udmmeditor, Author at Uno Deuce Multimedia

2nd Brain Collective Podcast with Melissa Meschke of Michigan Creative

After graduating with a degree in marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2012, Melissa Meschke moved to Michigan and became involved in several networking and entrepreneurship groups in the Lansing area. She has since joined Michigan Creative as the Chief Operating Officer, helping local businesses with marketing and promotion.

Besides being a dedicated employee and entrepreneur, Melissa enjoys spending time with her husband and pets and cheering on her favorite sports teams. She is looking forward to becoming a mother in December!

On this episode of the 2nd Brain Collective, Melissa shares her journey from Wisconsin to Michigan and how she came to love the Lansing community. Listen for Melissa’s tips on the importance of digital marketing and keeping young employees happy!

Learn more about Melissa Meschke and Michigan Creative:

Michigan Creative Website

Twitter

The Mystery of the Viral Video

Every video producer within the last five years has heard the phrase, “ I need you to make me a viral video!”

Every video producer also knows that that’s when you have to sit the client down for an educational moment. Videos do go viral, but it’s either by pure chance or by having a huge strategy behind it. If you don’t plan for it, or have a kid, cat or dog do something spontaneously, the chances of your video going viral is zero. And like they say in showbiz, don’t ever work with kids or animals. Now you see the irony in this? However, with that being said, I also think the viral aspect of a video is also very relative. What do I mean by that? You have to look at the market you are serving. If your audience is a subscriber base of 8,000 and you get 2,500 views and over a hundred shares organically, I think you can claim that your video went viral. The same goes if you have only 2,000 subscribers and your video got 900 views and 15 shares. it was pretty darn successful!

What I am saying is you can’t compare your video success rate to what Coca Cola or even the Kardashians do. Not only do they have a large fan base, but they have a huge marketing machine behind them as well. They also have a strategy put in place as well so that their video views do hit the hundred of thousands of views and shares.

So, what do you have to do to make sure you get the best bang for your buck when it comes to video? 1. Have a strategy in place to use it effectively. 2. Upload it to more than one place 3. Embed it to your website 4. Make sure you add keywords 5. Tag the appropriate people/organizations involved with the video.

There’s many more, but essentially it comes down to knowing your audience and being able to tell the right story. Your video will go viral, but only if you have a plan and stick with it. Remember, just because a video of dogs without coordination got 1 million views doesn’t mean your video won’t be successful. It all boils down to the audience.

Here’s an example of one of our videos that went “viral” locally.

#BetterCallPaul – 5th Annual Deucey Awards are coming!

Our Deucey Awards go into their 5th year. Is your video a winner?

3 BIG Reasons To Use Video For Your Message

I get this all of the time: ” I know I probably need video for my organization, but why? What is the reason?”

Great question. I have 3.

1. Retention When you use video. The video itself uses more than one of your senses. In this case, the obvious ones are sight and and sound. When that happens, the retention rate of what was just seen and heard goes up exponentially. In fact, upwards of almost 70%. Couple that with various videos of what your organization is doing and you have a fan base.

#2. YouTube YouTube is huge. I cannot stress this enough. YouTube is the second most used search engine and is owned by the most used search engine, Google. Plus, Google loves video. It’s built in search engine tools and measurement abilities, make it an indispensable tool for video marketing. Not only that, but Facebook is catching up and competition is good.

#3. Digital Natives A technologist that I liked to follow, Philip Hodgetts, said a few years ago that video will become the new literacy. That day is quickly approaching. With new tools being developed all of the time that quickly access the rapid advancements in mobile technology, video is quickly booming as a communication and research tool.

The fact of the matter is, video is quickly becoming a necessity for your organization to stand out. The generation that’s becoming a consumer and the generation after them, have had access to video as a regular day to day tool, when the rest of us at their age now were still using Britannica and not Wikipedia. Think about that. The yellow pages has been replaced by Google for search and remember what I said above. Google loves YouTube.

The time to use video for your business started yesterday. It’s time to make that first one and go from there.

#BetterCallPaul – S03E10 5 Years of the Deuceys!

It’s the fifth anniversary of our annual Deucey Awards!

#BetterCallPaul S03E09 UnoDeuce Blooper Reel Part 1

Sit back and enjoy all the flubs that we make while being creative.

Guest Post: March 14: Lansing’s first monthly Tech Demo Night!

There’s a new tech event in town, and you’re invited.

It’s called Tech Demo Night. Think of it as a show-and-tell for all ages with a technology theme. It’s free and you don’t have to show anything, but you’re more than welcome to.

Already interested? RSVP and we’ll see you there!

Tech Hubbub

Tech Demo Night is a celebration of technology, trying and exploring new things, and of course, the amazing people in Lansing who love both.

Whatever kind of technophile you are—inventor, coder, student, teacher, maker, entrepreneur, designer, fanboy, fangirl, seasoned geek, or newbie—here’s a chance to share that slice of tech you get excited about, meet other like-minded individuals, and discover even more things to get excited about.

It doesn’t matter if you’re creating something that you want to share or you just want to see what’s going on in Lansing’s tech scene: come on out, eat some free pizza, ask someone what they’re doing in tech, and watch some sweet demos. You’ll leave inspired, more knowledgeable, and more aware of Lansing’s great tech community than ever.

We also know that kids are way more in touch with tech than many adults, so this will be a kid-friendly event, too! If your child or some young’n you know is learning or doing something mind-blowing, encourage them to come out and present!

Demos Done Quick

Because this event is open to such a wide variety of tech and ages, we’re hoping for a bigger turnout than other tech meetups in Lansing. In order to make sure as many people can demo as possible, there are a couple of rules for demos:

Demos must be 5 minutes or less
Demo material sent to Erik Gillespie (event organizer) goes first

A 5-minute demo will go by fast! If you’ve never given such a short presentation, try it out. You’ll discover that 5 minutes is not enough time to get into the technical details. In fact, it’s just enough time to demo and high-level overview. ????

Sending slides and demo content to the event organizer saves us from all that wasted time disconnecting and reconnecting laptops. We highly recommend putting your material somewhere on the web and providing a link so everything can be ready to demo when it’s your turn. If you have physical props, bring those with you and try them out before the demos start!

An hour of demos, an hour of banter

If you want to talk about something at length, there will be 30 minutes both before and after the demos to do so! You can also sign up to present your idea at one of Lansing’s many other tech meetups.

If you liked a demo, we encourage you to chat with the presenter after all of the demos are done. This is also a great time to learn more about how they discovered that sweet piece of tech they showed off or created, where they work, if they’re looking for help, and how you can get involved.

Pizza and drinks are generously provided by our co-sponsor, Michigan SBDC. You should also ask them about how they’re helping build a better tech scene in Lansing.

Things to Remember

Bring your favorite new project or product, give a quick demo, and finish with some light convo. Anyone who loves tech can present, including kids!

Lansing Tech Demo Nights are held on the second Tuesday of the month, doors open at 7:00 pm, and noms will be provided.

Don’t forget to RSVP. We hope to see you there!

Discover more Lansing tech meetups at Lansing.Codes.

Erik Gillespie is a software developer and semi-pro advocate of amazing things. He founded Giving Jar, a blog and upcoming donation platform for Lansing charities, and helps people learn how to create websites and other software at Lansing Code Lab. He’s kind of obsessed with board games, too.