February 16, 2010

The BOLD Bulletin by Bold Vision Consulting
February 16, 2010

 

Happy February & Happy Mardi Gras!

Brennans HoustonOver 40 years ago (near the time the Saints started playing football in New Orleans) the Brennan’s family opened a Houston outpost of their famous French Quarter restaurant. A couple of years ago, the 43 year-old Brennan’s of Houston “didn’t burn down”, they “burned up”, according to co-owner Alex Brennan-Martin. What better date than Mardi Gras to celebrate the reopening Brennan’s of Houston!

Today, February 16, 2010, Brennan’s of Houston is slated to reopen after 17 months of rebuilding and renovating. What’s old is now new again with over 75% of the original structure from the historic building preserved.

Sort of like social media and business; the fundamentals are important to your success. Don’t throw the old out just because something new comes along. You do, however, have to integrate “the new” to stay in the game. There is more than one way to start to develop your online social presence; below, I’ll talk about why and how you might consider video.


Also, I’ve nearly finalized the Big BOLD route for my upcoming road trip to Austin, TX and back. A quick summary of that is below as well.

Congratulations to Brennan’s of Houston for staying true to their roots and making history relevant (and delicious) again. Congratulations to you for being BOLD enough to consider your next step in this ever-changing world of new media.



Find us online  Blip.tv

The Year of Video

Last month I wrote about online video becoming becoming more mainstream as a business tool, especially in marketing. One of the motivations for my BOLDBusiness.tv project was to learn about video – from both a production as well as the promotion perspectives.The comments and inquiries I’ve gotten from this experience is totally unexpected; funny, actually. Evidently I’m a “natural” in front of a camera… (not) – Sometimes there’s no accounting for taste – but at least BOLDBusiness.tv is getting traction!
Get Seen by Steve Garfield
If you’re interested in adding video to your business / marketing strategy, you don’t have to do a high-res quality production. The main thing is to make sure the quality of the video is in line with your message and your brand. For many, a Flip camera is all you need. A friend of mine just published a book that can help you learn about all the details from cameras, lighting, distribution, etc.

Steve Garfield’s Get Seen is a great resource. <-(Amazon affiliate links)->

On the other hand, if you’re just getting started in social media space, leveraging video through a sponsorship or online ad might a smart way to start. Consider this:

Place an online ad on BOLDBusiness.tv for a particular episode -Ocean Approved, BBTV Episode #2, let’s say. You / your organization is noted at the beginning of the vide and again at the end. In traditional TV advertising, that would be it – the mention at the time of viewing is what you buy. However, in this case, you would also have a linkable presence (a graphic) on the web page hosting Ocean Approved episode – forever.

Ocean Approved on the raftsThe video increases awareness – your organization is noted as a sponsor. Anyone watching the video on the BOLDBusiness.tv site, YouTube.com, Blip.tv or Vimeowill see you as the sponsor. Anyone coming to the Ocean Approved episode on the BOLDBusiness.tv sitewill also see your graphic – that links back to your landing page = increased web traffic as long as your link is live.

The benefit of this strategy can be that you:
1) build name recognition through multiple sites and
2) build web traffic for the long term.

As you build up your social reputation and presence, this investment will be become more and more valuable over time.


Keep in mind, the video is only part of the equation. The landing page, the web page the viewer lands on after clicking on your online ad is also key to the success of this marketing strategy. Know what you want the viewer to know and then do once they get to your web page.

Of course, the video site doesn’t have to be BOLDBusienss.tv but, of course I’m partial. If you’re interested in learning more about leveraging video to improved your business or marketing be sure tocheck out Steve’s book or give me a ring – or better yet, do both!

BOLDBusinessTV

Big BOLD Road Trip

Big BOLD Road TripFinally! …or at least at this point, I’ve settled on the route I’ll take from Portland, Maine to Austin, TX and the SXSW Conference. The route back to Maine is somewhat sketched in, but is still flexing a bit. Life, as they say, is an adventure – as well as March weather being unpredictable, so things are subject to change.

Until then, the Big BOLD Road Trip (follow along for the ride on Facebook) will begin on Sunday, 2/28 and end on Tuesday or Wednesday, April 6 or 7. Here’s the agenda as it stands now:

2/28 – Portland to NYC (Excited to meet @bsimi and @RSHotel)

3/3 – NYC to Charlottesville, VA

3/6 – Charlottesville, VA to Knoxville, TN

3/7 – Knoxville, TN to Memphis, TN (I’ve never been to Graceland. So excited!!)

3/9 – Memphis, TN to Dallas, TX

3/11 – Dallas, TX to Austin, TX

3/12 – 3/17 Austin, TX and the SXSW Conference

3/18 – 3/26 Austin, TX to Ft. Davis the Big Bend National Park and back to Austin (Sister Trip!)

3/27 – Austin, TX to Dallas, TX

3/30 – Dallas, TX to Jackson, MS (a quick hello to Uncle Ed – my Dad’s younger brother)

3/31 – Jackson, MS to Atlanta, GA

4/1 Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC

4/2 – Charlotte, NC to Charlottesville, VA

4/3 – Charlottesville, VA to Vienna, VA (Jonathan Edwards concert at the beautiful Barn at Wolf Trap)

4/4 – Vienna, VA to NYC

4/6 – NYC to Portland, ME

THE END

Phew! I’m tired just typing that all in.

I’ll be documenting my travels along the road with the littlest Pablo and you can follow along here through the BOLD Bulletins, Facebook, BOLDBusiness.tv or the Bold Business Blog.

Join me for the jouney on Facebook!


Lynnelle WilsonI’m looking forward to hitting the road in a few days. If you have suggestions for place to see or people to meet along the way, send them on!

I’ll be back in Maine on April 7th after my last stop in NY. Until then,

Be BOLD!

Lynnelle

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