if there is ANY thing we do, it's EVERYthing
Social Media
The Social Network Movie
1552 days
Well, David Fincher is at it again, this time in the director’s seat for the October release of The Social Network, a story about the founders of Facebook. While Jesse Eisenberg certainly makes a convincing Mark Zuckerberg in the trailer, I wonder how much of the movie is opinion, and how much of it is historically accurate. I also wonder who the sources are. On one hand, I feel sorry for Zuckerberg, as the movie won’t exactly paint the most attractive portrait of him… On the other hand, I see a bit of poetic justice that his life is about to be shared with the world, just as his website has made the lives of so many others so transparent. I’ll be looking forward to this one.
Twitter is… Making Money?
0579 days
So Twitter has just dropped a bombshell, one that I should have seen coming long ago. I first found out about the @earlybird account from the writers at Twittown. They said it just as well, or better than I can, so I’ll just share their text:
Twitter pulled back the lid this week on their latest monetization mechanism, one that has bargain-minded tweeple all abuzz with excitement – a Twitter account, called @earlybird, which will tweet exclusive Twitter-only offers to followers about time-sensitive events, deals, and sneak previews. Twitter will be partnering with selected advertisers and channeling their Twitter-only offers, via retweets, through the @earlybird account.
… …
It’s important to note that Twitter itself isn’t playing a part in crafting any of the deals offered through the @earlybird account, and they’re not originating any tweets themselves. It’s not a pay-per-tweet system, but rather, a system in which advertisers, if chosen by Twitter, can choose to pay the microblogging platform to retweet tweets that they’ve already made. Twitter isn’t creating any content here, and they’re barely doing any heavy lifting to get @earlybird up and running, yet it’s likely that they’re going to be raking in some serious cash.
No crap they’ll be making some serious cash, I WANT IN THE PROGRAM! Deal hunters will be in love with this account and (depending on pricing of course) business would be unbearably short-sighted to pass up an offer for this system. Whether trying to clear “stuck” inventory, to discounting a typically high-margin product, a single RT by @earlybird could rake in 20,000 impressions BEFORE considering search traffic, web-page imbeded tweet streams, and potential RTs from users. The key, however; to the success and proliferation of @earlybird will be in their ability to provide quality content to their followers. Just because the account is run by twitter doesn’t mean it’s above the guidelines of any other account. If they send out too much garbage followers will disappear, effectively destroying the value of placing adds with @earlybird.
What I Learned at #NNSMB
4628 days
As previously announced, I spent the majority of yesterday morning at Titletown Brewing, representing @CameraCorner at the New North Social Media Breakfast. I had a great time and got the opportunity to meet a lot of great, influential people that I’ve been following online for months. I also had the opportunity to share my personal goals for Camera Corner, and learn quite a bit about what other businesses are doing in the social media market. Abby Gutowski compiled a list of tweets related to the event, but the real benefits of the event came to me after the formalities were finished.
I’m constantly questioning whether my online efforts are paying off, as the hard number that I am able to tie to my online efforts equates to far less than a single percentage of our revenues, and when I compare that number to what is produced with print adds in the Sunday paper, you’ve gotta admit that social networking doesn’t seem to be worth the time. It turns out that several of the others at the event have seen similar results. Sometimes I just need a little reminder that a social network, whether online or in real life, doesn’t always produce instant results, but keeps a name fresh.
For me, it is easy to engage in conversation online, but in person, I’ve developed what my girlfriend has come to call “performance mode” or “sales mode”, which I have always denied until now. As Ross said on one of his video blogs, there is a difference between talking with someone, and talking at them. This is exactly what Trisha has told me on many occasions, and it is something that I certainly want to work on controlling more so it doesn’t get me in trouble.
I made some comments “in performer mode” that some people have taken an offense to regarding online privacy. I have talked with a few of the offended parties, and for the most part smoothed everything over, but I still stand behind the message I was trying to convey. Perhaps I blew up the story a little bit, but my intention was to convey a message with a strong emotional tie… I heard some of the comments in the room, stalker was one of them, and that was exactly the message I was trying to convey at the time. Your social networking activity, if not locked down properly, is an open door for anyone to stumble upon. Why wouldn’t a hiring manager take a peek at what is available about you online?
I do think I was slightly misquoted, I believe the statement “Search results don’t lie” was attributed to me somewhere, and I just want to set the record straight… If I said it, I retract it… Search results are only as good as the content out on the web. If you haven’t already seen Chris Hecker’s rant about media outlets, I highly recommend you check it out now!
The New North 5-18-10
1637 days
I have been asked to represent Camera Corner / Connecting Point on a New North discussion panel next Tuesday, May 18th. This appears to be a private event, as I cannot find any information about it on their site or anywhere else in the blogosphere.
The New North is a non-profit organization dedicated to uniting the businesses and strengthening the economy of Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet, Waupaca, Brown, Shawano, Oconto, Marinette, Door, Kewaunee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Marquette, Florence, Menominee, and Waushara counties.
Twitter Security
1638 days
by Nicholas Wautier
in Social Media
If you were watching my accounts today, you may have noticed a few test Tweets I sent at myself. A co-worker came to me and asked about the details of protected tweeting. Apparently there are some people watching her that she wanted to stay away from, but she was also concerned about conversations that she has with other people. Apparently, messages sent to others, aren’t protected no matter how your security is set up. Also, if you go from a protected account to an unprotected account, ALL of your tweets are now unprotected, including those you posted previously.
Not much has changed when it comes to personal privacy. Just like in the real world, the best way to keep your information private, is to not share it. Even in the real world, you tell one person, who tells two people, that tell two people…
But that’s just it. Computers are wonderful devices, capable of creating an entirely new universe our minds cannot fathom at this point, but if there is one place where the computer lacks, it is security. There is NO way whatsoever to guarantee security of any information stored on a computer. Especially if that information has also been shared to the internet. Even if Twitter had the “perfect” security policy, what’s to stop some disgruntled employee from taking off with a portion of their dataset and selling it online?
Bottom line: If you want to keep a secret… Don’t get it anywhere near a computer.
Happy Birthday YouTube… Video…
0654 days
Via Mashable, the first ever YouTube upload turns 5 today. Reminds me of a time of innocence, back before Google owned everything, even including your blog posts. (KIDDING!)
Sleep Deprived
0656 days
So Ben came over so we could record the commentary on that wrestling show, and we were up until 3:00 in the morning talking about business, marketing, branding, and how the web interacts with it all. I love a long, discussion between two minds whether or not they agree on all fronts. While we didn’t see eye to eye on every topic, that was the joy of the conversation, leading us both to learn a lot of new information in a short amount of time.
After I wrap up the video production, it will go up somewhere on YouTube as a series of “ACW Internet Quickies”. Just don’t hold me to too high of standards… I was working with full-auto cameras, a camera operator that has never even HELD a camera before, no sound equipment, and a whopping $0 budget. As I make more videos, I am getting more and more comfortable working with editing software, so hopefully I’ll get to do another shoot sometime soon and I can keep these videos coming.
Eventful Weekend
0658 days
Earlier I had discussed how I would be going to my first prom this weekend, and it turned out to me more eventful that I had originally planned. For one, this was the first time i had worn my Tuxedo this year, and I was unaware that my stain was so poorly stained, so I headed out to Du Bois for a new shirt, and a pair of shoes, as I figured they could use an upgrade too. Then I had an idea.
To hit such a fresh, young market, I should try to engage with them more, meet them in their world, and show them that an “old guy” like myself is still cool. To make it to the job on time, I had to leave by 6:00, and at about 4:30 I got the idea for my new business card (I’ll post it after I get an artist to touch it up a little). On one side, it’s a fairly simple card design, based lightly on the top of my homepage. On the other, it says: “Taking requests by Tweet or Text, @WautierEnt or 920-471-4627“. It worked! I gave out about 30 cards, all to clients that will probably be having parties over the next 4 months, and I received a few texts, proving my CTA worked (about 7% conversion). Furthermore, I was able to connect with some old friends, teachers, and even a few family members that were in attendance while putting on a decent show. While it wasn’t technically my strongest night, it was certainly a learning experience, and a whole new audience to play to.
On Sunday, we were off to Milwaukee to see Ingrid Michaelson perform live at the Northern Lights Theater. This venue was much more comfortable than Turner Hall, where Trisha and I had previously seen Ingrid’s show, but also didn’t seem to have quite the same atmosphere either. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Ingrid, she describes herself as someone who “makes music… I had a song in an Old Navy commercial in 2007…” While the majority of her songs are sappy love songs and I take all kinds of heat from the guys over it, she is by far the funniest musician I have ever seen, ranking up there with Weird Al and Richard Cheese in my book even though the laughs are generated through in a totally different way.
We also stopped at The Oriental Theater to see a limited showing of The Runaways. It was a decent movie, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again… There were many graphic scenes of drug use and sexual activity, seeming gratuitous at times. Other than that, there’s nothing for me to pick on, other than that it wasn’t overly memorable.
So much for Verified…
0661 days
Todd Sanders shared some interesting information about President Barack Obama’s twitter account on his blog last month. It turns out that our president’s verified account, isn’t his anymore! Apparently, sometime after winning the election, President Obama handed over the rights of his account to Organizing For America, a project of the Democratic National Committee.
I do understand how Barack may have gotten a little too busy to manage his own tweets, but don’t you feel that Twitter should re-evaluate the Verified status on the account? Sure, they do have full disclosure on the background image of the page, but this information is lost for anyone who is using a mobile client, texts, or a 3rd party app like HootSuite or TweetMiner (now called Pluggio). This indecent reveals that verified accounts are only verified ONCE, are never submitted to an audit and shows a great deal of irresponsibility on Twitter’s behalf.
They say the verified account feature is currently in beta, so consider this my bug report. Don’t put up a “lifetime” award that is so easily transferable.
Find the Passion
0670 days
Ric Szczepkowski (pronounced shep-KOUS-kee) , is a former portrait photographer who writes the monthly Camera Corner newsletter (signup here). In this month’s article, Ric discusses how a lack of passion can ruin a business, or how an increase in business can ruin a passion. He also remarks that his best work doesn’t surface until he finds what it is that makes his subject spark.
PASSION IS EVERYTHING! It increases your quality of work, confidence, and, (most importantly) happiness. Wouldn’t it be great to wake up every morning and do exactly what you WANT to do, rather than what you are paid to do? Check out some of the work at Ardent Photography. I’ve met Amy a few times working the wedding circuit, and every time I’m blown away by her professionalism and creativity. While other photographers are enjoying a drink and chatting with their “assistant”, she’s splicing together slide shows of pictures from earlier THAT DAY, catching extra close-up shots of the cake & decor, and walking the room to find the best angles & lighting to shoot the rest of the evening. Every picture she takes could be printed in a magazine add, because her passion drives her to do so much more than just document the event.
So how do you find the passion? DumbLittleMan has a few tips, but they just don’t work for me. I get excited about far too many things to narrow down to two or three. So yeah, this site is my passion, and while some people may criticize that I don’t focus enough on one topic or market, so what? I’m working on setting up separate RSS feeds for each of my categories (please leave a comment or e-mail admin@wautierent.com if you know of a good WordPress plugin for this) as an attempt to keep a few subscribers, but ultimately, it isn’t about satisfying a target audience, it’s about being me, and making myself happy.
