I stumbled upon this video today. Paddy Galloway does a great job in his analysis of Unbox Therapy, one of YouTube’s most popular tech channels. He gives some great insights for utilizing Youtube’s tools and algorithms to maximize your video’s presence.
Category: Communications
I have managed cutting-edge and strategic communication projects, developed high-impact marketing campaigns effectively utilizing multiple social media and traditional media channels, project management plans that heavily utilize collaboration with diverse stakeholders, and increased positive interaction within teams, customers, as well as with critics.
I view communication as more than just writing. Over the years I worked in print, including a stint in a print shop (three-stage-web, AB Dick, and even an antiquated Heidelberg press). I witnessed the shift from “shooting-plates” printing through the emergence of desktop publishing. I bear many memories of Quark’s beauty and its transformative impact. And have been part of the journey as we’ve moved from Quark to InDesign.
Creating and managing newsletters delights me to this day. Memories of bulk mailing and the aggravations of the postal system evolved into navigating email newsletters. I’ve come to deeply value Mailchimp and modern CRM tools.
I see the web as the future of mass media and communications. I have over a decade of blogging experience, both personal and professional. I’ve used the medium to engage with the full range of stakeholders: clients, customers, and critics. Successful at building organic SEO as well as online advertising (pay-per-click, Facebook and Twitter ads, etc) to increase market presence. I know how to maximize email campaigns with various CRM tools and Mailchimp. And I’m familiar with traditional media as well, everything from writing and distributing press releases to creating flyers, brochures, posters, and bulk mail newsletters.
And I’ve deployed websites with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, and PHP. I also know tools like FrontPage and WordPress. Wix and Squarespace also reside within my repertoire.
Some of the results I’m proud of:
- 150% increase in Facebook followers
- 250% increase in Twitter followers
- Increased SEO optimization – achieved page 1 Google Ranking for key search terms
- 1000% increase in Facebook engagement (“People Talking About This”)
Social Media Ads: Don’t Forget To Focus Geographically
Just saw an ad on Twitter for a service available in New York and San Francisco. Well, I’m in Seattle. I expect I’ll make my way to each of those cities in the next few years, but not in the near-term. It looked like a great food idea, but it’s not something I can do anything with right now.
What’s the problem, you might ask? Well, I expect they want their ads clicked on by likely customers. I’m not in that category, living a few thousand miles away. So, the few cents they paid for my click won’t turn into revenue, even if I love them.
Maybe, just maybe, these folks are looking at expanding to the Seattle area. But then you should have the ads go to a landing page for an expansion campaign.
Ads like these can be focused on geography. Pretty slick, giving you much more solid impact. And an essential tool to avoid wasting your online advertising budget.
A few years ago, one of my team-mates placed a Facebook ad but didn’t refine by geography. We had a great return on that if measured by phone calls. But most of those 100s of calls were from well outside our region. We would never be able to convert them to sales. So, a waste of money and time. It was easily fixed, but we spent a few hours of time answering gobs of out area phone calls.
Check out this new construction in Snohomish, built by my team
This project is one the first I’ve seen from concept to build. It’s of particular importance to me. I was at the site anyways, and thought it would be fun to share it with you. Check it the video below.
Yeah, I realize I shot all the clips in portrait. Ugh!
Anyway, this house is for sale. Have your agent put an offer on this one! Don’t have one? I can fix that for you.
We’re looking forward to getting someone in there. That’s the best part of this job.
Oh Dear God, More Autoplay Video Annoyances
Ok, gobs of us non-silicon types have vented on the internet about auto-play videos. But instead of listening to us, webdevs are now playing “here, hold my beer” in a case of outdoing each other in obnoxiousness. Just loaded a site that flooded my office with a cacophony of raucousness reminiscent of the Tower of Babble. About 1 second in, I no longer cared, much less remembered, what I opened the page to read. Closed it and moved on, as is my policy.
So, again my webdevy chums, I know you folks need to capitalize on your work. I get it. But don’t render your site useless in either blinding greed or desperation.
A Look At The FUSE Conference
I found this fun little video today:
As fan of Debbie Millman’s work, especially her podcast: Design Matters, I really got a kick out it. Now, it’s a bit out of date (2013…wow…in some respects it seems like just a few days ago, and also like a hundred years ago).
I haven’t made it to a FUSE Conference yet. This is something that I find very intriguing and want to experience. Maybe not as bad as Burning Man, but, well, you know…
Anyway, I love the effect of leaving through the notebook. Very charming.
Brene Brown: About Vulnerability, Authenticity and Belonging
I finally was able to get a walk in last night. One of the critical elements for a good walk, in my system: a good podcast. For several years one of my favorites has been Design Matters with Debbie Millman (I’m not sure how long I’ve been listening, but this post of mine from 2014 says I’d been listening for a few months.) I highly recommend subscribing, even if you’re not a designer or artist. Design thinking’s value extends far beyond graphic arts and design.
The episode from October 23rd features Brene Brown. Sadly, I’d never heard of her before. It’s sad since I have a deep interest in the subjects of her work. I’ll be adding a few of her books to my reading list. Plus she has two, TWO TED Talks that I have missed. So, I’ll be addressing that over the weekend.
I particularly appreciated her thoughts on vulnerability and trust. Elements which are critical for healthy for relationships, but far too scare, I’m afraid. And the current political environment does nothing to help. But I digress.
Anyway, give the podcast a listen (below). I’ll also put in links at the bottom to connect with her.
I’ll leave you with my favorite quote of hers: “Courage is contagious. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little better and the world a little braver.” A great idea with which to move forward, methinks.
Connect With Brene:
The Cure’s “A Forest” and the Evolution of a Band
I’ve heard this song countless times. Today, Youtube popped this up in the recommended list and I happily listened. Seeing other versions in the sidebar from 1979, 1981, and 1992 made me wonder about how different each one sounded. I enjoyed witnessing the evolution of Robert Smith’s personal style as well.
Below is the 1979 version, which has a more traditional punk vibe (it says something that I can say “traditional” and “punk” without any sense of irony).
This one is from 1981. Not a huge transition, but I notice a less punk style and something that becomes much more recognized as The Cure.
By 1992, we have a clearly distinctive style that is The Cure, and not confusable with anyone else.
Thanks for giving a few minutes of your journey through the vast wasteland that is the internet. Let me know what you think in the comments, and give me a share, if you’re so led.
Seth Godin’s: The Toxic Antidote To Goodwill
I’ve long admired Seth Godin’s writings and blog posts. Today’s post got me thinking, since it covers situations I’ve needed to respond to, and on many different sides.
The toxic antidote to goodwill
Seth points out:
“Anyone who has done the math will tell you that word of mouth is the most efficient way to gain trust, spread the word and grow.
And yet…
It only takes a moment to destroy. Only a few sentences, a heartless broken promise, a lack of empathy, and it’s gone. Not only that, but the lost connection can easily lead to lawsuits.”
I’ve had team members act this way, seen my leaders act this way, and, most importantly, received this attitude many times: “It’s not my fault. I did a perfect job. Tough luck.”
It destroys connection. Word of mouth now will work against you. In today’s highly connected world, these sorts of slip-ups can go viral and bring you a great deal of negative attention. And, sorry, I don’t buy the “any attention is good attention”.
When I was at Starbucks, I was part of the Corporate Social Responsibility team. Environmental issues, business practices, and corporate charitable giving were key components of our work (though that’s not all inclusive). When asked once, what value we brought to the company, my reply was “being allowed to stay in business”. More and more people are expecting companies to live ethically (within a range of definitions of “ethical”, of course). Considering such things as communities protesting the building of Wal-Marts, it’s clear, to me, that companies are going to face expectations of behavior that they ignore at their existential peril. And expecting to wait 5 years before acting is probably the most fatal of all thoughts.
Over the years, I’ve had Milton Friedman’s statement “a business’ responsibility is to maximize shareholder value” presented to me many, many times. Though I my eyes roll at that (I’m firmly buy into the Triple Bottom Line engagement model), I find the response of “what time period are we talking about?” to be the best. “Maximized shareholder value” for today? This minute only? Should the future ability to operate be sacrificed for maximized profits for the next earnings report? How many times has Wall Street rewarded such short-term thinking? Massive layoffs create a super strong quarter? Exciting! Except now the company can’t scale, or, sometimes, can’t even meet their current business flow. Considering the long-term detriment for such short-term decisions needs to be rewarded.
One additional thought with all this: the power of the individual. Sure, I can post a nasty critique of <insert evil company> on <Twitter/Facebook/Instagram> and get thousands/millions of views, have the “contact us” section of your website crash, and your phones ringing incessantly for days. But there’s the other side of this. The power of the empowered employee who chooses to engage, and solve problems. Sadly, it won’t be as powerful. It would be great to see “Oh My God, <company x>, your <employee name here> did <awesome thing> and our lives are so much better” end up with 1.5 million likes and RTs. But that won’t happen without a significant cultural shift. But that pushes you in the right direction. And if you don’t have a huge global presence, that’s the gold. Might actually be the only gold. Which, once tarnished, is so terribly hard to get back. You might not be able to make that investment in time/money/energy to repair before your company fails.
Food for Thought: Anil Dash’s “The Year I Didn’t Retweet Men”
I’d forgotten about Anil’s post to Medium a “little ways back”, so I was able to look with fresh eyes.
“The Year I Didn’t Retweet Men”
I really appreciate his efforts to amplify responsibly. And have tried, over the years, to take the same idea to heart. I may not have Anil’s reach, but I have a significant online following. Significant enough that I feel a certain responsibility to use my platform justly.
I like how his efforts changed:
- the nature of his online interactions
- the flavor of his feed
- and how it changed his perceptions about the world
- made his experience on Twitter happier
Though not a fan of the whole “resolution” thing, and since it’s August, seems kinda silly anyway, I like the idea of making purposeful decisions.
I intend to be much more thoughtful about what I share. I have tried to avoid the meme-du-jour, and things everyone else is doing. I also have avoided any hate-retweeting. Our world has enough rage, including the things that drive me towards rage. I have been trying to focus on the positive, yet avoiding a Pollyannaish approach. Positive and effective efforts, change, thoughts: that’s what I try to amplify.
So, doubling down on this. Thanks, Anil, for the reminder and motivation.
Thinking about my place in the blogosphere
I’ve been exploring my work as a blogger. Remarkably unfocused, but I’ve had s lot of fun. For several years I was the blogger in residence for a real estate team. Otherwise, it’s been about fun.
Lately I’m hearing from folks who’ve managed to make their living blogging or vlogging. And that’s a vision that compels me.
I love writing my blogs. But my scattered interests have resulted in seceral poorly attended to projects and cluttered sites.
I know I need focus. Need refinement. So, that’s my work right now. Which elements to i want as my focus. Not sure it needs to be anything I’ve spent time with before. Poetry, though, has resonatined and performed well. My Seattle blog does reasonably well, too. Neither is really at a point regarding page views to help me even cover the expenses of the site, though. I’ve also written about business, real estate and technology. So many possibilities….
So, I’m building a business plan, figuring out my focus and will then launch my new initiative. It’s time for me to take blogging more seriously, and to the next level…whatever that means.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Please leave me a comment below!