Social Media Marketing Education for Executives » artist

How far to take social media and your message

Seth Crofton — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:14:31 +0000

We here at smmee are always looking for cost efficient ways for you to put your message out to your customers. To this end research is done not only online but through the various media that makes it’s way to you …or tries to. Recently research came out to show the still declining numbers in newspaper circulation and magazine circulation. Yet I found some hope in companies using magazines that target their demographic and niche. This months issue of Giant robot had an insert along with a couple of ad-spaces for Behemothgame studio’s. The insert was a paper toy model of one of their Castle Crashers for Xboxlive. They also put in the URL for the template to make your own on the insert.

So what you say?

Well in visiting their site you can not find the paper template listed. The only way to get to the template is to know the URL for it. The only way to get to the URL was to buy the magazine or go to a magazine shop or bookstore and copy it down. Now they did a great job in only allowing the color version of their characters in the magazine so to get them you have to buy the magazine. The blank templates to design your own are on Behemoth’s website…but color is not available on the website only in the Giant robot magazine. Thus the customer must buy the magazine and go to Behemoth’s website to get all the models. Great!!, both the magazine and the game company win with this.

However there is no way to show off the user generated content. It appears that Behemoth and Giant robot forgot that people like to show off what they do. There is no place or website listed to upload images of your redesigned Castle Crasher. NO contest to show off how creative you are or how big a fan you are. Was this done intentionally or just not thought all the way through? Don’t know but hopefully you the small business owner can take this idea and spend a little more time in your marketing meetings to see how you can really engage your audience and get them more interactive with you products and services.

Social media and Jay leno

Seth Crofton — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:33:56 +0000

Well a friend of mine called me the other day to let me know his son ( Noel) got green lighted to be on the new Jay leno show. Now knowing Noel and knowing that he is not a stand up comedian of any sort but does have a great sense of humor and irony I asked my friend how and why he was going on the show. Apparently Noel’s youtube channel ( thenoel’s) caught the attention of one of the talent scouts as Noel has a selection of songs he plays from the number pad of his cellphone.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Now the Leno show is a big experiment for NBC according to the press. Its cheaper to produce compared to hour long drama’s or comedies and its a known brand. The different time slot has proven to be tough but Leno has persisted. In fact when he started doing the tonight show his ratings were horrible for the first three years so he knows to stay persistent. And its great to see that they are trying to be innovative by going after user generated content from the web. So if NBC can do it with the Jay Leno show why can’t your company do the same? There are lots of quirky talent out there that is screaming to be seen and is very cost effective.

Free online catalogue’s…Flickr?

Seth Crofton — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:05:42 +0000

Yep nothing is ever free right!?

Well not entirely true it will cost you something in your labor ,but Flickr is a great way to catalogue your products or services. Not only does it thumbnail your pics but it also allows viewers a chance to see high resolution pics as well. For a cragislist, yelp, flipped or other social media site that allows you to post stuff for sale you can embed a link to view these images. Craigslist for example allows you to post photos but there resolution is not that great.

For an artist, studio, or designer Flickr is a must to gather a following and a great way to exposure of what you can do.

For a retailer its a great way to have a catalogue of your products that you can easily point to and if your hard drive crashes or you lose an image a great place to easily store them as well. Just remember it is out in public for all to see, use or grab.