Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional

I got a note from a friend pointing me to LifeChangingBox.com . No details. No hints. Just the URL to go and check it out. Since I knew this person I figured why not.

I spent some time putting words into it and seeing what it did. I don’t want to spoil the surprise but go ahead and give it a try. When you give it a word that the box likes it reacts positively to it. I’m still haven’t figured out if there are any key words that will make it go really nuts or not and what the end goal of the site is, but it is a fun for a nice break. One warning though is that the site loads with sounds so don’t have your speakers to loud. You can turn it off in the upper right hand corner.

What I have determined is that it is tied to a Facebook application as well where you can win prizes by holding the box. I had the box for a while, but didn’t win anything. As you can see below, you can go in every day and “touch” boxes that other people are holding in the hopes that when the box changes holders you’ll get it next. Sort of like an inverted, twisted game of duck duck goose if you ask me.

Word on the street is that this is tied to a television company, but I’m not getting any real answers from anyone I ask so I’m not sure. I did see a TV in one of the promo shots as a prize so who knows.

If you try it out and find anything cool that makes the box do things let me know. If you win a prize I REALLY want to know because I am curious to see what sorts of things it gives out.

Not sure this is “life changing” but it is certainly fun to play with.

Posted in New Media | Comments(19)

I was just reading in Advertising Age about a new BlogHer survey that stated:

According to a recent study by BlogHer and Compass Partners, more than one-third (35%) of all women in the U.S. aged 18 to 75 participate in the blogosphere at least once a week

I’m very glad that BlogHer did this survey because I think it proves what I’ve said in the past about not ignoring the female population on the web. If you win over the Mother in a household, then you win over the pocket book. Sure, I’m the gadget freak of the house, but my wife and I discuss all purchases before they are made. I know we are not unique in this situation. It is how good relationships work.

It also drives home the fact that brands need to continue (or start) to think beyond only Moms and rather focus on all women on the web. Every day women are finding information, shopping and engaging with each other online rather then the more traditional ways.

Of course, I was also happy to see a rising number in female content creators. The survey focuses specifically in on writing blog content, but I’d argue that I’ve been seeing a rise in all forms of media on the web. More and more are starting small. Maybe just a Facebook account or a Twitter stream to express themselves and connect with friends. While others are branching out beyond that and starting to try out video and audio.

It doesn’t matter what they are doing, but rather that they are doing it. This number is going to continue to grow.

Posted in New Media | Comments(2)

A post I did a while ago asking the community if I should buy a MacBook or a MacBook Pro still gets at least one comment every week. I love that people are coming in and reading through the comments and finding out which one they should get. What I learned from that discussion and now my own experience is that if you are going to do anything that is processor intensive I’d go with the Pro model. The faster processor and more RAM makes a world of difference. I also still very much like the keyboard better, but that is a personal preference.

Yesterday I upgraded my main desktop computer from a PC that has served me well (bought off the shelf from a Best Buy), but that has been acting flaky lately. Just like a car it is not uncommon that after three years of heavy use a computer can start to bog down, act funny and just not get you where you want to go as nicely as it could. Sure, it still runs, but not like a shiny new one.

My rule when buying a new computer is simple. Buy the highest level of everything that your budget can afford. Spending that extra bit of money now to have more RAM installed will save you time and aggravation down the road. Also, you need to accept that no matter when you buy a computer (or other gadget) that the price and capabilities will be old and outdated faster then you want it to be. Just accept it and move on. It is not worth dwelling on.

If you are thinking of buying a Mac of any sort then I highly recommend checking out the Mac Buyer’s Guide that based on previous release schedules tells you the optimal time to purchase. I listened to them on my iMac and waiting a couple of weeks was the right move. Bookmark that site now!

Posted in New Media | Comments(3)

Don’t freak out. As far as I know Miley Cyrus is fine. What I’m writing about the death of the brand that is Hannah Montana.

Last week there was all this commotion around some photos that were taken for an issue of Vanity Fair magazine. I love Annie Lebowitz and thought the photos were fine. I actually didn’t think that the one that really got the most attention was that good if I’m being honest. Parents were mad that a young girl would take suggestive photos. Even when in my opinion they was only minimal suggestion in them. But, that is a whole other discussion.

The point in all of this is that it is obvious that we are watching a transition from Hannah Montana (a fake character created by Disney) to Miley Cyrus, pop superstar. This is a planned, calculated first move in a campaign to change her image. People won’t like it all, but it is just like when a product or company renames itself. You’ve got to get people talking about you and guess what? Here we all are talking about it.

My daughter loves both. Isn’t it obvious by this picture? For the longest time she thought of them as separate people. When she bought the CD there were separate ones for each of them. The music was similar but different. I’ve watched as slowly she talks more about Miley and Hannah is forgotten. It has been happening for weeks and she is unaware of all this craziness going on right now.

There is no quicker way to kill off a young innocent girl then to have her grow up. It happens to the best of them and that is what we are seeing.

Soon Miley will be 16. Her fans are growing up as well. Sure, she has the choice of if she stays a “good girl” or she ends up becoming the new poster child for abuse and stupidity (i.e. Britney).

I’m just sick of reading and hearing about people “taking advantage of her” or Miley “not know what is going on” because nothing could be further from the truth. This is all just part of the big brand game and there is sure to be more soon. Sometimes you’ve got to take the good and the bad or as Hannah would sing “the best of both worlds.”

Posted in Brands, New Media | Comments(13)

Kristin and Erin from Manic Mommies swung by on a Sunday morning for conversation and coffee. We talk about a lot of topics including the General Motors sponsorship of their Mommy Escape (the picture here is my wife AT the Escape), their recent trip to the BlogHer Business Conference and the growing of their brand. Not only are they friends of mine, but I’ve really loved watching them grow over the three years since they first started podcasting.

The best part about having them over is that it reminds me how much fun it is to have conversations on podcasts. I don’t do that as often as I should. I think it is a new goal for me

If your curious about a whole other side of mine, we recorded an episode of their show where we only talked about parenting. When it is up I’ll put a link here.

Update: The episode of Manic Mommies is now available here.

Posted in New Media, Podcast | Comments(4)

I had read that these would be coming, but I hadn’t been told about one until today when my buddy Britney Mason sent me an invite to check out My Mini Life.

I only had a couple of minutes to play around with it, but it let me build a little house from a template and populate it with a couple of things that I bought from the store. It looks like you can also create your own, sell items and move things around. With the border around my house I’m not sure if I’ll get neighbors someday or how that happens. It all seems to be tied into a bigger site and functionality. I wonder how it all connects?

I’m sure this is just the first of many invites I’m going to get on MySpace. I’m curious how different it is from developing applications in Facebook and if it is more powerful or limiting. Only time will tell. If you know, let me know would you? Thanks in advance

Posted in New Media | Comments(0)

I never in a million years would have thought that I would want to search ads, but I do!

Yesterday while cruising around Facebook I saw an ad for a cabin rental in the Adirondacks. I clicked onto something else before I realized that the ad was of interest to me and then couldn’t find it again. I clicked on the little “more ads” under the space, but it wasn’t there.

I’ve set up these ads before and know that they allow you to target people based on a variety of demographic and key word data. So I obviously fit someone’s profile for who they wanted to target and they got it right because I wanted to find out more. But, now I can’t!

The only thing I can guess is that this particular ad hit a spending limit and that is why it is not visible any more. But, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look for ads if you wanted to? Sure, the frequency of this happening would be low, but who is going to turn away someone that WANTS to see their ad?

Ok, my mini rant is done. Guess I’ll have to just use good old Google to look for a cabin to rent.

Posted in New Media | Comments(2)

Earlier this week, I was given a personal walk through of the all new Overlay.TV and I was quite impressed. We’ve seen this concept in video tried before. To sum it up, as you watch a video any item in it could be tagged so that you could click on it and get more information and even buy that product. Not sure why this has never taken off before, but I’m thinking this time it might.

What makes Overlay.TV different is that anyone can tag any video. It does not touch the original uploaded file. It can pull a video from most of the major video services (Brightcove is one I asked about which is coming) or from an uploaded movie file on your own server and then people can place overlays on the video highlighting products and services.

In the demo we pulled in a video of a trumpet player from YouTube and tagged his t-shirt to go to Amazon to buy a similar one. Anyone can take any video and place overlays on it. The process is quick, easy and powerful. The options on if the overlay is just a simple hot sport or actually a mini pop up is up to the user. Adding product information is done via a bookmarklet that allows for one click copy and past of descriptions, prices and other needed information from any web site.

I can see some big potential for this from lots of different angles. Brands (especially retail ones) will be adding overlays to their viral videos. Bands can link out to their CDs and equipment sponsors. Fans can take anything they are in love with and create their own overlays and then embed it all on their blogs and Facebook profiles.

Some people might freak since this could be viewed as changing a video, but it is not. It is just putting a screen over the video and allowing for people to link items in it. I’m interested to see the community nature of this and also how companies can leverage it on their own sites. I’m also interested to see if this gets popular if performance will degrade and if items won’t seamlessly sync up.

Take a moment and check it out when you have a moment. To get a feel for what I’m talking about they’ve made this throw back infomercial as well:

Posted in Cool Tools, New Media | Comments(4)

You may have seen posts around the web talking about My ooVoo Day and I’m happy to say that I’m part of it as well.

On February 11th if you’d like I’ll be online for two hours to chat with anyone about anything. It would be great to connect and you can sign up here.

I’ve played with ooVoo for a while now. It is good to see that they are finally out with a Mac friendly client because I think the ability to do live video chat with five other people is a very powerful thing and something that a lot of people can benefit from.

What makes me most happy about this day is that I was told that I’d have $1500 to donate towards charity. I am a HUGE supporter of giving back in any way possible so this made my day. I’m splitting my donation between the Frozen Pea Fund for breast cancer and the Ma Chen- Autism School in China that my good friend Whitney is championing.

The screen shot is from the sign up page and includes a few of the other great participants. I’m personally looking forward to signing up and chatting with others such as Mitch Joel and Scott Sigler as well.

Hope to see you there.

Posted in New Media | Comments(4)

When I first heard about Firebrand TV I actually laughed and asked, “are you kidding me?” to the person telling me about it. I mean a website and a television show that did nothing but show commercials with a cute host? Didn’t we already have YouTube and all the other video sharing sites?

I love creative commercials as much as the next guy and the idea of having a site where I can go and view them if I wish is an interesting one, but long term I don’t get how a site like this can survive. It is fun for a few minutes and advertisers might pay to have their ads featured, but after that what? What brings back an audience on an ongoing basis?

Then last week I read about their campaign around the Super Bowl which we all know is as much about the pimping as it is the pigskin. The Road to Firebrand Monday is a campaign across multiple channels featuring some of the best characters and commercials from over the years. Here you can see one of their advertisements for it.

They are also doing a series of special episodes gearing up for this and on the day after the game will feature a special episode hosted by Carmen Electra and Reebok’s “Office Linebacker” Terry Tate. I’m actually looking forward to watching this one episode because it should make for good TV and I always like seeing what other have to say about the commercials I loved and hated. The shows run on ION TV which I didn’t even know I had until I was flipping through the channels one night and discovered it.

I watch the Super Bowl for the game first and the ads second. Especially this year when the Patriots are rolling into town to crush the Giants.

I’m still not sold on Firebrand, but I am sold on this specific campaign. It is a natural and perfect fit for their brand. It is going to be interesting to see what they do with all this buzz they are getting and if it can take them anywhere in the months ahead.

Posted in New Media | Comments(3)

I just finished watching J.J. Abrams talk at TED and am still smiling about it.

He talks a lot about his grandfather and how close they were. I can relate to this as my Grandfather Chapman and I were extremely close. When he died it was not a good time in my life and I felt like I had lost a best friend. My Dad and I often discuss how much he would have loved everything that I’m doing and the tools that we get to play with these days. If your curious I know I get my photography genes from him. I have fond memories of being in his home made dark room as a kid watching photos come to life.

But, what Abrams was also talking about is the concept of mystery boxes and how they can be found everywhere. Seems he has had a box that he bought years ago at a magic shop and has never opened because he loves the mystery of not knowing what is inside.

This got me thinking that to a lot of people and companies new media must seem like a mystery box full of wonder. They read the articles, hear the ranting and raving, but they still don’t fully understand what is inside. What happens when someone opens that box without a guide or a firmer understanding? Should you open up the box or preserve some of the mystery.

I’m not sure of the answer, but as I ride along on the train this is where my mind goes. Pondering the fact that if I asked every person in this cabin of the train about various technologies we take for granted if they would have heard of them or not. I think too often we assume everyone knows what podcasting, micro-blogging and search engine optimization. But, the truth is to most all of the fun things we find on the new media playground are still nothing more then a mystery box.

Part of my goals for 2008 is to speak to more people who don’t know this space. I guess I’m hoping to open the box for more people. I like the sound of that.

Posted in Links, Video, New Media | Comments(7)

In a conversation last night, a question sparked in my brain and I’m curious what your answer is.

What topic of interest to you do you wish there was a blog, podcast or community out there for you to consume and interact with?

I was thinking about this the other day as I had breakfast with my family at a diner and it is one of those places that still puts down the paper place mat with all the ads for local companies on it. Got me thinking that I wish there was a site on the web where I could easily pull up hyper local details about companies around me. Lots of people trying to do this, but no one has got it as simple as that place mat.

What are you looking for? What do you wish you able to learn from new media that you are not getting?

I’m just curious?

Posted in New Media | Comments(1)

It was very strange to be watching the NBC Nightly News last night and to hear Brian Williams utter the words “new media residuals.” I stopped for a moment to be sure I heard him right. A phrase we use all the time has gone main stream.

This should be an interesting strike to watch. The writers realize that more and more money is being made on their work that they are not seeing a dime of. The days of hoping that a show gets syndicated and that is as good as it gets are over. Now a show can live on via online downloads and DVDs. I have friends that skip whole shows because they’d rather wait and watch it on DVD.

The longer this strike goes on the sooner I hope that executives will start looking to the web to find fresh talent. It is ridiculous to me that someone like Cali Lewis is not the tech correspondent on CNN or that Ask a Ninja isn’t doing a weekly sketch for Saturday Night Live. Those are just two examples out of the hundreds of talented people producing solid content. Who couldn’t picture the team from Epic-Fu bringing a little in you face commentary to a show like Entertainment Tonight?

Same goes for the movie studios. Granted they’ve got enough scripts tied up to keep them busy for a while, but wouldn’t it be a great time to buy a script from a Scott Sigler, a J.C. Hutchins or a Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff to breath new life into the stagnant Hollywood system?

I just hope that as this strike drags on and people start to leave television to look for new content that they discover this little world we live in on the new media playground. That they take some time to discover all the great content being produced every day outside of the traditional media machine.

Posted in New Media | Comments(15)

I’m conflicted about how to feel about this.

Chris Anderson just posted on his blog the e-mail addresses of a bunch of people who have reached out to him with PR related inquiries.

I get no where even remotely close to how many he does and even I get a little sick of them if they are anonymous and random without any thought at all. So I completley understand him blocking them and junking them on his end.

Where I am conflicted is on sharing these in the open like this. I’m not sure what positive outcome this generates except to open up people to more spam and to potentially create a black list of e-mails that isn’t appropriate for everyone.

I’ve really got to noodle on this some more, but I wanted to get your opinions on it.

Hat tip to Jeremy Pepper for tweeting this.

Posted in New Media | Comments(10)

Lots of discussion going on right now around my blog post about the elimination of the rule that PodCamps must be free.

Some of the discussions have been around if you can still call these events a “camp” or if they must be turned into a “conference.” I know some people get into very heated debates about this, but at the end of the day if it is a few people gathering for spontaneous coffee on the corner, a thousand people gathering on the expo floor of a huge convention center or a group of twenty like minded individuals having drinks and dinner together it is all about one word and that is community.

I don’t go to any event for the sessions or the exhibitors. Sure, I love both of those and get a lot out of them, but I like to go to meet people. To have a random encounter with someone in a hallway and then sit down with them over lunch and work through ideas that are in their head. Buying someone a drink and talking about what their goals in life are and where they come from makes me smile.

New Media to me is about connecting with people. It is about having a good old fashion conversation, building up a trust and then helping that person out in any way you can. I guess this is how I look at life in general and new media is playground I get to put it into practice on.

If we met at PodCamp Boston 2 this weekend I hope we hugged, exchanged cards and will continue to connect as the days pass from the event. If we didn’t see each other then drop me an e-mail, find me on Facebook or lets get together and have some coffee.

Posted in Community, New Media | Comments(1)

A special episode today focusing in On The Luck of Seven. If you haven’t heard about this I was instantly hooked the moment I first heard about it over the summer. I don’t know Noel. I’ve never met him. But, I’ve been watching and reading of his travels since he set our this summer on 7-7-07.

I asked him seven questions and he answered them. Instead of inter cutting my questions I decided to just let his answers roll with the background noise and sounds. Feels much more real that way.

Please consider donating to the On The Luck of Seven and definitely subscribe to his video podcast and check out his photos. The one shown here he took the day after he recorded his questions. You never know where he is going to be checking in from.

The comment line is still 206-309-4729 and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this show. Especially if you step up and donate as well.

And, if your curious here is the original goodbye video I mentioned on the show.

Posted in People, Interviews, New Media, Podcast | Comments(2)

I noticed today that my good friend Scott Sigler has started a new blog called Does It Sell Stuff?

He doesn’t pull punches in life and writes some mean fiction, but he also truly understands this playground we are having so much fun in. Recently he was talking about a campaign from BigFix. Specifically their Ray Hopewood Campaign.

Instead of just hype, Scott details out the views, leads and sales generated by this campaign. Very rarely do you get to see this sort of data and it was refreshing to be able to look at them. I wish more companies were not afraid to share this sort of data. In the end it helps all of us out. Sure looks like it is helping them get the word out there based on the press they are getting.

I’m still hoping Scott gets to busy with his writing to focus on this site all that much, but for now I’ll be reading!

Posted in New Media | Comments(0)

In Washington, DC to give a keynote at the Era of Conversation event and last night after dinner Geoff Livingston whipped out his flip camera and asked us this question. Besides me, you’ll also hear from Valeria Maltoni and Doug Meacham.

Really looking forward to today because of a room full of new people. That always excites me. Plus, “New Media” Jim will be there and I’ve wanted to meet him for quite some time.

Posted in Video, New Media | Comments(2)

Last night I had a dream that Adobe bought Linden Lab and thus the popular virtual world of Second Life. I woke up giggling a bit about this, but then in the shower (isn’t that where great thoughts happen?) I got thinking more about how that could be cool if it actually happened.

Adobe and Macromedia merged a while ago. So think of the tools that Adobe has. Flash, Illustrator, PhotoShop, ColdFusion and Flex. They’ve got the perfect mix of tools for scripters and designers. Imagine what you could do with that tool set if completely integrated into Second Life. Just thinking about it makes me smile and grin. It would be quite impressive.

Now, I don’t think that Second Life fits into the Adobe business plan, but then again I don’t know what their plan is. I could make arguments that having a virtual world would be an amazing place for creatives to unleash their brains because lets face it, that is what Second Life is for a lot of people. It is about a lot of other things too. *grin*

The code side is where the real power could be. I worked with ColdFusion for a number of years and know that it can do some pretty cool stuff. Finally having web integration in both directions would be a huge plus. Being able to query data from other sources and have that data come into Second Life would shift everything. I’m still hoping they do simple things such as tying the weather to a zip code. That way I could build a sim and tell it to pull the weather from Boston or Hawaii to add a certain new level of “real” to it.

I’m not making any predictions here, but I had to share since it gave me something to noodle on today and perhaps it will give you something to as well.

Posted in second life, New Media | Comments(1)

I’ve been keeping an eye on Zoho for a while. They are doing a lot of the same things Google is trying to do through Google Apps. A completely online working environment. The perfect thing for all the new media nomads out there.

Biggest difference though is that Zoho has an off line feature. I can sync everything to my desktop (using Google Gears of all things *grin*) and work completely off line and then sync up the next time I connect. THAT is the key thing.

Then this morning I find out about Zoho Business and my grin got even bigger!

It is going to come in two flavors - Free & Pro. Some features will include:

• Company level Admin Console
• Domain Management (for pointing your domains to Zoho Apps)
• Centralized User and Group Management
• Single Sign-on across several Zoho Apps
• Zoho Apps include Writer, Sheet, Show, Wiki, Notebook, Email, Cal, Tasks, Planner, Viewer, Chat etc.
• Customization Options
• Multiple levels of Security including SSL
• Remote Backup
• Telephone Support and more.

I love all of this and think it is a huge step forward. I’m wondering how long until Yahoo or Microsoft try to buy them so that they can directly compete with Google. Heck, if Apple made a play at them things would get REALLY interesting, but I don’t think it’s the market they are in right now.

Posted in Cool Tools, New Media | Comments(1)