I'm sitting here late at night thinking not about the historic election that took place last night ....
Ok, I am thinking about that. I've spent the past two hours scanning various media to find the latest on close races, stats from states, poll numbers ... I've looked at a huge variety of data that obviously news organizations and other groups have spent tons of money to acquire! Someone's gotta be out there beating feet to interview folks about who they are voting for, why, what their background is, etc etc etc.
After carousing the NY Times - for free, the Irish Times - for free, the BBC - for free, The Oregonian - for free, CNN - for free, Pollster.com - for free, ABC - for free, CBS - for free ... I finally ended up at my hometown newspaper the Port Townsend Leader and realized I was reading news about my hometown that someone spent hours gathering, writing, and posting on the internet - and all this took place for the outlandish price of FREE!!!
It is no wonder Reuters is outsourcing some of their work to India. Should we be worried that creative jobs are being outsourced? Isn't the promise of outsourcing that only ridiculous manual labor jobs that Americans don't want to do will be outsourced? Should we be worried the Seattle Times has cut their staff by 20% ...
Well, that's a topic for another blog.
Ok, here is the meat.
Last night I went to an election party at the Grand Central Bowl in Portland, OR. Sponsors included the Bus Project, AM 970, and the Willamette Week among others. While checking out my hometown paper I had the idea:
Newspapers should fight the lack of funds induced by the advent of electronic media by getting into the event planning business!!! Who else has awesome contacts better than the editors and reporters of print media! They review books, they review bands, they review actors, politicians ... all sorts of interesting people!
Who do you want to party with??? INTERESTING PEOPLE!!!
So, while newspapers are busy slashing jobs wondering how to keep up with electronic media and the collaborative world of Web 2.0 AND losing TONS of advertising revenue, perhaps they should look outside of the box for their revenue streams.
Use the community they have built to promote concerts and artists and comedians and various other interesting people. THAT, is how people are starting to look at Web 2.0. Why not turn the mirror back upon real life ... is it time for REAL LIFE 2.0? Or wait ... that is what Second Life is for ...
Worried about objectivity?
Create some serious and rigorous standards and regulations.
Write them on paper.
Put them on your door so you have to look at them every time you go outside.
And for God Sake Man - Stop Sending Creative Jobs Overseas.
I hate being a delivery driver.
My brain is mush.
I can't throw ideas off my co-workers.
The majority of my conversations consists of "Thanks" or "hi" or "Seeya to-mar-ah."
I can't talk about anything creative ...
... just sports, video games, porn, and a bunch of other stuff I haven't cared about since I was 16 years old.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Last social media/web 2.0 blog ... until i write one again
I need to stop writing about social media and web 2.0 because:
#1 - I'm a bystander with nothing new to say
#2 - Our Fenbi pals would rather have us talk about music and cultural things
#3 - It's more exciting to talk about scandalous things
But that said, let me give you my top three experiences that exemplify why I embrace social media and follow it through blogs and magazines.
#1 - Hot for Sarah - When I performed with the band The Young Immortals I created a scheme to write to all the Sarah's I could find on myspace to say:
"Hey Sarah! How are you! I just wanted to let you know we wrote a sweet little song juuuust for you! I hope you like it, cheers, TYI"
You'd be surprised how many Sarah's thought we were awesome for taking the time to write to them and how many loyal fans we created. It was verified when we toured across the country and met tons of Sarah's who said "Someone from your band emailed us and said ..... "
By pure coincidence I contacted the producer from Portland's AM 970 "The Rick Emerson Show" producer Sarah X Dylan. She humored us enough to bring us on the show, thereby my scheme earning us FREE MEDIA. Boo ya! When are they gonna bring the new band on? We are much more entertaining and exciting if I may say so ...
#2 - Writing blogs - Our current band - The Fenbi International Superstars has absolutely no music recorded or displayed on our myspace page (www.myspace.com/fenbi) aside from this 'Sheep Shearing' track that is really just Orion and myself goofing around to the backdrop of some hot Pogues tune.
In order to compensate for our lack of tunes I have been writing several blogs per day resulting in over 200 profile views per week on our myspace page. It is hard enough getting that when you HAVE music ... but we don't ... so we have to compensate somehow. And IT'S WORKING!!!
#3 - Confronting someone trash talking Tony Greene - We tried out for the Pizzazz talent show and lost miserably to some rad and talented kids - one of them being Tony Greene. When I checked out the blog of the sponsor I saw someone had written a comment degrading Tony's victory and since the kid was a genius 10 year old I rose to his defense - basically calling out the criticizer on her gross over-generalizations. How is this a beautiful example of the wonders of social media??? Because the person retracted all of their venom and retreated into their cold lonely dark cave ...
... annnnnd I got off a great zinger about them maybe checking out "Season 4 of the OC if they can't find better ways to entertain themselves." Or something like that. It was great, trust me.
It's a wondrous thing this social media ... it offers so many tricks for community building and image control ... and now I am going to shut up and hopefully start writing blogs about gypsies or tinkers or crazy arts scenes in Portland, OR starting with THURSDAY NIGHTS AT 9 MUSES ACOUSTIC TAVERN ON SE 28TH AND BELMONT, $1 PABST BLUE RIBBON, FOOLS,
#1 - I'm a bystander with nothing new to say
#2 - Our Fenbi pals would rather have us talk about music and cultural things
#3 - It's more exciting to talk about scandalous things
But that said, let me give you my top three experiences that exemplify why I embrace social media and follow it through blogs and magazines.
#1 - Hot for Sarah - When I performed with the band The Young Immortals I created a scheme to write to all the Sarah's I could find on myspace to say:
"Hey Sarah! How are you! I just wanted to let you know we wrote a sweet little song juuuust for you! I hope you like it, cheers, TYI"
You'd be surprised how many Sarah's thought we were awesome for taking the time to write to them and how many loyal fans we created. It was verified when we toured across the country and met tons of Sarah's who said "Someone from your band emailed us and said ..... "
By pure coincidence I contacted the producer from Portland's AM 970 "The Rick Emerson Show" producer Sarah X Dylan. She humored us enough to bring us on the show, thereby my scheme earning us FREE MEDIA. Boo ya! When are they gonna bring the new band on? We are much more entertaining and exciting if I may say so ...
#2 - Writing blogs - Our current band - The Fenbi International Superstars has absolutely no music recorded or displayed on our myspace page (www.myspace.com/fenbi) aside from this 'Sheep Shearing' track that is really just Orion and myself goofing around to the backdrop of some hot Pogues tune.
In order to compensate for our lack of tunes I have been writing several blogs per day resulting in over 200 profile views per week on our myspace page. It is hard enough getting that when you HAVE music ... but we don't ... so we have to compensate somehow. And IT'S WORKING!!!
#3 - Confronting someone trash talking Tony Greene - We tried out for the Pizzazz talent show and lost miserably to some rad and talented kids - one of them being Tony Greene. When I checked out the blog of the sponsor I saw someone had written a comment degrading Tony's victory and since the kid was a genius 10 year old I rose to his defense - basically calling out the criticizer on her gross over-generalizations. How is this a beautiful example of the wonders of social media??? Because the person retracted all of their venom and retreated into their cold lonely dark cave ...
... annnnnd I got off a great zinger about them maybe checking out "Season 4 of the OC if they can't find better ways to entertain themselves." Or something like that. It was great, trust me.
It's a wondrous thing this social media ... it offers so many tricks for community building and image control ... and now I am going to shut up and hopefully start writing blogs about gypsies or tinkers or crazy arts scenes in Portland, OR starting with THURSDAY NIGHTS AT 9 MUSES ACOUSTIC TAVERN ON SE 28TH AND BELMONT, $1 PABST BLUE RIBBON, FOOLS,
Sunday, October 19, 2008
you have to be in my headspace to understand what i am saying
I am a big fan of google reader. I promote it to my friends and I use it all the time to send headlines directly into my Reader inbox and I can pick and choose which stories I want to read. You can use this service for news sites such as the NY Times and Seattle Times (who just gave a questionable endorsement to Dino Rossi) but I tend to use it only to monitor blogs. To be honest ... I'm alone among my friends in Web 2.0 advancements outside of myspace and facebook.
One of my favorite blogs to read is Web Strategy by Jeremiah (www.web-strategist.com/). In many ways it is very strange that I enjoy reading it so much because I certainly don't currently hold any positions with any companies that might be able to take advantage of my interest. I just find it very interesting to see how "smart business people" are trying to use and embrace social technologies for their products. It's like this guy Jeremiah is a pre-school teacher directing all these business leaders on one of those leashes that you see little kids attached to in the big city.
Web 2.0 seems pretty simple to me. You have online communities ... certain people flock to them because of a given interest ... and they spend a little chunk of their time hanging out there a couple hours per week. But sometimes business leaders are like blood-sucking vampires and all they see is an opportunity to roll out the red carpet for yesteryear's advertising campaign.
It seems all the business leaders are freaking out about metrics; proving that advertising dollars are well spent on a social networking site ... but perhaps they need to take a step back and try not to use their old business models with this new technology.
How effective are billboards? How effective are commercials, both on television and radio? We've certainly learned to tune them out or change the channel ... so why would you try to do those things on the Internet? Yet they are allllll ovvvver the place!
The awesome power of the Internet enables you to go directly to these online communities where your target market may be congregating. Hell ... it allows you to create your own. It allows you to throw out that washed up 50's era marketing plan and create something real - based on community engagement. But I think when you lose sight of the community vision - THAT is where things go wrong quickly.
I personally feel we just HAVE to get back to community in all aspects of our lives whether it is where we live, how we interact, how we spend our money, or how we embark on marketing campaigns. We need to rebuild/rezone our cities so that everything we need is in walking distance. We need to build products that don't break after a few uses.
We need to understand our role in this mosaic of cultures living on earth in a way that doesn't make us better or richer or smarter than people from other countries. We need to respect our environment.
And if we're going to market a product - whether it's dominoes or milk we need to be honest, not cram it down peoples throats, and show respect for the consumer by creating a product in the first place that betters peoples lives. If you have to rely on 50's era marketing practices maybe your product suuuuucks.
And it makes sense to turn to people who either majored in communication, or have a strong interest in interpersonal communication to further your brands reach within social technologies.
Web 2.0 technologies are like a robotic representation of the flesh and blood of real communication. Communications professionals are the grease for that machine!
One of my favorite blogs to read is Web Strategy by Jeremiah (www.web-strategist.com/). In many ways it is very strange that I enjoy reading it so much because I certainly don't currently hold any positions with any companies that might be able to take advantage of my interest. I just find it very interesting to see how "smart business people" are trying to use and embrace social technologies for their products. It's like this guy Jeremiah is a pre-school teacher directing all these business leaders on one of those leashes that you see little kids attached to in the big city.
Web 2.0 seems pretty simple to me. You have online communities ... certain people flock to them because of a given interest ... and they spend a little chunk of their time hanging out there a couple hours per week. But sometimes business leaders are like blood-sucking vampires and all they see is an opportunity to roll out the red carpet for yesteryear's advertising campaign.
It seems all the business leaders are freaking out about metrics; proving that advertising dollars are well spent on a social networking site ... but perhaps they need to take a step back and try not to use their old business models with this new technology.
How effective are billboards? How effective are commercials, both on television and radio? We've certainly learned to tune them out or change the channel ... so why would you try to do those things on the Internet? Yet they are allllll ovvvver the place!
The awesome power of the Internet enables you to go directly to these online communities where your target market may be congregating. Hell ... it allows you to create your own. It allows you to throw out that washed up 50's era marketing plan and create something real - based on community engagement. But I think when you lose sight of the community vision - THAT is where things go wrong quickly.
I personally feel we just HAVE to get back to community in all aspects of our lives whether it is where we live, how we interact, how we spend our money, or how we embark on marketing campaigns. We need to rebuild/rezone our cities so that everything we need is in walking distance. We need to build products that don't break after a few uses.
We need to understand our role in this mosaic of cultures living on earth in a way that doesn't make us better or richer or smarter than people from other countries. We need to respect our environment.
And if we're going to market a product - whether it's dominoes or milk we need to be honest, not cram it down peoples throats, and show respect for the consumer by creating a product in the first place that betters peoples lives. If you have to rely on 50's era marketing practices maybe your product suuuuucks.
And it makes sense to turn to people who either majored in communication, or have a strong interest in interpersonal communication to further your brands reach within social technologies.
Web 2.0 technologies are like a robotic representation of the flesh and blood of real communication. Communications professionals are the grease for that machine!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Employed ... almost REALLY employed ...
So ... I am not always the best decision maker.
Today I went to my third interview for a position that will include scanning and reading blogs for a PR company. That would be my job. I would be entry-level and the people above me would be the experts that I would be learning from.
I have been excited about this job for some time because I am very interested in social media and all the debates over metrics and how to measure your reach and the effectiveness of social media campaigns ... I really think my enthusiasm came across in the interview today and I will find out whether or not I got the job in a day or so.
Until I hear back from them I get to continue my wonderful delivery driving job. I have been back at work for less than two weeks and already I am training someone. That means I spent the entire day riding shotgun looking at the same scenery on the same route that I have had on and off for over two years. Being a passenger for five hours whilst driving in circles gives one time to think.
I pondered my interview performance and wondered what I might have said better ... what I may have forgotten to bring up ... what they might have thought of me dressed up in my fanciest outfit. I've never made more than $8,500 in a year and this job has the potential to triple or even quadruple that - doing something I clearly enjoy. I find that fascinating.
Anyway - as I cruised around crashing from my coffee buzz and thinking about my future I realized I had one skeleton in my closet ... THIS BLOG!!!!! And my myspace blog!!!!!!
Perhaps I shouldn't have told them about my band ... or perhaps I shouldn't have spelled out my band's name. Chances are ... since they are influential monitors and experts in searching through social media - they may have looked up my blogs. And they may not have appreciated what they found.
Up until about 20 minutes ago this blog was filled with entries saying crass things ... using the F word ... using all kinds of language as if I were some street punk from the inner city.
Potential employer ... please forgive me ... and please ignore what you may or may not have read earlier today ...
Today I went to my third interview for a position that will include scanning and reading blogs for a PR company. That would be my job. I would be entry-level and the people above me would be the experts that I would be learning from.
I have been excited about this job for some time because I am very interested in social media and all the debates over metrics and how to measure your reach and the effectiveness of social media campaigns ... I really think my enthusiasm came across in the interview today and I will find out whether or not I got the job in a day or so.
Until I hear back from them I get to continue my wonderful delivery driving job. I have been back at work for less than two weeks and already I am training someone. That means I spent the entire day riding shotgun looking at the same scenery on the same route that I have had on and off for over two years. Being a passenger for five hours whilst driving in circles gives one time to think.
I pondered my interview performance and wondered what I might have said better ... what I may have forgotten to bring up ... what they might have thought of me dressed up in my fanciest outfit. I've never made more than $8,500 in a year and this job has the potential to triple or even quadruple that - doing something I clearly enjoy. I find that fascinating.
Anyway - as I cruised around crashing from my coffee buzz and thinking about my future I realized I had one skeleton in my closet ... THIS BLOG!!!!! And my myspace blog!!!!!!
Perhaps I shouldn't have told them about my band ... or perhaps I shouldn't have spelled out my band's name. Chances are ... since they are influential monitors and experts in searching through social media - they may have looked up my blogs. And they may not have appreciated what they found.
Up until about 20 minutes ago this blog was filled with entries saying crass things ... using the F word ... using all kinds of language as if I were some street punk from the inner city.
Potential employer ... please forgive me ... and please ignore what you may or may not have read earlier today ...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Unemployed Day # 30 ... sob sob sob
I am reading a book titled, Flight of the Creative Class. It's one of these new age books on economics much like Deep Economy by Bill McKibbon which I am also reading.
Flight of the Creative Class is one of the more recent books by the author Richard Florida who gained fame and recognition for his first novel titled Rise of The Creative Class.
One of the main themes he is always stressing is that quality of place is the most important factor in stimulating economic growth. That is why cities like NYC and San Francisco have such huge economies - because they are open cities where gays, immigrants, and people of color can feel comfortable. He argues entrepreneurs follow artists ... note the Silicon Valley after the late 60's and the Seattle boom after the Grunge scene in the early 90's.
I have to admit, I like his books and his insight as well. No more does a city need to focus on building an 'Arch' or 'Space Needle' or any other kind of symbol to seem important. Florida has stripped away the superficiality and said "Hey everyone, if you want a nice city with a great economy you have to make it live up to the American dream of everyone equal and party 24/7!" Perhaps that is why Memphis and Nashville never really took off? My image of those cities (especially after going to them) is of a vibrant arts scene, but then Cletus and Billy Bob are there polishing their shotguns on their front porches waiting to get the posse together! I'd like to think we've moved past those days?
But you have to wonder why Portland hasn't boomed quite yet? Surely we have an awesome arts scene in this town? Surely we have tons of entrepreneurial talent and all of us kids walk around feeling like this is such an open-minded city.
On the other hand, I think Portlanders are lucky to have mayor-elect Sam Adams who not only lives in North Portland, but also seems to have a strong grip on the issues at stake for our city. With his strong support of bike lanes and assorted issues he knows livability is tops on the priority list. He seems to have a strong grasp of the concepts of sustainability and acting locally and eating locally and although I don't know the guy, I think we are lucky.
I originally came to this blog center to write about Richard Florida's book Flight of the Creative Class. How I was reading it last night and saw European countries are giving scholarships to Americans to attend their universities with the hope that when they become business leaders they will strengthen ties with those European countries. After reading that I immediately ran to my computer and found a scholarship that pays you to study in Ireland for a year! Free! With a stipend! With a travel stipend on top of that!
See you later!
Errr, I mean, umm ... let's make Portland nice ... and stuff.
If you are still reading this give yourself a huge gold star. The only other interesting thing I wanted to mention about Flight of the Creative Class is how George Bush's policies regarding post 9/11 terrorism checkpoints at airports, background checks on people of non-European descent, and rejection of Phd candidates from overseas has really hurt our standing in the world, and also hurt our economy. Because those creative entrepreneur's are being rejected from living here and creating the next scientific breakthrough ... America has lost its standing in the world because these intelligent Indians, Chinese, and others are looking more towards Europe for openness ... or they are building universities in their countries that top ours. As the book points out the leading medical school in the world is in India, some of the top tech schools are in Japan ... by having an administration that doesn't embrace science we are crumbling at our very foundation.
Consider this: the biggest entrepreneurs of the silicon valley era are not Americans by birth ... they are Taiwanese, Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese ... if there were ever a case to NEVER elect a REPUBLICAN(t) ever again - these failed policies crystallize that notion.
In other news I saw the Angelina Jolie movie "Wanted" last night and it was the worst movie I have ever seen.
mjp
Flight of the Creative Class is one of the more recent books by the author Richard Florida who gained fame and recognition for his first novel titled Rise of The Creative Class.
One of the main themes he is always stressing is that quality of place is the most important factor in stimulating economic growth. That is why cities like NYC and San Francisco have such huge economies - because they are open cities where gays, immigrants, and people of color can feel comfortable. He argues entrepreneurs follow artists ... note the Silicon Valley after the late 60's and the Seattle boom after the Grunge scene in the early 90's.
I have to admit, I like his books and his insight as well. No more does a city need to focus on building an 'Arch' or 'Space Needle' or any other kind of symbol to seem important. Florida has stripped away the superficiality and said "Hey everyone, if you want a nice city with a great economy you have to make it live up to the American dream of everyone equal and party 24/7!" Perhaps that is why Memphis and Nashville never really took off? My image of those cities (especially after going to them) is of a vibrant arts scene, but then Cletus and Billy Bob are there polishing their shotguns on their front porches waiting to get the posse together! I'd like to think we've moved past those days?
But you have to wonder why Portland hasn't boomed quite yet? Surely we have an awesome arts scene in this town? Surely we have tons of entrepreneurial talent and all of us kids walk around feeling like this is such an open-minded city.
On the other hand, I think Portlanders are lucky to have mayor-elect Sam Adams who not only lives in North Portland, but also seems to have a strong grip on the issues at stake for our city. With his strong support of bike lanes and assorted issues he knows livability is tops on the priority list. He seems to have a strong grasp of the concepts of sustainability and acting locally and eating locally and although I don't know the guy, I think we are lucky.
I originally came to this blog center to write about Richard Florida's book Flight of the Creative Class. How I was reading it last night and saw European countries are giving scholarships to Americans to attend their universities with the hope that when they become business leaders they will strengthen ties with those European countries. After reading that I immediately ran to my computer and found a scholarship that pays you to study in Ireland for a year! Free! With a stipend! With a travel stipend on top of that!
See you later!
Errr, I mean, umm ... let's make Portland nice ... and stuff.
If you are still reading this give yourself a huge gold star. The only other interesting thing I wanted to mention about Flight of the Creative Class is how George Bush's policies regarding post 9/11 terrorism checkpoints at airports, background checks on people of non-European descent, and rejection of Phd candidates from overseas has really hurt our standing in the world, and also hurt our economy. Because those creative entrepreneur's are being rejected from living here and creating the next scientific breakthrough ... America has lost its standing in the world because these intelligent Indians, Chinese, and others are looking more towards Europe for openness ... or they are building universities in their countries that top ours. As the book points out the leading medical school in the world is in India, some of the top tech schools are in Japan ... by having an administration that doesn't embrace science we are crumbling at our very foundation.
Consider this: the biggest entrepreneurs of the silicon valley era are not Americans by birth ... they are Taiwanese, Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese ... if there were ever a case to NEVER elect a REPUBLICAN(t) ever again - these failed policies crystallize that notion.
In other news I saw the Angelina Jolie movie "Wanted" last night and it was the worst movie I have ever seen.
mjp
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Unemployed Day # too many to count ...
I feel like I am getting an education on things that people already knew 150 years ago.
Here is a list of the blatantly obvious things our society is having a hard time coming to terms with lately:
1. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels is expensive
2. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels gives power to bad guys
3. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels as fertilizers to grow our food is unhealthy
4. We feed enough grains to animals we raise for meat to feed the world many times over
5. We eat too much of our food in the processed form thereby not consuming enough nutrients.
6. We should eat more raw fruits and vegetables.
7. We should eat locally so we don't waste fossil fuels and we support our community.
8. We should choose organic so we don't eat fossil fuels.
9. Living in a community where you can walk everywhere saves energy.
10. We consume too many empty calories.
11. We should exercise more.
12. We should spend more time in nature.
13. We should spend more time eating and drinking with friends than watching TV or sitting in front of the computer.
All these things apply to me personally. Maybe they apply to you. How far do you commute to work and how much money do you waste to do so? How much fossil fuel? Do you know your neighbors? Where does the majority of the food you consume come from? South America in the Winter? Pork from the East Coast? Did you know some Pork factory farms create more sewage waste than New York, California, and Washington combined? What do they do with all that pig waste? Is it worth it to eat large amounts of meat when it wastes so much food and fossil fuel and creates so much pollution?
It's funny I say that because I have been a vegetarian my whole life and I have recently decided to consume a little meat. There is no doubt about the nutritional value offered by fish and chicken.
But I hope everyone continues to think about our place in the world. Not as members of the greatest country on Earth ... surely we are free, open, and accepting. But we are all world people.
Disregard the hype.
Here is a list of the blatantly obvious things our society is having a hard time coming to terms with lately:
1. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels is expensive
2. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels gives power to bad guys
3. Relying so heavily on fossil fuels as fertilizers to grow our food is unhealthy
4. We feed enough grains to animals we raise for meat to feed the world many times over
5. We eat too much of our food in the processed form thereby not consuming enough nutrients.
6. We should eat more raw fruits and vegetables.
7. We should eat locally so we don't waste fossil fuels and we support our community.
8. We should choose organic so we don't eat fossil fuels.
9. Living in a community where you can walk everywhere saves energy.
10. We consume too many empty calories.
11. We should exercise more.
12. We should spend more time in nature.
13. We should spend more time eating and drinking with friends than watching TV or sitting in front of the computer.
All these things apply to me personally. Maybe they apply to you. How far do you commute to work and how much money do you waste to do so? How much fossil fuel? Do you know your neighbors? Where does the majority of the food you consume come from? South America in the Winter? Pork from the East Coast? Did you know some Pork factory farms create more sewage waste than New York, California, and Washington combined? What do they do with all that pig waste? Is it worth it to eat large amounts of meat when it wastes so much food and fossil fuel and creates so much pollution?
It's funny I say that because I have been a vegetarian my whole life and I have recently decided to consume a little meat. There is no doubt about the nutritional value offered by fish and chicken.
But I hope everyone continues to think about our place in the world. Not as members of the greatest country on Earth ... surely we are free, open, and accepting. But we are all world people.
Disregard the hype.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
3rd Day Unemployed
Unemployed Day 3, Portland, OR
Man, being unemployed is pretty great except for the not having money part. Even so, I am finding some great things to do that aren't very expensive and that I didn't have time to do before.
Portland Futsol
Last night I went to SE 17th and played futsol with a bunch of guys I didn't really know. I must admit I was horribly out of shape and after 5 minutes I was seeing double and needed to sit out. Despite my lack of ability to dribble or even pass as sharply as I used to, I still managed some good plays. I even got an assist, not bad for someone who hasn't played in over two years!
One thing I realized is how lame having a 9-5 job is when I can't exercise! Seriously, I am probably about 15 pounds overweight and it is quite disturbing once I try to do something that would have been easy before. Just a couple years ago I would have been zipping all over the place and schooling those bastards - now I am one of the slowest guys on the field. I must change that!
Hummus from Scratch
I also took advantage of feeling poor by making hummus from scratch. Usually it costs a pretty penny from Fred Meyer (even worse at Zupan's or Whole Foods) but I gathered 3 cans of garbanzo beans, some garlic, some lemon, and 1/4 of a cup of tahini and made probably $30 worth of hummus for $3. It was awesome! I put too much tahini in ... so that is why I am not posting my recipe.
Communications Positions, PR, Portland, OR
I applied for more PR positions related to web strategy and communication today. I was so excited to see a fresh job posting that I shaved and ran down to their office to personally deliver my resume. When I got back home I realized they had just announced today their new hires for communications counsel. Talk about yelling the F word so loud my whole neighborhood could hear it!
Portland Timbers
Anyway, I am going to see the Timbers tomorrow night. I might have some yard work lined up and it will feel good to work a bit. It's only been 3 days of unemployment so I don't have to get my panties in a knot ... yet. da da daaaa.
TBC
Man, being unemployed is pretty great except for the not having money part. Even so, I am finding some great things to do that aren't very expensive and that I didn't have time to do before.
Portland Futsol
Last night I went to SE 17th and played futsol with a bunch of guys I didn't really know. I must admit I was horribly out of shape and after 5 minutes I was seeing double and needed to sit out. Despite my lack of ability to dribble or even pass as sharply as I used to, I still managed some good plays. I even got an assist, not bad for someone who hasn't played in over two years!
One thing I realized is how lame having a 9-5 job is when I can't exercise! Seriously, I am probably about 15 pounds overweight and it is quite disturbing once I try to do something that would have been easy before. Just a couple years ago I would have been zipping all over the place and schooling those bastards - now I am one of the slowest guys on the field. I must change that!
Hummus from Scratch
I also took advantage of feeling poor by making hummus from scratch. Usually it costs a pretty penny from Fred Meyer (even worse at Zupan's or Whole Foods) but I gathered 3 cans of garbanzo beans, some garlic, some lemon, and 1/4 of a cup of tahini and made probably $30 worth of hummus for $3. It was awesome! I put too much tahini in ... so that is why I am not posting my recipe.
Communications Positions, PR, Portland, OR
I applied for more PR positions related to web strategy and communication today. I was so excited to see a fresh job posting that I shaved and ran down to their office to personally deliver my resume. When I got back home I realized they had just announced today their new hires for communications counsel. Talk about yelling the F word so loud my whole neighborhood could hear it!
Portland Timbers
Anyway, I am going to see the Timbers tomorrow night. I might have some yard work lined up and it will feel good to work a bit. It's only been 3 days of unemployment so I don't have to get my panties in a knot ... yet. da da daaaa.
TBC
Monday, August 4, 2008
First Day Unemployed ...
Today I begin anew as an unemployed social media enthusiast (and musician - that's a double-whammy).
I am going to write out the official business plan for Fenbi Media International and hopefully it makes sense.
So far I am hampered by several important developments:
#1 - I can't spend any money in the process because I don't have any
#2 - I haven't recovered any good programs since my hard-drive crashed 5 months ago
#3 - I no longer have access to Microsoft Office or Photoshop or Publisher or Powerpoint
#4 - When I need internet connection I need to hang my computer half-way out the second story window to try to tap into the neighboring coffee shop network (Thank you Adagio)
#5 - I am in another coffee shop and it's 10am and this hippy guy with a fedora is dancing to Indian music ... it's kind of annoying ... not an ideal work environment
At any rate ... this is the beginning of a new era and I hope to treat it as such. I hope to write blogs that actually have some relevance to people's lives and are less of a long-winded vanity rant ... ooops too late ...
I am going to write out the official business plan for Fenbi Media International and hopefully it makes sense.
So far I am hampered by several important developments:
#1 - I can't spend any money in the process because I don't have any
#2 - I haven't recovered any good programs since my hard-drive crashed 5 months ago
#3 - I no longer have access to Microsoft Office or Photoshop or Publisher or Powerpoint
#4 - When I need internet connection I need to hang my computer half-way out the second story window to try to tap into the neighboring coffee shop network (Thank you Adagio)
#5 - I am in another coffee shop and it's 10am and this hippy guy with a fedora is dancing to Indian music ... it's kind of annoying ... not an ideal work environment
At any rate ... this is the beginning of a new era and I hope to treat it as such. I hope to write blogs that actually have some relevance to people's lives and are less of a long-winded vanity rant ... ooops too late ...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Portland Social Media Blogging Experience
It's ok if your head is in the sand when it comes to social media, there are worse places it could be … like up your ____ .... and that is where it usually is when you are talking to many "professionals."
For many years the focus of marketers and advertisers has been to shout at consumers using their proverbial loudspeakers in the mass media. They measure their success through complex calculations representing their "return on investment." Use wikipedia and check out what that formula looks like. It's complicated and it sucks! I hate math!
I wonder what formula they used to make this gem appear a worthwhile investment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX-Zk_LNZWg
The fact is, and everyone knows this but everyone is afraid to say it, people can make numbers say whatever the hell they want. There are certain areas you cannot manipulate numbers ... say 1+1=2 ... but when you are trying to measure things that were never meant to be more than qualitative experiments from uncreative minds then you will always be doomed to data manipulation. A good idea is often universally acknowledged ... a bad idea or gamble is something you have to convince people of. Why do people continually buy cheap plastic s**** from China? Oh, it's because they are BRIBED by low prices to do so. You see what I am saying?
In the case of the Pinto ... if you are a car manufacturer in the 21st century you are going to know almost immediately when you put a piece of garbage off the assembly line. Within moments of a bumper falling off, or say an EXPLODING BUMPER (as the case of the Pinto) bloggers are going to be all over that ... sharing, linking, sharing some more. Perhaps in the 80's they could snuff the firestorm to buy some time, but now days that just wont happen.
But in all seriousness, there are other ways to measure your ROI and often times it involves the ancient (and rarely practiced) art of listening. Listening is to marketers as polka is to rock bands. It's foreign, it's unattractive, and for the cynical professional it's easy to write off as unfashionable. We're talking about humanizing an industry that revolves around numbers and calculations and lying and manipulation.
After all isn't marketing founded on the principal that if you say the same thing enough times, eventually people will believe it? (oh wait, that is what Goebbels and McDonalds said).
As Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell (http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/) says, the number one rule for utilizing social media is to focus on the relationships and not the technology. Otherwise you find yourself with accounts for Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Linkedin and having never logged in since the day you signed up.
Translated, this means that it is not entirely necessary for your company to create a forum just because your competitor did so. Perhaps you can get the same effect by tapping into existing social networks on Myspace or Facebook. Perhaps you can save your company a lot of time and money by testing new ideas in these communities that already exist! That is what people mean when they talk about tapping into the Groundswell.
The world wide web contains forums, blogs, social networking sites and everyone is interconnected and possibly talking about you.
1. What can you learn from this swarm of interaction?
2. Better yet, how can you use this buzz to save your company money?
3. How can you corral these wild stallions and test new ideas?
Maybe I'll get the urge to write more next Friday when I find myself unemployed and crying in my 40 ... haha
For many years the focus of marketers and advertisers has been to shout at consumers using their proverbial loudspeakers in the mass media. They measure their success through complex calculations representing their "return on investment." Use wikipedia and check out what that formula looks like. It's complicated and it sucks! I hate math!
I wonder what formula they used to make this gem appear a worthwhile investment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX-Zk_LNZWg
The fact is, and everyone knows this but everyone is afraid to say it, people can make numbers say whatever the hell they want. There are certain areas you cannot manipulate numbers ... say 1+1=2 ... but when you are trying to measure things that were never meant to be more than qualitative experiments from uncreative minds then you will always be doomed to data manipulation. A good idea is often universally acknowledged ... a bad idea or gamble is something you have to convince people of. Why do people continually buy cheap plastic s**** from China? Oh, it's because they are BRIBED by low prices to do so. You see what I am saying?
In the case of the Pinto ... if you are a car manufacturer in the 21st century you are going to know almost immediately when you put a piece of garbage off the assembly line. Within moments of a bumper falling off, or say an EXPLODING BUMPER (as the case of the Pinto) bloggers are going to be all over that ... sharing, linking, sharing some more. Perhaps in the 80's they could snuff the firestorm to buy some time, but now days that just wont happen.
But in all seriousness, there are other ways to measure your ROI and often times it involves the ancient (and rarely practiced) art of listening. Listening is to marketers as polka is to rock bands. It's foreign, it's unattractive, and for the cynical professional it's easy to write off as unfashionable. We're talking about humanizing an industry that revolves around numbers and calculations and lying and manipulation.
After all isn't marketing founded on the principal that if you say the same thing enough times, eventually people will believe it? (oh wait, that is what Goebbels and McDonalds said).
As Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell (http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/) says, the number one rule for utilizing social media is to focus on the relationships and not the technology. Otherwise you find yourself with accounts for Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Linkedin and having never logged in since the day you signed up.
Translated, this means that it is not entirely necessary for your company to create a forum just because your competitor did so. Perhaps you can get the same effect by tapping into existing social networks on Myspace or Facebook. Perhaps you can save your company a lot of time and money by testing new ideas in these communities that already exist! That is what people mean when they talk about tapping into the Groundswell.
The world wide web contains forums, blogs, social networking sites and everyone is interconnected and possibly talking about you.
1. What can you learn from this swarm of interaction?
2. Better yet, how can you use this buzz to save your company money?
3. How can you corral these wild stallions and test new ideas?
Maybe I'll get the urge to write more next Friday when I find myself unemployed and crying in my 40 ... haha
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Advertising Age in Social Media
I've been having some crazy thoughts related to blogs lately.
Number one, no one reads my blogs. If I were to take a survey with myself and examine everything that irritates me in life, it would be the fact that no one reads my blog! That is a lie, but it sounds funny - and I know over the past few years many people have been frustrated and gone crazy over this subject.
The funny thing is that I know exactly what I can do to get some readers - because corporate America is listening. Call me a black helicopter person if you must, but it is true. I can say:
1. I love TILLAMOOK Cheese!
2. GENERAL MOTORS makes fine automobiles!
3. TOYOTA ... now those are some fine hybrids!
4. DANNON YOGURT ... I love you!
5. WALMART ... still not your local food co-op
6. RITE-AID ... hopefully people are saying nice things about you (jk)
7. BUDWEISER ... not American any longer
8. COORS LIGHT ... tap the ****tiest beer on earth
9. PABST ... still wondering how they became popular again
10. JOHNSON & JOHNSON ... when are you going to come up with a drug to heal my *******
But seriously folks ... social media (including blogging) is in the sites of all the greedy business people that we took to the internet to escape. Remember how annoying and useless pop up ads were in their hey-day? It was enough to make you hate whoever was doing that to you. Starbucks has recently been employing pop ups on my computer and it's bugging the crap out of me.
Banner Ads
Big corporations also came up with banner ads which were slightly less annoying but for all intents and purposes - useless!!! They probably assumed they needed a 2% return on investment to make the ads worthwhile ... but what is the sense in pissing everyone off along the way?
Myspace
Now I can't log into myspace without some huge Hollywood funded flash-ad that takes extra time to load and I don't care about anyways.
Tools
As my dad always says, when your only tool is a hammer all your problems look like nails.
Advertising agencies' only tools appear to be hammers (and the people that work there).
I just don't think they get it yet. I recently checked out the Oscar Meyer Weiner fan club and it was just the most dreadful site I had ever seen. It shows they are still treating people like they are not people but mere consumer-cattle to be branded and herded.
Businesses are considering social media to be the next big thing as far as advertising is concerned and so far most of their efforts have been for not.
Corporate America just seems to throw money at the problem as if money were water on a fire. It's like corporate America is some schizophrenic that thinks money will solve everything. Just throw money at it!
Tour de Fat
That is why I like small companies and businesses. I love the New Belgium Brewery for their advertising campaigns including Tour de Fat. I just don't want us to lose that organic edge as we find our lives revolving more and more around technology. That is also why I love social media. It's bringing advertising and marketing back to the people ... it's taking the tour de fat example and applying it in a like manner on the internet. It's rad. I'd really like to find some way to combine my interest in technology with town life ... community and social marketing.
Back to traditional advertisers!
There is a new web site called second life ... it's where all the deusche bags you meet from your daily life go to create a new life where they don't suck so bad. I have heard, and I can't confirm, that people's characters in second life can actually make money and then exchange it for real dollars. Talk about a great scam that I wish I had thought of! You create a virtual world full of fantasy's to make nerds feel like they are cool ... charge advertisers to put up billboards in that virtual world ... let Johnny idiot who is an out of touch business executive create a character ... and then trade him real dollars to make his billionaire computer character successful! Why didn't I think of this?
The other crazy thing about second life is what I briefly mentioned. Advertisers are paying to put up BILLBOARDS in the game! Isn't that nutsy? I mean it works for video games but to me this seems a little strange and a waste of money. How effective are billboards in real life? How successful are they going to be in Second Life?
Aye Aye Aye
Number one, no one reads my blogs. If I were to take a survey with myself and examine everything that irritates me in life, it would be the fact that no one reads my blog! That is a lie, but it sounds funny - and I know over the past few years many people have been frustrated and gone crazy over this subject.
The funny thing is that I know exactly what I can do to get some readers - because corporate America is listening. Call me a black helicopter person if you must, but it is true. I can say:
1. I love TILLAMOOK Cheese!
2. GENERAL MOTORS makes fine automobiles!
3. TOYOTA ... now those are some fine hybrids!
4. DANNON YOGURT ... I love you!
5. WALMART ... still not your local food co-op
6. RITE-AID ... hopefully people are saying nice things about you (jk)
7. BUDWEISER ... not American any longer
8. COORS LIGHT ... tap the ****tiest beer on earth
9. PABST ... still wondering how they became popular again
10. JOHNSON & JOHNSON ... when are you going to come up with a drug to heal my *******
But seriously folks ... social media (including blogging) is in the sites of all the greedy business people that we took to the internet to escape. Remember how annoying and useless pop up ads were in their hey-day? It was enough to make you hate whoever was doing that to you. Starbucks has recently been employing pop ups on my computer and it's bugging the crap out of me.
Banner Ads
Big corporations also came up with banner ads which were slightly less annoying but for all intents and purposes - useless!!! They probably assumed they needed a 2% return on investment to make the ads worthwhile ... but what is the sense in pissing everyone off along the way?
Myspace
Now I can't log into myspace without some huge Hollywood funded flash-ad that takes extra time to load and I don't care about anyways.
Tools
As my dad always says, when your only tool is a hammer all your problems look like nails.
Advertising agencies' only tools appear to be hammers (and the people that work there).
I just don't think they get it yet. I recently checked out the Oscar Meyer Weiner fan club and it was just the most dreadful site I had ever seen. It shows they are still treating people like they are not people but mere consumer-cattle to be branded and herded.
Businesses are considering social media to be the next big thing as far as advertising is concerned and so far most of their efforts have been for not.
Corporate America just seems to throw money at the problem as if money were water on a fire. It's like corporate America is some schizophrenic that thinks money will solve everything. Just throw money at it!
Tour de Fat
That is why I like small companies and businesses. I love the New Belgium Brewery for their advertising campaigns including Tour de Fat. I just don't want us to lose that organic edge as we find our lives revolving more and more around technology. That is also why I love social media. It's bringing advertising and marketing back to the people ... it's taking the tour de fat example and applying it in a like manner on the internet. It's rad. I'd really like to find some way to combine my interest in technology with town life ... community and social marketing.
Back to traditional advertisers!
There is a new web site called second life ... it's where all the deusche bags you meet from your daily life go to create a new life where they don't suck so bad. I have heard, and I can't confirm, that people's characters in second life can actually make money and then exchange it for real dollars. Talk about a great scam that I wish I had thought of! You create a virtual world full of fantasy's to make nerds feel like they are cool ... charge advertisers to put up billboards in that virtual world ... let Johnny idiot who is an out of touch business executive create a character ... and then trade him real dollars to make his billionaire computer character successful! Why didn't I think of this?
The other crazy thing about second life is what I briefly mentioned. Advertisers are paying to put up BILLBOARDS in the game! Isn't that nutsy? I mean it works for video games but to me this seems a little strange and a waste of money. How effective are billboards in real life? How successful are they going to be in Second Life?
Aye Aye Aye
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Groundswell
How swell that I should write a blog post about the book, Groundswell (www.forrester.com/Groundswell). If you haven't read it, it's a must read for all those web heads out there who are trying to make social networking work for their business.
It's funny that I write this in a voice that may suggest others will read it - but no one is reading the Fenbi blog these days. I am trying to figure out how to hook up an RSS feed but it requires a little bit of knowledge that I don't have right now.
Back to the Groundswell - the book is basically giving me hope that I can enter into a career or make one of my own based on community marketing. Community marketing is a term I learned only just the other day ... but it has been inherent in my upbringing. I grew up in a town that scared Rite Aid from moving into an old bowling alley ... and instead a Food Co-Op took its place!
To me - marketing and PR and communication in general have been welded together by the fabric of social networking. I don't even really know what traditional marketing is, but I have a feeling an understanding of it doesn't matter any more because the effectiveness of traditional advertising has diminished due to increased noise - due to do-not-call lists - in other words, back in the 50's there were 4 TV channels and now there are thousands. There used to be several radio stations, now there are thousands. I have never received a call on my cell phone from someone asking to sell me something, but when I was a kid I remember I almost signed my mom up for new light bulbs over the phone! The method of an individual or group using the old model for advertising and marketing to blast off a message just will not work because it will not rise above the noise.
I believe if someone uses social networking in the right way - based on research - you can save your business thousands of dollars and have more success reaching your target audience. After all, the majority of Americans and Europeans are using this thing called the world wide web - however, the world wide number isn't even 50% of the world population yet.
It is so strange that I happen to be reading the Tipping Point right now. The Tipping Point came out in 2000 before all this social networking craze. I bet in a matter of no time the author will re-write the book based on Groundswell and offer a perfect example of a word-of-mouth campaign that actually works! Or I could lazily try to do it right now ...
Say I worked for an outdoor clothing store.
My method for promoting the product based on social networking would start with web design. In today's day in age interactivity is key - and the ability to listen to the consumer has never been so easy. Imagine a forum where consumers could sound off about your products ... talk about what they like, what they don't like, product defects, enthusiasm ... you name it. In one internet forum you have the capacity for a never ending focus group and likely saving you hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars.
But how would you drive those people to the site?
The tools are already out there ... you have myspace, facebook, and a plethora of other programs that allow you to search through their members based on key words like 'outdoors' or 'camping' or even your brand name. These people are your 'connectors' and possibly 'mavens' (as defined in the Tipping Point). All it takes to rev these people up is a thousand points of contact - simple introductions with perhaps a dangling carrot like a $5 off coupon - and in the process you can easily redirect them to your site with a link. You can use google or technorotti to search blog posts and link to those folks not associated with those networks geared towards the younger generation.
However, as research from Groundswell shows, people in the older age groups are still very likely to visit the forum on your site and even if they don't participate they are very likely to read or critic the posts. But based on my own personal anecdotal observations, the older generation is starting to use Myspace and Facebook. For shits and giggles I looked up all the people over 65 years of age within a 250 mile radius of Eugene, Oregon and found 2,500 names. While some of those were kids pretending to be old, many more were genuine grade A old people! I find that very interesting ... and I expect that age group to balloon in the coming years. Consider it baby boomers trying to show they are still hip ...
You would also need to give people a reason to keep coming back to your outdoor clothing site. I would suggest a "family photo album" where users could upload photos of themselves wearing your clothing in different places and doing different activities. Patagonia has been doing this for years in their magazines, why not on the internet where thousands of people can submit photos.
I guess what I am getting at is that social networking has taken mass marketing and mass communication back to interpersonal communication. It's the technological form of what it must have been like in an era before television and radio. It is now easier to engage and listen to thousands of customers. An outdoor clothing line could easily think of funny and creative ways to make viral videos to go on youtube ... I just wish I had the positioning to put my money where my mouth is and really try some of these ideas out.
I wonder if colleges will start to have classes on how to fine tune your online sales personality?
My outdoor clothing line example was a little inarticulate and not very well thought through - but this is a post for the layperson ... this is a post for me to get my excitement out of my head and onto paper ... and this is mostly a post brought to you by the fine folks at Forrester Research who wrote an awe inspiring book ...
July 17th and 18th my firm has been so kind as to pay for me to go to the Internet Strategy Forum in Portland (http://www.internetstrategyforum.org/). It's crazy because my internship is over in less than a month, yet they are still forking out over $250 for me to go hear people speak on this subject ... people at the absolute forefront of this school of thought. I have to admit I feel excited to go ... and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with the fine people at Conkling Fiskum & McCormick. In all reality I wouldn't have been thinking on this path if they hadn't been thinking about it first ... then encouraging me when I expressed interest in learning more. Although I dabbled in these strategies while in my last band, it is only recently that I feel I have really learned what it takes to harness the power of the web. Now if I just had a bunch of spare time, a new computer, and a company that would pay me to prove these theories. I would love to write viral jingles for the new century ... fight songs for your brand ... something drunken friends could sing during a fine summers night of merry-making! Yes!
Now, let's go check out some clothing sites and see if they have already enacted the principles of social networking ...
It's funny that I write this in a voice that may suggest others will read it - but no one is reading the Fenbi blog these days. I am trying to figure out how to hook up an RSS feed but it requires a little bit of knowledge that I don't have right now.
Back to the Groundswell - the book is basically giving me hope that I can enter into a career or make one of my own based on community marketing. Community marketing is a term I learned only just the other day ... but it has been inherent in my upbringing. I grew up in a town that scared Rite Aid from moving into an old bowling alley ... and instead a Food Co-Op took its place!
To me - marketing and PR and communication in general have been welded together by the fabric of social networking. I don't even really know what traditional marketing is, but I have a feeling an understanding of it doesn't matter any more because the effectiveness of traditional advertising has diminished due to increased noise - due to do-not-call lists - in other words, back in the 50's there were 4 TV channels and now there are thousands. There used to be several radio stations, now there are thousands. I have never received a call on my cell phone from someone asking to sell me something, but when I was a kid I remember I almost signed my mom up for new light bulbs over the phone! The method of an individual or group using the old model for advertising and marketing to blast off a message just will not work because it will not rise above the noise.
I believe if someone uses social networking in the right way - based on research - you can save your business thousands of dollars and have more success reaching your target audience. After all, the majority of Americans and Europeans are using this thing called the world wide web - however, the world wide number isn't even 50% of the world population yet.
It is so strange that I happen to be reading the Tipping Point right now. The Tipping Point came out in 2000 before all this social networking craze. I bet in a matter of no time the author will re-write the book based on Groundswell and offer a perfect example of a word-of-mouth campaign that actually works! Or I could lazily try to do it right now ...
Say I worked for an outdoor clothing store.
My method for promoting the product based on social networking would start with web design. In today's day in age interactivity is key - and the ability to listen to the consumer has never been so easy. Imagine a forum where consumers could sound off about your products ... talk about what they like, what they don't like, product defects, enthusiasm ... you name it. In one internet forum you have the capacity for a never ending focus group and likely saving you hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars.
But how would you drive those people to the site?
The tools are already out there ... you have myspace, facebook, and a plethora of other programs that allow you to search through their members based on key words like 'outdoors' or 'camping' or even your brand name. These people are your 'connectors' and possibly 'mavens' (as defined in the Tipping Point). All it takes to rev these people up is a thousand points of contact - simple introductions with perhaps a dangling carrot like a $5 off coupon - and in the process you can easily redirect them to your site with a link. You can use google or technorotti to search blog posts and link to those folks not associated with those networks geared towards the younger generation.
However, as research from Groundswell shows, people in the older age groups are still very likely to visit the forum on your site and even if they don't participate they are very likely to read or critic the posts. But based on my own personal anecdotal observations, the older generation is starting to use Myspace and Facebook. For shits and giggles I looked up all the people over 65 years of age within a 250 mile radius of Eugene, Oregon and found 2,500 names. While some of those were kids pretending to be old, many more were genuine grade A old people! I find that very interesting ... and I expect that age group to balloon in the coming years. Consider it baby boomers trying to show they are still hip ...
You would also need to give people a reason to keep coming back to your outdoor clothing site. I would suggest a "family photo album" where users could upload photos of themselves wearing your clothing in different places and doing different activities. Patagonia has been doing this for years in their magazines, why not on the internet where thousands of people can submit photos.
I guess what I am getting at is that social networking has taken mass marketing and mass communication back to interpersonal communication. It's the technological form of what it must have been like in an era before television and radio. It is now easier to engage and listen to thousands of customers. An outdoor clothing line could easily think of funny and creative ways to make viral videos to go on youtube ... I just wish I had the positioning to put my money where my mouth is and really try some of these ideas out.
I wonder if colleges will start to have classes on how to fine tune your online sales personality?
My outdoor clothing line example was a little inarticulate and not very well thought through - but this is a post for the layperson ... this is a post for me to get my excitement out of my head and onto paper ... and this is mostly a post brought to you by the fine folks at Forrester Research who wrote an awe inspiring book ...
July 17th and 18th my firm has been so kind as to pay for me to go to the Internet Strategy Forum in Portland (http://www.internetstrategyforum.org/). It's crazy because my internship is over in less than a month, yet they are still forking out over $250 for me to go hear people speak on this subject ... people at the absolute forefront of this school of thought. I have to admit I feel excited to go ... and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with the fine people at Conkling Fiskum & McCormick. In all reality I wouldn't have been thinking on this path if they hadn't been thinking about it first ... then encouraging me when I expressed interest in learning more. Although I dabbled in these strategies while in my last band, it is only recently that I feel I have really learned what it takes to harness the power of the web. Now if I just had a bunch of spare time, a new computer, and a company that would pay me to prove these theories. I would love to write viral jingles for the new century ... fight songs for your brand ... something drunken friends could sing during a fine summers night of merry-making! Yes!
Now, let's go check out some clothing sites and see if they have already enacted the principles of social networking ...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Better Late Than Never? Music Industry Starts Adapting to Digital Age
When Shawn Fanning created Napster in 1999 it set off an explosion of file sharing across college campuses nationwide.
While the act of file sharing created careers for previously unheard of independent bands like Dispatch, more established acts like Metallica and Dr. Dre, along with the Recording Industry Association of America, insisted people were stealing music and actually sued individual file sharers.
Undeterred, millions of Americans continued trading mp3’s and burning CD’s for their family, friends, and co-workers. For ten years the music industry has been left dumbfounded by this brutal attack on their business model and album sales continue to plummet.
When news came last August that a private equity financier named Guy Hands paid $6.3 billion for EMI Records eyebrows were raised. Some of his previous investments included gas stations throughout Germany and hotels and pubs in Britain. By no means a lightweight, Hands Private Equity Firm Terra Firma had earned his bosses over £1.5 billion profit since 2002.
At EMI Hands immediately set to work trimming costs and in the process stepped on many toes. He discovered some employees were disguising write off’s for “drugs and prostitutes” as “fruit and flowers” so he started making employees provide receipts for every expense.
In January of this year Hands announced EMI would be trimming 2,000 jobs and critics responded saying Hands’ restructuring of the company appears out of touch and ruthless at best.
Despite his lack of empathy for artists’ sensitive egos, and his blatant disregard for industry veteran’s extra-curricular activities, Hands displays a keen awareness in his embrace of online digital strategy.
In addition to slicing the EMI workforce by one-third, Hands’ response to the erratic climate of the music industry and the rising tide of digital sales has been to cut costs by reducing artist advances and to pay less for marketing music.
Popular acts like Paul McCartney have left the label over disputes related to copyrights and this past week rumors have been swirling over the departure of the Rolling Stones. However, since EMI owns the publishing and licensing rights to the Rolling Stones catalogue (a major source of their income) it would be pointless for the group to leave.
A dispute last fall over an advance worth £10 million caused British rock band Radiohead to leave EMI and the band followed suit with a strategy unheard of in the music world. Radiohead released their new album In Rainbows online allowing fans to pay “whatever they wanted.”
While Radiohead kept the official tally a secret, industry analysts suspect they sold close to 1.2 million digital downloads of the album before physical copies were later released. Radiohead front man Thom Yorke said the band made more in digital sales for In Rainbows than in all previous digital album sales combined. After In Rainbows was released in physical form it shot to number one on the music charts in both the US and the UK, debunking popular criticism over their strategy that undoubtedly led to file sharing or so called ‘piracy’ of their album.
It is clear that Hands isn’t relying on his personal popularity at EMI to sell music, and he certainly isn’t relying on the traditional music industry model of selling physical copies of albums either.
At a gathering of band managers last autumn Hands said Rupert Murdoch had scoffed at his acquisition of EMI by saying, “Myspace is going to be the future of music, not record labels.”
As if adhering to Murdoch’s assessment, a confidential business plan from Mr. Hands’ investment firm reports an additional way to reduce costs is to use social networking sites to ”source new acts and as a means to test public reaction to individual acts.”
Despite their differences, both Radiohead and Hands are examples of how industry leaders are adapting to the digital revolution affecting the music industry.
Other artists have adjusted to file sharing by simply giving their albums away for free, effectively using their music as a promotional tool towards other means of generating income. Prince placed three million copies of his new album in London’s Sunday Times last year then proceeded to sell-out 21 straight concerts. Through his actions Prince discredited album sales as a source of income, and instead put his faith in concert ticket sales and other monies he earned from publishing and licensing royalties associated with merchandise.
Another example comes from EMI artist Coldplay. In April they released their new single Violet Hill for free as a digital download. When they released their new album last week they went to number one on the charts and reported over 302,000 sales (more than the next five albums on the charts combined). However, the number is still down from the 464,000 album sales for their last release over the same period.
How does this information relate to less established artists?
In May of this year the PEW Internet and American Life Project released a study showing 64% of music buyers discover music from family, friends, or co-workers. Social networking Web sites have made family, friends, and co-workers more connected and the advent of newer technologies like the mp3 has made it much easier to share music.
Digital sales are improving and according to the latest figures by the Recording Industry Association of America online digital sales have increased from 0% to 23% of the market share over the past five years. Keep in mind a Nielson study from December 2007 shows only 71.7% of American’s regularly use the Internet and only 21% of the world regularly logs on. Those numbers will continue to increase at a dramatic rate.
These examples from Radiohead, Prince, and EMI illustrate it is very important for artists to maintain their publishing and licensing rights because in the new digital age artists can’t expect to generate as much of an income through album sales. It may be time for artists to consider their album as more of a promotional tool and to focus their efforts on securing licensing deals through movies, advertisements, TV shows, video games, and related means. While these options were once called “selling out” they may be your only shot at a comfortable music career.
Social networking Web sites, an effective communication strategy, and word-of-mouth marketing are just several specialties a PR Firm like CFM could offer in promoting an artist’s musical reach to greater audiences while simultaneously trimming a bloated advertising budget.
While the act of file sharing created careers for previously unheard of independent bands like Dispatch, more established acts like Metallica and Dr. Dre, along with the Recording Industry Association of America, insisted people were stealing music and actually sued individual file sharers.
Undeterred, millions of Americans continued trading mp3’s and burning CD’s for their family, friends, and co-workers. For ten years the music industry has been left dumbfounded by this brutal attack on their business model and album sales continue to plummet.
When news came last August that a private equity financier named Guy Hands paid $6.3 billion for EMI Records eyebrows were raised. Some of his previous investments included gas stations throughout Germany and hotels and pubs in Britain. By no means a lightweight, Hands Private Equity Firm Terra Firma had earned his bosses over £1.5 billion profit since 2002.
At EMI Hands immediately set to work trimming costs and in the process stepped on many toes. He discovered some employees were disguising write off’s for “drugs and prostitutes” as “fruit and flowers” so he started making employees provide receipts for every expense.
In January of this year Hands announced EMI would be trimming 2,000 jobs and critics responded saying Hands’ restructuring of the company appears out of touch and ruthless at best.
Despite his lack of empathy for artists’ sensitive egos, and his blatant disregard for industry veteran’s extra-curricular activities, Hands displays a keen awareness in his embrace of online digital strategy.
In addition to slicing the EMI workforce by one-third, Hands’ response to the erratic climate of the music industry and the rising tide of digital sales has been to cut costs by reducing artist advances and to pay less for marketing music.
Popular acts like Paul McCartney have left the label over disputes related to copyrights and this past week rumors have been swirling over the departure of the Rolling Stones. However, since EMI owns the publishing and licensing rights to the Rolling Stones catalogue (a major source of their income) it would be pointless for the group to leave.
A dispute last fall over an advance worth £10 million caused British rock band Radiohead to leave EMI and the band followed suit with a strategy unheard of in the music world. Radiohead released their new album In Rainbows online allowing fans to pay “whatever they wanted.”
While Radiohead kept the official tally a secret, industry analysts suspect they sold close to 1.2 million digital downloads of the album before physical copies were later released. Radiohead front man Thom Yorke said the band made more in digital sales for In Rainbows than in all previous digital album sales combined. After In Rainbows was released in physical form it shot to number one on the music charts in both the US and the UK, debunking popular criticism over their strategy that undoubtedly led to file sharing or so called ‘piracy’ of their album.
It is clear that Hands isn’t relying on his personal popularity at EMI to sell music, and he certainly isn’t relying on the traditional music industry model of selling physical copies of albums either.
At a gathering of band managers last autumn Hands said Rupert Murdoch had scoffed at his acquisition of EMI by saying, “Myspace is going to be the future of music, not record labels.”
As if adhering to Murdoch’s assessment, a confidential business plan from Mr. Hands’ investment firm reports an additional way to reduce costs is to use social networking sites to ”source new acts and as a means to test public reaction to individual acts.”
Despite their differences, both Radiohead and Hands are examples of how industry leaders are adapting to the digital revolution affecting the music industry.
Other artists have adjusted to file sharing by simply giving their albums away for free, effectively using their music as a promotional tool towards other means of generating income. Prince placed three million copies of his new album in London’s Sunday Times last year then proceeded to sell-out 21 straight concerts. Through his actions Prince discredited album sales as a source of income, and instead put his faith in concert ticket sales and other monies he earned from publishing and licensing royalties associated with merchandise.
Another example comes from EMI artist Coldplay. In April they released their new single Violet Hill for free as a digital download. When they released their new album last week they went to number one on the charts and reported over 302,000 sales (more than the next five albums on the charts combined). However, the number is still down from the 464,000 album sales for their last release over the same period.
How does this information relate to less established artists?
In May of this year the PEW Internet and American Life Project released a study showing 64% of music buyers discover music from family, friends, or co-workers. Social networking Web sites have made family, friends, and co-workers more connected and the advent of newer technologies like the mp3 has made it much easier to share music.
Digital sales are improving and according to the latest figures by the Recording Industry Association of America online digital sales have increased from 0% to 23% of the market share over the past five years. Keep in mind a Nielson study from December 2007 shows only 71.7% of American’s regularly use the Internet and only 21% of the world regularly logs on. Those numbers will continue to increase at a dramatic rate.
These examples from Radiohead, Prince, and EMI illustrate it is very important for artists to maintain their publishing and licensing rights because in the new digital age artists can’t expect to generate as much of an income through album sales. It may be time for artists to consider their album as more of a promotional tool and to focus their efforts on securing licensing deals through movies, advertisements, TV shows, video games, and related means. While these options were once called “selling out” they may be your only shot at a comfortable music career.
Social networking Web sites, an effective communication strategy, and word-of-mouth marketing are just several specialties a PR Firm like CFM could offer in promoting an artist’s musical reach to greater audiences while simultaneously trimming a bloated advertising budget.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Thoughts on Social Networking Web sites ...
I recently completed some social networking sites for my favorite author, Bill Carter. I invite you to add the books to your friends list - and above all else I invite you to read them.
Red Summer
Fools Rush In
I have been thinking a lot about social networking lately. Many people who are friends with Fenbi now were originally friends because of the work we did with The Young Immortals.
Firstly, we performed at Shaken Not Stirred once a week where we just goofed off and had fun and became friends with one another. Next, we kept in touch not only through work and friendship, but also through myspace. I think I have had conversations with nearly every person I met through Shaken Not Stirred via myspace, and that is pretty crazy if you think about it.
There is a huge rage going about the PR world right now as professionals try to figure out how to fully utilize social networking Web sites. But I think I have come to believe that social networking sites are only one piece of the pie. You still need to have community outreach on a personal level, and you can't expect anything on the net to replace something as simple as putting posters up around town.
Any promotional effort needs to have many moving parts and just like we have realized so many times in the past in science, or marketing or whatever - there is never a silver bullet to any problem in life. People are complicated and so is society.
Anyway - I don't know if any one will get anything from this blog ... but let me know what you think.
Red Summer
Fools Rush In
I have been thinking a lot about social networking lately. Many people who are friends with Fenbi now were originally friends because of the work we did with The Young Immortals.
Firstly, we performed at Shaken Not Stirred once a week where we just goofed off and had fun and became friends with one another. Next, we kept in touch not only through work and friendship, but also through myspace. I think I have had conversations with nearly every person I met through Shaken Not Stirred via myspace, and that is pretty crazy if you think about it.
There is a huge rage going about the PR world right now as professionals try to figure out how to fully utilize social networking Web sites. But I think I have come to believe that social networking sites are only one piece of the pie. You still need to have community outreach on a personal level, and you can't expect anything on the net to replace something as simple as putting posters up around town.
Any promotional effort needs to have many moving parts and just like we have realized so many times in the past in science, or marketing or whatever - there is never a silver bullet to any problem in life. People are complicated and so is society.
Anyway - I don't know if any one will get anything from this blog ... but let me know what you think.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Portland Music Scene
Every once in awhile I like to write a blog about the Portland Music Scene. Every time I do I can't help but feeling pretentious and a little misguided at best. After all, I don't really go out to shows that much and I no longer enjoy spending my weekends (and weekdays) drinking Pabst at shitty smokey bars.
Performing with a band 2-4 times per week will cure you of wanting to see other bands perform and will likely cure you of hanging out in bars too. Although it is likely to encourage you to be an alcoholic. Now, the only bands I want to see are ones that I have heard of and bands that have been a part of my life. I want to see Stone Temple Pilots, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Ryan Adams, the Pogues ... you know ... established artists. I don't want to see your shitty friends shitty band.
And that attitude is precisely why it's going to be hard to get people to see our band. It's funny but true - because we're your shitty friends shitty band. If only by default.
It's hard to get people out to shows these days. I know 10 years ago it was hard too ... we have to compete with so many things. We have to compete with the "shitty friends band complex" but we also have to compete with whatever popular TV shows are keeping people at home. We have to compete with movies, books - so many forms of entertainment that are FREE. The internet for crying out loud ... youtube ... It seems like the only thing we don't have to compete with these days is someone whose only option is to watch paint dry - and even that is debatable.
I dunno. This is a shitty blog that doesn't make any sense and I don't really even believe any of the things I said. I have to admit I just wasted your time. I only wrote it because I am bored and waiting to receive an important email. Maybe a part of me is hoping that if someone google's "Portland Music Scene" our blog might come up ... and someone might be inclined to check out just another shitty friends' shitty band. Or whatever.
Performing with a band 2-4 times per week will cure you of wanting to see other bands perform and will likely cure you of hanging out in bars too. Although it is likely to encourage you to be an alcoholic. Now, the only bands I want to see are ones that I have heard of and bands that have been a part of my life. I want to see Stone Temple Pilots, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Ryan Adams, the Pogues ... you know ... established artists. I don't want to see your shitty friends shitty band.
And that attitude is precisely why it's going to be hard to get people to see our band. It's funny but true - because we're your shitty friends shitty band. If only by default.
It's hard to get people out to shows these days. I know 10 years ago it was hard too ... we have to compete with so many things. We have to compete with the "shitty friends band complex" but we also have to compete with whatever popular TV shows are keeping people at home. We have to compete with movies, books - so many forms of entertainment that are FREE. The internet for crying out loud ... youtube ... It seems like the only thing we don't have to compete with these days is someone whose only option is to watch paint dry - and even that is debatable.
I dunno. This is a shitty blog that doesn't make any sense and I don't really even believe any of the things I said. I have to admit I just wasted your time. I only wrote it because I am bored and waiting to receive an important email. Maybe a part of me is hoping that if someone google's "Portland Music Scene" our blog might come up ... and someone might be inclined to check out just another shitty friends' shitty band. Or whatever.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Modern American Musical Slavery
The other week I had an interesting conversation with an acquaintance who plays in a soon-to-be famous rock and roll band signed to Epic Records. It was a conversation about licensing and publishing rights - a topic that was part of a reason I quit my last band - and something my friend admitted to spending several months talking over with his band and lawyers.
He brought up an analogy about car accidents. He said that as a drummer, if he were killed in a car accident the other guys in the band could reluctantly replace him if they wanted. On the other hand, if the singer was killed in a car accident, the band would be over and they would have to go their own ways.
What he said had a lot of truth to it. There was no 'Experience' after Jimmy Hendrix died. There was no continuation of Nirvana - there are tons of examples of bands that did not continue after the singer died.
I think this is a really lame way to look at band agreements. I am of the thought that everyone who contributes to a band to be able to split everything equally. Here is my argument.
Often times for years, the members of a band will struggle together to reach a goal of signing a deal with a label or at least garnering some form of success. They often work as a team ... each person lending a hand in making sure the songs reach an audience ... everyone practices ... everyone plays their part ... and like any entrepreneurs each one of them puts the rest of their life on hold for a common dream. So why is it fair that one member gets more benefits when their effort finally pays off? It's not fair. Everyone should be recouped for the years they spent laboring for free ... not knowing if the sacrifices they were making would actually pay off.
My final thought is that the concept of giving the singer and/or songwriters any more of the publishing or licensing or any other monies is just like good ol' fashioned slavery. It doesn't matter if we're talking about musicians ... or pirates on a ship - the people in power (record label or pirate captain) always want to give one of the slaves a little extra power so that the other slaves have someone who controls their fate (either beating them or controlling them with their financial power).
The singer/songwriter will always exist ... there are billions of them ... and the songs are NEVER what carries them to fame and notoriety. It's the people forming the mosaic of support that make it happen - whether it's girlfriends or family or friends of band members. That is why I think the British band the Ting Tings are a couple of twats. If you read one of their blog entries they call to attention a friend who is selling copies of their vinyl album for 60 pounds. They berate their friend and say "they would never ever make their fans pay an outrageous price." Get over it! That is what I say. I don't know the friends ... I don't know the situation ... but those friends trying to make an extra buck were probably the same friends letting you crash on their couch, buying you coffee, holding your hair out of your face as you vomit.
People, get over yourselves. Be a team. Call me a communist if you must. This blog is not complete and I will probably revise it when I have time ....
He brought up an analogy about car accidents. He said that as a drummer, if he were killed in a car accident the other guys in the band could reluctantly replace him if they wanted. On the other hand, if the singer was killed in a car accident, the band would be over and they would have to go their own ways.
What he said had a lot of truth to it. There was no 'Experience' after Jimmy Hendrix died. There was no continuation of Nirvana - there are tons of examples of bands that did not continue after the singer died.
I think this is a really lame way to look at band agreements. I am of the thought that everyone who contributes to a band to be able to split everything equally. Here is my argument.
Often times for years, the members of a band will struggle together to reach a goal of signing a deal with a label or at least garnering some form of success. They often work as a team ... each person lending a hand in making sure the songs reach an audience ... everyone practices ... everyone plays their part ... and like any entrepreneurs each one of them puts the rest of their life on hold for a common dream. So why is it fair that one member gets more benefits when their effort finally pays off? It's not fair. Everyone should be recouped for the years they spent laboring for free ... not knowing if the sacrifices they were making would actually pay off.
My final thought is that the concept of giving the singer and/or songwriters any more of the publishing or licensing or any other monies is just like good ol' fashioned slavery. It doesn't matter if we're talking about musicians ... or pirates on a ship - the people in power (record label or pirate captain) always want to give one of the slaves a little extra power so that the other slaves have someone who controls their fate (either beating them or controlling them with their financial power).
The singer/songwriter will always exist ... there are billions of them ... and the songs are NEVER what carries them to fame and notoriety. It's the people forming the mosaic of support that make it happen - whether it's girlfriends or family or friends of band members. That is why I think the British band the Ting Tings are a couple of twats. If you read one of their blog entries they call to attention a friend who is selling copies of their vinyl album for 60 pounds. They berate their friend and say "they would never ever make their fans pay an outrageous price." Get over it! That is what I say. I don't know the friends ... I don't know the situation ... but those friends trying to make an extra buck were probably the same friends letting you crash on their couch, buying you coffee, holding your hair out of your face as you vomit.
People, get over yourselves. Be a team. Call me a communist if you must. This blog is not complete and I will probably revise it when I have time ....
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Oregon Votes Today
I am sitting at my computer waiting for my girl to come home from work. You'd think that after spending an entire day sitting behind a computer that I might find something else to do, but not so much.
Barack is on the radio barking out a fabulous speech from Iowa. I heard about him for the first time about 4 years ago. It was a speech he gave at the Democratic convention during John Kerry's bid for president that caused me to pull my car to the side of the road to really listen and be with him during his conversation.
Tonight is an equally impressive speech. I like what Obama is about. The fact that he will say in a speech that parents need to turn off the TV and read to their kids is impressive in my opinion. In ten years someone had better tell me to turn off the computer and read to my children!
But he's really a fantastic speaker and I think he will inspire others to work their asses off when he becomes president. And that is what it is all about ... inspiring people ... delegating activities. Too many people think the president should be a patriarch of our country ... like some southern family ... but I don't think that. They need to inspire people to do the right thing.
I feel bad for Hillary and Hillary supporters. She would be a great candidate as well ... she seems to be a great person and while I do think our country is sexist, I don't think men are not voting for her because of sexism. I just think Obama is a better candidate. She might be a great VP ... but we shall see.
As for music ... we had a great weekend in PT. We stayed with Orion's parents who are incredible cooks and incredible people. They are so active and interesting and have carved out a little piece of paradise in their Washington alcove. Band-mate Todd wrote an awesome blog about our experiences this past weekend, although he never had the opportunity to sample food from his favorite cafe - the Tyler Street Coffee House. I love Port Townsend. Check out his blog here:
http://www.beautifulfunnysadandtrue.com/a-great-weekend-in-pt/
Also, if you haven't seen our video yet, check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqsYWuxO8Hc
Alright ... well we are always trying to get the word out about FENBI but have been pretty tired recently. If anyone wants to help ... if any one has any ideas please give us a line ... please visit our myspace page:
www.myspace.com/fenbi
Barack is on the radio barking out a fabulous speech from Iowa. I heard about him for the first time about 4 years ago. It was a speech he gave at the Democratic convention during John Kerry's bid for president that caused me to pull my car to the side of the road to really listen and be with him during his conversation.
Tonight is an equally impressive speech. I like what Obama is about. The fact that he will say in a speech that parents need to turn off the TV and read to their kids is impressive in my opinion. In ten years someone had better tell me to turn off the computer and read to my children!
But he's really a fantastic speaker and I think he will inspire others to work their asses off when he becomes president. And that is what it is all about ... inspiring people ... delegating activities. Too many people think the president should be a patriarch of our country ... like some southern family ... but I don't think that. They need to inspire people to do the right thing.
I feel bad for Hillary and Hillary supporters. She would be a great candidate as well ... she seems to be a great person and while I do think our country is sexist, I don't think men are not voting for her because of sexism. I just think Obama is a better candidate. She might be a great VP ... but we shall see.
As for music ... we had a great weekend in PT. We stayed with Orion's parents who are incredible cooks and incredible people. They are so active and interesting and have carved out a little piece of paradise in their Washington alcove. Band-mate Todd wrote an awesome blog about our experiences this past weekend, although he never had the opportunity to sample food from his favorite cafe - the Tyler Street Coffee House. I love Port Townsend. Check out his blog here:
http://www.beautifulfunnysadandtrue.com/a-great-weekend-in-pt/
Also, if you haven't seen our video yet, check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqsYWuxO8Hc
Alright ... well we are always trying to get the word out about FENBI but have been pretty tired recently. If anyone wants to help ... if any one has any ideas please give us a line ... please visit our myspace page:
www.myspace.com/fenbi
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Marketing your music in the new media ... suggestions for our fellow artist
Introduction: The music industry has been turned on its head in the last five years.
The former market model was to have a phonograph, record, 8-track, cassette, and then CD to sell to consumers. Musicians would try to supplement and promote sales of the album through airplay on radio stations and live performance.
The new model, in my opinion, is to distribute your music freely and to earn money through ticket sales to live performances, merchandise sales, and through publishing and licensing your music.
Licensing: The right, granted by the copyright holder, for a given person or entity to broadcast, recreate, perform, or listen to a recorded copy of a copyrighted work.
Publishing: Collecting royalties for use, placing songs in other forms of media such as movies and commercials.
Examples of the new model:
∑ July 16, 2007 – Prince releases 3 million copies of new CD in London’s Sunday newspaper; proceeds to sell-out 21 concerts in London; over 400,000 tickets
∑ December 2007 - Radiohead releases new album “In Rainbows” independently and invites fans to pay whatever they want. According to their theory, if they earned a minimum of $2 per CD they’d be making more then if they were on a record label
∑ March 25, 2008 - R.E.M. releases new album for free on social networking site
∑ April 28, 2008 - Coldplay releases new single for free
One popular perception among many in the music community is that a good song will sell itself and in turn the artist or band will benefit. I don’t think this is true and I think marketing and promotion is most important to distinguish you from other artists.
Additionally, as a result of computer technology artists are able to record and promote themselves cheaply and independently. They don’t need to be signed to a record contract as long as the proper marketing is in place.
You will benefit greatly from a new media marketing campaign including a complete overhaul of your website in addition to the creation of profile pages on social networking sites like myspace, facebook, bebo, etc. Similarly you will benefit from having your music licensed to websites such as Pandora, a site that creates a radio stream of artists you may not have heard of that sound similar to your musical preference.
One of the biggest trends in the new music landscape is interactivity and social networking, which should be a cornerstone of any music related marketing campaign. Above all, sites should be highly interactive and fresh so people keep coming back.
Social Media and Website
1. Overhaul website.
A. Personalize it with a bio, message board, and/or guestbook
B. Update photos both live and in studio. Create photo gallery of past performances, etc.
C. Make press-kit available online
D. Provide links to CD Baby, myspace, facebook, etc.
2. Develop myspace, facebook, and blog and update regularly. Make sure social media are linked.
3. Update content on CD Baby account. Should streamline with website and social networking pages.
4. Post videos of dynamic performances on youtube. Make sure links to video exist on website and social networking pages.
5. Create html code for online fliers promoting your new album and/or future concerts you can post on social networking sites and people can copy and paste.
New Album
Put the “brakes” on the release of album until the proper marketing strategy has been defined and key elements have been put in place.
A timely release of album coinciding with prior adoption and development of social media will result in full utilization of promotional tools.
Going through with a CD release without marketing strategy presents a wasted opportunity to utilize new promotional web tools and therefore limits the impact of the release.
Performances
Consider weeding out wine shops and house parties (or at least not featuring them so heavily on your web page). It has the appearance of amateurism.
Perform at top venues only.
Focus on building (or re-building) media contacts. Send out informative and well written press releases at least three weeks prior to an event.
Work on building audience regionally. Festivals are most appropriate. Legitimate venues or corporate events are also acceptable.
The former market model was to have a phonograph, record, 8-track, cassette, and then CD to sell to consumers. Musicians would try to supplement and promote sales of the album through airplay on radio stations and live performance.
The new model, in my opinion, is to distribute your music freely and to earn money through ticket sales to live performances, merchandise sales, and through publishing and licensing your music.
Licensing: The right, granted by the copyright holder, for a given person or entity to broadcast, recreate, perform, or listen to a recorded copy of a copyrighted work.
Publishing: Collecting royalties for use, placing songs in other forms of media such as movies and commercials.
Examples of the new model:
∑ July 16, 2007 – Prince releases 3 million copies of new CD in London’s Sunday newspaper; proceeds to sell-out 21 concerts in London; over 400,000 tickets
∑ December 2007 - Radiohead releases new album “In Rainbows” independently and invites fans to pay whatever they want. According to their theory, if they earned a minimum of $2 per CD they’d be making more then if they were on a record label
∑ March 25, 2008 - R.E.M. releases new album for free on social networking site
∑ April 28, 2008 - Coldplay releases new single for free
One popular perception among many in the music community is that a good song will sell itself and in turn the artist or band will benefit. I don’t think this is true and I think marketing and promotion is most important to distinguish you from other artists.
Additionally, as a result of computer technology artists are able to record and promote themselves cheaply and independently. They don’t need to be signed to a record contract as long as the proper marketing is in place.
You will benefit greatly from a new media marketing campaign including a complete overhaul of your website in addition to the creation of profile pages on social networking sites like myspace, facebook, bebo, etc. Similarly you will benefit from having your music licensed to websites such as Pandora, a site that creates a radio stream of artists you may not have heard of that sound similar to your musical preference.
One of the biggest trends in the new music landscape is interactivity and social networking, which should be a cornerstone of any music related marketing campaign. Above all, sites should be highly interactive and fresh so people keep coming back.
Social Media and Website
1. Overhaul website.
A. Personalize it with a bio, message board, and/or guestbook
B. Update photos both live and in studio. Create photo gallery of past performances, etc.
C. Make press-kit available online
D. Provide links to CD Baby, myspace, facebook, etc.
2. Develop myspace, facebook, and blog and update regularly. Make sure social media are linked.
3. Update content on CD Baby account. Should streamline with website and social networking pages.
4. Post videos of dynamic performances on youtube. Make sure links to video exist on website and social networking pages.
5. Create html code for online fliers promoting your new album and/or future concerts you can post on social networking sites and people can copy and paste.
New Album
Put the “brakes” on the release of album until the proper marketing strategy has been defined and key elements have been put in place.
A timely release of album coinciding with prior adoption and development of social media will result in full utilization of promotional tools.
Going through with a CD release without marketing strategy presents a wasted opportunity to utilize new promotional web tools and therefore limits the impact of the release.
Performances
Consider weeding out wine shops and house parties (or at least not featuring them so heavily on your web page). It has the appearance of amateurism.
Perform at top venues only.
Focus on building (or re-building) media contacts. Send out informative and well written press releases at least three weeks prior to an event.
Work on building audience regionally. Festivals are most appropriate. Legitimate venues or corporate events are also acceptable.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Good news for PDX Music Scene
OLCC grants minors access to bars with music venues
Commissioners of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission voted unanimously in favor of allowing venues that serve alcohol and host bands and other entertainment events to allow minors admittance.
The vote came April 18 during the OLCC commissioner’s monthly meeting.
The new minor posting will require venues to abide by a control plan to ensure minors are not granted access to alcohol, such as keeping minors separate from the areas alcohol is being served or limit the hours alcohol is available.
"Making sure minors are not gaining access to alcohol is a top priority," said Rudy Williams, Deputy Director. "We had a lot of support from the community and the revisions helped to address concerns raised by moderation groups. With the new minor posting, we can accommodate interest in all-ages events while holding licensees accountable if they don't follow the control plan."
The new minor posting goes into effect June 1.
Commissioners of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission voted unanimously in favor of allowing venues that serve alcohol and host bands and other entertainment events to allow minors admittance.
The vote came April 18 during the OLCC commissioner’s monthly meeting.
The new minor posting will require venues to abide by a control plan to ensure minors are not granted access to alcohol, such as keeping minors separate from the areas alcohol is being served or limit the hours alcohol is available.
"Making sure minors are not gaining access to alcohol is a top priority," said Rudy Williams, Deputy Director. "We had a lot of support from the community and the revisions helped to address concerns raised by moderation groups. With the new minor posting, we can accommodate interest in all-ages events while holding licensees accountable if they don't follow the control plan."
The new minor posting goes into effect June 1.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Columbia River Crossing
The Great Green Bridge
At a time when politicians and business leaders are arguing over which plan best suits the new Columbia River Crossing several things remain clear. The I-5 bridge is nearly 100 years old and it produces the worst bottle-neck between Canada and Mexico. When the bridge needs to be raised it snarls traffic and wastes energy. When people are parked in six hours of traffic on their daily commute it wastes energy. Furthermore, population growth in Clark and Multnomah counties is growing steadily and it is reasonable to assume that a multipurpose bridge will ease the congestion caused from Washingtonians coming to and from Oregon to work everyday.
Lines are drawn in the sand …
The congenial approach is to suggest that no one should have their voice snubbed out by those with special interests, and there is no reason everyone can't get what they want. Our current system relies on moving vast amounts of freight throughout our interstate system so we need to expand the lanes of the highway. Similarly, we need to end our reliance on foreign fuels, have an alternative to driving, and fight climate change so the light rail option should stay also. Additionally, there are undisputable social benefits to achieve from being able to walk or ride your bicycle between Portland and Vancouver so that option should remain as well. If you can agree to those simple items (or concessions depending on whose side you're on) then the only issue now is money.
Enter: Innovation!
The green movement is rolling through America like a big bad wolf and the last hold outs to the global warming argument have seen both their straw men and straw homes toppled by the winds of change. But before leaving America for browner pastures they might consider how they frame their side of the argument for the bridge. Has anyone thought about building a green bridge? What about a 'Great Green Bridge' to rival the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco?
A green bridge offers a chance to build something truly unique to Portland and will bolster our image and economy. Furthermore, a green bridge that includes the necessary infrastructure for both commerce and commuters will save money by utilizing efficiency and common sense. We can build the bridge from recycled materials, we can have a contest for the best green design, and before we know it every blogger from PDX to Katmandu will be hyping the project. It will be something good ol' boys and green ol' boys can agree upon.
How do we pay for it?
In the 2006 Clint Eastwood film "Flags of our Fathers" heroes from the World War Two battle at Iwo Jima are schlepped around America to sell war bonds in an effort to keep the country from going bankrupt. And while I don't want to anger veterans by comparing world wars to global warming, I do want to point out American's have overcome great obstacles in the past and perhaps we can take a cue from history.
It's time we declare war on global climate change, and who better the schlep around the country selling global WARming bonds for our bridge then Al Gore himself? It's a win-win situation for all involved and another creative American solution to extreme adversity.
Here are some alternatives to building the I-5 bridge:
- banning Washingtonians from working in Oregon
- a huge water slide sending people from one side of the river to the other
Feel free to suggest more:
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