Last night we hosted an open house party at our new NYC office and studios. We celebrated this time of ongoing and exciting growth at Magnet with a wonderful group of friends, coworkers, partners, and clients. And as always, with delicious food and drinks.

Check out our photo slideshow below! We can’t thank you enough for all the support.

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Any thoughts on the event? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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Emily Wilson is a writer, editor, and photographer from Long Beach, California. She earned a B.A. in English at Chapman University, afterwards working for The Port of Long Beach as a Communications Specialist before taking time off to travel South America. Then it was back to school for an M.A. in online journalism from the University of Southern California, where she also worked as a technology writer for the Entertainment Technology Center at USC. She has since packed up her car, moved to Brooklyn, and now works as Managing Editor at Magnet Media. She’s enjoying NYC pizza a little too much.

While the Garden State 2 Kickstarter campaign was successful, it also revealed something deep and interesting about the intersection between social media and niche content. As 40,000 backers raised $2.7 million against Zack Braff’s $2 million goal, a backlash brewed on the social web. The question arose: was this an appropriate way to fund Braff’s Garden State 2?

Many questioned whether a Hollywood star like Braff should reap the benefits from a crowdfunding platform when he could likely self-finance, if he really wanted to flex his indie muscles in public.

Some in the media sounded off, referencing the recent Veronica Mars Project funding as a point of contention, as well. Claudine Zap wrote the following on Yahoo! Finance: “…some have pointed out that although fans made the ‘Veronica Mars’ funding happen, the movie will be made by the corporation Warner Bros., so it’s hardly an indie project. And Braff is not exactly an underdog. Backers of his project will get a reward for their support but won’t share in the profits, evoking even more ire.”

Comedy writer Ken Levine also leveled some very smart criticism against Braff’s funding. His blog post, titled “I Won’t Give Zack Braff a Dime,” garnered more than 250 comments.

“The idea – and it’s a great one – is that Kickstarter allows filmmakers who otherwise would have NO access to Hollywood and NO access to serious investors to scrounge up enough money to make their movies. Zach Braff has contacts. Zach Braff has a name. Zach Braff has a track record. Zach Braff has residuals.  He can get in a room with money people. He is represented by a major talent agency. But the poor schmoe in Mobile, Alabama or Walla Walla, Washington has none of those advantages,” he wrote in the post.

Zach Braff’s Garden State 2 represents an off-shoot of web TV/content — not the type being shown on the web, but the type being born on the web. A media alchemy is now taking place, via which crowdfunding, social media, television, the web, and video-on-demand are all influencing each other and creating new and interesting content and distribution lifeforms and ecosystems.

We are witnessing, and have been witnessing for quite some time now, the twilight of the media gods, the killing of the gatekeepers. The old media gatekeepers — from the old gossip columnists to the broadcast evening news anchors to the mandarins of Time Inc. and editorial staffs at print journalism outposts — those who defined our previous reality — are undergoing an existential and, perhaps more importantly, a financial reckoning. Are their business models, especially ones that put significant emphasis on the Nielsen ratings, becoming non-influential? 

Nielsen recently took a beating in a well-argued, poignant piece in Splitsider — a piece which aired the familiar frustration of anyone who’s ever fallen in love with a comedy only to feel the bitter sting of the networks’ backhands as the show is cancelled without explanation, other than perhaps the “poor ratings” argument. It’s like being broken up with via text message.

Audience engagement and audience passion: these are more important metrics than traditional TV ratings. Nielsen’s influence, still significant though fading, is old media. Companies like Twitter, keyed in to social trends and what people are actually watching, are more accurate in gauging what is creating and drawing in audience passions. Sterling content with a smart and affluent demographic audience is, of course, the sweet spot, but in the era of niche web TV, even unpopular or “bad” content will have a place, or at least a YouTube channel.

Most recently, ABC’s sitcom Happy Endings was cancelled, much to the disappointment of its cult following, who haven’t been afraid to plead their cause on microblogging platforms like Twitter and Tumblr — and perhaps they’ll also try to get things restarted via a Kickstarter campaign. Again, surely, the question would be asked: would that be a proper use of the crowdfunding platform? Should it be a place for shows cancelled because of poor ratings to be revived? Should it be a place for Hollywood filmmakers to get fans involved in the funding process? Should it exist as a place on which only indie content creators can jumpstart dreams of films and shows and projects?

It’s a changing and somewhat muddled landscape now, albeit an exciting one to watch. But at least one thing seems certain: traditional ratings, at this point in the game, be damned.

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Any thoughts on Crowdfunding? Have you found it to be a successful way of funding creative projects? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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Ron Mwangaguhunga is a former editor-in-chief at FishbowlNY.com and contributor at Silicon Alley Reporter. He was named one of “25 Media Insiders to Follow” by TheWrap.com and one of “140 (Social Media) Characters” by Paper Magazine. Ron’s writings have appeared on CBSNews.com and in New York magazine.

This week on the Magnet Minute, Amy helps you tailor your web content to appeal to a mobile audience.

In growing numbers, people are using their mobile devices to engage on social media platforms, so you’ll want to make sure your mobile bases are covered in order to avoid discouraging your audience due to the look and/or function of your site.

The first thing to know is how your website looks on every device and browser. Look at smartphones, tablets, and different desktop internet applications. It’s going to look a little different on each one, but it needs to be as consistent as possible for every visitor.

This may require you to use a layout that is designed with responsive functionality. Those enable the content to change dimensions depending on the medium. Or you could install an add-on for your site that converts the site completely to a mobile-friendly layout. Depending on how you do this, you may see the departure of design features, but it will still help make your content more sharable and readable via mobile. Avoid features on your site that do not work at all with mobile. This often occurs with websites designed to incorporate Flash features. The results can be frustrating to mobile users and are thus not worth it.

Be sure to engage people on social networks, where they’re spending the majority of their mobile time. You must respect and understand the different functions and the various features of different social networks. The more you know each network, the more likely you’re going to be able to properly tailor your update for the audience — and the more likely they’ll engage.

And get in on the mobile-only networks. Join Instagram to share photos and short videos to Tout or Viddy. You should have a purpose to be on every network and you should sign up and participate with a call to action is on each one, but showing that you’re savvy in more than just the web space is an advantage to tap into. A much larger audience will be found with this tactic.

And don’t forget those people not using tablets or smartphones at all. Text messaging can come in handy here! Llearning the possibilities of communicating your message through SMS is another huge advantage. Text messages are as intimate for relationship building as email marketing, if you use it correctly.

How are you using mobile?

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Any thoughts on engagement via mobile? What do you do now to engage with your mobile users? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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Amy Schmittauer is the Founder & Face of Savvy Sexy Social. She is a social media frenzy working as a freelance video blogger, writer, and social relations consultant. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

As you, our dedicated blog readers know by now, we held an open house event a couple weeks ago at our brand new west coast office in San Jose, California. Not only was it a lot of fun and a celebration of Magnet’s expansion, but it was a great way to connect with clients old and new, and an opportunity to share the entire experience (including the free food and wine!) with them.

In order to commemorate the event further, we made a video! Thanks to Kirk Donnan of Good Technology and Addy Roff of Adobe for the kind words and great interviews, and a huge thanks to all who attended the event!

And one more thing before you enjoy the video, since we’re talking about open house events. We’re having our NYC event tomorrow, Thursday May 23rd! RSVP HERE and join us in celebrating our brand new NYC headquarters and next-generation studios.

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Any thoughts on the video? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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Emily Wilson is a writer, editor, and photographer from Long Beach, California. She earned a B.A. in English at Chapman University, afterwards working for The Port of Long Beach as a Communications Specialist before taking time off to travel South America. Then it was back to school for an M.A. in online journalism from the University of Southern California, where she also worked as a technology writer for the Entertainment Technology Center at USC. She has since packed up her car, moved to Brooklyn, and now works as Managing Editor at Magnet Media. She’s enjoying NYC pizza a little too much.

In what The New York Times is calling a “a splashy move by Marissa Mayer to shake up her company,” the fairly new Yahoo! CEO led the charge to acquire social networking and microblogging site Tumblr this week for $1.1 billion.

In that same article, it describes the purchase as a significant shake up of the social media industry as a whole, representative of a shift toward original content creation rather than one of simply sharing tidbits of daily life with family and friends. “It also heralds a larger shift in social media. Facebook arguably invented modern social networking, and is still the king. But increasingly its approach is seen as passive and outdated as people flock to sites like Tumblr where they can be more actively engaged in creating personal, expressive content to share,” according to the article.  

As mentioned, Facebook is still a social networking tour de force, but the current trend, as proven by the successes of sites and apps like Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, and others, increasingly involves a content creation element — be it the use of a photo filter, a quick video edit, or the creation of a GIF or other original content. And on Tumblr, while there still exists a social component through which users can share links, original works, photos, and other content with close friends and followers, there’s also an entirely different, outside component: the discoverability of content not connected to the user personally. Tumblr users spend hours at a time on the site to both publish their own and/or search for new and original content, often created by people they don’t know at all.

For that, this acquisition stands to benefit Tumblr’s functionality, as “Yahoo plans to deploy its personalization technology and search infrastructure to Tumblr, which should help users find relevant content more easily,” writes Mashable. And what does Yahoo! get in return?  An avenue on which to tap into a younger, more hip Internet audience while increasing traffic and ad revenue (potentially) down the road, according to this article in Reuters.

Tumblr was founded by David Karp, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, and much of his user-base is that young or younger. So even while this acquisition is no doubt a risk for Yahoo! ( Tumblr is far from a proven money maker), the company views it as an important step forward in its social media efforts and as a way to increase traffic, relevance, and eventually, its revenue also.  Tumblr’s growing, largely youthful community of more than 100 million blogs is now Yahoo!’s.

While the acquisition itself made headlines on Monday, so did Yahoo!’s coinciding promise “not to screw it up” – a knowing nod to its reputation for, at times, mishandling its assets.  It promises to let Tumblr operate mostly as is, aiming to reassure fans and users of its stability as a favorite microblogging site. “Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators,” Yahoo! said in the release.

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Any thoughts on Yahoo!’s purchase? Will it help the company? Do you think things will change at Tumblr? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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Emily Wilson is a writer, editor, and photographer from Long Beach, California. She earned a B.A. in English at Chapman University, afterwards working for The Port of Long Beach as a Communications Specialist before taking time off to travel South America. Then it was back to school for an M.A. in online journalism from the University of Southern California, where she also worked as a technology writer for the Entertainment Technology Center at USC. She has since packed up her car, moved to Brooklyn, and now works as Managing Editor at Magnet Media. She’s enjoying NYC pizza a little too much.

This Thursday, not coincidentally in the middle of New York’s official Internet Week, we’re hosting an Open House party at our brand new headquarters and you should come! All you need to do is RSVP here, show up, and have a great time. Drinks on the house and delicious food from ‘wichcraft will be available to devour.

Aside from that, over the course of the next five days throughout the city, there will be even MORE events than usual for those interested in tech, digital, and marketing. According to Gary’s Guide, Internet Week equates to “45,000 people…expected to attend over 400 parties with keynotes by Randi Zuckerberg, Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), Joe Gebbia (Airbnb) and Joan Rivers!” Check out the full, extensive, and exciting event schedule here.

Aside from that official list, there are plenty of unofficial events that don’t require an Internet Week badge — along with events that are completely unrelated. We’ve picked out the ones we’re most excited about and have highlighted them here, including another event happening at our Magnet HQ. On Tuesday, the Producers Guild of America’s Producing Killer Apps: The Latest In Mobile App Content panel discussion will happen here. Again, you should come!  

New York’s Next Top Makers Open Studio

Monday, May 20, 6:30 PM @ NY Designs
45-50 30th St
New York
Free

Internet Week Bash

Monday, May 20, 7:00 PM @ Faces & Names
161 W 54th St
New York
Free (Must RSVP, official Internet Week badget not required)

Beyond the Click: Getting To Actual Engagement (presented by Chartbeat and Disqus)

Tuesday, May 21, 4:00 PM @ Chartbeat
826 Broadway, 6th Fl
New York
Free

User Experience Awards

Tuesday, May 21, 6:00 PM @ The New School Tishman Auditorium
66 W 12th St
New York
$19-$50

PGA NMC – Producing Killer Apps: The Latest In Mobile App Content

Tuesday, May 21, 7:00 PM @ Magnet Media 
122 W 27th St, 3rd Fl
New York
Free

Hashtags: The Atomic Element of Social

Wednesday, May 22, 4:00 PM @ The Lab NYC
122 W 26th St, 5th Fl
New York
$10

The NY Times Technology Job Fair

Wednesday, May 22, 5:00 PM @ New York Times
620 8th Ave, 15th Fl
New York
Free

Living Like The Jetsons: Welcome to the Internet Of Things

Wednesday, May 22, 7:00 PM @ Huge BK
45 Main St, Ste 220
Brooklyn
Free

The Future of Crowdfunding

Thursday, May 23, 5:30 PM @ Lee Hecth Harrison
200 Park Ave, 26th Fl
New York
$20

Magnet Media Open House

Thursday, May 23, 6:00 PM @ Magnet Media
122 W. 27th St.
New York
Free (be sure to RSVP)

The 2013 Webutante Ball

Thursday, May 23, 8:00 PM @ Marquee
289 10th Ave
New York
$70

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Any thoughts on Crowdfunding? Have you found it to be a successful way of funding creative projects? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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In our 19th episode, the Magnet Media Labs team discusses stories from the past few weeks including YouTube’s initial rollout of 30 paid subscription channels, some missteps and mea culpas from Mountain Dew, a public Facebook meltdown from Amy’s Baking Company, branded video from Bombay Sapphire, and we watch a viral video (and discuss exactly what that even means) from TedXSydney.

Listen here and be sure check out the week’s viral video below!

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

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What do you think of paid subscription channels on YouTube? Any thoughts on public brand meltdowns? What about thoughts on our podcast? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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Each week, the Magnet Labs team, which includes members from our editorial and social departments—Ryan Swearingen, (Director of Marketing), Brandan Jones (Social Media Manager), Felicia Montalvo (Copywriter), and Emily Wilson (Managing Editor) —gathers to share what’s been on our radars in the past week. We then choose one item to put through its paces over the next week by testing and generally playing around to see what it can do. We then throw it in a blender and share it with you.

The Hangouts feature on Google+ allows anyone with an internet connection, a web cam, and a Google+ account to host online meetups, share ideas with friends or coworkers, work on projects, talk to friends, and more – whether for business or pleasure.  The feature can be of particular use to businesses, however, as it can offer a virtual meeting place for a scattered staff, can be way through which to make announcements, and/or most interestingly, can be used as a great tool for connecting with customers and clients.

Check out our Tip Sheet, which provides “5 Ways Businesses Can Use Google+ Hangouts” to benefit their companies and increase communication and visibility in-team, with the consumer, and within their given industries.

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Any thoughts on Google+ Hangouts? Do you use the feature or do you ever plan to use it? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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This week on the Magnet Minute, Amy talks about photos and how using them to engage your social media audience is essential to increase awareness about your brand.

You’ve definitely heard names like Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest in the social media world. Photo-sharing applications that are growing in popularity and are therefore encouraging brands to think more visually with their content. Facebook picked up on how important it is to embrace this activity and acquired Instagram, which now works seamlessly on the largest social media platform in the world.  

While text-based status updates are important for you audience, through photos, you’ll gain even greater attention.  Not only is it easier to understand content instantaneously through a visual, it’s also easier to make a deeper connection as well. Because of this, integrating photography within the walls of your brand is very important. It can provide a glimpse of what life is like for you, creating substance that a typical customer wouldn’t usually be able to see, which is always a great way to make a connection.

This task can be given to you community manager, who can easily handle it as they’re already directly making online connections with your community. That person can get a feel for which types of images performs best. Empower your social media department to let your customers feel a part of your brand by sharing these images and moments when possible and when appropriate.

Here’s a couple ideas for image incorporation: share your office space with your community. It’s nice for your audience to know and better understand the environment that you see every day at your brand. You could even take a photo of your blog content authors in their working space where they create that content, which gives a personal touch of the author at work in his or her atmosphere.

In-house photography is necessary for these sorts of tasks, but sometimes there are content pieces that need a pretty specific photo that only a stock site could supply. One of the best sites you can go to is iStockPhoto.com. There are a variety of licensing options for your needs there, you should be prepared to pay a bit for your images. This is a good option for more significant photo needs like an ad campaign or a video. Shutterstock is also good for these.

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Any thoughts on photography on social media? Do you use it often on your branded accounts? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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Amy Schmittauer is the Founder & Face of Savvy Sexy Social. She is a social media frenzy working as a freelance video blogger, writer, and social relations consultant. Connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

The online broadcasting channel Midnight Media Capture, which brands itself as a destination for storytelling with a marketing twist, is set to feature Magnet Media CEO Megan Cunningham on it’s upcoming live webinar event on Monday, May 20. As you’ve likely gathered from the channel’s name, the event will begin at 11:30pm and carry through midnight, and into the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

For her participation, Megan will be providing expertise on the subject of content marketing, pulling upon examples of Magnet’s work and case studies to do so. Other panelists include Michael Uslan, producer of many of the blockbuster Batman films. He’ll be speaking on that brand’s evolution and character growth. Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner Entertainment will speak on transmedia, and big data scientist Marck Vaisman will talk about the trends going on within the big data industry. Finally, actress Q’orianka Kilcher will touch upon audience interaction and film production.  

And while this event is meant to be informative, it’s also meant to be fun! The official event description adds the following: “Bring your wine or favorite spirit and get ready for a fun and insightful night of “Storytelling with a Marketing Twist” that begins on May 20th at 11:30pm with a warm up show that features talented comedians, a deejay, dance and musical performances via multimedia.”

Interested in listening in and participating? Sign up here: http://bit.ly/10GM3Vm. Those in e-attendance will have the chance to win a signed copy of Michael Uslan’s book, “The Boy Who Loved Batman” and/or other giveaways, and can also be a part of the event by submitting questions and taking part in provided polls in real-time.

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Any thoughts on the event? What’s your take on content marketing? Let us know in the comments and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn.

Register for our FREE Resource Center and Newsletter to access our growing library of valuable Guide Books, Tip Sheets, and more!

To learn how MAGNET MEDIA can help with your social media/interactive marketing or video solutions, contact info@magnetmediafilms.com, 646-486-7109, or visit magnetmediafilms.com/what-we-do

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