Viral Marketing at Work
I saw the trailer for some mysterious movie or some sort of project — the trailer didn’t say what it was about. I got a sense it was for a Godzilla movie, but thats just my idea. Then I found this blog post.
The rumors began when a trailer appeared in front of the movie “Transformers†two weeks ago. The trailer is low-fi at best and depicts a house party in New York City that appears to be a going-away party for some guy we’ve never seen before (go here to see the trailer.). The party gets disturbed by an explosion and we then witness crowds of people running and some reference to a lion. The trailer is cool, and being something of a fan-boy myself, I am anxious to know what the project actually is, but the marketer in me is the one that’s really interested, because the fallout and the response is what I find to be of most interest (at least while I’m at work).
Sounds like their efforts are paying off! My interest was certainly VERY peaked. And I am blogging about it…
Abrams followed up with Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News with this posting (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33261) to leak some of what the public had already found. It appears that there are sites posted and hidden throughout the Web that are starting to build buzz without revealing what is going on. The sites are cryptic, such as http://www.1-18-08.com/ and they make no sense. Is this a movie? Is it a new TV show? Is this the “project†mentioned on his site with HBO? Rumors fly about a Voltron film and a new Godzilla film, and all of it is based on nothing more than what someone else might have said about it. Amazing!
Web 2.0 positive or negative for information available on the internet?
Via email:
In today’s Wall Street Journal “Reply All†section tech heavyweights David Weinberger, author of Everything Is Miscellaneous goes head to head with Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur in an intellectual fight for the ages. This battle, which took place through many grueling rounds of emails, debates whether Web 2.0 and the ability for everyone to become a journalist, filmmaker or musician is a positive or negative for information available on the internet.
The full text can be found at WSJ.com or a condensed “highlights†version can be found here.
Conference for Minority Journalists of Faith
I’ll be a guest panelist during the Conference for Minority Journalists of Faith this coming November 2-3, 2007. I believe the topic of the panel will be the power of blogging and internet writing. Should be a spirited discussion and a great learning experience. I learn a lot by engaging with the young aspiring journalists, as well as through conversations with the WJI faculty.
Here is what the conference is going to be about:
Working and aspiring minority journalists of faith will gather together for the annual World Journalism Institute weekend conference for minority journalists of faith in New York City at The King’s College in midtown Manhattan.
Those who attend will be encouraged and challenged to integrate their Christian faith and journalism practice in a fashion appropriate for today’s mainstream newsrooms. This unique conference provides an opportunity for meeting other like-minded journalists and learn from outstanding role models.
The two-day conference will be composed of lectures, seminars, media tours and fellowship.
You can get more information and send in your application (its competitive) right here.
What I'm reading this week…
I got this about a month ago, but since I’m done with school for the summer term, I decided to finish it up. Its a great book on crowdcasting. I’m already finding practical ideas on how to benefit from community involvement in my employer’s flagship website.
The Power of Blogging
As part of my role as Online Community Manager for my current employer (a political news and opinion website), I keep a regularly updated political commentary and blogging blog. This week, I had a bit of a success that illustrates the amazing power of blogging in today’s Internet information age.
I received some images from a source in Italy, who passed along pictures from inside Cuba. The post was picked up by two major political commentary blogs, sending me thousands of readers over a couple days. As a result of the strong attention, my post was also featured on my employer’s home page. The result: thousands of readers. The fact is you no longer have to be a writer for the NY Times or the Washington Post to share opinions, do investigative reporting, and uncover great stories. Blogging tools, right along side the many other great user-generated content tools like Flickr, YouTube, and more, have given individuals a medium through which to reach an immense audience.
A warning: If you build it, it does NOT mean the readers will automatically come. You have to work at it. One interesting thing I have learned is that blogging success is just as much about the relationships you build off-line. My blog post was linked by one of my co-workers, who’s writing has a following over at another well-trafficked blog. So, building real life networks of like-minded writers and bloggers can make a difference in a blog post story gaining momentum and buzz, and bring in more readers.
Now, this is not a regular thing. I certainly don’t put enough time and focus on my political blogging for this to happen often enough, but the point is that any regular person can do some research, foster online-relationships with distant contacts, and expose or highlight injustices worldwide.
In Business, Character Matters!
There is a real economic value to having managers and staff with moral character. There is also a real economic risk and cost of not being careful of who you hire. In business, if you want to ad another few percentage points to your profit margins, make sure your hires are qualified, but also make sure they are individuals of moral character. In business, character matters.
I don’t care about how much money a person has, or what family they grew up in if they fail to keep their word. If the words they speak fail to match their actions, they are bankrupt and not worth investing in. I’d prefer to work with a man rich in character and poor in cash any day.
Multitouch OS X video iPod coming?
I don’t usually follow Mac developments to closely, but this sounds like an interesting progress in regards to user interface.
During a private meeting last month, Apple’s traditionally tight-lipped chief executive Steve Jobs all but broke the silence onthe future of the video iPod. Speaking to employees at the Apple TownHall, he said a division of the company was hard at work onnext-generation iPods that, like iPhone, would run an embedded versionof the Mac OS X operating system.
This can have implications for the mobile telephony industry.
If it’s got wifi (hmm, and especially if I can add Skype), then I won’t need an iPhone.
HT: Wake Up!
How the presidential candidates are spending their media money
Its interesting to see the different strategies each candidate on both sides of the aisle is using.
Nielsen has published some fascinating details on how the presidential candidates are spending their media money and what kind of results they’re getting for it. MarketingCharts.com has the numbers;
I'm Hungry!
I’m working on my MBA, and that inevitably brings out questions about the future, about what I am passionate about, and about what I am working towards. Someone asked me this afternoon, “What are you passionate about?” Besides the non-profit work I do on the side, the truth is I’m not sure. One thing I do know — I’m hungry for learning! I’m passionate and get excited about any and all experiences that allow me to be stretched. I have greatly enjoyed all my employments where the boss(es) have invested in developing me. More than just training, I enjoy the mentorship process, the refining process, the polishing that happens when an experienced individual takes another less experienced professional with a lot of potential, and exploits it. Being able to look back and see that I was involved and contributed to a project in a new area for me, but that I was able to add value and use my skills and experiences is awesome!
I don’t think companies do mentorship much these days. I’m not sure why. It’s unfortunate.
Conversation by Design
Found a real cool slide over at SlideShare.net on blogging and user experience. Its titled, “Creating an effective and unique blog experience.” Check it out.
I was really struck by his statement on slide 25 & 26:
“Stop calling yourself a blogger. Bloggers are one-dimensional. People aren’t.”
So true. As technology changes right under our feet, how much does our vocabulary definitions evolve and change to our own detriment? Perhaps that term, blogger, never had the right “value” attributed to it, and less so now that blogging has become a stronger medium and communication tool.
