by Dawn Allcot | Jan 22, 2016 | Social Media
David Bowie. Alan Rickman. The Eagles’ Glenn Frey… and so many others. The world has seen more death in the first weeks of 2016 than we all care to think about.
It comes as no surprise, then, that January ranks consistently as the month with the most deaths, according to the Center for Disease Control. It would seem celebrities are not immune to this pattern. Often, people hang on through the holidays so as not to ruin what should be a joyous time for their families, to say good-bye to relatives who have traveled far, or simply … who knows? They’re not here to tell us. Maybe it’s just the cold, gray days of January, with spring so far away leave little to look forward to.
Whatever time of year it happens, death in the digital age gives us so much more to think about, in a public capacity, than funeral arrangements. In the case of public entities such as celebrities or company executives and key employees, issuing a statement or holding a press conference isn’t enough anymore.
Just as having a will in place can smooth the path for loved ones after someone’s death, and having a succession plan helps alleviate doubt about the future of a company, having a media plan in place in the event of the death or incapacitation of a CEO, owner, or key employee provides peace-of-mind. But how do you begin?
Start Now
It’s never too early to develop a plan. Let’s face it. It’s going to be uncomfortable, as is any death-related topic
. Executives should meet any resistance with honesty, acknowledging the team’s feelings and sentimentality, and then carefully move on to business. That’s the key: It is business. And it’s a lot easier for everyone to think about – and discuss — these things now, when key stakeholders work on it together, as a team.
Make Sure Your Succession Plan Is In Place
If an owner or founder passes away or is no longer able to fill their role, company announcements should include news about the succession plan. Ideally, the succession plan can be executed – or at least, announced — months before, so the transition won’t be as jarring to stockholders or stakeholders. In the January issue of Canada’s WiFi HiFi magazine, Torus Power’s Kevin Main elaborates on the importance of succession plans for the future of our industry.
Who’s In Charge?
Who will manage the announcement? Usually, the burden will fall on the PR or marketing team, although, in a family owned company, a loved one may request closer involvement. Whoever’s in charge will manage announcements, field questions, and should also know how to deactivate or memorialize social media accounts. http://facebook.about.com/od/Profiles/ss/What-Happens-To-Your-Facebook-Profile-When-You-Die.htm All of this needs to happen in as close to real-time as possible.
Decide on Timing – and Make it Fast!
When any major news breaks – including, unfortunately, the tragic sort – it’s a race against the clock to share the story before others, who may not have the company’s best interests in mind. An announcement should be made within hours, or the next business day at the latest. Make the private announcement to employees and the public announcement as close together as possible. Someone should be tasked with monitoring social media for posts and leaks, whether these leaks may be innocent and inadvertent or intentional. In most cases, these posts can be ignored as long as the announcement is forthcoming shortly and the news is factual and not meant to be damaging to the company. Having an established social media policy in place can also prevent leaks, since employees will already know what they can and can’t post. (We’ll talk more about social media policies in another article!)
Be Prepared.
Having a statement prepared with room to fill in key details helps reduce mistakes and makes it faster and easier to announce the news in a timely manner. This may seem morbid, but it’s a key step in issuing a timely, relevant, and appropriate release. Have a graphic in place, so the art team doesn’t have to face the emotional pain of rifling through photos. Far easier to do it beforehand and tuck it away in a file to be opened only if needed.
Now’s also the time to share any wishes regarding any charitable foundations, memorial services, or specific desires. The information can be included in the release, with details to be filled in later.
Follow the Plan – and Your Heart
Even when death is expected, such as following a long illness, it’s emotionally jarring. Family members may not be ready to provide interviews to the media, and this needs to be respected. Everyone mourns in their own way; you should have a plan and follow that plan, executing it with empathy, understanding and flexibility. Keep in mind, a social media action plan following death has two objectives:
Protect and respect the feelings and privacy of close friends and family members
Show the world, customers, and investors that the company remains strong in spite of the loss
You may never be able to guess the kind words and memories that employees, associates, and fans will share on social media. It’s okay to let this develop organically. If you’re the person in charge of managing social platforms, follow your heart. Reply with personal responses, share your own memories, or offer a mass “thank you.” Invite people to share, or let the memorials develop on their own. Save the responses to share with the family; they may feel moved to reply, or might want to read the eulogies and memories later.
Death is never easy and this January has brought us too much of it. If a key person in your company should pass on or become incapacitated, having a plan in place – and a knowledgeable team to support the plan — can make an incredibly difficult time just a bit easier.
by Dawn Allcot | Sep 22, 2015 | Stewart Filmscreen
How many times each summer–and once again around the holidays–do you pay $8, $10, or even $15 or more to be herded into a multiplex theater to see a blockbuster unfold on a giant screen? If you’re a movie buff like most of us in the AV industry are, and especially if you don’t have a custom home theater setup at home, we bet you went to the movies at least a few times this summer.
No matter how often we go to the movies, the high-tech experience never ceases to “wow” us. Surround sound, the massive curved screen, high-definition visuals all bring our cinema heroes closer to us (sometimes even in 3D). Having said that, the experience tends to be somewhat homogenous. If you’ve been to one multiplex, you’ve seen them all. And they typically lack the charming ambiance we find in theaters from earlier centuries.
Fortunately, a number of early 1900s theaters still exist, nestled on the Main Streets of small towns, offering $1 matinees and $5 prime time tickets for the whole family. (Main Street: There’s another notion we can wax nostalgic about…)
Technology Challenges in Historic Theaters
Historic theaters face unique challenges when it comes to their technology systems. Single screen theaters often have lower revenues and limited alternate funding, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to secure movies “on the break” — the same day as they are released. Worse, old-school, 8mm projection systems and digital, high-definition content don’t work well together, and sadly, don’t provide the quality today’s audiences expect. It’s sad, really, when you think about it. But that’s yet another blog, for another day.
Every so often, though, a town’s historic society or private investors (or both) step in and recognize the importance of preserving these buildings and maintaining the old-world charm of the original moving picture experience, while introducing the high-quality, high-definition imagery and high-fidelity sound today’s theatergoers demand. One such example is the Tivoli Theatre in Spencer, Indiana, and KMB client Stewart Filmscreen was both thrilled and honored to be part of the restoration project.
Viquesney Tivoli Theatre History
Opened in 1928, the Mission Revival Style Tivoli Theatre building boasted a 1,200-seat motion picture auditorium that quickly became a source of both entertainment and pride to Spencer, Indiana, residents. Of particular note was a midnight blue ceiling with twinkling stars – one of the first installations of its type, and representative of cutting-edge technology of the time.
Preserving History
Tivoli Theatre closed in May 1999, and did not reopen until 2013, when benefactor Cook Group Inc. of Bloomington, Indiana, made a donation to restore the Tivoli Theatre to its former glory, updating its audiovisual and lighting systems to meet the discerning expectations of today’s movie enthusiasts, while maintaining the building’s historical charm.
Old Building, New Tech
Audio visual systems integrator Eric Stiening, president of Bloomington, Ind.-based Experience Technology LLC was brought in to consult early in the Tivoli Theatre restoration, working as part of the planning team to design and specify the systems that would be needed. This was critical to the project’s success.
“Everyone, including the electrical contractor, lighting contractor, rigging company, project manager, architect and others worked together to bring together a flawless system,” Stiening said in a case study published on the Stewart Filmscreen website. “We wanted the auditorium to be as close to the original as possible, but the fun part was delivering a new digital cinema system and integrating high-powered speakers into a structure that harkens back to when it opened in 1928.”
Experience Technology called on Stewart Filmscreen engineers to design a 30-foot, custom four-way Electrimask Screenwall to seamlessly handle images in Ultra HD and higher, as well as classic content shot in 4:3 and other aspect ratios. The screen sits as a centerpiece in the 316-seat auditorium, which also includes high-powered JBL speakers, and a star-studded ceiling with an LED constellation designed to match the exact star alignment as it would have appeared on the night of the theatre’s original opening on December 31, 1928. You can see more about how the project came together in this video interview with Stiening and this article by Jeremy Glowacki, editor of Residential Systems magazine.
Achieving Relevance Through Technology
Upgrades in historic buildings, such as those completed by Experience Technology in Tivoli Theatre, require special considerations; contractors, including audiovisual integrators, cannot change the building’s infrastructure or certain historic architectural elements. Classic theatres (or theaters, for that matter) must be retrofitted for HD and greater display technology, while maintaining the capabilities to play older formats, or even host live productions. Funding is beyond challenging, but there are creative ways to secure funding that can be fruitful, like through Kickstarter or indiegogo campaigns and local, grassroots level efforts. (Again, more on that in another blog, on another day.)
When such a project is successful, it stands as testament to the audiovisual integration firms’ skill, and also represents the commercial integrators’ important role in preserving a piece of history. That’s part of what makes projects like the Tivoli Theatre restoration so special. It goes beyond screens and speakers, wires and boxes, to the heart of what technology can do: Make the old and forgotten relevant once again.
Have you ever seen a movie in a classic, small town theater (or theatre) or played a role in revitalizing such a space? What was the experience like for you? Please share and in so doing, help us bring light to some of these amazing, historic theaters.
by Dawn Allcot | Sep 21, 2015 | Social Media
In mid-August, the industry hashtag to follow was #CECI15. It was the third most trending hashtag on AKA.tv after only three days, AV Nation’s Chris Neto (@chris_neto) reported.
The CE Pro and Commercial Integrator Summit is a highly exclusive, invite-only hosted-buyer event for select manufacturers and the industries’ top integrators, so it lacks the size of the InfoComm Show or CEDIA Expo. The fact that the #CECI15 hashtag was trending on Twitter after only three days — in the middle of summer — says something about social media trends in the AV community. We (the group collectively known as #AVTweeps on Twitter, or the ‘Tweeps if you’re one of us) are a fun, powerful, and growing team of integrators, consultants, manufacturers, reps, programmers, bloggers, PR reps, end-users, and other influencers. Says who? DailyDOOH statistics, for one.
Tracking Social Media Trends
DailyDOOH, the website that provides insight, knowledge, and opinion on digital out-of-home technology, tracks statistics for the InfoComm Show’s Twitter activity. In 2013, the AV community sent out 10,903 tweets using the hashtag #InfoComm13, spread across 1,838 users.
In 2014, the number of tweets grew by about one-half, with 17,195 tweets from 2,549 users. This year, Twitter activity during InfoComm exploded, with nearly double the number of tweets (33,936) and close to double the number of users (4,010). KMB was proud to make two of DailyDOOH’s #InfoComm15 top ten lists: Users Most Replied To and Users Most Replying to Others. We trained hard in advance as callused thumbs and bleary eyes became the norm. It took time, planning, and lots of fast thinking to spot trends and react. Our clients, peers, and friends, those who shared their wares and chimed in on the chatter were brought into our fold and we helped promote them, reaching a wider audience than ever before imagined.
What’s different this year is that the industry-wide social networking momentum continued long after the show wrapped. Twitter brings us closer together, no matter how geographically widespread we remain. Every day is like a virtual trade show, with learning opportunities, potential leads, great stories, networking and camaraderie all at our fingertips.
But for industry members with limited time and budgets, is it worth it?
Social Media ROI
Social media experts consider impressions, reach, and action (clicks, likes or RTs), to name just a few analytics, when they calculate the ROI of social media.
Consider a well-timed, engaging tweet with a link that sends visitors directly to a conversion page on your website. Where do they go from there? Do they call? Email? Look for a sales rep (if they are a dealer) or a dealer (if they are an end-user)?
Social media provides the capability to track the actions of your prospects up to the moment they sign up for your mailing list, call for more information, or place an order. You can see where in the funnel you lost the sale, or know that all the elements were in place to win a new customer. (Go, you!) Social media, in general, allows you to track leads and results on a more granular level than traditional publishing does.
There are also indirect benefits, such as SEO and brand visibility. As @tech_chi (Heather Sidoriwicz of Southtown AV) tweeted:
“I have a few big leads from ‘The Web’ and social is part of that.”
“I find it’s the wide world of connections and introductions and current news that are the biggest values. I’ve met a ton of peeps via social media that I may not have had an opportunity to share ideas with or meet in person,” Malissa Dillman (@MalissaDillman), training and education manager for Kramer Electronics, said in a direct message.
It’s Also Fun and Games
Don’t be fooled. Just as the ISE, InfoComm Show, CEDIA Expo and the CE / CI Summit are not all about networking, leads, and learning… neither is Twitter. One of the biggest social media trends in the AV industry involves gamification.
On Thursdays and Fridays since June, @AVHashtags has been bringing us the #AVHashtag game. Write pick-up lines AV geeks may use. Share your favorite #AVMovie titles. Talk about #AVaFruit. You never know what the challenge may be, or whether the entries will be witty, silly, or self-promotional. (Ideally, a combination of all three…)
@AVCaptions is the industry’s weekly caption humor game, where you create a funny, A/V-related caption for a specific photo. We’re expecting it to pick up steam, because who doesn’t love writing silly captions instead of bids or ad copy?
And there’s the rub. The challenge with Twitter, or any social media network, is to maintain a fun online persona that helps you fulfill your marketing objectives while engaging on a personal level with your network. It’s all too easy to get sucked into the vortex of clicking every interesting link you see, or tweeting about bacon all morning. Or to go the other direction and become the social media version of an AI drone spewing out marketing-speak but never actually interacting.
In our (not-so-humble) opinion, the AV Twitter community has done an excellent job of finding, and encouraging, that balance to create an engaging, warm, and personal environment where people share ideas, laugh, and connect. We’ve become a family. (Maybe it’s time for more #AVTweeps to join in with the hashtag #FamilyPhotoFriday, whether they share photos of their own family, their work family, or their extended AV industry family!
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Join Us
Are you an #AVTweep who’s only dipped your toes in the Twitter conversation waters? There’s nothing wrong with being a lurker, but we’d love for you to join our fun. How?
Tweet early. Tweet late. Tweet often. But not too often. Unless it’s a trade show or you’re playing the #AVHashtag game. Use #AVTweeps, #LiveInstall, #WiHA, and other relevant hashtags so we can find you. If someone asks a question, reply. Ask questions of your own. Show us your products and share your opinions, and take time to be friendly. Not only does that make social media more effective, it makes it more fun! Even if your Twitter handle belongs to a corporation, it’s no secret there’s a real person sending those tweets, and it’s okay to act like one. Follow the rules and don’t provoke a fight. This is about networking and growing a community.
Although social media trends change rapidly, authenticity never goes out of style. Social media is part science, part art, and part just being yourself (or your company’s brand) in 140 characters (or less). Let us see your personality. Because there’s always room in the AV community for one more personality.
With CEDIA right around the corner (#CEDIA15, that is!) it’s a great time to engage for the first time or strengthen social relationships. Make sure you have plenty of bandwidth and get those thumbs ready!
Do you have a Social Media success story? Let’s keep the conversation going via Twitter. Use hashtag #KMBAsks.
. Executives should meet any resistance with honesty, acknowledging the team’s feelings and sentimentality, and then carefully move on to business. That’s the key: It is business. And it’s a lot easier for everyone to think about – and discuss — these things now, when key stakeholders work on it together, as a team.