Getting Paid to Play... I mean Work!

We have spent a lot of time this semester talking about all the social media sites available to everyone and how they can be used. One thing I haven’t thought about is that there are people who get paid to play… I mean work on these sites all day.  Things are constantly being updated on many corporations social media platforms so someone has to be adding this content, it is just something that had never really crossed my mind.

According to this article found on mediabistro.com NBC News has just hired on two more employees to beef up their Digital Media Department.They just hired John Keegan as the NBC Director of Technology for Digital Media. Keegan comes from Fox News and will primarily work on two of NBC’s websites, the Grio.com and msnbc.com. The other new hire comes from the Huffington Post. In two weeks Craig Kanalley is joining NBC as their new Social Media Editor, where he will oversee the use of social media as a reporting platform.

These announcements come from a memo that Vivian Schiller posted on November 21^st. In the memo she always mentions that Ryan Osborn, who ran all thesocial media sites the last two years has now been promoted to Senior Director of Digital Media. Finally it discusses that Bonnie Optekman is now the Vice President of Emerging Technologies.

These are a lot of fancy titles for jobs that really didn’t exist probably ten years ago, but thanks to the spike in social media across all the new platforms its easy to understand why they are needed.

I know that with the increase in social media, there will be an increase in demand for specialists in the area. Can you imagine getting paid to play on Twitter or Facebook? I use Facebook every once in awhile at my job, but its only to promote our show the students create. I don’t really know enough about it to do much more than that.

Would you want to play… I mean work with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter all day? Let me know your thoughts and post a comment below.

NBA D-League Futurecasts

Even though the NBA season has been put on hold, at least for now, you still have the opportunity to watch professional basketball. The NBA Development League season starts its eleventh season next Friday, November, 25th. The D-league is the only minor league division of the NBA and currently has sixteen teams in the league.

Since we are talking about livestreaming this week, I thought it would be a good blog topic to discuss. One of the ideas behind the D-League is to show off the talent to the world and is available all for free. They have what they call NBA Futurecasts, livestreams of all D-League games available to anyone with a computer and a internet connection.

This is the third year that I have been hired on by NBA Entertainment to be the Team Tricaster Director (TTD) for the Dakota Wizards, the team located in Bismarck, ND and who is now owned by the Golden State Warriors.

A Tricaster is a video switcher/computer/streaming device all-in-one machine that allows us to push the switch and stream these games out to the world. During each broadcast you will see three cameras used, full scoreboard graphics, play-by-play announcing and everything else you expect from a normal television broadcast.

Although we as operators due what normally several people do, it’s a lot of fun and I look forward to tip-off of every game. It doesn’t hurt that I sit at the scorer’s table and get to watch every game up close. Its easy to sometimes forget that you have a game to direct and switch as the quality of play is awesome and some players are actually on NBA teams and have been sent down to get more playing time. In fact, last year’s D-League defensive player of the year was from the Wizards and had to NBA call-ups to the big show.

Anyways, getting back to the NBA Futurecasts, they can be found here. Every game is streamed and no username and password is required. Simply click on the game you want to watch and enjoy. The player that is used detects the strength of your bandwith and will give you the best quality available. The highest being in High Definition. All games are also immediately archived and if you join a game late, no problem, you can simply start at the beginning of the game to make sure you don’t miss any of the highlights.

So if you are a fan of the NBA and feel like you need to get your basketball fix, feel free to log onto the future of the NBA and check out a Futurecast.

Digital Cookbook

Are you looking for a Christmas present for that person who is hard to buy for? Do you like to cook and have run out of new recipes to try? Well no worries, I have the perfect solution to both of these problems with one simple solution - a digital cookbook. You read right, a digital cookbook. The Bismarck State College United Way committee has been collecting recipes from the staff at BSC and will be putting together a cookbook on a cd. They are selling the cd for the low price of just $10, with all the proceeds benefiting the Missouri Slope Area United Way. They didn’t really have a marketing plan, so I volunteered my services to help spread the word.

I put together a video for this cookbook as part of my social media project. You can find the video here. I decided to use YouTube to host the video, because it’s free and it allows you to upload high definition videos that look really good. I have also been promoting my video through all the other social media channels, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. Actually I don’t have a Twitter account but I asked the president of Bismarck State College to help spread the message and he gladly helped. Here is the post from his blog, it’s at the bottom of the post. It wasn’t the longest post, but everything helps, he also posted it on his Twitter account and his Facebook page.

The BSC United Way committee’s goal is to raise $10,000 this year and they are well on their way. For their cookbook they are looking to collect at least 200 recipes and to sell at least 100 discs. Hopefully with the help of all the publicity we can get at et least 250 recipes and sell 150 discs. All the recipes submitted must be a employee of Bismarck State College, but the disc is for sale to anyone. Each recipe on the disc will be a pdf and some of the recipe’s will have pictures along with them.

Feel free to pre-order your cd by emailing Kayla Seifert at kaylaseifert@bismarckstate.edu.

Ten Social Media Sites That Will Be Around In the Next Decade

We have talked a lot this semester about how Social Media and the tools used change so much. Its hard to keep up with Twitter and Facebook. Have you ever heard of RenRen or Sina Weibo? While researching a topic about what to write about this week, I stumbled upon a top ten list. Ten Social Media Brands That Will Still Matter In 10 Years.

I found the list on Business Insider website,  it seems as though they have a nice tech portion on their website. How are they to know what sites will be around it ten years? They don’t. I believe the author just decided he would do some research and come up with 10 social media brands that he thinks will make it through the next decade.

Here is his list.

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

Google

Yelp

Spotify

Apple GameCenter

RenRen

Sina Weibo

I haven’t even heard of some of these, how do they think they will be around in ten years? The author explains his reasoning  why he believes each site will make it.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and I guess even LinkedIn are obvious choices what about the others? Instagram – it’s a iPhone app that allows you to share photos that you take on your iPhone and share them on other sites like Twitter and Facebook. I can see how this might make it. iPhones are the world’s number one selling cell phone and they won’t be going away anytime soon.

Yelp is a site that allows you to review just about everything in any city, at least the larger cities right now. People can log on share their reviews about a certain restaurant or hotel and others can log on and look. Seems simple enough and I think it will stick around.

Spotify, this one I have heard of and I really like the idea. Find music on their server, play it and you have instant access to millions of songs for free. You can share these songs on your other Social Media sites and recommend to your friends some good music.  I think I might sign up for this one.

Apple GameCenter. It seems as though Apple would really have to be struggling to screw something up. GameCenter is an app that can be downloaded on any mobile iProduct that Apple sells and gives you access to hundreds of games. The unique thing about this app, it allows you to play your friends anytime you want.

RenRen and Sina Weibo are both based in China. RenRen is Chna;’s version of Facebook and Sina Weibo is their version of Twitter. China has a huge population and seem like they are just as tech hungry as we are, so I can see why these two made the list.

What are your thoughts? Do you think these to 10 sites will be around in ten years? 

Day of the Deployed

If you haven't heard by now, October 26 is now the National Day of the Deployed. This is actually the sixth year that North Dakota has celebrated this day and was the first to do so. Forty other states soon followed and now in 2011 it has become a National day of recognition to honor those who have been deployed, are about to deployed and who are serving all over the world.

At Bismarck State College this past Wednesday, the 26th of October, we held a ceremony to honor these brave men and women and to give thanks to the people that made this day happen. Senator John Hoeven, who sponsored the bill along with several other senators, including Kent Conrad was there for the celebration.

I had the opportunity to stream the event live on the military page on Bismarck State College's website. We streamed it so that people all over the country could view it and feel part of it. That is what makes streaming video so cool, it is usually free and if its done right, its like you are there. We were hoping for better streaming numbers, but did end up with 104 viewers from six different states.

One of the many things the ceremony included, was a Skype conversation between a deployed soldier and his family. His six-year-old son was there and surprised his dad with a poster he had made. I wasn't in the room at the time, as I was in a room across the hall directing the show. I could imagine that when the little boy told his dad that he loved him and that he was proud of him, that some people got a bit teary eyed. I got pretty choked up and had a hard time telling the camera operator what kind of shot I needed.

I think social media can play an extremely important role in keeping friends and family contacted as they go through tough times like being deployed and serving our country. Whether it is a simple status update on Facebook, a Tweet or maybe even a Skype conversation, I think any of them make life easier for both the soldier and the loved ones. This is definitely a benefit of Social Media and the World Wide Web.

New Books on Social Media

Are you a business owner? Have you thought about starting your own business? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you better familiar yourself with social media. Its not going to go away anytime soon and there isn't a better way to get your name and goods out there than to utilize the tools with social media. Its free and if its used right, it can be extremely beneficial to the success of a company.

Recently I ran across an article on the New York Times website that talks about four new books about the social media tools; Facebook, Twitter, Google and LinkedIn. They are being printed and sold at Office Depots around the country for the small price of $7.95. A lucky five million people will be receiving an e-mail from Office Depot and will be getting a digital format of the magazines for free. The magazines are called: fb & business, Tweeting & Business LI & Business and The Big G & Business. They are also setting up a website called socialmediamags.com, which should be open this coming Monday.

Eric Yaverbaum, associate publisher of the magazines is not concerned with the all the information already available online. "Small-business owners and entrepreneurs are all trying to figure out social media out," Mr. Yaverbaum said. "Print magazines help make the information accessible to them. There will be great success stories and useful information."

He also noted that they are going to be printing a total of 250,000 copies of the magazine to start with.

I really like the idea of the magazines. Almost everyone uses social media, but that doesn't mean they know how to use it, and how to use it right for marketing and promotion of a business. I don't know too much about Linked, and for less than $8, it sounds like I can end up with a great magazine that will show me tips and tricks on what it all about.

Getting a business up and running is a hard enough job in itself, these magazines can be great benefit to anyone looking to jump into the digital world of social media to promote themselves or to watch their company grow.

Twitter Campaigning

Its that time again, presidential election time. With that comes a lot of people we have probably never heard of running for office and asking us to vote for them. I will be honest, for the most part, I don't follow politics too close, I find it boring. However, I have never missed an opportunity to vote and take pride in the fact that I am able to. But like most people I know, I vote mainly on what I hear the people I am close to tell me about the candidates. I work in TV and I never pay attention to political ads on tv, because I know how untrue those can be.
Anyways, with the growth of social media, we can certainly expect to play a large role in the up-coming elections.
I found an article on the New York Times website that deals with one presidential candidate "family" who is using Twitter to have a little fun on the campaign trail.
Jon Huntsman Jr. who has seven children, three of which have decided to Tweet about what life is like on the road. Mary Anne, 26; Abby, 25; and Liddy, 23 are the daughters who are not only part of the Huntsman family, but are also helping in the Huntsman for President campaign. The Twitter account is @Jon2012Girls and so far they have made over 250 Tweets and almost 5,000 followers. 
According to the article,  Abby says the account was setup to, "Give kids our age an inside perspective into life on the campaign trail." What does dad, Jon think about all of this? “It’s the way people communicate today, so all I’ve done is to say, ‘Girls, promise me you’re not going to embarrass your dad.' ”
By looking at the tweets, you can tell they are just having some fun with it and I don't think dad has too much to be worried about.