Welcome Back! New Beginnings

Special thanks to Launchpad, our new meeting venue. 

     For me personally, 2010 was a great year for exploration and innovation. I think many of us tried some new things with our new media projects and there was a lot of trial and error. That's a good thing. We're all learning as we go along, and people are experimenting with some exciting new things. Now is a great time for the indie media community in NOLA to get together to brainstorm, trouble-shoot, and support each other.

     Our first meeting of 2011 is now scheduled for February 8th at 6:15 pm at Launchpad New Orleans. If you produce podcasts or web videos, or maybe you're interested in starting a podcast or web series, we encourage you to join us in the conversation. We're open to all levels of interest and experience.

     What can you expect from Nola New Media in 2011? Our blog and web site will be updated more regularly, with news and events in the regional new media community. We hope to expand our online directory to include a larger variety of regional podcasts and web series, including separate lists for independent productions and corporate media. I'm working on some special guest speakers to join us each month and some fun activities for us to get involved in as a group. And I don't know about you, but I'm all about bringing back some guerrilla marketing and a new volume of Nola New Media selections to distribute to the community. They were a big hit last year.

    Don't forget to RSVP to our event invite, so we know about how many to expect. I look forward to seeing your faces, both familiar and new, in February!
    
 - Aura Fedora
    Podcast Enthusiast, Nola New Media Founder

"It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." - Oliver Wendell Holmes 

August Meeting Wrap-Up and Some Thoughts on twitter

We shared some great ideas at our meeting last night. It was good to see some new faces as well as some familiar ones. One of the topics that came up was whether or not twitter is a successful tool for promoting independent media. We talked about the ways in which we made it work for us.  Ray Nichols shared a video  this morning that he mentioned watching last night. It discusses effective means of utilizing twitter to curate content. I think this covers most of the bases.  If you've ever had doubts or confusion about how you can make twitter really work for you, this is a great start.

A great quote from this interview: "If you want more followers, you have to follow better people."

Thanks for sharing, Ray!

New Podcast App for Blackberry Users

From podcastingnews.com ... a new app for Blackberry Users makes podcast content available on the go. 

http://www.podcastingnews.com/2010/08/11/wizzard-blackberry-podcast-partner/

Great Video by Nola New Media Members

...featured on backstage on the Bayou, but we're sharing it with you here, too.

Imaginary Buttons

You got me pushing imaginary buttons
Step away from me lover, away from me lover
-"Buttons", Sia


In the past 60 days, I have come to appreciate the importance of choosing the right button. 


No, really. 


When I first started posting podcasts, I understood that many people were intimidated by using services like Itunes and still a few do not fully grasp the concept of subscribing to feeds. I knew that having an option to post episodes on a blog with an embedded media player in each post was important to reach more listeners. 


For over a year, each episode posted to my blog contained a bar-type media player, where the listener could click on the "play/pause" button, see the progress of the track as it played, and make adjustments to the volume. It looks like the display on an old cassette deck or CD player, so my logic was that people who were less familiar with the technology would feel more comfortable with it. If one hovered over the correct place or right-clicked, they could also be shown a direct mp3 link that was downloadable (though I admit that it was not overtly obvious to locate.) 


On so many occasions, I would come across people who had heard of my blog, had even visited my web site and browsed the episode descriptions and titles, but admitted that they had never actually listened to them. My site statistics put this phenomenon in plain, painful view. 


At one of our Nola New Media meetings, a few of our members suggested that I use the round button instead of the typical bar-style media player. There were jokes about making it large so that the near-sighted and elderly could find it. Kidding aside, I am willing to experiment a little bit to learn what works and what doesn't, so eventually, I gave the round button a try. 


Just out of my wry sense of humor, I made the button a bit over sized. 


I closely tracked my flash player, podcast, and download statistics over the next several weeks. 


Sure enough, I had a significant increase in the number of listens to my podcast, but not for the reason that I expected to. 


Yes, there was a small increase in the number of people who used the flash player, but the number of people who actually downloaded the entire episodes of the podcast increased by over 200%. Prior to this, there were some episodes that were never downloaded, other than in Itunes. 


So what's the difference? 


In the template, there was an option to add the mp3 link underneath the button. In very plain, obvious font it simply says "mp3", and when you click on it or hover over it, the full link is revealed, so you can play the podcast or download immediately. 


As a podcaster, this is what you want to see. Why? 


When the user thinks that the only method of listening to your content is via the flash player on a web site, very often, they don't listen to the podcast all the way through. For example: My podcast is generally 12-20 minutes in length, but the average visitor only remains on the site for just under five minutes. If they're using the flash player, this means that they've only listened to part of my show. (How sad!)


When the user downloads a podcast, they're able to listen on their own time, whether or not they're connected to the Internet. 


When it comes to increasing the number of listeners to your podcast, sometimes it's really just about getting them to push your buttons. 

Quotable Clyb No 3

Quotable Clyb: funny, insightful, or notable quotes from podcasts or web series by Clyb members.

This week our Quotable Clyb is from the Backstage on the Bayou podcast titled "Spilling the Beans" ...

Anyone who is willing to do the work and has the talent is able to be seen ... there's no excuse to not be working on your craft.

- ...Gavin Speiller of The Upright Citizens Brigade (who was one of the writers of the popular BP Spills Coffee sketch) on how new media creates a platform for artists and entertainers.

Found: Google TV

Integrated technology is making access to content easier and more enjoyable. Google recently announced the pending release of Google TV, an available device (or TV's with the device built in) that integrates a web browser with DVR capabilities, as well as Android apps. This is a great way to enjoy web-based content without being attached to a laptop or your desktop (or that even more depressing thought, watching movies on your smart phone. ) Google released this video to demonstrate how it works. Fun stuff!