Greg Verdino

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.

Book 'em Verdino: announcing microMARKETING

I'm excited to announce that I've inked a deal with McGraw-Hill for the publication of my first business book, microMARKETING: A Breakthrough Approach to Building Brands by Thinking and Acting Small.

If the title alone isn't enough to clue you in, I'd like to give you an idea of the ground I'll cover in the book.  Here's a bit of how I described the book in the proposal itself:

A media revolution is underway, fueled by a micro-content phenomenon that is shifting the balance of power from mass communications to masses of communicators.  This shift plays out daily on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream and other social sites.  It’s in the notion that an otherwise normal individual can use social media and low-end technology to become a micro-celebrity with a significant following.  It’s in the viral effect that takes hold when even one online influencer (in essence a one-person media outlet) sparks a conversation that makes or breaks a brand.  It’s in the shift in behavior that is turning the smart phone into the “first screen” for Gen Y and many increasingly-mobile Gen Xers.  It’s in the shift from watching 60 minute television shows interrupted by 30-second advertisements, to watching 30-second pieces of online video content with no advertisements at all.  It’s even in the changing of our expectations of product design and retail sales, giving rise to dozens of successful small businesses and individuals (think Threadless, think Etsy, think Mimobot, think Lemonade) that can create and sell enough high quality, unique or custom merchandise at a premium to shoppers for whom choice and individuality matter more than convenience and price. 

These are exciting times, but they can also be scary times for marketers who have been trained to think that bigger is better, and for whom the excesses and successes of the past 50 or so years – big budgets for major media ad campaigns designed to sell mountains of product through big-box retailers – seem to be the only way to build a big brand.  For better or worse, the new reality is that the old way doesn’t work so well anymore. Simply put, micro-content and macro-marketing don’t mix – and trying to maintain the status quo while consumer behaviors and expectations change amounts to little more than a recipe for failure.

Enter micromarketing – a new approach to building brands, marketing products and services, and growing meaningful long-term customer (and corporate) value.  Micromarketing emphasizes relationships over reach, interactions over interruption, and the network effect over the broadcast network.  It is built upon the premise that the “next big thing” is really lots and lots of small things, and that to survive and thrive, even the biggest marketers must think and act small (make that “micro”), too. 

microMARKETING is not a "Twitter book."  Puh-leeze... In signature Verdino-style, I will aim to help marketers understand the larger trends that are driving the popularity of tools like Twitter and what the real world implications are for businesses (even if Twitter itself -- or Facebook or YouTube, for that matter -- goes away), but my focus will be aimed squarely at the big picture.  I also don't plan to trot out the same ol' tired social media case studies.  In fact, one key piece of my approach is to help large companies understand how to thrive in the era of micro-content and micro-culture by taking lessons from the people and organizations that are involved in the revolution at the grassroots level.  In other words, I'll be looking at what the biggest of big corporations should learn from "whatever experts." 

Again, from the proposal:

Over the past several years, social media has evolved from a trend to watch to an irrefutable fact of life for marketers of all sizes.  Now – before most companies have even gotten social media right – the mainstreaming of micro-content services, the ubiquity of powerful low-cost handheld technology (from Internet-ready phones to consumer-grade HD cameras) and the rise of DIY culture promise to change the rules of consumer engagement yet again.  It is important to understand how these changes impact our ability to build brands, manage customer relationships and drive sales today, and this will only become more important over the coming years as more and more consumers flock to the technologies that are powering the shift.

On the flipside, it is also important that marketers not get swept up in the hype surrounding a single tool or tactic, losing sight of the bigger implications for their businesses.  As has happened with core social media tools like blogging, podcasting and social networking (and short-lived fads like Second Life), marketers now run the risk of not seeing the forest for the trees – of jumping on the “Twitter bandwagon” with short-lived, ill-advised tactics that do little to impact their businesses.   

On the one hand, microMARKETING educates decision makers about larger trends and what they mean for companies who are looking to more effectively engage consumers through new digital channels.  On the other hand, it delivers tangible and practical case studies, stories, tips and tricks from familiar competitors (other large corporations) and unlikely sources of inspiration (micro-businesses and individual creators.)

microMARKETING is slated for a May/June 2010 release.  I need to hand in the final manuscript by mid-October.  Needless to say, I've got my work cut out for me over the next few months.

That may mean less blogging for the next few months, although I'll still try to post here at least once/week.  And you should stay tuned for periodic updates on the book, my progress and the process.  Hell, I may even ask you for some input along the way.

Finally, I'd like to thank the good folks at McGraw-Hill -- especially Donya Dickerson -- and my agent Ethan Friedman at LevelFive Media.

Good times, ahead...

GV Sighting: All that twendy Twitter twalk

Busy week... or maybe I should say twizzy tweek (which is, I suppose, a busy week for a twotal Twitter geek.  Unless Twitter+geek is tweek.  Ugh...)

Anyway, workload and a business trip that lasted one day longer than it was meant to couldn't keep me from spending a few minutes on the phone with a reporter from The Canadian Press, talking about the new vocabulary (#5) that has emerged among the Twitterati.  Crap, I just did it again, didn't I?

If you're on Twitter, you know what I mean.  The alternately endearing and annoying habit of appending a "tw" to the beginning of otherwise normal words, resulting in mash-ups like tweeps, tweetup, twoast, twendy, twetiquette and of course tweethearts.  If you're not on Twitter, you can get some schooling by visiting the Twictionary.

Either way, you may want to see what a rhetoric professor, a social commentator (whatever that is) and I had to say about Twitter twalk.  Pop on over to the CTV site to read the article.

Hang with the life o' the party at SXSW

Now that Mashable has finally acknowledged what all y'all have been thinking for years -- that the party blows up when Verdino shows up (see Tweetup DO #5 in Stuart C. Foster's post on organizing successful Tweetups) -- I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to hear that I will be at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin. TX.  I arrive -- with my two best girls on my arms -- on March 12th and roll out on the 17th.

In between, it's all party party party. Oh, and some work work work.  A couple of crayon's clients -- Panasonic and ooVoo -- have some interesting SXSW goings-on planned for the geek elite, so it should be a productive but fun bunch o' days hampered only by my ability to hobble around Austin on my bum foot.

So if you're planning to be at SXSW and would like to hang out -- drink drinks, grab coffee, pitch me your services, hire crayon (hint hint), pose for sexy pictures -- let me know.  Pop your info into the form below and I'll be sure that we connect and schedule some time.

Talking (um, writing) 'bout the conversation

Longtime readers know that I contributed to last year's The Age of Conversation, a crowdsourced book about the impacts of social media that raised more than $15,000 for Variety the Children's Charity.  This year, editors Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton -- with the help of more than 200 contributing authors -- are looking to raise even more money with Age of Conversation 2, on sale today at Lulu.com.

AOC2 is an exercise in collaboration, with 237 authors from 15 countries coming together to produce a volume that demonstrates lots of good and diverse thinking about how social computing and digitally-enabled conversations are changing the ways we work, play and live.  AOC2 is also an impressive effort to prove that online conversation can have tangible real world impact -- we're a bunch of bloggers raising money to help children in need.

In my chapter, I use my love/hate relationship with Twitter to tell a personal tale of social media burnout.  Don't worry -- my tale has a semi-happy ending.  OK, maybe bittersweet is a better word for it but anyway...

I hope you'll grab a copy (or two or three or ten) today.  If you're a social media junkie, odds are good you'll find at least one interesting thought or perspective between the covers.  Even if you're not, AOC2 is a good way to provide a helping hand to children who can use some help -- as with the original AOC, all profits benefit Variety.

Congrats to everyone who made AOC2 possible:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Christmas is coming, the Google is getting fat...

ZOMG, am I really writing a holiday post already?  I feel like a department store lackey festooning the selling floor with wreaths and candles.  Well, don't blame me -- blame the mainstream media.

OK - so maybe we haven't even bought our Halloween costumes yet, much less gorged ourselves on turkey, but that doesn't mean that businesses shouldn't be thinking about how to get their marketing houses in order to make the most of the holiday shopping season.

A couple of weeks ago, I chatted with a Wall Street Journal reporter about this very topic.  Her piece ran today and features four simple tactics that any small business owner should consider if they'd like to optimize their digital marketing efforts before Black Friday.  These may seem like old hat to you -- but if you have any small business clients who still need to be convinced that the web matters, nothing does the trick like a primer from the Journal. 

Specifically, the article advises small businesses to:

1. Polish their websites with current information and a swanky holiday feel.
2. Invest in some targeted keyword buys.
3. Engage influencers and tap into consumer reviewers through the blogosphere and social media sites.
4. Make the most out of opt-in email lists for promoting holiday products and offers.

I, of course, spoke mostly about the role social media and consumer generated reviews play in the purchase decision.  Here are a couple of paragraphs from the story:

The hottest trend on the Web is social media -- services that allow people to connect with friends, family and colleagues, as well as interact with people around common interests. Social sites could prove crucial to marketers around holiday time, since shoppers often turn to people they know for help with making gift decisions.

"People trust people like themselves more than they trust experts," says Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer at crayon LLC, a social-media marketing consultancy based in Westport, Conn. "It would be advantageous to have these folks telling your story."

You can read the full article at WSJ.com.

Do you feel lucky, startups? Do you?

If you didn't catch my episode of Lucky Startups live, you can check out the VOD now.  We discuss start-ups, social media, marketing, ooVoo, Amanda Gravel and the grim reaper.  It rawks!

[Feed and email readers, click through to watch the embedded video.]

5 social media principles from 3 social media gurus

This week's issue of Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers newsletter features part one of a two part conversation about what works in social media marketing, what doesn't and just how big a shift new marketing represents for most corporations (read: really freakin' big.)  Larry and Janet Roberts (aka Second Lifer EvansMom Goodspeed) interviewed Steve Rubel, Amanda Watlington and me about everything from how we define 'social media' and changes underway in the blogosphere to where social media fits into the marketing mix and how you might think about measurement.

With Steve, Amanda and I each offering a unique perspective on conversational marketing, the piece provides a nice primer for marketers just beginning to get their heads around the impact, challenges and opportunities.  Larry sums up the article with the following key takeaway:

"If you want to succeed in social media marketing, you'll have to be ready to change the way you listen to customers, talk with them and measure your interactions with them. The revolution hasn't taken over the world yet, but the crowds are gathering outside your gate."

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably already knew that.  You'll find more meat (not to mention plenty of interesting quotes) in the actual interview excerpts - you can find the complete article on the Web Digest for Marketers site.

Sean Tiner's innovative art

Sean Tiner created and published this awesome portrait of me, along with an equally awesome portrait of Hugh Macleod, in a post entitled "Innovators."  He caps it with a pretty smart-sounding (for me, at least) quote that comes from an Inbound Marketing Summit press release:

“[For some companies] change can be deadly; for others, it can become a distinct competitive advantage, but you need to recognize the trends and technologies that are affecting the way we do business and understand how to leverage them to drive bottom line results.”

Thanks for this, Sean - I'm flattered. 

Of course, it isn't lost on me that Sean has also submitted an entry to get my free pass for the Inbound Marketing Summit - coincidence?  Looks like the competition is getting pretty interesting...

PCB3 smart social media marketing panel

I'm back at work after a great PodCamp Boston 3 weekend.  On Saturday, I shared the floor with Philip Robertson, Doug Haslam and Adam Broitman for a panel discussion/open conversation about Smart Social Media Marketing.

Qik lifestreamer Len Edgerly captured most of the hour+ session on video.  The audio is a bit dodgy but if you're interested in getting a sense of how it went and what we discussed, check out Part 1 and Part 2.

The panelists, left to right: Philip, Doug, Adam and me.  That's Len shooting the video in the lower righthand corner.  Check out Flickr for the rest of my photos from the weekend.