This seems basic, but time and again I see About Pages that are vague and make no mention of the people behind the enterprise. As a reader, I inevitably find this unsatisfying.

If potential customers are interested in your services, they generally want to know about the people in charge. Vague statements will not lead anyone to believe you are a global multinational.

Talk about your strengths, your past affiliations or your goals. Just don’t waste the opportunity to say something meaningful.

——————————–

We also believe it’s helpful to include pictures of the people discussed on the page. If it’s your company, that means a picture of you.

The trend is toward informal portraits - make sure it’s a good one. Get a professional to take your picture if possible.

——————————–

Finally, the About Page is a good place to include links to more info about you. Here are some obvious choices:

• Twitter
• Linked In
• Flickr
• YouTube

Don’t include a Facebook link unless you have an FB Page for Business. Linking to your personal profile is generally not recommended for business.

——————————–

The About Page is always one of the top destinations on any website selling goods or services. Take advantage of the opportunity to say more about yourself to interested readers.

Examples:

Goodtree & Co/About
Mike Jaquish/About
Automattic/About

The panel meets once a month in the conference room at the newspaper with Senior Editor Dan Barkin and Vice President of Marketing and Community Publishing Felicia Gressette. We have bagels and muffins and coffee. We talked about sports, Mary Easley, the comics, the editorials and how the N&O relates to the online space. We’ve met other editors and seen slide shows about demographics.

WELCOME TO THE UNDERGROUND

The Community Panel doesn’t exactly meet in a parking deck. But I’ve never seen any mention of the group in print or online.

Since I was never asked to sign an anonymity agreement, I guess it’s okay to blog about it. So here are my notes from the most recent meeting, Wednesday June 17, 2009.

“PARTING SHOTS”

Every meeting has its own flavor. In June, with several Community Panel members at the end of their one-year terms, we got to hear a little of what people really think. Call it “Parting Shots.”

The meeting started in the usual way - people milling around chit-chatting, getting their coffee, reading the day’s newspaper, fresh from the presses. Ruth and I discussed her imminent departure. “We have something to say,” she confided in me, indicating the senior panel members with her eyes.

The meeting began. We had previously discussed talking about “green” topics in the June meeting. But within moments, the senior panel members had steered the conversation to their own topic.

“I think the Community Panel is off-course,” said Jim. Ruth said about the same thing, as did Danny.

Ann said she “felt impotent on the panel.” I wrote in my journal “me too.” But mostly, the newer members kept quiet.

I watched Dan Barkin slowing eating his breakfast, eyes on the table, as the comments washed over him. I’m thinking, “this is awkward,” but I’m digging it, too. Not from schadenfreude, mind you. I think Dan Barkin is a good guy, a good newspaperman and in a position to need a thick skin. But I also think he needs to hear the criticism.

Someone on the panel worried about whether the paper will be here in another couple of years. Felicia Gressette assured us that “the N&O will be here in a hundred years.”

I admire her confidence.

WATCHDOG JOURNALISM AND OTHER KEY BRAND ATTRIBUTES

Both Dan and Felicia pointed out the key strategic attributes that guide the N&O:

• Watchdog Journalism
• Local Sports
• Editorials & Opinions

Ann added the N&O’s coverage of education issues to the list and some mention was made of “community.”

The News & Observer does a great job on investigative reporting. As Barkin points out, without a strong local newspaper, who will grind it out to do this stuff? Dan also mentioned that not every local newspaper uses its platform to keep an eye out for shady dealings in the public sphere. All true.

If I were the ad guy for the N&O, I’d push the watchdog journalism aspect in TV ads. It really is the brand equity and DNA.

STUMBLING INTO CYBERSPACE

The discussion shifted to the online site, newsobserver.com. Dan (or was it Felicia?) suggested that it might be interesting to have the panel read the paper for a month exclusively online.

Several members voiced anguish at this suggestion. Jim said he “couldn’t possibly read it all online.” He observed that the site was difficult to navigate.

Dan told us that the N&O is working on a new site and that he expects it will be live by the end of the summer. You heard it here first, people.

Felicia observed that the current site was like a “Rube Goldberg contraption.” This is not unusual in mega-sites that have grown for years without a major redesign. But I applaud her for saying it out loud. Later, she likened the website to “a giant kitchen junk draw.” Great phrase - pithy.

Dan followed up by mentioning that traffic to the website is robust and growing strongly (think he said 30% year-over-year). N&O blogs are driving one million page views per month.

I wondered why no one accepted my invitation to speak or attend WordCampRDU last week.

Dan also observed that the paper is continuing to create new blogs to meet community interest, including blogs about business, food and TV.

BLOGS NOT INDEXED FOR SEARCH

Panel member Danny noted that the search function on newsobserver.com doesn’t index the blogs. Dan complimented Danny on his web savvy and assured him that the N&O was working on a solution.

But, for me, that one fact sums up how far the N&O has got to go to really understand and benefit from social media.

NO GO ON GOLO

Interestingly, a couple of panel members pointedly disparaged WRAL’s GOLO portal and begged the N&O not to adopt a similar technique.

WHAT NEXT FOR THE COMMUNITY PANEL

Felicia acknowledged that the departure of Ted Vaden has left a void in the panel and the paper. She spoke sincerely and convincingly on the N&O’s need for community feedback and the value of the panel. Dan Barkin echoed her sentiments.

Earlier in the meeting, Ann and Jim had tossed out the idea of a Community Panel column online. This idea came back in a different way toward the end of the session.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR = MODERATOR

David, one of the junior panel members, had prepared a short report on mashing up climate news with the weather page. A self-avowed data junkie, David’s idea generated some enthusiasm from the panel. Dan joked that he should be an associate editor.

The other panel members carried the light chatter forward, suggesting a few humorous associate editor positions for panel members.

But, I thought, associate editor is not that different from the online function of moderator. Moderators can shape discussions, introduce topics and enforce rules and standards.

Looking beyond the Community Panel, wouldn’t a local paper benefit from training a force of “civilians” to help run the online operation? Imagine a moderator for each high school in the area, trained by the N&O to ensure a quality content stream. People are creating great content (how many dads have I seen at youth sports events with 1000mm lenses). What’s lacking is relevant organization.

It’s not share.triangle.com. It’s dozens, or even hundreds of local niche portals run by the N&O and supported by the communities.

Communities. Not community. The Triangle contains scores of communities, each with its own interests, news and events.

Maybe that associate editor gig isn’t such a joke after all. Call it Associate Community Editor and perhaps the journos could live with it.

REPLACING THE PUBLIC EDITOR

The panel has had no news that the N&O is seeking a replacement for Public Editor Ted Vaden. Maybe they shouldn’t.

What’s needed in 2009 is a Director of Social Media. Ford has one (@scottmonty). So does WRAL (@communitygirl).

The social web is the key to engaging audiences in the future (and, very rapidly, in the present). The social web is your feedback channel.

A DSM would explain why you should consider WordPressMU for your blogs (search is already baked in). The GarnerCitizen uses WordPress. So does The New York Times.

A Director of Social Media would build your Twitter stream. 1800 followers in a region with 1.3 million people could be improved.

A Director of Social Media would fit nicely under Felicia’s umbrella. The DSM could train community members to be moderators and help establish new channels.

THE LAST WORD

Panel member David had the last word. After listening to the debate about the role and nature of the Community Panel, he said “the most important thing is that it exists.”

Most people around the table seemed to agree with that notion.

GET INVOLVED

Past, present and future Community Panel members, readers of the News & Observer and people interested in Journalism 2.0 are invited to leave a comment or subscribe to this blog.

The gang at Vision Park in Raleigh invited us to an eye wear trunk show. We saw the latest trends from OGI and JeeVice. We even had cupcakes with lemonade icing.

Special thanks to Elizabeth from Vision Park and Michele from the blog One Chic Mama.

Now you can see how this might appeal to me. To picture my boss and friend Hal Goodtree, feeling quite uncomfortable dressed in women’s fashion, makes me fall on the floor laughing.  So I contacted our friend Faith Dwight, editor of Skirt.  She was as delighted as I to get Hal on the other side of the camera.

On the day of the photo shoot, Faith and Hal discussed changes in media with a serious tone, while I chuckled to myself seeing Hal’s skinny, hairy legs hanging out the bottom of a purple floral number.  I hoped he didn’t enjoy it too much because it was MY skirt and I was planning on wearing it later that week.  Check out the May issue of Skirt Magizine to get a glimps of Hal’s gams.

Photo: Leslie Huffman
Pictured at left: Skirt Editor Faith Dwight
BTW - If you like the blues, check out Hal's band on MySpace

GET YOUR MIND RIGHT

The first key to taking good pictures with your iPhone is recognize that’s it not a Nikon or a Hasselblad. Cell phone cameras demand a different technique altogether than precision photographic instruments.

WHY CELL PHONE CAMERAS ARE GREAT

So why bother with a tool that is low res, poorly lensed and lacks all meaningful photographic controls? One word: Spontaneity.

Taking great pictures is often about time and place, capturing a magic moment. Unless you carry your Leica or Yashica everywhere, the cell phone camera is often the only option.

It’s worthwhile to get some skills with cell phone cameras because they provide access to some of the most beautiful and fleeting moments in life.

And, after all: it’s the photographer, not the camera, that makes the picture.

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Top 5 Rules for Taking iPhone Pictures

RULE #1: STEADY HANDS

The iPhone has a pretty slow shutter. And, the touch-screen button is awkward to click. Number 1 tip for taking good pictures with your iPhone:

Pay special attention to holding the iPhone steady while you snap

This just takes a little practice, figuring out best way to hold your iPhone so you can click the shutter button. Using both hands helps. Try it.

RULE #2: GET CLOSE

The iPhone camera lens is very wide. A wide lens makes things bigger in the foreground and teeny tiny in the background.

Go with it. Get close to your subject and fill the frame.

RULE #3 - LEARN TO LOVE WACKY COLORS

The iPhone camera tends to over-dramatize color, especially in low light. Warm, incandescent light becomes positively orange.

You can try to shift the colors around or mute over-saturated tones, but sometimes it’s just better to work with what the camera delivers. Try looking at your iPhone pictures as impressions, not photographic records.

RULE #4: EMBRACE CONTRAST

The iPhone likes situations of high contrast. Muted, soft light produces flat pictures. Remember, this is not a tool of subtlety.

Even in bright light, the iPhone seems to capture a fair amount of detail in the shadows. Strong lines and a sharp delineation between light and dark make for dramatic pictures on the iPhone.

RULE# 5: PROCESS YOUR SHOTS

iPhone pix benefit from some basic processing:

• Cropping - tight up your compositions by cropping out space that is extraneous to the main subject.
• Grading - almost every iPhone picture benefits from deeping the blacks and raising the whites. You can accomplish this by using the Contrast and Brightness tool, adjusting the Curves or other means. The result is a crisper, punchier shot.
• Sharpening - to some extent, you can correct iPhone’s susceptibility to shake by using a the Sharpening tool. On some photos, excessive sharpening can make the picture too grainy, so use your judgment.

There are dozens of photo processing programs out there including Photoshop and Picnik. I used iPhoto to process the pictures in my iPhone Moments Flickr set:

See the entire set  iPhone Moments on Flickr.

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iPhone Camera Wish List

In future post, I’ll list the features I’d like to see for the iPhone. Email me if you have some suggestions.

Thanks to:

Wick Morgan
The Spectacle
Raleigh, NC

Brands in this episode:

Rayban
Persol
Barton Perriera
Paul Smith
Blind
Kieselstein Cord
Chrome Hearts

Music by:

Fool with Time

©2009 Goodtree & Co. Inc. All rights reserved.

Abandoned developments are starting to blight the landscape near my house. From a project this week for SmartGrowthGirl.

One of the buzz topics last week was Security & Safety. The issue is URL shortening services.

WHAT IS A URL SHORTENER?

Some URLs run to dozens of characters, making them impractical to use. URL shortening services transform long URLs into short ones, thus:

http://searchengineland.com/analysis-which-url-shortening-service-should-you-use-17204

becomes

http://bit.ly/jphUs

Shortened URLs are particularly important on character-limited status services like Twitter (140 characters max).

4 PROBLEMS AND RISKS OF SHORTENERS

Some shorteners are built in to services like Twhirl. Most can be surfed up on the web or added to your toolbar. Very convenient. But what are you getting? And what are the risks?

1. Transparency - I like to see where I’m going before I click.

2. Who’s monitoring my traffic? By introducing a third party between the user and destination, the issue of trust becomes important. Or, as Ronald Reagan used to say, trust but verify.

3. What if the service goes dead? What happens to my links? All of us use links in our content. It would be bad if those links failed because the service provider went belly up. Is there backup of all transformed links?

4. Bogus redirects - All of us get rickrolled once in a while, but shortened URLs potentially open the door to all kinds of click fraud.

THE SOLUTION: USE BIT.LY

Dozens of services have sprung up, in part to serve the booming Twitterati. Danny Sullivan does an in-depth review in SearchEngineLand.

The short answer: Bit.ly. It’s safe and secure. It also has a couple of very cool features:

LINK STATS - I love stats. Now you can have stats on how often and who clicks on your links. Guess what? This can help shape your content to more accurately match your audience.

PREVIEW PLUGIN - This beta plugin for Firefox gives you a cool Flash popup preview of the destination before you click. Voila! Click fraud defeated.

MORE INFO

Got more questions about URL shorteners or security or using social networks for business? Contact us.

• there are 2 billion Google searches a day (source)
• there are 78 million YouTube videos online (source)
• over 100 million YouTube videos are viewed per day
• 346 million people globally read Blogs daily (source)
• 77% of active internet users read Blogs
• Facebook has 175 million users from 170 countries (source)
• Facebook users have an average of 120 friends
• the fastest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years old & older

The old economy may be drying up, but the new economy is awash in opportunities. Need a lifeboat? Give us call.

The Fashion Plate

Thanks Samantha!

From a viral Trader Joe’s ad that’s had 340,000 views on YouTube to TateShots from the venerable British museum, people are watching TV in a new way.

It’s true: they watch it on their iPhones and on their PCs. They watch at the airport, at a soccer game and at work. Television has become portable, and people watch it when they have a free minute, wherever they might be.

But new channels of distribution aren’t the whole story. A new class of producers is filling the void as the networks stumble and broadcast audiences erode.

Consumer cameras shoot hi-def. Video editing software costs a couple of hundred bucks and runs on budget laptops. And the technology has been around long enough that some people are learning how to use it pretty darn effectively.

We decided to enter the fray with a new show of our own: StreetStyleTV. It’s a quick hit of fashion, fresh off the street, real people wearing real cloths.

We were inspired by streetstyle photoblogs like The Sartorialist and Garance Dore. This is a similar idea, but on video.

We’ve started a website too: StreetStyleTV.com

It’s a WordPress site with a special theme designed for video. The theme, TV.Elements by Press75, ingeniously breaks a post into media and text elements. Take a look at how we deployed it.

The new television is already changing the way we watch. Soon, it will be changing the way we think and feel and act.

Twitter is still such a small world. Mostly, it’s the early adopters. @DavidPogue and @StephenFry scroll across my Twhirl panel. @LanceUlanoff reports from a trip to Google and @ScottMonty takes questions with Alan Mullaly at Ford.

A couple of weeks ago, @TateShots twittered their friends for questions to be put to Mr. Hockney. I’ve always been intrigued by the mosaic pictures. Recently, shooting a panoramic flash header, I wondered about Hockney’s technique  - how did he compress space without appearing to use a long lens?

Here’s David Hockney’s answer to my question:

[Reading] ‘How did you shoot your mosaic series?  From a fixed position, or moving around, changing focal lengths?’

I’m assuming [Hal is] talking about Pear Blossom Highway, which was – it looks as though it’s a view from one point, but not one of the photographs was taken from that viewpoint.  I moved everywhere, and in every direction, but I had to start piecing it together while I was out there, otherwise I wouldn’t have known what to take next.

Actually, I was thinking about Place Furstenburg, but Pearblossum Highway is good, too. See the full Q&A on video (just four minutes long) on TateShots #20.

Twitter is still a toddler in social media, but it is growing up fast. The Tate is ahead of the curve, but clearly demonstrating nuts-and-bolts social marketing that promotes interaction, discussion and engagement.

Join the fun. Follow me on Twitter.

In our new video for Luxe Apothecary, a lot of techniques we’d explored came together in one perfect No-Budget Video (NBV) project. Our experience may be a model for others and has already inspired interesting discussions and new assignments.

The development of an effective No-Budget technique can bring television-quality web video to businesses and content producers of all sizes. Here’s what we learned.

RULE #1

You don’t need a crew and a lot of fancy gear to make quality web video. Here is the single most important technique:

Edit video and sound separately

Lots of inexpensive desktop editing programs provide this capability. For the Mac, we like Final Cut. Perhaps readers can share some favorite programs for the PC.

Once you are free from the tyranny of the soundtrack that is recorded when you are shooting, the whole world of filmic communication opens up to you.

SCRIPT

Even though you have no gear and no crew (and presumably no writer or producer) it does not pay to wing it. We script every project. Here are two useful structures for No-Budget Video:

INTERVIEWER TECHNIQUE

Interviews can be about discovery or they can be a vehicle for a marketing message (i.e. a testimonial). Either way, write out a list of questions.

• • If discovery: what do you want to learn?
  • If marketing: what can you ask that will motivate an appropriate answer?
  • Technique: always have the subject look at the interviewer, not the camera

Here’s an example of discovery that Hal produced for the National Football League. Players and fans were asked to name their “Recipes for Success” during the NFL season.

Here’s an example of the marketing technique in an interview:

Both examples used questions to motivate the subjects on camera. The first cost about $100,000 to produce. The second cost less than $1000.

NARRATOR TECHNIQUE

Another great technique for NBV is narrator-driven. The formula is very easy to shoot:

• • Introduce the narrator on camera
  • Use the narrator’s voice under a series of illustrative shots
  • Close with the narrator once again on camera

Here’s our video for Luxe, an example of the narrator technique:

Gear & Crew for the Luxe shoot:

• Camera - Canon 800 miniDV (costs about $250 new if you can still find it)
• Lights - None
• Crew - Just the director
• Editing - Final Cut Express on a laptop

Time - 1.5 hours to shoot; approx 4 hours to edit

PLANNING

Before you start shooting, look at the script and make a list of the shots you need. Plan a couple of backgrounds for your opening and closing titles. Make a thumbnail schedule of how long each shot should take to get.

SHOOTING

Here are a few basic guidelines to getting good results:

• Keep it simple - no fancy camera moves or zooms
• Get a wide establishing shot
• Tell the story in a series close-ups
• Use a mic if you can for important dialogue or narration
• Use available light if it is soft and indirect
• Get what you need, but don’t overshoot

EDITING

Lastly, a few conventions and helpful hints about editing.

Duration - Keep it short. Two minutes is a lot of time to fill.

Selects - when you load your video into your editing program, slice the raw footage up into “selects” or shorter clips. Label each piece descriptively, for example “Intro, Take 1.”

Grab the Main Pieces - You know you’lll have an intro and an ending. Drop those into place on the timeline. Look at your main selects again. Choose the best two or three clips in the project. Fit those on the timeline. Fill in and build your story.

Titles - Text on screen forms an important part of the message, but don’t overdo it. No one likes to read TV.

Wipes, Flips & Dissolves - Don’t use fancy transition devices like mosaic wipes and flips and cube rolls. It distracts from the message. Use a fade up in the beginning, cuts throughout the body and a fade out at the end. Dissolves are used to connect two same-sized shots or to communicate passage of time.

MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT NO-BUDGET VIDEO?

Are you producing No-Budget Video? Do you have an idea for your business but don’t know how to get it done? Drop us a note.

————————

Hal Goodtree's work has been honored with a Cannes Lion and Emmy®.

IF YOU HAVE A FACEBOOK BUSINESS PAGE

If you already have a Facebook Page for your business, you need to go have a look at what the changes have wrought on your previous design.

Many people had previously used a work-around called Extended Info to add more content to FB Pages. That info is now assigned to the sidebar, leaving the new page mostly blank.

Visit your FB Page, update the content and send a blast to your fans.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE

If you have resisted getting a FB Page for your business, now is the time. With all the new functionality, there is sure to be a rush of new Pages.

Join the fray now. On your FB Home, click on Ads and Pages (on the right, under Applications). If you don’t have Ads and Pages, search under the Applications link and add it.

Can iTunes be far behind?

My list:

• Twitterific - seems like a pretty good Twitter client for iPhones. Free.
• Tap Tap - Guitar hero for mobile. Start straining your thumbs. Free.
• Flashlight - Surprising how useful this is. Free.
• Shazzam - must have. Identify music on the fly. Free.
• Facebook - Great little app. Free.
• AIM - commune with your legacy friends. Free.
• MySpace - For all you folks with bands. Free.
• AllRecipes - Make the family happy. Free.
• DrinksFree - Make your spouse happy. Free.

The easiest way to get apps and ensure they work right is to surf them up from iTunes and “buy” them in the iTunes Store (all the above apps are free). The apps will appear on your phone the next time you sync.

What are your favorite iPhone Apps?

Malls, mixed-use developments, shopping centers - call them what you will, they dot the landscape of America.

Many of the larger developments have websites. For the most part, they’re pretty awful. So, when we were asked to produce a new website for North Hills, a mixed-use development in Raleigh, NC, our goal was to help bring the category into a Web 2.0 world.

Two months after the launch, we have every reason to feel we’ve achieved. Stats are great, everything works, and best of all, a continuing content stream is beginning to bloom. It’s interesting stuff, too - stories, bios, pictures and video.

So here’s a checklist of things we think a contemporary mall or mixed-use website needs.

The Basics

1. A page for each merchant
2. A picture for each merchant
3. Descriptive text for each merchant (more than just a phone number and an outside link)

It is surprising how few big developments have reached this level of information. See our collection of links for malls and mixed-use developments on Delicious (and please feel free to add links to other sites in the category).

The Finer Points

1. Interactive Map
2. Continuing Content Stream
3. Ad Platform

(1) The interactive map is a challenging bit of engineering and UI. We’ll write more about it soon. (2) In most cases, developing a rich content stream requires cultural change for clients. Training and continued support are mandatory to advance evolutionary adoption of web 2.0 tools like blogs and twitter. (3) Big developments like North Hills have the potential to draw big traffic. Why settle for pennies on the dollar when you could have it all with your own ad platform? Tune in again for a discussion about implementing your own ad server.

Best Practices

To boost the performance of a site in this category as measured by key stats like Time On Site and Page Views, here are a few best practices we can recommend:

1. Minimize outside links
2. Run outside content in an iframe within your site
3. Drive traffic to niches with CPC advertising
4. Pay attention to what Analytics tells you about your audience

The Last, Most Important Point

Like all other advertising and marketing ventures, success is rooted in a good agency-client relationship. We are deeply grateful to Kane Realty Corporation for their vision and their patience throughout this project.

Special thanks to:

• Anna Smith
• Mike Smith
• Bonner Gaylord
• Jon Masterson
• Katherine Knott
• Angela Slater
• Paul Newcomer
• Walt Stewart
• North Hills Security

For Goodtree & Company:

• George Gumpert, master programmer
• David Holt, design
• John Dixon, flash
• Leslie Huffman, merchant database and blogging diva
• Hal Goodtree, precious little

Thanks also to Allen Weiss, Michael Kimsal, Lindsey Chester, Paul Harnett, Dorothea Bitler, Jill Harris, Fiquet, Kevin and Stacey Jennings, Wick Morgan and Jason Peck. And thanks to Jake St. Peter and Mike McTaggart for their generous time.

Please contact us for more information about mall, shopping center and mixed-use development websites.

Thanks also to our friends at North Hills and, of course, to Fiquet of Luxe Apothecary.

We’ll post our own story about the video shortly: How to make quality TV with a home video camcorder and a mic from yoor band.

Full story here:

http://tinyurl.com/cu3rt7