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I realized the other day that I am very close to being done with my coursework at Full Sail University. I can't believe this year has gone by so fast. I have learned about so much throughout my studies, and how fitting is it that my last class is tailored towards learning about how to market your company through the internet. Going online and researching different companies and their product offerings is quickly becoming the norm. According to the Business Opportunities Weblog Network, about 58% of people do online research before purchasing a particular product, up from 49% in 2004. These numbers prove that people rely on the internet much more to gain information about consumer products and services. This piece of information is great for people starting up business that are only online based, or for people that are going to rely heavily on the internet to market the product or services they will be offering.
Some of the things that I have learned throughout this course that will help to ensure that your internet marketing will be successful is the following:
• Keep your website, blog, social networks, etc updated frequently
o Search Engine Optimization (SEO) workds off of how often websites are updated. The more you update your website, the better chance you have at being at the top of a search engine list
• Use specific keywords and key phrases throughout your website, blog, social networks, etc.
o Making sure that you are using keywords and key phrases that relate to your product or service offerings often enough (but not too often), will also help you get to the top of a search list
These of course are not the only things that you should be doing to optimize the effectiveness of your website, but they are great starting points. If you are interested in learning more just do a quick google search! While you are learning more about how to market your business on the web make sure to pay attention to the website you are learning from. How exactly are they teaching you? Do you see any trends? How easy to read is the website? What about the layout?
Take some of the positives and apply it to your own site!
~*Peace, Love, and Radio*~
References: http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2010/09/30/more-shoppers-doing-research-online-before-buying/
Online Marketing...Where Do You Start?!?
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Digital Marketing
Digital Marketing for Non-Profits
We all know that the use of the internet and other digital resources is extremely important within the entertainment industry, but the increase in technology for research has proven that digital marketing is also very important for non-profit organizations.
Google AdWords
The use of Google AdWords is very useful for non-profits. Google AdWords allows the name of your organization and a link to your website to be listed under the “sponsored links” section of the search page. This is important because it allows your business and information to pop up first. As a non-profit it is important to gain as many followers and advocates as possible in order to raise funds to keep your business thriving. In the case of Moguls in the Making, I would use key words like youth, entertainment, career, and mentor. These words are most important because they, in a nutshell, describe what I am aiming to accomplish throughout the duration of the existence of Moguls in the Making. Take a look at
http://www.slideshare.net/GeorgianneBrown/digital-marketing-amp-your-non-profit
it allows you to get a better understanding of why digital marketing makes so much sense for a non-profit organization. It is sometimes hard to understand why non-profits even need money, hence the name “non-profit” but through fundraising and donations they are able to thrive.
Google Grants
Another thing I learned about on this site was about Google Grants. This is a program that non-profit organizations apply to in order to receive a free subscription to Google AdWords. This allows for absolutely free marketing if your organization is chosen to participate: 100% return on investment. No matter what type of business you are deciding to open it is always important to market it. People need to know you exist, and for any business the more people that know about you the better!
Happy Marketing!
~*Love, Peace, and Radio*~
To Self-Publish, Or Not To Self-Publish...
As I mentioned in my previous blog, I am currently in a course title Media Publishing and Distribution. Throughout this course, our professors have been teaching us about the differences between getting your work publishing by a professional publisher or self-publishing, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the two. The change in the way consumers purchase books, movies, and music now has proven that self-publishing is the best way to go for several reasons.
1) No cost of manufacturing hundreds of books that may sit on the shelves or in the warehouses of a bookstore and never sell
2) Easier for the consumer to navigate through and customize
3) Most consumers purchase their other media entities and hobby related materials online
Though these are just some of the examples I have learned throughout the last three weeks, there are several others to consider as well. Many of these reasons can be found through a simple Google search, or by visiting some of the Print On Demand (POD) websites available right at your fingertips. Some of these sites include:
· iUniverse
· CreateSpace
· Dog Ear Publishing
· Lulu
Being young, new to the entertainment industry, and without direct access to tons of money to send my work to a large publishing house, I would definitely prefer to use the POD method. I prefer the POD website Lulu. It is very user-friendly and answers any questions you may have regarding POD. The only downfall is that they only provide POD for literary works, not for music or movies. Maybe in the future they will expand, but for now, if you are looking to get a book published, definitely visit Lulu, or any of the other websites mentioned above. When deciding which one I liked best I did a compare/contrast analysis on all of them.
Happy POD-ing!!
~*Love, Peace, & Radio*~
Turn Your Ideas Into Reality
This month in my Full Sail University curriculum we are studying about media publishing and distribution. We have been encouraged to develop a creative idea that we can present to industry agents and publishers to hopefully get it legally and publically distributed. My idea this course has been a reality television show based on the lives of radio professionals. After working in a fast-paced, drama-filled hip hop radio station for the past six months, I have come to realize that our lives would pose for great television.
I have created a query letter to an agent, a reality television show treatment for producers, and I am in the process of completing a formal business strategy to self-promote and merchandise my reality television idea. The interesting thing about this whole process is that all of the resources needed to take your idea to completion are posted for free on the internet. Templates for your query letter, treatments, and business strategy have been created and posted on the internet by industry executives and professionals that have either gone through this process before, or receive creative ideas from different people each day.
While the majority of producers and agents only work with people who are already established in the industry, or who has a previous connection with them or someone they know, there are several websites that show agents and producers that will review content from newbies. All you have to do is use your favorite online search engine and search for whatever it is you are wanting to create. It will show you everything from diagrams on the entire creation to completion process, to how to properly find and approach your own agent or production company.
I wake up with different ideas everyday! When you have an idea, write it down! Invest some time into perfecting your idea and it may make some money for you one day!
HAPPY CREATING!
~*Love, Peace, & Radio*~
Entertainment Law...The Stuff We Need to Know!
A really good friend of mine is currently in law school. She always talks about how stressful, difficult, and sometimes boring studying law can be. I am currently in the Advanced Entertainment Law course of my Full Sail University curriculum, and while the class work can definitely be challenging, it has been extremely interesting and very helpful!
I recently listened to the following law focused podcasts:
- Tough Cookies and Heart Attacks
- The true costs of patents
- Privacy and the media
In the following paragraphs I am going to summarize these podcasts as well as explain how they can be applied directly to both the entertainment industry as a whole, and to my future business venture, Moguls in the Making.
Tough Cookies and Heart Attacks
This podcast hosted by Gordon Firemark and Tamara Bennett actually discussed several different legal cases within the entertainment industry that are currently being debated. One of my favorites within this podcast is the case between Victor Witmill and Warner Brothers. Witmill is currently suing Warner Brothers for the use of his tattoo design in the move The Hangover 2. Witmill designed the tattoo that is currently displayed on the face of Mike Tyson, and in The Hangover 2, the same type of design was placed on the face of one of the actors. This case stresses the importance of “dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s.” When I first heard of this case a few weeks ago my initial thought was “who is the one responsible for not putting this task on the checklist.” With major productions like film, it is very important to make sure that all legal issues are addressed and corrected before the film is released. My opinion here is that Witmill is just looking to earn a quick buck by making sure a hassle out of it, but at the same time, he may just be entitled to receive a monetary settlement for his work even though he did not copyright it within the appropriate time frame. In week one of our class we had to create an IP checklist for our business plans. After learning more about this case, I have been able to think of and add many more legal items to my IP checklist that I need to make sure are taken care of before my business goes live.
The True Cost of Patents
In this podcast, Anup Malani and Jonathan Masur discussed how the pricing of your innovations and its patents directly relate to one another. During my studies for my bachelor’s degree I took 2 or 3 economics class, therefore their reference to profits, demand curves, and surplus really resonated with me. One term that they used a lot was “patent pools”. Malani and Masur taught me that patent pools allow you to partake in two part pricing when registering patents which gives you the opportunity to buy a bundle of patents (or any other product or service for that matter) for flat rate, and then pay per patent for additional ones that supersede that amount in your bundle. When starting up my non-profit organization, I will be able to use this theory when it comes to applying patents to innovations that my employees, my students, or me come up with. It will allow us to remain creative without the worry of our competition stealing our ideas.
Privacy and The Media
This podcast was my favorite of them all! It gave me a new respect for TMZ. Yes, TMZ the celebrity gossip TV show and website! Did you know that Harvey Levin, the creator and executive producer of TMZ is a lawyer? He went to the University of Chicago Law School. I was extremely shocked to learn this information. Throughout the podcast he discussed the importance of maintaining a line of privacy with celebrities and their personal lives. Now this may seem like an oxymoron due to the fact that all TMZ does is dive right into the personal lives of celebrities, but he gave several examples of how he chose not to publicize certain information that TMZ received about celebrities. This goes to show that even people whose explicit jobs are to report celebrity gossip still know how to maintain a level of professional and ethical behavior. My goal for Moguls in the Making is to have celebrities come in to mentor and teach my students. We all know that some celebrity lifestyles are not all rated PG13, but it is my job to make sure that my students know how to properly handle situations if they see a celebrity partaking in an act that they know is not right. It is not the job of the student to spread rumor or gossip, but they should know that the faculty is the place to vent about issues or things that they see and that when they talk about it with the faculty it is left there and not discussed anywhere else. This will build up a strong positive conscience and set of morals within my students that allows them to behave professionally in any situation.
The links to the podcasts that I listened to can be found below.
Tough Cookies and Heart Attacks
The True Cost of Patents
Privacy and the Media
Happy Listening!!
~*Love, Peace, & Radio*~
Intellectual Property and the Entertainment Industry
There are several different components that make up the Moguls in the Making program: music, art, journalism, dance, mentoring, etc. Because of this, there are several different ways that intellectual property can affect the way I, as well as my future students, currently and will in the future, conduct business.
Below I am going to discuss three separate occurrences that somehow involves intellectual property as well as relates to Moguls in the Making and the outcome of the services that the program provides.
1. Beyonce steals Billboard Performance
Just recently Beyonce executed a perfect and extremely memorable performance at the Billboard awards. Some are speculating that she stole this performance from Lorella Cuccarini, an Italian pop singer who performed a similar dance sequence in 2010. The funny thing to me is that out of all of the people that are claiming Beyonce “stole” this performance, the actual singer that Beyonce got her inspiration from has no problem with it. I do think that stealing someone’s artistic expression in the form of dance can be seen as an issue of intellectual property, but if the artist has no problem with it I don’t see an issue.
Article
2. Journalism professor plagiarizes from student paper
This to me is unacceptable. Teachers, mentors, and professors always teach their students that plagiarism is never tolerated. Therefore, for a teacher to go and steal the exact words of his own students irritates me. In the article the teacher tries to explain that his plagiarism was unintentional, but I find that very hard to believe. This just goes to show that no matter where you are in life and who you come in contact with you always have to stay sharp and on your toes. I plan to make sure that my students know how to stay always stay on guard, but know how to properly work with people at the same time.
Article
3. PETA infringing film-maker’s intellectual property rights
This instance shows complete infringement of intellectual property. PETA should have asked permission before deeming authority over parts of this film-maker’s art. It was said in the article that the film maker probably would not have granted them access to the film, but nonetheless, PETA should have followed the appropriate legal procedures to make sure this situation was handled correctly.
Article
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