Can a broken arm kill Jim’s love for technology and social media? Stay tuned:
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Loyal listeners of The Hopkinson Report know a few things about me:
- I never miss a week (once in the last 118 episodes)
- I love technology, being online and all things social media
- I love mountain biking (I compared the ‘flow’ of biking to a business in Episode 113)
So when I was away for the first part of my vacation while mountain biking some epic trails in Seattle, the capable Brandon Werner filled in. But then the unexpected struck when I came back to the east coast to go biking in the rocky trails of the Pocono mountains.
Photo: Happier, 2-armed times near Seattle just days before my crash
Do you believe in social media karma? No less than SEVENTY-FOUR different people wished me happy birthday on Thursday August 19th. It was great. Everyone was so happy, and people wished me the greatest day of the year!
Well, as fate would have it, my upper arm (distal humerus) would face a 3-foot high karma boulder head-on. And lose. Badly.
The next week turned into a whirlwind of hospitals, travel, surgery, second opinions, friends, family, pain, insurance red tape, and frustration before finally making it back to NYC.
My friends said that I would somehow find a way to link my broken arm to social media.
In truth? I went the opposite way.
What did NOT matter in that week, was twitter, foursquare, facebook, marketing, viral videos, podcasts, and blog posts.
What DID matter, was family, friends, coworkers, communication and old school doctors screwing a piece of metal into me to put me back together.
I will say this:
- Text updates were great for quick communication
- Facebook is a great way to post gross photos
- E-mail is a good way to tell a story once to many people (helpful with one arm)
- The iPad is a great way to kill 3 painful hours on a train
However, all this is nothing without a real world network.
On this special edition of The Hopkinson Report, Jim is on vacation, so I, Brandon Werner (Intern 1.0 for long time The Hopkinson Report listeners) guest-hosts. I explain why Social Media is the new dividing factor between Generation Y and their Baby Boomer parents.
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On Hopkinson Report Episode 102, Jim interviewed me on my research on my generation, the millennial AKA Generation Y. This group is also called the echo-boom, as they are the children of the famous Baby Boomers. Since recording that episode, I had a revelation that will be the topic of this episode.
When I was a child, I remember my parents (baby boomers/teens of the 60′s and 70′s) used to tell me stories of how their parents “just didn’t get it”. Their formative teenage years were filled with Woodstock, the anti-Vietnam movement, Nixon… These were the years of Rock ‘N Roll and there was a sharp divide between the baby boomers and their “Greatest Generation” parents.
Through my teenage years, I never really felt that level of misunderstanding between my parents and I. In fact, my parents “got-it” almost too well. I wanted to learn drums and be in a band, my dad taught me how to do it from his own experiences, If I tried to dye my hair, my mom would show me how. The classic parent/son anti-piercing or tattoo fight? They actually encouraged them (so I didn’t really have any drive to get them). I would say I wanted to go to a Green Day concert, and my dad would ask to come with me.
From talking to my friends, this is pretty standard. Where was our rebellion or revolution? Where was our Rock ‘N Roll? Recently, after a few failed attempts to communicate exactly what I do for a living, I think I found it. Our Rock ‘N Roll is Social Media.
A new movie about Facebook is coming out this fall called The Social Network. I give you 7 reasons why I think it will be a huge success.
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Today in the podcast I talk about the 7 reasons people with “LIKE” the Facebook movie. Get it? Like??? Luckily, the rest of the podcast is not that cheesy. Here is the outline of topics I cover:
1) A built-in audience of 500 million fans
With just the sheer number of people ON Facebook, how can this thing NOT make money? It was announced July 21 that Facebook had officially passed Five Hundred Million worldwide users.
Jim’s guest is Deanna Zandt, author of a social media book. They talk about how she got a book deal, raised money to fund it, and how she got free pizza.
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Deanna Zandt is the author of the new book, “Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking” which you can find out more about at her website, DeannaZandt.com.
During our interview, we talk about the following topics:
- How the former corporate employee and self-proclaimed ‘webmonkey’ went from independent consultant to author
- The process she took to turn her training seminars into a book idea
- The “Jedi Mind Trick” philosophy her publisher uses, and how she used “the force” of social media to raise funds in order to work on her book
- How she used crowdsourcing on everything from the title to the cover — and how people reacted to it
- The free software program she used to dramatically ramp up her productivity during the writing process
And yes, she explains how she scored a free eye exam and free pizza along the way.
With privacy concerns escalating and new players entering the space, is it the beginning of the end for Facebook?
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I’m just sayin
Listen, the mighty behemoth that is Facebook is probably doing just fine. They’ve got us sucked in like lemmings, with upwards of 500 million people on the service checking email, uploading photos, finding old friends, and tending virtual farms.
But it’s been a rough month, and I’m sure young Mark Zuckerberg has aged a little as his company has been tossed about in full public view recently. I’m not saying he’s going to have a few gray hairs, after all, he did just turn 26 on May 14. But maybe he feels like a 29 year old or something.
On Wired alone, the stories have been flowing, showing the progression of events:
Today on The Hopkinson Report: Everybody Gets a Trophy!
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I talk with former Wired Intern 1.0 Brandon Werner (pictured above) of The Modern Day Pirates about how engaging with different generations is changing, specifically that notoriously difficult market of 18-30 year olds, known to many as Millennials or Generation Y.
In this corner, Jim, the Gen X archetype. In the blue trunks, Brandon, paragon of all things that represent Gen Y.
How does a company turn their email file into a list of powerful social media influencers? They go to Flowtown.
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Podcast Episode 101 is an interview I did at SXSW with Ethan Bloch of Flowtown.com, a service that turns email addresses into social profiles. After discussing the best way to survive the festival on no sleep and Green Tea, Jim gets down to business to find out Ethan’s story.
Topics covered: About Ethan
- Ethan’s amazing start as an entrepreneur, importing video game components and driving $13,000 worth of revenue — at age 13!
- How marketing, finance, and technology have been the three pillars of his career thus far
- His move to San Francisco, subsequent job loss, and founding of a new business
About Flowtown
- A platform that allows businesses to connect with their customers
- Starting with their email list, Flowtown generates a list of the social networks their customer base is on, allowing them to write better posts, send better tweets, and more easily target their customers
- Not only does Flowtown return age, gender, networks, and the top 50 locations, but it then creates a sort of “iTunes Smartlist for Marketers,” showing the top 50 influencers that really move the needle
The Marketing Angle
- What is Flowtown’s approach to marketing their business?
- Where does Flowtown get their customers?
- Is all this a good thing? What about user’s personal information being exposed?
- Is email dead?
Advice for Startups
- What are the challenges of being a startup?
- What is the main advantages of being a small company?
- How the “lean startup” process enables them to make quick advances in technology
- Lessons learned through a failed project, which led to 3,500 new customers on their next project
Try it yourself
Check out flowtown.com and enter your e-mail address (it’s not stored) to find out which networks you’re on.
In this episode of The Hopkinson Report, Jim talks with Brendan McManus of Wildfire. The Wildfire guys have developed a streamlined, cost-efficient, and user-friendly way of integrating promotions into Facebook fan pages.
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The numbers are overwhelming…
- Facebook has 400 million users and just keeps growing
- Users are joining at least 4 fan pages every month
- Traffic from Facebook to websites is increasing
Jim Hopkinson: Alright, I’m sitting here in Wired’s New York City office with Mitch Joel. Mitch is President of Twist Image, an award winning digital marketing and communications agency. He’s also a blogger, a podcaster, a passionate entrepreneur, and speaker, who connects with people worldwide by sharing his marketing insights on digital and personal branding. Marketing Magazine dubbed him the ‘Rock Star of Digital Marketing’, and called him one of North America’s leading digital visionaries. And, in 2008, Mitch was named Canada’s most influential male on social media, one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, and was awarded the highly prestigious ‘Canada’s Top 40, Under 40.’ And as of this week, he has another title to add. So, welcome, Mitch.
Mitch Joel: Hey man, thanks.
JH: So, what would you consider your primary job, are you the owner of an agency, a speaker, a blogger, or as of this week, an author?
MJ: My friend, Chris Brogan, who’s got chrisbrogan.com and Trust Agency, says I’m a typist, is what he says [chuckles]. No, I’m actually, definitely a digital marketing agency owner. I’ve got three partners, we have offices in Toronto, Montreal, we have about 90 employees, and I really consider what I do fundamentally, marketing. I definitely use these other cool channels to build and promote the business in a very non-pitching way, but, I consider myself a marketer, at heart.
JH: So, you have the agency, and then all these other things you do kind of help you represent the agency?
MJ: Yeah, people are really shocked to hear about, but like anytime I speak, or the book advance that I got, goes right back into the agency; I don’t take my own cut out of it. When I was teaching digital courses, all that money went into the agency. I really am trying to build the business, after years of being both an entrepreneur and working for companies, I consider myself a rottweiler – this is mine, and I’m not letting go.
And, so, I just sort of look at it as I use a lot of these channels to communicate and connect to people in a very, very non-pushy or salesy way. I’m trying also to build the industry, the interactive world that we live in. And, it’s crazy! You’ve got traditional advertising will account for 90% of the budget, compared to interactive, which is like 10% – on a good day, it’s 10%. And, so, I really do see myself a little bit as an evangelist, a person who likes to go out there and speak to small and big groups about the importance of thinking differently about marketing in this day and age. Because, I’m really on a kick lately, that I think marketers are being highly irresponsible in this marketplace.
Hopkinson Report interview with Blogger, Podcaster, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Author, Marketing Guru Mitch Joel.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
What does Mitch Joel have that almost every other “social media expert” doesn’t have?
Well, to answer that question, we have to look at the things that Mitch does have:
- He is certainly a great interview
While my Julia Allison interview is still my most downloaded episode ever, Saul Colt is the smartest man in the world, and my talk with Sarah Prevette confirmed she is the very definition of Malcolm Gladwell’s “connector,” my conversation with Mitch was one of the most engaging and interesting talks on the current state of internet marketing I’ve had to date.
- He certainly has a great background
How many other people started out as a music journalist with their first assignment ever being an interview with Tommy Lee from Motley Crue?
- He certainly has the new media resume to back up what he has to say
Considering he owns his own digital marketing agency called Twist Image, has been blogging since 2003 (which is why we discussed consistency over relevance), and also does a podcast.
- He certainly has a unique perspective on book publishing
Why did he go through a traditional publisher with his new book, Six Pixels of Separation? When I asked him if he thought about self-publishing with any of the new and impressive tools that are available, or distributing the book as a PDF or some other form, he said no. Why was that? He was writing a book for people that read books!
It seems quite obvious, but if some is dialed in and is already reading his work online via his blog and listening to his podcast digitally, they’re already aware of him. This is for the guy browsing in Barnes & Noble or running through the airport that wants a marketing book and has never heard of him. And get this, he ENJOYED the book writing process. Not many authors will tell you that.
- He certainly fits the modern geek profile
We discuss the tools of the modern road warrior, the pros and cons of SSD vs traditional hard drives, laptop choices and key features in laser pointers. You can see the list of geek electronics via “What’s in his bag.”
- OK, so what about public speaking?
Mitch is an accomplished speaker, having presented to Starbucks and Microsoft, sharing a stage with people ranging from Bill Clinton to Dr. Phil, and drawing from his arsenal of thousands of slides to wow any audience.
Maybe you’re an expert in your field as well, and want to do more speaking, or teach a class, or be on a panel.
- So what is the thing that Mitch has that nearly every other potential speaker is missing?
Answer: A “speaker’s page” … basically a bio page on your website that has some or all of the following elements:
- Bio section (or link to your full “About” page) that tells who you are
- List of places that you have spoken before
- Video examples of your speeches
- List of topics that you present on within your realm of expertise
- Testimonials from people that you have spoken with before
- A way to get in touch with you
Wow, that was obvious, right? But think about it… without all these elements, how can a company or conference have any confidence that you are a prepared professional that can pull this off? It’s like a resume for your public speaking persona.
I see this as a huge opportunity for people looking to get into this field, raise their profile, or try to generate additional revenue.
1) Fear of public speaking is right up there with fear of snakes and fear of dying. If you LIKE public speaking, you are ahead of 90% of the game.
2) A lot of people are bad at public speaking. If you practice, can weave a good story, and are prepared, you jump ahead of all of those people.
3) If you can put it all together and demonstrate to a potential company or conference that you can do this through a speakers page when no one else is, that should put you to the top of the list.
Mitch goes on to talk about several other great tactics, including books to read and gadgets to use.
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What does Mitch Joel have that almost every other “social media expert” doesn’t have?