IMA Panel: Social Media, Revenue, and Brand

I hope you’ll forgive the (equivalence of) a self-link, but I wanted to share a few video clips that I think are kind of related to the Kutiman rant I’d posted earlier today.

My friend, Kristen Taylor, shot these bits from a panel that Jesse Thorn of The Sound of Young America hosted at last month’s IMA (public media) conference in Atlanta. The unfortunate title of the panel was “Blow Up Your Brand” (ugh), but it did feature yrs truly, alongside my old Tallahassee band buddies¹, The Bros Chaps (yep, Homestar Runner), plus Jeff Olsen, who’s the the super-smart Creative Director of [Adult Swim].

We talked about our experiences with thinking about social media, trying different revenue models, and ultimately looking at some various ways that public media stations and networks might try to adapt some ideas from our playbook. I think it went pretty well.

First, here’s Jeff on the limits of advertising and finding unexpected money; Jesse on the opportunities to making great content in support of public service.

Blow Up Your Brand panel at IMA09 from Kristen Taylor on Vimeo.

Here’s the Homestar Runner guys on agility and me on waiting for the right money. [Also, PowerBar.]

Blow Up Your Brand panel at IMA09 from Kristen Taylor on Vimeo.

Here’s me, on social media, and understanding 1) why you have a community around your site, 2) what you’re prepared to do (or change) on the day that your community becomes incredibly successful, powerful, and influential in how you are perceived.

Blow Up Your Brand panel at IMA09 from Kristen Taylor on Vimeo.

Finally, here’s me on the revenue thing, and the value of being open to finding money in places you never expected (or wanted). How one free talk at Google completely changed my career.

Blow Up Your Brand panel at IMA09 from Kristen Taylor on Vimeo.

Thanks a million to Kristen for posting these and to my panel dudes for being there and being all smart. And super-special thanks to Jesse for the panel invite, and to Keith Hopper for working his ass off to make the conference a hit.