A little over a week ago I attended a marketing and technology conference, hoping to  A) see what the competition is up to and B) maybe learn a few things. As it turns out, I got to do both. We work very hard to stay current on social media marketing, and as a rabid iPhone user I’m already quite familiar with the mobile data hog trend that’s sweeping the tech world (as is my wife, she pays the AT&T bill). What did open my eyes were some numbers presented by Famous Rhodes, Director of eBay Motors.

Some facts Famous bright to light:

• Mobile phone internet commerce is fastest growing commerce sector
  • Smart phones went from 0% to 20% of mobile market in 8 years
  • Over 100 MILLION iPhones have been sold worldwide
  • 160,000 Google phones are activated every DAY
  • By 2013, 40% of internet traffic will be mobile
  • Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 models in the first weekend it went on sale
  • iTunes already has over 225,000 apps
  • Google’s Android has over 70,000 apps in less than one year

Those are BIG numbers. As a communications professional, my goal is to make sure as many qualified eyeballs as possible see my client’s message. The tough part is keeping a finger in a LOT of pies, from Facebook fan pages and YouTube video channels to forums, print PR, TV, newspapers, Twitter and more. The key to conglomerating all this info into a single channel isn’t the computer or TV like everyone predicted 20 years ago – it’s the phone. As it stands I check my email, twitter, facebook and website on my phone constantly. I think most consumers under 40 do the same.

That said, the key moving forward is to obtain an M-Commerce leadership position now, while the field is still young and growing. The video game and fashion industries have already taken a foothold, automotive is lagging behind. We have several new projects in development that will help clients put all data into a single channel available on any phone, and that’s the key to streamlining all the communication strategies into a single stream of information. Of course the info has to be fun and entertaining, otherwise what’s the point?

I’ll have more exciting news regarding these programs soon, in the meantime enjoy Pete, Roger and Keith doing their thing.

We’ll start with video work since it demands more specific settings and consumes a lot more space.

Filming:

• Shoot with a tripod whenever possible. This is an effort to reduce the amount of shake and vibrations in our videos. When I’m out filming cars, I always have a tripod with me. For interviews, stationary shots, moving shots, pans, and everything else, these shots look a lot more professional. When the footage is more professional it shows that your company puts a lot of effort and thought into every little detail.

• Shoot everything in the same format. Now with HD cameras especially you are given plenty of options in how the camera will record its footage. Varying formats in the same project not only looks less professional, it also can be entirely incompatible.
  • At Kahn Media everything as of right now is shot in 720p and the majority of footage is at 30fps. Why? Because the majority of our video goes online, and YouTube maxes out at 720p, but this format still looks good on a TV screen.
  • Use a GoPro Hero HD? The setting R2 for 1080i/p is largely unnecessary for most internet-based projects and will just result in a larger file size.
  • If you shoot something with the intent of it being turned into slow-motion footage, keep the 720p and shoot at 60fps. This is double the frame rate so the slowed footage will look much smoother.
    • Normal Footage: 720p/30fps
    • Slow Motion Footage: 720p/60fps (R3 on the GoPro)

• Import the Footage from the Camcorder. It is important that you import footage from the camera instead of dragging files over like a hard drive. Cameras don’t automatically record to an editable file format. The footage needs to be imported into an editing program. Cameras come with software to properly import footage and many other programs are also capable of doing this. I’ve been receiving a growing number of .MTS files lately as well as many other non-compatible formats. We have ways of making MTS files work eventually but it is very time consuming and just delays videos further. The exception to this being GoPros which record into a .MOV file format which is perfect for editing.
  • Import footage – don’t just drag files over (Except for with Gopros)
  • Desired files: Uncompressed .MOV Files

Photography:

• Shoot high-resolution. We don’t need or necessarily want RAW files for event coverage and/or blog posts. However, a high-quality JPEG can go a long way.

• Shoot with the sun to your back. This is for lighting/exposure purposes of course. You can do a lot with ambient (natural) light if you utilize it properly. This tip can help you eliminate a lot of unwanted shadows and will clean up the look of photos significantly.

• Show as much as you can. Take photos of everything going on. A cool car, a race, a funny story, a cool story, anything relevant.

• Avoid busy backgrounds. Nothing kills a shot quicker than having your competitors’ vehicles in the background. Always try to get your company’s car separate from anything that could make the photo unusable.

For Both:

• Get multiple shots of each car. Get overview shots and specific shots of your product. If possible, get photos that include the vehicle and owner’s info (Ex: A tag at a car show)

• Interview customers. Ask people questions that use your product. Film their reactions (use a microphone if possible). Take some notes, maybe a good write-up or caption could be tied into the photos. People also enjoy feeling like their voice is heard, especially if it’s by the companies that they have given their hard-earned money to.

• Show people having a good time. Get shots of people enjoying events you sponsor, or customers enjoying your products. This can be as valuable, if not more so than a traditional commercial. People like companies that not only have good products but also reinvest in the community and give that community a chance to enjoy themselves (Ex: Muscle car events for the Muscle Car Community). Make a point of showing that you support the community and that people are enjoying events you sponsor.

• Have fun. If you’re having a good time while shooting and experiencing the cars or races it’ll carry over to the footage. Our goal here isn’t just about showing company’s products, we want to show that our clients are into fun. All of our clients have products that are used in fun applications like races. We want people to see footage from events that our clients contribute to and/or participate in. If someone uses a client’s product in the race I will show that person using the product and usually interview him or her as well. It’s better to have more footage and sort through it than coming up short on footage when working on something.

It’s important that you put some effort into the quality of photo and video work for your company. Customers, both current and potential, will notice the quality of this and directly associate it with your product. The cleaner and better shot everything is, the better the company’s image. Follow these steps when possible and have a good time while doing so and it’ll work wonders.

I can’t wait to see what you guys can do.

Thanks,

-Alex Auerbach

Since he just settled a lawsuit with the GOP I thought it appropriate to kick this post off with a little Jackson Browne. Hope he doesn’t sue me. Sorry about the long delay, I’ve been workin’ hard hustling media for a few new clients and I’ve neglected my little corner of the interwebs.

So here’s the deal… I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts that an uncanny number of my aged-challenged friends and family have been hopping onto the Facebook bandwagon. Even big media outlets have noticed. In a way, that’s a fantastic thing because it means all demos are becoming comfortable with social media. However like most trends of the past few decades, where the Baby Boomers go, big business will follow. And, like MySpace before it, Facebook is in the process of revamping its advertising program to accommodate new ad packages.

Facebook actually only became the reigning traffic champ about a month ago, but most marketers started shying away from the platform as far back as a year go, when the NewsCorp buyout caused a seismic shift in who was actually using the site. Until Rupert got his hands on it, Myspace was essentially a gathering place for young people. After the massive ads went up and started alienating people, waves of users started shifting towards Facebook. For a short time record labels and movie studios Myspace pages helped bolster the site’s traffic, but the magic is gone and Myspace is essentially a trade show hall filled with companies showing their wares and exhibiting their hipness to a non-existent crowd. So Myspace is essentially dunzo.

Now it looks like Facebook might be going the same way. According to recent PC Magazine/MSN story, people are flocking to Twitter from Facebook. I can’t say I blame them. Facebook is still an excellent platform for reconnecting with old friends and promoting companies and/or clients. The problem is the new site design bombards people with so many updates and such a deluge of information that any self-respecting page with more than a few hundred friends can’t effectively keep news or updates on the front page for more than a few minutes. So…. unless you’re literally sitting at your computer checking your wall all day, you’ll probably miss a load of info. Twitter essentially takes the update portion of Facebook and throws away the rest.

Now I’m not a huge fan of using Twitter for PR purposes unless you have a dedicated tweeter that knows what they’re doing and only broadcasts relevant, interesting info. It will be interesting to sit back and see how things play out, but my gut instinct tells me that Facebook will be irrelevant in two years, and a new platform will have taken its place. What do you think?

RED LINE OIL RETAINS KAHN MEDIA FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS, OUTREACH

Red Line Synthetic Oil Corp. (Benicia, CA), which manufacturers a line of motor oils, gear oils and additives, has engaged Kahn Media of Woodland Hills, CA, to provide Red Line with North American media outreach and P.R. assistance. This includes targeted media outreach, social media marketing, new product debuts, events and special projects.

More specifically, Kahn is working with Red Line’s management on strategic planning initiatives, as well as the development and implementation of a social media marketing campaign. Kahn also will promote Red Line’s motorsports initiatives, including drag racing, sports car road racing and more.

You can read the whole issue here.

I’m not going to spend time in this post talking about “web 2.0″ or the importance of leveraging social media as a means to market your brand. I’ve said it all before, and frankly if you’re a)reading this post, or b)anyone born after 1980 you already know it.

Instead I’m just going to point out a fantastic article Charles Hull from Archrival wrote for MediaPost about developing Facebook apps to promote your brand. He’s right-on, if you can develop a fun, easy-to-use app that promote your brand without bombarding people with constant updates and notifications, it will become viral and produce the desired effect.

I can’t tell you how many brand-promotional apps I’ve tried that ended up making me angry because they either harvested my profile info to push content to my friends that didn’t opt-in, or slammed my inbox with junk. Those have the opposite effect and should be avoided. In any case, a good article so enjoy!

I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of Twitter on a personal level. I understand its marketing potential. In fact, one of my clients uses Twitter to keep people updated during races and events to great effect. So it certainly has its purpose.

My issue with the service is that, like every other “hot new trend” in social media, once a few “gurus” start talking about how incredible something is and the masses flock to it, the results are rarely good in the long term for the platform. Need I remind everyone of the original uber-social media site, MySpace, and what happened in the months after Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp purchased it. They sold ad space to any corporation willing to write a check, made the site clunky and slow, and it has now lost the war with Facebook (badly) and just lost its CEO.

So with that in mind, everyone is Tweeting… even people who probably shouldn’t be. Ashton Kutcher and CNN had a race to one million followers, and everyone’s favorite cougar-bait beat the news network handily. The true winner in that battle, however, was Twitter. The race gave the site major mainstream media coverage – enough that Ms. Oprah Winfrey herself jumped into the Twitter fray.

Oprah’s first tweet was less than stellar (in all caps no less… reminds me of a former boss who send every message in all caps, fully knowing it meant he was screaming). It was the Tweet heard ’round the world, and according to HitWise, the site went bonkers. Below is the percentage of internet users on Twitter and what happened the day Oprah logged in.

That’s a 24% increase in ONE DAY! Crazy, right? So does this mean Twitter is the next big thing? Sadly, yes… until the general public gets so wrapped up in it that blundering, irresponsible corporate communicators jump in, handle the campaigns poorly (a’la Myspace, see above) and turn off the influencers. Then they’ll jump ship for the next thing, and the cycle will repeat.

In the meantime, some advice:

If you decide to sign your company up for a Twitter feed, keep it simple and relevant. No need to send everyone an update every time you get gas or buy a candy bar. Share images. Keep it interesting. Content is always king, especially when you have to compete with Oprah.

I have a feeling this is as much a defensive move in response to lost income from failing newspapers as it is a genuine beef with Google. I love the AP, and some of the most well-written and thoroughly researched international news stories come out of that agency. It makes me a little sad that the prevailing minds at the country’s biggest print news agency are taking the same path as many of the papers they serve: fighting against google rather than embracing it.

If they worked out a content sharing program that used adsense to monetize their content rather than blocking the number one aggregator’s access to their content, it would probably work better and would certainly deliver more eyeballs to their content.

I’ll keep you posted on developments.