melanie mcbride online

The many-to-many conversation model of Seesmic.

This weekend, I spent some more time exploring the content at YLive and Seesmic. While YLive allows for the immediacy of live streaming, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of noise to signal. Seesmic, on the other is rich in maturity, civility and kindness - all qualities that build trust and community (though this could change when alpha goes more public). I could write more about the pros and cons of each but what interests me more is this: what makes for a meaningful broadcast?

I spent a bit of time meditating on this and have come up with a few strategies of my own. Read on …

“But enough about me, what did you think of my last movie?”

There’s nothing more nauseating than watching somebody brag about their popularity online while they take calls on their cell phone - barely registering the viewers who have stopped by to watch them (and from whom, let’s face it, they seek attention). This sort of boring narcissism is the downside of lifestreaming. But it doesn’t have to be that way - in fact, there are many, many, many vloggers who create engaging wonderful content on a daily (if not hourly) basis.

The alternative to the above involves caring about and engaging your audience with worthwhile content. I’ve tuned into several casts with Eric Nakamura, the publisher of GiantRobot magazine. His broadcasts are great to watch because he goes in with a topic (usually related to Giant Robot type content), reads and responds to his viewers and tells interesting anecdotes. He also shows us interesting stuff! Eric recognizes something that writers, musicians and other performers understand innately: great expression is about GIVING.

Lifecasting: Best practices

1. Have a topic other than yourself: Don’t just turn on the camera and blather. If you must talk about yourself, focus on a specific issue, interest or experience that will interest others. By far, the most interesting stories are those that focus not on the individual but their observations, experiences or perceptions of specific issues and topics.

2. Plan it out: The more time you spend thinking up a topic - if only a list of points you wish to talk about, the more value it’s going to have. It’s kind of like lesson planning. A good lesson plan includes insights and information, engaging resources and examples as well as opportunities for participation and activity. My most gratifying experiences in the classroom are those where I’ve really put time and thought into what I’m doing it - rather than winging it (though a little bit of winging can keep it fun sometimes). It takes work, but your audience will appreciate it.

3. Engage and respond to your audience: Whether you’re streaming live or posting a video, think of ways to engage your audience. Ask questions, provide meaningful feedback. Have a “light touch” - the audience is more sensitive than they let on. If you get some abusive griefers, either ignore them or make use of the “ban user” don’t allow them to hijack your broadcast. Defuse noxious or inflammatory provocations with humour (once they realise they can’t shake you, they will likely move on). Show everybody what you will and will not respond to by rewarding quality engagement. Think about ways to cultivate a meaningful and worthwhile experience at your channel. People will come back.

4. Cross platform your broadcast: Let’s face it, creating quality media can be time consuming. There’s no point in putting an hour or two into preparing a lifecast if it just ends there. Think about creating related content streams. For example, an RSS of your broadcasting schedule via Twitter, delicious or some other feed. Consider a blog for extended commentary and community building among your viewers. Let’s say you do a broadast on a topic that inspires a lot of really interesting discussion. Repay your viewers with a dedicated post. Or, start with a post from your blog and open up a broadcast around that topic (as I may well do with this - when I get up the guts to stream live).

5. Cultivate something good: I know it’s so “uncool” these days to talk about serious or meaningful things but I’m going to continue to resist that (highly questionable trend) by saying that trendy irony is just nihilism with an Ipod. Want to change the world? Improve things? Now’s your chance. Citizen broadcasting is a wonderful opportunity to fill the airwaves with the issues and ideas that matter to us. There’s a reason you’re not reflected in the mainstream - it’s not about you but the interests of corporate media monopolies and their shareholders. Citizen media is an opportunity to speak up about what really matters to us - to our families, to our future and to each other.

These are just suggested strategies based on what I’ve observed - but I plan to put my money where my mouth is and update these strategies once I’ve tried them all out.

Some questions for you:

1. What are your ideas and strategies for meaningful content (either as a broadcaster or audience member)?

2. Do you have any tools to recommend - if so, give us an example of neat uses (link back to a post if you have one)?

3. Novel uses of tools - what are some of the ways we could use these tools (in business, education, art, life, etc)?