Bev's Blender Brain Blog

Can Technology be Funny?

I think the key to humor is not taking yourself too seriously, and avoiding laughs at someone else's expense. Oh, and rising above the cheap and taudry laughs that appeal to 13-year olds. I like my humor on the intelligent side.

Here are two videos that I shot and edited recently for my client, FaceTime Communications. My colleagues Larissa and Sarah developed this idea and wrote the scripts. As Larissa explains in her guest post on the Bright Blue Marketing Blog, maintaining a marketing presence through an economic downturn requires some out of the box thinking.

So far so good, with more than 700 You Tube views for episode one in just one week and 125 views of episode two in the past two days.

Let me know what you think, even if you have no idea what URL filtering fees are!

The long and the short of Twitter

Throughout my public relations career I've dealt with a lot of corporate attorneys. Most are pretty dry and uninteresting, but I was talking to one the other day who made me laugh. He said he's become the 'official long document reader' at his company. Even if it has nothing to do with contracts or legal issues, he's given various long documents to read it because no one else has the time or patience anymore.

Its no secret that we've become a culture of short attention spans. A two-page press release or fact sheet used to be short enough to hold someone's attention. But now, if its more than a page we just can't handle it.

Maybe that's why Twitter is so popular.

I Want Media recently interviewed Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter. According to Jack, the popular micro-blogging site will continue to complement blogging and traditional media, not replace it. Why? Dorsey says "we will always need a medium that carries more words."

The way I explain Twitter is that its part blogging and part social networking. You're given 140 characters to say what your'e doing, to point your followers to an interesting link, or just make a statement. Its about information sharing. You follow those who's tweets are interesting to you, and others follow your tweets. You can respond the tweets of those who you follow, and any followers you have in common will see your conversation and can join in. Its easier than it sounds - and its addicting.

But admittedly, 140 characters isn't much, which is why I think that micro-blogging isn't really the right description for Twitter. In fact, if this blog post were a tweet all I would have had the space for would have been:

I Want Media recently interviewed Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter. The bottom line, according to jack, is that the popular micro-blogging site

Hmmm... we were just gettting started! What I really would have done, though, is tweeted something like:

Twitter's CEO says we'll always need a medium that carries more words http://tinyurl.com/6z3vh6

The tinyurl link is created to shorten the real URL of the article that I've linked to above, so that I don't use too many of my 140 characters. The idea is that I've just piqued your interest and you can click that link and go to the longer article to see what else Jack has to say.

Then you can decide if you want to read it all yourself, or if you'd rather kick that job over to your official long document reader. But then you'd have to trust his synopsis - and if your long document reader is your corporate attorney, you might not understand it.

Follow me on Twitter

My job is to make your job easier

What's the best way for me to get you to help me?

What if I were to make it so easy for you that it hardly felt like you were going out of your way at all? We'd both feel good about it, and I'd have a much better chance of getting what I want.

This has always been my philosophy. It started in my media relations career 20 years ago and continues now as I submit our CD for radio airplay, pitch venues and presenters for gigs and promote our concerts.

I've had this blog post pretty much written for more than a month. Today I got an email that prompted me to finish and get it posted. It was from CDBaby - if you're a CDBaby artist, you know the kind. It comes from founder Derek Sivers and is written like its from your best friend. And Derek HAS worked very hard to become every indie artist's best friend by creating a truly artist-friendly independent CD distribution site. The email included a link to download Derek's article How to Call Attention to Your Music. Although its worded a bit differently, he's essentially saying the same thing I am:

"Want to know the basic rule of marketing and promoting your music?

Constantly ask, "What do they really want?" (with "they" being anyone you are trying to reach).

Think hard, and don't take this one lightly.

Thinking of everything from the other person's point of view is one of the best things you can do in life. If done right, it will elevate you into the clouds along with a few select immortal beings. Every time you lift up the phone. Ever time you write an email. Every time you send out a presskit."

This is the credo that I live by. My job is to make your job easier. "You" being everyone from a DJ who I want to play our CD to the audience I want to come to our next live appearance. Which, by the way, is on June 1 at Roudon Smith Winery in Scott's Valley, Calif. as part of their Harvest Festival. Enjoy music all weekend as you sample great wines. Bring a picnic lunch or grab a sandwich at the winery, we're on 1-2 pm on Sunday.

So ... when I hear other musicians whining about how a house concert presenter, DJ, festival producer or music conference showcase committee wants them to provide their music for consideration in a specific way - using a specific format or procedure - I just shake my head.

• If a DJ wants me to submit my CD in a jewel case with a readable spine and the tracks numbered with the song length, that's exactly what I'm going to do.
• If a house concert host wants a link to where he can listen to my music online, I won't send him a CD in the mail instead.
• If a presenter who has booked me wants a ONE paragraph description of my music, I will not send a full page bio instead.
• If a music conference prefers its showcase applications be made through SonicBids, that's what I'll use.
• And I will communicate with my audience in a way that works for them, including concisely stating the details of the show and including a message about what they will enjoy about the event (the wine at Roudon Smith is very nice, btw). Also, I will not expect them to open an attachment and I will not send them large files to clog up their inboxes. And the links in my email will be helpful and will actually work.

The reasons are so obvious. I am asking each of these people to do something for me. To play my songs on the radio ... book me ... promote me ... recommend me to others ... spend their evening listening to my music and buy my CD.

This not only improves my chances for success, it also gives me more control. Here's one example. If a promoter needs one paragraph and I send him a full page, I not only make his job harder and potentially leave a bad taste in his mouth about working with me, but I also lose control over which paragraph he'll use from that full page I sent.

This is how I do my job, by making your job easier.

Doesn't that make sense? Or is it just me?

Social Media is Media for Social People

I have one foot firmly planted in acoustic music, and the other struggling through the muck of the changing world of corporate public relations. These two paths are constantly crossing.

Social media is where marketing communciations is heading, and very quickly. I'm emersed in it these days.

But I'm also constantly having to explain why. Its the curse of early adoption. Why do I "twitter?" Why do I maintain a Facebook profile? Does anyone read my blog?

I read a blog on enterprise social media this morning that had me saying "yes... that's it, that's why!" Its a Q&A with two Interactive Media experts, a preview to a panel discussion they were to participate in tonight in Minneapolis. I wish I could have gone. But I loved this definition of social media in particular:

How would you define “social media” to someone not fluent in interactive or online marketing?

Cuene: I’m going to rip off Dan Zane’s definition of folk music: Social media is media for social people. Or, a slightly more complicated version: Social media is the online content left by people as a by-product of being social online. It’s the media that results when folks write, review, share, trade, connect, etc. online.

Its just an online version of people communicating like they always have. Conversations about news they've read about. Recommendations for restaurants. Warnings about faulty merchandise. It happens all the time, now its happening on line.

So why do I Twitter? Truthfully, its all just an experiment right now. But I do enjoy getting status updates from my friends, and I'm getting used to talking about myself in the third person.

Bev Barnett is .... signing off for tonight.

PR is PR is PR

Twenty some years ago, I sat in a classroom at San Jose State University and learned the art of public relations from Professor Jim Noah. Living in Silicon Valley, fate led me to a career in high tech PR. I became entrenched in the business of educating the public about technology and promoting everything from the earliest productivity software to integrated circuits for wireless television. I introduced the world to Ethernet over twisted pair in 1988.

So when I began promoting our concert series, and then our own CDs and performing career, I thought it must be so different, there must be some secrets I need to learn from the gods and goddesses of music PR and promotion.

A few years, and a few "experts" later, I know what I should have known all along. PR is PR is PR. The principles are the same no matter what you are promoting:

1. Take the time to understand your audience - and understand that you are not your audience.

2. Find and develop a good story that will interest your audience, and tell it in a compelling and understandable way to reporters who serve your audience.

3. Understand that the media is not there to serve you - their job is to serve their audience.

4. Write clearly, or find and editor - or both. 

5. Be a resource. Your job is to make the reporter's job easier. When you do that, your job is done.

The editorial profession is no different in music media than in high tech. Music and entertainment reporters have the same time constraints, the same pressure to increase readership or click throughs, and the same looming fear over the demise of traditional print media. And they respond to professionalism.

The only difference that I've found is that entertainment reporters are a bit nicer than tech reporters. Maybe its the subject matter.