Here is a slide show of pics taken at the Freedom and Fashion show. Working on a full write up for Intersection (one of the partners for the event is a client) but in the meantime I wanted to get these pics up…
Marketing
A couple weeks ago I promised to share how I am able to do as much as I do. I was planning on focusing on productivity and technology, but I wanted to touch briefly on inspiration and motivation because these are the true reasons I pursue solutions to accomplish more.
Vision
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
The importance of vision, direction, purpose, goals, etc.cannot be overstated. Without a destination, even the most advanced navigation system is just a worthless box.
We have our Family Mission statement and my company has a vision. I am working on my personal vision as well.
Prioritize
Apple has about ten products and has a market cap the size of many competitors with hundreds of products.
Jesus worked on the Sabbath. When Jack Wench took over GE he sold or closed every business they had that was not either number one or had a good chance to be within a couple years.
Paul, at the end of his life, recognized he has put it all on the line, there was nothing left. He did not coast through his “retirement” years.
I try to make all my decisions based on the priorities spelled out in these vision statements.
Learn. A lot.
No one knows everything. Even if you are the exception to this rule, disruptive changes are happening in nearly every industry on earth right now.
The most prolific and accomplished people in history have always been the Renaissance men (and women of course). Individuals who dabbled in multiple disciplines, interact in multiple cultural contexts, engage with people even when they do not agree (especially when they don’t agree).
So that’s how I do it. How do you stay focused?
Love spending time with friends.
Check out this amazing video on the value of social media for your organization. I first saw it on Michael Hyatt’s site.
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Below is a presentation I gave at the Unleashing Beauty Conference in Irvine, Ca this last week. I have embedded my slide show and put my notes, expanded and with links to various websites and webapps mentioned through out. If your organization would like to talk about a more personalized solution lets set up a time to talk.
Unleashing Beauty Online: the power of social media for social justice
1. Welcome
A. Who Am I?
a. freelance marketer and social web developer for the last year and a half
b. in process of launching intersection creative strategies
c. site lead for laundry love santa ana
d. husband, father of 2 kids under 3
B. What we are not discussing
a. philosophical or theological implications of social media
b. philosophical or theological implications of social justice
c. politics
C. Presuppositions I am starting with
a. Social Justice is a good
b. Social Media is ok (moral, legal, ethical, permissible, etc.) for churches, NPO’s and NGO’s to use
c. Social Media is a powerful tool for influence
d. You are here to learn HOW to use social media for social justice (ie: not to debate these other items)
2. Format
A. Not So Great Examples
B. Great Examples
C. Practical Steps
D. The Vision
E. Q&A
3. Not so great examples
A. Motrin
B. Social Media Gurus
C. Ning communities (w/ some exceptions)
4. Great examples
a. Mark Horvath
b. Invisible People
c. Road Trip
d. Impact
B. Twestival
a. a quick mention
b. a simple website
c. a few well placed mentions
d. press, npo’s and gov’t notice
5. Practical
A. The Right Platforms
a. Website/Blog
b. Facebook
c. Twitter
d. Other
B. The Right Tools
1. Ping.FM
a. Status updates to 30+ sites
2. Posterous
a. blogs, pics, links to 10+ sites
3. TubeMogul
a. video to 40+ video sharing sites
4. Twitterfeed
a. posting of rss feeds through twitter or ping.fm
5. TweetDeck
a. multiple saved twitter searches
b. keep track of conversations on twitter, facebook, even myspace
c. multi account posting and listening
d. columns for keeping track of friends, family, best donors, etc
6. Other
a. niche sites, geographic specific sites, etc
C. The Right Content
1. relevant
a. to your topic
b. to your demographic
c. to YOU
2. funny
a. funny spreads fast
b. funny gets people talking
c. funny keeps people coming back even when the big picture is bleak (ie sex trafficking, gang violence, etc)
3. personal
4. unique
a. not found elsewhere
5. shared
a. point people towards orgs, links, articles that are interesting or useful in your space.
6. universal
a. low cost of entry. if you want to get people to rally around something, make sure it is something they can rally around. don’t ask them to agree to a set of theological or philosophical propositions to join your movement. Don’t make it cost too much. 6. Vision
A. Worldwide Scope
B. Little Regulation
C. Little Cost of Entry
D. Viral Potential
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I had a chance see the guys from Bidwell last week as they closed out their tour at the Glasshouse in Pomona, California. Afterwards, Brian Valdez from Guerilla Union was gracious enough to take us to their offices and studio, give us a tour and let us shoot an interview in their studio.
We talked about the changing social media landscape as more and more options present themselves and how their band is adapting to be able to operate in a world no longer ruled by Myspace. While many tech and marketing sites say that they are already down and out, it seems no one has an alternative platform for bands and concert promoters with any momentum, but as many users do start to spend more time on other sites, smart marketers will adapt. And that is just what Bidwell is doing.
Bear in mind this was shot way after my bedtime. It was fun hanging out with rockstars (or folks without young kids for that matter).
*Disclosure: I am an advisor to North Star Media Group, Bidwell’s current management
Whenever I go to a nice restaurant and have to use the restroom I am usually impressed at how nice, clean and well decorated it is. They put a lot of thought into making sure it is stocked, well appointed and fits in with the decor of the dining area. Oddly, folks rarely spend more than an hour or two at a restaurant. 
As a freelancer with two young children, I do a lot of work at coffee houses, often spending the better part of a day nursing a cup or two of coffee. They are great environments. Coffee shops tend to have great artwork, creative design, good music, lots of outlets, quick wi-fi and overall just seem tailored towards coworking with others.
But one thing always has bothered me. Their restrooms always look like they belong in a fast food joint or truck stop. One of my favorite shops holds large portions of the toilet together with packing tape. In general coffee shop restrooms are often understocked and show signs of water damage (a generalization only backed up by the fact that I visit several a week in a variety of areas ranging from rich to poor).
The reason I bring this up, is that while they tend to really try to attract folks to come in and hang out and drink their wonderful beverage with strong laxative and diuretic properties and yet do not consider how that experience impacts the overall environment.
I mean, really while I may go to a restroom at a restaurant or I may not, I always go at least once sometimes twice at the coffee shop. I alway try to put it off because it is unpleasant. At some restaurants folks come out of the restroom and tell their friends to go check it out!!! Now thats an experience.
So, why in the world am I talking about the CRAPPER so much?
What does you overall web presence look like? Are their parts that are unattractive, unpleasant?
Do you view certain technologies as after thoughts like the coffee shops appear to view their restroom?
How can you turn your gross bathroom into a place folks tell their friends about and want to check out as oppose to avoid?
Over the next several weeks I will be posting much less rambling abstract thoughts regarding the Idea Camp, but wanted to let you know why I threw out so many tweets about this great unconference.
Also, for those who could not be there, there is a Vimeo channel up with videos being added every day.
1. There was only one traditional presentation the whole time and it was one given at TED a few weeks ago, so who could complain? The rest was all interview and Q&A in the main sessions. This made the focus more on ideas than on hero worship. Difficult to do when you are sitting a few feet away from some serious thought leaders in various fields. Also made presentations more honest, raw and authentic. Very few canned speeches.
2. By bringing together a lot of leaders from different fields it pushed people out of there comfort zone. Watch the video with Dave Gibbons interviewing John Park from Google and Maxim Karp (sp?) from Yang Dang. I went out with a lot of pastors after that talk. There minds were all blown.
When you bring together interdisciplinary thought leaders the potential for Medici effect type moments is huge. Would have liked to see more business leaders represented but social entrepreneurs, church leaders and non profit leaders is already pretty broad. Especially when most conferences only provide one of those and no breadth within a given category.
There were engineers, marketers, producers, pastors, consultants, non profit executives, artists, entrepreneurs, and all sorts of other people. Oh yeah, they even let me show up.
3. The huge focus on ideas and implementation made everything super practical and actionable. No esoteric “what ifs” or “if only’s” or idealistic theory.
4. It was affordable. Often times a conference will cater to learners who are virtually identical to the presenters. By putting successful folks on stage and allowing the Not-quite-there-yet’s to come in (by virtue of low cost of entry) it opened the doors for a lot of folks who may not have gone to a typical progressive thought conference in any one of the many fields represented.
5. It was extremely open. Text in questions all throughout. All presenters were out and about during the whole conference. I got to hit the water fountain with Scott Harrison (Charity: Water). Spencer Burke parked next to me in the parking lot. Zack Hunter checked in with his mom (who is a kind of a big deal in her own right) while I was talking to her in the hall. There were no false gods at this conference. Everyone there was there to learn, help, network, innovate.
I would love to talk more as I decompress and get in touch with all the great folks I met and promised some time to this weekend. If you went to the conference let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you have a favorite conference you have been to let me know that too. What makes it special?
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Close your eyes and visualize your customers using your product or service. What do you see? How do you feel? Can you do it?
What I see with many of my clients is that an exercise like this just feels funny and they are not able to really know what their customers think and feel in their day to day life. What does your product mean to their life? Does it change it? Make it easier?
By learning the answers to these questions we are able to not only focus our marketing message, but also improve upon that crucial customer experience. If your product or service is EXACTLY what your customer needs or wants, then you no longer have a customer, but a Fan and Evangelist.
Of course, the question becomes, HOW???
The answer is fairly simple. Listen, engage, repeat.
Use the tools that are available today. Try out the new ones. Find ways to make THE CONVERSATION part of your daily routine. There are far too many tools to list here today (although I have one in the works), but here is what I use.
Listening
Google Reader, Twollow, Social Too, Tweet Deck, Twitter Hawk, Friend Feed, Google Alerts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace (one of my clients in largely focused in the indie music scene),
Engage
Tweet Deck, Twitter Hawk, Social Too, Facebook, Twitter Search, GMail, Comments, Blogging, Phone (I’m a dinosaur, I know), Skype (less and less lately with the advent of…), TokBox.
You will see quite a bit of overlap between the two lists as many of these tools are more like places than tools. When using Twitter, you can be a fly on the wall and watch the conversation, or actively engage in it.
When your customers start knowing you personally they become friends. When they start to love your product or service they become fans.
What do you use to engage the crowd? When was the last time you made a change to your service based on a Facebook post? Would you consider your customers friends? Does your business have any fans?
***Update: Sol actually saw this post and emailed me a quick note***
I like 12 Seconds. I use it, though not as much as I would like. My schedule does not permit me to spend much time doing things online that are fun and I have yet to find a great business use for it, although, others have. All this to say, when my second son was born in January, I went off the grid with regards to video updates.
So when I saw an email from 12 Seconds, I assumed it was just their newsletter and almost did not open it. When I did get around to it though, I was shocked to find a personal email from Sol, one of the founders. As you can see from below he corresponded back and forth about family, time constraints and of course, 12 Seconds. My replies are in italics.
Hello!
I’m Sol, one of the founders of 12seconds. I’m reaching out to you personally because we noticed you haven’t posted on 12seconds in a while. I wanted to encourage you to try out the service if you haven’t in a while because we’ve launched a ton of new features and are now in Beta. The community has grown quite a bit and it continues to be a really special place where people share thoughts, memories and those 12seconds of life that make it beautiful.
Regardless, I appreciate your interest in 12seconds and want you to email me directly if you had any technical problems or if there’s a way we can improve the service. Your participation in our community is incredibly important to us.
This is not a bot and I return every email so please feel free to ping me at any time.
Thanks!Sol
–Sol Lipman
Founder, 12seconds.tv
sol@12seconds.tvfollow me on 12seconds!
http://12seconds.tv/channel/sol
follow me on Twitter!
http://twitter.com/thesolster
This e-mail was sent to you from 12seconds.tv because you have an account registered with this e-mail address on our website. Should you wish to delete your account or remove yourself from our mailing list, please do so at http://12seconds.tv/mail_remove.php.
Hey Sol,
Thanks a ton for reaching out. That is so freakin’ cool that you take the time to do that.
Love 12 seconds and want to get back into it, just been crazy busy lately. Wifey just had a baby and we have a toddler already. She is still super exhausted and having trouble lifting the toddler. Keeps me from being too involved.
Would you mind if I posted the contents of your email in a blog post about how incredibly awesome Sol and 12 Seconds are?
Hey Scott,
You’re more than welcome to post the contents of our correspondence. I know what it’s like to have a toddler – I have a 10 month old right now! It is very tough on our wives, isn’t it?
Hope you’re well and feel free to come back on 12seconds when you have time.
Thanks for writing me back,
Sol
Congrats on the kid. Mine are 2 weeks and 2 years.
Send you a 12 second video with them on it soon.
So what can we learn?
First, exceptional customer service gets real marketing results results. Between my blog, twitter, facebook, linked in, etc. I have around 3000 readers, mostly who are early tech. and social media adopters (ie. likely 12 Second users). By reaching out for customer service, Sol is receiving targeted, free, unsolicited marketing.
Second, he is positioning himself as an approachable, real person. His staff and the public will grow to appreciate this as the company grows. No one wants to work with or for a primadonna.
So go ahead and forward this post on to your friends and tell them how cool Sol, 12 Seconds, and GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE is. And while your at it let me know if you have used 12 Seconds for fun or work and what you think.
