Archive for April, 2007
Media Makers Need to Climb the Value Chain
If you’re CNN, should you pay camera operators $55,000 a year (with benefits, make it about $80K), or should you encourage the crowd to become part of the I-Report team? Can’t my editors and my “house” staff make up for the shaky cameraphone videos because of the INSTANT feel of being there? What if I fired 30 percent of my field camera team? I could replace them with 3 or 4 editors and someone to field all the cameraphone videos I received. Right?
I’m concerned that lots of us are hunting on the wrong end of the value proposition by confusing HOW to make media with WHAT to do with it.
The Value Chain
With all respect to professional camera crew (of which, I count this guy a friend), sometimes you need a pro, and other times, you need the shot. Look at some of the most famous footage in the WORLD: Rodney King’s beating, JFK’s assassination, Saddam’s hanging. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t pro; it mattered that we were THERE, that we SAW. Wired talked about the value chain shift in their The Rise of Crowdsourcing article.
To that end, where’s the value? The value goes upstream to the editing, to the assembling of cohesive pieces, to the “home” team that puts together the news and distributes it out. The value goes in the relationships that professional journalists have built with their typical constituents so that they can preserve the professional conversations, the dance. (Nothing wrong with that dance. It’s how we currently have access to some of our news).
So if cost goes down on producing media, what are all us schmucks who videoblog going to do to create larger value?
The New Storytellers
Story, be it news or entertainment, is still the key. A bunch of choppy video is never just thrown up there. We put story around it. We tell the context. We build by connecting it to other things. Storytelling, not story-shooting, will be the key to the value. It’s how you say it, how you package it, how fast you get it to the world, how you share it, and how inclusive you make your product.
Go after the stories, not the cameras. Turn your audience into community, not numbers for an ad revenue deal. Empower your community to build your story, not watch.
Game Theory
There’s a reason the videogame industry is chewing deeply into other entertainment spending. It’s because people drive videogames. It’s a lean-forward experience, where you are the hero, and you are the story in motion. That’s not the camera operator. It’s the storyteller in action.
Want even more inclusion? Multiplayer games like World of Warcraft and XBOX Live and all these new contenders are breaking open the experience for collaborative storytelling on a scale that just keeps growing in complexity and with a greater return-on-time-and-value than most any other experience.
Don’t Defend, Consider and Plan
Don’t reply with how your show is different, or how your show is inclusive. Instead, consider what you’re going to do in a year, where there’s a thousand Justin.tv shows, five hundred tech news video shows, 1,000 “all about me” videoblogs. How will you draw a relevant community to your message, and how will you be compensated for what you’re doing?
We’re in the Blue Shirt new media revolution, where the difference between the top videoblogs and podcasts and a Best Buy employee are the fact we’re trying something new and the Best Buy employee is making money for what he does.
How will you bring your passion for media to the next level? AND if you’re not someone with a media product (blog, Internet TV show, podcast, whatever), what do YOU need as an audience to stop watching Sopranos and Heroes and American Idol and start watching more Scriggity and Galacticast? What do you want out of your new media?
On Question of the Week
I’m on a super great video show called Question of the Week. Hooray! And if you’re not already a big fan, check out If Not Now, Kathryn and Nick’s really cool project.
Ben Franklin Blogging Tips
One of my favorite writers on improving your blog is Brian Clark from Copyblogger. Over the years, I’ve praised Brian so many times, he’s probably sick of it from me. But this post needs pointing out.
Brian writes up 7 tips in The Benjamin Franklin Guide to Marketing Your Business Online, using quotes from Franklin as the pointers we might follow.
My personal favorite:
“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain and most fools do.”
I think one of the toughest things for successful offline business people to deal with online is the wide-open nature of social media communication. Everyone has an opinion, whether qualified or not, and the least qualified are shockingly eager to share. Plus, there are always the naysayers who will take the time to complain that what you offer or say cannot possibly work for them, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.
The entire article is worth reading slowly, pondering, and then putting into action. Check it out here, and make sure to thank Brian for his tireless work to improve the state of blogging.
Live from the Apple Store
I’m at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Salem, NH. My wife’s Mac Mini (which used to be mine, but that she uses more than me) is a little sick. They’re running a surface scan, now that I swapped all the files onto a new 320GB external drive I had to buy to back up the mess.
They’re doing a swell job. This store, unlike my experience with Jeff in Century City, is really well staffed. They even have Jeff Persch at the counter. He’s got a part time gig here. Who knew?
Reporting live from the Apple Store, this is Chris Brogan.
YouTube Marketing 2- Kodak
I just found this via Len Edgerly’s blog, who in turn, cites Drew Olanoff’s blog.
Two cool things to say: this was an internal Kodak video that was so popular that they released it to the world. Second, look how giving it to YouTube brought it to Drew, who brought it to Len, who brought it to Me. And now I bring it to you. See? And you can share, and your friends can share, and Kodak gets a poopload of advertising for free, just because I think this is a cool video. Booyah, indeed:
Wrike Uses YouTube Marketing
As a writer for Lifehack.org, I’m lucky to get emails on their tips@lifehack.org distribution, which is where people send us interesting things. I rarely write stories based on the tips, but I suppose Leon and others use them to research interesting new tools and ideas. However, I have to write here about Wrike. Not as a post for Lifehack, but instead, as a comment on how they won my attention.
Wrike is an online project collaboration software, and though I haven’t built an account to try it, I did watch their online tutorial and thought it seemed pretty neat. But here’s what’s cool.
Instead of pitching their features or giving us a bland e-press-release, Wrike sent this video. Totally snarky and fun. The only points off they get for sending it is that they try to disclaimer themselves as serious at the end of the email. Bullshit. Just do what you set out to do and don’t apologize. You WON my attention by way of this video clip. Don’t apologize.
Get my attention. Move the needle. Use new methods. Worked for me this time.
In Praise of Jesters
For several years, I’ve added a responsibility to whatever role I perform for my employer: jester. Now, this doesn’t mean being silly for no purpose (at least not always), but it does mean turning a crazy eye on everything your organization is doing.
Checking the Emperor’s Pants
I hate hate hate “devil’s advocates.” Sorry. I know lots of my friends cherish the role. But what I don’t like about them, so that you know, is that Devil’s Advocates rarely offer you solutions. They’re just there to poke holes in things.
A Jester might start by making a polite jab, pointing out that something is a little off-base, but it’s the DUTY of a Jester to be creative enough to come up with a potential solution, however “out there” the solution might be. Linear thinkers need not apply, because if everyone could see the solution, there probably wouldn’t be a problem to fix.
It becomes important to keep one’s Emperors well dressed, so the sooner in the process a Jester can foresee an issue and fix it, the better.
Absurdity into Creativity into Execution
There are plenty of crazies out there in the world. There are even some who can channel what they do into creativity of one sort or another. It’s the ones who can take that creativity forward even further into something of value that might have a future as a useful Jester. Words aren’t enough. It’s incumbent on the Jester to know some of the craft of their organization, because otherwise they’re simply a critic and an armchair manager.
A good Jester can take abstract thoughts, apply them to the situation at hand, and come forward with a solution that is unlikely to be the A-to-B-to-C path to the answer.
Jokes and Truths
It is often the Jester’s position to engage the visiting dignitaries from other kingdoms. The beauty of a Jester is that they can skirt diplomacy and poise. They are in the position of speaking truth to power, so to say, provided they can do it with a turn of wit. Thus, in several situations, the Jester is in a position to say something to an opposing force or even a tenuous ally that the local Royalty cannot willingly say.
I used this a lot at my wireless tech job. I’d tell the likes of Intel and Sun and HP where their dog died, and in such a way that my employers could feel that I was doing so for the sake of the company, while passing me off as a crazy outsider type. It worked very nicely most of the time.
Outsiders on the Inside
Being able to poke at the innards of the machine is a valuable position. There should ALWAYS be someone at Sony saying, “If you take away those buttons on the outside and force people to use the touchscreen, they’re going to freak! How about three buttons up on top, and that’s it.” Whether or not it’s the right decision in the end, giving the team a jolt of something different is a good thing.
Someone had to decide that all Volkswagen Beetles should have flower holders. Was that a Jester? Because I can’t see the average engineer coming up with that one. Where are the Jesters out there?
Your take
Am I full of it? Is this a bad idea? What’s your BETTER idea for the role?
Fort Wayne Primer
My friend, Reverend Jon Swanson, never ceases to surprise me. In this video, he gets me ready for my forthcoming trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I’ll be speaking at the Killer App Expo. Jon lets me know what there is to see in Forth Wayne, with his family reacting to me showing up. Lots of fun! Thanks, Jon. : )
Thinking Blogger or Writing Blogger
Are you a thinking blogger or are you a writing blogger? Do you noodle on your posts for a long time, roam around composing in your head, and then draft it a few times in a text file before you drop it into your blog? Or do you just hit the WRITE button and go from start to finish and hit send? Sure you might edit a little bit, but for the most part, you look at the blank screen and you launch a post at it.
Which are YOU? A thinking blogger or a writing blogger?
And if you answer “both,” which do you emulate more of the time? And what else do you want to mention about your blogging process?
(Idea for this post comes from Jeff Pulver).
Jon Glassett Opens a Time Capsule
My best friend from high school, Jon Glassett, sent along these photos from my high school graduation year:
My Birthday
Battle of the Bands: Age 17
Most of the Old Gang
(Missing from the photo is Jeff Kody. Not sure why. He was always with us.)
Thanks, Jon. This blew me away. Totally. Like a late birthday present.
