Digital Strategy with Firecat Studio

SOPA PIPA Protest - An Infographic

As a society, we Americans let a lot of upsetting stuff slide. I'm really glad that so many who value the free exchange of ideas on the Internet came together to defeat these potentially damaging bills.

Here's a celebratory infographic from Frugal Dad, which also serves to show what we - corporations and citizens - can do when we come together to express our input on an issue. 

Source: frugaldad.com

Video Blogging: Quick Tips for Video Lighting

Whether you're adding videos to Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr or your own website, just a little thought and experimentation with the lighting can make all the difference. I learned this from my husband Greg, a theatre director, who makes his own lightboxes from scary-looking instruments. I've also watched Todd O'Neill and Alan Weinkrantz take a few seconds to light even a quickie social media video well.

Vlogging can be done with inexpensive equipment, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't put forth a little effort to make the video attractive. This segment uses three light sources and a diffuser, and we get to see the immediate impact for the better. Via Cameron Moll's excellent blog. 

DSLR Lighting Techniques from Eve Hazelton from Realm Pictures on Vimeo.

Jason Fried on Why Work Doesn't Happen at Work - (TEDxMidwest)

Just found this TEDxMidwest talk by 37Signals founder Jason Fried, where he makes a great case that the typical office isn't the best place to get real work done. He touches on something I find fascinating, the serial, phased nature of dreaming and how it relates to ideation and creativity.

Jason is a fan of coworking as well. If you haven't tried working from someplace different, join us on a First Friday for just a little while, and try it.

The M&Ms

He makes an eloquent case about home having fewer, less damaging distractions than the average workplace. And M&Ms - Managers and Meetings - as the worst involuntary interrupters, are PAID to interrupt.

My favorite quote: "Meetings are terrible, toxic, poisonous things." Expensive to the organization, talking about stuff that should happen, rather than doing actual productive work, too many people attending, and usually scheduled for much too long a period.

His 3 Productivity-Enhancing Suggestions

• No-Talk Thursdays. Just the first Thursday, just in the afternoon. Just silence. An uninterrupted period to allow people to focus. Four hours of quiet time is the best gift you can give.
• Encourage assymmetrical communications. Instead of face-to-face or phone, which interrupt, encourage the use of eMail and collaboration products like Basecamp that allow people to consume information when they're ready for it.
• Cancel one recurring meeting. And find that those meetings you think are indispensable, aren't.

Unique Selling Proposition Workshop, Customer Empathy Map

At last Friday's Firecat coworking and brownbag session, Kate Hayward led a quick but deep excursion into creating a unique selling proposition (USP). Several expert marketers were in attendance, so the insights were flying.

Kate posted her empathy map (below) that she had posted on the writeboard, and shares her own answers to the leading questions in her workshop here in her blog, Eggsactamundo. 

I'm still working on the Firecat Studio USP. Have you made progress on yours?

I also ordered the Business Model book Kate recommended, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers, by Alexander Osterwalder. Let me know if you read it (and what you thought), or other books you find relevant to this work.