I have been given the awesome privilege of teaching a workshop on podcasting at St. Louis Community College – Meramec.The three-day class, entitle The ABCs of Podcasting, runs August 4–6.
The opportunity arose from my participation on the Advisory Board for Meramec’s Center for Visual Technology (CVT). During several of the most recent meetings, I spoke enthusiastically and often about the power of podcasting. I suggested that the board should create a podcast and use it to build community and influence department and college decision-makers.
Several short weeks after the last meeting, the Board Chairman called to offer me this opportunity. I was glad to accept, and immediately began writing my lesson plan, using a spreadsheet to plot out the three days divided into the hours of the day in 15 minute intervals.
A few days later, the Chairman sent a message requesting that I create a course name, a description and a list of prerequisites. I found this task to be more difficult than the initial planing I had done, mainly because it was due right now, whereas I had four months to write the lesson plan.
This story goes on and one, so I’ll be writing more in this space about it. I also plan to create a podcast on the subject, so please stay tuned.
If you’re interested in registering for this workshop, call the Center for Visual Technology at SLCC – Meramec at 314-984-7777.
May 13th, 2008
I met with one of my clients today who made a good case for not participating in the blogosphere as a means to building community and getting new customers. His reasoning was simple, “I know who my prospects are, and I know how to reach them.”
I had to agree with his approach, which is based on having precious access to qualified buyers, cutting through the clutter, and getting them to listen long enough prove you can solve their problem. This strategy is based on leveraging a large email list of potential customers, gently prodding them to listen for a few minutes, and using that short Flash piece lead them to a longer Flash piece.
That longer piece moves them to the next level, which is to make a phone call or send an email message to inquire about purchasing the company’s product.
It’s simple, and it works because they have a mailing list that is laser focused, and a presentation process that is finely tuned to filter out the chaff and lead only qualified prospect to the desired action.
April 18th, 2008
Business is booming with new clients and a variety of projects that take full advantage of the scope of what I offer. I’ve just come off a week of PowerPoint production for a great new client that is also interested in engaging me as a consultant and project facilitator in a re-branding campaign which includes developing a new website. We’ve also discussed using blogs and forums to increase their visibility.
I’m working on two video projects—both for non-profits—and two Adobe Director pieces. One of my medical clients has asked me to produce a digital sign for their lobby. The hardware is in and I am wrapping up production of the video loop. I plan on installing the system in their space over the weekend.
I’m meeting with another new client today to strategize about how to position them in regards to all their marketing materials. I’m producing their website, so my research is key to what we discuss in today’s meeting with the designer and another marketing consultant.
Part of next week will be devoted to producing Flash modules for still another new client. These short pieces will present key principles that define the services they provide to their clients. Also next week, I’ll be beginning a podcast series for a client who does a good amount of public speaking. The podcasts, at least initially, will feature excerpts of some of these presentations.
April 18th, 2008
Have you every heard someone say something, and said to yourself, “Dang, why didn’t I think of that?” Of course you have.
I’m sitting in a BlogWorld session entitled Good to Great: Blogging & Profit Potential, and the presenter, Jim Kukral, is talking about the revenue potential in thinking of problems, and creating content in the form of blog entries or video clips that present the solution to those problems. It’s so basic.
So, I have my own business, and I have other web clients who need traffic, or they need to generate revenue from advertising. We all have customers who have problems to which they need answers. With my unique combination of experience in media production and delivering web technology, this use of “how to” content is a no-brainer.
Will the content on this site change as a result of attending this session? I say it will.
November 8th, 2007
I am attending BlogWorld & New Media Expo on behalf of Good Life Gifts. I’m here with my business partner looking into ways to grow that company into the ultimate web-based resource for gifts and giving. We’re learning about monetizing a blog, RSS, new media revenue opportunities, publishing tools and creating viral content.
November 8th, 2007
My last entry presented the process I was working through with the team at Good Life Gifts as we prepare to assure our success in sales during the Christmas gift-buying season. The tactics (or activities) we’re considering include publishing a newsletter, weekly email blasts, blogging, producing podcasts and participating in social networks.
My business partner, Steve Hoeft, asked me to rank each marketing activity to help in determining the priority we will give them. His assignment was to rank them using two criteria: potential sales resulting from the activity (1 = low, 2 = medium, and 3 = high), and by effort or cost needed to pull it off (1 = high, 2 = medium, and 3 = low). The final ranking would result from adding these two values together. The highest result would be activities we’d expedite, and the lower would be the activities we’d delay until later. If the score was low enough, perhaps we wouldn’t do it at all.
Working with this ranking system for a while, I realized that there was a big factor missing—the accuracy of the message we broadcast in the execution phase of the activity. A high score for accuracy (3) would be one in which we could deliver the exact message to a specified target market, or persona, like a carefully written email message to an existing customer. An example of a low score (1) in this ranking category would be a message written by a blogger who may have come across our site through a general PR or buzz campaign. Who knows what they’d say about us.
After ranking each activity for potential sales, effort, and accuracy, I came up with this order of priority: email, newsletters, blogging, social networks, and podcasting. I’ll break each of these down in the upcoming blog entries.
October 9th, 2007
Good Life Gifts’ ecommerce website has been up and running since late April of this year, and as with any new business, you can’t expect to be profitable over night. With the Christmas buying season at hand, it’s time to pull out all the stops and make and grab a piece of the market.
We’re working on a plan to increase traffic and sales using a variety of marketing tactics to be implemented along with our traditional PR, onsite SEO and offsite link building. These additional marketing tactics include email, newsletters, blogging, social networks, and podcasting. Each tactic will have it’s own plan, based on target market, goals and resources.
The plans for five tactics require that we we have at least one proven “remarkable,” “must-have” product, and a website presentation that is stellar, or at least competitive with other sites in our market space. Without a product that will appeal to our target market, and a website that reflects quality and trustworthiness, most of these efforts will result in little more than an increase in traffic. Because traffic doesn’t necessarily convert to sales, we must be sure that our store and our products will not hinder the purchase process.
The next blog posting will cover how the tactics were chosen, rated and prioritized. Later, I’ll break down each one with a description, ideas, assignments, and steps for implementation.
October 6th, 2007
A variety of sites allow you to introduce yourself to captive audiences. One such place is Technorati. Please visit my Technorati Profile.
June 7th, 2007
In New York City, you can go to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in midtown 24 hours a day, seven days a week and browse the Web from the Macs on display. But due to a new Apple regulation, you can no longer access MySpace.com.
read more | digg story
May 26th, 2007
Once you are pumping out quality content here are a few tips on how to get more subscribers for it.
read more | digg story
February 14th, 2007
Previous Posts