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.

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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.
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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

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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.

Real D 3D Salon at BIFF 2013

go_pro3d_600x600Boulder Community Media (BCM) is hosting the RealD 3D Salon at the Boulder International Film Festival (BIFF) and seeking up to 6 teams of four or more cast and crew members. More teams may be added depending on demand. There is no entry fee, but teams must have a valid credit card and drivers’ license to secure the equipment that will checkout out to you for the week.

Download the BCM 3D contest registration form and email it back to bvet22@yahoo.com by February 9th or bring it to the 3D workshop on Saturday to the place which will be announced later.

A 3D filmmaking workshop will be held on Saturday February 9 (Place TBD) from 10am to 2pm.

Participants will learn how to operate the GoPro 3D camera rigs and how to use the Cineform 3D editing software and how it interfaces with 2D editing programs.After the class, teams will have a week to finish their 7-minute 3D movies which will be screened at the BIFF on Saturday night 7pm February 16th through a RealD projection system onto the silver screen.

The filmmakers will participate in a panel along with representatives from RealD and each filmmaking team who will be on hand to discuss their technologies and projects.