Denny’s, the popular chain restaurant, managed to misprint their Twitter address on their menu at the end of 2009 and have done nothing to correct it.  If you were to go to Twitter.com/dennys you’d find Denny Hsieh’s Taiwanese page.  Whoops!

There are a few things at play here.  Not only was it a mistake by the marketing department / ad agency, but also a failure of the PR department.  Once the misprint was noticed, Denny’s and their advertising and marketing divisions should have taken steps to address it.  Additionally, the PR team should have generated a few statements for online media addressing the misprint and how they were going to get things back on track, etc etc.

Here are 5 things you can learn from this Denny’s branding, marketing and PR fail:

1. Mistakes aren’t “the end of the world” if you address them swiftly and across the appropriate channels
2. Due diligence is a must prior to any major proclamation, print run or press release
3. Implement processes that are followed without fail with vendors and outsource partners
4. Ensure that the lines of communication between the PR, marketing and advertising departments are clear
5. Own mistakes in the Internet world.  Otherwise, online communities will ensure that nobody forgets your mistake(s)

What happens when Deckstar, Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy and B-Real get together for a Gammy party?  Pandemonium.  We were out in Hollywood at My House for the Deckstar Grammy party.  The turnout was huge and the surprise entertainment was great.

The Cosmic Kids opened the evening.  They always manage to spin great disco/soul music with their modern touch.  The tone was set.  After that B-Real from Cypress Hill spun a set for a while.  He was spinning some old G Funk anthems and the crowd loved it.  Little did all of us know that he was going to surprise us with a quick rap performance too.  He still has the chops.

Then Dirt Nasty and Andre Legacy got on stage to get the crowd crunk.  They got the job done. Dirt Nasty did his “1980″ track.  I think New York DJ phenom Jesse Marco went on after him.  I happened to run into and see a lot of people that night.

I ran into A Girl Like You and she so kindly provided the photos you see in this post.  Check out her photos on her site and get stoked..  We also saw some of the El B Si crew, Eminem’s manager, comedian David  E. Taylor, DJ Killer Cam, the founders of Gnar Caps and many other local mover and shakers.  For those of you that don’t know the depth of Deckstar’s artists check out this who’s who of world famous DJs:  Peanut Butter Wolf, Steve Aoki, Glitch Mob, the late DJ AM, Jazzy Jeff and many other big hitters.

Deckstar seems to be growing and growing.  They’ve carved a unique niche for themselves as the premier DJ management firm with street cred.  Between internationally respected DJs like Grand Master Flash and Jazzy Jeff, ties to Mikey Avalon, Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy, Paris Hilton and driving the Hollywood party scene Deckstar is becoming a bigger force to be reckoned with.  Stay tuned.

Red Cross is making it easier than ever to help the 2010 Haiti Earthquake victims  by enabling people to donate $10 via text message.  That $10 shows up on your next cell phone bill.  It is not a scam and is a fantastic way to leverage the mobile technology everyone has in the USA.  At the time of this article, they have already raised $8 million by text donations.   And you thought texting was just for things like Texts From Last Night or telling your friend that you are running late.

All you have to do is this:  Text “haiti” to the cell number 90999

It’s so easy that your druncle could figure it out at your next family BBQ.  To make it easier on yourself (depending on the type of phone you have) you can do what I did.  I added “Red Cross Text Donation” as a contact into my cell phone address book so that I could easily text my donation…and for possible future donations.

Still on the fence?

Let’s go over some of the last things you probably spent $10 on, shall we:

1. An overpriced and over-hyped vodka + Red Bull for that gal that turned out to have a tattoo of a bowl of gravy on her left shoulder
2. Your Netflix monthy fee
3. Dry cleaning on 4 shirts
4. A blended coffee drink for you and your coworker because it was your turn to buy
5. A plate of happy hour priced nachos and two happy hour draft beers

You get where I’m going with this.  You can make a legitimate difference by donating $10.  Sure you may be thinking that you don’t have the cash because the economy sucks or that you don’t trust how it will be allocated…blah blah blah.  Suck it up and take a chance by doing something nice for a family you will probably never meet in your life.  Do it because it’s the right thing to do.  And PLEASE don’t rely on Twitter as your trusted news source on this cool way to donate to families that need it.

 Sergio and the guys at Marketing Sherpa recently released findings from a social media survey they conducted.  Though there are no major revelations, it’s still great to keep one’s finger on the pulse of social media expenditures and how executives perceive this constantly evolving marketing channel.  

Here’s what they found:

1. 49% feel that social media has a future for generating ROI.  Additionally, they feel that conservative budget increases are warranted to achieve desired ROI
2. 27% feel that the value of social media is unknown; therefore, only done if time permits.
3. 17% feel that “why pay for the milk if I can get the cow for free”
4. 7% feel that social media is delivering measurable ROI and have desire to increase budgets liberally for a more refined execution [read: increased ROI and brand positioning]

They seem straight forward, but the two that truly jump out are numbers 3 and 4.  They represent the opposite sides of the spectrum. 

“Why pay for the milk if I can get the cow for free?”

There are two ways to look at this group.  On one hand, this mindset limits their ability to think creatively on ways to generate more top-of-mind-awareness and ROI.  This puts them “behind the eight ball”.  While their competitors are actively testing and generating positive results through their social media strategy, this group is too busy conducting their marketing through traditional- sometimes stale- methods.  

On the other hand, they may be like my parents were in the early 80s when the VCR was introduced to consumers.  Why pay full price for a product/service that will drop in price, solidify its best practices and be easier to leverage?  They may be lying in wait for the social media frenzy dust to settle.  This could ultimately position this group to hit the ground running without being limited by early stage social media limiting beliefs.

Early adopters writing the rules

The 7% of responders that feel that social media does nothing but add brand and bottom line value have a lot going for them.  They affect more change in the evolution that can ultimately, directly benefit how their business and/or vertical benefit from taking these new strategies seriously.  Somebody has to do it.  These early adopters are the trailblazers in marketing, corporate strategy and brand management.  

Social media early adopters take the calculated risk and reap all of the rewards.  Not only do they realize increased ROI and elevated top-of-mind-awareness, they can easily find themselves included in case studies that document the A players in specific verticals that are shaping how social media is successfully leveraged.  The Kogi Truck is a great illustration of this.

I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground on the evolution of these sorts of numbers.  In what category do you fall?

Dell recently announced that they have generated $6.5 million in sales from interactions originating from their 12 Twitter profiles, including their ever-powerful @DellOutlet profile that boasts 1.4 million followers.  Though nobody is sure when they began tracking these figures, it has definitely grabbed my attention.  Even if this figure accounts for a minuscule fraction of their overall annual sales ($60 billion, last I heard), it brings to the surface the discussion of social media ROI.

Any manager will want to know what to know ROI for their social media expenditure.  This is where it gets sticky.  Most social media experts will tell you that social media serves more as a branding function.  More specifically, social media serves as a listening post for brands so that they can course-correct their marketing and customer service strategies.  Dell, however, has turned that notion on its ear by delivering these new sales figures to the public.  This is a little dicey.

Are small businesses, Dell’s competitors and other verticals to believe that social media is now a sales pipeline?  Dell would have you believe that to be so.  Dell has the resources, products/services, infrastructure and support that enable their leveraging of a social media channel like Twitter.  But, can Kenny’s Curry House in Anytown, USA expect to realize any sort of major sales by simply creating a Twitter account?  The answer is “no”.

The truth is that Dell employs 100 people  across 30+ Twitter profiles to send out tweets.  This compared to a small business that leaves their social media strategy and execution to a college-aged intern illustrates the chasm separating big business and small business strategy and implementation.

While I don’t fault Dell for releasing these impressive numbers, I do caution business owners and marketers.  What happens in the rarefied air of major global brands may not be sustainable at sea level marketing and sales.

People create blogs, profiles, groups and fan pages based on things they love: brands, hobbies, themselves, sports, etc.  I’ve been noting increased occurrences of blogs or profiles that have been abandoned or display a half-assed attempt at trying to convince readers or surfers that they actually care about the things they proclaim to “luv”.  Obviously, those iterations were not the passion of the creators.

What are your primary passions?  How are they manifesting themselves in your social media habits?  If they are not, they need to ASAP.  Having a presence in social media just to have a presence is not enough.  This especially applies to brands, but that’s a different article.

The truth is that many of us are interested in so many different things.  Thanks to the internet, we have been awash in data and information.  This makes it harder to focus on what we truly love.  What gets you so excited about that you want to stand up from your chair when you talk about it with friends?  Tennis?  Going green?  Fiscal policy?

To give you an idea of what I mean, please take the time to watch the entire video below.  I randomly came across a video that Phil Plait, of Discovery Magazine’s Bad Astronomy.com, posted about the Phoenix descent.   I had to write about it.  His passion jumps out of the screen and it continues to elevate throughout the video.  It’s clear that he’s producing content for the “right” reasons.

So, what are you this passionate about?  Health care?  Helping the homeless?  Quilting?  What gets you so fired up that you leap from your seat when you discuss it?  (leave them in the comment box below with the link to your blog, profile, twitter account, etc)

On one hand, Peek’s new Twitter specific handheld device, TwitterPeek, makes me want to stab myself in the eye with a chopstick.  On the other hand, however, it intrigues me to no end.  This device enables one to post on Twitter and nothing else.  I guess there is a percentage of the population that are not able to post on Twitter using their computer or mobile phone. </end sarcasm>    Sounds like a royal waste of cash.  Here is the cost breakdown:

• $100 for the device + $7.95 monthly wireless fee (1st 6 months are free)

OR

• $199 for device & includes a lifetime of free wireless

Am I missing something here, folks?  Do people really need this?  Even the most epic of epic Twitter users would have no use for this product.  It deserves to be the truck with Lamont and Ed Sanford.

You may be thinking, “Wait, Brendon!  We all have any number of products in our lives that only serve one function and they friggin rule!”  Good point.  Let’s put the TwitterPeek to the test against the old guard of single function items that many of us find in our homes and offices.  You be the judge of whether TwitterPeek wins or falls short.

TwitterPeek vs:

• Toaster
• Toothbrush
• Stove
• Waffle Maker
• Mixing Bowl
• Turkey Baster

It seems to me that this product beats out the waffle maker, but damn, dewd.  I love waffles way more than I like to post on Twitter.  Hell, I even like moist turkey more than “OMG”ing on Twitter.

All kidding aside, consumers and brands can easily post to Twitter via their computers and smart phones.  Hell, most of my associates and friends post via their phones 2-3 times more than from the computer.  I think the TwitterPeek is the Bass-o-matic of this year.  They should have channeled their funds to develop a hot Blackberry or iPhone application, not another version of e-waste.

Amongst the wreckage of the music industry, Secret Stash Records is emerging with most unique content that music lovers could ever hope for.  One album release at a time, they are quietly positioning themselves as THE tastemakers and visionaries of the once bloated and now decaying music industry.

Eric Foss and Cory Wong, hockey buddies and lifelong friends, have picked up where Prince and  Rhymesayers have left off and are driving their brand’s growth purely through international word-of-mouth (WOM) and  social networking communities.

They have carved out an micro-niche for themselves.  They release lost, obscure recordings that appeal to music die hards all over the world:

Exhibit A: Reggae session players from Jamaica doing an interpretation of iconic jazz album Kind of Blue in 1981

Exhibit B:  House funk band for porno production studio in Van Nuys in the mid 1970’s

“Our aim is to contribute to the vinyl and record collector communities in a positive way; locally and internationally.  People don’t know that the Twin Cities has a rich record collector scene that is supported by iconic record shops like Tree House and Sugar record stores,” Foss explained in our interview.   “From a business perspective, it’s a smart way to do things.  If we were to just pump out $hit and not support our local scene we wouldn’t last,” he added.

When asked how Secret Stash was promoting their brand, Foss replied, “Social Networking.  We’re heavy into connecting with people via YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.”  Though most of their marketing energy is placed in communicating with fans in said communities (with the help of the Kulture agency), they do get their fair share of publicity via traditional media channels in Europe and Russia.  This, in turn, fuels their inbound business development activities.

“We’ve got people calling us from the former USSR, London and other places wanting to know if we have an interest in releasing the lost and obscure master recordings they have tucked away in a vault or safe,” Foss revealed.  Apparently the content they’ve been given access to would blow a music lover’s mind.  A few of their confidential, upcoming projects blew mine.

As if reading my mind, Foss went on to clarify that because of all the content they’ve been granted exclusive access to represents many unique genres of music they decided to create different labels to accommodate each flavor of music.  “Secret Stash, on its own, became a funk, rare groove and soul brand.  We felt it would be insane to dilute that brand by releasing rare live recordings of punk performances from the UK.  So, we created the Re-Amp Records brand to release When the Punks Go Marching In,” he explained.

As a fan of music and as a brand specialist, I hope to see their individual brands flourish.  That’s a tall order, however.  Most companies can’t effectively manage a single brand; let alone many.  Additionally, I’m curious to observe how they fully leverage the world of social media.  As we’ve seen, posting tweets and Facebook messages fall on deaf ears for the strong majority of brands.  Competition for consumer bandwidth is fierce.  Let’s see if they can outsmart other record labels and create authentic, long lasting relationships with music lovers and record collectors.

The good news is that Eric Foss and Cory Wong sound like sharp guys and their brands generate effective video content for each of their releases.  I wish them the best of success.

The one constant that all social media platforms share is their competition for more loyal, long term and active users.  How do these communities keep their existing users engaged, while simultaneously recruiting new users?  Yelp.com has an advantage over the other platforms and communities with which they compete.  Simply put, they have found the missing link.  Not only have they found it, they are working it like James Brown.

Experiential marketing is their secret.  Experiential marketing creates an emotional attachment with the brand via an in-person interaction or a contest of some sort.  Brands like Sprite and Scion have been doing this very well in the last 5-6 years, but social media companies have not fully embraced it at organization-wide levels; That is, except for Yelp.

Like any other area in marketing (yes, including social media), there has to be 100% buy-in at the top of the organization and an unwavering follow through by the staff when it comes to integrating an experiential strategy.  Yelp does this with aplomb via their official parties.  They have managed to fully bridge the gap between the digital and real worlds through their frequent and consistent parties and events.

It’s simple.  Yelpers (what Yelp calls their community members) feel important.  Taking it a step further, Yelpers truly feel like Yelp gives a damn about them.  They make it even more memorable by granting “Elite” users early and exclusive access to said parties and events.

I’ll give you one example of many that I have experienced with Yelp.  Last week they threw a party at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, California to “celebrate” Dia de Los Muertes.  The event was replete with fire dancers, DJ, face painting, free all-night tequila tasting, gratis draft beer, complimentary food from local restaurants, an ice cream truck giving away ice cream bars and an endless supply of Jarritos.  They let the Elite members privately enjoy the party before the rest of the Yelp community was allowed to enter.  In total there were easily 450 people there.

Think about that.  A social media company was able to bring together nearly 500 people at their party on the night before Halloween (one of the biggest party nights of the year).

The interesting part of all of this, is that this Dia de Los Yelpos party was not a 1-off event for them.  They do events like this all of the time all over the USA and London.  Yelpers have come to expect it and Yelp consistently delivers.  Too see how powerful and compelling these events are, this party has a full 5-star rating and has been reviewed more than 80 times in less than a week.  Put in context, local restaurants are thrilled to have 30 4-star reviews of their establishment over the course of a year.

Other social media brands are not delivering these types of experiences and cultivating legions of brand advocates and evangelists like Yelp.  You be the judge.  What’s more compelling to you as a human?

Free homemade Mexican food, organic tequila, meeting new people, tamarind Jarritos and fire dancing?

OR

An updated homepage featuring a newly shaped button?

I’ve seen them.  You’ve seen them.  Now LATFH (Look at this Fucking Hipster) is putting them on display for all to enjoy.  Hipsters.  There was a time a few years back, the term “hipster” didn’t have such a negative connotation.  Those days, however, are long gone.  Now people seem to curl their lip when they see or speak about hipsters.

Look at This Fucking Hipster displays photos of hipsters and “takes the piss” simply by posting mass quantities of these photos together for the viewer to be the judge.  The way it works is that people send in photos of strangers, friends or themselves.  They’re posted and a caption is added.  It’s that simple.  It’s of the same vein of Perez Hilton:  pure social commentary.

I  feel bad for the hipsters, however.  They definitely got a raw deal out of this whole Internet thing.  All of the other questionable fashion trends have never been on display to the extent that hipsters are.  So many groups from the past had it easy.  They didn’t have a website that “celebrated” their “uniqueness”.  Tough break, hipsters.  It may be time to put away your sick fixed gear bike too.

Hipsters, we feel for you.  But, try not to take yourselves so seriously.  If you continue, sites like Look at This Fucking Hipster will flourish and you’ll be even more of a tool.

Remember when your older cousin in Indianapolis used to sleep outside to get Aerosmith tickets back in the late 70’s?  Not only was that a display of sheer badassery for sleeping in a JC Penny sleeping bag on the sidewalk in the name of rock and roll, but it was also a classic illustration of the traditional 1-way conversations between corporations and consumers:  Corporations say “jump” and zombie-like consumers open their wallets.   What if your cousin were able to have a 2-way conversation in the name of redefining consumerism?  What if he and his mutton chop wearing KISS ARMY comrades were able to tell Aerosmith when and where they were going to perform in Indianapolis?  What if consumers applied that approach to every product or service available on the open market?

The application of this critical mass, 2-way mentality would send shock waves across the market in two key areas:

1. Funding- Slow, but significant shift in the roles of seed capital, venture funding and angel investing
2. Social Media- Unprecedented consumer mobilization across social media and community platforms like Facebook, Ning, Twitter, Yelp, etc

A few companies have been doing this from time to time over the last few decades.  But, the rules have changed.  Consumers don’t use rotary dial phones anymore to communicate.   They use social media like trained assassins.  The sway held by consumers is stronger than it has ever been in the history of supply and demand.  This is especially sobering given the vacuum of funding entrepreneurs and small businesses face in the current market.

What happens now?  I think we’ll see 3 phases of this pan out in the future:

1. Unwilling Funding
2. Consumer Seed Funding
3. Micro-Niche funding

Unwilling Funding

Companies that have an in-demand product and are unwilling to seek funding (either internally or externally) turn to consumers for pre-orders.  NIS, the video game developer based in Santa Ana, CA, have done exactly this.  Having no desire to fund the re-release of Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This?, NIS has explicitly told 1000 consumers to “put their money where their mouth is” if they want to get this cult-status game.  I predict NIS will get these pre-orders with ease as long as the price point is acceptable to gamers.

They can facilitate the pre-order model via their Facebook fan page, Yelp business account, Twitter feeds, Ning communities, etc.

Perception:  Consumers feel like they have a voice and can affect business

Reality:  Like a drug dealer, corporations still hold 100% control and perpetuate the 1-way consumerism conversation

Consumer Seed Funding

Eventually, we’ll begin to see more start-up companies looking to source seed capital directly from consumers.  Gutsy companies (a game publisher or developer, for example) that plan to create or publish product relevant  to a tightly defined demographic will be able to go to consumers directly for money.  Sound crazy?  Not really if you think about the variables that would drive a savvy company to think outside of the box in that way:  decline of seed capital sources, more stringent conventional lending regulations, saturation of vertical/region/niche via competition, etc.

Prosper.com has been doing this for the last few years and it seems to be working well.  Though most people utilize it to consolidate credit card balances at a lower APR, it has seen plenty of unique funding scenarios that would make any prospective product or service developer feel warm and fuzzy.

I’m hoping we see more of  this sooner rather than later.  I think the upcoming business owners of the Echo Boomer and Millennial generations will define risk aversion in ways never thought of before by their parents and grandparents.

Perception:  Consumers feel like they have a voice and a hand in creating something that is relevant to them.

Reality:  Company will need to be OK with relinquishing a small amount of control to their brand advocates and consumers.  This will fully begin the 2-way conversation and begin to alter how we define consumerism.

Micro-Niche Funding

I’m going out on a limb here, people.  I’d love to see a push for a Micro-niche trend in funding.  In keeping with the game example,  we’d see a company identifying and communicating with an uber-niche group that all donate small amounts of money to see a highly specific game succeed or be created from scratch.  The success of this approach will be dependent on the recruitment of like-minded people in social media communities by fellow evangelists and advocates willing to take a chance on something they love.

Given the nature of such a small and specific group of funding providers in this scenario, we wouldn’t see games or ideas that would be scalable on their own.  Rather, it could serve as an incubator for up-and-coming businesses designed to land bigger fish so that they could target a broader market; should they decide they want to go that course.

Perception:  Consumers feel like they have a strong sense of ownership and inclusion.

Reality:  Consumers will be able to initiate fund-worthy ideas and fund them.  2-way communication is in full effect and traditional companies are shaking in their boots.

End of Diatribe

Whether I turn out to be Nostradomus or a long winded writer is irrelevant.  The future of start-ups and how they are intertwined with consumers and social media needs to be talked about in non-traditional ways.  I can’t wait to see consumers start giving a damn and speaking more and more with their collective pocket books; not just in purchasing habits, but also in future funding activities.

Do you have 2 cents to add?  Are consumers too apathetic to realize and do something about the power they have?  Tell me what you think.

The website called highDEAS has mastered simplicity.  They feature cannabis drenched ideas from people that are experts in getting high and pontificating about “astronaut weed” and “finding your Romulan” after a big night of partying.  The folks at highDEAS are contributing to a new form of website content to which Texts from Last Night or Overheard in New York would top their respective hats.

Web content, like products from the Industrial and early Information Ages, is evolving at a breakneck pace in an attempt to match pace with our ever-dwindling attention span.  Though more people are understanding and brainstorming on ways to utilize user generated content (UGC), few are doing anything about it.

Along with websites like Fail Blog and Twitter accounts like ShitMyDadSays, highDEAS is delivering content that is highly targeting groups of people that either smoke pot or that have met a weed smoker that pukes-out a “highDEA” .  I fall into the latter.  I don’t smoke pot, but I have met plenty of pot smokers that have ideas that verge on the cusp of brilliance.  No kidding.

As the number of people contracting critical cases of “social networking fatigue” continue to increase, community and social networking sites will have to devise ways to engage people on terms dangerously close to “uber niche”.  Yep, you read that terrible term here first.

Let’s get serious for a second.  Though sites like highDEAS aren’t social networking sites, they compete for the same mind-share that Facebook and Twitter do.

How many people do you know that have been on either end of the “unfriending” trend in Facebook or Twitter?  It’s becoming a big trend that will affect you soon; if it hasn’t already.   Running parallel to this trend (and arguably springing from this trend), is the reality that people are spending less time on Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, etc.  But, they are not closing their collective laptops.  They are choosing to go to other websites.  For lack of a better way of describing it, they are “content surfing”.

…In comes highDEAS serving-up funny UGC that people can’t get anywhere else.  They have the right idea.  In the last few months they have enjoyed 15K hits per month.  For a young brand, they are doing something right.

What other “uber niche” sites have you come across that are getting it right?

Though YOUR mom is not a pro blogger.  It seems that everybody and THEIR mom wants to become a pro blogger in the blogging world.   At the first annual Wordcamp LA, blog guru and the brains behind Bloggers for Hire , Jim Turner was kind enough to give us the nuts and bolts of what it takes to “go pro” in the blog world.

He began with his take on blogger skill sets.  “Those of you that run your own blog have a valuable commodity that companies want,” he exuberantly declared.   If you are like me, you think all the value is in your earth shatteringly amzaing quips and copywriting ability.   Though your content has to be top shelft, he contends that understanding how to actually use a blog is a valuable thing.

Hey!  He has a point.  Try this test.  Ask your smartest or most successful  friend what CMS platform they like the most and what hosting service is their favorite.  See where Big Jim is going with this?

He then went on to talk about how blogging is “participatory marketing”.  The person writing the blog articles has to be interested in the topic, engaging, understand branding and marketing.  That’s a no-brainer, right?  Well, not as much as one would think.  That is illustrated by a great rhetorical question he posed over and over again:

Why would a company leave their online marketing intiatives to an intern or a receptionist?

That’s a damn good question.  Sadly, we all know the answer.  How many companies can you name off the top of your head that have entrusted a 20 year old that is “good at MySpace” to run their social media and blogging activities?

I digress.

Becoming a pro blogger has a bit of a recipe, it turns out.  There are five key areas in which a blogger must be proficient.  Jim laid it out for us and I have listed it below:

1. Content:  Writing, videocast, podcast, livecast
2. Evangelist:  Passion and a message
3. Conversing:  Comments, email, networks
4. Monitoring:  Data Mining, conversations
5. Reporting:   Analytics

That’s it.  That’s all it takes to become a professional blogger.  Ahhhhh, I wish it were that simple.   It’s a craft that one continues to refine over time.   No longer can people dismiss bloggers as people that simply puke-out their opinions.

To what blogs are you addicted?  Which ones really deliver some tasty morsels?

Micah Baldwin is the sort of speaker with which  audiences can truly connect.  Listening to Micah speak about “Failure is Job One” at the first annual Wordcamp LA is like having a pint of beer with him.  He served-up his topic with 2 parts sincerity, 1 part off-the-cuff and zero parts  BS.

Micah (”mee-hah”) is best known for creating “Follow Fridays” on Twitter in addition to his work with Lijit .  He was quick to set the record straight by declaring, “Follow Friday’s was the result of my failure to connect friends via Twitter.”  He had my attention.

He went on to talk about how to fail and the rules of blogging, but his overarching message still rings in my head:

Failure is a process.  A failure is an event.

Losing is an ending.  A loser is a person.

Take a second to think about that.  His point was that failure is part of the journey to success.  It’s just an event in one’s personal or professional trek.  It doesn’t define us.  Rather, it helps season us with wisdom to help us better achieve our goals.  Ah, that’s the catch!  We have to have goals clearly defined before we can chalk-up any events as a “falure” or “success”.  Do’h!

This point is relevant to brand managers, marketers, mothers, entreprenuers, employees and any other human.  If we’re not setting goals and willing to experience failures, then we have eliminated any possiblity of success.   That sounds pretty grim, huh?  I didn’t think so either.

Are you setting goals for your personal life?  Are you setting goals at work?  The reality is that most of us don’t set and measure our goals, failures and successes.  You need to start if you want to experience real success as an individual and/or as part of a team.    What does this have to do with a blog or social media or you as a person?

It means that we need to screw things up once in a while.  We need to drop the ball with a loved one, feel the sting and learn from it.  We need to insert our feet in to our mouths in a social network, feel the the sting and learn from it.  We need to write crap blog posts that people hate, feel the sting and learn from it.

At the end of the day, if we are not evolving, then we are devolving in our jobs and in our lives.

Have some stories about a major screw up from which you gained a tremendous of wisdom or “never going to do that again”?

Crappy service from service oriented brands or businesses makes my mind melt.  It’s one of my  pet peeves.  In light of that, I’m always excited to hear about great experiences with brands.  Today, said excitement reignited after a friend (that happens to do marketing for a large global brand) told me about his flight to Asia on Cathay Pacific.    Do you hear that, other brands?  Go get your notepads.  It is as simple as our good friends at Gigom said in one of their articles:

…in branding, it turns out that what matters most in the message are simplicity and consistency.

It is that simple and something that Cathay Pacific has continuously delivered year after year.

I should preface this story by telling you that my friend is a big business and leisure  traveler.  It’s also important to note that he appreciates 5 star service more than any other person I know.  You should also know that I really enjoy guacamole.

When my friend finally got comfy in his seat, he received a birthday card signed by the entire Cathay Pacific flight crew in their native languages.  He was so excited by this nice touch, that he immediately posted it to his Facebook profile.  Since then, numerous people commented and some have definitely shared that story at their respective water coolers and watering holes.

That, my friends, is a scenario that is about as basic as it gets for any brand.  Part of the game for brand managers is just showing up.  The remaining portion is simply giving a damn about customers and engaging them in ways that THEY want.  The sad truth is that many brands know this, but seldom deliver.  The truth is that most take that same half-assed approach to their social media strategy and expect magic to happen.

There is a sentiment that my peers, associates and friends often hear me belabor in one form or another:

If your brand is not clearly defined in your daily company life and isn’t consistently reinforced [read:  brand sucks ass], what makes you think that diving into social and community media will help you find the marketing Holy Grail?

Here’s a tip.  You won’t find the magic sauce just by creating a Facebook fan page.  Rather, your attempt will most likely more closely resemble a Holy FAIL.  After all, brands are like individual people.  If one is inconsistent and “fake” then the likelihood of people actually wanting to hang out and say good things is quite slim.  The same goes for brands.  I’m so glad Cathay “gets it”.

What are some pet peaves or noteworthy scenarios you’ve experienced with brands?

People can’t stop talking about Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift.  Gossip magazines, blogs and TV shows are working this sad incident until they can’t get anymore traction from it.  But, just when we all think it’s over, it has only just begun.  I’mma Let You Finish is a new website powered by user generated content (UGC) that features numerous photos of Kanye interrupting entertainment and history icons with the same lameness that he demonstrated with Taylor Swift.

Taking a page from icanhascheezburger, I’mma Let You Finish relies on a person’s ability and desire to submit funny photos of Kanye interrupting everybody from Santa Claus to Orson Welles to The Fonz.  Each photo is funnier than the previous.

This is a great illustration of how quickly information travels across the Internet.  The creators of this odd site were able to concept, create and spread the word in less than 24 hours after Swift was slimed by Kanye.   Now I’mma Let You Finish is growing by the second.

West’s PR team and publicist probably took a big dump in their collective pants after they saw what he pulled.  Due to the agility of the Internet, brand managers, PR teams, marketing professionals and new media gurus will have to bring their A game.  Long gone are the gravy days of traditional media dominance that lent itself to moderate predictability.  It’s full-on Thunder Dome nowadays.

I think marketing and social media “experts” are going to have to put up or shut up in the coming months.  They can’t just purchase some outdoor board space and call it a day.  They have to listen to the chatter.   Then they’ll have to respond and measure.  I bet Kanye’s crew has been burning the midnight oil after this lame stunt.

Viva I’mma Let You Finsh!

It’s official.  The first annual WordCamp LA was a success. Ben Huh, founder of FAIL Blog and I Can Has Cheezburger, had a large hand in making that a reality.

I, along with everybody else it seemed, didn’t know what to expect from his lecture.  In all honesty, I was torn:  Do I go “glitz” and attend Ben’s or do I go “uber value” by attending Darren Rush’s session on search and improved performance.

I chose “glitz” and listend to Ben Huh work the crowd like a pro.  I’m so thrilled that I did.

One of the most important elements of his lecture was his insistence that tricks, bells & whistles and sweet plugins aren’t necessarily the key ingredients that comprise the coveted, secret internet guru sauce.  Rather, removing oneself from the bottleneck within one’s brand or blog  combined with keeping things as simple and as free as possible will ramp-up success more quickly and with more desireable results.

Let’s cut the bs.  You ARE the bottleneck.

The overarching message was “you have a major opportunity to run your brand or blog better than you are currently.  Wake up, simplify, be yourself and have fun.”  Sounds like it was puked straight ouf of the mouth of some “dot slob” person that made it big in the late 1990s choking down a Double Gulp of Mountain Dew, right?  Wrong.  By applying Huh’s attitude towards business and growth, one’s ability to be transparent, honest and trustworthy is enhanced 1o-fold.  If  trust can be built, people will be more apt to spend cash on your service or product, surf your blog, retweet your content, etc.

Regardless of what you think about his business philosophy, you can’t deny that all 26 of their websites (including FAIL blog and Icanhascheezburger) account for 12% of all of Wordpress’ traffic, they receive 1 BILLION page views per month and that they pay $Zero for advertising.

Here are the highlights from his session.

• Learn how to cache properly
• Create a brand or blog that is scalable
• You are the bottleneck
• Keep your lazy attitude (I’m doing that right now by simply posting my notes)
• Users care about what THEY want, not what you think
• Who are you trying to impress?!
• Don’t make people register, unless they want to vote
• User generated content is the future
• Before hiring another person, make sure you have a consistent 500,000 page views / month
• When possible, pay your moderators

At the end of the day, knowing and understanding what to do is much different than real world, first-hand application.  Make mistakes.  Screw up.  All of that knowledge will eventually evolve into wisdom that will help guide you to success(s).

What are your thoughts on Ben Huh’s opinions on business?  Have you already applied some of what he’s saying?

#benhuh? #wordcampla

Leaving a trail of energized bloggers and speakers in its wake, the 1st Wordcamp LA, hosted by Wordpress, has come and gone like a toothless, sweaty caravan of carnies.  Austin Passy and the crew at Wordcamp LA couldn’t have selected a better venue for the kickoff to what attendees hope will be an annual event.

It was my first time visiting the LMU campus in Playa (Playa del Rey), though I’ve driven by it no fewer than 500 times since I’ve been living in LA.  Once I arrived it appeared to be a bit of a challenge to locate the registration table, but I quickly saw the Wordpress balloons and coffee table (not like the crappy Ikea table you have in your apartment) and was ready to get into the mix.  For what appeared to be a modest, grassroots event, Worpcamp LA packed a lot of punch.  So high was the caliber of attendees, speakers and organizers that I’d be remiss if I were to try and stuff all of its goodness into a single post.

I’ll follow this post with three successive articles about the sessions I attended (Ben Huh, Co-founder of FAIL blog and Icanhascheezburger.com; Micah Baldwin, of Lijit and Follow Fridays fame; Jim Turner, founder of One By One Media).  Though there were other panels that people raved about, I was only able to squeeze in a whopping three.  In the meantime, I think its worthknowing who was there and about what they spoke.  Check out the list of speakers below:

#wordcampla #benhuh #Genuine #brendon

There was an odd story a few months ago involving Facbook, a Nepali ski team member disappearance  and France.  I had to write a bit on this in case some of you missed it.

A few months ago a member of the Nepal Ski Team was lost in the Alps and was found via a Facebook.  If that isn’t interesting enough, by the time a concerted effort of 400 people located him, he had wondered hundreds of miles by foot across France.  I can’t make this stuff up, people.

You thought Facebook was only good for sharing photos of your cat, Gypsy, and sharing your high score on World of Warcraft.  Think again!  I’m here to tell you that Facebook is not only a source for learning what your best friend ate for a snack, but is a bona-fide search and rescue safety device.  Who knew!?

Uttam Rayamajhi, a 17-year-old from the Nepal ski Team, disappeared from the ski team’s base camp in the Alps.  Apparently, he left on his own will over frustration of the dissolution of his country’s ski team.  He didn’t seem to have a well thought out plan, as he left with no extra money or clothes.  If we were to leave Brendon David Ski Team  I’d at least leave with a couple of bones in my pockets or steal a beanie.

There really is no way to predict all of the infinite applications of social and community platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  The fact that people used Facebook to notify their network that Rayamajhi vanished is not so earth shattering.  What is notable, in my mind, is that people chose to listen and do something about it.  It gives me hope for the evolution of our species.

Getting back to the fact that Rayamajhi disappeared with a plan weaker than a menacing plot from a Scooby Doo villan…

I asked myself, “How did he make it hundreds of miles walking with no cash?”  Though I’m sad to bust your bubble, I am happy to report that it was via the kindness of the French people feeding him.  Gasp!  I know that flies in the face of the common stereotype about the French, but I know you’re secretly glad to know that they gave him more than cigarettes and a pair of skinny jeans.   Oui!