Social Media | Geeky Impresario | New Media, Comedy, Entertainment Insight by Frank McDade

People Want Conan’s Hair, Not Leno’s Chin

I constructed the following graph to show the trend in conversation around the current late night debacle. You will find that Conan O’Brien’s demand hit a carrot top high, while Jay Leno has led down to a deep chin dip. Each of these trends are based around the online communities’ response to the current entertainment world scandal, “Late Night Gate”.

Alliances have formed in support of #teamconan and #teamjay. We see from the buzz that the mass is leaning towards the support of Conan O’Brien. NBC’s volume of mentions has shot up which is not too shabby for the media company who has been struggling to compete within the “Top 4” networks for some time. At an unfair advantage, Jay Leno and NBC seem to be on the same team and ultimately, NBC will be making the programming decisions. With that being said, I wanted to offer NBC a few recommendations that may help.

Recommendation #1: Ratings aren’t everything and online conversations shouldn’t be ignored. With the use of social media monitoring technology this can be done within minutes. Tens of thousands of online supporters are on Facebook in the “I’m with Coco” group and bickering back and forth with the #teamconan and #teamjay hashtags.

Recommendation #2 : Take a look at Conan and Leno’s Web analytics for on-site performance and insight in to which property users engage with the most. View the top performing pages along with the average time spent on site to find out if the trend in conversation that you’re monitoring coincides with site performance. From looking at historic data from Compete.com, my story seems to be backed up by TonightShowwithConanObrien.com seeing a 19.87% increase in visitors while TheJayLenoShow.com saw a 19.46% decrease. That looks like people are less interest in Jay’s site. Am I right?

Recommendation #3: Dive deeper in to NBC’s niche show communities and monitor the number of comments on Conan’s blog to Leno’s. As of now, Conan is seeing far more engagement with the average number of comments on blog posts around 300+ while Leno’s is only around 90. The people leaving the ease of their favorite top social networking sites to engage in these smaller communities are probably the most influential audience members. Embrace them.

Not looking in to the wants and needs of the public is what got NBC in to this predicament in the first place when they gave Jay Leno a prime time show. Top executives at NBC who are on the Jay Leno bandwagon shouldn’t be ashamed if #teamconan is more convincing than #teamjay. A more Web savvy user base is what will drive NBC in to the future and from the looks of my data, the future is with Conan.

3 Comments

Frank McDade, January 14th 2010 | Tags: NBC, Social Media
Posted in Arts & Entertainment

Online Marketing (for the Kids Sake)

Recently, I was sent to represent my employer at a local school district’s middle school career fair where I talked on job opportunities in technology – specifically online marketing. It was interesting to see that the students take a liking to the one area of online marketing that I find least fascinating – Paid Search.

When creating the presentation, I worked off previously created material that our company had used in the past for Search Marketing education and then spiced it up with Social Media Marketing and Multimedia production elements since those are the areas that I fancy. Only one issue arose for me doing this:

Not taking in to consideration the danger associated with Social Media and youngsters. The moment my slide came up with various logos of Social Media sites, I had a counselor looking back to remind the kids about how “evil” Social Media was and the deadly results that occur from using it. I was shocked and my face probably turned white as I realized that these kids are constantly told that these websites are horrible and here I am preaching about how valuable they are. Luckily, I was able to reinforce how they should be used in moderation towards the end of my presentation while still getting my point across about how companies are using them.

So here I was, talking about all of the creative skill sets that can be applied to the Internet (writing, photography, web design, etc.) and the one thing that peaked their interest was Paid Search Marketing. I would say just about every question dealth with paid one way or another. For one thing, they didn’t ask questions like they did with the surgeon of “what is the craziest thing you found in a person?” No. They were providing me with various scenarios and asking how or what a company would do to respond. I wanted to talk about taking pretty pictures and making them Search friendly, while they wanted to talk about CPCs and budgeting.

After working with a high school’s musical for two years I knew how to present the material in a way that captivated them. It was more example and situation driven than technical jargon. We essentially dumbed down the material without losing meaning. My favorite thing was talking about Googlebot. Instead of talking about search engine spiders, I talked specifically to Google, citing examples of SERPs along the way.

This presentation adds to my portfolio of knowledge exchange with kids. We’ll see how many more test audiences I can accumulate of those under the age of 18 until I make a presentation for a crowd of elders (yes – elders who are not even aware of what the Internet is). Who knows, I may have to present it the same way. Dumbed down and kid friendly. Next time I can think more about my audience rather than the goal of the presentation.

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Frank McDade, June 10th 2009 | Tags: Careers, Jobs, Multimedia, Online Marketing, Paid Search, PPC, SEM, Social Media, Students
Posted in Arts & Entertainment

Virtual Stage Manager

How do you integrate technology with the Arts? Start from within and work your way out. I know in the world of Social Media, not everyone is perfect for every network. It takes a general interest from the individual, usually stemming from a “need” to be present on that website. When we were ordering the licensing agreement for our show, MTI sent us an e-mail noting of additional services that they now provide. Among those was a Virtual Stage Management system, ironically called the Virtual Stage Manager. If you’re familiar with the VirtualCallboard, this online product is very similar. If you have a moment, I recommend taking the time to download the informational PDF from their website. I included a link to it at the bottom of this posting.

The Virtual Stage Manager opens up the opportunity for the production staff to integrate technology in to the informational communication and distribution process that normally takes place through traditional mediums in a production. There are many shows pre-uploaded in to the program so it is as simple as 1-2-3 to set-up. For those that are not completely technically savvy this is a great opportunity to utilize what the internet has to offer in a way that is simple and intriguing. The features of this system eliminates paper waste and increases efficiency. The tools and features include mass text messaging and e-mail to actors, integrated performer’s calendars for ease of scheduling rehearsals, and artists profiles. I believe this is a huge step in welcoming the world of theater to the benefits of technology.

This entire process allows the managers to use the web to reach the artists, from there the company as a whole may move on to effectively reach their outside audience via the same vehicle that brought them together. Many people will pose the question of – why would anybody pay money to carry through with a system that works perfectly fine offline? Answer: to adapt to where the future is taking us without being left behind. We have all seen what the economy is doing to our world – and we know it may never be the same as it was in the past. It may be something as simple as altering internal habits of a production that will lead to effectively integrating the use of Technology.

The one downfall of this program is that A.) It is limiting to a handful of shows that are licensed through MTI and B.) it is pretty costly. Let’s face it – MTI doesn’t offer every show and the Arts are not particularly rolling in cash. That may be the roadblock. How can we enhance our tools and resources when we are barely able to provide enough funds to throw together a show? In any case – the initiative is out there we just have to work from. Take what we can and run with it. If nobody is taking that step forward then we are merely being counterproductive and not working towards a general idea of how to fully create the Arts 2.0.

For my own benefit I have been utilizing all of those free features that are rolling around out there. Products such as Google Docs and Google Maps can provide the same kind of features as this Virtual Stage Manager, it just takes the correct individual to recreate them in a way that is beneficial to their production. I created a website to lie as the hub of various social media and online tool applications. It costs as much as a web hosting account does along with the man hours and dedication to finding these features and successfully integrating them.

One day I hope to see more networks such as the Virtual Stage Manager that offer internal and external networking opportunities to the Arts community – free of charge. Nominal fee’s are great, but what is the benefit if you can’t wet the mouth’s of your customers?

Check it out:
http://www.stagemanagement.com/vsm/index.php

1 Comment

Frank McDade, December 21st 2008 | Tags: arts + technology, Social Media, The Arts, theater networking, virtual stage manager, virtualcallboard
Posted in Art + Technology, Arts & Entertainment, Social Media

Am I REALLY friends with hotbabe_02_4U?

Geographical location was a big deal at recess, I distinctly remember there were designated areas for each type of kid to mingle. For those of us that never had the opportunity to become the “Big Man on the Playground”, the time has arrived for us to take claim to our glory. Too often, I find myself on Myspace or Facebook connecting with people that I claimed I would never talk to again just to see my friend count raise one more number. We have limitless boundaries with social media. The sad truth is the person on the other side of your friend request doesn’t have to deal with the awkwardness that is you, which leads me to be weary of how people look at those they interact with online.

Social Media websites thrive on the thought of users making as many connections as possible. These connections are commonly referred to as “friends” and the more that an individual has is the direct result of their popularity within their online community. As futile as online friendships can be, I feel as if they are only going to get worse. Users are connecting at rapid rates but those they are connecting to hold no true value to them outside of the online landscape. Meaning – you may have 345+ connections on Linkedin, but what will most of those people really do for you? If anything, your increase in friend count jams these websites linking strategies. They take the information formulated by you and your contacts and tie them together in to a nice little package. With that package, they present it to users searching for those with similar interests. If the information on you and your “friends” pages are not similar and you have no real connection besides that of the online nature, it screws with their system and at times may provide faulty results. There are automated systems that present you with certain people based on similar information, then ask if you would like to become their friend.

According to the Dunbar number, one person is able to effectively communicate with 150 people during a given period of time. With this principle in mind, anyone with over 150 friends on any given social networking site has obvious intentions other than friendship. Establish why you are online! What is your goal? Are you there for entertainment purposes? To reconnect with those you have lost contact with? Or to be another number on somebody’s friend list? The following is a chart developed by the website Life Without Alacrity that outlines social media friendships in correlation to Dunbar’s Number.

You can see that the the number of users with a considerable amount of connections stay fairly consistent until it hits around the 150 range. The peak on the right-side of the graph represent the people online that I am most afraid of. These people devote their lives to dominating the blogosphere with no foreseeable end to their madness in the future. If this chart looks the way it does now, imagine how it will look within the next few years! The power of these online friend feasters, along with the domination of social media websites, will create enough force to destroy a planet such as Pluto. Oh, wait. Not a good sign.

Actually, Social Media Website Digg has recently been deleting the accounts of those that are taking advantage of their website by posting an unconceivable amount of information just to gain populatirty within the website.

As I sit and think about it, I wish that I could grow down and take claim to the portion of the playground that I was socially assigned to. By doing that, I would have created my own opportunity to become the BMOP (in my own little territory of course) which would have prepared me for the overwhelming world of social media interaction. I am declaring myself as a narcissistic self promoter. If you stumbleupon me in the web world ask why I am there, or why I am requesting your friendship. I will have an answer along the lines of “For the sake of sane online users everywhere, accept my friendship!” If we continue to allow people to clutter their way to the top of the Social Media platform of popularity, we only have ourselves to blame.

2 Comments

Frank McDade, November 7th 2008 | Tags: digg, dunbar's number, facebook, frank mcdade, friend requests, friends, friends 2.0, linkedin, myspace, Social Media, social networks
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Social Media

Video Bloggers for Sale

There is a level of egotism that goes in to video blogging. I have been monitoring a number of online video producers to gain a better understanding of why people find VLOG’s so intriguing. Listening to what these vloggers talk about, and seeing the artsy technical production methods they use to create them. What makes these frequent vloggers think they have what it takes to create a fan base? With Social networks now leading the Internet, your chances of exposure are high. I have developed a short list of things to keep in mind as you set up your tripod and stare at that red blinking light.

Videotape yourself talking about hot and current topics; this will sling you to the forefront of online video searches. Now, you may have no prior knowledge on the subject matter, or even have a slight idea of what you are ranting about, but I guess that is the beauty of the online world. People will love hearing you do a vulgar voiceover to a politician’s speech. It’s what we’re all thinking anyways. Right?
Wear sunglasses. By masking yourself, it adds a level of credibility to your online identity. If you are not one for covering your face, there is always the classic “vlog without a shirt on, and often refer to how you are shirtless, for at least 8 minutes while rambling on about how you have nothing to talk about” approach. Either route you choose to go, make sure it mimics the actions of those that you are trying to reach. Think of how many people routinely sit in front of the computer with hotdog buns wrapped around each finger and search for those that do the same but vlog about it.
Use mirrors! Mirrors serve two great purposes for online users. They are a great resource for bouncing light and also are sexy enough to appear in multiple shots across numerous videos. The pioneers who discovered that mirrors are reflective will tell you via video blogs of how this works, while giving an in-depth demonstration. Mirrors serve as great background fillers and also give vloggers a chance to stare at themselves staring in to a camera, instead of just being able to stare at the camera itself.
Create an entire series of videos leading up to the day when you PURCHASE YOUR NEW CAMERA!! Not only are you psyched that you finally found the camera of your dreams on sale, but your followers will be super-psyched to watch the transition from your old videos to the new. Once you start using your new camera, you can show all the cool features it has and maybe even start a spin-off vlog featuring your new camera as the star!
Don’t be consistent. Online networks love their users to be consistent, so you would think that this theme would follow through in to online videos. Wrong. Apparently vloggers missed the memo with this statement. Somehow a non-liner storyline now leaves the viewer with some level of satisfaction. I cannot wait until the summer of 2012 when Lonelygirl15 makes her feature length video blog.

Now show me what you got. Maybe the next time I do a Google Search for “hot and happening video blogs of the 21st century” yours will pop up. Don’t forget to include the few things that I have recommended. Oh, and don’t use your real name. Usernames are uber cooler.

No Comments

Frank McDade, November 7th 2008 | Tags: blog, Blogs, Social Media, Video, Video Bloggers, vlog
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, video blogging

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