Image via WikipediaA few weeks ago I began working on a little side project that I hope can get some legs at some point.

The site: Video Marketing Moxie

The premise: It takes guts to be on the forefront of anything. Particularly marketing. Your brand is at risk. The costs are not standardized. ROI is a giant question mark. The techniques are not tried and true. What works for one may not work for you (or ever again for that matter.) It’s risky business. But, like anything, where there’s risk — there’s opportunity.

My hope? To put together a community of fellow video marketing pros (and social media folks too, there’s much overlap) to help business owners and marketers understand what’s worked, what’s available, and what might work for them.

To be honest, it’s an experiment. And it’s fallen on the back burner for me for the moment (gotta pay the bills first). But check it out for now. Slap it into your RSS reader. Feel free to comment. And, most importantly, feel free to contribute ideas or content!

More stuff soon!

Yesterday the folks at Impromptu Studio graciously allowed me to interrupt them for a few minutes so I could put together a little test project.

My goal was to create an interesting virtual view of the space so people who haven’t seen it can visualize what it’s like.

Although a video tour would accomplish my goals, I decided to take a more creative approach. I wanted to “freeze time” a bit, to capture the space without the distraction of movement — and this way we get to pan back and forth through the space to take a closer look.

What do you think?

Image via Wikipedia Are you an independent business professional?

Do you work out of your home, coffee shops, or the lonely confines of a small office suite?

Do you long for the camaraderie of an office environment, the ability to collaborate on projects, or have others around with whom to share ideas and explore opportunities?

Then I suggest you check out coworking — an emerging new office idea where like-minded independent professionals, who normally work in isolation, work together in a shared space.

Becoming popular in larger cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Denver, the idea is spreading around the country, even to smaller cities.

Des Moines Coworking

I moved into Des Moines’ new coworking space, Impromptu Studio, a few weeks ago, and am really enjoying it here. After a year of relative isolation in an office suite, I have enjoyed having others around to talk to throughout the day, and am finding myself to be much more productive. (Apparently being holed-up by myself day after day was getting to me.)

OPEN HOUSE

If you live near Des Moines, and are interested in the concept of coworking, come on over this Thursday to Impromptu Studio’s open house and take advantage of a free day of coworking.

Of the handful of folks here so far; there are a few web/software developers, a game developer (more of the design side), a video marketer (me), and room for many more!

Hope to see you here!

Are you a good fit for coworking?

Coworking is great for:

• Designers
• Developers
• Web Professionals
• Marketers
• Writers
• Illustrators
• Animators

One of my favorite things about Twitter is how it enables me (and you) to listen to what our customers, prospects, and demographic are saying. What do they want? What do they hate? What do they love? What are their pain points? [In case you’ve not heard of Twitter, let’s just say you should take a few minutes to go find out more.]

A smart business can use this information to find opportunity. I do it every day. It’s helping me formulate strategies and tools that will shape the future of my business. Sure, there’s some noise, but it is surprising how much great insight can be found by listening.

In addition to listening to general ideas and discussion, some businesses are big enough to actually be talked about. And the really smart ones are listening!

Take KickApps (a social media community platform) for example. I’m not really a customer per se. More of a casual experimenter. I see the potential, but just haven’t found the right fit yet. I have an account, but only piddle around with it when I want to test a new feature, or experiment with a new idea. I highly doubt they’ve ever made a penny off me.

But that didn’t stop them from listening!

What did they hear? Well, today, I mused, oh so briefly — wondering why they weren’t on Twitter. (I mean, they’re a social media company… and I would guess a big percentage of their customer base, and an even bigger percentage of their demographic is on Twitter.)

Here’s my tweet:

I certainly never thought they would ‘hear’ me. They didn’t seem to be there to hear.

…

BUT. They were listening.

I’m not sure how, but probably through the power of Twitter’s search feature combined with the power of RSS feeds, they did hear me. And in less time than it takes to fly New York to Los Angeles, they responded (and signed up for an official Twitter account.)

Forget why they waited. The fact that they heard their base wondering ‘why not?’ was enough to move them to action. That’s smart.

So, are you listening? How? Has it paid off? If you’re not, how can you start listening?