Greg Verdino

5 ways every marketer can have a "dancing man moment"

Last night, social media serendipity led me to a video of a man dancing at an outdoor music festival. The dancing man himself isn't anything special -- a clumsy show of flailing arms and legs that wouldn't get him through the first round of auditions on So You Think You Can Dance. 

What happens next is pretty special (or at least interesting.)

When the man starts dancing, he is the only member of the crowd moving.  In fact, it almost seems as if the rest of the audience is blissfully unaware that they're at a music festival at all.  But within seconds he's joined by one, then two, then three other dancers.  Within three minutes, hundreds of people are dancing.

And like countless other seemingly insignificant moments, all of it was caught on video and uploaded to the web.  Within a month of being shared on YouTube, more than one million people have viewed the clip, more than five thousand have rated it, and more than three thousand have left comments. And it turns out that these few minutes in time were captured and uploaded by several different amateur shooters who were there to witness it, so the cumulative numbers are higher still.

That's a pretty impressive ripple effect (or maybe it's a butterfly effect) for something that began with literally just one person willing to do something nobody around him was doing.

Now is probably as good a time as any to watch the video, if you haven't seen it:

[Feed and email readers, click through to view.]

OK, so what does this have to do with marketing?

Certainly the dancing man provides a clear (if trivial) example of how the actions of a sole individual can provide the catalyst that not only directly influences the behavior of the people around them, but also have the potential to scale up to have something approximating mass reach.  Rather than reaching out to millions in the hopes of finding and connecting with "the one" (who responds, who buys, who changes their behavior), why not start with the one who can influence hundreds and ultimately reach millions?

Perhaps the dancing man also offers a lesson about risk and reward -- as a marketer, are you willing to try something (and potentially look foolish) on the off chance that it will deliver an exponential result?  Or will you sit on the sidelines for fear of failure?

But mostly, it leads me to ponder how marketers can have their own Dancing Man Moments.  Off the top of my head, here are five ways:

1. Be the Dancing Man: do something remarkable to spark a movement; star in the story yourself
2. Bear Witness to the Dancing Man: document his actions; capture the moment; be the storyteller
3. Put the Dancing Man on a Bigger Stage: celebrate him; tell everyone you know (your customers, audience, fans, friends); provide access to your larger network of distribution (after all, chances are your brand is bigger than his...)
4. Join the Dancing Man: tap into the momentum of the movement; follow the dancing man's lead but play your own unique part in how the story unfolds
5. Be the Song to His Dance: go beyond just joining in; contribute something unique and different, yet complementary; in fact, why not inspire him to dance in the first place

But enough of my yammering. I'd love to hear from you -- what do you think marketers can do to have their own Dancing Man Moments?

Bits, bytes, posterous, punk

A recent post by Steve Rubel inspired me to dust off my "lightly used" (a euphemism for "never used") Posterous account and launch a new blog-like-object called Verdino Bytes.  With an easy-to-use bookmarklet for clipping content straight from the web and an even-easier-to-use post via email function, Posterous is ideal for creating and sharing content that falls somewhere between my fully formed blog posts and my malformed tweets.

It's a perfect tool for capturing and sharing everything from cool photos, interesting videos, random thoughts, stray ideas and crap I find all around the interwebz.  And with my regular blog output dialed down while I peck my way through the manuscript for my book, it's a simple low-impact way to pump out web content (ahem, make that micro-content) without giving my McGraw-Hill editor reason to believe I've taken her money and run.

The blog you're reading now is and will remain my primary online hub, but if you're looking for more regular updates over the next few months -- and are OK with the eclectic nature of what I'm posting over there -- you may want to subscribe to Verdino Bytes.  For the most part, there will be no duplication between what I post here and what I post there so it's more great Verdino for the same low price (e.g., free unless you're reading this on your Kindle, you big nerd.)

Even if Verdino Bytes doesn't seem like your cup of tea, you still might dig this video I posted there tonight.  Produced by an Australian reputation management firm (meaning a reputation management firm based in AU, not a firm dedicated to managing Australian reputations), it draws parallels between the punk rock movement in the 1970s and the social media revolution going on right now.  Good stuff.

[Feed and email readers click to the blog to watch the video.]

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Storytelling at the brink of the future?

Although the odds are pretty good you'll never read a fiction review on this blog, I can't help but tell y'all about J.C. Hutchins' forthcoming novel Personal Effects: Dark Art.  It's a supernatural thriller that pits an art therapist at a psychiatric institute against a blind serial killer/patient -- it may or may not be your cup of tea, and the actual content of the book isn't why I'm telling you about it.

The thing that probably will interest you is the way (ways plural, really) J.C. has taken what he has learned through years of social media self-publishing to create a work that goes well beyond the printed page, encompassing digital, mobile and the physical world to create a fully participatory multimedia narrative.  In many ways, Personal Effects is a novel custom-designed for digital natives (although J.C. and his publisher may not think of it that way) and it just might offer a glimpse at the future of storytelling.

 And the future of storytelling should matter to you no matter what products your company produces or promotes because, as marketers, our success often rides on both our ability to tell compelling stories and our customers' willingness and ability to spread their own stories about their experiences with our brands.

 Of course, everything begins with the book itself.  Let's assume it's good -- I haven't read it yet, but look forward to digging into the advance copy I received over the weekend (thanks J.C.)

But Personal Effects really gets interesting when it gets innovative.  If you aren't familiar with J.C. Hutchins (frankly, I only knew of him through some mutual contacts and from hearing his name bandied about in social media circles), he is a good example of what I have called a "whatever expert" -- someone who is good at what he does and has found a way to succeed at it through smart, effective use of social media.  Although Personal Effects is his first published novel, he has been writing for years, releasing his work as free audiobooks and using the web and social media to build a loyal audience.

J.C. isn't a marketer by training or trade, but the digital and multimedia components of his project offer a practical blueprint for any marketer looking to transform their brand storytelling into an active, participatory experience that is fueled by community and optimized for customer-to-consumer word of mouth.  Readers can enter the world of Personal Effects in a variety of ways:

• Technology-Fueled Calls-to-Action: Clues peppered throughout the novel and in the killer's personal effects packaged with the novel (e.g., a drivers license, photos, hospital paperwork) drive readers to companion websites, forums, onto email lists, into mobile phone voicemail systems and opt-in text messaging programs and more where they can find and explore additional layers of narrative.

• A Distributed, Online Experience: Readers can get inside the heads of key characters through their social network profiles, personal blogs and Twitter streams.

• Original, Distributable Content: Tapping into his heritage as a popular and well-established podcaster, J.C. has produced an exclusive audio-only novella prequel, as well as a series of YouTube-friendly video promos featuring well known horror personalities.

• Seamless Integration with Relevant Third Party Sites: One of the characters (yes, a fictional character from the book) has written columns for Suicide Girls, a site (some content NSFW) whose readership seems to be well aligned with J.C.'s audience, and there is a planned deep integration that brings Suicide Girl models into the novel's fictional world and provides readers with an additional web-only subplot.

• A Fan Community: Readers can 'commit themselves to the Brink' (aka Brinkvale Psychiatric, where the novel takes place), submit their own artwork for display in the community gallery (a logical tie-in with the fact that the book's protagonist is an art therapist at the Brink) and receive personalized intake paperwork.  In other words, readers don't just consume the story; they become part of it.

• Creative, Innovative Influencer Outreach: This is how I became aware of the book in the first place and may bear some of the most relevant lessons for social media marketers.  Over the weekend, the mailman delivered an unexpected package, a good-sized box that contained materials that immediately piqued my interest, earned my attention and (true to the spirit of Personal Effects) drew me directly into the fictional world of Brinkvale Psychiatric.  Containing not only a reviewer's copy of the book and the obligatory media kit, the package was filled with my personal effects from my own stay at the Brink.  Everything was hyper-personalized and it was impossible not to dive in (and just as impossible not to tell others about it -- and last time I checked, that's what influencer outreach is all about.)  Here are a couple of photos and you can check out more on Flickr -- but be warned, you're bound to dismiss your run-of-the-mill blogger outreach emails as downright asinine...

 

 

So what's the bottom line?  J.C. is tapping into the power of digital and the potential of social to turn the lay-back (and some might say dying) act of reading a novel into a fully immersive lean-forward experience.  It's equal parts fiction and alternate reality game, powered by a healthy dose of practical Web 2.0 know-how. Followers of pop culture may draw parallels between Personal Effects and the similarly rich multimedia storytelling approaches used to fuel films like Blair Witch Project, television shows like Lost, video games like Halo 2 and even a recent album release by Nine Inch Nails.  Brands have occassionally tapped into this form of multimedia storytelling to do cool and interesting things -- see Audi's Art of the Heist, for example.  But to my knowledge, this is the first time an author has undertaken something so ambitious in association with a novel -- and it just might get digital natives to pick up a plain old printed book. 

Am I gushing?  Sorry.  It's pretty cool and makes me want to curl up with Personal Effects, my laptop and my iPhone right now.

Barring that though (damn you, workload, damn you), I'd love to hear from you.  Which of J.C.'s approaches do you think you can apply to get your customers involved in your brand's story?

CES, here I come...

I'm eyeballs deep in last minute prep for my trip to CES, courtesy of crayon client Panasonic.  As I wrote a couple of weeks back, we're bringing a handful of social media content creators to Vegas, where they'll participate in a variety of Panasonic activities, play with some nice new gear and document it all for their audiences.

For my part, I'll be blogging, tweeting, snapping pictures and shooting video -- and sharing it all with you.  If you're interested in keeping tabs on me, hearing my perspectives and seeing what I see in Las Vegas, here's all you need to do:

Read this blog.  I will publish at least a few posts while I am at CES.

Follow me on Twitter.   I plan to tweet from the show floor.  You can also track my CES-related tweets through Twitter Search.

Keep an eye on my Flickr CES set.

Watch my videos on YouTube.

If CES isn't your thing, bear with me.  We will return to our regularly scheduled blogging next week.  I promise. :-)

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.

Girl demos web 2.0, one screencast at a time

Y'all have to check out demogirl.  The brainchild of Molly McDonald and her brothers (in my first draft of this post, I actually wrote 'love child' instead of 'brainchild' - ewww), demogirl produces professional quality screencast demos of web services.  They've made several hundred over the course of the past couple of years and do a great job of distilling even the most esoteric Web 2.0 service down to the most basic essentials -- what is it, what does it do, how does it work...

While there's nothing quite like hands-on experience, not everyone has the time, energy or patience to test every little application that the technorati buzz about on any given day.  This is particularly true as the web continues to splinter in ever-smaller pieces and start-ups introduce ever more esoteric applications in an effort to differentiate from the hundreds of apps already available.  demogirl provides nice, quick, digestible introductions that can help you decide how and where to spend your time before taking the plunge into yet another alpha or beta trial.

The demos themselves are simple two-three minute screencasts accompanied by no nonsense voice-over.  Think of them as a cross between Matt Dickman's considerably more in-depth inside//out screencasts and Common Craft's animated Plain English clips.

Here's an example:

[Reading this in email or a feed reader?  Click through to watch the video.]

The demogirl site is packed with lots of content (I've already found a couple of new-to-me services I may check out) and are always making more. Plus if you're a marketer with a web property or work for a start-up, they're also available to produce paid work for any company that has a web service that could benefit from some 'splainin'.

Good, useful stuff - check it out.

YouTube on the hunt for 'good' videos

OK not really (why should they be, when they've built their business by being the go-to portal for crap) -- but this spoof from the Onion News Network hits the nail right on the head. Funny stuff...

YouTube Contest Challenges Users To Make A 'Good' Video
[Feed and email readers click through to watch.]

Download my free eBook: "4 & 20 Blog Posts"

Download my free marketing eBook or read-on for more information.

A month ago I wrote about my blog's second birthday and pointed to 24 "signature" posts spanning the previous 24 months.  I also mentioned that I was thinking of compiling those same posts into an eBook because, let's face facts, clicking through on link after link to read what amounts to 50 printed pages of content can be tiresome for all but the most ravenous blog-o-monsters.  Besides, not everyone reads blogs -- and only a small subset who do actually read this one.  So a handy-dandy eBook is a great way to share some hopefully good (but at a minimum, interesting) ideas with friends, colleagues, clients and grandparents.

Enter "4 & 20 Blog Posts".  It's a marketing and social media eBook.  And it's a blog retrospective that presents 24 posts that I feel best represent my blog's key themes, my perennial favorite topics (and pet peeves) and maybe even a unique perspective or two.  If you're new 'round these parts, "4 & 20" will give you a sense for what I'm all about.  But even longtime readers are bound to rediscover some posts they might have skimmed over or missed altogether.  Even though some of the posts are almost two years old, I think many of my points stand the test of time and make for interesting reading even today.

Download "4 & 20 Blog Posts" today.

If you like what you see, I hope you'll spread the word, share your copy (or, even better, point your colleagues here to download their own) and print out copies for your favorite CMOs.

Cellphone film: mankind is no island

I guess my Wesleyan University commie-sympathizer pink socks are showing today, but I love this video.  Mankind Is No Island is a short film that explores a global social issue using nothing more than a mobile phone, found typography and a simple soundtrack.  Last month it took home the big prize at Tropfest NY, the world's largest short film festival.  Social significance aside, Mankind is yet another demonstration of the democratization of the tools we use for content creation.

[Email readers and feed demons, click through for the video.]

Hat tip hat trick: PSFK, The Tastemakers Society and Lens Culture.