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Axis Records Goes Social

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:42:12 +0000

Long time client Axis Records has gone social. Futuramic Media assists Axis Records in mapping out and maintaining their online social strategy. Instead of blanketing all outlets with the same information, Axis took a different approach, utilizing the strength of each social media channel for specific purposes.

Facebook
Mainly used for more industry and internal information. Since a lot of people in the music industry use this to communicate, we try to keep the content similar to talking about projects before they happen.
FaceBook page: facebook.com/pages/DJ-Jeff-Mills/130388237380

MySpace
Mainly designed for all public access. The material that generally goes here is usually party/tour/release oriented announcements.
MySpace page: myspace.com/jeffmillsofficialspace

Twitter
Used to make quick announcements.
Twitter page: twitter.com/axisrecords

YouTube
For promotion and distribution of video trailers, teasers, sneak peaks, performances and special offers.
YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/CinemaAxis

Startup Drinks in The Oakland Press

tda — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:02:27 +0000

Futuramic Media was recently in the news. Jillian Kushner’s article in the August 23rd Oakland Press, Business Networking Ideas, focuses on Startup Drinks, a group Futuramic Media has been involved with along with Matt Bower at Safford Baker. The article is a succinct summary of the heart and soul of why we have been participating in Startup Drinks. It is a low key and laid back atmosphere to share ideas on our local economy and how we can grow and flourish with new businesses.

Check out the website and stop by for the next meeting on Wednesday at 6pm at Slows BBQ.

Friends for Adam

tda — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:48:31 +0000

Last week we launched an updated site for Friends for Adam Niskar. We needed to develop a quick solution so The Friends For Adam Trust could begin promoting an upcoming fundraiser at The Detroit Opera House with Artie Lange of Howard Stern fame. The site links to Ticketmaster so one can purchase tickets for the event. A little about Adam Niskar:

The Friends for Adam Niskar Trust, established in 1999, aims to raise money for the ongoing medical expenses Adam incurred after a diving injury that year left him paralyzed. These expenses go above and beyond what his insurance company will cover. Your generous donations assist with medical supplies, custom vehicle costs and other expenses directly related to living with his injury, as we await a cure.

You can also see video on the site to learn more about Adam’s story.

e426.org

tda — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:34:35 +0000

Last week we helped launched e426.org.

e426.org is the “Innovation Corps for America.”, a non-profit organization (with 501(c)3 corporation status applied for), focused on providing help for unemployed and underemployed Americans and assistance to companies as well as state, local and the federal governments in recovering from the economic disaster.

e426.org is one of many innovative companies and initiatives emerging from these economic times to help redevelop and stimulate business development. We are finding, from working with people like e426.org, there are a wealth of talented and highly skilled individuals committed to making a difference and turning the situation into an opportunity.

Startup Drinks

tda — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:59:55 +0000

Matt Bower at Safford & Baker clued us into Startup Drinks a few months ago and we thought it was a great concept- the mixture of entreprenuial ideas and adult beverages. Together we took on the responsibility of forming a local Detroit Chapter. The kickoff event is this coming Wednesday, June 24th at Clff Bells. Drinks will be 25% off. Myine Electronics, homegrown manufacturers of high-quality electronic audio products, has also graciously come forward to sponsor the event with some food and drinks.

You may also find out more on the Facebook Group. Hope to see you there.

Slavik Management

tda — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:09:59 +0000

One of our longstanding clients has been Slavik Management. With 8 apartment properties in Metro-Detroit/Ann Arbor, they wanted a web based solution so property managers could update the site themselves. They also wanted to update the look and feel and visually showcase their properties. We looked at all the solutions out there in terms of a Content Management System (CMS) and settled on Wordpress. The site is now live and was completely designed and built using Wordpress. Now we are at the phase of beginning the training process for the Slavik team.

On a related side note, they are also hiring. We have visited and spent a lot of time at each residence, specifically by taking photos, and have gotten to know the Slavik company quite well. It is an extremely well run, fair, honest, hard working, and forward thinking organization. They are great people to work with.

A New View of Detroit

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:43:48 +0000

A recent article in Time Magazine, entitled “Postcard from Detroit”, looks at the emerging film business in Michigan.

Excerpt from the article:

With two of the Big Three automakers on the verge of collapse and Detroit’s unemployment rate a staggering 22%, the film industry is providing a rare economic boom. Community colleges now offer courses in set-building and stage-lighting for the out-of-work construction workers and electricians. Car-rental companies, caterers, hotels, carpenters, dry cleaners and other service providers are all getting a needed boost. In the suburb of Troy, 20 miles (32 km) north of Detroit, one hotel was getting ready to cut staff when Gran Torino came to town. Instead of laying people off, the hotel ended up hiring 15 additional employees.

Publicity Works

tda — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:27:23 +0000

We recently assisted one of our clients, Publicity Works, in taking their website, design, and blog into a full Content Management System via Wordpress. They are now regularly blogging about events around metro Detroit as well as social media tips, tricks, and insights. Keep an eye on their work as they have demonstrated a keen sense to integrate new technologies and practices with their adept public relations and publicity experience.

From their website-

Publicity Works is certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. Housed in Royal Oak and with a client-base that extends across the state, Publicity Works has adopted the phrase “The relentless pursuit of results” as its motto, philosophy and motivation in order to provide clients with the best possible value. Publicity Works offers clients a fully-customized experience providing not only comprehensive traditional public relations and marketing services but also convergence media techniques considered to be on the cutting edge of the industry today.

You may also follow them on twitter where they regularly tweet about events relative to our area.

Another Post on Twitter

tda — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:28:44 +0000

Twitter poses many interesting situations in relation to communication because in a sense it is a new form of communication. A problem with Twitter in the communication process is noise. Initially there is silence, the lack of noise, and then after someone begins to use the product there is a flood of noise.

Noise refers to anything in the communication process that is distracting to the dialogue. It could be sounds, it could even be bad perfume like patchouli. These examples are external noise while there can also be internal noise like one’s wondering and distracted mind bringing “noise” to the conversation. An overly happy or sad mind can cloud one’s attention.

Twitter has undergone phenomenal success and growth so on one hand it is hard to criticize- “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. However there are a lot of people saying, “I don’t get it or I don’t understand”. This is noise in relation to the growth of twitter. It is noteworthy to point out ambiguity can sometimes lead to curiosity and can be an effective marketing ploy. There may be some merit to this but there is also the mentality of it being juvenile or futile- all noise. This noise relates to the marketing of Twitter.

Once someone joins there is lack of noise. Unless someone already knows a wealth of people using Twitter their first response can be- what am I doing? What is this? And What is this following thing? Isn’t this like stalking? As nobody else is around it can seem lonely and quiet and consequently a waste of time. There is silence, there is no noise. At this phase it is not uncommon for people to leave Twitter altogether.

If one is able to get past this stage and begins to understand the value and strength of Twitter, there is another phenomena which is the incessant bombardment of marketers, in my experience SEO and advertising “gurus”. Often they will bombard with posts, with links to their web pages that can begin to clog the user experience of Twitter. This is wherein the beauty of Twitter lies and why authenticity is crucial in today’s marketing and PR world. If you are unauthentic an end user can unfollow, or more simply just tune one out. This fact can gets lost on a lot of the information on Twitter out there.

The next problem with Twitter is there are a lot of interesting and noteworthy individuals and corporations using it. Very quickly an end-user can be following 100 + twitters. How does one filter all this information. Other users become the “overall noise”. There are many companies making applications to help in the filter process like TweetDeck and TwitterPod. This is an area that is critical for Twitter’s growth and longevity- applications for the computer and even mobile devices. All these applications are critical for filtering the noise inherent in Twitter. It is in these applications that have given rise to the growth of Twitter’s success, the API is open, but a question remains- is Twitter losing out on potential revenue opportunities to these applications?

Great News for Web Developers and Users Alike – Internet Explorer Now Goes to 8

admin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 18:37:14 +0000

The fellas over at Icrontic (internationally renowned Detroit based tech blog/community) passed on some great news this week for web development standards, specifically about Internet Explorer. In the third week of April Automatic Update in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008 will notify about the update of IE8.

This is big news for web designers around the world as it should finally begin the deprecation of IE6 and IE7 in earnest.