Over the weekend of November 11th, I experienced what seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime trip. I was fortunate to be chosen as one of several “new media influencers” to try out a new service called “Lux Delux.”
But in reality, treating yourself to an amazing experience filled with top of the line customer service doesn’t have to be once-in-a-lifetime; Lux Delux aims to be the chosen service for anyone that wants this experience throughout the year.
SETTING THE SCENE
Location: Where else but Vegas, baby? When you’re talking over-the-top entertainment and anything goes, Las Vegas has to be one of the top destinations in the world. Our specific destination in the desert? The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. I had never stayed there before and it didn’t disappoint.
The Hosts: Out hosts for the weekend were Lux Delux founder Andy Hsieh, social media guru Helen Todd, and a team of “Luxierges” making sure that everything went according to plan.
The Speakers: Special guest speakers from Facebook, Foursquare, and the co-creator of Farmville.
*** UPDATE 11/6/11 ***
Good news, Hopkinson Report fans!
I have been told that I WILL be able to maintain control of past, present and future content for The Hopkinson Report. This is great news for me and I sincerely appreciate Conde Nast understanding the depth of personal commitment I put into this blog and podcast for the last 3+ years.
So what does that mean moving forward?
Well, now that I will be pursuing a freelance career of speaking, teaching, and writing, I am going to take a moment to step back and see where this blog and podcast fits in with my overall goals. I would love to get reader feedback. Here’s where I think I am so far:
Previous Content
- All of the 175 episodes will remain as an archive. One thing that I had wanted to do for some time, which will become a nice project for me, is to create a system both for new users arriving at the site, and for all users to get to past projects.
Facebook continues to be the social media giant. It’s funny to look back at Episode 105 eighteen months ago back in May 2010 when I wondered whether recent privacy events could signal the fall of Facebook, and I went through 7 reasons the mighty giant might fail.
Needless to say, they’ve recovered from some of the issues I posed, including privacy concerns and revenue generation. In fact, the New York Times and Wired ran a stories about a group of students that were taking on Facebook with a new product called Diaspora, and it gained some pretty good buzz.
Where are we 18 months later? Well, Diaspora seems to be in alpha release still and in retrospect, was just a tiny fly on the back of a Rhino. And that Rhino would be Google Plus, which Facebook seems to be going head-to-head with and still winning.
Of course by now if you’re a brand, you have already have a robust Facebook page. You’ve updated some graphics, built up your following, and have widgets on your website to drive people to Like you on Facebook.
But now that you have fans on Facebook, how do you engage with your audience?
Eventbrite is a simple but powerful tool to manage, promote, and sell out your event. I’ve used it in the past and can attest that it takes the process of planning an event — be it a class, a meetup group, a yoga retreat, or a concert — and makes it simple and professional.
As a user, the interface is clear and easy to understand, and makes it feel like you are buying a ticket from a professional ticket agency.
As an organizer, you can plan the fun things about your event, without having to worry about building an RSVP system, creating tickets, or collecting money at the door.
This week I had a great interview with with author, speaker, and social media pro Krista Neher.
As usual, for the full interview — and trust me, we had great energy and lots of fun sharing stories — make sure to download and play the podcast. The summary below highlights what we cover:
Krista’s background
- Her start at Proctor and Gamble
- Working on marketing for brands like Tide and Folgers Coffee
- Her transition to a startup
- The founding of Bootcamp Digital, which teaches companies how to use the web and social media to build their business
Her travels from Canada to Cincinnati
- What does that have to do with bowling?
Social engagement
- Not the kind of engagement you like – we’re talking on a train to New Jersey
Boot Camp Digital
- What makes a truly good social media program?
- Huge opportunity to show businesses how to do their own social media
- “You’re doing it wrong” – what is the #1 thing companies are doing incorrectly with social media
- Why “free” social media is a problem
One of the best compliments anyone ever paid to me actually had to do with this podcast. I was walking down the street in New York with my girlfriend at the time, and we were talking about the origins of how I started this show. I was recanting about the things I had gone through, pitching the idea to Wired, setting everything up on the technical side, designing the website, and lining up people to interview and topics to talk about. Now that it is up and running a weekly routine, sometimes I forget how much effort went into the initial setup.
We stopped for a moment and she looked over at me and said,
“You never once thought about what would happen if it failed, did you?”
It was an interesting question… one that caught me by surprise and made me stop and really think about the answer, transporting myself back through time to put myself in that place when I was just starting out. I thought long and hard, did an honest assessment, and then gave her my answer:
Photographs. With billions of Facebook photos being tagged, Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram, camera phones, Flip cameras, low-cost high-res DSLRs and more, there’s no doubt there’s huge numbers — and business potential — around this industry.
One of the companies trying to take advantage of this is Stipple. I spoke with cofounder Rey Flemings, and you can listen to the entire podcast for his insights. Highlights include:
What is Stipple?
Imagine this: You tag a photo in Facebook, but your friend grabs it and brings it outside Facebook’s network and puts it on their blog. Thus, you lose all of the tags.
A funny thing happened after HP killed the touchpad.
- They offered them at a fire sale price of $99
- This created huge demand
- It become a “must-have” item for geeks
- People were waiting in line, with even stories of suburban “stampeding”
- They got huge buzz on the internet
- Great story by Wired’s Tim Carmody
- The Kindle has competed against the iPad. And the Book. But not much else.
- Leading to the quote: “There is no tablet market, just an iPad market”
“Gizmodo published the stats yesterday to illustrate the fact. The iPad totally eclipses all other tablets in sales. Apple has made 281 times more profit from the iPad 1 alone—in just three market quarters—than all other “tablet” manufacturers have made from all their models, across all their brands, combined.”
Today I speak with Shaun Sanders, a graphic designer specializing in infographics. I met Shaun through our mutual friend Alexis Ohanian, who hired Shaun to produce some awesome infographics for Hipmunk.
Listen to the podcast for the full interview, but here are the highlights, thoughts, and things that we discussed:
Definition of infographics
I view infographics as another option in a marketer’s social media arsenal. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people that don’t know what the term means when I told them my plans for doing one.
The easiest, old school comparison I make is like the USA Today “Snapshots” that would appear in the newspaper, using cartoon-esque images to represent data. You know, like the quantity of pasta consumed:
Shaun jumps in to give me us a more purist definition: Data visualization
The key: Crossing data visualization with fun, color, and additional elements
“Infographics work because most people will look at them vs sending them a long text article. Because it comes across as fun cartoon, they are more likely to check it out, as well embed it and share it on Facebook.”
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