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Interview

Twitterview with EduWEB Conference Director Shelley Wetzel

by Tom Williams on February 25, 2010

in Higher Education, Interview, MicroBlogging, Recruitment, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

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I recently did my first ever Twitterview with Shelley Wetzel, director of the eduWEB conference.  This conference pulls together some of the best and brightest Web developers, marketers, designers and technologists serving the Higher Education market (both working in colleges and universities and serving that market).

eduWEB ConferenceLast year, InnoGage joined forces with Jadu and sponsored the Social Media at the Conference in Chicago.  The idea just kind of hit me out of the blue.  When I shared it with Shelley, she was on board immediately.  Jadu jumped in to assist and the whole thing came off beautifully.  You can read more about that HERE if you want.

Now, onto the Twitterview!  You can view the twitterview HERE (at least for the next few months) Or you can attempt to read it in the blog below….

Remember, since Twitter streams down, you have to go to the BOTTOM first and read your way up.  You’ll see that the tweets don’t always pull through in complete sequential order so you need to watch out for that too.  Enjoy the Twitterview…HEAD TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST AND START READING UPWARDS.

Realtime results for eduweb

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Lessons from Lonelygirl15 Content is still KING

by Tom Williams on December 8, 2009

in Companies, Interview, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Web2.0, YouTube

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Dave Ghazarian SuperchickI was in Los Angeles a few days ago, having had the chance to be the best man in rock-superstar Dave Ghazarian’s wedding… It was an awesome time but that’s another story for another day (wedding was beautiful, btw).  The point of this blog post is actually what happened on the flight back from LA.

I was sitting on a very full flight wondering who would sit down next to me. Much to my surprise and delight, it was Greg Goodfried!

Who the heck is Greg Goodfried? you say…valid question. I actually didn’t know either at that moment. Then Greg starts to tell me about how in 2006 he and his business partner, Miles Beckett, hatched an idea to put a show on YouTube. They pooled a little money, casted for it and found Jessica Rose - a cute, young, unknown, new to LA, girl from New Zealand. They named her Bree and she went under the identity of Lonelygirl15 on YouTube.

If you’ve never heard of Lonelygirl15, you have really missed out. Lonelygirl15 BreeBree was an instant success racking up astonishing YouTube views for each video they posted…I’m talking hundreds of thousands - almost overnight. What was amazing was that the views grew with each subsequent video release. Unlike previous one-hit-wonders on YouTube, Greg and Miles created a SUSTAINABLE AND GROWING audience.

This brings me to my point…CONTENT.

Greg and Miles planned the whole show out. Each webisode was carefully scripted and was part of an overall story that had already been written.  The morale of this story is, no matter what form of social media you are involved with (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or all of the above and more) you need to have a roadmap and a plan and most importantly, you need to create content that is interesting, engaging, shocking, surprising, funny, mysterious…you get the point right?  People have to want to read or watch your stuff.

In a world that is now being saturated by content, where everyone is a creator, a publisher, a screen writer, an actor, a field reporter…Ultimately, Good Content Will Win Out.  Greg and Miles now run a company called Eqal, which specializes in helping talented people centralize their social media presence while working with big brands.  Want to guess what their secret sauce is?  Yep, Content!

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In case you are still clueless on the Lonlygirl15 phenomenon… I have embedded a video from Bree during the series below.  This sucker has been watched 3.5 MILLION times and racked up over 10,000 comments from viewers.  Notice the media is nothing special.  It’s low-res cam, messy room, rough-cut slapped together editing and a rather stupid puppet show at the end…however…when it’s over you feel connected to the character.  She’s going through something with her parents.  She can’t tell us.  What is it?  You think people watched the next episode to find out?  Oh yeah.

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AMA Social Media SIG Presentation

November 19, 2009

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to co-present at the American Marketing Association Special Interest Group on Social Media (AMA SIG for short).  I worked with Steve Bell, Founder and Principle at Strategic Marketing Innovations Consulting.  It was so much fun working with Steve, who is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever [...]

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Social Media = Green(Recruiting + Marketing) Earth Day 2009!

April 21, 2009

InnoGage’s innovative, engaging connectivity tools allow for educational facilities and corporations to use the power of social media to achieve their goals, minimize their environmental impact and maximize their profits.

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Ohio State University - Facebook Faux Pas

April 8, 2009

Ohio Sate has been a leader among large Public Universities with their embrace of social media and Web2.0 tools.  However, they stumbled a few days ago when confronted with the NEGATIVE side of Social Media.
What happens when the 2-way digital communication doesn’t go exactly how you planned?

I was able to get Jim Lynch, Director of [...]

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Blogs: Cornerstone of Social Media - Video Interview

January 12, 2009

I was recently interviewed by Peter Baron from AdmissionsQuest. AdmissionsQuest is the leader in admissions information for boarding schools.
Peter and I connected via Skype for this interview.  What’s cool about this is you can see us both in the video window!  What’s not so cool is that the video is a bit choppy.   However, [...]

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Live Streaming from Chicago - AMA Symposium

November 14, 2008

We realize that you can only attend so many conferences in a given year.  With budgets tight, you have to make hard choices.  If you’re unable to attend this year’s AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Ed…
HAVE NO FEAR !

Not only is the InnoGage team going to be shooting video, taking pictures, tweeting and [...]

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Facebook Fiasco - how to turn negative into positive

November 7, 2008

“Fiasco” is probably a bit harsh…but the truth is many colleges are afraid of a social media “Fiasco”.  You know how it goes…you do a quick cost / benefit analysis where you can’t quantify the benefits but the potential costs seem readily apparent.  Management’s decision is simple and easy - Stay Away from Social Media!
I [...]

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Tom Williams Interviewed by Columbus Tech Life

October 27, 2008

I was recently interviewed by Ben Blanquera, blogger for Columbus Tech Life.  Not only is the blog a great write-up but I am very excited about what Ben is doing to spur growth and innovation in the IT and Social Media community in central Ohio.
Link to Ben’s blog:
http://columbustech.blogspot.com/2008/10/interview-with-entrepreneur-tom.html

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Video interview with Craig Newmark - founder of Craigslist

October 24, 2008

I had the privilege of interviewing Craig Newmark from Craigslist at the 2.Ohio event in Columbus on Oct 10th.  Craig is a humble, soft spoken, no-ego kind of guy…which is amazing considering the proliferation and popularity of his website, Craigslist.com.  Even on his business card, his title is “customer service rep. & founder”… (notice which [...]

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