c
compose new post
j
next post/next comment
k
previous post/previous comment
r
reply
e
edit
o
show/hide comments
t
go to top
esc
cancel

Updates from April, 2009

  • Scoble’s Viral Marketing Manifesto

    mike manuel 10:53 pm on March 3, 2005 | 1 Permalink

    A must-read piece by Robert Scoble on the challenges and opportunities for online viral marketing:

    1) Make sure the "brand" you’re building in people’s heads matches what you actually want people to think about.

    2) To have something go viral, you actually need to do something
    that will make people talk.     Games that are fun are generally good, but
    won’t work for all products. With Honda their "cog ad" for the Accord
    went viral and that was only a video.

    3) Be sensitive to the leading "connectors" — they’ll be the ones
    who’ll really kick off your viral campaign.     Convince them to link and
    you’re really on your way. Know who the connectors are in the
    communities you want to reach. Want a political community to talk to
    you? Glenn Reynolds. Gadget freaks? Engadget or Gizmodo. Tech Geeks?
    Dave Winer, Boing Boing, MetaFilter, or Slashdot. Etc.

    4) Test the campaign with 40 leading connectors before embarrassing yourselves. Listen to the feedback you get.

    5) Make sure that the viral thing matches the image you’re trying to
    build.     A VW ad (not commissioned by VW) went viral, but because it used
    a terrorist blowing himself up it didn’t match the image that VW was
    trying to build for itself.

    6) A good test is whether employees like it or not. These things can
    be used to increase morale. "Look at my cool company, they even have
    cool viral campaigns." But, they can decimate morale too. "What a lame
    campaign." Be careful here. Ask coworkers if they would be proud of
    sending this to mom.

    7) A good viral campaign lets those who talk about it manipulate the
    campaign.     If it is designed to manipulate those who are talking about
    it, be wary. We hate being manipulated, but we love to manipulate.
    Translation: can I add something to the campaign? Even a comment of my
    own? If it’s a game, does it listen to me, like the Subservient Chicken
    does?

    8) Be wary of doing fake blogs. That gets bloggers fur to curl up.
    You might get away with it (ILoveBees, for instance, did) but if done
    poorly you’ll just get derided for your fake campaign. Be especially
    wary when what you’re advertising is actually real-life stuff. Search
    engines and blogs, for instance, need campaigns that accentuate the
    image of "reliable, trustworthy, always up, relevant to real life,
    etc."

     

  • Dan Gillmor: New Year, New Blog

    mike manuel 9:57 pm on January 1, 2005 | 0 Permalink

    With the new year comes new information on what life after the Merc looks like for Dan Gillmor.  Today he introduced a new personal blog focused on grassroots journalism (subscribe here). 

    While the foundation of Gillmor’s new endeavor appears to still be taking shape, I think it’s safe to assume this new blog will become a great source for discussing and really understanding how the media landscape is evolving.


    This project is still very much in an embryonic state, however. I have
    to emphasize that point, because some of the online chatter and
    speculation has raised absurdly high expectations, certainly in the
    short term. I have many ideas, including some quite specific ones, but
    the larger framework has yet to be developed, much less built.

    In the longer term, who can say? But I do know one thing: If
    anything worthwhile comes of this, and I strongly believe it will, the
    achievements will be ours, not mine. They will be the result of many
    people’s ideas, good will and effort. If I can help clear a path for
    people who want to join the vast, global conversation, I’ll be happy.

    For the immediate future I plan to use this blog to ponder the
    present and future of grassroots journalism; to begin to figure out
    what we might do together in this new world; and, in general, to have
    the kind of conversation that this huge topic requires.

    Of course, I’m far from the only person who’s thinking and
    talking about this stuff. I’ll point you to the best work I see, and
    count on you to let me know when I miss something important.

    Update: Gillmor’s farewell column in today’s paper.

    Our conversation — which I hope we’ll
    continue as my new project gets under way — has been a constant source
    of inspiration. If it’s meant something to you, that pleases me more
    than I can say. Thank you all.

     

     

  • Dan Gillmor Leaving Merc

    mike manuel 7:08 pm on December 9, 2004 | 2 Permalink

    Whoa!  Dan Gillmor, blogger extraordinaire, author and long-time business columnist for the San Jose Mercury News is leaving the paper to pursue a venture-backed grassroots journalism project.

    SJMN colleagues Mike Bazeley and Matt Marshall shed more insight via SiliconBeat:

    Dan will be starting a grass-roots journalism venture, and says he has gotten seed funding. The plan is typical Gillmor. It reflects his appreciation of the need for news to bubble up from the masses. It also allows him to partake of the dream that he has written so much about: The entrepreneur starting something interesting. "I’m jumping off a cliff with the expectation of assembling a hand-glider before I get to the bottom," he told us this evening, in a phone call from Boston, where he is attending a conference at Harvard. "I figured the worst risk is that I’d be out of work in six months."

    I’ll have to grok this because it has all sorts of interesting implications for the changing media landscape, however, in the meantime I’ll simply wish Dan the best of luck in his new endeavor.

    Update: Dan blogs about his transition.