Artists are constantly strung to their work while simultaneously (and rather obsessively) focused on all possible creative endeavors. The driving force behind great arts seems to be this OCD quality and need for creative perfection.  Artists, as well as designers have an extreme case of extroverted intuition. A constant need to observe, interpret, and make. This is with cost, the artist will become a loner, not nearly as social. A tremendous interpersonal frustration forms. The individual artists needs social context, and are driven away from this need by the creative pursuit. What is this individual to do?

Creative thinkers are now imbued with endless social possibilities online. Personal links and networks across continents can form, all while the artists is scudded away in the confines of his dark studio. Essentially, web social media has given artists a modern day form of communication (a movement in a sense). Sites like core77.com have brought thousands of artists/designers together in one spot. Issues in design are brought to the masses and discussed through forums and blogs. Individual and company portfolios are laid out for all to see. These web communities merely reflect creative group-think persona that has been around for ages. Artists are provided with an outlet to observe as well as a path to communicate.

Since the cavemen, artists have reached out to each other (a need driven by their lack of social context). It seems as though every great creative period involved major communities of artist. Grand masters of the renaissance period collaborated with peers and students. Salvador Dali amongst other great painters intermingled during the surrealist movement. Artists worked with each other in studios, some even lived together. This is really no different today save for that creative communication has been optimized through the Internet.

I find it rather odd when individuals detest the advantages of web media. I hear stuff like “Twitter and Facebook are destroying our privacy.” The truth, is that web media is just a more fantastic tool by which people can communicate, especially for those creative types. No longer are people of similar interest confined to groups within a small geographical range. The “isolated artist,” has web media to provide that that potent outlet for social context. Old habits are treated with a new means solution.

Perhaps Starbucks enlisted me at too early an age with Grande Caramel Macchiatos and its many variations. How could I even compare leaf-flavored hot water to a caramel chocolaty caffeinated shake that my mom somehow allowed me to drink before school?

In the last year, though, I’ve voyaged out to discover what the big deal was, why my dad, who remembers nobody’s name remembers Earl Grey’s when he’s sick, why my roommate always makes a cup of chamomile before bed, why the English dedicate a whole time in their day to the brew.

Enter: Sarah Rose. Author of the new release For All The Tea in China.

It’s kind of strange how things work out. One day a weird girl is weirdly wondering about why people don’t find tea that weird, the next, she’s interviewing the author of a book about the history of tea!

Rose’s For All the Tea in China is a nonfiction book that reads like a fictional page-turner. As you travel with Robert Fortune on his journey through China to steal the recipe for the beloved beverage, you realize that putting some dried leafy stuff in hot water is a perfected, ancient art. There was a time when tea made the world go round. It influenced foreign policy, and it catapulted men into adventures into the unknown. You could say that tea is drink that launched a thousand ships…or one man, Robert Fortune, with the tenacity of a thousand ships to bring tea under British power.

I got to interview Sarah Rose, a native of Chicago, about For All the Tea in China. Here’s what she had to say:

1. How many cups of tea did you drink while writing “For All The Tea in China?” Or, oh no. Are you a coffee drinker?

For about 2 years in the middle of the book, I couldn’t touch the stuff. I would look at a cup of tea and shudder. I got over it. Now I love tea again. (and no, I’m not a coffee drinker)

2. I follow you now on Twitter. You Tweet a good amount of clever and fun 140 or less characters. As a writer and published author, why did you join Twitter? Does Twitter and other forms of new media “do” anything for the modern writer?

I joined for mercenary reasons, I thought Twitter might be a good avenue to promote FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA. There is a pretty active tea community on Twitter. But once I got on, I was hooked. Twitter is a running diary of randomness, a way of keeping up with the world, with tea, and with friends.

3. You recently Tweeted: “Am excited possible new gig will include mag content for iPad – cool new world for #writers” What is your “new gig,” and what do you see the iPad and similar technology has in store for writers.

Since it’s still in the realm of the possible – not the confirmed – I can’t say more yet. But it’s just so easy to buy things on the iPad, I think there’s real hope for the written word there. Not as much because of the multimedia capacity – though that’s awesome – but because it’s the easiest way in the world to spend very little money quickly. And I’d really like to see magazines and books survive so I’ll hope for magic.

4. As a Chicago-based blog, and being a Chicago native myself, I have to ask: Does being a Chicagoan influence your writing or your inspiration?

Being a Chicagoan influences everything I do. First of all, it is the greatest city on the planet. I feel overwhelmingly lucky to have grown up in a place that boasts a deep pool of talent with very little bullshit. It’s a good place to become good at things, no one is watching you fail. No one cares. Then you move to the East Coast and everyone thinks you’re so talented and normal.

5. For All the Tea in China narrates mostly the adventures of Robert Fortune and his escapades to bring Chinese tea to the English masses. Do you see Fortune as a hero or a thief? You explored China, too. While writing your book did you ever feel a kinship to Fortune? Like you were both searching for something in China?

Fortune and I were in a struggle with each other. I would sit down at my computer thinking, ok, Bob, you and me, we’re in this together, can we please make a page work today? His Victorian arrogance frustrated me, but I also couldn’t help but admire his pluck, his swashbuckling improvisation. He spent three years in China, a stranger in a strange land, in the name of science and commerce. My first experiences in China were much less glamorous – I was a backpacker right out of college and Hong Kong is where I went broke, so I got a job and stayed. Returning for the book, I had a mission: to find what was left of pre-nationalist, pre-communist China, to see if there was anything old left in the most rapidly modernizing place on earth.

Was he a thief? In modern eyes, most certainly yes. At the time there was no sense that botanical products could obtain any kind of intellectual property protection whatsoever. There was no intellectual property. But he knew what he was doing was illegal, that the laws of China expressly forbid his presence there.

6. You say writing For All the Tea in China took five “grueling” years. Why so grueling? And for the sake of our tech buffs out there, what word processing did you use?

Grueling isn’t the half of it. Five abusive years. Five miserable years. Five years of degradation, abject poverty, frustration, humiliation. Publishing is a ridiculous business. No one with self esteem should ever write a book.

For the tech buffs, I used word 2002, I think. Someday I’ll need a fancier version, but see poverty above.

7. I heard through the grapevine, aka Twitter, that you recorded your voice for the For All the Tea in China audio book. What was that experience like? Have you listened to the final product? Have you used any other new methods to market your book?

I did record the audio! We just won some fancy awards for it – from Library Journal and AudioFile (Phile?). It was probably the very last time I’ll ever read For All the Tea in China, so it was kind of touching. And it was isolating, I was alone in a booth every day for a week. Just me and the product of all this labor. But I’m so happy I got the chance to do it – I actually had to audition to read my own book.

I would do anything to sell this book. A writer needs readers. If I thought it would help to bake cookies for every single person who sent me a bookstore receipt proving they bought the thing, I would. It has always been my hope that tea shops would pick it up, what the industry calls “non-traditional retail sales”. Michael Harney, of Harney and Sons, sells it. But it’s too disappointing to walk into tea shops in every city asking for it and only finding “Three Cups of Tea”

8. I understand your research came from mostly Fortune’s journals. What other methods did you use for your incredible research? What role did the Internet play in your research?

I made several trips to the British Library in London, where the remainders of the East India Company documents are kept. It’s a wonderful place and I had a mad crush on the brain of their China expert. The Company documents provided a good check on Fortune’s personal memoirs, I could confirm where he was when and what he was doing. I also spent a lot of time flying home to the Regenstein Library – my mother still lived in Chicago then. It’s the greatest open stack library on the planet, a tremendous resource, the entire world should bow down before the Regenstein and kiss what used to be Stagg field. (beware the radiation)

The internet was more helpful in the last years than it was in the beginning. When I began this project, I stood in the basement of Regenstein xeroxing all of Fortune’s books because they were only for sale for $145 by some rare academic press that made its money gouging libraries. Now everything is available on Google Books – I can download Fortune to my eReader. Oh, brave new world.

9. I left your book with a much deeper respect for botany and tea. The time and science that goes into each. What would you say was the most important thing you took with you after writing this book?

I, too, fell for the botanists in a big way. I’ve come to think of them in the same way I think of the guys at Xerox Parc in the 70s, the geeks who paved the way to a technological revolution. Nothing was ever the same again.

And personally, I have developed a healthy wariness of book writing. When I proposed this book, I was young and green, hopeful and optimistic. Now I am old and wizened and feel every mile, every disappointment . So really the most important thing I’ve learned is how truly special books are as a form. For two or three nights, or over the course of an airplane ride, some stranger engages with a project from my pen. I command their attention. They imagine my thoughts and follow my story. And people actually like it! I get letters. There is no magazine story that powerful – well, none that I’m likely to write, anyway. I’m still not certain writing books is worth all the pain – but the reward is profound.

10. What do you see for yourself in the future?

Someday I’ll write another book. I’m still feeling pretty bruised. Every time I talk about a new project, it ends up sounding like I’m describing weight lifting.

So for the moment I’ve had a great year travel writing for various magazines. It’s even more financially ruinous than writing books, but the immediate perks are better.

I need to earn a living. So I’ve been thinking about getting a real job. You know, one of those plentiful, rewarding, glamorous writing jobs.

For All the Tea in China can be found in a bookstore near you, or online.

(http://www.amazon.com/All-Tea-China-England-Favorite/dp/1400165377)

Or download a copy to your Kindl.

Follow Sarah Rose on Twitter: @TheSarahRose

1. Userzoom (Sunnyvale, CA) provided the technology. They offer UX pros the ability to run online, task-based studies with geographically dispersed participants.
2. KeyLime Interactive (Miami, FL) moderated the sessions. They specialize in online web-based usability testing as well as traditional lab-based testing.

A little background about the study before diving into the results. Each Hotel site tested (Hilton, Marriot, Intercontinental, Starwood, Hyatt) were randomly assigned 50 different users to perform 2 tasks seperatly. Tasks took roughly 10 min in length to complete. Users were selected regardless of their prior affiliation with any hotel rewards program or familiarity with the site.

Tasks:

1. Finding a room on a beach at a particular time of year, particular distance from a landmark, within a set budget of $250.
2. Finding a hotel that provided parking to it’s guests

The web sites were evaluated on several metrics based on the tasks which users attempted to cary out (Overall success, Ease of use, Ease of Navigation, Clear where to start, Satisfaction with Time) and then are given an overall score (KLI score) by the moderating agency (Keylime interactive)

Data gathered from open questioning and Task 1 Results overview:

• Marriot, Hilton had largest groups of rewards program participants – and considered ‘most popular’ by users as well
• Hilton ranks best from a search perspective
• Hyatt ranks worst from a search perspective
• Marriot and Hilton brands scored well on ease of use and accessibility
• Hilton & Marriot score highest on success rate, Ease of Use, and Satisfaction. Hyatt scored lowest
• User satisfaction related directly to the time it takes to complete tasks

Data gathered from open questioning and Task 2 Results overview:

• Marriot scored highest on search, but most users had a hard time figuring out where to start clicking
• Hyatt & Starwood rank consistently low in all categories of evaluation within the task result

The KLI results from the 2 tasks were the aggregated for an overall KLI score

Executive takeaways

• All brands had varying strengths and weaknesses
• All brands have room for improvement
• All brands had a ‘negative’ score of with regards to the brand meeting end-users expectations (Hilton however was the ‘best’)
• No single brand or site should be picked on as being ‘bad’ in strict black and white terms. These results were simply the outcome of 2 tasks performed online. But it starts to paint a picture of the overall User Experience the various brands provide

When I started out in advertising, I did cold-calling for an agency’s sales team. I spent most of my day trying to get decision makers on the phone and listening to excuses and reasons why they didn’t need a digital advertising agency. I learned a lot about the misconceptions surrounding advertising that are not only untrue – but could actually be very bad for business. By far the number one excuse for people who didn’t want to do digital advertising was. “I just paid for a great new website,” Or some variation on that.

1. I just paid for a great new website

Having a nice looking website is great and it’s a necessity for doing business these days, but the truth is that if you rely on just a great website for your online presence, you are likely wasting your money. Having a great website is useless unless you do something to draw people to it. You can do more with a plain website, a great SEO presence, and a Facebook/YouTube campaign then you can by just pouring money into a website with tons of Flash and videos.

2. We’re a small business and we’re never going to have the budget to compete with bigger companies.

That’s another one I heard at least once a day. Of course if you have 2 pizza places that are successful you’re still not going to spend hundreds of millions or get a Super Bowl ad. But your Facebook advertising cost the exact same as Pizza Hut’s. Dominos spends as much on Twitter as I do ($0.00) every month. And you can by a video camera and post YouTube videos just as easily as Papa John’s can shoot and post a viral ad. You have just as much of a chance of catching on with your video as they do. That’s the beauty of the Internet; great ads have a way of catching on like a blaze of fire regardless of who made them.

3. Our audience is older and doesn’t use the internet.

That might have been a good excuse ten years ago but the facts show that more and more older people are using the internet for online shopping, keeping in touch with friends and family, and shockingly enough podcasts. With phones and TV connected to the internet becoming standard, and sites like Netflix making is easy and convenient to get movies major companies have started gearing some of their advertising to the 55 and over crowed. Even Facebook has started promoting itself as a place to keep in touch with your kids and grandkids showing that advertisers are taking older people surfing the net very seriously.

4. I’m trying Facebook and I don’t get a lot of fans.

This one is a big one that I dealt with just this last week. Business to Business pages don’t get a lot of fans. If you look at an owner or manager’s personal Facebook page you don’t see a lot of fan pages. The numbers you should be looking at are the ones that Facebook is kind enough to send you in an e-mail once a week. If you are the admin on a page you get metrics that say the number of visitors and how it’s changed since last week. Facebook knows that those are the numbers that ad agencies and marketing managers really want to see. They don’t tell you just who clicked the fan button. They tell you how many people took time to look at your page and those are the number that really matter. Don’t get hung up on the number of fans.

Ultimately, getting to the meat of what is true and not true about social media (and understanding the value of digital agencies) is really a question of doing the costs/benefits research and finding someone who is trustworthy to service your online marketing objectives. So, the next time a kid calls, trying to set up a pitch for a digital agency, keep an open mind; he could be your company’s next big thing!

www.g4commerce.com/all-the-cool-kids-are-doing-it/
www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-facebook-marketing-myths-and-how-to-overcome-them/

www.silicon.com/technology/networks/2003/11/14/old-people-like-the-internet-39116903/

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090610074159

www.toprankblog.com/2010/06/content-marketing-curation-context

Optimize Javascript Code

1. Minimize DOM Access. Manipulating the DOM is very resource intensive for browsers.
2. Smart Event Handlers. Use Event Delegation. You can put on event handler on a container div and then figure out which button inside that div was actually clicked in the function to be executed.
3. Reduce size of private functions (those called only within the js itself, not those called in other documents). So function foobar() would become function a() .
4. Use local variables whenever possible
5. Use the IF statement when
   1. There are no more than two discrete values for which to test
   2. There are large number of values that can be easily separated into ranges
6. Use the SWITCH statement when
   1. There are more than 2 but fewer than 10 values in which to test
   2. There are no ranges for conditions because the values are nonlinear
7. Use array lookup when:
   1. There are more than 10 values to test
   2. The results of the conditions are single values rather than number of actions to be taken.
8. Avoid the FOR-IN loop
9. Use Duff’s Device for looping through arrays when you notice a bottleneck in loops that process a large number of items
10. Alias  javascript properties like foo.style or document.getElementById

Optimize Images

1. Use smushit.com or punypng.com to remove any unwanted metadata from your images.
2. Since smushit.com doesn’t strip meta from jpeg you can do it manually with jpegtran
3. Be sure to always check between gif, png 8, png 24, and jpg when saving images for the web to ensure that you’re using the format that will yield the smallest file size.
4. Optimize CSS sprites to go horizontally instead of vertically, combine similar colors to keep color count low (in other words have a sprite with all green together and  another with brown, but only do so if it keeps file size lower and http requests down. Only do it if it will not yeild higher http requests and not yeild higher file sizes. the whole point is to reduce those factors.) Also don’t leave big gaps between image in the sprite.
5. Favicon – Get one. Browers will get a 404 error even if you don’t have one. 404s are slow to respond. So keep it under 1k and be careful about your expires header since you can’t rename the file if you want to change it.
6. png 8 is able to save full alpha transparency but only at 256 colors and only from fireworks or some other app than photoshop. I can greatly reduce size from png 24.

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Who’s Tim Gunn? He’s a fashion sage/life mentor to all who take his always-dead-on advice. Oh, and he co-hosts my favorite reality TV show, Project Runway. In each episode, Gunn checks in on the competing designers during challenges and says things like “this worries me” or “make it work!”

Beside the fact that I’d sit down with Tim Gunn and ask him questions that have absolutely nothing to do with fashion—Do you like Diet Coke? What do you think of this health care stuff? Can we do this again?—he’s really opened my eyes to fashion design and all of its facets: concept, textiles, tailoring and styling.

So, I was more than excited when Chicago’s Art Institute fashion student, Lisa Rigney, invited me to see her at work.

Lisa Rigney is a third year, which means the project for the May 7th fashion show is three looks. For those of you who aren’t familiar with fashion design and construction, that’s a lot of look to make, and yet, Rigney seemed very calm and composed. Her coolness (which I’d like to point out means both her calm affect and fierce swagger evident in her neat-o shirt she spruced up with some found fabric) might have something to do with the fact that she knows what she wants to create and is open to evolve.

Rigney says fashion is her little world that she can control. It’s not just about becoming a seamstress; it’s about making art. Part of her art is inspired by the Slow Fashion Movement. Think of Slow Fashion as the opposite to stores like Forever 21. Slow Fashion garbs are made with all materials organic, recycled or fair trade and produced for the long-term.

Slow Fashion means more time thinking about each piece of the puzzle. And you can see these ideals in Rigney’s own process when you notice how the wheels have been turning in her head for quite some time.

For example, she takes the notion of her father’s structured UPS uniform, an iconic costume she’s grown up with day after day, and deconstructs it to conceptual fashion.

The overall theme for her three looks is “One last hissy fit before I grow up.”

If I were to chime in Tim Gunn-style here I’d say that for a hissy fit, the work is beautiful, innovative and most definitely, art.

Here’s what Lisa has to say about her craft:

Q: When people think of fashion design, many things come to mind, from elite runway shows to mass production in some far off place. What does fashion design mean to you? And why are you pursuing it?

A: I think fashion has an amazing ability to keep an individual actively engaged in life. What a person chooses to wear is always a reflection of their immediate surroundings: the weather, the society, the time. The repetition of getting dressed can seem mundane, but it is sometimes the first active decision we make in a day. In return, I believe a fashion designer always has to be actively engaged in his or her immediate environment, to either cater to it or break it.

Q: As an emerging fashion designer, what do you want to bring to the world of fashion? What do you want to change about it?

A: We have witnessed tremendous advances in communication technology. The world has never been so small, and the ability to comprehend the amount of people on our planet has never been so large. Networks of people are no longer determined by physical location. Instead, we have the ability to form networks based solely on similar interests. I think this factor has started to fragment the fashion industry a bit, allowing those interested in fashion outside of New York, Paris, and Milan to experience what is happening on the runway via live video streaming, blogs, and twitter almost as soon as those sitting at the shows. My hope is that the fashion industry will continue to be fragmented and niche markets will start thriving.

I think that designers have such an amazing opportunity to slow down the fashion cycle and make clothing consumption more sustainable. I’m not talking about sacrificing good design and replacing it with tree-hugging hemp wear, but taking on a design challenge that involves the whole system, from sketch to material to manufacture to marketing to disposal that provides consumers with a product that is guilt free and of high quality.

Q: Tell me about the SAIC spring fashion show. What is the importance of the show and what will you be presenting and why?

A: The SAIC fashion show is going to be really exciting this year. It’s going to be held in the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute Museum. It’s just an honor to be able to show our work in such a beautiful space that houses some of the best modern art in the world. Students in the fashion department core program focus their entire second semester on preparing garments for the show. The show gives us all an opportunity as students to experience a professional runway show, and it is treated very seriously among students and faculty. We really try to focus on using the body as an active armature for visual and artistic expression, challenging the way we perceive the body and how we interact with the world we live in.

Q: Why is Chicago a good city to study fashion? Are you ever inspired by the city?

A: Chicago is a great city in which to study fashion because it is culturally rich in a lot of ways, but there isn’t the same pressure and competition that a city like New York might present to a student of fashion. I have personally found that without the pressure of trying to fit my designs in an existing market, I’ve been able to solely focus on finding my own unique path as a fashion designer. I think it’s a wonderful way to reach your potential as a great designer: to experiment and find a personal visual vocabulary first, and then figure out how to market your designs later.

Q: How have the last few years changed fashion design at the student level in terms of technology? What’s now possible? New computer programs? Machines? How computer savvy can a fashion designer get these days? Educate us.

A: It really feels like a lot of students are turning to programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create fashion illustrations or at least to prepare their designs for a portfolio presentation. SAIC requires all students to have a Mac laptop, and each of us is equipped with the Adobe Creative Suite, so I think that is proof it’s becoming more and more important as a designer or an artist to be able to use these programs.

I personally do all of my design illustrations on the computer simply because I found a method that simulates the way I like to create. I start by experimenting with materials and shapes on the dress form, and then I scan or take pictures of these elements and collage them on a figure in Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

We have access to other advanced equipment like laser cutters that can cut materials based on computer design files, a heat press that can fuse materials together, and a computer embroidery machine. Overall I think it’s really important or at least beneficial for a designer to be computer savvy. In my experience, almost everyone who is interested in seeing my work would prefer to see a website, a disc, or a pdf rather than a material portfolio, and having the ability to use programs myself to enhance the presentation of my work has been really beneficial.

Q: How in your eyes will technology change the way you and other fashion designers just coming up in the industry produce designs and get noticed?

A: I really think fashion designers will continue investigating video to showcase their designs as opposed to photography. There are a lot of designers collaborating with video artists now, and I think it’s really exciting. Blogs are really huge in terms of exposure. I myself have 5 or so blogs I look at everyday to see what’s new in terms of design, and there is really no other medium that can spread information so quickly. I think blogs are reaching a level of sophistication in terms of content and aesthetic that is comparable to high end magazines, and I think they are going to keep going in that direction.

Q: What didn’t we ask? What are your predictions for fashion design in the next 10 years?

A: Part of me thinks that crazed closet Project Runway fans and sons and daughters of Home Ec teachers will start a DIY movement for fashion design similar to the knitting craze that budded a few years ago. Posting print friendly patterns on the Internet and demo videos for how to construct it. I think a DIY fashion movement could be really cool, maybe there already is one that I don’t know about. It seems like those within the fashion industry try to maintain an elitism that intimidates the public, making fashion design inaccessible, but I think the more that the mystique of the industry becomes exposed on the Internet, people will start seeing it as more accessible. It’s amazing what the Internet has enabled in the past few years in terms of offering professional creative tools to the common public. With the ability to download free software that is almost as good as the professional versions and instructional videos on YouTube. I think that would be awesome if people started posting patterns of a clothing design they created. It could be a really effective alternative to buying interesting fashion on a small budget, and would actually be a sustainable manufacturing solution. Most fashion magazines like Harpaar’s and Vogue used to provide patterns of the latest fashion in the early 20th century, using the Internet could be a modern take on it.

And, of course, I had to…

Q: Would you ever audition for Project Runway?

A: Probably not. I think the show is entertaining, but the designers on the show are put into such a vulnerable state. The contestants work hard for their rewards, but I think they must miss a more natural process of achieving success, where things are learned over time through experience, not condensed into a short amount of time in high stress situations. It just seems like a shortcut to me.

The 2010 SAIC student fashion show is this Friday May 7th.

Lisa’s Chicago Slow Fashion recommendation:

Frei Designs http://www.freidesigns.com/

Q: How did you get started with the podcast?

A: It started in May 2009. I was working in documentary film and video production and getting into green blogging. I started to question where my food came from and I attacked those questions by starting OrganicNation.tv. Using video and social media tools came naturally to me as a way to share what I learned with the public.

Q: So is that the best medium for the message?

A: Definitely. The videos and the blog work well together because we provide links and resources for our viewers to explore subjects in more depth.

Q: Current TV also started with online videos and a blogging community and you’ve done some things with them. How did that come about?

A: I started submitting to them a few years ago. They’re great because they showed that there is a place for our kind of online videos to be viewed by a large number of people and have built a community around that.

Q: Switching gears a bit to social media, what do you do on a daily basis to build your fan base?

A: I make sure I am always updating with the latest content whether it’s something I’ve created or something from someone else. I try to be generous with the community and support others’ work. Hopefully they return the favor.

Q: What is your number one rule of building a social media fan base?

A: Listen first. Look at your competitors and get the landscape of the community. Find influential users on a social media platform (like Twitter) and pay attention to how they use the tool to communicate. That’s actually more than one. (laughs) One thing people don’t realize is that you can’t assume people are going to know about your new page, social media profile or video. You have to get the word out via your website, newsletter and other ways. For example, sometimes I’ll post a link to a company’s Facebook page on their Twitter feed just to make sure everyone knows the brand is on that platform as well.

Q: What new social media tools are you using?

A: I really love Vimeo. Hootsuite is another good one. Squarespace.com is good too. We built OrganicNation.tv on that one.

Q: Social Media can be a very unpredictable medium, sometimes things come together and sometimes they don’t. When you need to change something that’s not working, what do you do?

A: Giveaways and contests are a great way to spark conversation. I found that people follow you just for the chance you might give them something. Sometimes I post something controversial just to get people talking.

Q: What has surprised you most about your followers?

A: I didn’t realize this many people where interested in farming. We get people in city who really want to know where their food comes from and I’ve also been surprised by how many social-media savvy farmers there are online! I’m glad we have a very well rounded and well read audience.

Q: Do you change things based on your follower’s comments?

A: Definitely. We did an entire series of blog posts called “Dirty Dozen” (www.organicnation.tv/blog/category/dirty-dozen) based on what people wanted to know about the benefits of certain organic foods and products over their conventional counterparts. We encourage our viewers to post articles and share information.

Q: What do you do to encourage fan generated content?

A: I ask my readers lots of questions and I try to respond to all of them. I know I hate it when I ask a brand questions on a platform like Twitter and no one responds. It shows that they really don’t care about their fans. And sometimes it’s harder than others. I worked on a social media campaign for a women’s fashion line and it was easy to get teenage girls to talk about their dresses. But something like a joint pain supplement was harder to get people to talk about.

Q: So how did you manage that?

A: In the case of doing social media strategy for the joint pain supplement, I just made sure to keep the message positive and fun, at least as fun as possible (laughs) but as long as you keep the page active and answer questions the people will come.

Q: Do you feel it’s hard to keep people’s attention online and cut through the static of everything else vying for people’s attention?

A: Of course. I want to continue making videos and you do have to get views to do that. We want to make sure we are entertaining but we maintain our integrity. We’re happy with an average of 1000-2000 views per video. It’s really all about finding your niche market.

Q: Is it hard to keep up with a constantly changing market like social media?

A: Not really. I think people are too fixated on the tools – it’s all about the community you’ve built. I’m invested in the content, not just the tools. In the end, platforms like Twitter and Facebook are a way to connect with people and communicate a message. OrganicNation.tv has achieved lots of success with Twitter, but if something else came along that worked better I would spend more time there.

Q: What kind of gadgets do you work with?

A: I love my Android G1. I take it on the road with me when we go filming and post pictures and updates. I have to take breaks from it so I don’t get overworked but it’s great.

Q: You mentioned going on the road and filming recently, anything else you have coming up that you want to talk about?

A: The road trip is awesome. This May, we’re taking OrganicNation.tv on a Southwest tour through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. We’ll be test driving a Ford Fusion Hybrid during the trip and we’re thrilled to be sponsored by Motel 6. It’s going to be fun. And of course at NobleTree Media, we’re working with a lot of great brands to grow their message online.

Q: What is your 3-year plan for OrganicNation.tv? Where do you hope to see it growing and evolving?

A: Right now we’re focused on continuing to cover the latest issues and innovations around sustainable food in each region of the U.S. So far we’re filmed on the East and West coasts, the Midwest and soon the Southwest. We still want to cover the Great Plains, the Southeast and Hawaii. We also want to develop a interactive mapping tool so that people can geo-tag photos and videos of the sustainable food movement around the country. Our goal is to create a visual landscape of the exciting things that are happening and give people both a local and national context for it.

http://www.organicnation.tv/

http://www.twitter.com/DorotheeRoyal

http://www.twitter.com/OrganicNation

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2010/04/best-of-green-food-and-health.php?page=26

It doesn’t matter if you have a brand or an event, just having a website isn’t advertising. When we created the ad campaign for the midnight film festiva,l our homepage was only a small part of our campaign. We had a MySpace page that allowed people to vote on what films they wanted to see (this was back when MySpace was still a viable medium), we had a forum set up so people could discuss the movies and share articles and websites they liked. We even encouraged film professionals to visit and talk with fans and put over the festival online, and we had someone watch the forum daily to make sure it was on message and to stimulate conversation. The forum was one of the most important things we did because it gave a voice and a personality to the event and helped us with search engine marketing and made sure we were on the first page of relevant Google searches.

With the film festival event we had one major tool given to us before we even started a core audience. If you have a few hundred people coming to your event right when it’s posted online and you don’t use those people to help grow your audience then that’s just another wasted opportunity. You can use your core audience to spread the word across the web and get some fan generated content online. (The best endorsement after all is word-of-mouth) You could organize them to make your event the trending topic on twitter (it worked for MGM Studios, and the G4 network recently) You could give incentives for anyone who invites people on Facebook. Speaking of incentives, that brings me to my next point.

One of the things we did was give people a reason to go to our website beyond just the event info. Contests are a great way to your marketing campaign forward without constantly bombarding them with straightforward ads. We gave away action figures, posters, clothes, and other inexpensive trinkets, none of which really cost more than the price of the ticket. It was an easy way to get people excited about the festival.

The Midnight Movie Festival was actually really successful. We had a great showing every night. However if we had all the resources then that the Internet (and more specifically – social media) offers now I really think we could have been a phenomenal success. Specifically, I think we could have gotten good use out of YouTube. I would have shown clips and other relevant vintage videos and really given the festival its own vibe. YouTube can be a great way to give your event personality and really get your audience excited. Upload footage of a previous year’s event or show videos of your company preparing and getting excited. If they think you’re psyched about working on it the odds are they are going to be psyched about going to it.

Ultimately using the Internet for event advertising is as simple as taking advantage of every opportunity possible. Whether it’s using your core audience, other companies in cross promotions, games, or sites like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. It’s all about getting your message out to as many people as possible in a limited span of time.

http://blog.contextweb.com/blog/bid/20553/Advertising-Week-with-ContextWeb-Online-Media-Fragmentation

http://www.businessbuildingshortcuts.com/2009/02/facebook-events-use-friend-lists-for-targeted-event-marketing/

http://www.freemarketmediagroup.com/internet-marketing/business-tips/9-simple-steps-to-a-successful-facebook-event/

What I will say is that a little more progressive thinking would help cut out a lot of the senseless number of versions required for some companies running rich media ads and also (potentially) increase your margin for success. So how did I come to this conclusion? Through recent conversation with some ad partners and also jumping through a technical hurdle or two.

We recently completed an XML fed rich media ad for a client. The ad featured a small content management system that allowed the client to update that XML feed and thus create a new ad “on the fly” for as long as they were running their ad unit.

So, why does this matter? It obviously doesn’t seem like a radical concept (or I would hope not ). It’s a process almost all designers have used when building a website. Make something the client can not only use but also maintain. Why? Because it ads value to both the client and the agency.

1.) It cuts down on versioning.
2.) It gives content control to the client.
3.) It removes back and forth (you know, the 45 email chains).
4.) It ads flexibility to their ad campaign.
5.) It ads longevity to the ad.
6.) It softens mistakes.

If you’re asking how? You’re in luck (descriptions below).

1.) It cuts down on versioning - If you’ve ever created a rich media ad, you’ll soon begin to notice that there sometimes are 26 versions of an ad that accomplish the same goal. You’ll probably sit in photoshop or flash at some point and say (or possibly scream) “why am I doing this!?” and with good reason. A dynamic solution allows a designer to create one universal flash ad that updates in real time and then leaves 1 simple static ad (in the event flash cannot be delivered) for each iteration. Instead of doing 26 ads, maybe you can cut it down to 13. In terms of efficiency, that’s obviously huge.

2.) It gives content control to the client - Making the client an active participant helps ads value to what you do. It also ads ownership and accountability to what is ultimately their product. More often than not, that leads to a richer experience all around (which is never a bad thing).

3.) It removes back and forth (you know, the 45 email chains) - I don’t think I’ll explain this one. Why ruin the fun for someone who has yet to experience one of life’s miracles. /sarcasm

4.) It ads flexibility to their ad campaign - So what happens if you’re 5 weeks in to a 10 week ad campaign and you realize what (or the way in which) you’re advertising could be improved. Different wording, a larger percent off, an “hourly discount”, etc. etc. etc. Or what if you sold something that absolutely flew off the shelves and you like to replace another so-so sale, later in the campaign, with that same discount?

How is that going to happen if you have 50 versions of an add that all need updated by a designer, reloaded in to an ad portal and then relaunched individually? The answer is, it’s not.

How about if you have an XML feed that populates those ad units instead? and all their ad sizes (728×90, 300×250, etc., etc., etc.). Update a single text file, hit submit and all your ads just changed in real time. No contacting the agency or the ad portal. Simply update your CMS and hit enter. So why isn’t this design strategy happening more? Maybe it makes too much sense?

5.) It ads longevity to the ad - An ad that updates via an XML document (and not a designer) is not only cheaper over time but it also stands to last infinitely longer than a static ad. Did your campaign change? Are you selling a different product? No problem. Just update the CMS, relaunch the ad and you have now been able to recycle something that typically would have been thrown away. There’s value in that for everyone involved (a superior product, happy customers and ultimately more business).

6.) It softens mistakes - So you spelled a word wrong? (unfortunately been there and done that). What next? Well, it obviously needs changed (my head is starting to hurt thinking about this) and ASAP. In a dynamic ad, 90+% of people are seeing the flash unit. Having the ability to immediately wipe out that mistake for nearly every user in about 60 seconds is HUGE. Log in to the CMS, update the XML and the spelling error is removed. You’ll obviously have to make changes to the single accompanying static ad (if the same error was made) but you’ll SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the pain of a small correction.

So my question is, why are people NOT making more ads that are dynamic, flexible and client friendly?

If you’re shouting “We are! We are!” then I might have just wasted your time……well, while validating your work. I hope you consider that an even trade.

If you’re shouting “Why aren’t we doing this!?” Well…….Why aren’t you? Ads need love too.