Never has reputation management been more critical—and more challenge—than it is today. Threats to organizations’ brands and bottom lines emerge every day, and this emergence is aided and abetted by a social media universe that knows no bounds.

In this Think Tank interview, dna13 Founder Chris Johnson gives business leaders a reality check on the state reputation management in the digital space.

What should executives be doing to monitor conversations about their brands online? How can they manage the reputational risks that come with media fragmentation, stakeholder empowerment and the lawlessness of cyberspace? What strategies can they employ to regain control over their messaging, and to measure the impact of said messaging on audiences?

Johnson tackles these questions and more, providing candid insights into the digital communications revolution and offering solutions for monitoring and managing your corporate reputation on your own terms.

Think Tank is a live, recurring online video series of executive interviews that are produced for the benefit of professionals in media, marketing, PR and business communications.

The show provides strategies and best practices for leveraging digital communications channels to enhance organizations’ brands, reputations and bottom lines.

Each episode features interviews of senior executives and thought leaders whose strategic implementation of digital communications channels have given their organizations a distinct competitive advantage.

Click here to watch other episodes of Think Tank

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This article was submitted by Andrew Harrison and is the first in a series of articles written by new media producers. Our goal is to share their stories with other new media producers so we can all learn from each other.

Let us know if you’d like to share your story.

I have a web series called Polyester Dreams. It’s about a manic depressive prog rock radio DJ named Warren Orlando. The show interweaves the events of Warren’s downward spiraling life with homemade music videos for the forgotten songs he plays on his show.

For years I had written screenplays and teleplays that were never made or sold, and had written comic books and graphic novels with no willing artists to draw them. All around me I was seeing random people producing episodic video content, so I uttered the most dangerous phrase on the internet: “Jesus, I could do THAT.”

At the time I was hosting a psychedelic radio show on WNYU, so I figured that would be a good basis for a show. I had all this great music from the 70s, most of it out of print, all of it overlooked. Polyester Dreams seemed like a good way to share all that with a modern audience. The original idea for the show involved the same troubled retro radio DJ trying to get back into the music scene by managing modern bands. I soon realized that bands wanted nothing to do with me, so I turned to homemade music videos instead.

So how do you independently produce a show on essentially no budget? Let me share some of what I learned.

Content and Conception

Keep it simple. Go with something close and accessible. Do you work in a crepe shop? Have the show take place there, film after hours. If you’re going to have a lot of dialogue, make sure you get good actors. If you’re anything like me, don’t spend too long planning or it will never get done. Just start shooting. As you do so, the quality will get better and you’ll get a better feel for the series. You should expect that the first one or two episodes you shoot, you will want to scrap. The first episode I shot was so bad, I burned it, had it cursed by 666 Santerian priests, and then buried it fathoms deep within the earth.

Production - Cast and Crew

Keep in mind that the more people involved, the harder it will be to get them all in one place at one time. Especially if you’re not paying them.

Actors are free. They are always looking for more reel material, so if you can convince them you’re not an idiot, they will do your project. Feed them, respect them, create a fun atmosphere on set. Here in New York I use Craigslist and NYCasting.com.

Crew members are harder to get. This is where it’s helpful to have good, loyal friends. If you use your friends, make sure you train them on the equipment, and make sure they’re not too high. If you are in need of people, volunteer as a crew member on other people’s student or indie films. Make contacts and do a quid pro quo, Clarice (I help you with your project, you help me with mine).

Production – Equipment

Unless you want to spend at least two grand on a camera, you’re going to have to borrow equipment from friends or colleagues. I borrowed a Panasonic DVX100B from a friend. Another thing you can do is find a cinematographer fresh out of school with his own camera and let him direct an ep or two if he works for free.

You’re going to need lights. You can get decent lighting kits for under a grand. And for the love of all that is holy, do not skimp on sound. Just suck it up and buy a Sennheiser boom mic. Once you get over these fixed costs, the rest of your budget should be only food, travel and props. And booze.

Marketing and Monetization

When creating a web series, you should not expect to make any money. Period. Create an LLC and write off your budget as a business loss. Yuri Baranovsky, creator of the web show Break A Leg (which has gotten sponsorships and amassed millions of views), has said that in the two years of making the show, he has made about $2500. And this was BEFORE the recession and the great decline of ad spending. So throw your expectations away and produce as a labor of love only.

For Polyester Dreams, I have been experimenting with distribution and marketing. I have it on my destination site, on Blip.tv, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and iTunes. So far most of my views have come from Blip. The strategy I am attempting now is to just send out press releases and try to get coverage on blogs. The response rate is pretty bad but when you do get a review it really pays off.

DIY Television

What’s good out there? Well, my favorite web show hands down would have to be You Suck At Photoshop. Simple, hilarious, and the seasons have arcs. I just discovered Gemini Rising, and that show’s amazing: it’s funny, and the drama is actually affecting. I’m not really a fan of The Burg but the show is undeniably well put together. A little less indie are The Guild and Star-ving (David Faustino’s show on Crackle), both of which I enjoy.

Finding a good independent web series is like trying to find good off-off-Broadway play. Nine times out of ten you’ll end up at some shitty rock opera based on Antigone, but the other one time out of ten you’ll chance upon some visionary minimalist re-telling of The Trojan Women that’s surprisingly awesome. And that one time… trying to find it AND trying to be it… is what we live for.

- Andrew Harrison

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This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

We all know that Facebook and other social networking sites are big, and getting bigger – currently 37 percent of adult Internet users and 70 percent of teens visit social networking sites at least once a month. What we don’t yet fully know is whether they can be an advertising or brand-building medium – and if so, how?

Buddy Media’s, Mike Lazerow, might have the answer to this question. At last week’s Social Ad Summit Mike discussed how marketers could connect with the 500 million plus people currently on social networks today. His presentation outlined the present state of a burgeoning business and the positive outlook for the future. Mike included a high-level breakdown of strategies for marketing big brands to highly targeted audiences on social networks like Facebook. (Take a look at the presentation for more details.)

Mike, in his presentation, noted how advertisers no longer look to advertise using a simple model of reach and frequency–but rather more of a reach and engagement model. Given the growing importance of engagement, branded social media applications – such as those developed by Mike’s company, Buddy Media – offer advertisers a unique opportunity to use social networks to engage in an emotional, efficient way with their target audiences. By doing so they are building social brand loyalty.

The current data on branded applications, found on Buddy Media’s BuddyBrain, backs Mike up. Specifically, users spent more than two and a half minutes engaging with the last 10 branded applications developed by Buddy Media, which 75 times greater than the time they spend on average with banner ads, and even 5 times greater than they spend watching TV ads. And with 85% of users returning to use the branded application multiple times, users are clearly receiving emotional value from these engagements that make them come back for more.

According to Mike, companies now face three basic challenges that keep them from taking advantage of social network marketing opportunities. They need to stop being distracted by and cut through all the noise sounding social networks, focus on finding branded applications and other social media marketing opportunities that work and can scale, and make sure that that they measure how users engage with and response to their social network marketing activities. Given the power and reach of social networks, those companies able to overcome these challenges could take the lead in social network marketing, and soon see the value of their brands, and their sales, rise.

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This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

Most of us already know the standard methods of advertising on social networks but where are the breakthrough advertising models that many of us have been waiting for? Will the age of the personal CPM arrive? Is there a real potential to monetizing relationships? Is there a more effective way to leverage social recommendations? What else does the future hold? This panel is a conversation on these topics and more.

Mike Lazerow, Buddy Media (Moderator)
Matt Sanchez-VideoEgg
Alex Blum, KickApps
James Gross, Federated Media
Clara Shih, Salesforce.com

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This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

Widgets/applications, what’s the difference? What alternative advertising solutions can widget platforms provide advertisers and brands?

Moderator
Kevin Barenblat, ContextOptional

Panelists
Hooman Radfar, Clearspring
Carnet Williams, Sprout
Sam Wick, Userplane
Ben Pashman, Gigya
Heidi Henson, RockYou

This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

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This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

Find out directly from the people making the decisions about where to spend money online. Find out why and where media buyers are choosing to allocate their advertising budgets. Hear case studies of prior media buys and client experiences.

Moderator
Brian Morrissey, AdWeek

Panelists
Shiv Singh, Avenue A | Razorfish
David Bear, BBDO
Jenv Bertheaud, Noise
David Berkowitz, 360i

This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

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This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

There are easily over fifty social ad network solutions today. Find out directly from the social ad networks what differentiates them from one another. Also hear client case studies.

Moderator
Allen Stern, Center Networks

Panelists
Gordon Peters, Social Cash
Seth Goldstein, SocialMedia
Mike Miller, Offerpal
Scott Rafer, Lookery
Chris Cunningham, Appsavvy

This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

Related Post

This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

Many companies continue to stress that “engagement” is the most valuable component of campaigns on social networks. If that’s the case, how do we measure engagement and are there other metrics that we should be looking at?

Moderator
Sean Ammirati, mSpoke/RWW

Panelists
Albert Lai, Kontagent
Ian Swanson, Sometrics
Cam Balzer, DoubleClick
Jodi McDermott, Clearspring

This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

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A discussion among the leading social networks about current advertising models and the challenges facing them in increasing advertising revenue.

Moderator
Spencer Ante, Business Week

Panelists
Suzanne Skopp, Myspace
Bill Alena, MyYearbook.com
Mike Trigg, hi5
Jeremy Helfand, Classmates.com
Martin Green, Meebo

This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

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Large brands spend billions of dollars every year on advertising. More and more brands are migrating their ad dollars online, following their target audiences from print to digital. A few of those large brands talk about how much they are allocating to social networks. Find out what has worked and what hasn’t as well as the hurdles for brands getting on social networks.

Moderator
Ian Schafer, Deep Focus

Panelists
Don Steele, MTV Networks
Deborah Korb, JP Morgan Chase
Scott Monty, Ford Motor Company

This video was filmed at the Social Ad Summit.

Stay tuned for the next conference that explores the future of social media advertising.

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