Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

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The Dual Mandate of PodCamp

The Dual Mandate of PodCamp

PodCamp NYC was yet another fantastic success in the ever growing lineups of PodCamps around the world, and I’m very pleased to have been a part of it. I wanted to take a moment as co-founder and Executive Director of the PodCamp Foundation to very clearly lay out what the vision and mission of PodCamp is:

1. PodCamp has a mission to welcome new people into the new media space. There are a TON of great conferences for new media people in the new media space, such as Podcasters Across Borders, New Media Expo, Podcast Academy, and many more. These conferences are powerful, informative, and very much support the new media community. While PodCamp fulfills a great community role, it is more important to bring in new people, to welcome folks curious about new media into the community with open arms.

I like to think of PodCamp as a real-life welcome wagon for anyone who wants to get started in new media.

PodCamp accomplishes this by putting veterans and new people in the same room and letting the magic happen.

2. PodCamp has a mission to connect new media professionals with resources. Very often, I have found at PodCamps over the last year that there are LOTS of individuals and organizations who have access to tremendous resources and want to participate in new media, but would prefer to work with someone already established in the new media space, rather than reinvent the wheel. The second mission is to help folks who have resources but lack knowledge connect with new media pros who have knowledge but might lack resources.

PodCamp in this fulfills almost a role of matchmaker, and accomplishes this by putting smart and resourceful people in the same room and letting the magic happen.

Are there other aspects of PodCamp that are important? Absolutely. A community focal point, a way to focus on local community building, a social outlet, a chance to reconnect with friends – all are important, all are vital to the overall fabric of the new media community, but these two mandates to me are what distinguish PodCamp, what keeps PodCamp going and growing, what makes PodCamp worth YOUR time and energy as a participant, volunteer, or organizer.

What’s your take on the mission of PodCamp?

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April 28, 2008
What I'll Be Sharing at PodCamp NYC

What I’ll Be Sharing at PodCamp NYC

A few people have wondered what I’ll be sharing at PodCamp NYC. I’ve got two sessions blocked out, plus possibly a panel – we’ll see about the last part.

Session 1:

Intro to Podcasting: The Podcasting 101 session. 10 AM Friday, Hall of Fame Wunsch Center. How to listen, participate, and create. A high level overview of the world of podcasting and why it’s important to you – or should be. Suitable for beginners new to new media. Veterans may not derive much value from this session.

Session 2:

Power Your Personal Network with LinkedIn. 10 AM Saturday, Room 203. I’ll be presenting how to use LinkedIn to power your networking skills. I’ll be sharing a few of my tips about using the service, what it’s good for, and how to help you build your personal brand with it, including simple but effective techniques you can start using immediately for better results. Suitable for everyone.

Session 3:

Affordable PR for Non-Profits Using New Media. 11 AM Saturday, Room 202. I’ll be co-presenting with Maria Thurrell, founder of Media Awaken, on how new media is changing the way non-profits do business. I’m also going to give away a secret – THE secret – for non-profits to be able to raise literally millions of dollars from the right corporate donors. If you work for a non-profit, this is a session you cannot afford to miss – literally. Suitable for everyone, but targeted to non-profits.

Session 4:

New Media and Politics in an Election Year. 2 PM Saturday, Auditorium. This is a panel hosted by Dan Patterson from Talk Radio News. I’ll be one of the panelists talking about use of new media so far, and where politicians might take things next. Suitable for everyone.

Session 5:

New Media Marketing: How New Media Powers Business. 3 PM Saturday, Auditorium. I’ve been working on refining this ever-evolving presentation which now includes aspects of sales, internet marketing, search engine optimization, and just about everything else, all linked to a framework that you can take home and apply to any product, service, or organization.

If you’re thinking about using blogging, podcasting, social networks, or other new media tools to promote the ideas you care about, this session is for you. Suitable for intermediate to advanced practitioners of new media. Beginners are welcome but may get lost quickly.

I’m unsure whether or not uStream or other services will be available for the distance aspect, as I don’t know what the venue’s Internet access will be like, so if you can make it in person, great

If you plan on attending any of the sessions at PodCamp NYC that I’ll be participating in, please feel free to ask questions in advance of the event itself – just leave comments here!

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April 24, 2008
A picture is worth 10,000 words – or a marketing meeting

Funny – here at work at the Student Loan Network, I just had a meeting with our marketing director about a press release. The topic of the press release was to emphasize how we’re still open for business despite all the credit market turmoil, how not everyone is going out of business, etc. What was funny was that the entire press release and discussion could easily be summed up in one picture, but it’s difficult to make that fit the press release format.

Instead of four dense paragraphs, what if I put this graphic up on the Student Loan Network homepage?

I think that would have about the same meaning as the press release, but it would convey that meaning almost instantly. Here we are. Open. Even late at night.

Hat tip to Chip Griffin for the photo under Creative Commons.

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April 23, 2008
Buy me a cookie, dude – Marriott Customer Survey

I got this email just today from Marriott about my stay in Washington, DC.

To the Marriott folks:

Look, no offense, but I’m not going to take your survey. You’ve already got my money, and now you want my time in return for nothing at all. Come on, offer me something, even just something token, to acknowledge that you know this survey will be a drain on my time and probably won’t benefit me in any way.

What kind of offer? Heck, I’d settle for something like “We’ll leave a free cookie on your pillow the next time you stay at a Marriott property if you take this survey. To be perfectly honest, it’ll probably be a little stale since it will have been in the lobby the day before, but at least it’s a free cookie in exchange for the survey. Pretty please?”

Also, I don’t know about you, but when I hit reply, it should go to J. W. Marriott, Jr. If it doesn’t, then don’t sign the letter from him. I’d rather you give me a reply-to and a letter addressed to Florence Attleby, Customer Service Intern, 14th Floor, Marriott Customer Service, Cubicle 87 behind the laser printer, NY, NY 11001.

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April 22, 2008
PodCamp DC Review

PodCamp DC was a fantastic event held on April 19, 2008 at the Art Institute of Washington. A huge hat tip to AIW for offering the venue and helping out with logistics. Hats off as well to organizers Tammy Munson, Joel Witt, and Ernie Ambrose.

Not much to say right now, save that it was an excellent time and filled with an incredibly diverse crowd of participants, from hobbyists to educators, to lobbyists and politicians, with everyone there eager to learn new media and how we can continue helping change the world for the better.

If we met or you were in one of my sessions, please leave me some feedback – I’d love to know how I did, and more importantly, how I can improve.

Leave feedback on LinkedIn by clicking here!

Need to add me on LinkedIn? I’m cspenn at gmail dot com.

I look forward to seeing and meeting more great people at PodCamp NYC this coming weekend.

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April 22, 2008
New media has gotten marketing confused

I had an epiphany of sorts in the shower.

What a lot of new media folks talk about – audience building, impressions, and the dreaded M word, monetization – is not marketing.

Marketing is the sharing of ideas.

So what is all the stuff we in new media talk about? Sales. Whether it’s pay per click ads, podcast subscriptions, blog readers, speaking gigs, whatever your metric is around getting someone to take action, that’s sales.

Marketing is the sharing of ideas.

Sales is the conversion of ideas into actions.

It’s the job of marketing to share ideas with the audience, to help them to understand what they’re missing out on, what value is awaiting them. It’s all about the content. Content is king, so the cliche goes.

It’s the job of sales to turn those ideas into actions. Create the path for people to take. Make it easy for people to do what you want them to do. Tell them what you want them to do. Click here. Subscribe now. Call the comment line. Leave a comment on the blog. Upload your webmail contacts. That’s all sales – do, do, do.

Once the sale is over, it’s back to marketing, back to sharing. Marketing takes over and reinforces to the audience that the action they took was the right one. Marketing continues to provide value upon value until the customer is so enamored of what you’re doing that they are compelled to share with their friends – and they become your salesforce and marketing team.

Share. Act. Share. Repeat.

This is especially relevant because in many ways, I think we’re reading the wrong books.

Most of my friends in new media are brilliant people. Smart, insightful, good at creating ideas and sharing them. Most of them also wish to be more, do more, achieve more, and this is where the disconnect is. There’s a gap between sharing and acting. Go to any blog and figure out what the action the blogger wants you to take is, and how easy it is to find. Get out your stopwatch, go to any podcaster’s web site, start the clock, and see how long it takes you to subscribe.

Folks like Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, and the marketing folks are perfectly okay. They’re sharing the ideas, and they’re a source for our own inspiration.

Note, however, when you ask any prominent blogger, podcaster, networker, etc. about their bookshelves, they never mention Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar, Ira Hayes, Dan Kennedy, Brian Tracy, etc. They never mention the sales books, the sales guys who can help get you from idea to action. Once the customer knows who you are and is willing to make a commitment, you as the new media outlet have to change gears and guide your customer, your audience, into action.

If you want people to do more with your new media outlet, complement your marketing knowledge with sales knowledge, and you’ll blow past the competition in a heartbeat.

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April 17, 2008
How to Not Hire Someone

Yes, someone gave a seminar on how to avoid hiring qualified workers.

There’s a twist to this story.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU[/youtube]

Watch the video in its entirety.

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April 16, 2008
Laura Fitton is right. PodCamp was never free.

One of the best comments in the free/not-free discussion I’ve ever read was by Laura Fitton (@pistachio on Twitter) on CC Chapman’s blog last October. Reprinted from the source:

The event isn’t, and from what little I understand, never was FREE. In a way, no event ever is. It is subsidized by sponsors and by volunteer hours. You attend for free, because somebody else paid your way. Simple as that.

I think opening up the option for it to be a nominal fee, or a pay what you want, or some other locally-derived setup, and oriented largely towards keeping attendance expectations (and resulting volunteer hours) in line with reality, is 100% reasonable.

While anticipating an event that huge, the volunteer corps of organizers really had to bust their guts. Hard. Long hours, much stress. Value their time at a nominal rate of $10 or even$ 5 an hour, and you see that a very small group paid hundreds and thousands for the rest of us to have the event for free.

Laura nailed it in one.

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April 16, 2008
Why PodCamp Boston 3 asks you to sponsor it for $50
PodCamp Boston 3 is asking all participants to be sponsors this year, to take the ultimate step up and co-sponsor the UnConference. After lengthy debate last year with Chris Brogan, PodCamp Boston 3 would become a co-sponsored event for two primary reasons:
1. Last year, we planned for 1,000 participants based on registration of nearly 1,500. Instead, we ended up with about 775. As a result, we had 225 shirts and other materials left over. Granted, the local homeless shelters were pleased with the outcome, but that was an expenditure of sponsor resources that was unwise. We could have instead invested those resources to provide more benefits to people who actually showed up.
2. PodCamp Boston is evolving to bring new focus to the event. Many people have commented to me over the last year that they wished PodCamp Boston 2 had been more intimate, more focused, less of a conference feel to it, which is nearly impossible with 775 people. Asking participants for a tangible, financial commitment to the event will help to bring more of the focus that participants have been asking for.
For those for whom setting aside 61 cents a day for the next 84 days would present a serious obstacle, there are still MANY, MANY free PodCamps – DC and New York City over the next two weeks are both free, and lots of other PodCamps are showing up every day on PodCamp.org.

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April 15, 2008
How to get an IRS Tax Return Filing Extension

April 15 is the deadline for filing a federal tax return. But not everybody can meet that deadline. If you need more time to get your paperwork in, make sure you file a Form 4868, Automatic Extension of Time to File, with the IRS by the April 15 deadline and you’ll get an automatic six-month extension of time to file. The extension gives you until Oct. 15 to file the tax return.

Remember, a delay in filing your tax return will also delay your receipt of your economic stimulus payment, if you qualify to receive one, since payments are based on the tax return.

Note that an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay. You should pay any taxes you owe by April 15; otherwise, the outstanding tax balance will accrue interest and possibly penalties, increasing the total amount you will owe. If you can’t pay the full amount that you owe by April 15, pay as much as you can to minimize the interest and penalty charges.

With the deadline approaching, our last-minute reminders may be helpful.

And visit 1040 Central, your one-stop shop for all your tax information needs.

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April 15, 2008

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