Mike Cohen
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
-
You all should know, that we now use the spelling specialest – like “you are the specialest person I know.”
Conan has a good sketch on his 2nd episode of his 3rd show in which he asked about certain words and their ability to be used on tv. I won’t post a link but it was pretty funny.
Mike Cohen
-
[Tim Wilson] “Take a look at “Social Media: Is it Real?” right here.”
This is what is cool about Creative COW. We can be having a conversation (aka, a thread) about a topic and KAZAAM! There is a link to an article elsewhere on the site about this exact topic. I just re-read Richard’s article and he has some great pieces of advice.
Can Facebook help business? It can, and it probably can’t hurt.
Can Twitter help business? Maybe.
How about Creative COW? Judging by the top results if you google “surgical video” it can definitely help. I get leads all the time!Richard’s point I like best is that it’s not how many people you know – it’s the quality of the people you know – Quantity vs Quality. Better for me to be linked to 1 surgeon than 10 soccer moms and a plumber.
You should also check out Richard’s Photoshop tutorials – I learn new things from his posts all the time.
I think there is some great information in this thread also. Not sure we have answered Nick’s original question, but we are definitely having a good dialogue.
Mike Cohen
Medical Education / Multimedia Producer
-
If you don’t have a website (believe it or not) a Facebook page is a quick way to get a web presence. Let’s think about perhaps the most local, smallest business you can – someone who makes jewelry at home, mostly as a hobby. This person meets people who say “My, that’s a swell looking set of earrings. The missus would sure love a pair of those” – well if you don’t have a website instantly made, you can either give them your email address, or create a quick facebook page.
Now you have a place people can go to see your latest wares. And in the case of something like jewelry, others may be interested too, and suddenly you have licked the first problem – attracting people to your page.
Translate this into our business – media production and/or a business like mine which not only offers media production but also books, DVDs and other turnkey services. If I get a few nurses and a few doctors to like my company page, chances are high that each of these people has some friends who are also nurses and doctors. So using the linked in paradigm – you have the potential to be connected to hundreds or even thousands of people – first you have to connect to a handful and hope it grows from there.
Take my Facebook page. It started out with a few friends, but now we have some fans I do not know offline. It might catch on after all!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cine-Med/128846546090Take my wife’s aforementioned jewelry page. It has only existed for 1 week, but she has at least one person liking it that we don’t know
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/JewelryByRachael/124647390925444A buddy of mine self published a Kindle book. He started with links from his own FB page, but then started a fan page for it, also linking to the book’s own website/blog. You can learn a lot about using Social Networking to promote a business by studying the marketing efforts of someone who has done it already
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/School-of-the-Ages-series/137734516263614Anyway, sorry for the shameless self promotion, but this is a discussion about social networking!
Mike Cohen
-
Hmm, this may be the wrong forum, but I think you need more ball bearings. Those things will fix any problem.
-
Nick – I have a similar conversation almost weekly.
Here is a fake conversation to consider:
1 – “Why do we need a Facebook page?”
2 – “Because 500 million people log into Facebook every day. We don’t get 500 million hits a day on our website. What do think we are, Creative COW?!”
1 – “Ok, I get that, but out of those 500 million people, how many of them are looking for a DVD about hernia surgery, for example?”
2 – “Good point. Probably a few hundred at most. And they will only find our page if they are directed there by some other piece of media – our primary website, an email, a video or word of mouth”
1 – “Exactly. In other words, if you are not MTV or Ford or any of the host of huge companies that already have mass market presence, what use is a Facebook page and how do you expect people to find out about it?”
2 – “I see your point. Let’s assume then that the Fortune 1000 companies either have or do not have Facebook pages, but that they probably don’t need them for their businesses to grow. You don’t go from a mom and pop operation to General Motors because of a Facebook page.”
1 – “Right.”
2 – “So let’s talk about a hypothetical small business. How about ACME Widgets.”
1 – “This is starting to sound like most of my classes in grad school”
2 – “LOL. Would you like a GANTT chart with your SWOT analysis?”
1 – “Why not supersize it and give me a transactional analysis while you’re at it!”
2 – “Funny. Now let’s say ACME Widgets has been a brick and mortar widget dealer for 10 years and they do 25% of their business from traditional e-commerce.”
1 – “Ok. ACME makes some mighty nice widgets.”
2 – “They do indeed. So ACME decides to get on the social media bandwagon. First is a Facebook page. Making one is easy enough. They do so and start making daily updates. Facebook users tend to not like overt advertising in their news feeds, so ACME tries to make useful posts, such as:
Check out our newly decorated lobby.
We are about to release a new widget with XYZPDQ features.
What’s your favorite widget?
Can you name all of the widgets in alphabetical order?
Follow us on Twitter.
1 – “Stop right there. Why would you have a Twitter feed of the same posts as you have on Facebook? That seems redundant.”
2 – “That seems redundant.”
1 – “That’s what I just said.”
2 – “That’s what you just said. Ok sorry. You’re right, if your Tweets and Facebook updates are the same, why do both. In fact Facebook now has a feature where you can Tweet your updates. Well, if you have people following your FB and your Tweets, they will be getting a double helping of the same information. That’s actually kind of useless.”
1 – “Now you’re talking!”
2 – “Ok, so let’s back up. ACME is making daily updates. They are not overtly trying to sell stuff, although some soft selling is ok. But now they need some followers. Obviously they can invite their friends and current business associates to follow the page, but these people are already in their social network (you know, the social network that does not rely upon the web). But how does ACME, a small, regional widget manufacturer, get the hundreds of followers they need to truly take advantage of web based social networking between businesses and customers, and how can this effort generate business. All it seems to be doing is taking time out of each day that could be spent making cold calls or hitting the pavement selling widgets?!#$%”
1 – “Exactly. What’s the point? Even if you find a way to get people to like your FB page, and you are a small regional widget seller, how is this good for business?”
2 – “I think the key question is, how do you get followers? FB or Twitter – same question. This isn’t Field of Dreams. If we build it, how will people know to come?”
1 – “Right. Since we are not GM or Ford or Sony or Harry Potter or the Jonas Brothers, we don’t have a built-in legion of fans from the real world who are looking for a way to further interact with us.”
2 – “Who are the Jonas Brothers?”
1 – “I have no idea.”
2 – “Ok, so let’s say we find a way to get a lot of fans for our company that is not well known online. Maybe some people are actually looking for widgets in the greater Anytown, USA region and they search with a search engine, or inside Facebook or Twitter, and they find ACME. And let’s say some people are from our circle of friends and associates.”
1 – “Stop right there. Why would someone who is already a customer want to follow us on FB? Isn’t that creating another layer between company and customer?”
2 – “Maybe, maybe not. Again, Joe Smith, customer numero uno, does not visit ACME’s website every day. But he always goes to FB, usually morning noon and night. While his primary MO is to see pictures of his niece and nephew and search for ex-girlfriends, if he sees your ACME updates in his feed, even for a split seconds, he is reminded of ACME a little at a time.”
1 – “So it is background noise?”
2 – “That’s one way to describe it – but meaningful background noise. Let’s look at my own FB feed as of this moment:
Uncle Barry – Just changed the oil on the ole Impala. I think she’ll keep on running for another 50 years.
Cindy Loo – Home from skool – gonna get some WOW in before homewerk. CUL8R.
Mom – Looking forward to seeing my boys for the holidays.
Dad – Check out this link – craazy video of people jumping off bridges!
Dad – Don’t let me catch any of you jumping off bridges!
Dad – Do I have to stop this car? Do you want to walk home? When I was a boy I walked to school up hill in both directions.
ACME Widgets – Coming soon – the ACME J97 – improved performance in cold weather. Click for more information tinyurl/34567
Mom – You’re not jumping off bridges are you Mikey?
Dad – He knows I only joking around. Mikey?
Me – I love you both!
2 – “You get the idea. So I have a lot of drivel and one possibly interesting link from ACME. I may not click it every time, but since I routinely edit out likes and friends who I do not really need, chances are ACME remains because I am interested.”
1 – “Ok, so I get the impression that your mom and dad don’t actually talk directly to each other.”
2 – “They sometimes sit in the same room on two different computers. Anyway, so we have followers who may actually find our posts more interesting than some of the updates from their own friends and family. Much of FB has become background noise. So ACME is trying to be something interesting among the noise – not so different than traditional forms of advertising. A TV commercial may be 30 seconds, but you get 1 or 2 seconds to get someone’s attention. Same with a print ad, a postcard or catalog. So yeah, FB is a lot of clutter, just like what comes in your mailbox every day, but it is another opportunity to get your message out there. And it’s free, or nearly free.”
1 – “Ok, so now I see why we need to be on Facebook – because there is a 1% chance that someone who actually finds us on Facebook will read any of our updates.”
2 – “Partially true. But if your FB fans are people who either already like you or who found you because they were searching for what you offer, then the 1% may go up to 10%, and in the marketing world, 10% is pretty good.”
1 – “Ok, what about Twitter?”
2 – “Twitter is similar but different. You can make the same updates as on FB, as previously discussed. But the people who follow Twitter regularly are much fewer than FB users. I have 2 Twitter accounts and I almost never use them. I get an email when I get a new Twitter follower, but I almost never send a tweet or read my tweets. It’s too cumbersome. Sure, I can access Twitter on my smart phone, but I have to manually remember to do so. I quickly learned that I don’t want tweets as text messages, because there is a lot of noise on Twitter. So let’s say I check Twitter once a day just like I do with FB, which is a manual thing also. I rarely find anything interesting – much of Twitter seems to be links to blogs or pyramid schemes. I’m not really interested in what Ashton Kutcher, Obama or Sarah Palin are tweeting about. Anything news related I get from an actual news outlet. Same with celebrity news – my wife keeps me up to date on the Situation’s exploits, and honestly it is not that important.”
1 – “Who or what is the Situation?”
2 – “I have no idea.”
1 – “Continue.”
2 – “Ok, so assuming I have filtered out tweets from celebrities, politicians and the like, because their tweets will make it to the news anyway, I am left with tweets from people or businesses I am interested in following, much like it is on FB. Not much of interest, much like FB. So should a business tweet? Depends upon the business. Should a small local business tweet? The jury is still out. If you run a towing service, maybe your friends will be interested to read a tweet about how you jump started a dead battery in a Ferrari. But I doubt you will get people tweeting you because they need a jump. hat’s what the telephone it for. If you are a local butcher, you could tweet about the nice shipment of pork chops you just unwrapped (please douse your iPhone in triclosan) and you might have the few twitter following local chefs at your door – but buying meat is not totally time sensitive.”
1 – “I see where you are going. So tweeting about your business only really has applications if you have a wide audience of followers or you do something at a local level that could produce immediate response.”
2 – “Perhaps. I think there is a time and a place for Twitter, but for the small local business, the time and place may be yet to be discovered.”
1 – “Ok, so I get the impression that a small local business should maybe or maybe not use Facebook and Twitter, that there is some duplication between the two, and that doing so does not necessarily help business.”
2 – “That’s a pretty good assessment.”
_________________
As for some real world discussion, I agree – if I friend everyone I know on FB who I deal with on Creative COW, I have basically created a clone of Creative COW. I will still ask my questions on the COW. I will still primarily communicate on the COW. I suppose FB would let me see some “behind the scenes” views of my COW friends, something they may not post on the COW. But that’s what email and meeting people in real life is for. Facebook is a conduit to real world communications.
Recently, during the heated governor’s race here in CT, I briefly participated in the debate on one of the candidate’s websites. I chimed in on some issues and participated in the dialogue. But what I found was that the die hard supporters of the candidate did not appreciate opposing viewpoints being posted on the candidate’s FB site and I began to feel unwelcome. Sorry, I don’t like Kool Aid.
Regarding Linked In – that’s a good point. If a potential client sees that I am connected in a business manner with their competitors, that could have negative consequences. However I look at some of my contacts and see that they are connected with their own competition. This is because in the business world, people tend to jump around a lot. As long as clients know this, I think it is ok. And you should not be worried about guilt by association. If one of your contacts is connected to the competitor of a client, but you are not directly connected with that competitor, that too should be ok. You can judge a man by the company he keeps, but not by the company his company keeps.
Interesting conversation. I will be interested to see the other responses.
Mike Cohen
-
I would ask for a very specific list of everything you need to document. Living in a town where we had a horrible highway project (the first contractor used after market drain components and neglected to follow the plans, requiring a 2nd contractor to fix everything after the first contractor split town), I would image they would need shots of every curb, storm drain, signpost, hen house and outhouse to cover their bases. If they have to shut down traffic for you to do the shoot, and you need to be walking on a highway with video gear, make sure the time and liability coverage is well documented.
You could charge by the mile maker!
Mike Cohen
-
[greg ouellette] ” i also believe in not over-producing this kind of thing,”
Absolutely. But the higher price you mention need not = over producing. It is to provide a living wage to you and to provide a professional service at a competitive rate.
Look forward to seeing your future work.
Mike Cohen
-
The last time I used multicam editing was in CS3 – when you selected one of the cameras, it would take audio along with the video – very inconvenient if you actually want to keep the audio intact from all cameras. Now I simply do a PIP arrangement of all cameras, play it, make my cuts and then paste a motion preset onto all clips to make them full frame again, moving the clips I don’t need to a transparent track. May take a bit longer than using multi-cam, but much more control.
Mike Cohen
-
Greg,
I will reiterate, what you charge is not black and white. It is what is appropriate for your business.
$1200 sounds a bit low for 6 hours of shooting and some editing.
Is this your primary job, or are you gainfully employed doing something else?
If this is your primary job, then $1200 will barely keep your lights on.
If this is a paid hobby, then charge what you need to to pay for your gear and earn a fair wage for your living requirements.
Mike Cohen
-
Greg,
Overall, nice job. Patients generally need to see the basic facts, which you have presented nicely. Doctors have told me that some patients want to see everything, some just want the bullet points. The physician using the video should know his or her customer.Doing a good patient education video has more to do with a good script and getting the right visuals vs an expertise in the medical field. You seem to have both of these accounted for so that’s great.
As for pricing, I will reiterate the responses to this commonly seen thread on this forum – charge what is appropriate for the job, for your business and for your market.
For the Job
Asking “how much to charge” is like asking “how much is a car, a house, a boat or a pizza.” In other words, define your scope.
For your Business
Are you working out of your basement with a full time job and this is a money-making hobby or are you a small business owner with a facility, equipment, payroll and employees? Your overhead will also partially define how you charge for your services.For your Market
How much competition is there? And how does the competition compare to you? And what do you offer that others do not. Your expertise in radiation oncology will only really help with other radiation oncology videos. But a general knowledge and comfort level with medical things may give you an edge. It gives me an edge!
Also, what will the market bear? You might not find this out immediately.
Good luck.
Mike Cohen
Medical Education / Multimedia Producer