Speaking at the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s “Era of Conversation” conferencePhoto by CC Chapman

Last Thursday, I had the unique pleasure of speaking before a group of marketing executives at the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s confab in DC. I spoke to one of the many break-out sessions on “new media basics” – fitting for me as there there is SO much I’ve yet to absorb about the social web. In fact, I began by telling my breakout session: “I have no business speaking before a bunch of marketing executives, but..”

From that jumping off point, I discussed my nascent (only been blogging since March of this year), but reasonably engaging blogging efforts, and my use of Twitter as primary tools of social media. Essentially I riffed that if I can do it, you can do it, and basic tools are a good place to start, especially when shifting from less conversational communication. Fortunately for me, and for the rest of the attendees, there was an abundance of thought leadership on wide-ranging strategies for launching social media efforts. Overall I think it’s key to find the tools that are right for you or your organization.

For me, blogging is most rewarding when I leave my posts open-ended, and people WAY smarter than me complete my thoughts in the comments section.  Sure, you can be confrontational, and link-bait to generate traffic, but I like the notion of what Stephen Marino, of Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence practice calls “Return on Involvement”. The day was filled with terrific speakers, and I had the chance to meet some of the brightest minds in this space like keynote speaker Valeria Maltoni (she’s not yet convinced of Twitter so get over to her blog and give her a nudge!), and keynote speaker CC Chapman, who I’ve been eager to meet for some time. CC connected me with Geoff Livingston, another keynote at the conference who really did a great job of blogging the event with the help of Larissa Fair. Geoff pointed out, in support of Marino’s premise, that participation IS marketing.

In my presentation, I demonstrated how Twitter can be used and misused an engagement tool. At one point i called out to all of YOU on Twitter and asked if you’d say hello to the DMAW session. While waiting for some responses to generate, CC Chapman, in what can almost be described as a movie moment, stopped me and said almost chillingly: “Jim.. refresh the page”. You guys had come through!! Imagine if that hadn’t worked . There were no less than 80 immediate responses. (thank you!) I think that aptly demonstrated Twitter’s immediate, conversational, attention directing value. I also pointed out that Team Twitter had  helped shape my presentation in the comments on my blog. (again thank you!)

So despite this being my first ever presentation before a professional group, I think I was able to get people thinking about social media and what tools are right for them. Social media allows us to connect on a deep human level across social, cultural, and corporate barriers in a way we never could before. Conversations no longer happen from the top down. More importantly they are no longer controlled by corporations. Media that aren’t conversational or social are becoming less and less relevant. Funny that I felt like odd man out speaking at this event. At the end of the day I’m a network news cameraman, not a social media consultant. Ogilvy’s John Bell advises on his blog:

Spark ideas by mixing up odd-fellows and odd exepriences. Oh, and let go of the reins a bit.
John Bell

I think that’s fitting here. Social media enables the exchange of good ideas and allows the the best ones to take root and propagate, creating value, involvement, and engagement. So maybe that’s why I was invited. I want to thank Donna Tschiffely, Executive Director of DMAW, for bringing this all together. I hope i get a chance to do this again soon.

Capricorn, Community, and Craft

Just before boarding a flight to the Craft Hobby Association show this past Friday, I gave one last check on Twitter. Twitter friend and resident astrologist @KrazyKritter had just posted Capricorn. Now look, I’m not normally superstitious, but the outlook for Capricorn resonated with me.

“Today is finally the right time to embrace a new idea and work on fleshing it out”horoscope for Capricorn, 7-20-07

I was energized by this message as i flew to Chicago to cover this huge crafting industry trade show for Crafty Nation our new media venture.

The show was a huge success for us, by way of coverage and for getting our brand out there. We met wonderful people working in this space who were very excited about what we are creating – folks like Margot Potter, Candie Cooper, Katie Hacker, Cari Clement, Debba Haupert, Nicole Mumma, and Amy Romano. Why build a social network and content channel for crafters? Well for one, it’s a natural for social networking. Crafters are passionate about what they do and love to share their ideas and their work with others. They truly are a community. Even at the CHA, which is a decidedly commerce driven event, the community was vibrant and energizing. Craft and Hobby is a 30 billion dollar industry and there are many brands out there looking to associate themselves with the online craft conversations.

promoting the Crafty Nation brand during an education session at CHA

Fleshing Out the Idea

Now it’s time to tackle the most important part of Friday’s horoscope: “work on fleshing it out”. This means listening to our “board of advisors”, the early adopters of CraftyNation’s social media platform. How do we build it and make it better? A drop dead simple, stare-you-in-the-face, idea about how to do that came from Margot Potter. She told me that crafters like to customize their profiles because they’re, well, creative. Thank you Margot!! @conniereece, @AnnOhio, @WickedStepmom, @Uavery, @brendajos, and many more “Twitter Knitters” have been tremendously helpful in pointing out usability issues. What we’ve done with our phase one beta launch is to take an idea that only a year ago was a discussion over coffee, between myself and business partner Toni Lyn, and turned it into a strong start for something that will only grow. As we build out Crafty Nation, it’s the feedback from our community that will drive the direction and growth of this space, so that we can help create real value. We want to give voice to the vibrant fabric of the craft community, and create a place where we’re merely custodians of something much larger than the site itself.

Niche Market Video Content Engaging Your Target Audience

Here’s a link to the programs we’ve created. We also did some quick turnaround daily dispatches from the conference. Video is a very big part of Crafty Nation. Our video content celebrates the creativity and spirit of crafters, and our hope is that it acts as a springboard for conversation and community on our site.

At a dinner on Monday night with Lee Aase and Dennis McDonald, that was supposed to include Jeremiah Owyang, we discussed social media, niche market content, and the evolution web video. Dennis and Lee both have tremendous insight into this space, and are lovely dinner companions. Great food and conversation. Jeremiah’s absence led us to wonder if he was in fact a real person, or just an avatar.

The real value proposition of social media is that it connects people on a deeply human level with hundreds, thousands, even millions of networked people across time and geography. Social networks, empowering core constituencies of passionate users around targeted, niche market content, are emerging as a powerful media marketforce.

As I googled around looking for evidence to support my belief, that vertical market social networks, that combine video content with social media, will be the drivers of future web growth, I once again went back to the well of Jeremia Owyang’s blog, WebStrategist. Web Strategist is a tremendously valuable repository of thought leadership on all things Web 2.0. Of particular interest to me has been Jeremiah’s posts on social networks. For anyone interested in dipping their toes in the water, he has a huge list of “white label” social networking solutions for you budding (like me) web entrepreneurs.

Earlier this year, August Capital’s David Hornik was featured on Web Strategist in Jennifer Jones’ audio podcast Marketing Voices. In it he
said a number of things that resonated with me.

This is the new television.

huge numbers of like minded people are getting together to engage in a conversation.

i think we’ll see increasingly specific social networks.

-David Hornik of August Capital

You’ll find the entire audio podcast at the end of this post.

He goes on to speak about how marketers need to associate their brand with
the meaningful conversations taking place on these social networks,
specifically vertically oriented networks. This brings me to two very
exiting developments in my transition from old media work horse, to new media
entrepreneur, that build on this rise in niche market content and social
networks.

Vertical Market Social Networks and Video, Telling Your
Community’s Story

I’m happy to announce that, last week, I joined the Board of Advisors for
BluChipz.com. I also came on as an investor in a now closed friends and
family round of funding. BluChipz CEO Craig Ridley is developing a social
network for athletes that gives voice to these young rising stars. Craig understands
that for a social network to be succesful, you have to give people the tools
to connect on a meaningful human level. Here’s Craig Ridley in his own
words.

Click To Play

While I’ve demonstrated my confidence in Craig and his executive team with a significant financial investment, (suffice to say Craig HAD to buy lunch that day!) through my company Verge New Media, I’ve been investing time, money, energy, and all of my mental towards CraftyNation.com CraftyNation is a place where passionate, creative, crafty people can connect, share ideas, showcase their projects, and keep up on the world of craft. People who scrapbook, knit, bead, quilt, design and make beautiful things will be inspired and empowerd by each other AND by fun, converstaional, episodic video content. We’re designing CraftyNation so that the users are participants. We want members of CraftyNation community to have a stake in its development. We soft-launch a beta version this week just before our trip the the Craft Hobby Association show in Chicago this weekend!

Click To Play

Video As the New “Lingua Franca” of Online Content, Finding the Best Video Storytellers

A niche market social network that i frequent is b-roll.net, which has recently updated, adding teriffic video sharing capability, with rating, embedding, and bookmarking features. B-roll.net is sort of a neighborhood bar for old news cameramen like me. These are the best of the best folks, so check them out. Folks on this site will generally have shoulder, back, and knee problems from carrying professional TV cameras around for years (18 for me).

Kevin Johnson started the site as a place to share his personal stories from his overseas news assignments. Dissatisfied with one way communication, Johnson quickly realized the value of creating a place where TV news photogs can share ideas, often in a “vigorous” fashion. Here you’ll find the likes of “Lenslinger” Stewart Pittman, and video journalist proponent, and consultant, Michael Rosenblum. And, of course you’ll find me! If video is part of your web venture, b-roll.net is where you’ll find the best storytellers in the world.

So if social networks are in fact, the “new television”, what will the new channels be? And who is out there building them?

The CBS/Wallstrip deal that I wrote about on Monday got me thinking about how I and other people define themselves in this space. I’ve been making a good living in the media business for many years now and despite seismic shifts within the industry, I’m pursuing opportunities presented by emerging media models.

To create opportunity, I believe you have to think beyond the limits of the traditionally defined media roles of cameraman, producer, or talent. I think the emergence of the micro media mogulis emblematic of this shift, a shift that is blurring, if not erasing the line where media jobs fall above (executive and management) or below (crew and production staff). So as media workers begin to chart a new course in these re-defined roles, they are faced with a number of questions. Not the least of which is how much entrepreneurial fire do they have in their belly. Are you as passionate about the art of the deal as you are about the art of your media? Or do you prefer the comfort of steady paycheck?

What if you’re somewhere in the middle of those two options? An innovative media company called Next New Netwoks offers unique opportunities to those whose passions are weighted more on the side of media maker, rather than media mogul. I inadvertantly gave them kind of short shrift the other day when I asked this:

I have to wonder though, what is the value (read deal) for the content creator/micro-media-mogul, of aligning with a Next New Network.

Looking back, my wording seems a bit dismissive. Purely unintentional, as I truly wondered precisely what the deal was. Next New Network’s Tim Shey contacted me with more details about what an agreement with NNN looks like. Independent media makers can leverage their creativity for a regular show based fee by entering into licensing agreements with Next New Networks.

We create and build networks which are fully owned Next New Networks properties,
and then license or commission shows to run on those networks. Show
producers who work with us get a guaranteed, regular fee for the
right to run their shows, upon delivery, whether we sell advertising
or not (in other words, it is not rev-share dependent).

This model isn’t necessarily a perfect fit for every producer, but
we’re here to work with the people for whom that is; there are lots
of other options in the marketplace (YouTube, Revver, Blip,
Brightcove, Videoegg, etc) for people who want to bootstrap their own
independent network and have someone work with them for a rev share,
as well as companies like PodShow which will work in a joint
ownership / partnership model.

-Tim Shey via email, published with his permission

Next New Networks’ impressive leadership roster brings together a strong list of executives drawn from old and new media. In a media landscape of ever expanding opportunity for savvy, independent media makers, Next New Networks provides unique and creative arrangements for those who want to make a living doing what they love.

So where do you fit in to all of this? Are you a micro media mogul, or a media worker? Or maybe somewhere in between?

How will big news media reach out to fragmented audiences in a networked world of infinite choice? How does network TV news reclaim audiences that have given up on the evening news all together? How will my employer connect deeply with people who have lost their faith in traditional media? How about this: empower your most passionate employees to engage and even drive online conversation using drop dead simple social media tools.

Mobasoft President Michael Bailey blogged on the vexing nature of corporations overcoming their fear of the transparent nature of social media.

Once they seem to be getting it, how difficult is it to let them know that it is okay to be human, without giving away the store, another way of saying that would be that you don’t need to divulge company secrets to let people know what is going on within the company.
-Michael Bailey, President, Mobasoft LLC

Considering the increasingly confrontational mood at the fringes of the new media/old media dialogue, it’s no surprise that many companies are shying away from the transparency and openness of social media. Some companies are setting those apprehensions aside in favor of comprehensive branding strategies that include social media. In an interview with Intel Internet Strategist Bryan Rhoads, Pod Tech’s Jeremiah Owyang gives us a compelling case study for big companies harnessing the conversational power of social media. While it would be patently absurd to suggest that a big media company replace the promotions department with legions of Twitter-ers, I believe a a healthy mix of traditional an non-traditional branding will be key to spreading the brand across millions of channels.

I don’t know if people in big media fully understand the power of the one on one, human connection that social media enable. I was in the newswroom talking to one of my favorite NBC News correspondents the other day about Twitter. I’d emailed him my feed, and ultimately he asked, what most people who’ve given Twitter only a cursory glance typically inquire: “Who cares?” When I was first introduced to this “attention director” I felt the same way. Evidentally, people DO care about what I’m doing, and I care about what they’re doing. It’s strangely addictive, to the point where I go back through a day’s worth of Twitters to see what my friends have been up to.

What’s perhaps unusual about the nature of my Twittering is that I do it from the “rarefied air”, as friend and social media guru Chris Abraham put it, of my perch as a network news cameraman. My posts range from my need for fresh coffee to the chopper landing of the President of the United States. I’ve come to discover that people in this early-adopter, social media influencer, ecostystem have really become intrigued, by the very simple, human observations of a worker-bee toiling in the salt mines of TV news. Many of my friends who follow me on Twitter have told me that they’ve rekindled their interest in TV news because of my enthusiasm for what I do. I guess I do have a pretty cool job. At least that’s what my Twitter friends tell me!

In a post entitled “Why I Switched to NBC News”, consultant and social media evangelist Connie Reece uses podcasting tools to describe how my “rarefied air” twittering has influenced her news viewing habits, with her lovely Texan radio voice.

Last week I was asked to be Brian Williams’ cameraman as he anchored NBC Nightly News from our Washington bureau. I took this opportunity to give my Twitter friends a behind-the-scenes look at live network news. Take a look at these responses.

I had a similar response when I was a guest cameraman on the set of Meet The Press, with Tim Russert. Take a close look at the comments section of that post. At a time when ratings battles are decided by margins of thousands, any effort to engage one more passionate user of your product is worthwhile. If the response of my Twitter friends is any indicator, putting a human face on your brand really does make a difference. Ironically, I use Twitter to direct attention to my blog and new media venture. But because my day job is so demanding of my time, I “tweet” a great deal about it. I’ve been genuinely surprised by the positive comments I get about NBC’s efforts. I truly believe that I help people understand that a lot of dedicated, talented people work very hard to put together the news product.

I’ve blogged about how, in a world of unlimited choice, it is now incumbent upon journalists to promote their own work. Twitter and other social media tools allow you to direct peoples attention, using links as marketing tools. For me, this is about connecting with people and building my brand. Turns out, it’s becoming precisely that for my current employer. As the fragmentation of media continues to sour the economics of being technical worker in my chosen field, I continue to seek out the attendant opportunity created by this disruption using social media tools. Fortunately, we both seem to benefit from it!

So I wonder, do any of my assembled readers engage in social media that inadvertanly champions the brand of their employer? Is that type of “unauthorized” discussion welcome? I’m kind of out on a limb here. While I simply talk about what I’m doing on any given day. Just so happens that I Twitter about a lot of high-profile stuff. The likely outcome of this little experiment (The people I work for watch what I do) would be one of the following:

I’ve listed those outcomes in order of desirability. I’ll Twitter the results.

How about just calling it MEDIA? Sure, labels are useful, but at the end of the day there will be media that people connect with, and the unwatched, unread remains. There seems to be a renewed slugfest between the “revolutionaries” storming the gates of traditional media, and the keepers of corporate status quo. As both sides trade barbs, it’s curious to this blogger why the loudest amongst both sides of this “debate” promote such zero-sum theocracy.

From bloggersblog today, a link to this rant against blogs from South Africa’s Sunday Times, calling blogs “the air guitars of journalism” And from my favorite contrarian Strumpette, some snarky satire on the introduction of MLB’s “Citizen Player Program”

Chris Brogan lends his typically keen insight and measured criticisms to discussions that took place at AlwaysOn, Hollywood. His concerns that “we” (people who create media independent of large corporate infrastructure) are living in a fishbowl. Brogan then takes the informations he’s gathered and builds a very smart roadmap for moving beyond amateur media. Chris “gets it”…big time.

In almost no time, “talking about nothing” shows are going to dry up. You have to deliver value. In video, audio, and even a blog, if you want to bring your message into a larger circle of people, you’re going to have to give value back for what you’re doing.

Most of this discussion seems to be framed in an either/or construct, which I believe to be a false pretext. Those who believe that Web 2.0, social media, and citizen content will completely evaporate are wrong, just as wrong as those who believe that the democratization of media spells the demise of large corporate media. What I see happening is that the “amateurs” are building relationships with their audience, and with corporate media. There, you’ll find the winners. Don’t believe me? Then why are guys like Jeff Jarvis having dinner with Rupert Murdoch and making deals with Washingtonpost.com?

For those of you who believe that bloggers don’t have juice, how do you reconcile CNN’s decision to release Presidential debate footage under a Creative Commons license? Clearly they were bowing to the outcrys of the “air guitar” players of the blogoshpere.

Much of what is taking place in social media space is all about buzz, and in-the-moment, viral types of content. This is the type of media that I believe will be the shortest-lived. They are also easy targets for critics as the sum-total of ALL new/social media. The below-the-radar people in this space are sometimes the most successful. At VON07 in San Jose, I met Nicholas Butterworth of Diversion Media. His firm has built two successful social media sites, Travelistic and Snowvision. Butterworth says that the key to social media success is community and relationship.

Coverage of VON07

Butterworth, and other micro media moguls like Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf of Jetset are defining a new class of crossover talent. Media makers who understand the community nature of social media/Web 2.0 and have the business savvy to grasp the value of that community. The fact that they’ve partnered with Next New Networks demonstrates that savvy and sets them apart from the “air guitar” set. Amani Channel of My Urban Report is another example of new media being courted by old. The Atlanta Journal Constitution has expressed interest publishing content from his blog. Again, the gates aren’t being stormed so much as being opened by smarter old media firms.

The bottom line is that the marketplace will decide the winners and losers of traditional vs. social media. I’d keep an eye on the ones creating value for their communites and the ones who build tools for participation.

As the largest collection of live trucks my colleagues and I had ever witnessed beamed images of the horrifying massacre at Virginia Tech, a live TV revolution was quietly happening on the internet.

Prompted by “always on” Justin.tv, suddednly everyone’s video had to be live. Tech evangelist Chris Pirillo was live streaming on Ustream, when news of an earthquake in Mexico fell in his lap. His live stream then became a source of information and communication about the quake. I managed to catch a bit of Robert Scoble driving to the Web 2.0 conference on his live Ustream feed. Jeff Pulver and Chris Brogan now have their own live show and Steve Garfield, on the cutting edge as always, has been going live via Comvu with his Nokia N95.

And now politicians have thrown their hats into the ring..so to speak. Ustream CEO Chris Yeh tells me that Senator Chris Dodd’s war room will be streamed live, using Ustream’s service, during the South Carolina Democratic Debates. So while Jeff Jarvis is miffed at NBC for “stealing” tonight’s debate, at least one of the candidates will provide a unique, behind-the scenes live view.

The current fascination with live video is very interesting to me. It is extremely empowering to be “live” in the “right now” of the moment. Live is a call to action. But what makes Ustream’s live video platform unique is the interactivity. It’s one to many and many to one. Here Chris Pirillo and Robert Scoble talk about how the audience interactivity is real value in live video. DISCLOSURE!!: I did NOT NOT shoot this video. It’s a wee bit shaky, but it’s the content that counts.

My first experience with transmitting live video was some 16 years ago, when I lofted the 60 foot aluminum mast of a WRC-TV live truck, while covering a grocery store shooting in Southeast DC. Flicking the switch on the 2Ghz transmitter from “standby” to “transmit” was enormously empowering…even magical. Since then I’ve transmitted live video, in the form of broadcast news, via microwave, satellite and fiber optics. I’m pretty jaded to being live at work (NBC News), and I grow restless being tied to a control room.

The notion of easy, live video, available to anyone with broadband and a camera, has really re-kindled that empowering feeling i first felt 16 years ago. I’ve been playing with Stickam for a few months now. It’s pretty cool but my “live” offerings are limited to video tours of my environs with an audience I’ve lured away from their Twittering.

I think the context of live is as important as the content. Frankly people sitting in front of webcams !!LIVE!! has a certain “so what” factor to it. Integrating the live video experience into real time events of significance is where this tecnhology will shine. Right now most of us are experimenting and doing it because we can (and that’s fun!). Where we’ll see growth and the real value of live is when it’s used in the proper context.

Earlier today I spoke with Ustream’s acting CEO, Chris Yeh, he agreed with me that the “always on” model of live internet TV would wain in favor of live in some type of context. Yeh believes Ustream wins, echoing the thoughts of Pirillo and Scoble, by its interactivity.

What’s special about Ustream is the interactivity. In traditional
broadcasting, even traditional live broadcasting, there is no interaction.
And in the end, people crave interaction. Just look how many telephone
votes are cast on American Idol each week. Ustream lets the viewers
interact with each other. Even more importantly, it lets them interact with
the broadcaster. This makes the viewers real participants in the broadcast,
and gives the broadcaster instant feedback to help improve the show.
-Chris Yeh

It will be interesting to see how the use of live web video evolves. It already has critics. Mathew Ingram asks: “how much is too much?” Brian Solis points out that, while on the surface it appears that “narcissism” is the driving factor of this technology, “live” has much more value beyond that. I believe we will see tremendous value from live streaming video. Imagine if Jamal Albarghouti had been able to stream live video from his phone during the Virginia Tech shootings. The potential for video journalism is huge, both for independant and mainstream media.

So fellow media makers, how does live video fit into your media toolkit?

Twittering in the shadow of my boss

I’m SOOOOOO going to get in trouble for this. I was guest camera on the set of NBC’s Meet The Press with Tim Russert today, and as always, there was lively discussion and debate. This show featured former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tony Zinni (ret.) and a reporter’s round table which spent the entire time discussing the Imus situation. So I thought, “let’s Twitter this!” Here’s a sampling of my Tweets:

So my Twitter friend, Annie Boccio tweets back with this:

So that translates into one “confirmed” person who was influenced by my real-time behind the scenes reporting. And as DC Media Maker, videoblogger and media consultant Jonny Goldstein points out:

The kind of people who use Twitter are highly connected people who use technology to spread ideas; many of us are bloggers, like me for example. We may well blog about what Jim reports. This multiplies the effects of Jim’s messages.

Jonny goes on to suggest the Tim should give me a hug for my enterprise. I don’t know if that will be forthcoming, but I’ll surely Twitter it if he does. To many of us, using Twitter as a promotional tool is second nature. In the corporate/old-media world, I’m finding that it’s not being adopted as easily as I would’ve thought. How are people in your worlds responding to it?

NBC’s Meet the Press is inducted into the NAB Hall of Fame on Monday, April 16th. Russert will be out in Las Vegas to accept the honors, so if any of my assembled readers or Twitter friends will be out there, stop by, shake his hand and say hi. I’m not able to attend this year, but Twitter friend Frank DuVal will be doing some guest reports from NAB here on this blog!