Managing the Gray - Marketing for the New Media Professional

As you may of heard by now, crayon has some new faces among us. In fact there are several more people then were mentioned in the release.

Now, I’ve found working remotely to work quite well, but the first few weeks that there are new team members seem to be the hardest ones. For me personally this is because I don’t know the people yet. I haven’t sat down over coffee with them and talked about anything and everything. We haven’t figured out how to work together just yet. Sure, some of these problems would be there even in a traditional “gray place” (coffee tip to Brogan) type of office environment but in a remote sense it is even harder.

Thankfully with webcams the distance isn’t felt as much. Getting on Skype with someone and being able to see them is a huge help. At first I didn’t think ti would be, but you’d be amazed how much it helps. As software gets better and you can have more then just one on one video conversations it is going to raise the benefit exponentially.

I’m curious what other people out there have found about working remotely and for you what is the hardest thing?

I really can’t wait to get to NYC again soon so that I can sit down and talk to my new crayonistas. Sure, we are talking a lot about work and such lately, but I want to socially hang out with them. That is when a team really gels and comes together and that is an area where any form of virtual doesn’t come close to reality.

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Earlier today I posted how I was eager to see the comics from The Dip on the web. One in particular that I mentioned Seth Godin e-mailed me and Hugh MacLeod said I could post so here it is.

Please be sure to check out all of Hugh’s work at GapingVoid.com.

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I first really got Jason Calacanis on my radar when he gave a dead on keynote at the first PME conference. Sucks that no company has still executed his overall plan. Some have come close, but no one has knocked it out of the park.

So today when I read his link baiting rules post I actually laughed out loud.

It is not every day that you see someone being so open, honest and blatent about looking for people to write about him. It’s either insanity or genius. Either way I don’t care, I just thought it was worth pointing out.

If you want people to write about you giving them a reason to do so is always a good reason and this is exactly what he is doing. Hell, look it’s making me write about it just because it hit a nerve and this case it was my giggle nerve more then anything else.

Yes, putting forth a list like this is an over the top ego stroke, but who cares. That’s part of the fun of blogs and new media across the board. YOU control what you want to put out there and this is what he wants to put out so who can tell him otherwise. That is how it should work and don’t anyone forget that. YOU get to decide what you want to push out to the world and what medium you want to do it via.

Hell, if he wasn’t one of my Twitter Tots I might not have ever heard about it.

Today is looking like it’s going to be a great day on the playground for sure.

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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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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.

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Part of being involved in the new media revolution is that you spend time on the road. Time that you must still try to stay plugged in and connected and yet it’s not nearly as easy as you’d think it would be.

I’m quickly realizing that I’m getting better at it, but that I’ve got to continually evolve in order to do it better.

Top of my list is something that will allow me to read Word documents on my Black Berry. I haven’t looked, but there must be something that makes this possible. It seems to be the biggest roadblock I’ve got right now.

Also, my Logitech QuickCam blows up my laptop every time I try to do video conferencing through Skype with it. I’ve got the latest update from Skype an the latest drivers from Logitech. I long for the day when every laptop comes with a build in video camera. I can hear many of you saying “just get a mac” and I’ve actually considered it.

One day home from Atlanata and then off to New York City this weekend. Trying to schedule some meetings on Tuesday morning to fill the time I’m there.

New episode of Managing the Gray when I get back. I’m missing it!

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It has been about 24 hours since I (and the rest of the country based on the news) found out about the little scare here in Boston.

Some follow up thoughts and answers to questions/comments left.

• I agree that I wish we did not have to think that every single out of the ordinary thing was something bad. But, right now that’s the world we live in and it’s the mentality of a lot of people. Is it better to live in a world where our eyes are closed to the badness around us or to live in fear? It’s way to deep of a question for me to answer.
• I am upset at the police and homeland “security” because we’ve been spending so much money and they didn’t detect these things, see that they were or were not anything to worry about and take care of them? They were up for a couple of weeks
• I do think this was a horribly stupid campaign. I like the light up ideas. That’s neat and cool. Putting them under bridges over major highways is not a good idea. That’s just looking for trouble
• Did it work? Yup. The idea of stunt marketing has a place and this certainly worked from purely that angle. Everyone in the country now has heard of the television show and cartoon associated with the campaign.

All I’m asking for is that before anyone launches a campaign that they at least stop and think “what is the worse that can happen?” Then stop and think if there is a way to do the campaign, but to avoid that situation. I mean, how cool would it have been to see the entire Prudential Center light up with that guy on it suddenly at night? That would have been awesome, but instead we had a city messed up for a day.

As new marketing professionals we get to be creative, think big thoughts and try things that have never been done before.  But, does it mean we get to be stupid?

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Ask a Ninja is one of the funniest and most unique podcasts on the planet. I use it in all my presentations to showcase what can be done.

I just read that they’ve signed a big deal (rumor of $300k up front). Way to go guys!!

Keep on rocking!

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Everyone knows that Flickr is a great community of photos. You can find photos of everything under the sun. I’ve been fan of it for a long time and now I’m seeing it grow into something even more then just photos.

We all read blogs and communicate through them with posts and comments. Each of us has a set of blogs that we frequent and when they are those of friends, full blown conversations can happen in them. I have conversations that span blog comments, instant messages and e-mails. Now though they’ve moved into Flickr.

Earlier today I saw a picture Chris Brogan posted on the way to a book store. I left a comment asking what he was buying. I would have never planned to go back and see the answer, but then I saw a picture posted tonight called Answering C.C.

Amazing that a simple photo upload site has grown into another form of social network that is still as simple as always, but still something so much more.

Earlier this week I came up with the idea for SlackerShots.com and now this. What’s next?

I love this world of new media. LOVE IT!!

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If any of you were doubters that this year is going to be bigger for video then last then scope out this news that local darling Brightcove just landed $59.5 million in financing.

Any questions?

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Gotta love coming up with something guaranteed to bring in links to your site and Todd And certainly did that with his Power 150 Top Marketing Blogs.

No love for Managing the Gray which is cool with me. I was just happy to find some friends, collegues and business associates on the list so that is always great. Plus I have found a bunch of new blogs to check out and see if they are any good.

Definitely worth checking out. I’ve now subscribed to his blog because reading through some recent posts, it’s full of good content.

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…on new media what would  you want to be sure is in that book?

Obviously you know why I’m asking this question if you listened to the latest episode of the podcast, but I really want to know your thoughts to be sure I’m on the right track. I’ve got my outline and everything, but I’m sure I missed some stuff. Don’t we all?

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I wrote a post on the crayon blog and I’m curious if you have any personal goals for it?

Swing on over and leave a comment. I’d love to hear what your thinking and focusing on this year.

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Thank you to everyone who reads the blog or listens to the podcast.

When I started this podcast earlier this year I didn’t know if anyone was going to pay attention or if there was a point to starting it. Based on what you’ve told me over the past year and what I’ve heard when I speak at conferences and such I know I was quite wrong.

New Media has brought me so much happiness and professional success in 2006 and looking forward to 2007 I can only imagine where this crazy ride might take all of us.

I do know that it’s onward and upward for many people around me and that makes me happy.

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I’m not big on cross posting, but I just wrote up something on my personal blog that I’m very curious about. Focused on how weird it was that it seemed most of the people involved in “word of mouth marketing” have forgotten about podcasting. How did that happen?

Read it all here.

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A package arrived today and I couldn’t figure out what it was. When I opened it this is what I found:

It also had a note from Ben at Ten Golden Rules.com wishing me success on crayon.

I noticed before opening the box that it was a customized color box from Crayola. I thought I might find a full box of gray crayons for the podcast, but what I found was all gold which makes even more sense for where it came from.

Thank you Ben for the very cool surprise and the warm wishes. Of course, my kids don’t understand why I don’t want to color with them. *grin*

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I was recently critical of a network’s event in Second Life. I also didn’t like how another brand approached Podcasting.

But, I want to make it very clear that I LOVE that these companies are trying out new marketing and social media in any form or another. Any company (especially one with a well established brand) should be applauded for dipping their toes in the water.
In both situations my reasoning for posting was my personal feelings on how things could have been done better. I hoped that it would spark an open conversation on how next time it might be improved or just other ideas to keep in mind.

Work in any field long enough and you learn that with any project of this scope there are multiple hands in the cookie jar and more often then not that cookie crumbles a bit and doesn’t come out perfectly. That’s the nature of the world we live in.

I want every company out there to consider and try out every aspect of social media. Give podcasting a whirl with some internal communications, set up a presence or sponsor an event in Second Life, create a video that you upload to YouTube and see what happens. Any and all of these are interesting and the only way you’ll know if it’s right for your company is to try it.

Growing up, my parents always had a rule (and I’ve passed it onto my kids) that we had to try anything put on our plate. If we didn’t like it we didn’t have to eat any more, but we HAD to try it. That’s how I hope business approach this new world.

Any comments I ever make are geared towards pushing the whole medium forward. I’m one guy with a head full of thoughts and a heart full of passion. And I love chatting further and am only an e-mail away.

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Last night a huge crowd gathered on the Pontiac sims of Second Life for what was pitched as a live taping of the Jimmie Kimmel show and the Jay-Z performance.

It was fun as we got to hear the stream of the live audio from the interviews until the lawyers shut that down.

After a sim crash and delays upon delays Jay-Z finally performed. His avatar danced around the stage while we heard the live stream from the performance. Just like any other concert in SL which happen every night.

After two songs it was done. I felt completely underwhelmed so I turned on the TV to see how they used it during the actual airing of the show. That was what I was interested in since I wasn’t sure what they were going to do with it.

I stayed up watching it and besides a little mention of SL at the beginning there was NOTHING.

All hype, zero return. This is not how a company should approach something like Second Life. They didn’t even go for any buzz since the announcement of the event only came out late yesterday afternoon. I know some very talented people who worked on setting this up and they were working hard last night during it as well. I feel bad for them because I don’t understand what they did all the work for during a holiday week. It confuses me.

I’m sure there was a point to this whole evening, but I sure don’t see it yet.

The highlight was the random conversations and the live DJ at the beginning spinning mashups from the UK. Wished he had stayed around longer.

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I love Google Talk. If you haven’t used it, it’s another IM application just like all the others. What I like about it is that chats are auto logged in my gMail account so I can search them later when I forget a URL someone sent me or other bit of information.

Recently they added a nice feature to the status area where it could display whatever your listening to. I love this because I can see what my friends are listening to at that moment. It’s started more then one conversation to find out more about the artist.

Today when I turned it on it asked me about sharing my data with Google Music Trends.

It’s completely opt-in as it should be. I’m interested to see the “charts” or whatever you know is coming. Could this be a way to finally get more indie artists into their music search and other areas? I know that 80% of the music I listen to is stuff that many people outside of the podosphere have not heard of yet.

And podcasts? What are they going to do with those? I listen to plenty of those as well and the data will be shared with them that I’m listening to them. Will they eventually have a Google Podcasts? They have their fingers in everything else so you know it’s only a matter of time.

Neat to find little gold nuggets like this once and a while. Something worth keeping an eye on for sure.

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I just read on Boston.com that 1.5 million Easy Buttons have been sold by Staples.

That’s mind blowing to me in a good way. It’s one of those advertisements that at first everyone just laughed off. But, someone actually convinced people that they could sell these things and people would buy them. I’m sure that person got laughed at and more then one roll of the eyes but it worked.

This isn’t about the money (Staples actually donated at least the first million dollars to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America), but it’s about their brand. You see a red rounded button of any sort and the first thing you think of is Staples. We all wish we had a button that we could push and make things better.

Good old fashion out of the box thinking. It doesn’t always have to be able flashy web sites and viral videos. A good idea always wins no matter what form it comes in.

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