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  • 9.21.08 - Spike speaking at Blog World, Las Vegas

    Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Spike and currently 0 commenting.

    Speaker: Spike Jones

    Where: Las Vegas, NV

    Come on out to the biggest gathering of bloggers in the nation - Blog World and New Media Expo. Spike will be speaking in the following session:

    Women & Youth: The Ultimate Online Socializers - Where They Are & How to Reach Them
    Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008: 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM, 227
    BlogWorldExpo 2008, Entrepreneur Track

    Women have become one of the most active groups within the blogosphere, with 36.2 million of them participating in blogs weekly. They’ve also become one of the biggest drivers of the dollar, with online communities like BlogHer raising millions from venture capital firms like Kleiner and Venrock. This session will give an in-depth explanation of why women have become such online powerhouses and where they’re spending time online. Some of the details will surprise attendees—like the fact that 74% of paying online casual gamers are women—and knowing exactly how marketing to women is different from marketing to men will help drive the highly profitable female demographic to a site. The session will also review successful tactics used by popular sites and how to take the engagement bloggers get from women online out of the blogosphere.

  • Bloggers getting respect…sorta

    Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Steve and currently 3 commenting.

    CNN.com published an article about how bloggers are being given unprecedented access to the political conventions.  Over 120 were officially invited to the Democratic National Convention, and over 200 have passes to the Republican National Convention.  In addition, bloggers have found makeshift homes outside of the convention, with local entrepreneurs opening their doors and welcoming the business.

    This is all great news.  Everyday Joe has a voice.  Some Joe’s have better voices than others.  Sure.  But more people get to give their opinions before the national media and cable services have filtered down the soundbites.  Yay.  Seriously.

    But it all went awry with the last quote from the article….

    “(Mark) Brooks, a 51-year-old who describes himself as breaking the mold of what people might imagine as a typical blogger, making time to garden in the summer and spend time with his family. ‘I’m not blogging from my mother’s basement in my sweat pants eating Cheetos,’ he said.”

    YOU WERE SO CLOSE!!  Why…WHY?!?!?  You just got CNN to write a whole long article about how respected bloggers are…and you drop the Cheetos-bomb?

    Here’s a hint Mr. Atypical…when you’re a part of a movement, don’t stereotype other members of your movement!  This article is about the 1000+ bloggers who have unprecendented access to the most powerful political structures in the world…and with one single sentence, you brought your movement back down to the ground.

    Maybe I’m overreacting.  Maybe the folks at Techcrunch really are blogging from their mom’s basements eating Cheetos.  Maybe Jake McKee is balancing his laptop on his knee while spending all day in the mall food-court.  Or perhaps these are the true identities of Scott and Billy.  I don’t know.

    But I do know that blogging is changing the way we get information.  And there’s no need to disparage that.   The only purpose that serves is to make you look like your better than everyone else…which defeats the whole purpose of blogging.  Bloggers aren’t better than everyone else….THEY ARE EVERYONE ELSE!  That’s the point.  Yes they have more knowledge on certain topics, or have an intriguing writing style…but superiority should not be considered an attribute.  If we wanted to get information from someone who thought they were better than everyone else…well, let’s just say that cable TV has some options for us.   Got it?

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  • Contact us

    Posted on August 27th, 2008 by Spike and currently 8 commenting.

    I’ve had two conversations in the past two days that have revolved around two words: ‘Contact Us.’ Two little words that just about everyone has on their website. And probably the most under utilized part of that website as well. We’re looking at our own clunky ‘contact us’ option for the Brains on Fire website as well, so bear with me as I’m trying to wrap my head around it.

    So I’ve been on a search around the interwebs, and found a number of sites that basically want you to contact them only if you have a problem. In other words, the only communication that you might have with them after you buy their product or service is going to be when you’re in a bad mood. And that can’t be a good exchange.

    There are SO many tools these days to communicate on the internet. (Maybe even too much to choose from.) But before we go and start implementing the fancy, flavor-of-the-week ones, we need to hunker down and take a good hard look at the basics first. Even Brains on Fire. And believe me, I’m open to suggestions.

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  • Everything Changes

    Posted on August 26th, 2008 by Spike and currently 8 commenting.

    The Olympics are over. And there have been a lot of great stories told and many a great performance. Arguably, the best of these belongs to the appropriately named Usain Bolt who is the new owner of the ‘fastest man on earth’ title with an astounding 9.69 second 100-meter dash.

    An article this week in Wired points out that Bolt’s performance has defied the natural ‘curve’ of what biostatisticians have predicted. In other words, they expected humans to get faster, but they didn’t predict Bolt’s time until around 2030.

    And I tell you that to tell you this: Bolt is a game changer. Even his body type is unexpected for a sprinter. And nobody saw this coming. Everyone was just going on their merry way thinking about how things don’t change that much and BAM! 9.69 seconds.

    The business world isn’t all that different. Sure, the technologies are constantly changing, but I think we’ve been lulled into a ‘natural curve’ sort of thinking. Even with the rise of social media and word of mouth marketing, everyone is kinda getting used to the idea. And that’s usually when the next BAM! happens. It can be in the form of technology, but also in the form of a new business model. You know the ones I’m talking about. They are the Zappos of the world ” which is a very exclusive group. It’s not improving on something already out there. It’s inventing something beyond expectation.

    In other words, the point is no longer to simply beat the competition. It’s to completely change the game on them and leave them in the dust.

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  • Nuts and Bolts from South Africa - Part One

    Posted on August 25th, 2008 by Geno and currently 1 commenting.

    I just got back from a quick trip to South Africa…3 days on the ground and 2 days in the air. I really had reservations about this trip: the tight schedule, and to be honest, the crime news of late had me concerned a lot. But I felt obligated to go and I have friends there that always provide a jolt of creative culture.

    First, the conference: I had the privilege of being the keynote again for the Customer Management World Africa Conference 2008. The conference was MC’d by SA underground celeb Justin Nurse (Laugh It Off) of Cape Town. Justin is a chaos guy. He made a name for himself making SA parody T-shirts. His most famous headline was getting sued by South African Breweries (Miller) for his “Black Labour” and “White Guilt” T-shirts. (He won the lawsuit.)

    As far as my keynote goes, I think it went well. Lots of questions and thank God my topic was relevant. I really like the people of South Africa and the marketers are hard working folks trying to do the right thing. South Africa needs its brands and marketers to step up to the plate, because I’m not sure that the government can help the people.

    Things I heard from the audience

    Andrew Miller of Idea Engineers ROCKED. He shared with us some research archetypes as narrative videos from two groups of South Africans. The common thread from these videos was the set up to show that brands and marketers have to invest in South African society. Andrew’s line, “If our society is not sustainable, our business can’t be sustainable” was right on.

    The example he discussed I witnessed first hand. Driving in JoBurg is a frantic, chaotic experience and I was in the passenger seat. A “Pointsman” in SA is basically a traffic cop. The problem is, they are never where you need them. Step in OUTsurance and their media partner, Talk Radio 702.

    Basically OUTsurance has partnered with a media partner to make the roads safer for their insurance customers. The OUTsurance Pointsman ride motorcycles to specific intersections and help direct traffic (they go through training in the JoBurg traffic police academy). Then Talk Radio 702 gives live up-to-date traffic news from the Pointsman to help JoBurg citizens navigate brutal, and dangerous traffic. BRILLIANT. These Pointsman are heros and they make the brand the hero, too.

    South African businesses have to invest in society or their business will not be sustainable. It was exciting to listen to this energy of businesses talking in this way.

    It’s a Small World

    During the first conference break I had a wonderful surprise. Jacyln Venter, Fiskateer #1287, stopped by to say hello and a little photo op. It was great to chat with an international Fiskateer and hear about scrapbooking in South Africa.

    My next post I’ll recap my visit to Missing Link. Cheers.

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