Karen's Blog
You know you are engaged when you take your laptop and Seth Godin to the bathroom.
Guilty as charged. I was listening to Seth Godin, one of my favorite creative-brainys (that is a made up word), on 57 ways to get the world to spread your stuff and suddenly I needed to go to the little girls’ room. OMG, there were at least 40 minutes left in his Webinar on MarketingProfs, and even though I have a Pro MarketingProf membership (which is so worth it) and could have replayed it later, I was not willing to put this learning session on hold. I was engaged in every word he was saying.
How did that happen? How do you get people that glued to what you have to say?
Here’s my take on the Seth factor. He’s cool. He’s never boring. He challenges my thinking. He’s nice to listen to, compelling and calm all at the same time. He’s earned the very smart cat badge, a combination of status from credibility builders like his books, speeches and blogging and what others say the big media and fans around globe.
While he did share 57 ideas and some bonuses, here are my top four and what I going to do differently.
1) He does not have guest bloggers.
Why? Because it fuzzes it up. It is his brand promise to his readers.
As I’m evaluating the guest bloggers on Oddpodz,and I have been thinking about this for a while, he has an excellent point. Plus, guest posts are a lot of work. And unless they are highly read and driving traffic, which unfortunately my guest bloggers have not been, the ROI is just not there. So starting next week, the guest bloggers section will be laid to rest. The posts will be archived and remain on the site, but no new guest bloggers.
2) He blogs everyday.
That’s heavy. and scare the crap out of me to commit to that.
I said he challenged me. OK, then. I love to write. I do interesting stuff every single day. And even if I’m sick or staying in my cave, I think about really interesting things that I know others can benefit from. If I can’t pump out at least a paragraph a day, then shame on me.
3) He does not tweet.
That’s a side-line of the next takeaway for me. The actual big idea is: he consciously decides that he will not do everything, Tweeting is an activity like golf or collecting fish bones. He knows he does not have the bandwidth to do it well and right, so he’s not going there. I respect that.
I think all to often we put pressure on ourselves to do stuff that’s not really required or in our “do it freakin well zone”. For me this means not doing stuff that does not deliver happiness, money or peace in your soul. Personally, I like to tweet, it’s a good outlet for my inner soundbite, snarky side.
4) Try. Fail. Repeat.
That’s not a new one for me. But felt it was important for this list. Thank you Seth.
Love your thoughts on any of this.
Check out this Book review – “Tribes” by Seth Godin.
Social Marketing Expert: Nedra Kline Weinreich
A frequent speaker, Nedra teaches social marketing at UCLA’s School of Public Health and was adjunct faculty at Georgetown University. She is the author of Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide and a prominent blogger on social marketing issues at the Spare Change blog.
Ok, so, real simple for those of us who went to public school, what is social marketing?Hey, I went to public school too, so it can’t be too hard to understand. Basically, it’s using a marketing approach to promoting health and social issues. In social marketing, our bottom line is not profits, but behavior change. So, when organizations like nonprofits or public agencies want to bring about health or social change, they are turning more and more to the same kinds of methods used by companies like Apple or Nike. The field of social marketing has been around since the 1970s, but it’s only recently that awareness and use of it has trickled down to the community level.
Some people have recently starting lumping together things like social media marketing or social network marketing under the term social marketing. It’s becoming awfully confusing because now when I talk about social marketing for the first time with a new person, I have to clarify to make sure we are both using the same definition. I often feel alone on my semantic crusade.
Expert interview: Chakotaco
Tell us about Chakotaco. What is it going to be about and what do you hope to accomplish? And where did the name come from?
Chakotaco is a multi-disciplinary design and consulting office made up of Takao Umehara and Hisako Ichiki. We have been best friends since age 18 and have been collaborating just as long. Takao trained himself in graphic design and work in the branding field. Hisako (Chako) trained herself in fine art and architecture.
Our focus at Chakotaco will cover three categories:
1. Design consulting: We help clients visualize their brands and express them through graphics, products and space.
2. Self branded products: We will be launching our own projects and product and putting them into the market. These will be small productions. We are planning to produce some clothing and home use product.
3. Creative workshopping: We will be visiting schools, companies and various other institutions to conduct workshops which will focus on design oriented thinking.
Design certainly seems to be figuring more and more into everyday consumerism. This is good thing, right?
The purpose of design is to help humans live. It’s nothing more than that. Design isn’t only about aesthetics. A good functional system itself is a design. How transportation systems work, how our body works. Good design can improve us physically, emotionally, mentally. So, the idea of design being brought into everyday life is a great thing.
You are both big into branding. We love brands and the idea of differentiation. But why do so many brands seem so opposed to embracing strong differentiation?
We believe in the power of branding, but it doesn’t necessary mean we love brands. We like to have a positive impact on life by promoting designs that enhance the value of daily life, whether it is a book or a house. We aim to reach one more person and make his or her life happier and more positive and more creative. That is what we look to accomplish by through the power of design and branding. Branding is a means of communication, not the purpose.
Regarding your book Extra Ordinary: If you had iPod earphones, a Starbucks Straw and an American Apparel headband, could you make me a tie that would get me a date with that hostess at Nobu? In other words, would it be fair to say that you are the MacGyvers of design?
The idea behind Extra Ordinary is to see our everyday environment in a fresh new way. The book project was not purpose or goal driven, but about curiosity and freeing ourselves from what we are supposed to see or think. Earphones, a straw and a headband? We would probably come up with something silly, like a portable peace sign.
You’re Japanese. I see fashion on streets of New York that I remember laughing at in Japan five years ago. Would you say Japan is pushing the fashion envelope more than any other country? And if so, why?
Japanese fashion is very unique and different. Although, we wouldn’t say it’s pushing the envelope more than other countries, but it does push some boundaries. We live in small spaces, culturally we’re predominantly one race and we tend to value groups over individuals. As a result, we learn to be different within cultural limitations. And limitation can be powerful tools for being creative and innovative.
Ok, this is a selfish question. I’m a huge sports fan. Why are so many professional team logos so lame?
People’s perception and expectation in aesthetics vary. As for sports logos, they need to appeal to my 6-year-old niece, as well as my 18-year-old neighbor and 68-year-old father-in-law. This makes design very difficult. In such cases a simple fire or bull logo may work just fine. Although, we are always open to new challenges if any sports team would like a new logo.
Any closing thoughts? Maybe a state-of-the-union on the state of design?
We see design as a tool, branding as communication and the world as a playground for having fun.
Hisako Ichiki + Takao Umehara
For more of Chakotaco’s work, visit them at:
www.chakotaco.net/work/
Branding Guru: Julie Anixter
. She is also the co-founder of Remarkabalize.com.
Julie took time out of her busy schedule to have a conversation with us, a conversation that included the terms “choiceful,” “borg-ish” and “bully pulpit,” spoke to the point of chocolate Swoops and, in which, without prompting, the interviewee talks about scratching itches:
1) What is the thing you consistently see brands getting wrong these days?
Brands are scared. They don’t take risks. They are often stuck – for lots of seemingly good business reasons – in thinking that is decades old. Yes it’s a confusing time, but in confusing times, the brave prevail. There is a thinking-doing gap a mile wide and deep. Lots of great trend watching and debate on the sidelines… fewer gutsy CEO’s and CMO’s shaking it up.
The Quickie: Poetic Prophet, aka The SEO Rapper
If you have animation / Please use moderation; Because search engines can’t / Index the information.
/and
Research all your keywords and your phrases / they all sound good but they may not be a factor / several ways to check and I prefer word tracker / very vague phrases should get denied / longtail keyphrases are more qualified.
And that’s just the beginning. After the break, we learn how the SEO raps came to be and what Chuck sees as the most common online marketing mistakes.
1. You’re known as The SEO Rapper because of your how-to YouTube raps on things like conversion closing and paid searches. What made you come up with raps for these subjects?
Well, I love hip hop and I write all types of music. Currently my profession is in SEM, SEO and Social Media Consulting with Pop Labs. At first is was for fun, testing myself to see if I could it. After I realized I could, I figured I see how many different industry related topics I could do.
2. You operate you own record label and manage artists is Houston. What would you say is the most important Internet marketing feature you use?
Ummm…I’d have to say…email marketing, MySpace and YouTube for right now.
Unfortunately, most of the local artist and even fans of these artist aren’t familiar with Virb and Twitter. A few don’t understand the concept of blogging. I try to encourage them to write articles about music and their daily lives and create blog post so potential fans can begin to know them personally.
3. As an online marketing expert, what would you say is the most common mistake you see?
Oh my….I’ll give you 3. When a business signs up for Pop Labs service and that account is assigned to me, and they’ve tried online marketing before, the most common mistakes I see are:
SEM – They haven’t organized their keywords into ad groups. They put them all in one big campaign with vague ad text.
SEO – keyword stuffing, no links, not enough content, or using frames.
Social Media – bad content…poorly written blog posts, not a consistent message across the board, not engaged with it.
Read more on the Poetic Prophet / SEO Rapper at:
His personal blog: www.poeticprophet.net
Twitter: www.twitter.com/chuck
YouTube: www.youtube.com/m0serious
SEO Rapper: www.theseorapper.com
The Quickie: Phil Villarreal
Oddpodz: You write the blog Because I Told You So. You subtitled it “Free Porn” despite it having no porn. Besides disappointing me, what a genius SEO decision that is; can I steal it?
Phil: I was hoping to pull in some random hits from Google searches of “free porn,” so the acronym “Pretty Orignal Rants ‘Nstuff came naturally. Rather than stealing it I suggest you think of an acronym for “PARIS HILTON NAKED.”
Oddpodz: Is your novel Stormin’ Mormon about Mitt Romney?
Phil: No, it’s not. But I’m hoping McCain picks Romney as his VP running mate so as to reignite interest in Mormon culture, creating some spillover interest in my novel, which is a comedy about would-be lovers who pretend to be Mormon in order to get their significant others to break up with them. I’m also hoping Romney someday responds to my Myspace friend request.
Oddpodz: Your bio says you’re a movie and video games critic at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. No, really, what do you do?
Phil: It sounds almost too good to be true, right? Like Playboy photographer or backup NFL quarterback. But it’s been the truth now for seven years running.
Thanks Phil.
Expert interview: Author Lou Harry
, In the Can
, As Seen on TV
, Creative Block
, and The High-Impact Infidelity Diet: A Novel
and created popular novelty items such as the The Portable Voodoo Kit
.
His work has appeared in many magazines and he was the editor of the now defunct Indy Men’s Magazine. He agreed to speak with us because, in America, he’s free to do so.
Expert interview: Keith Sawyer
Expert interview: Nedra Kline Weinreich
A frequent speaker, Nedra teaches social marketing at UCLA’s School of Public Health and was adjunct faculty at Georgetown University. She is the author of Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide and a prominent blogger on social marketing issues at the Spare Change blog.
Ok, so, real simple for those of us who went to public school, what is social marketing?
Hey, I went to public school too, so it can’t be too hard to understand. Basically, it’s using a marketing approach to promoting health and social issues. In social marketing, our bottom line is not profits, but behavior change. So, when organizations like nonprofits or public agencies want to bring about health or social change, they are turning more and more to the same kinds of methods used by companies like Apple or Nike. The field of social marketing has been around since the 1970s, but it’s only recently that awareness and use of it has trickled down to the community level.
Some people have recently starting lumping together things like social media marketing or social network marketing under the term social marketing. It’s becoming awfully confusing because now when I talk about social marketing for the first time with a new person, I have to clarify to make sure we are both using the same definition. I often feel alone on my semantic crusade.
Design’s a Hooot
www.billyrobertsdesign.com
There it was. I was at Starbucks getting my daily Chai Latte and staring back at me was this little sock puppet owl. It had a feeling of yesteryear and grand mom sewing it up just for me. I realized the owl a bit ‘odd’ having nothing to do with coffee, so I wondered what was going on? Starbucks is keeping up with the trends in American culture. Not unlike Madonna attaching her image literally to the likes of Brittany Spears to keep up with the younger generation. Starbucks is keeping pace with cultural trends to stay current and fresh. This is a great example of a trend becoming interwoven into fashion, art and interior design.
Depending on where the owl got his hook in American minds; I believe it to be from the Harry Potter series and his trusted snowy owl, Hedwig. Or possibly another avenue inspired by the recent Peabody Essex Museum’s exhibition called “The Owl in Art and Nature.” An entire exhibit dedicated to the wise bird that is showing up everywhere, like the sculpture below entitled Passage, by Sachiko Akiyuma:
Whatever the case, the owl has inspired everything from lamps and fabrics to wall papers. Award winning San Francisco industrial and furniture designer Rick Lee recently released his fun night owl lamp made of a poluamide polymer perched atop a steel tripod.I too like the owl for the wisdom, rarity and comic relief it provides. My friends pointed out to me that the owl reminded them of their parent’s macrome in the 70’s. Did you or your parents ever macrome an owl like one of these?Which brings me to the conclusion that the owl and all things associated with it should be used in very light proportions because like all fads, they are a hoot for only a short while.
Design tip from Billy: Don’t run out and buy the latest trend to keep your living spaces current. In fact, I advise you to try to stay away from all trends in design as they will loose their luster in a year. Then they become closet clutter and wasteful spending in hindsight. Instead focus on your individual style and choose items that have meaning to you.
