Why You Need to Manage Your Social Media Images the Right Way, Right Now

Posted by NAPC Marketing on Fri, Aug 01, 2014 @ 11:22 AM

Tags: images, digital assets, database, content, Google Images, CMS, BAM, CDN, Community Managers, Bloggers, photos, photography, search engine, subject matter, digital asset management, social network, DAM, search, social media

digital asset management

Not too long ago, a Community Manager for a large and popular company grabbed an image off the web and posted it. “Well?” you wonder, “What’s so news-worthy about that? We do that all the time, where I work.” Turns out, that image was not in the slightest what that person thought it was. Not only was it not a colorful image depicting an historic U.S. celebration, but rather a tragic moment of national horror captured on film.

No doubt, by the time the news broke and a sick feeling started to sink in with the company’s CEO, that Community Manager was already long gone. It’s a guarantee that he or she will never work in their industry again. But that was just the beginning. The ripple effect from that one seemingly insignificant event cascaded a torrential wave of hate and doubt on the entire company, brand and all. Stocks plummeted, jobs were lost and a reputation was forever marred.

Whether this company will ever, ever regain any credibility remains to be seen, as they will forever be Googled as the company that royally f*%# up.

And all of this happened simply because they did not have a system in place for gathering, organizing and storing images for their social media.

Blindly entering criterion into a search engine like Google Images is just not the way. You’ve got to properly mind your store. And if you’re not the one managing your database of photography, then you need to set firm guidelines for the person who is.

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter...sound familiar? If you use them (and of course you do), then you need to set yourself up immediately under any one of these solutions; Content Management System (CMS), Digital Asset Management (DAM), Brand Asset Management (BAM), or Content Delivery Network (CDN).

These can help you safely and effectively create a stockpile of amazing images that are just what you need, ready at a moment’s notice. No more guessing what they are, or where they came from. No more last-minute, frantic searches.

If only that Community Manager had known, we’d have an entirely different theme for this blog.

But sometimes it takes a mega-error to help us reflect upon what we’re doing, and not doing right.

Stop the risk here and now.

Find your perfect digital management solution.

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Xinet Automation in the Command Line

Posted by Robert Sullivan on Wed, Apr 15, 2009 @ 09:52 AM

Tags: database, Xinet, how to, workflow

Some people actually prefer to work from the command line in a terminal window.
I know! Can Ya' believe it!
There are somethings that just aren't in the GUI and there are some things you
can just do faster in a terminal window. That is assuming you can type faster
than me.

I had a client call in looking for a way to create a series of "Move Actions"
but wanted to do it as a batch somehow. I couldn't get him a 'batch create' for a
WebNative Venture action, but... command line creation fit the bill.

The idea was for remote users to have an Uploader Application and one of the
mandatory data fields was the client name. The Trigger set would do a 'Compare Action'
and then call a Move to-client-name, within the folder structure. So it's going to be
an automated filing system with Triggers for uploaded assets.

In the folder path: /usr/etc/webnative/actions/
are all of the default Venture action categories, (copy, email, move...) and any
custom action categories we can create ourselves. Within each specific category folder
are the scripts for that action and a settings folder that has a config file for each
action we create.

Here is a sample move action called: "Acme Widgets Incoming"

If I look at that setting from the command line it looks like this:
# cat "Acme Widgets Incoming"
[base]
desc=File asset in client folder Acme
[arg0]
value=/Volumes/Raid/Studio/Acme_Widgets/Incoming
[arg1]
value=O
#
It's pretty simple once you compare the GUI to the code settings.
desc is the description of the action
arg0, value, is the destination path we want to move the asset into.
arg1, value=O, is the 'Overwrite' selection.
This value could be 'A' for 'Append Unique Number' or 'F' for Fail
You just need to understand the argument options and the code translation. Now obviously
the different action categories will have other argument options, you just need to review
each one to know the 'value' to assign.

So back to my client's need to create multiple actions quickly. Consistency in the folder
structure and nomenclature is part of the key. All we do is create one 'master' move action
in the WebNative browser window. "Acme Widgets Incoming"
From the command line copy the master to the next client name and then edit the value path.
Done.

In the terminal window navigate to the action settings folder.
   cd /usr/etc/webnative/actions/move/settings
Copy paste the master setting to the new client name.
   cp "Acme Widgets Incoming" "Spacely Sprockets Incoming"
Edit the new setting "Spacely Sprockets Incoming" for the correct path-to-folder.
     value=/Volumes/Raid/Studio/Acme_Widgets/Incoming
becomes:
     value=/Volumes/Raid/Studio/Spacely_Sprockets/Incoming
 
If you need to create a lot of actions that do the same thing to unique paths, this is the
quickest way to go. The command line is not for everybody but for those that know their way
around, its another powerful way to work with the Xinet Venture database. My client now has over
300 move actions, to file uploaded assets into the correct client folder automatically.
All done by lunch time..!
So what's for dessert?

-Sully 
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Push the Xinet Envelope

Posted by Robert Sullivan on Mon, Mar 23, 2009 @ 10:08 PM

Tags: database, knowledge, webinar, workflow

So here I go a blogging away. I'm not too sure of how to start because usually I'm following an agenda of some kind, or a question to start with. Someone has a problem or a challenging workflow to configure. Blogging is more free flowing, I guess... We'll see.
 
I do a lot of training for new clients and there is so much information to absorb that they can easily become overwhelmed & overloaded. As they get use to the system they'll Venture further (pun intended) and start looking for cleaner ways to use their new system. But not many will make that leap and really push the limits of what they can get out of it early on. There's way more power under the hood.
 
The problem I find so often is that people have an idea of what the server can do but aren't sure how to get there. And that stops them. At that point, the thing that most often drives them is a client request, or the boss (every one has a boss...) saw a Webinar about some cool widget and wants it created. Is it done yet?
When I was in Printing, I worked for a guy that always said,
"If I wanted it tomorrow, I'd be asking for it then. I want it now!"
 
Then the calls start coming in in earnest. Which is great for me because now I have something to dig into. A new challenge. But I wonder how do we get people to push the envelope before they get the push themselves? It's training, and it's knowledge. NAPC runs Webinars' all the time on different applications, from FullPress, the Venture database, to Dalim Dialogue or the Xinet Uploader. Sharing the knowledge is driving the train here!

Do you have an idea for a Webinar you'd like to see. Tell us. Got an idea for any Trigger automations, let me know. If you can conceive of it, we can build it... well, I'm looking for the stuff we can build out-of-the-box. Custom stuff comes later.

-Sully
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