Media Words

Thanks for the thoughts

2008-06-13T12:00:00.007-04:00

...for all of you who have read my post on Sonya, visited the ChipIn page or seen my notes on Facebook about her and have expressed your well wishes...thank you. I plan to head up and see Sonya very soon and I will pass along all of your good energy.

Thank you Deb Huffman for donating! You are a bright star, and you were the first to step up to the plate and put your money where your heart is.

You can read some of the story here or you can watch.
This aired on CBS last week.

It's pretty amazing what people can do, and it's wonderful for Son, Jeff and the kids to have their house! BUT there is so much more struggle ahead. I want these kids, who will grow up in Oldtown, Maine, (loving and hating its smallness at times) to know that they can further their education and dream big dreams even in small towns, even in the face of struggle.

Please help me start their scholarship fund, donate what you can today.

I need your help to help others

2008-05-13T22:30:00.003-04:00

This is personal. My younger cousin Sonya has four young children and she has late stage breast cancer.

I grew up hanging out at her childhood home on the lake in Maine during summer vacations. Down stairs you'd find us drinking Tab and singing to Kool & The Gang - (Joanna), Dexys Midnight Runners (Come on Eileen) and of course we did our share of Blondie and Rick Springfield among many others. We both were so going to famous one day. :o)

Sonya and I have another thing in common, both our moms have survived breast cancer. My Aunt Rita got to set the example by going first. Rita is about as strong as any woman I've ever known; she made her way through the challenge with little complaint and lots of humor. My Mom was diagnosed several years after her sister and followed the example well. Mom and Auntie have been cancer free for years now, so when I learned that Sonya was diagnosed I wasn't completely surprised. Cancer is not a stranger to us.

Sonya was diagnosed while her last child was still in diapers. She has been fighting breast cancer for the past few years now and she's just not catching any breaks. If motherhood wasn't hard enough, she's got to pack in as much mothering as she can into every moment because she has to. I'm a mom too, and I know she worries.

The local paper and TV news have run a story about her this past Mother's Day, some folks have come together to help her family get a home. Please take a moment to meet her and to hear her story. Then contribute to my fundraiser for Sonya - I have set a goal of $400,000.00 that I hope to attain in four rounds of fundraising. Ultimately that's 100K for each of her four kids - so that she and her husband wont have to worry about their education amongst all the other financial burdens they are facing. I want to/need to do this soon, so my goal date for the first round ($100K) is my birthday. For my birthday this year I want to fund four $25k scholarships and provide a little peace of mind, I hope that you will help.

Meet Sonya
The last quarter of the video on this link has an interview with Sonya.

Other ways to help
Check out Sonya's page on ChipIn.

There's absolutely NO reason for this

2008-02-06T15:59:00.000-05:00

I've come across this type of message a few times recently, from any number of different web sites. (This one is from a company touting themselves as the "Leader in Media and Marketing Relationship Management") It makes me nuts!!!

Ok, I'm using Safari. Fine. It's version 3, and it's more standards-compliant than that IE atrocity. So, I have no tolerance for your inability to support and test on it. Also, I've got Flash 9.0 r11, so there's no reason to complain about a missing plugin, either. Unless, of course, you're too lazy or not clever enough to write proper detection code.

Get it right, people. No person using the web should be subjected to this.

Serena software goes Mashup TV

2007-12-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

I was consulting on a project and needed to evaluate the Serena software solution for a company. These guys are going to be reaping the rewards of success. Their website design just nails the target market and the usability is dead on; see, try, and buy, talk about keeping it simple. And while great design and navigation are worth the effort, it's the video content that sends this one out of park! Serena has created a video collection they call Mashup TV. They have a sense of humor, because they know we (those who surf and buy and work online) do too. Watch the parody of the Product Manager and Engineering Director bashing it out about priorities and bandwith...

From Mashup TV you can watch Michael Parker's Chalk Talk. Michael is the product manager who belongs in front of all your prospects, listen to him explain what a Business Mashup is, and more importantly why you should care. This is a value proposition statement that might be lost among all the cluttered content of another internet day if he were not right there, talking to you, and white boarding with you

Serena has all the bases covered: video to communicate their strategic value proposition, video to develop a community of users, video testimonials that serve as a personable relatable reference that is just what your next client needs to get on board. Are you using video yet?

World Usability Day 2007 - Boston

2007-11-08T20:38:00.001-05:00

I spent most of the day today as a volunteer for the World Usability Day events in Boston. If you've never been to one of these, it's worth dropping in next year. There are a number of interactive exhibits (the museum visitors participate), and many of us practitioners from the region provide free, hour-long evaluations of web sites or software for local non-profit or charitable groups.

I made a short (12 second!) video of the setup.

Usability vs. revenue? Nope. Usability = revenue.

2007-10-29T21:40:00.000-04:00

Over at BeyondVC, Ed Sim wrote

It is this battle between usability (simple and clean) vs. revenue (balance between getting what you want vs. being cluttered) that is constantly fought behind the scenes.

It's interesting that there's a perception that making a site usable is separate from doing revenue generating activities (like adding banner ads or splash entry pages, as was pointed out at Forbes.com. Even more interesting was the idea that there exists in many companies a battle between the two.

I'm not really surprized. But, I do know that there are more and more "enlightened" sites out there. They understand that usability is directly tied to revenue. Usability goes up, revenue goes up. And the other way around. Adding a few banner ads might get you some small short term revenue gains, but if you upset your paying customers, they're gonna go somewhere else (unless of course, your site is devoted to banner-ad seeking customers). There might be a few web sites that people will continue to go to even when they're hard to use, but yours probably isn't one of them.

There's lots of good examples out there, like 37signals. Take a look. Then make sure that your usability effort isn't competing with your revenue.

PodCamp Boston 2007

2007-10-27T13:33:00.000-04:00

Engaging the audience with audio. It's big and it's picking up players everyday. By now you'll know that the Aleuromedia team has an enthusiasm and passion for video as a major communication medium. We believe that video has value in everything from internal corporate messages and corporate culture pieces, to relaying what might have traditionally been a white paper with greater detail and cognition, to dynamic product demos using video, flash and screencasting tools.

That said, our desire to bridge communication gaps and to increase the efficiency with which we share information endears us to audio tools. The goal is to communicate with each other the way we are most inclined to receive it.

Podcasts are great for sharing information because they are so efficient. We can relay lots of material, in small doses, and with great frequency using podcasts. Who could deny that it is faster and easier to tell someone your story than it is to document it? Bigger still, it is more relate able to hear someone share their story. The pace of their words, the inflection, the tenor and diction all have meaning we are already prepared to process and these keys provide us with so much more than our interpretation of the written word. Check out Chris Brogan's blog to hear what I mean.

Whatever you think Podcast are, prepare yourself to learn how much more energy they conduct, check out PodCamp Boston 2007.

Screencasts to social networks and fundraising.

2007-10-19T11:25:00.000-04:00

I LOVE the internet!

Kenny ran into this great article on the Non-Profit Times about screencasting. The author Beth Kantor did a great job of going "101" on the topic. It was very cool timing because I've been working with some non-profits and non-profit solution providers to give them insight about New Media and Social Networking. Helping these organization understand what social technologies can mean to fundraising, event, and constituent management, for example using Facebook to work a community based event, or using Inner Circle to connect and stay abreast of what your donors are doing.

Well I liked Beth writing enough that I went to her blog and found that she is infact managing a fundraising campaign for Leng Sopharath. Beth is using Facebook, flickr, ChipIn and her blog, among many other social technologies to coordinate and communicate her fundraising efforts and mission. Kudos Beth! The name of Beth's blog is "How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media", you should check it out.

Screencasts are expected!

2007-10-17T14:25:00.005-04:00

In the PC World Community Voices blog, Phil Shapiro writes:

If a company has gone to the trouble of designing a software program, but hasn't taken the trouble to create a screencast about the program, then they are apt to lose me as a customer. Seeing is believing.

I am so happy to read this! The screencast is an essential tool for all software sellers. The ability for a potential customer to see your software in action before a purchase shouldn't be an afterthought, it should be a requirement for a product launch. I hope more and more savvy customers start expecting - and demanding - them!

I also found part 1 of a nice article on screencasting. It's written by Beth Kanter, and it's a well written primer for folks doing their own screencasts.

Baby steps...the presenters used YouTube video clips

2007-10-16T00:05:00.000-04:00

In the past week or more I have attended a few informational events. It's great to see and hear what people are doing, especially when they are passionate about their work. The biggest disappointment for me has been something I feel almost personally, like I'm just not getting the word out and helping enough people step outside the trap of business communication norms. "Step away from the PowerPoint templates people, everything is going to be okay."

I've watched time, and time again, individual and corporate representatives swing at lobbed serves and miss (or marginally return). The people in attendance to most of these sessions have paid to be there. They want to be educated and engaged; in all respects a captive audience. In each session I've watched slide shows with bulleted lists; some suffered the "too many words" demise while others struggled with just enough words but no compelling reason to look at the material.

What's interesting though is that I am seeing evidence that we are taking baby steps in the right direction. At least twice in the this last stretch of events a presenter used a YouTube video clip. Each time they achieved focused attention and great responses to those moments in their presentations.

I can't help feeling that these presenters could have captivated us all, I mean really hit the ball out of park, if they would just allow themselves to move out of the PowerPoint Time Warp. ("It's just a jump to the left, And then a step to the right.")

SwANH

2007-10-15T23:44:00.000-04:00

Last week I was able to attend the SwANH (Software Association of New Hampshire) event, it was held at SERESC facilities in Bedford, NH. It was a nice day all in all, and SwANH has improved their overall presence in the New Hampshire technology space over the last six months tremendously. They have just recently renovated their web site, a much welcomed and greatly needed investment. The attendance for the event, the content delivered, as well as the facility choice was excellent!

HubSpot redux - another company that "gets it"

2007-10-10T09:51:00.000-04:00

Just noticed that HubSpot has a video demo/explainer available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH4imqmSLEk). This another example of how this form of communication really is the best way to reach your audience. I do wish that this video was readily available (easy to find) on the HubSpot website, though.

HubSpot - an amazing reosource!

2007-10-07T16:33:00.000-04:00

I don't remember what I was doing.

This happens too much lately, but that's another story. What I do remember was stumbling across HubSpot. They're located in nearby Cambridge, MA, and they produce some very cool software that does the SEO things, and at a very reasonable monthly price!!! They're currently offering their "Website Grader" utility free of charge, so I, of course, gave it a shot. Very sweet! Of course, I now need to go back and fix a whole bunch of stuff on the website, but, that's a good thing. I want more Googles!

So, go check it out. I know you want to.

Apple Design Awards 2007

2007-10-01T10:10:00.000-04:00

One of the things I really love to watch out for is the annual Apple Design Awards. Its always a source of true software design innovation and a great source of inspiration - just how fun, useful and beautiful software (ok, hardware, too) can be! Check out some of this year's winners (and runner-ups): ADA2007. And, while you may think "Mac", many of the ideas are simply brilliant and can (and should) be applied to other platforms. Good design is contagious like that.

My faves: CODA 1.0 and Picturesque 1.0

Cool Facebook toy

2007-09-16T22:06:00.000-04:00

Do you use Facebook? I found this great little, very useful, app called "Inner Circle". It lets you group your friends into - groups. The simple ideas are usually the best. Check it out.

Art imitating life imitating art, or Internet imitating TV, as TV?

2007-08-28T23:19:00.000-04:00

For the past couple of weeks I've been on vacation and pulled myself away from Internet and Video business. Well last week I found myself doing something I hadn't had time for most of this summer...flipping through the TV channels. Now call it Law of Attraction, or serendipity, or coincidence, but whatever it was I'm still smiling. Flipping through the channels I stumbled into a new series, i-CAUGHT on ABC.

I was surprised and captivated by the premise...but then again maybe not really surprised because I knew this was coming (is coming). I'd say the feeling was more like "impressed" the by speed and agility of those who brought the show to fruition. It is exactly the evolution I've been telling so many of you about; warning that times are changing, and if you don't recognize this progression of Video-Internet-Television, it may cost your business.

In it's own description of the program ABC claims "...we all know there's a video revolution swirling around us all - 24/7". Interesting. Powerful. Did you know about this revolution? Check out the link above, there is a video introduction of the program that is very compelling.

Its a great time to get involved, and to rethink the ways we do, what it is we do. This is just the beginning, but hold on tight, it could be a very fast ride.

“…B2B communications are NOT in video…”

2007-07-25T18:17:00.000-04:00

In a conversation that came about after my last post regarding video as a “relevant “ communication medium in a software development businesses, I found myself facing nearly the same argument from a B2B perspective. My protagonist in this case accepted video and other forms of online media as valuable B2C vehicles but dismissed its presence in Business to Business relationships, management, and information exchanges (hence the quote). So the conversation was interesting and we debated a bit, but I knew I would have to show this individual the face of what he believed non-existent in order to help him reach the first step: Acceptance.

This morning I’m digging around my usual online news centers and thinking about trying to find some recent articles that addressed this evolution in Business communication. As I’m reading a WSJ.com article with some level of consciousness and thinking about my recent conversation, something to the right of my screen caught my eye. There was a movie box playing what “looks like video" of a glass with coins filling it. There were also words posing the questions “Do you invest in IT?”, then “Do you spend IT?”. A few seconds later, I’m recognizing this is exactly what I was talking about. The ad completes and I see Accenture, so I click the box and allow my attention to be directed at their landing page. I smiled widely. This is another place that gets it, and for all those that don’t yet, be concerned.

The landing page presents me a visually pleasing presentation of information on the value prop and solutions. Mid screen is a movie box above which has a blurb describing who the individual in the box is and why I might want to hear from her. This is known as a talking head piece (meaning a head and shoulder shot), and this piece is a video testimonial. Now I’m standing up at my desk I’m so impressed. You have no idea how many times I have advised a client to use video testimonials, they can brilliant! So of course I press play and learn from a very nice, enthusiastic woman, who happens to be a CEO at a major electric organization how Accenture products and service helped her transition her organization to a platform for growth which has lead to a 125% increase in stock. SHWING!

This is not only B2B communication (and marketing)but it is on IT, I mean this is about as dry a well of content as you can drill and they have made it engaging, informative, compelling and the most important quality, relatable. If I am a CEO with enterprise IT needs, I would listen and learn. I would pick up the phone after hearing a piece like that a gazillion times faster than after reading a white paper from …no names…let just say the other guys who don’t yet get it.

Here’s the landing page for Accenture that I saw.

BTW – the article I was reading on WSJ.com was about Dell, HP and others full court press into online video. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out it out. Dell now has a place referred to as Studio Dell that is a library of video content on everything. This is B2C communication evolution.

The WSJ article

Video really is better. No, really.

2007-07-20T20:16:00.000-04:00

We get the same question asked frequently: "is video really better?". We think the answer is pretty obvious, but apparently, it isn't.

As an example of the sheer power of video to explain and simplify, a few folks have asked how to create certain effects in a video, or do something in Photoshop. If you've ever tried, those kinds of things are difficult to explain using words. Pictures help a little, but they're often even more confusing.

I created this screencast to demonstrate how video makes it drop dead simple to explain a concept to someone. This is a fairly simple concept, in this case, but imagine how much text would have to be written (not to mention the terminology involved) to explain this the "old fashioned" way!

How do you explain your concepts to your cutomers? I'll bet they're more complicated than drawing a 3D glassy ball!

By the way, this tutorial was created using the new Jing Project from TechSmith - check it out!

"How is this relevant to me?"...

2007-07-19T14:11:00.000-04:00

Shortly after my last post I received some feedback from a software business owner. He still didn't get how the video "thing" was relevant to his business, outside of say executive presentations. We'd talked previously about screencasts but it had always appeared to this person that they were things to be used after a release as a marketing tool. I guess I never really explained it, it just makes so much sense to me that I figured it was obvious. My bad. Let's start from the top.

When I was actively leading a development team, we worked in a modified agile, product centric way. That means we worked with QA, Doc, ET AL, early; even in design. We delivered work product in quick measurable iterations. The "keeping everyone in the loop thing" works so much better when the loop is manageable. So we bit off bite pieces and cycled through, gaining education and information across each domain every time. This not only decreases time to market, but it takes the "crunch" at the end of a project and dismisses it completely, because by the end, everyone knows what they need to know to execute their part successfully and efficiently. Big point coming up...This included Sales. Video is more than just the sexy, it communicates so much information, so quickly, that it just makes sense to use it.

We used screencasts to get project stakeholders and the sales organization up to speed on the new features as well as the look and feel, before we even hit beta. Letting the sales team get excited about the impending release is a good thing! Furthermore putting a similar screencast of "what's new" out to your beta users is smart. It can get them engaged and ready to use the new release instead of just letting it sit in their "when I've got time for it" pile.

Once you've brought your sales team and maintenance users up to speed; it's time market and demo the bits. Again with the video. If your not using it, you're missing it. Screencasts can be created to highlight the "wow" points of the new release. Putting a 30 sec./1 min. video teaser on the product page and/or landing page has a much higher rate of conversion to contact than a picture or big words with "New!", "Just Released!", or "Version XX!".

Giving the sales team a demo product is common, but unless the prospect is hot, and not busy doing their own job, it can be really difficult to get them through a product demo successfully and with any sense of urgency. But you give your sales team a screencast, or a webcast, or both, and now they have the tools to get the prospects hooked and evaluating the purchase options. These tools reduce the sales cycle significantly. Double check me with stats from all the big guns, it's true.

So with video you can shorten the time to market by making the information flow richer and faster, you can shortened the sales cycle with webcasts and screencasts, and you can increased the rate of conversion for sales by using these tools...I'd say that's pretty relevant.

Here are some businesses that get it (these are not clients, nor am I endorsing their products or services...they are just folks that get it):

www.ecopy.com watch a video that showcases their software

www.ektron.com watch a value prop video

www.fitnh.org watch a non-profit connect donors to the cause

What not to do with PowerPoint

2007-07-16T23:27:00.000-04:00

If used properly, PowerPoint can be the right tool for some really great presentations, the unfortunately thing is that it is rarely used well. This next video should offer you a bit of humor, it's one of those commiserate moments of "connecting".

The only negative thing I have to say about this piece is that when using video one should have not only a great topic, engaging content, and a rapport with the intended audience, but should also have broadcast quality video and quality lighting!

How not to use powerpoint

Communication vs. Connection Part Duh!

2007-07-13T13:46:00.000-04:00

So previously I talked about the difference between communicating and connecting. Everyday I find myself being asked; "why video?" , "why does it make that much of a difference?"...ok so here's an example or two.

I can tell you that there is this really cool ad that uses shadow puppets to create forms of bunnies, birds, branches, and a moose. It's set to music and kinda surreal.

We all know what shadow puppets are and you should be able to imagine them being used in an artistic way...so then, I have communicated that concept to you.

I could be more descriptive, but with all the elegant writing in the world, I still do not believe that it would have the same effect. Nor do I believe that all the adjectives and adverbs I might use to articulate the imagery could hold your attention span or be recalled in conversation weeks later.

I do believe the following will engage you in just these ways.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE...

If your not worrying about artistic impression or want something a little more "real". I can tell you about this guy, Xin. He's an immigrant kid who studied martial arts to get by in a gang ridden neighborhood. He got really good at it and felt confident until he came up against a kick boxer who schooled him some more. Long story short, this young man wanted to be the next Jackie Chan stunt man. He could be found leaping through malls and doing acrobatics as he learned to perfect his skills. This young man, not only is an amazing aerialist, but he is the subject and the producer of an online video that has seen more than 15 million viewers. The video serves him better than any picture or text article could, and it has enabled him to reach a larger audience than he imagined.

You've got to watch this...

Still not satisfied look at these...

http://www.time.com/time/topten/2006/webvideos/01.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/215472/urban_ninja_takes_youtube_by_storm.html

Lies, damn lies and statistics

2007-07-05T16:42:00.000-04:00

I'd really rather not shamelessly swipe someone else's very clever words for the title of this entry, but it's really perfect. On so many dimensions.

So, I've been doing some research. I don't like doing research, by the way. I've been trying to find some actual evidence that stuff on video is "better" than stuff not on video (printed text, still images, audio...). I got really excited when I bumbled into this statistic that I had heard of before:

people tend to remember 20 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, 50 percent of what they hear and see

Nice! Well, having been recently bit by the "due diligence" bug, I did a bit more snooping, and found this:

research indicates that we remember 20 percent of what we read, 30 percent of what we hear, 40 percent of what we see, 50 percent of what we say, 60 percent of what we do, and 90 percent of what we see, hear, say and do

Ok, so which is it? Or, more appropriately, exactly whose research?

I found only one actual citation to any published research, and that was a citation from the author of the paper itself. I found one that claimed the study was done by 3M, but no supporting evidence. I found another site that was more than willing to charge me for a business intelligence paper that seemed to be claiming that the entire thing was nothing but an urban legend. Nope, nothing on Snopes about that.

July 4th, 2007

2007-07-04T12:50:00.000-04:00

Ever have a time in your life where you have so many thoughts and so much to share that you find yourself almost mute? Unable to communicate for the sheer volume of content and the intensity you feel about what your thinking? That’s where I’ve been the last few weeks with respect to this blog. I have so much I want to contribute and examine that I’ve been paralyzed trying to figure out where to start.

Today I was reading and article in the WJS about some “global IT solution providers” and their struggles to bring their “solution”to market successfully. The whole time I’m reading this I’m thinking they are trying to find a marketing message that will communicate the whole shebang to five different actors all in one mouth watering gulp! And because they themselves can’t break it down into digestible pieces that let you chew and taste, and leave you wanting another bite; they have instead wound up with a less than appetizing fare. Tastes like chicken?

Then it dawns on me that while I’m playing arm chair MarCom manager, that if I’m so smart, why hadn’t I been able to communicate on this blog yet? Disco!

Over the next few weeks I’m going to focus my content here on the differences in communication, and the intent we have when communicating certain messages. I hope to come to a place where we can easily dissect the differences between communicating and connecting.

Very cool programming environment for kids!

2007-06-13T22:26:00.000-04:00

If they only had stuff like iMovie and GarageBand when I was a kid...

Scratch is, well, just go get it! One of my kids refuses to stop actually building (instead of just playing) games... MIT does it again!

The Rise of Silverlight

2007-06-10T09:53:00.000-04:00

I can't imagine that there's anyone doing media that hasn't seen Microsoft Silverlight (or at least heard of it) by now. Gotta admit, it's pretty slick. Cross-platform (ok, Win and Mac right now, but thet've got Linux on the radar), integrated with Visual Studio, .NET implementation. I went to a MSDN roadshow last week, and the evangelist coded up a very cool vector-based button with gradients and animated hover states using SIlverlight lickety-split. The multiple-videos-streaming-at-once was pretty cool, too.

Don't have to name the specific target ot this MS initiative, and it may not be a killer-app for that space, but it does open up the media "door" to the mainstream development world. Certainly worth keeping an eye (or both) on.

I tried out the Mac version. The installer crapped out on 10.3.9 (the disk image didn't even pass the checksum stage). On the brand new MacBook Pro, 10.4.9, the installer worked, but (and I guess I'm not really shocked here), the Silverlight pages didn't recognize that the plug-in had been installed. Not the ideal customer experience.