Archive for April, 2009
Ignite Boulder 4
Ignite Boulder 4 is tonight. It’s my absolute favorite tech event. I look forward to it whenever it happens – which is roughly every few months. Andrew Hyde puts together a great event that is all about our wonderful community here in Boulder. It’s now in a 500 seat classroom – this is probably the biggest fun tech event Boulder has seen. I’ll be posting pictures and video from the event as soon as I can – so stay tuned!
Millennio.us
One of my good friends Alana Marie Edmunds, of Techyness fame, has launched a podcast with her friend Eric Hanson. It’s called Mellennio.us and it offers the point of view of a millennial generation on the tech world. It’s new but the first two episodes make me feel like it’s worth watching to see where they take this thing.
I’ve been asked to come on the show to talk so I’ll be posting that link once we record it. Maybe I’ll UStream it so we can get some audience participation….
Fly Fatass Fly #3
I’ve gone to the gym three times over the last five days – just getting back into the habit after being sick and an increased social calendar. I’ve played basketball in order to get my cardio back up and have seen noticably more improvement in my stamina from that. I did some upper body lifting today – nothing too strenuous. Still about building the routine – although being sick took me back to square one.
Starting next week, I’ll be playing Softball every Monday. I really need to get back into Yoga during the week too. Fly, Fatass, Fly will be an ongoing struggle but hopefully the accountability will be there to get me through it.
Addressing the Queen: Thoughts on Blogging and Marketing
I read a lot of blogs. A lot of them. I’d offer up a screen shot of my Google Reader but the +1000 unread posts is giving me anxiety that I just don’t have time to deal with. Blogging to me is an art, a science, and something that I hold so very close to my heart as a person. One of the blogs that I’ve been reading the longest is Erin Kotecki Vest’s (aka Queen of Spain.)
I’ve been reading her blog since sometime in ’06 when she wrote for the Huffington Post about the barrage of phone calls that she was receiving during the election cycle. I loved it. It made me laugh and yet engaged in an intelligent way. That’s the Queen – and that’s how she rolls. She writes amazing content even when she’s not writing about anything that specifically appeals to me. Often times, the posts really get me thinking. This happened the other day. She wrote an article that offered brilliant commentary on blogging that hit very close to home considering my job and my love affair with blogs.
Read “I’m Calling Out the Carpet Bagging Mommy Bloggers.” It’s a great editorial piece and the current state of affairs in this section of the blogosphere in regards to the role of marketing in the blogging world. There are bloggers like Erin who, through talent, will, perseverance and probably a little luck – created their corner of the web. Then there are the others do it differently. Or as she puts it: “You’re hosting a giveaway, selling all our souls for a new mop, and lowering the bar for the next to come along.”
It’s an interesting thing for me to read because my opinion lays somewhat in the middle. While I never have had the success that Queen of Spain Blog has, I have always been far more interested in creating content. Sure – it’s my content: drifting from those lost days of young adulthood to the sometimes even more lost days of real adulthood – blogging has always been about the words that appear in front of you. Yet, as someone who works in marketing – I’ve used the non-content producing blogs. Blogs of people interested only in my product. Bloggers who care very little for building the community I want, for building the brand that I love, and for all the steps in between.
Why do I do it then? I believe in community and the power of social media to bring people together far more than I believe in marketing, metrics, and all those other numbers that allow me to do this for a living. I do it because of those numbers and because there is something to gain doing this from a business perspective. There is that ROI. There are those metrics and numbers. It works.
“You know there is a beautiful old dinosaur of an idea that traditional media has taught us. You clearly separate ads from editorial. Ads and editorial are not the same and you don’t blur the lines.”
The quote above stuck in my head as I read and re-read Erin’s post to create my response (after a little back and forth with her and another blogging favorite Mr. Lady) and it struck me: for me, those review posts ARE advertisements. They are straight-forward, unauthentic advertisements that work like print and television ads do. They create a little buzz, they create brand impressions, and they die shortly thereafter. The sophisticated avoid them. The masses will shortly follow and the bubble will ultimately burst and, George the marketer, will find another avenue for the quick hit buzz.
I think the internet as a whole understands the difference between the content producing blogs and those that function solely as giant advertisements: much like people understand the content differences between US Weekly and the New Yorker. As the internet, blogging and other user-generated content continues to grow – these differences will continue to arise. I will be interested in how they are responded to culturally, from a marketing perspective, and all points in between. For blogging to succeed, we need Ombudsman like Queen of Spain to continue to question how things are, why they are, and exert an opinion that may be wildly unpopular or, with the masses in line, change the standing order of business.
As for me, George the community guy still exists – as it was pointed out on Twitter (thanks!). George the community guy will always exist because the greater return is there. When false rumors of my company’s demise circulated the internet, I tried to cut it off when it got a bit out of hand. When I was responding to posts, what did I see? I saw Erin there. Erin was there defending the company. It was an authentic voice. Something I needed as I waded through the sea of negative rumors – both for the help in stopping the rumor and for the inspiration that people out there do care. If I had to quantify the return on that, I probably couldn’t. No excel spreadsheet, no formula, nothing would show how much that meant to me and how much that type of activity means to Crocs. I thanked Erin and she said she likes to help out “cool” people. My “coolness” aside, I knew she did it for one reason: she meant it.
As this field matures, I would rather be unemployed than to have someone not understand the return on that authentic kind of communication, but that’s also the blogger in me. At the end of the day, there are still spreadsheets to fill out, numbers to calculate, and return to prove. I’m enjoying being somewhat of a trailblazer in this in-between existence – but that means being somewhat centrist and doing some things for numbers and other things for community. As long as corporations have to tow the line, there will always be the “non-content” blogs. It’s the nature of the beast and I just hope that I do things in a way that honors these medium that I love. I think I will – especially when I have blogs, tweets, and interactions with people like Erin that will never let me forget my roots.
I Win!!
If you haven’t played Foursquare – you need to. It’s probably the reason I haven’t had time to update this blog, why I’m still nursing a cough tom being sick, and why I am nervous to look at my bank account.
That being said, this past week I was #1 for the entire Denver area. I will probably never win again – especially since I am going to go out less for the next few weeks. Still – I’m very competitive and love winning!
Just Being Myself
I started to think about my job today because of Dave Taylor – and the fact that he wrote a blog post about…well, me. His post painted me in a very positive light and it spread, without my help, to the various powers that be at my work. As I received acknowledgment from the higher ups, I couldn’t help but think it was strange that I was receiving kudos for this. I didn’t think I did anything. I kind was just being myself….
Recently, Mashable had an article about the “Five Essential Traits for Community Managers” – a list that I found great interest in since one of the many hats I wear at work is that of a Community Manager. Here’s a summary of the traits on the list:
- Loving your job
- Ability to promote others as well as yourself
- Ability to empower and support your community
- Transparent, Fun and Engaging Personality
- Extensive Knowledge of the Company
After reading that list, I can see why Community Management is one of the hats I wear at work. By “just being myself,” I act out those five traits. While I won’t critique my own personality (Editor’s Note: I think I’m awesome!), those other traits are the values that I believe motivate people around any idea or brand. The social web is both communal and selfish – with the best people navigating that line with a dash of humility and enough ego to have their voice heard. If you examine what I did with my interactions with Dave – there is that humility and ego. I am humble enough to know that I could never ask someone like Dave Taylor – someone who has crafted an authentic and powerful voice on the internet – to be a spokesperson for my product just because he received a few pairs of shoes. Yet, I had enough ego – and faith in my company and our products – to believe that he would be creative enough to craft an authentic and compelling reaction on his own based on his experiences with the product (or in this case – me). Will it always play out positively? Probably not. But when it does work out, it builds for stronger relationships and the potential for stronger returns based on the creation of trust and understanding.
As corporations continue to communicate in the social web, it will be interesting to see how this develops. It will also be interesting to see how my personal opinions develop, as I can see both sides as a blogger and as the corporate entity. I think that’s what makes me have trait #1 from above. How can I not love a job that is so exciting!
Eight-Five-Eight
Vanessa and I filmed a little episode for Eight-Five-Eight.com today. In case you didn’t know, Eight-Five-Eight.com is our new house blog. It’s still being built but we figure we could have some fun with this. Anyway – check it out and visit Eight-Five-Eight.com
Nick Swisher Pitching
I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been sick. And while the score of this game makes me sicker, watching a fun loving guy like Swisher pitch makes me happy…
Sicko
I’m sick. I hate being sick. Blurgh
