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?
Mack Changes Stats: A Visit to the Viral Garden
Mack Collier, social media curator extraordinaire, changed the stats this week on which he bases his Viral Garden Top 25 Marketing & Social Media Blogs from my blogging nemesis Technorati to Feedburner, specifically Feedburner subscribers. (Thanks to Toby for the heads up!) For me, this switch produced several ironies….(not in order of importance)
Irony #1
I referred to Technorati as my nemesis because from the time that I began my blog in May 2005 until the moment (unrecorded) that I stopped looking or caring I have had issues with Technorati in the way that they indexed, ranked and provided inadequate tech support.
Feedburner, on the other hand, has been nothing but helpful even in trying to solve issues with Technorati.
This past April I noticed that my Feedburner subscribers seemed to have dropped precipitously….as in they were “0″, none. I immediately panicked and clicked on “help” only to find that since they had been acquired by Google, “help” was now at Google and a bit less accessible than my panicked state required.
Dick Costolo, founder of Feedburner (who had been so responsive in trying to solve earlier Technorati issues), is a Facebook friend so I messaged him there. He quickly provided the email addresses at Google that could address my problem. It turned out to be a feed re-direction issue and although some subscribers were lost, the issue has been resolved.
Irony #2
Just a few days ago I had my trustee developer Chris Talkington change my Word Press theme and upgrade to WordPress 2.6.1. He added the Feedburner subscriber widget…..the one that Mack used to base his Top 25 on for the past week. Thank you, Chris….how fortuitous for me.
Gavin Heaton, in response to Mack’s change, asked great questions about the public display of stats…and his commenters responded on this topic as well as the merits of lists in general.
I wholeheartedly agree with Gavin’s statement that, “I think the only way to build links, for the long term anyway, is to create quality content and engage with your community of readers.” Presumably, one’s content is initially “found” by a reader because it has achieved enough Google juice to be visible on a topic search or because of a link from another blog. Ideally this is the result of “quality content” and/or engaging with a community of readers through either your blog or through other social venues, Twitter, Facebook etc.
Therefore, I suppose, the display of stats is not necessary to build readership….on the other hand, truly, most people don’t really like to be the first one to arrive at a party or go into a restaurant where there are no other diners. So maybe there is some comfort in a display of subscriber stats that says the content here is good enough that others want to know when there is more.
I would like to believe that people read my blog/subscribe to my blog because they like the content…..and this leads to irony #3.
Irony #3
There hasn’t been much content, good or bad, on my blog for quite some time. For the first part of “some time” it was mostly about My Unforgettable Mom….and then after she passed away in May it just became about, well…. everything. Even wondering just what it was that I should start back writing about.
So, THIS weekend, knowing that my kids were both going to be away I had decided would be a good time to put all my excuses aside, fire up the procrastinator’s clock and write. But again, what to write?
Thanks to Mack, Toby, and Chris at least for today that is solved.
The Nikon D80 Blogger Program and My Canon EOS 30D
Photo taken with Canon EOS 30D
Picture This, I have had a long term relationship with Nikon. It seems now that it was one-sided. An elaborate invitation for a Nikon D80 did not arrive in my mailbox last April. I was not on the Nikon D80 Blogger Outreach dance card.
A Nikon D80 is a very nice camera….and I really needed a new camera.
So as I read some of my favorite bloggers write about their loaners, well I kind of wondered, what if…But like Peter Kim, cool has not chased me for anything more than expensive than a book.
But, it did make me start thinking…Now, CK did a great job articulating all of those blogger relations/blogger outreach and just blogger issues; credibility, transparency, incentives, even community building. And lots of smart, credible, community builders wrote thoughtful comments on her post.
It was just that I was thinking about my relationship with the Nikon Brand.
My very first SLR camera purchased shortly after college graduation was a Nikormat.My recollection is that I saved for quite some time to accumulate enough cash to make that camera my own.
As the years passed, I accumulated quite a collection of Nikons; even the lenses from the Nikormat found a home on my last film camera, the Nikon ProneaS. My first digital camera was a very large CoolPix990. The remnants of my Nikon graveyard is memorialized above.
I had been using a Nikon 7600 basic point and shoot when I began my pursuit of something more. As a matter of fact, I don’t think that from the time that I bought the Nikormat, that I had purchased a camera that wasn’t a Nikon. It seems to me that the D80 Blogger Outreach program changed my beliefs about Nikon.
Now, I am fairly brand loyal….I don’t get why anyone but Heinz or Hellman’s even bothers to make catsup or mayonnaise respectively; and no Pepsi is not an acceptable substitute for Coke. (Full disclosure, Heinz has been a client) But then again, after three Volvo’s, the last one was so awful I would not make any brand based assumptions in considering a future purchase.
And for me, Nikon meant camera. I started with the brand and then decided which one. Before the D80 Blogger Program that is.
I thought the Nikon Flickr program was inspired….sending D80’s to Flickr users and letting them experience the camera by creating content to upload on Flickr, that became brand advertising. The program was a kind of community mash-up that linked Flickr, photographers and the Nikon D80, engaging to all.
The D80 Blogger program was not built on exactly the same principles…and I am talking about the principles of designing the context for users to experience a brand, create content and let the content and the users market the brand, not anyone’s personal principles.
Joseph Jaffe, a D80 participant, seems to have something else altogether going on with his podcast for iPhones and more, and certainly is generating lots of opinions as John Moore points out.
All that aside, what theD80 program and the discussion that followed did for me was to point out that despite my years of Nikon brand loyalty that there were bloggers who perhaps had never spent a single cent on a Nikon product, who maybe didn’t even take many pictures or ever blog about anything photo related who were going to get a really awesome and expensive camera for f-r-e-e.
The Sprint Ambassador program evoked similar thoughts….Lots of bloggers I knew had free Sprint phones and free calls. I was a paying customer.
I had been a Sprint customer for years but for the past several had issues ranging from product quality to service quality, to billing and customer service. I not only couldn’t get my problems solved, when asked at the end of one of the many marathon customer service sessions if there was anything else they could do to for me and I mentioned that I could use a new phone, the rep said that they just weren’t able to do that anymore for customers. Guess all the phones were going to all those Ambassadors.
So, as I went into serious search for new camera mode, instead of evaluating Nikon cameras only, I looked at other Brands. I found my way to Canon and eventually to the 30D, purchased in July. I love it. I am still in learning mode and it will be a while before I can commit to Canon brand loyalty. That takes time and positive experience.
Aside, I read yesterday that the new Canon 40D is due out next month. Did I move too soon?
AAF: MySpace and YouTube, Yes; Blogs, Not Really Very Much
An AAF (American Advertising Federation ) survey of industry leaders on digital media trends indicates that advertising agencies are not confident that Fortune 500 companies quite appreciate the effectiveness of digital marketing. Sixty three percent of Fortune 500 companies according to the survey are, “generally behind the curve when it comes to online strategy.” However, the agencies executives themselves acknowledge that fifty-eight percent are “personally “struggling simply to manage existing online efforts, let alone stay ahead of the curve.”
Well, what a shame about that curve; agencies think clients are behind the digital curve but agencies admit they can’t stay ahead of it. While the agencies and the client in this surveys are roundingÂ� Dead Man’s Curve they might want to drive by Todd Copilevitz’ and see why they are Advertising Themselves to Death.. Another eye opener awaits as Todd notes that General Mills has told its agencies that they will now be compensated based upon the dreaded RESULTS.
Might be important to realize that the Future of Advertising is NOW: Its not about whether the advertisers or the advertising agencies “get it.” The consumer gets “it” and that is really all that matters. According to Yankelovich and Forrester, seventy percent (70%) of consumers say they like products such as TiVo that block advertising and ninety two percent (92%) of these users fast forward through advertising. For more data, check out the Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMMA) Research Blog and to experience the future in real time join me next week at the Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMBAT 2) Basic Training Conference.
OK, and how does the AAF regard blogs and “user generated content sites”? “Advertising executives find blogs a riskier, less effective advertising vehicle than user-generated content sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, etc. Sixty-two percent (62%) stated that “blogs are too risky to advertise with due to lack of predictability of the editorial content,” while only 53 percent agreed with the same statement about user-generated content. Despite these concerns, an overwhelming majority said advertisers “should exploit the viral marketing opportunities” of user-generated sites and, to a lesser degree, blogs.
Well Yankelovitch did report that 55% of consumers still enjoy advertising “itself’. Of course that reminds me of the oft quoted John Wannamaker comment about the 50% of add dollars that are wasted but he just didn’t know which half.
Tags: advertising, marketing, word of mouth marketing, WOMMA, WOM, digital advertising, digital media, YouTube, MySpace, blogs
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Blogging Irony: We Encourage Corporations to Blog as our Business but Discourage Them by our Behavior
As part of my consulting business I promote blogging to businesses, service professionals, and non-profits. Many consultants, Advertising and PR bloggers do the same thing. We tell them it is an easy, inexpensive way to build businesses and brands; we say, blogs build relationships and join the conversation.And we say the best way to learn about blogs is to read blogs.
Well, I believe all those statements are true…the problem is you hope that they are not reading blogs the week that a number of bloggers are pulverizing a brand blog and asking that the marketing department be fired, or having a too personal slugfest over Wal-Mart and Edelman and who should have said what ,or a lower moment, the Strumpette dumpathon.
John Wagner at On Message from Wagner Communication writes, "There is a lesson to be learned from Strumpette and I hope all you blogists, Kool-Aid drinkers and social media consultants were paying attention." The lesson he is teaching is an old one really, public displays of engagement with an adversary seldom accomplish much. Although he makes some good points and the comments to his post represent the spectrum of opinions, I think his perhaps off hand reference to why corporate America is cautious about blogging is just as important.
He references a blog post on Scatterbox that is critical of hypocricies noted about McDonald’s social repsonisibility blog in light his opinions that their menu is less than responsible, as an example of the kind of criticism a corporation might face in the blogosphere. Again, it’s a valid point. If a corporation has a blog it can and probably will be examined for evidence of inconsistencies with stated corporate policies, product or service offerings, or even political contributions. Any public communication by a corporation is subject to this. And really in my opinion, corporations, just like the rest of us should be held accountable for consistency.
What I think is another important point is that when a company launches a blog and bloggers write things like, "Last wednesday, February 15th Guinness (a generally forward thinking
and creative marketer) launched a blog. As opposed to the usual puffery
and inauthenticity that can be associated with some of the “Corporate Brand Jobs†that pass for blogs, " does it really encourage the brand manager reading the post to feel like adding it to the old marketing plan? And that was pretty tame next to what Juicey Fruit got. McDonald’s blog was not exactly welcomed with open arms, even before the first post went up.
Final comment…it seems that for all the instructions we receive about how to build traffic the way to really build traffic fast is sex, scandal, innuendo, and other forms of negative attention. Thank you Strumpette, building traffic on a blog has now been shown to be the same as building traffic anywhere. Well corporate America, you know all those new things we told you about that will help you build readership and join the conversation…links, pings, comments, tags? Well, the more things change the more they stay the same. Sex sells so come on in…there just isn’t a life guard on duty everyday.
Technorati Tags: blogs, bloggers, McDonalds, marketing PR, advertising, branding, Wal-Mart, corporate blogs, strumpette
Wombat Podcast #10: Sean Glass and Chris LaConte
Sean Glass and Chris LaConte of Higher One talk about how they have used Word-of-Mouth to build their on campus financial services business on a podcast at the Wombat Blog .It is fascinating!
Sean and Chris talk about how when they started the business their first encounter with the influence of word-of-mouth was through negative word-of-mouth generated through misinformation about their on-line bill pay product. They astutely realized the importance of getting the right message to the right people by joining the conversation.
They began working with students to identify the physical locations, the venues, on campus where the conversations were happening and began providing students with the tools to facilitate the spread of information about their products. They gave students copy and content that they could then personalize and pass along to their friends and classmates. They identified students who believed in their products and were willing to talk about them and made them Agents.
The Agents were required to provide written reports of their activities and to encourage students to submit high quality reports, they were given points based upon the quality of their reports. The reports provided Higher One with immediate feedback, both negative and positive, that was then used to make changes, improvements, or otherwise build their business. The Agents functioned as the marketing department as well as the market research department. Impressive!
Sean and Chris say that word-of -mouth can be an entrepreneurs best friend….it is important to give early adopters the tools to amplify word of mouth…this includes finding the venue, providing information to share, and motivating the evangelists. Advertising they said can build awareness and create demand…word-of-mouth drives the decision to buy.
I mentioned Sean in a post in November about Word-of-Mouth Marketing on college campuses and he emailed to thank me and to tell me that he had started blogging. I am sure he will have a lot to say!
Besides Higher One, which is projecting sales of over $18 million in 2006, the 26 year old has among many other accomplishments, co founded the Yale Entrepreneurial Society a non-profit that promotes entrepreneurship in the greater Yale community and ThreadKill.com which I suggest you read his explanation for, and is an investor in Axon Labs, a sleep research labortory that is developing products to enable peak performance based upon research in neuroscience. The Axon web site links to an American Medical Association study that officially declares waking up the worst part of the day. Just visit our house any school day morning to confirm that.
Technorati Tags: WOMMA, advertising, blogging, WOMBAT Blog. word-of-mouth, buzz marketing, college marketing
Ad Age Says There Is No Such Things as Blogging..But The Name Is Cool
A story in today’s Ad Age by Simon Dumenco said that there is no such thing as blogging and no such thing as a blogger…"it’s just the software, people." He says that blogging is instantaneous, "voice-y", and opinionated but says this is not different than old-school media. He says that just because there are blog specific seach engines, blog content is not different than non-blog content and as news sources blogs and traditional news sources are given equal weight. I guess he means by himself.
He goes on to say that bloggers are only bloggers because they believe in blogging as something distinct, in the mythical blogosphere, and because traditional media types think that bloggers are amateurs and that they are the professionals… professionals don’t "work way faster, interact constantly with readers..{and are} not vastly more voracious." Not sure what "vastly more voracious means exactly"
His conclusion is that "blogging software" will become the universal online publishing solution and that there will be two types of media people, fast and slow. He also thinks blogging is a cool name. Actually, I think the name is kind of stupid and I think he is really missing the point about blogging so I have to say that I disagree with most everything he wrote. Blogging is not just about writing faster and interacting with readers.
With lots of help from the not so mythical blogosphere, here is what Simon didn’t say or see:
Steve Rubel summed it up in one word: dialogue. Blogging is different than traditional media writing because blogging is a dialogue and writing for tradtional media is a monologue…comments to the former go instantaneously to the blogger, to be read by blog readers in the context of the post while in the latter, comments go to the editor long after anyone remembers what was written.
Bloggers interact with other bloggers and with readers who may or may not be bloggers. Lots of participants, no editors or refereeing. Big difference.
The Eide Neurolearning Blog say that "blogs foster conversations, interactions with other blogs and other information sources, and invite feedback from their readers. " This would include comments but also includes links, another distinctively blog attribute. Links form the structure of the blogosphere. They can be reciprocal links, explicit or implicit but links drive the speed of the information; not bloggers working "way faster". They also bring up another distinctively blogging attribute, associational thinking. They write, blogging can be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking. And yes, this is maybe about "faster" and technology driven, but it is also that faster "promotes a kind of spontaneity and ‘raw thinking’–the fleeting associations and the occasional outlandish ideas–seldom found in more formal media." How does that work? You read it, react to it, associate it, and you blog it. And of course, there is always another blogger or a blog reader right there, ready to comment, link, correct, disagree, or expand upon the thought or idea.
What else differentiates blogging from writing? Well Simon said something about amateurs and professionals….an important difference though not necessarily in the context that he was referring. Writers in traditional media are professionals in that they get paid to write, have editors, bosses, deadlines, page requirements; bloggers typically do not. We might write our blogs so that someone will hire us to DO a job…but writing the blog is not our job. They have editors, we have spell check.
OK, the summation of all of this, blogging is a social media, it is about social networks. Conversations, relationships, social capital, connections, that you don’t get from just writing or reading. Writing is about the page, staying within the lines…blogging is not about the limits of the page; it is about stepping off the page and beyond the lines and engaging rather than reading, writing and listening.
Technorati Tags: social media, blogging, neuroscience, traditional media
Performancing
I have not had much success using any of the available blog posting tools such as ecto…I can acccept everyone elses rave reviews, but for me one of my biggest frustrations with Typepad is working on a post and then for one reason or another having it vanish before I hit "save" or "publish". The very first time I tried to use ecto I watched in complete horror as the very same thing happened. Even having Technorati tags is not worth losing a post.
So, having read about Performancing for Firefox at Blog Herald the other day I downloaded it and then oddly enough, actually read the step-by-step instructions. One slight problem…I could not find the little notepad icon anywhere; the icon that starts the whole process.
Now, strange behavior is no stranger to my computer. Last week, all of the bookmarklets on my toolbar stopped working…no explanation or intentional act on my part. After some trial and error I discovered that they now worked in a sidebar that I didn’t know I had….since no one could explain the demise of the toolbar except to mumble that one-size-fits-all phrase "virus", I decided that the path of least resistance was just to use the sidebar and hope that the funcionality would return to my toolbar just as spontaneously as it left.
When the icon for Performancing could not be found…I decided it must be part of the Toolbar Effect. Tonight, when I thought I would investigate a little further I clicked on something that said toolbar and miraculously the little notepad icon appeared, and here I am testing Performancing. The toolbar is still not functional.
So, without further delay I am going to give Performancing for Firefox the option to publish and tag for me.
Technorati Tags: Performancing, tags, Firefox, Technorati
Bill 0′Reilly Declares Blogs Garbage
"I don’t read them, I mean it’s so outrageous", O’Reilly said on his show on July 18, 2005. Then last night on the Factor he attacks blogs calling them ideological weapons and smear campaigns as reported by Think Progress and Crooks and Liars. OK, Bill so I do watch your show because I believe it is important to hear opposing viewpoints. I have not read your book for kids. I am assuming (risky I know) based on interviews you have given about your book that you advise kids to be informed. I know that is the advise I give my own kids who frequently ask me why I watch your show since I frequently don’t agree with your opinions. Although, I would also advise my kids not to settle a lawsuit if the accusations were false. Hmmmmm?
So tell me, if you don’t read blogs, please explain to everyone how you know that they are "garbage"? Not to make an extreme comparison or anything, but wasn’t this the same premise upon which the Nazi’s burned books? Let’s declare the ideas we disagree with as garbage to protect others from reading them.
So, I say to Bill 0′Reilly: Your premise is garbage. You should read blogs to designate them garbage. I watch your show and and have personally heard you rant about the uninformed who express opinions. So, I believe I must request that you please take to heart your claim to be "fair and balanced" and at least read a blog or two, or just "shut up". (I also tell my kids not to say "shut up"….)
Blogging For Non-Profits and Social Entrepreneurs
I am doing a blogging workshop on Septemeber 27th at 8AM at Provident Counseling , 2650 Olive Street, St. Louis, Missouri for non-profits and social entrepreneurs. If you are interested in attending, email me!
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