Rise And Shine With Dean Whitbread: Reflections On Reviewing Goals, John Cleese And Sarah Palin
Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: December 30th, 2008 | 0 Comments | Posted in: Goals, Marketing online, Networking online, online video, Social media, Social Media Ireland
This is the fourth guest blog post about social media and online communications predictions for 2009 and our contributor is Dean Whitbread.
In 2008 I started to implement plans that have been gestating for some years, so to understand what I was doing in 2008 and why requires some background.
Background
I work in both online and traditional media. In 2005, after five years of producing new media products and websites, I decided to push my work firmly in the direction of being paid directly for my creativity in the fields of writing and video and music production. The problem was that 80% of my income came from my knowledge of the internet.
Therefore, I surmised that I needed to re-position myself, so that people would stop coming to me for tech solutions, assistance in achieving their marketing goals and advice enhancing their communication technologies. There are quite enough people in the world doing this kind of work, I realised, and it is ecologically inadvisable to contribute to a glut, so I had both personal and political rationale.
So, in 2006, as well as online work, I produced an album for a young singer and that moved me considerably in the direction I wanted to go. In 2007, I found myself running Talking Voices, a podcasting company, and while this was good, reliable, corporate work, it started to take me away from where I wanted to go. The rudder needed to be applied, and this brings us to 2008.
Being More Visibly Creative
In January 2008 my work was split pretty much down the middle between work where my creative imagination and skills benefited other people’s projects, and strategic work which took advantage of the knowledge I have gained through online experimentation. Sometimes I was able to combine the two and for example write creatively in a focused way which served the purposes of other people – for e.g. my contributions to Cheeze blog.
My evolved strategy meant focusing less on my ever-widening network of online people, which derives from four years of blogging and podcasting, and moving on to creating a substantive cultural offering both for myself and for my clients, which would identify me as more creative.
Rise And Shine
In February, I piloted Rise and Shine, an internet breakfast show, in which songwriters face the daily challenge of writing a song based on news and current events.
Rise and Shine is an original format which uses podcasting with live multi-camera video streaming (Mogulus) as well as asynchronous video (Seesmic) and live text chat. This isn’t a typical geek offering – it doesn’t mention the mechanisms of technology and word-of-mouth marketing, it just uses them. It sets out to be accessible, entertaining and populist, and the enterprise is backed by a modern, internet-based music publishing company, Daily Song Ltd.
The pilot was a success – we produced some great songs, entertained a lot of people, raised over $1000 for BuskAid and gained a small but important foothold in the public imagination. Seesmic included Rise and Shine as their only 3rd party content when they launched up their video conversation platform at SXSW in March 2008.
This was good for me personally, and also for the project because it established our copyright format in the public domain. Aside from introducing our online show to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, Rise and Shine also established Seesmic as an open platform you could do business with – the perfect win / win for both companies.
John Cleese
Only once I have tested an online technology or platform and seen its strengths and benefits for myself will I suggest it for a client, and my experience with Seesmic gave me the confidence in the people and the platform to suggest this for John Cleese, for whom my company Small Pictures runs his online offering.
Now there is a huge difference between piloting a show and running a comedy legend’s online world, and so it took seven more months before I found myself in Santa Barbara on a warm October’s day, with Seesmic’s Vinvin and Whit Scott, in the role of Executive Producer, about to make a video with John and engage him in online webchat with Seesmic users.
John was on form, Vinvin played a blinder and we got some great material in on tape. However, this was a week of earthquake-sized proportions as half of Seesmic’s staff were laid off while we were mid-production, so my laid-back faciltator hands-off Exec. Prod. role transformed into a hands-on, get the video signed off and online by Friday role.
This was where listening will get you everywhere. Mid-interview, Vinvin asked, “What do you think of Sarah Palin?” and John’s priceless answer was picked up by the Seesmic crew.
Whit suggested putting that edited minute and a half on YouTube, and I instantly backed this very obviously good idea. YouTube, much derided, is the home of the great unwashed. If you want millions of eyeballs, that’s where they are. I bet the assembled office that we’d get minimum 20,000 views by the end of the week. The video went up on Tuesday. By Friday, it had been watched by half a million, and by the election three weeks later, well over a million. Number one on Digg, copied, mashed up, and a full house of UK quality press all added to a significant media hit.
A month later in November, we released the At Home With John Cleese video, but this time, I decided to use the HD video platform Vimeo. Using the same combination of Digg, Twitter and blogging, we topped 50k views, and I was really pleased to see that this minority platform could produce a similar effect, with quality preferred to quantity.
So the result of all this was tangible, as much as anything online is tangible. We managed to treble Seesmic’s traffic and stimulate a new swathe of users to join the platform. John’s forum, his Twitter account and his FriendFeed are very well-attended places – we have really added substantially to his online reach – and his Headcast video series has several new episodes ready for sale in the new year, further extending the link with Seesmic.
Success On A Tectonic Plate
So, I can sum up my ambitions of the past few years as being encapsulated in 2008 – sought after for my creative inspiration, insight, choice and treatment of subject matter, and ability to make original culture* in both online and traditional media.
[*NB: I do not use the hateful word "content'" which offends poets, artists and thinkers of all persuasions.]
Did I realise my aims in 2008? Most definitely, yes. In a tough year, I had a lot of fun. I moved my perceived role emphatically towards the place I feel most comfortable, which is the creative. I utilised the practical knowledge I have gained from my creative work to pay my mortgage, and I got other people paid, too. I improvised where necessary, I didn’t get caught up (for long!) in petty distractions. I made some very positive personal connections, and I didn’t abandon my personal strategy.
Stepping down from running the UK Podcasters Association in November freed up more precious time for me, and now I look forward to pushing forward with the song writing and video making, enjoying the online and real world, and leaving behind the restrictions of being useful in 2009.
My only wider predictions for 2009 are that some will be disappointed and some will triumph, and frankly, it’s anyone’s guess who that will be.
ABOUT THE GUEST BLOGGER
Dean Whitbread is Director of Small Pictures Ltd. He comments:
“For a living, I write prose and lyrics, compose music, produce audio and video. My background is in visual art, performance, music and events. You can find out more details at my blog – leave a comment there to contact me.
Please don’t request to follow me on Twitter!”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Access the previous 2009 social media and online engagement articles by:
