Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

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How do you stave off the travel ills?

I was thinking to myself as I lay in bed this morning, coughing up phlegm, that I’ve been more sick in the past year than I’ve been in the last ten. The corollary is that I’ve traveled more in the past year than in the last ten, and travel and I seem to disagree, at least on a health front.

I already take a multivitamin supplement and drink plenty of juice and water (and coffee). Regular exercise is in the mix, too. I can’t take Airborne because I’m allergic to sucralose (nasty swelling rash) – what other tips and tricks do you suggest to fend off travel crud?

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March 7, 2008
Optimize your LinkedIn Profile for SEO

LinkedIn. Love it or hate it, it’s prominent, it’s a social network, and it lets you post URLs to your profile… except that they’re naked URLs, with no link text to help you in your search efforts, right?

Nope.

Now you can. Go to LinkedIn, make sure you have a public profile set up with a good URL, and then instead of choosing My Blog or My Company, choose Other.

Cha-ching! Link text in your profile from a prominent, trusted domain.

Speaking of which, are we connected on LinkedIn? If not, connect here:

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March 4, 2008
Top 5 Non-profit strategies for severe recession

A few late night thoughts. Without digging into all the economics, the short version is this: 2008 economically is poised to be somewhere between hideous and horrifying. Take your pick: subprime, alt-a, gasoline, wheat, corn, student loans, etc. Any way you slice it, the economy is in a tailspin.

That said, the show must go on – but how? When donor pools dry up, how do non-profits weather downturns? Here are 5 ideas.

1. Batten down the hatches. Just as every other American individual and business MUST do, non-profits need to be ruthless about cutting costs. Got a photocopier in the office? Unplug it, and ask that people use a scanner and email instead. Enforce 100% lights out at the end of the workday to cut power costs. Reduce or eliminate as many consumable as possible – belt tightening is the rule.

2. Hit up donors sooner rather than later. It’s customary in the non-profit world to ask donations and contributions around the holiday season, but as the economy trends downward, you need to ask now, while there’s still disposable cash. Pick a reason, any reason, to ask for donations. Hitch up to minor but relevant holidays, or an aspect of those holidays, or heck, just manufacture your own holiday, but ask.

3. Increase focus on microdonations. The Internet gives non-profits greater reach at lower cost, more so than ever in history. Leverage that power to focus on building your house list, your potential donor base. This requires some serious heavy lifting in marketing, but as long as you have capable staff, you’re trading time and energy marketing online versus expensive offline marketing. Learn how to find your donors online, and learn how to get small donations from LOTS of people. Be sure to investigate any and all payment options and find the lowest per-transaction costs. Amazon and Google Checkout both offer 100% pass-through of contributions.

4. Build buzz. You’re already doing good work – now get off your duff and start marketing the heck out of your works. The more awareness you can spread about your work, the easier it will be to get critical general operating funds out of donors. Look carefully at how you market your works, and make friends in the PR and marketing fields so that you can ask their advice before launching any kind of campaign.

5. Mind your money. Wherever you’ve got your money parked, be SURE it is safe. If you have general operating funds in anything other than an FDIC insured account, your organization is at risk from a legion of predicted bank failures. Make sure you’re playing it super-safe with the cash this year – know where it is, and know that it’s insured.

With luck, talent, and intelligence, operationally efficient and forward-thinking non-profits should do very well in 2008 as the rest of the pack is slaughtered by the economic sharks in the water. With fewer competitors for donors’ money, the most lean and aggressive non-profits can potentially earn some big donor market share. Good luck!

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March 2, 2008
Where do the veterans of new media go?

Where do the veterans of new media go?

A theme that has cropped up in discussion lately about PodCamp is this:

Where do the veterans go to learn new stuff?

PodCamp, BarCamp, NewBCamp, BootCamp – there are so many conferences, sessions, and opportunities for new folks, from Zero to Podcasting at PodCamp Toronto to all of NewBCamp/BootCamp, and it’s heartening to see the new media community welcoming with open arms anyone who wants to learn. New media’s future hinges on the continued generosity of the community, and I hope PodCamp especially continues to be one of the welcome wagons.

That said, where do the veterans go to take their game to the next level? Where can they turn?

To be honest, there isn’t anything for them, not because of a lack of desire, but because being on the frontier means you’re responsible for your own training, your own innovation. You can get together with friends and share what you’ve created, but by and large, innovation is your responsibility.

Sure, I think it would be fantastic to have a 400-level track at PodCamps, and PodCamp organizers would do well to remember that all levels of skill welcome means all levels, including the occasional rocket scientist/trail blazer, or else that occasional rocket scientist has a diminished incentive to contribute.

But beyond that, the innovators are on their own. In the martial arts, one of my teachers, Ken Savage (of the Winchendon Martial Arts Center), compares our head teacher, Mark Davis (of the Boston Martial Arts Center) to a trailblazer at the head of our line, machete in hand, cutting a path so we don’t have to.

Being a trailblazer can mean recognition, thanks, and even fame, but it also means you’re the first guy or gal to step on the snakes, scorpions, and other delights the jungle has in store for you. Veterans of new media need to remember that as well – if you want to continue being a leader, the path never gets easier. Same scorpions, different day.

Where do I personally go to learn? I look at tons of different sources for idea components. For example, I got a thank you email from someone on LinkedIn that had a great idea component in it, something that I’m going to combine with a few other ideas and make even better. New ideas, new insights are all around, if only we’re paying enough attention to grab them as they whiz by. Ideas come from arbitrage – I’ve often quoted Mark Davis’ signature expression, study something old to learn something new. Finally, ideas come from just trying something, watching it flop, finding the parts that did work, and refining it until it does work.

As Thomas Edison said, “I haven’t failed 10,000 times. I have just found 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb.”

Where do YOU get your ideas? Where do YOU go to learn?

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March 2, 2008
Dan Kennedy on Audio

For those thinking about audio podcasting as an effective sales mechanism, master sales trainer Dan Kennedy has an interesting perspective on audio as a marketing tool. Granted, in his blog post, he’s talking about CDs and not digital delivery, but the points about why sales folks should be delivering audio as a sales mechanism are just as applicable.

Read Dan Kennedy’s list here.

If you’re looking for a sales podcast, check out the Sales Roundup Podcast, another one of our fellow New England Podcasters.

I’ve been following a lot of Dan Kennedy’s stuff since I was introduced to it by one of my teachers, Dennis Mahoney. Dan costs a LOT for any kind of materials, but he delivers a lot of useful, out-of-the-box templates that work incredibly well. I use his sales letter template an awful lot when I send out promotional emails for the Financial Aid Podcast or Matthew Ebel.

Combine it with systems like neurolinguistic programming and new media, and you’ve got a terrific combination.

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February 28, 2008
Tennessee Never Cried – new Matthew Ebel video

I had the opportunity to film Matthew Ebel playing live at AS220 in Providence at NewBCamp this past Saturday. After some uphill learning curves, I got the hang of the tricks I needed in order to make this video, and here’s the final result.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1LqUUv2cC8[/youtube]

Enjoy it!

Please leave all comments on the video itself, and rate it – I’d love for more people to see Matthew at work.

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February 26, 2008
Reflections on NewBCamp 08

For those who didn’t head out to PodCamp Toronto this weekend, another UnConference launched in New England – NewBCamp. Very closely aligned in concept (though no connection) to PodCamp Pittsburgh‘s BootCamp PGH, NewBCamp was created by Sara Streeter, a student at Johnson & Wales University, to achieve the dual goals of introducing new people to the various technologies available and to energize the Providence area technology scene with the power of new media.

I went to NewBCamp to share a little and see someone else’s take on the UnConference idea, and I’m pleased to say that NewBCamp is very much the same energy, enthusiasm, and excitement that embodies the PodCamp series of events. I think the Providence area has got its own UnConference series, and it’ll be interesting to see if NewBCamp and BootCamp can work together, since they’re so closely aligned.

Even a veteran can learn lots of new stuff, and I’m certainly no exception. Sara’s session, Speed Mentoring, is an absolute gem of a session that I would love to incorporate into PodCamps. It’s like Speed Dating, but instead of relationships, a few people self-designate as mentors in specific topics, and then folks in the room can cluster towards topics that they’re interested in or that they need help in. Those small, focused discussions were revelatory in their own right, but I think the Speed Mentoring concept is a nice twist to conversation.

I had the opportunity to fine-tune and present a more story-like version of my New Media 101 session. Matthew Ebel was kind enough to stream it on uStream.tv, and recorded part of it here:

A full version with better audio will be produced and released soon.

The day concluded with a concert at AS220 in Providence with Matthew Ebel. Over 90 minutes, Matthew took us all on a fantastic musical tour of his work, including a new version of probably my all time favorite song of his, I Will Wait For You.

NewBCamp was a fantastic experience, and I hope to see it flourish and accomplish its twin missions of introducing new people to technology and bringing a boost to the Providence technology and new media sectors.

“The sun’s coming up in the morning, and I’ll be there…”

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February 24, 2008
Unsponsored Review: SuperDuper

I wanted to take a moment to very publicly thank the developers at Shirt Pocket for making SuperDuper, the backup software for the Mac.

A few weeks ago, my MacBook Pro started making noise. A LOT of noise. One of the fans broke and made my Mac sound like it was harvesting grain or sanding plywood. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled at the idea of repairs, and Apple confirmed what I’d not wanted to hear – 3 to 5 days of repair time to get the machine fixed.

At the Student Loan Network, we have extra machines in case things like this happen, but as anyone who’s ever gone through the process knows, sitting in on a hot spare means operating in an environment that isn’t yours. Shortcuts and aliases, preferences, it’s literally like trying to drive someone else’s car, wearing someone else’s clothes, living in someone else’s house. It’s never pleasant, though usually tolerable.

Enter SuperDuper. I originally chose to use it because it uses half the disk footprint of Apple’s Time Machine, and unlike most users, I actually do backup my data regularly. In the manual for SuperDuper, it says it’s possible to boot from its backups. Unfortunately, I found out that if you back up to an image on disk rather than a disk partition, it’s not bootable.

Except…

… If you boot from the Mac OS X install/repair CD and fire up Disk Utility, you can load the disk image of a SuperDuper backup, mount it, and use it to restore your hard drive.

So when the AppleCare box came for me to ship my ailing MacBook Pro to Apple, I did a final incremental backup, shut down, booted the spare MacBook we have in stock, did a restore, hit reboot, and hoped.

If I believed in an external deity, I would have yelled that my prayers were answered. Not only did the MacBook boot, but it loaded in my environment, with all my Quicksilver hot keys, iTunes, everything, exactly as I’d left it when I shut down the MacBook Pro. It was like my computer just decided to go on a hardware diet but otherwise was exactly the same, not a thing out of place.

Today, the MacBook Pro came back from Apple. I did the process in reverse – backed up the MacBook, Disk Utility, restore – and here I am, typing on my MacBook Pro, as if it had never left. Only now the fan is quiet.

SuperDuper not only saved my data, but it made a 3 day absence of my computer more than tolerable – it let me work uninterrupted, save for the hour to backup and the hour to restore. I can’t thank the folks at Shirt Pocket enough for making such a damn fine utility, and it has certainly paid for itself MANY times over in the past few days.

If you run Mac OS X, go buy SuperDuper and start backing up today.

Full disclosure: I paid money to Shirt Pocket, Inc., not the other way around.
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February 22, 2008
Don't be that guy… or gal… doing blogger outreach.

I got a promotional email from Big Machine Media today cc’ed to a list of 340 podcasters and bloggers, promoting their musicians.

Good try, gang.

Look, a lot has already been said about blogger outreach by better minds than mine.

Here’s where this campaign really fell flat.

First, please, please, please if you’re going to do outreach, at least BCC your list. I’d actually prefer that you “go pro” and use a mailing list service like Blue Sky Factory to manage your mailings, so that you have comprehensive blacklist and other filtering at your fingertips. On those occasions when I need to do outreach, I set up a segmentation that says, “Never, ever send this email to the same address twice”.

Second, put an obvious, functional opt-out in the email.

Third, if you’re going to pitch me, PITCH me. Show me why you deserve an ounce of my time or attention. The email I got had a relatively decent subject line, but a really poor payload. This company wants to promote their musicians to me. Fine and good, I love promoting musicians (like Rich Palmer, Matthew Ebel, Anji Bee, Rebecca Loebe, Black Lab, Natalie Gelman, Rayko KRB, and countless others) and I love hearing new, independent music, but the pitch in this message was about as exciting as getting my grocery bill via email, which is to say not at all. (perhaps you have exciting groceries? I do not)

What would make an effective pitch to me? Well, you could send me a link to an MP3 ( <= free MP3! ) so that I could hear what you have to offer – that’d be a start. Tell me WHY your musicians are so good, and whether or not musicians like to be compared to others, tell me at least who they kind of sound like – for example, Matthew Ebel sounds like the love child of Billy Joel and Ben Folds with a dash of William Shatner from time to time, and an ounce or two of John Mayer.

Marketing music is difficult under the best circumstances, and lord knows I’ve made more than my share of missteps. At least maybe this list of basics will help music marketers who WANT to do outreach be a little more effective.

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February 22, 2008
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

If you want your favorite blogs to be ultraportable, check out Feedjournal. It makes an old-school newspaper out of your RSS feeds.

Here’s today’s Christopher Penn morning paper. (PDF, 292 kb)

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February 22, 2008

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