Greg Verdino

O tidings of comfort and... wait... what?

The holidays are upon us once again.  (How's that for a big ol' honkin' statement of the obvious?) 

Considering that the next couple of weeks will be a blur of holidays, time with my daughter and a bit of travel -- not to mention the fact that I have a crushing amount of work to complete between now and my trip to CES -- I figure my blogging schedule will be a bit sporadic between now and the end of the year.

I hope that everyone has the opportunity to reflect on the year that was, plan for the year ahead and spend a bit of time with the important people in your lives.

For the rest of you, I offer up a smorgasbord of holiday weirdness post-YouTube style.  Please feel free to while away your holiday time off watching a few weird animated shorts.  This ain't your daddy's "A Year Without a Santa Clause."

[Feed and email readers: you know the drill.  Be sure to click through to the blog to watch the embedded clips.]

The first two have been highlighted by a brand spankin' new site called eGuiders that went into public beta yesterday and aims to curate the best-of-the-best web video content so you don't have to slog through millions of pieces of web junk to find the few worth watching.  (Disclosure: I've been serving as an unofficial advisor to eGuiders.  Check 'em out.)

Snowy the Frostman puts a twisted spin on the animated holiday classic.


Happy Tree Friends offers up Japanimation-style holiday shorts that are not for the sensitive or squeamish.

Next up: thanks to the Firehouse agency in Texas we have a new holiday classic based on an old world tradition - the Christmas Pickle. (Tip o' the Santa hat to Chris Wilson.)

And finally -- how can a guy who throws the devil horns every chance he gets resist a mash-up that combines A Charlie Brown Christmas with some killer metal.  Have a head banging Christmas and a rocking New Year.

HubSpot's state of the twittersphere: just ducky!

Because just understanding what's going on in the blogosphere doesn't tell the whole social media story anymore, HubSpot released its first State of the Twittersphere report today.

Geeks rejoiced...

Based on data gathered through the Twitter Grader service, HubSpot looked at the behaviors and habits of roughly 600,000 users to draw some baseline conclusions about how Twitter is evolving as a social platform and (more importantly) community of people.

HubSpot's State of the Twittersphere portrays a growing platform that is attaining some scale -- HubSpot reports that the Twitter community numbers between 4 million and 5 million members (based on public estimates) and grows by as many as 10,000 new accounts each day.  Yet, HubSpot also found that -- perhaps because of this rapid growth -- a large number of accounts represent new users or inactive (or lightly active) members.  Not to draw too many parallels, but stats like these make me think of Second Life in early 2007, when press attention and word of mouth drove lots of new sign-ups from curious looky-loos that didn't necessarily stick.

That said, Twitter has still seen a 600% growth in traffic over the past year (Compete.com), cracked Alexa's top 1000 web sites in May 2008, and -- if the use of Twitter by Barack Obama and CNN, not to mention a growing number of major corporations, are any indicator -- does appear to be mainstreaming.  HubSpot promises quarterly updates -- and it will be interesting to see how the numbers trend over the coming year.

Check out the HubSpot blog for a few more soundbites and some nifty charts and, for the full scoop, grab your free copy of the report.

Kraft helps you feed your family & America too

In many ways, 2008 was the "Year of the App" with marketers focusing at least some of their energies on cracking the code for delivering value and engaging consumers through applications of the Facebook and iPhone variety.  And so it is fitting that Kraft Foods (disclosure: Kraft is a crayon client) is rounding out the year with a couple of solid efforts in App marketing.  Both are good examples of how big brands can leverage new platforms to deliver beyond-the-box value.

Check out what Kraft is serving up.

Kraft iFood Assistant

First up, we have iFood Assistant.  Kraft is the first consumer packaged goods company to launch a food App for the Apple iPhone, tapping into Americans' increasingly mobile lifestyles and adding value in ways that are consistent with Kraft's brand promise and business objectives.

iFood Assistant offers more than 7,000 recipes for everything from appetizers to desserts, from healthy options to holiday splurges.  Most are consumer-rated and reviewed, and a bunch feature helpful video demonstrations, all resident right on the phone.  (Most similar Apps simply call up Safari and point you to the mobile web.)  Of course, iFood Assistant isn't all form, no function.  Its best features include the ability to create shopping lists, organized by supermarket aisle, and even find the nearest grocery store.  The result?  An easy way to use your iPhone to get food ideas, plan meals and shop smarter.

While today's iFood Assistant presents recipe and meal ideas from the Kraft Kitchens, it was built as an agnostic platform and Kraft plans to incorporate recipes, ideas and products from partners to provide iPhone users with a solid, general purpose grocery/cooking App that offers lots of utility and content in a single, well-designed package.

iPhone users can hit the App Store to download it, or visit Kraft's iFood Assistant page to learn more.

Kraft Supports Feeding America

If Facebook is more your style and you're looking to help needy families, Kraft has partnered with SocialVibe to launch Fill a Bowl, Feed America.  The proposition here is simple and the cause is a good one -- you install the Facebook App, register at KraftFoods.com or make a cash donation to Feeding America (Kraft will match your donations dollar for dollar), and in return Kraft buys up to 3.2 million meals for people in need.  This SocialVibe/Facebook effort is a smart social media extension of a larger charitable giving program that Kraft is supporting, to make a positive impact in the real world.

As I write this Fill a Bowl, Feed America has already generated enough support to fund close to 1 million meals -- help Kraft and Feeding America get to the full 3.2 million.

Take that, all you social media size queens!

 
We social media types seem to spend an awful lot of time agonizing over ways to grow our network and (dare I say it) the amount of influence we wield. 

This scenario is played out daily on Twitter and, in many ways, Twitter is a micro-representation of the larger social mediasphere.  For my own part, I was jarred to find that I dropped nearly 100 Twitter followers overnight and generally suffer an inferiority complex over the fact that @amandagravel has about 1,000 more followers than I do (social media rule #37: the pretty girls will always win.)

Anyway... it turns out that we social media nerds may have it all wrong.  According to new research conducted by HP Labs and Cornell University, size doesn't really matter.  Instead, we should be gauging the influence (or Twinfluence at least -- the research specifically studied Twitter patterns) of a social media user less by the number of people in their network than by how well (and how often) they interact directly with other people. Cornell and HP draw the distinction between any Twitterer's larger network of so-called 'friends' and 'followers' (aka total strangers) and the smaller, 'hidden network' of real friends that the Twitterer actually interacts with.  You might argue whether interacting with one another on Twitter (or in any other social network) constitutes a solid enough basis for proper friendship, but the bottom line is clear and the case is compelling.  It's not the size of the ship but the motion of the ocean.

This kind of thinking offers an obvious takeaway for social media marketers, who historically seem to focus a bit too much on courting the so-called A List -- the bigger-than-big bloggers and top of the chart Twitterati who seem to present (but only sometimes deliver) the possibility of scale.  Suddenly, your social media plan is less hard science (give me the verifiable top 10) and more social science (help me understand who talks to who, how and why.) 

Of course, size and depth of connection are not mutually exclusive -- guys like Chris Brogan find ways to deliver both.  And of course, the finding that influence is really a matter of individual level person-to-person relationships isn't (or shouldn't be) a shocker.  But research that validates what you might have summized all along is never a bad thing.

Incidentally, all of this echos my own thinking about the nature of online communities.  In fact, I pretty much said so in one of my 2009 predictions for Peter Kim's crowdsourced eBook.  Here's what I predicted:

Social graph shrinkage.  Sure, the total population of social media users will continue to grow but with the rise of mososo and a resurgence of in person networking, many consumers will scale back on both the number of accounts they maintain AND their number of so-called “friends” and “followers.”  We’ll start using online social platforms to stay connected with the people we actually know and care about.  Suddenly, being Facebook friends with your mom will seem less ridiculous than following 4,000 strangers on Twitter.

You may now worship me as a Social Media Nostradamus. Just kidding of course (no I'm not) but I would love to hear your perspectives on this topic.  Chime in, if you're not already checked out for the holidays.

(Post inspired by Max Kalehoff's MediaPost coverage. I recommend reading his thoughts too.  Thanks Max.)

MarketingProfs webinar: 'Social Graces' on 1/22/09

I'm happy to announce that I'll be taking the MarketingProfs "virtual stage" on January 22nd, presenting a 90 minute online seminar about conversational marketing.  This web event is free for MProfs Premium Plus members and $129 for everyone else.

You can learn more and register at MarketingProfs.  I hope you can join me.

_____________________

Social Graces: Strategies to Take Your Social Media Marketing Beyond One-Off Tactics

Where: Online

When: January 22nd, 2009 @ 12 noon EST (90 minutes)

When it comes to social media, you may have tried one of everything — a blog, a Facebook Fan Page, a widget, an App, a Twitter account, the list goes on — without gaining any insight into whether or not any of them delivered real results. Or perhaps you’re so confused by (or frightened of) social media that you haven’t tried anything at all. In either case, now is the time to polish your act and develop some "social graces."

This seminar goes beyond the tried-and-true conversational marketing platitudes (be authentic, be transparent, the consumer is in control — really now?) and looks past the ever-changing menu of today’s "hot" Web 2.0 properties (how many of those will be around come year-end?) to provide a clear vision of how companies can leverage sweeping change and must-know trends to propel their digital marketing plans into the future.

That probably sounds like a tall order, and it is. It may sound too abstract, too conceptual, too hard to put into practice. It isn’t. Each insight, approach and concept will be illustrated with real examples of companies that have succeeded and — just importantly — companies that have failed. At the end of 90 minutes you will leave with a set of innovative approaches, a stack of specific ideas that you can implement right away, and a much better sense of how to make conversational marketing work for your business.

You Will Learn

• New ways to think about the role social media and conversation can, should and will play in your overall marketing mix.
• Key concepts that help simplify this whole social media thing in terms that even your CEO can understand.
• Why the social tools and platforms you choose are less relevant than the people you engage and the way your company "behaves."
• Why you need to ditch "old marketing" approaches when connecting with consumers through social channels.
• How to move beyond just the "what" and truly understand the "why" and "how" that can take your social media activities from me-too tactics to key components of your marketing advantage.

Who Should Attend

• Anyone who is responsible for their company’s social media marketing efforts or would like to learn more about how other companies are using social media and conversational marketing approaches to deliver business results.
• Marketing, PR and customer support professionals; senior executives and any company stakeholder who wants to gain a better understanding of what differentiates social media success and failure.
• This webinar focuses primarily on strategic approaches and next-level concepts. A familiarity with basic social media concepts and common social media tools is helpful, but not necessary – we will start with a basic primer before delving into the heart of the program.

REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT

What happens at CES, happens courtesy of Panasonic

For the first time in a dozen or so years, I'll be making a pilgrimage to the International Consumer Electronics Show, happening in Las Vegas on January 8th - January 11th.  This time around, I'm going courtesy of crayon client Panasonic and I'll be blogging, vlogging, photologging and Tweeting about my experience the whole time.

Exciting for me but that's not the real story.  The real story is that I will be joined by five social media guests (plus my doppelganger Jaffe) that Panasonic has invited to document and share their own CES experiences with their communities. This program is one of several things that we've been working on for Panasonic -- look for more programs to go live in the coming weeks -- and it's a worthy experiment in how large companies can partner with citizen journalists, if I don't say so myself (which I must since I had a hand in putting the program together.)

Here's the low down:

What We're Doing
Panasonic has invited a handful of guest content creators, culled from the social media rank and file, to join them at CES 2009.  They're flying them out and giving them front row seats at press conferences, new product announcements, exhibit hall presentations and more.  They're putting some of the latest and greatest Panasonic gear -- digital cameras, standard- and high definition camcorders, and more -- in their hands.  They're setting them loose to document their CES experiences.

In marketing speak, this no doubt sounds something like influencer outreach meets product sampling meets branded infotainment.  But it's really more than that.   It's just one of several things crayon is doing with Panasonic to put real people at the center of the company's "Ideas From Life.  Ideas For Life." positioning.  In other words, Panasonic is a consumer electronics company with a decidedly human focus -- to not just make great products but to make products that help people live better.  So who better to tell that story than - you know -- actual people.  And what are so-called influencers but people who like to tell stories to their own loyal communities.

OK. OK. So Who's Going?

We've assembled a veritable content creation dream team that includes a top blogger, a well known vlogger, a professional podcaster, an author and social media CEO, and a documentary film maker.  I think we can look forward to diverse perspectives and content to suit just about any appetite.  You may recognize some familiar faces in a montage below-- but even if you don't, I've laid out their details below.

Stacy DeBroff
Stacy is CEO of MomCentral, and a nationally recognized parenting expert, author and television personality.
Web: http://www/momcentral.com
Twitter: @momcentral

Cliff Ravenscraft
Cliff is a full-time podcaster, whose GSPN network produces nearly two dozen podcasts including series devoted to Hanna Montana, LOST, Heroes and other popular television shows.
Web: http://www.gspn.tv
Twitter: @gspn

Steve Garfield
Steve is a video blogging pioneer and citizen journalist who produces several personal vlogs and contributes to media outlets such as CNN iReport and Rocketboom.
Web: http://stevegarfield.com
Twitter: @stevegarfield

Chris Brogan
Chris is a well known social media veteran whose blog ranks in Technorati’s Top 100, a co-founder of the PodCamp “unconference” movement and a frequent conference speaker.
Web: http://www.chrisbrogan.com
Twitter: @chrisbrogan

Melissa Pierce
Melissa is a creative coach and documentary filmmaker, currently working on her own independent film Life In Perpetual Beta. Web (Life In Perpetual Beta): http://lifeinperpetualbeta.com
Web (personal blog): http://www.melissapierce.com
Twitter: @melissapierce

Fellow crayonista Joseph Jaffe (@jaffejuice) and I will join Stacy, Cliff, Steve, Chris and Melissa. 

And What Do You Get?
Well, what happens in Vegas certainly won't stay there this time. We've asked our guests to create lots of content and share it with their communities -- so if you can't be at CES in January, you'll still get to witness the sights and sounds of the show through the eyes of our guests. Be sure to follow the gang on Twitter and subscribe to their feeds, because I'm sure they'll be blogging, vlogging, podcasting and Tweeting like nobody's business.

If you do plan to be at CES, we're also organizing a Thursday night Tweet Up on Panasonic's behalf (January 8) where you can hang with our guests, each other and all your newfound CES buddies.  Stay tuned to this blog and my tweets for the details, as we make them available.

For my part, I'll be sharing my thoughts on this blog of course, but also plan to set up a dedicated lifestream-like object so that you can see everything as I upload it throughout the show.  I hope to share lotsa cool stuff in January and hope I'll have the chance to meet some of you at CES.  Let me know if you plan to be there.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available. 

Want '09 predictions? How about 50 of them?

Yep, it's that time of year again -- time for the marketing bloggerati to polish up their crystal balls and make some bold statements about what you can expect in the coming year.  And you, faithful readers, scour the web looking for even just a few useful nuggets from your favorite bloggers and industry pundits.

Well, this year Peter Kim has done everyone the favor of gathering 2009 predictions from some of the sharpest minds in marketing and social media, and pulling them together in a single eBook that contains 50 or so clear-eyed, thought provoking ideas about what the next 12 months hold for media, marketing and the web.

As one of the contributors, I've had the opportunity to read everyone's predictions and can say for sure that you'll want to download a copy right away.  Lots and lots of good stuff -- from a great cross-section of the blogging community, representing a variety of different points of view.

If you want a flavor for what the eBook has to offer, check out these thought starters from Pete's 14 Nostadami (Pete himself contributes an intro and some takeaways rather than his own predictions.)

• "Although it is now cheaper to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology - it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful." - David Armano
• "You may not always start the year as a leader, but you can certainly finish it that way." - Rohit Bhargava
• "Intimacy touches emotion; emotion powers conversation." - Pete Blackshaw
• "Doors are going to close all over the social web. Why? Because the money didn't come the way people thought it would." - Chris Brogan
• "The tipping point has not only *not* been reached, but could still tilt *away* from Social Media." - Todd Defren
• "There's a lot of fixing that needs to be done." - Jason Falls
• "Dwindling budgets suddenly make low-cost social media look like the pretty girl at the ball." - Ann Handley
• "We're going to develop a set of better metrics to help guide, direct and validate 'commitment'." - Joseph Jaffe
• "The movement is rooted in a desire to have quality, not quantity, as people cocoon in the face of the economic crisis." - Charlene Li
• "After a pre-qualifying wrestling match..." - Ben McConnell
• "These will be cumulative events and interactions that will build brand loyalty for the companies that pay attention to them." - Scott Monty
• "The recession will force revenue results out of social technologies." - Jeremiah Owyang
• "Companies that focus on earning love will thrive during hard times, and kick ass when good times return." - Andy Sernovitz
• "Suddenly, being Facebook friends with your mom will seem less ridiculous than following 4,000 strangers on Twitter." - Greg Verdino

But these 14 soundbites only hint at the smart ideas contained in the full eBook -- so be sure to download the complete thang.

As for me, I'll most likely expand on some of my own predictions right here on my blog over the coming few weeks.  In the meantime, I'm sure Pete and the other authors would love to hear your feedback.  Feel free to drop a comment here or any any of the contributors' own blogs.

How are crayons are like fine wine?

We get better with age.  Well, one of us does at least (that would be me...)

crayon had our Holiday Dinner last night and Jane Quigley snapped this shot of our pinot, cabernet and white zin of strategy (aka me, Jaffe, and Broitman.)

It bears an uncanny resemblance to a photo Chris Brogan took of the three of us at PodCamp New York way back in April 2007.  We were at PodCamp to speak on a panel about Second Life, representing three companies and three markedly different points of view.  As I recall, word on the street was that Jaffe and I would end up trading blows.  Instead, we ended up talking about joining forces.  Adam jumped into the crayon box a year later.  I guess this social media thing really is good for something.

P.S. - I think I am wearing the same jacket in both pictures.  Awkward...  Stalkers, looky-loos and Broitman fans may also want to check out my entire Flickr set from yesterday and last night.

Silly games: dispelling 3 in-game marketing myths

Over the past couple of weeks I participated in two AMA webinars that aimed to help marketers come to grips with life after analog and (not coincidentally) promote the AMA's upcoming M.Planet 2009, where I'll be delivering a Digital Marketing Lab session entitled "Gaming, Virtual Worlds & Life After Second Life."

I had 10 minutes to spit the truth (as my buddy Ludacris might say) so rather than try to boil the virtual ocean, I decided to focus specifically on three gaming and virtual world myths that I still hear bandied about by marketing executives -- and sometimes by the biz dev teams at the gaming companies themselves.  If I did nothing more than help the 500 or so attendees see the realities behind the myths, then my work here is done. :-)

What myths did I tackle?  Check out my slides below - for a change, I think they're actually somewhat self-explanatory although when I delivered my presentation I also talked through plenty of actual examples.

Gaming Myths for Marketers

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: gregverdino secondlife)

[Feed and email readers should click through to view the embedded slides.]

So what gaming and virtual world marketing myths would you like to dispel?  What sage advice would you give marketers about getting in the (erm) game?

Twitter is my news feed

Even a few years ago, I got most of my marketing and business news from email newsletters and print publications.  After that, blogs became my preferred news source -- more perspectives, written by people living the news from the front lines (rather than by journalists commenting from the sidelines), served up in near real time by Google Reader.

But today, I get most of my business news and discover new marketing facts, ideas and opinions on Twitter. 

If you're a marketer and still wondering how to justify spending time on Twitter -- and building relationships with your peers and/or social media insiders isn't important enough to you (?!?!?!) -- you might consider that Twitter helps you keep your ear to the ground and serves up lots of information that you can use to do your job better tomorrow than you do it today.

In a distinctly Jaffe-inspired cavalcade of links, here are just a few of the things I heard first (and in some cases, heard only) from my Twitter network.

• The rise of social media and the democratization of content creation means, among other things, that everyone (no matter how small) can use the web to create and grow their own personal brand.  Lots of companies don't like this but, according to Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang, they had better get used to it. 
• Of course, companies can and should be tapping into the same social media tools to build their own brands too, assuming they can get it right.  Despite corporate America's efforts to establish some consistent blogging standards and best practices, most consumers quite simply don't trust corporate blogs.  To me, this says more about the general trustworthiness of the typical company than it does about the potential value blogging brings to the marketing mix.  Hopefully the folks who make corporate communications decisions will see it the same way.
• Now, if all this talk of blogging still confuses you, there's good news (or bad news, depending on your perspective) - you're not alone.  Most marketers are still social media beginners and have plenty to learn about how to participate in the conversation and how to measure the ROI of doing so.
• On the other hand, you shouldn't let the (perceived) lack of ROI keep you from trying your hand at social media marketing -- or at marketing through any of the other emerging channels we have at your disposal today.  One pizza chain has generated $1 million in mobile web sales in the past six months alone, and new data shows that even virtual world storefronts can be company revenue drivers.  Take that, haters.
• But even this doesn't mean that all is well in  Next Big Thingsylvania.  For example, even in Europe, 2008 wasn't the Year of Mobile and we still have a long way to go before mobile marketing hits it's stride.  Add this challenge to the list of stumbling blocks: when most people say "mobile marketing" what they really mean is "mobile advertising."  And that's a ship that will sink well before it sets sail (file under: square peg, round hole.)
• Wanna know what else doesn't work?  Viral marketing. Well, it works -- or at least it can -- but (repeat after me people) viral isn't a marketing strategy; it's one possible outcome of an otherwise sound campaign that's actually so good that people want to spread the word.  Viral is about people talking to people, and you can't cook it up in a Madison Avenue conference room.
• And speaking of things that don't work, Robert Scoble isn't a fan of Twitter's direct messaging functionality.  For those of you not on Twitter, direct messaging allows one user to send a private tweet to another user.  Scoble dislikes this piece of the service so much that he'd like to see Twitter do away with it altogether.  He's in the minority from what I can tell, but I kinda agree with him.
• So if direct messages don't work, how do you attract attention from a big time social media guru?  David Armano (a not-so-shabby social media guru himself, although you wouldn't know it from his mountain man beard and straw hat) thinks a new service called Bubble Comment might do the trick.  Bubble Comment let's you record and post a video message that will pop up, bubble like, on top of any web page.  It's freaky but fun -- it just might work...  Although I'm not sure what, exactly, has happened to Armano.  He used to be a nice Italian boy from Long Island.

So hey Twitterinos, what interesting, fun and useful facts did you learn from your Twitter friends this week?