If there are two other words that best describe internet marketing in the last few years, I don’t know what they are. As a marketing guy at Wired.com, I must come across that term 100 times a week. Maybe 1,000.
It’s not shocking that I’m immersed in social media because I’m directly dealing with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and reddit.
It’s not surprising when I read about strategies that 5 person tech startups, apartment-based entrepreneurs, digital ad agencies, and veteran web-based companies are rolling out.
But what I really find fascinating is when non-traditional companies embrace — and dominate — social media.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
I think about some of the random companies that really ‘get’ social media, and when you think about it objectively, it can actually be amusing. What if you did this quiz just 2 years ago, before the Twitter explosion, asking people who they thought would have millions of followers.
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.
If the first half of 2009 was spent telling the world how to use Twitter, the second half might be them telling you that you can’t use it.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
As you can imagine, it’s not always easy being a diehard Boston Red Sox fan living in New York City. My passion for the team has come down from it’s astronomic levels after they ended the 86 year drought without a championship back in 2004 . Since then it hasn’t been do-or-die in my life, and things are made easy with a fantastic Red Sox bar just a block from my apartment.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t take the opportunity to venture into the Bronx to see my team play in person when the opportunity arises, and so I found myself at the new Yankee Stadium in early August. How would I classify the new ballpark? To be honest, it really just seems like a newer, larger version of the old one. It has better seats, wider aisles, better concession stands, an enormous screen in the outfield, more opportunities for marketing, and is all-around more luxurious than the last park.
The one thing I noticed it didn’t have, was Wi-Fi. Also worth noting was pretty terrible service from AT&T. A strong 3G connection would have been nice. For some reason, even no connection would somehow be understandable (too much concrete or something). But to have INTERMITTENT, slow service was very frustrating. Sometimes you could get to the web, sometimes not. Sometimes you could check e-mail, sometimes not. Sometimes on 3G, sometimes on Edge.
Building a well-connected network takes time and effort, but if you have fun along the way, it could make your life a lot easier.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Hey everyone, pull up a chair. In fact, fill out a nametag, introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you, and tell us what you do. This episode is about one of the single most important skills you can learn in life: Networking.
As always, I was out on a run to figure out this week’s topic. I’m usually a morning runner, but this week found me gliding down the edge of Manhattan’s East River at dusk on a summer Sunday. They’ve done a great job landscaping and carving out areas and installing benches and tables for people to relax and take in the view, and I saw two older women sitting and chatting at one of the tables.
Two things struck me. First, they had brought their own bottle of Merlot and were drinking from wine glasses, and second, they had brought their own tablecloth to put over the standard issue, bolted-into-the-sidewalk table.
Have you ever dreamed of ditching the corporate world in order to open a small business in a rural town? Can big city marketing experience translate to a small town coffee shop? Lets look at someone that did it.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Over the 4th of July weekend, I escaped the hustle and bustle of Manhattan to relax a few hours away in a small town in upstate New York. It was a big day for a college friend of mine, who was marking her full exit from the corporate world with the opening of a little coffee shop cafe on Main Street, USA.
She has actually made a pretty linear progression in her marketing career, one that many people might admire and aspire to.
Need a website? This week I interview the guys behind Squarespace.com, an online web page publisher that powers websites for businesses, bloggers, and professionals worldwide.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
Squarespace.com lets you build your own website from scratch with an elegant, easy-to-use interface. As I always try to do, I put the product through the paces to evaluate it myself.
Look, even though millions of people figured out how to register a domain name on GoDaddy.com, that they can create their own site on places like Tumblr, and can post a YouTube video to their blog by pasting an embed code, that doesn’t mean it’s going to look like a professionally-designed web page.
If that were the case, why do people constantly still ask me to help them set up a website? And even though there’s something as seemingly simple as a 1-click install with WordPress, why does my web consultant friend John have more clients than he can handle?
The Economy. The White House. The Auto Industry. The Internet. The world is in a massive state of change right now, and I got to listen to the business people that are leading us through this change. Let’s find out what I learned.
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
The quotes just kept on coming.
I was manning the WiredBiz Twitter account at their Disruptive Business Conference in New York City on June 15, 2009, and Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos was being interviewed by Wired writer Steven Levy. As fast as I could type, Bezos would answer nearly each and every question with the perfect sound bite. He was the God of Quotations.
How did he make it look so easy?
Sure, fifteen years of media training will certainly make any executive a lot smoother than the average marketing manager giving a “How to Use Twitter” presentation to their department’s VP. But somehow every response answered the interviewer’s question, was effortlessly weaved into a conversational format, yet stood on it’s own as a how-to guide for entrepreneurs.
Bezos was once described by Condé Nast’s Portfolio.com, as “at once a happy-go-lucky mogul and a notorious micromanager … an executive who wants to know about everything from contract minutiae to how he is quoted in all Amazon press releases.” And that assertion seemed accurate.
If you’ve been to a bar lately, you’ve probably been asked, “Hey, what are you drinking?” But have you ever really taken the time to think about your answer?
Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:
It was a sunny Sunday in New York City this past weekend, and as I watched the people of Manhattan leisurely go about their day, I had to wonder how many of them were a little hung-over, just like me.
A few glasses of great wine over Saturday night dinner with friends led to a few more at an outdoor garden, and my friend and I started talking to a couple we just met. When the waitress came over and asked what he wanted to drink, the husband — a neurosurgeon no less – asked for something “different and exotic.”
Without skipping a beat, the server came back with an orange colored concoction in a martini glass, to which she then floated something in it and lit it on fire. Everyone was happy… the man who got his wish, the onlookers in the back garden, and the waitress who later got him to order a second one, at $14 a pop.
His wife was much more direct. Her drink was straight and to the point: Ketel One and tonic, on the rocks, with a lime. Bang. Done.
Hey, it’s the 1 year anniversary of The Hopkinson Report! So what’s my secret? Either delve into a topic that you’re really really into, or meet and interview people doing very cool things. As a car geek, I spent 4 hours at the New York Auto Show. So in a testament to my very first episode, the Porsche vs. the iPhone, I’m going to talk about cars, and marketing.
First let’s set the scene… The New York Auto Show is a massive production, a popular trade show that takes place at the Javits Center in Manhattan for up to 12 hours a day over the course of 10 days. Saturday April 11 brought pouring rain to New York City, making it the perfect day to be inside but do something fun. After sufficient food and caffeination, I descended into the belly of the beast.
The crowd was extremely diverse. There were plenty of 30-something white guys like me ogling the latest Porsches, families of 5 climbing in and out of minivans, and gangly teenagers with newly-minted driver’s licenses in the Fast and Furious demo talking tiptronic transmissions.
I also spotted a few secretly giddy Dads that probably implied to their wives that it would be a big chore to lug the boy to the show. Later on, he would ruin his 8-year-old son for the next 50 years by sitting him in the driver’s seat of a $100,000 Mercedes convertible, not realizing he had planted a seed in the kids brain and that he wouldn’t actually get to OWN that car until he was nearing retirement.
But with a fun, free-for-all atmosphere where everyone there patiently followed the car show etiquette of taking turns getting to sit in most any car they wanted, and without the normal stress of a used car salesman in a bad suit hovering over you, it was bliss for a car geek.
Are the new breed of netbooks the real deal or marketing hype?
In last week’s podcast and blog post, I laid out a dilemma for the gadget-obsessed. The Amazon Kindle 2 and a slew of mini notebook computers – or netbooks – have entered the market in the last year or so at a price point of $350.
Is either, or both of them, worth the tech investment?
Play Episode as a Podcast (recommended):
The price point of $350 is very interesting, especially in these times. For a lot of people, if there’s a gadget you need for $40 or less, such as a thumb drive, a new set of earbuds, or a case for your iPhone, most likely you’ll grab it as an impulse buy because it will make you happy or more efficient.
If there’s something over $400, like a new TV, a new Macbook, or a video console system and a few games, then it becomes more discretionary and something you put off until you have the budget for it. Or at least that’s how it you SHOULD look at it.
Do I? In looking back at my major geek purchases over the last 18 months, it turns out I’ve been remarkably consistent in my upgrade pattern. Let’s take a look:
Frankly, this analysis is rather stunning. I’m almost ashamed. Three to four years???
![[del.icio.us]](http://thehopkinsonreport.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://thehopkinsonreport.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://thehopkinsonreport.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Reddit]](http://thehopkinsonreport.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://thehopkinsonreport.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
What does Mitch Joel have that almost every other “social media expert” doesn’t have?
