Google Wave anyone?

I just got my Google Wave invite and am ready to geek out!

Anyone here on Wave yet? (I’m vrigsbee at gmail.com)

Useful entrepreneurial tools (from the #unsummit session with Don Ball)

We had a wonderful brainstorming session at the 2009 #unsummit about the online tools available for entrepreneurs. Here were some of the items on that list:

PHONE

TokTumi

MagicJack

Skype

Google voice

FINANCES

Freshbooks

Outright

NeatCo

INVOICES

Blink Sale

PROJECT MANAGEMENT/COLLABORATION SOFTWARE

BaseCamp

Pivotal Tracker

Get Harvest

One Place Home

Mind Jet

Xmind

LAW/TAXES/ETC

Find Law

Nolo

APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING

Setster

CONTENT CREATION

Microsoft Word

Pages

Google Docs

Neo Office

Buzzword

BUSINESS CARDS/PRINTING

Vistaprint

Uprinting

MOO

TO DO LISTS

ToDoist

Remember the Milk

Tadalist

FINDING JOBS

Elance.com

Why I love social media: Takeaways from blogging, tweeting and facebooking for my Broadway site

As you most likely know, I have run a site on Broadway musicals since high school. It started out as a way to kill time during a boring summer and has since developed into a legit business. The site is basically a database, presented in a logical, aesthetically pleasing way (though, I grant you, it is in desperate need of a visual update – something currently in the works).

Over the years, I’ve had tons of requests that I incorporate more recent news on the site, but as I run it as a side project, I really couldn’t legitimize running as the competition (who all have at least 10-50 people on staff) does.

Earlier this summer, I decided to launch a Twitter account to cover this type of news. Coming up with 140 characters of text didn’t seem that difficult. I’d get email updates from Playbill or Broadway.com and post those items that interested me to the Twitter account. Slowly people started following …

Meanwhile, back when Facebook first created pages, I’d decided to grab one for The Broadway Musical Home. I uploaded a couple pictures and filled out the basic information, but then just kind of let it sit there. One day, while tweeting for @broadwaymusical, I realized it would make sense to post my tweets to my page’s Facebook wall as well. I invited my friends to become fans and slowly others started becoming fans as well …

Halfway through the summer I realized that for some items, 140 characters were not enough. I started poking around on wordpress and, on a whim looked to see if anyone had grabbed broadwaymusicalblog.com. As no one had, I decided to take the leap and began blogging. Slowly people started reading and subscribing …

My followers, fans and readers have since started growing at an exponential rate.

The best part: I haven’t done anything special. I placed a few ads on Facebook for that page, spending no more than $25 a month. I used all of the tag and category SEO tools available through wordpress. I linked to the blog, twitter and facebook pages from the home page of my site. But, when it comes down to it, I really haven’t done much of anything to get people to connect with me. So why have they come in such huge droves?

This is stuff both me and my followers are really passionate about.
I can’t help but get excited about Broadway muscials, and have found with social media stuff – you really don’t need to and shouldn’t try to hide that enthusiasm. People like getting fired up with you – so don’t try to keep it from being fun.

People just love to share.
What’s really startled me is the number of RTs and @replies on twitter and the long stream of replies to my postings on facebook. Some of the posts/tweets people have gotten the most excited about are those where I ask questions like: What star would you like to meet? What’s your favorite album? What’s the worst show you’ve seen? People really do want to share. Give them the chance and they will.

They want to talk to a real person; they want to connect.
One of the most amazing parts about the site for me is when I get emails and DMs and @replies asking me for the name of the song from that one show, the actor who played so-and-so in 1967, auditions for Broadway and any number of other things.

I have played around on the web enough to know where to go for this type of information and so can usually find what they’re looking for and help them out. I’ve gotten novels of ecstatic thank yous from those I’ve responded to – even those I can’t help directly – who come back with nothing but overjoyed, surprised thanks for my reply.

I just had an 11 year old write to me with his thoughts for Broadway’s Thriller and so posted it to my blog looking for help. Someone sent me the name of the production company and many others sent me notes of appreciation and thoughts. I replied to Spencer and got an adorable note back from him and one from his father, saying that it meant so very much to Spencer that I had replied. It’s amazing to me that what takes 5 minutes of my time can make someone’s day. That’s awesome for everyone.

It’s targeted – a very specific group, a very specific topic.
The people who follow/fan/read my stuff are in love with this stuff. It is a very specific niche and I know that and target all of the content to them. I only talk Broadway musicals (or potential Broadway musicals). There’s a lot out there on this stuff, but I think if I expanded to talking all musicals or even all Broadway, I would be stretching away from my group’s interests and would be taxing myself to keep up. Because it’s so specific, they know and get exactly what they came for and I have the time to do it.

Follow all the Broadway buzz here:

An overreaction on behalf of my character in Much Ado …

I would like to say something on behalf of Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing: she is not a slut. She is true to one man – Borachio – throughout the entire show. She has been with him for a year according to Shakespeare and, when Borachio returns from the war, gets intimate with him and only him (it’s hardly her fault that people are spying on her when she does). She sometimes talks a little dirty, dresses to show off her assets and is intimate with a man she is not married to (how many of you are guilty of sex before marriage, hmmm?), but if that makes her a slut, I am surrounded by sluts right now. Poor, misunderstood Margaret can not stand up for herself, so I will stand up for her.

The show is going very well – audiences have really enjoyed it and Quinton Skinner wrote up a nice review in the Pioneer Press. We had very large and responsive houses for opening weekend that will hopefully continue through the rest of the run. I hope you get a chance to attend this very fun production, which is 1/3 Disney Cartoon, 1/3 1950s Italian Romance and 1/3 Traditional Shakespeare. Go to www.theatreintheround.org to reserve your tickets.

What makes it a good website?

At today’s Social Media Breakfast, I sat next to a couple of folks in the web design business (Brock Ray and Mike Ellsworth) and had an interesting conversation about the web industry and the role design should play in web development.

We agreed that sites need valuable content in order to succeed, but I do think there is something to be said about an aesthetically pleasing presentation. It is obvious to (nearly) everyone that a website should be more than just an online brochure, but what exactly is it that sets apart the good sites from the mediocre?

One of the speakers today pointed out that you should “always start with your authentic story and what makes you unique.” I feel you can and should accomplish this through both content and design. Offer content no one else is getting out there and present it in a way that both makes sense and feels good. People won’t be able to identify why they like it – they’ll just know they do.

Much Ado About Nothing Rehearsals Have Begun …

Rehearsals have started for my next acting project – Theatre in the Round’s Much Ado About Nothing – and I couldn’t be more excited.

The cast is phenomenal and made up largely of people I greatly admire but have never had the chance to work with before (Joel Grothe, Ryan Lindberg, Wade Vaughn, Nicholas Leeman, Linda Sue Anderson, Anna Sundberg, Amanda Whisner, Anna Olson) as well as many others I’d love to work with again and again. Craig is the perfect director for this project, which is being set it 1950s Italy, mostly, as Craig put it “so we all look good.”

I’m playing Margaret, the slightly bad serving gentlewoman to Hero – which will be a fun stretch from all the ingenues I’ve played lately. I’ve got a number of really bawdy lines and in normal Craig fashion, there’s lots of extra little gems (including a stint at the very beginning of the show where I will no doubt terrify the poor board member who will be trying to talk to the audience pre-show).

I’m really happy I took a break from doing shows this summer – I feel refreshed and am absolutely ready to play again. I can’t remember the last time I looked forward to rehearsals and research this much. Taj just got a copy of the “Playing Shakespeare” DVDs, which I will soon be watching start to finish (let me know if you’d like to watch the series with me!), and I’ve got a whole slew of period movie’s queue’d up on Netflix (Roman Holiday, Summertime, Three Coins in the Fountain, Talented Mr. Ripley) as well as a big stack of books from our amazing dramaturg in my purse.

Is there anything better than beginning a new show?!

Much Ado About Nothing plays Sept 11 – Oct 4 at Theatre in the Round.

valrigsbee.com

My website http://valrigsbee.com. Explore my three separate lives as actor, designer and webmaster.

Much Ado About Nothing

I was just cast as Margaret in Theatre in the Round’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Craig Johnson and playing from September 11 – October 4 at the West Bank theater. I will be joined by a fantastic group of actors, including my roommate, Taj

The Broadway Musical Blog

I just launched a blog (broadwaymusicalblog.com) for my Broadway site and am really excited about it. I’ve got nearly 2,000 followers on twitter and 500 fans on facebook and have been posting snippits of Broadway musical news on there. Now I can write more than 140 characters and spread news and gossip I care about!

Check out the best new blog about Broadway musical theatre now!

Health Insurance Values

Just launched a new site for work. Check it out: http://healthinsurancevalues.org