SocialWayne.com by Wayne Sutton

Archive for December, 2008


Posted on December 23, 2008 - by

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from Talk Social News, new podcast next week.

Talk Social News will return next week (12/29/08) with an exciting podcast episode from Allen Stern of Centernetworks.com and CloudContacts

About CenterNetworks | CenterNetworks

CloudContacts - Make Your Business Cards Work For You

Centernetworks.com and CloudContacts

Be safe and always…. keep it social.


Posted on December 23, 2008 - by

Hill Harper makes history using social media. Hollywood takes a back seat to the web.

For Real Solutions

Tonight I felt like I was watching history in the making. I sat at my computer, watched James Andrews @keyinfluencer , host a live video show with famed movie, star and current CSI actor Hill Harper (@hillharper) and participated in an online chat with many other online friends who I’ve communicated with previously through the popular social networking site twitter. The show took place on Hill’s For Real Solution Ning social networking site http://www.forrealsolutions.com along with a Meebo chat. The entire setup used, Ustream.TV for the live show, meebo embed chat, blogtalkradio for audio recording and viewer call-in. I originally heard about the live show via an email from the http://www.forrealsolutions.com ning website as I’m a member their but then I was reminded again by @TheJennTaFur on twitter. You can say she’s was the unofficial marketing person for the event.  The show started at 9:00 p.m. EST but I started visiting the site around 8:45 and was surprised to see many of my virtual friends already online chatting including:

I left the live show before it ended but while watching, the free meebo chat reached it’s limit of 80 users, viewers were redirected to the blogtalkradiochat room and the ustream.tv count was up to 167 people watching Hill Harper engage with friends, family, fans, followers about topics that such as politics, eduction, entrepreneurship, giving back to the community, youth, social media, support for single home families and more.  I even had a chance to call-in and talk to Mr. Hill Harper himself which lead to Mr. Harper asking me about how he could grow his twitter following (I was put on the spot) in which I suggested he tweeting about his life, do Q&A with other of his celebrity friends and about his day to day activities. After that I asked Mr. Harper about how he got involved with social media and why don’t we see other actors using it. To hear Hill’s answer you can listed to the entire show here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thekeyinfluencer/2008/12/23/talk-w-hill-harper

For Real Solutions

So why was this history in the making? For one, how many actors do you know willing to take the time to do a live Q&A via the web about almost any topic from any caller? I know their are a few but not that many. Also during tonight’s show I didn’t feel as though as I was watching Hill Harper the Hollywood actor but Hill Harper a friend who has some of the same concerns and passions as I do. For those of you who have been on twitter for at least 9 months then you know transparency, relationships and conversations are three buzzwords that everyone is saying when we talk about social media, well tonight we saw all three in action. But this method of using social media won’t work for everyone and just because you’re an actor or NBA player or rap star or country boy from the tobacco field doesn’t mean you’re going to start a twitter account, host a live show and have thousands of followers on twitter or other online projects, it takes work.
Tonight’s question from Hill had me wondering why Mr. Harper doesn’t have more twitter followers than I do? Mr. Harper currently has 1,229 followers when I last checked. He’s a famous actor, played in various movie rolls, TV shows, written a book, been a guest in music videos and I think he is close friends with President Elect Barack Obama.

Google Image Result for http://www.listal.com/image/28465/180full-hill-harper.jpg

Not only have I seen Mr. Harper on twitter but I’ve seen him record Youtube videos and engage with online users using other digital platforms as well.

In a time we’re we have seen Britney Spears and TylerPerry being called out for not using twitter or social media correctly by having their PR team doing their only promotions here is Mr. Harper engaging the community, having a conversations with his followers the right way. Could Mr. Harper do a better job tweeting, yes but so could the other 100,000 or more new twitter users just signed up in the last few months. (see techcrunch post).  Will Mr. Harper grow his followers online, yes, just as long as he keeps doing projects like he did last night.

Well, me being the twitter guy that I am, I asked on twitter: How would you like to see actors use twitter & social media?

Twitter / Wayne Sutton: Question: How would you li ... - Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 (Build 20081007125523)

Here are a few tweets from the 16 replies I received:

@kinalcorp: @waynesutton actors can use social media to promote and support a cause-maybe my cause?www.beatingaddiction.com! social networking + purpose
@brotherjesse: @waynesutton empowering their following at the same time sharing the behind the scenes work it take to be where they are
@z3rr0: @waynesuttonJust like everyone else. No PR – real things.
@KristenEJ: @waynesutton -It’s great when they use it for positive means like Hill, not as a way to get more junk publicity for themselves.
@jdawkinsatl:@waynesutton I would like to read about the other things they may be passionate about. Fav charity or org, craft or hobbie?n My 2 cents.
@3rddeadline: @waynesutton 1st like the rest of us. Engage. Don’t come trying to upsell us on your “brand”. 2nd let us inside ur world as best u can.
@urbaneimagery: @waynesutton I would love to see actors use Twitter and social media to talk about their upcoming projects and community involvement
@ProfAlliHost: @waynesuttonFor updates to live chats, like Harper. They are busy, but occasional interaction would be nice. We pay their salaries :)
@jrmozart: @waynesutton i’d like to see actors talk not just about appearances, films, etc. but abt what they’re doing in their daily lives
@james3neal: @waynesutton In all seriousness, I think actors should use Twitter/social media in the same manner us “regular” people do. Tweet reality.

Most people of the people are saying actors or stars however you want to call them, should just uses the tools like everyone else. Engage, and don’t try to just sell us your brand or ask us to sign-up for your newsletter but let us into your daily lives. Sometimes it is about what you are doing and who are doing it with. With social media you may be on the West Coast but I can be sitting at my desk felling like I was right their by reading your tweets, watching your behind the scenes live stream or participating in a live chat. Can you the busy movie star do it all yourself, no but with the right training or a team you can have as many people going to see your movie on opening night or watching your Thursday night TV show, seeing you online talking about the production of the movie or watching you in between episode takes.

hill harper

Mr. Harper, I admire you, you’re a community leader, a trend setter, and when others in your industry start to copy what you are doing I’m going to say Hill Harper was doing it first.  Keep twittering, recording youtube videos, and growing your social network and I hope I get a chances to chat with you during the next live Hill Harper Q&A video show. Thanks James Andrews aka @keyinfluencer , Liz  @calinative and others who made history last night.

Question: Who are some other actors using social media to extend their brand?


Posted on December 20, 2008 - by

Poll: Help pick my video intro & why I use Vimeo

If you have seen any of my videos on WayneSutton.TV then you know they’re live shows via Ustream.TV and not pre-recorded. We’ll starting after Christmas I’ll be producing a few non live videos for the site and I’m working on a video intro, outro and intro music too. Below are two samples of the intro and I’m looking for your feedback.

The first video is a fade in single word text with a swipe animation, it’s around 14 seconds long. The second video has a fade in to stick text animation that’s 6 seconds long.

Update: The two videos below do not have any audio. thanks via @barrycunningham

Vote in the poll or leave any feedback/suggestions in the comments. If anyone wants to help with the video intro, including audio or special effects feel free to contact me.

intro 1


WayneSutton.TV video intro sample 1 from Wayne Sutton on Vimeo.

intro 2


WayneSutton.TV video intro sample 2 from Wayne Sutton on Vimeo.

The Poll
[polldaddy poll="1216290"]

Speaking of Vimeo if you’re a current user, you can add me as a friend here: http://vimeo.com/waynesutton. Also I just create a WayneSutton.TV video channel on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/waynesuttontv

A few people have asked me on twitter why do I use Vimeo over Youtube or other video hosting social networks, a few of the reason are below.

@wetherhaven on twitter
  • I love Vimeo’s embed player, it’s clean, simple, flush with the page
  • Vimeo was one of the 1st video social networks to support HD video uploads
  • Vimeo has HD video embedding options
  • Vimeo is simple, it’s easy to upload videos
  • Vimeo has multiple community building options: channel, groups, albums
  • I like Vimeo’s video options to embed custom upload thumbnail, add flickr photos, etc
  • Vimeo Plus http://vimeo.com/plus options are great and worth the $59.00 a year

But there are a few features I don’t like about Vimeo or I wish they had such as:

  • Video encoding is slow if you don’t have a plus account (I’m a plus user) & it still can be faster.
  • Vimeo doesn’t support video comment insertion like Viddler
  • You can’t link to a time spot in Vimeo like you can with Youtube
  • More options for image/logo overlay
  • The ability to support pre-roll video ads

If Vimeo would add or work on those features, they’ll be almost perfect. IMOH

Which Video social networking site do you use and why?


Posted on December 19, 2008 - by

Using video to extend your brand and relationships. The interview that was a year in the making.

The who:
Today I had a chance to interview Pam Spaulding (@Pam_Spaulding) of Pam’s House Blend. Pam has been featured on CNN, Washingtonpost.com, live blogged from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Tavis Smiley and more. Her blog Pam’s House Blend which was started in 2004 has become more of a social network with over 120,000 visitors a month, plus includes guest writers, multi-media content and has one of the most passionate readership on the web today. But what does Pam blog about? Pam’s House Blend which started off being her personal blog now covers politics, Lesbian, Gay, BIsexual & Transgender (LGBT) rights and played a major roll this year contributing to the blogosphere as being the site to read about the differences in presidential candidates pertaining equal rights for LGBT.

The history:
Earlier this year when I had started doing online video interviews for the local TV station a lot of people in N.C. were saying Wayne you have to interview Pam. We’ll the year went by and I eventually met Pam for the first time at one of President Elect Barack Obama town hall events in Raleigh, N.C. before he was elected, we shook hands, exchanged business cards and the months flew by.  After that we crossed paths again at a new media/tech conference called Converged South in Greensboro, NC where I did get a chance to cohost an interview for 30THREADS.com of Pam. Then this week President Elect Barack Obama announced that he selected evangelical pastor and author of “The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration and the LGBT community was very upset and sounded off their frustration on twitter.  Which lead me to Pam’s site and I contacted her team to see if she was up for an interview to talk about the situation.

The interview:
The interview took place at Brian Russel’s Carrboro Creative Coworking office and asked Pam a series of questions about her blog, her role at the DNC, citizen journalism, LGBT reaction to Rick Warren, challenges of being a female blogger, main stream media rejecting and embracing blogging and what’s next for her in 2009. We also talked about the social responsibility that she and I both have as African-American bloggers to education our communities and culture. I won’t go into details Pam’s responses because I want you to watch it on http://waynesutton.tv .

The outcome:
So you may be asking yourself what does this have to do with extending your brand and relationships? For one, Pam has a huge following and a different community that I have. Plus she’s well respected by main stream media, journalist, reporters and the local community in N.C. and by interviewing her it ads to my credibility. She operates in different circles that I seldom reach and by interviewing Pam people who never heard of Wayne Sutton now know that I exist and are more likely to do a little research to see who I am and what I do. Also not being in a mode of trying to control content both my site WayneSutton.TV and Pam’s site Pam’s House Blend hosted the live interview at the same time using Ustream.TV. After the live show both of our sites share the saved show to where her readers and mine can watch the show if they missed the live stream.

The effect:
Immediately after the live show I started getting emails from my google alert from a few sites that I’ve never heard of before and a few other local bloggers in N.C.
A Blog Around The Clock – Pam Spaulding on Waynesutton.tv
Gay Blog Headlines – Live on WayneSutton.tv
2015Place.com – Combined Gay News Headlines

Lessons Learned:
Although Pam and I are entirely two different individuals but at the same time we have a lot in common.

  • Pam’s a lesbian and I’m straight
  • Pam blogs about politics and religion and I try to stay away from that conversation (except today)
  • Both of us are African-American
  • Both are bloggers
  • Both reside in N.C. (Pam’s lives in Durham and I live in Raleigh)
  • Both are passionate about what we do.
  • Both want to education our race and community about online technologies
  • Both have big plans for 2009.

But despite our differences, Pam and I respect one another and have a new found relationship. The feedback from the show has been great so far except me talking to fast…. I’m still in beta mode by the way.

The new beginning:
Pam it was an honor to interview you today, and thank you for your contributions to bridging the gab between the bloggers and main stream media. I’ll see you around N.C. or at a future conference in 2009.
The challenge for you:
Think outside of your social network and try to think new ways of reaching audiences that you’re not connected too now.

Are you willing to interview or have a discussion with people who don’t entirely agree with in a public online forum?


Posted on December 18, 2008 - by

Is it time to blog more & tweet less? Advice from Tyme & 1938Media; A blog marketing plan.

Earlier this year I had a conversation with Tyme White about twitter and personal branding that had stuck in my head ever since I got off the phone with her. She brought up the fact that I had a lot of twitter followers but where or how would I stay connected with those followers if twitter goes down (fail whale) , twitter gets purchased by google & closed like Pownce or their business model just doesn’t work and everyone leaves the community.  We talked about how some people who I admire like Robert Scoble and Gary Vaynerchuck have huge online followers despite twitter. Robert has a large following  and readership on his blog before twitter and the same for @GaryVee but we do know they both have used twitter to extend their brand.

As for 1938Media, I was reading the Remarkablogger site and saw a video of Loren Feldman at a blogging conference where he said: “the most important thing in your digital life is your personal blog”. This was after Wired Magazine posted an article called: Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004. To Wired’s point I think the post was written to start a conversation but it did have some good meat to it.  

Some points of the article talked about how more people are spending more time on social networks and less on blogs. But in my case what am I to do? I have 11,610 followers on twitter, I just started this blog with 92 feedburner subscribers, 563 Linkedin contacts and 716 facebook friends.  If twitter goes down how would I stay connected with those 11,610 followers, will they subscribe to my feed, connect on Linkedin or Facebook?  

While we wait for Twitter to figure out how to make money,  staying connected and having a global reach with my twitter followers is where I see the true value in twitter but as 2009 come close I’m getting nervous about what’s next.  So I’m taking advice from Tyme and 1938Media and making my blog a priority but with new blogs launching everyday and people spending more time on social networking sites just have a text based blog is going to be hard to stand out from the crowd, but I have a plan. 

The SocialWayne.com blog plan.

  1. Continue to use micro-blogs and social networks to reach new subscribers
  2. Make the blog as interactive as possible (more features such as chat coming soon)
  3. Use multiple blog content for posting: Audio and Video post. You can already subscribe to socialwayne.com in iTunes
  4. Content is still king. Be creative in writing, give away free advice, seek guest writers
  5. Be original “Think Different”
  6. Partner with Friends for link exchanges
  7. Guest write on other blogs for exposure
  8. Make socialwayne.com more like a service and a social networking site to make users stick

Will it work? Only time will tell, either way if I’m not tweeting as much as I used to, I’ll be blogging here.

Also for those who wonder how I got 11,000 followers on twitter, I’m working on a blog post about that too. It’s going in my F.A.Q section.

 

Question: If you would start a new blog today, what would you do to grow your audience?  


« Older Entries