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Theories Unfurled (timotheories May 2016)

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

Hey there, dear readers! Can you feel it?

It’s the first Thursday of the month and that means it’s time for me to share with you this month’s schedule… Duh duh duh. It’s gonna be awesome though, so don’t hit backspace just yet or swipe left if you’re a millennial. The new schedule will ease all concerns.

*Disclaimer* As always, every week I purchase an album and movie one week ahead of the actual review release and while I have the best intentions, I don’t always get what I want… so if you follow me on instagram (@timotheories) you can actually see what’s coming.

In other words, I live in Canada, which is not as free and as brave as the US – please don’t be disappointed if the music and movie reviews change, because they’ll still be good ones. I promise.

Alright?

Great! Let’s get this show on the road! Here are the May entries you can expect to see on timotheories; I’ve even included the week of May 1-7 for easy recall later on –

Stimulating Sundays – (05/01) Importance of marketing, (05/08) your identity, (05/15) Cross Talk Ep.5, (05/29) David Wiens interview
Melodic Mondays – (05/02) Leon Bridges, (05/09) Plants and Animals, (05/16) LUH, (05/23) Mark Pritchard, (05/30) TBA
Theatrical Tuesdays – (05/03) Wolfcop, (05/10) Joy, (05/17) Deadpool, (05/24) The Witch, (05/31) Zoolander 2
Wisdom Wednesdays – (05/04) Quotes, (05/11) Ernest Hemingway, (05/18) communication is key, (05/25) evaluate life
Timely Thursday – (05/05) May 2016 preview, (05/12) Mother’s Day, (05/19) The Reading List, (05/26) flea markets

The year of all killer, no filler continues friends! As always we have an excellent lineup of reviews on film and music (if you’re a musician or filmmaker, drop me a line for your own review opportunity). We have an excellent Cross Talk lineup on the 15th, which coincidentally is my pick and close to my heart, so stay tuned for a case of David VS Goliath.

Okay, I know I’ve gotten into the habit of giving you a teaser of the Cross Talk episode, but I’ll do you one better and go into some more detail. This month Chris and I are going to be talking about under-appreciated films. The ones you love but can’t understand why they aren’t more popular… And we open up about our favourites too.

You won’t want to miss it.

Now let’s talk turkey about the May timotheories interview. So you know how I’ve been slowly improving on my videography skills, much like a ninja of motion? This is thanks, in large part, to the instruction of various creative types in my community who have given me advice on occasion. Well, I’ve decided to interview a friend of mine who is a photographer and a sculptor of light. He’s got an interesting back story too, but you’ll have to watch on the 29th to get the full picture. Might’ve been a bad pun there.

And now we’ve covered it all, my friends. Or have we?

As you know, we’ve been playing with the idea of introducing a tabletop gaming series on timotheories for a few months now, and this month might actually see the realization of that idea. But with a different name. And did I mention I’m opening up the lines for international creative types to take Q&As with me? May could have some of those interviews in store. If you think you’ve got the stuff to duel with keyboards, please send me a note.

And those are all of the theories I can come up with for now friends.

Please leave some comments, to let us know what you want to see in coming months and subscribe to the blog too!

Tim!

Promote Your Heart Out (Importance of Marketing)

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

May the 1st be with you, dear readers.

And also with you timotheories. Go forceful and multiply.

Thank you my friends! It’s that time of day, day of the week, and day of the month when I share with you this month’s plan, and of course, give you some theories to whittle away at. Are you ready to see the schedule?

Of course you are!

It might seem like this is turning into old hat – I give you the schedule, and because you know how each day’s theme plays out, you should expect to get your share of film, music, visual art and theories about the arts. Maybe some wisdom too, if you’re up for it.

But hold up a second, because you know what? Well, actually I don’t need to go into hypotheticals.

You already know that I am doing much more then simply giving you content each week. timotheories is also about sharing with you the important components to be successful as a creative type in today’s mix of social intelligence, online media, and globalization. You know in your heart, because you can’t have heart without art, that consistency of character is integral to a successful blog/portfolio/gallery/channel. And as it relates to the bigger picture, that who you are defines what you do.

When we look at this concept through the lenses to business, an incredibly important facet of artistry, we call this character a brand.

So if you’ve been playing real close attention these past few months of 2016 you’ll know that I haven’t been releasing “monthly schedule” posts on Sundays nor on the first of the month. Sundays are the day I share theory with you, when I release interviews, Cross Talk episodes, and also important updates to the timotheories brand.

Today isn’t going to be about the schedule. No, today is about marketing.

Because marketing is how you develop your brand. If brand houses the vehicle, than marketing is the set of vehicles that you CAN use to get from A to B. You might not need every vehicle, but they all can help.

Which is why I want to share with you some basics of marketing and how to ensure that you develop your professional relationships and connect your art to the people who should be seeing it. Which will help with your brand. And interestingly enough, I’m going to be taking this ride right along with you.

You see dear readers, I haven’t fully realized my brand yet either, but I know how to get there, because I’ve got a map. Courtesy of articles like this one.

The truth about marketing your particular brand is that you spend a large part on prep. You have to know your audience which means exposing yourself to the experts and learning from them as best you can. And fortunately enough, there are countless gurus out there that can provide you with information about syndication, professionalism, image, and your plan. And maybe other pieces.

Starting with your business plan (summary of your business, your strengths, your weaknesses, goals, competition, and what makes your business unique) and memorizing it is probably the most important.
Following it up with a regular schedule of promotion or syndication (sharing on social media, participating in events and communities, and collaborating with other experts.
Setting up your image online and in person so you look and sound the same everywhere. That means logos, mailing lists, introductory videos and landing pages. You name it, it needs to match your image.
Professionalism is similar to image, but what it really means the is that the authentic voice everywhere is consistent with who you are and puts your best business foot forward.
… well let’s not get ahead of ourselves

I’m sure you have questions about this process, but one thing is for sure, the future is not set, and I’ll be there with you as we fight the good fight. I know you have good art to share, and I want to help you share it. Marketing is key, so promote your heart out.

And those are all of the theories I’ve got today friends. I’ll see you tomorrow with something melodic. But you already knew that.

Tim!

This Click-bait Will Change Your Blog For The Better (Buzzfeed)

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

Click-bait. We all hate it, and we hate it because of what it makes us feel inside. We click that link hoping that the headline will deliver on what it says or that picture will open up a gallery of wonders. But it never does… It just fulfills instant gratification, without any kind of growth. In case you have absolutely no idea what I am referring to dear readers, I’ve set up some examples, which will follow below.

He thought he was safe. What happened next changed his world.

Number 9 is the most shocking one!

Marketing companies hate her.

What they learned was terrifying.

We already knew it, but she perfected the delivery.

This idea will make you a better reader.

Click-bait is without a doubt, the perfect example of a pejorative word. With sneering and everything.

We’ve all been there, surfing the internet from the safety of our homes while rocking our PJs with a litre of red wine, while scrolling through our preferred media of consumption (insert Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Google Reader or YouTube for starters) when we see it. A headline that just screams INSTANT GRATIFICATION. All you problems solved in one click. Knowledge, sex, fun, tears, power, miracles, etc.

But fuck that.

Click-bait doesn’t really solve any problems. In fact, it’s been designed by marketers to help generate revenue; quality and accuracy be damned. The goal is close the sale and get your curiosity past the point of intrigue but not sated enough that you can ignore the headline. And so you click. Because the thumbnail picture is conjuring feelings or the headline has a supposed spoiler in it. As I already mentioned, go anywhere on the internet and you are sure to find examples of click-bait in use.

It’s what made the website BuzzFeed so popular in the first place way back in 2006. It was originally founded as a hub for viral content, and it did a good job of bringing in users so that they would see content on its way up the social ladder, at the peak of its popularity, or content that was now overexposed and burning out fast.

With this traction the company was able to grow over the past decade and slowly become a source for internet media of all kinds, with a focus on digital media and tech. They’ve made great efforts to curate old content, deleting over four thousand articles at one point as they changed the face of their brand.

Now a website that once used click-bait of every kind to draw in traffic, instead produces their own daily content which consists of both articles and video, and has a staff of reporters, artists, and part-time contributors. Did I mention they also let their community contribute to the conversation?

Which means that they are more interested in traditional methods of publication now that they have traffic and want to have a good reputation too. Though they still click-bait. Man oh man do they still click-bait.

So why did you decide to write about Buzzfeed then timotheories?

Because I have this theory.

How convenient for me. And for you! You see dear readers, I think that click-bait is our generations version of hot topic marketing. It’s not that much of a stretch when you think about it, but have you thought about it?

That’s the real question.

You see, over the past couple of centuries in the western world, marketing as evolved just as much. We’ve gone from eras of trade, to production, to sales, to having marketing departments, to having marketing companies, to “relationship” marketing, and now we are in the middle of social/mobile marketing. This article goes into detail on it, but for our purposes I’ve included a handy little chart that D. Steven White put together.

As you can see, none of those marketing previous forms have died by any means, however, as they lost focus and became normative behaviours, creativity moved in new directions (as it always does) and communication had to go right along with it. Is click-bait the end-all-be-all answer in an era of social/mobile marketing? God no. But it is something to consider in the scheme of things, and it does have value.

So your task as an art maker, art shaker, and art breaker is to figure out all of the tools available, become an expert at marketing and move forward. But that’s something we can go into more detail on in a future post.

But what do you think? Am I missing notches on the marketing tool belt? Is click-bait not worth the time it took me to craft this sentence? Please leave some comments, subscribe to the blog, and share with your friends (artists, art enthusiasts, and humans apply)… I’m out of theories for today friends, I’ll catch you tomorrow with something timely.

Tim!

What A Sweet Song (Twitter Basics)

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

Today’s post is all about Twitter folks.

Most of you know about Twitter, and the majority of you probably have an idea of how it works, but this post is about the basics of it, what I’ve learned in three weeks of really starting to use the website as it’s intended, and some basics for those of you who avoided it like I did initially.

I have decided to dedicate this post to my 1600+ followers on Twitter – thank you for your initial support, your continued support, and what I believe will be decades of collaboration and mutually assured benefit!

There are a few timotheories admissions to make about the global phenomenon known as Twitter though. At least before I get this post started off right.

First, I thought I understood Twitter when I first heard about it back in 2007. It was already over a year old, and I wasn’t even fully committed to the idea of Facebook so Twitter seemed a little bit superfluous at the time. But to me Twitter represented a quick way to access articles and ideas (no matter how interesting), but I had just finished art school and already had a head full of ideas. Plus a few resources to access content myself. So Twitter wasn’t an option.

Second, I didn’t have a blog yet, and Twitter seemed like a place to market content, but I didn’t just want to post pictures or videos I liked, I wanted to market my art and my own contributions. And then my own art fell by the way side for a few years, and so I forgot about Twitter.

Fast forward to 2013. After a bad experience with art and business mostly forgotten, I was now comfortable with Facebook, learning the ropes of social media in general, and I wanted to start a blog. But due to some personal relationship problems, I never got the account off the ground.

So I worked out some shit, and got my domain name sorted out, taking baby steps as I went. The final quarter of 2014 rolled around, and I started writing.

I had heard all about the struggles of traffic generation, and I knew that blogging wasn’t something you could JUST DO, get traffic and get paid for your art. You had to write good content and build an audience. Which is why I wrote for a few months, one post or two every month, and accepted the slow burn.

Then I introduced some more ideas, interviews in particular, AND set up a Facebook fan page. That got me some more attention, but nothing steady. Next, I tried my hand at a schedule and regular content, again, I started to see a spike in monthly views, but nothing as substantial as I was expecting.

Syndication was just not being my friend. I tried posting to FB group pages and sharing my links on Reddit, and I would definitely see bumps on those days, but the bumps were temporary.

When I finally admitted I knew nothing, and began searching online on how to grow an audience, I kept seeing the same things over and over. Syndication, use all the social media channels, and become an expert in them.

Well guess what? Twitter is number one on all the lists.

This website is micro-blogging at it it’s finest. And according to this article, it’s the SMS of the internet. Which really makes sense to me, almost a decade later.

As I mentioned at the start of this article, this post is about Twitter. The basics that I’ve learned and how I’ve seen substantial growth in the mere three weeks that I’ve become a student of it’s principles.

What have you learned timotheories?

I thought you would never ask, dear readers. Well here are my basics of Twitter, which I hope to expand upon in the coming months.

You only have 140 characters to work with, so keep your word choices succinct, your hashtags relevant (for community building), and your URLs short.
@reply is at the start of a tweet and is between you, your friend, and both parties followers.
@mention appears at another other point in the tweet and is a public post.
Post what you know about to your followers, and share what you care about via retweets
Twitter is not Facebook, it’s public domain. Be particular with what you share, how you write, and be generous with your time.

The other big takeaway of the Twitter experience has been following people that I care to associate by searching for them with key words, and even following their friends. Of course you should also follow back when appropriate, but the only way to organically grow your following is by participating.

And that’s all the wisdom I can share at this time, I’m out of theories. What do you think? Am I on the right track? Do you use Twitter or not? In the future I’ll write another post about how to use the website as an artist, but for now, please comment and subscribe for more timotheories!

Tim!

Sand Castles In The Sand (10 Lists To Success)

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Tim Kuefler

Do you ever just want to say f**k it, I’m out?

I’ve talked about motivations before dear readers, and I’ve hinted at how I stay on top of goals, but I don’t believe I have really and truly detailed for you the significance of keeping a variety of functional lists available at your fingertips at all times and the incredible satisfaction you will get from this habit – whether you are highly motivated, stressed out, feeling aimless or a combination thereof.

In fact, 2 of my oldest and first posts specifically addressed the areas of my own motivations and some of the ways I intend to achieve them, one was The Watch List and other was titled Motivation and Movies.

Motivation and Movies is about more than just my love of movies and their incredible ability to connect an introverted type like myself with the world around me. The heart of that post demonstrates that we all love to tell stories, be involved with the storytelling process, and that ultimately our various types and niches of society break down and are usually broken because of communication issues.

Sure I may be simplifying it, but don’t tell me that you believe we all keep this information top of mind!

That’s why today’s Wisdom Wednesday post is all about list making and how it connects with motivation. That’s right my friends, I got to the point of the post through a direct correlation of thoughts, without me using a story, meme or analogy to build it up for 500+ words worth of exposition. WHOA.

It can be done.

Granted, I threw in some fun memes, but they didn’t drive the plot forward, they were fun visual aids.

Having worked in marketing as my day job for almost a decade (and barely scratched the surface, might I add), I’ve read quite a few books and articles about the subject, and I’ve also learned some things along the way.

You see, I have this theory that the future of what’s cool and engaging is not going to be furthering technology and scientific achievement, though those things will continue to permeate our globalized village. Instead, because of the advent of the internet and the information age, those two achievements are going to lead us to the next logical step, refining our communication and storytelling ability.

This branding article kind of takes the roundabout to explain what I’m stating rather plainly, but to be fair the author IS referring to the future of business, which is full of plot holes.

So let’s get down to brass tacks, talk turkey, and strike while the iron is hot.

If you want to be successful in life, you have to be persistent, work hard, sacrifice, be prepared to deal with lots of failures, and keep up good habits. Ask anyone who YOU think is successful, and they will without question give you some variation of that short list.

That’s why I am going to let you in on something pretty straightforward. If you build these lists laid out in this article for yourself and maintain them, ie work at them and add to them, then you are on the track to success.

list of goals
A reason to get up in the morning, reasons to respect yourself
list of tasks
Milestones to goal completion, daily – personal and professional
list of contacts
Reliable, skillful people, who you maintain a healthy and natural relationship with
list of expenses
Monthly obligations, to create a clear overview and stick to your financial guns
list of useful tools
Apps for restaurants, maps, task management, learning, etc. AND physical resources too
list of self improvements
Things you would like to improve or change about yourself, one thing a year may be more viable
list of creative ideas
To hone your focus and keep your mind occupied. Needs to be new, make sense, and have a use
list of future plans
Events, changes in law, trends, software – keep you well-informed and prepared for life
list of contingency plans
Be prepared for the backlash of major projects
bucket list
Keep your regrets to a minimum – put the impossible down, then find the next best thing, use to restore will power and keep going

If you can maintain these lists, you will never lose sight of yourself and what you need to be doing in your life to achieve your purpose.

I’ve said it before, but creative types are just as prone to dreaming rather than doing as those deem themselves more pragmatic and functional.

Be vigilant and you’ll achieve your goals. And those are all of the theories I have for today dear readers.

Tim!