My friend, Roch Parisien has been doing this a long time.

By this, I mean writing and talking about music. He’s one of the top music journalists in Canada, and in the 20 or so years I’ve known and worked with him, he’s interviewed just about everybody who’s anybody in music. I’ve been fortunate to have been along with him on some of those rides, as his producer for the cable TV show “Soundtrack”, which ran for 27 years on Skyline Cable/RogersTV Channel 22 here in Ottawa. Not only was I able to meet some of the most amazing people in music (Richard Thompson, Barenaked Ladies, and Charlie Sexton were some of my personal highlights), I was able to witness Roch doing what he loves – talking music with the people who create it. Roch’s at the top of the game as a music journalist – he’s one of the best interviewers I know and his knowledge of the business and of artists is virtually unsurpassed.

As a communications professional and journalist with many years in the game, Roch is taking this whole social media thing quite seriously. He’s seen the opportunities this new medium offers to people in his field, and has successfully moved his brand into the online space, through sites like LinkedIN and Facebook, and with his contributions to our site over at Ottawa Tonite. But most of all, it’s his clever use of Facebook that has particularly piqued my interest.

A couple of months back, Roch set up a Facebook Page, Rocon Communications, where he shares news, reviews, and interviews with musical artists of all kinds. He also uses it to promote his work as programmer for the Galaxie Folk/Roots Channel. He provides a diverse and relevant range of music news and information on his page, and I highly recommend you check it out.

But here’s where it gets really interesting.

Roch has taken his passion for music and his amazing interviewing skills and combined them with the most social aspect of Facebook – the comments – and created “The Facebook Interviews”, a series of interactive chat sessions with musicians, facilitated by Roch and open to group members.  The interviews generally start with a post and possibly a YouTube video of the artist performing, and some backgrounder by Roch. Then the artist hops on the comments, and a Q and A session commences between Roch and the artist. Others are invited to post questions in advance or join in the session real time. The whole thing takes place in the Facebook comments, creating a real time archive of the session, so should you happen to miss it live, you can go back later and read the posts.

Why is this clever? First, it brings the artists to the people directly. So far, Roch has interviewed, biographer Paul Myers and others on Long John Baldry, Javier Escovedo on his new album “City Lights” and Jim Bonfanti of Choir/Raspberries/Boxer. It’s done in real time, so people in the group have the chance to interact and ask questions of the performers. Second, it provides an amazing transcript of a conversation that is created “on the fly”. It’s piles of fun to read through the interviews after they’re over. And last, but most definitely not least, it provides a way for music lovers to connect with each other. Even after the interview portion is done, people can continue the conversation.

This is how I want to see more people using social media – coming up with creative ways to use the tools to tell stories. I’m really looking forward to more in this series of the Facebook Inteviews. Roch is archiving all of the interviews in the Notes section of the Rocon Communications page, so you can see the full conversations there if you miss it live.

Tonight marks the fourth installment of The Facebook Interviews, and I urge you to check it out. Here’s the info from Roch himself:

Tuesday evening beginning 7pm Eastern, “The Facebook Interviews” continue on my Rocon Communications page with Nova Scotia singer-songwriter Dave Gunning, whose album “We’re All Leaving” was #1 on the Galaxie FolkRoots Channel’s Canadian chart for January. Post some questions in advance on the Rocon Communications page, and/or join us at 7pm E for the interactive chat session!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roch-Parisiens-Rocon-Communications/208757673971?ref=ts

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It occurred to me today that I haven’t been blogging much over here. Sorry about that. Most of my blogging efforts have been going into a new startup project, Ottawa Tonite.

Myself and my friend Cheryl Gain, with the help of MANY wonderful volunteers, built Ottawa Tonite out of the need we saw for a one-stop source for local arts and entertainment. We want to give readers a behind the scenes perspective on the local music, theatre, visual arts, literary, and food and drink scene in Ottawa, and cover things that are a little more off the beaten path.

The site has been consuming much of our time, and much of my usual writing energy has been going into covering stuff for the site.

So, if you’re looking for me, that’s where I am. Feel free to check out some of the articles I’ve done:

Local Musicians and the Meaning of Community

The Magic of the House Concert

….but DEFINITELY check out some of the amazing stuff our contributors have been doing. Local band Silver Creek has been blogging from the road while touring Canada, we have exclusive footage from an amazing play by Conor McPherson called Shining City, the lowdown on the Hintonburg Supper Club, and much, much more! Stop by and have a look around, check out some local music on our music player, and let us know what you think! You can also find Ottawa Tonite on Twitter @ottawatonite, or join our Facebook group.

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Cheryl and I have been friends for 20 years. We met way back when we were practically kids – just out of college, wide eyed and hopeful about what our careers is TV would hold for us.

She was a video editor, and volunteered on Soundtrack, the music show I produced. We were fast friends…mostly because we clicked, but partly because you can’t help but become close to anyone with whom you spend 15 hours a day in an edit suite.

One of the things I love about my friend is she lives, breathes and eats passion. She dives in head first to anything she believes in, and just makes things happen. While the rest of us are sitting around contemplating next moves, she’s making phone calls, sending emails and getting people engaged and excited.

Last Spring, we were sitting at the bar at Chez Lucien, a great little burger joint in downtown Ottawa. We’d just polished off delightful plates of carnivorous goodness, it was about 9:30pm, and Cheryl asked me, “So who’s playing tonight?” It was a common question for us – if there’s one thing me and Cheryl LOVE to do it’s see live bands.

We grabbed our respective mobile devices – she on a web-enabled cell phone, me on a iPhone – and proceeded to look up the local music listings for our town. 20 minutes later, we were shaking our heads, glaring at our devices, both of which had yielded no common source to find out what bands were playing. We eventually gave up and just went back to her place for a glass of wine. It was over that glass of wine that Cheryl said thoughtfully, “If there is no online source for Ottawa Arts and Entertainment, then why don’t we start one?”

In that moment, Ottawa Tonite was born.

Sometimes, ideas like that happen, but then they quickly get overridden by normal life stuff – jobs, kids, and other commitments and suddenly you’re thinking, “It’s too bad we never got that site off the ground..” But this is Cheryl we’re dealing with here – so of course that wasn’t going to be the case!

A few days later, Cheryl called me to inform me she’d purchased the domain name ottawatonite.com, that she’d been talking to some of her musician and theatre friends, and they’d be interested in contributing to the site. Wow – in three days, we had a home for the site, and we had people who wanted to sign up to help out? Well alrighty then.

Within a few weeks, Cheryl had contacted just about everyone she knew in the Ottawa arts and entertainment scene, and had nothing short of 15 people ready to provide written, video and audio content. In fact, some of them were already out there gathering stuff, and were willing to post it on the site, for free!

We had content, but sadly, we had no actual site yet! If there’s anything that social media has done for myself and Cheryl it’s put in front of us dozens of talented graphic designers and developers. We were able to use our networks to find the right people for the job, and in spite of a few (normal) hiccups along the way, a few short months later, we had a functioning web page and content to make it work! Yesterday, we launched ottawatonite.com, Ottawa’s online source for arts and entertainment!

Community Building 101. Many people think that in order to build a community web site you have to get the actual site up and running first, then worry about filling it with content. Ottawa Tonite is a VERY ambitious project – we aspire to be the pre-eminent source for what’s happening in the theatre, music, literary, film, comedy, and food and drink scenes in our city. That means we have to be totally tapped in to all of these areas – and we definitely can’t do that alone. After all, this is a volunteer effort – we do have full time jobs and families and things and there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for us to be running around to every event in town.

Step #1 in building an online community is always, always, always people. Months before we even had one piece of design or code on the page, Cheryl was running around town talking to everyone she could about the site, and getting artists and behind-the-scenes people on board to be contributors. And she didn’t just stop with a “sure, I’ll contribute!”. She got them to start gathering stuff. People were capturing video, writing blog posts, and creating audio recordings months ago. Cheryl set the expectation with them – the site was a few months out – but it didn’t matter – people were fired up and ready to hit the ground running.

80% of the work on this project was done months before any code was placed on the site. Thanks to those efforts early on, we now have a wonderful community, and the site is up and running and jam-packed with great content. The community is vibrant, and most importantly, it’s sustainable. No one person has too much on their plate. Everyone is working with their own talents. Cheryl has provided the vehicle – the artists are providing the voice.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – it’s not about the tools. It’s not about the tools. It’s about people. Cheryl saw a need in her community in an area she was passionate about. She went out and got other people to be passionate about her idea. And it worked.

Check out Ottawa Tonite when you get a chance – we’d love to hear what you think. And if you have thoughts, suggestions, or are interested in being a contributor or an advertiser, give us a shout at info [at] ottawatonite.com.

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UPDATE: The winner of the tickets to Shmoozefest is Patti Church! Congrats!

Stay tuned – at the end of this post I have a great giveaway!!!

I am extremely fortunate to be involved in many amazing projects right now. In addition to my day jobs, which allow me to work with amazing people like Mark Saunders at Saunders Farm, film director Andrew Lavigne, and the awesome staff and students at Algonquin College, I also am privileged have numerous side projects on the go with fabulous folks at United Way/Centraide Ottawa, TEDx Ottawa, OttawaTonite.com, and SAW Video Co-op.

All of the projects are distinctly different, but they all require me to be able to do one thing well – ask for stuff. It might be someone’s time, it might be goods and services, or a favour – any way you slice it, it requires the ability to ask of others and do it well.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to ask – and it can really mean the difference between getting what you want and getting doors slammed in your face. Over time, I’ve learned that asking is an art. Here are a couple of the things I’ve learned.

Visibility is key. Everyone hates cold calling. I despise it. And, I don’t find it to be very effective, either. If the person I’m asking has no clue who I am, why would they even consider what I’m asking for, when they probably have 100 other people that they actually know asking for stuff? Unless it’s the deal of a lifetime, I probably don’t have a shot.

What does it take to get on someone’s radar? Well, it takes time, for starters. And, it also takes a good balance of not trying too hard with putting yourself out there as a real person.

Social media tools are a great way to sneak onto someone’s radar. The occasional retweet, promotion of that person’s stuff on your personal blog, or a few good recommendations of that person’s work can go a long way to start to build some visibility. Here’s the key though – it has to be 100% GENUINE. I’m never, ever going to promote someone’s book just to get noticed. I am doing it because I actually believe in the author’s message. There’s a big difference between a light tap on someone’s office door and barging in. Knock lightly. Ask politely. You may have to do it a few times. But in the end, it will get you noticed in positive way, rather than a negative one.

Short, sweet, and what’s in it for me. As this blog has become more popular, I’ve started to get more and more requests for my time. I get several emails per week now asking for me to review something, or write something, or meet someone in person. I appreciate all of the people reaching out to me. How do I determine what I’m going to pursue and what goes in the trash can? It’s all in the approach.

If someone sends an email that is short, succinct, gets to the point (i.e. the “ask”) right away then I will read on. But there’s something that’s key to a good “ask”. Tell me what is in it for me, right off the bat. If I can see how what you want jives with what I want, then I’m definitely going to take notice. If what you’re asking is all about you, then there’s no value for me. We’re not a fit.

When I ask someone for something, the FIRST thing I do is figure out how to make what I want about them. It sounds counter intuitive, but if you put some thought into it, it will work. Don’t suck up. Flattery, when it’s over the top, just makes people uncomfortable. State why you’re contacting the person, in two sentences or less. Then ask. Then tell them why this is a great opportunity for THEM. I guarantee you’ll at least get a reply if you stick to that formula.

The best way to get people to listen to your ask is to be real. Be gracious. And above all, be human. Connecting with people is not about kissing up, and it’s never contrived. Never have an ulterior motive. Connect with people first because you want to. Then figure out if there’s a way your goals can jive with theirs. Then, and only then, ask.

What about you? How do you ask?

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GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

In keeping with the theme of this post – I have two tickets (thanks to Stacey Diffin-Lafleu) to give away to the United Way’s Shmoozefest 2009 on October 21st. It’s a great event with all kinds of opportunities to connect with amazing people in the Ottawa business community. If you want to be entered to win, simply reply in the comments with “I wanna go to Shmoozefest, Suze!” and I’ll enter you in the draw. I’ll draw the winner on October 15th. Good luck!

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