I Expect to use multimedia in my sales position in a sort of secondary format. We regularly put out "Customer Showcases" where we create color pages that explain what our customer use our different products for. The last one I made I used Publisher and what I learned from the Newsletter assignment to make a more professional demonstration.
The PSA was fun too. I hadn't used Movie Player before and I had a lot of fun taping my kids and using different effects and music to their play-time activities.
I can't say I liked anyone's blog more than the other. It is always interesting to read other people's points of view regarding subjects that I have commented on as well. I was happy to read in Startupgrind that Chris's pin-stripe suite from the Eisner Museum was not in vain and he was offered a position from one of his contacts.
Rather than an assignment I wish to see included, I would like to see some form of recognition (maybe extra credit points) for students that are the first to break some news in their blogs or tweets. That is where this social medium really shines. I'm not suggesting anything too dramatic like the Hudson River rescue, but who was the first student to post about the Apple I-Pad? I think we all eventually posted about it, but it is important to recognize social media's ability to relay information quickly.

Sara Meaney from Comet Branding came to speak to our class today. While I did not find anything in her message particularly earth-shattering, her presentation did have me thinking about posting and writing for the web in general is reappraised terms.
A lot of her message had to do with decreasing the content and increasing the impact. Do this by writing in more conversational terms and hitting the keywords hard and not being worried about repeating them too much.
Print media is controlled by the author, but online media is controlled by the user. That statement from Sarah’s presentation really drove the point home for me. I turned that around in my head for a while and I realized that I had been writing as if printing in almost everything I do and it’s a mind-set that I need to overcome to be effective in different media.

Sara assured us that their web-site was being updated and one page that will be getting an overhaul is a list of their clients. It is very helpful and interesting to see all the different and diverse brands that a social media consult and assist. Comet Branding’s clients include several service-based industries from hotels and resorts like Inter Continental, Timber Ridge and Grand Geneva. But also Health Care Companies and business that supply more substantial products like Harley Davidson and Manitou Suspensions.
This aspect of her business was especially interesting to me since my job also requires me to deal with a number of different industries where I have to know not only the customer, but their product and what my services and products can do to further their business. Sara told the group that this involves intimate knowledge of her clients and close corroboration when developing their social media outlets.

Nestle's twitstorm

The Nestle Company recently purchased a very small percentage of their oil from a vendor that was not being responsible in their harvesting methods. Allegedly, the harvesting method was reducing the rainforest and Greenpeace was all over Nestle with a U-tube video. Nestle ceased purchasing from this vedor, but before they knew what was going on, their facebook fanpage grew exponentially and consumers without all the facts started berating Nestle. Whoever runs the fanpage at Nestle did the worst thing possible and started getting into spats with the fans. That’s when the problem gets out of control. Now Nestle is considering scrapping the page and starting over when the incident is old news. Here is a link to the story, note how the oil consumption from the disreputable source is only 1.25% of their overall use according to this post.

It certainly seems that Greenpeace went a little overboard considering the actual usage of oil was so small, and Nestle quickly ceased purchasing form the vendor. On the other hand, it is Greenpeace’s right to speak their mind, and social media has made it very easy. Really, it was Nestle who dropped the ball with their reaction to the whole thing. I’m not a big Greenpeace fan, I’ve always found their methods too rash. I do like Nestle and this stunt will not stop me from purchasing their product. I just think they need to re-think their social media campaign.

Facebook and Linkedin

Last Tuesday, March 9th, UWW hosted Katie Felton from MKE Live and Emily Lenard from Wired Wisconsin. The seminar involved safe and effective use of Likedin and Facebook as viable social media outlets. The focus of the speakers was to optimize student’s Linked in experiences and to show how Facebook can be customized in order to strictly regulate what different visitors can see on individual’s sites.
Katie began the evening by stating that the idea behind deciding who can see what on Facebook is being driven by potential employers who want to search for their new hires to find the “real” them. By utilizing some of the safety features on Facebook, people can target different photos and albums and decide if they can be viewed by only friends, or anyone. Emily stressed that students should make their sites completely void of any information available to everyone, but to choose carefully. Employers searching for their interviewees should be able to find some general information that show them in the best light possible.
She concluded by repeating that people must be genuine and sincere when posting things online. However, everyone should consider how their boss or even their grandmother would feel if they saw what was being posted. If it’s not appropriate enough for work or grandma, it probably shouldn’t go up. She also recommended that students check out pipl.com and search themselves, promising that all who did so would be impressed and shocked at what they found (I searched my wife and myself, but only found my address: I guess my web-presence isn’t too strong).
The second speaker was Kati Felton from MKE Live. Several times she stated that while many people are leery to post a lot of information on Facebook, Linkedin should be info-heavy and use strategy to convey one’s employment or networking agenda. She offered some helpful hints, such as filling out the Specialties portion with searchable terms and tags so that individuals looking for someone with those qualifications will easily find the student. She also suggested importing your address book (something I have not yet done) and that this practice will not automatically send out invitations.
The seminar was relatively beneficial. It seems that college students in a program that is prone to information technology wouldn’t need a seminar such as this. Most in attendance probably didn’t learn anything new. If they did, it was probably because they haven’t spent enough time on Facebook or Linkedin. Students and professionals who are in fields not related to info tech would have benefited more from the program.

Making a bad situation worse.

I checked out the facebook pages for Payne and Sarah, the angry patron. It is really a one-sided argument. Twitter is all abuzz with it too. It is difficult for anyone to get behind the management of an industry that must rely on consumer support when they berate their customers like that. Even if it was after a rude, complaining letter, there really is no excuse for it. When I read the “support Payne” page, there are a couple of kids saying something stupid like “he yells at customers, that’s cool.” Now I’ve lost even more respect for his supporters. Most of his supports admit that he lost his cool when faced with a particularly visceral complaint. They don’t remove his blame completely, but rather try to show that the customer shares it. I’m not sure this approach is working, aren’t they continuing to remind everyone how inappropriate his action was? As far as facebbok itself, and the execs are concerned, they should be the happiest of everyone. Both Sarah and Payne are receiving less than favorable attention for their actions, but facebook is the champion, free-speech medium! I bet facebook's advertisers are happy too.
Here's another piece on the story. It's interesting to note that this story has a link to the movie's website where an apology is supposed to be posted. I think they're having technical difficulties, because the apology is missing.
I guess a person can forgive the movie VP for being human and making a bad, rushed mistake, but I think it’s foolish and irresponsible to try and support the guy. A better approach may be to let it pass. Time heals all wounds, and if he is released from his employment, he would do well to let the world forget about his folly, otherwise he will be hard pressed to find future employment. He issued his apology; now leave it alone. I don’t think anyone is doing him favors by trying to stand up for him. In the world of customer support, a “big” business owner is not going to win a popularity contest against a wrongfully berated consumer.
I guess my advice is “let it die, and movie on with life.”

I met with John Mader from Mader Communications Group, www.madercom.com and Erica Conway from G2 Graphics, www.c2gps.com and Bill Sheahan from Blue Horse Marketing, www.bluehorseinc.com.
I appreciated the Eisner setting and Historic Downtown, Third Ward. For the actual event, I thought it was well put together and very beneficial for anyone entering the workforce or feeling like they need to brush up their interview or resume skills. Not all the old rules to resumes and interviewing still apply. Erica told me I was over dressed for some of the creative, design positions that they would hire, while Bill quickly remarked to me that I was not properly dressed for an interview (I came in slacks and a burgundy button-down shirt, it’s what I wore to work) that I needed the full suite and tie to apply to an advertising agency. Incidentally, when I looked at the Blue Horse website, Bill’s profile describes him as old-school and “Button Down.” Had I actually been applying to Blue Horse, I like to think I would have reviewed the site and realized that suite and tie was an absolute must.
John Mader was my first stop. I got to describe to him my current work, how I have to know the application that all my customers use our parts for and be able to talk knowledgeably to them about revising, updating or replacing. John commented that rather than Sales, Account Management for a firm like his would be a logical next step. I really appreciated his comments and have thinking a lot about that since the event.
I wouldn’t mind attending future events through the BMA, their website development event looked interesting. http://www.bma-milwaukee.org/events/2010/03/global-branding.aspx Everyone is looking to maximize their website potential.

Mashable

http://mashable.com/2010/02/24/bloom-box-launch/
The Bloom Energy Box. It just goes to show you all of the non-traditional energy alternatives that are out there. Basically, a box that houses a stack of fuel cells can take different types of fuel and efficiently convert it to energy. Right now, the cells are about the size of a parking space, but they’ll get smaller pretty quick. They suggest that in the future, solar panels on your house will provide enough power to the cell to power your entire house (including your hybrid car of course). One can only imagine how vigorously energy companies will oppose technology like this unless they find a way to get in on it.

http://mashable.com/2010/02/24/jiwire-wi-fi-stats/
A person has to ride the technology wave. It seems that people with Internet Phones are no longer early adapters, it’s definitely moved mainstream as over half of the WI-FI spots are being tapped by mobile devices. Not surprisingly, most of the devices linking to these spots are Apple, but I was shocked to see the figure was nearly 98%.


http://mashable.com/2010/02/24/this-you-phishing-attack/
There’s a new phising attack taking place in Twitter. The link explains it very well and even has a video demo. It’s so important for people to remain vigilant against cyber attacks and identity theft. There’s so much of people’s personal information floating around out there. Abstaining from using the Internet may be the best way to combat identify theft, but that is becoming increasingly unrealistic in our day and age.


http://mashable.com/2010/02/22/toyota-brand/
I am fascinated with the Toyota recall and how it has effected the perception of the brand. It’s interesting to see how Toyota is handling this, they are really taking the whole thing head-on. They remain apologetic and focus on what they’re doing to fix the problem and regain consumer confidence. All this buzz about the brand has led to a lot of exposure and their position has prevented too much bad press. In fact, loyal owners are flocking to Toyota’s defense and they will be picking up some customers because of it.

Domino's Documentary

Sometime in January, I was eating lunch at my desk and checking the headlines on MSN. One of the stories involved Domino's and their new commercials. Usually, a commercial doesn't make the news so I was intrigued. The commercials made the news because Domino's aired some of the harshest criticism they could find in a documentary style video, then they tell you that have a completely new recipe. Turn out, this new recipe is something they have spent nearly two years and millions of dollars on. Then the genius of it all occurred to me; when a fast food chain, or other company not particularly know for high quality product, makes a big showing to tell everyone that their product is substandard, people are going to pause and listen to try and figure out why. By then, Domino's already has the consumer's attention and now when you say the new product is better, there's a better chance that they will take that to heart.

A big part of the ad campaign was their new website, www.pizzaturnaround.com. That is only place to find the full documentary ads. They also have live twitter feeds and I monitored them for a while and not all are positive, most are, but Domino's made a point of saying that customer feed back drove their new product and they are not going to turn away from that now. Here are some other video links from Comedy Central and CBS where they talk about this. Enjoy!

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/cleanplatecharlie/2010/01/stephen_colbert_topples_dominos_new_ad_campaign.php

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5989597n&tag=api

http://www.wpr.org/webcasting/audioarchives_display.cfm?code=hoe

Last week, I was driving home from my Monday night class and sometimes I like to listen to public radio. It's a good way to hear more information on news stories, gain some new insights and hear other people's take on it. That night, they were discussing the earthquake in Haiti and the comment that Pat Robert's, TV Evangelist, made regarding how all the trouble in Haiti was a result of their pact with the Devil. The radio program focused on Haitian Voodoo and the origins of Pat Robert's story.
Apparently, there really was a Voodoo ceremony to aid them in their fight for Independence. Voodoo is certainly not devil worship, but it makes sense that it would be portrayed this way. Think about it, a bunch of white Christian slave owners get beaten back in a bloody battle by a bunch of heathen slaves praying to someone that is not their God. Furthermore, this was about 50-60 years before America's Civil War and demonizing the Haitians was the best way to make their victory seem less attractive to slaves in the South.
It also mentioned how Pat received his highest ratings from that show. A TV Preacher used the media to spread his story and now Haitians and others sympathizers need to use the media to rebuff him and tell their own story.
Check out the link to the story on 1/25/10

Writing for Multimedia

As my aptly named blog implies, my name is Jim Schwartz. I am an English Major and Multimedia Minor at UW Whitewater as well as a non-traditional student who has a full-time career and a family. When I tell other students of my fields of study, they tend to look at me funny and remark “that’s an interesting combination” but to me it seems very natural.

In today’s world, we have been so overexposed to multimedia and instant communication that we sometimes take it for granted. We blog, twitter, and read articles on-line. Anyone with a computer and a phone line has access to a limitless world of knowledge and ideas that had been, hitherto, much more difficult to find. In the scope of human history, it hasn’t been that long since conventional literature was the primary means of conveying a message.

In America and most of the developed World, we risk relatively little when we post opinions contrary to the ruling party. This has not always been the case and authors such as Chaucer and Shakespeare would tell an enjoyable story while at same time, they would fan the embers of dissent through scathing commentaries directed to the Monarchy, Church or a rung on the social ladder. The meaning behind their message was not obscure, nor was the affected body necessarily oblivious to the author’s intent, but written properly these authors could get away with quite a bit. These writers were the informational gatekeepers of their times and as citizen journalists, we are all charged with the same task. Okay, so maybe that’s a bit overly dramatic, but there’s at least a kernel of truth to it. Anyone who posts a thread or makes an on-line comment has just published him or herself and added to global knowledge bank. We have an opportunity to use the most cutting edge communication tools to accomplish the same thing that great men and women with little more than pen and paper strove for. Now we can all share this connection with these great authors and I think that’s something important to acknowledge.