seaz me

Earlier this week, I travelled down to Virginia Beach, VA to participate in the first United States Coast Guard PodCamp which took place on November 18, 2009. It was a great event where, in the spirit of social media, people connected, shared and learned.

There were so many highlights of the day but for the sake of crafting a post that doesn’t go on forever, I’ve limited my self to the five (5) below.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Why podcast?

Well, there could be lot’s of reasons but I believe they all fall into two overarching ones: passion and business objectives.

Spend some time in the iTunes store or any of the podcast directories, like Podcast Alley, Podcast Pickle or Mevio, and you will be amazed by the breadth and depth of content that you will find with much of it is produced by people who simply have a passion for something. » Read the rest of this entry «

My first experience with podcasting dates back to December 2005 when my parents gave me a video iPod for Christmas. Prior to that I wasn’t really familiar with the concept of podcasting but soon after loading iTunes on my laptop, and rummaging around the iTunes store, I stumbled upon some very interesting content and the best part was that it was all free! Not only that, but I could press one little button and get fresh stuff automatically delivered to me whenever I plugged my iPod in for charging.

Soon after this “iPodiphany,” I started to think about how I might be able to use this tool at work.  At that time I was the executive director of the American Sail Training Association and we produced a rather large public event each summer called the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE which is a series of tall ships races and maritime port festivals. One of the problems we had was how to effectively educate the general public about our organization’s mission as well as the diverse missions of the participating ships. Inspired by the Acoustiguide experience that many museums offer to their visitors, but having no budget for this type of thing, we began to look into producing our own podcast audio tour of the ships that visitors could download before coming to the event. » Read the rest of this entry «

On Monday I’m heading down to Virginia Beach for the first U.S. Coast Guard Podcamp, which is part of the annual USCG Innovation Expo.  I’m really looking forward to catching up with some great Guardian friends that I’ve made online over the past few years.  The event is free and open to the public so if you’re in Virginia on Tuesday, come participate.

I’ve been asked to present a session on podcasting basics and thought it would be a good idea to flush out my material here. So over the next few day’s I’ll do a series of posts about podcasting.

A few points to consider. » Read the rest of this entry «

Our latest project involved creating a web presence for the New Bedford Port Society, a nonprofit organization located in the New Bedford National Whaling Historical Park which has served mariners and the greater New Bedford community for nearly 180 years.  The original and continued mission of the Port Society is “to bring moral and spiritual improvement to those who work along the waterfront and in the fishing industry.” The Port Society owns and manages two historic properties, The Mariner’s Home and the Seamen’s Bethel, the latter which was made famous as the “Whaleman’s Chapel” in Herman Meville’s classic novel Moby-Dick. In addition to providing services to mariners, the nondenominational Seamen’s Bethel is also the site of many weddings, christenings, funeral and memorial services each year.

The Port Society has never really had any significant web presence and the organization relied on the National Park and several local tourism and business websites to tell its rich history. » Read the rest of this entry «

Not much probably. Don’t get too down him or her though, it’s part of a leader’s genetic makeup. They can’t help it, but you probably can.

Steve Borsch of the Minnov8 blog wrote an interesting post titled “Why Executives Don’t "Get" Social Media” in which he shares a valuable personal experience and some useful insights about how to “talk” to executives about social media.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson produce the great For Immediate Release podcast. If you have any kind of responsibility for communications in your organization, this twice weekly show should be required listening.  They cover a wide range of topics about internal and external communications and present the latest trends in technology and strategy. Each also independently hosts his own blog with Holtz’s at A Shel of My Former Self: Blogging at the Intersection of Communication and Technology and Hobson’s at NevilleHobson.com.

On January 28, 2009, Holtz had an interesting post titled The time has come: Blogging is a business requirement in which he makes a solid case for every corporation maintaining an official blog. He lists several reasons why he believes blogging is a business requirement today. » Read the rest of this entry «

Since we just launched seaz media¹ this week that’s good news! We borrowed the title of this post from Mitch Joel, the president of Twist Image, a digital marketing agency located in “beautiful” Montreal, Quebec, Canada who wrote on his very popular blog, Six Pixels of Separation, about a report issued by Pew Internet titled Adults and Social Network Websites.

As the mass number of adults increase online they are still just tinkering with it. They’re not sure if they want to integrate their professional lives or use this as a marketing/communications channel, so they’re testing it out by connecting to friends and family members to see how it goes. Yes, there are those who are knee-deep into this stuff from a business and professional perspective, but that is still a very new way or working with plenty of room to grow and newer opportunities to explore.

I couldn’t agree more. Just over the past month I have seen incredible growth in both Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Some are human beings who I actually know! Many have been hesitant until recently to join in the social network party for one reason or another. However, when these latecomers jump in, the “network” grows quickly and exponentially as do the opportunities to use it to connect and engage. » Read the rest of this entry «

1. new social media unit of Sea-Fever Consulting LLC [↩]

In the maritime world there is nothing more exciting than the launch of new ship.¹

There’s pride in the planning to get to that day, satisfaction in the accomplishment and work, nervousness in the act of launch but optimism and confidence about the future success of the venture.

That’s similar to how we feel about the launch of seaz media, the social media unit of Sea-Fever Consulting LLC.  We’ve been blogging, podcasting and Twittering for a number of years and beleive that our experience and expertise can help maritime organizations, nonprofits and small businesses who still consider social media uncharted waters.

Challenging economic times like those we face today make communication with stakeholders more important than ever. seaz media is committed to helping you chart a proper course for your organization using social media tools and a strategy tailored to your needs. » Read the rest of this entry «

1. This video was originally sent to me by my high school shipmate Jamie Hutton who is an engineer for NOAA and responsible for large vessel construction projects. It’s a video of the launch of the NOAA state of the art “quiet” fisheries research vessel Pisces on December 19, 2007 in Pascagoula, MS. As of this posting, the video has been watched nearly 170,000 times on YouTube. [↩]