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I was recently critical of a network’s event in Second Life. I also didn’t like how another brand approached Podcasting.
But, I want to make it very clear that I LOVE that these companies are trying out new marketing and social media in any form or another. Any company (especially one with a well established brand) should be applauded for dipping their toes in the water.
In both situations my reasoning for posting was my personal feelings on how things could have been done better. I hoped that it would spark an open conversation on how next time it might be improved or just other ideas to keep in mind.
Work in any field long enough and you learn that with any project of this scope there are multiple hands in the cookie jar and more often then not that cookie crumbles a bit and doesn’t come out perfectly. That’s the nature of the world we live in.
I want every company out there to consider and try out every aspect of social media. Give podcasting a whirl with some internal communications, set up a presence or sponsor an event in Second Life, create a video that you upload to YouTube and see what happens. Any and all of these are interesting and the only way you’ll know if it’s right for your company is to try it.
Growing up, my parents always had a rule (and I’ve passed it onto my kids) that we had to try anything put on our plate. If we didn’t like it we didn’t have to eat any more, but we HAD to try it. That’s how I hope business approach this new world.
Any comments I ever make are geared towards pushing the whole medium forward. I’m one guy with a head full of thoughts and a heart full of passion. And I love chatting further and am only an e-mail away.
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Today is a special episode focused on how musicians can leverage new marketing technologies and techniques to grow their fan base and get their music heard by a larger audience. I plan on doing many of these very focused shows so if you have ideas please let me know. The comment line is always open at 206-309-4729.
Mentioned on the show:
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Let me say first that Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff who is the man behind Shadow Falls is a good friend of mine. I’m also personally affiliated with PodShow. Wanted to get those disclosures right out in the open.
His podcast audio drama Shadow Falls did very well when it came out a few months ago. Serialized audio drama content that you could listen to every week as the story moves forward. I’m looking forward to hearing the next batch when season 2 begins.
But, they are trying something new to continue the draw for the fans and to bring in more listeners. I’m not sure it’s going to work totally towards those goals, but I applaud them trying mixing of medias and seeing what happens. If nothing else it’s going to be great to stop and look back at it afterwards for us all to learn.
Earlier this week Britney Mason announced that The Shadow Falls Experience would be opening in Second Life.
What is being done is clues are being given on a podcast which directs listeners to areas of the build in Second Life where they will unlock further clues. Each builds on the next and you must listen to the podcast and take part in the Second Life piece to get all the way through it all. It’s a very interesting merging of two technologies. It was very interesting to see a 3D representation of some of the major landmarks in the story.
I’m a bit biased being from New England on how they don’t fit what it looked like in my head, but when do they ever? Each persons imagination is their own. It’s what makes movies of books so hard to do right as well. Each person is going to have their own experience, but isn’t that sort of the point?
Reminds me of how earlier this year another friend of mine JC Hutchins held a big event in Second Life around his new podiobook 7th Son: Book 2 - Deceipt. A different approach, but still a nice integration of different tools.
Does any of this work? I don’t know. None of us do. It’s something new and we’ll have to play along to see. I’m just excited to see authors jumping into the fray and not being afraid to give it a whirl.
Now all I need to do is to get someone to create a machinima version of a football game from The Rookie by Scott Sigler and I’ll really be smiling.
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Last night a huge crowd gathered on the Pontiac sims of Second Life for what was pitched as a live taping of the Jimmie Kimmel show and the Jay-Z performance.
It was fun as we got to hear the stream of the live audio from the interviews until the lawyers shut that down.
After a sim crash and delays upon delays Jay-Z finally performed. His avatar danced around the stage while we heard the live stream from the performance. Just like any other concert in SL which happen every night.
After two songs it was done. I felt completely underwhelmed so I turned on the TV to see how they used it during the actual airing of the show. That was what I was interested in since I wasn’t sure what they were going to do with it.
I stayed up watching it and besides a little mention of SL at the beginning there was NOTHING.
All hype, zero return. This is not how a company should approach something like Second Life. They didn’t even go for any buzz since the announcement of the event only came out late yesterday afternoon. I know some very talented people who worked on setting this up and they were working hard last night during it as well. I feel bad for them because I don’t understand what they did all the work for during a holiday week. It confuses me.
I’m sure there was a point to this whole evening, but I sure don’t see it yet.
The highlight was the random conversations and the live DJ at the beginning spinning mashups from the UK. Wished he had stayed around longer.
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It takes quite a bit to get me overly excited these days, but having just spent a good chunk of time customizing my new Wallop page I’ve got to tell you that I’m impressed.
Yes, this is yet another social networking site. Just what the world needs right?
But, there is something different about this one. I told it about my RSS feed and it not only imported the blog entries, but it detected the photos and added them to my photos library on the site as well instantly. Now if it only detected my podcast links and put those into my music (which should be renamed “audio”) collection as well.
I don’t see anything for video just yet, but you’ve got to assume that it’s coming along with some sort of events/calendar to interact with your network.
The interface is slick and functional. Usually you only get one of those out of a site, but in this case you get both.
I already sent out the invites that it allowed me to use. It didn’t have a counter so I didn’t realize it was limited.
It’s going to be interesting to see how and if this grows. It certainly has a ton of potential
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After crayon’s exposure in the Wall Street Journal this week, I got a question from a listener focusing on the quote about how much it costs to build a presence in Second Life. My answer plain and simple is “it depends.”
So, I took this episode and tried to give a sort of building concerns in Second Life 101. Focusing on things that marketers and individuals should think about when building in SL and more importantly buying land with the intent of building. I talk about the difference between buying an island and buying land anywhere else in SL. This isn’t just for big businesses but really anyone who might want to set up shop.
I talk from my personal experience and what people have told me as well. It is NOT meant to be the end all answer to the question so please provide more feedback in the comments because I believe that it takes the voice of the community to really get the answer your looking for. I’m sure I forgot some things or said something unclear. That is what happens when you podcast live.
Some helpful links:
I also announce CaseCamp Second Life which will be happening on December 14, 2006 at the Crayonville Amphitheatre. I believe I forgot to mention the date on the podcast. Silly me! I’m very excited for this event and look forward to trying a new medium such as this for this event. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
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My friend Allison just forwarded over an article called “No, Second Life is not overhyped” written by David Kirkpatrick at Fortune.
I’ve read tons of articles from every sort of publication and I have to say this is the most objective and honest look I’ve seen. It talks about the fact that it is not the most user friendly interface while talking about some of the success stories.
This article is for Fortune so of course it focuses soley on the big businesses coming into SL, but I was amazed at how dead on I thought the article was. I was also impressed to see him put his avatar at the end of the article. I jumped right in world to drop him an IM to say thanks for the great article
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Episode #21 focuses a lot on what I’ve learned in the last couple of weeks while conducting business in Second Life. Sometimes it’s the same and sometimes very different then what you are use to in a traditional real world office building.
I talk about some of the happenings at Crayonville and I also talk about sponsorship opportunities in Second Life and specifically surrounding the launch of my new area on the Dirty sim.
Swing by this podcast’s PodShow+ page or the Gather site when you get a moment and say hello.
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I love Google Talk. If you haven’t used it, it’s another IM application just like all the others. What I like about it is that chats are auto logged in my gMail account so I can search them later when I forget a URL someone sent me or other bit of information.
Recently they added a nice feature to the status area where it could display whatever your listening to. I love this because I can see what my friends are listening to at that moment. It’s started more then one conversation to find out more about the artist.
Today when I turned it on it asked me about sharing my data with Google Music Trends.
It’s completely opt-in as it should be. I’m interested to see the “charts” or whatever you know is coming. Could this be a way to finally get more indie artists into their music search and other areas? I know that 80% of the music I listen to is stuff that many people outside of the podosphere have not heard of yet.
And podcasts? What are they going to do with those? I listen to plenty of those as well and the data will be shared with them that I’m listening to them. Will they eventually have a Google Podcasts? They have their fingers in everything else so you know it’s only a matter of time.
Neat to find little gold nuggets like this once and a while. Something worth keeping an eye on for sure.
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I just read on Boston.com that 1.5 million Easy Buttons have been sold by Staples.
That’s mind blowing to me in a good way. It’s one of those advertisements that at first everyone just laughed off. 
But, someone actually convinced people that they could sell these things and people would buy them. I’m sure that person got laughed at and more then one roll of the eyes but it worked.
This isn’t about the money (Staples actually donated at least the first million dollars to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America), but it’s about their brand. You see a red rounded button of any sort and the first thing you think of is Staples. We all wish we had a button that we could push and make things better.
Good old fashion out of the box thinking. It doesn’t always have to be able flashy web sites and viral videos. A good idea always wins no matter what form it comes in.
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I attended the launch event for Toyota into Second Life tonight.
They’ve built a city scape with a road course around it. It’s known as Scion City. Stops include the show room, the stage and a drive in where some cool machinima was playing when I checked it out tonight. It’s geared towards cars.
Now, I’m not really a “car guy” in real life or Second Life, but I like how the three variety of Scions can be completely customized. Basic colors and rim styles can be done through a simple click interface, and for more talented users you can chop shop it to pieces and make it whatever you want. I’m planning on at least trying to turn mine into a convertable. We’ll see.
What is interesting? I bought one of the sportier models on the spot. Bought it the minute I saw it because I wanted to give it a whirl and try it out.
More proof that this stuff works? I’ve had one of the first edition Scions for a while. I drive it around and my kids get a kick out of it. We were driving down the street when we passed a silver one just like mine. From the back seat Dylan exclaims, “Look daddy it’s your car from Second Life.”
Well done Toyota.
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Hopefully that will be fixed soonOk, you want the perfect use of fun video to advertise a product?
My buddy Chris from The Financial Aid Podcast told me I had to check out http://www.willitblend.com/
I didn’t care that it was trying to sell me blenders. In fact I didn’t know it was at first. I just instantly went to the “don’t try this at home” section and was floored by what they are putting into a blender.
The only opportunity (and it’s a big one) that they are missing, or I just couldn’t find, is a way to share the videos with others. Add that one little bit of new marketing juice and they’d have one big instant viral success I think.
Of course it’s the middle of the day and I’m now craving a margarita in the worse way! And a new blender….
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C.C. Chapman, Partner at The Advance Guard, uses this marketing podcast and blog to help business professionals and individuals, stay up to date on what is happening in the world of social media. Got a question? Want me to speak at an event? Just want to talk to someone? I'm only an e-mail away.
