To explain where I came from I used the analogy of social media being the invitation to the house party and the house being the company website. I went further to stress that if the house either did not exist nor was structurally strong then the party would fail.

So my starting point was reinforcing the house and creating the invitations.

Details are in the following presentation.

My goal was to let the people in the room leave with information that they could use to implement these basic social media tools into their websites and social media marketing mix.

The room was fairly silent with not a lot of questions however I did notice a fair bit of note taking. I guess it’s a very different dynamic from the interactive workshops that I am used to giving.

So if you were at the presentation today and have had time to digest this do you have any further questions? If you do, then drop me a line via this post and we can take it from there. Remember there is not such thing as a stupid question. Also there are other people out there that have the same questions in mind.

Monetizing your Social Media Passion was a hot topic at Podcamp Ottawa.  This session was facilitated by Robin Browne.

People generally made connections through Blog or podcasts.  These mediums were used to communicate their passion on their niche.  Although there were no direct monetary rewards for the time invested in publishing to these mediums they did get contracts due to fame in these respective areas.  Susan Murphy agreed with this but did state that she blogged because she was passionate about it.

Give away stuff for free became the common theme in this discussion.  The average person dabbling with Social Media did not generate significant revenues however the contract work came due to fame established with the respective audience following.

Freemium was the word of the day, this means some for free and some premium content.

Most people writing books did not make a lot of money as the Publishers did as the publishers take huge risks in producing and marketing the books.  A successful author in Canada sells on average 5000 books.

One way to get exposure is to comment on other blogs outside your circle of friends.  Check your Blog statistics to see how much traffic if any you get back from comments on other blogs.  Banner ads do work however most people don’t look at them and are not effective way to make money.

Kevin Kelly came up about his theory on how to make money on line.  A true fan will give you $100 a year for what you are selling.  If you can get a 1000 of these fans you can make a living.  Scalable to which city you live in.  Have a donation box as this works.

Mark Blevis shared his journey in monetizing social media.  He started out by  developing content, perfecting techniques in podcasting and story telling.  Attending events and recording them for his podcasts.  If you jump into this and want to make money right away it’s not for you.

He suggested getting comfortable with the equipment, settings, venus etc.  Learn little tricks, how to place it, edit etc…  Respect yourself, your guest etc….  If trying to market you abilities in content creation, production..  worry about all of this later.

Everyone has their angle but no direct method.  Trying to convince people that you are an expert.  Need to have an angle.  Invent a niche that you are in.  Place yourself at the top.

More tips

Social Media isn’t a product. but a vehicle to communicate to large amounts of people to share information, communicate etc. Use the tools to make yourself successful.

That idea of specializing is important.  General idea of joining communities and adding value.

An important part of your personal brand is to organize events that is key to your success.  You have to create the opportunities and not wait for people to organize them.

Nothing happens in isolation anymore.  It’s wide open.  Bring social media into your current job.

Communicate internally within the organization

Hugh McGuire started his Podcamp Ottawa, session off with a somber podcast from the Scarborough Dude.  This particular episode was very well done with the Scarborough Dude as the only narrator talking about a funeral, he was wondering if he was a good father, his son stood in front his friends and how his sons friends accept him for who he is.  He had a few pauses and his voice was used well to make the story very compelling with great descriptions of the surroundings.

This lead to a great discussion about silence being a good thing in a podcast.  Using words to describe the setting, what’s going on etc. gives the listener a visual of the surroundings. Radio is a visual medium if done well and old radio shows are good examples of this.  This American Life had podcasts that are very personal, honest, open and connect with others.

Infliction of word has powerful meaning compared to a script, thus audio brings on emotion. Podcasts speak to the human need to communicate.  TV has extra info. to process, while podcasts are just audio.  The need to focus on the audio only and pulls us in. while pauses provide drama.  Podcasts are very powerful and hear it one to one.

The next Podcamp Ottawa session was facilitated byMaurizio Ortolani, who is part of the team at NAC that uses new media to build an online community.  He talked about Christopher Millard who produces the NAC podcasts.

They have about 4000 subscribers which translates to twice the capacity of the concert halls.  There are over 8000 downloads over the past 6 months.  The demographic consists mainly of older people who are the annual subscribers (seniors), high school and university students.  He alluded to having reached the glass ceiling with this and maxed out with web programs etc…  No increase in 12-16mths.

The older subscribers download the podcasts and burn them onto cd so that they can listen to them on their long drives.

As with any social media medium the podcasts are used to create events and vice versa.  Every few months NACO have a live cast, Chris Mallard hosts the podcast.  This podcast event is attended by 200 people. The podcasts are also used for regular visiting artists who can have pre. and post recording of events.

The most popular podcast to date is an interview with Peter Hinton from Due South, which resulted in 50k downloads!!  These podcasts are also converted into promotional cds’ as part of an incentive program to subscribers.

Jennifer Covert has taken on the role of e-marketing and she shared some of her adventures in this area.

This formed the basis of the discussion.

Charles Hodgson talked about how he had reached the glass ceiling with his podcasts, Podicitionary and had a breakthrough in the past month.  He attributes this to doing full text transcripts of his podcasts.  Link love, is another great factor in creating Google juice.  Almost most of his community are email subscriptions some are through itunes, direct downloads, stumble across due to Google.  He did turned on the WordPress stats tracking.  He now has some sponsors and his subscribers are very positive about that.

A tip is to use Google to find podcasts as opposed to the search on iTunes.

People are more web oriented than podcast oriented.  Why use podcast as a word so come up with a new one.  Use audio instead.  It’s going to happen organically anyways.

70 percent on comuters.  LIsten to ipod who travel a lot.  Providing multiple channels to use the medium they way they want .  Don’t have to hand code the page anymore as the tools are out there.

Podcamp Ottawa started off with Jeff Parks giving yet another engaging discussion about podcasting.  He talked about his mantra of give it for free.  which has worked very well for him.

He has a vast collection of interviews which are popular globally, so popular that he has been invited to speak at conferences worldwide.  He does not charge for his guest speaking engagements and his only request is for his conference pass and his travel expenses to be covered. It’s an opportunity of a life time to speak to all these individuals.  His show is about the guest speaker and not about Jeff.  Conversation is more important than technical expertise.

The big question was how does he then pay his bills?  His popularity worldwide has lead to contracts which pay the bills.

He suggests focusing on the relationships and not the monetary aspects of podcasting.  This will translate into passion which in turn will lead to making an income.

Quote “Memory is more important than reality.”

This was the setting for the discussion that followed.

Kristina Mausser of Digital Word gave an example of a typical marketing budget.  Say a company has a budget of 10 thousand dollars they will typically spend about 7 thousand on brochures which don’t lead to any tangible business.  By using podcasting or other social media you can create build build a relationship with your niche market.

She spoke about her time as the head of a marketing department for a specific geographic region.  Her company printed borchures which were distributed within that region.  This resulted in no business at all.  She had to call the customers herself and develop the relationship with them by meeting with them in person.  When it was month end she would call those customers to make some sales.  So the key to her success was the relationships not the brochures.   So podcasting is another way to build a relationship on a much lower budget.

If you are passionate about podcasting then the value you get is enormous.

Jeff parks talked about his recent interactions with a Grade 6 class, they have access to the same info. as us, however don’t have the experience we have.

Make your podcast available in various forms to your audience and let them pick the medium based on their preference.  The french name for podcast is long and very technical so should the English term be used?  The consensus was to use the shortened form of the french phrase.

Another way to describe podcasts to people is using the term internet radio as that is very easily understood.

Kids in Europe and Asia have have multiple mobile devices and use it more than we do in North America, this results in them using mobile devices to find info. vs the web.

Most organizations have a mandate to deliver to larger audiences on a smaller budget so podcasting and social media fit within these budgets.