As you prepare to launch your own social experience for a project or organization, there are fantastic and FREE tools to help make your job faster, simpler and smarter. Let them do the heavy lifting for you so you can concentrate on the concept and flow of what you are doing, not the technical execution of it!

Browser. Firefox. You’ve heard about it but may not yet have made the switch. Just so you know, Internet Explorer is not the only or even necessarily the best way to browse the Internet. It’s just the default setting due to vendor agreements with Microsoft. Check out Firefox for a zippy way to browse that’s incredibly customizable (which you want down the road as you get more comfortable online). Plus, hackers aren’t always trying to attack it, so you won’t spend a lot of time processing updates.

Mobile Browser. Opera Mini (of Safari for an iPhone). Again, there isn’t only one way to access the Internet from your cell phone with a data plan! The default browser is set, but you can always download another! Opera Mini can handle scripts that many browsers can’t, letting you log into and launch pages that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to access. Also a nice, zippy browsing experience.

Website Builder. You simply cannot beat WordPress for an easy way to build a professional Website and easily customize it with plug-n-play functionality, from instant PayPal shopping carts to linking to your Twitter, Facebook and even Constant Contact accounts. If you want a free site where all of the files live on WordPress’s servers, go to WordPress.com. You’ll have dozens of templates to choose from, and for small fees, you can point the site to your own custom URL or get under the hood and futz with the styles. If you are more advanced and want an incredibly powerful constant management system hosted on your own servers, then grab the free full install at WordPress.org. Thousands of templates and plug-ins to create exactly what you want with just a few clicks.

Graphics and Image Editor. I’m a Photoshopper, for certain, but there’s an extraordinary freeware called Paint.Net that also is layer-based. It’s wildly customizable, too; like many open source applications, programmers around the world love to dig into the code and come up with nifty plug-ins to add functionality.

Sticky Notes. As you hunt for information for your site, like facts, quotes and site links to add to your blogroll, the easiest place to paste and save on the fly is a great sticky note program. I like MoRUN.net’s Sticker Lite because the notes always stay visible, even as I switch pages and programs. It’s a truly “sticky” notes program – and you can change note colors, which may matter only to me…

Interactive Tools. Your Web presence will be more social as soon as your audience can actively interact with you. That means polls, surveys, games and more. You don’t have to build those; just grab a widget someone else has made and go! PollDaddy is integrated into loads of social platforms, and it lets you make interactive polls in seconds (though editing them afterward can be a pain – just make a new one and embed it again). Nothing so far beats Google Forms for surveys that actually capture the results in a spreadsheet (Google Docs) for you – and let you see gorgeous graph results with one-click (no skip logic yet, fyi). If you really want to go on a journey, visit WidgetBox and see all of the incredible, portable mini-apps waiting for you to explore and add to your social presence.

Online Back-Up. I believe in triple back-ups, desktop/local external drive/remote server. I like Mozy for the remote “cloud” offering; once you set up and run the first back-up, you can schedule a nightly update that runs automatically! They have a free level, but the annual fee for a lot of space is abot $60. Being able to access files remotely will save you every time you travel.

Music. It takes a lot of time to brainstorm and get creative and build sites and plan Facebook events and launch YouTube channels! You’re going to want to listen to good music from your favorite artists – and other artists that share the same musical genomes (haha). I recommend immediately creating a Coldplay and a Marvin Gaye station on Pandora and hearing everyone else who enters the mix.

If you have tools you love – or already love these tools – leave your thoughts below!

It’s one thing to know there are different levels of Web functionality (1.0, 2.0 and 3.0). It’s a better thing to dig deeper to understand the differences between the three. Here are some excellent sites for you to explore – take notes and brainstorm how these might help you build a better Internet experience for your brand.

Web 1.0 – To see this in action, take a good look at your own Web site and see if it only offers static, one-way information from you to your visitors. It would not be nice to single out any existing sites as Web 1.0, but you’ll know them when you…read them.

Web 2.0 – The big brands are all easy experiences of interactivity. And chances are, you have never really explored them!

• So now is the time to visit YouTube to witness video uploaded by users all over the world (search for an old commercial or video you remember; it’s great fun).
• Then it’s off to MySpace to see the largest collection of personalized Web pages in the world (look up a brand you love, like Victoria’s Secret or Pepsi to see how many “friends” they have). If you think you’re ready for your own social network, the third-party leader is Ning or you can install your own application on your servers thanks to KickApps.
• Next stop is Wikipedia. Go ahead and create a quick account and click the “edit” option to see how easy it is to update information on a Wiki. Then give it a whirl yourself at Wetpaint or PBwiki – it’s free.
• Last stop is Google’s Blogspot, one of the largest collections of blogs in the world, or the even more powerful WordPress. Search for a sports team you like and see how many hundreds of blogs pop up. Read at least one post. Comment. Repeat.

Web 3.0 – this is the AMAZING stuff. First stop is a “content aggregation” site. Jump right in with NetVibes or iGoogle. See those home pages with all the widgets? You can scroll or search through thousands of options to choose custom content you want to appear on your home page. Your custom home page might have widgets for: your first-choice newspaper, today’s weather, the blog from your preferred presidential candidate, daily fitness videos and your favorite online poker game.

Now take another look at all of those Web 2.0 pages from above. See those search bars? See those “keywords” at the bottom? See the RSS or Atom feed options? See the options to “Digg” or mark it as “del.i.cious“? Those are the funnels, the targeting tools, that are helping users pinpoint, categorize, rank and channel related content for themselves and for the next users who search for similar content. That is what is transitioning us into Web 3.0.

And please take note – everything above is available to you for free. Is this starting to feel like too much information? Imagine how the World Wide Web feels! Don’t worry about grasping it all right now. Just know this – if you want to stay current, connected and relevant to your brand base, interactive Web 2.0 functionality is a minimum requirement for your Web site. Upcoming posts will walk you through some of those options.

If you want to go a little 3.0 before you go, click the “Digg” button next to one of these posts (or another article you read online). Create an account, and submit something to the community.

Now, go surf the Web – and, please, come back and post your reactions after the first time you use some of these wildly inspired sites.

At this point, you’ve all heard the term “new media.” So you’ve also probably all asked the question: “What exactly IS new media?” But don’t think it’s okay not to know the answer! It’s been 50 years since there was this radical a shift in the entertainment business model – AND since the barriers to entry and success were this low. That isn’t going to last, so if you don’t know what’s happening with ITV, IPTV, Mobisodes and more, time’s up.

Now let me take the question even further and answer this question instead: “How can I make new media work for me?”

Let’s start with a quick explanation of what “new media” is. It’s a very broad term that covers a lot of changes in the entertainment industry, including, at the most basic (and not at all comprehensively):

• Where do I watch new media? Anywhere! You enjoy new media programming on the Internet and cell phones, not just TV and radio. *New media buzzwords you already know: broadband content, mobile TV and podcasts.
• Is it always scheduled? No! New media lets you watch what you want when you want to, not when the provider schedules it. *New media buzzwords you already know: on-demand (video-on-demand, mobile-on-demand, gaming-on-demand) and streaming media.
• How do I get it? Lots of ways! New media comes to you via the Internet, gaming boxes, Internet streaming set-top boxes and more, not just airwaves and satellite. New media buzzwords you already know: set-top box and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television).
• What’s the format? Digital! But image quality can range from exquisite (digital television standards like HD are part of the new media movement) to excruciating (the grainy videos you see on popular Web sites are mega-compressed to save space). Audio alone takes less space, so it usually is good to fantastic.
  
• How do I experience it? Interactively! You aren’t expected to passively watch and listen. New media lets you submit instant feedback, share a show with others and even affect its content, via virtual worlds, social networks, forums, blogs, wikis and other participatory features that the Internet savvy call “Web 2.0.” New media buzzwords you already know: mash-ups and viral video.

I bet now you know you’re more familiar with new media than you realized! So how do you make the most of it professionally? Here are five “starter kit” essentials to help you become a new media mogul:

1) Join the User-Generation: Get your message and material in front of thousands more eyeballs. If you’ve ever uploaded a video clip to YouTube or BlipTV or other “user-gen” sites, you’re already new media-mazed! If not, here’s all you have to do:

• Research the various sites and READ THEIR POLICIES for content rights.
• Open a free account with your professional or company screen name. Use the same name at every site you register at so fans can find you.
• Shoot a quick intro reel (or edit your current reel down to about 2 minutes). Home video is fine if it’s all you can shoot, but a digital camera will survive compression better.
• If you don’t have a professional video capture and editing program, just use iMovie (Mac) or Windows Movie Maker (PC) to transfer the tape contents to your computer and make simple edits and title cards.
• Upload the final product to your site account. Remember, you must own all of the rights to everything in the video before you can upload!
• Email a link to your contacts to let them know you’re streaming online (usually do-via that site).

Career uses: stream your movie trailer, talent reel, show promo or more.

2) Go 2.0: help your audience find and give feedback on your projects by making sure you have an active presence in all the new interactive Internet sites, and stream your media there, too:

• Launch your own blogs: a Web log, or “blog,” is an online journal where you can publish regular entries, or “posts,” that readers can enjoy and instantly respond to. You’re reading one of my blog posts right now. Now go get your own – there are free sites everywhere, including this one, Google’s Blogger. Register with your same screen name, decide if content will be viewable to the general public or to members-only, and remember, with some design, you can stream audio and video here, too (even linked to your user-gen account). Always read the rights very carefully before you publish or upload anything. Career uses: share behind-the-scenes production stories, teach what you know in your field, create an online voice for a character and more.
• Join social networks: from MySpace to FaceBook to Friendster and LinkedIn, there are endless online “communities” that let you post a page about yourself, invite people to connect with you and give you access to those people’s other contacts (and gives all of them access to yours). Social network presence makes your message and project instantly international! Keywords you create let people who share your interest find you. You can even start interest groups of your own at social sites like MeetUp and Gather. Of course, you can stream media sometimes, too, including video and audio (MySpace music sites have been legendary for launching bands). Just be sure to read all rights and permissions very carefully before you publish or upload anything. Career uses: there’s no better way to widen your worldwide network of contacts than to share other people’s connections.

3) Broaden your distribution options: Feel stuck in the old model of old media, waiting for some impossible-to-reach wizard to wave a magic wand and buy your show or finance your film so it can reach an audience? Investigate the many “third party content aggregators” who sell directly online, like CustomFlix and IndieFlix and, of course, Amazon.com. Also take another look at the sites that feature original streaming content for free, for advertising participation or for other revenue-generating options (like Revver‘s viewer-based model). Or build your own site and commit time and funds to marketing directly to your audience. (If you don’t know who your audience is, that at least helps explain why it’s so hard to get funds for the project!) Want to know how to build your own product-based Web site? Sounds like a future post…check back in or sign up for our blog feed so you’ll always get the updates!

4) Broaden your career options: Feel even more stuck in the oldest model of old media, waiting for some impossible-to-reach wizard’s assistant to schedule a meeting for you to work on the wizard’s own dream project? Consider all of the new job opportunities in new media, from content creation to marketing to game writing and design and more! I’m actually teaching a class at Columbia College Hollywood this quarter on New Media Professional Paths and Possibilities. Check your local schools and weekend workshops to see who’s talking about new media careers.

5) Broaden your knowledge: There’s so much more to learn about new media to use it more effectively professionally. Be sure you’re reading the trades (I love Cynopsis Digital) and regularly looking up new terms online when you hear or read them (assignment #1: what’s “ITV”?)

And know this: you want to start riding the transition train right now…because it’s not going to be “new” media much longer.

NEW MEDIA STARTER KIT CHECKLIST:
__ I have defined the audience(s) for my project(s).
__ I have created audio or video content that promotes my project(s).
__ I have uploaded my content to at least one user-generation site that my audience frequents.
__ I have created a blog that features my content and invites reader feedback.
__ I have joined a social network and/or started a group of my own and am actively courting contacts.
__ I have researched marketing opportunities for reaching my audience directly.
__ I have attended at least one seminar, panel, workshop or course that tells me more about professional careers in new media.
__ I have posted a comment to DMA’s “Break into the Biz” blog with my own thoughts on this and other posts!

Need more help with your project packaging strategies? Contact Show Starter to schedule a private intensive seminar on selling your show!

The Issue: People have asked me why I am starting my own blog, and I’ve certainly asked myself. There are at least 3 good reasons to start one of your own. Keep reading, and you’ll find out what inspired me…and perhaps what will motivate you to “self-publish” on the worldwide Web.

The Hard Truth: Admittedly, a “blog,” short for a “Web log,” is the ultimate tribute to this celebreality era of self-obsession and self-promotion! Wasn’t it just a few years ago you were yelling at your mother for reading your diary? Now you’re publishing it online for the world. Does the world care? Well…yeah.

The Solution(s): YES. You should start your own blog if:

You’re about to travel extensively. Postcards are incredibly thoughtful, romantic and personal treasures for your closest friends and family. But be honest, you’ve had to mail a bunch of them after you got home because you couldn’t find or afford stamps abroad. But if you can get to an Internet cafe or have access to a computer, a blog lets you post instant, in-the-moment stories, photos, even audio, for everyone you can e-mail, with way more information than can fit on the back of a card.
TIP: Keep some things personal, still. Write special notes on the blog for people…or hold some info back for private postcard text only!

You’re about to dive into something new. Double the intensity of a new experience by sharing your thoughts/fears/joys on a blog…and opening the door for 24-hour feedback, cheerleading and advice! Best of all, you have a permanent record of your journey from day one (you won’t believe it years later). Fitness and new job blogs are already hot topics, but why not a “learning to cook” or “moving to a new city” theme? Or maybe a “start of a new romance” blog where you only invite one other person to join?
TIP: Commit to sharing one pro and one con of the new experience in each of your posts and invite friends to give you tricks for getting past the con.

You have something unique to share. You know you have a special niche in your family and group of friends. Are you the go-to guy for hooking up home electronics? Maybe everyone who breaks up with a boyfriend heads straight to your door? That smells like a big, steaming pile of blog! Why not go online and share what you do best with the world? It’s a great way to explore what you know, help other people and do what you love to do. It will help solidify your “personal brand” to an even larger and more diverse audience.
TIP: Not sure what your personal brand even is? The world is trying to tell you, believe me, and I can help, too. Check out the link for “My True North” on this blog’s home page!

So why did I start my own blog? Well, I just got back from a month of travel. But I’ve never really sent postcards, and I confess, I didn’t blog either. (I did read a friend’s exciting round-the-world blog and laughed at all of the drunken photos. She might need the blog to remember what she did all of those months!) I’m also diving into something new, putting my ten-year producing career on ice to pursue speaking, my greatest passion, full-time. But I have a fantastic marketing coach to join me on that journey. So it turns out I’m travelling, doing something new and beginning this blog all for the same reason: Door #3.

I’ve been a confidante and advisor to so many “stuck” people over the past fifteen years, and I keep on hearing the same phrase when we talk: “I’ve never thought of it that way before.” I love that moment of POSSIBILITY in their eyes, faces, voices. I’ve done so many things, I just assume everything is possible. And no matter what limitation people think they’re facing, I always find a way IN to get them to try a new step in a new direction. If you’ve been on the fence about starting your own blog, I hope this will tip you over to give it a try for one day and with one intention: not to put information online…but to put inspiration online. In the one, personal, singular way that only you can.

The Caveat: So is the answer ever “No, don’t start a blog, or we will track you down and spill a latte on your keyboard”? Well…yeah.

If you are: frequently intoxicated, deeply angry at a certain someone, bitter about bad times in life or trolling for unhealthy stimulation, don’t hook your “Web” up with a “log”! All that time you spend ranting, raving and venting online…is time you could be spending at AA, a therapy session or out on a first date moving FORWARD with your life. Blogs are so brilliant at capturing the present. Don’t abuse them-or anthing else!-to stay locked in the past.

To begin your own branded blog, go to www.blogger.com and follow the very simple steps to create a page and begin posting!

See you next week with the next question and, even better, the next solution. All the best. dma