Influential Marketing Blog

6 Secrets of Successful Book Marketing

I've probably worked on hundreds of marketing campaigns in my time over the past ten years working at agencies. And what I realized these past few weeks as I've been launching my own book, is that I've never worked on a book launch among all those campaigns and that it's different when it's your own project as opposed to something you work on for someone else. I thought about doing a recap of the entire marketing effort behind PNI (including the things I am still planning but haven't yet launched), but that's only something you can do a year or longer after launching the book and seeing the results of effort. Of course, waiting that long seems like way too long to share some things I have already learned, so here's a first list of some "secrets" I've learned so far about working in the publishing industry which will hopefully be useful for you whether you are launching your own book, or some other product or service:

1. Provide a vision. Lots of people will want to try and help you with a book when you come out with it because it is exciting. The trick is to keep them excited about it beyond the initial buzz of meeting you or hearing that you have a book out.  My vision for the book had partially to do with a very short and powerful elevator pitch ("personality matters") which I have been talking about since my first post about the power of personality picking it as the trend to watch for 2008 back in my first post of the new year. The vision for the book is what people can believe in, and what has propelled much of the buzz from people so far talking about it.
2. Avoid the big bang. Lots of books launch with a big burst of activity and then fade away. Instead, my marketing strategy for PNI extends for more than a year. There is lots of activity now and you could be forgiven for thinking that I am using the same "big bang" approach as other books ... but trust me when I say that there is a much longer term approach to how I am promoting this book.  I expect peak sales for PNI to come a year or two from now, and hopefully continue. I aimed to write a book that was international, had a shelf life beyond the usual 2 years and that would build word of mouth as more people puchased, read, and used the ideas within it. "Bum rushing charts" is great for a spike, but I am building a brand around the book that I want to last for far longer than a weekend.
3. Know your competition. I know that I released a book in the same time frame as the long awaited Groundswell from Charlene and Josh from Forrester (both of whom I know and have great respect and admiration for). On occasion, I get a question about what it is like to be "competing" with them by having PNI come out within a week of Groundswell. I don't see it like that firstly because we have very different books (mine is only peripherally about social media and is actually more of a marketing/branding/entrepreneurship book). Secondly, and more importantly, we are not with the same publisher. My real competition is any other book from McGraw-Hill that is part of their Spring 2008 catalog which is competing for marketing resources from the MH team. So far PNI is the lead title from McGraw-Hill's entire Spring catalog. That's why we managed to presell more than half of our entire first edition run to bookstores (more than 10,000 units) before the book was even released.
4. Get used to uncertainty. When you launch a book, there are a lot of elements that are out of your control. The actual release date, the binding, the timelines ... everything will start to seem a bit haphazard and uncoordinated. Luckily, I have a lot of experience working with big brands, so the experience of working in an environment where you are not quite sure of everything that others are doing to work on the same challenge as you is a very familiar situation for me. The main way I have learned to tackle this is by sharing more openly what I am doing and reacting to new information quickly as I get it.
5. Build a team one by one. My book is all about how you need to make the individuals in your organization the ones that can speak for your brand and bring it to life. In publishing, this means selling the concept of the book to all the people from my publisher who may have the chance to touch it. I have been directly emailing more than 25 individuals in offices around the world at McGraw-Hill to build relationships with them and bring them into the marketing team for PNI. I know what it's like to have multiple projects to work on each day ... I've done that in agencies for many years. Now that I'm the client, I'm taking my own advice and trying to make my project the one that team members choose to work on more than any of the other ones on their plate.  I want PNI to be the project they tell their families about with excitement after getting home from a day of work.
6. Launch quickly, iterate and move on. This is a lesson that more and more marketers are starting to embrace, in part because of the perceived success of a brand like Google in just trying lots of things, seeing what works, and then focusing on that.  The nice thing about being my own client is that I have ultimate say on whether to do something or not. And the tact I've taken with most campaigns around the book launch is to decide quickly and do it. The virtual interview idea that I had on book launch day (March 28th) which resulted in buzz on more than 60 blogs was an idea that I had just four days earlier. It fit with my strategy, was implementable and so I did it. I will soon be launching a follow up to that effort (next week) that should get even more buzz. Stay tuned for that announcement next Monday.

This list is based on a few months of promotional effort for Personality Not Included.  As time runs on, I hope to have even more insights to share ... as well as more detailed results behind them to illustrate just how effective they really are.

6 Lessons on Creating A Great Learning Event from OMS

This is not about how to throw a great party.  That would definitely be a worthwhile topic as well, but the point of this post is to share some lessons on creating a great event focused on learning.  Whether it is a conference, seminar, session or just about any other type of business event focused on learning - there are some great lessons I took from the Online Marketing Summit http://www.onlinemarketingsummit last week.  These were not from a great session, however, but from the event itself and how it was put together.  Aaron Kahlow and his team from Business Online did several things that made OMS an example worth paying attention to if you need to put together an event for your team or are trying to put on a successful industry event.  Here are 6 key lessons that may help you:

1. Have a host instead of an "introducer" - Anyone who attended the event was sure to get lots of Aaron-time, as he led many of the sessions himself and made it his mission to host the event.  Though this was not always a good thing (like spending the first 10 minutes of our panel on powerpoint - something I doubt he would have wanted any of us to do had one of us been moderator), at the end of the day you had the feeling that there was a real person who really cared and was doing his best to make sure the event was useful for everyone.
2. Create a great content archive - Learning is not just about what happens at an event but how easily accessible all the information is after the event.  The plan from OMS was to have all presentations online, every session video recorded and available online, and generally producing a content archive from the event that would ensure that even if some attendees were stuck on conference calls during the event (um, like me) or had to choose one session over another, the archive of learning would still be available.
3. Encourage 1 to 1 information sharing - During the day, there were long breaks planned into the schedule, and a unique roundtable style lunch where each table was focused on a particular "pain point" that attendees identified as important to them before the event.  These topics were even included on the name badges, allowing attendees to most easily find someone else with a similar challenge to them and start useful informal conversations.
4. Target communities where people are - OMS has its own online community and set of forums, which I have to admit I did log into but did not engage in much discussion on.  I did, however, join the Facebook group early and managed to revisit it multiple times leading up the event only because I was already using Facebook.  The conversation at the event with several people proved that this Facebook group was a key element in some people deciding to attend and for others, was a great way to connect with others.
5. Focus on the questions - Many of the sessions throughout OMS were heavily made up of questions from the audience.  Aside from engaging the audience in this format, it also showed some of the key issues and points that attendees were struggling with and helped panelists and other speakers to focus their responses on these issues. I believe it also gave attendees more of a voice at the event than the they usually have.
6. Pay for real feedback - Every conference hands out survey forms at the end, and OMS did that too.  But in addition to that, Aaron and the Business Online team hosted a second happy hour on the second day with the request that attendees come to share their real feedback in conversation about how they felt the event was and what could be better.  Though it was a tough crowd (standing between people, free booze and socializing is a hard place to be), the feedback that came out of that session was far richer than I am sure most events get, and OMS will likely be much better for it.

9 Ways to Stand Out As A Conference or Tradeshow Speaker

Last Thursday, I spent the day at my first event of 2008 called the Social Networking Conference (SNC) in Miami to present a session called "Secrets of Creating Talkability."  The event kicks of a string of speaking appearances I will be making over the next few months as I start to get ready for my book launch in March.  The SNC event was far more vendor-friendly than many others I have been to ... allowing vendors to do full 30 minute presentations about their products and even running these sessions at the same time as the educational sessions.  With all these competing sessions, it got me thinking about the necessity of standing out as a speaker to get the most value out of participating at these events.  So I thought this Monday I would share a few tips on what I have found works when it comes to standing out as a speaker at a tradeshow, conference or other industry event.

1. Have a simple theme - Speaking is not that much different from messaging a product or brand.  You need to go in having a theme for what you will be talking about and a central message you want to leave people with.  Focusing on what this message should be to best help you get value out of your appearance (without overtly pitching or being too "salesy") is a necessity
2. Fly solo - You can be part of a panel, moderate a panel, or have your own session.  If you can pull it off, I highly recommend trying to get your own session.  If you can create something memorable and engaging, the value of that appearance can go straight to you without being shared.  In perception also, speakers who have their own sessions tend to be looked at by other attendees as the biggest experts.
3. Ditch the bullets, go visual - Before my presentation at SNC, I reread Garr Reynolds great book on presentations called Presentation Zen.  I highly recommend picking it up as it has many wonderful lessons on how to create a stronger presentation.  Chief among them is to use strong visuals and as little text as possible.  And definitely ditch the bullet points.
4. Make your point quickly - Whether you have your own session or are part of a panel, this point is important to remember.  Much of the "conversation" on these panels consists of repetition.  The less you fall into this trap, the more people will respect and listen to you when you do speak.
5. Ask and take questions - Taking questions while you talk is a great way to involve the audience, and even better is to ask questions to help tailor your presentation.  When I started my presentation about talkability at SNC, I asked who already had a social network and who was considering starting one to get a sense of the room.  It helped me to tailor my examples and discussion to what would be more useful for the audience.
6. Talk last - Timing is another important element in standing out as a speaker, particularly when you are in a session with others.  Speaking last about a point gives you the chance to offer a unique and considered point of view, and also gives you the benefit of hearing other's points of view first.  This is not about having the last word, but about having a chance to distill other's voices and your own into a short point of view people will remember.
7. Offer to connect - Adding a URL to the end of your presentation or mentioning one in a presentation is one way of offering to connect, but it is self serving.  Instead of doing that, I mentioned during my presentation that I love to try out new social networks and would be willing to try any new ones from people in the audience if they sent me an invite.  That alone resulted in more than a few follow up emails from people, invites to Linked In, followers on Twitter and several Facebook friend requests. 
8. Stick around - The biggest mistake many speakers make is to run out of an event right after they present.  We are all busy, and it's tough to afford to take an entire day out to speak and attend an event.  If you need to skip the event, my advice is to skip the part before you speak.  Sticking around after you speak is invaluable to give people a chance to connect with you.  And if you don't do it, what's the point of being at the event anyway?
9. Stay real - The last point on my list of tips for standing out as a speaker has to do with ego.  I've got one just like most bloggers and speakers out there.  The challenge is not to let it get in the way of dealing authentically with people.  Everyone has something to offer and whether they are trying to sell you something or are in a position to help you, staying real will pay off in the long term.  By the way, related to point #8, nothing helps you stay more real than actually staying to watch another session beside the one you spoke at. 

Hopefully these tips help you to get more out of your speaking appearances.  As always, I'm interested to see if they work for you and what your experience has been.  And for any others doing the speaking rounds, any other tips you would share?

Inside the 5 Badges of the Conference Caste System

At every conference or tradeshow, you get a badge.  I have a box full of them on my desk, an increasing number of them with the title of "Speaker" affixed beneath my name.  I recently had a conversation with some colleagues about the importance of being a speaker at an event.  Often, the most important benefit is not just the visibility of speaking, but the license that speaker tag gives you to have a conversation with other speakers.  If you think about it, the badges at a conference are like a caste system.  Your badge identifies which group you belong in and can often dictate how people embrace or shy away from a conversation with you. 

There are usually only five types of badges that you can get at a conference (listed in order of importance):

1. Speaker
2. Media
3. Sponsor
4. Attendee
5. Vendor

Being a speaker is usually the best choice, because it positions you as an expert at the event and you also have a chance to demonstrate your expertise in front of a subset of attendees.  Media is usually second best, because just about all the sponsors and vendors want to get media coverage.  Last week at an event like the Consumer Electronics Show, however, most people would agree that media was definitely number one because of the relative importance of media coverage to that event.  The interesting thing about "media" at CES (as well as at most other large events today) is that this group is usually divided into two categories: bloggers and press.  For CES, the blogger badges were gray, and the press badges were red.  Thinking this would be a good chance for a bit of a social experiment, I went and got both badges ... the blogger badge by virtue of my blog, and the press badge as a result of my writing being republished by the good folks at Digital Media Wire (sorry I missed the Insider event, Ned).

What did I learn?  Probably not surprisingly, the blogger badge got a lot less attention and special treatment.  It was an odd feeling to walk through certain booths first with my gray badge and then switch to the red one.  There were different rooms for bloggers versus press, and in the press room there was real food (not just snacks), rows of press releases that you could pickup and many invites for private parties or events.  Clearly, there is a gap in perceived value between bloggers and journalists from the organizers of CES, as well as many of the vendors exhibiting at the event.  It really is no different than a caste system where individuals are judged based on the color of their badges.  The question is, when will we see this situation change?  Already, there are signs that it is changing.  Most notably, the fact that there is a blogger room and blogger credentials at an event of this size at all.  The way I see it, in another few years, events like this will start to embrace bloggers and media on the same level and apply a similar criteria to who gets credentials.  This means the real metric will be audience and reach.  Regardless of whether you write for a blog or something else, your credentials will be based on the number of people you reach.  It's just a matter of time before it happens.

7 Ways to Stand Out At A Tradeshow: Marketing Lessons From CES

I spent this week at what is probably the largest tradeshow in the world.  The sheer size of CES means that information overload is inevitable, and the consistent challenge for any exhibitor at a show like this is rising above the clutter.  If you think about it, this challenge is no different from any other tradeshow or exhibition ... though CES is surely more difficult to stand out at than most.  Throughout the show, there were a few vendors that did do something noteworthy to stand out.  This post is about how they did it and some marketing lessons you can learn from their efforts. 

There was one vendor that I discovered while walking through one of the exhibition halls called Ectaco that had one of the most interesting handheld devices I have seen - the Ectaco iTRAVL NTL-9c.  It was basically an automatic translator which could immediately translate words and phrases into one of 36 different languages.  I gave it a try with English to Hindi, and it translated several phrases perfectly and delivered them in a non computerish sounding voice.  Most surprising of all was that they were selling them right off the floor for $599.  This was not future technology or experimental, it was a real product being sold today.

Now for all I know there are 12 vendors that all make the same product and this company is no different than any of them.  So what made this one so different?  I think the answer lies in 5 critical things that the product manager with whom I spoke, Boris Krol, managed to do to help his product stand out from others:

• Get a third party endorsement: I did not meet Boris at an ordinary booth, I met him outside a display case where his product was showcased as a 2008 Innovation Technology and Engineering Award winner.  As a result, I was already predisposed to listen to his pitch because the show's organizers had already picked his product as one of the best.  This is a basic ingredient of PR, but one that matters: get someone else to talk about how great you are so you don't have to. 
• Be where your competitors aren't: This is often the one thing that makes a brand or product stand out more than anything else.  If you have been to any interactive marketing tradeshow, you're probably used to having dozens of booths of affiliate marketing networks lined up next to one another.  This may work in the real world when you put gas stations near each other, but when it comes to tradeshows it is the kiss of death.  Being lined up in the same location makes it infinitely harder to stand out.  In Boris' case, he was the only vendor standing next to his product in the Innovation Awards area and giving a demo.  As a result, he had an uncontested opportunity to promote his product.
• Market outside of what you paid for: A big mistake that many exhibitors make at tradeshows is sticking to what they believe they have paid for.  This means only marketing from a booth, following all the rules of the event and not venturing out.  This is the easy path, and one that is often taken because the staff at a booth is not incentivized to do more.  If you think about the tradeshows that you have been to, the brands that stand out most are the ones that are wandering the halls, attending and asking questions at sessions, and generally taking a more proactive and guerilla approach to marketing.  Boris was likely not supposed to demo his product on the floor, but he did and it worked.
• Know your hook. Boris' hook was asking people where they were from so he could demonstrate how his product worked in their language.  In my case, that meant showing me the Hindi functionality (a language I did not expect his device to handle, quite frankly).  This was his hook that personalized each demonstration.  It is also something that many vendors forget as they get caught up in talking about their products and leave out having something relevant to talk about.
• Have something worth talking about.  This will likely be the toughest piece of advice to follow, but in order to really stand out at a tradeshow, you can't be hawking a product that is crap or a service that is identical to everyone elses.  Some marketers could argue that this is simply a branding challenge.  Perhaps it is ... but let's remember when you talk about tradeshows, you are usually talking about standing out in a place where people generally know what they are looking for and are informed about it.  Bullshit meters are high and branding alone is unlikely to solve your problem.  Even if you are able to generate buzz about a substandard product or service, it will not last once people uncover the truth about your solution.  Boris' product actually worked, and it was worth talking about. 

In addition to the automated translator, there were a few other marketing lessons from elsewhere in the event.  Here are a few other lessons I would add to the list of things to consider the next time you are exhibiting at a tradeshow which don't relate to Boris and his automatic translator, but are interesting nonetheless:

• Spend on the giveaways, not the booth. Everyone knows that nothing spreads faster at the tradeshow than a brand with a really big or valuable giveaway.  In fact, one of the booths that had great buzz at the event was a tiny (but well located) small booth in the Concierge tent from Jawbone - a maker of high quality bluetooth headsets.  The booth was tiny and could not have costed more than a few thousand dollars to create.  No expensive signage or flashy lights ... yet they were doing a Bluetooth headset trade-in where you could give them your old one and they would give you a new Jawbone (valued at $119 retail).  It was a great promotion for a small company to generate big buzz.  We also used this lesson for a great Virgin America promotion (a client) at the CES Blogger Party.
• Reach out to the right influencers ahead of time.  A key to maximizing the benefit of your sponsorship and display at a large tradeshow event is to do as much prep as you can to identify the influencers you want to meet.  After my post last week about the NBC Universal booth, I was contacted by a company called MediaPort to check out their kiosk solution which NBC was using for their instant content downloads.  As a result, I went by their booth, got a demo of their solution and maximized my time there as well by knowing who to ask for.  The solution was relevant, the outreach was smart, and as a result they are mentioned here. 

All in all, CES was a great place to learn about marketing at tradeshows simply because there are so many examples and techniques people are using.  Standing out at a Tradeshow is not an easy thing to do.  Standing out at CES is even harder.  If you have a show that you are exhibiting at coming up, hopefully this list of ideas helps you get ready to see the most benefit from it.  Let me know if any of these ideas work for you.

The Shortest 2008 Trend Prediction Ever ... Two Words

I love lists and I love trend predictions.  So a trend prediction list would be an obvious choice for my post today, on the last day of the year.  Throughout the past week I have been reading lots of smart projections on what to expect for the year ahead.  With all the discussion of microtrends, the evolution of how we consume media and highly useful recap lists of smart thinking from 2007, I thought I would take a different approach.  This post is an attempt to go "macro" and look at one major trend that I believe will shape many other aspects of marketing in the coming year (and likely beyond).  This is not about online marketing, but about the way that businesses everywhere will embrace a new style of marketing in the coming year.

The trend can be summed up in two words: personality matters.  On first glance, this may not seem like much of a prediction, or even a trend - but stay with me.  The idea of putting more personality into marketing is obviously a big one for me.  By personality, I mean having a real identity that customers, partners and employees can associate with.  I'm writing an entire book on the topic, after all.  But the reason why this is the one trend I chose to focus on is not only because of my book, but because the reason I even chose to focus on it in the first place is that I believe it represents an entire shift in marketing that we have already started to see happening and one that will continue to pick up speed throughout 2008.  Though I know I promised the shortest trend prediction ever, this post feels incomplete without a bit more detail on why I think personality is so important.  Here are just a few reasons why personality matters and how it is likely to impact what we see happen to marketing in the coming year:

• Everyone wants to have a more authentic voice. The authenticity factor plays heavily in favor of brands that have personality, because they are more "real."  As social media continues to provide a layer of transparency between brands and customers, authenticity will continue to be a major buzzword for businesses in all industries.  Personality helps brands become more real. 
• Accidental spokespeople are becoming more common.  A concept I have blogged about before (and one that I explore in detail in the book) is the idea that often the key voices for brands are accidental ones from either employees or customers.  In 2008, as more blogs pop up and social networks continue to draw large audiences ... this will only continue to rise.  That means individual personalities will even more frequently shape perception about a brand.
• Creativity will be key.  This is a point that many have repeated, but was most prominently made by Bob Liodice in his AdAge trends for 2008 article.  In this point, he talks about how brands will need to find unconventional methods to target their audiences and stand out.  Being unconventional also means having a personality.
• Word of Mouth is real and intentional. Most smart marketers could probably have told you well before this past year that word of mouth is a key ingredient in marketing.  Over the past few years, though, it has become much more quantifiable (ie - real) and brands feel far more than they ever have that WOM is something you can actually impact on purpose.  Personality can give brands something talkable that encourages WOM. 
• Social networks make conversation a necessity.  Just about every marketing trend prediction talks about the rise in importance of social networks as a way that people build brand preferences.  Brands with personality are also those that are willing to participate in conversations.  The opposite are closed brands who have to approve every type of communication and rarely share an individual point of view. 

The lesson here for most marketers is fairly simple.  Social media is becoming more trusted, and people trust one another more than they trust standard marketing messages.  Social media offers a tool for more authenticity, but at the end of the day what you are aiming to demonstrate is the personality of your brand.  It is this personality that is talkable and fosters word of mouth.  The three hottest macro topics in marketing right now are WOM, authenticity and social media.  Brands that focus on having a personality in 2008 will be the ones best positioned take advantage of all three.

Update (12/31/08): There is a piece in USAToday that interestingly calls 2008 the "Year of Getting Real."

12 Things I Learned Reading My Own Blog

About three weeks ago, I signed off from blogging for an extended period to focus on being a new dad for the second time and asked a group of bloggers that I highly respect to take over the reigns for a few weeks.  Over that time, I had the unique chance to be able to read my own blog as a spectator and it was a great experience that was well worth the break.  Of course, as any blogger will be able to understand, I wasn't able to fully turn off my blogging radar or stop collecting ideas.  I'm sure I'll be writing about some of those in the coming weeks ... but in my first post back I wanted to extend a big THANK YOU to all the bloggers who stepped in and contributed a post while I was out.  As a tribute to all of them, here is a recap of all their efforts mixed in with some things that I learned as a result of reading all of their insights:

1. If it's nature vs. advertising, the ads lose - In Geeta Saini and Jinal Shah's first guest post to kick off the guest blogging, they shared the interesting example of Sao Paulo in Brazil where the mayor banned all forms of outdoor advertising.  In many cases, these outdoor ads compete with nature ... leading to Ogden Nash's famous words, "I think that I shall never see: A billboard lovely as a tree."  It seems to me that the most effective outdoor ads are the ones that are better than the alternative.  A billboard may never be lovelier than a tree, but it can certainly be lovelier than construction scaffolding along the interstate.
2. Blogging platforms are all hot - Ann Handley from MarketingProfs blogged about some interesting data points from the Top 10 US Social Network and Blog Site Rankings published from October.  Chief among them was the observation that blogging platforms are experiencing hot growth, with Wordpress in particular at a growth rate of more than 400%.  I shared an observation through a comment about how blog platforms have also started to represent stereotypes of the style of blog that each platform fosters.  Not sure if other people feel that way, but it's an interesting topic to watch.
3. The basic questions are often not so basic - Peter Kim shared an interesting perspective from his experience at an event he was attending in Barcelona for Forrester (side note ... I really need to get a job that sends me to places like that).  The questions he raises are surprisingly basic, until you work in a role like mine with all kinds of clients who subscribe to what our team has taken to calling a GMOOT strategy (Get me one of those).  Peter's post is a great reminder that a killer idea or campaign is no substitute for smart strategic thinking.
4. Creativity overlaps - David Armano shared some of his trademark brilliance in a post all about the evolution of creativity, essentially sharing a perspective that the new model of creativity does not place people into defined roles where they can only do one thing, but let's them overlap.  This is a topic that is close to my heart as I went from working in an Ad agency in Sydney where I was not considered one of the "creatives" and was therefore not allowed to exercise creativity, to my current role where a large part of every day is spent generating creative ideas and bringing them out of others.  I didn't change, I just evolved into a role that valued the overlap.
5. Blogging for the relationships, not the money - Mack Collier shared his thoughts on the power and importance of community, pointing to my example of inviting guest bloggers as one way a blog can try to keep up the bond with their readers.  His point is a great one to consider as more and more corporate blogs are started for reasons other than building community, such as promoting products, dealing with crisis, or offering a personal soapbox for egotistical executives.  Building relationships with a blog is a return to basics that is much needed.
6. Storytelling and marketing continue to intersect - Kevin Dugan is one of the smartest PR pros I know and authors the aptly titled Strategic Public Relations blog.  It was fitting that a blogger focused on PR took on the idea of storytelling as part of marketing because it is so inherent to the art of good public relations.  He offered a strong guide for things to consider when using storytelling ... a topic close to my heart also because Chapter 4 of my book is dedicated to using the principles of storytelling in an unexpected way to demonstrate personality.
7. Word of mouth is the ultimate discipline - John Bell leads our 360 Digital Influence team at Ogilvy and is also on the board of WOMMA ... so it's no surprise that he offered a great recap of the state of the WOM industry and laid out an argument for why WOM should be considered a discipline instead of a channel.  John knows what he's talking about, and his post is required reading for anyone who wants to know where the WOM industry is likely to head in 2008.  One interesting element I will be watching is the degree to which the growing number of experts in social media embrace the decidedly offline (as well as online) world of word of mouth marketing.
8. The power of naming - Nedra Weinreich turned her great writing style and marketing insight to the idea of naming ... brilliantly bridging the name my wife and I chose for our new son (Jaiden) with some of the battles she has been facing around the term "social marketing," and now around the term "social advertising."  I had joined Nedra in speaking out against an ill-advised idea by naive researchers to try and redefine the term "social marketing" some time ago.  The interesting point of her post is that if you happen to be a little guy trying to hold on to a name someone else is trying to usurp, it can be a losing fight.  Especially if your opponents don't care if the name is already taken.  At least with Jaiden, my wife and I were cool with the fact that Will Smith used the name for his son too.  Will hasn't told us whether he's ok with it yet or not.
9. Virgin America's safety announcement with personality - Karl Long shared a link of Virgin America's safety video that is far more watchable than anything any other airline has simply because it shares the personality of the brand through the video.  Ironically, this is already an example that I am using in my book ... but it's great to see that the ad agency behind it (Anomaly) posting it on YouTube and getting more mileage out of it as well.  (Disclaimer - Virgin America is a client of Ogilvy PR, however I/we had nothing to do with this safety video)
10. Social Networks and SMO - Lee Odden is a brilliant online marketer that I have run into several times at events.  He manages to bridge the gap between search marketing (which can often be an insular world filled with "search guys") to encompass online marketing more broadly.  His post about using social networks and social media optimization to help your content travel further is a great example of that.  If you want to see how ideas like SMO can help you to spread your content wider and perhaps relate it even better to bloggers, his post and his blog are a great place to start.
11. Focus on more than Facebook - Karl's second post offered a short and sweet cautionary tale about just focusing your marketing on the flavor of the month ... which this month would definitely be Facebook.  He may be right and people may move away from Facebook in droves when the next latest and greatest thing comes along.  In the meantime, the point is not to create the most brilliant Facebook profile and groups the world has ever seen, but to use Facebook for what it is good for and take Karl's advice to avoid putting all your eggs in Facebook's basket.
12. Build your personal brand - Jay Berkowitz built on a previous post of mine and talked about how to build your personal brand.  This is a post worth checking out, as Jay and his skills in building his own personal brand got him (and me, through is recommendation) featured in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago.  His tips are all things that I highly recommend following, and a great resource to start (or continue) building your personal brand.

Finally, the most important lesson I learned from this time away from blogging didn't come from a blog post at all.  It came from the fact that I was able to get away from the online world (and subculture) for an extended time to really focus on what's important ... bonding with my new son.  There are some things that should always come before blogging, or work, or anything else.  Speaking of that, I think I hear Jaiden looking for some daddy time ...

Update (12/3/07):  I realized that there were two additional guest posts that I had not published or referred to in this note, and hence updated the title from 10 reasons to 12 and added Lee Odden's post as well as Karl's first post.  Apologies to both Karl and Lee for missing those posts the first time around.

The Great Recycling Myth and Your Marketing Data

With all of the attention on global warming and what each of us could do, there is an interesting paradox that you may not realize which is happening right under your nose at work.  I was reminded of it again as I came across a Dilbert comic that sums up the issue in three short panels as only Scott Adams can do:

The short story is that what you think is recycling at work is very often a myth.  You may be diligently separating your garbage from your paper recyling, but at the end of the night when the cleaners come through your office, they just have one big trash can and it all goes into the same place.  A cousin of mine who lives in Austin had the same situation and it bothered her so much, she agreed to take the paper recycling out herself every week and now people pile it outside of her office.  Am I bringing this up to tell you to launch your own internal paper recycling army like she did?  Not really (unless that's what you want to do, of course).

If you think about it, the relationship between recycling and trash is exactly how you need to treat your marketing data online, by separating the useful from the not useful, instead of throwing it into the same database all together.  The irony is, in many cases your customers are separating this data for you (like the hapless cubicle workers) ... it's just up to you to keep it separate when you record it.  Less useful demographics in this model would be all the things you are used to capturing (gender, age, location, HHI, etc.).  Instead, you would focus on three different things:

1. Behaviour - What are they doing on your site and how are they searching or browsing?  What is the progression of pages or areas they viewed?  Where did they go before and after visiting your site?  How often did they return?  How long did they spend on your site?  What type of marketing do they respond to?
   
2. Conversation - What have they asked you about online or through email?  Did they call in and what did they ask about?  Have they written about you on a forum or a blog and what did they say?
   
3. History - What have they purchased from you before?  How often do they come back to purchase or browse your site?  What sort of items do they buy and who do they buy them for (if not for themselves)?

On a very basic level, these are the three elements of your marketing data worth recycling.  You probably noticed that most have nothing to do with what gender someone is or where they live.  What would happen if you just focused on these and tossed the rest of the data you are used to focusing on?

Related Post: Thinking Outside the Demographic

Spamments and Spamversations: How Do You Stay Out of Unwanted Conversations?

There has been a firestorm of discussion lately after Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine and author of the long tail recently "outed" all the PR professionals that had been contacted him with anonymous spam style "Dear Editor" communications.  On a day where he had more than 300 of these, he finally decided he had enough and fired off a post banning those PR folks from contacting him and adding him to his blocked sender list.  The conversation has now been discussed to death on all kinds of blogs with most people essentially taking one of three viewpoints:

1. PR people are spammers and they deserve it.
2. Chris makes a fair point, but its unfair to publish people's email addresses or offer them no way to get off the list.
3. Chris is a self-important blowhard who should get used to the email because he's an Editor of a major pub.

At this point, I really don't think there's anything I can add to the conversation ... especially because I don't consider myself a PR pro in this sense and have never actually pitched a media person for anything.  I am a marketer, and the concept we deal with all the time is spam - or more broadly speaking, unwanted conversations.  It got me thinking about the different types of unwanted conversations we all must deal with today in a world where conversations are happening all around us and often directed to us whether we want them or not.  In my estimation, there are 5 methods of dealing with these unwanted conversations:

1. Filters, blockers and blacklists.  These can be a combination of automated features and manually set up lists.  Chris Anderson noted in a follow up post that he manually blacklisted all the emails of the PR folks that had sent him unwanted emails.  Personal blacklists in your email can be a great way to do this.  My blog also has a list of blocked words for comments like "viagra" and "casino."  Spam filters are increasingly standard to catch the usual spam phrases about body part enlargement and the like.
2. Barriers, verification and validation. The next stage of automated checking are CAPTCHAs, requiring a login in order to comment, or using some other method to verify that there is a real person trying to connect with you.  It is commonly used on blog comments to make sure there is a real person behind the conversation.
   
3. Ignoring or screening them. This is the time honored way, and usually works.  The only downside is that if the volume of these conversations is very high, it can get tougher and tougher to do this.  The other negative is that it is not very satisfying, as you don't get a chance to let someone know that their message was irrelevant and ignored.
4. Selective friending. With the growing number of social network profiles we all have, the real problem with unwanted conversations is that they can often come from "friends."  Once you have granted someone access into your circle, you have unwittingly given them permission to start an unwanted conversation with you.  The only real way around this is either to be more selective with your friending, or to take the rude route and either ignore the conversation or (gasp!) "de-friend" a frequent offender.
5. Closed Responses. This is often the last resort for unwanted conversations, and one that most of us probably find ourselves using more and more.  Closed responses are the ones that answer a question, but leave little room for follow up.  They are the best way to deal with conversations that you may be baited to join (by people trying to pull you into controversy) or conversations that for whatever reason you are not completely involved or interested in.

What do you think about these methods?  Are you using them all equally or is there one that you rely on more than any other?  Or perhaps there is a sixth method that I missed ...

A Recap of Ideas from Nielsen's CGM Summit 2007

I spent the day today at the Nielsen CGM Summit in NY listening to some panels and presentations from Nielsen and many of their clients about the future of measuring CGM.  One thing I was looking forward to about this event in particular is that the percentage of brands vs. agencies in attendance would be much more favored toward brands.  It is sadly ironic when you think about all the events that agency folks attend to basically talk to themselves, while their clients are all interested in (and spending time attending) events on measurement (which few creative folks from agencies would be able to stay awake through).  I must admit, I had a bit of a hard time staying awake myself today ... but to be fair, that was probably due to my redeye from the west coast to NY last night. 

In any case, I managed to stay awake throughout the day long enough to take some notes on some key takeaways from the summit which you will find below.  I also had the chance to meet several folks in person that I have been reading or known from afar, including Peter Kim, Henry Copeland, and Emanuel Rosen (author of The Anatomy of Buzz).  Though some of the "wonder of Nielsen" presentations that I expected throughout the day ran a bit long (not yours, Pete!) - overall the day was a great deep dive into all the ways we can and should be measuring.  As one speaker shared earlier in the day, "media is not an island" and is interconnected as consumers watch and interact with messages across mediums. Marketers may be specialists in one particular channel (TV, Online, Mobile, WOM, etc.) ... but consumers are most definitely becoming experts in all of them and use them concurrently. 

Anyway, here are some key notes and insights I took away from the event:

1. Influencers are emailers.  There was an interesting data point in one of the presentations that said that 55% of people who were considered "speakers" (those who share opinions vocally) have emailed directly to a company about a product that they liked.  This was a big insight throughout the day, as it indicated that brands seeking their influencers may simply need to listen more closely to the feedback they are already getting.
2. CGM generates powerful insights, not just influential voices to "target" - In response to a question from Max, I shared this point of view during the recap of the day and it was something that came up repeatedly throughout the morning.  Listening to CGM can drive strategy if you find the gaps which you can use CGM and social media to solve.  One example I shared was using CGM to find the conversation about Julian Beever (a sidewalk chalk artist) before we started our Fountain of Youth program for Aveeno.  We learned that there was lots of discussion online where people wanted to see more of his images and know how he does it.  So we created a Flickr gallery of all his images and a video of him drawing to rave reviews online.
3. Buzzphrase #1: Consumer Fortified Media - This was a new concept that Pete introduced in his presentation about how brands are putting their commercial messages online (like Dove Evolution), and consumers are talking about them and adding credibility to these messages, thus making them fortified.  Of course, there is a handy acronym for this as well: CFM.  (I suppose it could be CFM2 when those commercial messages are for products already "fortified" ... um, like Fruit Loops).
4. A new reason 2008 Superbowl ads will be better than the game - The guy from Fox Interactive shared that next year Fox has a deal with the NFL to create an official site where the 30 second spots will be accompanied by "long form video."  The smart marketers will take the chance to create "making of" secondary ads around their $3 million Superbowl spots.  Not sure how CGM plays a part here (unless lots of brands do the "you can create our Superbowl ad" thing again), but I still thought this idea of extending the most watching ads in the world with long form content behind them is a great concept.  Maybe worth an idea bar post at some point ...
5. "Getting out of the way" is a strategy - During the panel where media brands shared what they believe will happen in 2010, the guy from CBS talked about the things that they are doing and noted a significant moment where a random user placed a clip from Letterman where he interviewed Paris Hilton on YouTube and the clip got millions of views.  His point ... we didn't go after him, which signifies a great case study.  I loved the irony that getting out of the way is now considered a strategy.  Actually, sometimes it's the best one. 
6. Buzzphrase #2: Consumer Emulation - In this second concept from Pete's presentation early in the day, he talked about how we are in the midst of a wave of "consumer emulation."  Citing examples like the JetBlue and Mattel CEOs addressing the public as if they were doing consumer produced Youtube videos, or politicians and celebs who have Facebook or MySpace pages  - the point he made is that the pros are sometimes emulating the amateurs.  And of course, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't ...
7. It's not about volume anymore - The great conflict with how brands used to purchase media to buy influence online versus how they do now is that tricky measure of CPMs.  When you are buying in blocks of thousands of impressions, it is impossible to say you are not buying volume.  Yet as many marketers noted today, less is really becoming more.  One thought I shared is that sponsorships of blogs and social media sites that are persistent can offer a much higher value, but not measured in terms of page views, but rather in terms of brand perception.
8. The silo-fication of marketing remains a barrier - Many of the brands that participated in the day were large ones, and all seemed to struggle with similar issues when it comes to ownership.  This was not about the typical debate on whether blogs belong in corporate comm, or product development, or marketing, etc.  The silos on a macro level are those between marketing/communications, customer service, product testing, and other large divisions.  In many large organizations, these groups are in geographically disparate locations.  CGM may be a brilliant place to gather insight, but if the marketing team who gets the blog monitoring reports isn't sharing them with product development, or the customer service team who is speaking with a blogger doesn't share that information with marketing ... the power of CGM is never realized.

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7 Lessons On How To Be a Great Client

I've spent a lot of years working in marketing agencies and the one thing you learn with that kind of background is how to build relationships quickly.  Of course, the thing that's a bit tougher to admit is that some relationships are much better than others.  It is simple human nature to say that people work the hardest for someone that they like and respect.  This means having an agency and motivating their team to produce their best work for you are not necessarily the same thing. 

I have written before about some rules for smart agencies to win presentations and provide excellent client service.  I take those rules to heart in every one of my client interactions, but recently I also participated in some interesting discussions about what makes an ideal client.  As it turns out, there are some very distinct qualities that most folks who work in marketing agencies consider common among their favourite clients.  Here are just a few of them with some suggestions about how you might be able to use them to be a better client ... and get better work from your agency as a result.

1. Provide clear direction - This was a clear #1 priority for many agency creative workers in particular who have struggled to interpret vague instructions.  Making something "more corporate" in look or language is not clear direction, though you may know what you mean by this.  The best clients are the ones who are able to articulate what they are looking for.
2. Invite us to the table early - The earlier we learn about a campaign or new marketing initiative, the smarter recommendations we can bring to you.  This may seem in contrast to the first point, as inviting your agency early might also mean you don't yet have clear direction to offer ... but at the early stage it matters less because as long as we have enough information, we can produce the best work.  That comes from clear direction, or from early participation.
3. Be honest about success factors - The easy thing to say is that a campaign needs to get X number of views.  Many times, the motivation for a campaign are more subtle.  The smart agency guys (or gals) understand that part of your motivation is also to look smart in front of your colleagues.  That's nothing to be ashamed of - our job is to help you look smart.  If we work together, we can all win.
4. Take the advice you are paying for - One of the toughest things to do as your advisors is to tell you when an idea doesn't work.  Too many agency people roll over and obey commands, but my experience with clients is that they respect you far more when you have a distinct point of view.  The challenge is that once we share it, if you choose not to take the advice, we need to understand why.  You don't need to always follow what we say, but the thing we hate most of all is telling you something won't work, being forced to do it anyway, and then getting blamed when it doesn't work.
5. Know what you don't know -  We all have limitations in what we know and what we do.  The clearest example of this comes when looking at design.  If you don't have a design background, you need to tread carefully with design feedback.  Take the time to understand why a designer chose to do something a particular way rather than just sharing your personal dislike.  A lot of thinking often goes into designs like this, and the most disheartening thing for a creative person is to just be told to arbitrarily change a color or font or image that spent hours to select based on someone else's personal choice.
6. Understand that changes affect timelines - This again is one of the common gripes from people in agencies, that clients change requirements or requests and still expect things to be done within the same amount of time.  This isn't reasonable, and the best clients know it.  If you need to make a change, its ok - we get it.  But work with us to get a real timeline for when we can make the change and get something back to you.  We'll respect you for realizing that.
7. Ask our advice - There is a book called The Trusted Advisor which has become the bible for many people who are in service businesses.  As the title indicates, the book is about building a relationship of trust that gets to a level where you are considered an advisor even on things outside of your expertise.  This remains the ultimate relationship between clients and agencies, and the one we all strive for.

For other agency folks who read this blog ... any other points you want to add for what you appreciate about your best clients?

Blog Action Day: 7 Tips on Eating Differently To Impact Climate Change

One thing I can't resist is an ambitious project.  As a marketer, if there is a groundswell for something that I believe in or find interesting, I am highly likely to try and be a part of it.  That's why I join all sorts of groups, and why I try to lend my voice to causes that I believe are worthwhile.  The latest effort that I have been looking forward to being part of is also the reason why I'm posting twice in a single day ... something I don't usually do.  Today is Blog Action Day - something I have been promoting on the sidebar of my blog for several weeks now.

The aim of the project is to collect together all kinds of bloggers to talk about the environment.  The site featured a very smart way of letting bloggers sign up early and attaches a currency to being first in how all the blog participants are listed (in order of joining rather than by size of blog - so I'm in the 4001 to 5000 list).  The built in measurement of the site is also done through aggregating the readers via RSS, which they planned for by requesting the RSS link for every blog that wanted to participate when you signed up.  So far, it's a brilliant model for how to run a blog centric social marketing campaign - and the results are stellar so far.  The site boasts more than 15,000 blogs participating with an aggregated RSS reach of more than 12 million readers, and is publishing real time updates on buzz on the Blog Action Day blog.

Let's consider this reach for a moment.  One of the big measurement challenges in blogging is to equate an RSS reader with a regular old impression.  Impressions are typically measured on a monthly basis and multiplied out.  RSS readers are individual readers and therefore far more accurate.  I happen to believe an RSS reader is more involved than a regular impression as well - but how much more?  Even if you conservatively say it is worth 2x as much, this gives the reach of Blog Action day nearly 25 million readers.  On a single day.  That's pretty impressive.

But the point of this post is to talk about the reach but to talk about the environment.  My original thought was to come up with something new to say about it ... but while I was live blogging at the Corporate Climate Response event a few months ago, I published a post about tips for eating differently to impact climate change.  That's my contribution for Blog Action Day, republished below:

7 Tips on Eating Differently To Impact Climate Change

During a session run by Tara Garnett from the Food Climate Research Network at the Corporate Climate Response Conference, she shared a wide range of interesting research that was likely difficult for most participants to absorb quickly enough (and extremely difficult to keep up with for blogging purposes!). Luckily, FCRN has a fantastic research archive published online at their website and also provide links to an assortment of research from other groups collected into a single archive. One of the more interesting points Garnett raised was what steps regular consumers could take in order to change their own eating habits to make an impact on CO2 emissions. This is often a little talked about topic, and as Garnett noted, it is notoriously difficult to ask consumers to do - mostly because of the huge cultural significance of food and the difficulty of sacrifice. For many consumers, however, it may simply be a lack of information. For all of them, here are 7 tips Garnett shared about ways you can change your eating habits to have an impact:

1. Change the balance of what you eat (less meat and dairy, “lower down” on the food chain)
2. Choose seasonal field grown foods (require less storage, heating & transport)
3. Do not eat or purchase certain foods (including foods that are hothoused or those that are air freighted)
4. Reduce your dependence on the “cold chain” (get rid of the second freezer, choose less processed robust foods and do more frequent non car-based shopping)
5. Waste less food (improve your “food turnover” to eat what you buy sooner and reduce wastage)
6. Cook more efficiently (cook for more people and for several days at a time, use the oven less frequently)
7. Redefine your ideal for quality (be willing to accept variability in quality and supply

In addition to this post, here are a few other posts from this blog over the past year which may hopefully inspire your thinking and perhaps even inspire some action:

"Greenest Hits" From Influential Marketing Blog:

• The Greenest Sports Event on Earth
• The Marketing of "An Inconvenient Truth"
• Live Earth Includes DC, Thanks To The Native Americans
• One Hour No Power Campaign - And Other Ways to Save the World
• Wikimapia, Google's Green Summer and Marketing Mashups

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8 Marketing Ideas from Facebook Groups

I admit I'm part of the Facebook bubble.  The group of people who joined in the months after Facebook has been opened up to the masses outside of the college students ... now I am doing my part to overtake the college and high school students and corrupt Facebook as a tool for business and post-school networking.  But I'm ok with that and ok with Facebook growing up, and even if that means some high school or college students will shy away from it in the short term because "mom might be watching" ... they'll likely be back if Facebook does ultimately become the social network it is trying to be.  What is has the potential to become is the umbrella network that we have all wished for.  Through the open approach and increasingly popular applications, Facebook has the ability to sit above other social networks aggregating their information together.  I can access my Slideshare, Gmail, Twitter, Flickr, and Upcoming accounts all through Facebook.  Probably there are other accounts I could do that with as well, but haven't found the applications or added them to my profile yet.

About 10 days ago I started my own group for readers of this blog called Influential Marketing Friends and it already has more than 425 members ... and so far I love the additional place of discussion and content that it gives me.  Several months ago I was considering starting a network on Ning, but considering the numbers - I'm much happier I waited to start it on Facebook.  Aside from my own group, I have also started paying attention to the many ways that other Facebook groups are being used for marketing.  Here are a few of the more interesting marketing uses I have come across in the past few weeks:

1. MyHome2.0 - A group to recruit tech challenged families for a new reality TV show
2. Support Monk's Protest in Burma - An online petition, of sorts, which more than 400,000 have added their names to
3. Yahoo! Pilot - A new group from Yahoo for those interested in hearing about and testing some new pilot technology in the works from Yahoo
4. Target - An award winning Facebook campaign targeted at college students decorating their dorm rooms with prizes and contests.
5. I read Business 2.0 - and I want to keep reading! - A grassroots and ultimately unsuccessful effort from the editorial team and readers of Business2.0 to keep Time Inc. from closing the magazine
6. Bhargava Clan - A group for people with my last name originated to connect Bhargavas together worldwide and perhaps even facilitate some arranged marriages along the way (has more than 125 members)
7. Dancing with the Stars Vote for Mark and Kym - Mark Cuban has been working his Facebook friends for the past few weeks to keep the votes coming and to combat some of the celebs that he is up against.  Reading his status updates about being nervous 55 minutes before showtime puts you in the midst of the action and makes you care.  I've been voting for him even though I don't watch the show.
8. Event Related Groups - Just about every marketing or tech event now has an associated Facebook group.  The nice thing about these groups is that it makes it somewhat easier to connect with folks that you meet at the event as many are listed in the same place.  Ad-Tech, SxSW and Intel's IDF all have facebook pages.

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10 Truths of Marketing in a Web2.0 World

I am in Austin today participating in the eMarketing Summit as part of the Innotech Conference.  I had the chance to do a lunch keynote presentation following Allen Olivo of Yahoo - focused on marketing in a Web2.0 world.  The presentation had a great crowd of engaged people and most (surprisingly) managed to stay awake despite my excellent spot right after lunch.  Below is the presentation I gave at the event, and I am told there will be a podcast of the presentation with audio synched with slides online in the next day or two so I will share the link for that as soon as I have it.

Update (10/15/07) - Read a Dutch Translation of this presentation from Enthousiasmeren

Influential Marketing Blog Featured in Wall Street Journal

Many of you may have already caught this yesterday, but this blog was cited in the Recommended Reading  section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday in an article by Keith Huang.  As Jay Berkowitz from Ten Golden Rules shares on his team blog, my blog was one of 60 resources that they recommended to the journalist as part of their reading list and was selected from that list as a recommended resource for companies looking to "optimize their online presence."  Here's the writeup:

Influential Marketing Blog, rohitbhargava.typepad.com
Rohit Bhargava's blog is intellectual and educational. In a recent post, he discusses the art of stamp collection and how, even today, many smaller countries use stamps as a key marketing tool. He writes, 'Next time you pass a post office in any country, pay attention to how they are using their philately to promote the country, cater to tourists, or commemorate moments of significance.'

It is a great media hit and to be selected from a list of what I am guessing were 60 stellar resources is flattering.  I'm in awe at being included among the other bloggers and authors mentioned in the article - including Seth Godin, Steve Rubel, Matt Cutts, John Battelle, Chris Anderson, Joseph Jaffe, and Danny Sullivan. Thanks to Jay for including me in this great list, and to Keith for selecting to include my blog!

8 Unique Reasons People Like Twitter (And Why Microblogging Matters)

On the surface, capturing what you are doing on daily, hourly or even minutely (double meaning intended) basis seems like a useless activity.  Who has the time to send these incessant "tweets" all day long?  As it turns out, lots of smart folks with respectable jobs, but that's besides the point.  Driven by Mark Simon's dismissal of Twitter and my hectic travel schedule of 5 cities in 5 days last week, I decided to give Twitter a real test run and become an active user of my dormant account I created several months ago but never really used.  This post is a compilation of the lessons I learned about Twitter and an inside look at the appeal of microblogging and why smart marketers should pay attention to this trend and some ideas for the possibilities it offers. 

1. Broadcast Yourself For Real. This may be YouTube's tagline, but it really applies more to Twitter.  As you start sending these messages to update what you are doing right now and gain "followers" - you start to feel like you are broadcasting yourself.  When you're Twittering, you're on the grid and sharing your thoughts and actions real time.
2. Replace Invasive Instant Messaging. I don't use instant messaging at work, because it is interruptive.  Even when you set your status, you'll often get instant messages that are hard to ignore.  Twitter has the same qualities of instant messaging, without the interruptive qualities.  As a result, it lets you send quick short instant messages to people that they can view and answer when they have a moment.  I found myself quickly using direct tweets the way I might use instant messaging to ask a quick question to one of my contacts.
3. Build An Entourage Quickly.  With the easy import feature from Gmail and the relatively low barrier for following someone, I was up to more than 70 contacts in my Twitter account within 5 minutes of starting to use the site.  Not bad for a quick payoff, considering how long it would take to build a friends list of that many people for a new user of any other social network like Facebook or Linkedin.  Even better, the vast majority of people who you follow will start following you right away.
4. Get Satisfaction by Venting. Throughout the week last week I found myself occasionally annoyed at a stupid ad or a flight delay.  I would never "waste" a blog post on these topics most of the time, but found myself twittering them with great satisfaction.  Somehow, just sharing the negative experience of having to walk all the way to the last gate in the B terminal at O'hare made me feel better about it.
5. Always Find Out What's New.  With Twitter, I knew right away when Matt posted a photo of the guys from our panel at Promo Live, and when Gordon Moore finished his chat at IDF.  The running commentary of the latest news from my contacts was actually really useful and somewhat addictive.  Longer term, at the very least I'll be sending a Twitter update every time I publish a new blog post.
6. Fills A Gap Left By Blogging. Now that I have gained a few thousand consistent readers, I find myself considering more carefully what I write about.  The people who subscribe to this blog invest their time and expect to find something of use ... and there are often times when I abandon a topic because I don't have a strong point of view about it.  My blog has never been about pointing out things out there without some commentary.  Yet sometimes there is something that is interesting which I would just like to share a link on, but not necessarily write about.  Twitter is the perfect way to share those links and a quick thought without spending a whole blog post on it.
7. Highly Useful for Live Blogging. There are several events in the past few months that I have had the chance to attend and live blog.  For most, my live blogging consisted of taking notes during sessions, coming up with a point of view and posting a blog post on it.  This is what I did at the CCR event, and the Ogilvy Verge event.  At Intel's IDF and Promo Live, I tried using Twitter for live blogging instead and found it to be really useful because you can get your thoughts out much more quickly, you can really do it real time, and it forces you to focus on capturing the really key points.  I'll be Twittering many of my other upcoming events now as well.
8. Facilitate Meetups.  When I was heading to a media event after the first day of IDF, I was looking for bloggers to invite to the event.  Luckily Karl from ExperienceCurve spotted me on Twitter and suggested we meet up.  This is one of the earliest benefits that I realized some time ago about Twitter, but it was really nice to see it in action.  Imagine this blown out beyond cities to destinations and you can really visualize the potential power of Twitter.

So what does this all add up to?  For me, Twitter is a compelling platform that can easily become addictive once you start to use it ... a quality that many great sites share.  The marketing opportunity here is super simple:

1. Start following people that care about what you do
2. Respond to their messages where appropriate to start dialogue
3. Send consistent and substantial updates of your own
4. Use Twitter as a platform to inform your followers of news they might care about

Today the end of my week long experiment, I'll be continuing to use Twitter and I'd suggest you give it a go as well.  Now I need to go and send an update to my group letting them know this post is live ...

How To Find Time To Blog (When It's Not Your Day Job)

The one question I am asked most often by people who are considering starting their own blog or struggling to keep momentum up on a blog they have already created is how to find the time to do it.  If asked for a fast response, I usually mention my two top assets - collectng ideas all the time so I have an archive of things to writ