New Media Prescription: Think small. Get started. Don’t be overwhelmed.

May 26, 2014 by Douglas E. Welch

It seems that every time I am at an event these days — Garden shows, Literacy Events, Business meetings — I am quickly pulled into a discussion of New Media/Social Media and how it can and should be used. almost universally, though, everyone I speak with is adrift in any new media plans. They might have a Twitter accounts, Facebook page or Instagram photos, but thy don’t know how or why they should be using them.

See more New Media Prescriptions here

It is easy to set up accounts, of course, so nearly everyone has done that. Then the accounts site there, empty, doing nothing for no one. They could, instead be spreading your message, talking to clients, selling your products 24/7, but leave them empty and they are worthless, if not outright damaging to you. If people find your accounts online, they expect to find something there and will be disappointed when there isn’t. Don’t disappoint your audience when it is so easy to feed them the information, the products, the content they desire.

In an effort to help you jumpstart your own usage of New Media, I present this selection of small, doable actions that you can take — every day — to start making New Media work for you. If you like these ideas, please consider scheduling a consult with me so that together we can craft a New Media plan that is customized to you and the needs of your life, business and products.

1. Start small

Select one online social media source and concentrate your actions there. Does your life lend itself to a more visual presentation, start with Instagram, Flickr or other photo sharing site. Set a goal to post 1 new item each day. It’s OK if you don’t make it every day, but try. In most cases, I think you will fin that you easily have at least 1 item to share per day, if not more. You just need to keep the thought in your mind throughout your day. If you do, you will be more inclined to capture those photos you may have simply walked by before.

2. Collect ideas

If you are like most people, you will easily have more than 1 item a day that you would like to share. If so, collect up these “extra” ideas in a list so that they are available when needed. Maybe you had a busy day and weren’t able to take that daily photo. No problem. Find one of your “extras” and post it today. Problem solved!

This same idea works with any sort of content. Write as many Twitter messages as you can. Take as many photographs as possible, Write articles for your blog when you are “in the zone.” Then you can easily have those off days without feeling like you have failed. You shouldn’t feel that way anyway when you miss a day, but I know from personal experience that those feelings can creep in sometimes and actually prevent you from posting in the future. Keep a ready supply of content at hand and you’ll never have to worry about content again.

Need examples of the type of info you can/should share? Need ideas of how you can use multiple sites. Check out my social media accounts below and use me as an example.

3. Expand to new services one by one

Once your feel you have your rhythm down with one service, consider adding another. In most cases, you will find this much easier than starting in the first place. If you are already taking photos for Instagram, those same photos can and should be easily be shared on Facebook, or as part of your blog or Google+ page. You have different audiences in each of those locations, so don’t worry about duplicating content. Sure, some folks may see the same post in 2 different locations, but many, many others will be seeing it for the first time.

As you add new services, you will start to develop a system for sharing your content. I have a list posted on my monitor to remind me of the places I need to share content so that I don’t forget. As it stands now, I have about 13 places I share each piece of content I create. These services ebb and flow as I discover which ones work best for me and I am constantly trying out new services as they are introduced. This might sound overwhelming, but on average it takes me maybe 5 mins to share new content to all of my other accounts now that I have my system in place. I don’t spend hours sharing on New Media and you don’t need to either.

For more on this idea, read my previous post, Benefiting from the “New Media Multiplier”

4. Produce your content and help your audience find you

I often hear from people that they can’t imagine who would be reading their content, listening to their podcast or looking at their photos. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but this isn’t your concern. Your audience will find you, no matter what, if you put your content out there. It is nearly impossible to know exactly who your audience is, but you must remember that everyone has an audience — they just need to find it.

Your job is to produce content and share it so that your audience can find you. Make it easy for them to stumble upon you through referrals from other web sites, search engines, friends, family and random synchronicity. This is the biggest reason why any of us share anything on our blogs or social media sites. It allows our audience to find us and share us with their audience — and so on, and so on, and so on!

Don’t worry about your audience. Worry about your work, your writing, your products, your promotion, your sharing. Do this and your audience will easily find you.

Getting started with New Media is equally the easiest and most difficult part of the process. It is easy to set up accounts, but it can be difficult to discover what you want and need to share there. This takes time and a bit of thought, but the advantages to be found in using New Media, whatever your goals far outweighs the difficulties. Get started today!

Great places to start your New Media journey. Pick one and get started! :

Need help jumpstarting your New Media usage? Ask your questions in the comments, email me at douglas@welchwrite.com or schedule a New Media Consult to help develop your own, unique New Media plans!

New Media Prescription: Your blog’s editorial calendar starts with your personal calendar

April 25, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

In my New Media Consulting business, I am often asked, “How do I get started? What should I blog about? When should I do it?” With most clients, the first place to start in developing some sort of editorial calendar for a blog begins with their very own personal calendar. The milestones in your calendar — those important events — are the beginning of any great blog.

While most people see their calendar as a reminder of upcoming events, each item on your calendar can and should drive various new media activities, as well. There are blog posts to be written and published weeks or even months ahead of the event itself. With such a ready supply of “content” for your blog, why not start here?

Both readers and search engines love a regular flow of content from blogs, podcasts and YouTube Channels. It will make them return again and again. It will lead them to subscribe to your mailing lists, RSS Feeds and Channels. When they do this, they are giving you permission to enter into their lives whenever you have something interesting to say. Do not abuse this permission, but also do not ignore their desire for new information, new content, new videos, etc.

The Calendar Blog Process

If you want to get started with your blog — or add more content to an existing blog — here is a process I use. It all begins with my calendar.

Find the next immediate event on your calendar that you want to share with others. For this event, and subsequent events, do most or all of these steps.

Look back 1 month, 1 week and 1 day before the event and place calendar reminders to post event information to your blog on these days.
Create blog posts noting these events. Included further information as it becomes available closer to the event

If possible, pre-write your blog posts and schedule them to automatically post on the appropriate day.
If the event is a ticketed/RSVP event, note when ticket sales and registration begin

It is as important to post this information, at this time, as the information/date of the actual event, as people may need to purchase tickets/RSVP quickly.
Create a blog post describing the event and linking to the Ticket/RSVP page
Post (or schedule the post) to appear on your blog 1 day before tickets go on sale or the RSVP list opens. (Watch this blog for an upcoming video on how to schedule posts for WordPress and Blogger blogs)

If your event is not ticketed, publish your first post about the event at least 1 month ahead or sooner if possible.

Typically this post is in the form of a “Save the Date” post with as many details as you can provide ahead of time.

Share photos, video and links from previous similar events, if you attended in the past

Remember to collect as much content as possible during each event, so that you have plenty of content to include for subsequent occurrences

Repeat this for every event in your calendar, creating a constant schedule of calendar items to drive regular posts on your blog and promote your activities.

Make a point of including these blog posting dates (1 month, 1 week, 1 day before) for each event as you add it to your calendar.
“Working in Reverse” will insure that you do not “forget” to promote your events in the future.

Schedule Followup Posts

Add an event to your calendar NO MORE THAN 1 WEEK, after. Post photos, videos and a recap of the event for those that could not attend.

General Rule: The longer photos and video stay in your camera, the LESS LIKELY you will be to post them
Followup recaps are, in some ways, even more important than the pre-event announcements, as they contain information and content for those who could not attend the actual event, as well as reminders of the information for those that did.
Recaps allow attendees to easily share your content with their audience. This allows you to effect an even wider audience.

Further Notes:

A badly promoted event is a waste of time for you and everyone involved

This is especially true if you are not being paid for the event. In these cases, promotion of yourself and your work may be the only payment you receive. Don’t squander this opportunity by failing to promote well.
Sometimes you may need to do the majority of the promotion if the event organizers do not promote it fully. It is in your own best interest to do so, even though it is extra work. Don’t rely on organizers.

Promote your events and activities — even if the public cannot attend — so that your blog readers can at least see and hear about your work

Post photos, video and notes about these events/share as much as you can
Give your readers a look “behind the scenes” whenever you can. This is very popular content for most readers.

Promote your colleagues and friends events using these methods and ask them to do the same with yours

When someone shares your content, they are willingly providing you access to their entire network. This often includes people who are unfamiliar with your work.
Everyone involved with an event should make a point to promote everyone else involved in that event. It greatly expands the audience exposed to your promotion.
Create pre-written blog posts, social media messages that people can cut and paste, ReTweet or Share. Reducing the work/friction involved in sharing makes it more likely that people will share your message.

It should be obvious that events are time sensitive. Do not miss the opportunity to fully promote your events. Put your promotion milestones in your calendar with as much importance as the event itself. Otherwise you may find yourself putting out great effort for very little reward.

Use this link for more posts in the New Media Prescription series

New Media Prescription: Don’t “Complain to the Choir” when producing New Media

March 2, 2013 by Douglas E. Welch

We need to talk…

One of the great strengths of New Media — be it blogging, videos, photos, social media — is the ability to connect directly to your audience. You don’t have any middlemen distorting your message or otherwise getting in the way. Unfortunately, this also means you don’t have someone watching over your shoulder to gently nudge you and say, “Perhaps you might want to re-think that.”

One common trap I see for New Media producers is, what I all, “Complaining to the Choir.” Like the age old adage against “preaching to the choir”, it is to be avoided for a number of reasons. First of all, though, what does it mean when you are “Complaining to the Choir?” It means to complain to those people who are actually the opposite of those you want to address.

When things aren’t going well for a new media producers — videos are getting liked, viewed or shared — blog posts are being ignored — revenue isn’t coming in — producers can spend entire posts, videos or podcasts complaining about the issue. They’ll cajole, they’ll berate, they will express their sadness and their fear that they might have to go back to their old way of work. As a fellow producer, I can empathize with them. Being a producer means facing criticism, nasty feedback, Internet trolls and other burdens on a daily basis. That said, I also understand that bringing this negativity into a show or blog can have exactly the opposite effect they wish to have. Focusing on the negative can actually reduce views, downloads and readers ben further , if you do it too often.

As a producer, your best approach is to ignore the negativity and simply move on to your next production. Focusing on the negative will only depress you further.

Here is why “Complaining to the Choir” is such a bad idea:

You annoy your biggest supporters

It is a simple fact that those a producer would most like to reach with their message probably aren’t watching, listening or reading anyway. Instead you are complaining to your biggest supporters — and perhaps driving them away, too. Your supporters come to your blog, your video, your podcasts because they love the content you produce. If you produce a show full of complaints and low on content, you are actively disrespecting their support. It is like a preacher complaining to the choir that no one comes to church anymore, even those these people do come to church AND also participate in other ways.

You produce yet another show with low viewership, low likes and low shares

When you produce a complaining show, you are expanding the effect you are complaining about and driving your ratings even lower. It is fair to say that a show filled with complaints, directed at the wrong people, is sure to garner less views and popularity than one of your traditional, content rich show. I had that very experience today. I watched the complaining show, but I could not bring myself to click the Like button, as I couldn’t honestly recommend it my followers as a show they should watch. They wouldn’t find it enjoyable and I would feel that I had offered a bad recommendation.

Complaints don’t drive success, great content does

While I can understand producers feeling worried and upset over various issues, it is always important to remember that content, not complaints drives your success. Viewers don’t really care if you are struggling. They come for the great content and many will support you by clicking Like or subscribing. If you want to truly have an effect on your issues, produce more great content. It is the only thing that matters. It is the only thing that will attract the support you need and desire.

Share your personal life, but perhaps not your producer life

Producing new media can be a lonely world, but beware of sharing your feelings about your show with your audience. They probably don’t care. Sure, you can share your thoughts about other personal issues, life changes, struggles, etc, but when you bring your producer complains to the conversation a subtle line is crossed. People lose sight of you as a person and start to think of you as just another faceless media drone. Viewers love to know more about your personal life, but they don’t really care about the nitty-gritty of being a producer. Most viewers don’t want to know “how the sausage is made” as long as it results in great content.

The next time you are feeling worried or depressed about your New Media productions and their success, seek out a close personal friend or a New Media user group to air your complaints and worries. Don’t take them to your audience. Your complains do nothing to benefit the audience and can only harm your standing with them.

Now, get back to work and produce something GREAT!

New Media Prescription: Every podcaster needs a YouTube Channel

November 5, 2012 by Douglas E. Welch

I have been spending a lot of time working on my YouTube channel lately, mainly due to my observation of how various gaming channels have created some amazing programming there. With gaming the #2 category on YouTube, many of the channels I am subscribed to are supporting their creators as a full time job. It isn’t easy, of course. Extremely popular channels have to constantly be populated with new, entertaining content, and their creators will be the first to tell you how challenging it can be. I have been watching these producers very carefully and noting the methods they use improve my own YouTube channel.

Still, as a long time podcaster, more and more I am seeing the need for every podcaster — whether predominantly audio or video — to create and maintain their own YouTube channel.

For me, podcasting and YouTube are complimentary and can work quite well together. Combine this with live streaming options that tie into YouTube (TwitchTV and Google Hangouts are 2 examples) and you could have a potent source of new audience members and even income to help you grow your show.

Every podcaster needs a YouTube Channel

Ease of monetization

Monetizing podcasts can be difficult. There is no podcast equivalent of Google Adsense, so producers are forced to become their own advertising salesforce. Finding advertisers and/or show sponsors can be extremely time consuming and frustrating. It is also a never-ending burden as you are constantly having to find new advertisers and sponsors for your show. Also, since podcasts are downloaded directly to the computer of your audience, there is no easy way to include dynamic advertising or create web links to products and sponsor web sites.
YouTube, on the other hand, can provide a solution to nearly all these issues.

Using the Google Adsense model, Google sales reps find the advertisers, assist in creating the advertising and manage the system that dynamically inserts that advertising into your YouTube videos based not only on the content of your shows, but also on the interests of the viewer.
As has been seen with Adsense revenue on web sites, Adsense earnings are nearly directly proportional to the number of readers/viewers that your content. In most cases, creating content that attracts viewers drives higher earnings and further growth while allowing you to focus on the content of the shows, not ad sales.
Further, the built-in rating engine and other metrics used by Google to suggest videos to users, can create its own feedback loop of support and audience generation. Together this creates a monetization model that can hold large potential benefits. with little work on the part of the podcaster.

Introduce your show to an entirely different audience

People often forget that YouTube is, at its heart, a social network much like all the others. While some of your current listeners and/or viewers night also follow you on YouTube, you will be introducing yourself to a large, new audience that has never heard of you — or your show — before. This is true of ay social network. Yes, there will always be some overlap, but there will also be a significant amount of new potential audience members in the mix. Go where you audience (or potential audience) congregates. In today’s world, YouTube is one of the most important places to be seen.

Current video podcasts easily re-purposed on a YouTube channel

If you are already producing some video content, a YouTube Channel is a great way to gain more exposure and audience with very little extra work.

Work as a companion to audio podcasts

Printed text can be an intimate connection between the writer and the reader — witness how many people cry at the end of a Harry Potter book. That said, as most podcasters have found, audio can be even more intimate. I often describe audio podcasting as “whispering in the ears” of my audience. This creates a deeper connection with your audience has they hear your voice, its inflections and tone. Still, video is more intimate still. The ability to see your face, your expressions, your movements bring an entirely different level of intimacy to the equation. If you are doing only an audio podcast, I would highly recommend creating some small video companion pieces which you can share via your regular podcast feed and also as part of your YouTube channel. In some cases, you might be about to repurpose your existing audio shows by “enhancing” them with graphics, photos and other supporting material. You can even use technology like QR codes and audio cues (See “Using Chirp to…) to add interactive features to your audio shows.
In a reverse example, I am seeing video podcasters and YouTube producers also creating audio only, long form, content as a companion to their shorter video presentations. In one case, Eric Rochow from Gardenfork.tv was producing short videos on food, farming, beekeeping and more for his video podcast. Like many producers, though, he saw the need for content his viewers could consume while doing other tasks like working in the garden or driving a vehicle. (one great advantage of audio podcasts). He also wanted to explore topics more thoroughly and more easily invite guests in for discussions. To fill that need, Eric created Gardenfork Radio, a fairly traditional talk radio show with segments on all his typical topics, a co-host with which to discuss these topics, interview guests and more. I see Eric’s combination of the video and audio as an excellent example of how podcasters can make use of both audio and video to reach a larger audience will also providing more in-depth information in a longer form show.

Consuming YouTube (and other) video via mobile now infinitely easier than before

In the past, when bandwidth was expensive and mobile bandwidth was slow to non-existent, it was difficult to consume video. Podcasting, due to its download model, allowed users to easily download content while and home and sync it to their mobile device for watching and listening wherever they might be. Due to the increasing speed of mobile bandwidth and the stability of various streaming alternatives for both audio and video, podcasting has lost a bit of its advantage. Yes, there are still times when podcasting can shine — such as when you are away from reliable cell phone coverage or on a limited bandwidth data plan, but the podcasting download model holds less advantage than ever before. In this case, I think that streaming technology has “won” over podcasting in some ways. Yes, I still use both methods for accessing my favorite content, but as apps like Stitcher and Apple’s own Podcasting app have show — listeners want to be able to stream your content as well as subscribe in the usual podcast fashion.

What are your thoughts about YouTube channels and how podcaster might make use of them?

Use the comments here to let me know and continue the conversation.

You can check out my own YouTube channel here

Ignoring New Media, in all its forms, is no longer an option for businesspeople

November 26, 2009 by Douglas E. Welch

Ignoring New Media, in all its forms, is no longer an option for businesspeople.

It isn’t a fad.
It isn’t going away.
You can’t stick your fingers in your ears and chant “La La La”

It is changing the way you do business every day.
It is as important as a telephone – a bank account – a storefront.
It is already here and your competitors are already using it to build their businesses.
New Media is instrumental to the continued success of your business.
That means you can’t ignore it any longer.

Over the years it has been possible to drag your feet on new technologies. Our grandparents probably resisted adding a phone to their house, then a radio, then the television. Each new technology was hailed as a fad, an oddity, a toy. New Media is in the midst of that same cycle today. What should be clear, though, is that New Media is a collection of the most useful business tools ever delivered into the hands of business. The impacts of the telephone and television – as much as they changed our world – will be deeply eclipsed by the changes wrought by New Media, in all its forms.

I said it once, I’ll say it again – you can no longer ignore New Media.

Over the years, I have been pretty forgiving of people who decided, either by accident or on purpose, not to have and not to use an email account. I grew up in the years before email and even though I might have found it useful, I could understand how others might not. Five years ago, though, something changed in my thinking. I began to look at people without email as akin to someone who refused to use the telephone. Email had supplanted nearly every other device as my communication medium of choice. It provided an excellent way of communicating with individuals and groups in a way that paper or telephone could not. Not using email today is akin to deciding not to use the telephone in the 1950s. It simply makes no sense.

I have come to the same mind about New Media. To ignore New Media, either by inattention or design, is no longer an option. Those around you have already figured this out – and not just professional geeks like me either. Businesses are learning the painful lesson that newspapers, yellow pages and direct mail advertising are becoming less and less effective every day. They don’t reach the larger world of customers their business needs to survive and thrive. Throwing “good money after bad” doesn’t make sense in a world where you now have the ability to communicate easily and directly with your customers – and they with you. Look around you neighborhood. Do you see stacks of Yellow Pages lying on lawns and porches, or in recycle bins? Are your ads really doing you any good there.

Is this new world frightening? You bet! Change is always frightening — but it is also filled with opportunity. Now is the time to dive into New Media. Every day you hesitate – every day you ignore New Media — is a day when your competitors are moving ahead of you.

So now that you know you can no longer ignore New Media – Get started today!

Start devoting at least 1/3 of your marketing budget to New Media tools
- 1/2 if you can bring yourself to do it. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can do for less.
Look deeply at your current marketing methods and kill off those that don’t bring in a substantial amount of sales
- Stop advertising in the newspaper, yellow pages, etc if they no longer work. You have alternatives now.
Start engaging your customers in conversation, wherever they might congregate:
- web site, email, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of new services yet to be invented
Monitor closely how New Media tools effect your bottom line
- use coupon codes, tracking codes, whatever to get hard numbers on which methods have the most effect

Over the next several months I am going to be challenging you to engage with New Media. I am going to be pushing you – hard – to explore these new tools. I will be providing some New Media prescriptions on how to get moving on your New Media campaigns. I am also going to be dealing some cold, hard truths on why you need to use New Media or risk becoming irrelevant to your customers.

Ready to dive into New Media?

See http://DouglasEWelch.com for all the ways we can work together – online and face to face.

New Media Prescription 004 – Interview others

December 4, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

For other entries in this series, See New Media Prescription

If you want to enhance the impact of your new media efforts, and expose yourself to an entirely new set of listeners and viewers, you can’t do better than recording a series of interviews.

Why are interviews so powerful? It is a simple fact of ego. When you interview someone for your show what is the first thing they do? That’s right, they tell all their friends, family and business contacts to listen.

“Hey, you’ve got to listen to this interview I did for the XYZ show!”

This is exactly what you want them to do and you want to facilitate it as much as possible. In this relatively simple way you gain exposure to each person’s network of contacts so provide them with audio or video from the interview, send them links they can share and embed in thier own blogs and web sites and post the interview to public audio and video sharing sites.

While you might hesitate to ask someone for their entire mailing list so you could send out a press release, interviewing someone, and asking that they share it with their friends and contacts is very natural. An interview provides valuable content and yet still achieves the goal of raising your profile and that of your interview subject.

Who do you interview? Start with the people you would most like to speak with. Who are your influences? Who are your heroes? Whose opinions do you respect most? There is no need to shoot low, either. My fellow Friends in Tech members, Chuck Tomasi and Kreg Steppe of Technorama always make a point of reaching out to bigger names for their interviews. Their guests have included Mythbusters Adam Savage and Grant Imahara, author Stephen Covey, explorer and discoverer of the Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard and many others.

You should also seek to be interviewed by others. You gain content that can be shared on our own blog or podcast and your ideas get exposed to a new group of people. It also allows you to get your ideas out if you are having difficulty writing them down. This was the genesis of my New Media Answers series for New Media Interchange. Members would often be peppering me with questions during our meetings and I quickly realized that my answers would be beneficial to many more people if I captured them for the web site and podcast.

So I asked NMI member, Tracy Pattin, who does her own show, Sizzle in the Middle, to act as the interviewer and duplicate in the studio what happened so frequently at our meetings. She comes in with questions on a particular topic and I answer them to the best of my ability. This results in an engaging discussion and allows me to talk about new media issues and work through ideas that I can later present as more fully-formed articles here and on the New Media Interchange blog. This allows me to answer questions that a large majority of the members might have even when I am unable to talk with each of them individually.

Start interviewing today to spread your name and your message to an entirely new group of people.

New Media Prescription 003 – Capture your content

October 1, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

So, if you have read the previous 2 installments of this series — Get a Blog and Start/Build Your Email List — then you are ready for the next step. Now that you have a place to release your new media and have started a mailing list to promote your new media, it is time to create some new media!

Too many people I talk to look upon this as a challenging task. “Where am I going to find the time to create all this content?” The truth is, you don’t have to make more time to create your content. In most cases, you are already creating content every day. The sad part is, you are probably throwing away this content because you don’t recognize it when you see it.

Every person, every store, every charity, every restaurant, every business creates content every day…or should be. You have a unique message you want and need to communicate to your customers. You goal is to integrate new media into your work and business so that you take advantage of every opportunity to create new content.

Here are some examples from a variety of businesses:

Retail Store

Did you just receive a new product, new product line, an enhancement to an existing product or a promotional video from a vendor? Look for a way to make a short video, a piece of audio or a blog post about this product. Look for opportunities to interview manufacturers about their products. Have your staff create videos about products they really like. Your customers are there to buy your products. Give them as much information as you can to make their purchasing decisions easier. Even more, using your existing staff in your new media productions brings a personal feeling to them. Your customers will see the same people online and in the store and feel a closer relationship with your business.

Restaurant

Many restaurants work on a very seasonal menu. Peaches are in season one week, raspberries the next, strawberries another. Fall calls for comfort food and summer for lighter fare. This gives you a ready-made schedule and reason for new media. Show your customers how you are developing a new seasonal menu. Show them the special ways you are using the seasonal product. Celebrate the change of seasons with menu items, entertainment ideas, party information and more. You can also produce mini-series of cooking classes and recipes, showing some “behind-the-scenes” action that everyone loves.

Charities

One of the biggest goals of any charity is out-reach — telling potential donors what you do and why it needs to be done. If you are a medical charity, I would guess you have regular panel discussions and speakers that come to present to your staff and donors. Make a point of recording these events. While you may have 10-20 people at the in-house discussion, you have a potential audience of thousands on the Internet. If you have influential visitors to your offices, record an interview with them that can be used on your web site or sent out as a podcast.

If you have a yearly event, capture as much media as possible during your next event. Done right, you will have enough content to power a weekly or monthly podcast. This show then becomes a regular promotion for the next yearly event. Instead of making your PR push a few months before your regular event, you now have a series of regular promotions throughout the year leading up to the event. Your goal here is to be make the yearly event a culmination of a year-long event that you have been fueling using your new media productions. Ideally, by the time you open up ticket sales for your event, the demand will be so high that you will sell out almost immediately. Then you repeat the process, gathering more media at this event to fuel your show for another year.

Build your personal brand

Many of us are in the business of providing information and advice. Too often, we wait until customers come to us for information instead of proactively reaching out to them. In the case of one financial planner, the current mortgage and stock market crises has led to frightened customers rushing to their office to inquire about their portfolios. Imagine how you might allay fears by providing a regular informational update to your clients. When customers are clamoring for information, new media is a great way to provide it.

Providing this information also goes a long way towards building your own brand as an expert in your field. Your audience might begin with your clients, but it can quickly grow to include others who might eventually become your clients. It could even raise your profile enough to bring traditional media outlets like newspapers and television to come seeking your insight.

Content surrounds you and your business. You only need to reach out and capture it when it occurs. Starting a new media program isn’t about creating information out of whole cloth. It is about sharing what you already have and know. Start capturing your content and building your New Media future today.

Link: Prescription 001 – Get A Blog
Link: Prescription 002 – Start/Build Your Email List

New Media Prescription 002 – Start/Build Your Email List

September 13, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Image via Wikipedia

This is the second in a series of articles seeking to break down the overwhelming options and opportunities of New Media into a set of easy-to-implement steps that anyone can apply.

One great way to introduce people to your New Media project is through an email mailing list. In the best cases, you already have a mailing list that you can use to jump start your projects at their onset. This means you won’t have to struggle for every single reader, listener or viewer at the start. You can begin with a close set of friends and contacts that can help to spread the word about your project. Don’t fret if you don’t have a mailing list, just know it’s next on the list of things to do.

Why do you need a mailing list? Even today, with the explosion of audio and video information on the web, many people are still most familiar and most comfortable with email. Most already have an email address and know how to use it. Even better, email simply shows up in their inbox without any action on their part. This makes it an ideal way to spread the word about your project and shouldn’t be ignored for flashier methods.

Even more importantly, when someone gives you an email address, they are giving you permission to talk to them whenever you have something to say. This is a tremendous asset to you, but it also carries with it some responsibility. Once you have this permission, you need to use it wisely. Spamming your mailing list with too many messages or emails of little value will only cause your list to tune you out, if not outright unsubscribe. Treat those on your email list with respect and do not abuse the permission they have given you.

Setting up an email list

There are a variety of ways to setup and manage an email mailing list.

Create a email group in your existing email program

Most email software has the ability to create a group from any of the addresses in your address book and then address a message to the group, rather than to individual people. While this might sound like the simplest method, it has many drawbacks. Chief among these is the fact that your Internet Service Provider probably has some limit on how many people you can add to a single outgoing email. Once you get over this number you will manually have to split up your list, sending multiple emails. These lists are also difficult to manage and require you to add and remove people as they request.

Set up a Google Group

Google Groups (http://groups.google.com) provide a free way to setup and manage a mailing list for 10 people or thousands. You can invite and add people to your list manually and interested people can also add themselves whenever they wish. Google Groups also provides a form that can be embedded in any web page that allows users to subscribe to your mailing list with one click.

One limitation of Google Groups is that you will only be able to personally add 10 people a day to your mailing list. The number of self-subscriptions is unlimited, though i.e. anyone can add themselves at any time. Still, if you regularly collect email addresses at meetings or other events, this might slow down your ability to add people to the list.

In my own experience, I have found Google Groups to be an excellent, free, solution to running a number of email lists.

Use a commercial email list company

If you need a more professional approach to your email list, along with statistics on the number of people reading your emails, you might wish to contract a commercial email list provider. One of the largest and best known is Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com/). If you receive any volume of email, I can almost guarantee you are on at least one Constant Contact email list.

Regardless of how you create or manage your email list, you must do it. Gaining the permission to speak to a wide variety of people on a regular basis is very powerful and gives you an excellent foundation for promoting your New Media project.

New Media Prescription Intro and #001 – Get a blog

July 13, 2008 by Douglas E. Welch

Image via Wikipedia

Talking with people about new media in all its forms is always interesting. I see such opportunities in new media and I want everyone to benefit. In my discussions, though, I find it is so easy to overwhelm people with all the possibilities new media can provide. After 10 minutes or so, they glaze over and we find it hard to move onto the next level. There are simply too many options and people start to move into analysis paralysis..unsure what to do first.

After a long talk with a client today, I realized that on of the best ways to approaching this problem is to provide a series of “new media prescriptions” to start them on their way. Taking a lead from David Allen’s Getting Things Done, we need to establish the next, concrete action to take. Over the next several weeks I will be presenting a series of prescriptions to help move people into the new media world, one small step at a time.

New Media Prescription 001 – Get a blog!

One of the first steps anyone needs to take is to create a blog. In order to start moving on any of your new media plans, you ned to place…a home…where you can start to post everything you are creating. In most cases, we all produce content every day, but without a place to share this information, it lanquishes.

So, today, I want you to start a blog. You can use Blogger.com, Typepad.com, Tumblr, My Space, and any number of other free sites. If you have your own web site already, you can start a blog there as well. It matters little where you set up your blog. it is much more important that you set it up somewhere.

Next, if you do have your own web site, find some way to place a link to your blog on the main page of your web site. Get help in doing this, if you need it, but please do it. It will go a long way towards exposing your new blog to the world. It also helps to mail a link for your blog to friends and family. Ask them to share it with thier friends, too.

Finally, start posting content to your blog. What content? Whatever strikes your fancy. If you have attended an event, write up your feelings about it, shoot some video, post some pictures. Blogging and podcasting need not take up extra time in your day. You simply need to capture the content that is part of each day and share it with others. You’ll find that capturing your content will be much easier, since you now have a place to put it. Don’t believe me? Give it a try.

Need help getting your blog started? Ask your questions using the comments link below. You can even leave a video comment, if you like.

Next time: Podcasting, Video and audio without a web site

Careers in New Media

Helping to Build New Careers in New Media

Category Archives: New Media Prescription

New Media Prescription 004 – Interview others

New Media Prescription 003 – Capture your content

New Media Prescription 002 – Start/Build Your Email List

New Media Prescription Intro and #001 – Get a blog