I have to write things down here or I'll forget them.
I don’t usually like when people post the same thing in all their channels. It seems pointless and a little lazy to me. But in this case, I think this story is interesting enough that I’m embedding the video I previously posted on Twitter. (And yes, I know the story is old and you’ve all probably seen it 100 times already.)
Also, here’s the full story from Adverblog.
Good stuff from Alaska Airlines here. John Spencer is the Head Coach of of the Portland Timbers.
If you know me at all, you probably think that I have too many ideas. Thus, you might think blogging would be the perfect platform for me. However, even blogging is too difficult for me to build a process or publishing plan in which I can execute upon every week. I start a post and then get distracted into something else.
Thankfully, Tumblr exists. I’ve been playing with Tumblr for a while, and am now finally ready to admit it into my inner circle of publishing platforms, joining Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and this blog. Tumblr lets me be on my phone or computer, and in 30 seconds upload a thought, photo or link. You’ll probably have to figure out yourself why I think these particular moments are worth posting, but at least I’m able to get them live.
Anyway, feel free to follow my Tumblr account, cleverly and creatively named: http://andyboyer.tumblr.com
Now this may not seem like a fair post, since I go to more marketing events than the average person should. But for a community as creative as Seattle, I’m beginning to think the networking event space has become pretty tame and uninspired. Don’t get me wrong – the people are great, the venues are fun, and there are certainly more than enough to choose from. Shauna Causey’s Twestival is awesome, and so is Gigs4Good, but there’s room for more creativity. Here are a few things that strike me.
1) We need to train up a slew of talented moderators. It’s tough to admit this, but moderated panels are starting to become the death of a good event. 5 people on a panel is too many, and we don’t need to ask each person the same question. Let’s put together a diverse panel, let them talk about their expertise, and have moderators ask pointed questions. We should move away from round-table, generic subjects that the people in the crowd can just as well comment on.
2) We seem to use the same speakers over and over. I love that Seattle wants to promote its home grown stars. And I get that there aren’t 500 local celebs to choose from. But it does seem like we burn up the star power of these folks by putting them everywhere. There are only a few events like the Ignite series where we get to see a cavalcade of new speakers that don’t have much experience. And this is great, because it’s a safe environment where people get to work out the kinks in their presentation style, in front of audiences who are forgiving and encouraging. We need a few more places like this, where speakers can take the stage and gain the experience to hit bigger venues. Let’s break away from the usual 20-30.
3) We need diversity in the subjects. I think it’s time we go a little bit outside the echo chamber. Let’s talk to four Bay Area VC’s and find out why they think Seattle is a Tier 2 Startup city. Let’s invite oil companies and find out why the rest of the country doesn’t mirror our love for green tech. Let’s listen to politicians explain to liberal Seattle why people still vote Republican in other parts of the country. Basically, let’s bring in people that don’t already think like us. What do we have to lose?
4) Can we do something new? Sure, I like standing around and drinking a vodka soda at happy hour with colleagues. But I also like “doing things” in the few hours I have to spend on these events. I think NWEN does a nice job of mixing it up. You have some educational events, some pure networking events, and some that are a hybrid of both. But overall the whole scene needs more Trivia Quiz, Karaoke nights, ping pong tourneys, miniature golf outings. We need more places for startups to “launch” their companies in front of a crowd of 200, and networking orgs like SMC Seattle to partner more with volunteer orgs like Seattle Works. I think it would be way more fun to work at a food bank with my Seattle Marketing colleagues, than just belly up to a bar.
These are my quick thoughts on the matter. I’m not complaining at all, and I think we still have a wealth of interesting people to talk to at these events. But maybe, just maybe, we have some room for improvement.
Paul Owen from Owen Media published a nice piece today in Xconomy.com, asking if Social Media was a fad that is going away, or something really hear to say.
Paul’s piece had a range of comments from other social media firms in town, so I don’t want to repeat everything here. He did a nice job of grabbing insight from the agencies who specilaize in Community Management and outsourced Customer Support, while also getting input from more full service organizations.
Our viewpoint over at Social3i is you’ll only see more commerce through social channels, not less. There’s a giant blurring between “Wb” and “Social” now, so that they are really one in the same.
There’s another whole article on privacy to be written, but take that out of the mix and look at two companies that released product in the last week – Color and Zapd. Color has all the fanfare for the amazing (or outrageous) valuation. Zapd made less noise but comes from a guy who’s launched a lot of startups in his day, Kelly Smith. Both focus on instant content generation, and the packaging of such content.
Color takes the idea of friends, and flips it on its ear, turnign everyone in your proximity into co-authors with you. Zapd lets you take those random photos and turn them into a web page in 60 seconds, so you can share not just the photos, but the whole story, all in the time it takes to in line buying a beer.
Combine these philiosphies with the GroupOn and Living Social commerce infrastructure, and you can see (well we think you can see) where this is all going. Add in Facebook credits, more virtual currency, and One-Click purchase technology on the phone, and social becomes more than Facebook customer service posts and Tweeting back and forth at each other from the same party.
Anyway, check out Paul’s article, and if you think I said anything dumb, feel free to lay into me in the comments section.
In Marketing these days, it’s all about “Influencer Identification.” As in, “How do I spend as little money as possible to reach the most important people who will say good good things about me?” It’s a simple srategy and hard to pull off.
On the flip side, there’s something you don’t see a lot of – the followup. After spending all that time to get the early adopters to make referrals to the majority, many brands simply forget where they got their start. That’s what makes this simple email from LinkedIn’s CEO so clever.
Dear Andy,
I want to personally thank you because you were one of LinkedIn’s first million members (member number 121884 in fact!*). In any technology adoption lifecycle, there are the early adopters, those who help lead the way. That was you.
We hit a big milestone at LinkedIn this week when our 100 millionth member joined the site.
When we founded LinkedIn, our vision was to help the world’s professionals be more successful and productive. Today, with your help, LinkedIn is changing the lives of millions of members by helping them connect with others, find jobs, get insights, start a business, and much more.
We are grateful for your support and look forward to helping you accomplish much more in the years to come. I hope that you are having a great year.
Now, this email did a few things for me. I never really consider myself an innovator. Occasionally an early adopter. But I was #121,884 out of 100,000,000, and I needed to go into Excel to figure out that makes me in the top 0.122% of LinkedIn adopters. Not just top 1%, but dang near the top 10% of the 1%.Telling me that little stat is a nice way of showing me some love without seeming insincere.
Maybe more importantly, it also makes me realize and remember that LinkedIn has been an important part of my online world for a long time. I may not go there every day, and I may not currently use it as much as I use other services like Pandora or Twitter. But I needed that gentle reminder that while I had fun flings with MySpace, Shutterfly, Biznik, Ning, WetPaint, Lala, Digg, Delicious, Foursqaure, Gowalla, and 100 other intrguing networks, LinkedIn has weathered all the storms, making it through both the good and bad times. It’s never been the sexiest or most interesting site, but it’s always there, does exactly what it promises, and occassionally provides me little unexpected moments of joy. It’s slowly turned into that trusted friend that you can’t imagine life without – something way more valuable than those little daliances into the new and exciting things that always disappoint.
So it’s not often you get to say complimentary things about an old brand. But I like LinkedIn’s nod to their longtime fans.
Remember the spectacular Coca-Cola Happiness Machine? Well the folks at Coke have taken the smiles on the road, with their new Happiness Truck. Here are 2 videos.
Remember when the Super Bowl was simply all about the commercials during the game itself? Well how great is it that now we have YouTube, so we can watch all the commercials BEFORE the game itself, including all of the “Banned” ones that “didn’t make it.” (Don’t you just love that every brand has a “Banned” commercial now?”
According to early research, this Volkswagen gem is leading the pre-game hype for Best Ad.
This guy just got $2 Million a year for surfing. I will now go call my dad and ask him why I spent my childhood reading books.
Julian Knows Surfing from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo.
I love when I get to promote something that has popped out of the UW’s Foster School of Business.
Check out Frames for Facebook, a slick little iPhone app that lets you customize those 5 little pictures at the top of your Facebook profile that everyone gets to see.
All you do is choose a pic from your phone, manipulate its position across the 5 frames, and hit publish. I played with a few things (some which worked better than others) and agree with the people who have told me they think it has great entertainment possibilities. For example, if the light was right, this Kid Rock photo would be pretty cool.
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