An Experiment In Curation

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with a local startup called Curation Station. Their web app makes it easy for marketers to gather, curate and share web content. These days that tends to be social media like blog posts, video, photos and tweets.

So I thought I would explore curation and apply it in a couple side projects. The first is called Padable (yeah, I know) and is a cross between Minimal Mac and Lifehacker focused on Apple’s iPad. Right now it’s mostly curated media coverage but I will write original content regularly there as well.

For this site I’ve used Tumblr as the CMS. After considering my regular CMS of choice, Wordpress, I wanted something that didn’t require any administration so I could focus on the content. After using it for over a week, I’m pleased with this choice since Twitter integration is super easy and posting can be done via bookmarklet, email and their very nice iPhone app.

I have another idea with one of my wine domains that I might start up if Padable builds a following. I’m hoping that with community involvement my curation will improve. Take a look and let me know what you think. Be gentle, it’s only an experiment ;-)

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Social Media Is About Story Telling

A great example in under 5 minutes by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian at TED:


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In The Future, Everyone Will Have An iPhone App



While watching football this afternoon I read that noted PR and social marketing pro Brian Solis had his own iPhone app. After initially thinking how ridiculous this was I fired up the App Store on my iPod Touch and downloaded the app. After all, the price is right (free).

And what I found surprised me. Not only was the app well designed but the RSS aggregation was as good or better than the best for-pay RSS aggregators for the iPhone (I use Byline but there are several others out there). Of course all you get is Brian’s stuff but this idea is the next logical extension of making your website mobile and your content more sticky. Built with Mobile Roadie, one of the growing online app builders for the iPhone tuned for musicians, the result is a very professional extension of Brian’s considerable personal brand.

So I think that in the future everyone will have their own iPhone app. Or at least they could if they wanted to build one.

Update, 12/14/09: Via Jeremiah Owyang is another batch of personal brand iphone apps from Guy Kawasaki, Tim Ferris and Jeremiah himself. Built with MotherApp, these look very similar to Brian’s app. I expect to see all A and B-list bloggers to have their own apps before the end of January.

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Seth Godin and The 1% Solution


Yesterday with another 1,000 marketers and creatives at the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Summit I witnessed marketing thought leader Seth Godin spread his ideas about how to market in these times of great change and disruption. Like some in the room I have followed Mr. Godin for a decade and many of this remarks were not new but a retelling of ideas from his blog and books. In fact, I would estimate that 99% of the content of his speech yesterday was material culled from the past decade of his publishing. The irony of his plugs for nearly all his books was not lost on some of us. But that was OK with me because the 1% that was “new” amplified and made me look at his past ideas in new and interesting ways.

This, and the totality of the sessions and conversations I had at MIMA, made me question everything about what I have been doing over the past few years in social marketing work. While I have achieved some success, I do not feel truly successful. While I have done some interesting and innovative things, I have not been really that remarkable. The purple cow does not live at my house.

One of Mr. Godin’s remarks yesterday really hit home. It was the value of social media “friends.” No, this was not part of the 1% I had not yet heard, or more likely not paid attention to, but something I had seen in past talks. I had just not thought of it in quite the same way. His idea is that you should not focus on getting people to follow you but getting the right people to follow you. The people who would go out of their way to help you if asked. Although thousands of people follow my three Twitter presences, I would estimate that less than 1% would actually be the type of follower Godin is talking about. Humbling, indeed.

So I’ve decided to refocus my efforts here on the 1% that makes me think differently about marketing and life in general. And along the way illuminate the 1% of me that truly makes a difference.

Thanks for helping me make these connections, Seth.

Photo by Graeme Thickins via Flickr

Required Reading


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Our New President Really Gets Social Media

I just checked my Facebook profile and received a message from Barack Obama. He linked a new video that took me back to his site to view what is posted on YouTube and below here. What is interesting is how easily his team has made it to share with friends via email.

Clearly our next President really “gets” social media. The next four years will be very interesting from a lot of perspectives.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfGNgacysHg[/youtube]

Bonus link: Edelman’s white paper about the Obama campaign and social media.

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Trade Shows Are Toast



[caption id=”” align=”alignright” width=”202” caption=”Image via Wikipedia”]Steve Jobs at Macworld[/caption]


And it took Steve Jobs to give it a proper send-off:
Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple announces final MacWorld, Steve Jobs won’t deliver keynote - Engadget

Apple gets conversational marketing and is abandoning traditional outreach in favor of high-touch venues like their retail stores. I also expect to see them cut back on print advertising this year and focus on their important constituencies: mainstream consumers, media professionals and developers with online and broadcast channels.

I’m going to miss the Stevenote at MacWorld, but we’ll still be hearing from him in other venues next year, I expect.
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There Are No Marketing Secrets



[caption id=”” align=”alignright” width=”202” caption=”Image via Wikipedia”]The Wall Street Journal[/caption]


I’ve been a long-time reader of the Wall Street Journal but haven’t subscribed to the print edition for some years now. My work gives me access to the online edition but I rarely spend much time consuming the content online; there’s something about leafing through the paper that is lost in it’s electronic format. So I took advantage of an offer to trade some expiring frequent flyer miles to restart getting the version on paper. The first edition arrived yesterday.

Immediately I thought the timing was fortuitous as there was a feature on “marketing in a web 2.0 world”. The piece is a nice overview of conversational marketing and I recommend reading it if you are not quite up-to-speed yet (linked below). But the premise of being “secrets” doesn’t really fly with me since the collective wisdom is fully open source at places like Chris Brogan’s blog, Web Strategy by Jeremiah, Jaffe Juice and countless others. Or you can hang out on Twitter or Friendfeed if you want the real-time version. I also believe that what we are doing in social media now will become integrated into the practice of public relations and marketing over the next few months as the ressession continues to shift money from broadcast media to online search and ultimately the social web.

But there was an interesting quote in this WSJ piece that I found particularly interesting:
So who should direct a company’s forays into Web 2.0 marketing? A number of managers identified an ideal set of skills for an executive that go beyond those of a typical M.B.A. holder or tech expert. We coined the term marketing technopologist for a person who brings together strengths in marketing, technology and social interaction.

The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World - WSJ.com

I like the term “marketing technopologist” and will use it in my social profiles. I think it encapsulates what I’m trying to do for my clients and my own personal brand. It’s also ironic that I would have probably not read this story if I didn’t get the Journal in print. So I guess I was wrong… print still lives.

And to borrow a phrase from Adam Curry, “There Are No Secrets, Only Information You Don’t Yet Have.” And you better get informed with social media if you are a marketing or PR professional. Just sayin’
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Now Is The Time For Big Ideas



[caption id=”” align=”alignright” width=”240” caption=”Image by UniqueOo Mania via Flickr”]Description unavailable[/caption]


I’ve been working on a project for the past couple weeks that has forced me to refocus my view from small, fixed scope guerrilla engagements to deals beyond anything I’ve considered since I left corporate life nearly 3 years ago. It’s been an interesting transition which highlights the evolution of conversational marketing from some rag-tag experiments to cutting-edge strategy to almost mainstream practice.

But issues remain.

When you go big, you have to talk ROI. And social marketing is as difficult to track as traditional PR. Sure, there are some great examples of success, but it’s sales impact that will win the day in this economy. On our side is the fact that conversational marketing costs a lot less than other channels like print and broadcast advertising so more brands will enter this space in 2009.

So I’m optimistic that the current economic crisis will shift more marketing to the social web and we’ll hone our measurement of ROI. Now’s the time to go big…
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I’m No Guru, But a Believer

I’ve been out here online for 6 years now since I started this site during my first job search ever. But it wasn’t until this week that I was attacked by trolls. Sure, I’ve had some critical comments and emails before but none of them depressed me as much as a post on an obscure wine blog did this week. I’ll be damned if I link or post a comment there but wanted to set the record straight on my 48th Birthday.

I’ve been called a guru of social media by some in the wine trade but don’t feel that this compliment really applies to me. A more apt description is that i’m a believer in social media. And an explorer looking to apply what I can learn to help wineries connect with their customers and, yes, sell more wine. Nothing more, nothing less.

I’m hoping to document more of my learnings here during my 49th year… and just about every day for a change.