PodCamp is what you make it. If you simply go to the sessions and keep to yourself, you won’t get much more out of it then if you had read through a few blog recaps of the event. The attendee list is full of friendly and approachable people just waiting to share ideas and grow their network.
I have to disclose that I only attended a 1/2 day on Saturday and a 3/4 day on Sunday due to being a loyal husband and loving father. (In case my wife reads this blog). But in that time I met some great people and learned a thing or two about social media, branding, SEO and networking.
Spam in Social Media: Lessons Learned from Email - Kee Hinckley
Email Marketing’s Role in New Media - Greg Cangialosi
Networking/Mingling Recap
Great pre-un-keynote round table discussion with @bengrossman@jamesconnors@andykenneally (Andrew just happens to be cousins with a college friend of mine, small world) among others
Discussion about social media in a traditional industry with @tinkugallery who drove down from Toronto for PodCamp Boston. Good luck with the new gallery!
I met a friend of @andykenneally, Rory, who used to live across the street from me in Sommerville, MA back in the day (very small world indeed!).
So a big Thank You to the presenters and organizers of PodCamp Boston 3 for making this event great. Your hard-work and dedication to the event is much appreciated.
People always talk about the power of twitter, it’s ability to effect change (through grassroots fund raising) and mass distribution of info (see California Firefighters) among them. But when I sent out a tweet minutes after my daughter Ella was born I received some quick congratulations from people I have never met face-to-face (but hope to some day).
So Thank You to all who have given congrats and well wishes on what is by far the most exciting time in our lives. And for a quick update, mom and Ella are doing great. We have a pretty good system down so far and have been able to get our sleep in when we can. This is all subject to change from what I have heard
I recently had the opportunity to exchange questions via email with Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com on a topic of my choosing in the area of Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine Optimization. My topic was how nonprofits can leverage search engine optimization and marketing tools to further their cause.
[ Geoff ] The recent announcement of the Google Grants program will certainly help level the playing field for non-profits. Could you tell me in your opinion just how important the Google Grants program will be for non-profits from an SEM standpoint?
[ Aaron ] The one area where Google Grants will help bring in direct revenues is for some fake charities set up to push business interests, where people donate valuable goods that get auctioned off in order to receive a tax break. Donate your car offers come to mind, because the tax loophole makes many people donating not care who gets the donation. Some donors may even shop for the maximum write off potential.
But for real charities, I think Google Grants should help them somewhat on an awareness front, but not to directly achieve donations…more to help them bring about awareness of issues that they support. Many non-profits have enough link equity that if they use some of the leading keyword research tools, use clarity in their language, and then make sure they optimize their page titles to focus on issues like world hunger, starving children, etc. that they should be able to get exposure for the issues. Then if people decide they care about those issues and how the non-profit wants to address them then they may donate and/or subscribe.
[ Geoff ] On SEOBook.com you have an article called “101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website”. Do you feel there are certain link building methods on that list that are more important to non-profits than others methods? Would you revise that list at all for non-profits or do they apply across the spectrum of businesses and industries?
[ Aaron ] I think that even more than with other issues, non-profits tend to be budget limited and fight some of the more destructive elements of corporate externalities.
Given their limited capital (and the vast capital of some competing forces in many markets) non-profits really need to connect to people on an emotional level. They need to make people enraged or concerned, and they need to turn their readers/watchers/learners into teachers to help spread their message.
Here are 6 concepts stemming from that idea
Syndicate content on sites like YouTube, like UNICEF did. This does 4 powerful things:
Video content is quite captivating, and helps make the invisible visible (see the above UNICEF video)
YouTube is a high authority site which has a lot of viewers
YouTube foots the bandwidth bill
Embeddable videos are easy to spread…and make your message go viral
Use newsletters and create a central blog people can subscribe to.
Some non-profits may even want to encourage guest bloggers from outsiders who really are passionate about the organization.
Outside of videos it helps to have other widgets too…sites like Kiva allow donors to become the marketers by syndicating a widget to their website.
Get people to feel involved in the process…let them feel ownership. I recently saw Brave New Films allow people to sponsor a message in the movie. Of course anyone who does that not only helps pay for the film, but they will also buy a copy, and watch it with their friends.
If possible try to sell media or other goodies in pairs to try to get people to share it with friends. Host bring a friend nights, etc.
I appreciate and thank Aaron taking the time to answer my questions. You can learn more about Aaron and SEO/SEM at SEOBook.com
Gary Vaynerchuk (from Wine Library TV) has marked today, April 3 2008 as “Good People Day”. The point behind it is to sing the praises of “good people” through your communication vehicle of choice: blog, twitter, pownce, facebook, etc.
Now, this assumes that you are creating media in those channels. If you aren’t, then take the time to talk about or make a recommendation for these “good people”. People that are doing good things in your community whether it is a physical place or an online community.
If you want an example of who I think is “good people” and really helping out communities that I am a part of then please visit these people. If you like what they are saying please let THEM know about it. It’s not an exhaustive list but these people are doing great things:
If you were to help bring an old-world marketing person into the new world of social media, how would you do it? What would you tell them? With so many great minds out there sharing their knowledge with all of us, many of what you would need to tell them has already been said.
I would like to work with a few close friends in the old-world of marketing to help bring them forward. Get them into the fishbowl with the rest of us and try to shatter this thing (as CC Chapman would say!).
Here is a list of the marketing blogs and podcasts that I currently follow:
To the community: I challenge you to fill in the gaps above. While they are all brilliant, I can’t be smart enough to have compiled a complete list.
To the bloggers and podcasters: What is your one or two best posts or episodes that would really explain the fundamental shift towards social media, networks, etc. that is currently happening?
I have just completed the book Join the Conversationby Joseph Jaffe and as someone new to the Marketing and New Media space it certainly was an eye opener. Jaffe’s first book Life after the 30-second Spot ‘reveals how today’s brightest marketers are using new tactics to engage consumers and new avenues to take the place of TV, radio, and print’ (from the books website). Join the Conversation takes a similar approach and reveals ways brands and companies can reach consumers that are already fed-up or blind to traditional marketing techniques.
I first came upon Join the Conversation as part of Jaffe’s Use New Marketing to Prove New Marketing campaign (UNM2PNM for short). In UNM2PNM, Jaffe offered this book for free to individuals willing to read it and give it an honest review. He wanted to use the marketing techniques is his books to prove their own effectiveness, turning the book into it’s own case study. This is a pretty bold move as the reviewers are free to disagree with him and criticize his hard work. But after reading the book, I realized that it is a case of ‘eating ones own dog food‘, that Jaffe stands behind his work and feels confident that you will find value in it.
The biggest takeaway for me is that as a marketer (or brand manager, public relations, etc) you truly need to engage your customers as honestly as possible. This can be as simple as starting a blog and allowing comments on your corporate website, to one of several interesting techniques used by brands described in Jaffe’s book…sorry no spoilers here! But the key is that it is done honestly with no contrived conversations.
Jaffe incorporates this exact technique as the embodiment of the book where he references and provides a web link to posts on Jaffe Juice or the books website to get certain points across. The beauty of this technique is that you, as the consumer of the book, are free to follow that link and formulate your own opinion. If you disagree (or agree for that matter) you can post a comment and let him know. How’s that for opening the lines of communication between brand and consumer!
The gist of the Walmart fiasco is that James, a blogger over at Men with Pens, bought what turned out to be a defective Kodak camera from Walmart as a gift for his daughter. While trying to return the camera he experienced some pretty poor customer service. From policy changes barring him from returning the camera to just flat out poor service it is pretty clear that James will take his future business elsewhere.
Compare that with the customer service my wife received from Winston Flowers. For Valentines Day I bought her a red rose flower arrangement and had it delivered to her office. After they were delivered she called to thank me and to tell me how beautiful they were.
Later in the day she received a call from Winston’s to ask how she liked the arrangement. She told them how beautiful they were and that she was very happy with the presentation. She mentioned that one or two of the roses in the back of the arrangement had some blackened edges presumably from frost. The customer service rep asked if she would be in the office all day and that they would like to send over another arrangement!
Later that day, Winston’s delivered the same arrangement, vase and all, to my wife with their apologies. If you are unfamiliar with Winston Flowers, they are high quality flowers, i.e.: expensive. In the name of customer service, they had no issue with sending over a complimentary $90 arrangement to try to secure a customer for life.
I am starting to realize a lot of conversational marketing now as I am reading Join the Conversationby Joseph Jaffe and one in particular that I watched last night. I was in my PJ’s with no pen/paper so take my recollection for what it’s worth! I will continue to look for the ad on YouTube and the Dodge website, it doesn’t seem to be available just yet.
The commercial starts with two individuals we are to assume work for Dodge designing cars. They are working at a drawing table and there is a car sketch on a board behind them. In from the left and behind walks an average woman we are to assume does not work for Dodge. She walks right up to the car sketch, picks up the marker and scribbles swirls around the back tires and wind lines off the back to indicate motion.
The designers turn to her and say, paraphrasing “So your saying it needs a bigger engine?”.
To me, this indicates that Dodge understands the two way street that is the conversational marketing Joseph speaks of in his book. They are showing us a “conversation” (albeit a contrived one since it was a staged commercial with actors and a script) between the consumer and the design staff for the car the consumer is interested in if it only had a bit more power.
The goal is to use the same approaches he describes in the book to assist with it’s marketing. This, according to Jaffe, “would turn the book into its own case study.”
In the coming months I will be reviewing the book Join the Conversation by Joseph Jaffe. I have been listening to Joseph’s podcast Jaffe Juice (formerly Across the Sound) and I look forward to reading the book.
More about the book here:
Book Description
With the continued fragmentation of the media and proliferation of media options, the balance of power has shifted from the marketer to the individual. In Join the Conversation, Jaffe discusses the changing role of the consumer and how marketers must adapt by joining the rich, deep and meaningful conversation already in progress. This book reveals what marketers must do to become a welcome and invited part of the dialogue, and how to leverage and integrate the resulting partnership in ways that provide win-win situations for businesses, brands and lives.
From the Inside Flap
Throughout the history of advertising and marketing, communicating with consumers has been a one-way street. Marketers produced and disseminated messages and customers consumed them whether they liked them or not. Today, every person sees thousands of advertisements a day—and totally ignores the vast majority of them. Yet, companies still spend billions of dollars each year yelling at customers who don’t want to hear it.
In this follow-up to his bestselling book, Life After the 30-Second Spot, author Joseph Jaffe explains how marketers must adapt to the brave new world of the Internet, social media and networking, consumer-generated content, blogs, and podcasts by joining the rich, deep, and meaningful customer conversations already in progress.
Consumers today are active participants in the advertising process, not silent targets and sitting ducks for one-way communication. Forget about the medium being the message; today, consumers are both the medium and the message. The future is bright for organizations that can join the ongoing dialog and leverage their customer relationships to build win-win situations for businesses, brands, and individuals. Through the power of community, dialog, and partnership, marketers finally have the power to talk with consumers rather than at them.
Traditional marketing is a red flag smart consumers can see from a mile away; an outdated idea lurching toward them with the same predictable exhortations and tired come-ons. They’ve had enough, and it’s time to change the dynamic. When marketing is a conversation, marketers can get to know their consumers as individuals, not as silent members of a faceless demographic subsection. Join the Conversation uses real-world brands and companies, real case studies, and real conversations to reveal how to talk to customers—and how to get them talking about you.
It’s time for marketing and marketers to become more meaningful and authentic, or they will both become obsolete. Totally practical and brilliantly revolutionary, Join the Conversation reveals the future of marketing and how you and your company can march boldly into it.
Join the conversation today at www.jointheconversation.us or through Jaffe’s daily blog and podcast, Jaffe Juice (www.jaffejuice.com).
Geoff on July 21st, 2008
It wasn’t too long after reading about James’ 
