Feb 14, 2011

How Revolution Grows


Egypt's Revolution, Google Earth Tours, Lightroom 3, LR3 videos, facebook, marketing

Egyptian People Revolt
Recent big news centers around removal of Egypt's dictator by peaceful protesters.  But, that's only a tip of this Internet marketing video iceberg...
If you haven't heard of Wael Ghonim, here's his story.  Ghonim (Egyptian; age 30; Google employee) communicated with Egypt using Facebook before the uprising.  Facebook has over 500 million members.  Ghonim oversees Google Inc.'s Middle East and Africa marketing from Dubai. He vanished two days after protests began on Jan. 25.  He was snatched off the street by security forces and hustled to a secret location.
Ghonim's ties to Google and the Internet are part of his appeal. "If you want to liberate a society, just give them the Internet." He helped create a Facebook page devoted to a victim of police brutality. Internet social networking services like Facebook and Twitter are credited with playing an important role in Egypt’s uprising.  They helped protesters organize and communicate.
Internet access was shut down in an early Egyptian protest phase.  Google engineers hacked a way to allow Egyptians to use Twitter by dialing a phone number and leaving a voicemail message.

Facebook’s Contribution to Freedom
Released February 14th, Ghonim gave an interview Monday night. He sobbed over those who have been killed in two weeks of clashes and insisted, "We love Egypt ... and we have rights."
Over the next 20 hours, about 130,000 people joined a Facebook page titled, "I delegate Wael Ghonim to speak in the name of Egypt's revolutionaries."

Video Challenge – Google Earth and Lightroom 3
Well, you ask, "Just how bolthis relevant to trying to sell photography?"
In today's world, you can even do videos with point-and-shoots.
If you're a fine art still photographer, you can put your stills together as a fine art portfolio.  If you're adept in Lightroom 3, you can create a video with audio superimposed over music from that portfolio.
In other words, you are the storyteller.  You can easily market your photos on the Internet.  Create your video and post it on YouTube.  Perhaps, just perhaps, it might go as viral as Ghonim's Facebook page...

While I don't think it'll be quite that fast, the people's revolutionary message is clear, "Let's see what YOU can do...!"  The people use - iPhones, iPad's, iPods, Droids, Motorola's XOOMs, smart phones, laptops, etc. The list grows longer as I write!  Most, if not all devices allow you to see videos!
Last quarter (4th 2010) Apple sold some 20 million iPhones and 7 million iPads.  The recent Consumer Electronics Show had over 100 new tablets and Smartphones coming up as competition.
Videos are just one way to begin your marketing growth.  We created a bold video for nature photographers to make our point.  Take a look at what Google can do with Google Earth 6 beta… for comparison, we show their mathematical restoration of an iconic landmark Ship Rock and our award-winning photo here in a 1 minute narrated video.

We will have much more to say about bold videos and tantalizing workshops later…