Category Archives: Marketing

Yes We Did. Together.

Community, Marketing

I wasn’t sure if I was going to write about the election of our 44th President.  I am completely and utterly ecstatic, but I really didn’t know how I could top what Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States of America, said at Grant Park:  “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

Then I got an email from him.

It’s from his campaign, of course, but it hit home.

———————————————————————————————————

Evan —

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

———————————————————————————————————

Because of me.  Because of you.  Because of US, most importantly.  How does Barack Obama (or his campaign, if you want to split hairs) choose to tell me this?  Through an email, even before he gives his acceptance speech.  Signed with his first name.  Without any sort of crazy HTML formatting, logos, or signatures.  Promising to be in touch about the next steps.  Simple, straightforward, truthful.

This appeals to me on many levels, one of which is my work as Community Ambassador at Flock. I have a job at Flock because of the passion, energy and action of people who love our product.  My job is to make sure that they get what they need to keep loving the product and spreading the word.  Everyday I feel the kind of appreciation that Obama mentions in this email.  And it’s INCREDIBLY important to thank these people and to make sure that they understand that this company (or in Obama’s case, this country) would not survive or thrive without them.  As I said back in my post about why the Community Manager is important: “If you don’t listen to your community, you are either going to fail or you will have to get very lucky.” Barack Obama knows this well.

Obama supporters watching his acceptance speech, waving American flag
Barack has been preaching the politics of hope, of opportunity, and of togetherness.  I won’t claim he’s had an entirely angelic campaign…I think it would be impossible for anyone to have done so.  But instead of creating a mob, an angry group that boos at a concession speech…Barack Obama has created an enthusiastic, excited, hopeful group of Americans who are ready to make this country shine again.  I am filled with exhilaration and hope, and I am excited to serve my country like I have never been.

Barack Obama is a true Community Ambassador/Manager/Evangelist/Organizer, and that’s exactly what we need right now.  One man isn’t going to save this country, the masses must.  And Barack Obama, President-Elect, is the person we need to motivate the masses.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

TechCrunch50 Post-Mortem: How to Get Your Startup Noticed

Marketing, Tech

Light pouring into the main TechCrunch50 roomI spent the first 3 days of last week at TechCrunch50.  I’ve been torn about what to write about the event.  I don’t really want to talk about the logistics…I’m going to trust that Arrington and Co will improve things next year.  I don’t really want to talk about any specific startups, because very few blew my mind.  But that helped me finally figure out what I wanted to talk about: the basics for marketing your startup.

You may ask why I think I’m qualified to post on this.  I certainly don’t have the experience starting and running a startup that Calcinas, X, or X have.  But that’s just it: these folks have great internal insights, but they also have the Curse of Knowledge; They don’t look at startups from an outsider’s perspective.  I think I do, for the most part.  In my experience, here’s the elements that many TechCrunch50 startups were missing that resulted in me leaving with no knowledge of what they’re about

1. Have a name I will remember.

There seems to be a new trend in naming Web 2.0 companies.  Gone is (occasionally frustrating) dropped and/or added vowel of Flickr, Zooomr, Tumblr.  The new trend seems to be taking a real word and spelling part of it out in a weird, extended phonetic way.  I won’t use any real examples from TechCrunch50…my goal isn’t to embarass people, just to help.  These fake names pretty accurately represent what I saw at the conference: hangowwwwt, wikeeficayshun, sooperpooper.

The issue here is that if I actually figure out what “hangowwwwt” is supposed to be (“hangout”), I will probably go home and type “www.hangout.com” into my (Flock) browser.  Maybe I will remember a bit and type in “www.hangowt.com”, but that’ll still be wrong.

Flypaper booth at TechCrunch50Don’t name your startup something I’m unlikely to remember and unable to spell!

Good names are both memorable, descriptive, and easy to spell.  Some real examples from TechCrunch50: Legalicious, Flypaper (great logo too), Bluehaze, Musicshake, Truecar, and Goplanit.  It’s great if it makes sense like Goplanit, but it’s also OK if it’s somewhat nonsensical, as long as it is memorable and evokes an emotion.  My favorite example of all time is RadioHead.  Two words that I already have in my vocabulary, combined in an intriguing way.  Eventually, it loses meaning as two words, and now my brain holds three words: Radio, Head, and Radiohead.  Brilliant.

2. Have a reason for people to come to your booth.

Gazaro booth babes with will work for chips sign at TechCrunch50

This one is a sad fact of conferences like this: there’s a lot of shit to look at…why should I come to your booth?  You have to work your marketing muscle in any way you can to get me there.  This could be as simple as having a tagline that catches my interest (“Share status updates with your co-workers” – Yammer, TechCrunch50 winner).  Or, you can go a more primal route: fill my wants and needs.  Zivity had cell phone chargers.  Gazaro had booth babes  (and they worked rather hard).  Joongel had a big sign that said “We Have Chocolate”.  The guy from Kangapole juggled.

3. Use pertinent examples.

Flock Booth at TechCrunch50 with Dr. Horrible onscreenThis one’s pretty simple.  Cater to your audience.  If you have something map-related, show the location of the party later that night.  If Joss Whedon is coming by later, have Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on the screen.  Not that he noticed.

Your audience is also not homogenous.  TechCrunch50 was a mix of investors, exhibitors, press and others.  You don’t want to give me the same pitch as an investor.  Instead, take a glance as my badge and figure out why I’m here.  If neccessary, ask me what I do online!  I can’t count how many startups pitched me on stuff that, while useful to someone else, I will NEVER use.  If they had asked before speaking they either could have saved some time or catered their pitch towards my needs.

4. Make it easy for me.

This is more of a note for those who are just forming their startup, but it’s very important.  It’s great that you have a social network/media site/news site for people who like to go to conferences.  You certainly have found a demographic.  Here’s the issue:  these people already have social networks.  If they’re going to conferences they’re probably busy.  And you’re asking them to set up a new account, add all their information, start uploading photos and making friends and interacting?  Trust me, they’re not going to spend the time.

Make sure when you create (and hell, as you evolve) that you are helpful and not work.  If I feel like it is going to be exhasting for me (someone who works in the Web 2.0 business) to try this network, you’re unlikely to get normal folks.  Make sure that along with your niche and demographic, you solve a pain point.

If you accomplish the above 4, you’ve got my attention.  Make the most of it.

Grooveshark employees with will play music for chips on their laptop at TechCrunch50
Blogged with the Flock Browser

Yikes – Targeted Marketing at the Gas Pump

Marketing

I am generally a skeptic towards advertising.  I think most of it is ineffective for the majority people, and some of it is just painful.  This is why advertising has to reach such large numbers: to get any reasonable conversion, they need to be seen by a great many people.

However, this is a great example of targeted marketing:

advertisement at gas pump

I’m at the gas pump, I’m paying an arm, a leg, and two more arms (don’t ask where I got them) for gas…you can see that I’m at $22 for 5 gallons of gas.  I see this advertisement, and I have to agree: Yikes!

So what is the solution?  According to this ad, Toyota.  Toyota apparently makes the most fuel efficient cars.  Cool, I didn’t know that.  Isn’t that relevant?

Now if I didn’t already have a Toyota Camry, this would be very intriguing for me.  What if I have an aging Honda that I was thinking about selling?  I might seriously consider a Toyota for my next car…the savings would be tremendous.

Unlike most unfocused, bland, broad advertising, this hits me when it is most effective: when I literally am paying the “yikes” amount for gas.  Nice work, Toyota.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Think before you “go green”

Marketing

humvee with environmental sticker
Originally posted by corydalus. Remixed as per his Creative Commons permissions.

I got a piece of mail from PG&E today.  This is not uncommon: aside from my regular statements, they send me a lot of spam.  Apparently they’re not satisfied to overcharge me and make it impossible to pay online…they want more out of me.

I opened the mail skeptically, but was pleased to discover that this mail was about saving power.  Great!  Saving power is a win-win-win situation: saves me money, saves them money, helps the environment and the oil situation.  I’m onboard!  How can I save energy, PG&E, how?

“Dear Evan Hamilton,

Did you know that you could save 25% on your energy bill by getting our ‘Smart AC’?”

Now, you may read this and think that it’s no big deal.  What you don’t realize is that I DON’T HAVE AIR CONDITIONING.  I live in an old building and nobody here has AC, we have windows and fans.

PG&E knows this, because they provide my power!  But instead of taking the time to figure this out, they send me this letter anyway.  Well guess what, PG&E?  I am now going to throw this useless letter, which is plastic-y and unrecylable, into the trash.  You know what is going to happen to this trash?  It’s either going to a landfill, which is an unsustainable solution to our waste problem, or it’s going to be burned like 16 percent of waste in the USA.  What’s that going to do for the environment?  Is it going to save electricity or oil to have millions of PG&E letters shoved around landfills by tractors and backhoes?

If you are going to make your company “green”, or “energy-saving”, think carefully about how you’re going to do it.  You don’t have to make your organization 100% Green (Flock didn’t for the Eco Edition), but you should make sure that your “Eco” initiatives are not actually causing more harm than help.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Lack of innovation in the petroleum industry

Marketing

I heard the ED of Shell on NPR this morning talking about how Shell is going to start supporting cleaner fuels.  The NPR host made the mistake of asking if Shell might become a petroleum free company anytime soon.  His answer was not surprising:  “I don’t see Shell becoming a non-petroleum company for a long time”.  That’s because, as much as they say they want to help, they don’t.  That and they’re unwilling or incapable of thinking outside of the barrel.

Why not accept the fact that in a few years the earth will either be submerged in melted ice caps and fire or will be using cars that are primarily electric?  Start the marketing now!  Think of how far ahead of the competition you’ll be.  Here’s a couple freebies.

“Charge your car here and get a free coffee and donut!”
With all the money you’re saving on expensive offshore drilling and hiring lawyers to sicc against the environmentalists, throw in some freebies that consumers will never get at the locations with gas for $5/gallon.

“Pet the seals you’re saving!”
Instead of worrying about which environmental disaster you’ll cause next, have a petting zoo where consumers can pet the animals that aren’t’ being killed by oil tankers.

“Celebrate Iraq pullout day!”
Enjoy yourselves on the anniversary of the U.S. getting their dirty, oil-covered hands out of the middle east.  Take a sip of clean, cold water and pat yourself on the back for stopping your destruction of the world as we know it.

Either that or I’ll see you on the day that electric cars collectively destroy your gas stations in an adult version of bumper cars.  I’ll buy you some cotton candy, because you will be poor and bitter.

Blogged with Flock

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