Brunswick Media owner Mike Conaty recently appeared as a guest on the Rockstar Podcast Lite with host Lorenzo Araneo of Screaming Lunatic Multimedia, LLC.

They covered a wide ranging list of topics including social media, video production, changes to Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Turntable.fm, jazz, Roku players, and self-publishing.

You can listen to or download the podcast from the Rockstar website: http://rockstarpodcast.com/rpl2/

Now, I’m no fan of the show; in fact I think I only suffered through about half an episode before I wanted to throw my remote through the screen, but (and I can’t believe I’m defending Snooki and her cohorts) I’m all in favor of the tax credit for the production company. Hear me out:

• The $$ NJ Gets – The tax credit program provides up to a 20% credit on sales taxes for items and services bought in the state, provided that at least 60% of the production is done in New Jersey. That means in order to qualify for the credit, the production company had to have spent enough to generate at least $2,100,000 on sales taxes in 2009. ($420,000 * 5 = $2,100,000). Since NJ Sales tax is 7%, the Jersey Shore production company spent at least $30,000,000 on taxable goods and services in the State of NJ in 2009. $30,000,000. Seriously. (Since I don’t have access to actual figures, I can only use what’s been reported)
• The Jobs NJ Gets – Again, the tax credit program requires that at least 60% of the production be done in the State of New Jersey, which means that at least 60% of the camera operators, food suppliers, electricians, lawyers, editors, security personnel, production assistants, and everyone else listed in the show credits had to come from NJ. That means jobs, and each of those people had to pay payroll taxes, road tolls, and every other tax in this state. More money for NJ’s coffers.
• More Jobs and $$ NJ Gets – With the number of people involved in any large TV production, the “trickle down” (I hate that phrase) of goods and services purchased by them is enormous. They buy gas to get to work, food, coffee (lots of coffee), and the odds and ends of daily life; all of which generate jobs for the local restaurants, gas stations, and other small businesses that they shopped in. Many of these sales generated tax revenue in themselves.

All that being said, I completely agree with the Italian American ONE VOICE Coalition, in that the show is a terrible piece of ^&%#*% that disparages Italian-Americans and brings shame to the State of New Jersey. Should the show be airing? In my opinion, no. Should the Governor decide that, again, no.

When the current resident of Drumthwacket came into office, he summarily dismissed the film tax credit program, despite it’s positive affects on the NJ economy. This short-sighted move on the Governor’s part resulted in major productions like Law & Order SVU moving their production across the Hudson to NYC.

You could use the same arguments about Law & Order SVU portraying horrific crimes as a reason to not give them tax credits, as the folks who oppose the Jersey Shore credit are using, but the fact is that losing Law & Order SVU to New York, meant losing an awful lot of tax revenue and small business patronage to New Jersey businesses.

According to this article from December 2010:

The TV and film industry can mean a lot of money to New Jersey, according to proponents of the bill. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) says there were nearly 7,000 production-related jobs in New Jersey in 2008, which paid a total of $511 million in wages.

With NJ’s unemployment rate hovering around 9.5%, and the NJ Film & Video industry suffering because of it, the Governor and Economic Development Authority should be INCREASING the amount of tax credits available, and broadening the definition of what kind of production they are available to in my opinion.

Under the EDA Film Tax Credit program regulations (PDF link), none of the productions Brunswick Media Services LLC produces is eligible. This is despite 100% of the production in most cases being done in the State of New Jersey. Training videos, promotional videos, or other “small” projects like those we produce for our clients are just not eligible. You know, videos that companies use to train their new employees on safety issues, or standards of Good Manufacturing Practices. It’s just the feature film/TV industries that qualify under the old program.

If the State of New Jersey was really interested in helping to boost an industry that brings economic development to the state, they should reinstate the Film Tax Credit program with a much broader scope. NJ officials need only take a look at the effects of a forward thinking Film Tax Credit program in States like New Mexico to see the positive growth possible. (NM happens to be the production home of the show Breaking Bad, which portrays the production and use of Crystal Meth, drug dealing, etc. hardly family-fare).

In the same round of funding announcement, UK-Based Pearson PLC received $82 Million to move from Upper Saddle River, NJ to Hoboken, NJ. Actually, it’s $66 million, but it jumps to $82 million if they create 200 new jobs. That’s $410,000 per job. Seriously. $410,000 per job to move to a place that makes it easier for New Yorkers to get to. For a non-US company. To move from one town in NJ to another. Seriously. Where’s the outrage?

Also in this round of funding, Event Services Inc., received a tax credit of $400,000 for producing 2 wrestling events in NJ. Seriously.

It’s about economic effect, not content. As I said above, I’m no fan of Jersey Shore, and I wish it was never on the air, but if you’re going to start legislating the content of films and TV shows, what’s next?

The Jersey Shore logo is copyright MTV Networks, and is used for illustrative purposes only. Use does not imply endorsement by or of MTV Networks.

The Bad News: It’s Too Early to Tell

I was one of the lucky few that was able to get into Google+ (G+) that first night they introduced it. (Thanks to a swell guy named Anthony Horton). It was a bright shiny thing, and all new and stuff. It still has that new car smell, but there are a few stray french fries aging under the seat, and we’ve thrown out the protective paper mats a while ago.

Shortly into week 1, the “I’ve Moved” images started showing up in my Facebook timeline. While I knew it was true that many people loath Facebook, and their convoluted ways of doing things, and seemingly never ending quest to define how the internet works these days, I found it a little odd that people would be jumping ship for G+ this early into the game. After all, G+ has barely opened up for general consumption, and they admit that they have a number of things to address, before they’re ready for the general public.

The key here is that Google is addressing the issues, heck, they’ve already addressed some of them, no small feat turning a ship the size of Google so quickly. Facebook? They’re moving at the pace you’d expect a huge corporation to move at.

The biggest surprise to me, is the seeming lack of response from Twitter. Most of the people I’m connected with on G+ come from my network on Twitter. Many of them have been talking about ditching Twitter for G+ rather than Facebook. Twitter should be worried. Granted, the early adopters who populate my G+ circles aren’t using either Twitter or G+ for purely social reasons, to them (and to some extent me) Social Media is a source for professional networking in a more relaxed atmosphere than sites like LinkedIn. They aren’t using Facebook to play those gol dern Facebook games, or flare, or hugs, or pokes, or whatever; they aren’t using Twitter to update people with any of the inane things that TV commercials say people use Twitter for; they won’t be using G+ like either of that either.

The Good News: It’s too Early to Tell

So should your business move to Google+? Well, technically you can’t be quite yet, but soon you will be able to. It’s a little too early, as Google builds up the G+ user base (OK, community) in preparation of launching pages/profiles for businesses, but if you’re using social media for your business, here’s what I’ve been telling my clients:

• Don’t be in too much of a rush to join – Sure it’s tempting to be in the initial rush, and be seen as an early adopter (Like Ford for example), But unless you’re a global brand, with the resources to dedicate additional time to another social network, you risk diluting your social media presence.
• Don’t be in too much of a rush to leave – If you use any social site for business, the worst thing you can do is to not be present. How many abandoned MySpace accounts are out there languishing away, telling everyone that the owner has moved on to the next big thing? Step back and evaluate what’s working (or not,) and why it’s working (or not.) Ready to ditch your Twitter account? Take a look at your stream, and do an honest assessment, have you really interacted there, or is your Tweet stream just a list of sales pitches and auto-DM’s? If it is, Google+ will make your head spin with interaction. Sales pitches stand out like sore thumbs, and unless your target market is other sales pitchers who don’t interact, you won’t be included in any relevant circles.
• Watch it, don’t just ignore it – The business account waiting period is actually a good thing for your business: it gives you the opportunity to see how this whole thing plays out without having to dedicate a lot of time to it. In the mean time, make sure your Google Places listing is in good shape, as it’s the most likely way that businesses are going to be brought into Google+.

Caveat

I am not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV. This should not be construed as legal advice. Please consult an attorney for advice for your specific circumstances.

You Want Music With That?

When I do an estimate for a video, I always ask if the potential client wants music in the video. It’s a seemingly simple question, but it leads to a number of complexities. Basically, if you want to use music in your video, you’ll need to license that piece of music. This will cost you money, and no, we can’t “just pretend we forgot” to pay for it.

Musicians, songwriters, composers – they all work for a living, and have likely become accustomed to living in some sort of shelter and eating on a regular basis… so they should be paid for the work they produce. Yes we can get into an argument over the relative “evils” of record labels and industry groups, but in the end, I’m not dealing with the latest song from Lady Ga-Ga, I’m dealing with a piece of music written by someone who’s not making pant-loads of money from the biggest selling whatever this month.

Here’s my thinking on it: I hate (hate, HATE) doing a video without some sort of soundbed, whether it’s a song performed on actual musical instruments or just plinked out on someone’s Casio synth; Music adds a layer of polish to a video that can not be achieved through other means. So whether you commission a full score for your video, or use a royalty-free piece: if your video uses music, pay for it.

Kinds of Rights

Your video producer should be able to explain these in more detail as they relate to your video, but Broadcast Music International (BMI) has a great overview of the types of Copyright Licensing on their web site.

Generally speaking there are two kinds of licenses you need for using a piece of music in your video:

• A Mechanical License – This gives you the right to use a specific song from the publisher of that song. The money from this license is paid to the publisher, and a portion is paid to the song writer(s) through royalties.
• A Synchronization License – this gives you the right to use a specific recording of a specific song performed by a specific artist. The money from this license is paid to the publisher and a portion is paid to the recording artist(s) through royalties.

So if you want to use Telephone by Lady Gaga & Beyonce in your sales video, the producer will have to research the publisher, contact them and negotiate the Mechanical and Synchronization rights, and bill you for their time, as well as the licensing fees. If you want to use your nephew Melvin’s Bouzouki rendition of Telephone, that just needs Mechanical rights.

But there are all of these videos on YouTube of people lip-syncing songs, they all pay for rights? No, they don’t, but there’s a big difference in using a song to help sell your products, and a 14-year-old goofing off in front of her web cam. (Again, I’m not an attorney, and I don’t make up the rules, I just try and follow them.)

Your Options

Part of the reason you’re hiring a professional video production company is to handle the details of all of this licensing stuff. Maybe that specific recording of that specific song isn’t as important as you first thought after seeing the licensing fees. There are a number of other options available:

• Commissioning Music – Want something unique? Hire a composer/songwriter to write and perform a piece specifically for your video. It’s a fairly expensive way to go, but you can get exactly what you want musically, and keeps the composer well-fed.
• Rights-Managed Music – This category of music is (as far as I can tell) relatively new. Composers & songwriters produce a piece of music, record it, and allow a third-party company to license it for various purposes, geographic areas, and lengths of time. The quality of the music is generally pretty good, and puts the cost of licensing “real” music within the budgetary reach of most projects.
• Royalty-free Music – Don’t concentrate on the word “free”. Royalty-free music (also known as production music) is licensed over and over, and is usually sold as part of a library of music to video production companies. Royalty-free music has gotten a bad reputation ion the past as “fake” music because it is sometimes produced by a single person on a synthesizer specifically for bulk sales. I’ve used royalty-free music for a number of productions, and like much of the music on the radio these days, quality varies greatly. The advent of affordable, digital production has also increased the amount of high-quality royalty-free music available too.

So why can’t I just download an MP3 and use that? Well, that $0.99 you spent on the Lady Gaga/Beyonce recording of Telephone is actually just a license fee for you to listen to that song for your own enjoyment. (Read the End User License Agreement from iTunes for example.) It’s really no different than the old days when you would buy a CD/cassette/LP/8-track, you still only had the right to listen to any of it for your own enjoyment. Any reproduction or transmission required licensing.

So, in the end it comes down to: use a piece of music; pay the proverbial piper.

It’s not surprising really; training videos aren’t meant to be entertaining, they’re meant to convey important, sometimes life-saving information, but that’s no excuse for boring training videos. Here are a few tips we’ve come up with over the years to help take the mind-numbing out of your training videos:

1. Edit Ruthlessly

One of the deadliest sins of producing a training video is to try and cram too many concepts into one video. The second deadliest sin is to go into such minute detail on one topic that you sacrifice the video’s effectiveness. The answer to both situations: Edit ruthlessly.

With estimates of adult attention spans ranging from as little as 8 seconds to as much as 20 minutes, one thing is clear, you only have a limited time to hold the attention of your viewers, so bogging your video down with extras can only hurt its effectiveness.

The editing process begins well before the cameras even start rolling. Start with the script. Have someone read the script to you out loud to get an idea of how it flows. Rewrite, cut sections, lose the fat from the script, you’ll save time & money in the end.

Here are a few more intra-tip tips:

• You know that introductory section that goes through a detailed history of the company? – Lose it.
• Is there a simpler way to say something? Rewrite, re-record, and re-edit.
• Have a scene that only applies to a few employees? – Cut it and see Tip #2.

2. Create a Series

One of the biggest problems with one-size-fits-all training videos, is that they are one-size-fits-all. They’re long, boring, and unless everything applies to everyone watching, they can be ineffective. Rather than doing one, 45-minute training video, break it into a series of shorter, more targeted videos. Do your machine operators really need to sit through the office safety section? Do your office workers really need to watch 10 minutes of forklift operation instructions?

Break the videos into job or work area specific chunks. Even if everything in the video applies to everyone watching it, still consider breaking the content into more watchable, and understandable chunks.

With this all being said, don’t become a slave to the stopwatch: if it takes 10 minutes to say what you have to say: great! If it takes 11 minutes: great! 14 minutes: Huzzah! (You get the point.)

3. Hire a Professional Actor

“The only thing worse that sitting through a boring speaker’s presentation is sitting through a video of a boring speaker’s presentation.” – Mike (Yeah, I quoted myself.)

By actor I mean both on-screen and voiceover actors. Nothing quite says “we care about your training so much that we cut the budget” as having Bob from accounting do the video narration, or having Loretta from HR fidget her way through a scene.

If your video needs a host, hire a professional. They’re more natural in front of the camera, which makes production days more productive, which saves you money in the end. Besides, they also make the quality of the video better, and can communicate the ideas in your script better than Good ‘Ole Bob from Accounting (apologies to all the Accountant/Actors named Bob).

For voiceovers, there really is no better way to up the overall quality of a training video than to hire a professional voice over artist. While Loretta from HR may have a great phone voice, you’ll still need to pay someone to record her voice over, so what are you really saving? Hire a pro.

4. Include Peers

…but didn’t you just say… No, I’m not contradicting myself here: including peers, coworkers, or colleagues can be an effective way to get buy-in from your staff for the training video. Interview them about an important point you want to get across, have them demonstrate the proper way to do a task, use them as “extras” in shots: people pay attention when they see people they work with on screen.

Including peers in your training video also suggests a corporate culture of inclusion, or buy-in for the training. Interview a floor worker about how a safety issue has affected them personally; have Bob from Accounting demonstrate how to properly do a task, use the folks from shipping to fill in an empty room for a b-roll shot. Get them involved.

5. Be Positive

In their article “Positive Reinforcement: Misunderstood and Misused“, Aubrey and James Daniels say it best:

“You get more of what you reinforce. Emphasize the wrong behavior and you get more of it. It is a folly to reinforce one behavior and expect another, but it happens in organizations every day”

Don’t waste your valuable video time showing the wrong way to do something, just show the correct way. Simple as that. Show me the wrong way, and that’s what I remember.

Bonus Tip: Leave the funny for the pros

Unless your first name is Shecky, funny will most likely backfire on you. It will distract from your message, believe me, one bad joke, and that’s what the people you are trying to train will remember. If they walk away saying “Boy that training video was entertaining!” you’ve sent the wrong message. You should be going for “Boy that training video was informative… hey don’t forget your eye protection.”

What are your tips for taking the mind-numbing out of your training?

1. Book Your Videographer Early

We all hated being the last kid picked for the team in gym class, so don’t do that to your videographer. It goes beyond just making the videographer feel better, it allows them to get a good idea of what you are expecting of the video, and make an assessment of the location, and plan accordingly. Not only does this give the video crew time to assess the situation, it gives you ample time to meet with the producer and discuss what you want from the video. Are you planning for a series of videos of each speaker for your website, or do you want DVD copies of everything? Will there be PowerPoint slides or other visual aids used? Is this going to be used for continuing education or just a record of the day’s events?

Hiring a videographer late in the process is the best way to assure your event video’s mediocrity; the camera crew will be scrambling to set up in an unfamiliar space, they’ll be chasing you down to intercede with the hotel staff, not a fun prospect for anyone. A stitch in time…

2. Meet With Your Videographer & Hotel Event Coordinator

Since many meetings happen in hotel ballrooms and meeting rooms, this is perhaps the most important tip in this post. Meeting with the videographer on-site along with the hotel staff allows everyone to be on the same page the day of the event. What does the room look like, large, small, bad acoustics, next to the ice machine? Ideally there should be 4 people at this meeting: you, the videographer, the hotel meeting planner, and the rep from the A/V provider. This will allow for details of the room setup to be discussed, the type of equipment that will be used, and a whole host of other questions that may come up as the meeting progresses.

Seeing the actual room in which the event will take place gives the videographer so much information on the kind of equipment they will need for the day of the shoot.

A quick anecdote: I was hired by an association to tape the speakers at an annual conference at a local hotel that I had never been to before. In the initial phone conversation with the meeting planner, they described the room that the event was in as a small meeting room. We met at the hotel a few days later to take a look at the space and discuss the event, but when I arrived, we toured a cavernous 200′ x 100′ ballroom with 20′ ceilings. Suddenly the shotgun mic on my single camera was laughable for covering the event. The meeting planner had been in the business for many years and to her, this room was small compared to some of the places she had done events in. We had to revise the plan and add a second camera, as well as a number of wireless mics to properly capture the speakers at the event.

3. Snag All of the Slides

These days is unusual for a speaker at an event NOT to have a PowerPoint presentation of some stripe for their speech. As a videographer, this is the number 1 determining factor in how I frame my shots for the video. Since these presentations are often given in darkened rooms so attendees can better see the projected slides, the difference in the light levels on the speaker and of the projected slides can easily ruin the video. If you try to get both the speaker and the slide in the same frame, the speaker’s face is often too dark, and the slides are completely washed out, and unreadable.

I always bring an empty thumb drive to events so I can grab the PowerPoint presentation from the speakers at the event. This saves on trying to hunt down the speaker to have them email me a copy of the presentation, and hoping that they haven’t changed anything in it since the event. Once I have the files, I can bring them into the video during the editing process, and concentrate on getting footage of the speaker during the event.

4. Plan on Watching This Over & Over

I’ve helped run trade conferences in my past life, and I understand the sheer, blissful exhaustion that comes at the end of an event. There are hundreds of little details you have to wrap-up with the hotel, the speakers, the attendees, etc. The last thing you want to do is watch the entire event all over again, right? This often leads to delaying your review of the first cut of the video, and drags out the entire video process. Know up-front that once the event is over, the video will be coming in a few days, and the quicker you review it and make suggestions on it, the quicker it will be done, and ready for your website or archives.

Take the video home, and watch it from the comfort of your couch with a glass of your favorite beverage. Once it’s out of their hands, the video editor will move on to another project, delays in getting your changes to them just increase the likelihood that they will need extra time to reacquaint themselves with the project, and add to the time it takes to get the video done.

5. Let the Speakers Know They Will be Recorded

This may seem like a small detail, but it’s an important one. I’ve been in a situation before, where the meeting planner assumed that the speakers would be OK with being taped, and you know what’s coming: they weren’t. The keynote speaker refused to go on with my equipment in the room, so I broke everthing down, and moved out of the room for an hour during the keynote. This delayed the keynote by a few minutes, and when I returned to the room to set up for the next speaker, it delayed that speaker while I scrambled to set everything up again.

Make sure your speakers know that they will be recorded, and how the video will be used as part of the negotiation process with them. Check the contract and make sure it specifically states that their presentation will be recorded, and that the recording will be used on your website, or archived, or used as part of a continuing education program. One less on-site headache is worth it.

Bonus Tip: Don’t Serve Lunch

There is a reason there is no such thing as the Eating Channel: watching people eat is kind of, well… icky. From a videography standpoint, there is nothing good about shooting a speaker during a meal; you hear a din of silverware scrapes, glasses clinking, people coughing, and there’s nothing to shoot but the speaker. It’s amazing how you can filter out these noises when you are in the room, but as soon as they are the background sounds of a video, they become intolerable. If you do have a speaker scheduled during a meal, make sure they don’t go on until after food service has ended. This will minimize the distracting clinks and scrapes, and also allow your attendees to concentrate on the speaker. Your speaker will thank you, as will your video editor.

What are your tips?

What it taught me was the value of targeting a niche rather than blasting a “universe” of potential buyers. We lived by direct mail, we could just as easily die by it, so if the lists I was able to find were right, all was well. The Marketing VP’s instructions to me were clear: “Find me small, targeted lists, we don’t mail to everyone.”

Flash forward 20+ years (sheesh, has it been that long?), and while direct mail is basically a thing of my past, the same principles apply to the Social Media world: small, targeted groups are generally better than large swaths of faceless “likers.”

Ahh if only the rest of the world would understand this. There’s a real numbers game happening in the social media world these days. It seems that in the race for national brands and local businesses to jump on the social media bandwagon, targeting has fallen by the wayside. I see what some social media consultants are pushing on clients who don’t know any better: the more Facebook likes, the more Twitter followers, the better. Well I call BS.

In his new book Social Media ROI (affiliate link), Olivier Blanchard gives the following example:

Then I asked him, “What is the value of having 25,000 followers on Twitter? To your company, I mean.”

He hesitated and finally answered, “More reach. More impressions.”

Then I explained to him, “Does a company want a million followers on Twitter or a million net new customers acquired through Twitter?”

He’s spot on, the number of followers you have on Twitter, or the number of Likes you get on Facebook mean nothing if you are not engaged with them. It’s pretty easy to bulk up a Twitter follower count; just auto follow everyone, and wait for the bots to descend, soon you tweet stream will be filled with valuable offers on all sorts of fun things. But shouting a sales message out to a bunch of uninterested (and in some cases, not even human) followers is kind of pointless, isn’t it? I mean, sure the social media consultant that’s sold you “follower count as proof of effectiveness” will be thrilled, but they’re probably going to be even more thrilled when you pay their bill.

What This Means for Local Businesses

If you’re a local small business, say a CPA firm here in New Jersey, and you are interested in using Twitter to generate referrals for your business, what’s more important: 1,000+ followers on Twitter, most of whom will never use your service, let alone read your Tweets, or 200 small business owners who need your service, and are looking for ways to make their lives a little bit easier?

So don’t play the numbers game. Right now, our @brunswickmedia Twitter account has 322 followers, not a huge number, but a respectable number. Could we be more engaged with them: we sure could. Do I care if that number climbs to 10,000: Meh.

An Aside: The Thing That Set Me Off On This Post

I saw a tweet earlier today from a “NJ based consulting service” that offers social media as part of their service offerings. Here’s the Tweet, with the names and link removed:

I just unfollowed @USER_NAME_X right back. Thanks to #NutshellMail for showing me quitters!

Wow! Really? Someone unfollowed you, and as a social media services provider, you felt it was a good idea to retaliate against them by calling them out, and calling them “quitters”? Spiteful & petty, that’s their brand to me now. Sure it “hurts” when someone unfollows you, but is it really necessary to scream at them as they leave? The consulting service is playing the numbers game. Don’t do that.

I just watched Scott Stratten’s recent keynote from an Adobe conference last night, and this particular part came to mind:

Don’t throw shoes at people either.

(And if you get the time, watch Scott’s full keynote; it’s well worth the time.)

There has to be some book, or social media “guru” that’s telling these business owners that Twitter is a great place to hawk your wares… non-stop. It isn’t.

What it is, is a great place to connect to your clients, customers, and prospects; a medium for interaction. The cliché for explaining Twitter to folks who haven’t experienced it, is that Twitter is like a cocktail party: you can move from conversation to conversation with people from around the corner or around the world. While this analogy does hold true for individuals, it’s much harder for brands (either national brands or local shops) to just pop into a conversation without seeming too “salesy”.

Think about it, You’re at a cocktail party, and a walking, talking bottle of carbonated sugar water, or anthropomorphic pizza shop butts into your conversation:

- …then the teacher said that little Jared was…

- Hey!!! The 2011 Higglepips are in! Act Now! Buy, buy, buy!!!!” (There are lots of exclamation points on Twitter)

- As I was saying…

- Super Crazy Wednesday Sale on all 2011 Higglepips!!! Buy them NOW!!!! Your Grandmother wants you to buy these Higglepips!!

Unless you’re in a Roddy Doyle story (pdf link), it just isn’t going to happen.

A Modest Proposal

So here’s a different way for small businesses to think about their Twitter (and other social media) tactics: You’re standing in front of your business (or on the sales floor, or dining room, or behind the counter) and a customer (or potential customer) walks by. How do you handle it? Immediately start shouting the daily specials? Shove a coupon in their face? Ignore direct questions and just keep talking about your store? Hopefully you don’t do any of that in real life, so why would you do it on Twitter or Facebook?

One of the buzzwords social media folks throw around is “engagement,” which is just a fancy way of saying “have a conversation.” Engaging your customers and potential customers is really nothing more than having a conversation. If you’re a small business owner, particularly a retail business or service provider that deals directly with consumers, you should already understand the value of talking with your clients. You understand that there are regulars, and how to treat them. You understand that there are walk-ins, and how you should try to convert them into regulars. Same goes for social media. If a regular customer comes into your shop (or calls) do you just shout sales messages at them? Come on, this shouldn’t be a tough one to answer.

For all the mystery and consternation that social media has caused over the last few years, it really is as simple as this. Sure the technology is new, but the underlying activity that the technology is built on is just talking to customers. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you should already know how to talk to your customers; now you just need to learn the technical details and particular social media mores, and you’ve got the basics of a social media program to work into your promotional efforts.

The key to getting shots like this isn’t planning(although that’s very important), it’s the keen eye of the camera operator. When planning out a video shoot, it’s always a good idea to let the producer and camera operator scout out the locations you’ll be shooting in so they can anticipate angles for shots, or get an idea of the kind of thing they’ll be shooting, but in the case of the Brad’s USO shoot, there was really no way to anticipate exactly where the flags would be, let alone where the Colonel would be standing when the interview took place, or the “just perfect” amount of wind to make the flag fly in just the right way. Kismet, or fate along with Brad’s eye took over, and he was able to frame the shot that told the story.

I brought up a shot that we used in the opening & closing sequences of a safety training video we produced for PortsAmerica last year (see the video below). While no where near as patriotic in tone, the keen eye of Dan Blust, the cameraman on this shoot was able to pull away from the generic b-roll shot he was starting with, and capture something cool enough to make it the opening shot of the video. Kismet.

When we’re shooting on location, whether it’s at a manufacturing facility or covering a seminar, we spend a lot of time capturing shots of things the client may not understand. Known as b-roll in the video world, that extra 5 to 6 seconds of a machine in action or general overview of a facility results in a shot that perfectly defines what a speaker is talking about, or in some cases, provides a great opening shot for the entire production. So when you’re shooting your next video (hopefully with Brunswick Media Services) plan on the unplanned and let kismet, and the eye of the camera operator get that perfect shot.

I work with a lot of small businesses here at Brunswick Media Services; consultants, retailers, personal chefs; and one of the great things that comes from each of these relationships is that we often wind up talking about running our small businesses. We may be in different lines of work, but there are some things that are universal from one small business to the next. Below, is a collection of some of the tools I’ve shared with/found through my clients.

1. Google Chrome Browser

   Browser preferences can ignite a firestorm sometimes. It’s a changing from Coke to Pepsi thing for some folks, we get it, but change can also be a good thing. This is specially true if you’re running a slightly-less-than-cutting-edge computer. The Chrome browser is fast, stable, and has a number of extensions available that really come in handy. (We’ll talk about one of those in a bit.) As a web design company, we like Chrome for it’s compliance with web standards, but also its clean, uncluttered layout. If you haven’t already done so, give it a try, it’s free, what to you have to lose.

2. NewsSquares for Chrome

   I LOVE this app! A little background: I read a lot of blogs, a LOT of blogs. When Google introduced Google Reader a while back, I was in heaven, all of the RSS feeds from the blogs I read in one place, awesome! A few months later, and the shininess wore off, and the enormous number of unread articles seemed unconquerable. Maybe the text only layout works for Robert Scoble, but for me, I missed the graphic nature of visiting each blog, if only there was a visually interesting in-between. That’s what NewsSquares is. It took a few hours of using it to get the full hang of it, but now that I’ve been using it for a few weeks, I can’t live without it.

   Keyboard shortcuts? It uses the same ones as Google Reader, so “n” goes to the next article, the spacebar pages down through an article, or on to the next if you’re at the end of one. If you’re reading an article on a blog you’re not subscribed to, it adds an “Add to NewsSquares” link in the right-click menu that automatically subscribes you to that blog’s RSS feed. It’s really increased the speed I can go through feeds in a visually appealing way. You need to be using the Chrome browser, and have a Google Reader account to use NewsSquares, but since all three are free, price isn’t a barrier. Give it a try.

3. Square

   Square is a revolution in credit/debit card processing for small businesses. Started by Jack Dorsey (one of the creators of Twitter), the Square reader (free) plugs into your iPhone or Android phone and allows you to accept credit cards from your clients at an amazingly low fee. There are no merchant accounts or 3rd party processors needed, and from what I’ve seen, the fees blow traditional cc processing methods out of the water. While I don’t use Square as often as I would like, it gives me the ability to accept credit card payments

4. Dropbox
   

   (The link above is an affiliate link, which will give me extra storage space on Dropbox if you sign up through it)
   

   Of all the geeky little tools on this list, Dropbox is the one that has saved me more than once. Having a Dropbox is like having a 2Gb drive with your important files, available wherever you have internet access. Picture this: I’m giving a proposal presentation to a potential client. The presentation I worked on for hours is safely on a thumb drive, which I conveniently left plugged into the desktop back at the office. Fortunately, I had saved it to my Dropbox folder, and was able to download it to the laptop like i had planned it. Saved me from an incredibly embarrassing gaff.

   Scenario 2: I have a client who needs to update a graphic on their website on an irregular schedule. Sure they could email it to me, and I could upload it when I was able to, but since it’s a time-sensitive thing, we use Dropbox. The link to that graphic on the site is to the image in the client’s public Dropbox folder, so when they change the graphic, all they have to do is save the new file over the old one, and the site is instantly updated. No messing with FTP or content management systems. Simple (and free!).

5. Klok

Keeping track of hours worked on a project can get kind of hairy if you’re working on multiple projects for multiple clients. There are quite a number of time tracking packages out there, but many of them are so complex, and/or cumbersome, it’s hard to use them on a regular basis. Enter Klok. It’s a simple, intuitive time tracker that’s flexible enough for my needs, and keeps me on the up-and-up when tracking billable hours.

Don’t keep track of billable hours? I have a client that uses it to track the time she spends doing certain tasks like accounting, blogging, or using Twitter on her computer. Each week she can see exactly where her time went. Useful, and there’s a free version, although the $15.99 pricetag for the full version is pretty sweet.

So what are you favorites? Let me know!