Tag: social media (Page 2 of 3)

The Book That Rules in Marketing & PR, Now In Its 2nd Edition

February 7, 2010 / Graeme / 3 Comments

Without a doubt, David Meerman Scott is one of the people I most respect in this business. He's also my favorite author and speaker, and a great friend. (Heck, he's even a surfer, and sends me cool pix of some of the beaches he visits in his world travels!) David is the guy that inspired me to finally realize that what I am is a "content marketer" and "brand journalist." He's the ultimate champion of people like me — and my hero, for sure.

I was lucky enough to get David to speak at the October 2008 meeting of our Social Media Breakfast-Twin Cities (which, by the way, has grown to be the largest SMB group in the country). We offered a free copy of the first edition of his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR to all those attending, thanks to a generous sponsor. David packed the house, was a huge hit, and the Twin Cities became an even hipper PR and social media town than it already was… 🙂

So, I was delighted to hear that the Second Edition of the book is now available. "It's gone through an extensive rewrite," said David. "Of course, I've checked every fact, figure, and URL. But I've also listened. In the past two years, I've met thousands of people like you who have shared stories with me, so I've drawn from those experiences and included many new examples of success."

He said these new stories and examples are even more valuable and timely than the original ones. Thus, even if you've read the first edition, he promises you'll find many fresh ideas in the second edition.

"When I was writing the first edition of the book back in 2006," said David, "Facebook was only available to those with a .edu email address (students and educators), so I didn’t feature Facebook. And Twitter didn’t even exist at the time I was researching the first edition. So I have added extensive new information and examples on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites." Since the term social media has become so strong in the past few years, it's not surprising to now see it in the book's subtitle.

The power of the ideas David talks about in The New Rules of Marketing & PR propelled the book to the BusinessWeek bestseller list and kept it there for six months. Another stat that blew me away is that it's been the number one public relations book on Amazon for approximately 910 days. My gosh, that's more than two and a half years! David still says he's stunned.

(A few links: David's blog, Web Ink Now, is ranked in the AdAge Power 150 as one of the top marketing blogs. Also, here's the direct link on Amazon to the Second Edition of "Rules"… and a page with links to all the online bookstores where David's books are available.)

When David launched the first edition of The New Rules of Marketing & PR (via Wiley), he pioneered a tactic that attracted the attention of hundreds of bloggers, typically overlooked by marketers at the time. Since then, the book has garnered numerous awards, been adapted at universities and in politics, has been translated into 24 languages, and even sparked the idea for a series, "The New Rules of Social Media." More importantly, as his Wiley publicist points out, the book has provided a hands-on manual for new marketing. "Marketing campaigns have never been the same, and a new decade brings new opportunity to connect online with buyers and communities."

The New Rules of Marketing & PR explains how to harness the power of the Internet, how to identify the right audience, create compelling messages, and get those messages directly to your targeted community — with powerful new tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more.

David says the underlying message of the book remains the same: "The tools of the marketing and PR trade have changed. The skills that worked offline to help you buy or beg or bug your way in are the skills of interruption and coercion. Online success comes from thinking like a journalist and engaging as a thought leader."

Right on, David! I can't wait to dive into my copy of the second edition.

So, I Went to the MIMA Summit… Maybe You Heard About It?

October 8, 2009 / Graeme / 0 Comments

It was October 5th at the Minneapolis Hilton. And if you didn’t hear about it, where were you? Well, at least if you’re from these parts. Because, when marketers gather for an annual confab, they know how to hype it — especially our local marketing community. I said the same thing in my coverage of last year’s event. Except, this year, the local crowd brought new meaning to the word noise, owing to the fact that — unlike last year — they now seem to have fully embraced social media. Yessirree, can you say… Twitter, Twitter, Twitter?! Matt Wilson, current/outgoing president of MIMA, said from stage soon after the event was underway, “You know we’ve made it when our Twitter hashtag has already been flagged as spam.” And that wasn’t even the only hashtag — there were other variations being used, too, by what had to be a large majority of attendees pecking away on Twitter apps all day long, most from their mobile devices. (You could spit from any spot in the Hilton and hit an iPhone.)

But myself and my colleagues from Minnov8 decided, as we have for other recent conferences we’ve covered, to skip trying to live-Twitter the whole thing — so limited by 140 characters and all — and live-blog it instead using a tool called ScribbleLive. And, when we wanted to tweet — or when we needed to, when the wi-fi was challenged (which it was a lot) — we had it set up with our Twitter streams feeding into that live-blog window, too. So, all four of us had our mobile phones at the ready to tweet, as well as our laptops open to live blog. We were jumping back and forth between the two, but it worked pretty well.

So, here’s the result of that live-blogging/Twitter-feed combo: it’s now archived here at Minnov8.com. And there’s other Minnov8 coverage of the event as well from my colleagues: Steve Borsch did a great recap post, and Phil Wilson shot and edited a nice FlipHD video, interviewing attendees at the closing reception to get their takeaways.

I did some audio interviews, which you can listen to or download here:

• Graeme interviewing Rohn Jay Miller of interactive agency IconNicholson

• Graeme interviewing Mark Kurtz, VP New Media at Gage Marketing, a sponsor of the event

• Graeme interviewing Scott Severson, CEO of AdFusion

• Graeme interviewing Lee Odden, SEO guru and head of TopRank Online Marketing

Here’s my Flickr set of photos from MIMA ’09, such as they are (can you say grab shots?):

And, just for fun, here’s a quick Animoto video I made for free using that photo set:

Finally, here’s a video I shot with my new iPhone 3GS before the morning sessions got going:

Y Combinator Taps MN’s FanChatter for Startup ‘American Idol’

August 6, 2009 / Graeme / 1 Comment

Here’s a story many in Minnesota have been waiting to hear — especially a bunch of my friends in the local developer and ad
communities who knew something was up. Yes, Minneapolis startup FanChatter
has finally gone public with what they’ve been doing for the past four
months. FanChatter is a site that “helps sports franchises and other
businesses create a more profitable level of fan involvement through
real-time content sharing.” (More on the company’s About page.) In April, it was chosen as one of the lucky few to be accepted into the summer program of Y Combinator
(YC). Though the actual numbers aren’t announced, I’ve heard only 30
startups were chosen out of almost 1000 that applied. YC is an
organization founded in 2005 that does seed funding for startups.
Here’s how it explains what that means:

“Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture
funding. It pays your expenses while you’re getting started. Some
companies may need no more than seed funding. Others will go through
several rounds. There is no right answer; how much funding you need
depends on the kind of company you start. At Y Combinator, our goal is
to get you through the first phase. This usually means: get you to the
point where you’ve built something impressive enough to raise money on
a larger scale. Then we introduce you to later stage investors, or
occasionally even acquirers.” (More on Y Combinator’s About page.)

YC’s application process
is well explained on their site, a process FanChatter went through
earlier this year, before their selection in mid-April. After sitting
on this story for some time, waiting for the TechCrunch post to break
first (which is the normal way YC companies get announced), what
follows is the result of a phone and email interview I did over the
past few days with FanChatter founders Marty Wetherall and Luke Francl,
who remain in Silicon Valley through August. (The third founder, Norm
Orstad, was not available.)

Tech-Surf-Blog: Tell us about how you came to apply
for the Y Combinator program. Why did you think a MN startup would
stand a chance, and why did you decide to do it this year?

Luke: It was pretty much my idea, but it was
basically for the hell of it. I figured “why not?” We made a pact that
if we got in, we would do YC for sure, no matter what. Being from
Minnesota didn’t figure into my decision at all; YC doesn’t really
discriminate based on geography. As for the timing, it didn’t occur to
me to apply sooner. I think that worked out for us, as YC expanded
somewhat for the Summer 2009 class, due to the $2M investment they had
raised. [That was primarily from Sequoia Capital.]

Marty: I’d always heard about Y Combinator as this
program where only the best and brightest startups were allowed. It
just sounded cool like that, even though I wasn’t very knowledgeable at
the time about Paul Graham or Hacker News. All I knew was that
FanChatter needed something big to happen, so we went for it.

Tech-Surf-Blog: Give us the quick story on the process
— starting from when you applied, to when you were invited to make the
trip to Mountain View to pitch, and then how you were chosen as a
finalist.

Luke: The application is straightforward. The most
challenging part is the video. We spent more than two hours working on
a one-minute video. The first inkling we had that we might get selected
was when Paul emailed me to say our video didn’t work. Crap!
But that showed they were interested. April 6th was nerve wracking as
we waited to hear if we’d gotten an interview. Finally, at 7:30 that
night, we got the email that they wanted to meet with us. We picked a
time and flew out the morning of the interview. Afterward, you have to
wait around until YC calls you that evening. We got called about four
hours after our interview. YC has standard terms which everyone knows
in advance, so you pretty much just have to say “yes” or “no.”

Marty: Couple things. First, I’m a film and TV guy
with well-known Super Bowl spots on my list of credits, and this video
was the simplest thing I’ve ever done. That’s because I didn’t have
the brain space to make it into anything more than dudes talking into a
web cam — but we must have said something right because they told us it
was good! Second, there’s a photo on our blog of Luke getting the call
that we were in. It was a great moment. It felt like FanChatter had
arrived. [Here's that photo of Luke taking the call from YC's Paul Graham, shot by Marty.]

Tech-Surf-Blog: The amount of seed capital each Y
Combinator startup gets is not huge, but give us your take on the other
benefits of being selected.

Luke: Yeah, the money is not really the main
benefit of Y Combinator for a company like ours. I think if you were
fresh out of college and used to living on ramen, $15,000 or $20,000
would go a long way, but we all have mortgages. On the flip side, we
already have customers and so we can afford to take a little time and
try to make this work. For the company, we get an incredible inside
view of how Silicon Valley works, and a chance to pitch to the best
angels in the Valley on Demo Day. For me personally, I knew I couldn’t
turn down this adventure, even though I’m giving up income and living
apart from my wife for the summer.

Marty: Definitely a once in a lifetime
opportunity. I’ve lived and worked in LA and felt how the film
industry runs that town. Colors everything about it. It feels like
that in Silicon Valley, but it’s tech. In coffee shops, what you
overhear is tech talk. Startups, angels, and VC. It’s been fun to
experience this.

Tech-Surf-Blog: Once you were accepted into the program around mid-April, how were you able to keep it such a secret — and why did you have to?

Luke: Keeping this under wraps has been incredibly
difficult, because we wanted to shout it from the rooftops. But we were
advised not to blog about being accepted to Y Combinator, because then
it wouldn’t be news when we launched, meaning we’d have a difficult
time getting covered by tech blogs. This was a tough row to hoe for us
because we’ve been around for a while. I kind of wish we’d announced it
sooner — we could have easily been the first YC launch of the summer,
but that honor went to our friends at Bump.

Marty: Once we knew we couldn’t talk about it until
we launched, we decided we’d use a new piece of business for our
coming- out party. We got that with the debut of our new ChatterBox
feature on the homepage of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Tech-Surf-Blog: Tell us what the process was like to
apply and, then, once selected as a semi-finalist, get up in front of
the four judges to pitch FanChatter.

Luke: We spent a lot of time crafting the
application. Every time I looked at the instructions, it seemed like
there was some facet I’d missed, and I tried to hew very closely to the
instructions, especially around answer length. I also paid close
attention to the basics, like spelling and grammar, so there wouldn’t
be any excuses to put our application aside. Paul and his partners look
at hundreds of applications, so I didn’t want to give them a reason to
pass ours by.

Waiting around at the YC office for the interview was the hardest
part. I’d read horror stories about how you’d be able to get out two
sentences and then Paul was just going to savage your idea. So, I
practiced our demo, and Marty practiced our two sentences. There were a
few other people waiting around so I showed them the demo, and I got to
see theirs.

Once we got into the interview my nervousness was lifted right away.
Paul was excited to see our demo. Paul, Jessica, Trevor, and Robert
came around to the other side of the table and crowded around my
laptop. [There's more about the four YC partners on YC's People page.]
Then Paul sort of riffed on things we could do — I think he came up
with about two years’ worth of work in about 10 minutes — while Jessica
tried to bring things to a close so they could stay on time.

Marty: It’s true. Luke kept grilling me the whole
trip out here. “What are you going to do?” over and over. Not in terms
of the interview, but in terms of the company. So, we were ready. The
interview was easy once we got in there. It’s definitely the closest
I’ll ever get to feeling like a contestant on American Idol.

Tech-Surf-Blog: Being chosen as a winner required you
to move to the Valley for the summer. Marty, how did you, Luke, and Norm
handle that, with respect to your “other” lives, and how long are you
out there?

Marty: My wife and two-year-old daughter came out
here with me, which has been both good and challenging. Startup life is
round the clock, but we’ve made it work. In many ways, it would have
been easier as a young guy just out of college, as many of our YC
classmates are.

Luke: I was already doing independent contract
development work (hey, if this startup thing doesn’t work out, let me
know if you need a good Rails developer!), so I finished up the
contracts I was working on and that was about it. My wife and I had
planned to take a trip to Italy this summer (that was “Plan A”), so I
had to pass that up. We’re out here until sometime in September, and
then we’ll see after that.

Tech-Surf-Blog: Describe a typical day for you this
summer in the Y Combinator program in Mountain View. Where do all these
company founders work? Are there events where you all get together?

Luke: For me, a typical day is programming,
programming, programming. We have a quick stand-up meeting in the
morning, and then I try to hack away at our products. I don’t see the
other startup founders much, except on Tuesdays when we all get
together for the YC dinner. That’s the social highlight of the week.
Almost everyone works out of their apartments, though I know of one
group that’s living out of their office!

Marty: Our apartment is in Mountain View, just a
few blocks from YC’s offices. Those Tuesday dinners at Y Combinator
really define the program. That’s where we meet and listen to amazing
speakers from the startup world, including successful YC alums. It’s
interesting to check in with the other founders in our class to see
what they’ve accomplished since the previous week. I think it pushes
all of us to keep up the momentum. [Here's
a photo of Luke and Marty, center, at one of the Tuesday night
meetings, from a Flickr set by "socialmoth" – a YC alum named Paul
McKellar.]

Tech-Surf-Blog: We’ve heard the mantra Y Combinator
puts forth for its companies is to “Make something people want.” What
did FanChatter, which is not a brand-new startup, propose to “make”?
Did you essentially propose to improve your offering for consumers in
order to be selected? If so, how are you coming with that new work?
And when will new features be available to your existing users?

Luke: I think an increasing number of companies
coming into YC already have products or working demos. They liked that
we had customers — that was very attractive. We sort of pitched it as,
“Look how far we’ve come working on this in our spare time. Imagine
what we could do if we did this full time.” We’ve been rolling out new
features to our existing customers all summer, as well as creating the
new ChatterBox product. Paul’s been very helpful in helping us figure
out the “big picture” of where we should be going: making more revenue
for our clients (and getting a piece of that).

Marty: In our case, we’re making something that
sports teams and other businesses who have fans want. More engagement
so they can make more money. I’ve always believed that content sharing
is the path to engagement, so that’s what we’re doing with Scoreboard
Photo Sharing and the ChatterBox — and that’s just the beginning.

Tech-Surf-Blog: So, what is yet to happen in the Y
Combinator summer program, as you’re now about two months into it — and
what does the future hold for FanChatter?

Luke: “Demo Day” is what it all leads up to. [That's in late August at YC's offices, attended by many VCs and angels.] After that, we’ll see. We’re working on becoming ramen profitable, but also looking to raise some angel money.

Marty: Who knows? Hopefully we’re on to something
and fan engagement can carry us beyond sports and into music and TV and
anywhere fans come together around a common interest. There’s so much
potential for interesting things to happen, and that’s where we want to
be.

I certainly wish my friends at FanChatter all the best
as they go forward. And I love the fact that they just happen to be
doing great things for our sports teams here in the Twin Cities! [The scoreboard at the new Gophers stadium should be awesome, and I'm sure hoping FanChatter shows up there.] For
more on the company, see its news release dated August 4. And the TechCrunch story that broke August 1 is here: YC-Funded FanChatter Takes Social Media To The Ball Game. Another good story followed that on MediaPost’s Online Media Daily.

If you’re a startup thinking of taking a run at applying for the Winter 2010 Y Combinator program, there are some great tips on YC’s site, and a FAQ page provides even more insight into how you might be able to take advantage of this excellent program.

What’s your take? Will you apply? If not, why not? What are your
picks for other promising startups here in Minnesota who should apply? Or is this a complete fluke? Speak out in the comments.

Anticipating Defrag….

October 29, 2008 / Graeme / 0 Comments

Getting excited about the Defrag conference, kicking off this Sunday evening in Denver. Once again, Eric Norlin and his colleagues who originally conceived this event (including VC Brad Feld) have planned a wonderful conference program, and again attracted a stellar group — coming off a blowout successful first-year event a year ago.
(I wrote about the inaugural version extensively: here's an index of my Defrag 2007 posts. Actually, I believe it was the last event I live-blogged, versus the live-Twittering approach I've adopted since for my conference reporting. Why has Twitter just sort of taken over?) And, with this year's advisory board including people like Esther Dyson (of PC Forum fame) and Chris Shipley (of DEMO fame), how could this not be another fantastic conference?

Last year's experience was so great in every way that I took to describing it as basically like a religious experience. I was in awe hobnobbing with so many luminaries and big thinkers. I also got to connect again with many of my friends from the early days of the Internet — Doc Searls, Chris Locke, David Weinberger, Steve Larsen, and others. I love my (younger) friend Aaron Fulkerson's testimonial comment about Defrag 2007, used on the current web site: "The
event had quite the attendee and speakers
list. You couldn’t spit and not
hit an industry notable." It was an amazing group — all told, about 300. The collective intelligence in the room was unlike
anything I've ever experienced, and the program, keynotes, and
discussions — both the panels and the informal variety — were
off-the-charts valuable and thought-provoking. There was just this energy level that I can't fully describe…that we were about to collectively imagine the future of the Internet, the social web, a whole new level of collaboration. You had to be there.

And you should be there this year! It's not too late, and I even have a juicy discount code posted in my sidebar to the right. [Shhh, don't tell anybody. I'm not sure I'm supposed to be offering that to all my blog readers — but what the hell! Maybe Eric Norlin won't read this… 🙂 ] The best way to get the real skinny about what's in store this year is to check out the Defrag blog, which Eric writes so well. The man has a gift for storytelling. And, of course, check out the list of stellar speakers…and the great agenda. This conference is packed with aha moments and extreme takeaways.

What's also cool is that there are three speakers from my home state of Minnesota. Rich Hoeg of Honeywell, whom I met at our "Minnebar" BarCamp event this past spring, will be speaking about social search in the corporate environment, and Connie Bensen, a community strategist now working with Network Solutions, will be on a panel about "making the social web."
And I'm especially looking forward to a panel on "Re-imagining
the metaphors behind collaborative
tools," which includes my friend Steve Kickert of Minnesota's own Riverock Technologies, who'll be talking about his very cool, just released from beta OnePlace™ online team collaboration and work management system.
These guys are some amazing developers, and this thing rocks. (I know — I use it!) You can catch some buzz about OnePlace™ just starting to appear here and here. [Full disclosure: I'm a consultant to Steve's company.]

Want to see who else you'll be able to hobnob with in this intimate setting? Check out this blog post that lists just some of the many companies attending. People, I'm tellin' ya, this is a heavy-duty crowd! Want to read a great rundown on what your two-day experience will be like at Defrag? Check out this blog post, which will give you "a sense of what you'll encounter" at this great conference.

I really hope you can make it to Defrag. See you in Denver!

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The Book That Rules in Marketing & PR, Now In Its 2nd Edition

So, I Went to the MIMA Summit… Maybe You Heard About It?

Y Combinator Taps MN’s FanChatter for Startup ‘American Idol’

Anticipating Defrag….

What’s Up With the ‘Social Media Today’ Widget?

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