In this episode of The Hopkinson Report, Jim talks with Brendan McManus of Wildfire. The Wildfire guys have developed a streamlined, cost-efficient, and user-friendly way of integrating promotions into Facebook fan pages.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
The numbers are overwhelming…
- Facebook has 400 million users and just keeps growing
- Users are joining at least 4 fan pages every month
- Traffic from Facebook to websites is increasing
Hi, this is Jim Hopkinson, Wired’s Marketing Guy, bringing you the marketing trends that matter. Welcome!
Today is Part 2 of my interview with photographer, Diana Levine – smile! [Camera clicking]
Jim Hopkinson: Hey, everybody, this is Jim; welcome back. I am here again with Diana Levine. We talked about photography last time, we talked about how she got her start as a photographer working for magazines, going freelance and all the cool celebrities she works with, and this is Part 2 of the podcast. And, we’re going to talk about the equipment she uses, how the internet and Facebook and new media has influenced her profession, and then some tips and tricks for photographers.
So, welcome, Diana.
Diana Levine: Thanks for having me, again.
JH: So, let’s go right to the equipment. How much of being a great photographer is the equipment? Do you need the best equipment to be a great photographer?
What kind of equipment does a pro photographer use, whether its shooting celebs in the studio or podcast hosts in the hallway of an apartment building? In part 2 of this interview, Diana Levine will tell you. (Above… Diana sets up in Jim’s hallway).
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Topics Covered:
- The importance of equipment for budding photographers and how the accessibility of equipment is changing entry into the business.
- What to look for in a digital camera
- Jim and Diana consider the great debate of Nikon vs. Canon
Hi, this is Jim Hopkinson, Wired’s Marketing Guy, bringing you the marketing trends that matter.
Welcome!
Today I’ll be speaking with New York City-based photographer, Diana Levine, talking all things photography. Stay tuned.
Jim Hopkinson: Hey, everybody, this is Jim; welcome to the Hopkinson Report. I am with here with Diana Levine in New York City. I met Diana at an event during Social Media Week. It turns out we have some things in common. We’re both Boston-based, originally, so welcome, Diana.
Diana Levine: Thank you so much for having me.
JH: So, give us a little of your background, taking us through your upbringing in Boston to being a freelance photographer.
What’s it like to be a professional photographer rubbing shoulders with celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Billy Corgan, and Ludacris? Pro photographer Diana Levine will tell you.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Ever since I worked in the photo section of the Caldor department store in high school, I’ve been interested in photography. I’ve owned many many cameras, from old school 110, Disc, and 35mm SLRs like my Minolta X-370, to some of the first digital cameras on the market in the late 90s, up through my newest point-and-shoot and desire to upgrade to a DSLR.
So when I had the chance to sit down and speak with pro photographer Diana Levine, I jumped at the chance. I had so many questions on so many topics. I wanted to know what it was like to freelance. What was her favorite equipment. What was it like to work with celebs. And with 2 billion photos a month being uploaded to Facebook, and more and more pictures needed various profiles on the web, how was social media affecting her business.
[Above: Diana shooting Alicia Keys]
We talked for so long I’ve made this a 2 part episode, and then we hit the streets of New York and set up an impromptu studio to see her in action.
In Part 1 we cover the following topics:
Background
- How did Diana get her start?
- Who was her main influence as a child?
- Which Conde Nast magazine did she intern at?
- What was the main thing she learned at Boston Magazine?
Freelance life
- How did she get over her fear of making the leap to freelance?
- What would she tell people wanting to strike out on their own?
- Is it a good or bad thing that cameras are so good and so inexpensive now that everyone thinks they can be a good photographer?
- What are the things that distinguish a true pro from an amateur?
Celebrities
- What’s it like working with celebrities: * Kim Kardashian
* New Kids on the Block
* Billy Corgan
* 50 Cent
* Ludacris
* Alicia Keys
* Vampire Weekend
* DJ AM
* Iman
* Fabolous
* JoJo
* Los Del Rio
* Harry Connick, Jr
(and more)
Other Celeb Questions:
- Tell us about your first celebrity shoot with KRS-One
- What’s the real scoop with Kim Kardashian
- Which singer made Diana have to pinch herself to make sure it was real?
- Which band’s fans sent her hundreds of tweets after she photographed them?
- A revelation about Billy Corgan that really shocked me.
- Which celebrity would be the one she’d like to photograph most (but can’t)
- How do you create a comfortable atmosphere when working with celebrities
- Which celebrity is she named after (Answer at right)
Celebrity projects
- MTV’s Super Sweet 16: What was Sean Combs’ house like?
- AOL’s Day in the Life project, what was it like spending an entire day with Ludacris or New Kids on the Block?
Part II will contain:
- Equipment she uses
- The affect of social media on the photo industry
- Tips and tricks for taking great photos
It’s Academy Award season, so we’re going to talk movies and entertainment with Jennifer Sargent, CEO of Hitfix.com.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Ah, the movie season. It’s been a good one, filled with blockbusters, dramas, and a controversy surrounding the producers of “The Hurt Locker.” I recorded a podcast on March 2 with entrepreneur Jennifer Sargent, and we discuss everything from the favorites for who will be thanking the academy, to how different industries approach piracy.
Topics covered:
Describe your unique path from Electrical Engineering student to the CEO of a cool entertainment company.
Jennifer explains that she wanted a more social career than being stuck in a room as an EE looking at microprocessors, so her path led her to investment banking, focusing on the intersection of media and technology. She later went to Doubleclick to learn about monetizing online brands, but wanted to start her own company.
Like any good entrepreneur, she focused on how she could use her skill set to work on something she was passionate about. After Harvard Business School, she worked at the parent company of Variety, growing the traffic on entertainment sites, and loved the combination of entertainment and technology.
She founded Hitfix in December 2008 to bridge the gap between gossip sites (like TMZ) and trade publications (like Variety).
In a crowded entertainment area online, what does Hitfix do to distinguish itself?
Two tracks
1. Team of proven journalists that break news about TV, Music, and Movie coverage (insider scoop without the gossip)
2. Event forecast calendar technology (location-based tool that lets users discover new events, set reminders, download to calendars, and sync news with events)
Example: The Spiderman franchise reboot. First they break the news: Tobey Maguire is out, shakeup of the storyline. Then, the event: Release date is no longer September 2010, instead, 2012. The action: Set your calendar!
It’s the dead of winter here, so to brighten things up we’re going to talk to the co-founder of Sunshine Suites, a unique office space for entrepreneurs.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
I’ve got a great interview today, a person that I was connected to through Gary Vaynerchuk on Twitter.
His name is Cheni Yerushalmi, he’s the co-founder of a business called Sunshine Suites, and you should download the podcast just to hear me mispronounce his name (I think I was a little better by the time I signed off).
For most people across the country, we’re trapped in bland cubicles like worker bees for 8 hours a day, with many of us aspiring to be entrepreneurs so we can launch the proverbial startup from our garage.
But I think this company has found a great middle ground, giving ambitious new companies a unique place to work and grow their business.
In the interview we cover topics such as:
- Getting started
Like many business ventures, the idea for Sunshine Suites was born out of frustration. Cheni and his best friend/co-founder couldn’t understand why it was so difficult for small businesses to get cool, low-cost office space in Manhattan. So they did something about it.
Full Transcript of the Interview with Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson from The Roger Smith Hotel
Recorded in person in the 16th floor penthouse at The Roger Smith Hotel, Manhattan, New York
November, 2009
Jim Hopkinson, Wired’s Marketing Guy
Adam Wallace, New Media Director
Brian Simpson, Director of Social Hospitality
Sarah Prevette and Elizabeth King (Giggling in background)
Hi, this is Jim Hopkinson, Wired’s Marketing Guy, bringing you the marketing trends that matter. Welcome!
My guests today are Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson of the Roger Smith Hotel – two of the leaders using social media to build community, grow revenue, and truly create world-wide awareness for their business.
Jim Hopkinson: Hey everybody, today we have Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson of the Roger Smith Hotel, New York’s hip social media hotel. Adam’s the new media marketing manager while his partner in crime, Brian, is the assistant food and beverage director. They are marketing masterminds behind a hotel that promotes brand by personally connecting with its fans on all the major social networking platforms. So, welcome guys.
Adam Wallace and Brian Simpson: Thanks so much, Jim.
JH: So, why don’t we tell your background; how did you get here? Adam, why don’t you start out?
AW: Sure, I’ve been at the Roger Smith Hotel for three years now. I started out doing a video-based website for the hotel, working with John Knowles, my cousin who’s a filmmaker, and has a small production company called, “Panman Productions.” We did a video-based interactive site called, “Roger Smith News” for the hotel. And my position has evolved over the years, and our online presence has evolved, still doing a lot with video; that’s evolved to a blog now which is, “Rogersmithlife.com.
Hi, this is Jim Hopkinson, Wired’s Marketing Guy, bringing you the marketing trends that matter. Welcome!
Today’s topic is Auto-Tune, an interview with the Gregory Brothers from ‘Auto-Tune the News.’
Jim Hopkinson: Oh, yeah! [Auto-Tune] Hey everyone, this is Jim. Today’s episode is a fun one. I’ll keep the intro fairly short – there are three main points you need to know:
“Nobody teaches you this stuff” is a pretty good platform to build a business on.
Like a car mechanic or farmer or entrepreneur that creates an invention because they weren’t able to buy the item they needed to get the job done in a store (example: Daniel Odio’s Phone2Projector), many websites and blogs are founded because someone realized there wasn’t a great resource out there that was providing quality information about a topic that was important to the user.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
That’s how Alexa Von Tobel, founder and CEO of LearnVest.com got started. Well-educated and coming off a stint at Morgan Stanley and tech company Drop.io, she didn’t feel there was a website filling the need of relevant financial life-planning information aimed at women aged 20-35.
So she did something unconventional (perhaps the one thing they wouldn’t recommend on LearnVest), dropping out of Harvard Business School to launch a startup during a recession.
But the timing could end up just right, as we talk about the major shakeups in the financial world, from the bad (Wall Street) to the good (Mint.com being acquired for $170 million).
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[Above: Diana shooting Alicia Keys]
