Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional

I’m not going to get creative and make this look like a dictionary entry. I thought about it, but it’s too early in the morning to be that creative. *grin*

I keep getting asked “what is Twitter like?” or “is Twitter the new blogging?”

Twitter is Twitter. Yes it feels sort of like a chat room sometimes. Other times it’s more like a global watercooler that we are all hanging around. Sometimes it’s direct communications with others that the world can watch. Finally it’s just something to brain dump into multiple times a day.

My Twitters are all over the map. A mix of sharing information, micro blogging, talking with the community and sharing my brand with people. I love that people can ask questions and I can answer. Likewise I LOVE putting out a question and getting answers back almost immediately. That’s cool!

I’ve already seen some interesting things happening inside of twitter. Discovered accounts that I can tell are setting up for some unique mixes of word of mouth marketing and viral pseudo ARGs almost.  It’s going to be fun to watch as it evolves.

One thing to know about my personal Twitter habits is that I write a lot more to it then I do read it. In the morning and the evenings it turns into a passive chat room for me where I’ll be pretty active. The key is that I can participate when I want. I like that. Because I don’t always read if you want to get a response from me a Direct Message or an e-mail is still the best way. Depending on a question or comment on Twitter is dangerous I think right now. People are watching, but it’s easy to miss.

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C.C. Chapman: Well, hey, welcome to Managing the Gray #30. Today is March 23, 2007. It is the day after Bum Rush the Charts happened. If you are not familiar what that is, bumrushthecharts.com, it was this kind of a new media experiment where everybody got together, tried to get everybody to buy a single song on iTunes on a specific day in order to get this group up the charts, get them on the radar, show that the podcasting and new media sphere could pull together to elevate an independent artist on the charts to kind of mess with the system. What I wanted to do is this morning, Christopher Penn from the Financial Aid Podcast, one of the guys behind the event, we had set up a time to talk, to kind of look back and look at its success. This is not just about Bum Rush the Charts, just using that as sort of a case study or as an experiment for how you and other companies can do experimentation.

We barely talked about the campaign. We talked about lessons we learned from it and things that he specifically learned about it, lessons learned for any campaign that you or your company might be thinking about doing in the new media sphere. So, sit back. It is about 26 minutes. We just kind of sat down and chatted this morning. It was very, very cool. I am very, very excited to turn it over and let you guys hear it. Wow! I just kind of choked on myself. So, this is going to be a little different interview. I do not get to do it very often in Managing the Gray. Get your comments and get your questions in managingthegray@gmail.com and I will talk to you very soon. Here we go.

So, Chris, welcome to Managing the Gray. Good to have you on the show again.

Christopher Penn: Good to be back.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah. You have done it. You have hosted it yourself and now we are actually sitting down to have a conversation through the power of new media. I would rather be doing this over a real cup of coffee, face to face, but we will take what we can get today.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely.

C.C. Chapman: So, what I want to talk about today is yesterday was Bum Rush the Charts, which I think everybody who listens to this podcast knows what I am talking about, but more of the fact — I do not want to focus on the “Dear M” questions and the this and that. I want to focus on it from a new media experiment angle. What went right? What went wrong? How the lessons that were learned in this one little initiative can be carried forth and companies or individuals of any size can learn from it? I think this morning you did a great job of kind of your first initial thoughts on Bum Rush and where it goes from here and what it could have done better and I would love it if you could share that with my listeners.

Christopher Penn: Sure. There were really six, I guess, key learnings that I came up with when it comes to how the campaign went. The first one and the most important I think is the whole thing on transparency. I think in any kind of online campaign, we find it so with Bum Rush the Charts, but really in any kind of online campaign, transparency is the key. By that, I mean disclosing as much as possible, as much as you feel comfortable doing. One big area where the campaign I think started off a little shaky was in the whole issue of how the band was selected and how it was chosen whether there was any kind of backroom deal, which there was not. Black Lab turned out to be a fine choice for the campaign. They were very generous, their willingness to contribute to the scholarship fund and stuff. Transparency is — I like to call it the transactional currency of trust. The more trust you want to build, the more transparent you have to be, the more you have to share information. I like to call it like your first date with somebody, right? You are sitting down at dinner. You have two people who are just staring at each other. It does not work very well. You have a very short dinner. What happens is it is just a natural thing, it is part of a conversation and that is what new media is. It is a conversation. You share information, they share information. You build trust and you do that by being transparent on things and that is where I think the first lesson was.

C.C. Chapman: I love your date analogy. I think that is hysterical because it is so true. It is something everybody can relate to. It is funny because talking about being in a conversation, literally just now as we are sitting here, I just got an email that came in from someone that says, “Today is Bum Rush the Charts Day.” They got the right date in it though. I do not know if it got held up in their email system or what, it is actually dated March 22nd. It says, “Today, March 22nd.” So, the conversation is still going on and the experiment continues, which is okay. I just had that literally just came in and I was like, “Wow! Today is Bum Rush the Charts.” I will not say who it is. I will just let them know offline.

Christopher Penn: That is awesome.

C.C. Chapman: What you said about transparency is key and people think it instantly means disclosing financials and all that, but sometimes it is the littlest thing like you said to me, how a band was picked, which was I do not know how it was picked. It was just kind of random is my understanding. It was not like there was any process, a detailed process or anything like that. I think what companies can learn from that is the fact that if you are going to go out and do something, disclose everything or as much as you can. Obviously, there is a how-much-can-you from a risk standpoint, but at the same time I think you are right, the more you give and show the more trust you are going to build instantly.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely. The more transparent you are, the more conversations you have. I mean one area that was especially a challenge in the campaign was dealing with the social media or the social news network I should say like Digg and reddit and stuff like that. There is a lot of conversation on them, all these different conspiracy theories and stuff like that about the campaign and I think the more transparent the campaign or any online marketing campaign can be , the more likely there is that — you will always have the river of negative news, the naysayers and stuff like that. That is human nature, but the more transparency you can build, the more trust you can build from the outset, the more you will have other people who are I guess allied with your views or your perspective or your campaign efforts will step up and refute those claims and say, “Hey, no, no. This is the real story right here. You’ve missed the point.”

C.C. Chapman: It is funny. Actually, I had a friend the other day. We were discussing that exact topic. It was interesting because what he was saying was the fact that he said, “Listen, if you come out and whatever you do, all the naysayers, they are going to attack you. You have a choice. Either you can defend, you can go on the defensive and start answering those things right away, or you can wait a minute.” His theory was the fact that if you wait, your advocates will step up and step forward and do the defending for you as opposed to if you were to jump and defend, it gives the advocates no reason to do so. They may not as full force. It was a theory that I have been thinking a lot about because I think it can argue either way. I do think it is true though that your advocates will step up and defend you for you, but you got to make sure you have those advocates.

Christopher Penn: Yeah. You got to make sure you have those advocates and you got to make sure they are clear about the message and about what it is that you want to communicate to people.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah. There is nothing wrong in having an advocate defending you improperly.

Christopher Penn: Yeah.

C.C. Chapman: That is almost worse.

Christopher Penn: Yeah. It is putting someone else’s foot in your mouth.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah, exactly. That does not taste very good at all. That kind of segues into a good point, too, is the fact that I think no matter what your campaign is, whatever experimentation you are doing in the new media space, there is always going to be negative backlash. Some people like to just complain for the sake of complaining. They like to hear their own voice. What is your feeling and what would you advise to a company that is thinking — and I am talking about doing anything in the new media space, whether it is video, Second Life, whatever it is. How do you think they should prep for things like that where there is guaranteed to be some negativity no matter what?

Christopher Penn: It is funny. A long time ago, part of my training was a sales training with the whole Tom Hopkins training thing and that was when I was doing human resources recruiting. So, you have product that can talk itself out of a sale, which is very interesting. One of the key points in the sales training was that an objection or a criticism or something like that is a good sign. It is a sign that the audience is engaged because the worst press that you can get is no press at all, complete silence. You throw it out there and everyone ignores you.

C.C. Chapman: Right.

Christopher Penn: At least, if people are talking about it or trying to talk to you, even if they do not necessarily communicate in marketing language that you are used to…

C.C. Chapman: Yeah. Yeah.

Christopher Penn: At least, they are talking to you. It is up to you and your skills as a salesman to turn those things around, to either mitigate them or turn them around to positives. For example, there has been a lot of conversation today about how Bum Rush the Charts was a failure, we did not hit number one on the charts and strictly speaking, you are absolutely right. We did not hit the objective of being number one on the iTunes charts, but we did accomplish an awful lot particularly when you think about getting on to the top 10 charts, in some genre’s top 100 charts, in a number of countries around the world, and doing it all on the $800 budget.

C.C. Chapman: Right. You just propped a whole bunch of other questions on that one little topic. Which one to attack first? I think any project I work on, I always try to really upfront have the conversation of, “How are we going to define success on this project?” I advocate that you should always have more than what is the loftiest goal because if you are not setting your goals high enough, then what is the point of going after them in the first place? As well, what are some other successful — I think this campaign definitely was a success on a lot of factors because the awareness that it raised and the fact that you saw an unsigned band right there among all these other acts that are signed, they have huge budgets and huge money to spend, showcased the fact that it was a success. Did they hit all the goals? No. Let us face it, most of the goals we set on projects, the highest, those ones you stretch do not always get met, but when they do, it is extra sweet, but your fact about the money is another great one. What cost $800 for this?

Christopher Penn: There were exactly two press releases, one on PR Newswire and one on Market Wire, each $400 a piece. They were not taking into account obviously time and labor and effort.

C.C. Chapman: Right.

Christopher Penn: In terms of raw, out-of-pocket money, it was two press releases and that was it.

C.C. Chapman: Right. That leads to the thing that I have talked to companies, I have talked to individuals and they are always worried about the cost. Yes, let us face it. You have to spend money sometimes. You do not get stuff for free and time and resources and intelligent people to do it. To hire the right people is going to cost money, but at the same time — I have had these conversations with clients where they are like, “We only have X number of dollars to spend.” I would rather be given that number upfront and figure out a campaign that works inside of that pocket rather than them going, “We can’t do anything with this amount of money.” There is usually plenty of money to do something with.

Christopher Penn: Exactly.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah and it forces creativity. You look at the indie film market. People get more creative when they have to. I have heard filmmakers talk about when they had the big budgets, it was harder to get things done than when they run a shoestring and being creative because creativity is a very, very powerful thing.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely. Creativity and adaptability. I mean $800 for most companies I think is probably a rounding error on the refreshment’s budget.

C.C. Chapman: Exactly. It is not even a slush fund bucket. Come on.

Christopher Penn: Exactly. Exactly.

C.C. Chapman: One little thing, I want to go back to we were talking about the negativity thing. One of the things I know we have talked about in other context before is the fact that companies, if you are going to come into this space, reach out to the space, focus groups or your advisory panels or just even this whole litmus test just to kind of gauge what do people think of this campaign or your company. How do you feel about that idea?

Christopher Penn: I do not think the focus group idea is a good idea so much as using the new media tools that are out there already.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah. Yeah. Focus group is a bad term. I do not want a roomful of people with green M&M’s. Yeah, sorry about that.

Christopher Penn: One of the best things that you can do as a company is to plug your company’s name in Technorati and Google blog search and if knowing is talking about you then obviously, you have a lot of work to do. If your stuff is out there already, you want to find the people who are being critical of you. You want to find the people who have something negative to say or just critical to say about you and engage them, talk to them. Do your homework first, research them and say, “Okay. This person is talking.” For example, the student loan industry, they say that this lender company gives kickbacks and that lender company…

C.C. Chapman: Right.

Christopher Penn: Sends people on Caribbean trips. You find out what is being said and know in advance some of the arguments that are going to come against you. Talk to those people and engage them. Really, it is as simple as having conversations, “Hey, I know that you were talking about me on your blog and I’m not upset about it. I would like to talk to you more to see how you got the information which made your decision and what I can do as a representative of my company to not necessarily change what you’re saying, but to understand more about what you’re saying and why you’re saying it and what we can do as a company to, in the future, be more positive.”

C.C. Chapman: Right. It is funny because in Crayon, we call it a conversation audit where we go out and see what people are saying about you and we kind of dig deep into it and what-not. Would it not be cool if a company actually contacted like you directly after you have slammed them. I know I am trying to think, I never had a company, excuse me, I had that one company, a small company come to me who played in the new media space when I plugged some of this, “We’d really like to correct your assumptions on this,” but I think it would be amazing if big companies did more of that because you know the person would blog about it right away. “Well, so and so just reached out to me. I didn’t know that would ever happen.”

Christopher Penn: Look at what happened with… oh, gosh! I cannot remember the guy’s name. He was a big user of Google AdWords and he was sayings how AdWords was such a headache for him to manipulate all these campaigns. Somebody at Google, not even a senior exec, just a product manager sent him an envelope with a packet of Advil and then saying, “Sorry about the headache.”

C.C. Chapman: I have heard about that. That is awesome.

Christopher Penn: He is like, “Holy crap! Google just sent me a packet of Advil.”

C.C. Chapman: The closest thing I had to happen to that was I remember Eric Schiff posted a photo on his Flickr site about — it had a picture of dark chocolate covered Altoids before they were generally available and I made a comment going, “Man! I wish those were available in Boston.” I got an e-mail from Altoid’s PR company and said, “Give us an address and we’ll send you some.” Sure enough, I had Altoids show up one day and I am like, “Sweet! That is awesome.” Very different from the Google thing, but the same kind of concept that they saw someone who would probably evangelize for them and fed it as well which is another great thing.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely. I think one of the things that we took from the Bum Rush campaign as well as these other example is that you should not focus just on the people who you believe to be I guess the cliché is the A-listers, but…

C.C. Chapman: I hate that term. I hate lists or “The top 100 on Technorati.” I do not care.

Christopher Penn: Exactly. The thing that most companies do not realize is that your next rock star, your next evangelist is out there and they are not on an A list. They are being somewhat quiet, probably staying a little low under the radar and stuff, but if you engage them smartly and you talk to them, you will have a rock star on your hands who will do more for your company’s credibility than any amount of money you could spend.

C.C. Chapman: Right. Now, in kind of on that, so Bum Rush the Charts that is going out there to the podosphere and blogosphere and everything, one of the things that I think is really interesting and tougher for companies to figure out is how do you get those people to blog and podcast or to talk about you? In Bum Rush the Charts’ case, follow up and actually buy and purchase. I know a lot of companies will talk about, “Well, that’s nice they’re talking about us, but are they buying our product?” I think that was one of the lessons learned and this was the fact that, yeah, everybody was talking about it. There was no problem getting that mindshare for Bum Rush the Charts. Anybody in this space knew what was going on, but the amount of buzz, the amount of talk did not convert to the amount of purchases that were hoped for. How do you do that better, how do you get them from that, “Ooh! Neat!” to “Oh, I wanna buy” or “I wanna engage” or “I want to go.” The call to action, how do you get that call to action to be stronger?

Christopher Penn: It is interesting. The call to action, we tried to make a sales [unintelligible] that was as simple as possible, for example, an apply button or a purchase button that unless you were literally physically blind, you could not have missed. What I did not realize though is that and this is one of the criticisms on the social news sites is that there are a lot of people who do not have iTunes installed even if they own an iPod. There are a lot of people who were unwilling to use the iTunes sales mechanism or were unwilling to trust the IODA referral mechanism and things like that. Again, it goes back to transparency and disclosure and saying, “Hey, this is exactly how we got it set up. This is how it is going to work. You should know this in advance so that there are no surprises for you when you go into the process.” Here is something else I did not know though that it has radically changed my position on — we had a quick off-the-back-of-the-envelope number from Corey over at IODA last night.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah.

Christopher Penn: About 7000 tracks sold through their affiliate link. What I did not realize is that affiliate link does not work outside the United States. So, in countries like the Netherlands where the song was number 5…

C.C. Chapman: Right.

Christopher Penn: For rock and number 35 for the entire country of Netherlands yesterday, we will not see any of those sales until the final report has come back in from Black Lab. So, the fact that this was such an international sensation, I think it was number 9 in Germany, 22 in Canada, is just unbelievable. We cannot see that right now, so we are awaiting the sales data, which could take up to a month because…

C.C. Chapman: At least.

Christopher Penn: Apple has to report back to the band and stuff like that.

C.C. Chapman: I think a month is being optimistic on that from when I have talked to bands in the past. I know it could take up to three months sometimes.

Christopher Penn: Yeah, exactly. In this case, I do not necessarily know that the call to action was not there and that the sales portion did not go through.

C.C. Chapman: Right.

Christopher Penn: It may be considerably great, but the other thing that happened a lot especially again outside of the United States is that people went straight into iTunes. They did not bother going to the Bum Rush the Charts page. They heard about it, they heard the mind share and they just went right in and bought it themselves.

C.C. Chapman: Right.

Christopher Penn: Which is bad for reporting and tracking, but good in a sense that people took action and I think if you are a company looking for a way to convert mind share into action, having multiple avenues as long as it gets back to you bottom line or having multiple actions even ones you cannot track is good. You just have to trust that the community will come through for you.

C.C. Chapman: Right. I think another thing to keep in mind is that even if you do a campaign that is targeted to the United States, targeted to a specific state even or a demographic, the fact that if you do it in the new media space, it is instantly of a global nature whether you meant to or not. You learn that with the title of this campaign.

Christopher Penn: Yes. I found that Bum Rush in America means one thing. It is actually a pretty archaic term for a sort of an unruly mob, but it means something very, very different and slightly more explicit in the U.K.

C.C. Chapman: We got to be careful about that next time. It was really interesting because I know I sure was heck was not expecting to see, I mean the results in places like the Netherlands and Italy and Germany. It was pretty amazing to see it explode in those areas that we are not expecting. It was almost a happy, not an accident, but it was a happy result that was not expected.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely. It was not planned for either. That is the main thing. It was not planned for.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah. I think that was something to expect, expect the unexpected to happen. I think anything that someone does in the new media space should be viewed as an experiment. Things are not going to work the way you wanted. You are not always going to get the results, but as long as you keep track of everything, have an open communication about it and then when you are done, really stop and really, really look at it for what it is and think, “Okay. How can we do this better next time?” It might be a totally different campaign, but you are definitely going to learn things. I know you and I talked already about this, this morning earlier the fact that we hope people really look at it honestly and objectively rather than saying, “Woohoo! It was a roaring success,” or “Oh, it sucked and failed.” Honestly and objectively look at it is an important thing for any campaign you do.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely. The nice thing about the campaign is that the people who were the organizers really do not have a vested interest. There is no bottom line profit that we have to worry about.

C.C. Chapman: Exactly.

Christopher Penn: Companies, especially marketing departments, do need to be able to step outside of their own bubble to look at something objectively and say, “Yeah. Okay. Our sales were not as high as we wanted,” and that requires a lot of buy-in from senior management…

C.C. Chapman: Yeah.

Christopher Penn: To accept that they are willing to take the risk. We spend a week or a month on this campaign and it might not go anywhere. If you are willing to take that risk, eventually with a good scientific method and research, you will get it right, but it requires experimentation.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah. I really hope more companies start to put together an experimentation budget, put aside a little money even if it is just a little money, put it aside to spend it every quarter or even once a year. To try something outside of the comfort zone would help a lot and be ready — I can hear people rolling over right now on the account of me, be ready to lose that money. You might not get it back. You might not get the results you want, but would it not be better to experiment than rather like betting your whole brand on it? I think there is a lot of potential there to experiment and not be scared to try new things. The other thing, too, that is funny is I think these companies can work with companies and individuals out there to help them kind of figure out what is the right experiment. I have seen companies do this where they think they have the answer and they just go forward and do not ever ask anybody and it is the worst idea in the world. Once in a while maybe it is the right idea, but I do not know. Risk is one thing. Luck is another.

Christopher Penn: Right. I think more than just the money, I think if you want to have the best success in new media to try it out without betting the whole farm, create an SBU within your company. Create a little…

C.C. Chapman: A what?

Christopher Penn: An SBU, separate business unit.

C.C. Chapman: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Christopher Penn: Or a skunk works team or whatever you want to call it, but create a team of people who you basically give them, “Here are the legal guidelines we want to give you, so that you don’t get us sued, but other than that, take our brand and run with it, see what happens, see what results you generate and hey, if it works out, great. If not, then we acknowledge that it did not work out as well.” It is exactly the same principle as Google’s 20% rule or 3M’s 20% rule.

C.C. Chapman: Yeah.

Christopher Penn: Take the time and see what happens and acknowledge it, give those people a lot of free reign.

C.C. Chapman: Amen. I know Google is the perfect case study because some of the most amazing things have come out of those experimentations. Let us face it, if there were not mad scientists out there to do an experiment, we would not have half the drugs and half the things in the world that we cannot live without nowadays. The same thing with new media. That was a weird analogy. It just came out of my mouth, but it is true. You have to experiment. Things are going to blow up sometimes and you are going to make a mess of your lab, but you got to keep pushing forward and try new things and not be scared to experiment is what I guess I am trying to drive home.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely. If you do not experiment, your competitors are going to run over you immediately.

C.C. Chapman: Oh, yeah.

Christopher Penn: My company would not even exist if it had not been for the fact that our CEO at his previous company said, “Hey, I want to try out this whole internet thing,” in 1997. They all said, “Well, why don’t you go do that on your own?” and he did.

C.C. Chapman: There you go. Yeah. That is what happens. Most people will accept a certain amount of risk especially if you can frame it in a way that they can see some ROI if it succeeds. The good managers, the mavericks out there in the workplace, which is a great book by the way, I just realized I quoted a book title. The mavericks get it and they are willing to try it. I hope anyone listening to this podcast is one of those people who want to try things in their job day to day.

Christopher Penn: Oh, yeah. I think probably more their problem is convincing their supervisors to understand and to try things. Really, the only thing that cannot be said enough is that if you do not try it, somebody else already is right now and if you are not out in front, the view is not great.

C.C. Chapman: Amen. Yeah. The view only change for the lead snow dog.

Christopher Penn: Exactly. Bum Rush the Charts, this is a good example actually if you want to talk about getting your company to try something. Bum Rush the Charts, if you are in a very competitive vertical like the student loan entries are very, very, very competitive vertical, billions and billions of dollars on the line. So, it is tricky to try and play in that arena because if you make a misstep, you could seriously damage and lose hundreds of millions of dollars, but we are playing in this area in unrelated verticals. Bum Rush the Charts, PodCamp, all these different areas that we are playing with, testing things out, testing our ideas out and we have no competitors from the financial industry in new media because it is not hitting anyone else’s radar. We can try stuff. We can contribute positively to community without having to worry about every single competitor scrutinizing our every single move. We tried some stuff that I will tell you straight out has not worked. I do not talk about it, but it is out there. We have been trying Twitter and things like that. Some stuff works really well. Bum Rush the Charts has been a good experiment. PodCamp was a fantastic experiment.

C.C. Chapman: It continues to be a great experiment.

Christopher Penn: It continues to be a great experiment.

C.C. Chapman: I think PodCamp is a great example because every time they do it in a different city, it changes.

Christopher Penn: Oh, it is a different event.

C.C. Chapman: It is a totally different event because I heard somebody the other day say, “Why would I want to go there when I’ve been to this other PodCamp?” I am like, “It’s always different because it’s organized by different people.” It is very organic. It is so cool to just see it evolve every time.

Christopher Penn: Absolutely. Absolutely. For my company, it gives us a chance to throw ideas that we have out then and have a conversation with people who are in new media marketing come back to me and say, “Chris, that’s a really stupid idea. Why don’t you try this instead?” The benefits come straight back to the bottom line.

C.C. Chapman: Right.

Christopher Penn: If you have a manager who is hesitant to play outside your vertical, you may be very surprised by how well it works.

C.C. Chapman: All right. Well, Chris, this has been great. I am glad you can come on the show. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do this. So, where can people find out more about you?

Christopher Penn: You can find my day job stuff at financialaidpodcast.com and my personal blog at christopherspenn.com.

C.C. Chapman: So, the end of the conversation got cut off. So, I need to jump right in there as soon as he was done because we also talked about seeing each other at PodCamp New York, which is coming up. I just want to thank Chris, financialaidpodcast.com, christopherspenn.com. Of course, it will be in the show notes, do not worry about that. They will be there as well. I would love your comments, call them in at 206-309-4729 and get those audio comments in and your questions. I am not sure what happened at the end of the conversation there. Skype was acting a little wonky, you can hear the microphone was going up and down, you can hear some sounds, but we do with what we can. It is an experiment, right? That is what the theme of the show was. We are going to be at PodCamp New York City, which is April 6th and 7th. It is going to be a really good time. I cannot wait for it and I hope to see you there. Chris and I will both be there so will a whole bunch of other people in the new media sphere, so if you want to come play in the playground, come out. It is a great event. It is free, free and free. Okay? Podcampnewyork.com, I will put it in the show notes as well. Thank you again to Chris. Thank you to everyone who took part in Bum Rush the Charts and as you can see, new media is nothing to be scared of. Get out there and play in it. We are all having a good time. I will see you next time here on Managing the Gray.

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I took part in a Podcast Listener Survey being done by an Emerson College student. I’m very interested in the results of it based on the questions I answered and I asked if I could pass the link on to others to fill out since we all know that a survey is only as good as the number of different voices are asked.

So, if interested take the survey here.

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I’ve been thinking about if I really want an AppleTV or not. I’ve decided to hold off on now since we are trying to un-clutter the house rather then add anything to it right now.

Then a listener (Ron Ploof) sent me over this graphic from his which gave me a big old smile.

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Managing the Gray #30 finds me sitting down with Christopher Penn to take a look at the Bum Rush the Charts experiment and lessons learned that any company should keep in mind when doing something in the new media space. I always love chatting with Chris. He’s a good friend and always gets my creative juices going.

Links that I mentioned in the show or that I think will be helpful include:

• Bum Rush the Charts
• PodCamp NYC
• The Financial Aid Podcast
• Christopher S. Penn

The comment line is always open at 206-309-4729 so please drop in a line.

Posted in Podcast | Comments(4)

Today is the day! The day the New Media gets to show the music industry what we can do.

Buy the track “Mine Again” from Black Lab in the iTunes Music Store.

That’s all you have to do today.

Spend 99 cents and 2 minutes of your time to help a good cause.

PLEASE share this with everyone and let’s make this a success!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Posted in Announcements | Comments(0)

Welcome to the brand new world of digital marketing consumer-generated media and no control PR. The rules of engagement are no longer black and white. You need to change, to evolve, to manage the gray, and how do you do that? You let C.C. Chapman help you.

C.C. Chapman: Well, good morning everybody. Welcome to Managing the Gray #29. I am C.C. Chapman from a very gray overcast MetroWest Boston. We got a storm brewing. I do not know where you are in the world, but if you have winter, you know that feeling where you go outside and you can just feel the impending storm? It has got that vibe. There is a Christmas flavor in the air? That is the way it feels right now. Forecasting 10 plus inches of snow tonight or this afternoon. It is going to make for an interesting drive up to New Hampshire if I do it today. We will see what happens, but because I am up so early, the world is a ghost town this morning, it is the perfect time to just kickback on my coffee and do a Managing the Gray especially because I spent Wednesday at the Boston Ad Club Symposium.

It was a year ago at that symposium that my world changed and things like Managing the Gray were first hatched, first planned, where I sat in this room a year ago surrounded by people who I thought were the crème de la crème of the ad agency world. I did not know anything about this. I just officially with a title begot into marketing. I sat in this room going, “These people don’t have a clue.” It blew me away. They had not seen things like current.tv and the concept of YouTube, they were laughing at. Hah! Shame on you guys.

I said, “My God.” I have got these thoughts in my head, “If these people don’t know maybe there are other people and I’ll start a podcast and I’ll do it.” Then I met Joseph Jaffe and all the rest is history and here we are now with Crayon and everything. So, going back to the Ad Club this year was a lot of fun. It was really fun.

Kathy Kiely, the president, actually talked about my story to kick it off, which is kind of interesting. I did not know that was going to happen and then Jaffe spoke in the afternoon. It was just good to see him, actually seeing him face to face is a good thing. It was a very cool symposium. Adclub.org, if you want to find out more about the Boston Ad Club. Just to dispel the rumors and make sure you know they are true. Yes, I got kicked out of the Harvard Club because I had jeans on. They would not let me have a drink. Oh, well, that is why I did not go to Harvard. I went to Bentley and I am proud of it.

So, today, I have got three audio comments that are completely different angles. All sorts of different stuff and I thought, “You know what? This will make a good show, some variety, some different things.” So, let us get right into the first one from my good friend, Anji Bee.

Anji Bee: Hi, C.C. It’s Anji. I just want to call to let you know that one of my fans left a message over in anjibee.com on one of my vidcasts saying he just listened to your Building Your Brand episode and thought of me. He thought I have successfully built a brand around myself with my new podcast and vidcast and such. So, yeah, I took a listen to it myself and thought it was a very, very cool episode. It definitely speaks to the issue that I have been dealing with for the last year and a half trying to pull together my various identities, my band, podcast, vidcast, all the different things I am dealing with. Yeah, it is very cool to see you addressing that issue. Thank you for all of your insights and yeah, hopefully I will see you in Second Life again soon.

C.C. Chapman: I am not sure what she was calling on because she has a much better voice than that, but Anji thank you for calling in to Managing the Gray. Anji is great when you talk about a branding person and she just launched a new podcast called Unwind with Anji Bee. It is actually a brand cast. Tylenol PM is sponsoring it, which I think is neat. Yeah, you get a little bit of promo in there for them, but it is just totally chilled, laid back music. It is unwind.podshow.com.

Anji, once again, she is launching another podcast, but it is all tied to Anji Bee. That is why I listen to it. It shows that one person with the desire and the passion can do anything in this world and that your brand comes back to you more than anything. Calling it a brand is weird. Saying that you are a brand or “my thoughts are a brand” is a weird thing, but it is the truth of the matter. It is. People will resonate to what you do if you make you the brand rather than your company.

There is something else. We have talked about this at Crayon a lot. I am not sharing any secrets here or anything, but you bring things like For Immediate Release, Managing the Gray, Across the Sound, Jaffe Juice, all this stuff and you bring them together, all these different individual brands, it brings something to the company brand because of these individual brands. It is an interesting mishmash, a mesh up if you will. It is an interesting thing where it comes together and it affects companies. Wherever you work, if you are a brand, it does affect the company. You know what I am saying? It is kind of different, but it is kind of the same.

Here is another comment that is definitely something near and dear to my heart.

Dan Johnson: Hey, C. C. and the rest of the Managing the Gray community. This is Dan Johnson from danieljohnsonjr.com and the Journey Inside My Mind. I was calling because here in Cincinnati, Ohio, I have seen this a number of times for national brands and also for local brands where in the marketing campaign, they take a popular song and then they change the wording around to promote their brand. So, it is almost like a cover of the song, but they change it to say — okay, like I know Applebee’s has done that for example with some popular songs, “It takes two…” I think that was one that comes readily to mind, but some of that stuff, I find it really annoying and some of that other stuff.
I was just wondering what you as a music connoisseur, aficionado, if you have any thoughts about that both on if any of those stuff irritates you as well and also what do you think about the effectiveness of it. I guess in one sense, it is effective because I am able to remember the brand, but also it is annoying as hell. Anyhow, take care. I love Managing the Gray and I look forward to hearing what you have to say. I did not mean for that to rhyme. Okay, I am out of time. Bye.

C.C. Chapman: So, there is a good question, music and advertising and using songs to evoke emotion. Now, as a music guy, I hate this. I hate it. I hate it when I hear — I would rather hear the original song. I am not one of those guys that say, “Oh, Band X sold out. Zeppelin sold out the Cadillac.” No, forget that. They got paid. Nothing wrong with that.

What I do hate is exactly what you are talking about. When they take a song or take a catchy lyric, the chorus or a familiar guitar rift and then they add something else to it. That drives me nuts, but I am a music guy. It drives me nuts, but it is genius from a marketing campaign because let us face it, pop music exists for a reason. It is there to drill and wheedle away your brain mindlessly just to get you attached and it has a hook to get you going. That is perfect for advertising because it does have a hook that you remember. Now, you got to remember, man, that we are the minority, not the minority, but the hardcore music fans that get ticked off at things like this. We are the minority when you really compare to the larger scale of where this advertisings are heading.

So, using music is a very powerful, powerful way to connect with people. I do not have a problem when they do it from a professional standpoint. From a personal standpoint, sometimes it does bug me a little bit, but it is the way it goes. It is the nature of the biz. It has worked for 100 years and it will work for 100 more. Would I like to see them be more creative with it? Of course, I would.

What I would rather see because of the music person in me, I would much rather see them reach out and get new music written because I have seen music like Matthew Ebel and Munk, coming to the top of my head, they have written for corporations and it is amazing. It is better than the stuff they play in the commercials and I have yet to see any of these songs in the commercial and it is ridiculous and I do. To anybody out there who is thinking about doing an ad campaign or pitching an ad campaign to any company out there, if you are going to put music in it, why not get some independent music written for it? The cost will be much lower than if you license some song.

This happened recently. Another funny story about the Ad Club is that I was helping them put together some promos for the event. There were little interviews with the people who were speaking and I said, “Can we have some music in there?” “Of course, we’re gonna put music in there.” They said, “What about Revolution from the Beatles?” I said, “Okay.” I said, “Take your whole annual budget for your entire organization and give it to me and then maybe you’ll get the Beatles,” and even then you probably will not get the permission.

I said, “Hold on a minute,” and I gave them some rifts from different songs of independent artists. They said, “That one’s perfect.” I said, “Yeah,” and it was from an independent artist Now is Now if you are curious up in Maine and they got paid. It was much cheaper than spending bazillion of dollars to license a Beatles track and it still evoked the same emotion. So, think about that. Music is a very powerful thing, use it wisely. Live music is even a more powerful emotion. Use that extremely wisely, but do not be afraid to use music in your campaigns. It is a great thing.

Speaking of music, I am going to play a promo. It is something I do not do on Managing the Gray, but it is for something that I am very, very passionate about. Something that I want the Managing the Gray listeners to embrace and I hope other podcasters will share this as well. So, please take a moment and listen to a promo for Bum Rush the Charts.

On March 22nd, you can make history. Yes, you. On March 22nd, you and your fellow podcast listeners will be working together to Bum Rush the Charts. What is that? On March 22nd, we are all going to buy a song from the iTunes music store from a podsafe musician, Mine Again by Black Lab, to put a podsafe musician at the top of the iTunes charts, but there is more than just that. We will all be buying through an affiliate program to raise money for college scholarships and the band has agreed to donate 50% of their earnings to the scholarship fund to help needy families make college affordable. Make history. Show the world that you are in-charge of media, not corporate radio and record labels. Bum Rush the Charts on March 22nd. Learn more about how to bum rush at www.bumrushthecharts.com.

C.C. Chapman: So, I am very passionate about it. It was an idea that some friends of mine hatched and said, “Dude, what do you think of this?” and I said, “I love it.” So, put it on your calendar, right now, March 22nd. Just go out to iTunes and buy this track from Black Lab. If you do it, if you go to bumrushthecharts.com, click on the affiliate link, all the money from the affiliate link is going towards a scholarship program. Fifty percent of the profits from Black Lab, the band, is going to this fund.

I think this is really cool. I was just excited about the fact that we are going to help prove a point through new media. That gets me excited more than anything, but then when the Student Loan Network and the Financial Aid Podcast stepped up to the plate and said, “You know what? We wanna turn this into something more powerful.” I said, “I am so with you.” Seriously, put it in your calendars, March 22nd, go to iTunes and buy Mine Again from Black Lab. It is a great track, trust me. Black Lab is an amazing band. I am a huge, huge fan of them.

We are also going to do something where it is not in that promo, but then on April 1st, I am working with a friend of mine, Scott Sigler. He is trying to do basically the same thing, Bum Rush the Charts, but he wants to bum rush the Amazon. His book, he is right up there. He is up there with Clive Barker, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, that type of writing. He has got his second book coming out in print. He has been doing these podiobooks and they have been great and Ancestor hits print on April 1st on Amazon.com.

I am going to encourage everybody to go buy a copy. If it is not your type of thing, buy it and give it to someone who it is. It is a very action-packed experiment gone wrong. They are trying to create these ancestors for organ harvesting and they kind of go bad. Think Jurassic Park with cooler monsters, sort of. I do not know if Sigler will like that comparison, but anyways, please, put it in your calendars. They will be on the show notes at managingthegray.com. Please take part in both of these because they are very, very important to me and I think it is very important to new media. Now, to the meat of the show.

Adam Dufresne: Hey, C.C. Chapman! This is Adam calling from beautiful Ottawa, Ontario. Thanks for the frigid morning [unintelligible] up here. First off, I would like to say thank you very much for the Managing the Gray podcast. It has actually revitalized the passion that I had for marketing that I discovered in college. I actually have a quick question for you. My question is in regards to starting a career.

I am a young man, 24 years old. I have my college diploma in marketing from Algonquin College here in Ottawa. Currently, I am sort of trying to seek out a marketing position. I have been taking sort of menial jobs doing procurement in the government just to pay the bills for now and jobs that I really enjoy like being a sales rep for Rogers, which is a wireless service provider here in Ottawa. They do not pay enough to pay the bills, but I have a lot of fun doing them so I keep it around.

Anyway, I guess my question is how do you find yourself in this sea of information that you are provided with? I cannot seem to find a foothold, a place to start out, so I was just wondering if you have any advice, tips or tricks on how I can get started. Anyways, that is my question and keep doing the show. Congratulations to you and all the folks over at Crayon. It seems to be a great website and keep up the great work. It has been a big help to me. Thank you very much. Bye.

C.C. Chapman: This is a question I get asked a lot and I do have an email from someone, too, that I need to respond to who is in a job right now that they are not happy with. They are asking the same exact question, “How do I move? How do I get noticed? How do I get into the new media field?” Well, let me tell you. You just did the first step. I have got listeners in Canada at some very prominent companies and you just came out and said, “Hey, I’m looking for a job.” You took the first step. You sent in an audio comment to a podcast. It shows that you are starting to get the new media thing. Hey, if you are a company in Canada looking to hire this kid, go to managingthegray.com, leave a comment. If he is smart, he will see the comment and then they will start this conversation.

In today’s world, in new media, this is how things work. It is serendipity. It is magic. It is just good old fashioned relationship building. The other day, we had a conversation around us where someone was talking about updating their resume and I said, “People still do resumes?” Yeah, I was being snarky and sarcastic and they were all like, “Oh, C.C., not all of us can be you.” I said, “No, no, no. You’re missing the point.”

Okay, I am going to be very blunt and these are my opinions because it is my show. If you want to work in new media and the company you are interviewing with is going to judge you based on a piece of paper, you do not want to work for that company because that is not new media. Yeah, that is a bold statement and I am sorry, but it is true. If they are asking you, “Whoa, I see here you had a 3.4 GPA,” who cares? I do not care. I always hate it when people put their GPAs on resumes. It bugs me. What I am getting at is the fact that new media is all about the new media space. It is about being creative. If you want to get noticed, you have got to be creative. Now, when I say creative, seriously, it is something as simple as get a blog.

Okay, here is a question I would ask if I was interviewing somebody right now to work for me for Crayon, I do not care what the position is, I would ask him things like, “Do you have a blog? Do you have a podcast? Do you have MySpace? Where do you hang out on the web? Where do you socialize with people on the web?”

One question I have always asked people, my entire life of interviewing people, I always said, “So, what’s the last cool thing you saw on the web?” It is a great question to ask because the person who is really tied into new media will not even think about it. They are like, “Oh, last time I saw…” It might be something as simple as an article that caught your attention on some random site, but the fact is that if they come right back with an answer, you know they are out there. They are living. They are breathing. They are swimming in the big new media pool. They are having fun.

If they go, “Well, on Yahoo! News last week…” slap them, kick them out the door. I am serious. Get rid of them. I had a web designer interview with me a couple of years ago. I said, “What was the last really cool website you saw?” and she said,” I don’t surf the web much.” I continued the interview, but she was done. There was not a prayer for her.

You cannot, you have to live and breathe in this space. If you want to get into this world of new media, you have got to shine. You have got to step out and do something whether it is commenting on blogs, whether it is audio comments in the podcast, be part of the conversation. It is what it is all about. Go to conferences. Yes, conferences cost money, but there are plenty of these things like PodCamps and BarCamps and unconferences happening around the world that you can go. They do not cost money. You can just show up and meet people. Interact and say, “Oh, hey, C.C!” or “Hey, whoever.” That is where the power is and you start talking about people and you get conversations. They happen. It sounds so simple and maybe I am making it simple because it worked for me, but it is true.

A year ago, I was doing stuff on intranets and I was the usability specialist and stuff like that. I said, “Man, I got to get a new job.” I was looking and all of a sudden there was this position in marketing. I had to sell myself because I have no marketing experience. I did not major in marketing. I do not have any formal marketing job experience before this, but I went in and I told them, I said, “Here’s what you’re doing.” This was at Babson. I said, “Here’s what I think you’re doing wrong and here’s where I think the future is gonna go.” I took the time to really analyze what they were doing.

If you want to work for a company, if you see they are doing something, just attack it. Figure out what they are doing wrong. Contact them, drop an email to the CEO and say, “Hey, I noticed you are doing this campaign. I think this is great, but here’s how it could have been better.” What have you got to lose, especially a student, what do you have to lose? Tying into this as well and here is the problem with most of the students is schools are not teaching you new media stuff. They are not.

I know I talk to my friend, Kroosh all the time and she is always complaining about the fact they are not being taught social media. Most colleges, most and I will say most, they are not teaching this stuff. I know I have at least a couple of professors listening to the show and I would love your thoughts on why academia is so slow to do this. My theory is because everybody gets set in their ways, that is it, and the fact that new media is not set in its ways. It is very pliable. It is like that drop of mercury that you drop on the table. It is flowing around. It is changing. It is fluid. It is not stuck on one thing. I think that scares people.

A school is not going to teach you what you need to know in new media and if you are already out of the school, it is the same thing. You have got to get it. You have got to want it yourself. It is about a passion. It is about a lifestyle. This is not about getting into Second Life. This is not about playing with Twitter. It is about all of it. It is about just living and breathing it. It is about getting up every morning and just going, “What’s gonna happen today? Oh, cool!” My wife does not understand why if I walk by the computer, I look at email, whether I read it or not is another matter, but I look because it is not that I want to be connected all the time, it is the fact that I have to be. I just am. I am connected.

Right now, I have got Twitter open in a window. I have got a big enough monitor that CastBlaster is up and Twitter is up and I am watching the conversation happening. Steve Rubel just woke up and is attacking people who are attacking Twitter and Chris Brogan is talking about peace and there is a guy playing at SAVVIS welcoming new users and Odeo and Chris Hambly is there. He is on the waiting list to go to PodCamp New York. Chris, get over to PodCamp New York. Kick down the doors. Come on, come on over. I love this community.

I love being in this world and if you want to be in it, you can be part of it. The door is always open. It is not like some old boys’ club where only certain people get invited. Everybody is invited. New media is an open invitation for you to come on in and party, jump in the pool. I talked about the new media playground. There are enough toys for everybody. If you want to bring your own toys, that is even better because we like finding out about new toys and that is what is cool about what we are doing.

So, I do not know if that answered your question, but what I am really telling you is it is a passion. It is not like I can give you a checklist of the top 10 things you have to do to break out in new media and to get a job in media. You have taken the first step. You have called into a podcast and you put your name out and said, “Hey, I’m looking for a job.” Now, if there is a smart company out there, which I know there are some listening to this, I hope they call you and say, “What kind of job are you looking for?” If that connection got made through Managing the Gray, it would make my day. So, let us have some new media magic happen, baby.

Can you tell it is March madness? I have not watched any basketball yet. I am looking at the window and the storm is officially coming. The trees are blowing insanely. It is kind of nuts. So, we are going to wrap up Managing the Gray for the day.

I forgot to give it out at the top of the call, 206-309-4729, that is the comment line. Questions, answers… Chris Cavs on Twitter just got excited. “Woohoo! I might get to meet you in person.” Of course, we are going to meet in person, dude, in PodCamp New York. He is filming some stuff. If you want to call in the comment line, react to anything, all that stuff, please, 206-309-4729. In managingthegray.com, there is a lot more content there, blog posts and everything, all kinds of conversations are going on about Twitter and all of that. It is fun. There is a lot of good stuff going on. I am very, very excited about new media. I really am. I get invigorated. Every time I do Managing the Gray, I get invigorated as well. I do not get to do it nearly as much as I wish I did, maybe I should start doing it more, maybe some small quick ones.

So, remember, March 22nd, bumrushthecharts.com. April 1st, Ancestor on Amazon. What else is going on? Oh, April 22nd, I have not talked about it, helpingthecause.com. I am doing the MS Walk in New York City along with Team Biddy from The Lascivious Biddies. We are trying to raise $50,000 for MS research, so please, helpingthecause.com. You can donate. You can make a difference. All the money goes to research, which is one of the things I love about this because it is not one of those where all the money is going to pay people to go to dinners and stuff. No, it is paying for research and that excites me. I will play the promo in the next show for that, but helpingthecause.com. You, your company, every dollar — I have had donations from — the biggest I have had so far is $100. Someone else, come on, beat that, but I have also had as small as $5 and every donation makes me happy. I really hope you can take the time and find it in your heart to help out because that is another thing about the new media space is we are all here to help out each other and that would be very cool if you could and… big pause.

Anyways, we are going to wrap up Managing the Gray. Thank you for listening. Thank you for all the comments, all the feedback, all the love I have been getting lately. Managingthegray@gmail.com, if you want to contact me. I would love to talk to you about whatever it is and we would keep the conversation going. All right. I will see you next time on Managing the Gray #30. That is kind of interesting, a little milestone. I cannot believe we took this long to get there, but we will keep on chugging. You guys take care. Have a great day and enjoy playing in the playground, please.

Thanks for listening to Managing the Gray. Tell your coworkers. Tell your friends and tell us what you think by leaving a comment at managingthegray.com.

Posted in Transcript, New Media | Comments(2)

Managing the Gray #29 is different then most of my shows because it’s 100% driven by user call ins.

The variety of topics covered everything from self brands to music in advertising and ended with a good discussion about how to get a job in the new media space. I hope the last part generates some feedback.

Links that I mentioned in the show or that I think will be helpful include:

• Anji Bee
• Unwind with Anji Bee
• Boston Ad Club Symposium
• Twitter
• PodCamp NYC
• Bum Rush the Charts
• Ancestor Attacks Amazon
• Donate to the MS Walk

The comment line is always open at 206-309-4729 so please drop in a line.

Posted in Podcast | Comments(7)

I want to extend an open invitation to all of the candidates running for President in 2008 that they are welcome to come on Managing the Gray to discuss their new media tactics with me.

I just watched what Senator Edwards did on Twitter and I’m still smiling from it. I was happy to see so many candidates announce their running via YouTube and such, but what’s next. Where do you take the campaign from here? How do you FULLY leverage the conversation and embrace the community? That’s what I want to talk about.

I don’t want to talk politics. I’ll talk to Republicans, Democrats or Independents. I want to talk new media campaign strategies and I want to talk about it on my podcast.

Any takers? The offer stands until until election day.

Whose campaign manager will allow it to happen? That’s what I’m most interested in. I sure hope at least one of them does!

Posted in Politics | Comments(5)

Earlier today I got a message from a band looking for some play on Accident Hash. I get these all the time, but what bugged me was the blatant fact that it was a form e-mail. I get them every day and no biggie. Sometimes I’ll check. Sometimes I won’t. But, when I got three of them in a matter of five minutes I Twittered about it.

What was interesting to watch is that for the next couple of hours I’d see someone I’m following go “hey I got that band e-mail too” and one person even mentioned the band by name. Something I’m going to avoid doing since they don’t deserve the exposure. *grin*

But, this isn’t about bands. It’s about reaching out to influencers and individuals via e-mail. It is a lesson that every company should think about and every individual as well.

We all get too much e-mail as it is today. If you want to get someone’s attention you’ve got to take the time to actually talk to THAT person in the To: line of the e-mail or you are not going to get anywhere. Sure, part of the message can be the boiler plate message that you have got to get across, but take the extra couple of minutes to say hello to the person. Go even a step further and actually read their blog, listen to their podcast or watch their videos so you know the person you are touching base with. I guarantee you’ll get better results for whatever it is you are touching base with them about then just a form letter.

A bit of a mini-rant but something I wanted to get out there because as I saw today one bad move can lead to lots more then one person talking about it very rapidly. A lesson to keep in mind.

Posted in Rants, Rambles | Comments(1)

Scott Sigler has been called a “media whore” by more then one person. It’s true. Even he calls himself that. But, I also call him a friend.

What is great is that Scott’s podiobook Ancestor is coming out in print on April 1st. Now, I listened to the podcast when it was coming out. I listen to everything he creates and am currently addicted to The Rookie which is coming out every week.

What I love is he just created a page with the Top 10 things his fans (junkies as he calls them) can do to help promote the book. THIS is what I am always talking about. The power of the community! Knowing his fans they will flock to help him out just like I am.

Usually I would have pre-ordered the book so that I could get it right away, but instead I’m holding off on ordering until April 1st, because the hope is that enough people will buy the book on that one day to bump it up the charts on Amazon and get it in front of eyeballs that it might never reach.

This same type of thing is happening on March 22nd when I’m hoping people will take part in Bum Rush the Charts.

This isn’t the only thing Scott is doing to get the word out. I’ve seen his whole marketing plan. I’ve seen the ways he is going to leverage new media across the board. He’s doing it right. He knows that it takes hard work, planning and a little bit of luck to be successful. You’ve got to touch all the mediums. Leverage your community. Not be afraid to outreach to friends. That’s what it’s all about. Other indie authors out there should take note of the tactics that Scott is using because they can be done by anyone.
As I write this I’m imagining the mad scientist smile that will be crossing Scott’s face when he sees this. Like I said he’s a good friend of mine and thus that thought makes my morning. Buy the book on April 1st. That’ll make me smile too!

Posted in Books, New Media | Comments(2)

Twitter has been a lot of fun to play with lately, but I’m trying to think beyond the personal community building applications of it. What I mean is that with so many people getting notices on their phones, in gTalk and on the web there are going to be people who use it in ways that no one has ever imagined.

Maybe it’s all the fresh air from the beautiful day here in Boston, but I was just wondering about this and came up with some ideas. Please share your ideas in the comments because I know I only thought up a few in the last few minutes.

• Politics
  Who will be the first political candidate for 2008 who uses it to keep everyone updated on where they are and what they are up to. This could be huge. And as I’m writing this someone told me that John Edwards has an account, but having one and actually using it are two different things.
• Storytelling
  How come no one is telling a story yet? This could be almost anything. Sure, it forces the creativity with such a small number of characters to post, but it could become a whole new form. I’m betting the really good writers would view it as a new challenge
• Celebrities
  Does anyone remember when Zach Braff was blogging from the set of Garden State on his Blackberry? I do and I remember how cool it was to just get the feeling of being there. Twitter could open this up even more. How many rabid fans wouldn’t want to know all the little details about what their favorite people were up to?
• Erotica
  This fits right in with the storytelling idea, but I broke it out separately because there are obvious unique opportunities here. No, I’m not talking about Porn flooding in. I’m talking about true erotic or sexually orientated conversations that the voyeur in people could peer into naturally via a service like this. It’s ripe for the plucking so to speak.
• News
  I’ve seen the BBC and Google News already leveraging this but obviously there is more potential. Crucial that it be timely though. I’ve already seen delays in both of these and not sure why. Twitter is all about timely information about what is going on.
• Sports
  If the Miami Dolphins had a Twitter account for the latest news I’d be subscribed to it in a heart beat. Why can’t I subscribe to a March Madness one that just pushes out the final scores of all the games?

I know these are only a few, but they are the ones that popped into my head. I have a feeling I’ll pop more into the comments as they come to mind.

I also know that any of these could be seeded with marketing and pr information as well. My only advice to companies about doing this is to be very careful and be very selective on when, how and why you do this? If it turns into nothing but a channel of border line spam then no one will want to listen. This is true for any channel in new media.

Posted in Cool Tools, New Media | Comments(23)