I’m putting on my company-owner hat for this post. I had a friend who recently asked about what his website should look like. Like many, he relies on outside contracts and gigs as a freelancer to make his living. So while I did suggest what it COULD look like, I prefaced my suggestion with, more importantly, the driving thought process behind it:

1st Question:
When someone is looking at hiring you, where do they go?
Answer:
Google.

2nd question:
What do they find?
Answer:
1. Anything either from your or about you that’s floating around on the internet
2. Everything YOU put up there and were deliberate about placing.

Example 1: A friend on Twitter was hired by an LA production company for some VH1 stuff because they liked what they saw of him on Twitter.

Example 2: Google my name for fun. I have almost the entire first page of Google. That’s a GOOD thing because I am in control of what people find about me.

That naturally means your content and interactions on the web say something about you. But what do they say? Are you inflammatory on the boards? Sarcastic and rude on your blog? Antagonistic on Twitter and in comments? All those things say something about how you interact with people and WILL be a determining factor in whether or not someone chooses to work with you.

Conclusion: Make sure that when someone Google’s you, they find what YOU put there, not what someone else puts up about you or for you. But that also means getting involved on forums and social media so the first thing that comes up when someone types in “Your Name” is a page full of vids, comments, blog posts, forum tags, pictures, articles, links and stuff that YOU contributed.

The level of activity is up to you. But if you’re regularly pitching your services to potential clients, get some level of activity going because we’re going to find what’s out there about you. We’re not looking for perfection, we’re looking to know everything we can about what you’re like in the flesh.

Tags: education, marketing, philosophy, tools, web

One App to Bind Them, One App to Rule Them All

I have to blog about this. Scott Simmons over at The Edit Blog turned me on to it in a tweet this morning, shot me an invite and now I’m rollling. It really feels like the one application that rules them all. In a nutshell, it aggregates all of my communications across the web. Far beyond that though, it operates like an email account, your Twitter account, your Facebook account etc. You can send, archive, apply lables (Gmail), view, respond, interact, etc. Here are the applications, windows, and other things this app replaces for me:

1. Tweetdeck- completely
2. Facebook- partially
3. Adium- completely
4. Gmail – sort of

All of the above of which I have open all the time and have multiple accounts with. This is fantastic. This app brings these accounts together integrated in such a way that makes my communication way better and far more cohesive. For example, I received a new Twitter follow notification in my email account…I clicked the email in Threadsy (via Gmail) and was able to actually see his Twitter information, recent Tweets etc, in the side window. I don’t have to actually click through to Twitter or open up Tweetdeck now to get his information.

Chat integration (via Meebo) is simply outstanding. I use to have Adium up all the time- now I can shut that off and leave it in a brower. I don’t have to have a gazillion tabs and windows open either. I forsee this application being a must-have keeper for me.

If you’re familiar with CoTweet, you’ll see and find a striking resemblance with it.

Not Completely God-Like

Gmail: Because of the way I set up my Gmail account as simply the front end for my various forwarded domains (I don’t actually use my Gmail address) and even thoughGmail connects via IMAP, I still have to respond to all emails in Gmail…this is a HUGE bummer. I would like to see the ability to specify which domain accounts (set up in Gmail) I can send from or simply reply to from the same account it came in on.

*NOTE: If you’re a normal Gmail user, it works perfectly*

Contacts: No access to my email or facebook addess books as a separate tab (when composing a new message from a given account, you can select your contact ala FB style depending on whether you’re sending from Twitter, FB, Gmail). I would like to a separate window which you can add and remove contacts that syncs with Gmail and Facebook.

Facebook Pages: I maintain and admin four different Facebook Pages. The Facebook Connect feature is not as stout as Tweetdeck’s in that you don’t the ability to specify pages you’re admin of. I’d love to see this feature as well as the ability to interact with the conversations and updates on those pages.

LinkedIn: I almost didn’t mention this because it’s not that huge of an issue. I don’t spend much time on LinkedIn, but I’d love to see this add-on for messaging and contacts, and perhaps a connect ability; you select a contact on Twitter, or email or whatever and see a link to their LinkedIn account to which you can connect or messagge- a good work around is to continue forwarding updates to your email and just using their site as before.

A Ring I’m Wearing

There are total work-arounds to the Facebook Pages and LinkedIn options- just link your status on your FB pages to your Twitter accounts and viola- you don’t have to update those. Contacts…an issue, but not a big one, just keep adding contacts as usual (I add very little). As far as Gmail goes, don’t open it until you have too, or plan an hour or so a couple times a day to respond to emails- work management, but Threadsy will tell you when you have ‘em.

Regardless of the downfalls (and I’m going to pester them to no end on the email/Gmail issue), this is one app I’m keeping. it’s just so freakin’ handy. I’ll still have to keep Gmail open, but there’s absolutely no reason why I need to log in to Facebook, or my chat or Tweetdeck ever again (except the above mentioned Facebook Pages issue).

Check ‘em out when you get a chance. I have 9 invites left so let me know if you want one.

Tags: communication, tools, web

Introduction

I have a lot to say or a lot to rant about or…I don’t know. As you know, I spent some time in Cancun right after I got back from shooting the last bit of the new doc, Unheralded. Cancun was awesome. Then it was full-tilt once I got back in to the studio. Not sure how that happened, but I ended up with too much to do and not enough time. Then, I got completely frustrated not having RT playback in Premiere CS4- it hasn’t bothered me with short form stuff, but this long form is not fun.

Video

AVID – So I download the Avid Media Composer demo and give it a whirl. I love it. But it’s a demo so I start poking around to see if they offer a non-profit discount. I see that they do via one of their authorized resellers but I email to clarify and he says “yes,” 501(c)3 organizations get the discount. I place my order, submit my verification and it gets cancelled because I didn’t submit anything. I email the guy who said I’m good to go and I haven’t heard back. I call Avid, leave a message and I haven’t been called back.

ADOBE – Right, I’m going to presume that they lied and I don’t get that discount. So back to Adobe. I email the Sr. Adobe Evangelist (we’ve been Twitterers for a while now) and ask him about the preferred codec for Adobe if you’re using footage that doesn’t come with a preset (in this case Cineform). He’s like, “I do everything DVCProHD- you’re almost guaranteed RT playback without issue every time.” That’s the straightest answer I’ve gotten in two years with Adobe. So I transcode a couple clips and cut up this vid:  I like it. It’s not without metadata and proxy-relink issues, but RT playback is the bomb and I don’t have to change much plus the DVCProHD files are half the size of my Cineform masters so I can put the whole project on my VR Mini set. Unless Avid tells me I qualify at which point, I’ll be editing DNxHD.

Design

WEB – On that note, I have to create websites as well. We use a CMS backend called Kintera (or Blackbaud Sphere). These guy are awesome and massively on top of things. Too bad their built-in website templates and formatting suck. So I’m working on integrating Dreamweaver CSS/XHTML with Kintera .KDF/.KTF template structure. Needless to say I’m pulling my beard out more than I’m actually solving any problems.

LAYOUT – I have a host of design work coming up the biggest of which is the NP’s new product catalogue. We don’t have much but it needs to look nice, present well and make people happy. One of those projects where (as indicated in above paragraphs) I have no say in, yet I’m designing it. I design, they mark it all up and debate it and I design again and the process continues until it’s finished.

Conclusion

The ski area is open, we have good snow, my little sister had her baby, the beer is near and my dogs are happy.

Tags: cineform, design, dnxhd, non-profit, Production, web