I find myself pulling for John Hodgman . . .

Get a Mac - Pep Rally

I’m starting to like this guy - and really dislike the Apple guy. Hat tip to Catherine P. Taylor

Hmmm - TO’B

JOIN the CONVERSATION: Book Review

Last week on my way down to WOMMA-University
I threw Joseph Jaffe’s latest tome - Join the Conversation in my bag. Once the doors to the plane closed and I could no longer frantically update Twitter, I opened it up and started reading. (We sat on the ground a LONG TIME so by the time I made Miami; I was through the whole thing.)

Now a couple of weeks ago in my review I said that Groundswell is the how-to book for marketers wishing to play in a post-cluetrain world - and I now see that Join the Conversation bridges the intellectual divide between The Cluetrain Manifesto and Groundswell. The first half of the book is a bit scholarly - and while I was a bit put off by this at first, I really appreciate it having finished the book.

When Jaffe reaches back to George Orwell’s on media and connects it to Web 2.0 a single word pops into my mind. Subversive. That’s what this whole social computing movement is. It’s subversive because it’s a revolution that takes power out of the hands of giant corporations and gives it back to people. With the Internet as plumbing we can find our tribe and talk to them - regardless of time and distance. Jaffe makes the point that Orwell would have loved the subversive nature of this revolution – the new age of conversation. Power to the people!

Jaffe makes a passionate argument that markets are conversations - so of course marketers must be involved. Before reading the book I considered myself a bit of a Purist (on the Purist => Corporatist Scale) and I still do. What comes clear is how this apparent gulf between people and corporations can be bridged. It is simple really; corporations need to act human if they want to participate in the conversation. And that means giving up control, not always being right, respecting people building relationships instead of running campaigns, listening and acting like caring human beings.

Along with lots of great examples of how companies are doing things right in conversational marketing, he has some great counter examples - and he’s not afraid to call them out! (TIP: If you find yourself asking the lawyers to contact one of your best customers who is doing something odd with your brand or product, you are about to nominate yourself for the “Join the Conversation Hall of Shame”. )

My favorite thing about this book? Jaffe is very passionate about this subject and he doesn’t pull punches. He is happy to get in an argument - and even offend if he thinks you don’t get it. I also like the scholarly approach of the first half, because with this Join the Conversation provides the intellectual grounding in how corporations can get on board the Cluetrain.

TO’B

WOMMA University – Top 5 List

Just back from WOMMA-U in Miami last Thursday and Friday. It was really a great event and I have to say I really enjoyed meeting clients, prospects, competitors and industry luminaries. Here’s my top 5 things that happened to me at WOMMU (in no particular order):

1. Joseph Jaffe keynote. On the plane down to Miami the night before I had read his book. To see him the next morning was a treat. As I twitted during the meeting he presents (and writes) like a man with his hair on fire. Love the energy and fearlessness.
2. The WOM in action work groups. We split up the group and each worked with 1 of three charities – 1Sky, Wilderness Society and Overtown Youth Center. This was awesome as we harnessed the power of the attendees on helping three deserving charities.
3. Owen Mack from coBRANDIT Video – I know there is streaming stuff, but I was blown away by this. He interviewed me on his N95 phone – it was streaming to his QIK site and people were watching and listening real time. The people watching and listening were (real time) texting in questions or comments which showed up on his monitor/screen as Joseph Jaffe interviewed me (go to 12:33 for my 15 sec of fame). WOW!
4. Bob Pearson from Dell. He told the story of how Dell has gotten into conversational marketing. (Let’s just call it talking to customers) and how it has radically changed the culture at Dell. Money quotes from Bob’s presentation?

• “you have a new homepage – it’s called Google”
• “communities are NOT about us”
• “Dell has sold $500k worth of gear on Twitter“

Finally in the Q&A Bob was asked this question

Q:
“If one of your people has 700 Followers on Twitter (@richardatdell) how do they do their day job?”

A:
“Talking to customers IS their day job”

1. The breakout groups with Bonin Bough from Weber Shandwick and Rohit from Ogilvy. They did a great job of facilitating conversations about communities and social media tools respectively. Thanks.

Name the uber blogger

Who are these two mysterious bloggers spotted talking to each other in Miami today?

From WOMMA-U

TO’B

All a Twitter . . .

Yes, it’s true - after a year of being a cynical b*stard about Twitter, I stopped fighting it and just dove on in. Of course I’m following an upstanding group of fine social media mavens - so not too much weirdness (well, except for the Jack Daniels, Red Patent Leather Pumps and lots of incomprehensible acronyms) but over time I feel like I am getting to know people. Also, b/c people use Twitter on the road a lot, it brings a sense of reality (place) to the cloud. OK, I admit that I’m a believer - perhaps a future evangelist.

I am @tomob on Twitter.

(You don’t need no ticket, just get onboard . . .)

TO’B

Groundswell Book Review

I have been waiting patiently for the publication of Groundswell since last Spring when we first talked to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff about including some work MotiveQuest had done for MINI USA.

Being a skeptic and a bit of a know-it-all, I approach business books with a grain of salt. What could Josh and Charlene possibly tell me that I don’t already know? Well, a lot. I am humbled by the display of knowledge, experience and examples (not to mention writing and editing) on display in this book.

My foundation in social computing goes back to the Cluetrain Manifesto (Happy 10^th Birthday Cluetrain!) which is heavy on philosophy – and light on action and examples. Groundswell is the long awaited how-to manual for the post-Cluetrain world. I like this book so much I went out and bought 60 copies to share with clients and friends. I think anyone working in advertising, marketing or consulting that has responsibility for social media should read this book.

I talk to agencies and clients every day, and there is little disagreement that the social computing revolution has fundamentally changed business. Everyone agrees that social computing has upset the communications apple cart, and thrown power back to the people. The big question, however, remains. What the heck do we do now? Read Groundswell.

I got a better understanding of the whole range of things companies can/should do under the heading of social media. I work mostly on the listening side of the equation (Listen, Talk, Energize, Support, Embrace) and Groundswell helped me better understand the other parts of the social media landscape. It will also help me articulate to clients and prospects why Listening is the first step, and help them make sense of it all.

What I liked best? They tell stories. Stories with real people – and for me this has the most impact. Groundswell on social computing is like Walt Mossberg on computers. They make it real, accessible and actionable for people facing real challenges.

It is all too easy to get sucked in by siren song of technology and widgets in the social computing revolution – but Groundswell wisely avoid this trap and focuses on the “social” aspect instead of the “computing” aspect. This is what makes Groundswell compelling – it’s not about the technology, but about the people.

I give it a 9/10 for relevance, usefulness and readability!

<shameless plug begin> MotiveQuest does Online Anthropology – we collect all the online conversations about a topic, and then study and analyze them to build a model of how that community works. This includes the underlying motivations and drivers as well as competitive and category dynamics. To see an example of our work in action – please go straight to page 89 for Groundswell. <shameless plug end>

TO’B

Cammie Dunaway gets it; Wii Fit

From yesterday’s WSJ article on the Wii Fit you can decode the success of Nintendo.

1. They are not “fighting” over hardcore gamers. They are bringing all kinds of new people into console gaming (See Wii Fit). While Xbox and PS3 fight over the hardcore gamers, Nintendo sells to everyone else.
2. When asked why the campaign for the Wii Fit (from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners) wasn’t the typical glitzy videogame/console campaign, here is her answer:

   “What we see is consumers are increasingly turning to friends, family and news articles about credible sources of information about products, more so than in the past.”
   

Amen to that – and guess what? Many of those friends they are turning to happen to be in the same online communities as they are – and they may never have met FTF.

Final delicious irony? The article was paired with one titled:

Sony Again Delays Its PS3 Virtual Community

TO’B

Fred does “Fix You” by Coldplay

I saw Young@Heart over the weekend - and can’t get this beautiful and haunting performance of “Fix You” by Fred Knittle out of my mind. This movie is a great experience for anyone - go see it.

Young@Heart sing ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay

TO’B

We are somebody!

Just reading my copy of Groundswell – by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li. Delighted to see the MotiveQuest and MINI USA case study on listening through brand monitoring on page 89. I couldn’t help but think of the scene from the Steve Martin Classic – The Jerk. Navin Johnson is living at the gas station – and his name is printed in the phone book. He runs out in joy yelling “I am somebody, I am somebody”.

I’ll be posting a review shortly – but for now – just enjoying the shout out!

TO’B

Why mass media is broken (kids today . . .)

I’m a little late to this one - but this is a great video from Mike Wesch a Professor of Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University. (Hat Tip to the lovely MK!)

Watch it if you really want to understand what is going on with media consumption. (Not to mention your teenager or college student!)

A Vision of Students Today

TO’B