On Monday, August 4, 2008 a tornado touched down in Griffith, Indiana just two blocks from where I currently live in Highland, Indiana. I started Plurking and Tweeting (on my personal accounts) as soon as I saw the National Weather Service alert that the tornado would be to me within five minutes; of course that was after I got my family safe. Here’s my Twitter time line and what the folks who follow me there got to see from when it began through to the next morning:

08:21 PM August 04, 2008  from Ping.fm
So [name] sent [their] tornado to me. In the basement now.

08:25 PM August 04, 2008  from Ping.fm
OMG neon blue sky.. Neon green.. Sirens!

08:30 PM August 04, 2008  from Ping.fm
The sound is terrifying! We’re in the crawl space.

08:37 PM August 04, 2008  from txt
House is moving and creaking. Jacob is freaking out. No power obviously. Cramped in here.

08:52 PM August 04, 2008  from txt
Outside with my father because he’s freaking INSANE! It’s a mess out here. Emergency vehicles all over.

09:15 PM August 04, 2008  from Ping.fm
The tornado ran along the next block. Lightening struck, we lost a ton of electronics. Things are smoking…

09:22 PM August 04, 2008  from Ping.fm
Houses are gone…

09:26 PM August 04, 2008  from txt
Turning off my updates from u people.. Phone juice running low.. No way to power phone for now. Will keep updating.

11:41 PM August 04, 2008  from Ping.fm
It’s around midnight and the people out walking the streets to see th damage reminds me of a parade.

08:03 AM August 05, 2008  from Ping.fm
http://ping.fm/p/ogle4 – Never seen anything like this.. Looks like a hurricane came thru & mangled all the towns around here. It’s hard to find words for this…

08:14 AM August 05, 2008  from Ping.fm
We have power back. A lot of things are fried. AC is dead. DSL dead. Headed out now to buy new surge protectors.

09:09 AM August 05, 2008  from Ping.fm
The storage unit I put all my apartment and life in is demolished. I’m balling my eyes out. WHY AGAIN?!

10:55 AM August 05, 2008  from Ping.fm
Aaaand to top it all off: my computer is fried despite the surge protector.

As soon as I said that a tornado was on the way, a flood of reply messages started coming in. People expressed concern for our safety, asked if we were ok and extended prayers. The responses coming to me on Twitter via text message were comforting to me while my family and I huddled together in the crawl space of the house. I may have been alone in taking care of my family, but my social media family was with me in spirit. I was amazed at the compassion and immediate response from the people that I’ve simply formed relationships with online.

In the time line above, you read that I found out that I’d lost my storage unit (again) to the tornado. I’ll elaborate on the again part of that statement. Two years ago in September I was living in a basement apartment that was flooded so bad that they had to gut the building to its foundation. My son and I lost our home and everything but my dining room table, my computer and a duffel bag of clothing.

Just a few months ago I had moved in with my parents while I began my search for a full time job (didn’t want to sign another year-long lease since I planned on moving) and also to help out since my father and grandmother need daily assistance. I took everything from my home and placed it into storage with the exception of my clothing and my computer.

The tornado touched down two blocks from me, made it’s way across the the parking lot of a Kmart, took out a strip mall, demolished the residential neighborhood behind it, went straight through my storage building and then down through another neighborhood.

My storage area was an afterthought and I’d only stumbled upon it the next day because I was on the way to pick up new surge protectors for the house. I saw just the edge of the warehouses and they looked as though they’d gone through a shredder. I broke down into tears immediately. I am still questioning how two different natural disasters can affect one person in two years.

My social media friends extended their thoughts, love and prayers immediately yet again. I received phone calls, emails, text messages and word through friends concerned about me. They wanted me to know I wasn’t alone, that I was cared for and that they would help in any way they could. Just having their words was a huge help.

I have my friend Jim of With a Voice Like This to thank for his support and help in the clean-up, but also my family from Reunion Church. As soon as Pastor Chuck found out about this, he sent word out via email to the church community. People started calling immediately offering to come and help, which many did. Also a result of the Reunion family, I even received a text message of support from someone in New York that I didn’t know. The physical was covered.

The social media friends certainly couldn’t be there physically to help me sort through what was and wasn’t salvageable (china cabinet, kitchen items, sentimental things in Rubbermaid totes were saved; lost all furniture and beds), but they found their own way to help out. Friday evening my friend Andrea of Geek is Chic sent me a text message saying that she had a question for me and asked that I call her. She was bubbling with excitement while she told me that she had organized a group of people who had together pooled over $400 to put towards helping us get back on our feet. Of course, I began crying again. This time it wasn’t in sadness but because I had such amazing and wonderful people who cared so very much.

Thank you to Mark Tafoya, Rachel, Krissy, Alison L, Flick, Amy Osborn, Winnie, Bleu, Cliff and Stephanie Ravenscraft, Kim Thompson and FrancR for your generosity and your compassion. I love you people. Thank you so much.

–

New and social media is here to stay. I talk about it all the time, but this example here is something that shows how strongly it can take hold of you, how it can truly affect lives. I’m a testament to that. Social Media is helping me start fresh. I’m one person. Now think for a moment, on a bigger scale, how social media could affect the world. What are you doing to be a part of it?

Additional Media re: Tornado

1. Here’s a YouTube video that I shot of a neighborhood along Arbogast.
2. This is another YouTube video that someone else put together. At around 4 minutes into this one, there’s actually additional footage beyond just sights and sounds from the storm. You may want to skip ahead.
3. Photos of the destruction
   

I’ve been engaged in Social Media and the internet since before it received its title. In the early 90s I began by teaching myself how to code HTML using Notepad and created my own graphics using MS Paint. I created websites that defined who I was and was among the first to display my contact information publicly.

Shortly after that I started working in an online gaming community that was in it’s infancy. This was a time where internet communities hadn’t yet figured out how to identify themselves. By 1997 I attended my first community meet-up where people from all over the USA met in person for the first time. Here I am today, just over a week out of a meet-up that I personally organized and ran for a podcast that I created in May of 2007.

I have formal training in graphic design and multimedia: an associates degree. That training has further encouraged me to display my communications in an attractive way; a nice, net package if you will. This is far beyond what many designers and/or social media artists are capable of. It’s this vast array of capabilities that make what I can do so very marketable.

I know what it is to communicate and create meaningful relationships that last. I know how to market myself, a business or a brand with a communication strategy that involves the written word, spoken word or graphic appeal. Relationship building, brand building, marketing: it’s all the same. We’re just learning new and innovative ways to make it more efficient.

I wonder how the rest of you came to be social on the internet and what you made of it if anything. Care to share?

How I Got Started
I first got involved in podcasting back in January of 2006. It started with my listening, which quickly turned into my participating in other people’s podcasts; either by comments at their blog, messages left to show voicemail lines or participation in online forums. After a short time I was asked to guest host a show, which sealed the deal for me: I needed to start my own podcast and it didn’t matter what it was about. It was fun, engaging and wholly entertaining.

My First Show
A friend of mine agreed to co-host a show with me. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we were unable to get the show past two episodes and it fizzled out. I continued to participate in other people’s shows as well as help out where I could. There were times that I even produced my own audio segments for shows. In February of 2007 though, things changed. An idea was created to start a podcast based on the television show Grey’s Anatomy. It was the first fan based podcast of it’s time and was an instant hit. I co-hosted the show with Stephanie and Cliff Ravenscraft where we incorporated live listeners, voicemail calls, also making the show available for download at a later time. I created a visual brand for the podcast in terms of cover art, podcast logo, promotional banner and other promotional items to be used on forums and the like. After the television show finished up for the year in May, I resigned my position as co-host.

The Current Focus
Just a few weeks later in May of 2007 I launched another podcast called Girls Night In. This is a show with a total of four hosts. Not only do I occupy the role as a host but I also manage, produce and have branded this show. As I continue on I find that I’ve learned so much more than I thought was possible in regards to all aspects of podcasting.

I’ve established how to effectively market our brand, incorporate live listeners into the show, route and record audio where each of the four hosts of the show are in separate parts of the country, master audio levels, edit audio, learn to master post-production editing and effects to allow for the final product to be more palatable on the download. I’ve been able to give the show a presence on a number of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace where we’ve been able to find a number of listeners willing to interact and pose feedback.

The Visual Brand
I’ve established our presence at a website which is syndicated with RSS (a blog) thus allowing the media that we create to reach the listener without any action on their part. The site itself is branded along with the cover art. Beyond simply creating the logo, coverart and website with a consistent brand, I also went a step further and created individual avatars for each of the hosts to use if they so desired. This way, each host would be visually associated with the show on whichever social network they chose to be a part of. The blog has been sprinkled with all sorts of goodies that make it easy for the listener or potential new listener to navigate and find out more about the show. There are blog posts from the hosts, posts that contain the podcast episodes and show notes, pages that share what the podcast is about, how to contact the hosts, where to interact within the show, outside of the show and in social networks, a schedule of our show dates and an easy way to listen directly from the site.

Why do you want to do this? Well, people are going to find your podcast by searching for it, looking for it and not necessarily hearing it first. They’re likely going to read something somewhere about it, find your page and view what you’re about before they download and listen. This is why having an attractive visual brand is so important and an integral part in expanding your podcast audience.

A logo is the most readily available representative of your podcast. Your logo can accompany press releases, be used as a link to your site, for advertising purposes, and give potential audiences a glimpse at what you and your podcast are all about even before listening to your show.

If you or your company already has a logo, you could further brand your image by incorporating your business logo or design a variation of your corporate logo to strengthen and reinforce your brand. Just as with your logo, your cover art displays your identity. It will display your logo and the name of your podcast, if that is your desire. This is what is shown when any directory displays your podcast. It is used as a way to represent your show. This image can also be used as your show artwork in RSS feeds or on your website.

The Audible Brand
Outside of making everything visually appealing and consistent, the same needs to apply to what the audience is hearing. There needs to be consistency in what to expect with audio quality as well as what’s being mixed into the natural sound. The use of an intro, outro and audio bumpers in between segments is a great way to establish a template of how the show works, thus creating a consistent flow. The audience then recognizes and is able to anticipate what’s coming up. Outside of the mechanics of the audio, you need to sound like you’re more than just a drone reading from a word document. Even if you are reading, the best way to keep your audience engaged is to add flare to your voice. You need to be interested in what you’re speaking about or your audience will lose interest. If you lose the interest of your audience, you lose your audience.

What it Comes Down to
Create your brand both visually and audibly. Make it clear, concise and easy to follow. Your message needs to be relatable and interesting. Is it? Are you sure you’ve established yourself in that manner? What else needs to be done to make a podcast work and work well?

Welcome to the Kim Fenolio redesign and rebrand. The goal is to embark upon a career path that will not just be monetarily rewarding but also enjoyable. The concept is quite simple, the road however is a bit more rugged.

As I design, tweak, code and create myself again (did I mention again?) on the interwebs I’m finding new and different things that I can do and also enjoy doing. I don’t just put my mind to something. I put my mind to something and I finish it. If I don’t have the answer, I will find someone who does.

I’ve built this great network of people by means of social networking. Some of these folks I’ve met through podcasting, through Twitter, through Facebook and other forums. The point is that I have a large pool of talent and knowledge available to me. All I have to do is ask a question and so many people are willing to share and give of themselves and their knowledge. It’s actually quite amazing. Without my having met and spending some time to create a relationship with each of these people, I wouldn’t be the talent that I am today.

The point is that when you get me, you also get connections. I have strings attached, but they’re not in the conventional way that you would think strings are attached. It’s the idea that you get more bang for your buck.

Welcome to my personal brand. Welcome to my life. Welcome to Kim Fenolio.