Recently my family moved to Bethel, VT. It’s been great. We have been enjoying weekends that are a mix of hardware stores, garage sales and manual labor on our little plot of land. Every day we travel along routes 12 and 107 and are reminded of what went on just months ago during TS Irene along the White River and others. We previously lived in the Mad River Valley which saw similar impact.
The major river valleys in all directions are generally in states of disrepair along the banks. Debris is strewn across meadows, stuck in the muck and generally not where it’s been for decades. The material varies from refrigerators, to pieces of houses, to trees. Lots and lots of trees. Most of the trees seem to be otherwise great candidates to be made into firewood. Of course there are issues with accessing much of the fallen and redistributed lumber, but a significant percentage is ripe for the taking by the many Vermonters who own light equipment and have some elbow grease to spare. Read more
I am going to comment on some of the PR tactics being employed by PCMR in announcing this issue into the public realm. I have not confirmed these tactics nor would any good PR department grant them, just analyzing them at my face value based on about a decade in ski business PR. PCMR may be quickly successful (or not) and there are many items to analyze regarding their chosen method, which seems to be breaking new ground as far as public pressure tactics within the ski industry in the internet/social media era. This sort of neighborly full court public press is new.
We’ve all seen them. Brands that could/should have valuable and growing online tribes that are equivalent to third party marketing bullhorns. Sadly, the simple realities of how social media operates is not part of that brand’s delivery in the online space. Offering direct tips to help them can even be seen as threatening, so it just marches on. We’ll talk about obvious fixes for email marketing, twitter, your blog, your video and your website in future posts. Let’s start with Facebook content.
Post less. Once per day max. Twice if you have actual breaking news to fit in. Relevancy drops due to over posting meaning your info is seen by less and less of your fanbase. Read more
If you are like me, then you have found yourself with a need for compelling video to share online either for your company or as a service to provide to a client. Challenges arise. Professional video production can be quite expensive and time consuming. Plus, very few other people in the world can tell the story you want told. It also takes a very adept touch to capture real life stories without getting in the way and making the participants feel like actors. This post is designed to help Marketing Directors and PR Managers operating under budget constraints (and without pro level equipment).
Here’s what you need.
Good soundbites. Get people talking. Capture the sound without lots of wind or white noise and make sure the light is at least acceptable. Do not have them regurgitate your promotional copy. Get them relaxed and telling stories or providing a unique view. Use a microphone.
A tripod. Don’t have a tripod? Use a rock. Use a desk. Use anything. Do not handhold the camera unless you are capturing action.
A camera that has a microphone input. Audio is king.
B-roll. Capture other footage to mix in with the soundbites that illistrates what is being discussed. Directly or indirectly.
Establishing shots. Where is this happening?
A medium and an audience. How will you distribute and who is it aimed to interest. Think about this before. Not after.
Editing experience. If you have never done it, do not expect your first projects to turn out well or be quick.
Editing software. There’s cheap/easy all the way to expensive/advanced. Storytelling can be done with any. Results will vary.
Edit and render soon after you capture. You’ll remember the clips better. Now is news, too.
A primary website that will allow you to feature it where you want to. Not just Youtube or Vimeo.
Here’s what you don’t need.
Zoom. Do whatever you can to not use it. You can create pans and zooms in editing that are smoother. Use sparingly.
1080p. If you are shooting with a consumer camera and distributing online, 1080p is overkill. 720p is plenty. Your hardrive will thank you.
Fancy graphics. They only look good when done by people who do them for a living.
A Mac. Yes, FCP is the pro standard editing software, but some of us are stuck in situations with other operating systems.
Note – If someone wants to buy me a Canon 5D or 7D and a Mac – I’ll make you some videos.
More than 2 types of transitions. Use sparingly.
Hours of raw footage. Make editing easy. Shoot with a purpose.
A script. Those are for Hollywood. Low budget video that is scripted, stinks. Have a communications goal. Edit to taste.
1GB files. Making 3 minute video? You can keep it high res and less than 250 mbs.
Lengthy and deep approval processes. If you have that, then you should be willing to spend the money to go high-end professional.
Long shots or long videos. Quick cuts and videos less than 3 minutes are winners.
Video is the most powerful communications method in existence. Just because anyone can press record does not mean anyone can create quality video for business. That said, it’s also not rocket science. Telling a story just like the TV news does is cake. Want to add it to your marketing mix or want to stop paying through the nose for simple stuff? Happy to help you do either. See some of the recent videos completed for New England Culinary Institute or those produced on my recent 3 month RV trip.
I probably should just keep posting about marketing, social media, cultivating your audience, and online best practices in order to create more local moonlighting opportunities, but hell. There’s waaaay too many other people doing that – and it’s my birthday, so today we’ll skip it.
Without further adieu, here are the worst things that happened in California:
When leaving Redding (on about day 2) the door to the RV flew open while we were driving. SCARY.
The people at the Napa park got mad at me and threatened to kick us out for continuing to ask if they wanted me to make them a video for trade. I made one anyway.
I lost my original pair of poop gloves. They were my favorite.
The large, heavy and old TV fell on me while pulling into a gas station. Would have fallen on Laura too if she wasn’t in back seat. Kappy took some of the brunt as well. She had been warning me the whole time that it wasn’t stable.
Shopping at a store called El Super. It was El Confusing.
Having security called on me at Chula Vista RV Resort. I wanted to chat with decision maker about a trade. They refused. So I hung around in hopes they would eventually cave and allow a chat. They didn’t.
Jack-knifed the RV into the car trailer while attempting to park. Ripped open the bumber/rotten wood. Lots of caulk.
It wasn’t all bad though:
Asst Manager at Home Depot in Napa opened 8 different new grills to find me one single part I needed for mine. When he found it, he gave it to me free. Whoa!
The Napa folks changed their tune after seeing the video. They wanted it and refunded our card. Plus apologized for being grumpsters.
Scored a case of expensive wine+cash in Pismo on a work trade.
Had In-N-Out Burger for the first time ever.
Sold the car trailer on craigslist in San Diego for $100 more than I bought it for in Oregon.
The TV that fell on me…. still worked when I put it back.
Got an email from the marketing firm of an RV resort that shot me down. Said, “too bad we didn’t know you were coming – KOA got a great deal”.
Oh yeah it was January/February. You were all cold. We were not.
We spent more time in California than any other state. Jan 5 until Feb 16. Almost half of our trip was in the Golden State. Not by design but by virtue of the fact that I found a lot of work and other states on our route were expected to be less interesting. Here’s where we stopped and a bit about who was parked nearby.
Redding California Wal-Mart parking lot. 20 random RV’s all seemingly stopping on their way south. Direct neighbor was a RV repairman who specialized in window seals, which caused me to worry a bit more about ours. The frozen water in the walls finally thaws and few spots are damp. Uh oh. Thankfully that was the only time that happened. Also ate some In-n-Out Burger.
Napa Valley Expo RV Park. Huge Class A (bus style) neighbors with yap dogs. Guy watches sympathetically as I try to figure out the water and sewer systems for the first time. He consumes about 4 bud lights while chuckling at my ineptitude. The park host sits on a picnic table seemingly 24/7 smoking butts.
Pismo Coast Village RV Park. Stayed in two different spaces in this park. Our first neighbors were a pair of life partner ladies from Fresno, who seemingly had an ownership interest in the park. I put their dog in the promo video. Someone left us three lemons, we think it was them, but we will never know. Very nice. We made some fish to use the lemons. Our second set of neighbors (in the lower class section of the park) was a huuuge family from Washington in a small trailer. Home schooled family with kids ages newborn to 10. We also had some late arriving weekenders (we were there for weeks) who showed up right next to us at midnight and partied until 4am. Everyone hated them and bitched about them behind their back. In general though, one of our favorite spots on the whole trip.
Malibu Beach RV Park. Not a very neighborly spot. People do not talk to each other. The staff generally did not enjoy the guests and visa versa. Amazing view and had some family visitors to substitute for the lack of nice people in the park. One would expect Malibu to be a bit stuck up, and this park fulfilled that expectation.
San Diego KOA. Spent 3 weeks here so had a good mix of neighbors. Had a Harley guy who we never saw except for when he would roll out on his hog. Had a family from South Central LA who were loud and scary friendly. Up in your face with conversation all the time. They wanted to like Kappy but Kappy barked at them, which changed their mind. They also owned a battery operated cop car and drove it all around the park. Also had our cousins stay next door a few times. Lots of Quebecois in this park too. It was located in Chula Vista beneath a couple of freeways, but was otherwise nice.
Our longest one day haul was up next (San Diego to Picacho Peak near Tucson) and I’ll continue to the neighbor review in a future post.
My most recent client was present on facebook, but was doing so as a friend page instead of a fan page. This meant that guests would need to request friendship to become connected and thus would offer all of their personal information to the campground. Both of those are major hurldes to participation. Also facebook can eliminate your profile at any time if you are improperly using the platform. That’s bad. You also miss out on social plugins for your main website. The list goes on.
“Converting” to a fan page is not the conversion that I’d like to look at – it’s a no brainer. Get it done if you have not. The important conversion to be aware of is in regards to how the newsfeed functions. The newsfeed is where your brand wins or loses on Facebook. You can have the best intentions and content on the internet, but if folks have not clicked “like” on your business, it will not make it to their eyeballs within Facebook’s platform. Sharing it? Not a chance. Sure they could come directly to your page, but that’s just as likely as visiting your website, which would not be taking advantage of why you are on Facebook to begin with.
I’ve seen a variety of statistics in regards to organic conversion on Facebook, meaning percentage of folks who like a brand when viewing their facebook page upon arriving at the wall. These have ranged between 10% and 30% depending on the brand. It’s low. They need help. A reason to join the club. The #1 way to gain more facebook conversion is to make sure that your primary website contains social plugins allowing visitors to like you without ever seeing your facebook page. Yup – you’re in the newsfeed and if your content is good (i.e. inspires interaction) then you can reap the rewards of a growing outbound network. The #2 way is to make sure that when a visitor reaches your facebook page and is not currently a fan, they are met with a reason to click like, rather than a mish mash of wall content. Here at Camp Gulf, they wanted to make the switch and do it without any development costs so a free landing tab for non fans that inspires conversion was the way to go. If you are not a fan, you’d see the like option right above the image on facebook.
Facebook can be a fantastic outbound communications medium, or it can be a time suck where you communicate only to a group of squeeky wheels or super fans. The difference is in how much effort you put into fan conversion and content that inspires interaction. Added bonus - be sure to grab your vanity url so it’s easier to direct folks to your page when interacting in a offline environment (i.e. facebook.com/yourbusiness). This looks a lot better in a brochure or on a business card when compared to ”search for us on facebook”.
We left Tucson about 2 weeks ago and have since spent time in the Florida (pronounced flor-i-ta) Mountains of New Mexico, the Davis Mountains in the Big Bend of Texas, the Hill Country of Junction and Austin and now find ourselves just a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The grass is now green, it’s humid, and there are many signs for alligator attractions, which is a nice change of pace. After boondocking in Austin to see our friend Jess (and running out of battery power on the last night) our current spot is feeling like an oasis of amenities.
Welcome to the Gulf Coast RV Park on the west side of Beaumont, Texas. This is a stopover/monthly park just off I-10 adjacent to the massive Ford Park entertainment and athletic complex. It’s in good shape, has modern amenities, and is very straightforward. Beaumont is not a tourist hotspot per se so the park focuses on being exactly what the traveler needs. Everything is clean, orderly, works well (even the wifi is fast) and there’s a free breakfast. It also has a new website that is only 5 pages in total. It’s bare bones but functional – so we gave it a boost. The video capsule below can be featured throughout the site and will allow guests to feel at home before they get here, which is a major factor for RV’ers trying to decice where to roost. This will be on their homepage shortly.
Next we are headed east for quick stops near Baton Rouge and Mobile, before seeking our next longer term video trade spot on the Florida Gulf Coast. If you get an email from me pointing you to this website, ask yourself – what would you like to communicate with video in trade for a single camping slot? Also consider that I’ll be contacting your competition. Embrace the opportunity – don’t let it go down the street. No website is complete without compelling video. So let’s get you some for the cost of simple camping trade.
The other people as crazy as us on the continent
Side note - I’ve been keeping this site to work related posts, but wanted to give a quick shoutout to Jed, Jillian and Juliet from Alberta. We met them in west Texas and spent a few nights camping as neighbors in Davis Mountains State Park. The first and only young family we have run into. Best of luck the rest of the way guys!
They were towing a small antique trailer and were seeing the sights of the west and south over the winter with their baby and pup. Hopefully we busted some American stereotypes along with those we surely upheld. Check out their blog if you like.
Look us up if you are ever headed to Vermont and let’s have a look at those curtains!
Prior to departing San Diego our original plan was to hop-skip our way across Arizona with a couple nights at State Parks located near I-10. Laura started to look around on the internet about fun things to do in the Tucson area so I in turn started looking for RV parks that might want to have a video produced for them to get a longer stay in the area. Quickly I realized that this was snowbird territory and most commercial parks were for retirees only. Not exactly what we we’re looking for, but I’ll get back to that.
We get a lot of advice from family and friends to go see this or that, as if Arizona was some small state easy and affodable to traverse in two vehicles with a baby. Haha. Nope. We go in generally straight lines, then poke around the overnight areas in our Subaru. We still hit a State Park – it broke up the drive to Tucson and was quite stunning.
So after one night at Picacho Peak State Park outside of Tucson we headed for the Cactus Country RV Resort, which is now a part of the Adventure Bound family of camping locales and is located on the southeast side of the metro area just off exit 275. It’s one of the few (if not the only) park that actually feels like camping in the desert rather than the concrete jungle. We don’t hear the highway and there’s open space surrounding the entire spot. It’s also frequented by a mix of full timers, snowbirds, weekers (like us), weekenders and some regular working folk with kids.
The production plan is to produce a well rounded piece that features the managers, a few guests, some of the on-site activities, a focus on the western feel, and also touches on the attractions of Tucson. Should be able to wrap it up by the end of the week. Need this crazy windy weather to blow through first.
I’ll update again when the video is done. Until then I threw some new content onto our google map. We plan to scoot across Texas and most of the gulf pretty quickly without long stays in one spot, then return to longer stays in trade for marketing services when we get to Florida sometime in March.
