Back 2 The Future: of Entertainment

As I'm sure everyone is completely aware of by now, as it is a generally accepted concept in many industries - the Entertainment Industry is no different in the way that they go through "cycles."  Things come in, trends, stories, genres, they get built up - people love them, but before you know it - it's on to the next "big thing." 

Perhaps the most interesting thing I find about some of the more recent trends is that they are obsolescing back to earlier times - BUT, they are doing it in a new way - does this mean that it will be more successful this time around?  Can Hollywood roll with the proverbial "punches?"  This seems to be the question on everyone's mind as the film industry has gone through many changes in the last 3-5 years.  With the rise of the independent film, as well as the introduction of web media and streaming digital media online, a large portion of the industry is left scratching their heads and wondering how their job will last through this period of change.  I think perhaps it begs the question as well, of how can we make ourselves more malleable, how can we be adaptable - even hybrid?

I think one of the best examples is 3D technology.  While in theory, it is similar to the 3D trend of yore, and many people are quick to write it off as a fad and something that will quickly come and go.  However, with the new technologies, not to mention the wide availability of 3D capable devices - how can we be so sure? HTC just put out the first 3D phone, how can we ignore that? There are already "glasses-less" 3D Televisions.  I think perhaps the most important part is stripping all of these seemingly novel things away and getting back to (at least what I consider) the most important part of filmmaking: visual storytelling.  At the end of the day, we want to be entertained and feel connected to what we are watching, and while many think that the 3D trend is just something else to get "ooohs" and "aahhhs" out of viewers, it has the potential to be much more if we can just use it correctly.  End of the day, take away the special effects, the 3D, and you're left with characters, with something to say, and a story.  I say, lets work on being better storytellers.

Financing Options for Everyone

Too often, the most difficult and time-consuming step of starting a business is finding sources of funding.  A lot of first-time business owners and Entrepreneurs are unfamiliar with the plethora of different options there are available for funding their start-up.  Often times the financial piece of the puzzle is the most intimidating part of setting out on your own in a business.  Lucky for us, there are so many options for people like us these days in the wonderful world of the internet; providing us with great resources and the ability to read about the mistakes and success of others before deciding which way to go.

I reviewed a few different funding websites, here are a couple I found particularly helpful.

CDVCA.org

The Community Development Venture Capital Alliance is a network for the field of capital investing - particularly in community development.  the CDVC specifically provides equity capital to businesses in underinvested markets who seek market-rate financial returns not to mention the creation of good jobs, wealth, and entrepreneurial capacity.  This organization strives to promote the field by combining advocacy & education by offering workshops and consulting services. 

Not only are they are a not-for-profit - but one of the things I really liked about this organization was their ideal of using venture capital to create jobs and increase the entrepreneurial capacity and wealth and increasing the well-being and opportunities of low-income people and the economies of distressed communities. 

I can imagine that an organization like this ends up with quite a few really unique opportunities and business-ventures, only because they are willing to take the "risks" associated with investing in these smaller and possibly more risky companies and start-ups.

Opportunity Finance Network (www.opportunityfinance.net)

This site, while of a similar nature to the CDCVA.org is a lending network whose primary goal is to deliver responsible lending in urban, rural, and Native markets to help low-wealth and low-income people and communities join the “economic mainstream.”

I sort of fell in love with this website upon my first look, not only does it strive to help those who may not have the financial record to support their funding needs – but it does so in a socially responsible way.  Their tagline is “Finding and financing opportunities that others miss” and I love this because it really does create an incredible opportunity for those who might not have access to traditional funding routes – and additionally it does so in such a way that it is not detrimental to those seeking funds. 

These two sites in particular are not necessarily the best stand-out funding options for a business like mine, however, they stood out to me because of their ability to create opportunities for entrepreneurs who may not have the same ability to gain the sources they need to see their business to fruition – and that, it something that I think we can all appreciate.

The Oil Spill...Bar and Grille?

Bill “B.P.” Pickens owns a bar and grill called the “Oil Spill”.

He wants to start a search marketing campaign and his nephew  - who B.P. thinks is a genius when it comes to computer things – suggested he use the keyword “BP Oil Spill” to get hits from The Google.

B.P’s hired your firm to help him. You’ll want to start is by answering a few of his questions and clarifying the concept of search marketing.

“I want to do search marketing and use the word BP Oil Spill. So what will I have to pay for each click on Google to rank number one for SEO?”
The amount you will pay to rank highly on Google really depends on your sites traffic, and profit and how much you are willing to spend to drive more traffic to your site.  Some keywords run as high as $50.00 per click! I would say that perhaps the best option for you as a business is to choose keywords associated with the BP oil spill and bid on those keywords within a reasonable budget.

“BP Oil Spill is the only word that makes any sense to me for my restaurant. How or where could I get other ideas for keywords?”  

One of the best tools for Entrepreneurs and online businessmen alike is Google’s Adwords.  Not only is it a great tool for Search Engine Optimization, but there is a Keyword Tool – which allows you to enter a word, sentence, or other groups of words and it gives you a list of popular key words associated with your search terms, including their ranking, and other statistics such as Global and Local monthly searches.

“Actually, I was thinking that I might not even need search engines at all. I could just use social media; why worry about people looking for me when I can just let them tell each other? What do you think?” 

It is my opinion that while social media can be an incredibly useful tool for SEO that in the end Search Engine Marketing can really make a big difference.  I think the kicker is that we cannot rely on word-of-mouth to do the job for us, and I think this is one major misconception about Internet marketing – mostly because we can not do the same amount of connecting, and key wording that the internet can do for us – allowing us to reach a much broader audience by being associated with keywords, phrases, and links which we may not have thought of originally.

“I hear that this SEO thing has a high Return on Investment. Why is that? What are the benefits of paid keywords” 

SEO does have a high ROI, and if you really think about it the reason why is evident: it really does allow you to narrow down your search-ability to a scope that is highly efficient.  Compared to other marketing costs, SEO is far less expensive, and yields a higher return.  As far as paid keywords I think one of the biggest benefits is that the words do not expire. -- Katey Selix

 

Scenerio: Wombat Kombat

Wombat Kombat

 

Former Record Executive Norm Smith is starting a company that produces video games for children. The most recent game is called “Wombat Kombat”. He’s hired your entertainment marketing firm to help him think about digital strategy.  He explains the business Objective is to sell more versions of the Wombat Kombat game during the fourth quarter. To achieve this objective their Goal is to increase gift purchases of the game by offering a limited edition package that includes the game, a small box of chocolates, and a plush life-size Wombat. 

What would be a Key performance Indicator (KPI) for this campaign? Why?  

I think that one definite KPI for this campaign would be the demographic analysis of new and existing customers.  What are they searching for and purchasing?  What is their median age, and sex? Furthermore, is their reaction to “Wombat Kombat” positive, or are the extras just that enticing?

Norm knows social bookmarking is important for marketing, general business and personal use but no one has explained to him why. What would you say to him? 

Social Bookmarking is an important part of any PR campaign in my opinion, not only because it simply allows you to share important links or information with other users but also because it allows those users to create tags, and sort of  “build up” the importance of that link.  Sites like Reddit.com ranks its bookmarks and allows users to vote up or vote down links according to how useful, funny, etc the link is.  Point being, is a fantastic tool for anyone who is just trying to gain more exposure for their sites, links, or other web-content, and it is something that I think nearly everyone should familiarize themselves with.

While you’re on the topic of social media you explain that Tad also needs to think about a blog. Briefly explain how blogging can actually help SEO.

Blogging (although not often discussed) can actually be a very useful tool in SEO.  It can benefit you as a business in many ways, for one, blogs with a category feature may allow you to aggregate your content according to themes – thus making it easier to algorithmically categorize – and thus making it far more searchable and easy for search engines to understand – increasing your rankings.  Another useful option is the ability to set internal links.  By posting product or service related information within anchor text to product/service information pages deep within the website – this can be highly beneficial for ranking on long tail phrases. Lastly, I think one of the biggest benefits is your ability to post fresh content whenever you want.  Allowing your blog/site to be crawled more frequently thus allowing your newest content to become searchable, faster.

If you're writing content for the web there are some things you can do to make it more search engine friendly. Suggest three tips for making content more search-friendly.  

Well, as far as making your web-content more search engine friendly, the first thing I would suggest is something that I just had an “ah-ha!” moment with – and that is a little thing called the “text string” of an image, video, or other content.  Adding tags when embedding video, images, or flash content on your site with specific terms, keywords, or popular “search by” phrases can be extremely helpful in directing more traffic to your site and your content.  Another method is the creation of relevant “title tags.”  It’s important to note that a title tag is not visible text in the body of the page text, but rather the text that the browser uses to display in the title bar of the browser window.  Search engines use that tag as a key part of the algorithm used to determine what your page is about.  Lastly, another piece of advice that I found particularly useful was the elimination of seemingly duplicate content.  By duplicate content I mean pages on your site that are nearly identical to other pages on your site.  While this may not happen when using a website creation software often times it happens in blogs – blogging software may duplicate the same article or entry you wrote using two different URL’s.  Thus, people finding your site through a search for a particular article or subject, may find a URL that is not even associated with your site – which then only leads to the dilution of your link.  -- Katey Selix

Celebrity Help Center - Track your life online

These scenarios are fictional, but here is the advice I would give to these celebs:

“’How popular am I compared to a month ago? What tools can I use to find out? Are people saying nice things about me? Need links to the data pronto, freekin' out!! JB”

Justin Bieber:
There are many useful tools when it comes to tracking your popularity on Twitter. You can of course, utilize Twitter’s tools in tracking your popularity – such as checking your @mentions, #hashtags, etc. However, there are many other useful sites that are affiliated with Twitter, that track your popularity and stats on Twitter, and then display them in a graph, table or other form which can then be read, by hour, day, or month periods. My favorites are Twitter Counter and Tweet Stats. Hope this was helpful!

“Gosh, the Internet is just so big, I had no idea! I need a way to save all the links to the websites I find so I don’t get lost trying to find them again. Is there a way to do that? Also, is there a way to share neat sites I find with my friends?

Sincerely,
Betty”

Mrs. Betty White:
Isn’t it?! One of my very favorite (and I think highly under-used) functions of any browser is the ability to bookmark pages, or create shortcuts right in your browser’s toolbar so that all you have to do is click and there it is! Sites can also be organized into folders by subject, content or whatever other heading you choose which once again are made for easy access in most browsers by simple looking in your bookmarks toolbar. However, in this day and age we have a wonderful new tool called Social Bookmarking. This is a method for users to organize, store, manage and search for bookmarks of resources online. Not only is this a great way to store sites, and other data found online but also users can then take advantage of Folksonomy or “social tagging” - the process by which users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content. A user can save links to pages they want to remember or share, these “bookmarks” are usually public, but can be shared privately or with a network, or certain groups of people. Users can organize these pages with tags and folders allowing others to search through bookmarks by keyword or tag. One of my favorite social bookmarking sites is called Delicious – be sure to check it out!

“I go to a few websites everyday to read about myself but now my kids are getting web savvy. Everyone has their favorite websites but we only have five computers, not enough for a house of 9 people. (Give or take.) I need to speed things up!

Is there a way to track updates from the sites we visit so each person doesn’t have to go to the same website everyday?

Also, how can I read about what people are saying about me if the story isn’t on a site I read each day?

You can reach me on the mobile.
- Kate”

Kate Goslin:
Who has time to check multiple sites everyday?! Especially not a busy, mother of 8 like yourself! It’s times like these when social media aggregators are one of the most useful tools EVER – bringing updates from nearly all your social media sites and other sources to one place! I have a few favorites, but I would definitely recommend Flock. It’s a site that not only collects info from all of your favorite social media sites, but blogs, and even instant messaging tools as well and makes them all available on one “dashboard.” It takes the idea of one-stop-shopping to a whole other level, additionally, unlike some other social media optimization sites, Flock is an actual web-browser- and is actual built from the same open-source code as Firefox. The downside to flock is of course, that it is a download-and-install application, making it something you can only access on home computers or personal computers on which you have installed it. However, this is also a great place to see where you are being mentioned or written about on a daily basis – sites like Twitter, and even a simple Google search could yield similar results for that as well.

The Serious Business of Social Media

In The Harvard Business Review’s January blog, author Tammy Erickson wrote an interesting article titled The Moment Social Media Became Serious Business. In the article, Erickson describes a revelation among senior executives that led to a change in how social media was used in corporations. Erickson describes a number of discussions she had with Senior Executives one summer about the use of Web 2.0 and its subsequent business application. While the executives weren’t necessarily convinced at first, by summers’ end their recognition of the way web 2.0 technologies would change the landscape of business was evident. Not only were there dozens of different new ways to communicate and network, but also the options for collaboration, information and data sharing and increased productivity were infinitely clear. Erickson goes on to describe other technologies that upon their release were seen as seemingly unnecessary, or frivolous, but that actually changed the landscape of the way we communicated and worked; so much so, that we can almost not imagine our lives, or our businesses without them. Erickson points out that,

“Each time our communication capability expands, several predictable things occur: an increase in the scope and richness of our interactions affects the way we organize, shifts the balance of power, and influences how we get things done.”

I think that this is a great observation, and one that really stands as a great model of the past decade. Who would have thought for example, that email would have caught on? Nowadays, most of us either have multiple addresses, checking one or all of them multiple times a day. The language alone, in terms of the way we are able to communicate with our colleagues, friends, and family members is almost unprecedented. The ease with which we have learned to communicate what it is we are trying to express to others through written language has increased significantly – not to mention, how efficient we have become at deducing the shorthand world of
“e-language.” Another example that springs to mind is the way that we receive and look up data – gone (or seemingly so) are the days of going to the Library and laboriously looking through books, or even reading the entire newspaper. It seems that more and more of our communicative lives are digitally based and made for easy access. I often wonder if by the time I have a family of my own if my children will ever know what a “newspaper” is, or understand the visceral experience of reading the Sunday comics and getting newsprint all-over your hands. – Katey Selix

Likes, Views, and the other perks the Net has to offer Media Lovers

In the day an age of social media, it creates a near perfect way for media mavens, writers, comedians, and others who put their work on the net for distribution to gage how their work is being perceived.  Artists and Producers alike can really keep their fingers on the pulse of just who, and how often, and even what time of DAY their viewers are watching their work.

So out of the dozens of popular options which are the most effective? Furthermore, how can we utilize them to our benefit?

1. Facebook
    Without argument, Facebook has exploded into one of the most trafficked and successful site for connecting people all over the globe - or around the block.  Users are not only able to find their old friends, classmates, and colleagues, but they have the additional advantage of being able to share links, videos, and photos with other users by posting them to their walls.  As a result, it becomes a wildly successful tool for tech-savvy businesses to reach a large audience.  Recently, when my web series Funemployed Chicago had their first viral hit with the video "Arcade Fire Hipster Attack" we were able to look up the link on Facebook, and track just how many times it had been shared.  So not only was it a great way to promote the show, and the video - but it was also a very useful tool in being able to track just how our video was being shared.  So be it a blog post, a video, or even a picture - the community on Facebook is one very useful tool in distributing and then being able to follow its progress as it is being consumed.  Facebook additionally, has become known for the "like" feature.  It started on its site originally, users were invited to "like" a post, status, or something that a friend posted.  This feature can now be found on nearly any site on the net, allowing users to share items that they find on other outside sites by "like"-ing that item.

2.  Tumblr
     While there are many blog sites out there these days - Tumblr is one that to me at least, stands out as the one with the most creative blog titles, and furthermore some of the more creative and open minded bloggers.  In general though, blogs are another great tool to put fire behind anything you are trying to promote - because if you raise the eyebrow of just one popular blogger you're set.  Reblogs, much like sharing on Facebook - exponentially increases the visibility of your media on the net.  Additionally, I like to go back to the theory in Entertainment that there is no such thing as bad press.  Even if bloggers are saying not-so-nice things about your video - their writings are just opinions, and a good majority of the people that read what they have to say are going to want to decide for themselves. You can see my other blog, on Tumblr --> Little Red Rhino

3. Twitter
This is a tool, that while I was definitely not quick to catch on - has ended up being SO useful in my day-to-day net life.  Not only can you "follow" and be "followed" by users from all over the globe - but things you post (or, "Tweets") can be Re-"Tweeted" by others as well.  The great thing about Twitter is the sort of, open-endedness of the possibilities you are able to take advantage of.  You can send "dm's" or direct messages to any user, and additionally, create "Hashtags" which can then "trend" and elicit responses from nearly anyone on the Twitter Universe.  Its another very helpful tool in promotion, and hyping of a media project - that a user or users can take advantage of and then step back and watch the results.  Twitter allows you to follow how often your tweets are shared, retweeted, or favorited by users and see any posts featuring a trend or topic.
These are 3 social media tools which I find extremely useful in the net media-sharing world.
Check out these sites:
www.FunemployedChicago.com
Follow ME on Twitter @Gingerschnaps
or read my other blog on Tumblr at www.LittleRedRhino.tumblr.com