Greg Verdino

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...

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?

Q&A with Where I've Been's Brian Harniman

With more than 4 million embeds, the Where I've Been travel map is one of Facebook's most popular applications - and certainly the #1 travel-related app on the network (and there are at least a few to choose from.)  That's pretty impressive for an application that was built, essentially, as a labor of love. (Facebook members can see my map here.)

So today I'm doing something a bit different (different from my normal bitching and moaning, I mean) -- and presenting a Q&A with Where I've Been CSO Brian Harniman.

Greg: Where I've Been is the most widely used travel widget on Facebook – why do you think it has become so popular (especially given that there are other similar maps available)?

Brian: There are a few reasons.

One, it's simple... easy to understand and use.

Second, and I think most important, Craig [Ulliot – the developer that created Where I’ve Been] built an application that worked for him from the mindset of the consumer...he asked himself, "would I use this?" Other apps might not have been developed in that way. When your core drive is to delight the user, you come out with a good product. 

Lastly, we chose the travel vertical.  Travel is so fun and aspirational that it's a great viral play.  People are always talking about where they've gone and want to go, and this app is really just the embodiment of that.

You’ve become a fixture on Facebook, recently launched on MySpace and today you announced Bebo – what's next for Where I've Been? 

We'll continue to expand in all social nets that open up to us, and can craft interesting and user-centric versions for each audience... think a businessperson's WIB in Linkedin, etc.   All the users will be pushing ratings, reviews and content to a central database, so we can ultimately do very cool things with the meta info that we capture - like show the hotels that WIB users think are great deals for the holidays in Chicago (and we can cross that with data that tells us that rooms are still available for purchase). 

Are you developing for the OpenSocial platform?

Of course.  The great benefit to all these platforms is that they allow us to build into existing distribution.  You need to develop the right app for the right audience, but that's what we're keyed in on doing.  If you're able to execute, you can really gain passionate users and scale quickly.

How will you monetize?  If you say advertising I may be forced to smote you.

You may smote when ready, sir... Ultimately we think that display-based advertising is a nice add-on to our model, but it's not the main drive.  Since WIB is a travel-based experience, we feel that we are creating a channel that premium partners will pay to play in.  However, we need to make sure that the ads are actually content for our users.  They have to add value to the experience, and not go against WIB user sensibility.  In the Bebo app, you can see that we mash the information about where you are in relation to where your friends are... and we provide pricing for airline travel to go see them.  We also link you to a site to transact against this data.  This is a pretty good example of how we can move ad data into the WIB stream without getting in the way of the experience.

You’re collecting a lot of information about users' travel habits and interests – what are some of the most surprising things you've learned?

I think that the most surprising thing is the massive scale here.  Some of us have seen growth before, but this company has literally gone from 0 to 4MM members in 5 months.  That's just staggering.  With the scale you can see users from places you'd never even dream of reaching... Tonga, North Vietnam, even Antarctica!

Following on from that, what are your plans for the data?  Knowing where I want to go would be a goldmine for lots of marketers, from tourism to credit cards.  Any plans to expose that data to marketers?

There are no plans to sell our customer data to other firms.  We will sell advertising based only on what customers TELL us they'd like to hear more about.

What are the benefits of joining/visiting WhereIveBeen.com [the company's branded destination site] vs simply using the widget in a social network – and do you care or is your business really all about the distribution?

WhereIveBeen.com will have exclusive tools and content that the partner sites won't have.  In addition, there will be more data to interact with.  WIB.com will benefit from the scale across our network.  You'll be able to see the data that we've collected from all our partnerships.   We can show "cuts" of data that are pertinent to each audience...like rank family-friendly hotels on a site like Maya's Mom.  We plan to have more robust offerings on our site, but we'll continue to offer and tailor applications for the social networking partner channels.  What this means is - we're still learning and experimenting with new features and new revenue channels in direct, open API and ASP models and so far, people like us. 

How do you plan to tie together the various user communities (in each social network) and the central community you seem to be looking to build at WhereIveBeen.com?

Well, we've been focused on all the new open API opportunities, and we haven't begun any linking or marketing to the WIB site because it's not ready to launch in the way we're gearing up for.  We're going to provide a very flexible experience that will allow you to link your travel profiles from all the social networks, and allow you to push content from all your accounts through WIB (and back to the network sites).

Additionally, the marketing budget is really much better spent as development dollars right now - it's easier to find users on the social nets by building great apps than it is mining for them in the keyword markets.

What else would you like marketers to know about Where I've Been?

The Where I've Been team is  experienced, nimble and successful at creating a place for consumers to talk about travel  on social networks .  We feel that this atmosphere naturally lends itself to the placement  and promotion  of travel  and travel-related  products.  The combination of unique deals and actionable consumers should prove to be a nice match!

BricaBox and the Silicon Alley People's Choice

Back during Bubble 1.0, Silicon Alley Reporter was the journal-of-record for the New York City tech scene and their Silicon Alley 100 was the de facto list of the city's movers and shakers.  The Reporter went the way of so many of the start-ups they profiled, but now website Silicon Alley Insider continues the tradition of listing the 100 most influential New York digirati.

Now chances are pretty darn good that I won't be on the list (slated for a November 26th release), but I am on the "unofficial" Silicon Alley 100 People's Choice list.  By pimping myself on Twitter and Facebook, I've managed to boost my position to #9 (as of this writing) but I say, hey, why not #1 (or at least Top 3.)

You can help - click over, register and vote for me.

While you're at it, you'll get to play around with a cool new Web 2.0 platform called BricaBox.  This Silicon Alley start-up is the brainchild of Nate Westheimer and I can only describe it as a mash-up of blog, wiki, mapping, tagging, community and widget.  I haven't seen anything else like it and am looking forward to seeing where it goes. 

You can argue whether I should be #1 - or even #9 - on the SA100 People's Choice list, but if by casting your vote for me you get to check out some new 2.0 tech, who am I to stop you?  Go get 'em, tigers.   

Facebook 101: groups, gifts and branded apps

Earlier today, Rohit Bhargava blogged about marketing through Facebook Groups, highlighting eight organizations (some corporations, some causes and even a grassroots effort or two) that are using Facebook to assemble and stay connected to a network of brand advocates.  If you're not a Facebook convert, company-sponsored groups occupy roughly the same headspace as branded MySpace profiles -- they are a mechanism for marketers to build a network within the network, amass friends and (if they're using the group properly -- many aren't) maintain open lines of communication with their self-identified community members.

Facebook Groups, by their very nature, are opt-in and uninterruptive, so they're far more consumer-friendly than the display ads plastered across the site's pages.  My problem with Groups, though, is that they still demand that people who are interested in interacting with a brand go to the brand's space (over and over again, so long as they want to stay on top of updates.)  Instead, why not find ways to entice consumers to embed your brand directly into their own profiles and provide you with a truly organic means of achieving peer-to-peer distribution of your messages?  Why not create something portable and valuable -- something that provides consumers with utility, gives them a way to express themselves or connect with others -- something that they'll want to show off or share with their friends?

With this in mind, I spent some time poking around Facebook, looking for some examples of how brands can better integrate into the individual consumer's experience and tap into the community members themselves for free, organic distribution of brand-relevant messages. 

Here are a couple of interesting things I found...

Branded Applications 

When Facebook opened their API and invited everyone to build applications for their social networking platform (applications are just distributable bits of content or functionality -- essentially, widgets written specifically for Facebook), plenty of marketers added "Facebook App" to their emerging media checklists.  Alas, it is months later and I've still seen relatively few brand sponsored applications.  In fact, I polled my Facebook friends a few weeks ago to see if they had any favorite brand applications and none of them had seen any either.  Recently though, I came across a TripAdvisor-sponsored "Cities I've Visited" map (on a friend's profile, by the way, which is the point exactly.)  There are several such mapping applications available for Facebook users -- you embed the app to let people know where you've traveled and/or where you'd like to go in the future -- and they seem to be a pretty popular bit of profile-dressing, but the TripAdvisor version shows how a marketer can offer a piece of functionality that both supports the brand's unique value proposition (TripAdvisor is about great travel experiences) and provides community members with something (content, functionality or, as in this case, content and functionality) that they will willingly (even proudly) share with their friends.

Branded Gifts 

Facebook allows friends to give one another electronic "gifts" -- small icons of affection ranging from food and drinks to animals and clothing, each of which costs the sender $1 and then adorns the recipient's profile page (not sure I get the point, but maybe I'm just getting old.)  Anyway, today I noticed what I believe is the first branded gift -- a Wal-Mart sponsored ghost, available in a 300,000 piece "limited edition," that can be gifted at no charge.  The ghost bears Wal-Mart branding and is billed as a great way to "scare up some fun this Halloween," but is really a marketing tactic designed to scare up some traffic for the mega-discounter's Halloween decorations microsite.  As I write this post, the Wal-Mart ghost is one of only two available freebies, gets a plug right at the top of the Facebook Gift Shop page, and is the network's #1 bestseller.  Wal-Mart's ghost may not deliver utility in the same way that the TripAdvisor travel map does, but it does tap into the community's organic behavior and provides members with another reason (and way) to connect with one another.

I realize that neither of these examples is particularly sophisticated, but I do sense that they are a step in the right direction.  I also suspect that brands are doing plenty of other interesting things inside Facebook.

What Facebook marketing programs have you found?  What would you like to see more of?  What would you like to see less of?  Chime in.

Google 3.0

If you're confused about what people mean when they refer to "Web 3.0" -- next generation web technology that is either one massively distributed database, platform and browser independent, artificially intelligent, semantic, geospatial and/or three-dimensional (depending on who you ask) -- you will be no less confused by Google's Eric Schmidt's definition.  To me, it sounds like Eric is simply defining widgets (or more likely, given the source, Google Gadgets) but since Google practically owns the internet, I figure we'd better prepare ourselves for whatever it is he's actually talking about.

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

Steve Rubel has an iPhone?

If you're a marketer and pay any attention to the industry blogs (and I figure that if you're spending time here, you qualify), you're most likely aware that Edelman's social media meister Steve Rubel has what might be classified as an iPhone obsession.  Just check his blog and Twitter feed and count the iPhone mentions.

Well, I bumped into Steve at WidgetCon today and snapped this blurry shot of him showing off his new baby.  He gave me a quick demo and I've gotta admit, the iPhone is pretty impressive.  I'm still not getting one any time soon.

If you're interested in new mobile phone technology, check this out --  Karl Long, who works at Nokia and pens the Experience Curve marketing blog, wrote a post asking bloggers to help him brainstorm the ideal feature set for a phone made specifically for bloggers and podcasters.  Pay Karl a visit and weigh in.

If you're interested in seeing more blurry, poorly lit and otherwise disappointing photos from WidgetCon, I've posted a few shots that fit to Flickr.

If you're interested in Steve Rubel, well... ;-)

Speaking at WidgetCon2007

WidgetCon2007 happens in New York on July 11th.  This is the first conference focused specifically on how marketers can take advantage of widget technology to join the social media conversation and empower consumers to spread brand messages voluntary throughout their own online outposts (blogs, social network profiles, personal pages.)  I've been advocating widget marketing for quite a while and the channel has certainly heated up quite a bit over the past month or two (see last night's link post for some examples.)  The new comScore Widget Metrics report shows that 21% of the online population already uses widgets.  Time to get on-board, marketers.  WidgetCon promises to be a great event for anyone looking to get a better understanding of what works, what doesn't and where all of this is going. 

This is where I'd typically point you to the conference registration page, but that's so April 2007.  Instead, here's a Freewebs/Clearspring widget that provides all the information you'll need and lets you request your invite (the event is invite-only and limited to leading advertising, marketing and media professionals --  but if you're reading this blog you're probably already one of those.)  So rock the widget --and if you're a social media maker, don't forget to click "Get This!" in the top right corner of the widget so you can help spread the word.

Welcome to the distributed web, NBC

I got an email overnight from my buddy Hooman Radfar of Clearspring Technologies, tipping me to this morning's announcement that NBC Universal is partnering with his company to widgetize their video experience.  Consumers will be able to personalize widgets to include content from a variety of NBC news and sports properties, as well as from DotComedy and iVillage, and distribute them through their own blogs, social network profiles, wikis, start pages and other sites.

From the press release:

"We want to create a fun, shared experience for our users and understand their needs as they interactive with out content beyond our online properties," said Sab Kanaujia, Vice President of Digital Product Strategy & Development, NBC Universal.  "Changes in the behavior of online users and innocation in technology has provided us with new opportunities to grow the reach of our content and brands online."

In other words, maybe (just maybe) they're starting to understand that people really don't want to visit broadcaster-operated destination sites to get access to warmed-over broadcast content.

I still question the logic behind the NBC-Fox joint video venture and will probably wait to see exactly what content (are we talking about meaningful programming or just promos) NBC allows fans to widgetize before I declare this a winning strategy.  Care to comment Hooman or NBC?

But at face value the combination of branded NBC destinations, controlled syndication through the joint venture partnerships and, now, consumer-controlled viral distribution seems like the right kind of multi-tiered approach the networks need to take if they want to regain relevance in a media landscape characterized by virtually unlimited choice.

See the press release here: Download NBCU_FINAL.doc

Am I a feed floozie?

For a couple of years now, I've been addicted to RSS.  I would estimate that the vast majority of the online content that I consume, I consume through feeds.  I'll tell anyone who asks that I would be perfectly happy if I never had to visit a destination site again (as impractical as that may be.)

But recently it has come to my attention that I may be using RSS improperly and, man, that makes me feel weird.  In an email exchange a couple of weeks back, referencing my complaint that a nice pickup by Adweek and the resulting traffic spike netted me only two new subscribers, Steve Coulson pointed out that getting someone to subscribe is the equivalent of getting to "fourth base."  You typically need multiple touches (er, pun intended), the person needs to visit your blog at least a few times to really get a feel for it, before they're ready to take the RSS plunge.  Steve's not alone in this assertion -- I've seen plenty of other bloggers write about RSS as the reader loyalty holy grail.

I get it, but this isn't how I use RSS personally to manage the flow of content.  Of course I subscribe to the blogs I love -- that's a no brainer -- but I also subscribe to lots of bloggers that I've only just "met."  In fact, the first thing I do upon discovering a new blog (mostly marketing blogs) is subscribe to the feed. 

What if I didn't subscribe right away?  Would I ever find that blog again?  Is it likely that I'd get to sample its content a second, third or fourth time? 

Probably not. I'll never remember your URL; I probably won't even remember your name or where I came across the link to your site in the first place. I might eventually find you, but it will probably require lots of Googling and some old school hunt-and-peck.  This is time consuming and, more likely than not, unsatisfying.

I could bookmark you the old fashioned way -- in my browser.  But then I'd have to scour my long bookmarks list and, once I find your blog buried in there somewhere, I'd have to actually visit your site.  Isn't it a bigger commitment to visit your site than it is to have your updates come to me?

So for me, subscribing may actually be the lowest level of commitment.  After all, scanning the headlines from a new blog takes seconds -- and if after a week or two I realize that I'm not such a fan after all, it only takes one click to drop the feed out of my reader.  No second thoughts -- I gave you a shot and you just weren't for me.  Maybe we'll meet again, somewhere down the road.  But once I'm eating your feed, if you last more than a few weeks we're probably going to have a long, meaningful relationship.