Tag Archives: YouTube

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Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: Week of 09/28/14 to 10/05/14

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Sunday Brunch Menu LARGE

Share-worthy links Social Media ReInvention Community Members can enjoy during Sunday brunch:

 

1) YouTube: Enhance Your Lighting – GE Commercial. Jeff Goldblum provides a brilliant and hysterical performance in the GE advertising campaign for #EnhanceYourLighting. Views continue exploding (1,394,000+ when I wrote this post). GE takes mundane advertising and transforms it into funny, memorable, and campy content.

Hat Tip — Fast Company: JEFF GOLDBLUM GETS TOPLESS FOR GE, NYC GETS A NEW HEART: THE TOP 5 ADS OF THE WEEK.

 

2) YouTube: Introducing the Post-it® Plus App. No, I won't shut up about this app because I'm a Post-it® geek. Welcome to The Collaboration Age. Enjoy this video and wear your Post-it® geekiness as a badge of honor.

 

 
3) Forbes: Gone From Microsoft, Ballmer Begins A Surprising Second Act. George Anders wrote this great profile about Steve Ballmer (former Microsoft CEO, now owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise). Anders' article about how Ballmer is approaching this phase of his professional life is a great example of personal branding and reinvention:

  • Ballmer analytically approaches problem solving or new challenges by researching as much as he can through self-study or interviewing experts. The guy is 58, worth $22.5 billion, and wants to stay in the game.
  • Ballmer continues taking calculated risks. Anders references this quote from an August 2014 ESPN interview ESPN conducted with Ballmer: “It’s not a cheap price, but when you’re used to looking at tech companies with huge risk, no earnings and huge multiples, this doesn’t look like the craziest thing I’ve ever acquired.”

4) Forbes: Finding Alibaba — How Jerry Yang Made The Most Lucrative Bet In Silicon Valley History. Parmy Olson reveals Jerry Yang's second act reinvention after leaving Yahoo in 2012. He's now a venture capitalist, Founding Partner of AME Cloud Ventures, and power broker.

Olson's article proves trust and familiarity are the heart and soul of business relationships (versus Excel spreadsheets forecasting ROI). Jack Ma (Chairman and CEO of Alibaba) and Yang's friendship started in 1997 (and may save Yahoo).

Not convinced? The Forbes article cites 36 billion reasons.

5) The New York Times: New York Times Plans to Eliminate 100 Jobs in the Newsroom. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. (Publisher) and Mark Thompson (Chief Executive) announced the cuts October 1st. Here are some direct quotes:  

  • "The job losses are necessary to control our costs and to allow us to continue to invest in the digital future of The New York Times, but we know that they will be painful both for the individuals affected and for their colleagues."
  • (Referencing the discontinued NYT Opinion app and ongoing NYT Cooking app) "They are all experiments, which we are determined to treat as such: to learn, pivot and, where necessary, make prompt decisions about them."

I admire and respect how a revered publishing institution like The New York Times attempts to adapt a Lean Startup mindset and culture. Yes, they're conducting experiments, validating learning, pivoting, etc.  

But, it takes more than carefully sprinkled buzzwords in another announcement explaining job cuts. Organizations like The Times (and others) must wake up to the painful realization that lean startups do not require 1990's staffing levels and infrastructure.

Why doesn't the New York Times "just get on with it." They will thrive as a digital publisher. If it wants to go fully digital, why not commit now and:

  • Quantify the required subscriptions to build and sustain a digital business.
  • Determine and make the REAL job cuts needed.
  • Retain the required staff and physical assets for optimizing a digital MVP (minimal viable product).

But, it won't.

So, the bloodshed continues …

 

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If yes, please share it with your friends and subscribe to my blog. Many Thanks!

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.

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How Silver Oak Cellars Emotionally Connects Special Moments with Visual Stories

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Silver Oaks Cellar Purple GrapesAfter reading David Meerman Scott's blog post on Silver Oaks Cellars (it's also published here on LinkedIn), I checked out their website to learn which social media channels anchor their digital marketing strategy. I discovered a remarkable, content marketing strategy sharing three (3) types of visual stories emotionally connecting:

1. Special moments with amazing products (as described in David's post). 

2. Remarkable people who craft amazing products.  

3. Beautiful locations and special moments with amazing products and remarkable people.

Silver Oak Cellars unifies and tells these visual stories through multiple social channels: 

Here's a look at how Silver Oak Cellars uses their visual, multi-channel social media strategy to emotionally connect special moments with their audience.

1. Sharing Special Moments with Amazing Products

 

 

2. Describing Remarkable People Who Craft Amazing Products

 

 

 

  

 

 

3. Experiencing Special Moments in Beautiful Places with Amazing Products and Remarkable People

 

 

 

 

What Are The Stories You Want to Tell? How Do You Emotionally Connect Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Employees to Your Audience?

When I combed through Silver Oaks Cellars multiple social channels, these visual stories emotionally connected with me. That emotional connection differentiates a brand, a service, a product, or a company from its competition.

And, that emotional connection is unique for each of us. That unique, individual meaning defines special moments.

How do you emotionally connect with your audience? What works for you? Is it images, video, words, voice, or something else?

Please let me know in the comments. I want to connect too.

 

Did You Enjoy This Post?

If yes, please share it with your friends and subscribe to my blog. Many Thanks!

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+. 

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Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling Mastered by American Authors and Georgia English Bulldog Rescue

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English Bulldog and Chihuahua

English Bulldog and Chihuahua

 

Introduction

The Social Media ReInvention Community knows how much my family loves dogs.  My family is blessed with two loving German Shepherds utterly devoted to our young daughters.  And, one German Shepherd is a rescue.  

One of this community's most popular posts, 3 Social Media Tips for Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love, shares the story of how a generous and caring family rescued a loving and affectionate dog from the direst and most hopeless circumstances.

If the Following Video Is Not Remarkable and Compelling Storytelling, I Don't Know What Is

Note: My apologizes for the brief commercial in the video's introduction.  I couldn't locate the commercial-free version.  But, I promise it is a moving and soulful content marketing example.

Full Disclosure: I donated literally minutes ago to Georgia English Bull Dog Rescue via their website, and I purchased the song "The Best Day of My Life" by American Authors via iTunes because I support, believe in, and respect their video's unselfish call-to-action.

Spoiler Alert: WATCH THE VIDEO FIRST before reading further!!  Resisting that temptation is worth the wait …

 


 

 

A Page Torn from Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling


This past Friday, Fast Company published Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling–Visualized.   Several of these storytelling rules are inherent in this moving video.  Highlighted in blue are the storytelling rules I quickly recognize.

For your reference, here are Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling shared by former Pixar storyboard artist,  Emma Coats:

1. You admire a character for trying more than their successes.

2. You gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer.  They can be very different.

3. Trying for theme is important, but you won't see what the story is actually about till you're at the end of it.  Now rewrite.

4. Once upon a time there was ____.  Every day, ___.  One day ___.  Because of that, ___.  Until finallly ___.

5. Simplify.  Focus.  Combine characters.  Hop over detours.  You'll feel like you're losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

6. What is your character good at, comfortable with?  Throw the polar opposite at them.  Challenge them.  How do the deal?

7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle.  Seriously.  Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

8. Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect.  In an ideal world you have both, but move on.  Do better next time.

9. When you're stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T happen next.  Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

10. Pull apart the stories you like.  What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recoginize it before you can use it.

11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it.  If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.

12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind.  And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th — get the obvious out of the way.  Surprise yourself.

13. Give your characters opinions.  Passive/malleable might seem likeable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience.

14. Why must you tell THIS story?  What is the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of?  That's the heart of it.

15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel?  Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

16. What are the stakes?  Give us reason to root for the character.  What happens if they don't succeed? Stack the odds against.

17. No work is ever wasted.  If it's not working, let go and move on — it'll come back around to be useful later.

18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best and fussing.  Story is testing, not refining.

19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike.  How would you arrange them into what you DO like?

21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can't 'cool'.  What would make YOU act that way?

22. What's the essence of your story?  Most economical telling of it?  If you know that, you can build from there.

Also, here's a SlideShare presentation / document with Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling created and shared by James Caswell of Caswell Design:

 

 

BRAVO and THANK YOU to Joshua Mikel, American Authors, and Georgia English Bulldog Rescue for Touching My Heart

Joshua Mikel is The Man!  A few hours ago, Georgia English Bulldog Rescue's Facebook Page informed me how Joshua Mikel is the creative/driving force behind this remarkable art.  Thank you for creating and sharing your art — it's genius!

Rule 16 is Highlighted Differently for Obvious Reasons.  When the video ended, a lump entered my throat and tears filled my eyes.  I don't know what else to say …

The Content We Should Create / The Stories We Should Tell.  I'm currently reading / studying Mitch Joel's wonderful book, Ctrl Alt Delete.  Mitch makes a valuable and insightful point about committing the common mistake of "creating content just for the sake of creating content or telling stories just for the sake of telling stories … "  

Direct quotes from page 196 of Ctrl Alt Delete:

"Marketers often will often say that the best ads are the ones that tell stories.  While you can easily shoot back with a 'Duh, tell me something I don't know,' take a cold hard look at all of your marketing collateral and ask yourself if you're telling a story worthy of being told—-or are you just telling a story to get something sold?"

It's not all about content.  It's all about stories.  It's not all about stories.  It's all about GREAT stories.

 

Your Turn.  How did this video / art affect you?  Which 22 Pixar Rules of Storytelling do you recognize?  How about comparing notes?  Please let me know in the comments.

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.  

 

Photo Credit by Jeff Hill Photo via flickr

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Should College Graduates and Current Undergraduates Learn LinkedIn?

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College Students are LinkedIn's Fastest Growing Segment

 

It publicly signaled college students are a critical growth driver by announcing its College Pilot Program in July 2012. At that time, LinkedIn cited 20 million college undergraduates as members of the online service. Even more importantly, college graduates and students represent LinkedIn's fastest growing demographic. The company recently announced two (2) new portals serving this fast-growing customer segment:

In parallel with the release of LinkedIn Student Jobs and LinkedIn University Pages, LinkedIn also launched their "LinkedIn – Now For Education" landing page. The landing page is "a buyer-persona friendly" site serving and targeting the following audiences:

  • Students: Recent Graduates, Current Undergraduates, and effective September 12th, high school students
  • Parents: The Alumni Section can help parents locate their 1st degree connections who may be able to help their child gain valuable insights (or even more valuable connections) during the application or research process
  • Academic Institutions: Top universities can be even more aggressive and selective in the students they target and recruit for admission
  • Prospective Employers: Self explanatory

 

 

35 to 54 Year Olds are LinkedIn's Biggest Membership Base

This Business Insider infographic shows LinkedIn's smallest membership segment is 18-24 year olds (e.g., college students and recent undergraduates). 18% of LinkedIn members's are 18-24 year olds versus 40% who are 35 to 54.

 


 

The LinkedIn Grad Guide Video Series

Want more proof LinkedIn wants to attract and grow this important market segment? Check out this video series — classic, targeted content marketing:

 

LinkedIn: Your Career Starts Here

 

LinkedIn Grad Guide Video 1: What is LinkedIn

 

 

LinkedIn Grad Guide Video 2: Building Your Professional Profile

 

 

LinkedIn Grad Guide Video 3: Finding Your Career Passion

 

 

LinkedIn Grad Guide Video 4: Building a Professional Network

 

 

LinkedIn Grad Guide Video 5: Turning Relationships Into Opportunities

 

 

LInkedIn Grad Guide Video 6: Researching & Prepping For Interviews


Conclusion

I smiled when the "youthful-sounding" voiceover in the LinkedIn: Your Career Starts Here video refers to the predominance of LinkedIn's older members:

"It's (LinkedIn) not just for top executives. It's not just for old people with heavy briefcases. It's (LinkedIn) for you. And, it's the perfect place before you start your professional story."

35-54 year old professionals recognize and understand LinkedIn's value in building and maintaining careers. I would love to find some statistics proving/disproving if this demographic comprised most of the service's first-movers and early adopters.

This is a brutal job market for all ages. Unemployed workers over 50 and recent college graduates are especially impacted by the current economy. 50 year-old executives have to work extra hard to find employment. And, the power of a college degree is dwindling.

Thoughtful, savvy personal branding positively impacts careers. Whether we like it or not, an online world accelerates the competitive pressures shaping our professional lives (including our children in their early high school years).

In about 2 weeks, please stay tuned for my next post in this series. I'll summarize my favorite "pearls of wisdom" LinkedIn shares in the six-part Grad Video Series.

Your Turn:  What do you think of LinkedIn's marketing strategy to grow its membership base?  Is opening their service to younger members a smart move?  Let me know in the comments.

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   

 

Note: This is post one in a series sharing resources to help new college graduates and current students land full-time jobs or internships.  If interested, here are the respective links for posts two and three:


Photo credit: chrisinplymouth via flickr

 

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3 Social Media Tips for Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love

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Oogy Book Cover

 

My wife and I recently discovered a wonderful and touching book: Oogy – The Dog Only a Family Could Love.  It was a complete accident how my wife and I randomly found Oogy's book in a local Barnes & Noble.

The author, Larry Levin, describes how he and his family fell in love with Oogy and learned about his horrific life as a bait dog in an illegal dogfighting operation.  If you're an animal and dog lover like I am, you will love this book and fall in love with Oogy just as Mr. Levin's family did.  Oogy's remarkable story is one of redemption and how we can all find love, inspiration, and hope after enduring significant tragedy.

I want others to discover this great book and experience the joy it brought me.    So I started thinking, how are Mr. Levin and Hatchette Book Group (the book's publishers)leveraging social media as part of the overall marketing strategy?  After doing some Google searches, I learned they are using different social media channels (i.e., YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter) as part of a traditional book tour where Mr. Levin and Oogy make personal appearances at bookstores and various animal protection events in the Philadelphia area.

Here's Oogy's Facebook and Twitter addresses:
* Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OogytheBook
* Twitter: http://twitter.com/OogyTheDog

So here are my quick thoughts on the current use (and maybe some potential future use) of social media to build public awareness of the book, Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love …

   

Tip #1: Create an Oogy the Book YouTube Channel 

I love how Mr. Levin and the publishers are consistently using this YouTube video to promote the book.  We get to meet and hear Mr. Levin talk about Oogy, and he shares pictures of Oogy with Mr. Levin's family.  The video has currently racked up ~38,000 views! 

 

 

 

Video is such a great online medium that I suggest Mr. Levin and the publishers create their own YouTube Channel (i.e., Oogy The Dog or Oogy The Book) and build a big video library showing:

* Mr. Levin speak during the promotional tour or animal protection awareness events
* Impromptu interviews with attendees of these events (i.e., what do they love about Oogy?)
* Oogy affectionately interacting with children and other dogs at these events

The Oogy Facebook Fan Page has lots of great pictures showing how much children love seeing and petting Oogy.  But, wouldn't it be great to see this interaction captured on video? 

The book describes in great detail Oogy's affectionate and loving nature, and I think seeing these behaviors in video would have a huge impact for people who can't travel to a Philadelphia-area event to meet Oogy and Mr. Levin.  Oogy and Mr. Levin's ability to travel to other parts of the U.S. are limited because Oogy associates being placed in a crate with having his ear torn off.  This means any promotional appearances beyond reasonable driving distance of the Philadelphia area (i.e., the Midwest and West Coast) are highly unlikely. 

I think giving people "virtual access" to Oogy via videos would expand "the reach" currently limited by where Mr. Levin and Oogy can drive to.   

 

 Tip #2: Publish an Oogy Blog to Improve His Google Search Rankings

Blogging still continues to be the Number 1 way to improve your online presence and increase your Google search engine results pages (i.e., SERPs).  The creative content Mr. Levin could publish in a blog are limitless, and the search engine optimization rewards (i.e., SEO) would be huge.  In addition, I did a quick search on the name "Larry Levin" and it appears there's already another "Larry Levin" who has already built a large and visible online presence through his own online activities.  So, publishing the blog provides Oogy another channel for increasing his Google Search Rankings through other keywords (i.e., illegal dogfighting, animal rights, animal protection) beyond his author's name.

One of the best articles I've read explaining the Google Ranking benefits of blogging is from Social Media Examiner: The Fastest Way to Increase Your Google Ranking by Jim Lodico.  The article explains the two important things a blog does when you incorporate one into a website:

1. A blog adds naturally occuring, keyword-rich pages
2. A blog increases the potential for incoming links from high-quality websites

 Blog Posts Increase Your Number of Indexed Pages in Google.  Over the course of a year, let's say Mr. Levin publishes two (2) blog posts per month (so roughly 24 pages per year).  That investment of time is already significant because the average small business website includes anywhere from 10-20 static web pages.  By maintaining the blog and with each new blog post, Oogy gets a new indexed page in Google.  The analogy that the Social Media Examiner article provides is that every new indexed page in Google is like buying a ticket in a lottery.  The more tickets you hold, the better chance of winning the top spot in the Google Search Engine Rankings.  That's the big difference between websites that remain static versus those that are more dynamic (e.g., keep adding new web pages for indexing by publishing blog posts).

Blog Posts Increase Your Chances for High Authority Incoming Links. Google rewards websites receiving large numbers of incoming links.  More importantly, Google highly rewards websites receiving incoming links from high authority websites such as the New York Times, USA Today, or other high-ranking blogs.  What if an Oogy blog post received an incoming link from a news story from one of these news outlets or from a high-ranking blogger who writes about animal protection and animal rights?  Essentially, Oogy's Google Search Rankings would skyrocket. 

 

Tip #3: A Blog Gives Oogy an On-Line Home Base With Digital Flexibility

 Scott Monty recently wrote a great blog post titled: "We'll Always Have Blogging." Even though Scott's article focuses on the benefits of corporate blogging, his key points are highly applicable to things Mr. Levin and his publishers could do in promoting Oogy online. 

A Blog Can Give Oogy an Integrated, Online Home Base.  Oogy already has his own Facebook and Twitter pages.  This is great how Mr. Levin and his publishers are leveraging popular social media channels.  But, a blog could further increase Oogy's online visibility by providing an online home base integrating all of Oogy's social media channels (i.e., YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter).  "Sharing widgets" on each blog post can make it easy for readers to promote Oogy's blog posts through a channel of their choice.  Most of all, an integrated home base and an integrated content plan will allow Oogy's story and content to spread wherever his current fans or new fans happen to search for it.

Blogs Provide Long-Form Content and Context That Twitter and Facebook Can't.  When it comes to telling a story (and providing that story's overall context), nothing online can match a blog.  Oogy's story, the people who saved him, and the joy and love he brought these same people are very moving.  And, you can't express those ideas / feelings in a tweet of 140 characters or less.  As Scott's article points out, marketing is about storytelling (and a blog would convey Oogy's story outstandingly).

Oogy's Blog Could Host a Variety of Content. Blogs can support a wide variety of content (i.e., text, videos, photos , or a combination of all of the above).  This variety of choices gives Mr. Levin and his publishers multiple ways to deliver content about Oogy:

* Videos: Oogy with children and other dogs; Interviews of book event attendees; Interviews of other key people in the book who were touched by Oogy

* Text: Excerpts from the book; Observations or thoughts from a recent book event; Dates of upcoming events where Oogy and Mr. Levin will be appearing; Guest posts by other authors greatly impacted by Oogy (i.e., members of the Ardmore Animal Hospital who saved Oogy or Mr. Levin's sons)

* Photos: Pictures from book signings; Pictures of Oogy with Mr. Levin's family that didn't make it in the book.

 

Conclusion

Like so many other fans of this book, I simply can't get enough Oogy!  In my opinion, integrating social media strategy (especially a blog) as part of the current traditional book promotional tour could increase Oogy's current popularity to a new level.  I want more people to learn about Oogy's gentle soul and the incredible story behind the team of people who saved him, and the significant impact he's had on these people's lives.