Facebook Community Boost workshop ‘AHA’ moments and a few tips

Facebook brought an event called the Community Boost to Denver

Facebook is putting on the full court press to get the gig economy to become an integral part of the macro-economy. How do we turn our hobbies and cottage businesses into real money?

The grassroots road show came to Denver recently. It was a classy event at the Cable Center near the University of Denver.

The Cable Center is a non-profit organization that educates the public about, I suppose, the great things that cable TV has done for the good of society.

My background is public access TV, which was a provision of the original Cable Communications Act of 1984 that set up community access channels as a ploy to avoid regulation as a public utility and dodge FCC oversight.

I had to check out the CATV museum with the history of cable and honors all the pioneers who made billions of dollars.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I digress.

The event’s goal was to provide basic information and some hands-on experience with how to use facebook to increase website traffic, get more buyers / customers and ultimately how to buy more facebook ads through micro-targeting and subsequently make more money for your fledgling business and for facebook.

facebook booster creative

The facebook Community Boost exhibit area include the Mobile Studio that provides in-phone apps to edit pix and video

I’m a filmmaker and facebook is trying to turn everyone into rough-around-the-edges filmmakers, which devalues the work that I and all of my colleagues do.

Nonetheless, if you’re going to make video, you might as well post stuff that at least looks halfway decent.

Here are a few tips to improve your videos:

  • Have a story in mind. Even on the spot, you can mentally compose a beginning, middle and end to your movie, even if it’s only 15 seconds long. If you use an in-phone app like Splice or iMovie, you can shoot clips, trim and reassemble them. If you don’t edit, lots of creativity can come about from the continuous shot – going from scene to scene while keeping the phone camera steady. The climax to your story is some sort of call to action – “Click here”, “Call us”, “Donate now.”
  • Hold your camera steady. Move smoothly hand-held. My preference is to shoot with the phone camera horizontally. TV screens and monitors are not vertical and horizontal video displays and looks better. If you’re webcasting facebook live, turn the camera horizontally until the image flips then start the recording.
  • Movies are 80% sound. Viewers can take video that’s a little shaky or out of focus but if the sound is bad, your potential customers will skip to the next video. The microphone is at the bottom of the phone. Get as close as you can to your action or subjects. Normal voices from across the room won’t be picked up. If you decide you want your voice in the recording, try to let your subject complete their statement and avoid “walking over” their audio with your excited utterances or laughing.
  • Fill out the meta-data fields. Facebook has figured out the meta-data thing and prompts you through the video upload with titles and key word fields. Fill them all in and in the post narrative pick out a few key hashtags that are common sensical. I see posts with six or more hashtags – many of which are nonsense. That tactic detracts from the content.
  • Take my workshop. If you’re interested in turning your volunteers or staff into decent social media movie makers, I offer workshops about how to tell your organization or business story in 140 character elevator speech. I also teach practical ways to light a scene, get good sound using inexpensive, everyday items.
facebook creative sources

The Community Boost mobile studio pushed 10 apps to edit images and movies.

What I learned from the Community Boost is that real filmmakers need to differentiate themselves from the short-form shooters who know how to point the camera and record, but make bad video look better with the bells and whistles graphic overlay apps.

At the same time, filmmakers can better promote their work using the short and rough cut format.

Since attending the Community Boost, I’ve done this a couple times and have generated some pretty good organic engagement – a couple thousand views of one and nearing 1,000 views on another.

How that translates into more business is anyone’s guess but the phone keeps ringing and my friends keep making referrals.

The event was set up for lots of time for face-to-face networking, but during the breaks most everyone was sitting in the corners staring at their phones, computers and other screens. The lunch was good, but nearly missed out since I ran into a filmmaker in the hallway after the facebook ads workshop.

Community Boost “Aha” Moment – Campaign 2016

facebook parscale stahl

The Trump presidential campaign successfully employed the same techniques as taught at the Community Boost. The Hillary campaign didn’t and the rest is history.

I had a big “Aha” moment during the facebook ads workshop. If you missed, it was about how to target the ads to particular markets and how different messages and their words, images, colors and other variables can be tweaked to maximize viewership and interaction.

Earlier, I watched a 60 Minute TV newsmagazine segment by Leslie Stahl. She interviewed Donald Trump campaign social media guy Brad Parscale. Apparently, facebook offered to embed staff members into the campaign organizations who advised about how to maximize use of facebook ads.

Parscale explained how they decided to focus on 3,000 voters in Wisconsin which ended up turning the course of the election. The Trump campaign decided to try out the facebook offer. The Hillary campaign didn’t and the rest is history.

Those of us in the Community Boost workshop learned in 30 minutes what was taught during the 2016 presidential election. Facebook ads, with practice, can be a very effective way to micro-target market and maximize advertising budgets.

I get chided by friends about why I spend so much time on my facebook account and pages that I manage. I’d say three quarters of my business business leads come as a result of my presence on facebook. “If I didn’t make money from facebook, I wouldn’t waste my time there,” I tell them.

I still don’t understand the psychology behind facebook and why people respond, but then again, it really doesn’t matter.

‘The Last Waltz’ to play the BolderLife Festival in October

Click on the BolderLife logo to download a copy of the play script.

Click on the BolderLife logo to download a copy of the play script.

The BolderLife Festival announced that the stage play “The Last Waltz” will be produced for it’s October event in Denver.

The play by Alan O’Hashi was previously staged in Boulder at the Hitching Post Theater in 2011.

Download a copy of the play by clicking on the BolderLife logo.

Daddy Bruce and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Daddy Bruce Randolph remembers cutting the hair of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here’s a short documentary called “My Own Corner” produced by former Boulder Community Media producer Yu Miao. The project is her final University of Colorado broadcast journalism project.

The film features 80-year old Bruce Randolph Jr. of Boulder, Colorado. Bruce owns a barbecue and catering business at the corner of 20th and Arapahoe.

He is the son of community activist and grassroots philanthropist Bruce Randolph Sr.

Before getting into the restaurant business Daddy Bruce Jr. was a barber in North Denver. He recounts cutting the hair of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Principle photography is by Alan O’Hashi with sound by Todd Bradley.

The Life and Death of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again

The University of Denver Department of Media, Film & Journalism Studies and the Digital Media Studies program present Robert McChesney and John Nichols, authors of The Life and Death of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again, speak about their vision of the future of journalism and of public life.

Monday, April 26, 10:00 – 11:15 a.m.
University of Denver Campus, Ritchie Center Gottesfeld Room*

Robert McChesney is the author/editor of 16 books. He holds an endowed professorship in communication studies at the University of Illinois. John Nichols is a Washington correspondent for The Nation and is one of America’s leading progressive authors and political journalists. Both are founders of Free Press, the leading media reform organization and creators of the National Media Reform Conference.

This event is free and open to the public.
*The Ritchie Center is located Southwest of I-25 and University Blvd. Short-term parking is available around the building. The RTD Lightrail-University Blvd. station is across the street.

For additional information: visit http://www.du.edu/ahss/schools/mfjs/news/Future_of_Journalism.html

Honor Society plays the Marquis in LoDo

BCM correspondent Roxy King and "Honor Society"

Boulder Community Media Music Correspondent Roxy King had a chance to talk with a great band called Honor Society.

The group is on tour and stopped in Denver last week and rocked the Marquis Theater in Lower Downtown.

A news package will be uploaded, so keep checking back to see the exclusive interview and some never-before-heard acapella singing.

Studio B – BCM catches up with Nick Jonas

Roxy King interviews Nick Jonas Boulder Community Media roving reporter Roxy King caught up with Nick Jonas before his concert at the Paramount Theater in downtown Denver recently.

Jonas, the youngest member of “Jonas Brothers” is on tour with his band, “The Administration.

Nick talks about life on the road away from his brothers, how diabetes affects him and muses about his basketball trick video.

Click on the image of Nick and Roxy to view the video package.

Studio B – Nick Jonas at the Paramount Theater from BCM / WCM: The New Journalism on Vimeo.