Social Media Camp - Miami w/ Erica Ogrady

On August 2, Social Media Camp came to Miami, Florida. This event was hosted by Erica Ogrady at the Wolfsonian - Florida International University on Miami Beach.

What is Social Media Camp?
Social Media Camp brings together the brightest minds in Social Media with people interested in learning more about the power of Community Based Marketing. The event follows the BarCamp / unconference format.

Did you attend the event? What did you think?

Post a comment. Initially I didn't have huge expectations for the event, since it was on Saturday and the beach is preferred in Miami over tech events. I enjoyed myself, met a lot of new people but some of the presentations were a lame and a little too self promotion. Here is a video clip of one of great presentations from the day. The host Erica giving an overview about Social Media. Overall, she put together a great event...

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Awesome story of my lost artwork

This is an awesome story of how my artwork was found on the side of the road during college around 1997, then sent to me 11 years later. With the power of the internet here is a note I received on my Flickr account:

You do not know me but I think you must have spent some time in Tallahassee. I went to FSU. To make a long story short, one night I was driving home and almost ran something over. I stopped the car, got out and found a large book. On the top of the book it said Alex Harris. When I opened the book it said Alex Harris ORIGINALS. There were about 30 pieces of bad ass talented art work in that book. Some of the pieces of art work are currently on the web. I just decided to google your name after unpacking a bunch of old boxes in my attic. There was no contact phone number to call so I decided to keep it. Contact me at XXX@XXX.com

How cool is that!

He eventually went through my site and landed on my Flickr profile. Confirmed the artwork was mine and sent me the note. Turns out the artwork are prints of my original pieces. The book was used as a catalog when I sold artwork at the student union on FSU campus. Has anything like this happened to you? Take a look at some of the artwork that was found...

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Creative Day - Fun times, inspiration and more motivation!

This past weekend was Creative Day at my house. Really, it was my birthday party, but it was also a way to get together with my friends and have an art party. This is something we did a lot in college (10 years ago - wow) and now my excuse is - I really don't have a lot of time to work on traditional art projects.

Overall we had a really great day. I attempted to set up a live web stream but it didn't work out because my wireless wouldn't reach far enough - sorry to those who were expecting to watch us. Yet, many came out to paint, draw, take pictures, shoot videos or just hang out.

Aside from the party, part of setting this up was important to me for many reasons. 1) It forced me to organize my art supplies so I can set up my art studio 2) Provided instant inspiration to get more involved mixing art with new media 3) I was able to document my talented friends and we encouraged each other to be doing this a lot more.

Have you ever been to an art party?

Let me know, I would hear ideas from other events in your city. There were a lot of photography going on as well. Here are some videos I shot during the day. For the HD versions visit my vimeo page.

Ryan Droze - @droze



Jimmy Allen - @stinkyfatpig

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Is Google Friend Connect a Game Changer?

How will Google Friend Connect change blogs, social networks and relationships across the web?
Take a look at the video and post a comment on what you think.

Have you seen a site in action?

Let me know, I would love to see this live on a site and view how it works.

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Video has changed everything: design + marketing + future

There were two challenges for me to start doing my own video. One, I have no time. So it is really tough to fit anything into my schedule, especially editing and learning new programs/formats. The second reason is I know I am terrible in front of the camera and a really bad presenter.

Now after 2 months of experimentation, video has really changed everything for me. For example, almost twice a week someone NEW mentions seeing one of my videos. These online relationships are now more valuable because we have a more personal connection.

Also, I am seeing design, movies and marketing concepts a lot differently. It's a new perspective on how to make things more beautiful and precise. In ecommerce, it is providing more credibility for websites with low brand awareness and will directly improve conversion rates. Or at least shrinks the buying sales process for new customers. Video reviews are great use for this space. Plus, creating video assets are more valuable than photos, graphs or articles. Videos have more viral opportunity so the long tail is even longer.

With each new video I complete, I take a step towards pushing my creativity and improving my career. The quality of the videos will get better along with my verbal skills. In the meantime, below is my first HD movie I put online (personal test). You can preview it below, or visit Vimeo for the full HD version.

Are you doing video?

Let me know - I would love to share thoughts on editing, concepts or collaborations.


Owen In Florida from alex harris on Vimeo.

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If you were 14 years old, what would inspire you?

My girlfriend's nephew, Mike, is 14 years old and really passionate. Last week I saw his fashion designs (below) and told him he should start a blog, then ask people to review them. 2 days later, he put a site online all by himself. I motivated him and now I am asking you to inspire him. If you were 14 years old again (not even in high school yet), what advice would you want to hear?
Please comment on Mike's web site "My Designs". Thanks in advance!

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Automatically Improve Traffic from Social Networking Websites

Are you getting (non paid) web traffic and leads from social networking websites? I am working on a comprehensive strategy to improve "Referring Social Network Traffic". The business goals of using social sites include building brand exposure, creating customer relationships and bringing traffic back to the original website. This works the same for personal branding and corporate web marketing plans. Now you can automate the delivery of content to each of the social networking websites and stay consistently activate. This results in improving your "Referring Social Network Traffic". The key is to make it really easy for customers to connect (friend) and find you on ALL of the social networks so the audience consistently increases. I think, all of your personal and/or business profiles need a consistent look and feel to ensure brand consistency.

Here are some things to think about:

1. Your website or blog needs to have a "Social Networking" section. This area should be very easy to find and include clickable icons with text links. You can also use Lijit and automate the icons that show up on your website, plus track those subscriptions.


2. Make sure your company or brand is easy to find in a search query on the popular social networking sites. This can be done by using target keyword phrases or tags in the personal profiles, business profiles and groups you create. Example: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and ect should all have a consistent about me section in the profile messaging that includes target keywords.


3. Companies need to move marketing dollars into video. This is especially important since YouTube is owned by Google. Video is an essential part of universal search. Naming and tagging your videos with keywords make them show up better in search results. Tip - Try TubeMogul and you can upload one video, then distribute it to ten sites at once, plus tag and track them all in once place.


4. Automate the content updates for ALL social networking sites. For example, with Twitter you can update your status on Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Tumblr, SocialThing, FriendFeed and more. You can also automatically make your new YouTube videos show up on Facebook. Plus automate your blog posts, events, Flickr photos to show up on your profile(s). This makes the company look active and keeps your audience's attention.


5. Connect with your audience with automated marketing research. For example, with TweetScan you can track keywords on Twitter and create RSS feeds out of that content. So, you can be notified automatically (web or sms) when someone talks about your brand or even a competitors. Also, Google and Yahoo alerts are extremely helpful to track blogs, news and ect.


6. Create viral content that is easily shareable. The biggest traffic drivers for me have been controversial articles that attract a lot of comments or people to Digg or Stumble.


7. A custom email signature is an easy way to express that you are using social sites. Having this on your personal or business emails will help increase your fans and friends.


8. [Addition] Widgets are great tools also, suggested by Justin Thorp. Widgets are a great way to deliver automated content, games and applications for a company or brand. Example: A health brand can create a widget for their audience to use on their desktop, Facebook, MySpace and personal start page or websites. Clicking links in widget and forwarding of applications will result in more traffic back to your site.

Who else is thinking about this?

Have you see other blog posts about the automation of content for social networking sites? Are you generating traffic from your social networking websites? Please post your ideas or feedback here.

I am testing this strategy across the web with corporate and personal websites to see which social networking sites bring the most traffic back to the original websites. Plus, I am experimenting with the best ways to get brand exposure, plus find ways to monitor the success in traffic, leads and conversions.

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