Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Twitter. I enjoy Facebook. And my RSS Reader is full of blogs that I read every day.

But they’re taking over my life. I’m using them as a crutch to avoid DOING anything productive.

Checking statuses, tweets, and blog posts have turned into a form of procrastination where I trick myself into thinking that I’m learning new things or keeping up on current events, when in fact, most of the stuff I’m clicking on and reading  are ‘how to’ posts and strategy articles about things that I already know about and should be actively be DOING and not passively READING about.

I’m not trying to trash ANYONE’s posts, but with the amount of time I spend working on and thinking about digital media in my job, I don’t think I really need to read any more thoughts about ‘How To Write Killer Headlines,’ ‘30 Tips For Creating Great Content,’ ‘5 Steps To Better Photos,‘ or ‘Insider Facebook Tips.’ And yet I STILL keep clicking on and reading these damn things. WHY? For the love of all that is good and holy… WHY?

Because it’s easier to read about it than to do it. ‘Doing it’ takes time.  And thought.  And commitment.  And originality – not repeating the same thing everyone else is putting out there.   It requires creating REAL value and that’s actually pretty hard!

I know that I should be writing more on this blog and putting more raw thinking time into new strategies for CBC’s digital music strategies and loads of other cool projects that would CREATE something instead reconfirming ideas and techniques that I’m already familiar with.

But taking action is really often really, really difficult. I had coffee today with someone who wanted to know how tough it was to start a Wordpress blog – my answer was that making the blog and setting is up is a piece of cake. Keeping it updated and having quality, thoughtful, valuable content on it takes a LOT of time and a strong commitment to regular work. That’s why most people who start blogs have 5 or 6 rapid posts in the first week or two and then there’s nothing for six months.

And my gut is that I’m not the only one out there who’s wasting time reading about tips and tricks instead of implementing them. Why else does it seem like the only bloggers making money are the ones writing about ‘How To Make Money With Your Blog?’

I think there’s a legion of passive consumers who, like me, devour how-tos, tips & tricks, lifehacks, etc, and we all THINK we’re learning cool stuff about productivity or social media. But I’d be willing to make a healthy bet that most of us are wasting more time reading about productivity tips than the amount of time that implementing the productivity tips would actually save (how’s that for Irony 2.0?).

Maybe it’s social media A.D.D., but whenever I have a minute or two of downtime, instead of focusing and getting onto something new, I pop open a browser or my phone and check twitter to see if there’s anything new going on. Ten minutes later, I’ve gone down a wormhole into about 30 different tweets and links.  And then I retweet the stuff that I think is cool.

Every time someone asks me about how to get into social media or twitter or what-have-you, I instantly say, “The only way to learn what it’s all about and to truly UNDERSTAND it is to DO IT. You have to actively participate to ‘get it’.” I also tell them that you have to commit and make participation a regular, ongoing habit and part of your daily life.

Well this is my official public confession that I’m spending too much time consuming and not enough time playing, doing, experimenting, and getting my hands dirty. I’ve been lazy. I’m on the verge of becoming social media’s equivalent of the armchair quarterback – someone who observes passionately but doesn’t play in the game.

You want to know how insane it is? I’m a big GTD fan – Getting Things Done is a huge productivity movement based on a book by David Allen – and I use the excuse of READING about GTD tips and tricks all over the place to PREVENT me from actually doing GTD!!!

I come to the Wordpress CMS to write a blog post and end up spending 20 minutes updating all my plugins and checking stats, referrals, organic search, and god knows what else I can do TO AVOID ACTUALLY WRITING!

Well I say, “NO MORE HYPOCRISY!” (Sorry all the ALL CAPS screaming in this post – who am I, Burton Cummings?)

Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Work Week , has some smart suggestions about eliminating multi-tasking, not checking or answering email more than a couple times a day, and relentlessly focusing on your key tasks that will make a difference. Remove the distractions and make stuff happen.

I’ve got to do a better job at that. Discpiline, discipline, discipline!  I’m going to try to schedule blocks of time for DOING and shut out all distractions, including social media, while I’m doing my doing stuff.

And I’m off to a good start.  I used Write Room to block out all distractions in order to write this post!

I’ll let you know how it goes, but first… got to go check what’s happening on Twitter.

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How about you? Are you caught up in reading about productivity more than doing it?

Reading about Twitter more than posting and having real interactions on it?

Reading blogs about making money online instead of actually trying to do it?

If so, what are you going to do to change it?

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This is the third in a series of posts contrasting the ‘old’ rules of the media and the ‘new’ rules that are necessary for success in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.

Old Rule #3: The Web Is Just Another Distribution Channel For Traditional Media’s Content

There are many traditonal media types who, believe it or not, still see the web as a place for either marketing or just dumping existing content ‘as is’ in the hopes of making a few bucks.

It is precisely because the web is so flexible that it seems obvious to simply put up your content there, exactly as it was produced for a traditional medium.  For example, you’d never run a radio program on television because it’s only audio, but you can put up audio programming on the web and it’s just fine.  You can’t put a TV show in a newspaper, but you can just put an entire TV show on the web, as is.

It is this ease of ‘copying and pasting’ content on the web that often leads to a lack of thinking about serving the unique needs of the audience online.

New Rule #3: Customize The Content For The Medium

Again, it may be easy to say, “why bother customizing the content? I can just repurpose my existing content because the web can serve up audio, video, photography, text, and pretty much everything else I can think of.”  However, put on your ‘audience hat’ and think hard about how you use different types of content on the internet in VERY different ways than you use traditional media.

Program Length

For example, every TV and radio show is made to be a specified length because it has to make sense in a linear programming schedule.  There aren’t many 8 minute radio show or many 3 hour and 12 minute TV shows.  On the web, program length doesn’t have to be constrained to specific formulaic lengths.  The content can be as long as it needs to be.  Who thinks there’s always exactly one hour of local news every day?  Some days, there might be 3 hours of worthy news and some days there might be 3 minutes. But on TV, it’s always exactly an hour.  Otherwise, you’d never know when to tune in for the show AFTER the news!

On the web, you can give content the time and resources it deserves.  ‘Snacking’ – sampling a lot of short-form content – doesn’t exist much on traditional media platforms, but is exceptionally popular on the web.  While services like Hulu are finding success porting exact copies of traditional TV shows onto the web, they’re still thinking differently, serving up shorter and fewer ads than they do on network television.

New Opportunities For On-Demand Content Consumption

Take podcasting as another example.  A traditional radio show is designed for a linear listening experience in real-time.  It’s also a broadcast from one to many.  So there are conventions associated with those restrictions – hosts will often repeat their name, the call letters of the station, the current traffic and weather, and other survival information for those listeners that are joining them ‘in progress’.

Most people can’t and therefore don’t listen to an entire radio show from start to finish – hence a programming requirement is ongoing context.   As it’s a real-time broadcast, audiences can’t always focus 100% of their attention on listening – if someone talks to you while you’re listening, you miss a portion of the program.  If you’re working or otherwise distracted, listening becomes a BACKGROUND experience.

Now think about how a podcast is different than a broadcast.  People are listening from start to finish, hopefully lasting for the entirety of the program.  You only need to tell them your name once.  They don’t care about traffic or weather because it’s likely completely out of date and irrelevant by the time they’re listening.  Content that isn’t time specific is often more relevant.

And listening to a podcast is essentially a one-to-one experience.  The host is talking to YOU.  You’re likely wearing earphones.  You can start and stop the content if your phone rings.  You can rewind if you miss something.  It’s intimate.  It’s FOREGROUND listening.  So it better be REALLY good , unique, and special in order to keep my attention.

One File Format Doesn’t Fit Everyone

Next, let’s think about something as basic as a file format.  Most audio podcasts are put out only as mp3 files.  For many people, mp3 files are dandy.  For short shows especially, you might not want or need anything else.  It’s also the easy way – just take your existing content, copy it and paste it onto the web.

But let’s say you have an hour of audio programming, either songs or a variety of interviews.  Wouldn’t it be helpful if you also offered it as a chaptered m4a file so that people could skip exactly to the content that they want or repeat songs or interviews that they love?

It’s certainly much, much better than using a scroll wheel or dragging your finger on a tiny touch screen scroll bar to try and find the beginning or end of a piece of content.  And with m4a files, you can add in photos and links for each individual chapter, so that audiences can see album covers or photos of interview subjects.  They can click links and visit pages with more information about the content, or buy the song they’re listening to.

Don’t jump to the immediate conclusion that you should ONLY do advanced formats like m4a either, though.  There are lots of people that don’t have ipods or who don’t want chaptered podcasts.   You have to provide as many smart options for how to consume your content as you can.

Another example – there is a small but dedicated audience for the open source audio format OGG Vorbis and it’s easy to produce an OGG version at the same time as you produce the mp3 version.  So why not do both?  OGG Vorbis users will LOVE you for it!

Conclusion

The more power you give you to audience to let them customize their experience, the more successful you will be.  So don’t think in traditional terms.  One size, one format, one formula don’t work for everyone and if you only offer one choice, you won’t be maximizing the number of people that choose to consume your content.  Put your audience hat on and figure out how many different ways people might want what you’ve got and then do your best to give it to them.

What’s the best example you’ve seen of content that is customized for the medium?

What makes you nuts about the way traditional media companies distribute or post their content online?

Related Links:

Rule #1 – Define Yourself By Content, Not By Your Distribution Platform

Rule #2 – Lock It Up In A Walled Garden vs Set Your Content Free!

This is the second in a series of posts contrasting the ‘old’ rules of the media and the ‘new’ rules that are necessary for success in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.

Old Rule #2: Viva La ‘Walled Garden’ – You Must Use The Content From Media Companies In The Way THEY Want You To Use It

Traditional broadcasters pay for their content and they want you to experience that programming in the way that makes them the most money back on their investment. Some of the most profitable ways to consume content may not be the most convenient for audiences, but old media doesn’t care – they own it and they will try to force you to do what is convenient for THEM. Because they can. Or least, they COULD.

New Rule #2: Set Your Content Free – Don’t Force Audiences To Come To You.  Go To Where It’s Convenient For THEM.

Most traditional companies want to keep all their content within their own garden walls so they can control it, measure it, and monetize it. But that doesn’t work anymore (unless you’re the 800 lb gorilla in your content niche).

Why?

To grow audiences and to stay relevant, media companies have to reach audiences where they are – and they are all over the place.

There is a legacy of self-importance that assumes that audiences have to come to the media company to get content because that’s the way it’s been for a long time. Suddenly, though, audiences have some choice in the matter.

If a media company chooses to restrict access to their content, two ‘new’ results can occur.

One, someone will pirate their content and simply put it up where it’s most convenient for others to consume. Audiences will be happy and media companies will have lost total control over their own content.

Two, because there is no scarcity of content creators or distribution channels anymore, if your content isn’t convenient or easy to find, audiences will simply find other content to consume that IS convenient.

The media needs to make it easy and convenient for audiences to discover its content. So put it on Facebook, put it on YouTube, put it on Flickr, etc. Give up some control to empower the audience to discover you, consume your content where THEY want to and then share it when they like it.

Not only will you grow the number of people who consume your content, but you will gain authenticity and loyalty for truly trying to make life easier for audiences.

Are there good reasons to keep your content ONLY on your site?

Who is doing a good job of setting their content free?

Related Links:

Rule #1 – Define Yourself By Content, Not By Your Distribution Platform

With apologies to Bill Maher, I’ve tried to re-arrange the presentation I did at the Northern Voice conference in Vancouver and the Multimedia Meets Radio conference in Prague about ‘The Future of Radio’ into a series of coherent blog posts.

Instead of creating a single, giant post, I’ve tried to break up the salient points of the presentation into individual observations that I’m arranging as ‘Old Rules vs. New Rules’.

The goal of the series is to show how traditional media has worked and why they’ve made the strategic decisions they have, and then show how almost the EXACT opposite of those decisions are the NEW rules for success.

In the end, I hope to provide some clarity about why traditional media companies are struggling and where to look for solutions to their current problems.
So without further ado, here’s installment #1…

Old Rule #1: Shut Up And Watch / Listen
In the past, the only way to consume content was to tune into a live radio or TV station’s programming.  Old media pushed it out as a broadcast, and you tuned in.  If you missed it, too bad.  Old media controlled the how, when, and where of your experience. It was a one-way, linear push of content and information.

In other words, the key message from broadcasters to audiences boils down to ‘shut up and listen’ or ‘shut up and watch’.  Be a passive consumer of content that can be advertised to, counted, and controlled.  For a long time, this worked very well because there were no other options.  The very nature of the distribution of content made this the only option.

It goes without saying, then, that the business model for traditional TV and radio is based on getting as many people as possible to listen to radio or TV.  So all traditional marketing for media naturally is focused on driving audiences back to the radio and the TV.  Even today, many TV and radio websites are primarily marketing sites designed to drive users to leave their computers and instead go to the platform where they can be better monetized. To put it bluntly and obviously, ‘radio’ is defined by being ‘radio’ and ‘TV’ is defined by being ‘TV’. Both are defined by their distribution platforms.

New Rule #1: Define Yourself By Content, Not Your Distribution Platform
To phrase this another way, radio is not a kind of content. Neither is TV.  Both are methods of distributing content.  But the companies that have made audio and/or video programming have always defined themselves by how they distribute it.
Today, though, audiences have a myriad of distribution channels to choose from.  Over-the-air is just one of those options, which also include podcasting, online live streaming, on-demand streaming, mobile streaming, blogs, social networks, etc.

Defining yourself by only one distribution platform no longer makes any sense.

The new paradigm is to define yourself by the type of content you create.  Media companies need to think about what types of programming and content they are experts at creating.

For example, CBC Radio 3 isn’t a radio station, a website, or a podcast.  CBC Radio 3 is a team of experts in new Canadian music and audiences can choose to get that content on the distribution channel of their choice.  CNN is not JUST a TV network or JUST a website.  It is a team of content creators that are experts in breaking news.

This is significant – moving from being ‘a radio station’ to ‘a creator of specialized audio content’ requires not just a change of attitude and mindset, but also a rethinking of the production workflow for creating that content.

It also requires a MAJOR rethinking of how much control can be exerted over the consumption choices of the audiences, which is the subject of… Rule #2

What are some other media outlets that define themselves by content and not by platform?  Who’s doing a great job of thinking this way and producing content this way?  Let me know in the comments…

(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/meantux/242881566/)

Related Links:

Old Vs New Rule #2: Lock It Up In A Walled Garden Vs Set Your Content Free

(photo courtesy of Liz Hargreaves)

I recently had the opportunity to speak about the future of radio at both the Northern Voice digital media conference in Vancouver and the Multimedia Meets Radio conference for European Public Broadcasters in Prague. In both cases, I came away learning a lot from the other presentations, but the lasting impact will be the realization that it’s the attendees, more than the speakers, that are transforming the definition of these gatherings by making them more interactive, social, and meaningful experiences.

‘OLD’ CONFERENCES

Every year, I go to a few conferences that are pretty much exclusively targeted at ‘traditional media’ – people who work for broadcasting companies. Here’s what happens at a typical one:

The Speakers

• -A few impressive speakers with great information and learnings to share
• -Several of the speeches provide no new information to the audience. After all, everyone in the room is in the same business and most media companies are doing the same things. So there are always a few people up there talking about things that EVERYONE is already doing themselves in their own companies. In other words, a total waste of time.
• -Several speakers who are only presenting because their company is a sponsor of the conference and who generally have either very little of value to share, or who treat the gig as an marketing opportunity or the chance to do an extended product demo. EVERYONE at the conference dreads these presentations.
• -The speakers do a ’speech’ – a lecture, a one-way push of information to the audience

The Audiences

• -Lots of suits
• -The attendees sit and listen and occasionally jot down highlights in a notebook

What You Get

• -Many of the speeches are focused on revenue
• -Most attendees REALLY want to spend most of their time networking and making business deals – it’s almost like the speaking portion is the justification for bringing everyone together to socialize and make deals

‘NEW’ CONFERENCES

The NEW Conference also has several impressive speakers with lots of good ideas to share, BUT there are several significant differences:

The Audience

• -Almost EVERYONE in the audience has a laptop open (almost 100% Macs or netbooks)
• -On every screen is either Tweetdeck so they can post updates to Twitter instantly, or a Wordpress or Blogger web page where they are furiously live-blogging the sessions
• -Probably a third of the audience have digital cameras, with the first couple rows of the theatre or room filled with avid photographers with some SERIOUS equipment
• -Maybe a fifth of the audience has a video camera and is recording the speeches
• -After the presentations are over, the bloggers in the audience set up interviews with the presenters and take them off to a quiet area to get some exclusive content for their blogs
• -The attendees come from a wide variety of backgrounds – education, entertainment, bloggers, photographers, artists, business people, and some who are simply curious. There are active discussions about how to take ideas that work in one area and how they might apply to other fields, industries, etc

The Speakers

• -Speakers aren’t chosen based on sponsorships – in some cases, they have to pitch to speak, and in others, are selected because they’re doing something relevant to the audience’s interests
• -In the case of Northern Voice, there was an ‘unconference’ portion, where there were deliberately un-booked slots in the agenda.  Individual attendees got up and pitched ideas to the rest of the audience (who voted on what they most wanted to attend).  The most popular choices got slotted into the agenda and boom – the audience helps shape the conference and lead sessions!

What You Get

• The result is that far more of the presentations are about ideas, theory, and how to apply it, rather than just product demos and marketing pitches
• Some of the unconference sessions were at least as good as the ‘professional’ speakers
• During and long after the presentations, the ideas and themes were discussed, dissected, evaluated, and shared widely in extended digital conversations on blogs, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.

WHY THE ‘NEW’ CONFERENCE WINS

Having seen both types of conferences first-hand this year, I’m blown away at how much more effective a ‘Social Media’ Conference is. On several levels, it achieves unique results:

Impact & Reach

• -People who are not attending the conference are ‘following’ it extensively online from all over the place.
• -These ‘virtual attendees’ contribute and extend the conversation online. In a traditional media conference, those not in attendance would probably never know the conference even existed, and in this model, they are contributing to make it more effective and valuable (at no cost to the conference)!
• -People leave the conference buzzing with new ideas and excited to put them into action. The online discussion at the end of Northern Voice was exhilarating – so much enthusiasm that it was contagious. At the end of a traditional media conference, most people are exhausted (usually due to excessive passivity – sitting and receiving an avalanche of information for two days).

Quality Control & Authenticity

• -Speakers get REAL and HONEST feedback online from people they don’t know. If you did a great job, you see the Twitter activity telling you. If you bored everyone to tears, you’ll probably get some suggestions from strangers by following the conference tags on Twitter.

Value

• -Attendees get more from the presentations because they’re based on ideas, theory, etc and actively discuss how they will try implementing those ideas themselves – in other words, it’s valuable, useful, and relevant. People are there to learn and share ideas.

Engagement

• -The attendees are SO much more actively engaged in each presentation because they are often doing a simultaneous presentation of their own – to their audiences / networks online through either tweeting or live-blogging.

Marketing

• -The conference gets an insane amount of free marketing from all the social media activity, which generates increasing interest in following years, allowing it to grow and flourish.
• -The speakers often end up getting great word-of-mouth referrals from the attendees – when so many people are twittering, blogging, and recording the conference, they can drive a lot of awareness and traffic to people and companies that provide valuable information in their presentations.

Relationships

• -At the close of a traditional media conference, everyone departs with ’see you next year’ or ‘I might go to the ‘X’ conference, so maybe I’ll see you there…’. They are mostly connecting people they see ONLY at these conferences.
• -By the end of a social media conference, you’ve got loads of new Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections. Your relationship is actually just starting with a lot of these new connections and you can interact, share ideas, or simply stay updated on what they’re doing through social networking.

NEXT STEPS FOR ‘SOCIAL’ CONFERENCES?

The social media conference isn’t perfect, but it’s far more enjoyable, stimulating, and educational. In future, here are a few ideas I’d like to see make it into future conferences:

• -Move From One-Way To Two-Way
  Even at the ’social’ conferences, the presentations (mine included!) are still often one-way pushes of information. Usually, there’s a very tight speaking schedule and there’s little to no time for discussion in any depth. To be truly social, interactivity and participation need to be baked into the concept of each presentation.
• -Speakers & Conferences Help Each Other
  I would like to see a stronger relationship between speakers and conferences – too often, speakers get chosen and they just get told when and where to show up. Beyond a paragraph overview, the organizers won’t know what they’re speaking about or how it will be structured and the presenters won’t know much of what’s expected of them or how their presentation will relate to the others and how it fits into the context of the larger conference. Quality control is often compromised and this is relatively easy fix to make.
• -Make The Presentations Stronger By Working Ahead Of Time
  I’d like to see a ‘presentation consultant’ at each conference work with people who have great ideas but can’t give a successful speech to save their life (or least find a way to filter people who can’t communicated out of consideration). It’s ironic that most of the worst presenters actually work in the communications industry: they can’t tell a story, can’t grab their audience’s attention with a great hook, and can’t keep it short and sweet. I recently saw a presentation about a multimedia program with a very cool concept doing a lot of innovative things, but the impact was totally lost because the speaker hadn’t planned well and rambled for 45 minutes and either put everyone to sleep or drove them to checking their email on their phones and laptops. (Even more surprising: the speaker was the producer of the show – someone who makes content for a living!)
• -Wi-Fi, Wi-fi, Wi-Fi!!!
  Wi-fi needs to be AMAZING at these events. I’ve been to four events this year where wi-fi either didn’t exist or kept cutting out so much that it hampered the audience’s attempts to see what others were ‘tweeting’ about and also to spread the ideas to their own networks in real-time.

For me personally, I’ve seen the ideas I’ve presented in these ‘new’ conferences reach people and places far beyond my expectations thanks to all those in attendance who spread it to their own networks, I’ve met a lot of new people who share similar interests and ideas, and most importantly, I’ve learned how to ATTEND a conference much more successfully.

As a closer, here’s a killer keynote from comic / social media wizard Rob Cottingham at this year’s Northern Voice conference…

As someone who’s spent many years working in television, I usually get requests for advice on how to make videos look better at this time of the year.  A lot of people received new video cameras over the holidays, they’ve tried them out, and don’t understand why their movies look pretty… Ed Wood-ish. I probably should have posted this BEFORE Christmas, but better late than never…

So here is a list of my personal best practices and tips:

1. Think about your end product before you start shooting. Is this going to be a 2 minute video?  Is it going to be a 2 hour opus?  Is it just for your family to watch or is it going up on YouTube for the whole world to check out?   Is it a montage of your kids opening Christmas presents or is it a documentary about holiday traditions?  Is it supposed to be funny, informative, sweet, sad, or dramatic?  How much context does your audience need to understand it?  Is your audience younger or older? 
   If you know the answers to these questions, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort. You’ll also have taken your first step to a focused video shoot, which is a must-have ingredient in a great final product.
2. Create a shot list. One step further than thinking about your end product is making yourself a shot list BEFORE you shoot – think about and write down the scenes and specific shots you want to get before you ever turn the camera on.  There will always be a lot of great moments you get that aren’t on your list, but having a strong game plan always leads to a better end product. 
   It’s like doing research before an interview, or writing an outline of an article before beginning the actual script.
3. Find a stable body position to shoot from. Brace your elbows against your body and keep your feet shoulder width apart.  Essentially, try to make your body into a human tripod – balanced, stable, and solid. Or, better yet, use a REAL tripod.
4. Don’t use the zoom button.   There are some occasions when a zoom in or a zoom out makes sense.  BUT, for the most part, once you’re recording, DON’T TOUCH IT.  When it’s not done well (ie: by a professional), it’s distracting and annoying and can even make people feel nauseous.  So before you hit the record button, zoom in or out to frame the shot the way you want and then LEAVE IT ALONE once tape is rolling.
5. Record pre-roll and post-roll. Hit the record button and let it roll for a few seconds before capturing any significant moment, and then let it roll 3-4 seconds past where you want to stop before stopping recording.  This will make editing your video MUCH easier and ensure that your magic moment is in fact captured and usable.  Often, if you just hit record and the action starts right away, your video editing system can have problems importing it.  (it has to do with difficulty loading in footage too close to a break in the timecode)
6. Hold your shots for at least 3 seconds. This mostly applies to cutaway shots, but it’s a very important tip – during a shoot, it’s easy and tempting to want to keep the camera moving and find your next shot.  When you’re shooting video, it’s almost like everything moves in slow motion – what SEEMS like a long time to you actually isn’t very long at all. 
   So even when you think you’ve ‘got the shot’, keep still for another 2-3 seconds to make sure before you move on to something else.
7. Frame everything tighter than you think by about double. People new to video like to get everything in the shot, so they leave the camera on the widest shot possible.  And while it’s important to have an establishing shot (a big wide shot to show everyone where you are and what your location looks like), LEAVING it wide the whole time is an awful viewing experience.  Big and wide means that there’s no detail, no facial expressions, no subtlety.  Get in tight.  Fill the the frame with faces and actions.
8. Shoot from multiple angles and depths. If you want to be able to edit your video and make it nice and short (and watchable), you need to shoot from more than one angle.  Get a wide establishing shot of the building, room or location where you’re shooting (your big wide shot!).  Then get some medium shots.  Move on to get some tight shots. Shoot from several angles.  And always get more than you think you’ll need.  Because you will need these shots and the more the merrier. 
   In other words, give yourself some editing options.  The ability to cut back and forth between different angles will truly save your video once you start editing and make it look much more professional.
9. Don’t shoot EVERYTHING. Shoot scenes.   Shoot sequences. Start and stop the camera.  Capture moments – not the entire event. You’ll thank me later when you have to import less video into your computer for editing.  Honestly, there’s nothing worse than scanning through hours of footage when you’re looking to make a 2 minute video.
   Strive for a shooting time to final edit ratio of 2:1 or 3:1 at worst.
10. Get close-ups of what people are talking about or doing. Listen to what people are saying . If they’re talking about something specific that could benefit from your viewers actually seeing it, get a close-up shot of it. 
    If you’re shooting the making of the Christmas turkey, get some shots of the turkey!  Get a close up shot of the oven being turned on, a shot of the stuffing getting jammed into the turkey, a shot of the baster in action, a shot of the turkey getting slid into the oven.  Even if it seems awkward, ask them to do it a couple of times until you’ve got the right shot.  It’s worth it!
    Having these shots will let you create great looking sequences AND give you loads of cutaway shot options to cover edits where you’ve shortened up what people are saying or doing.
11. Get your video a narrator. If you can, always to do a short interview with someone – ask them very basic questions and get them to respond in complete sentences.  For example, if you’re making a video about your kids opening their gifts, ask them:
    

    • -What day is it? (It’s Christmas Day)
    • -What are you doing?  (We’re opening our gifts)
    • -What are you excited about? (I’m excited to see what Santa brought…)

    You can ask the questions before you start, but it’s generally better to do it after you’ve finished the event  – that way you can ask specifically about things that happened:

    • -Tell me about the presents you opened this morning.  (I opened a doll from Granddad…)
    • -Tell me how you were feeling when you opened the remote controlled car…  (When I opened the remote controlled car, I felt…)

    Basically, you want to have someone (or several people) become the narrator(s) for the event.  You can use this as the skeleton for your story in the editing software.

    I’ll often start the edit with laying down the interview clips in the order that I want – set the stage in the beginning, explain the story, and wrap up with a nice soundbite, and then go back and flesh it out with other scenes and cutaway shots.

12. Cut, cut, cut! Once you get to editing, be relentless.  Again, cut, cut, cut! Leave the gold in the final edit, but cut the rest out.  It’s ALWAYS better to leave your audience wanting more instead of leaving them bored.  This is especially true if the audience isn’t your family and it’s up on YouTube.
13. Don’t use the transitions in your editing program. Wipes, explosions, page turns, slides, and any other tacky transition effect is the surest sign of an amateur video maker.  Try to make the video work with straight cuts or basic edits.  If you must, use dissolves to cover your tracks.  But unless you’re George Lucas, please don’t use clock wipe or any other ‘cool’ transition.
14. Think beginning, middle, end in the shoot and the edit suite. Grab people’s attention off the top, give them the meat in the middle, and end with a strong, memorable moment.  This is the essence of story structure and regardless of what your video is about, you need to tell a story.  Think about it before you start and make sure it’s all there when you’re editing.
15. Once you’ve finished your first pass at an edit, go back and cut the running by 1/3 to 1/2. This is basically a restatement of ‘cut, cut, cut’ but it bears repeating.  Please say no to your own Citizen Kane magnum opus instincts. Trust me – you’re the only one who wants to see something more than 3 minutes long.  Every ‘director’ falls in love with their own footage.  You shot it and you’re heavily invested in it. 
    But you’re ultimately making your video for an audience, and you must keep them in mind at all times – you need to keep the story moving and keep the running time down as low as possible.  Be brutal.  Make the video as tight as you can possibly make it.  They will thank you.
    
    ***AND ONE BONUS TIP  for the anal-retentive and high achievers.***

    
    

16. The Paper Edit. If you’re REALLY, REALLY invested in making a great video, what most serious TV producers do is prepare a paper edit before they get into the editing room.  That means sitting down and going through ALL of your footage and transcribing it.  Yes, transcribing it. 
    It’s the ugly secret of TV production.  Everyone HATES to do it, but they do it because it works.  Describe each and every shot along with the associated timecode.  Write down exactly what everyone says and the timecode where they say it. 
    And then cut and paste and rearrange all of those elements into a script.  Move pieces around, edit out parts of sentences that seems too long or redundant.  Look for cutaway shots to cover the places that you’re making ugly edits, etc. 
    Once you’ve got a solid paper edit done, doing the actual edit is a breeze.

That’s it for my short list of video production tips.  I know there’s a TON that I’m missing and I also know that some excellent TV producers and directors visit this blog.  So let’s hear some more ideas!

What are your best tips for making great videos?

What the other big video mistakes that you, your friends, or your family make?

Creative vs Standard Resumes.

There’s always a great debate in resume-writing-land about how unique and creative to be with your C.V.   You want to stand out from the crowd, but you don’t want to come across as a showboat, an egomaniac, or a weirdo.  Some will say anything you can do to get noticed is good, from using coloured paper to having it couriered directly to the hiring decision maker (so they have to sign for it, will open it themselves instead of H.R., etc).

Others will say that you need to be professional, stick to standard formatting, and make yourself stand out with a customized version of your resume tailored to the particular position you’re applying for.   I’ve seen both work and have hired people with each type of resume.

As a rule of thumb, though, plain resumes are generally tougher to distinguish from other plain resumes.  And when you get a brilliant, creative resume like the one I’m going to show you, you won’t forget the person today, tomorrow, or next year when you’ve got the right position for them.

Success and Failure with Creative Resumes

About 10 years ago, I had a lot of success by using this site’s URL to host what was at the time very new – an online video demo reel.  I got so sick of dubbing and sending tapes that I put the reel online (in a VERY small quicktime window) and instead just gave everyone the link.  Some didn’t like it, but the ones who did were the ones I wanted to work for anyway.  And it helped let potential employers know that I was interested in digital media and was trying out new ideas.

And before I show you the amazing example of a creative resume, I should say that creative resumes can backfire pretty hard, too.  I once had someone applying to be an on-air host send me a giant plastic tube of candy… nice, except that there was  a GIANT, NUDE PHOTO of himself taped to the outside of the tube.  Creative yes.  Instant no for the job?  You bet.

The Most Creative Resume I’ve Seen In Years

So here’s the gold!  Sabrina Saccocio is a TV, radio print and web producer who has put together the perfect eye-grabbing resume for a young, creative type looking for unique and interesting work. Check this out and tell me you’re not impressed…  (I know these JPEGS are small, so you can download the PDF to see all the amazing details.)

How brilliant is this?  She’s taken a format EVERYONE is familiar with – the Facebook profile page – and totally subverted it into a resume.  And the format is perfect for telling a potential employer:

• -Sabrina’s work experience
• -Her cultural world
• -Her education
• -A set of references
• -Strong testimonials from some recognizable names (Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall!)
• -AND this is basically a sample piece of content to evaluate, too

Look at all the ‘intangible’ qualities of Sabrina’s that are revealed, too:

• -She’s creative
• -She’s got a sense of great sense of humour (check out the event listing: ‘plans to apply for a new position’)
• -She can grab people’s attention
• -She can create memorable content
• -She’s active in social media and obviously understands it

Personalized For Me

And it’s customized, too: the reason Sabrina sent it to me was an inquiry about employment at Radio 3.  If you check out her favourite music, radio, and digital TV sections, it’s full of Radio 3-type bands and even includes our video podcast R3TV.  I hope it’s true that she loves the Radio 3 stuff this much, but even if it’s not, just having it on the resume goes WAY farther than 99% of other job applicants to show that she’s familiar with our programming and our music universe.

She has even included a ‘viral’ section for web content she’s created.  (I’m predicting that this resume may soon have to be added to the ‘viral’ list…  it certainly got me excited enough to blog about it!).

If there’s anyone out there in the media who ISN’T under a hiring freeze right now, check out Sabrina.  I know she’s at the top of my list of candidates… once the hiring freeze is over 

What’s are the best and worst resumes you’ve ever seen?

Have you ever taken a big risk on your own resume?

Any other resume do’s and don’t’s?

It seems like Twitter is finally starting to penetrate the mainstream media. CBC recently invited some experts in social media in to share their ideas about how a traditional media company might use tools like Flickr, YouTube, Facebook… and Twitter. While I wasn’t there, it sounds like it was a big success and got people excited to dig in and use these new tools as part of their show programming.

Twitter even seems to be replacing blogs as the ‘cool’ go-to news source for ‘what’s happening on the web’. However, many mainstream media companies are still clearly struggling with what Twitter is and how to best use it.  So I’ve put together my personal…

10 Twitter Tips For Traditional Media (try and say THAT 10 times quickly…)

1. Twitter is NOT an RSS feed.

I know that the New York Times, The Globe and Mail, CBC, and others are using Twitter as a news feed, but I don’t personally subscribe to any of them. I can get that EXACT same information from an RSS feed (which I do…) and I don’t personally like my Twitter feed clogged up with every news item under the sun.

The results are interesting: @NYTimes has over 13,000 followers with this strategy, @globeandmail has just under 800 followers, and @CBCNews has over 2,400 followers. Both the Globe and CBC are using Twitterfeed, which means that they’re automatically sending out Tweets from their RSS feed.

To me, Twitter’s best use is not as a one-way push of information. Rather…

2. Twitter is about creating value for the people who follow you.

What is it that’s unique about Twitter compared to other social media tools? That you can communicate directly with your audience and they can connect back to you. If you’re just using Twitter to drive people back to your own website, or to listen to radio, or to watch your TV shows, you’re not going to get much value of out it.

You need to think like an audience member – ask yourself why they would want to follow you. Ask yourself what you can provide that would be of value to a true fan of your programming. And then give it to them.

Don’t be afraid to link to sources outside your own site (usually a big no-no for media companies).

Don’t be afraid to tell people what’s going behind the scenes.

Get creative and think about creating value.

If you do, your followers will spread the word to their own networks, growing your influence significantly.

3. Twitter is about creating relationships.

Relationships are two-way streets. You can’t talk all the time and expect everyone else to just sit and listen.

So ask questions.

Reply back to some of the people who are following you – show them you’re paying attention.

Proactively follow people who are writing about you, but aren’t yet following you.

You CAN learn a lot from your followers – they clearly have an interest in what you’re doing, so perhaps they’re Tweeting about some of the same things you are… even (gasp), things you might not already know about.

And remember – valued relationships aren’t temporary. You need to be a regular and consistent presence. You can’t just do it for three weeks for a special project and then drop off the face of the earth. If your program is seasonal, try to find a way to continue to Tweet while you’re off the air or in repeats.

The bonus of an ongoing relationship is that you’re building loyalty, you’re staying relevant, and you’re creating an army of supporters who, again, will champion you to their own networks.

4. Twitter can be used for Citizen Journalism

Working a news story and need to flesh it out, but don’t have the perfect contacts? Ask your Twitter followers.

Getting early reports about breaking news, but need more details? Canvas your followers to see if they know anything.

Don’t have any pictures or video of a news event? Ask your followers if they have any, or see if any of them are nearby and can go get some.

Twitter is also a great source for story leads. People are following you for a reason. They are interested in the subject matter you work in and Tweet about. They’re far more likely than the average person to be passionate about that subject matter and even have ideas and leads for stories that could be valuable to your company.

So why not ask for their ideas?

Ask them whether there are stories that you’re missing that are important to them. Ask what songs your radio station should be playing that aren’t on the playlist?

And if you DO follow up on the ideas, make sure to let all your followers know – they’ll love you for it, because THEY helped contribute to YOUR success. And they will tell others…

5. Twitter can be used for feedback

Want to know what people think of your newscast? Your website? Your 8pm drama or your 9pm sitcom? Your on-air branding campaign? Your coverage of the election?

Ask your followers!

They’re the most devoted audience members you’ll find and because they’re following you, it’s very likely that they do want you to get better and are comfortable providing their thoughts. All you have to do is ask them.

You could even start by asking them how you can improve at your use of Twitter! (@sparkcbc did this and got some great tips…) Most of the feedback from people who are following you will be thoughtful and constructive.

If you want the other side of the coin (and you SHOULD), then don’t forget to set up an RSS feed to find out what people who AREN’T following you are saying about you at search.twitter.com!

6. Twitter can be used for public opinion sampling

As was done in both the Canadian and American elections, Twitter can provide INSTANT updates on public opinion (in a completely unscientific way). It’s the internet version of doing ’streeters’ or ‘man on the street’ interviews. Short opinion bites, coming a broad variety of people, all on the same subject.

There are two ways to approach this: first, to ask your followers for their opinions, and second, to use search.twitter.com for the subjects you’re covering.

By using Twitter in your traditional media coverage, you’ll attract more attention to your own Twitter account and drive up the number of people following you.

7. Twitter can be used for branding

This is a horrible pun, but today, it’s not ‘You Are What You Eat’. It’s ‘You Are What You Tweet’. (sorry)

What you post about regularly becomes a big part of your brand to your followers.

So think long and hard about what you do and don’t want to post. Think about your tone, too.

For your followers, what you Tweet may define you more strongly than your on-air programming or traditional media content.

8. Decide On Your Author

Who’s writing your Tweets? Is it the same person all the time? Is it a variety of people? Do you want the public to know who is writing for you, or do you want everything to come from “Generic Media Company?” These are important questions to answer.

If, for example, you’re a TV or Radio program, is it your host Tweeting? It is a fictional character from your show? It is a producer? I would always vote for something that feels personal over something that feels impersonal.

@sparkcbc is using the staff’s initials to signal who wrote the Tweet (ie: what do you think about our show? /ny). @cbcradio3 is writing the person’s name in the Tweet (ie: Lana wants to know….).

If you want to establish a relationship, people need to know there’s a human on the other end of the conversation. And if you do decide on a single or short list of people who are using Twitter, make their names part of your Twitter profile so the author information is obvious to new followers.

9. Follow The People Who Are Following You

When people follow you, they’re inviting you into a relationship. They’re saying :

“You’re creating value for me with your Tweets and I’d like to stay in touch with what you’re saying.”

Even if it’s common courtesy and that person isn’t necessarily creating value for you, I think companies should follow everyone who follows them. It feels GOOD when someone or a show that you admire follows your updates. It creates a bond – a one-on-one bond that is impossible to replicate in a broadcast.

***This tip does not apply if the person following you is a spammer (identify a spammer by looking at their follow vs following stats – if they’re following 1,000 people and only 2 are following them, odds are VERY good they’re spamming)

10. Use Twitter For Branding Disaster Alerts and Customer Service

Look at the Motrin example I’ve previously written about. Their potential customers were horribly insulted by a new ad campaign, but Motrin wasn’t on Twitter to find out about it – even though #motrinmoms was the #1 search term on Twitter for many days.

Many smart companies are using Twitter accounts as customer service desks. If anyone complains about Comcast in a Tweet, @comcastcares finds out about it and initiates contact with them very quickly, attempting to solve their problem. It’s a personal touch, it’s responsive and not reactive, and it can be the difference between winning over skeptics vs losing control of your brand.

That’s my list. What have I missed?

Which media companies are using Twitter well and which ones aren’t?

And should media companies ALWAYS follow everyone who follows them?

As I’ve written about before, traditional media is pretty blatant with a lot of their web material.  They want you to watch TV, listen to Radio, or subscribe to Magazines.

So here’s my ideal solution to achieve the goal of getting more people to leave the web and go to a traditional platform…

Give them the content on the web for free.

Using your top content as a hook is the best way to increase the likelihood of a user trying out the traditional media property.  For old-media types, that’s a pretty insane and counter-intuitive idea.  (And that’s probably why not enough media outlets are doing it.)

The prevailing mindset is that if you let people experience the content for free, why would they go to TV, Radio, etc afterwards?  Answer: if you don’t give them a  test drive, they’ll never buy the car.

Audiences have an unbelievable amount of choice and power and everyone is competing for their precious time and attention.  So what’s going to win you new converts?  Ads or amazing content?  You need to give it your best shot.

Here’s how I see the decision tree for a brand new audience member:

OPTION 1

-I come to your site
-I see a promo for a show that grabs my interest
-I click on it and get a generic show description, a 30 second trailer, and information that the show is on TV tonight at 9pm.
-I might make a mental note to watch it tonight, BUT, my guess is that younger audiences especially will just move on to somewhere else on the web where they can consume content.
-Or they’ll search for your show on YouTube or BitTorrent and watch it where you can’t track them or make any money.  They’re GONE.  And they’re not coming back. 
-They came for a test drive, but you wouldn’t give them the keys, so they went to another dealer.

OPTION 2

-I come to your site
-I see a promo for a show that grabs my interest
-I click on it and start watching / listening / reading instantly
-If I like it, I will find out more about the show and likely make an effort to watch / listen / read again. 
-The test drive leads to increased likelihood of a ‘buy.’

Don’t get me wrong – not all of them will convert back to traditional media.  Many of them may greatly prefer your online offering.  And you may not make as much money off of them. But some WILL follow you to traditional media.  And they probably would never have found your traditional platform without the free web content.

There are some serious perks to this strategy:  you’re thinking multi-platform distribution, you’re bringing in new audiences that have never sampled your ‘traditional’ content, you’re setting yourself up for the future, and you’re increasing the odds that new people will end up on your traditional platform.

The win for traditional media is creating a win for audiences on the web.

So don’t use your promotional space to sell the air date and air time on the traditional platform.  If your content is so amazing, let the show sell itself. Make me care.  Make me click. Get me hooked on your program.  Make me want MORE.

And THEN, maybe I will also click on the TV or the Radio.

Have you ever done a test-drive on the web that’s led you to ‘traditional media’ to get more?

Why doesn’t traditional media like to use the Web 2.0 tools we use?  There are 5 very good answers:

1. They want total control over their own user experience.
2. They want a unique user experience that is differentiated from their competitors.
3. They want to make all the profit from their own content.
4. They want their content separated from the user-generated masses to ensure it continues to be seen as premium content.
5. They want to drive traffic almost exclusively to their own website and become a ‘destination’ instead of being just one channel in big, vast, occasionally tough to search YouTube / Flickr universe.

These are VERY valid points.

BUT just to play devil’s advocate…

10 Reasons Why Traditional Media Should Use The Same Tools That Their Audience Uses

1. Fish Where The Fish Are. The audience has clearly chosen the tools (like Flickr, Wordpress, YouTube, etc) that THEY want to use.  Isn’t there a big win for a traditional media company that meets their audiences where they already are?
2. No Learning Curve. Audiences know how to use the tools and don’t have to deal with usability issues, learn new functionality, etc.  That also means your production staff will be able to learn it and use it easily – HUGE perk.
3. Best Place To Find New Users. Not only can existing audiences find content on your site, but new users who know nothing about you can stumble onto that content and discover you for the first time on places like Flickr and YouTube. YouTube has 250 million users worldwide.  How many do you have?
4. Easy To Get User Generated Content. Your users can contribute to your content more easily by using tools that they already use
5. Easier To Go Viral. Your users can share your content much more easily because the Flickr and YouTube tools are almost always easier to use, with better functionality than traditional media photo and video tools (including embedding, sharing, rating, etc).  And again, on YouTube, 250 million people have easy access to your content.
6. Is Developing Online Technology Your Core Business? Traditional media often can’t keep up with the development of new technology. Developing the ultimate online video experience is YouTube’s core business and with Google’s bank account behind them, I’m betting that they’ve got serious resources going into the ongoing evolution and development of their player.Can traditional media say the same thing? They don’t have billions of dollars to invest in R&D, web developers, etc.   So MOST traditional media companies work with ‘enterprise’ solution companies who build video players, blogs, commenting, and photo tools that are generic, and more often than not, a wee bit clunky.  And by the time it gets customized and implemented into the infrastructure of a traditional media company, it’s usually out-of-date compared to its online-only rivals.
7. Save $$$. Media companies can save some serious cash – MUCH less spending on buying, developing, maintaining, supporting tools a media player, a blog engine, photo uploading tools, etc.  Significantly less infrastructure, too.  And if you’re using a public platform, you’re also not paying for bandwidth, which is a considerable expense if your content is popular.
8. Take Advantage of Community Development And Innovation Instead of Doing It All Yourself. In the case of tools like Wordpress, there are large, talented communities developing amazing new plugins, designs, and modifications to the platform that are available for anyone to use.  The wisdom and resources of the crowds will almost always trump the evolution of an internal company product (unless, as is sometimes the case, that is their core business and their core product).
9. Deliver A Precise Target Audience To Advertisers. When it comes to selling targeted advertising and hitting only the audience you want, who has the best-in-class tools to reach people of a certain age, certain location, speaking a certain language, who have a set of interests that perfectly match your content and have disposable income to spare?  And who can best measure consumption habits and conversions of those people?  The ones who are masters of aggregating and analyzing data.   Google vs a Traditional Media company – there’s no contest.
10. It’s Going To End Up On YouTube Anyway. Finally, if you don’t use tools like YouTube and Flickr, your audience will put your content up there anyway. (If it’s good…) Wouldn’t YOU rather control the YouTube experience – make it quality, get some revenue from it, track it, etc – instead of letting Johnny in his basement control your YouTube experience?

Content Vs. Distribution

Here’s the big question for Traditional Media that might help answer the question of whether to use existing, popular tools – is your future the content business or the distribution business?

In the past, it’s been both, but today is much murkier.  It’s going to be VERY tough to stay relevant in the distribution business on new platforms.  There are simply too many different platforms and there are industry leaders that control or have access to the pipes on each one of these platforms.

The Future Of Media

The future is pointing to a world where an individual’s content consumption will be personalized through aggregation across a vast variety of content providers.  I don’t necessarily want all my news from one content company, all my comedy from one source, or all my music from one source.

I want a service that can aggregate all my favourite content from a wide variety of content providers, package it nicely, and deliver it all to me in one tidy package.

That doesn’t’ sound like something a traditional media company is set up to do.  (Can they continue to make the amazing content I want to read, watch, and listen to?  Absolutely. But work with other broadcasters?!!? The horror!)

Now Google, on the other hand, sounds like they’d very much like to deliver me that tidy little package. They’ve repeatedly said that they are not in the content creation business.  They’re in the distribution business and they’re in it for keeps.

And if I was a traditional media company, I’d have second thoughts before stepping into the ring with Google.  But that’s just me…

Questions!

I know Hulu is a possible exception  to this line of thinking – are there any other good examples of traditional media companies that are leading the pack with their own technology?

As an audience member, what tools would you prefer to use?

Are there good reasons for traditional media companies to use their own tools?