Capability

Blogging, Bundling, and Brainstorming

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Awhile ago you all witnessed me mitigate my disagreement with the "everyone must blog" feeling that seems to percolate around the internet, especially in the career-sphere.  I admit that I still think not everyone needs to blog, but agree that blog involvement done right IS a good idea – it gets your name outs there, teaches discipline, builds connections, and informs people.

The problem is that a blog requires content otherwise it's really just a placeholder with an index attached to it.  I've been doing this blog with Bonnie for over a year, and as our early readers noticed, we began adding more and more content over the last few months.  So I'd thought I'd share just how I do non-news content.

First and foremost, let me reiterate what I've said before – don't blog about something if you dont have a reason to.  In fact, these techniques won't help much if you don't have any real reason to write.

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Facebook and distribution

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Idle speculation time here.

With Facebook pretty much dominating social media, and having obvious gaming aspirations, I began to wonder what else Facebook can deliver.  Once I began theorizing, I really began to wonder more.

Facebook could actually be useful as a way to distribute artistic (comic and manga) and written fiction.  Easy for alerts, easy to notify people it's ready, incredibly easy to get more fans to buy into it.  Nice, public distribution that makes people very aware of what their friends are doing and reading.

Facebook could be an excellent distribution platform – read the manga there, discuss it with your friends, etc.  There's already a lot of this in place now – and the widget creation could let OTHER companies do it while Facebook enjoys the piggybacking and additional attention (and possibly cash).

As its my firm belief community building is a big part of success for media efforts, especially new ones, Facebook is a logical place to try or do some of it.  You want to build and maintain an audience – that's one of the ways to do it very fast (with some limits).  A retained, happy, engaged audience buys more of your stuff when it comes down to it, and is more likely to want to see you at a con or invite you to one.

Do I think this is where media distribution is going?  No.  Part part of it doubtlessly will try, far more than is being done now.  I await seeing the results.

– Steven Savage

Convention Thoughts: Invite recruiters

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More thoughts on how to make conventions more professional.  You can find my previous suggestions here, here, here, and here.

When I attended Anime North 2009 I saw something odd that I hadn't expected – a youth recruiter was at the convention, running a table that explained government placement services.  It may seem odd to some, depending on the conventions you're used to and your location, but that struck me as an idea worth expanding on.

Conventions, especially medium to larger ones, are really are prime places for some companies, agencies, and employment services to recruit people or promote what they do.  There's a lot of attendees, many are passionate about given subjects, and of course they're always up for new and interesting things.  Besides, in this economy, fans are probably far more open to job opportunities at conventions, so why not help out.

So for conventions you help with here's a suggestion – invite recruiters.

  • Give them a table (they may even pay for it).  Universities might want to target your audience, or temporary agencies, or technical recruiters, or training schools.  I've seen universities have a presence at conventions – why not?
  • Have them speak.  Work them into career tracks.  Have them discuss the economy.  They may have a lot to share.
  • Go the extra mile and, if they're fannish, invite them to judge a contest or something.  Let them be part of the family.
  • Some may even be excellent guests if they're far enough in the profession.

Its a gamble, of course – even I've only seen this done recently, so I'm not sure how well it pays off – but it can't hurt to try.  If nothing else it builds good relations between the convention and other communities/businesses/people, and that's always a good thing.

Part of me thinks that, done right (and at the right events – it won't fit all events), this could work out spectacularly.  I can see larger conventions be especially good for this, and recruiters and so forth really making great contacts and providing more value to convention attendees.

– Steven Savage