“How NOT to be The Social Media Guru”- blog post revisited
- Social media guru or snake oil man? (Dress rehearsal)
“How Not to be The Social Media Guru” was a blog post from Econsultancy that experienced a good day or more, in the blogosphere.
What happened with it provides lessons to other market communicators especially those of you involved arts and non-profits. It brings several cautions in its wake.
It was posted at 11.24 am Central European Time (I think), garnered 6 comments by 1.50 PM and by 15.45 Central European Time, it boasted five pages A4 listing of Twitter Retweets. (Europeans use the 24 hour clock convention.)
I followed one of those Retweets to get to the post.
The blog post was born out of a reaction to this observation: that “there’s a lot of scepticism when it comes to high-paid constants who claim to have mastered it” (social marketing).” It says: “that skepticism is reflected in an amusing animation called The Social Marketing Guru.
First, a check of how ” … The Social Media Guru” looks to search engines:
The blog post has these tags: The Social Media Guru, consulting, consultants, snake oil, clients.
And these words appear in the first paragraph: social media guru, social media, consultants
In the third paragraph are: “The Social Media Guru! ” (2), “100, 000 views on You Tube” and- social media
“The Social Media Guru” phrase is repeated gain in paragraph 4, social media
And in par. 5: social media consultant, and the ubiquitous again “The Social Media Guru”
Although I felt that search engines might have suffered indigestion by that point, I was wrong. They loved it. (End of “Blogging 101″, I guess)
What was the fuss about and what is going on here?
Like the lifelong journalist and writer that I am, I looked around for some attribution and a back-ground on the writer of this highly numerically-successful blog post. In the Advertising Age’s Adage Power 150 top marketing blogs list, Econsultancy ranks number 12 (24 November 2009), ahead of Problogger (my favourite blog) by several places. http://adage.com/power150/
Looking closer
It is ironic that researching the writer, Patricio Robles, a tech specialist with expertise on social media gurus, has been frustrating:
He does not have a Facebook account - or at least Facebook says under his (?) photo, that he is “not the one you are looking for …”
One picture, recovered by Bing showed a personable, young, lightly-bearded man whose name could well be Patricio Robles. He has been working in associated fields since about 1993. “About 1994″ is more commonly used in e-guru profiles. Seems so long ago, to some
On the Econsultancy website (a kind of co-operative online “club” for ecommerce writers), Robles is allowed about three lines in his online profile - and no links. (My “deeper” research found that one Patricio Robles Gil is a respected nature photographer. A passionate singer of stirring art songs in South America has a similar name.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Patricio%20Robles%20Gil%20&FORM=BILH#focal=dc2e5e0c0b834ec58a80c08389630622&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oceanoasis.org%2Fdesertandsea%2Fimages%2Fgil150.jpg
On Twitter there can be found, a certain Patricio Robles. But he is aged about 18, poses with a large dog on his Twitter page and has fewer than 20 followers.
Econsultancy has three accounts on Twitter and this morning the main one was rating 16,361 Followers. Not anywhere near Tour de France cyclists of note, but workable..
All of which is a pity, because the fine mixture of assured-professionalism seemed based on practical-experience and that rises through the texture of the blog post itself. So, for this writer, gathering the credentials behind the blog post - forgotten the name? - How Not to be The Social Media Guru - was fruitless. It is such an interesting, biting, even subversive affront to all those deserving men and women of internet Gurubia.
The sausage amid the sizzle- 5 tips about keeping out of Internet Gurubia
Turning from the blogging expertise and SEO skills imbedded in it, the substance of the Econsultancy blog post: “How NOT to be The Social Media Guru” hinges on just 5 points:
Don’t equate prolific use with prolific ability
Bring some experience to the table
Don’t make excuses
Avoid the abstract
Execute, don’t pontificate
Don’t sell fear
Avoid appeal to authority
Your compensation has to be aligned with tasks you pe4rfomr
Don’t call yourself a social media guru
Here is the blog post itself (link)
http://www.econsultancy.com/blog/4995/
How arts and non-profits can benefit from this post
You hard-working denizens of arts and non-profits businesses should draw nourishment from this exercise:
Although most Blogs, Twitters and Facebook Fan Pages pay scant attention to you, many of their techniques can be stretched with minor distortion, to fit the communication imperatives of arts and non-profits.
That applies especially to those concerned with content and techniques.
There is enough evidence that - what works for the rough-and-tumble crowd of entrepreneurs, start-ups along and “creatives” in almost every medium-sized business on the planet, will help arts and non-profit marketers - by their example.
What you add to your content is passion, distinction and a unique attention to craft and art, with a touch-of-class.
However, CAUTION is required!
What you must also add, I think, is a large measure of care to attend to questions of ethics in communication. Your clients are special: they demand and expect integrity with a fervour that by far eclipses the demands made upon your general market colleagues.
This is not necessarily the stuff of sacred trust, but your audience, your clients and all those who contribute to your causes and enthusiasms, do adopt higher standards regarding you.
So the questions of attribution and governance along with the meaning and pitfalls of social capital bring up questions that you need to consider, especially in hard economic times. The arts shouldn’t be so vulnerable on such issues, but that is alas, how it is.
I have found several of the sources that raise the questions and some of the answers: The Saquaro Seminar (Harvard) on Civic Engagement in America, and Ethics World on Non-Profit Governance. Just click to inspect.
http://www.ethicsworld.org/corporategovernance/nonprofitgovernance.php
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/saguaro/primer.htm
Opinion:
Even in a fever, most arts marketers wouldn’t repeat a title and “key words” so many times in five paragraphs. But you (and I) may need to think about how far we can compromise, in order to “succeed” on the internet these days; how much we’ll accept in terms of the degradation of our language and self-respect - Neil McPherson
Neil McPherson (Lonewordsmith) is director and web master of Professional Word, an online business dedicated to sharing a well- spring of ideas, resources and experience to assist hard-pressed and under-resourced arts and non-profit marketers. Professional Word helps clients, site and blog readers to produce quality in effective content. He was educated in Australia and now resides in New Europe.
Writers’ Book Tours:Thrill or Drag?
Out on the track again, for Harry Potter.
This post about book tours, publishing and book sellers begins more than a decade ago.
In a June, 1993 issue of Esquire magazine, a fishing writer and budding novelist Thomas McGuane managed to combine the toil and trouble of a writer’s book tour with a quail hunting and trout fishing trip in Texas. The Sturm und Drang came together superbly well.
“Even on my short holiday home,” McGuane’s story began, “my wife thought I ought to be fishing; she said my mind was ‘in ribbons’. I was going to be back on the road so soon I really just wanted to curl up somewhere. In the year of a book tour, an author saunters from airport to airport supremely confident of the value of his talks and readings. It’s a crying shame that this feeling gives way to an all–consuming fear that his first auditors will turn up in the later cities and discover his bonne mots reduced to cheese-skulled yammering and the geekish didacticism of the mentally bankrupt.”
Those words forever endeared me to McGuane’s work as he continued his writing career. I supposed that he still dragged his weary length through book promotional tours, finding the circus ever-gruelling. But what happened to that reluctant book sales-promotion-tourist, I wondered.
Essential tool for clear, concise writing*
*For those who want to skip to the online details about the book I have blogged about on this post, scroll down now to the book title. If you are in USA, go to the foot of the blog apopst and click on book title .
It’s change time for your business: Christmas, Easter, new season, end of vacation …
When you feel an urge to spring-clean (even in Fall); to revamp your life, your business approach. If you decide that now is the right moment to blow fresh air though your ways of operating that company, your own book store, the theater company, dance group, museum or organization … it all soon comes down to you writing something: a plan, announcement, press release - whatever.
“Writing is hard even for authors who do it all the time,” says Roger Angell in a forward that famous New Yorker writer and edior wrote for a famous style book many years ago. It is still true. You and I know that.
When I get the rejig, revise feling, I am usually stuck for something fresh to say in a way that really conveys what I had in mind in the first place, during the day-dreaming … and that is when I turn to The Elements of Style
This little book, is now in hardback but looking just like my old 1999 edition soft-cover version. It’s like a blast of fresh air; it’s like going back to a favorite teacher. Here is what others say about The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. and E.B.White with a forward from New Yorker’s Roger Angell. (E.B. White’s stepson)
A masterpiece in the art of clear and concise writing, and an exemplar of the principles it explains. (Amazon)
… a marvellous and timeless little book … Here, succinctly, elegantly and without fuss are the essentials of writing clear, correct English.” John Clare, “The Telegraph”
“Buy it, study it, enjoy it. It’s as timeless as a book can be in our age of volubility.”
— The New York Times
What is in it?
Contains rules of grammar phrased as direct orders and provides the principal requirements of plain English style. Concentrates on fundamentals: the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated. (So there!)
From the Back Cover
Some acclaim for previous editions of the book:
“No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume.”
— The Boston Globe
I find it invaluable. It is even shocking to go back to after an absence and find how jolting and therefore stimulating, it can be. Lonewordsmith’s view
Read more here about the book that I find essential when spring-clean time occurs in my writing palns, for whatever it might be: radio copy to brochure text, to an arts business report: The Elements of Style
If you haven’t got it now, it will soon become a number one companion.
Outside UK and Europe find more information on this book
The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition
Manage business panic in 13 steps: from Judi Dench’ voice coach
Practical ideas from a famous drama coach can help you ride the rough course of your daily business tasks. (That’s her up there.) Like to try the basic steps?
I mean, little wonder that we managers and communicators lose our way, feel “off-centre”, burned out, confused, or just plain terrified when we confront today’s business pressures and worries. Nothing seems certain any more, not even when we turn for help!
Returning to the business world, after I long break, I have often thought about how to best help business people cuaght up in this mess of an economy.
One person and her ideas come to mind every time for me: Patsy Rodenburg and “The Actor Speaks”.
Patsy is the voice coach to whom many world-class actors and movies stars owe a lot for their success in overcoming anxiety when they are about to step onto the stage. Nearly everything she says can find an application in the daily work of the arts business person or not-for- profit marketer.
Her students at Britain’s Royal National Theatre and elsewhere include Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes. My first daughter studied nearby and no doubt feel under her influence and she preaches similar ideas in a theatre company Down Under. After all, along with Cecily Berry, Rodenburg is a legend to generations of actors and performers.
What has actor training got to do with a business person in “a stew”?
Lots really Who has heard of business managers and entrepreneurs, bookshop and theatre owners, being taught to get their act together by learning to stand and breath properly? You have, right now.
Here are 13 key centring steps from Patsy Rodenburg as preserved in the textbook that Dame Judi Dench keeps at her side while working on another movie or stage performance.
Basic Centring Exercises
“Centre is the ideal position of absolute power for the body. You see weight-lifters and martial artists go into this position before they spring into action. In the centre position you can gather your energy together before you set out to perform a task.”
· Stand with feet parallel to the hips.
· Energy slightly on the balls of the feet.
· Knees unlocked but not too bent.
· Spine up but not rigid.
· Shoulders released.
· Drop head onto chest, feel the weight.
· Let the weight of your head take the upper body over do that you flop over from the waist.
· Shake your shoulders while bent over.
· Check that the knees remain unlocked and the back of the neck is released,
· Come up slowly from the base of the spine.
· Let the shoulders fall easily into place. Avoid the temptation to place them.
· The head is the last thing that should come up.
· Keep breathing and the jaw should remain free. (from page 30)
Comments from me - Lonewordsmith
I often incorporate this exercise into a morning walk through rolling wine country near my home – a five kilometer I handle at a brisk but not excessive pace, and that includes one 200 meter gently-steep slope. I pause on a flat area and do the Centring Exercises over three or four minutes before continuing. Fresh thoughts and a positive attitude seem to swell up during the second stage of my stroll. Some psychologists would say that I burn a lot of endorphins during that walk and it certainly helps me banish business concerns at least for a time. But best of all, suggestions for action begin to bubble up spontaneously, even on otherwise bleak days. Thinking sideways emerges easily.
Having used similar stress exercises for over 30 years, I have found here approach to be one of the best. For me, extreme exercise is out because I have been a diagnosed asthmatic since 1970. You don’t need athletic prowess to make effective use of it, as a start-off point to getting on top of your blues.
It would be wonderful to see what ideas you have to add, for the use of your co-arts and not-for-profits colleagues worldwide.
(If in any doubt, check withe your medical practioner before using this exercise and use normal caution.)
I intend my posts to help you as a manager or entrepreneur in an arts business and not-for-.profiits organization. They regularly focus on new ways of generating effective communication content and marketing. The blog refects techniques I have used successfully in business and semi -government organisations for four decades. See right right hand column and our web site for more details.
If you have been following my post right through you will agree that I am something of a nut about this book. That is true but it is more than that: this small excursion is just a small part of the sort of looking & thinking sideways that I have been so keen about. The book has been around a while and as you see below, is quite a cheap investment, that would repay its price in a second.
Effective, enjoyable letter-writing example from Gary Halbert
The most important difference between sales marketing letters by the late Gary Halbert and the expensive expert substitutes - is that THEY (Gary’s) smell better.
A familiar aroma of fear drifts from the steamy offices of used-car salesmen, and it drifts through most from letter examples the gurus offer you. But Halbert’s smelt like a rose.
Copywritng genius, the late Gary Hallbert, in teaching mode
They were free of self - admiration
Throughout two years of researching the USA Canadian UK and Australian gurus in the marketing field, I often encountered hushed admiration for just one copywriter: Gary Halbert. Yet Halbert himself almost never took himself too seriously – at least in his letters. Students please note.
Halbert might have perfected squeeze pages but …
They called him a master of the craft. Still do. But most ignore his best advice. The result is the return of that acrid pong of fear in most direct mail copy and internet copy pages, especially their aptly-named squeeze pages. Squeeze pages are those key-word-rich banner headline- riddled, multiple-requests-to-click-now and other promises-not-kept-scroll-downs that often reel on often for more than ten normal page lengths.
“Get their attention in three seconds!”
Whereas Halbert began his sales letters with his address and a greeting, the high.anxiety gurus prefer highly-crafted mysteries like these come-ons from my mail bag over the last two days:
· Alex Mandossian: This reminder is if you missed this morning’s tele-training. Here’s the story… Each month, I answer 5 critical questions on how entrepreneurs can quickly boost profits and productivity with Electronic Marketing
· Jeff Walker: I know a lot of people are doing to disagree with me on this - but it’s important for you to really get this… there are really only TWO ways to make money online. Here they are: 1. You sell your stuff. 2. You sell someone else’s stuff.
· Terry Dean: Of all the information products you can create, the only one that will actually get you real world publicity opportunities, position you as an expert in your field, and allow you to leapfrog your competition… is a book
· Bill Crosby: Block out tomorrow at 12 PM Central for one fantastic guest, Frank McKinney (see bio below), builder extraordinaire of multi-million dollar Florida homes, philanthropist, and amazing Edutainer. Edutainer?
Everyone of these seem in a hurry to get us to …t heir own ten page letter.
What seems to be forgotten in the stampede, is the essence of Gary Halbert’s teasing, witty friendliness with its hard core of sense and practicality. Whatever he really was and what myth may have made of him, the fact remains that he was highly successful and much admired.
A tribute to the man
The publisher of a site called Craig Johnson’s Website Traffic Building Tool borrows some of the Gary Halbert Newsletter style when he writes this brief tribute to the famous copywriter:
The world has lost one of the world’s most successful and rare copywriters. Gary Halbert, the “Prince of Copy” has always been my role model and my mentor when it comes to copywriting. Even though I have never met him in person, I am proud to say I’m a disciple of his. Gary has an uncanny ability to write copy that speaks right to the heart of his audience and get them emotionally to take action. In fact, I used to be one of his PAID subscribers to Gary Halbert’s newsletter. I must say they are real gems. He used to charge at $195.00 per year and $2,855.00 for a lifetime membership but now it’s free for all. I reckon you get your hands on it at The Gary Halbert Letter.
Did you know that Gary Halbert was the second biggest buyer of space advertising in the whole of US, second to General Motors and he had to employ 20 staff just to help him fill up his deposit slips. Haha…How bizarre is that?
This one heck of a copywriter can attack a giant size market with the precision of a surgeon!”
Use a Gary Halbert Newsletter: as it once was
His newsletters are in the public domain it seems. Here is one you can use to beef up your own efforts in the direct mail an persuasive letter- writing tasks, such as fundraising, seeking volunteers or just getting your message out about how you could solve someone’s problems. In short, for your business or organization. Enjoy.
About keywords
Yes, it’s about keywords, the bane of all our internet lives:
Hello kiddies,
I can still call you kiddies because, as I write this, you are nine and four years old.
Today’s lesson is on a very important facet of online marketing, called keywords and Meta tags.
A whole lot of emphasis is placed on key words for search engines and for Google ad words so it is very important for you to…
Always Know Always Know
Always Know
What Your Keywords Are!
This letter is about the process of coming up with that list of words.
My pop used to say that in long copy ads, you sell the lifestyle or about how your life will be so much better, after you use the product. So if you were selling acne cream, you would write that their skin will be silky smooth and quote people saying they felt so relieved to not worry about how their skin face looked.
It would show not only before and after pictures but the first one would be of a sad lonely girl with acne and in the next she will be getting hit on by several good looking guys.
With Google adwords and search engines, the customer is putting in words to get information about something they are at the very least curious about.
So we can’t use keywords like yacht and lay around all day in bed, which we may want to show in an ad about making money. Nobody will be typing in “yachts” when they want to learn how to get rich.
We will specifically speak a lot about meta tags in this lesson because we use them to help develop keyword lists, but this list of keywords is VERY important to Google ad word campaigns and search engine optimization.
To start coming up with our keyword list I think the first step is to profile our potential customers and try to do a search from their prospective. In our case, I think we are looking for people with money who want to preserve it or know where to invest it in this economy.
Our prospects are not looking for a job, but they are worried about keeping theirs. They are people who want financial freedom and to be independent. They feel insecure and want security. The ones with a lot of money want to stop the damage.
These people usually also feel there is some sort of collusion or conspiracy by some small secret club of rich and powerful people. The funny thing is, nobody who actually believes this, wants to stop it. They just want to…
Get In On it!” ( end of quote)
The letter is continued and the archive of Gary Halbert letters is it not only a heap of laughs, but a fine training manual about pursuasive, enjoyable sales letters … that smell good!
Love to have your ideas on this!
When experts disagree: how to decide and then…act?
Great team of experts: what now?
There can be pitfalls when you call on your experts.
In my blog posts on Arts & Business Merge, I’ve reviewed techniques for generating fresh, effective content and clear ideas for action.
For arts business and not-for-profits the management element is of course central: Actions must be taken and ideas communicated, whatever generation technique is used – brainstorming or lateral thinking, pinning tails on a pig … call it what you will.
Mike Brown allowed me to feature one creative situation he’s faced with his buiness that he called brainzooming.blogspot . He said that although it is great when you solicit and consider expert opinions (or staff suggestions) , its not so great when qualified experts don’t agree. And you have to decide and act. Read the rest of this entry »
“10 Great Words for Innovation” by Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll - futurist offers you "ten words"
“Grab this 10 Great Words document and share it around.”
from Jim Carroll
Are there signs of greater turnover in your customer base, or more competitors in your industry than ever before? Is your top line getting hammered at the same time that your costs keep going up? Are your products or services becoming a commodity in an increasingly complex marketplace? Have you been so focused on managing costs that you’ve forgotten how to grow the business?
These are all signs of the increasing dysfunction that exists in the world of business : far too many organizations subsist in a stunning state of complacency as the world evolves around them at a very rapid pace. As the future becomes more challenging, it is a good time to take some positive steps : change your actions, attitudes and approaches, so you can manage change before it continues to manage you.
Adopt ten simple words that will help to get you into the right frame of mind.
1. Observe. Take the time to look for the key trends that will impact your organization and the industry in which you compete. Far too many organizations sit back after a dramatic change and asked — what happened?” Make sure that your organization is one that asks, — what’s about to happen? And what should we do about it?” Read the rest of this entry »
Del Mar & nearby Bloggers: BOOK EVENT
See these across my desk often …but this looks a goodie!
Here is a book seller in action!
AUTHOR EVENT
(Was on Tuesday :: April 28) :: 7:00pm. (But I have left the liks in for readers who come late to this.)
Experimental Man: What One Man’s Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World, by David Ewing Duncan
David Ewing Duncan takes “guinea pig” journalism to the cutting edge of science, building on award-winning articles he wrote for Wired and National Geographic, in which he was tested for hundreds of chemicals and genes associated with disease, emotions, and other traits. Expanding on these tests, he examines his genes, environment, brain, and body, exploring what they reveal about his and his family’s future health, traits, and ancestry, as well as the profound impact of this new self-knowledge on what it means to be human.
Like so many fine independent booksellers, this one runs fabulous material - of interest everywhere, not just in lovely Del Mar California.
Check it out at http://www.book-works.com/
Buy through here and read more info - but: only for out-of-towners of course!
7 (or so) answers from Videographer/Cameraman Joe Penna
Joe Penna at Work
WHO IS JOE PENNA?
Joe Penna is an artist. (Did you click? Note golf ball on left. )
” Some background about me. I used to go to school for medicine (was going to be a surgeon) until I did this lab once. I spent a week doing the research, writing it up, checking, rechecking… I thought it was awesome! I was really proud of it!
When I was passing it in, I saw that another kid’s title looked awfully similar to mine, so I bugged him for a copy. Turns out he got the same exact thing! Same results, same hypothesis…I thought that, like, anyone can do research and find out this and that. The proof is always in the pudding — all the evidence is there and, sooner or later, someone is gonna find it out.Art is a lot more malleable, though. Who else could have painted the Mona Lisa the way Da Vinci did? Who else but Margaret Mitchell could have written “Gone With The Wind”?That’s why I decided to quit school and go into film. I started by checking out Windows Movie Maker and working my way up.”
How do your projects arise? Is there a typical case? Does business come to you or do you go after it. Where and how? I see the resume, but how did those projects get there?
I used to apply to a lot of gigs on craigslist, mandy.com, etc. After you do a good job on a lot of those, you start getting bigger jobs, doing bigger things. Eventually, you start get enough recommendations and word-of-mouths to get by.
I started with a lot of post-production gigs like doing editing or special effects. I still enjoy that and I’m still amazed how much storytelling you do.
Do you have the chance there to teach as well?All the time. I’m still waiting to hear an answer from them, but it should be coming soon.
As a cinematographer, you have to constantly be in charge of what people are doing and walking them through something they might not have done. Not to mention reining in any overly-enthusiastic Camera PA (I was also guilty of that).
The advertising client for the golf ball commercial must have been shocked and thrilled with directness in what you did.
The Golf ball ad ( remember one the site above? The golf ball ad was a spec advertisement. Those don’t always pay the bills but I love making them because, except for the running time of the ad, I had complete creative control over what to do. Their logline was a literal interpretation of “releasing your inner power” with their new golf driver, so I figured I’d follow that theme along for my ad.
When camera and cameraman are one.
Joe, what are the major wellsprings of your creativity? You project youth and well-aged experience like a good Scotch whisky, at the same time.I seem to get all my ideas around 3AM, which means I gotta stay up and mess up my Circadian rhythm every now and then .
I’ve gotten a lot of ideas from things I saw in life that I thought would translate well into video.
Some more abstract ideas from dreams.
Some ideas from incorrectly guessing what a director was going to do next on a movie.
So where are you heading?
“Places”, apparently. My personal horoscope says my curiosity about a variety of interests may or may not take me places.Seriously, though, I wish I knew. I make a lot of videos for YouTube, which are just now starting to get a lot of views and finally making some money. Hopefully that can be a relatively big part of my source of income, since I love having complete creative control and waking up at 2PM.I also co-wrote a feature film with a close friend of mine. We’re going to be shooting a 10-minute short-film version of it in April. I’m calling in a bunch of favors and spending money I don’t have to bring out some top local people and equipment to shoot it in 3 days.After that, we’ll post it online and use it as a tool to drum up financing for the feature film. Hopefully we can find a website willing to get a mutual benefit deal going by donating, say, $1 for every person that signs up to their
JOE PENNA Editor Compostor Vidographer
Who is Joe?
Joe is not an actor by any means. The only reason why I act in my own YouTube videos is because I can’t afford to pay a professional (or because I can’t find someone who’d be willing to play guitar for 13 hours in the freezing cold for free - see Guitar: Bumble).
I’ve never been good at following directions, which is probably why I’m much more useful behind the camera.
I love studying science and psychology and using those in creative ways. I love finding better or different ways to shoot a scene, or directing someone to express emotion in a way a lot of people will connect with.
I’m also really stubborn. Once I set my mind on something, I don’t stop until I get it or until I can find a better way to go about it. That’s probably
Some big inspirations for me are Robert Rodriguez for his one-man-crew attitude and Michel Gondry, who has probably broken every filmmaking “rule”.
So, am I gonna end up as a director? Or a cinematographer? Or editor? All of the above, I hope. Like Robert Rodriguez.
Joe Penna struck my eye, as things do, on the internet. I asked to interview himw and he was delightfuly willing, When he teaches me to film (I am just a producer) I will make a video and insert in my web site.
Joe Lives In Boston Mass. USA
JOE PENNA
978.400.6308 (USA)
http://www.pennajoe.com/ www.pennajoe.comEditor Compositor Videographer
We are looking out for innovative individuals. We tell their stories to our arts cultural and not-for-profit clients. We hope they will derive something from the insights of others. Neil McPherson
Professional Word has a brand new web site dedicated to the arts. The blog is is closely woven ioto the content of our new site.
http://www.professionalword.com
This blog is your source for practical tips, techniques and creative ideas for marketing your arts business. Learn about the latest and most successful marketing methods as well as effective content creation for websites and traditional media. We help arts businesses, arts organizations and not-for-profits succeed through sharing experience-based practices that save time, reduce costs, and improve results.
While keeping our clients’ marketing up-to-date, we seek the best examples from innovative sources that we know, but which are often overlooked.
Try not to overlook them yourself! What would you do if you discovered some of your current techniques no longer suit the market that you find int the new economy?
Financial Crisis: How arts and culture sector responds
Financial Crisis Mural in SoHo by bbusby (Source:Flickr)
Quite apart from the financial storm itself, developments in the fields of art and culture have brought changes that demand an active and informed response from marketers engaged in anything from a bookstore, concert hall or ballet venue to museums and arts organizations - everywhere.
Professor Helmut K. Anheier of Heidelberg University in Germany has provided food for thought and some strong recommendations in an article published by LabforCulture.org.
Its title was: “How is the arts and culture sector responding to the crisis?”
Professor Anheier begins with several examples of the recent signs:
“In Southern California, for example, the Orange County Opera Pacific cancelled its season and may shut down entirely. They said that a “limited number of donors who had funded the company no longer could come up with the necessary gifts in the wake of drastic hits to their investment portfolios” (Los Angeles Times, 6 November, 2008). Also caught in the budget crisis, the Orchestra of Pasadena cancelled two concerts and issued emergency fundraising appeals to save the remaining schedule. “
We could all add to that daily–growing list with events like closures or sackings by notable publishing houses and the rise of online book publishing (now embraced by the same bricks– mortar and ink publishers).
· Greater demand for cultural goods combined with less public funding
· Cost control rather than quality: Arts and culture drafted into business models designed for health, social services and health.
· Compensation of the same kind by non-profits – responding to lower government support levels.
· “Professionalization of finance, management and service delivery, often combined with a certain timidity in terms of advocacy”
· Fluctuating levels of support from private philanthropy
· Greater civic engagement and fiscal transparency (for legitimate) reasons affects policy
· Overly optimistic expectations about what foundations and groups’ support can do for arts and culture as government pending wanes
The report is extensive, and if you would appreciate more of the detail, you can access it here.
What are the options for arts and non-profits?
Professor Anheier makes these suggestions about action:
- Revisit the value base of your business or organization. Decide whether your service needs to base decisions on values rather than only economic rationale.
- Consolidate resources around mission critical, resource attractive programmes. Prune the rest. “Align stakeholders accordingly and build appropriate coalitions,” he says.
- Cooperate with others around mission central programmes. Think about mergers and franchises.
- Spread risk in revenue streams. Avoiding dependencies on government, donors. Diversify your earned-income options to meet changed market circumstances.
- Explain your plans to the market, and say how you plan to achieve those plans. “Transparency and public awareness with all stakeholders is important for any short-term reorganisations to find legitimacy and success.”
Helmut K. Anheier (Ph.D. Yale University, 1986) is Professor of Sociology at Heidelberg University and the academic Director of the Heidelberg Centre for Social Investment. He is also Professor and Director of the Center for Civil Society and the Center for Globalization and Policy Research at UCLA’s School of Public Affairs. Anheier’s work covers the civil society, the non-profit sector, philanthropy, organisational studies, policy analysis and comparative methodology. In 2008, he published Cultures and Globalization: The Cultural Economy.
The article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution …
Professional Word is running a series of posts about creative responses to the financial crisis, as it impacts on the arts and non-profits. If you have an example that you can relate, either in your own business or another’s business, we would be glad to offer you guest space here – assuming the example and its source is appropriate and legal.
Comments are very welcome and you can contact us at info@professionalword.com
