Influential Marketing Blog

Marketing In The Age Of Disposable Email

Some guy named Bob probably hates me. I don't know him and he doesn't know me ... but he's the unfortunate registrant of Bob.com and has used his first name for his email address. Yup, you guessed it - that makes his email address bob@bob.com. That also happens to be the email address that I have used for the past ten years to fill out forms that require an email address that I don't want to give. For more than a decade, Bob has been getting my junk email and to tell you a truth, I feel bad about it. That alone isn't the reason I've had to give up my use of Bob's email, though. The reason is that I can't pick up those confirmation emails that you need to click on in order to activate an account.

Recently, I came across a site called Mintemail that has found an interesting solution ... disposable email. This is essentially what it sounds like - an email address that is good for four hours, usually just long enough to use to register for a site, get a confirmation email and pick it up. The service has lots of smart features built in, such as automatically saving the email address to your clipboard so you're ready to paste it into a form. Every once in a while, there is a solution so simple you wonder why no one else has done it first. I love seeing things like that and this definitely qualifies. If you have a form that requires your audience to enter an email address they are not interested in giving you, it looks like you won't be able to rely on the confirmation email to get you a working email address anymore. In the age of disposable email, it looks like you're going to have to work harder to earn the right to ask for a user's email address. I suppose the upside is that now those bogus emails will bounce after four hours. I bet poor Bob wishes I found this site a lot earlier.

Link Credit: http://www.vqcdesigns.com/blog/

How Malcolm Gladwell Proved There Is Such A Thing As Karma

This past weekend, I had the lucky chance to connect with more than 85 marketing bloggers at Blogger Social - an event put together mainly by two marketing bloggers, CK and Drew Mclellan (along with the help of many other volunteers). The entire weekend was a chance for bloggers who have been online friends for months or even years to finally connect with one another and brought together the traditions of an unconference with the slight cheesiness of a class reunion.  Yes, most people even called the formal second night dinner the "blog prom." Aside from having a chance to connect with many other bloggers I both read and respect, it was also my first big giveaway of PNI ... as I gave a copy of the book to all the attendees in the gift bags. 

Doing that, I learned a couple of big lessons:

1. Boxes of books are heavy. It pays to get them sent directly to a venue if you can.
2. The first moment when you sign a set of books, you really feel like an author.
3. Everyone wants a signed copy of a book. Somehow, that makes a free book a lot better.
4. And, to refer back to the title of this post, there is such a thing as karma.

To focus on the last point ... I held a brainstorm event on Saturday morning as part of Blogger Social where I invited people to brainstorm ideas on how they would market Personality Not Included if they had 25 copies and $200. The group shared many brilliant ideas, which I will share tomorrow in a blog post over at the Personality Matters blog (along with the winning idea). After the event, I was settling the bill with the team at 'sNice Cafe in Greenwich Village and was talking to them about the book. I had a few left over copies so I gave one to them. This is where karma came in ...

The rest of the team who had been at the brainstorm had left to catch the blogger cruise. I stayed a bit longer and while I did, Malcolm Gladwell walked in to get a cup of tea. I recognized him, introduced myself, told him quickly about the book (trying to be as non-dorky as possible) and gave him a signed copy. Now I'm not sure if he will even look at it, but I walked out amazed that I managed to meet him.  More significant, though, was my later realization that it only happened because I stayed an extra few minutes to give a copy of my book to an interested barista in a local coffee shop.

My 500th Blog Post - A Big Thank You

Today is my 500th post here at Influential Marketing (not counting guest posts), so I wanted to do something significant. Over the past three years, I have had the chance to connect with lots of smart marketers from around the world, share ideas and learn from readers of this blog through their comments and added discussion on their own blogs. Aside from the personal benefits I have gotten from my blog (book deal, media, etc.), the longer lasting benefit has been and will continue to be a strong network of friends, colleagues and fellow marketers. I met many of them in person for the first time at SXSW and will meet many more in two weeks at Blogger Social in New York. In this post, I'm offering thanks to all of you in the best way a blogger knows how to - by linking to you. 

So, here is a not so short list of all the people who have helped foster discussion on IMB, made the ideas stronger, and given this blog a context it could never have achieved on its own*.  Of course, you could also look at this list as the ultimate in linkbait, which (of course) it is. After all, you don't get to 500 posts without learning how to create a bit of traffic through link love ...

http://10putes.com/,, http://adpulp.com/, http://adrants.com/, http://annansi.com/blog/, http://artesaniaenred.blogspot.com, http://arunrajagopal.com/, http://attias.net/blog, http://badpitch.blogspot.com, http://beth.typepad.com, http://blackberrycool.com/, http://blog.bretttrout.com/, http://blog.buzzoodle.com, http://blog.clickz.com, http://blog.creativethink.com, http://blog.fastcompany.com, http://blog.futurelab.net, http://blog.ogilvypr.com/, http://blog.viget.com/, http://blogpond.com.au/, http://brandandmarket.blogspot.com, http://brandimpact.wordpress.com/, http://bub.blicio.us, http://buzzcanuck.typepad.com/, http://buzzmarketingfortech.blogspot.com/, http://clickinfluence.com, http://cooplog.typepad.fr/, http://crossthebreeze.com/, http://customersrock.wordpress.com, http://danipennsylvania.wordpress.com/, http://darmano.typepad.com, http://datamining.typepad.com, http://direct2dell.com, http://dmwmedia.com, http://doshdosh.com/, http://everydotconnects.com/, http://eperiencecurve.com, http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/, http://gdcgeeks.blogspot.com/, http://gorillasushi.com/, http://gregverdino.typepad.com/, http://heehawmarketing.typepad.com, http://ideagrove.com/blog, http://indiapr.blogspot.com, http://jacksonfish.com/, http://jburg.typepad.com/future/, http://johnbell.typepad.com/, http://katiechatfield.wordpress.com, http://krishnade.com/blog, http://librarianinblack.typepad.com, http://libraryrevolution.com, http://mariosundar.wordpress.com, http://marketinghipster.com/, http://marketingusabile.blogspot.com, http://masternewmedia.org/, http://mediabullseye.com/mb/, http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com, http://muffinresearch.co.uk/, http://net-savvy.com/eecutive/, http://newmusicstrategies.com/, http://noahbrier.com/, http://octaviorojas.blogspot.com, http://optimizeandprophesize.com/, http://personalbrandingblog.wordpress.com/, http://personalmba.com/, http://pop-pr.blogspot.com, http://prland.blogs.com, http://prosintraining.blogspot.com/, http://quiverandquill.com/, http://redcouch.typepad.com/, http://scottmonty.com/, http://servantofchaos.typepad.com, http://simoncollister.typepad.com, http://snook.ca/jonathan, http://social-marketing.com/blog, http://socialmediagroup.ca, http://spatiallyrelevant.org/, http://stylestation.typepad.com/, http://technomarketer.typepad.com/, http://tecnicalia.com/, http://thebankwatch.com, http://theflack.blogspot.com/, http://thelinkspiel.blogspot.com/, http://themulife.com, http://thewebpreneur.com, http://toddand.com, http://transmissionmarketing.ca, http://troyworman.com, http://troyworman.com/, http://valleywag.com/, http://webpronews.com/blogtalk, http://www.afterthelaunch.com/, http://www.allthingsworkplace.com, http://www.angelamaiers.com/, http://www.apogee-web-consulting.com, http://www.behindthebuzz.com, http://www.bivingsreport.com, http://www.blogherald.com, http://www.briansolis.com, http://www.businessandblogging.com, http://www.churbuck.com, http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/, http://www.citizenofthemonth.com/, http://www.ck-blog.com, http://www.ckwebb.com, http://www.communityguy.com, http://www.contentious.com, http://www.conversationagent.com, http://www.converstations.com, http://www.copywritingmaven.com, http://www.davidleeking.com, http://www.desipundit.com, http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com, http://www.embracingmomminess.com/, http://www.emergence-media.com, http://www.enthousiasmeren.nl, http://www.followsteph.com/, http://www.fourhourworkweek.com, http://www.jess3.com/blog/, http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog, http://www.jimkukral.com, http://www.jonnygoldstein.com/, http://www.kullin.net, http://www.lijit.com/blog, http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog, http://www.lonelymarketer.com, http://www.marketersstudio.com, http://www.mikestopforth.com, http://www.mister-wong.de/, http://www.mpdailyfi.com, http://www.namedevelopment.com/blog, http://www.organicresponse.com/seo-blog, http://www.pandemia.info, http://www.pratikg.com, http://www.problogger.net, http://www.pr-squared.com/, http://www.psfk.com, http://www.realtime-unifiedcommunications.com, http://www.resonancepartnership.com, http://www.reyes-chow.com/, http://www.searchengineguide.com, http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com, http://www.servantofchaos.com/, http://www.singlegrain.com, http://www.smashingmagazine.com, http://www.smoblog.com, http://www.socialmedia.biz, http://www.somewhatfrank.com/, http://www.stoweboyd.com, http://www.suburbanoblivion.com, http://www.sustainableisgood.com/, http://www.technologyevangelist.com/, http://www.toprankblog.com, http://www.valleyprblog.com/, http://www.viperchill.com/blog, http://www.web-strategist.com, http://www.whatsnetblog.com, http://www.womma.org/, http://www.younggogetter.com, http://ypulse.com, http://zen.seesaa.net

* Of course, in a list this long it's likely I missed many blogs (probably because I just ran out of time cutting and pasting).  If I did manage to forget you, either leave a comment or send me a note at rohitaustralia [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll add you to the list!

Handing Over the Keys to Influential Marketing (and Having a Baby)

As I have shared with many folks over the past few weeks, my wife and I are expecting our second baby any day now.  It feels like getting ready for an extended vacation, except I'll be trading the overrated benefits of sleep and relaxation for three hour shifts changing diapers and burping (which any father will tell you is the first skill we truly get to pass along to our kids).  I considered simply skipping blogging for a few weeks when the baby comes, or even trying to post less frequently, but I realized that I can't count on being able to put out content that I'd be proud of and spend the time I want to with the new baby at the same time.

So for the rest of this month, I am taking a break from blogging and "handing over the keys" of this blog to a group of marketers who have all kindly agreed to step in.  Primary duties for managing the blog will fall to two extremely smart and capable marketers who have been helping me over the past 3-4 months collect research and insights for my book: Jinal Shah and Geeta Saini.  They will both be blogging, responding to comments, and trying to schedule posts to happen on some sort of regular basis from other contributors.  On the point about other contributors, I reached out this week to a group of bloggers and writers whose work I admire, and whose voices I think all of you would be interested in hearing.  Most of them generously agreed to do a guest blog post sometime over the next few weeks, including:

• Ann Handley - content officer and smart thinker behind the intensely useful MarketingProfs.com
• Debbie Weil - author of The Corporate Blogging Book and fellow DC- based blogger
• Jay Berkowitz - CEO of Ten Golden Rules marketing agency and marketing blogger
• John Bell - head of our 360 DI group at Ogilvy and author of Digital Influence Mapping Project
• Karl Long - works for Nokia and authors the insightful blog ExperienceCurve.
• Kevin Dugan - super smart PR blogger and co-creator of the Bad Pitch Blog
• Lee Odden - one of the most prominent marketing bloggers at Top Rank Online Marketing
• Mack Collier - fellow marketing blogger and creator of the Viral Garden Top 25 marketing list
• Nedra Weinreich - author of Spare Change, my favourite blog on social marketing
• Peter Kim - an analyst with Forrester who also writes an insightful blog called Being Peter Kim
• Tim Ferriss - best selling author of 4 Hour Workweek, blogger and expert in "lifestyle design"

There are a few more names that I may add over the next few days, but based just on this list of contributors above, my guess is the quality of posts on this blog will probably go way up from what I have managed to do so far - so I know you are all in good hands.  I'll be back to posting on December 1st, and until then I know I'm leaving Influential Marketing in some capable hands.  I look forward to reading it along with you.

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

Media Sunday - 3 Interviews and an Award

I have an unwritten rule on my blog that I try to do my best to follow - and that is to avoid flagrant self promotion.  As a fair warning, I am going to break that rule with this post.  I am fairly sure that most of you who read this blog on a consistent basis do so because of the useful ideas that I try to share which you can apply to your own business.  This definitely not a "wonder of me" blog, nor would I want it to be.  Yet sometimes there are a combination of things that may drive me to do one of these kinds of posts.  I did one around my million impression week, and another around my big media hit thanks to Jay Berkowitz. 

This is my third in a short span of time - and definitely the last.  The reason for that is because over the next month, I am going to be completely redesigning my Social Media Bio to better account for these ongoing hits and save them in a single location.  Stay tuned for an announcement on that revamp in a few weeks. 

In the meantime, I'll share quickly with you four pieces that I haven't linked to on this blog yet:

1. Video Interview with Gilbert from IPTVEvangelist at the Millennials Conference
2. Radio Interview with Matthew Moran for the Online Marketing With RSS Ray Radio Program
3. Video Interview with Thomas Tucker at Web2.0 TV in Austin
4. Winner: 2007 Personal Branding Gold Award (announced this month in Dan Schawbel's Personal Branding Magazine)

Here are two of the interviews that I could embed here:

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.

technorati tags: nielsen nielsencgmsummit cgm cgmsummit consumergeneratedmedia socialmedia cocreation marketing peteblackshaw rohitbhargava

del.icio.us tags: nielsen nielsencgmsummit cgm cgmsummit consumergeneratedmedia socialmedia cocreation marketing peteblackshaw rohitbhargava
icerocket tags: nielsen nielsencgmsummit cgm cgmsummit consumergeneratedmedia socialmedia cocreation marketing peteblackshaw rohitbhargava

What You Can Learn About Marketing From the Brazilian Soccer Team

Have you ever played soccer with a Brazilian?  On the soccer field, there are many styles that you come to recognize if you have played against enough international players.  Germans have a different style than Mexicans.  As most soccer players will tell you, the Brazilian style of soccer is something special.  Their approach is also why they are seen every World Cup as the team to beat and why Brazilian players have such a legendary status beyond players from most other cultures (the biggest stars or your own team biases not withstanding).  What is it that makes the Brazilians stand out?

The reason comes down to individuality.  As a kid growing up playing soccer in America, the one thing I was often taught was to get rid of the ball.  Holding onto the ball was the worst thing you could do, because eventually you would lose it and then your team would be in a bad situation.  The Brazilians take the opposite approach.  Kids grow up practicing all kinds of ways of improving their ball control so that they won't lose the ball.  Their mindset is not about passing before they lose the ball, it's about getting good enough so that no one else can take the ball away from them.

Practicing to be the best is different from practiced to succeed.  Success means you are ahead of the game ... being the best means that you define the game.  Business is the same as soccer in this sense.  You will probably achieve what you have been training for if you are good.  The real question is whether you are training with the right goal in mind.

Update: Here are a few videos of the Brazilian team in action, in case you're not a soccer player and haven't seen them in action:

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 ...

The Disturbing Truth About TV News in America

Football season is starting again and this year NBC has the rights to broadcast a portion of the NFL games and along with their coverage unfortunately comes Bob Costas - one of a handful of standard wax-like figureheads of American sports broadcasting for the past several decades.  Perhaps a textbook definition of what Scott Adams would certainly call a weasel, Bob Costas has covered just about every sport across his career and most recently has led NBC's coverage of the Olympics.  The problem with Costas is that he represents the unhappy mixture of sports journalism with the sensationalist journalism that has come to represent American network news.  This is signified by four core disturbing trends that Costas exudes in his coverage, but that extend far beyond just him:

1. Delighting in lawsuits - Hearing Costas cover the case against Michael Vick, a Quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons caught in a controversy over gambling and dog fighting, it was clear to see he could barely contain his excitement.  Remembering his Olympic coverage, it was this disconcerting pleasure in the misfortune of others that stood out in his coverage throughout the Athens games in 2004 as well.  I wasn't the only one to notice either.
2. Covering stories rather than significance - Though not specifically on Costas, one of the most disturbing examples of this recently was many news outlets covering the earthquake in Peru only sparingly because most of their coverage focused on two miners buried and a rescue effort in progress.  Hundreds dying is surely more significant than two individuals in danger, however rescuing miners and tales of heroism is certainly a better story.
3. Sensationalizing tragedies - Replete with custom graphics and around the clock coverage, tragedies sometimes seem to be the one thing that television news programs get most excited about ... because they offer fodder for continual coverage to fill what has become a 24 hour news cycle. 
4. Using fear as a motivator - This is the most common and recognizable tactic for news broadcasts with little of substance to report ... the frivolous stories of what you don't know about your windowpanes that could kill you.  True or not, there are few homeowners that would not bite at watching a story like this. 

The counter argument, of course, is that news is just giving people what they want to watch.  I am sure the metrics behind viewership support this argument.  If that is true, the power to force a change lies with each of us.  Just stop watching.

A Campaign for Taxi Justice From A Crusading Cabbie

I used to sit in the front seat of a taxi.  In Australia, if you are male and riding in a cab alone - it is standard practice.  Every time I would come home to America while I was living in Sydney, I would delight in telling this little known quirk to my American friends as a way of explaining how equality works in the Australian culture.  When you sit in the front seat of a taxi, it is impossible not to have a conversation with the cab driver.  That's a habit I continue today, and given my travel schedule, I spend a lot of time in taxis.  One of the most interesting conversations I had with a taxi driver was several weeks ago in DC. 

The driver had been driving for more than 20 years, and had a very specific lament about the entire taxicab industry in the US as compared to the system in London (which he singled out as having a great program).  As we can all probably relate, a cab driver complaining about something is hardly unique.  But this particular cab driver was doing something about it.  He runs a website called TaxiJustice.com whose mission is described as:

Taxijustice™ represents the constituents of the American taxicab industry that is the citizens, our business and our visitors. It is a free-market concept based on the London model of open entry, high knowledge standards, and infrastructure financing of the individual owner/operators' small businesses.

Essentially, he is one guy who sees several very specific things wrong with his industry (closed entry, lack of knowledge standards for drivers, etc.) and is trying to fix them in his own way.  He may not have the handle on creating a grassroots campaign or a website with consumer-friendly language, but he has a passion about his cause and a belief that he is right.  Reading his cause, it's suddenly obvious that there are these "microcauses" all around us with passionate people fighting solitary battles for what they believe in.  Often the only thing they need is to get a little bit smarter about their marketing.  If you are a marketer and you want to change the world, a great place to start would be to connect with people like the Taxi Justice guy, and find a way to help him.

The Truffle Hunter's Paradox

Before making their way into dishes served by 5 star restaurants around the world, black truffles start their journey to the plate by being discovered and licked by a dog (or pig).  Is that the kind of delicacy you are interested in?  When you think about it, a lot of what we strive for or appreciate has questionable beginnings.  The history of blood diamonds is another such example where for many years most people did not know the truth behind their selling.  Throughout our world are delicacies, luxuries, status symbols and just plain products for which we are ignorant or would prefer to not know about the beginnings.  Yet in an increasingly transparent world where the "backstories" of products and entire industries are now being exposed intentionally and unintentionally - the time of this happy ignorance seems destined to end.  For some organizations, that brings another marketing opportunity and story to tell.  For others, it's a PR fiasco requiring a full crisis management plan and (hopefully) a change in process.

As information continues to flow more and more freely about the process behind the products we purchase, it is already bringing an age of the "easily enlightened consumer."  That is, consumers who may not actively be seeking information about the origins of a product, but learn about them through easily accessible information online or word of mouth from credible sources they trust.  When consumers are easily enlightened, secrets are hard to keep.  And this turns out to be the true paradox for truffle hunters or sellers or any kind of highly sought after products or experiences.  The end product is no longer the only thing that matters.  How you get there makes a big difference, and may even be the difference between making a sale or losing it.

NOTE: This image of black truffles was purchased to use in this post from istockphoto.

6 Useful Social Media Tools and Sites For Women

When it comes to social media tools, most are not gender specific.  That's a good thing, as it means they can be uniformly useful for everyone, but it's a sign of evolution when more specifically targeted sites start to appear.  It happened with websites and now the same seems to be happening with several new interesting social media tools popping up targeted at women.  Based on some planning efforts for a number of campaigns we have recently been putting together for clients targeting women, here's my starter list of 5 great social media tools for women.  Of course, this is not exhaustive, so if there are other social media tools or sites that are specifically targeted at women which you think are particularly good, please let me know or post a comment to this post.  It would be great to see a list of these compiled somewhere.  Maybe I need to create a Squidoo lens ...

1. Blogher - Not surprisingly, the flagship organization for women in the blogosphere is also one of the most useful sites.  With aggregated content, information about their highly popular annual event, and a rapidly growing blog index that lists nearly 10,000 female-authored blogs - the site is a must read for anyone interested in learning about women in social media and joining the community.
2. Sk*rt - This relatively new site was created using Pligg and is getting a lot of attention as the new "Digg for women."  The site has a nice design, compelling content and seems to already have lots of great article submissions.  Interestingly, the level of activity on the site in terms of people (presumably women) voting also seems very high when compared with Digg that has been around much longer.  The story behind the site is equally compelling and you might be tempted to wonder how come no one thought of this idea before.  Regardless, I am quickly finding it's one of my top resources for research and learning.
3. TeamSugar - This site offers a network for women to share content, comment, find stories and discover news.  It is published by a group called Sugar Inc. which also has a collection of other sites under the same brand altogether described on their site as "nine distinct lifestyle and entertainment sites that define their category, covering topics that include celebrity, fashion, entertainment, food, fitness and more."  The TeamSugar site was built after the popular PopSugar site, and is one of the leading sites targeted at women bridging the gap between news, online community, blog and social bookmarking site. 
4. ChickAdvisor - This site is currently in beta and features women reviewing a range of products and has many online community tools that will be familiar to women from many other online communities.  The site has an official blog and recently launched a new podcast called "Where'd You Get That?"  Together it's a good female friendly experience, though it will be interesting to see if it can stand up against social shopping sites like Kaboodle or Wists which are broader and not solely targeted at women.
5. Custom Search Engine for Mom Blogs - Created by Michelle Mitchell (aka Scribbet), a mom blogger from Alaska, this is an exhaustive list of mommy blogs that are all pulled together into a custom Google blogsearch.  It's a great resource to find mom's blog posts about a specific subject or challenge, and a good resource for marketers to find blog posts about certain types of products or brands as well.  The blog search is also getting mentioned on lots of mom blogs, which is likely to help it become even more authoritative and used.
6. MotherProof - In an interesting new site launched by Cars.com, MotherProof is a site that encourages moms in particular, and also other women, to review cars and post their reviews online.  The site presents a new model for actively soliciting female-authored reviews for products and aggregating them into a distinct location.  The power of this idea is that researching a car purchase is in an entirely different category to "shopping" in the online retail sense.  The site offers a way to separate that experience and is therefore much more useful to consumers.  My guess is you will start to see many other sites in vertical industry categories follow the same format to offer a distinct area to separate reviews on their category of products.

Note: A few other sites worth visiting that don't really fit the category of "tools" but use social media in a powerful way to reach women include Capessa, iVillage Connect, and Sisterwoman.  I did not include these as I felt they were all more focused on online communities and far more well known than some of the other sites and tools included in the list above.

technorati tags: socialmedia women female web2.0 socialnetworks scribbet sk*rt sk-rt blogher chickadvisor motherproof cars.com capessa ivillage sisterwoman kaboodle wists socialshopping marketing advertising moms mommyblogs blog rohitbhargava
del.icio.us tags: socialmedia women female web2.0 socialnetworks scribbet sk*rt sk-rt blogher chickadvisor motherproof cars.com capessa ivillage sisterwoman kaboodle wists socialshopping marketing advertising moms mommyblogs blog rohitbhargava
icerocket tags: socialmedia women female web2.0 socialnetworks scribbet sk*rt sk-rt blogher chickadvisor motherproof cars.com capessa ivillage sisterwoman kaboodle wists socialshopping marketing advertising moms mommyblogs blog rohitbhargava

The Midbutton and Other Reasons To Think Small

I don't wear ties.  It's not so much a rule as it is a preferred statement - learned over being in the interactive industry for more than ten years.  Instead, I often wear button down shirts, which leads me to the most serious of all wardrobe questions that men around the world deal with on a nearly daily basis ... how many buttons do you leave unbuttoned?  Do you just unbutton the top one, resulting in a somewhat dorky (but common) look -- or do you unbutton the top two buttons leaving a perhaps unacceptable amount of the chest exposed and bordering (in some office settings) on the unprofessional.  Let's not even add the undershirt/no undershirt debate to this, or I would have to turn this post into a book project.  What if there was a "midbutton" ... a button between the first and second button that was in between these two options?  Chances are, a shirt brand that quietly offered this would rise to the top as a favourite shirt for guys.  As you might have guessed, this post is not about midbuttons - but the idea does bring up an interesting point. 

There are a lot of books, seminars, classes and advice that you will get from people about coming up with the big idea.  Big ideas transform businesses, and create new markets.  They revolutionize the way you communicate with your customers and employees.  Big ideas are based on insights.  I believe in insights and I love big ideas.&n