Category: live blog

live blog, New York Times, news, writing

Live Bloggers on the Inside: the Iraq Hearings

Christa Avampato

Photographers, main stream media journalists, and videographers have a tough time getting into some spaces and collecting the information for their stories in real time. This past week, General Patraeus testified in front of Congress at the Iraq hearings. Though film crews could not immediately get the scoop into stations across the country, bloggers in the court room were getting the information out into the streets on cyberspace as the testimony unfolded. The Lede blog from the New York Times did a terrific job covering the conference. Check out the coverage of the Lede blog at http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/watching-the-iraq-hearings-with-petraeus-and-crocker/#comment-380099

I am especially interested in this kind of coverage because of my experience in live blogging. This is just one poignant example of the power of immediate publishing. While newspaper and magazine articles, as well as newscasts, have some time to work through the material and polish it up,l live bloggers give the story and the feeling of the event as it’s happening. It’s the next best thing to a ringside seat at any event.

All of this leads me to believe that it’s possible that live bloggers are the go-to journalists and archivists of the future. Why wait for the nightly news, or for the morning paper, when you can virtually be at the event yourself? Even old world media is adopting what many companies in other industries have known all along: speed is life. And if the largest of the media institutions are to survive, live bloggers may be just the lifeline they need.

live blog

Live Blogging Muscle

Christa Avampato

All new activities have a learning curve, and live blogging is no different. I was so charged up for day 1 of the BlogHer Business Conference that I was having a hard time focusing enough to live blog the small section that I was responsible for on Day 1. I went home that night and I was scared. Granted, this was not a life or death situation. Still, I had volunteered to do this for the kind people at BlogHer and I really wanted to make sure I captured the information that would be helpful to those who weren’t able to attend and for those who couldn’t get down every concept in every talk.

For Day 2 of the conference, I refined my outlines making the actual blogging easier. I was also in a smaller room which was incredibly helpful. And rather than focusing on my nerves, I focused on the speaker and the information. I wasn’t trying to get every single word – I put my effort towards getting every single concept and the big golden nuggets that were being given by the panels and the audience. And with every post, I felt a little more confident, a little more helpful.

This was a great lesson for me in so many ways. When tackling a difficult or new task, we forget that we need to be kind to ourselves, to make sure that inner voice of encouragement comes shining through. We’re so qick to let that inner critic have its say, shouldn’t our inner champion have the same chance to be heard? And just because a task is hard at first doesn’t mean that we throw in the towel or assume that the task will always be hard. There is something to be said for the wonder and magic of practice. I am grateful to BlogHer for the opportunity to challenge myself and learn some valuable lessons, about blogging, and about living.   

The above photo can be found at http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/27/07/22780727.jpg

business, live blog, social media

BlogHer Business Conference 2008 – Closing Keynote: You Can’t Manufacture Buzz…or can you?

Christa Avampato

4:30-5:30 PM

Closing Keynote: You Can’t Manufacture Buzz…Or Can You?

Synopsis: Admit it: You work with people who think social media is like magic, don’t you? If you build it, they will come; you will leap to #1 in search rankings, and everyone who checks out your blog will want to write about it in theirs. The truth is that that elusive brass ring, “buzz,” is usually not magic or an accident, but the result of thoughtful strategy and effective execution. Hear about a variety of ways that you, too, can become an “overnight sensation.” 

BlogHer co-founder Elisa Camahort Page moderates this discussion with some women who have a pretty clear idea on exactly how much work goes into creating the effortless, viral spread of a message:

Melissa Anelli is the webmistress behind prominent Harry Potter fan site, The Leaky Cauldron. She has overseen the site’s development as the premier source for Potter info, community and fanfic, and as a validated media outlet that gets the same access and treatment from the publisher, author and studio as more traditional outlets (if not better!) Lots of fans have started and maintained sites, but what has allowed this one to become the sensation it is? Content, community, charitable tie-ins…and an absolute passion doesn’t hurt.

You may know Kathryn Finney as The Budget Fashionista. She has leveraged her “love of fashion and lack of cash” into a book and into features and mentions in over 300 major print publications (New York Times, InStyle, Redbook, Wall Street Journal), and over 50 television segments including multiple appearances on NBC’s TODAY Show, Good Morning America, and CNN. Now, that’s some buzz!

Kerry Miller leads a double-life. By day she is a BusinessWeek reporter, covering small businesses and start-ups…many of them web-based. But she is also the proprietress of PassiveAggressiveNotes.com. A side project that she has grown to a million page views a month by concentrating on content, community…and by getting some well-timed bumps in traffic from influential sources. Kerry believes we all need that devil’s advocate who will ask: If you build that, will anyone really want to come?

Live Blog Post Begins:

Elisa – some think blogs are magic. But it needs attention. Hat’s underneath that success?

Melissa – Leaky Cauldron is focused on meeting the insatiable appetite for Harry Potter. The site started in 2000. A couple of friend who realized how popular HP would be. She was trying to be a reporter. But she wanted fans to do their own reporting. In her spare time, she would nag everyone in the HP franchise to talk to them. Media companies eventually saw that this collection of fans was powerful. 

Then started becoming a general purpose site as well. Can’t ever fill the customers’ wants. 

Kathryn – loved fashion, lacked cash. Mom was earliest audience and the only one who logged on. Started using Grey Matter platform. Then diverse audiences started finding her. Mature fashionistas started logging on. Everyone was sort of broke and couldn’t spend so much on clothes and accessories. Remembering your roots is important. Core message is the same – fabulous for less. How to shop a Target, for example. Started in 2003.

Elise – blogs have exploded since 2000. Is the blogging world different? Can you stand out? 

Kerry – started blog in 2000. Media day job. New to blog space. She found a niche very recently that helped her stand out. Passiveaggressivenotes.com is a photo blog of a collection of notes from people. Funny, read between the lines kind of notes. Grandmother sent her a note with cookies “Enjoy, but don’t eat too many!” Had been a blog reader for a while. Had a Diary Land page back in 1998. Started her note on a lark. Was on a bad date. Autopilot conversation. Roommates had gotten so bad that they only communicated through post-its. Started it as a joke and mentioned to her date that she should put these notes on-line. And the date said she should. So she did. 

Elise – attribute some of the success of these blogs through luck. 

Kathryn – well, it was luck and SEO. First big break was in January of 2004. AP reporter contacted her after finding her on Google. And then the article was in 150K newspapers. Husband is in tech field. Google wasn’t as huge anymore. Put in key words like “sample sale” increased her traffic ratings on Google. 

Elise – blogs are good for SEO, but keywords and hyper-linking are the keys to making blogs successful. 

Kathryn – content is key. Don’t change it so much that it effects your ability to relate to the audience. 

Melissa – Community helped create the lucky moment. Didn’t know what SEO was until a year ago. Summer before the first HP film was going to be released. Didn’t even have comments on the blog yet. A community member leaked the trailer to the first movie. Their blog was the first to post it. It catapulted the blog. Now there are tons of HP blogs. 5 – 10 minutes can make a difference in who gets the best hits. 

One morning before one of the books was released, they were the first by a few minutes to get a news story and that helped them get quoted in many of the morning papers. Being obsessive about email helps. 

Kathryn – early last year they heard last year that Sarah Jessica Parker was doing a line for Steve and Barry. They got some photos of the clothes. Held the info until they knew that the article was coming out in the newspaper the next day. So they scooped them. But it was just another celebrity with a line. Readers weren’t so psyched. 

Then a few days later, Steve and Barry’s asked for the photos. It became a big issue for them. So the put the question to the readers about whether to take down the photos. Turns out the photos were promised to Oprah and O Magazine. They did take the pics down. When SJP went on Oprah, the blog came up as the number one Google hit, all because of SEO. 

Kerry – also had a lucky moment. A lo of user generated content – she curates it. Less than a 100 page views on May 20th, to 150K then next day once the site was featured on Boing Boing. She knew she wanted to get on there. She had a list that she wanted to get on there. The content is really what’s key. It’s not the technology. 

My site is something that people go to when they’re bored and they want a break, a quick laugh without too much investment.

Melissa – doesn’t post too often anymore. She does other administrative work now. The HP culture is everywhere. We keep the average HP fan informed. 

Kathryn – my site is to let people know where the sales are. Balance the need to want fashion regardless of age, shape, color and not pay a ton for it. We started before the budget trend was big – same year as Isaac Mizrahi went to Target. She also like the forum part and she loves the readers. She’s learned more from them than they learn from her.

  

Kerry – does one post every week day. Have a backlog of 2000 notes to post. But wants to post slowly. One new thing per day. Don’t want to go crazy and burn out. Have people want more; don’t overwhelm them. 

Jory – there is a pressure on curating, editing, selecting. 

Kathryn – my blog became bigger than me.  Teaching people how to live great lives for less. Truthful, honest opinions. For them, it is all about the readers. 

Melissa – when she allowed the staff to build and let go a bit, it runs like clock work. No one person can do everything. 

Kerry – blog has changed and her writing has adapted to what works and what doesn’t. Hidden jokes. A little intro for each. People come back for the comments. First, had a bar with the most frequent posters. Now, she highlights the best comment every day. 

Question – a good blogger is someone who tends to be hard-headed. What lessons have you learned. 

Kerry – don’t get discouraged by the tyranny of the minority.

Melissa – there is a poll on the blog. Polls are changed fairly often. The comments on the poll are like a chat room. And we just left it alone. And then we changed it so you had to refresh the whole page, not just the comment section and people went nuts. Stay calm. Don’t defend yourself. Don’t engage in the anger. Step back and just let it go. 

Kathryn – now some guys want to get into this space. We had to learn how to communicate to different groups. Fashion bloggers know each other, we’re friends.   

Jory – As you get bigger, there’s a bigger financial interest. What are the pressures that have come along with that? Have people wanted to take advantage of your audiences?

Kathryn – I always put my readers first. They get an opinion. Readers want you to be successful, especially if you are true to who you are. Make money, sure, but be consistent with who you are and what you write about. TJ Maxx sponsored my book tour. Great! If Saks had sponsored it, that wouldn’t make sense. I am about budget fashion. The people who read my blog made me who I am. 

Melissa – No one who works for the site is rich. Everyone has day jobs. We only added ads recently.

Elise – how did you ever grow these sites that allows you to make money to keep supporting them? Content, community, and technology working together. Can you rank the importance?

Kerry – can’t separate them out. You need all three. Get the word out as cheaply as possible, adapt, and be fast to react.

Melissa – Content and community are even. Technology is after those two. 

Kathryn – Content and community are the top two. Blogging platform can come from anywhere.

Kerry – started blog anonymously. Didn’t put name up here because of work at first. Assumed she was a man at first. Because it’s a humor site, people assume it’s a man. Putting her name on the blog has been a positive thing. 

Melissa – put out donation drive when server got so crazy. In one day we got $12,000 from our readers. And then we put up ads. 

Kerry – I didn’t start my blog to make money. Some friends are blogging because they want to show that they have web experience or because they want a book deal. Saying that you know social media can have a value. That changes the ROI.

Kathryn – got book deal in 2004. Did blog and book at the same time. Gained 30 pounds and didn’t sleep. It affected my health. Assess how much your voice is needed on the blog. Writing a book is not an easy process. Probably need to cut down on writing the blog while you’re writing a book.

Melissa – when she was writing a book proposal, she also wrote the blog and had a day job. She quit her job. The day before she left her book sold. 6 -7 months lead up to book, I wrote in the blog, and then as it got closer I stopped writing in the blog.

Elise – passion and dedication and commitment is critical, too.     


blog, blogging, creativity, live blog, social media, social media creation

BlogHer Business Conference 2008 Day 2 3:00 – 4:15: Beyond Blogging

Christa Avampato

Title: Beyond Blogging

Track: Social Media Creation Best Practices 

Synopsis: Can companies leverage apps like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and on and on? Or are they destined to be considered “creepies”? Apps like these hold tremendous promise, but most of us feel like we’re flailing about in uncharted waters. We’ll talk with a few folks who have managed to catch lightning in a jar and find a way to authentically generate interest, community and even viral buzz…using these social networking and micro-blogging tools. 

Anna Farmery has focused all of her marketing efforts in social media and seen real results. 65% of her 2007 income can be tracked to contacts who found her via her podcast. Moreover her client base used to include zero customers outside the UK, while now 40% of her customers are global. Adding social networks and microblogging to the mix is only amping up her results even further. Anna will be moderating the discussion with these other power-users. 

Connie Reece is one of the women behind the recent Frozen Peas Fund phenomenon on Twitter. This is an amazing story of social media in positive action. Dawn Foster manages Developer Relations for Jive Software and is an active organizer of the thriving Portland tech community. Between those two jobs she finds using Facebook, Twiiter, Blip.TV and other social apps to be instrumental in helping her foster and maintain engaged communities. 

Shay Pausa is a video expert who can speak to best practices on everything from content to technology to distribution. 

Finally Trisha Okubo can answer that all-important question: Is it worth it for your company to create a Facebook application? She has created three in her role at eBay and has a lot of learnings to share. These are real people representing real companies making real things happen via these tools. It’s not all playing around!

 

Live Blog Post Begins:

A panel full of web stars!!

Connie – uses Twitter to promote her work.

Dawn is a community specialist. On-line and link to real world communities. 

Trisha – a disruptive innovator. 

Shay – Executive producer of “She Knows TV.” A video expert.

Anna – podcaster and blogger. Founded a company called “The Engaging Brand”.

Shay – really important to know that there is so much user-generated video content out there. Recognize that what is looked and what people virally syndicate is the story itself. Now everyone can be a video producer. 

Anna – The thought of producing a video is daunting. 

Shay – what TV through a different eye – watch what they’re shooting. Any guest is only on for seconds at a time. With a series of pictures, you can put together story. This is as sample as getting some movie software. Add visuals to what you’re already writing. 

Anna – does video suit everyone?

Shay – Watch TV and see what you’ll need to produce on the net. There’s a video component that works for everyone. You just don’t want to be boring. Yes everyone has a book in them, but who wants to read it? It’s an important thing to look at. 

Anna – I know how to press record, now what do I do when I get home. 

Shay – need come software to capture it. Pinnacle is a very inexpensive product. Can download for $29.95 onto computer. And then you drag and drop, and cut and chop, to edit. Very easy to use. 

Shay – good sites to publish video are Voxin, Bright Cove (SEO friendly), You Tube, videos on My Space. The general ones you know are good. I recommend Bright Cove. Distribution is phenomenal. Video bio make people feel like they know you – don’t script it. Make it real. 

Michael Eisner said, “The reason that TV production companies are having a tough time on the internet is because it’s difficult to monetize the internet. Networks need 4 people to do craft services. Internet takes 4 people to do the whole project.”

TV production is too cost prohibitive. On-line video is much cheaper. Shay’s site is Sheknows.com (4th largest site for women). She owns chikitv.com.

All profiles are on the BlogHer website. 

Trisha – works in eBay’s disruptive innovation group. Has been exploring commerce in Facebook. You can learn form mistakes quickly, easily, and cheap. Created my eBay on Facebook to see what friends on Facebook bought. People go to Facebook to hang out, not shop. Shopping is not the reason for going there. More value in putting social aspect on commerce site. Vice versa doesn’t work so well.  

Dawn – can write code and was a developer once. And now has a social and community aspect as well.  Really know your audience and how to reach them. Give them a chance to participate. Done a lot of work in nonprofit area. Can promote events virally. Bring in as many as 800 people advertising on Twitter and Facebook. Incredible response!

Trisha – metrics for Facebook were how many people joined the community. Comments are more valuable though. Some sellers had a community that buys form them on eBay on their Facebook page. 

Connie – tapped into a community that she knew to tell a personal story through twitter. Frozen Pea Fund. Very active in Twitter. She is a social media consultant. Her business partner, Susan, and she met on-line. They were about to launch a company and Susan learned that she had breast cancer. Very serious. Immediate operation. A lot of pain. And Susan took a picture of herself with frozen peas as an ice pack. She shared it all on-line. Her blog was called Boobsonice.com. Someone else put a pkg of frozen peas as their avatar and then the peas went viral. 

A comedian, Kathleen, suggested that wouldn’t it be great if all women donated the cost of a pack of frozen peas to a breast cancer nonprofit. Built flickr group, built pea-vatars. December 21st the frozen pea fund launched. $3500 raised in 15 hours from 3 continents. Raised $8000 in the next few months. 

A journalist tracked her down through Twitter to do a story. All done with no organization, no planning. Here’s a compelling story. Everyone knows someone with breast cancer. Especially men come out to meet Susan every time she appears in public. They trust her even though they only know her on-line. It’s like a reunion to meet people on-line. There is a real community out there.

Anna – how can commerce use Twitter?    

Connie – you have to be careful. You have to limit the use of twitter to make sure you don’t wear out your welcome. She never talks about anything she can’t endorse. You only have so much social capital. So be careful how you use it. The community will give you feedback. When forwarding links, make sure to include a headline.

Trisha – recommends a Profile Page over a Facebok page on Facebook. Put a person behind the page, not just the business. Make it human. Gives context. What can you do for the community on Facebook rather than always thinking vice versa. 

Connie – Facebook sometimes isn’t the best place for companies. Explore social networks where your target audience is. All social networks are not created equal. 

Trisha – aspirational brands, brands that don’t belong, brands that people directly relate to. Go to the network that best speaks to the kind of brand you are. 

Dawn – make sure there is conversation that doesn’t necessarily relate to your brand to make the profile authentic.     

Anna – About 70% of my business comes from my blog and podcast. Facebook didn’t work for me. My customers weren’t there. They want to deal directly with me, not all my other customers. 

Connie – lifespan of something on Twitter is very short. Not as effective as it once was. 

Trisha – There will be another Facebook. Friendfeed is great, it centralizes all your data. It allows you to take all of your services across the web and puts them all together. 

Dawn – Friendfeed is an aggregator and fragments the conversation. 

Connie – something beyond Twitter is coming soon. Sesmic just bought up Twirl this week. Utters is great because it’s portable. But threading these conversations and keeping track is tough.   

Dawn – Some of these social networks are generational. Twitter is 30-somethings. Facebook is college and older. I wonder if our next social network will be centered around another generation. It will be fun to see what happens. 

Connie – ConnieReece on Twitter. Everydotconnect.com is the blog. Frozen peapod.com

Dawn – Geekygirldawn, fastwonderblog.com

Trisha – TrishaOkubo.com

Anna – the engagingbrand.com, on Twitter as Engaging Brand.

blog, dreams, live blog, work

Token Taker

Christa Avampato

I consciously never learned how to type. This was entirely intentional. I refused to learn how to type. I may be the only person on Earth who can “hunt and peck” at 60 words per minute. 

Today and tomorrow, I am live blogging from the BlogHer Business Conference. Rita Ahrens, a talented and successful blogger, is submitting beautifully formatted live blog posts at 120 wpm without a typo. I’m submitting mine MUCH slower and in a slightly more overwhelmed fashion. She’s a professional, I get it. Editing and writing are her job. Still, I look at her perfect formatting in record time, capturing word for word what’s happening, and wish I could do that, too. Maybe learning how to type wouldn’t have been such a bad idea after all. 
Did you see the movie “While You Were Sleeping”? Corny chick flick, yes, but for me Sandra Bullock’s character was all too familiar. I’ve gone through most of my adult life trying to keep from being her portrayal of the “L” token taker in Chicago. I didn’t want to feel downtrodden by a system. I wanted to CREATE the system. 
I watched my mom struggle to raise a family on an admin salary, and there was no way I was going to disappoint her by having any excuse to follow that same route. She wanted more for me and I want more for me, too. So I figured if I didn’t learn to type, I couldn’t be someone’s admin. Now as a blogger, that seems rather foolish. I could be much faster and much more effective if I had learned to type properly. 
Still, every time I begin my hunt and peck routine I am reminded of the goals I have ahead of me. It’s sort of my form of rebellion, and a little reminder to keep dreaming bigger and bigger.