Jim interviews the guys from Whiteyboard.com, a simple product with a unique marketing spin.
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I love me a good whiteboard.
And why not? I’m a marketer, a creator, a speaker, an idea guy, and a project manager. I like mockups. I like sketches. I like seeing how a process could flow, and then erasing it with a napkin (can never seem to find that damn eraser) and then sketching it out again. That is what whiteboards are born to do.
If your product or service isn’t doing the one thing it needs to, it’s time to get off the bus.
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Quick story…
that leads to a metaphor about your business. Let’s get right to it.
My Dad came down to NYC from Boston for a visit. We did a father-son road trip, spent some quality time together, and all was good. On Monday morning, we embarked to get him on the bus back to Boston.
For those unfamiliar with the Northeast, a plane ticket will run probably $200 RT, and you have to deal with cabs and security. The train is also over $100, and might save you 20 minutes of time. And driving is a headache with traffic. So the Boston-NYC bus route is very competitive – and thus economical – with promotional fares as low as $1 and usually around $15-$20 each way.
There are 3-4 main competitors:
- Fung-Wah bus (I’ve found people that have NOT ever taken the Fung-Wah bus, LOVE to tell others to take the Fung-Wah bus)
- Greyhound/PeterPan (The veterans that are feeling the pinch, leaving from the decrepit Port Authority and trying to upgrade their fleet of old buses quickly)
- BoltBus (An upstart with new buses and Wifi)
- Megabus (A double-decker version of BoltBus)
Let me say that all four companies have their issues, but today my Dad happened to be on Megabus.
Apple’s iPad is flying off the shelves. Jim gives his real-world results after 30 days with it, reviews the Wired Magazine app, analyzes market share trends and asks, can it be beat?
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iPad iPad iPad.
Everyone is talking about the iPad, and so am I. Lets take a look at three things today:
1) My experience with the iPad 3G after one month with the iPad
2) My thoughts on the Wired Magazine iPad app
3) Analyze Apple’s historic marketshare and drill down to see the future of tablet computing and if the iPad can be beat
Note: All thoughts are my own opinion and not that of Wired or Apple. I have no affiliation with Apple and was not compensated.
Summary of the podcast below. Listen to the entire show for the full experience.
OK, so I’ve had the iPad for 30 days of real world testing.
I’ve installed various apps: the Entertainment Weekly Must List and Weather Channel (good, but could use some work), ones with solid functionality (Kayak, Pandora, MLB at Bat), ones that I normally wouldn’t use (Marvel’s comic book reader and games such as Asphalt 5 and Labyrinth), and Conde Nast’s own (Epicurious, GQ, and Wired).
Jim talks about what Sting and The Police can teach us about finding your voice when blogging or podcasting.
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Passion.
Millions of teachers, authors, parents, friends, clergy, poets, and musicians have tried to help others find their passions. But I’ll tell you where you can find yours.
In your voice.
When you’re speaking about something you’re truly passionate about, there’s a change in your tone. Your heart beats a little faster, your eyes get a little wider, and sometimes the thoughts and ideas cascade from your brain so quickly that they trip over themselves in a rush to exit your mouth.
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:
In this episode, I interview entrepreneurs Michael Lewis and Tim Kress-Spatz from Suite Arrival, a new business that lets you be discreet, get a treat to eat, and keep your travel plans neat.
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We’ve all been there
Admit it, the TSA and the terrorists have combined to make it much more difficult to travel. Long gone are the days of rolling up to the airport for that 10:15 flight at 9:45.
Oh no… you’ve got to get there early, have all your IDs ready, make sure your bags are not too plentiful (the fees! the fees!) or too heavy, watch out for metal belt buckles, take off those shoes, remove those jackets, and take out your laptops (which can only add to the fact that 10,000 laptops are stolen from airports PER WEEK).
This episode is an interview I did at SXSW with Matthew Inman, the author of the popular web comic called The Oatmeal. Find out how he went from social media favorite to a book deal.
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Background
Matt got his start at online marketing and SEO firm SEOMoz. He went from there to coding an online dating site completely by himself in just 66 hours, and then turning around and selling it in only six months. The key discovery while he was there? The comics, quizzes and viral content he used to market the site were even more popular than the site itself. And thus while concentrating on just the viral comics themselves, The Oatmeal was born.
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.
We made it everyone! 100 episodes! I’ll cover 10 lessons learned, the big party, and give some shoutouts.
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Wow, 100 episodes – pretty amazing. I’ve been at this for more than 2 years, week in, week out, whether I was tired or sick or excited, I carved out a little time to try and share some thoughts with you.
Listen, I’m an oldest child, I’m a Leo, and obviously I like to hear myself talk. But I try to be aware of that and not get TOO full of myself. I realize this isn’t 21 seasons of the Simpsons or some of the other social media guys with millions of followers. It’s not the frontpage of the NY Times, the cover of Wired, and it’s not even a video podcast. Even 2010, some people don’t even know what a podcast IS.
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