Shooting with the Canon 7D

Recently we purchased the new Canon 7D camera as both a photography tool as well as a video camera.  We've been researching this camera for quite some time and it has proven itself in the field and the footage that comes off of it is amazing.
This past weekend, we really got to put it through the paces shooting for another company and their client while in Peoria, Ill.  This was 2 solid days of shooting with a producer that had worked with this camera many times and really knew the shots he wanted.

WOW, that is about all we can say.  Shooting in 720p/60fps was absolutely amazing.  The lenses on the camera gave us a huge range to work with, the colors are brilliant and you can make adjustments to get any look you want, warm, cool, rough etc.  And the depth of field was fantastic.  It really is a a natural film look that you just cannot achieve with a traditional video camera.
We will be posting links to videos shot with this camera very soon so keep checking back to see some of the work that we get to do here.

Iowa Get Your Business Online

Monday and Tuesday of this week, our very own, Shannon Appleby was asked to produce the www.Iowagetonline.com sizzle video for Google in Ankey, Iowa.  This event is being done in every state across the country to help small businesses get online and Shannon was contracted by Pro Video in Cedar Rapids, IA. to be the Producer of the video.

What does a Producer do?  The producer is the person responsible for making sure that the right equipment is chosen and brought along, the Producer does the interviews with the on-camera guest or talent, and they also decide the look and setup of the shots.  The Producer is responsible for making sure that it all comes together in the end.

Google had a quota of 20 interviews with the attending guests and Shannon was able to attain 26 interviews over the two days including that of Iowa Lieutenant Governer, Kimberly (Strawn) Reynolds as well as Rob Denson, DMACC President and CEO.

The event was a huge success with over 500 people attending over 2 days and setting up their own FREE website with the help of Intuit representatives and online software.  The Googlers on hand helped individuals to learn more about Google Adwords and Google Places and helped them setup accounts to get started.

Also on hand were many supporting partners such as the Des Moine SCORE representatives to assist these newly started businesses as well as seasoned businesses that have been around for years. There is still time to attend one of these events, check out www.Iowagetonline.com to see the other upcoming events in Iowa.

One of the biggest suprises from the 2 days was what Shannon found out as for statistics... According to Google and the State of Iowa numbers, over 59% of Iowa businesses are still not on the internet with any kind of digital presences. This means that 6 out of 10 businesses are still not reaching their potential with customers that are looking for their goods and services on the internet.

Call us today and we'll give you a FREE Consultation about how you too can have a website, Google Adwords, Facebook Ads and a Facebook account working for you 24 hours a day.
319-361-7777
VISIT US www.3chipmedia.com

Experts on Hand

The Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce and SCORE of East Central Iowa have invited me to be the event facilitator for "Social Networking - The Big Picture" webinar to be hosted by Lon Safko, author of "The Social Media Bible:...." 
The event will be held tomorrow at the Guarantee Bank Building.  As event facilitator, we've been asked to do a 30 minute Q&A with the participants to answer any questions that they may have about social media and how it will work for their businesses or what they can do to get started.  We've been asked to participate as the Experts in the field because of our reputation amongst members of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce and SCORE of East Central Iowa as a leader in Social Network marketing for our clients.

We'll repost here after the event to give you all of the details of how the event went.  I would invite you all to come, but this is being presented for Flood affected businesses in the area to assist them in rebuilding their customer base.

Great day today.

While recovering from an injury, things just happen to be going our way today.  One of us attended a meeting for the Jones County Youth Coalition and ended up being a member on the Marketing committee to assist in our community, then we made a few phone calls and stops and ended up booking 3 more websites and another photography gig.  Things are picking up for the little company that can and that is great news to us.  Thank you to everyone that keeps spreading the word about 3ChipMedia.

First, a phone call from Texas Bike Works owner, Jason Ferguson to say that he really needed some help and wanted someone with experience in the Motorcycle industry to remake his website and make sure it could be found and that everything was functioning, we'll take care of that for you Jason.  Then a stop out to the Rainbow Supper Club garnished 2 more websites to be built.  We'll have those done for you in a jiffy, they liked that response.

Then another potential customer called and wanted to know about some photography, they had seen the work we did for a friend of theirs and wanted to get booked right away.  So they did.

Ending off a great day by registering domain names, recording some logins and writing notes on what needs to be done tomorrow.

Good day to all and thank you again.

TEXTING, TWEETING AND POSTING - OH MY!

We went to the Fair this past week, and not just any Fair, it was the Great Jones County Fair and Food Festival in Monticello, Iowa. What a fantastic time, great food, rides, games, shows and attractions.

Something that I noticed was how many people were Tweeting or FB Messaging about what all was going on.  I could turn around without seeing someone tweeting and texting about what cow won a blue ribbon, whose rabbits were hot or not, what recipe got first place and how awesome the concerts, races and events were at the fair.

This made me realize something, it's not just what you can send out to your fans, customers or followers that gets noticed or drives business to you, it's what kind of buzz you can create by other people talking about you.
This is when I came up with a few ideas... While at an event, offer up a coupon for anyone that Tweets about you while at your booth at a trade fair or event.  Give them a freebie item if they Like you on FB while at the booth.  Almost everyone has a smart phone today that has this ability, take advantage of it.  Get other people to talk about you and it won't seem so much like the sales pitch.

This is Word of Mouth on Steroids part II.  Anytime you can get regular people to talk about you, that's great, as long as they are sending the correct message.  A good customer experience will generate some buzz, a poor experience or a complaint will generate a lot of buzz, negative is not good buzz.
You can help to create the positive buzz by allowing them to receive recognition by putting their positive post on your website, re-tweeting their post, like it on facebook, share it or whatever, make them feel as if they are an important customer, just for saying something nice about you.  This gets them to keep up the good chatter and pushing it their friends that trust them.

Use up some of these ideas and see how well they work for you, I'm betting that you won't be disappointed.
Give us a call sometime, we'll help you set up the program and show you just how you can actually impliment this without a lot of headaches.

319-361-7777

Black Bull LLC - NEW CLIENT

WWW.BLACKBULLCAFE.COM

Black Bull LLC of Cedar Rapids contacted us about a month ago with an emergency on their hands.  Amy Grotewold (Owner of Black Bull LLC)  had hired a Website Designer / Photographer / Video production company in the area and even flew her new vendor down to Antigua, Guatemala to create a website for her United States Coffee Distribution of Toro Negro Cafe.

Well needless to say, this turned out to be a disaster.  Amy unfortunately had taken the word of the person that she hired to be that she was a legitimate professional, however, after only 3 days into the 9 day trip to gather photos, create video blogs of the adventure and to create the website, the person in question didn't even bring any editing software, a cell phone, any money at all and spent most of the time on the phone with her boyfriend and asking when they were going to the beach.  After all of that, the vendor was on a plane and headed home with nothing accomplished 6 days before the trip was completed. The vendor wouldn't even return phone calls and kept the money that had already been paid to do the job with nothing accomplished.

This is truely unfortunate for Ms. Grotewold but 3CHIPMEDIA came to the rescue.  Amy gave us the same specs that she had given to the other person with the request that the site be live before June 1st, the day that Black Bull LLC was to receive an award and grant from the SCORE of East Central Iowa as the most promising new emerging business in Cedar Rapids.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Now I know this term has a stigma attached to it since the president hung the banner on the aircraft carrier a few years back, but it's true this time.

The mission of the site is not just to sell coffee, but to inform people on everything from How to Brew your TORO NEGRO CAFE, all about Antigua, Guatemala and the history, rich culture and especially the people behind the coffee.

We were able to impliment all of the needs of Black Bull LLC, including landing pages for their Facebook account, Paypal product setup and implimentation along with a very user friendly customer experience. The Black Bull LLC and TORO NEGRO CAFE (Coffee) brand now has a presence on the internet, and they are implimenting the suggestions of 3ChipMedia when it comes to their social network marketing including, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as well. Now we are in the works to do more with social network marketing, expanding the website to have a fully integrated shopping cart and are in the beginning steps of making some videos.

Be sure to visit the website, buy some coffee and kick back and relax with some of the best coffee ever grown and roasted.

Call 3ChipMedia the next time you have a bad experience with a vendor and really need to get it done right the first time.

Crappie Queen From LINDY Review

May 24, 2011. I woke up this morning to the sun shining in through the window with one thing on my mind - I wanted to try out my new jigs I bought ("Crappie Queen's" from Lindy). So I loaded up the boat and headed for the lake. Central Park has great Crappie and Bluegill, and it is just about time for them to start spawning. After getting the boat in the water and checking my lake map (which was FREE from Iowa DNR web site), I headed to the one spot I thought I would find Crappie - the south side of the lake were my map shows a sharp drop off or ledge. OK, maybe not the best spawning spot, but I knew there would be fish there. How did Lindy do with this jig?

This is what Lindy says about their jig: "The Crappie Queen's wings and front hackle give this insect-like jig a rare zig-zag and slow-sink action. That means more time--and more bites!-- in the strike Zone!" Lindy Crappie queen's"

THE QUEEN BUMBLEBEE 1/16 (Bee)

I tied the bumblebee on and made a few casts, experimenting with different jig methods. I noticed real quick that the bee was a slow sinking jig so there was no need to think that this little jig was sinking straight to the bottom as soon as I gave it a little slack. After I realized that and gave it time to work its magic, it started slowly sinking to the bottom. I had two hits right away by large mouth bass. However, I did not land these two fish. I don't think it was due to the design of the jig. Oh, lets call it operator error. Here's my jigging method: Cast pole, tighten line, pull on pole straight up, let pole drop while reeling in the slack. Repeat until jig is back to your boat or on land. I give this jig a 8 out of ten. No Crappie caught, but I'll fight large mouth all day long if I have too.

THE QUEEN WHITE 1/16.

I found this jig to react the same as the Bee, however I did not get any bites or fish with the jig. I give this a 8 out of 10 because it did do what the packaging said it would do. It may not have caught fish, but I don't think the fish wanted a white color bait today.

THE QUEEN HOT PINK 1/16.

What can I say? When LINDY called this jig hot pink they meant it. It is so bright that the guy mowing the park gave me a feminine wave as he drove by on his mower, but I didn't care as long as I was catching Crappie on Central Park Lake. Give me a pink Barbie pole with LINDY'S HOT PINK QUEEN, and lets fish! Again, I give this jig a 8 out of 10. It would have been a 10 out of 10 if it would have been a good-looking girl on the mower waving.

At the end of the day I landed one bluegill and had two large mouth Bass on the line. I don't think that is bad for 2 & 1/2 hours of fishing. The time of year is iffy on Crappie and Bluegill, so I can't blame Lindy for not catching Crappie. The product did what it said it would do and also put fish on my line. I will be keeping a few of these jigs in my tackle box for the right time. I suggest you grab a few too. At less than $3.00 a jig it's worth it. All in all I rank LINDY'S CRAPPIE QUEENS a 8 out of 10. Thank you LINDY for this great jig!

Nate Trotter Average Jo's Fishing

My name is Nate Trotter from Average Jo's Fishing. You can find me on Facebook under "Average Jo's Fishing". I hope you will go there and Like my page or you can email me at natetrotter@yahoo.com

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