Digital Marketing Audio - Podcasting for Authors

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Podcamp AZ -- Four years strong!"][/caption]Last weekend, I had the honor of speaking at PodCamp AZ 2010 to a small group of authors interested in using podcasting as part of their marketing efforts. And by small I mean two-authors-and-three-interested-friends-some-of-whom-might-become-authors-some-day-but-probably-not. Not that I'm terribly surprised -- PodCamp AZ probably isn't high on the radar for local authors, and the connection between podcasting and authorship is anything but apparent, though I've been working in that space for over five years.

My friend Dani Cutler was kind enough to record audio of my talk. She's the host of a political podcast called the Truth Seekers and was one of the aforementioned friends in attendance. She was also kind enough to do all the editing and cleaning up of the audio as appropriate. She tells me it's difficult to hear the audience interaction, which I obviously did due to the intimacy of the crowd. So your mileage may vary.

If you're interested in the topic, Podcasting for Authors, jump back in time through the magic of the interwebs. It's about a 50 minute file, so find a nice long drive where you need something to listen to.

Note: I'm violating one of my cardinal rules: always listen completely to the audio file before releasing to the public. No, I didn't. Mostly because I simply don't have the time this week. And Dani knows how to clean up audio. She's a seasoned vet and I likely wouldn't be able to do any better. And it's live audio, so deal.

Note #2: I've been doing lots more of this digital marketing for authors stuff as of late. And I rather enjoy it. Niche, anyone?

Retweet and win a digital marketing prize pack

Who's up for some digital tool subscriptions and books valued at over $1,000? How about if I told you all you had to do was retweet something to win?

Yes, simply retweet. It's that simple.

It's part of a promotion from agencyside, an agency training firm (They're on the agency's side. Get it?) I've been known to affiliate with from time to time. Good people. Anyhow, they're looking for people to follow their Twitter account and to spread a hash tag around. Do that, and you're entered to win. Here are the steps:

1. Follow @agencyside on Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter account, get one. If you're reading this blog, you need one. It's past time. Seriously.
   
   
2. Retweet (cut and paste into your "What's happening?" box and send) the following message: RT @agencyside Win the Digital Marketing Prize Package from top experts! http://bit.ly/aw4wlk #ascontest

The end. It doesn't get any simpler. Do it, and you're automatically entered to win a killer digital marketing prize pack valued at over $1000. Heck, the lifetime sub to Authority Labs is worth it alone to anyone who has to do SEO rank tracking, as is the 6 months subscription to agencyside's reams of content.

Not a digital marketer? That's OK. Go ahead and enter. If you win, you can pass the prize on to the digital peeps in your organization. You'll be their hero!

The contest starts now (yesterday, really) and ends on May 21st. So get to tweeting!

What I'm learning from my Give Evo an EVO campaign

Image by otherthings via Flickr

Can one man really influence a large telecommunications company? Sure. Am I that guy? Hard to say. But I'm going to find out.

In case you missed the news, Sprint has a new smartphone coming out by HTC called the -- of all things -- the EVO. As I'm a customer of Sprint and a sucker for new gadgets, I obviously want one. Read up on the "why" here.

For the past five days, I've been producing a video a day on YouTube. And of course I've been tweeting and chatting it up on Facebook. Contrary to the evidence of those last 5 days, I'm a pretty lousy self-promoter. So I'm learning a lot that may be of some use to the readers of this blog. I don't think my actions as an individual make a direct parallel for businesses, but some lessons may be applicable. Like this:

• Respond to comments. No big secret here. Conversation begets conversation. I asked my friend iJustine to spread the word on one of the videos. She did, and I got a load of comments, mostly from her fans. And mostly -- not surprisingly -- addressed to her. I blew it by not responding to these folks right away, but have since corrected my errors. If they took the time to comment, I should take the time to respond. And maybe they'll become a fan of mine, too.
  
  
• Enlist those who do self promote better than you. Last night I roped Tyler Hurst into helping. He didn't need a lot of convincing to jump in front of the camera. And since he's part of the content, he's going to talk about it, too.
  
  
• Don't neglect the backchannel. Not everyone wants to tweet, facebook and generally help a social thing spread. But some have connections and are happy to send emails. I'm getting some traction there, so maybe my goal will be realized!
  
  
• Experiment! I didn't have much of a plan when I started this. That's OK. I'm refining as I go. Also OK. If you have discretionary time -- and I have only a little -- it's OK to take this route. But note that I didn't go out and spend a thousand bucks on new equipment or start paying people to help me. That needs a touch more planning.

A lot of folks are asking me about my end-game. Simple: I want that phone. But I also want to see how this process works and how it might be applied in other directions. Welcome to the experiment. I'm going to start a daily log over on FunAnymore.com that covers all the stuff I'm doing, and how I feel about it any given day. Watch over there if you like.

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What Business Can Learn from Trololo

I normally save the "fun" stuff for my other blog, keeping this one focused on online business and the more professional side of me. But today, we have attained crossover. Yes, the web is often a silly place. But the story I'm about to tell shows how silly can lead to something more meaningful. Though I'm a big fan of silly for silly's sake.

In 1966, Russian singer Eduard Khil preformed¹ a lyrics-less tune on Soviet television. The tune goes by the unfortunate name of I 'm So Pleased As I'm Finally Returning Home. The lyrics, according to Blippiit, were considered anti-Soviet and had to be removed. Ah, repression.

Then time passes. About 44 years worth of time, actually. Due to the unaccountable weirdness that often is the internet, Eduard's performance surfaced on YouTube and has amassed well over 3 million views. So far. It's been seen on network television. It's been parodied by late night television. And the song with the horribly long name has now become the internet meme Trololo.

Normally, that's where the story would end. Yet another short-lived curiosity of the web, waiting to be overtaken by what's next.

But it turns out that Eduard is still very much alive and kicking. When he found out about his new internet fame, his reaction wasn't what you might expect from a man who's probably pushing 80. He got it. From what I've seen, he got it immediately. And he reached out in kind using the same medium that propelled him to this new-found fame in attempt to push the meme even further. Not with more silly parody skits. Not with a re-enactment. And certainly not with a "Ah, you silly Americans. You buy my music, yes?" request.

Eduard is encouraging others -- anyone, really -- around the world to add to the song. To use the collective connected world to add their own lyrics. To develop and broadcast live a new imagining of the song for 2010. That. Is. Cool! that is... remarkable.



What Trololo can teach businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs

• Embrace the silly. Some things you just can't plan for. No one could have predicted that YouTube would cause a 44-year-old video to find fresh legs, travel around the world and (potentially) spawn something new.
  
  
• YouTube's captioning of videos is ground breaking. And not just for foreign language content. It's easy. It's powerful. I'm of the mind that you should probably caption every video where the words are an important part of a message. How-to, interviews... all of it!
  
  
• Engage and trust your audience. Eduard is one person. But hundreds or maybe even thousands of people will want to jump in and help with the next stage of this. Sure, there will probably be spoilers in there. But they'll quickly be out-voiced by true supporters. Eduard probably doesn't have a product to sell, a message to spread or a brand to boost. But you do. Do you encourage your current customers/supporters/fans to get involved. Why not?

Turn and face the strange. Ch-ch-changes. Are you paying attention yet?

^{1 - OK, so it was probably lip-synched. So what? The man is a born performer!}

You're doing it wrong in the bathroom

I get the need to market yourself. I really do. It's a down economy. You've got bills to pay. You want to make sure you make the most out of every opportunity to sell you product, service or business.

But isn't this going a little to far? Forcing your business cards on everyone you accost meet at an event is a bad idea. Littering every table in the venue just wastes business cards. But when you strategically place said business cards in the men's room on the urinals... you've taken the concept of wrong to a whole new level. And you certainly haven't figured out the meaning of the word strategic.

I snapped this picture at a local internet marketing event I attended this week. Yes, I said a marketing event. And no, it wasn't staged. And yes, both cards were placed in this configuration by the president -- the president! -- of the company. He placed others on the wash basin counter, but they didn't quite capture the same spirit as this shot. Remember: marketing event. [sigh]

Laughable? Yes. Hell yes. Remarkable? Yes, but not in the way he wanted. Plenty of remarks were made.

Let this be a cautionary tale. Your ill-planned attempts at drumming up business might do more harm than good. Seek business wherever you can, but know that some places are off-limits.

And I'll start off the puns -- What a piss-poor attempt! Have fun in the comments!

Promoting may not be the best way to spend your time

Image by jcrew270 via Flickr

Conventional wisdom tells us that time, money and energy need to be spent on promotion. Whether you work for a business, are in business for yourself or maybe you are the business of yourself, you'll feel the pressure to promote. And you'll find countless examples of others who spend lots of time, energy and money on promotion. Promote, promote PROMOTE!

But what if you took all that time you spent promoting your business, your venture, your product, yourself... and spent that time instead being truly remarkable?

How much time would you need to spend promoting if you were truly doing remarkable things?

The fact is that most things that are promoted aren't remarkable. They aren't that much different than other similar things, of which there may be dozens, hundreds or thousands. In effect, they are terribly average -- even if they are quite good. So someone has to promote these average things to take away mind-share from other interchangeable average things. If these things were instead remarkable, people would make remarks about them. In turn, other people would make remarks, and others... And the cycle perpetuates. Sans promotion, perhaps?

Of course, you can't be remarkable in a vacuum. Someone has to have knowledge of "the thing" before they can make remarks about "the thing". And to do that, someone needs to put "the thing" in front of the audience most likely to make those remarks. But is that promoting? Or is that just smart marketing? Or is it something else entirely?

So given the choice of spending time, money and energy on either promoting or being truly remarkable... which will you choose?

It's OK to make money with social media

If your company gets involved in social media this year, will you make money from it? If not... don't bother.

Yes, I realize that your customers want you to get involved with social media. Many of them would also like you to give away free beer, but you probably don't do that.

Yes, it's true that your customers are having conversations about you that you aren't aware of. But do you think that didn't happen before social media? Please.

Yes, your competition may have hundreds of people engaging with them in the social sphere. But are they doing anything truly remarkable, or are they just chatting? More importantly, are those people buying more stuff because of those conversations?

You won't succeed at social media on accident. And success probably isn't measured by mentions and followers. Success for your business is measured in dollars, not sentiment. In sales, not conversations.

Social media playtime is over. Business just getting involved today don't have the luxury of figuring it out as you go along. It's time to stand on the shoulders of those who've come before. Time to learn from the mistakes of others. And to extend on the wins many have made.

Three questions to think of:

1. Is your social media crew up to the challenge? The right crew will have a blend of business acumen and real-world social media skills. Balance is important.
   
2. Does your agency talk in the language of your business? The only metrics that matter are the ones you care about.
   
3. Are you demanding return and payoff from your digital marketing efforts? If it costs money, it should return more money. Period.
   
   

Your answer to all of those should be an emphatic yes. If not, put those responsible on notice.

Connect with communities to build your brand

I learned today that I've been listed as one of Roost’s 50 RE people you should follow on Twitter. No, I'm not a real estate agent. Yet I'm on the list, and it's not on accident, I've been assured.

My involvement with the real estate industry is two fold. First, I've been fortunate enough to have been asked to speak twice now at the National Association of Realtors® national convention. The topics I speak about to their members are the same topics I cover here -- doing business in the digital world. My first talk from 2008 -- New Media Business Strategies for Real Estate Professionals -- is up at SlideShare. It's my goal to create a slide case out of this year's talk -- Digitally Expose Yourself: Building Your Web Presence -- but I haven't made it that far. It's on the list!

My second connection comes from the friends I've made here in the Phoenix area who are involved in real estate. Phoenix has been blessed - or plagued -- with some of the most prolific social media-aware RE folks in the country, and I'm proud to count many of them as my friends. They've even been so kind as to keep inviting me to talk at RE BarCamp Phoenix, which I'm happy and excited to do.

There's a lesson here. There are communities everywhere you look. If you can add value to that community with your knowledge, presence and involvement, do it. The RE community is rather tight-nit. I've received so many referrals -- and not just from my friends -- to do work that I've had to turn many away. That's a good problem to have.

So if you're lightly involved with a community, consider shoring up that relationship. No, don't show up at meetings passing around business cards and stories of what a great expert you are and how much they need you. Show up at meetings, make friends, join conversations, add value and get involved. Then you'll be showing them what a great expert you are, and they'll quickly realize how much they need you.

New FTC guidelines for bloggers are a bigger challenge for marketers

Image via Wikipedia

Changes to FTC (Federal Trade Commission) guidelines on endorsements and testimonials were made active on December 1. And seven days later, I'm happy to report that I, a blogger, have not been sued. Neither, chance are, have you.

There was a huge stink about these proposed changes a few months back. Mob mentality won over common sense, and the assumption was that bloggers were going to be fined $11,000 if they failed to mention the book they just reviewed was purchased from Barnes & Nobel with a 15% coupon.

Wrong.

What do the new guidelines mean for bloggers?

Probably nothing. The overview by the FTC on this page is pretty good, but I think this short PDF of the revised guidelines is even better. And if you want the whole story, check this 81 page PDF. It's overkill, but for the complete-ists out there; have at it. But back to "probably nothing".

The new guidelines -- the first change to the endorsements & testimonials section since 1980 -- require marketers to be honest, forthright and clear when using endorsements and testimonials. What a crazy concept. If you're the endorser or provider of the testimonal -- bloggers, for the purpose of this discussion -- then you have an obligation to do the same and disclose if you were compensated for your endorsement.

Chances are, you already do that. And if you don't; start. It requires you do nothing more than say "Ford let me drive this new car for a week, and here's what I think". Again, you probably do this already.

Marketers are responsible for what compensated endorsers say.

That's the biggest change. If Snapple sends out free samples of a new beverage to specific bloggers as part of an outreach campaign, they have an obligation to make sure the endorsements are real and true. That's an oversimplification, but it's close enough. If one of those bloggers posts about how the drink cured them of lung cancer, the marketer is on the hook. The blogger is on the hook as well, and probably by more than just the FTC.

My advice to bloggers is simple:

1. Don't lie. If your really didn't think it was the best ever, don't say it was. Don't shill.
   
2. Disclose received compensation. Getting it for free for the purpose of blogging or tweeting about it is compensation. Getting a free sandwich because you bought nine others is not.
   

My advice to marketer is even more simple:

1. Don't try and deceive. "Results not typical" will be a thing of the past. Finally.

And yes, the fine for infractions can be up to $11,000 per occurrence. Will you get caught if you break the new laws? I sincerely hope so.

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