links for 2008-09-26
State of the Blogosphere ‘08 Released: Who Cares? {About the Report}
You know you have been blogging for a long time if you can remember when Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere meant something and influential bloggers announced its release and listed the results with few questions asked.
A new State of the Blogosphere was released today and things are a little different in the land of Technorati….missing is Dave Sifry, although he did write about the report. Also missing is matter….as in, does it matter?
Technorati is just not reliable enough to be relevant. Tish Grier expounded on this back in July. Mack Collier switched to Feesburner to tally his weekly Top 25 Marketing Blogs. In years past, Techmeme would feature the story and dozens upon dozens of bloggers would be listed as past of the discussions and/or related.
This year, Techmeme has aggregated 5 posts about the report and Marshall Kirkpatrick, who states that the report is a great service and that he appreciates the data, also questions the Technorati conclusion that blogging is “mainstream.” Both Marshall and Mark Hopkins writing at Mashable! use the word “interesting” to describe the data. Interesting.
Duncan Riley, also using the word “interesting” espouses the opinion that Technorati is actually more reliable today than it has been for awhile. Now that I find interesting!
Duncan makes another interesting point, an important point that is a huge flaw in the Technorati data now and in the past; blogging in the classic sense may have “slowed”….He calls it “stand alone” blogging; but participation on social media has not slowed. Technorati does not track social network content sharing…they don’t even track social network blogs.
Technorati says there are 133 blogs. There are approximately the same number of people who visit MySpace or Facebook every day.and share content…..and some of them write a blog, on MySpace, a MySpace blog. Do they know they are not part of the blogosphere? As tracked by Technorati.
There are an additional myriad of niched social networks from Dogster to Saavy Auntie. some with blogs some without but all social. To not track these people in a so called “state of the blogosphere” simply does not track.
Micro-blogging such as Twitter is also not tracked by Technorati. I would float the theory that for those of us who blog and Twitter, the more we Twitter, the less we blog but yet we still “identify” as bloggers. Further, I would say that starting a blog right now almost requires Twitter, if not also a presence on several social networking sites.
So, yes it is interesting to know some stats about blogging in 2008. Stats, not state.
OK, the “State” was always lots of hype and the “number of new blogs” stat never quite made sense; but now more even than in prior years, there just isn’t enough there there to make it important. Interesting maybe….
And I don’t even have to write about method and accuracy of links and pings to know that even if they were completely accurate, that data only about blogs is infinitely limited.
Inter:PLAY 2008
It was lots of fun. Thanks to Dave Gray, Bill Streeter and Melody Meiners for making the panel, Branding Yourself On-Line, work so well. And Dana, Melody you two did an amazing job making it happen!
If you missed it, you can still catch a part of it here.
links for 2008-09-20
Run Forrest, Run
The late Randy Pausch wrote of an experience he had as a child at Walt Disney World in Orlando he referred to as the $100,000 salt and pepper shaker.
He and his sister had purchased the salt and pepper shaker at a gift shop and were planning on giving it to their parents as a “thank you” for taking them to Disney. Randy accidentaly broke the gift but returned to the gift shop, told the employee who had sold them the set what had happened. The employee gave him a replacement at no charge, took responsibility for the accident and rescued victory from the jaws of defeat for Randy and his sister.
The $100,000 relates to the amount of money that Randy Pausch estimated his family spent at Disney over the years following the incident. He writes that the appreciation his family felt towards Disney engendered by “this one customer service incident” caused them to return time and time again.
Pausch mentions that years later as an Imagineering consultant at Disney he would tell the salt and pepper story to senior executives and ask them if, in their current culture, they could visualize an employee being “kind enough” to replace the shaker; he reports, “probably not.”
David Armano wrote about this incident in July as he was thinking about “Micro-Interactions”. I have borrowed his quote (with attribution) from this presentation, “Your brand is the sum of its interactions,” in my own client presentations to highlight the importance for brands of web2.0/social media.
I also apply it to the “old fashioned” off-line micro-interactions…the importance that customer service, tech support, retail all align with your branding and advertising efforts or like Sprint, HP, and many others large and small, the return on spending will be diluted, if not drowned by negative word of mouth.
And the value of word of mouth is the topspin that I want to add to the salt and pepper shaker story. In addition to the $100,000 spent directly by the Pausch family because one Disney cast member choose to fulfill “dreams come true” there is the value of organic word of mouth.
THAT story, repeated over and again by the Pausch family. Perhaps an imaginary conversation between friends, yes, we are going to Disney again because….which makes the listener say “Awwww” and then call their travel agent.
OK, small scale? Grown up Randy Pausch, beloved professor at Carnegie Mellon one day; beloved professor to all of us the next. And the next…..becomes a collective “awwwww we’re going to Walt Disney World”? (The latter, an example of organic turned into ad campaign)
Well, I don’t really know if this chapter in The Last Lecture had any impact on Disney bookings any more than I know if Randy’s question “Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?” produced an increase in sales of Pooh gear. But I do know that Randy Pausch’s message(s) can be considered viral in a way that could not be created because viral just cannot be created by definition.
Just looking at the Disney salt and pepper shaker example, we have organic word of mouth of the best kind , the credible kind. As Jackie Huba notes in response to the offline/online word of mouth is better argument,”When it comes to word of mouth, the medium is not necessarily the message. The person is.” Even better if the credible person is relaying a genuinely touching story from childhood.
But in a sense organic word of mouth sounds so quaint, so 2006. Have great products, give exceptional service, do good things for your customers and they will recommend you, your brand, your company or your service. Blog it, Tweet it or get others to do so, even better.
In 2008, now that business partcipation in social media is marketing and everyone is blogging and twittering we ponder the meaning. Peter Kim gives it a one two punch: Does Social Media Matter? and then asks, Is is scaleable?
Well, I think the answer is that there is no replacement for exceptional products, services and brands and social media just like its predecessor, advertising can only do so much to influence purchase decisions. I may be Facebook friends with the CEO of Acme, inc and follow her on Twitter but if the Acmes fall apart sooner than promised, all bets are off.
Now, why the post title, Run Forrest, Run? Well Forrest is my son’s name and as I have written before he had the misfortune to be given that name around the same time that the movie Forrest Gump was released. Not only was I asked way too many times if he had been named after the character but in addition to also being asked that question, he has also been told his whole life to “run Forrest run” or “swim Forrest swim” or whatever sport he was participating in at the time.
Recently, he was at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at Universal Studios in Orlando. They were selling t-shirts that said ‘Run Forrest Run.” He asked if they gave discounts on the shirts to people named Forrest. If you knew Forrest, you would know that this is completely out of character for him to do so when he told me the story, I was pretty surprised just by his question.
The employee he asked immediately said, “No, we don’t do that.”
Another employee nearby asked him if his name was really Forrest and said that he had never met anyone named Forrest before. He then asked to see Forrest’s driver’s license. Upon ascertaining that his name was indeed “Forrest” he returned his drivers liscense and said, “Wow!”
Now the t-shirt was $22.00. ONLY $22.00 for positive word of mouth but a lot for just a t-shirt.
Forrest paid the $22.00 and came home and only told me the story. He wears the t-shirt a lot and it gets a lot of attention among his friends. The only “story” is that he is Forrest and has a t-shirt with his name on it.
Imagine though if they had given him a discount. Imagine if they had given him the t-shirt just because his name was “Forrest.” He might go back to Bubba Gump’s to eat again….and again. He might be repeating a story every time he wore the t-shirt about the really cool folks at Universal Studios. He might have uploaded a picture on Facebook.
He might be still telling the story about Universal Studios after the t-shirt and Bubba Gump were long gone. Maybe to a group of friends, maybe in a lecture hall.
“Your brand is the sum of its interactions.”
Where will Dave Gray, Matt Homann, Dana Loesch and I Be This Weekend? InterPLAY St. Louis!
This weekend, September 18th and 19th, the St. Louis Bloggers’ Guild is partnering with the play:STL music festival to create InterPLAY, the first ever St. Louis interactive social media festival.
Last year’s play:STL had 90 bands on 9 stages with thousands of attendees. This year is expected to be even bigger with 99 bands PLUS 30 of St. Louis’ finest bloggers sharing their wit and wisdom in 3 separate tracks of interactive panel: Bidness, Lifestyle, and Geek Chic.
As the track names suggest, there will be panels covering a wide range of topics from Bidness basics such as The Small Business and Social Media which wil be moderated by Melody Meiners with Dave Gray, Matt Homann, Madalyn Skar and myself to Lifestyle controversy provided by Cyberbullying, moderated by Lisa Bertrand and featuring Elizabeth Helfant, Matt Homan, Kim Dorsey and Dana Loesch.
As you may know Missouri’s governor Matt Blunt recently signed a bill outlawing cyberbullying following the suicide of Megan Meier. Many support this legistlation as an important step in controlling cyberbullying…others believe that the law infringes upon First Amendment rights. Come learn and discuss this controversial topic with a panel representing all sides of the cyberbulllying spectrum of opinions.
Besides Dave Gray, Matt Homann, Dana Loesch, and me you will find Lisa Bertrand, John Combest, Kim Dorsey, Angela Reiner Downing, Dave Drebes, Mike Flynn, Ellan Gooch, Will Hanke, Elizabeth Helfant, Tanner Hobin, Todd Jordan, Jaelithe Judy, Eric Kayira, Alana Kellogg, Kurt Kerns, Chris Loesch, Kristie Love, , Mutha Mae, Craig Mayhem, Melody Meiners, Steve Patterson, Jonathan Pollack, Raquita, Madalyn Skar, Slacker Mom Bill Streeter, Ben Vierck, Kelly Wickham, and Ken Williams.
For the complete festival details, download the official program here http://www.playstlfest.com/media/PLAYSTL_online.pdf and/or visit the St. Louis Bloggers Guild blog to get the latest info on the Interactive panels.
Click here to buy a wristband….$15 admits you to the entire music and interactive festival. Is there a better value in all of social media?
links for 2008-09-15
links for 2008-09-11
links for 2008-09-10
Is John McCain A Marketing Genius?
Ad Age wants to know, “Was it marketing genius for John McCain to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate?” According to their poll as of Day 1 (the poll ends of Friday), 67% of Ad Age readers that responded said “yes” John McCain is a marketing genius.
Well, McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, told the Washington Post that the election is not about issues but about personalities…”a composite view of what people take away about the candidates.” So, to paraphrase James Carville, “it’s her {personality} stupid.”
As any Account Planner or marketing strategist worth their Venn diagram will tell you, if you can capture the essence of your marketing message within an “it’s” and a “stupid” you are on your way to genius. I frequently call upon the Carville/Clinton analogy when trying to make the it point….borrowed genius.
The most recent USA Today Gallup poll puts McCain at 54% to Obama’s 40% anong those most likely to vote. The latest CNN poll shows Obama at 44% and McCain at 43% but this is a 4 point gain for McCain. Are these numbers support for the marketing genius award? Is this the Palin effect?
Who do you think of when you think “marketing genius”? Steve Jobs? Howard Schultz? A.G. Lafley? (I am reading The Game Changer…highly recommended.) That’s who comes to my mind. And what do they have in common? The words innovation, different, change are usually applied when describing their brand of genius.
So is the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate a stroke of marketing genius?
Well, if no other reason than that the current unpopular President is a Republican, Obama owns change but of course that is just beginning; his race, his age and he has made it his own. OK, the Biden choice was a bit off message but maybe reassuring to some.
McCain, despite George Bush’s uncomfortable satellite reference to disagreements with McCain, “I Know”is not only a Republican but as Obama reminds us, has voted with Bush 90% of the time. ( Some disagree.) And then there is that annoying enthusiasm gap.
Enter Sarah Palin. Definitely unexpected. Definitely different. Definitely change. Definitely a “personality” move. But what is “it” exactly?
I think Peggy Noonan nailed it with, “She has the power of the normal. And that is change in American politics and especially this year with the leader of the sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits the only choice to put a woman in the White House. If you believed that there should be a woman president but just didn’t like Hilary Clinton you might have felt disloyal, or at least conflicted.
So, yes, by making normal the new change, McCain is a marketing genius.
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