Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

Category: Blogging

  • Chris Brogan Must Make His Brain API-Aware

    Chris Brogan Must Make His Brain API-Aware

    One of the slides in my presentation about derivative thinking is the black box slide. You don’t care what’s in the box – you know what comes in and what goes out, and that’s all that matters. The contents of the box, as long as they work reliably, can be invisible or opaque.

    This is the essence of an API. You don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. You do know that reliably, when you put beef in the machine, burger comes out. You know that when you hit send on your end, data appears at the destination location, but what happens in between here and there isn’t important.

    Black box API thinking is one of the skills that I promote. You don’t care what something does, you just care that it does it. Then you start bonding things together, a bit like Legos from our childhood. Building block by building block, you assemble the pieces together in different combinations to yield powerful tools.

    So when I say I want a project lead, this isn’t a job. It’s not a technology (though it could be). I want someone to volunteer their blog, a sliver of their focus, a fraction of their time, and some of their interviewing skills to finding out whether the existing social media tools, when harnessed and dashboarded, might make some kind of formidable tool in the world of drawing attention, establishing a relationship, and then driving part of the relationship’s actions towards an outcome.

    When you have a pile of tools, examine what they do, learn what they do singularly, and then start plugging one into another to derive greater powers. Plug Feedblitz into WordPress, plug MySQLAdmin into both of those, then plug MySQLAdmin to LinkedIn to get a cleaned list of people. Suddenly, each individual tool’s powers are magnified.

    The thing Chris is looking for isn’t a technology or even a project lead. He’s looking for someone who can combine tools into great powers.

    What tools in your toolbox do you have that can be bonded together to make even more powerful tools?

  • The Long Tail Will Kill You, Jeff Pulver

    I read an interesting comment on Jeff Pulver’s blog tonight about Internet TV:

    “Seems to me that this is a classic long tail play. The long and simple of it.”

    The context of the comment led me to write this quick blog post. The Long Tail is a great play if you’re an aggregator. If you own the network, if you own all the content or the distribution channels, if you own the database, the Long Tail is a payday because it’s one person to a million items over and over, instead of ten thousand people to one item.

    The Long Tail is, as Seth Godin proclaims somewhat loudly and quite correctly in his new book, The Dip, a death sentence for the individual. There is only one you, and only 24 hours in your day. If you try to create as much content as possible to capture a Long Tail-esque traffic surge to your properties, you’re going to die tired.

    The Short Head – be #1 at SOMETHING – is the only place where the individual truly prospers, unless you’re in charge of the network. If you’re Osama bin Laden, the Long Tail works for you because there’s an unending supply of angry young men who are more than willing to die for the cause, but there’s still only one bin Laden. Lots of deputies may run the franchises, but there’s only one CEO.

    To answer Kfir’s question – why aren’t more people watching? Simple (reminder, simple != easy) Long Tail quagmire: with a million channels on, how can you even find something to watch? Who is the Short Head of TV Guides for Internet video that can connect the average TV viewer with new media? When that guide becomes available and is easy to use, integrated with the living room instead of the desktop, Kfir’s mom will probably tune in.

  • Preserve the chain – how to make blogtag more valuable

    I inadvertently put a twist on blog tag games that makes total sense. When Chris Brogan tagged me with Aidan Hatch’s game, I added to it that you had to keep the chain alive – repost everyone who was tagged before you. This accomplishes three things:

    1. Lets you see who has gone before you and how long the chain is.
    2. Gives inbound link love to those before you
    3. Incentivizes you to preserve the rule so that people you tag link back to you in future generations

    The last time we saw this kind of link generation was with the 2000 Bloggers project, and that brought lots of link love to everyone involved. This is a classic network effect – every person who fully participates brings added value to all the other participants, and encourages future participation, just like the purchase of every fax machine makes previous buyers’ purchases more valuable.

    Finally, a benefit to those social scientists among us – this lets you create trees and maps with greater ease.

    The next time you play a game of blog tag, will you preserve the chain?

  • Tinder in a dry forest: Bum Rush the Charts Road Map

    As promised to my friend and colleague Bryan Person, something of a road map for Bum Rush the Charts and similar flash-mob campaigns. First, something to think about via the HBR Ideacast – the idea of a forest fire. Campaigns can become word of mouth sensations just like a forest fire. If the forest is wet, matches won’t do the job. If the forest is bone dry, even the tiniest spark can create a conflagration to rival the fires of Hell itself.

    Likewise, when planning a word of mouth campaign, assess the ground. Is it dry, ready for even the slightest spark to start a blaze, or will you be waging an uphill battle? I’d venture to say that Bum Rush the Charts tapped into the general anti-RIAA, anti-music industry sentiment especially virulent in the world of podcasting, but much more widespread. The ground was ripe for a fire, and the campaign would have likely been successful to a greater or lesser degree no matter who was in charge of it.

    That raises an additional question: how long before the forest regrows, dries, and is ready for another fire? Some people are calling out for a second run immediately, but my intuitive sense is that, just as after a forest fire, the tinder has been spent and regrowth needs to take place, even if just for the sake of another fire.

    That said, let’s look at the components to this forest fire – spark, tinder, dry ground, high winds, and no firefighters. The spark was Mark Nemcoff and Mike Yusi‘s iTunes takeover announcement on the February 16, 2007 episode of Pacific Coast Hellway. This was the burst of energy that got it all started. Whatever else BRTC became as it evolved and grew, it started with genuine passion and energy from its founders.

    The tinder was my role in the process, taking the spark and the first flames and finding a way to add to them, a way to make the fire hotter. I did not start the fire, but the addition of a charitable outlet made the initial fire burn hotter and made it easier to catch. If you were on the fence about whether to support the campaign, the tinder might have pushed you over. If you were already passionate about the campaign, this turned the dial up to 11.

    We’ve covered the dry ground – the recording industry’s inability to communicate effectively with its customers or treat them as anything except potential criminals.

    Next came the high winds. A fire can burn hot and bright, but without wind, it may stay localized. What happened with Bum Rush the Charts was simply this: an awful lot of people – Connectors – picked up the cause and spread the fire to their audiences, spread the fire by many different vehicles. Press releases, emails, IMs, Twitter, blog posts, podcasts, word of mouth at the checkout line – the new media community took the flames and added high winds to spread the fire quickly and furiously. Before long, the blaze had spread worldwide, and in some places burned even hotter and brighter than in its birthplace. This step was the most crucial – spreading the fire far and wide ensured that even in places where it might have flagged, the overall energy and momentum kept increasing.

    The last factor was the lack of firefighters. Absolutely, there were negative comments and negative momentum, particularly in social news outlets, but this did little to nothing to dampen the blazes already burning. The only thing that brought the fire to an end was running out of fuel, having reached its maximum range, and by the time that limit was reached, the campaign had achieved some incredible results.

    So, what’s the road map of this analogy? Passion has to start the fire in a place favorable and receptive to starting the fire. Ideally, you find ways to magnify the scope and appeal of your social campaign, and then once done, you set it free, letting others take ownership of it and spreading it to their audiences. Finally, you build enough momentum that even naysayers are overwhelmed.

    If you’re missing any one of these ingredients, you may not get the results you want. What would make future movements even more successful? Well, add to the steps here. Instead of one spark to start the fire, many sparks – get community involvement early on, and you’ll have that many more blazes. Give lots of tinder from different sources to make the fires insanely hot. Help others find a way to plug in their altruistic or community-focused projects to increase the power of the benefit. Give the winds more than just hot air – give them gasoline and matches, too! Help fire spreaders become fire starters, not just relying on word of mouth already existing, but give them the tools and the power to start or enhance fires. Get things burning so hot that firefighters don’t even attempt to step in – they just quarantine the area and wait for the fire to burn out.

  • The Blogosphere Alight

    The blogosphere’s alight tonight with the story of Kathy Sierra and the threats made against her. Most of the big blogs have it – Mr. Scoble, Mr. Arrington, Mr. Rubel, Mr. Chapman, and more. Not much else that can be said in terms of expressing outrage in and of itself – lots of other people are doing that plenty well. A few thoughts.

    I’m glad the police are involved. I’d encourage anyone with any information to contact the Boulder, Colorado police.

    Boulder Police Department
    1805 33rd Street
    Boulder, CO 80301
    303-441-3300

    I hope any legal professionals at the top of their game offer pro bono assistance to Kathy and help her litigate the parties responsible into oblivion. Nothing says “zip it” like a $12M lawsuit.

    Want to DO something? Encourage others to learn about and develop effective tools for dealing with the threat of violence. Go read the Gift of Fear by Gavin deBecker, one of the finest books in the genre, masterfully written, then gift it to someone you know who needs to read it. There’s a sequel if you’re a parent titled Protecting the Gift, also a great read.

    Offer assistance and outreach in your community. Learn and teach self protection skills. Create a neighborhood watch in your community. For every Kathy Sierra, there are millions of women whose voices are equally threatened or worse, but don’t have the readership or “A-List” status that she does to give her voice. If you’ve got a truly solid constitution and the ability to keep it together under the worst strain, volunteer at a battered women’s shelter.

    Online, take a stand against incivility. Be willing to step up and call bullshit on a keyboard kommando. Most of all, learn the tools of new media and the ability to influence crowds, and help guide people toward or away from online destinations which foster hatred. We will likely never get rid of hatred or violence, but we don’t have to subsidize web sites that encourage hate with our traffic. In the end, money and influence are powerful weapons that we have at our disposal. Use them.

  • Music for a 7 year old

    Young Aidan Hatch has managed to create another round of blog tag, asking for 7 songs we like. I got this via Chris Brogan, and had to give it some thought. If I were a parent of a 7 year old online, I’d probably NOT want to see people recommending songs that frankly, as a parent, I’d not want my child to listen to, so here are 7 songs for a 7 year old that are podsafe.

    Aidan, if you read this, please remember this simple thing: independent music is the best thing there is, and music from an RIAA record label may cause your mom and dad to get sued and then you’ll be living homeless on the streets, and that would be sad. The only surefire way to protect yourself is to never listen to music from any RIAA label or artist, no matter how cool the other kids at school think they are. Share with them the music YOU will learn about in this blog tag game.

    People I tag: C.C. Chapman, Eric Skiff, Ed Roberts, Karen Cardoza, and pretty much all of my Twitter followers. The rules – please link back to Aidan, Chris Brogan, and this post.

  • Bum Rush Update

    iTunes finally updated – the consensus seems to be that the charts were delayed due to AppleTV’s release and subsequent traffic storm to the iTunes store.

    US Rock #11
    US Overall #99
    Canada Rock #10
    Canada Overall #53

    Netherlands Rock # 2
    Sweden Rock #7
    Germany Rock #12
    Germany #73 Overall

    Holland #15 Overall
    Norway #55 Overall
    Norway Rock #10

  • Initial Reflections on Bum Rush the Charts

    BRTC is winding down on the East Coast as a lot of folks pack off to bed. Overall, the results of the campaign were good, especially for a first effort of its class. Could they have been better? Absolutely. Could they have been worse? Absolutely. Here’s some thoughts and initial lessons learned.

    First, I would have liked to have had more transparency from the beginning. As I say often, transparency is the currency of trust. While Black Lab was a fine choice for the campaign, I would have liked to have seen more community involvement from the beginning in the selection of the band. However, that’s what I get for coming late to the party. That said, Black Lab was a good choice, and the band was certainly more than generous in their scholarship fund commitment.

    Lesson: transparency pays off. The more transparent you are upfront, the less suspicion can be cast.

    Second, I have the distinct sensation that podcasting is still inside of an echo chamber of sorts. When you look at the traffic stats from BRTC, you can see that there was a massive push at 9 AM ET, peaking at 10 AM ET, and then declining throughout the day. I had thought there’d be a second spike after work, when people got home, but traffic remained on the decline throughout the day. We got a lot of people to make a great push initially, but we tapped out our reach relatively early on. That tells me that we did a great job of reaching our audience, but our audience may be ourselves – the movement didn’t exhibit any exponential characteristics, as you’d normally see from a chain reaction of word of mouth. I think we would have been more successful by also sharing techniques for building audience.

    Lesson: allot more lead time for a campaign like this and share more tools with the community for growing the reach of individual podcaster audiences prior to the campaign. Make the campaign benefit everyone who participates.

    Third, time shifting can work against us for a small window. Podcasting and blogging are founded on RSS and the ability to consume content when you, the audience member, wants to consume it, not on the schedule of the content creator. While this is a good thing, it also makes coordinating the reaction of an audience much more difficult in a short period of time. Podcasts and blogs lack the immediacy of email, IM, and Twitter.

    Lesson: build a mailing list early and emphasize it throughout the campaign to deliver better results on the day, OR expand the window of time in which action can be taken from a day to a week to better allow people to act on their schedule.

    Fourth, we did not anticipate the strength of the global market. BRTC performed the best in countries that frankly, we didn’t expect it to. Looking at the initial returns, BRTC outperformed expectations in the Netherlands, Canada, and Germany, dominating the charts in those countries. It’s all too easy to forget that the Internet truly is global, and our reach might not be as great as we would like right now, but no one can deny its ability to cross borders.

    Lesson: plan for the international community to participate and encourage them to do so.

    Fifth, I think we had too many incongruent messages. There were essentially three main messages of BRTC – “stick it to the man/RIAA/record labels”, “raise money for charity”, and “show the power of new media”. While I think we did a decent job of tying them all together, in the beginning it was fragmented, and that may have hurt initial acceptance and uptake of the campaign.

    Lesson: plan campaigns from the outset. Define a message or even multiple, congruent messages, but agree on what needs to be communicated.

    Sixth, one of the things that I think hurt uptake in the more conservative parts of the country was the edgier aspect of the campaign. While the song was quite pleasant, the album art was decidedly not family friendly, and some of the initial language on the Bum Rush the Charts blog was also unquestionably not family friendly and not work safe. Also, the initial message of “kicking old media where it hurts” (albeit in much less friendly language) may have restricted traditional media coverage of the event.

    Lesson: to ensure maximum audience participation, plan for family friendly/safe for work from the outset. No need to dive full-on into political correctness, but at least strive to reach the broadest audience possible, old and new media alike.

    Now, after reading this, you’re probably thinking, wow, Chris, you must have thought Bum Rush the Charts was a complete failure, a complete disaster. Not so, not so at all. In fact, I think for an effort like this, it was a fantastic success. Consider this. How much does a record label spend to get a new single on the charts in one country? How much would it cost to launch a worldwide campaign to do the same? New media may not have achieved as much reach as I would have liked, but there’s no question that the campaign “moved the needle” and achieved very impressive results across the world.

    More importantly, the campaign raised some money. While I’ve said before that you can’t shop your way to a better world, this was clearly a case of piggybacking for a greater good. Mark Nemcoff and Mike Yusi were going to run with Bum Rush the Charts (they are the founders) no matter what, and the fact that they were generous enough to let me piggyback on their event to raise some money for college scholarships speaks volumes to their characters. Even if only one person bought the track, that’d be 45 cents that someone wouldn’t need to take out of their own pockets to pay for college, and for that, whoever we draw for the scholarship will owe a debt of gratitude to Mark and Mike.

    Finally, look at the incredible amount of press about the event despite an effective budget of 800 (for two press releases) plus the time and labor of those involved. Worldwide top 100 charts in Rock? Worldwide top 100 charts overall in select countries? For800 plus labor? You can’t beat that return on investment. No, Bum Rush the Charts was a great first experiment to test the reach of new media, and with the lessons learned from our first collective efforts, it’s only going to get better from here on out.

    Thank you to everyone who joined in.

  • Bum Rush the Charts Thoughts

    John Wall and I did the second beta test episode of Marketing Over Coffee this morning at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Natick. Today’s topic was Bum Rush the Charts, and I thought I’d blog a little about the marketing efforts going on behind the scenes, plus some thoughts so far.

    First, a huge thank you to everyone who’s participating. That’s awesome. That said, I’ve found so far that audio promos in podcasts are great for building awareness, but you need at least a month’s time ahead of a word of mouth campaign, because podcasting by nature is time-shifted. It’s a lousy medium for getting a message out in force in a small window of time.

    Behind the scenes, Bum Rush the Charts has had the help of a bunch of different tools. We’ve issued two press releases, one through Black Lab and one through the Student Loan Network. We’ve also been using several distribution email lists. Despite the fact that email is pre Web-1.0, it’s still a major player, at least for this campaign; the bulletins we’ve published via email to folks have had very good open rates.

    We’ve leveraged Feedburner not only for feed management, but also for site statistics. As we’ve seen in the past, Digg and Reddit bring in a lot of traffic, but the quality of traffic is relatively low – few people sign up for the email notices or subscribe to the RSS feed out of the thousands who stop by.

    MySpace has been a major player in the campaign, at least for touching base with bloggers and podcasters. Every time I log into the BRTC profile, there’s betweeen 20 and 50 people requesting friendship, leaving comments, etc.

    Most importantly, we’ve gotten a LOT of buy-in from fellow new media professionals, and even buy-in from more traditional media outlets, which is pretty incredible. The CBC, BBC, San Jose Mercury News, and even Billboard Magazine have picked up BRTC from various sources and leads, and have been promoting it as well. The real power of this campaign is that it’s brought together people from all the different groups in podcasting and new media.

    Time will tell whether we can convert buzz into buy, conversation into conversion. I sincerely hope we can. Hopefully this time next week I’ll be writing more about how Bum Rush the Charts was a successful campaign and that we’re sending a bunch of kids to college for free.

  • Triviality

    Out sick today, but that’s okay. One thing that caught my admittedly drowsy eye was this – be aware of whitespace around words, especially links you create. Which will look better to a search robot, particularly one that isn’t terribly smart?

    • Another post on the Financial Aid Podcast…
    • Another post on the Financial Aid Podcast …

    The answer is, the latter. Whitespace creates the distinct phrase with nothing interrupting it. Now, do I have definitive proof that this makes a difference? No. The one thing I do have proof of is that the whitespace makes it easier for me as a human to highlight that phrase and search on it.

    Just a little something to think about. Please excuse me while I go back to bed …

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