community
Ignite Boulder #6: How to Master Debate
I recently presented at Ignite Boulder #6. My presentation was entitled “How to Master Debate.” While my presentation contained humor, I really think this is a really important issue. We live in a country where so many people don’t know how to debate. In my presentation, I included a quote from Henry Miller and it’s one of my favorites of all time:
We do not talk – we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.
With access to information getting quicker and quicker by the minute, the skills needed to really debate issues need to be addressed. The things that I feel that need to be stressed are listening skills, debate decorum, and the ability to lose. What do you feel are skills needed to successful engage in debate? I’d love to hear from the readers as I start to really look into this issue more…
Jessica Knows that It Takes Two
My friend Jessica Smith recently created a video to the music of Rob Bass – It Takes Two. It was a video made in collaboration with bloggers and PR pro’s – a quick video that symbolizes the symbiotic relationship between blogger and PR representative. Here it is:
The relationships between PR and Bloggers is an ever-evolving phenomena. As more corporations put emphasis on embracing the social web – this evolution will be an interesting thing to watch. Until I feel like more commentary is needed, just enjoy the video – it’s fun and has a bunch of people I consider friends in there!
Guest Post
Today, I have a guest post on my friend Aimee’s blog – Greeblemonkey. Check it out – It’s a thank you note to the parenting blogging community.
The Real BlogHer
While my anecdote created a lot of press in the last 24 hours, I wanted to highlight what I thought was far more representative of the time I spent in Chicago. The real BlogHer is about a community of women who come together to learn from each other, support each other, and become friends regardless of the miles that may separate them. If you were at BlogHer – add your posts and photo albums in the comments section. This is what people should be writing about – not the .0000000001% of the population there.
Check out these posts:
Gwen Bell’s 10 Things that made her smile
Ignite Boulder 5
Last Thursday was Ignite Boulder 5 – which was actually my fourth Ignite Boulder and, without a doubt, the best one that there was (with all apologies to Ignite Boulder 3). I don’t know if it was the venue – capacity mandated that we move to the larger Boulder Theater rather than the CU Campus – or if it was just lightning in a bottle – there wasn’t a single bad performance – but it was an amazing night filled with fun, laughs, and learning.
Photo via @AndrewHyde
Check out IgniteBoulder.com for updates – they will be posting links to the videos when they are available. It was a great night and I’m looking forward to the next one. I want to make it a Black Tie event if anyone is interested – Bring out everyone to look their sharpest and have a lot of fun. Would also be fun to take Pearl Street by storm dressed awesomely. Suit up!
Building Community
I am lucky because I have a really great job. Among my many tasks, I serve as a community manager for Crocs fans. Using Twitter, blogging, and the other social networking realms – I seek to organize and empassion our core consumer. There are many marketing seminars, books, webinars, and blogs dedicated to just this purpose. While I read them and seek them out, I’m lucky because my job has come down to one specific philosophy: Have Fun
. Here’s a personal case study. The other day on Twitter, Allison Worthington of Mrs. Fussypants and Blissfullydomestic sent out a tweet saying “It is official. Twitter has killed my ability to blog on my site, Ican’tquityou,Twitter!”
Being the pop culture connoseuir that I am, I immediately recalled the famous scene from Brokeback Mountain – “I just can’t quit you” (Is that how the real quote goes?) I quickly responded with a tweet requesting that SOMEONE make a photoshopped poster as soon as possible spoofing that Tweet.
Within minutes, Monica aka @Mommybrain responds and volunteers for the task. About an hour later, Monica’s masterpiece was unveiled: Tweetdeck Mountain!
So, what does this have to do with my work at Crocs? Well – nothing really and everything. I would have tweeted the same thing if I wasn’t working at Crocs. I would follow both Alli and Monica even if my job had nothing to do with “mommy bloggers” or bloggers in general. I did it because it was funny, it felt good, and it’s how my personality works. Yet, when Alli told the story on her blog – the picture of my tweet included the Crocs logo. It was branding. More importantly, it was a relationship – a real relationship based on having fun and communicating that doesn’t have anything to do with pushing personal agendas. The beauty of the social web is that relationships breed success. And the fact that I can spend my Thursday morning, in between my other job tasks, just having a laugh and being able to call that work – is priceless.
Startup Weekend Boulder
On Friday, as I sat in the Threadless offices with Heather and Rachel, I decided I was going to stop by the opening session of Startup Weekend Boulder 3. Created by Andrew Hyde, this event is something that I have always wanted to attend but reluctance at finding my place within the weekend always kept me from doing so. I headed to Leed’s at CU and was amazed at the turnout. The room was full of eager people looking to have a fun weekend project or perhaps mark the beginning of larger business endeavors. As Andrew went around the room listening for ideas to be pitched, it was quite the scene to hear the different business ideas that were coming from the group. It was a great site to see.
I ultimately did not participate in the rest of the weekend, even though I just ran into a large collection of attendees at The Cup. I didn’t find a project that I wanted to work on – not because of the lack of quality projects. It was simply because I realized I couldn’t devote the time and passion to the project over the weekend without sacrificing energy that I need for the job that pays the bills. After stopping by TechStars today to catch up with a few of the projects, I think I made the right decision. Everyone was hard at work, devoted to their weekend fun and perhaps contemplating how to take these great ideas and turn them into great products.
If a startup weekend occurs in your area, I would definitely advise to check it out.
Ignite Boulder #4
It’s been a few weeks, so I won’t go into a long post about Ignite Boulder #4. All I do know is that it was an amazing time and I’m already looking forward to the next one – which hopefully I can get my act together and actually do a presentation of some sort. I have a few ideas cooking in the brain but nothing really solidified.
I have a few videos I need to upload to my video channels (youtube and viddler) so keep checking there for those.
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!
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.
