Ryan C. Miller.com – Social Media, Business & Small Things -

Timing Creativity

Posted on November 10, 2011 by MillerNo Comments

For anyone that struggles with being creative on a deadline – this is for you. Great experiment.

Gary V. at the Inc. 500

Posted on November 7, 2011 by MillerNo Comments

I’ve seen most of Gary Vaynerchuk’s keynotes over the years either online or even live. He’s an amazing speaker but I think that this keynote he gave at the Inc. 500 really stands out. Great stories and points regarding drawing lines in the sand with the way your business operates, social media, and customer service.

It’s long – almost an hour, but promise it’s worth your time to watch or listen.

Talking with Michelle Chmielewski – Social Media, Paris and Putain! – Part I

Posted on June 23, 2011 by MillerNo Comments

I had the pleasure of sitting down (via Skype) with Michelle Chmielewski who is a native Utican (my home town) living in Paris, France. Michelle is a blogger and works in community management for Synthesio and will soon be moving to Seesmic. Her video blogs about life in Paris are ones I’ve been following for a long time and her posts about Free Hugs and Putain! – have recently gone viral.

In part I we’ll talk about how she got from Utica to Paris and how she ended up at Seesmic (hint, if you want something – ask for it). We’ll also talk about the differences between the ways people in Europe and the US use social media.

In part II (coming tomorrow) we’ll talk about how she found her blogging niche, how she’s built a following and what happens when things go viral.

Thanks to Michelle for taking the time to chat. Visit her blog and also remember to follower her on Twitter.

5/19/11 – One Question

Posted on May 20, 2011 by MillerNo Comments

My friend Phil posted this video yesterday. Slow build up but well worth your time. Plus, it’s shot in Galway, Ireland (on Shop St. it looks like) – one of my most favorite places in the world. Don’t know what I’d say if someone asked me this question. Would you?

Michael Patrei and Ballou

Posted on April 17, 2011 by MillerNo Comments

When I gave a talk about Bootstrapping in the Mohawk Valley to the MV Young Professionals group last month, one of the points I tried to drive home was that you need to surround yourself with people that make things…and that you should make something too. Whether those things are businesses, films, music, art, pieces or writing -whatever- I think it’s really important, no matter where you live. They will inspire you to build your own projects, or form partnerships that can accomplish more than either of you could on their own. And we have a lot of people locally that are doing some awesome work.

Recently had a chance to sit down at the Tram with Michael Patrei who is a film maker here in Utica to talk about a project he did a couple of years back called Ballou. The film was shared with me by Rick Short and I thought it was a really excellent documentary that was done on a marching band in an impoverished section of D.C. Michael’s film changed the lives of many of the kids in that band and the film took him as far as a festival in Belarus and was even screened at the White House.

I just wanted to share Michael’s story as yet another example of the cool things that are being done by people right here in Utica. You can watch the documentary online at Hulu by clicking here or find out more about the film at the official website.

Michael’s next project is a human rights film festival called called Unspoken.

What is Your Culture Selling

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Miller7 Comments

I was having some food the other night with my good friend Geoff Storm and he got talking to me about how cool the tour at the New Belgium brewery in Colorado was. What impressed him the most was how they try to help employees be more green, and have built  a really cool corporate culture (see the video below for some context). And they’re not afraid to show that culture off to visitors.

Things like flexible hours, bringing pets to work, video games- all those things you used to hear about the way Google and a lot of other silicon valley startups operated were the stuff of legend. But is it also good for business?

I think the argument is two-fold. First, businesses do have an enormous amount of control over their own culture – and investing in that culture can go a long way towards attracting candidates that are the best and the brightest. I’m not saying that every company needs a pinball machine or nap time – but what I am saying is that in addition to building the mechanisms for making cash, businesses also need to invest (there’s that word again) in things or policies that will also get them kick-ass employees who WANT to come to work every day and make the business as successful as it can be. From Geoff’s story, I think that New Belgium is pretty big on fun – but I’d also guess that translates into lower turnover and a more enthusiastic workforce.

The second part of this argument is just as important. See what Geoff just did for New Belgium? They shared some of their culture with every person taking a tour, every hour of every day. And many of those people I’m sure are impressed . They come back to wherever they are from and tell the story of the tour to their friends. Not only that, maybe they identify just a bit more with the company and that, my friends, can have a huge impact on purchasing decisions.

You have to wonder what the marketing value of those shared experiences are. What essentially is happening is New Belgium just got someone from upstate NY to indirectly endorse their product, not based on what it is, but based on the story behind it. That has value.

Corporate culture can also be a secondary source of revenue. Look at the amazing streams of revenue that companies like 37 Signals and Zappos have built through their seminars, books and consulting gigs – all based around talking to people about how they run their businesses – about their culture.

The door swings both ways though, and cultural perceptions spread like wildfire through social media channels now. I’d bet you could not only name 3 companies that have a culture that you’d like to be a part of. I’d also bet that you could name a lot more that you’d never want to be a part of. Is one of them YOUR business? Let me know in the comments! What’s the company out there that you think has the most amazing corporate culture – and what’s the one with the worst?

Knowledge and Mileage: Morocco

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Miller5 Comments

This past September, I journeyed to Morocco on a long-overdue adventure with 3 of the best travel companions you could ask for. The trip took us through Marrakesh and into the High Atlas Mountains. From sleeping in luxurious Riads to the floor of a Berber family’s home, it was quite the experience. Here is a video I made recapping the trip.

The music is by an amazing singer songwriter named Madi Diaz. ‘Let’s Go’ is the track she was kind enough to let me use. Go buy her records. Now.

Rocket V8 – Recording Gets Social

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Miller1 Comment

Live music isn’t dead. Far from it. But I come from an area that doesn’t have a huge live scene and a large swath of the population would rather go out on a Friday night to sing along with Bon Jovi covers than listen to original live music. This presents  a big problem for lots of acts that maybe can’t take off on tour to bigger markets due to family or work commitments.

So I’ve been really fascinated by the opportunities that the web and social media provide for fans to discover new music but also the big (and largely untapped in my opinion) opportunities for bands, large and small to build a fan base, worldwide, with bits and bytes supplementing stints in the van.

Modus, a rock group that I perform with played a couple of sets a couple of weekends ago at the Utica Music and Arts festival.  To help promote the gigs, we sat down and recorded a brand new track called ‘Rocket V8‘. The idea was to bring our friends and fans into the equation and show them what goes into recording a track in a home studio and on the fly. We then would make the track available online for free starting at the Utica Music Fest.

The recording session was promoted only via Facebook and Twitter as well as friends, fans, and family. We streamed (is streamed an actual word?) out live via Ustream, utilizing multiple webcams and a soundboard mix of the entire process to anyone that would listen. While tracking, we took suggestions, questions (and criticisms) from viewers as we built the final song. Above, you’ll see a compilation video I put together of the recording process.

What we created was an event (and a product – in this case the track) that was interactive, authentic and real-time. A gig, really – but without the cover charge, setup, and volume. And by the end of the evening we had logged over 135 viewer hours (not bad for the first attempt).

Webcams were placed in both the control room, the ‘live room’ (basement) and the vocal booth (spare bedroom) while we had a board operator switch between the cameras on the fly to give viewers a taste of how everything was being constructed. After the drums and bass were cut, Rob (our drummer) jumped on a netbook and handled all our interactions with the viewers while the rest of us worked on overdubbing. The final mix was beamed over to our engineer at Gecko Recording for mix tweaking and mastering and the final song was sent back digitally. This is the future, my friends. The creation of albums, songs, and other forms of art is shifting to be a communal process. And it rocks.

The song is available as a free download here. We hope you like it.