Chat w/ Hill Harper Turns Out To Be A Hit
Several months ago my friend, Actor (CSI) and Author (“Letters To A Young Brother, Letters To A Young Sister”) Hill Harper was talking to me about a vision he had to build an online destination that would connect people in communities around the world who are looking to create change. With the help of a talented team and the powerful software Ning, ForRealSolutions.com was built. It had been in a beta form for a minute (albeit growing daily with several new members) because Hill was busy getting his friend and Harvard classmate Barack Hussein Obama into the White House, where he played a key role raising money for the campaign. He and I did have time to launch a quick online “meme” Joes4Obama.com during the campaign; another project that started with a quick phone call and insights about McCain’s desire to use “Joe” as a hook. It was so impressive that I actually received a call from someone in Obama’s campaign camp which was flattering.
Fresh from the road last night Hill and I decided to open up the ethernet lines and broadcast lines with a live chat held on both Ustream and BlogTalkRadio to talk more about the vision for ForRealSolutions. Thanks to online influencers like @thejenntafur and @calinative we were able to garner a lot of awareness in a very short time. Hill was able to talk about the vision for the site and the purpose. Sure there are lots of additions to make and changes to implement but we both felt that this was the best time to open up the floodgates. I always tell Hill he has an incredible following in the online space and I believe last night he really understood what I was talking about. Sure I aided him in setting his Twitter profile (he now boasts over 1200 friends) but I think last night was confirmation that Hill is not only an actor on CSI, an author of two books but people in the social media space really want to hear what he has to say. During Hurricane Katrina I encouraged him to post a Youtube message which has been viewed by many and touched the hearts during that time period. By the time we opened up the lines last night we had 50 people waiting to talk to him, maxed out of our chat room and in the end approximately 170 people we’re on at the same time listening to us take calls and discuss the world as it is. The number of 170 is nothing compared to guys like Chris Pirillo or even the Shiba puppies but there are very few celebrities who have made the time investment Hill Harper has made to using the space and I commend him for it. 170 I guarantee will grow into the thousands in a few months. Several months from now Hill will look back at these early days in his “online rock star” journey and laugh but I’m excited that he is eager, ready to learn and has a vision and dreams that the web 2.0. space can benefit from.
Hats off to Wayne Sutton-@waynesutton for a brilliant recap and analysis of Hill and Hollywood’s need to get on board. Wayne was “crowdsourced” on the spot last night when we asked him what Hill could do differently on Twitter, his experience is highly sought after as a master Twitterer and blogger. Wayne know that I’m working within my rolodex of Hollywood celebs and big names to bring even more heavy hitters to the social media space.
