**As a disclaimer, I was just informed this morning (by my Intern) that Cisco has discontinued the production of the FLIP video Camera. So ANYWHERE I say “FLIP…” Insert the words “Cell Phone.” While it lacks the same fun and double entendre as “FLIP,” the premise still applies. If you “CellPhone” your blog (yawn), keep the following topics in mind… Now, I’m off to catch up on current events. Are we still in Iraq?**
Videos and podcast aren’t new to interactive marketing and communications. Some of my favorite blogs aren’t actually written blogs at all, but video blogs (or Vlogs) where the author turns the camera on and actually looks right at me and talks. Think about it. VIRTUALLY communicating eye-to-eye with your audience!
Image credit: http://blog.tmcnet.com
As technology improves and the speed of internet connections increases, the need for monster bandwidth, storage space and cost have become relatively low. Considering that, I’ve been encouraging my clients to “Flip” the model of their blogging.
I’ve sent many clients on over to The Flip Video product website for ideas on what the possibilities are and how it can bring people together. Sure, there are video samples given. That’s an obvious, but how they’re presented doesn’t feel quite so authentic. They feel like produced, planned recordings, even though they might not be.
I’m here to tell you… Flipping Your Blog doesn’t need to be difficult, but it DOES need to be done…
Here are three simple steps to how to make the Flip Video Recorder an integral part of your blogging (and interactive marketing) process.
Turn the site over to the people actually using the product / brand (employees and customers):
Sure there’s room for starched, corporate stuff, but why not make some space available to those that interact with the brand most? Allow them to upload videos, comment on other videos, tag videos and so on. Use your site as an outlet, so the experience with the brand doesn’t get capped in legal or proofreading. The Flip Video Recorder allows the “HUMAN” side of the brand to come back to communications. The Flip is all about shooting video easily and transferring it to your computer/website in a snap. You should prove this point every day.
Create a YouTube channel
Make your own space on YouTube. It’s FREE! Create a channel. Encourage people to tag their videos to your group. Flip has the “Upload to YouTube” feature, complete the circle and make the channel. You can then feed the channel right into your blog. Multiple authors and endless video opportunities can be sent to your site with very little effort. Why not harness all that free attention?
Make it easy to find you
Outposts… Outposts… Outposts! I’ve talked about this many times before, but your brand shouldn’t live solely on your website. With more outposts, the more opportunities you’ll have for cross posting, tagging and linking that all generate a little more SEO love as well as create multiple places for your target audience to find you, share your information and create a bigger, more enthusiastic brand community!
My point is this: the Flip Video Recorder is a tool that makes video, basic video editing and video sharing infinitely easier. It’s a tool for real people looking for a simple and convenient video solution. Why not take the easy road and FLIP YOUR BLOG?
So… why didn’t I do this post using a Flip video?!? I GAVE MY LAST FLIP CAMERA TO A CLIENT!
How would you use video to build a better blog? How could video improve your user experience with your brand?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Keep Cooking (TRUE, engaging content)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef
As CreateWOW embarked on decorating our new office space, I sent out a tweet asking if someone new of a product or a solution to make an entire wall an erasable white board. I did get some answers, but none that I would have been comfortable with. Some required a VERY EXPENSIVE paint. Others suggested large sheets of melonite that I’d have to secure to the walls (landlord frowned on that idea). So, eventually, I gave up on the idea.
It was hard at first, because I am such a visual person, I use an easel and HUGE note pads just to flesh out illustration ideas. Imagine the space it takes to really flesh out a social media marketing campaign!
Well, yesterday, during a client planning session, I realized what my brain had been telling me for a few months now. The dry erase wall is a good idea.
A Plan Is Worth 1,000 Words:
a plan is worth 1,000 words
In a matter of minutes, the clients and I flew through sheet after sheet of pad paper and pasted them to the wall. The conversation was flowing so quickly that just keeping up with the ideas was a challenge. After we’d “Dumped” our wish list on the papers, we then, rearranged the pages and put the plan in systematic, chronological order.
PERFECT.
The clients left assured that the directives they assigned us were understood and the plan to achieve their goals was in place. Smiles. Handshakes. Pats on the back. It all seemed so simple, but without the plan up on the wall, it was just words.
Try this approach next time you’re in a planning or strategy session with your clients or coworkers. It’s a little overwhelming for the “Non-visual” people in the room, but I guarantee when they see the path ahead of them, they’ll take the next step with you without asking another question.
Well, I found one. In an article I read a few months ago, Kohi Vinh brought to the foreground the alarmingly BAD illustration and exposure artists are getting online. While I could have written a post agreeing with his post… I wanted to do one better.
Below is a narrative of the post – Kohi’s article driven down to its core – an automated, web-static dramatization of what’s wrong with online illustration (or the lack thereof).
Video… Feed readers may need to click through to the post to view the video properly.
I know a lot of my readers are artists, or used to be and now find themselves in “The Digital Wonderland.” What say you? Is this digital age making it harder for Illustrators and artists of all kinds to make a living at their chosen trade, or are we just a bunch of crybabies?
Salon.com, that ubiquitous source of blogging love that we all have grown just a little bored with recently, spouted a surprisingly great post today.
image credit: Salon.com / Timothy Goodman
Timothy Goodman, new Salon author, reflects on how social media has changed the direction in which branding professionals like me and others aim when it comes to effectively communicating to a client’s target audience. It’s no longer the Don Draper“Tell ‘em and they’ll believe it – ’cause it’s F*&n’ TV, damn-it…” generation. Social media has provided an open source sensibility to marketing and communications and Goodman brings that point to clarity very eloquently in, “How do we brand our evolving selves?” Goodman describes the Jungian classification of “Archetypal Character Traits” that they could then classify brands into and beautifully ties it into one of my favorite movies:
It makes me think about “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when Mr. Edward Rooney’s secretary, Grace, speaks about Ferris: “Oh, he’s very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.” And this is exactly the role social media outlets are playing. These brands don’t have to be archetypal anymore, they just have to gainfully house all archetypes.
Integrating Carl Jung into my chosen career certainly gives it a little “Cerebral Credibility”
It (social media) has turned the tables on the “brand warriors” (not you Mark) out there. We, as advertisers and communications specialists, have a responsibility to develop a brand for, in and around an ever-evolving target audience. It’s no longer a push marketing model. It CAN’T be a react marketing model either.
Unfortunately, I left my clairvoyance license in a bar somewhere in 1992. I wonder if that would be doing me (or anyone else) any good today?
Thanks to Cathy J. Prince (site coming soon) for pointing out the post, and thanks to Timothy Goodman for reminding us all what the task at hand is. Keep the needle moving and we’ll all be headed in the right direction… until they change their minds.
In a conversation with a good friend, we were mulling over the unique challenges we both have with clients, agencies and production houses when it comes to being effective marketers. He made a very valid point that
“…if everyone worked as quickly as his brain, the work would be TEN TIMES as valuable.”
As the conversation went on, I started assimilating marketing to a constantly moving force in search of it’s next meal…
“If a marketing department or even a basic marketing campaign is to have value or any spec of success, it needs to be constantly moving. Like a shark, if it stops, it suffocates under its own pressure and drowns – suddenly, another corpse for other sharks in the ocean to feed on…”
One thing lead to another and the phrase “Sharketing” was coined.
The conversation came to an abrupt stop. Our eyes grew to the size of the plates that sat below us, and we both started laughing.
“Sharketing… Are YOU Sharketing?” I yelled. (to some pretty strange looks at Palmer’s Deli, mind you)
“Ha… what a cool idea.” He added.
So I immediately went back to the CreateWOW office and registered the domain, AreYouSharketing.com and the seed was planted.
Jump ahead a few months and we come to Sunday, February 20, 2011. A day that Sharketing was given breath and the ability to swim in the ocean of marketing phraseology for ever.
Sharketing defines the action that ALL MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS professionals should be taking. Ever moving, ever searching, hunting, tracking and focused on the next meal. Sharketing allows the campaign to run, unfettered by politics, red tape and the lack of return.
AreYouSharketing.com is a portal for all marketing communications professionals to gain the speed they need to become TRUE marketers. It’s a resource for learning. It’s a resource to extend your brand equity. It’s a resource for additional outposts for your marketing messages.
Some of the best ideas come quickly and simply. And it should always work that way.
I invite you to go on over the AreYouSharketing.com to see what’s in store. So far we have a handful of collaborators, but we’re always looking for more. If interested, please contact me!
