Tag Archives: network

Permalink to SwitchPitch Start-Up Event Made These Two Things Apparent

SwitchPitch Start-Up Event Made These Two Things Apparent

by Angie Sanders|on March 24, 2013 |in Just good business, Social Media |tagged , , , , , |Leave a comment

switchpitch credit @startupamericaLast Thursday, I attended SwitchPitch, hosted by start-up hub 1776 at their unfinished 12th floor office space on 15th Street in the District. The event’s premise turns the traditional start-up pitch gathering on its head. Instead of entrepreneurs pitching groups of venture capitalists for funding, local companies like Motley Fool and LivingSocial pitched projects to qualified treps who are more than capable of getting the work done.

Not only was it fun to get better acquainted with the DC tech scene and infiltrate all-male clusters of entrepreneurs networking and flexing their self-employment prowess, but I enjoyed hearing America Online co-founder and former CEO/chairman Steve Case’s keynote moderated by serial entrepreneur and SwitchPitch brain-father Michael Goldstein.

Sitting smack dab in the middle of DC’s startup movement, (Mayor Vincent Gray told us that there are 420 startups in the city of DC alone.) made me realize two things.

One, large companies—much like the small to midsized communications firms aiellejai talks about in our latest white paper Blindsided!—know that they need the right talent to drive the innovation that’s crucial to these companies’ survival. And when these companies can’t identify that talent in-house, they begin to look for smaller companies to acquire that already have this talent in place. Though entrepreneurs shouldn’t build companies with the sole purpose of selling out big-time to titans like Google, (Steve actually said he prefers to invest in “built to last companies,” not “built to flip.”) large companies are definitely on the lookout for smaller companies with insanely smart staffs/leaders and viable products that can augment large companies’ offerings.

Two, a few hundred attendees at the SwitchPitch event and the Startup America frenzy slowly blanketing the nation are both evidence that people are convinced that running a company is sexy and relatively doable. But it was refreshing to hear Steve tell a different story about his beginnings with AOL. He explained that while everyone saw the company as an overnight success, the company as a whole had been grinding away in anonymity for 10 years.

As a trep (I picked that term up from other articles and blog posts. I’m trying it out for the first time here.) who has been in the game for a minute, I know it’s important to tell newer treps that this game is often lonely, thankless and the furthest thing from sexy imaginable. Of course, that statement will probably prompt new entrepreneurs to ask me, “Well, why do you do it?”

My answer? Because the nagging allure of making a greater impact—and a larger return on my skill set—outside of the 9-5 world just won’t leave me alone.

Seasoned entrepreneurs, what’s your answer?

Photo credit: @startupamerica

Read Blindsided! Why the rapid pace of social media communication and measurement is leaving PR agencies behind

blindsidedIn his Forbes.com article, “PR Agencies’ Lost Year?”, Peter Himler of Flatiron Communications makes the argument that while PR agencies are fixated on the obvious rise of mobile technology and the visual web, they’re missing real opportunities to use creative hybrids of earned, paid and owned media tactics to broadcast client messages to already overloaded audiences. Himler’s article prompted aiellejai to produce this white paper. In it, we explore why the PR industry was blindsided by the emergence of new technology and the choices these professionals will have to make internally and externally to remain valuable players in the midst of the new accelerated pace of communication.

Permalink to 13 Key Takeaways from Fast Company’s “The Social Media Road Map”

13 Key Takeaways from Fast Company’s “The Social Media Road Map”

by Angie Sanders|on October 3, 2012 |in Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |5 Comments

Fast Company published “The Social Media Road Map” in their September 2012 issue—the one with The Office star Mindy Kaling {@mindykaling} on the cover looking like a sexy geek. I curled up in bed with a batch of homemade trail mix (dry roasted almonds and dried banana chips and cranberries) to see where this map would take me. So here are my key takeaways from these 19 interesting yet far from mind-blowing pages that paint the picture of social media’s current landscape:

  1. A YouTube home page, half-page auto-play video ad is $500,000—for one day. This ad reaches more than 26 million unique U.S. visitors, but if you’re paying half a million dollars for that, then what’s your total marketing budget?
  2. Lady Gaga stole the title for most Facebook likes from Skittles, but Big Spaceship CEO Michael Lebowitz says there’s no way to tie this this bragging rights title to a bump in sales.
  3. Fast Company, along with a whole gang of other media outlets, really wants Mindy Kaling and her new show The Mindy Project to win, so I guess we should, too. But will realizing how much of a television industry insider she is make me watch her new show? Unclear.
  4. Let’s just set the record straight that it’s officially uncool and generally frowned upon to refer to yourself or anyone else as a “social media guru.”
  5. The women in the sexy photos used for spam bot profiles on Twitter are real people, and those chicks just might ban together and sue you for using their likenesses. Maybe.
  6. What the hell was Kraft thinking when they asked Klout to refer to their scoring as a “fun score”?
  7. There are already whole books about how to use Pinterest. How does it feel to write a book filled with information that’s probably instantly out-of-date upon publication?
  8. There are at least eight services that help you back up your social media platform archives. Never knew there was a need for this, but I guess it’s always good to keep a record of everything you’ve said or shared for future reference.
  9. “We use the phrase ‘social media’ but they’re really communications services, not media properties,” said Bo Peabody, creator of Tripod (the web’s first social network that debuted in 1992). In actuality, we probably refer to the collection of these platforms this way because each of them serves as a medium through which we communicate. And the plural form of “medium” is…
  10. If you want to see some forward-thinking ways of employing social media, then study the fashion industry.
  11. FourSquare’s first major deal was with BravoTV. Tristan Walker, FourSquare’s former business development executive, said the network had great local content which the digital company used to get people “to get out and explore new things, based on shows like ‘Real Housewives’, which felt very much in line with the product but without a sales pitch.”
  12. To support relief efforts following the Haiti earthquake and the tsunami that struck Japan, social gaming titan Zynga created items within their games for players to buy and donated the proceeds to charity. “In the first 24 hours, we generated $1 million, and it got up to more than $3 million over a week or so,” said Zynga Executive Director Ken Weber. “We had people paying for items in the games, but we also had players who don’t ever pay for anything who got their credit cards out to do something good.”
  13. It’s officially uncool and generally frowned upon to refer to any video you create as viral, unless it truly does become, well, viral. “Rather than ideas propagating for generations, almost everything terminates within one degree of the seed,” said Microsoft Research’s Duncan Watts. “If you want something to spread, generate an enormous number of seeds.”

Share with us: Did you read Fast Company’s “The Social Media Road Map”? Was this truly a road map for you? What new information did you learn from this piece?

This post is the first in a series of five posts discussing ideas presented in Fast Company’s “The Social Media Roadmap” section (September 2012 issue).

Permalink to Four Reasons Why You Can Afford to Share Your Ideas

Four Reasons Why You Can Afford to Share Your Ideas

by Angie Sanders|on September 24, 2012 |in Content marketing, Just good business, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , , , , |1 Comment

During a local chamber of commerce networking event, an ambitious and interesting older gentlemen told me that he was looking for an entertainment lawyer to help him pitch a game show to Hollywood gatekeepers.

“Oh really?” I asked. “What’s the premise of the show?”

“Well, I can’t tell you,” he said. He was saving all his ideas for the entertainment lawyer and the bigwig producers to whom he’d one day persuade to give him the green light on this show.

I then joked that if he told me the particulars, then he’d have to shoot me.

This got me thinking about which ideas require such top-secret protection and which ideas should be shared.

Truthfully, there’s nothing new under the sun. And ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s execution that’s rare. Not to mention that executing is hard work. So I believe it’s a good idea to share a good deal of our ideas publicly and strategically.

Now you may be thinking, “My ideas are how I make my living. I get paid for my ideas.” Yes, that’s true. However, when I say ideas, I don’t mean the engineering plans for your new product. Instead, as a communications professional, I’d share best practices for how to communicate the particulars for how your new product works. So by ideas, I really mean information. I could hold my input until I get you to pay me for what I have to say. However, if you don’t get the information from me, you’ll just Google it.

Here are four reasons that I think that as business owners, we should be a bit freer with our information and ideas:

Most people need a sample before buying. Have you ever met a person at a networking event he asks you for quick advice upon learning what you do for a living? What do you say? “You better pay me”? No. Most likely you engage that person in conversation. It’s only natural because you’re an expert and are passionate about what you do. That’s okay. The best part of this situation is that not only do you reinforce in his mind that you know your stuff, but it gives him an incentive to pay you for your services.

It establishes you as an expert. Before social networking, a lengthy client list on your website stood as evidence enough that your business is good at what it does. Now, potential clients expect to see us sharing information online and through seminars and speaking engagements. Sharing information about your craft frames you as an expert. And who do potential clients want to pay to help them through their business challenges? Experts.

It draws people into your sales funnel. People I happen to meet and cultivate into clients don’t just learn that aiellejai creates content and throw money at us. They usually consume our content. Or they’ve heard me speak. Or they’ve liked something I’ve shared via social networking. Sharing information draws people in, much like a fishing hook. We can’t throw out naked hooks and expect the fish to bite. We have to cast out some juicy nuggets to get the fish to school and be intrigued. Not to liken potential clients to fish, but you get the message.

You want to be your audience’s first resource. If potential clients have questions, and I don’t answer them—especially if it’s simple for me to do so—then they’re going to get the answers somewhere else. And by doing so, they’ll most likely jump into someone else’s sales funnel. Even if I share information with someone and they don’t commit to becoming a client right away, the idea that I’m an accessible expert has been planted in their head. When they do decide that they need some paid help, hopefully aiellejai will be the first company they think of.

Share with us: Are you guarded with sharing information about your business or industry online or via social networking? Are you afraid someone will steal your ideas?

Permalink to The Next Time You Attend a Seminar or Info Session, Do This.

The Next Time You Attend a Seminar or Info Session, Do This.

by Angie Sanders|on September 19, 2012 |in Just good business, Social Media |tagged , , , , , , , |4 Comments

How many seminars or other related sessions with classroom-style seating do you attend in which you sit down, listen to the panelists and leave without meeting any of the other attendees in the room.

Perhaps after the session, you rush the front of the room like everyone else to meet the presenters and exchange cards, but do you mingle among the rest of the people who came to get the same information you did?

Classroom-style seating flips a switch in our brain that focuses us only on learning from and meeting the people talking at the front of the room. Although we leave with some valuable information, we may be leaving behind a great chance to network with others in the room who we can potentially work with and partner.

Last Wednesday, I attended the Community Business Partnership event, “Social Media Marketing Made Simple” session at Teqcorner. Like everyone else, I’d visited the refreshments table, grabbed my complementary sesame seed bagel and bottled water and took a seat between two other women.

After a few minutes, Juli Monroe {@1to1discovery} of 1 to 1 Discovery appeared at the front of the room to tell us to get off our butts, move around the room and meet each other. She encouraged us to introduce ourselves to at least two other people in the room and ask the question: “What can I do to help you achieve your goals before the end of the year?”

And what do you know? We all got up and did what Juli said. I just happened to be sitting between two smart business owners. Veronica owns a professional organizing business and wanted to know more about affiliate marketing and publishing an e-book. Elia is launching an online resource for people who are dealing with parents with dementia. She wanted resources for marketing her new business venture. Within a few minutes, I was able to point the women in the direction of information that could help them both. And of course these women are be ideal clients for me.

When the session began to start, Veronica said, “Oh, we didn’t get a chance to ask you how we could help you achieve your goals!” But just by talking to both women, I’d gotten clarity on a few products aiellejai is launching in the coming months.

The next time you attend a seminar and are sitting in a room filled with other smart and motivated people, take Juli’s advice and introduce yourself to at least two of them. Ask them how you can help them achieve their goals. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised by the conversation’s outcome.

Permalink to 5 Reasons Why “Amateur Millionaires Club” Looks Like an Amateur Production

5 Reasons Why “Amateur Millionaires Club” Looks Like an Amateur Production

by Angie Sanders|on August 3, 2012 |in What's on TV |tagged , , |Leave a comment

The term “amateur millionaires” brings to mind people who weren’t born into wealth and had no idea how to attain it on their own miraculously experiencing a windfall and learning quickly just what to do with the money they’ve acquired. Hopefully, the network marketers and stars of the new Centric show Amateur Millionaires Club have found ways—like this foray into reality TV—to make this money work for them well into their senior years.

The world of network marketing and the lives of those who’ve made it work for them are intriguing, and I was looking forward to viewing a show that satisfied this curiosity. However, the two episodes I saw were disappointing.

We may criticize networks like Bravo and VH-1 for the types of reality shows they’ve created, but they’ve mastered the art of blending scripted TV and real life in a way that captivates us and keeps us focused on the story—not the production.

How is that so? Here are five elements other reality shows possess that  Amateur Millionaires Club lacks:

Inclusive storyline— If you’re not a faithful follower of most reality shows, then it’s pretty easy to watch an episode or two and get the gist of the show’s plot and character profiles/relationships. This wasn’t the case with the episodes of  Amateur Millionaires Club I viewed. There were long stretches of airtime that passed without any real action or dialog between characters. What bothered me the most was that there was no real explanation of how these people make their money. I know what the term network marketing means, but I’m willing to bet that a lot of viewers don’t.  I never saw product, the characters selling it, or providing support to their team in selling it.

Effective use of a soundtrack— The music in a television show helps progress the show and signals rising and falling action. In the case of VH-1’s shows, the soundtrack promotes new music and new artists, much like soundtracks for movies used to. Have you ever been in a store and all of a sudden there’s no music playing? That’s the feeling I got watching Amateur Millionaires Club. I was immediately aware that something was missing during scenes of the show.

Camera crew with mobility—The next time you’re watching a reality show, pay attention to the variation of angles, how quickly the director switches from camera to camera, and how this camera work advances the story and keeps your eyes entertained. Amateur Millionaires Club seems to rely heavily on static cameras, especially in the millionaires’ homes.

Wireless microphones— The bulky boxes that poke out of reality stars’ clothes look weird, but these wireless microphones are key to viewers hearing clearly what the cast is saying.  Amateur Millionaires Club relies on boom microphones that usually work on closed sets with proper acoustics, but make reality show characters’ voices echo slightly like they’re coming from a big kitchen or public bathroom.

Showing before telling—This is a fundamental rule of all storytelling. Viewers want to see the action happening instead of hearing about it secondhand. Most reality shows are successful at being present when the action occurs or orchestrating this action for the viewers’ entertainment.  Amateur Millionaires Club uses the cast members’ confessionals to drive the story and inserts b-roll to support it.

Check your local listings to find Centric in your area and catch a few episodes of Amateur Millionaires Club. After watching, let me know what you think? Does the show’s production distract you form the story being told? Do you see a plot?

 

Permalink to Oprah: Do You Know How HARD it is to Build My Own Network?

Oprah: Do You Know How HARD it is to Build My Own Network?

by Angie Sanders|on July 20, 2012 |in What's on TV |tagged , , , , , |4 Comments

Fox hit the airwaves in 1986 with only one show, The Late Show, hosted by Joan Rivers. The show tanked after only one year.

The network regrouped and attacked prime time with shows like Married with Children and The Tracey Ullman Show. They added one show each week for the next few weeks. Fox struggled along but now, after 16 years, it’s legitimate in the eyes of the viewing public. However, it’s still the butt of many jokes because of its gang of failed programs.

So why is it that we—myself included—expect Oprah to accomplish with OWN in just a few months what it took Rupert Murdoch years to do with Fox?

On March 28, I wrote a post about Oprah’s obvious problems with OWN, but after watching the first five minutes of  Oprah Builds a Network part one, which aired on July 8 on OWN, the media mogul’s honesty and candidness set me straight.

“No one will ever understand what it took to do that last year… and while at the same time trying to build a network…” she explained. “I can honestly say that I wasn’t committed to the network because I was committed to [The Oprah Winfrey Show].”

Oprah’s name precedes her, and that often makes us forget that she’s human, just like us. One person making the leap from producing a one-hour television show to a 24-hour network is seemingly impossible effort. Her admissions during this show were the first we’d heard her utter about how tough this feat has been to pull off—even for her. “In this particular instance, being Oprah was a great asset and a detriment because it raised the bar and expectation for this little network beyond anything that I was capable of doing on my own,” she said.

She went on to say that she and her team were nowhere near ready to launch OWN, but media hype and public expectation propelled them forward. Oprah sounded as if she regretted launching with such a bang and not being able to build slowly and see her vision come to fruition.

“I wanted to move forward with the network in a way that would be progressive and that would be thoughtful and that would be innovative and that would be inspiring,” Oprah said. “That was my vision. None of that happened.”

At a dinner party, Lorne Michaels, writer and producer of Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and 30 Rock fame, put things in perspective a bit for her.

“This thing you’ve taken on is huge. It’s big,” he said to her. “And nobody wants to see you sashay from the set of The Oprah Winfrey Show into this new business and everything go okay. You’re going to have to pay your dues. You’re going to have to learn the hard way. And you’re going to have to use the word mother*$ker a couple of times.”

Michaels also advised her to physically position herself on or somewhere very close to the network to ensure her vision is executed properly.

Here I am trying to run a little company and I’m judging Oprah for launching an entire television network.  And for that, I’m sorry. She’s encountered programming hiccups and Twitter gaffes along the way, but what’s important to note about Oprah is that she keeps going. That gives me motivation to keep pushing along with my miniature endeavor in comparison.

Set your DVR to catch the replay of Oprah Builds a Network parts one and two on Sunday, July 22 from 6-8 p.m.