Tomorrow morning, Strutta.com will launch. It will be the glorious apex of over five months of work (in my case) to prepare for opening the doors to the general public. Not to mention the year or so of prep by our founders and our extremely talented development team.

When I took the job, I promised to publish a few tips about community building here based on my experiences. Two things have prevented me from doing that until now: the fact that the site has been in private beta, and that preparing for a launch like this keeps you pretty busy. Even without a place for us to officially congregate, save for our Facebook Page and our blog, we’ve been busy getting ourselves involved with the people that matter most- the “future” Strutta community. I’ve prepared a list of values that I knew we had to hold near and dear to our hearts before we even began, and examples of how I put those in action. Using our own work as a marketing case study, if you will.

Joining the Community

Taking a page out of Mack Collier’s book, I knew that our staff had to show that we were willing to play our own game, long before it was ever released. In the spirit of that, we started publishing staff videos on YouTube just a few days after I first sat down at my desk, and we haven’t let up since. We made a conscious decision to produce all of our videos with tools that are accessible to most people: consumer quality digital cameras, web cams and iMovie. Since our site is all about video, I’ve used it for lots of purposes: event coverage, outreach, shameless self promotion, recruiting and more. One of our more recent efforts has been something of a hit:

Office Lip Dub - Blister in the Sun, by Strutta.com from Jordan Behan on Vimeo.

Sidebar: Empower Your Best and Brightest

This is where I pat myself on the back for finding the director of the above lip dub video, Mark Freeman- I originally hired him on a very short contract to give us a hand with researching content, but he is now a key member of the product team, handling QA and assisting with community outreach. I’m taking credit where it’s not due though; of the two of us, Mark is the genius.

We also sponsor a lot of local events in the Vancouver tech community. The founders of Strutta, Danny Robinson and Maura Rodgers are the driving forces behind Launch Party Vancouver, a bimonthly event that helps bring exposure to local tech startups in a social setting. We’re also sponsoring the upcoming Drupal Camp Vancouver, an “unconference” for the open source CMS platform that our site is based on. At Christmas time, we headed up a “Hardware Drive” here in Vancouver, donating the booty to Free Geek, a non-profit that recycles and redistributes used computer hardware. Perhaps most importantly, there is nary a tech event in Vancouver that doesn’t have a strong turnout by members of our staff. My doing? Not at all- again this one should be credited to our founders, who hired a bunch of passionate and talented people that love to get involved and show their support, myself included. Here are just a few of their many blogs and other sites.

Tell the Truth

Until we had all of our ideas for Strutta fleshed out, we were in top secret “stealth” mode, so it wouldn’t be accurate for me to say that we have always told the whole truth. But we have been very upfront with people about everything that we were ready to talk about, and started getting community feedback early. When we launched our Alpha product several weeks back, we invited a group of trusted friends and bloggers to come in and test the product. They may be our friends, but these folks weren’t shy about telling us exactly what they thought needed changing, and what parts they wanted to see more of. We listened and responded, and the new site reflects many of those requests. We’ve had to admit to a small number of mistakes along the way as well, and we’ve done so graciously.

Getting the Word Out

Even before I started this gig, our founders were in talks with Voce Communicatons, the Valley PR firm that is helping to dispatch the message on our behalf. After many talks with Tiffany and Shanee and even some crazy nights at SXSW with VP Matt Podboy, I am quite comfortable saying that these guys “get it,” and have been extremely helpful. More on that later when some of the resulting stories hit the many tech community sites and blogs. For my part, I have done some local outreach- some private video pitches for bloggers that we especially love, and even some video responses to some of the folks we are big fans of on YouTube.

Tomorrow morning, we find out what kind of effect these efforts will begin to have, and personally thank anyone who says a kind word. Where challenges are made or questions asked, we answer with grace and efficiency. After the site is public, our marketing efforts turn to promoting the people that matter most to us: the players of the game. The content creators whose brilliant content are what makes the game so fun to play and vote on. People like Freddie Wong, who proved his status as a Guitar Hero demigod when he demolished our CEO in a head-to-head battle at SXSW this year. Or like Piotr Walczuk, whose celebrity impressions are both plentiful and accurate. Is he the Rich Little of a new generation? First and foremost, we care about these folks, and we will continue to improve the product based on their feedback and suggestions.

If you like what you’ve read and you’d like to give us a little boost in the form of a link or even better yet, by dropping by and checking out the site or commenting on the blog, I for one would be genuinely grateful .

(Cross-posted from the Strutta blog)

On Saturday, the inaugural Bridging Media Conference took place, bringing together delegates from the worlds of digital media creation, film, broadcast and many other disciplines.

Organized by local digerati darlings Megan Cole and Erica Hargreave and held in the "Hangar" at the Masters of Digital Media program on the Great Northern Way campus, the goal of Bridging Media was to better align the talent and experience of both the broadcast worlds and that of "new media."The discussions throughout the day on the various panels did exactly what they set out to do; ask and answer some of the tough questions related to "Where do we go from here?" In that regard, I would call the day a tremendous success, in my humble opinion. At the close of the day, I was asked what I would like to see done differently next time around. Overall the event was just right in most ways: size, content, format, and the fact that they sevred Vera's burger's for lunch! Yummmy. If there was something that needed changing, it was the diversity of folks in the audience, which I'm quite sure is no fault of the organizers. For an event meant to bridge the gap between the broadcast and online worlds, there seemed to be a noticeable lack of folks from the broadcast side, aside from a few producers who already had a great understanding of web content and how to leverage it. And I'm not afraid to say it- it's the folks from mainstream broadcast who needed the information and discussion the most.

I was invited to sit in on a panel entitled "Monetize, Monetize, Monetize," and prepared myself for a contentious discussion about how the current broadcast/advertising system has been broken by the web, and we need to figure out a better model to support the true value of content on the web. I didn't exactly articulate that point as well as I had hoped (isn't that always the case?) and I was quickly reigned in by the bright and inquisitive audience. Thankfully my brilliant co-presenters had plenty to add about other ways of adding value to various forms of content. And thus concludes my passive apology for spending too much time talking about advertising, when the crowd wanted to know more about ways to continue to make money off of their art.

I'm glad to have attended the Bridging Media Conference, I think it's a great idea that needs a lot more attention and a lot more discussion, so I sincerely hope that the organizers are keen to continue the discussion in subsequent forums. If there was one thing that we accomplished as a group on the weekend it was asking a lot of the right questions and I for one think we should reconvene until we have them all answered.

Bravo, Megan and Erica!

At Northern Voice a few weeks back, I was doing my best to shoot as much video as possible.

The action and the great presentations kept me from getting too much coverage, but during lunch one day I did sit down for an interview with Lee LeFever of the Common Craft Show, to talk about the rising popularity of their “paperworks” how-to videos. This is also the very first time I’ve embedded a video using Kyte, a new video broadcast service I signed up for while dining with Kyte’s CEO in Austin during SXSW:

If you love the Common Craft Show as much as I do, then read about how they were nominated for a Yahoo Video Award, and cast your vote!

Well, I have to say it was terrific weekend at Northern Voice.

Once again I was among friends, talking about all of the things we are especially passionate about, and I learned tons. It occurred to me several times throughout the weekend that I like every little thing about Northern Voice; from the fact that it is organized by volunteers (and is now even a non-profit society) to the diverse range of folks attending and topics discussed, and everything in between.

My favorite presentation of the weekend wasn’t about blogging at all, but rather a homage to making art; a visually stunning and clever rant by my good friend Dave Olson entitled “F*ck Stats, Make Art.” A standing ovation followed his talk, and I think I was first on my feet. Rebecca wrote a great follow-up post on his talk.

I’m a tad too busy to document the entire weekend in the same kind of detail that I did last year, but luckily the nature of a blogging conference is that coverage of the event is never hard to come by. Take for instance the 3200+ Flickr photos (and counting) or the 205 (tagged nv08) blog posts from the weekend. Or peek at the Jaiku feed I set up that indexes a lot of the great bloggers that attended.

(Northern Voice collage of Flickr photos by Duane Storey)

Friday morning saw our Video Blogging 101 demo (wiki link) as part of the “Internet Bootcamp,” and it was well received. A properly post produced video of the talk will be forthcoming, but in the meantime here is a short snippet that was shot, edited and published while we were in the room presenting:

I also shot a short video interview with Lee Lefever of the Common Craft show, and soon I’ll get that edited and published here.

As part of my job, I’ll be attending a lot of larger tech conferences this year, the first up being SXSW in Austin in a little over a week, but I suspect that although I will have a lot of fun and learn lots while traveling the “circuit,” I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for Northern Voice.

Big thanks to the organizers for all of their work for putting together an excellent weekend!

(photo of me by Chris Heuer)

On Friday, Feb 22 I will hosting a Video Blogging 101 session at Moosecamp as part of Northern Voice, a two day blogging conference here in Vancouver, BC.

My co-hosts will be Roland Tanglao and Warren Frey, and we hope to cover all of the basics of video blogging; from live streaming, direct to web from cellphone, basic video production and a little bit of everything in between. The presentation is just a half-hour long, but we hope to allow plenty of time for audience questions. Roland has set up a wiki page on the Northern Voice site, where you can add your questions in advance if you wish, and we can add to them to the agenda.

Want to meet the presenters? Check out this short video clip by Roland, which was shot on his Nokia cellphone and uploaded live to the web, via Qik:

As promised, I’ll be sharing more details about my marketing and community building with Strutta.com soon. We are just days away from letting in our first users, and at that time I’ll start to share some notes and welcome your feedback on our community-building plan.

You may recall that a few months back I received a pitch in the form of a comic strip, asking if I’d like to test-drive and review a Brother printer.
I agreed to do so, and the timing was great as I was able to set it up at our new headquarters at Strutta, and let everyone have a chance to try it. What follows is my review of the unit that we chose to have as a guest in our offices. We haven’t really put the MFC-9440cn through its paces per se, but we did run several tests and try most of its features.

Here’s a quick list of pros and cons, followed by a video review as well:

We Liked:

• Scan to network, wirelessly. Options to scan to file, image, directly to email etc. Very handy.
• It does it all: print, scan, fax, copy and the aforementioned scan to email.
• Does all of the work of a much larger unit with a reasonably small footprint.

We Also Noticed:

• Still needs to be hardwired to access network, although it can transmit wirelessly
• Noticeably poorer print quality for color prints when compared to other (more expensive) color laser printers

Thank you again to Darren of Capulet Communications for a great blogger outreach campaign, and to Brother as well for trusting a gaggle of geeks like us with their equipment.

Wow.

Long time without a post, eh? I apologize for my lack of publishing here of late, both of photos and blog posts. Ideas aren’t hard to come by, but time is a rare luxury these days. Not that I’m complaining; the things that have me busy all come with exciting challenges and fun that I wouldn’t want to miss out on.

Here’s a very short list of what’s been occupying me, as a means of buying myself even more time until after the dust settles (in some cases, literally).

We are closer and closer each day to the launch of Strutta, the startup that I serve as Director of Community Relations for. When I started this exciting new gig, I promised to share my experiences with community-building in posts here; a promise I intend to keep. So far though, I have yet to build a community of users beyond the list of folks waiting for a beta invites- you can sign up on home page…plug, plug I’ve certainly done my share of blogging, but it’s been on the Strutta blog of late, sprinkled with the occasional Jaiku micro-blog update. We’re at the stage where we are putting the finishing touches on the “user experience” of our site, and solidifying all our plans for launch. I’ve got a few “newfangled” as well as some old fashioned plans of how to reach out to the community when it’s time, and I’ll be sure to share all of those soon. We’re also knee-deep in plans for tomorrow night’s Launch Party Vancouver 3 (Facebook Event page), an extremely popular local tech event organized by Maura Rodgers, our VP of Marketing and my leader/compatriot in our two-person marketing department.

“But what about when you get home, Jord! Surely you have time to type out a few blog posts here and there in the evenings after work?” In truth, sometimes I do, but I’m a often just a little too knackered. My wife and I have just recently moved into our new condo, and I still have a few unfinished renovation projects on the go, some of which I’m too exhausted to complete until the weekends roll around. Again, I’m not complaining; having our own home to re-paint, re-floor and move into is our blessing and not our curse.

More to come soon. I’ll bang out posts when I can, but you’ll likely get more action by following the Strutta blog while it’s still “crunch time” for me. One of these days I should publish a newsletter too- It must be close to a calendar year since the last one, and I still get a steady trickle of new subscribers each week. Ta for now!

I’ve just finished reading “Getting to First Base; A Social Media Marketing Playbook” by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo. In spite of the fact that I was given a free copy and I know the authors (transparency is a lesson you’ll learn in the book, btw) I think I can truthfully say that it it is the most comprehensive, up-to-date and well-written ebook on the subject of social media marketing that you’ll find anywhere.

That might come across as a little gushy, but consider the fact that it was completed less than two weeks ago and includes some examples, strategies and tools that didn’t even exist before November of this year. With the way the web changes, this is the only way to go of course, staying abreast of changes like the addition of Facebook Pages and Beacon, just to name a few. Plus, the authors have committed to keeping it up to date, with supplementary downloads for purchasers as the ways of the web inevitably change.

Darren and Julie are great (and funny!) writers and have a wealth of experience in the social media space, as co-founders of Capulet Communications, a Vancouver-based PR and marketing firm. What they do well is exactly what they teach in the book; connecting and engaging individuals, using the tools of the web to spread the word on behalf of businesses. Please note the operative term the preceding sentence: individuals. The ebook is intended to teach people how to connect with individuals that will help spread the word on your behalf, a topic that I’m obviously pretty passionate about, if you’ve been following along. If the names sound familiar, yes it is the same Darren that pitched me recently with the unique idea of using a quickly composed comic strip with some of my own photos in it. They cite that campaign in the book of course, and even show another example of one of the funny and (and very successful) comic “pitches.”

If you want to learn the do’s and dont’s of online marketing in the current web space, then this ebook is for you. As they point out in the introduction, most of the strategies and tips will cost you little more than time, as most are cheap or free. You won’t learn how to burn through a massive marketing budget, and for that matter you won’t exactly break the bank to afford the book either, as it’s priced at $29 USD. I think that’s a bit pricey for an ebook, but not for the wealth of knowledge contained within.

In my opinion, the best feature of this book is the fact that no tall claims are made and no advice is given without specific and detailed examples, attributed to real people and accompanied by external links (galore). It features some prominent web thinkers of the day, mixed with anecdotes from Darren and Julie’s own experiences, some of which are meant to help the reader learn by their mistakes. They practice what they preach, and aren’t afraid to tell you about the times when they had to falter just to learn some valuable lessons.

If there’s a weakness in the virtual pages of this handy reference guide, it’s that it leaves the reader wanting more. I have read it just once, scanning through the text while chuckling to myself and nodding approvingly, and it seems that a second read is in order, this time following all of the many links they include to support their advice.

If you’re not ready to take my word for it, read some of the other online chatter about it, or even read a few sample chapters to get a feel for it. Better still, check out this word from the authors themselves, from their working vacation on the small island of Gozo in Malta:

Now that you’re sufficiently convinced, get on over to the site and order yourself a copy. Do it. Do it.

Alternate Post title: Why I LOVE Worpress, Reason #101

A few weeks back, my whole site suddenly disappeared off my live server, causing me to panic, but there wasn’t much I could do (with my limited knowledge of these things) except make it worse.

So I left it to smarter people than myself to take care of it for me. As I mentioned in a post last week, My good friends Rob and Gwyn each stepped in to help with various fixes, and most of my site was back online without too much interruption. Except that my SEO-friendly post slugs weren’t working. Gwyn managed to find a way to get the posts live using the truncated numerical post slugs, which was for me a suitable fix for the meantime. I was just waiting until a reader came along and expressed frustration over following one of my dead links, and that would be enough to motivate me to find a fix for it.

Well, today I got that email. It came from a reader, but not just any reader. It was Lloyd Budd, who is an acquaintance of mine (he ferries over to Vancouver from Victoria for all of the best tech events), a Facebook friend (of course!) and an employee of Wordpress. Lloyd expressed concern over my predicament and offered to help. “You are talking to WordPress…if you want me to go in fix it just let me know.” Reading that back, it makes me laugh to myself a bit, but that the time I was just thinking “Please, please let it work!”

So here we are, just minutes after that email exchange, and everything is fixed. “How’s that?” read Lloyd’s email just minutes after his offer. Needless to say, I was “chuffed,” as Rob would say.

Admittedly, not everyone can get that kind of personal service from the Wordpress community, but it’s a reminder to me of just how great Wordpress is; for usability, functionality and in the case of the Wordpress Forums, for support too. Incidentally, that’s the link you should follow to get help for your own issues in WP. Terrific people like Lloyd are standing by waiting to answer your questions, or already have. Search and ye shall find.

At the risk of offending all of my friends in the Drupal community (yes, this means you, Lyal), I’ll say once again what I’ve been saying all along: Wordpress is my favorite blogging platform. Download the code now and start building your building your blog from scratch, or jump on over to Wordpress.com to launch a free site in minutes.

Yes, the great people of Common Craft (accept no substitute, especially misspelled knockoffs) have come out with another great video in their “In Plain English” series. This time blogs are the topic, and the info is perfect for anyone who is new to the game:

Click To Play

Another excellent job, Lee and Sachi.