Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional

I’m headed into the Boundary Waters to spend a week of quality time with a canoe, nature and my father. I’ll be completely unplugged and off the grid.

This will be the longest time in forever that I’ve unjacked for a period of time such as this and I can’t wait. It rebalances you. At least it does for me.

Play nice and spread the good word.

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This past weekend the American Cancer Society held a virtual Relay for Life inside of Second Life.

Those doubters in the crowd will scoff at this as a stupid idea. Avatars running around tracks set up through 12 different sims, each with a different global theme and familiar landmarks from around the world. Pink cars being auctioned off and special t-shirts for sale. Sounds pretty silly to some of you?

How does $40,000 US Dollars raised doing this silliness sound to you?

This makes me amazingly happy. Any way that people can find to raise money for a good cause excites me. I think it is very important for people to give back and take part in charity events. I know I donated several thousand Linden Dollars to this in various ways. I should have given more.

Congrats to everyone who helped make this happen. MANY hours were spent putting together the courses, designing unique items and setting everything up. And who wins? Everyone. Especially the American Cancer Society.

And be sure to check out this video someone did of the course. It’s quite impressive what people put together.

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MarketingMonger.com interviewed me this week as part of their goal of 1,000 interviews with marketing people. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks to my buddy Julien for sending them in my direction.

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Today Clerks 2 opens to the masses. As a Kevin Smith fan, I’ve been psyched about this for a while and will be going to the movie before the day is done.

But, the reason I wanted to talk about this movie on Managing the Gray is the fact that they tried a whole bunch of new things for this campaign including You Tube and MySpace. It’s the first movie I’ve seen do this for real. Sure, others have posed as doing it, but Kevin Smith and team really did. Heck, they were the first movie I’ve seen do a video diary of the making of the movie and have an RSS feed for it!!!

I thought listeners of this podcast would enjoy hearing some of the unique things they tried and I offered some suggestions on other things they could add next time around to take it even futher.

As always you can call in comments to 206-309-4729 or drop me an e-mail.

See ya at the movies! *grin*

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Today AOL and PodShow are announcing a new service called PodShowPRO. (Press release)

I got a sneak peek at it and I think it’s a big step in the right direction. The fact that this will allow business users, academics and other organizations create, share and discover podcasts is a great step forward.

I’m not sure if this is the end all solution (only time will tell on that one), but any tool that lowers the boundaries to get into, create and listen to podcasting is good in my book.

My understanding is that this is going to be directly integrated into the newly announced AIM Pro, so not only will it give people the ability to create and publish podcasts, but based on what I’ve seen it appears that content from appropriate independent producers will also be suggested to users if they desire this feature. This is what has me most excited because it enhances the discovery of appropriate podcasts that business professionals might never discover, but they now will.

Just thinking about this from an employment standpoint has me jazzed as well. A business could create a private channel for their company or even a section of that company that employees would subscribe to. Communication could flow on this channel from the most minor of conversations to major announcements from the CEO or President.

I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet and the proof is always in the pudding, but i’m excited about the possibilities and I look forward to trying it out.

Posted in Cool Tools, New Media | Comments(3)

So I just set up an onXiam profile.

A sort of one stop shop for me to tell you all the different places you can find me online. It’s a very simple concept and it’s all because of this photo that I checked it out.

All it seems to be missing is a “friends” feature and then you’ve got something going on.

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I’m lucky enough to be a BETA tester for this very cool new tool called BlogHUD that allows me from within Second Life to blog to a site that shows both where I am as I blog it and also what I have to say.

Great way to see where I’ve been in SL and what I’ve liked enough to BlogHUD about it.

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I love it when friends forward me posts like this one. It may not be a duck, but it’s certainly not getting it either. I’m sick of reading crap like this.

Every day I have discussions with people about “what is Second Life.” It’s not an easy conversation. I don’t think it was meant to be. Remember back in 1996 trying to explain to people what the web was? I remember tons of conversations with people as I showed them a web browser and they shook their heads going “this will never catch on. There is no point.”

Listen up all the doubters who shun all things new and unknown. You are the same people who say Podcasting is a fad. That Blogging will never catch on. That Second Life is pointless.

If that is truly what you believe then keep on believing so. It’ll mean more success for the people who get it. The people who realize that Second Life is NOT about marketing. Bingo! It’s about a community of people doing their own thing. It’s a big old gathering in a virtual space where professors are teaching classes, musicians are building followings, organizations are raising funds to find a cure for cancer and a whole bunch of people are pixel bumping. (that’s something I still don’t get the appeal of *grin*)

As with any place in the world that people gather there is an opportunity to market to them. That’s marketing 101 for anyone who cares to think about it for a minute. The problem is that it’s not the same as the markets that people are use to. It’s not a magazine so print ads don’t work. It’s not radio (thankfully) so the 30 second spot is dead and won’t fly here. But, guess what, avatars do fly….perhaps there is something there? Think about it.

I love reading articles like this because it reminds me that there are so many people locked inside their boxes while I’m out crushing mine and trying to think of new ways to approach and succeed in this new space.

Is Second Life the golden goose for marketers? Is it the eagle that is going to swoop down and carry us all up to higher success rates? Beats the hell out of me. But, your right, it’s not a duck.

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Early morning podcast before heading into the office. 206-309-4729 for audio comments or questions.

With iTunes moving this show into the Management & Marketing category I thought that I’d share information about my management style and some tips to hopefully help you.

Hope you find it helpful.

[Transcript]

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I was hanging out at my Second Life Office when people started showing up and IMing me. Before I knew it we had a small group of listeners and we started talking about a variety of topics.

What is fun about Second Life is that we never even went inside. We just sort of mingled around, got shown some artwork, watched my daughter rock out on the video wall and then ride around on the roof of a car.

But, the whole time we were engaging in new media and discussing lots of topics. Let’s see you do all that in an old school chat room!

More formal meetups will be scheduled soon. The new house is almost done and then we’ll have a good old house warming party and invite everyone on over. Can’t wait.

Posted in second life | Comments(2)

This show’s PodShow+ site is now up and live. Going to be interesting to see how people use this system. It’s a very different and yet familiar approach all at once.

My personal page is also up there. Be sure to connect if you swing by to check it all out.

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Ok, now that I’m spending more and more time in Second Life I figured I’d post some helpful little lessons on basic etiquette in Second Life (SLetiquette?) as there has been some things happening that have been bugging me. As well some personal notes on things going on in world for me.

Plus, since there are lots of newbies coming in and I haven’t seen anything like this I figured I’d start the conversation. Hopefully others will add to it in the comments and we can get a good old fashion conversation brewing.

• Because Second Life is not a game, just because I’m “in world” does not mean that I can socialize the second I arrive. Patience is important.
• If you IM me when not in world, I get it e-mailed to me and will usually respond because I think it’s great that I can do this. But, don’t freak out when you can’t find me in world because of this. *grin*
• If we are friends in world you can find out where I am at any time and teleport there, but this is very bad form. Always drop an IM before just showing up. It’s the polite thing to do and you never know what you might be popping into the middle of. I had someone pop into the middle of a meeting the other night. Doh!
• Many people conduct meetings in world. Just tonight I was on the phone with someone while they showed me around some places. I had someone arrive to chat with me and I politely told them I was busy and couldn’t chat and they got it and said “talk to you soon” and I appreciate that. Please keep in mind that business is happening in SL. People are doing work and sometimes can’t just socialize.
• Linden Labs has not yet added a way to become friends with people unless you are both in world at the same time. I have a habit of jumping in, becoming a friend and jumping out. This sometimes leads to people seeing me, IMing me and then wondering why I left so quick. Now you know why.
• My current office in world (new one still being built) is just that an office. If the doors are open, come on in. If they are shut then perhaps there is a reason. Chill outside on the hammock or watch the movie of the week. I’ll be back soon.
• Second Life is all about community and thus chatting and just saying hi to people is highly encouraged. Just keep in mind that they might be shopping, building or just passing through and can’t chat at the moment. If they don’t say hi back don’t pester. But, also don’t get scared off from saying hello to the next person.
• Snapshots are great, but in case you don’t know, every time you do a sound goes off an your avatar will show that they are taking a picture to everyone. Most times this is cool, but it’s quite possible that the situation might not be appropriate. Just think before you snap.

As I said this is just a starting point in the hope that it’ll kick off some more comments here on the Blog so that we can all pool our knowledge and experiences.

See you in SL!

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I got a lot of requests for the portable recorder I use. Here it is:

Edirol R-09 24-Bit Wave/MP3 Recorder

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Back in the studio finally to record a show. 206-309-4729 for audio comments or questions.

Today, I spent most of the show answering the question from a listener about my thoughts on marketing to avatars and people in Second Life. It’s a different then what most people are thinking and I hope they start realizing that.

I also spoke about opportunities I think could be both very effective and cost effective. As I’ve said before if you need some Second Life consulting just let me know. I would be happy to help you.

Finally, I briefly described the concept of The Long Tail and told everyone that they must buy the new book from Chris Anderson. I consider it must reading.

Posted in second life, Podcast | Comments(4)

I haven’t even finished reading this book yet and I’m telling you that you must read it.

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More discusses the amazingly simple yet powerful concept of the Long Tail. Chris Anderson has taken what started as a Wired article and has blown it up into a full blown book that will be on every new media marketers bookshelf. I’m not going to go into explaining it right here, but get the book. Trust me.

If you are reading this blog or listening to the podcast it is a must have. I get nothing for saying that. Not even an affiliate link out to Amazon. I just think you need it.

I will be raving about this on the next podcast of course, but couldn’t wait to get it out there. Also, read TheLongTail.com if you are looking for more information.

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