MP Lecture: Online Communities and Creating a “Tribe”

April 13, 2012 Local, Social Media No comments

(from March 15th)

This weeks guest came in to talk to us about online communities and digital spaces. She had an interesting career so far doing some acting and also working on digital spaces and installments. Originally from New York, she told us of her experiences teaching at NYU and acting.

Poor Presentation

I am sorry to say, but this speaker came in completely unprepared. She said she was feeling under the weather and although I completely sympathize I do find it hard to believe she has ever taught a class, or done acting. She seemed nervous, unsure, and told us more about her personal life in a timeline fashion as opposed to things that are relevant to the industry. No offense, but I do not care about your break-ups and relationships unless it is pertinent to digital media or my career.

Answering Questions

This speaker had recently gotten a position incubating and creating an online community (sorry I am being so vague but I do not want to say something negative and have it get back to them or bash them in a public forum!). The problem with her talking about this is that nothing had happened yet. She was unable to answer questions and in my opinion did not even know the basics about social media or online community management. Every time someone asked her a question she completely evaded giving a straight answer.

Backed Projects

This project she was currently working on is funded and has quite a few connections. Unfortunately, judging from what she told me, it is going to seriously struggle. The press that it gets will come largely from the prestige of the funder and their ability to bring in talented guests. However, I really wish this speaker had shown us some examples of past success or what even made her qualified to run this project.

She literally gave us nothing. Her idealisms were good: foster community, build a network, give people a chance to engage – but she completely lacked the ability to articulate how she was doing this, how it had been done in the past, and how this was going to work. Which brings me to another issue.

Hiring

No offense to the person who hired her, and IN ALL FAIRNESS, she may actually be qualified. But in this particular presentation I ended up being insulted that she might have gotten paid for this. Someone asked a question in the class: “What are some important things to take note of in terms of community management?” And she literally answered nothing. The woman asking the question ended up answering her own question and the speaker agreed with her.

I believe that this speaker was the perfect example of someone who has great talent as a host (this speaker did a lot of on camera work and hosting) being hired for something that she (as I said based on what I saw during this ONE day) is completely unqualified to do. Being good on camera does not mean that you can run a community. I thought about asking her about the main principles in being a community manager but thought it best to just keep quiet as to not come across rude or perhaps make someone feel bad when they already admitted they were feeling under the weather.

In conclusion, sorry for the downer post. From a positive perspective, if she can get hired to run an online community – I am not than qualified to do something bigger and better. And let me be clear – I am HAPPY to be wrong about her. I hope she is qualified and a completely different person on another day. But unfortunately the only people this speaker would be useful for are those that are just learning what a community manager is.

NOTE: This is part of a series based on classes I take on Thursday nights for my M.A. program. The class is taught by Charles Falzon, a professor and media television and distribution entrepreneur. He is also the Chair of the Ryerson School of Radio and Television Arts (to be changed to Digital Media soon). The class is lecture-based and usually involves a notable media industry expert coming in and talking for an hour, taking questions, followed by a couple hours of discussion and lecture from Charles. He has asked to reflect upon the opinions and news we hear, so I figured I might as well post them on my blog. Hopefully the insight of some of these leaders also causes you to think or reflect on the state and direction of digital media. 

MP Lecture: Branding, Work Ethic, and Not Hiring Assholes

April 12, 2012 Social Media, Technology No comments

(from March 8th)

This week’s speaker was David Snyder. David worked as an executive at Disney (all bow down) and now owns his own company Bradissimo (check out the website, it is tres cool).

DiSnEyParis Flickr Photo Sharing 253x300 MP Lecture: Branding, Work Ethic, and Not Hiring AssholesI was glad to have David because I had researched him a bit and was delighted to have someone who valued branding. After all I seek to consistently play different professional roles that all lend themselves to branding and the management of a brand. David also had some advice on entrepreneurial endeavors which was new for this class and quite relevant since each of us have some kind of vision or eventual vision we seek to pursue.

He began by discussing Etsy with us as a means of a creative entrepreneurial endeavor case study that supports  creative entrepreneurial endeavors. I appreciated this because Etsy is brilliant but for some reason does not get the attention it deserves.

“No Assholes”

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MP Lecture: Angry Birds and Evolved Audiences

April 12, 2012 Social Media, Technology No comments

(from February 16th)

Asian Angry Birds Challenge Flickr Photo Sharing 300x185 MP Lecture: Angry Birds and Evolved AudiencesThis week’s guest speaker was Fred Fuchs. Fuchs is a dual citizen of Canada and the States and has made movies for both markets including The Virgin Suicides. He also works at an executive at the CBC.

Fred Fuchs began by defining transmedia. He referenced the works of Henry Jenkins (which trust me after all my research with this guy I could probably put on a man suit and be Henry Jenkins). Fuchs’ definition really impressed me though, “transmedia is evolved storytelling for evolved audiences”. That is exactly what it should be! Though, not to get picky, I would argue that sometimes you want to have people that are not technologically savvy or particularly inclined in the media sense to be able to enjoy a transmedia property. Kids, for instance!

Multi-platform and Transmedia

This is a topic I have hammered to death. I have explained this to employers, co-workers, students. And it’s not that I am a genius or anything. It’s just that these concepts are very often generalized and made to sound like the same thing. When in reality its like confusing a producer and a screenwriter.

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MP Lecture: The Viability of Broadcasting and Television

April 12, 2012 Social Media, Technology No comments

(from February 9th)

G.E. Supply TV trailer Flickr Photo Sharing 300x215 MP Lecture: The Viability of Broadcasting and TelevisionToday our presenter in class was Douglas Barrett - someone who has spent a large part of his career associated with television and broadcasting. Originally an attorney, Barrett went on to start Alliance Atlantis after having a senior partner position at law firm McMilian LLP.

How Much Media Do We Actually Use

Instead of starting his presentation more like a talk, Barrett presented a real presentation that was a bit more like a lecture. He asked us to guess about media statistics and how much media, specifically television we actually consume.

He eventually gave us the numbers.

  • 18-34 are roughly spending 120 hours a month with media and that combines television, mobile phone video watching, and watching television on the Internet
  • 25-54 are spending 141 hours a month
  • 55+ is spending 195 hours

One thing that is important to remember that although something might be an average that does not mean it represents the average citizen. Instead, some people may answer “zero” hours for some forms of media while others may answer double the normal. We often forget that being media and communications professionals and thinking that everyone in the world is just like us.

Why Are Numbers Important?

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MP Lecture: What is Transmedia?

April 12, 2012 Social Media, Technology No comments

(from February 2nd)

Transmedia Radar Diagram Flickr Photo Sharing 300x224 MP Lecture: What is Transmedia?Our speaker today was Howard Rosen, an established producer with experience in television, film, and digital media services. He has worked with the Toronto Stock Exchange, BBDO, Universal McCann, and GlaxoSmithKline.

Howard started off his presentation by asking us about transmedia. Honestly, I thought, “Oh great, this again.” Not only am I doing research for Ryerson on transmedia and audience research but it is also a focal point in many classes. I was also being a bit closed minded because I have not many producers or people in television who know anything about online strategy or building a campaign.

Howard begins by mentioning Steve Martin on Twitter. I was kind of impressed because he “uses the Twitter.” At least he knows notable people on the platform and yeah, okay maybe this guy is worth an open mind.

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Personal Branding: One Size Does Not Fit All

April 9, 2012 Life, Social Media No comments

A Very Happy Person Flickr Photo Sharing 194x300 Personal Branding: One Size Does Not Fit AllIn the branding sphere, we have different identities. We have who we are as a professional, as a friend, family member, ex-girlfriend etc. It is important to remember that everyone has a unique brand and what works for one does not always or usually work for others…allow me to give an example…

Last week my program had a speaker come in to talk about online development and branding. Let’s call this woman “Blanche.” Blanche was hired to speak because she has developed a successful following in her community, namely social media character content creation. Put simply, she developed an online character that has a huge following in a Canadian city that rhymes with ShmanShmoover.

Anyways Blanche calls herself a “storyteller.” She connects with people online in order to specifically gain an emotional response. This is her professional brand. As someone who has worked in social media, I know this type of strategy would not work with leveraging say, a development company. People are not going to cry and grow with that sort of brand. But I could not help but notice that some of the audience at this session were eating up her words. Which brings me to my point: one size does not fit all.

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Why Pinterest Kind of Sucks

April 7, 2012 Social Media, Technology No comments

For most women, Pinterest is the Nutella of being online. Women go shit-balls crazy for Pinterest. But is it really that cool? Yeah it’s a surefire way to suck time out of your life, but is that enough? Here are some ways Pinterest could be improved:

Fix the Stupid “Pin This” Button

pin3 300x300 Why Pinterest Kind of SucksThis button is seriously out of date. It doesn’t understand anything other than traditional pictures and many sites are not even compatible. For instance, anything with a gallery has a hard time. And where are the GIFs?  If I can’t “Pin All the Things!” I don’t want to pin any of the things. Don’t mess with my creative flow. Make a Google Chrome button for God’s sake.

According to Pinterest, Women Only Like Weddings, Food, Clothes and Home Furnishings

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MP Lecture: Subscription Services and Boom of “Kony Marketing”

March 26, 2012 Social Media, Technology No comments
6840569830 96e4185460 195x300 MP Lecture: Subscription Services and Boom of Kony Marketing

Not really though.

(From March 22nd)

Our speaker this evening was Steve Levitan - an entertainment lawyer that has worked on major projects such as the Goosebumps television series, major motion picture such as Pocahontas and has produced over 675 episodes of television. I found this great quote from him online:

“Fear is a problem in our industry, it stifles creativity.  But it’s not the filmmakers’ fear that is most dangerous, it’s the gatekeepers’ fear,” says Levitan. “It is always a miracle from God when you get a green light for a project. It is always a lot of hard work.  That hasn’t changed and it isn’t related to the up or down cycles in the industry. These days it’s the financing of a project that borders on insanity.”

This quote is interesting because, although he did not say it during our class, it relates to my opinion on a presentation a couple weeks ago (you can check it out here) relating to Canadian funding.

Pianos, Radios and Televisions

Steve gave us his take on the history of media and the consumption of different kinds of media during the last hundred years. He spent time going over how it started with the piano in each home (middle class and up) and moved to the radio, and the television and so forth. This was interesting for me because I had never stopped and considered what people consumed before the radio. I know that reading was often a group activity but I have not spent much time thinking about the piano. When looked at media consumption from this perspective, one sees that gathering around in the living room as a family and “doing nothing” is not something new. Whether consuming television or listening to someone play piano, families have been engaged in long-standing tradition of gathering around in a passive manner for entertainment.

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MP Lecture: Cycle of a Screen Writer In North America

March 25, 2012 Life, Technology No comments

3245498261 59be5f5f1d o MP Lecture: Cycle of a Screen Writer In North America(From January 26, 2012)

Today’s guest was Peter Sussman - Peter was one of the co-founders of Alliance Atlantis Communications (which was sold to CanWest and Goldman Sachs for $2.3 billion). His most notable achievement is launching the CSI franchise.

As an experienced professional in the television development process it was great to hear Peter take us through the cycle. As someone who did not study television in my undergrad, I have always been curious about development for the small screen, the competition, and the methods for selecting talented content creators.

Peter started out by telling us the discrepancy between the big studios and the independent market. Turns out, “the big ones” (Paramount, Viacom, Disney, Sony, Fox, NBC etc) hold a share of the market of about $35 billion. The “independents” sector holds about $5 billion.

Independent Studios & Reliance from “Big Studio” Support

He explained something interesting to us. Even though there are aspirations of making an independent production, indies are dependent upon being picked up or partnering with a big wig studio for any kind of international success. So any indie movie that has won an award or gotten somewhere, it needed this kind of partnership. As the industry currently stands, all independent film production wants/needs to go into the pipelines and feel the support of the bigger studios.

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PodCamp is Great…But Where is the Rest of the Community?

February 27, 2012 Life, Local, Personal No comments

5004775320 686ff02492 z 300x235 PodCamp is Great...But Where is the Rest of the Community?Having freshly spoken at PodCamp Toronto I have to say I had an overwhelmingly positive experience. People were friendly and inviting and the “un conference” has a decidedly “un pushy” culture that is super relaxing.

That being said, why weren’t more people there? Not to say that there wasn’t a good turnout with well over a 1,000 people registered, but Toronto is a huge city. I am willing to bet that, actually I know, that there are a lot more people working in communications, technology, development, or have an interest in media than what was present this past weekend. Which begs the question: are people just lazy?

And let’s not even mention that PodCamp is free, and has snacks. And you can wear jeans.

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