OutThink Thinks 3ChipMedia has what it takes.

 
  OutThink.com recently contacted 3ChipMedia based on it's experience with company owner, Shannon Appleby and a video shoot that he assisted on in Peoria, Ill.
   Shannon went as a contracted Sound Operator and Camera Assistant since this was a Canon 7D video shoot and Shannon is one of the few people in Eastern Iowa that shoots video on the Canon 7D camera.
    When they called, they stated that they were very pleased with the footage that Shannon was able to gather for them and thought that he could really see their vision of what they wanted.  They looked at the company website,  Googled Shannon and found him all over the internet with videos, photography and more and decided that 3ChipMedia were the ones to change up the look and styling of the Kaplan University Student Success video for them.
     This is a 3 minute video that shows a graduate of the school in his current life and work setting.  You can see some of the past videos on youtube.com but they want to change up the look and style a bit and 3ChipMedia agreed to the challenge and will begin the editing process in just a few weeks.

Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce Selects 3ChipMedia

The Chamber’s Business Success Initiative announces a social media workshop series for Cedar Rapids flood affected businesses and businesses in the flood zone: “Plug in to the online world: Social Media Workshop Series” presented by Shannon Appleby of 3ChipMedia.

The first session, “What Humans Need to Survive: Air, Water and Social Media” will take place on Wednesday, October 12, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. at Corridor CoWorks, 222 Third Street SE, Suite 600.

Appleby will discuss why people are so addicted to social media, what social media communication means to people, how to get a call to action to work, and understanding why social media is so huge.

“In this first session we will really get into why customers need air, water, and Facebook, and how they cannot survive without them,” Appleby said.

The event is free for flood affected businesses to attend by RSVPing to Jennifer Jentz, communications specialist, at (319) 731-5843 or by email at jjentz@cedarrapids.org.

Remaining sessions will be held at Corridor CoWorks on the following dates:

October 27, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m.

“Let’s Get Technical: The Nuts & Bolts of Social Media”

November 9, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

“Social Media Tools That Make Online Marketing Handier”

November 15, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m.

“Tweeting Here, Posting There, Social Media is Everywhere”

               The event is free for flooded businesses to attend by RSVPing to Jennifer Jentz, communications specialist, at (319) 731-5843 or email jjentz@cedarrapids.org. 

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