KarlieRobinson.com

In December, I had a chance to spend the afternoon talking about the news and social media with the staff at WEYI, NBC 25.   After I left the meeting I spent a lot of time thinking about the point where Social Media and Traditional Media intersect and how to integrate new techniques into a successful format.

My Top 6 Tips:

1. Create a hierarchy/Flow Chart of news importance and Direction.
   TV news is one of the most limited formats since a broadcast may have as little as 20 minutes of air time per 30 minute show. Not every tip, press release or AP story can be covered in this amount of time.  However, news that doesn’t make a the broadcast should be directed elsewhere.  Creating a flow-cart or other formula for deciding, before hand, what information should be shared, and where, gives reporters an opportunity to engage the audience more often.
   • Twitter has the highest volume but the fewest characters allowed, and should be used for snips, teasers or as a directional service getting followers to visit videos, on-scene cell-phone pictures captured by reporters or other websites where they can interact with the news you’re reporting.
   • Facebook & Google Plus don’t have the tight character limits that Twitter does but since your fan’s home page feed doesn’t move as quickly, posting too often can be overwhelming.  Weather maps, Follow-ups and viewer-to-viewer based communities can boost station loyalty.
   • YouTube. Posting segments after they’ve aired is a great way to keep people talking and gives you a way to gauge response.  People also like seeing themselves in the news and Youtube offers a way for broadcasts to be shared or included in blogs.  Youtube can even generate revenue for the station.
2. You have to give to get.
   Traditional media tends to push out information, but Social Media demands interaction.  The easiest way to interact is by Following-Back and replying… within reason.Take time to look the your followers and a few of their posts. There are a lot of useless and undesirable accounts that will only bog down your efforts.  A DNFTT (do not feed the trolls) policy wouldn’t hurt either.
3. Cover more Local businesses and Not-for-Profits.
   Being neighborly and engaged locally is a great way to increase station loyalty across all media outlets.  This can be as simple as following and sharing or re-tweeting informational posts. Showing people who are working hard to better the community also counters negative news and illuminates bright spots.  Directing fluff pieces to social networks also saves air time for more serious news.
4. Create custom Twitter and Google Plus Hash Tags.
   Information overload is the side effect of social media success.  At a certain point it’s just not possible for a human to consume every post your followers, prominent citizens and organizations create. Creating the Hash Tag is as simple as choosing a word or phrase (without spaces or other special charters) and adding the pound sign to the front.  For Example – #MINewsTip. Just be sure to search using your potential tag first to be sure it’s unique enough to lay claim to it.  Then search for the tag to gather your tips, comments and relevant information.
5. Create a Social Loop
   All of the social networks you’re using should feed into one another. Tweets that send people to YouTube, Facebook, your website and then back again are part of a  interaction loop you should strive to create. Creating content across the various formats also allows you to interact with people who use Facebook, but not Twitter, etc.
6. Use Feedback on the air.
   Don’t forget to include air time in the social loop because it’s the one thing you have that Social Media doesn’t. Viewers who are empowered to comment and rewarded with air time are more likely to develop a deep loyalty to the station.

Good design is one of those things that when it’s right, you might not notice but, when it’s wrong, there’s no hiding it.  One of the easiest ways I’ve found to create good design is by getting the color scheme right and my favorite way to nail it every time is with Colr.org.

Color sets the mood, carries the theme and can convey ideas. When a website’s elements such as links, tables and mast-head images all work together, the other elements of the design seem to fall into place.  After all, it’s much easier to see when a table is too wide than it is to put your finger on just 1 of the more than 16  million colors represented in hexadecimal.

With the help of Colr.org I only have to find a picture that represents the idea I’m trying to convey.  Once I have it, the site’s software allows me to load it and sample it’s colors.

I’ve used this technique for everything from client websites, to matching the tables and links in my Twitter profile to a custom background image.

The “right” picture is one of those intangible things that I can’t really help you find, but I like to start with a short list of adjectives to help me focus my search.  Peaceful, happy, warm, bright, or any number of words that might describe the mood or theme of the design.  From there I just go with an image that I like the best.

Get creative, but if you have a picture you’re going to be using, like a head-shot, or some other main image on your site, I would suggest pulling your color scheme from it.

For this post I chose “Lobster Adirondack Chairs” by  cbgrfx123 on Flickr because it had an Attribution Share-a-like license and could use it, here, and in the example to the left, without running afoul of someone’s copyright.

But if all you need are colors that work well together, and won’t be displaying the picture publicly, it’s fine to use any image you want.

My suggestion is,  if you’ve never used Colr.org’s software, pop over to the site and start playing around with some of the features by using one of the random Flickr images on the home page.  There’s a very handy button allowing you to load other, random images in case the ones on display don’t float your boat.

The button I use most is “Pick a Scheme from image” since that will auto generate a scheme with 3 or more colors taken from the image.

The “Edit Scheme” box is handy too.  With the features found there, you can delete a color you don’t like, add a new one with the + or get the hex so that you can add the colors to a template. There’s even a feature that allows you to find paint by brand name in case you’re designs are for a physical space.

If you’d rather pick your colors on your own, simply hover your mouse over one of the 3 pictures on the Colr.org home page and click into any one of the colored boxes to find out more about it.

Colr.org also has a very handy how-to page for help using the site’s features.

Once you have some colors that you think will work well on your site, don’t be afraid to move them around in your template.  My first instinct isn’t always right when it comes to backgrounds and readability.  It’s perfectly acceptable to switch things around or go back to your picture and find a new color or two to substitute if things just aren’t right yet.

If colr.org can make me look like a design professional, I’m sure it can help you too.

A friend suggested I look through VMWare’s job listings to see if anything jumped out at me.  Frankly I didn’t expect to find anything that matches my skill-set because, I don’t fit the standard mold most corporations create.  However, as I perused the surprisingly long list of openings I came across a listing for a Sliderocket Coach.

I checked out the listing for 2 reasons.  First, what’s Sliderocket, and, second, what kind of coaching?

Then the shocker,  I might actually be the type of person they’re looking for.  Most of the time I work to create my own opportunities because it’s easier than trying to find a job that’s well suited for my odd combination of technical knowledge and entrepreneurial kung-fu.

One requirement of the application was that I submit a presentation along with a formal resume and truthfully, I was a bit nervous about that.  I’ve created slide decks, but never as a cover letter and never with the level of sophistication I thought I’d need to get my foot in the door.  I was also concerned since I’ve never used Sliderocket and wondered if I’d be able to use it effectively?

The good news is that the user interface was straight forward and anything that wasn’t immediately apparent was fairly easy to figure out.  Even more “advanced” techniques like creating my own template weren’t all that hard to do.

In just 2 days I managed to create this presentation…

I say 2 days, but that was more like a total of 8 hours.  The first 4 were spent thinking about what I wanted to say, how to say it and learning to use the software.  The final 4 were creating the slides.  Though that’s not completely fair either.  I could have finished an hour earlier if my inspiration hadn’t run out.  For some reason the only closing I could muster was some sort of Southern Belle saying, “lookin’ forward to talkin’ real soon!”

Now, if you’ve never used it before, Sliderocket.com is a cloud platform, so your work lives on the internet.  The advantage is that you don’t have to maintain the software and are always using the current version.  Also, because it’s a native to the internet, it’s designed for sharing and collaboration.  The only disadvantage right now, and this is a disadvantage for all cloud applications, is that connection is key.  For whatever reason you’re caught without a local copy and can’t get online to get one, you could be sunk.  But I suppose this is just a new way to look at the old mantra of “back-up, back-up, back-up!”

If you haven’t done much with cloud applications or just want to see what kind of presentation you could make, sign up for one of Sliderocket’s free accounts.

If you’d like to create a presentation like this one, here are my top 4 hints;

1. Get inspiration for your theme by seeing what collateral is available first.  The only reason the Ninja worked well for this presentation was because I was able to find just the right photo to kick things off. If I had wanted a picture for every slide I wouldn’t have been able to do it with the choices that Flikr presented me with.  So make sure you have what you need, or know how to work around what you don’t, before you go too far into the process.
2. If you need a soundtrack for your presentation, check out Jamendo.com.  There’s lots of Creative Commons licensed music for you to choose from.  The song I chose, Plastic & Flashing Lights by Professor Kliq, was found there.
3. If the text is all you have to convey your ideas, make sure the letters represent you well.   I used a version of the drop shadow that was available in the software to give the white on black words some depth.
4. I used a QR code because I wasn’t sure the link I added would be click-able or easily copied/pasted to a browser.  Using it gave me one more way for the viewer to go where I wanted to send them.

If you have any questions or comments about presentations, or how I managed a certain effect with SlideRocket, feel free to leave me a note, below.  Otherwise a tweet, Thumbs up or sharing on your favorite service would be greatly appreciated. ~Karlie

Thanks to those that came to my talk. Sorry it got off to a rough start, but we managed and I want to thank you for your patience.

The slides are available to download in .pdf format or you can view the presentation as slides with voice over at FOSSLC which was recorded at FSOSS 2010 at Seneca College, Toronto.

There are also 3 articles in this blog under the topic of OLF which cover the presentation in an easier to digest format and if read in order of date posted should closely match the slide deck.  They are:

• The Business of Linux – Series Start

• Marketing Software Skills

• Positioning Yourself as a FOSS Service Provider

There are lots of other articles here that can also help you as you start a new business, so feel free to look around while you’re here and leave comments or questions.

~Karlie

Recently, Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino was offered a substantial amount of money to stop wearing Abercrombie & Fitch Co. apparel.  Draw whatever conclusions you like about Sorrentino and his cohorts, but what lessons can we learn and apply to Small Business?

First let’s examine “The Situation.”  Isn’t he famous for being famous?  Doesn’t he get plenty of air time in front of a key demographic on MTV’s “Jersey Shore?” Aren’t people talking about him? Isn’t the paparazzi snapping pictures of him lifting A&F shirts to show off his abs?  Isn’t that loads of free publicity?

The answer to all of those questions is a resounding YES, but there’s more to consider when a company, large or small, begins to think about branding it’s products.

The best definition I have for the term branding comes from my good friend, Julian Yudelson.  As he puts it, branding is a promise to deliver.

For some brands like Coca-cola, and Pepsi, the brand is associated with a particular flavor.  When you open a can of cola, you already know what it will taste like and how it will make you feel after drinking it.  For other companies, branding is about how bright your whites are after they’re washed (Clorox), the long lasting quality of the tools (Craftsman)  or even an emotional response such as gratification that your family is keeping up with the neighbors.

In this case, the issue probably centers around Sorrentino’s persona and how the public perceives his lifestyle.  If A&F want you to feel as if you belong to a certain socioeconomic class when wearing their clothes, it seems reasonable to disassociate with individuals who don’t reflect the standard.

When considering your brand, what perception do you want to project and protect?  Many times this has to do with who your target market is and how they perceive your products.  Some companies will even go so far as to limit the use of their name with a price point or retailer because price and reputation are big components of a brand.

One example is Ollie’s Bargain Outlet (Warning, Ollie’s site has audio) .  Their ads will often tout a famous maker, but won’t actually say what brand to expect. The reason is that even high end brands have surplus from time to time, but for a brand that wants to be perceived as high end, association with a discount is the kiss of death.  After all, how can you convince your deep pocketed, brand loyal customers that they’ve gotten something special if regular people have it and paid pennies on the dollar to get it?

The answer is you can’t.  It’s really easy to lower prices, but it’s hard to raise them.  It’s also easy for the low price to make the product seem low quality and that effects your ability to live up to to a customer’s expectations.

So when thinking about the brand image you want to create for your business and it’s products, how would price, quality and personal association play a role in your promise to deliver?

If you have any questions or comments about branding, feel free to leave me a note, below.  Otherwise a tweet, Thumbs up or sharing on your favorite service would be greatly appreciated. ~Karlie

On July 16 starting at 6pm in Flint, Michigan,the Buckham Alley Fest will be rocking downtown.  As part of the festivities, Flint Handmade is taking over the sidewalk next to the Rutherford Parking Structure for the First Annual Flint Handmade Craft City and we get to be part of the goodie bag! 

Since the products we make at On-Disk.com are handmade, we’re putting together 25 CDs loaded with Creative Commons licensed music so Flint Handmade can give them to it’s first 25 visitors to craft city.

I don’t expect that the 25 lucky recipients of our discs will turn right around and buy loads and loads of things from our little online shop.  Instead I’m using the discs as a gesture of goodwill  and the first step in gaining some brand recognition in the area as being a local company.  After all, word of mouth has to start someplace, and this is our little way of starting that process in Michigan.

What ways have you, or could your business get involved within the community? I’d love to hear about the things you’ve done to get your name out, so please leave a comment below.

~Karlie

P.S. In case you’re wondering, you will be able to get this disc from On-Disk.com, next week, after BAF.  Remember, it’s Creative Commons content from start to finish.  Click on either image or on the song titles below to learn more about the artists.

1. Annexation By Love by Panda Nation
2. Built To Last by Fall Walk Run
3. Dance Wit Me by JackDazey
4. Dropping Out of School by Brad Sucks
5. Every small little thing I’m able to … by BlondBlood
6. Fragile by Aloges
7. Hasta Abajo – All The Way Down HQ by Kellee Maize
8. I See by Tryad
9. Just Imagine by Hungry Lucy
10. Lorelei by On returning
11. Secretions by Hello Citizen
12. She by TenPenny Joke
13. Six Twenty Nine by BOREA
14. VOCE VAI by Vir Braun

When I was little, I use to tag along with my mom as she would pick up things for her garden.  My favorite stop was Agway, because, in the spring they had brooders full of baby chickens.   Although my mother never, ever, indulged my childhood need to snuggle an arm full of chicks, now that I’m the Mom it’s a different story.

In the spring of 2009, we took the plunge and purchased 8 chicks from a local farmer.  Like any other venture, we needed more than a box of peeps, but, while the birds were only slightly larger than the egg they hatched out of, they didn’t need many of the things a fully grown hen would.

So, instead of rushing out and buying loads of stuff that would just sit in storage until the gals were big enough to use it, we adapted to their needs and only invested more into their care when it was the right time to do it.  While they were small and still needed the heat lamp to regulate their body temperature, they lived in a large cardboard box in the family room.  When they got large enough to jump/fly out of their box and poop on the carpet, we built a coop and moved them to the back yard.

This spread the expenditures of time and money out, over time, so that we could better absorb the costs.

We also learned as we went along. I got a great book, Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, and picked up a few tips and tricks from the internet and even learned a few things the hard way, but now we have all the eggs we can eat and a self-sustaining  supply of new laying hens.  When we had hens go broody after their first year, we were given some fertile eggs for the ladies to hatch.  From those fertile eggs, we kept a Rooster.  This year we just welcomed our first batch of home-grown babies.

I could keep the process going, if I wanted, and allow my hobby of back yard chickens grow to the point I could start selling eggs to my neighbors.  Then grow to enough hens I could get a stall at the farmers market. I could then let the dream grow to certifying as organic and winning a contract with Whole Foods… Or not.

The formal term for this process is bootstrapping, but the process works equally well in small business as it does with back yard chickens.  When considering how you want your next business to unfold, consider the slow build as a way to gain both resources and knowledge you need to ensure a successful venture.

Our scheduled moving day is less than 3 weeks away but were not ready, and barring a miracle, there’s no way we’ll be ready.  Even with the blog and non-essential business activities on hold since April, we’re just not going to make the deadline and it’s one of the most unpleasant feelings in the world.  I made a goal, set a date, and the process isn’t going to plan.

I knew moving to Michigan would be a major undertaking but  I hadn’t considered coming down with two significant colds in May and June.  I think we’ve been picking up  exotic cold viruses while making the 350 mile trek between houses since both colds struck within days of the trips.  (There will be a bottle of hand sanitizer in the car before the next jaunt!)

Most people, when faced with a deadline that can’t be met and an overwhelming number of OTC medications, would simply give up on the whole process.  Admittedly, the easiest thing for me to do right now would be to crawl back in bed with a box of tissues and my cocktail of decongestants, and expectorants but there might be one or two things I can do today.  Things that, in some small way, would bring us a little closer to completing the move.

The point is  I’m trying desperately to avoid stagnation or worse, loosing ground on progress.  So while I’ve been laid up for more than a week and won’t make my goal of July 1 to move, I have still taped boxes together and even packed a few things.

Progress may be slow at times here and in your own ventures, but as long as we find a small ways to move forward on our most unproductive days, we create the success we want to have in our lives.

Not all entrepreneurial ventures need to be grandiose, million dollar money makers.  In fact, many of the successful entrepreneurs I’ve worked with over the years are moonlighting in small businesses to help fill gaps in their family budgets.  A part-time business might be just the thing you need to bring in a few extra dollars for your family too.

Starting a business for your spare time also has some major advantages.  For one, you don’t have to quit your day job so your regular paycheck and other benefits aren’t going anywhere.

Second, starting a small business in your spare time allows you to bootstrap the business.  If your goal is to earn extra money, starting with a small amount of seed money, allows the business to grow at a pace that is equivalent to the money you earn so you invest in the business instead of making loan payments. Plus any money you don’t pay the bank for interest on a line of credit is money you get to keep.

When thinking about what kind of business you might be able to bootstrap in your spare time, I would suggest you start by evaluating your current hobbies. My guess is that you probably already have a basic kit of tools and know a little about the industry which will make the jump from hobby to business easier. For example;

• Festivals – If you love going to festivals  in the summer time, consider becoming a vendor.  Since you know what events are planned and what is usually offered, you could find a niche novelty food or product and set up a table.  (Like the Kettle Corn tent in this articles masthead)
• Second-hand items – If you simply can’t pass a good pile of junk without picking up a few treasures, consider re-selling.  Options include selling vintage items on Etsy, eBay and other sites online or getting space at your local flea market.
• Teach a class – Maybe you’re a world class knitter or have  another special talent you can share with the world.  Sites like Betterfly and the lessons section on Craig’s List can help you find customers.
• Hunting and Fishing – Since you already know all the best spots in the area, why not let someone tag along?
• Repair services – take all those pleas for help you get from your family and friends and set up shop repairing computers, small engines or anything else you know you can fix.

Of course the list is only limited by your imagination.

One pitfall of turning a hobby into a business is to change your mindset about what you’re trying to do. One common mistake most part-time business owners make is treating the business like it’s still a hobby.

Learning business basics isn’t limited to those who want to quit their job and start a new career.  If you want to keep what you earn, and grow the business you’ll still need a plan, know how to keep your books and keep your fledgling business from faltering along the way. You might also have to get insurance, permits and collect sales taxes.

The good news is that most of this can be learned in the Hard Knocks Business Academy.  I’m also here to help you along, so don’t hesitate to contact me or schedule an appointment (the first appointment is always free)

Every break my children have from school, we make the trek from Rochester NY to Clio Michigan and spend our vacations working on projects that will bring us closer to our eventual move. This week, we finally brought the first load of our belongings and in between wind and snow storms, we managed to get our internet connection installed.

While talking to Mike, the Comcast installer, about our need for bandwidth so we could keep up with business tasks in between trips to Goodwill and cleaning the gutters, he mentioned that he liked working for a big company because he had benefits like Health Care.

While it might seem like a casual comment, it speaks volumes about the state of our economy.

Small Businesses account for more employees and a larger portion of the US GDP than all large companies put together. When it’s hard for people like Mike to leave health insurance behind, health care becomes a barrier to economic growth.

Now I’m not saying that Universal Healthcare is a silver bullet for the economy, because losing a steady paycheck and is also an important consideration, but what if health care wasn’t one of the barriers to entry into small business ownership?