Marketing

Where are online trading standards?

August 25, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Trading Standards is a UK institution which aims to enforce consumer protection with information, settling dispuates and issuing fines…

The reason they’ve come to mind is that my Twitter account contains the word ‘marketing’, so I appear to have attracted an inordinate amount of followers who claim to be internet marketing experts, mavens, network marketers and other such terms proclaiming their expertise.

The strange thing is that they appear to have misunderstood Twitter, and have decided to follow way more people than are following them.

And their linked webpage is normally a single page proclaiming their expertise and offering the chance to learn more by paying a small sum. A quick check reveals their page has a Google Page Rank of 0.

Now, I’m in no way an internet marketing expert, but I do think it’s slightly suspicious that someone who is able to teach you a way to be hugely successful and make large sums of money on the internet hasn’t found out how to give their page any authority, or use Twitter in the right way…

Hopefully most people who read my blog share my cynicism, but if not, do make sure you check easily accessible background evidence like Google PR, or Technorati rank etc before parting with cash for anyone who claims to know about marketing!

Almost everyone who I’ve had the pleasure of learning from will happily share for free via their blogs or websites in order to build up their real world authority to lead to opportunities of future employment – not try and sell you an ebook or dvd set. And those that do offer tuition tend to also back this up by sharing a lot of information for free, and having a website which has a legitimately large following, for instance, Problogger. (Note: Real experts are always honest about constantly learning more)

To save some time, here’s the real secret behind huge financial reward from internet success:

1. Have a really good idea.

2. Work really, really, really, really hard to make it a success.

3. Have a bit of luck.

4. If it still doesn’t work, have another good idea and go back to Step 1.

After 10 years of running websites, including for one of the biggest magazine publishers in the UK, I’ve yet to see anything which defies those rules and isn’t a scam in some way!

Sharing the music: The spread of the Web 2.0 rock stars

August 22, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Two months ago, my colleague David Cushman and I started compiling a list of ‘Web 2.0 rock stars‘. It was partly a bit of fun, but also to see if it might bring some attention to www.ditto.net (disclosure: Both David and I work at Bauer Media, who own Ditto, and know/work with the Ditto team). We also though it would be fun to see a public vote, rather than one created either by Google page rank, Technorati, or by a small group of people on an editorial team.

But there have been some really fascinating outcomes:

Being able to watch how people are using the voting tool on Ditto – some vote for their single favourite/some re-order the entire list.
Adding people that David and myself hadn’t encountered and discovering some cool people we might have missed. And we’re still adding more (Suggest someone/yourself in the comments, or email daniel dot thornton at bauermedia.co.uk)
And seeing how a list with minimal promotion (Mentioned only on this blog and Faster Future) has been picked up by lots of people, including several of the notables on the voting list.
And also turning it into a bit of a resource after David added videos to almost every rock star. It’s a good example of what the Ditto team are trying to achieve (You can see and hear one of the founders, Colin Kennedy via Dave’s writing on /Message)

So where did it spread to?

Blogs:

AFP Mediawatch

Doc Searls

Euan Semple

Joseph Jaffe

Jason Calacanis (in the comments of Rich Millington’s post)

Stowe Boyd (written by David Cushman)

Jonathan MacDonald

Wikinomics

Comments:

Shel Israel, Corvida, JP Rangaswami, Veronica Belmont and Doc Searls all appeared in my blog comments (which I suspect wouldn’t have otherwise happened!), or contacted me via Facebook. As did Jonathan Yarmis, Stephanie Frasco, Josh Bernoff, Brian Solis and The Kaiser via email. (Jonathan’s inclusion apparently made his mother very proud!)

And it also created even more debate and mentions on Twitter and Pownce:

ciaranj

enikao

technofeliz

j_mac

(At which point Twitter Search broke)

And despite a relatively ‘niche’ subject compared to ‘The Best Movies of All Time‘, it’s still ranking as one of the most popular lists on the site!

All this was possible for two reasons:

1. Cush, myself, and the Ditto team (Especially John!). Between the three of us, it probably took 1-2 days to have the list at the stage it is now.

2. The desire of people to discover, share, link and contribute. From the first post I made, people were contributing great suggestions (I forgot to include Cory Doctorow, for example) And even though no-one was taking it seriously with a title like ‘The Rock Stars of Web 2.0’, almost everyone was happy to be included, supply pictures, correct information, and link back (even if they were embarrassed to be included, eh Euan?). And it was a pleasant surprise to find a namecheck from Doc Searls today.

And none of this was broadcast to anyone. As David examines in more detail, we didn’t email anyone to publicise the list. We didn’t prepare a press release, or even use Bauer Media’s global brands. We both blogged and tweeted about it in an honest and fun way, and waited to see who discovered and contributed to it. And all the rest of it occurred naturally, as people self selected whether they wanted to be involved, and whether they wanted to encourage voting from others. It didn’t make Techcrunch or Slashdot, or the front page of Digg. And judging by the timing and tone of many of the posts, people were discovering it individually, and passing it around their social networks, but it hasn’t been bridging the gap across them as you might imagine. (See Slide 4 in Cush’s excellent presentation on the future of PR)

And the great thing is that it’s an ongoing thing. We’re still adding more and more people – and the voting never ends. Unfortunately submissions are via a slightly clunky ’email daniel dot thornton at bauermedia dot co dot uk with name, details and a headshot’ method but we’ll work to get everyone online as soon as is possible. Voting is rather slicker! At regular intervals we’ll keep everyone up to date with the results at the time, further learnings, and how we’re continuing to be surprised by the wonderful thing which is humans interacting.

Oh, and if you’ve contributed/suggest for the list, or allowed the use of your photo via Creative Commoncs, then many, many thanks. It’ll take me some time to list everyone that contributed via me, but I’ll happily list anyone as they remind me (or whinge in EaonP’s case!)

How social media can turn us into babies

August 19, 2008 By Dan Thornton

It’s been a long day, but one of the main things that has kept me going is my son. He’s just a few months old, and he’s at the stage where he’s just realised he has feet (and other body parts). Every so often he’ll look amazed as this thing on the end of his leg comes into his eye line, and he’s able to control it (with varying success!).

By the same token, I’m constantly fascinated by the unpredictability of social media marketing, and how making even small changes can have a big effect on whether something drives links, referrals or conversions. It’s something Malcolm Gladwell outlines in The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference. One of the case studies Howard Leventhal’s experiment by creating a ‘high fear’ and ‘low fear’ version of a booklet describing the benefits of tetanus shots for university students – although the ‘high fear’ group were more convinced about the benefits, they weren’t any more likely to get their shots done. Instead it was the inclusion of a timetable and a map showing where the university clinic was located that suddenly raised tetanus shots – a clinic most of the students would have already seen and walked past every day!

By the same token a small change in a headline or a phrase can have a big effect on how well an article does on one of the websites I work with – but even with website analytics, buzz monitoring, Google trends and a tinfoil hat to pick up brainwaves, there’s still an element of chance and surprise when dealing with humans!

And this isn’t about Neuro-linguistic Programming or trying to seduce or trick people – it’s about how to let people know something is available for them to use, share, or remix. To quote Mark Earls ‘forget doing stuff To folk; do stuff WITH them’. But doing stuff with them can be hard, particularly if you’re used to writing and interacting in a broadcast style, rather than a conversational one.

I still think things can be brilliantly written, and inspirationally presented, despite coming in at the same level as the people you’re trying to interact with. And that can be anything from Kevin Smith’s Clerks to Mike Leigh, or Robert Johnson, Christy Moore, and Bruce Springsteen.

That’s what makes the job fun, as we try and figure out how things are apparently connected, and how we can improve what we do to be more useful to others – and also makes us into toddlers as every time we think we’ve got the hang of it, our foot suddenly comes into view!

* Baby feet photo is by photosavvy on Flickr, and used under Creative Commons. If you think I’m waking my son up for a blog post when he’s finally napping, you’re very much mistaken!

Interesting questions for marketing

August 11, 2008 By Dan Thornton

My Bauer Media colleague Dave Cushman has raised some interesting questions in an excellent blog post: 17 lessons for the new marketing.

Hopefully he’ll forgive me for pointing out that as an ex sub-editor and production editor, blogging has had an effect on his spelling! Unless assetts is a clever pun!

He raises important questions about the purpose and value of content in the modern world. One which is navigated via Google, RSS, social networks, and chat. One in which it’s possible to find almost any information/content for free if you have the time. And Bill Drummond’s 17 project is definitely a good trigger for thinking about new ways to consider content.

I do disagree that having an almost infinite amount of music means it loses value – in terms of interest, and whether participating always gives rise to a richer experience than being part of an audience – even of one. As a musician, I’ve had some appalling times trying to play with groups of people – and I’ve had some superb times listening to recordings alone or with friends. And sites like Last.fm allow me to listen to far more music than I’d have encountered via broadcast media.

And in the modern world, long dead musicians are being remixed, reproduced, and mashed into new symphonies by people who weren’t even alive for the original recordings. It’s not about retreading the path of the minstrel back to the dark ages by dismissing recordings, but embracing the new ways of continues creation for a piece of content by new artists and new technologies.

Perhaps this is one of the most important lessons – and one which necessitates the move from broadcast. That of constant change. What may work for me at one moment can change within seconds, and the only person who will know that change has happened will be me. And that constant change is only made possible by broadcast technology (ever wondered by uploads are so much slower than downloads?) being re-purposed by the end user in the same way as radio gave rise to pirate stations, and video and digital TV gave rise to lo-fi film-making.

What we’re both striving for is a new outlook and way of doing things to ensure future relevance and success. David sums it up with his opening question for editorial/media types:

What do you do if you don’t have any content?

And points out how that leads to the likes of Google, Youtube, Wikipedia and Twitter. Interestingly only one of them is an undisputed financial success, but in terms of content, they have an almost infinite amount and yet create nothing except the context in which to access it all.

When asked about resourcing levels, I once heard someone say ‘Content will take care of itself’. I don’t believe that’s true. What I believe is that ‘Content will be created by itself – and it’s our opportunity to take care of it’. And that means the creation experience, the publishing experience, the marketing experience and the live experience. All things that traditional media companies have experience of doing, and could now begin to perform as a service, rather than an end in itself. After all, as David would say, we’re in an era of unfinished symphonies.

(And I’ve since learned that it applies to Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy:

“The percussion loop is the “belly break” sampled from a Bob James‘ cover of Paul Simon‘s “Take Me To The Mardi Gras” which was also used by Run DMC on ‘Peter Piper’. The voice at the beginning of the song is a sample of John McLaughlin“. – from Wikipedia.

Sometimes you see marketing everywhere…

July 29, 2008 By Dan Thornton

Sometimes it seems I do little other than see, hear, plan or produce marketing. Whether it’s a flyer through my door, an email in my inbox, or a message via a social network, I’m receiving a huge amount – and there’s even more via snail mail, TV, radio etc.

But sometimes something simple stands out, and this one made me chuckle. Today at work, I decided to go out to the smoking area at the back of the building, and on a low wall outside was a pile of 20 or so lighters, all branded with the name of a local pub. Underneath was a sign saying ‘Please take one’.

Either someone just wanted rid of a pile of lighters, or it was a reasonably simple targeting of the people most likely to actually need a lighter – especially now that smoking is banned in pubs in the UK!

In the midst of sophisticated marketing and targeting techniques utilising databases, touch points and insight, sometimes doing some simple and old-fashioned actually stands out.