Ryan C. Miller.com - Social Media, Design, Tech, Commentary - broadcasting from Utica, NY

Rick Short and Miller talk Urban Golf

Posted on February 7, 2010 by MillerNo Comments

Here’s a conversation I had with Rick Short of Indium Corp about Urban Golf (that I’m very late in posting).

Miller live at the Electric Co., Utica NY

Posted on January 3, 2010 by MillerNo Comments

Below, check out my acoustic set from The Electric Co. in Utica, NY. It was my first attempt at a Live stream of a show and the actual music starts about 9 minutes in. Following my set is a set from Aaron Cidzik. Thanks to everyone who tuned in or came out to the bar. This will be a start of many more live broadcasts to come. As always, your comments are appreciated.

Read and Write Your Ass Off

Posted on December 4, 2009 by MillerNo Comments

Today I gave a quick talk to the students of the Utica College PRSSA group about the job I do at Romanelli Communications as well as how brands are using social media to reach their audiences.  Of course with graduation dates approaching, students are wondering how to best position themselves for the job market (and more specifically in the PR department). Here’s the top 3 points I wanted to drive home:

1 - Read your ass off. I was a bit surprised that by and large the group wasn’t actively consuming blogs that are written about their industry (and the future of it). Because this is where the medium is going, I tried to stress that they need to reading enormous amounts of material DAILY as well as leaving comments and adding to the discussion. Since colleges aren’t offering in-depth courses in Social Media right now and since Social Media is becoming such a huge piece of the PR puzzle, they really need to put in the hours to become as knowledgeable as possible once they get that job opportunity. Books like Trust Agents and Tribes should be standard issue reading as well as Beth’s Blog, PR Squared, Chris Brogan’s blog, HARO, and Mashable need to be on a daily reading list just to name a few.

2 - Write your ass off. Resumes are so 20th century. I know you still need a kick-ass one, but I tried to stress how important it is for PR students to have their own website or blog to show their writing skills, their design portfolio and build their own personal brand. It’s essential. They also have to NEED to be on LinkedIN and active. Building a network, asking questions and contributing to groups in their industry will build connections and let people know that you’re out there. It’s a great way to get introduced to experts in your industry or get recommended for a potential job.

3 - Show me, don’t tell me. If any of them go into an interview for a public relations job or ANY job for that matter, they should be able to show their resume and have the HR director pull up their website. On that website should be their posts about the industry, examples of their work, and maybe even a case study of how a Press Release they put out or an event they orchestrated was a huge success for a local non-profit (hint: volunteer your time. Non-profits need your expertise and its a great experience). Being able to show ROI for a project you weren’t even paid to do shows your chops and speaks to your character.  Being able to SHOW a prospective employer that you have the skills necessary for that job (or are devoting lots of time to learning them) will set you apart from other candidates. I promise.

There was a lot more discussed and the group had some great questions about blogging, social media, and how businesses are using the tools. I won’t get into those here. But I did want to give a quick recap of what I thought the group wanted to have a discussion about and hopefully I was able to provide some good info to give them a leg up in understanding how social media tools are shaping the way PR works and the way people find jobs.

Big thanks to Megan Fariello for having me and congrats on her upcoming graduation in two weeks!

Fixing News or Fixing Paper

Posted on July 21, 2009 by MillerNo Comments

In Utica, NY we have one daily paper that’s actually printed - The Observer Dispatch. When I was checking it this morning I noticed that they have launched an ‘online e-edition.’  I’m a curious creature - so I checked it out.

This is a paid premium service ($10 / mo. or $1 extra per year if you’re a paper subscriber).

My first impression was that it was basically a clickable PDF scan of the paper next to the text version of the article that you would normally see on the web. I was able to turn pages, zoom, etc.  But it left me scratching my head…how is this a premium product compared to the regular website?

Granted, it is kind of cool the first time you see it once you get the hang of navigating. And the PDF downloads on the sample looked great. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud them for trying something different, but I get a sense that they’re trying to provide an alternative to the tangibility of paper - and give people who read a newspaper the same layout they’re used to. I just think there are some missed opportunities. No stories had hyperlinks in them or commenting capability, just a link to the ‘full story’ with a graphic of the paper to the left of the text.

What about moving to the next level of a newspaper website, providing content as well features that make it highly sharable, mobile, and interacitve… Charge for that.

What kinds of features? First, allow people to comment on everything, from pictures, to each news story. Show the most popular articles on the front pages as determined by the users - above the fold. Feature local bloggers or most popular comments. Take submissions from the community- a la Huffington Post.  Use services like Facebook Connect or the TWitter API to let users tie their social profiles to comments and take the discussion across platforms.

Check out Gina’s piece on media transitions over at Save the Media (don’t stop with that one, she’s got a lot of great posts). She argues that through these transitions Something will be gained and something will be lost. Get over it. But trust your readers and users to help find ways to deliver the content they want at a fair price.

Take It Mobile

I should also mention that the New York Times is crushing the mobile gig. I’m super impressed by their iPhone app - everything from the layout, to search really makes reading the news on a mobile device feel natural (now if only I could tweet links instead of e-mailing them).  But the point is that they’re building something that’s got a slick design, good content, and mobile. Once they get the user connectivity down, it would be a service that I would glady pay a monthly fee for.

The same can be said of the way they are utilizing the Kindle to deliver content and make it a revenue stream (though I haven’t used it - it looks damn good).

I can only speak for myself when I say that I would gladly pay for quality content that is on-demand, easy to navigate, mobile, and can be consumed on a device of my choosing. If newspapers think that what will save them is giving people the digital version of thumbing through a paper, then they’re in bigger trouble than we thought. This isn’t a discussion about whether or not content should always be free. I’m just saying that all eyes are on the newspaper industry to try something bold. Starting with making a kick ass premium (but affordable) service for users, or finding a better way to create value for advertisers is a start.
What do you think? Am I way off base on this? What’s your opinion of the e-edition?

How Guster Stole My Identity - Lessons in Twitter Mix Ups

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Miller1 Comment

Had a funny mix up this weekend between the show I played in Utica NY with MODUS and one of my favorite bands, Guster (who was in Syracuse NY the same night).  Great illustration of why you need to do your best to know who you’re talking to online, as well as how to respond to mix ups and be transparent about who you are.   Oh yeah, and while we’re here check out both artists:

Guster:  Official Site : http://www.guster.com

Ryan Miller (Me, not from Guster):  http://www.rmillermusic.com