacher or maybe presenting at a conference. Overall, wikipedia is way more detailed and developed site than I ever thought!

Another site from the book that caught my attention was MyGad.com After watching the demo video (below), I honestly might sign up and create an account. Items that I might include are my frequent flyer miles, license plate number, license number, birthdays, passwords, deadlines and any other information I’m often asked for once or twice a year that I tend to forget.  I could see our company using it for scheduling events; especially who’s working what football games on what weekend. Intern schedule would be great as well to give them a place to check their schedule if they’re out of the office and don’t have access to our system. How cool! 

Thank you chapter eight for expanding my knowledge and giving me new websites to try out and incorporate into my daily living!

 

I Learned Something New in the Social Media World!

I now can justify spending my time and money spent on this class as I have set up my “reader” account within google.  This means I can now start subscribing to websites, blogs and anything that contains an RSS – Real Simple Syndication.  This is something I have always wanted to do, and although it only took a few seconds, reading chapter six inspired me to expand my knowledge and actually do it!

I also learned what that crazy little box is with funny words that I often have to verify before submitting a post or created an I.D. The CAPTCHA code stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.  (Now that is an acronym!) I understand now, why it’s important to able it on blogs and registration sites to help from being automatically spammed and will use them from this point moving forward.

Forums are a great way to create the sense of community and build a trusting resource that people can go to for information and know they’ll receive honest opinions.  Chapter six talks about the community of a forum being centered around a theme or common interest. There are forums for everything you can image from video games and special codes to pets, sporting teams and thousands for cooking recipes and tricks. Although I believe my company is too small, I like the idea of having forums within a company’s intranet. For a large corporation with many offices worldwide like Pepsi or Honda, this would provide a great place for workers to be open and honest, ask what’s worked and share what hasn’t without letting the outside world/public know something didn’t necessarily go as planne. I know I’ve sent an e-mail to my closest 5 friends to throw a question out there and hope someone has an answer for me! This is exactly what forums can be used for on a personal and professional level.

I checked out www.yuku.com and watched the demo video. It seems like a great concept for someone to blog, post pictures and participate in forums but reminded me of just another social media network or community to belong to with a profile, pictures and updates. The book talks about having up to 5 different profiles on the page but only one account. Are these accounts interest specific?  Would I have one profile for cooking and one for sports?  I’d be interested to hear from someone who has used yuku and what they think!

A Good Starting Point with a Long Ways to Go…

I found chapter five very intriguing as we (my generation) forget there was a time with no world wide web. If you wanted to correspond with someone, you wrote a hand written letter and put it in the mail with a stamp.  If you wanted to drive across the country for a summer vacation, you mapped it out in an atlas. I remember my mother buying an atlas every year and then ripping the states out that we were going to travel through and high lighting the roads, exits and turns.  This was all before there was mapquest.com and garmins that could be updated annually via the web.

Three things I was surprised to learn within this chapter were:

1. The breakdown of users worldwide for the web and North America falling third to Asia and Europe. I admit that I often forget how populated other countries are compared to the United States and that we’re not always the leader of technology and innovation.
2. The term “surf the web” came from the cocreator Vinton Cerf’s contributions.
3. The first screenshot of the web’s address was displayed in gray scale . The link listed in our book was no longer available but I found one which I believe is similar (image below)

Last summer, I took New Media Design with Adam Wagnor where we learned code and html (which was a completely foreign language to me at the time) and went on to develop our own website for our final project. Safkos’ ideas to incorporate into a website was a good refresher course when thinking strategically about the design of a website as he states, “It’s not about your home page; it’s about everything that comes after.”  I would say the most important thing he touched upon was number four:  Signal you’re still there – often.  Refreshing the content on your homepage or within the website is a great reason for people to come back; especially if your organization works in reporting news, results or events.

A few more ideas that I learned from Adam’s class which weren’t mentioned in the book are:

• Never use the words or phrase:  “Welcome to my sight…” or “This website is about Jenny Green….” Even if you’re a one person show, let the audience think you’re a whole projection team and company.
• Adam suggested not having a lot of text on your homepage or intro/landing page. Although it needs to follow the same theme, look and feel, the first page the audience sees needs to be eye catching and designed well to have an immediate impact and make it a “sticky” site.
• Not to use flash as the audience might not have the same technology or connection that you designed it for so this could take a lot longer to load which in return could annoy the audience as a waste of their time and then loose them to a different site.
• Agreeing with what was stated on page 97 about the tendency of the eye to scan across a webpage in a “Z” path, always place your logo or an important image in the upper left corner on EVERY page and always have that logo linked back to the homepage if clicked.

The website I create and wrote the code for is www.graphicfruition.com  This is my side small business that I hope to one day expand more. The website is a starting point and ok for now but I definitely look forwade to the day when I have time to add lightboxes to the graphic page, an order online form for the letter art and maybe even my personal blog. As the book suggested, I use google analytics to track visitors, pages views and find out what people are most interested. My only frustration is the fact there’s just not enough time in a day to do everything I wish to do with my website.