Ontario Convention Center
2000 Convention Center Way
Ontario, CA 91764
PodCamp is a FREE UN-CONFERENCE for people who create, enjoy or are interested in learning more about blogs, vlogs, audio podcasts, web video, content networks, new and social media. Show up, meet people, make connections it’s that simple!
PodcampSoCal will be held in the “Keynote” room at the Ontario Convention center. There is plenty of room for smaller groups to be formed. Full AV equipment will be available: Mic & projector for larger presentations.
Note: Rosanne and I are speaking at this event. — Douglas
UCLA Extension Writers Faire
Date: September 9, 2007 Time: 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM Location: Writers Faire: UCLA Campus; Young Hall Courtyard Address: 405 Hilgard Avenue , Los Angeles, CA , 90095 Cross Streets: Hilgard / Westholme
Phone: (310) 825-9415
Admission: This festive event is free. Parking in Lot 2 on the UCLA campus is $8 per day. Food Services: The Bomb Shelter Restaurant on campus will be open for lunch. Numerous vending machines are in the area. Accessibility: Wheel Chair Access Website: uclaextension.edu/writers Description: The UCLA Extension Writers Faire is an annual gathering of writing-minded people ? students of all levels, more than 70 Writers? Program instructors, a handful of select Los Angeles-area graduate writing programs, and more than 15 writing-related professional and community organizations and businesses ? all celebrating what it is to write. Now in its eighth year, the whirlwind event, held on the UCLA campus Sunday, September 9, includes 24 free mini-panels and lectures, where students have the opportunity to see their favorite instructors in lively discussions about the art, craft, business, and life of writing. All participating instructors are slated to teach Writers? Program workshops this fall, so students can get a taste of their upcoming courses at the Faire completely for free.
As I have said in the past, everyone has something to say, and nearly every company has a reason to be podcasting and engaging in other new media. Whether large or small, every business is looking for new business, more business, better business. Even more important, you want to find great clients and customers who understand what you do and why they need it. In many cases, a podcast can do exactly that. A regular podcast can help you to build your best clients by offering a little education to everyone.
When I was in Columbia, Missouri this summer, I met some great people who run a local PR company. They serve a large area of north central Missouri, in the rural lands between Kansas City and St. Louis. As with any business outside of a major metro area, they find they often have to spend a lot of time educating potential clients in order to show them the benefits of advertising and how it is done.
As we talked about ways of using new media in their business, we also discovered it could be used to build their business. Based on their extensive knowledge and work experience, I recommended that they start a regularly scheduled podcast that teaches small business owners how to work with a PR agency.
From my personal experience, most small business owners rely on the tried and true methods of yellow pages and newspaper advertising, simply re-running their advertisements week after week. They could use all benefit from the many new advertising methods and strategies that exist today – if they only knew about them.
Creating a podcast to teach the public about your business specialty not only bulds good will but gives dramatic proof of your expertise. It also teaches potential clients how you work. You are growing your own clients from those that might otherwise might not know about your services, or be too intimidated to call you directly. You might even find your company expanding beyond its traditional geographic boundaries, as people all over the world start to hear your message.
So, if you haven’t yet seen how podcasting and other new media might fit into your business plans, consider starting your own podcast to spread your knowledge, build your prestige and create the customers you always wanted.
This post echoes a lot of what I have been telling my own friends and clients over the last several months. Chris also breaks down 2 case studies for specific situations (Independent Musician and Software Company) in the article, giving you a framework to put his thoughts into action.
Yesterday, I gave you my social media toolkit (and if you’re extra clever, click that link to read the comments section, because folks made some great additions to the primary post). Jeff Pulver asked you about about social media strategies. Here are a few ways to put this together and consider a strategy around your use of social media and networks. (Note: there are TONS of ways to consider there, so these are just examples).
I wrote this email in reponse to a friend, and fellow podcaster, who announced he is giving up on Facebook. It seems relevant to re-post it here as it encapsulates a few ideas I have been mulling over lately.
(Putting on my new media consultant hat…)
I think you might be cutting off your nose to spite your face on this one. I think that there is no more important place to be, right now, than Facebook.
It’s got the juice right now and there are hordes of people there that you need to be engaging in conversation.
This doesn’t mean that you need to accept every invitation, or even check in more than once a week, but you do need to be be there.
Remember, serendipity is an important part of new media. You need to give folks every opportunity to stumble across you and you need to meet them on their own ground to do that. It is all about the AND, not the OR. You do this AND that, not this OR that. You need to be on Facebook for the same reason that video podcasts should also be placed on YouTube and other video sites. They are all vectors of interest for your work.
Sure, something bigger/better/faster will come along, but for the foreseeable future Facebook has a place in every project I am doing. Thereare simply too many people there to ignore it.
Lately I have been talking to many non-profit charities about how they might use podcasting, new media and social networking to boost the impact of promotions and community outreach and, eventually, fundraising. Many of these organizations have an annual event that is the cornerstone of their fundraising efforts. Since it only occurs once per year, they are very concerned with it being as large a success as possible, as so much depends on them.
As I was thinking about these projects, it struck me that rather than holding an annual event, why not make the live, face-to-face event merely one part of a year-round series of promotions. Imagine the response to the live event if you have spent the entire year promoting it, instead of just the 2 months or so prior. Why not keep your event in their sight throughout the year using photos, audio, video, webcasts and other technology?
Of course, how do you move from your traditional “annual” mindset to this new “throughout the year” mentality? It isn’t as hard as you think.
Your biggest asset in promoting next year’s event has always been the media captured at this year’s event. Did you take tons of photos? How about video? Did you interview someone? Too often, if this media is captured at all, it is not leveraged in the promotion of the event next year. Sure, you might use some photos on your web site or in a newsletter or other mailing, but most of it goes unused. Even worse, most organizations are not even thinking of capturing this information during the event, so all of this great, useful content is simply lost.
If you want to make your next event even greater than it already is, here are a few guidelines to help you use new media to enhance the effect of everything you do.
Promotion of next year’s event starts the day after the current event
The best time to plan for the future is when everything is fresh in your mind. How could you have used new media this year? What content were you able to capture? What can you do tomorrow, next week, next month to keep the energy rolling and the word spreading?
Launch a daily blog and weekly show to highlight the successes of this year’s event and help draw interest in the next
Your weblog is a focal point for all your event-related communications. It needs to be updated regularly with new content. The great thing is, it can also be used to release videos, in podcast or YouTube format, and any other media used elsewhere. Event photos, interviews, attendees comments can all be repurposed for the blog and help to keep the conversation going.
Start using any content you collected to create regular shows and gather subscribers to share your message throughout the year. If you didn’t collect enough content this year, try to contact some of the speakers or guests and interview them now. Create video slide shows of still photos, if that is all you have. Do everything you can to continue the energy and good feelings created by the live event.
Plan to collect more media content during the next event
Start planning now for photographers, videographers, audio recording engineers and bloggers to capture all the happenings of the next event. Make sure these roles get prominent attention when asking for volunteers. In some cases, you might even be able to attract a donor to be the official sponsor of the event podcast, live web stream or more.
Today there are a host of services that will allow you stream your event, live, on the Internet, so that those who cannot attend in person can still get some of the feeling and benefit of your speakers and events. Of course, these live events are then recorded and added to the collection of media you are gathering. Above all, make plans today for any live events, interviews or other media that might accompany your event. Don’t let it go to waste.
Use social media (Facebook, MySpace, discussion groups, etc) to engage in a conversation with your donors, year round
It is time for all organizations to reach out to the next generation of donors. This generation simply doesn’t respond to traditional mailers, newsletters and pledge drives. You need to meet them where they live and this means engaging in the new social media sites based on the Internet.
Dedicate someone to this new method of engagement with your donors. You won’t be disappointed. Sharing your content through your blog, podcast and other methods is sure to generate conversation and you need to be present on social media sites to take advantage of this conversation. This new generation of donors wants to feel more involved in the charities and projects. They want more frequent information. They want to engage with other donors. They want open discussion on new methods and opportunities. Social media sites, along with your input, provides that.
You can include your events in online event listings (See Upcoming.org), create groups on services (See Facebook.com) to highlight your events, photos taken by yourself and others (See Flickr.com). You can also hold discussions, contests and more on many of these sites.
Develop small, mini-events throughout the year
Using all the tools mentioned above, hold online and on-site mini-events throughout the year to keep people engaged and involved. Can you webcast an interview with an important expert? Can you podcast important sessions from a recent conference? Can you host an entertainment event online that allows you to get your message out in a subtle way? Can you hold an online panel discussion on the important issues surrounding your cause?
The goal of all of these methods is to drive donations, membership, knowledge — whatever the cause you are promoting. You are doing this work throughout the year, so that by the time you open up ticket sales or reservations for the live event, people are ready to sign up — NOW!
I think you will find that your live events will be more successful than you ever imagined, because you are not counting on the distant memories of last year’s event, or 2 short months of promotion before the event to drive interest. You have been communicating with your clients, your donors, your subscribers throughout the year. You have turned the annual live event into the grand culmination of an entire year of fun, engagement and activity.
If you would like to learn more about how your group can start to leverage the power of new media, podcasting, and social media, email me at cip@welchwrite.com, post your questions or comments below, or call my listener line at 818-804-5049 and leave your questions and comments.
Any reader here knows that I do all I can to get those around me engaged in the new media world, whether that is through podcasting, web sites, YouTube and other online video, it doesn’t matter. I just want them to get engaged.
I do this because I hate to see wasted talent — something that surrounds me here in Los Angeles. Everywhere you turn, there is more undiscovered (and under-utilized) talent than anywhere else on the planet. Whenever I come across someone who is making something great, I try to get them to expose their work on the Internet in hopes that it might gain a bigger audience than it currently has (which is usually, nothing). I always figure that 10, 100, 1000 people seeing my work is far prefarable to an audience of 1 — myself.
Exposing your work on the Internet is nearly free, except for your time, yet I am greeted with a host of reasons why people can’t, or won’t, make it happen. They’re too busy, too tired, too scared, too unconfident, too computerphobic, etc. Even worse, nearly everyone wants a company with deep pockets offering them the proverbial “bucket of money” for their content.
There are several problems with this scenario. First, if no one knows about you and your work, how will they ever know you are worth a bucket of money? You may have the best show, script, voice, smarts on the planet, but if no one knows about it, it doesn’t matter. If your content “tree in the forest” falls and no is around to hear it, it never really happened. Scripts don’t sell themselves in a drawer. Movies don’t sell themselves in the camera. Music doesn’t sell itself in your head. You need to do something with them!
The world of selling treatments, ideas, outlines, etc is gone — if it ever really existed to begin with. Distributors today want to see completed projects, shows, podcasts, videos, scripts, etc before they ever invest a dime. Harsh? Welcome to the new media world! When nearly everyone has the tools of new media, everyone expects you to use them to present and sell your ideas. You need to be a producer and take on all the duties of that role. One big benefit of this, of course, is you also get to retain the lion’s share of any proftis you do make, as well as complete creative control. Not a bad trade-off, really.
So folks, I am pleading with you — begging even — if you have something you want to sell, share it first. I’m not saying give away the farm for free, but you’ve got to attract attention to yourself if you ever hope to make money. Farmer’s Markets don’t hide the produce under the table, only allowing you see it after you give them the money.
As mentioned previously in Careers in Podcasting, I recently started producing Mortgages Made Simple for my friend, Rick Gundzik. When thinking of ways to promote the podcasts, I stumbled upon the idea of using past podcasts instead of the typical “music on hold” for Rick’s office.
I am sure others have had this idea, but I have never heard of it being put to use, or run into it in my own “on hold” adventures. This makes me think that there might be some PR possibilities in placing your podcasts on your friends, neighbors and companies “music on hold” systems. Does someone you know have an office that could benefit from your content?
For me, I am going to add this very recommendation to each new podcast project I pitch. It only makes sense to give your customers something interesting to listen to, and spread word of your podcast, to those who, theoretically are a perfect market for it.
