In over three years of leading teleseminars and podcasts, I must admit I have recorded them in the most odd places.

Like the time I was late back for my Biz Growth Live BlogTalk Radio travelling back from Sligo and had to pull into a forecourt of a McDonald’s restaurant to for the live call with my guest.

Or the time that I arranged to get a hire car back to Heathrow Airport  before returning to Dublin and had to pull into one of the side roads to record a show hoping that the air traffic would not be too bad.

I’ll be posting the show notes for today’s PodCamp Ireland Podcast later today, but when you listen to it and wonder where the wind noise is coming from, here is a clue.

Bernie was out and about doing the show recording. Ten month old Mia was very quiet when we recorded the show and you can imagine why - she was with her Daddy who was taking her out for a stroll.

I wonder what the most unusual places that expert podcasters Leesa Barnes, Paul Colligan, Mitch Joel, Donna Papacosta and  Jason Van Orden have podcast from?

And where’s the most unusal place you have podcast from?

You have no doubt seen the proliferation of video’s on the web this year and probably noticed how impactful they are in bringing your brand to life.

I’ve been using video’s on one of my websites as a lead generator for three years and in some of the paid mastermind programmes I have used them to provide resources to delegates.
If you are camera shy, you don’t have to have to create video with you as a talking head - you can be inventive with the backdrop you choose, record your voice alongside a screen capture or create a PowerPoint slide presentation and do an accompanying voiceover.

If you are not sure where to start, my friend, author and podcaster Leesa Barnes has a three minute video on what to look for when choosing video capturing software. And while you on that page you can find other video’s she has done on her blog. Access the video HERE.

Let us know what questions you have about creating video online and we’ll see what we can do about covering your questions at PodCamp Ireland this year. Or if you have been experimenting with video online, perhaps you would like to nominate yourself to host a session at PodCamp Ireland?

NOTE: Leesa’s video is a primer for a virtual seminar she is hosting on 23 and 24 July 2008 about how to boost your business using video. If you are interested in that course, make sure you scroll down the page and enter in the VIP code (VID 723) so that you will get into the virtual training for just US$20).

Have you had chance to listen to our first PodCamp Ireland podcast? Did you wonder what the music was?

Did it remind you of club nights on holiday in the sun versus the dismal weather we have been having in Ireland?

Well I do admit it’s been a while since I was clubbing, but I hope the music was upbeat and vibrant - just like we hope PodCamp Ireland will be.

The track is ‘A Night In Ibiza’.. So what’s the connection with Ireland you might ask?

Well it’s mixed by Irish DJ Steffen Coonan. Born in Clonmel, he’s been a DJ for 10 years and he graciously makes his music available for podcasters to use as podsafe music. Remember if you are using music in your video’s or podcasts to make sure that you have the rights to use it, for example through the Podsafe Music network.

Here’s access to the full track of ‘A Night in Ibiza’. Enjoy!

Oh and don’t forget to join us tomorrow at 9am for our next episode featuring Campbell Scott of Igopeople.com who will be talking about establishing a new social network - listen to the live streaming or dial in to join us on +1 347 826 7790.

A Night In Ibiza

How do you write your blog posts - online or offline?

One of the things I found when using Internet Explorer was the fact if I was online then I had some occasions where IE would freeze on me and then I lost my draft post unless of course I had saved when writing (which I often forgot to do).

I now use Firefox®, and also Windows Live Writer to write my blog posts off line for most of the blogs I author or am a contributing author of. (Thanks to Neville Hobson for sharing this tool with me).

I find it a great resource for drafting blog posts, adding photo’s and then uploading them - I do a final tweak online before publishing my blog posts.

This last weekend I came across another tool that UK blogger, Chris Garrett recommends, ScribeFire, which is an extension of Firefox ®, and lets you drag and drop formatted text from the Web into your blog, post entries, take notes directly through the Firefox® browser. (Do be remember if you are copying text from sites other than your own to give attribution though won’t you.)

You can find out more about ScribeFire here if you want to explore it as a toll for writing your blog posts.

What other tools do you use to write your blog posts?

In this first show from the Podcamp Ireland team our guest is Johnny Beirne of Downloadmusic.ie.

Johnny shares how Downloadmusic.ie are using social media as a no cost marketing strategy.

We also give you the low down on where we are up to with planning this year’s PodCamp Ireland.

We had some challenges with Bernie’s phone lines - but we hope you can forgive us that especially as it was the first show. I do think you will get some great insights about how to use social media in your business to market especially if you are on a small budget from the information Johnny shares in his interview.

Oh and we were joined by our youngest listener yet - you’ll hear Bernie’s 9 month old daughter on the show gurgling away (no it’s not my baby - 3 daughters are enough for me).

SHOW NOTES

00.00    Introduction to the show

00:06    Interview with Johnny Beirne of Downloadmusic.ie covering how Downloadmusic.ie have used MySpace.com, Bebo.com, Facebook.com and mobile marketing to build awareness and market their new business

00:26    The importance of storytelling and how tat connects to PodCamp Ireland 2008

00:30    About PodCamp Ireland 2008

HOW TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW

• Access the streaming audio of this weeks PodCamp Ireland Podcast here
• Subscribe to the show through our PodCamp Ireland Podcast feed
• Subscribe to the show on iTunes - see the link on our PodCamp Ireland BlogTalk Radio page

If you like the show and appreciate our guests sharing their experiences in the world of social media - do add us as a favourite on the PodCamp Ireland BlogTalk Radio page

We’ll let you know when the show is in the iTunes podcast directory.

HOW TO LEAVE A COMMENT

We really welcome your comments and feedback about the show. What would you like us to cover in future shows? What questions do you have about implementing social media strategies to support your business strategy?

You can get in touch by email: podcampireland(at)gmail.com

Leave your comments and feedback about the show at our comment line (we have lots of choices so there are no excuses!)

• Calling from Ireland dial 01 443 4423
• Calling from the UK dial 0131 208 4423
• Calling from the US dial 818 528 4423
• Calling from elsewhere dial +1 8185284423
• Calling or sending us an IM via Skype then reach us at:’mycommentnow’
• Join the conversation at our PodCamp Ireland FriendFeed.com Room
• Join our PodCamp Ireland Jaiku Channel

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Download Music

The Download Music Facebook App

The Download Music Blog

NEXT WEEKS SHOW - 9am Ireland/UK on Wednesday 23 July 2008

Remember to join us next week for the live show when we will be joined by Campbell Scott of Igopeople.com.

Join us by either listening to the live streaming of the show, or you can dial in to our PodCamp Ireland Blog Talk Radio show (it’s a US number).

Call-in Number:  +1 347 826 7790

And if you miss the show, don’t worry, its available as a podcast.

OK it’s official - this is why you won’t see me much of this Summer - I’ve been working on something very important.

Those of you who know me well will know of my connection to the US.

Social media has been critical in the programme so far and will continue to be - all is revealed on the video.

Please remember if you have the right to vote consider using it voting for me!

And please make sure that if you have suggestions for my manifesto, I would love to hear about them here.

Source: @adamurbanski

As you might be aware, high profile bloggers are often pitched to by the media and PR firms about product launches.

Coke recently launched a new product called i9 Hidrotonico in Brazil. However as reported by Paula Góes on the Global Voices blog, the launch of i9 Hidrotonico caused an outrage in the Brazilian blogosphere and Twittersphere.

Photo credit: Trendsspotting

As Paula reports:

The highly sensitive Brazilian blogosphere is fizzing after a famous brand of beverage decided to invest in blogs as the main vehicle to market its latest product.

Nine prominent bloggers were cherry picked and received a fancy USB mini fridge with a new product to be tested - and obviously to be blogged about. Soon blogs and the twittersphere were happily bubbling with comments about the innovative marketing strategy, until the story was picked up by BlueBus, another no less prominent site with an impressive 13 years on the blogosphere, which introduced a new term to refer to the picked blogs: “blogs-de-aluguel” in Portuguese or “rent-a-blog”.

Needless to say, this nickname didn’t go down very well and the bloggers quickly got together to react and put up a “I am not a rent-a-blog blogger” manifesto.

While Coke on the one hand no doubt was happy about the amount of online air play they were getting for the brand, I am sure their marketing team did not want to provoke infighting amongst the Brazilian bloggers. At least I hope they didn’t!

I guess this is a warning flag to all PR companies and marketers looking to connect with bloggers in a blogger outreach programme especially if you are running a programme across several markets.

Yes bloggers have a code practice/ethics about how they respond when reporting on products they are asked to review though this can range from blogger to blogger. For most bloggers it’s critical for their personal reputation and personal brand to be seen and considered as being honest and that their articles are congruent with their beliefs and personal values. That’s one of the reasons that on personal blogs, many bloggers are very expressive in their tone of voice.

You see, it’s not just about building relationships with bloggers - it’s also about assessing the ‘blogging social climate’ in the market that you are launching in and understanding the different constituents, stakeholders and influencers in the blogging community in your market. Some organisations have developed blogger outreach codes of ethics.

What would you advise PR companies and marketers if they are to pitch to bloggers in Ireland? How would you describe the ‘blogging social climate’ here?

At today’s planning meeting for PodCamp Ireland, one of the subjects we covered was the development and recording of our PodCamp Ireland podcast series.

We’ll be recording live shows starting Wednesday 16 July 2008 - more specific details to follow.

However it strikes me that the PodCamp Ireland podcast series is a great opportunity to share YOUR success stories or otherwise.

So would you like to be a gust on the show?

If you are an Irish entrepreneur/business/individual who would like to featured on how you are using social media and your tips and tricks let us know as we would love to have you on the show.

Or perhaps you are an Irish technology company and developing a social media sites/platforms - let us know and we’ll feature you on the PodCampIreland podcast. Why not share what your platform is, how people are using it and how people can find out more?

Did you join us at PodCamp Ireland in 2007 and have a success story to share about how you have applied what you learnt?

We are looking for 5-10 minute segments and live shows will be recorded at 9am on Wednesdays starting 16 July - we can pre-record if required.

So why not get in contact  at podcampireland(at)gmail.com.

The PodCamp Ireland pocast is a no pitch zone - we are looking for great content or our listeners - some of whom are new to the idea of social media and how they can get engaged and some are social media veterans. You will of course be you will be referenced in the show notes too and we hope you’ll benefit from increased exposure from being featured.

So come on what are you waiting for? We’re looking forward to hearing from you. Remember - just drop us an email about your ideas for the show or post your ideas here.

Are you a PC user and always find you have Outlook open?

Have you joined the Twittersphere and are an avid microblogger using Twitter?

Then you might be interested in the following application which I learnt about from Tom Murphy of Microsoft Ireland (he was one of the speakers last year at PodCamp Ireland).

Now I’m not using this application myself as I use Twhirl which is a desk top application but I know how our readers like to look at different options.

Here is a screen shot from the OutTwit website.

OutTwit features include the ability to update your Twitter status directly from Outlook, receive your friend updates as Outlook messages, archive, manage and search, assign custom folder and categories to new messages,automatically sort new tweets into per-sender folders, shorten URLs with tinyurl, see graphs of your Twitter usage statistics.

Tweets sent to you (@replies and direct) are marked with high importance, so you can see them immediately.

OutTwit definitely looks like an application worth considering if you are an Outlook user addicted to microblogging.

And be sure to follow @TechHit on Twitter to receive update notifications of updates to the OutTwit service.

If you are using OutTwit, do share your thoughts on how you get the most out of the application.

So you’ve joined the social media revolution. You’re creating blog posts, podcasts and perhaps you are also uploading all your digital photo’s and video’s to the computer.

You are off to a meeting and you know you have a great audio that would be useful to burn onto a CD to leave with the prospective client. But where did you file it?

Or perhaps you are writing up a report and you need to refer to that white paper that you saved. Where was it you saved it to your hard drive?

As we increasingly create and save more and more information it becomes increasingly harder to keep track of files. In fact that was the conversation we had on this week’s Podcast Sisters podcast where we were talking about the tools we use to bookmark information.

That’s where the new service Putplace becomes really valuable.

At PutPlace you can store your files and access them wherever you are. I only wish I had been a member of PutPlace last year when my hard drive failed and I had to operate with a temporary PC for some 6 weeks.

PutPlace is currently in Beta and you can therefore use the service free of charge for up to 2GB of space - when the service opens up fully there will be an annual subscription fee based on the amount of data PutPlace handles for you.

And if you have ever had a disaster losing your digital files, PutPlace wants to know about it - send them a photo of your digital despair and you’re in with a chance to win an annual subscription to PutPlace for 100 GB of data and US$200 USD Amazon gift certificate. Five finalists will be selected by the PutPlace team and the voting will then be open to the public. The contest runs between 1 and 31 July 2008 and winners will be announced on 15 August 2008. So go on take a snap of your despair and enter into the PutPlace pull a face competition today.