Quick and Painless Multimedia HANDOUT IABC Canada Business Communicators Summit NOVEMBER 2012
Donna Papacosta
Goals today
• Get familiar with easy-to-use tools • Learn to add multimedia to your
communications • Share experiences • Have fun
#CdnIABC12 @donnapapacosta
Why multimedia? • We are visual people
• S.ll and moving images and sound engage us
• Prolifera.on of visually oriented media and tools
• More likely to be shared
Bodyform: Answering a Facebook post with a cheeky video
About Pinterest
• Virtual pinboard
• Digital scrapbook/curation tool
• Ties into trend toward visual communication, curation, social sharing
• Easy and fun
• Drives more traffic than LinkedIn, YouTube and G+ combined
Not just for fashion and decor
Be a better pinner
• Set a goal first
• Curate the best; don’t pin everything you see
• Set your board cover
• Add context with text descriptions
• Add visuals to your own best content; link to it
Can follow people or hashtags
Instagram for busines s More than 40% of major brands use Pinterest.
Finding photos
Quick and Painless Multimedia
http://search.creativecommons.org/
Using photos in content marketing
• Share your organization’s story in photos
• Get good product shots, including how to use
• Show people
• Invite customers to share
Make your content “pinnable”
• Use images in standard formats (.jpg, .gif, .png), not Flash
• Do not use Javascript to load images onto page
Infographics: the good, the bad, the ugly Graphic above by Ian Lurie
Infographics
• Is it really an infographic? Does it communicate data in a visual format?
• Make it crystal clear
• Don’t use too many fonts
• Be sure the information flows
Don’t do this! • Does not tell a story
• Does not use visuals
• No flow
• No story
• BORING
Screen capture
• Grab still shots from your screen
• Some software allows annotation too
• Try Skitch (Mac), Snipping Tool (Windows 7)
• Great for presentations (Skitch used in my slides)
Screencasts
• “Show and tell”
• Use a series of stills OR video capture
• Capture your screen and audio in video form
• Many choices: Camtasia (Mac and PC), Snagit (Windows), Jing (Windows, Mac)
Screencast with Camtasia
Save PPT slides as pictures
iMovie, MovieMaker or others
Slideshare.net
You do not need a fancy camera
• Use screenshots/screencasts
• Turn presentations into videos
• Buy stock video; save old B roll
• Shoot video on smartphones
• Try tool like Animoto
Optimizing your video
• Strong title and file name
• Include keywords in description; be sure to add word “video” for the sake of search
• On YouTube, allow syndication and captions
Where to host video?
• YouTube
• Vzaar
• Vimeo
• Blip.tv
• Many others
Why audio?
• Warmth of the human voice
• Today’s tools are accessible, easy to use
• Gear is much less expensive now
Podcasting defined
• Audio that can be played and shared online
• Serial in nature
• True podcast requires RSS
• No iPod needed
Sound quality matters!
Quick and Painless Multimedia
Basic gear Better gear
• Computer
• Built-in mic or headset
• Computer
• USB mic or mic with mixer or preamp
• Headphones
Blue Yeti USB microphone
Recording your podcast
• Reduce ambient noise
• Avoid built-in microphones
• Learn to use the mic and other gear
• Consider a digital recorder
• Always record in uncompressed format
• Use 44100 Hz sample rate, 64kbp bit rate, mono
Listener has no visual cues
• Communicate for the ear, not the eye
• Use simple language; start with a hook
• Give auditory guideposts (Let’s talk about three things… First…”)
• Avoid lots of numbers
• Do a recap at the end
To script or not?
• Light scripting better than tight
• If you script, mark up script and rehearse
• Learn to sound natural when reading
• My advice: Don’t script, unless you have a talent for voice acting (exception: reading your fiction or essay)
Remote interviews
• Skype
• Recording software (Pamela, Call Recorder or others)
• Microphone and headphones
• Good Internet connection
Get great interviews
• Pick an expert who speaks well
• Do pre-interview
• Plan questions but don’t share exact ones
• Always be conversational
• Don’t insert agreement utterances
My favourite digital recorders Zoom H4n iPhone with iRig microphone
Why edit audio?
• Remove stumbles
• Excessive um and ah
• Tighten up rambling parts
• Add something you forgot in the first pass
Audacity (free software)
Garage Band (Mac)
Many editing choices
• Audacity (Mac, PC, Linux)
• Garage Band (Mac)
• Adobe Audition (Mac, PC)
• And others
Levelator: Podcaster’s secret weapon
A word about show notes
• Improve your SEO
• Helpful to listeners
• An alternative to a transcript
Importance of ID3 tags
• ID3 tags describe your podcast for iTunes and other players
• Add them in Audacity or ID3 Editor
Where to host your audio?
• On your own server
• Libsyn
• SoundCloud
• And more
Shortcuts to using audio
Quick and Painless Multimedia
SoundCloud
• Easy way to publish audio online
• Mobile version too
SoundCloud how-to
• Record on iPhone or computer
• Upload to SoundCloud
• Share your audio via social media
• SoundCloud now offers full podcast capabilities with RSS feed, etc.
Easy to share with SoundCloud
Quick and Painless Multimedia
Easy to add photos to Twitter
Add curation to your bag of tricks
• Find and share the best of relevant content produced by others
• Curation should be part of your content marketing efforts
• Be seen as an information source; possible thought leader
Paper.li for curating multimedia
Ideas for curated content • Industry news
• Expert tips and advice/how-to
• Presentations
• Case studies
• Reviews of events or books
• Photos
• Infographics
• Videos, podcasts
Quick list of curation tools • Delicious
• Clipboard
• Pearltrees
• Diigo
• Storify
• Scoop.it
• Paper.li
• Google+ Sparks
• Bundlr
• Magnify.net
• Curata
• Curation Station
• Scribit
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