Awesomize.me Honors WCN Transmedia Group CEO

Awesomeize.me is a new social network that allows your peers and customers to rate your services. Click on the WCN Transmedia Graphic in this post and Rate the work we produce daily. Thanks so much to the folks at Awesomize.me you have a unique site and service. Check it out.

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If You Build It Awesome…They Will Come by Elias Shams – WCN Transmedia Group Featured Awesomize.me Business

If You Build It Awesome…They Will Come

Minus the “Awesome” part, this was the line from the 1989 classic movie “Field of Dreams” that inspired me to become a risk taker and an entrepreneur that eventually drove me to build telezoo.com in 1999 and awesomzie.me in 2011. Certainly people are coming… I’ve included a few of them all the way at the end of this article: Now we all know that times are tough and the economy is in the dumps with our current unemployment rate of 9.2%.  To date, no one has come up with a solution.  So to paraphrase President John F. Kennedy – “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. The way I see it – the only way to fix the economy is jobs, and the burden for creating jobs and getting this economy rolling, is ours, the entrepreneurs. Only we can make this happen!  Forget about taking the big company paycheck, they will lay you off soon enough just to meet Wall Street expectations and pocket the change. If even 20% of us make it, that’s good enough for the nation and of course the rest of the world! Look at the employment opportunities Apple with their iPhone and iPad, Google with Android, and Facebook with their social network have created all over the world. That’s not even counting the countless firms that have been growing as a result of the emergence of these firms (e.g., Zynga, FourSquare, etc.)  Although, my awesomzie.me has not created thousands of jobs yet, it has done its part in adding four jobs since its launch date earlier this year – a pretty good start.  So if you build it – they will come.  Whatever ideas you have in mind, bring’em on! As a reminder, historically, when the economic climate is tough, it has been a great time to start a business – no one is hiring so hire yourself!  In fact, 16 of the 30 companies that make up the Dow industrial average were started during a recession or depression. These include Microsoft,  McDonald’s, General Electric and others.  Each time we hit a tough economic patch – a new industry emerged as the engine for all our growth – be it cars after the depression, computers and technology in the 80s or the emergence of Google after kicking ass during the 2001 recession.  But for them to come, you must build it. So, again, you got an idea, bring it! As for my “field of dream”, awesomzie.me, first let me give you my 2cents on this whole internet -> Search – Social Media evolution that gave me the idea to build it: i) Early 90s:  WWW was born… ii)  By mid 90′s:  millions of sites popped up on the Web… iii) Mid – late 90s: Yahoo & Google were born to help us to find the right information of the right pages on the Web… iv) Early 2000:  Social media was born… v) Late 2000:  Millions of pages created by people, companies, and organizations on all these social media channels. vi) 2012 and beyond.. the days of just setting up a website or blog to promote yourself, your talents, and even your business, by creating a page for them on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are O-V-E-R!. Your social media pages and sites should be on a place where the vast number of users and communities can easily find you, learn about you – AND – express their opinion/rate you and your goodies. If you are confident you are selling something awesome, you need the power of the crowd to promote you (and your company) anyway.  So come on take the first step – Build it and they will come. Here are several awesome users on our site. Click on each page and check out the links on the left hand side and their ratings on the right. Feel free to awesomize them: Alin Vlad, Web Content Specialist at BullGuard Josh Sippola, Social Media Strategy Manager at CenturyLink Jay O’conner with WCN Transmedia Group Elaine Fogel, Marketing Agency Owner of SOLUTIONS Marketing & Consulting LLC Mark Walsh, CEO at Genius Rocket Lynette Young, CEO at Purple Stripe Productions All that being said, you’ve heard my story –I look forward to hearing yours. If you have an idea and not sure whose door to knock on for investment or are in need of some mentorship, feel free to create your page on awesomzie.me, show me how awesome you are, then drop me a note via my profile. Do you see the trick here? You scratch my back and I will scratch yours J  I have built it, now will you come? Feel free to connect with me via awesomize.me Share this on: Filed under social media, Business & Finance, Tech Tagged with elias shams, google, entrepreneurs, Telezoo.com, twitter, Mark Walsh, facebook, Genius Rocket, creating jobs, LinkedIn, If You Build It They Will Come, Field of Dreams, awesomzie.me. poor economy, high unemployment rate, getting this economy rolling, entrepreneurship. Tough economic climate Social Media evolution, : Elaine Fogel, SOLUTIONS Marketing & Consulting, Josh Sippola, CenturyLink, Alin Vlad, BullGuard, Jay O’conner, WCN Transmedia Group, Lynette Young, Purple Stripe Productions About Elias Shams I have been a serial entrepreneur in telecom and social media space for past 12 years or so. I hold a M.S. degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the George Washington University and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. I’ve lived and worked in many countries and cities including London England, Tehran Iran, Bonn Germany, Paris France, Alicante Spain, Delhi India, and my favorite of all Washington, DC of great US of A. Two of the greatest Washington, DC based companies I worked for and very proud of are Yurie Systems which was sold to Lucent in 1998 for $1.23 B and telezoo.com that I founded in 1999. I am currently the founder and awesomizer @ awesomize.me You like this You like this post.

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White House Internships 2012

This is a exciting opportunity to be there as history is made. Good Luck to those who apply and accept this challenging position.

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The White House is accepting Internship Applications for 2012 Deadline September 11

Here is an opportunity to join The White House Internship Program.  Good Luck to all who decide to pursue this opportunity.

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GlobalHue Subscription Service Website with Kanye West

This could set the stage for artists, actors to launch their channels to reach their fans which is quintessential Transmedia Brandcasting. Subscription Services? Not sure. Product Placement Opportunity 100% is the way to go with a Revenue Share with the Artist.

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GlobalHue Taps Kanye West for All-Access Website Voyr By: Matt Creamer

Multicultural Agency Is Betting Fans Will ‘Watch the Throne‘ for $5 a Month

By: Matt Creamer Published: August 03, 2011 Sure, Kanye West fans will pay $15 for a iTunes download or hundreds of dollars for a concert ticket. But will they pay $5 a month to get a steady stream of behind-the-scenes Yeezy-oriented minutia, including his daily schedule, workout regimen and diet?

AP Kanye West The multicultural ad agency GlobalHue is betting they will. Voyr, the latest concept from the agency’s incubator, GHV, is set to launch Sept. 15 on the back of a forthcoming 35-city tour supporting the new album from Mr. West and Jay-Z, “Watch the Throne.” Viewers will be able to follow the tour live via webcasts for $3.99, but the normal subscription rate will be $4.99 per month for each star that appears on the online platform. At a press conference Monday at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Chief Creative Officer Kevyn Lewis said that over time, the site will add celebs from all walks of life — musicians, writers, directors, even one to appeal to hunting and fishing fans. The idea is offer up the kind of content that will inspire people, not tabloid-fodder pulled from the artists’ personal lives. Though Mr. West is the first announced star, Mr. Lewis said that neither Kanye nor Jay-Z has a stake in the company, which is wholly-owned by GHV. Still, it’s pretty clear that Mr. West has been very involved in the conception of the company — and stands to benefit if the site can attract subscribers, though how much so wasn’t clear as Mr. Lewis didn’t get into the specifics of how artists would be compensated. Stuff that will be available on his channel: his exercise routine; what he eats on tour and instructional videos about how to prepare those items by his personal chef; a “720-degree” concert experience; rehearsals for the show; a documentary about Kanye called — appropriately — “Me”; and his animated series called “Runaway.” Possibly more interesting are ideas for the platform GlobalHue presented to Mr. West that the notoriously fussy artist struck down. These include allowing fans to vote on set designs or allowing marketers to sponsor specific episodes. Mr. Lewis said Mr. West, ever the auteur, slammed those ideas, saying he doesn’t need the popular vote to make decisions and the idea of, say, a McDonald’s powering that sort of voting power with the push of an “I’m loving it” button was a “piece of a crap.” There will be hopefully less crappy attempts at partnerships with brands down the road, including ones with retailers such as Target or Walmart to provide exclusive merchandise. But for now the company is focused on ramping up its suite of talent. It was unclear who else is signed on, but names dropped during the presentation included Oprah and Elton John. Why would these celebs turn to Voyr when they already have web presences of their own? The hope is that through scale — building a lot of different celebrity presences — Voyr will be able to get down the cost and make the process of relentlessly spraying one’s giant ego all over the web more efficient. There will be a lot of other challenges for Voyr, including the always vexing problem of building an audience when your content is locked down, and figuring out pricing options that appeal to people other than superfans, like a one-off charge. And then there are older, bigger, freer sites such as YouTube and Vevo as well as the paid StageIt. At least in theory, Voyr shouldn’t have a hard time getting attention if it can deploy its talent as it did Monday, treating journalists to a listening party for “Watch the Throne.” After the press conference, the journos filed into the Hayden Planetarium to hear the entire album played while Journey to the Stars, a rather gorgeous and inherently trippy romp through the solar system, played over head. Stars were all over the place, though as the party was attended by Kanye, Jay-Z, his wife, Beyonce, Busta Rhymes, Nas, Kelly Rowland and Jada Pinkett Smith, who, in the elevator on the way out, was practically screaming about how she needed the album. “NOW!” Read more at wcntransmedia.wordpress.com

 

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FCC Cable Rules

Back to the Future

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New FCC Rules Go Back To The Future For Cable Companies A media critique by Wayne Friedman,

New FCC Rules Go Back To The Future For Cable Companies A media critique by Wayne Friedman, Wednesday, August 3, 2011  The Federal Communications Commission ruling that gives a boost to independent TV channels feels like a throwback of sorts — some big-time regulation of a utility on the move. In addition the FCC doesn’t like those glaringly bad public battles between cable networks and broadcast networks over rates, which force more than a few channels into blackout mode. Consumers don’t know who to side with on those issues. After decades of big cable operators with financial interests in TV networks ruling the day, TV business deals concerning cable are set to change. While cable operators might complain this hurts business, consumers are still staring in the eyes of ever pricier programming packages and billions in cable industry profits from decades of running near-monopoly businesses. In 2011, predicted spillage

s everywhere when it comes to the media business. Get 85% of what you intended — especially for a cable operator — and that’s a big success. Perhaps after the FCC dust has settled, it’s that number that will stick. More than a decade ago, cable operators saw the score — a slow decline of customers from cable’s legacy video businesses. Today cable operators want to be much more than conduits for TV programming and video, more involved in other growing aspects of the electronic consumer: phone, Internet and mobile, to name a few. You can also blame the FCC in part. It gave somewhat of carte blanche to nascent cable operators in the late ’70s and ’80s to build a businesses, resulting in a near monopoly — only allowing overbuild operators and other competing video operators to join in much later in the process. Now it wants to go back to the future of sorts. The FCC ruling also includes a “standstill order” where a cable or satellite company must continue to carry an affected channel under terms of the previous contract until the commission offers a ruling on any complaints stemming from a carriage dispute. In other words, no channel blackouts. And then there are those independent networks looking for a chance to shine on a cable or satellite system. The big question here: How does one really determine why a new independent channel should be considered — especially when it doesn’t have any existing viewer following? It’s the chicken-and-egg scenario — which will only yield sucky programming decisions. It’s part of a throwback of sorts to when there was even stronger government regulation of utility-like companies. By comparison, any modern-day business spillage resulting from new FCC rules should calmly be part of the plan for cable TV companies.   Read more at wcntransmedia.wordpress.com

 

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Cloud Computing

Ramon Ray begins to make the case for Small Business and Cloud Computing. As a Carbonite User for years knowing your data is secure allows me many nigts of peaceful sleep. And yes I have had to restore data using Carbonite and while it was not quick all my data was recoverd. Just Thought I'd Share.

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Is Cloud Computing Right for Your Business? 6 Ways to Tell By Ramon Ray, Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com

By Ramon Ray, Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com The big trend now is for small businesses to move more and more of their operations to the cloud. I love the world of “cloud computing.” I love how I can use a browser and have all of my data–anywhere I can get to a browser. I also like how through my mobile phone, I can access a variety of online tools and have almost the same power and flexibility as I would have on a desktop computer. Way cool and productive. One of my favorite online services is file sharing. Smallbiztechnology.com has a distributed (yet small) workforce across New York, the U.S. and the world. We rely on a variety of file sharing services to help us get our work done. I live in Dropbox, Carbonite is always on backing up my data and has remote access, and Google Apps is a great tool for overall collaboration and communication. Other file sharing tools you might like are SugarSync and Box.net. However, before you jump into moving all of your company data into the cloud, there are some things you should consider. Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Research cloud service providers and you’ll find many large companies staking their claim on an increasingly crowded cloud market. The service provider’s reputation and how long they have been offering cloud services should trump size. Look for a cloud specialist with reputable technology that knows the industry inside out. Understand Your Security Needs: There has been much hype surrounding the security of the cloud, but there is very little difference between the trust you place in your ISP and your other technology providers. With that in mind, every organization’s security needs and expectations are different, so it’s important to understand how the vendor can meet those needs. Check the vendor’s references and investigate case studies with organizations similar to your own. Know the Basics of Data Backup: Know how the cloud provider backs up data and in the worst-case scenario, what would happen if they went out of business or if you wanted to move data to another provider. Get a feel for the provider’s storage reputation, the number and location of their data centers and redundancy of their infrastructure. Secure Good SLAs: Industry certifications capture a moment in time and don’t necessarily indicate good performance. The best way to ensure good service is with solid Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with clear contractual language. Look for vendors who publish their performance and have clear financial penalties for underperformance. Evaluate Customer Service Standards: The best customer service departments for cloud services are staffed with cloud specialists who are available 24×7. Ensure that your chosen vendor’s customer service specialists can meet your organization’s needs. Test the Service: A key advantage of SaaS is that it makes it easy to deploy a free trial. Most vendors offer this to those considering their services. Start small with the trial, and once satisfied, you can expand the service to include confidential data and other mission-critical systems. About the Author: Ramon Ray is an author, speaker, technology writer and former small business technology consultant. He publishes Smallbiztechnology.com, a website that helps small and medium-sized businesses strategically use technology as a tool to grow their businesses. Ramon recently joined the Manta team of industry experts. Read more at wcntransmedia.wordpress.com

 

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The Monetization of Streaming Video via Youtube.

Can Youtube Create Transmedia Revenue Share Opportunities for American Workers? But will they?

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How YouTube Stars Make More Than $100,000 Annually by Laurie Sullivan,

Two-way interaction between brands and consumers continues to separate the Internet from other forms of media. It gives new meaning to the phrase “social butterfly.” Now more than ever, search marketers need to pay attention to the interaction and intersection between search and social.After last week’s visit to VidCon in Los Angeles I found a new perspective on the ways brands can reach consumers through YouTube. VidCon is not an official YouTube conference, but rather organized by YouTubers Hank Green and John Green. Some YouTube stars and starlets garner more than $100,000 annually supporting brands through their channels. They hire lawyers to read contracts and find manufacturing facilities in China to merchandise products.

YouTube even created a Playbook with new strategies, tips, and optimization techniques. It outlines calls to action and metadata, as well as cross-promotion and collaboration. Take Philip DeFranco, for example. He runs a pop culture YouTube news show that gets between 20 million and 35 million views monthly, and signs on three brands quarterly. This quarter’s sponsors include Netflix, State Farm Insurance, and Samsung. Recently he branched out to help others merchandise their brand. His advice for emerging YouTube stars: “Make cool shit and monetize later.” Most YouTubers begin by supporting themselves with a day job. “We came home after a long day, made cool shit and hopefully it took off,” DeFranco said. Five years into the biz of making YouTube content, DeFranco suggests that focusing on the community and the rest will fall into place eventually. Now he focuses more on merchandising because “there’s a much bigger profit than we had originally thought.” It’s a lot of hard work, however. Few know that better than Jeffrey Harman, who supports marketing for Orabrush, the first brand to actually go from marketing on YouTube to distribution in Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers. Brands looking to connect with YouTube viewers might want to keep an eye out for budding video talent. Harman learned from working with Toby Turner (known in the YouTube community as a viral video guru) that the YouTube star included a fake promotion in all his videos from the start because his long-term business goals included a branded channel. Tweak Footwear’s James Hotson runs a four-person company that relies mostly on consultants and a manufacturing facility in China to distribute about nine custom shoe designs yearly. The channel developed a marketing strategy called Free-Show Friday, encouraging fans to make videos uploaded to Facebook. The company sometimes uses the ideas when designing shoes. At the end of the week, the company rewards one lucky person who creates a video with a free pair of shoes. The YouTube creators build a community atmosphere, which attracts viewers and brands. They share, enlighten and get others involved because they love the brand. Read more at wcntransmedia.wordpress.com

 

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An Opportunity to Give for Free with KIVA Lending Teams

Set up a free opportunity to give around the world. It's really a cool way to help others and now you can do it for a limited time for FREE. Check it out.

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WCN Transmedia Group FREE KIVA Promotion. Limited Time Send a Free $25.00 KIVA Loan

CLICK TO GIVE FOR FREE LIMITED TIME ONLY

WCN Transmedia Group Fundraising has learned that KIVA is giving away 4000 Free Kiva Trials.  This is very significant and a opportunity we wanted to share with our readers. Please take a moment to set up your KIVA Fund Raiser and empower a Global Campaign to Change Lives. $25,00 is all that it takes and now you can give $25.00 for Free as a Trial. WCN has made a loan and is just about to reinvest that same $25.00 over and over again.  So you see the power of making a difference. Help Kiva branch out Give out $25 free trials, get cool Kiva gear! Help Kiva reach more lenders and borrowers by inviting friends to try Kiva with a $25 free trial. For the first time ever, we’re offering 4,000 free trials to let new lenders make a real Kiva loan, at no cost to them. Even better, you’ll get a limited edition Kiva t-shirt if five friends become lenders by August 13. Twenty new lenders gets you a fleece!

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