Are Big Brands Ready for Cafe Conversations?

I was inspired to continue the conversation that Chris Brogan started on his blog a couple of days ago. Chris' post begins:

"Pepsi doesn’t want to talk with a few hundred people at a time, do they? It’s just that all these businesses have built huge platforms, huge sales funnels, huge marketplaces, and I think what social software is setting us up for are cafe-shaped conversations."

Which is funny, because apparently Pepsi does want to talk to a few hundred people, including Chris Brogan. Why? Because Pepsi knows that cafe conversations are what is driving the social web. And they know that the conversations that Chris Brogan have are with larger groups of people, and that they tend to get repeated in other cafe's around the social web.

Submitted by Jackie Peters on Sun, 11/30/2008 - 23:35

Digital Media Summit It's Time to Reevaluate the Hit

I attended the Digital Media Summit in Hollywood yesterday.

Here's the pitch from the event web site:
"Hollywood and content producers are faced with a Hobson's Choice: Make your content available to all for free online - and potentially see your core business cannibalized. Or hold onto copyrighted content tightly...and watch as an amoral generation of youngsters steals it."

Is it really that dire? I saw an awful lot of head-scratching going on. No one seems to know quite what to do about this whole "social media thing." Charlene Li gave a great presentation on social media and groundswell, a primer I think many in the room desperately needed. Thanks Charlene!

Waiting for a Hit

Submitted by Jackie Peters on Wed, 06/11/2008 - 13:16

Spring Break - Content Gone Viral

I recently lead a round table discussion on viral content. There was much banter about what makes content go viral, how it can be encouraged and what the results are when it does take off. We were lucky enough to have Gregg Spiridellis, CEO of JibJab with us. He shared some of the experiences he has had in launching and creating a successful company with several viral success stories.

Submitted by Jackie Peters on Sun, 05/25/2008 - 22:39

How to Twitter (the right way) on Behalf of Your Brand

Ever heard of Twitter? If you hadn't, now you have and I'm willing to bet you'll be hearing it a lot more.

Twitter in a nutshell
Twitter is a messaging platform, also referred to as micro-blogging. Information is exchanged between users in the form of messages comprising 140 characters or less. Updates are sent and received via web, SMS or third party applications like Twhirl. The basic idea is you choose who's updates you want to follow, and others choose to follow your updates. Updates are fed into your feed where you can see what the people you follow are doing. Conversely, your updates are sent to your followers feeds.

Submitted by Jackie Peters on Mon, 05/12/2008 - 13:00

Niche is pretty sweet

I'm a big fan of niche marketing. I guess you could say niche is my niche. Normally, even when I work with a client who has a very broad audience, I'll start by breaking it down into smaller niche segments. Why? Niche audiences are passionate audiences. It's a bit more work up front, segmenting, analyzing, listening to the audience, taking the time to find out what each group is in to, where they spend their time, how they interact. The constant information stream generated by social networks, tools and technologies make locating, listening to and communicating with niche audiences possible on much more granular levels than ever before. If a brand can appeal to a niche audience, and authentically engage them with content that appeals to their affinities, that brand reaps the rewards and will realize a much higher ROI than traditional wide net tactics.

Submitted by Jackie Peters on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 23:54

A great example of what not to do

I recently decided it was time to hire a new strategist. I knew I wanted someone who was already getting their hands dirty and understood the social media landscape. I began by reaching out to people I know personally for recommendations as I trust WOM first and foremost. The particular position I'm looking to fill isn't an easy one, not tons of people out there with that skill set. No one I knew could recommend anyone who wasn't already doing their own thing or working for someone else. My next step was to post the job. But I wanted to weed out anyone who wasn't qualified. Posting on a site like Monster or Craig's List or just about anywhere would have left me with a stack of resumes to go through for people who definitely wouldn't have been qualified. I'm into niche, so I went niche.

Submitted by Jackie Peters on Wed, 05/07/2008 - 19:18