You go to your favorite blogs and forums.  You post, helping people, relating your stories.  You’re a member of the community.

And over time, you notice.  You notice there is this douche who’s posting right after you on almost every comment or discussion you start or create.  Even more douchey, he/she is in your field, posting the equivalent of a press release in the comments above every comment you have, joining every group you join - even though that person knows no one in the group.

Now, I’d like to think that the people reading, in fact, I know the people reading the comments or blog posts or discussion threads realize it’s PR, and badly executed PR at that.  It’s PR with a side helping of douchebag.  My PR friends and acquaintances, for the most part, would cringe at how poorly executed the multiple instances I’ve seen for this are.  I’ve saved them as case studies for clients for what NOT to do, but I won’t post them publicly.

It’s interesting that the more successful one is in social media (or anything), the more people try to poorly imitate it; and although imitation is the greatest form of flattery, it’s also dead-nuts proof that you don’t have a unique value proposition.

So here’s the lesson - have your own voice (link to awesome presentation on where this idea comes from). It’s worth something.  And if you don’t think your own voice is worth something, and you have to hide your messages behind press release copy all the time, maybe you should take your ball and go home.  Social media is not for you as you’re only hurting your credibility being a copycat.  And that’s okay.

I’m becoming an avid devotee of Merlin Mann’s reformation around his work habits and “being better.” Although I don’t have a child that radically changed my view on life, I realized we all have priorities in our lives and we need to focus on that.  I’ve whole-heartedly swiped some of his ideas for my life, and they’ll ooze onto this blog when pertinent because after all, interactive media, social media - it’s about people and their stories and sharing the stuff that matters.

The number one question corporate types ask me about podcasting is if they can track how many plays their podcast has on devices, because with DRM’d (Digital Rights Management, or protected files) files you can do such things (which is one of the big reasons so many people like DRM - p.s., I loathe it) if the device plays along.  I’ve always bristled against such things, especially the level of tracking that’s available on email newsletters (tracking exactly who read what and clicked on what, and tying it to personal information).  I’ve always bristled against such non-anonymous targeting and don’t allow my company to participate in it (and I’ve lost accounts because I won’t do it).

However, I was thinking about it, and realizing that iTunes Genius could be the bridge that those customers want who want specific tracking - and Apple could make a pretty penny licensing the information in aggregate if they tied it to podcasts.  Sure, it’d be an aggregate number, but good enough for our purposes and more information that we had before.  And no nasty DRM software.  Everyone wins, except again, it’s only a snapshot because you still need the opt-in of iTunes Genius.  But better than what we have.

After all, once the podcast is on the iPod, except for little bursts found on sites like Last.FM you don’t know a layer of statistics (time played, number of plays, if it was just marked “played” but never played).

Your thoughts?  Or is this more data you don’t want captured, even if it’s “anonymous?”  Are downloads and methods enough for advertisers to make decisions?

So many folks want to add all kinds of video, bells and whistles, and more to their site - because it’s “cool.”  And I agree, strategic implementation of multimedia can really make a site go “wow!”

This client made the mention that they were completely lost on the site they visited - they didn’t get the message, and it was just too much.

Just like other forms of design, sometimes too much is too much.  Not only is that video close to invisible to search engines (and search is a critical part of getting traffic to your site); but it can overwhelm and confuse your core message.

After all, as a business site, you’re there to communicate a message and enable others to get things done and buy from you (in one form or another).  I’m not saying we need to go back to 1998; but sometimes, the best decision is NOT to do something.

After all, having been in this game for a decade in both “traditional” and “online” media, I totally get where Justin’s coming from.

I saw a cool campaign for some pretty valuable B2B information - sounds snore-o-riffic, but it was some pretty cool stuff for business nerds.

However, when I got the link from a friend, I got a note that “the form was too long and they want too much information, but it sounds interesting.”  Well, I went over there - and lo and behold, 20 fields of information that they need.  Obviously, they are qualifying people for follow-up; however, don’t you just basically need a name, an email and (maybe) a phone number?  After all, there is nothing stopping someone from entering 20 fake fields of information instead of just say 4 or 5.  The term in the industry is to aim to have “low friction.”

The lead-generation CRM nerds might dislike me for this - but we’ve seen consistently that more fields = less participation = less reach.

One of the reasons I like to “put things out there” and make sure podcasts are in big directories like iTunes and the blog that’s attached to the podcast is in Technorati and other high-profile places is that you want content to be sharable for this whole “viral” thing to work.  Yes, metrics suffers a little, I know - but the goal is to sell stuff, or influence minds, isn’t it?

Take a listen and enjoy!

Everyone talks about how they want to “create” viral marketing - and I’m still very dubious that it can be caught in a bottle.

However, after listening last night’s to the most recent episode of Net@Nite with Amber MacArthur, I noticed something very interesting about Jibjab - a company that has actually been around for almost ten years doing online entertainment.

They push their newest content, especially their political cartoons - down the pipe of their 400,000 person email list.  That they didn’t buy.  That they amassed on their own on their site.  So in some ways, that email list has the same effective reach as mass media outlets.  And they’ve made a business model out of their cartoons through subscriptions for ecards - a surprisingly large online industry.

When you have the gasoline in the can of 400k people - and another video they did with Weird Al had another huge list - it makes perfect sense why their good content stands out from the other good content.

Sometimes, with all the new tools coming out, people get caught up in the shiny - and forget about the foundational items that work.

I’m not going to be absurd and say it’ll happen tomorrow; but it WILL happen, in my opinion, when the competitors to the iPhone catch up for the mainstream masses; or, conversely, if Blackberry loses it’s top position. What are you doing to be ready for mobile?

That said, a lot of people who are unfamiliar with blogging give it a bad rap, because they don’t realize it’s power and how to utilize it.  Maybe they’re too cheap to spend some money on a decent host, or they just don’t know any better.  I’ve had quite a few twitter conversations with folks who look at the wordpress.com options and think that’s as far as it goes, and dismiss it at their own loss.

Wordpress by far, in my opinion, is the most powerful and customizable blogging platform today, used by CNN and other major outlets.  In fact, quite a few sites for large companies are actually modified Wordpress under the hood.

However, if you use wordpress.com, you are severely limited in your choices because with power comes responsibility.  It’s mostly for people just starting out, but if you’re serious about getting the benefits of blogging, read on.

If you want your blog to look like a big boy, you need to host it yourself.  That alone will open you to a host of options; a big part of our business is installing, customizing, and consulting around blogs.  So many look like junk or miss large, important parts because the people setting them up have great ideas but little knowledge on how to implement them.

Here are three of the many benefits of hosting your own install:

You get maximum SEO benefit. If you host the site connected to your domain, so for instance, blog.yoursite.com or yoursite.com/blog, you will be more search engine friendly with all the tags, etc.  If you do a separate site, whether it’s vox.com, typepad, wordpress, etc. you leak that pagerank and value.

You get the ability to maximize monetization. Adding advertisements from any network, selling them, putting in rotations with timing and percentages, links in RSS feeds - all possible with your own install.

Exact brand matching. With a skilled programmer/designer, your blog can match your site, be your site, and reinforce your brand.  If you’re an advertising or marketing pro, you know the value of this.

To quickly find out if its you or if it’s the host, check out this uber-simple site.  It’ll tell you quickly and efficiently.

I was talking on the topic of an upcoming event, and the organizers were upset someone had blogged that the event was happening sooner than they had the press release ready.  The blog post wasn’t incorrect; but it was limited in information.

Google news went ahead and picked this up in the way it does, and all of a sudden there are calls and traffic.  However, the organizer was still unhappy.

Why? Well first, they had it in their head that a blog was a press release and that Google would NEVER pick up a blog entry or rank it highly, so it must of been a press release, because blogs aren’t real news.  Then, they got indignant that information got out about an event no one has ever heard of ahead of time.

Further investigation revealed that the organizer was flummoxed that they couldn’t control the release themselves.  Mind you, this is a professional business event, not like some secret flash mob party.  People talking about you is GOOD.

And trying to explain that good blogs don’t repost press releases was a whole ‘nother deal, but they also will - gasp - add their own opinion and content.

Either businesses get on the clue train or they get left behind.  I sense someone being left behind - there is a lot distruction in that realm here in our region.  Leaves more for those who get it, though.

According to Ars Technica, Metallica’s management Q Prime decided to “outreach” to the blogging community by inviting some bloggers to listen to a pre-release version of their upcoming album.

Bestill the heart, bloggers do what bloggers do - and blog about the album and the experience.  And the band management decided it shouldn’t of been released, and then threatened access to the bloggers and whined about it greatly.  Ironically, the reviews were quite positive.

Although the band has come back and issued a statement where they say it was their management and that they have asked that the items get reposted at the various blogs, the damage is done - and a great example of what not to do.

So let’s repeat it for the social media impaired - if you invite bloggers, expect they will blog, and don’t try to take down or control what they write, especially if you don’t make them sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

This is total example of old-school folks trying to apply the old conventions to today’s reality.  Maybe take the Jonathan Coulton route and self-publish; unless you’re already established, you’re probably going to make more money yourself.

All in all, the biggest reason why there isn’t an embrace of new media yet is that they don’t understand it… not to mention new media is still levels the playing field because the level of adoption of companies under 100 employees is higher than any other segment.

Following those reasons, we also see cost/staff issues (funny, as it’s usually cheaper and there are some great vendors out there to make it happen) as well as network security (seems like not a well-asked question; is it a concern of leaks or a technical concern?).

Big business in general didn’t always correlate new media to a competitive advantage; this tells me that this is the greatest opportunity for the small (Tier 5, Tier 4, etc) companies to use new media to establish beachheads and superiority in the online space before the big guys catch on.

That said, the three things that they saw most useful across the board was online video, RSS, and podcasting. (Editor’s note: glad we picked those areas to focus on) and blogs were near the bottom of perceived usefulness (Editor’s note: can’t pick’em all).

I’m sure, since it’s lack of understanding as the lead cause, since these decision makers don’t always use these tools themselves they fail to see how their employees and customers can benefit.  This USC information basically backs up what a pseudo-competitor (and overall good guy) said:

“They either get it or they don’t.”

My take is that those who don’t see it need to get on the clue train at the next station as it’s already left this one, if they want to be relevant and make money in the future.

The reality is that this is the way a whole generation of people connect; the playing field has changed.  From here on out, there is a line in the sand; a top-down approach as the past has been is less and less effective.  Of course, it still blows my mind that in 2008 over 15% of businesses we talk to over 10 people don’t have a website yet and close to 70% haven’t updated theirs in the last year.  It’s just not seen as a vehicle; it’s many times seen as a static brochure… and then they wonder why they don’t get any results.

I remember vividly a meeting a couple years ago where the potential client (this is more of a Web 1.0 story, but applicable) who was convinced nothing was wrong with their e-commerce store, even though they were only getting a couple hundred dollars a month on their $100,000 investment (obviously denial is not just a river in Egypt).

Their premise was that since no one told them their store was bad (it was atrocious - no product descriptions, no pictures, no search) that it’s not the problem.  Of course, online customers don’t always tell you it’s bad - most times they just leave and tell their friends.

They had no statistics or tracking package, no way to see where people abandoned their carts, what people did.. but it was still fine.  They did it their way with no input from their vendor; they did the graphics, the text, everything themselves because they knew what customers wanted.

Suffice it to say, they’re still failing in ignorant bliss.  Sad to see, but it’s their choice.  Go take their business from them, as the great equalization is still in effect.

I’ll be the first to tell you that we’re the wrong guys to hire for a billboard.  And also tell you that an accounting firm or an IT infrastructure company are probably the wrong folks to hire for your interactive or website needs.  They might know code (which is important - we strong believe those creating the interactive should know how to implement it) but they probably don’t know the creative part.  It’s not their passion - they’re travail de vie (pardon my rusty french).

Take a look at the sites you regularly visit - does your site have the refinement of those?  Does your site look, feel, act, and give the information that those do (of course adapted for your field of work?

Our logic - and experience - on this is simple.  If your roof is leaking, do you call a plumber?  No, you call a roofer.  Yes, there might be water involved - but that doesn’t mean the skills translate.

It’s tough buying things when you don’t know what you’re expecting… there have been more than a few times when I felt at first I was flying blind.  But it’s important to find that influential - or influentials - of people you trust that will give you honest advice as well as put the logic filter on your brain and do some research to find the right partner.

The not-so-easy answer is - it depends.  It depends on your niche, what is available, and what is brandable.

However, there is one thing you shoudn’t do - create alphabet soup.

We two weeks ago talked to someone who was convinced that the initials of three different things were the right way to go, because they made sense.  Unfortunately, they only made sense to him.

You need to select your address carefully - in some ways, like you would a retail spot.  Different streets and different neighborhoods mean different things to different people, as well as you want to make sure who your neighbors are.

If you’re going to select something other than a .com name (as they’re usually first to be picked up) is what does your neighbor do?  Is it a competitor?  Is it content that if someone did goof and type in the wrong extension they wouldn’t be horribly surprised?

What are your tips?

However, there are a lot of times where audio outperforms video by factors of anywhere from 2-4 to one.  Long format content, especially when there aren’t a lot of supporting visuals, is suited perfectly for audio.  Although the “in” thing is video on the ‘net, the reality seems to be that people prefer to take with them audio.

Why?  Well, despite what some advertising agency people will lead you to believe (because you do make more money producing video; way more money, as the project is larger and the agency’s cut is larger) it’s because people don’t want to be interrupted - they may want to learn your content or be entertained but they have other things to do.

There are a couple exceptions to this - when the long form content has a live community around it (a beautiful example of this is TWiT Live - but they still don’t offer video podcasts versions of their content, and I don’t know if they should) but it works because there are a couple thousand people who are becoming friends chatting in real time about what’s going on.

The second is if the long form content requires lots of visuals, like powerpoints and such that keep things moving, entertaining, and informative.  It’s key that these visuals are resized and edited directly into the program as just shooting a powerpoint screen with a camera is unprofessional and very hard to read.

What are your thoughts on the future of online video?

Frankly, when it comes to ad networks, even the mighty Google gets it wrong - and a lot. Of course, with this sort of automated bid system, it’s almost unavoidable to have mistakes. However, the image below is a little bit of a doozy - I wonder if the Adidas folks are OK with this one…

The reaction I hear time and time again from advertisers and publishers is that brands want safe places to be - content that isn’t too controversial or offensive. And going with an ad network means that anything could happen unless you’re very vigilant and/or your ad network pre-screens the sites so you know what you’re getting.

However, as I’m following people about, I’ve realized that there are a few types of Twitterers. Some great - some not so much. I’ve decided to arbitrarily label them and put them into boxes below. Folks can fit into multiple boxes…

Tweeach - A Twitter Leach. Constantly asking others for stuff, and never providing anything back of value. They’re their to suck you dry and have no creativity. Easily identified by their constant asking of stupid or banal questions, and when they do tweet, it’s self-serving.

Celebritweet - Scoble, Calacanis, Laporte. Don’t need to say any more - usually in the 10k-20k follower range. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), especially if you’re a fan.

Comtweetian - Hotdogladies, Hodgman. The main motivation of their twittering is to be funny. Again, YMMV depending on your sense of humor.

Twittertool - Twittering because it’s the “in” thing to do, usually about once per day, and usually self-serving, always boring. Hence the “tool” part.

The Tweedia - Twitter feeds from media sources, such as MLive or CNN. I’d rather just subscribe to the RSS feed, but valuable if you use Twitter as your nexus of information.

Tweetspammer - Uses twitter to spew the platitudes of their product or service - or blog.  Usually highly focused, sometimes motivated by a $20 online program that told them doing this will increase their Google ranking somehow.

Emotweeter - Denoted by common uses of the word “Fail” and “Sucks.”  The world is a dark, dark place to them.  Follow with caution as misery loves company.

Housetweet - Usually a housewife (or houseman) who may have kids, but doesn’t do much else so most tweets are cute kid stories and waiting for the hubby or wife to come home.

Gossitweet - A troublemaker.  Either spreading rumors or finding ways to hook up with people for flings.  Online equivalent of a high school gossip queen, which unfortunately, evolves (I use the the term evolve very loosely) into worse as an adult.

Do you have additions or addendums?  I’d love to hear’em.

Check out this fabulous presentation at Startup School. It’s about 30 minutes long.

Some have eschewed the idea altogether - saying that giving away a white paper or article or something is a waste of time.

And I think not. I think it can have tons of value to you, if you understand that the online business world is not about scarcity, it’s about quality.

Let’s cover what not to do.

Don’t stick up your potential visitors. What do I mean by stick up? No, you’re not robbing them of money but you’re trying to grab their identity - and when you provide nothing for it except the hint that you might get a whitepaper or something interesting - you’re going to get a lot of Elmer Fudds and abandonments (and no, they’re not going to tell you they left).

Don’t make me contact you directly to get it by phone or otherwise. I won’t, and most people won’t.

Show your value by putting the first third or quarter of your valuable genius on your web site as HTML. Search engines will love it, and you will have captured the reader wanting more (again, this goes back to quality - it has to be good or it won’t work. And you can create good. You can create great).

You then insert your low-friction (as small as it possibly can be while getting the information you need to contact them) information form there.

You’ll get much better responses as they - your audience - will be engaged. If you’re really slick, have your programmer give them the rest of the document after form acceptance, right in-line with what they’re reading, as well as give them the option to keep a well-laid out, branded PDF version with your logo inserted with class.

That means once per page, at a reasonably small (yet readable) size. Put your contact and copyright information on each page as well - since they love what you have to say and find it valuable, you should let them talk to you!

Don’t be so concerned if your competition reads it - they will. And you should be reading theirs. Your potential customers are going to have them side-by-side anyway. Again, win with quality - and win the business.

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