Friday, October 30, 2009

Gaming & Conference Marriage

There's a new kind of conferencing method that's been gaining steam over the last couple of years that involves 3D avatars in a virtual environment.

A lot of people can't see the draw to this. They would much rather meet at a conference in person than in a fake conference room because it's more personal. You can physically shake hands, trade business cards, and hold a conversation. You can also physically get on a cramped plane, wait for luggage, find a taxi, find a hotel, find decent food, report your expenses to corporate, and hope you get refunded in a reasonable amount of time. Some people enjoy those things, I know I enjoy traveling, but there are many who do not. Some people are just much more comfortable sitting at home or in the office. That's who this service is targeting.

There's a genre of games out there called Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs, usually shortened to MMOs). These are games where thousands of people gather in one place in 3D avatar form in complete various challenges. The most popular of those games, and you've probably heard of it, is World of Warcraft. Some of you may be thinking, "Now hang on, aren't these games typically played by 40-somethings in their parents' basement? What role could they possibly have in our business?" That stereotype couldn't be more inaccurate now. People of every kind are playing these games, and if the 12 million current players of World of Warcraft alone are any indication of the playerbase, it's not those kind of people anymore. To give you a more concrete idea of how many people that is, it's over twice the population of our humble Minnesota. Granted, we're certainly not the most populated state in the US, but the point is the gaming community of World of Warcraft would be a formidably sized state. That's not including the huge playerbase of the other big MMOs: EVE Online (which actually targets CEOs for their playerbase), Guild Wars, Lineage, Aion, Final Fantasy XI, and Ragnarok Online.

A lot of the players from these rapidly growing games are between the ages of 14 and 30, and you can bet they would be perfectly willing to spend time in that 3D virtual conference space. It's something worth looking into, because in the future when most of your employees are made up of those people you might be able to save yourself the huge head-aches from organizing venues and transportation for guest speakers.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Media of the Regimes

A recent article on abcnews talks about the use (or abuse) of social media by governments, for the most part referring to Chinese, Iranian, Egyptian, and Russian governments.

My question is whether or not the author is aware that our own government is probably monitoring our use too. The difference is that we're still allowed full access to everything. I'm fairly certain if you posted in your Facebook or Twitter status that you were going to assassinate the president, they would know. I'm not going to spend this post talking about our own government's surveillance though, because that's a can of worms I don't want to get into.

Instead, let's talk about those other countries. Apparently, they're using social media to spread propaganda. I'm not sure I have a problem with that. It's their country, it will be run how they wish, and the people living there will believe what they want to believe. The only danger is that social media adds to propaganda what it does to advertising: an authentic and personal message. China is actually paying people approximately 50¢ per comment for that very reason. This has the potential to become a powerful brainwashing tool. But it won't.

Why? Because there are too many other people active in it. Even if countries block all tweets, status updates, and blogs from other countries they still have their own population to deal with. If the Iranian elections aren't an indication of the futile attempts of a government to bend national social media to their wishes I don't know what is. The entire time Iranians were tweeting about the horrible things happening there, government agents were attempting to subvert everything citizens said. It didn't work. Every time an agent tried to say a claim was false, they were immediately exposed by other users. The ratio for government to citizen users was not in their favor, and it never will be. Unless they can come up with a program that not only seeks out key phrases and finds the user responsible (which they do) but actually changes the user's posts, there's nothing to worry about. Even then there are work-arounds, and again I have to reference the Iranian election. Government officials were tracking down dissenters by checking up on their profile locations on Twitter, but users (including myself) helped thwart those efforts by changing our time zones and locations to the same place as the citizens (Tehran). This made it take 2, 3, 4 times as long to track down people they could actually do anything about.

In short, does it have the potential to turn scary? Yes. Will it? No. The internet belongs to the world's citizens, not governments, no matter how much regulation is imposed. They will not stand for being brainwashed.

Monday, October 26, 2009

One Bad Trip

About ten years ago, I hopped a Southwest flight from Chicago to Las Vegas. I spent most of the flight going back and forth with the passenger next to me making fun of our mutual airline of choice.

I'm sure we had some clever jarbs about the boarding system, the socially awkward "Who should I set next to" seat selection process, and how they only fly out of Midway Airport which is as conveniently located as Milwaukee.

But this weekend I picked up a remarkably affordable fare to Chicago and was really impressed by the entire experience.

The boarding process has been improved and is very quick. The flight attendants we're (as opposed to drones who seem to intentionally push drink carts into people's exposed appendages), and there wasn't that uncomfortable feeling that you might have paid twice as much for your ticket as the person next to you did for theirs.

As the major airlines seem to be grabbing at every consumer penny they can grab ($5 for what is essentially a cracker salad?), Southwest's booking system is clear, flexible, and reasonable.

I guess what's neat to see is that in an industry that is sinking towards the bottom, Southwest has shed the jokes and now has become a carrier of choice for vacationers and business travelers alike. The jokes are over, Southwest is now one of the bigs.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Keeping Up

While Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, LinkedIn, and YouTube are essential parts of getting word of your company out into the world, here's a scary thought for you:

Every single one of them is old news.

As much hype as those sites are getting right now, they've been around for awhile. Twitter has been fully open since 2007. Facebook has been fully open since 2006. Blogger has been around since 1999. LinkedIn has been around since 2003. YouTube has been around since 2005. If you're starting now, these are not things you're on the cutting edge of. You are a part of the influx of people who, thanks to massive unintended promotion through news and entertainment, are just getting started because they see the value others have been capitalizing on for the last few years. While you're figuring out what needs to go in that valuable 140 character slot or managing wall post content for your Facebook page, other companies are investigating what's next.

How do you go about figuring out what's coming? Well, you have to pay attention and you have to invest time into research. You may find the newest media site, but have you looked at what that site offers? What does it do that Facebook and Twitter do not? Does it integrate everything all the other companies have into one space? If you manage to find a good place where you're one of the first hundred-thousand, even the first million, users you have that much more time to establish yourself as a valuable member of the community. In the sea of 300,000,000 Facebook users, it's hard to make an impression just starting out. In a group of 100,000 users of Site X, you can become a pillar.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

A Sales Lesson from Ancient Art in a 2.0 World.




Stating the obvious - the selling landscape has changed driven by 2.0 and the universal access to information. In the past, a sales cycle was generally based on quid pro quo – I the selling party give a piece of information that I control about the benefits of a product and you the identified buying party allows me into your opportunity. Each step is orchestrated in such a way that each side holds information and opportunity until the next step. This cycle continued until either a deal was made or a no was given.

Today, buyers, often holding themselves stealthily anonymous, insist that detailed information be provided without expectations. They maintain control of the conversation, choosing how and when to proceed. The response is that selling organizations must first seek to help these faceless individuals and unknown companies by providing pertinent information in formats and with access acceptable to the buyer. There is no guarantee of reciprocation.

This leaves the seller with two options: either produce valuable information and drive targeted prospects known and unknown to the opportunity or attract opportunities by giving away price. Simple enough.

But the complexities of 2.0 makes the lesson hard to learn and even harder for many of us to believe. Companies, even those supposedly leading in the social media space, continue to struggle with quid pro quo vs. first let me help. (More in a later blog but think coffee wars - Starbucks vs. Caribou and not so free and free Wi-Fi).

Enter Michelangelo and friends. My wife and I visited the Minnesota Institute of Art (MIA) http://www.artsmia.org/ this weekend and enjoyed “The Louvre and the Masterpiece” , a tour of several dozen pieces on loan from the Louvre in Paris. A great event if you like that sort of stuff. Interesting as it is to see works from the masters, I was just as captivated in learning how a Midwestern museum was able to lure this event from the world renowned Louvre. (One of only two American museums to do so, the other being Atlanta High Museum http://www.high.org ).

Turns out helping without any real assurance of quid pro quo made the difference. Two things secured the “deal”. First, the MIA committed to building a top notch environmentally controlled exhibition space – don’t want any paint peeling off a 300 year old masterpiece. This investment clearly signaled a serious commitment and took off the table what must have been a serious hurdle (Looking and sounding like a sales process – don’t you think?). Second and most importantly, long before any tour was planned and with no quid pro quo expectations, the MIA was looking to help. As Louvre Director Henri Loyrette put it, “The Institute (MIA) has been very generous with lending to us over the years. It seemed time for us to do the same.” See related story here Star Tribune -

Simple enough – give to receive. A sales truth older than any masterpiece I saw Sunday.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

An Open Note To Self

As a football fan and a perceived idiot by marketers, I saw the Motorola Droid commercial a good half dozen times this weekend. For people who aren't agoraphobes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYM-XTqcec

HOLY MOLY! MY LIFE IS GOING TO BE MADE COMPLETE WITH THE ABILITY TO RUN MULTIPLE WIDGETS SIMULTANEOUSLY IN THE DARK!!!

OK, of course I'm excited and of course I'm checking out every tech blog I know of to get a better look at the phone that took 2.33 major companies (Google, Verizon, and Motorola) three iterations of the iPhone to make.

But here's a little note to Apple, Google, AT&T, Verizon, Motorola, and pretty much everyone in the profiteering off the 21st Century Digital Boy age, start with probably the most important functionality that a communication device should have. Functionality.

Before everyone goes Double Live Gonzo! about new tech specs, hardware, software, shareware, Andre Ware...Give me a phone that makes calls from my basement so I can call my brother and ask him if I can borrow his tent to camp out for the new phone that will completely change my life.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Rules are Unconstitutional?

An article on MediaPostNews comments on the Interactive Advertising Bureau calling the new rules we blogged about here on Wednesday being unconstitutional, concerning the payment disclosure in particular.

The claim is that it's infringing first amendment rights to freedom of the press and freedom of speech. I can't agree with that. There's no interference from the government on what can and cannot be said on those blogs, they just require a little extra information. It should be noted that newspapers and other non-blog media do not require this same disclosure, and so the other part of the argument is that bloggers shouldn't be held to standards more stringent than those of other media. While I can agree that it's not fair, I still don't see a problem with it. The reason the rules are in place is because blogging is a single person making a review. Unless disclosed, the review becomes a testimonial from a member of the company's target market. The difference between a paid-off newspaper review and a blog review is the same as the difference between an infomercial testimonial and your friend telling you a product was great. The latter is far more valuable advertising. These new laws ensure both the newspaper and the blog sound like an infomercial when they should, and a genuine review when they should.

I can see why this could be a problem in some situations, it means that even if a product is amazing and a blogger says so but the reader can tell they've been paid the review has less weight. That's the way it should be though, because it's not an unbiased review anymore after payment. The laws are meant to protect the consumer from manipulative advertisers...and that's a good thing. As a graphic designer and advertiser myself, I know how manipulative the business can be. The fact of the matter is many, many people are easily swayed by advertising. Not many take a critical look at ads. These laws protect those people.

My general feeling is, if you have a quality product and it's getting any exposure anywhere, you're going to get business no matter what. If you have a terrible product and it's getting exposure, you shouldn't get business. Theses laws are a step to make sure the terrible products don't.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Bad Tweets

Socialmedia Today has an article up on Twitter cracking down on Recurring Tweets.

The important thing to remember here is that a Recurring Tweet is not to be confused with the Retweet. A Recurring Tweet is when you post the same thing multiple times per day, a Retweet is when you repost something someone else said.

I'm really happy with this decision. There's nothing more obnoxious than searching for a keyword only to find a company monopolozing the search page with recurring tweets. I remember searching for what people were saying about "District 9" a couple months back, only to be greeted with pages of people and companies tweet spamming their advertisements over and over with the #District9 attached. For those of you reading this who have used this strategy to market, either adding hashtags that have nothing to do with your tweet or using recurring tweets, there's a lesson on social media to be learned.

Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, MySpace, and Blogger are first and foremost social networking sites. They were not created as an advertising tool for companies to reach a large number of people quickly and efficiently. While we can (and indeed should!) use those mediums for those purposes, a line has to be drawn.

By using recurring tweets and unrelated hashtags, you are diminishing the networking experience. You are cheapening it, you are polluting it. Do not force your message onto people like that. Will you be noticed? Yes. Will it be good for your company? Not a chance. No one ever sees tweets like that and says,"Gee, I'm sure glad Company X took up my entire search page with advertising tweets." They say,"Really? You've gotta be ----ing me." You're only damaging your online reputation.

The solution is to instead become a contributing member of the community. Manually search for people who are tweeting about products you sell, ask them questions about their experience. Find people who are tweeting about problems with your competitors, let them know you exist. A little effort in social media goes a long way. It's supposed to be personal, stick with it.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

There are a few technologies that have revolutionized life on this planet. Inventions like the automobile, the airplane, and the internet have changed the way humans live. At 3D, we adapt to the technological curve; therefore, we can provide our customers an award winning experience. We are constantly testing new and different approaches that have become available with the latest technological advances.

Recently I have been introduced to a new technology. This revolutionary idea has solidified itself amongst the greatest intellectual achievements of man-kind. The minds at 3D have been working together tirelessly to bring together state-of-the-art audio and the highest quality video to produce a top notch demonstration. Below you will find the future of conferencing which actually allows attendees to join the virtual environment.

So without further ado, I give you, JibJab:



Life as we know it may never be the same…

~ Kyle Jackson

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Legal Blogging

The Blog Herald has created a solid article on how to blog legally. I'll outline some of the main points below:

Add a Disclosure Policy
Starting on December 1st all bloggers are required to give full disclosure concerning their relationships with companies they review. This is to ensure the public is not being deceived when they read a positive blog about a company; they know if the review has been influenced by pay or not. It's the same reason testimonials on TV are still branded with the company the testimonial is for, they've been paid.

Add Privacy Policy
If you're gathering contact information on the bloggers following you, let them know what you're using that information for. Not only is this common courtesy, it avoids legal issues if someone finds out you're using their information for something they don't want it used for. Just make sure it's in a clear, obvious place. If you feel guilty enough to have to tuck it away in small print somewhere, chances are you need to change your policy. Your followers will appreciate the honesty.

Add Trademark Clarifications
If your blog is set up to review a certain company's products and is using a name that could make it seem affiliated with that company (ex: AdobeBlogger), make sure it's clear that they have rights to some of the content on your blog. Be careful of using their trademarked name in your blog name, some companies will consider that infringement.

Add Copyright Policy
Make sure followers understand how your content is allowed to be used. Simply by creating the blog and hitting "Publish Post" you own all rights to its content. That said, if you're blogging chances are you want that information shared. Be sure it's clear how much you want to be shared. Can they copy paste your article and claim it as their own? Can they copy paste your article and give credit? Can they rewrite your article in their own words? Can they rewrite your article in their own words as long as credit is given? Can they only link to it? You have full control over all of those choices, you just have to make it clear.

Add Adult Content Disclosures
If your blog contains adult content, make sure that's clear and follows appropriate steps (ex: enter date of birth, if 18+ blog opens up). Also make sure your blog host is willing to have that information on their servers, it's their business space too.

All of these are easy, reasonable steps and will take all of fifteen minutes of company time to discuss. Make sure they're done, it'll save you big headaches later.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Death of Email?

The Wall Street Journal recently posted a blog about social media taking over email.

I can't see social media completely taking it over anytime soon. While web 2.0 certainly gives us faster communication, most people still want a separation between work and personal life. Using email allows for that separation. Your boss probably doesn't care that you're going on a walk with your dog after the 9-5, or that your kid lost her first tooth. He just wants to make sure you filed that TPS report while you were at work.

Email still feels more professional too. It's something that's composed for a specific message for one person, not many. As much as I enjoy and am actively participating in web 2.0, I'm not about to put a wall post on a strategic partner's wall to find out how they want their logo represented on our site. That belongs in an email. As an employer of a big company, you don't chastise an employee by sending them an @reply on Twitter, you email them or send a hard copy. There are just some conversations that don't belong in the social media sphere. The counter argument would be, "But Mitchell! Those services also have personal message systems that no one else can see!" True, but re-iterating the first point, most people want that work and personal life barrier. They're not going to friend their strategic partner or employer with a personal account.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Businesses Avoiding Social Media

According to Reuters:

"Three-quarters of small businesses say they have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn helpful for generating business leads or expanding business in the past year, according to a survey conducted for Citibank Small Business of 500 U.S. businesses with fewer than 100 employees."

The reasoning behind this is their concentration on running their business and ensuring it's fiscally sound. This makes perfect sense to me, because if you don't have a business to run you won't have any business to tweet about.

That said, it's still an important thing for those small business to figure out, especially if 75% of them aren't using it. On Twitter alone, if 25% of Twitter users are currently reached by 25% of small businesses, that leaves 40.5 million people who haven't been touched by possible competitors. I would say that's a demographic worth targeting.

Yes, it takes time and therefore money to run a business's social network especially if you want to cover all the bases. Most of that time, however, is spent figuring out how to navigate your way through the sites and deciding how to reach your audience. One that's established, it takes all of fifteen minutes a day to go through a routine on the basics (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin). High start up fee (lower if you have an employee who already knows how to work it all) with low maintenance cost. Even if you don't get direct business from those media sites, if you're staying an active and participating member of the communities you're getting exposure. Arguably, half the struggle of a small company is becoming known to begin with. There's not enough money to run commercials, radio spots, or print ads...but social media costs nothing except time. I would say that makes social media a pretty great investment.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

More Media Banning

According to Computerworld:

"About 54% of U.S. workplaces don't allow social networking, a study finds, while an additional 19% grant access solely for business use. Just 10% of the 1,400 chief information officers surveyed by an IT staffing firm provided full access to social media at work. The executives said they were concerned the tools would distract workers."

I'm not sure how I feel about 54% of workplaces preventing social media access. I can definitely see why, a quick check to see what's happening on Facebook could easily lead to getting paid to message friends for 30 minutes. On the other hand, it seems to me that employees should have enough work to get done that it's a non-issue. I don't know anyone addicted enough to social media to risk getting fired because they didn't meet their quota but absolutely had to arrange a Friday night party during work hours. If a company doesn't have enough work to keep them busy for the 8 hours a day they're there, should they even be at work? I know that's how my jobs have handled things, if they don't have work for me to do I don't come in. My hours are scheduled to fit the work load. It's that easy. I don't waste time twiddling my thumbs, and the company doesn't pay me to do it. If it's a job where waiting on calls or customers is a necessity...well then why not allow social media access? It's a way to pass the time. It may not be productive but if a company has designated an employee a task and visiting those sites doesn't hinder their performance, why block them? What's the difference between getting paid to stare out a window or read a book, and getting paid to tweet?

There's the question of breaks too, isn't what an employee does during their lunch hour their own business, as long as it's nothing illegal and nothing hurting the company? Why should they be blocked from checking in on what a friend did over the weekend on their own time?

I'm not about to, nor am I prepared to, argue that there are benefits to the standard worker using personal Facebook or Twitter accounts on company time for personal reasons. The question is whether or not it's actually harmful. If employee distraction is that big of a concern, maybe something more important than blocking social media needs to change.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Joys of Video Editing

Recently I was assigned to produce ‘something’ that demonstrates to customers the value and capabilities of 3dve. Like a bolt of lightning, inspiration hit me in the middle of the night. For two hours I couldn’t stop writing as I planned my new bouncing baby… video.

I worked tirelessly for the next week to try and give some sort of tangible figure to my idea. And finally I stood proud (ok so maybe I was a sitting) as I demonstrated my new ‘baby’ to the team at 3dve. It was a smash hit, but certain things needed to be changed.

“It’s too long” “It’s too fast” “It’s a little overwhelming” “The colors are wrong” “You’re using the wrong type face” “Outro is too wordy” “The graphics aren’t updated” And my favorite: “Can you chop it up so I don’t have to watch the whole thing?”

WHAT?! You want me to chop up my baby?! It’s only 3 minutes long!! (That’s 15 inches in Camtasia)

Anyways, I continued to work on my baby, and produced several version only to find out that something else wasn’t quite right, the opening shots were confusing, then the transitions were a little choppy… But I pushed towards perfection, and it gives me great pleasure to present it to you here.

But please be gentle, I don’t want to ruin that new baby smell.

- Kyle Jackson

Friday, October 2, 2009

Multiple Presenters

Got more than one presenter? Get thee hence to separate locations where you can each use a land line phone with a headset. If that’s the only thing you get from this blog, then my work here is done.

Since you paid attention, you are now co-presenting with someone in a different physical location. Get together and check each other's audio quality as you practice your presentation. Then, just before the event starts, have a third party give input on your sound levels. You want both voices to be at similar volume. Maybe one of you backs off your microphone a wee bit to keep the levels balanced. Then stay put.

If you must sit in a conference room together, do your sound checks for volume levels. Not everyone talks at the same volume and level of projection. Move the speaker phone so you get similar levels from each speaker while still maintaining quality sound. This is easier to accomplish around a round table instead of an oblong table unless you have a sophisticated conferencing room with precision setups that will accommodate multiple conferencing requirements.

You might have to snuggle up a bit to make sure that everyone is heard or consider playing musical chairs moving the louder speakers further away from the speakerphone. Keep the speakerphone as far away from the overhead projector as you can. I understand, that is sometimes impossible when you are trying to keep the speaker phone in the middle of a table and once again I say unto you...Get thee hence to separate locations where you can each use an old reliable land line phone with a headset. Who knew this could be a subject that would wax biblical? The beauty of web conferencing technology is that we don't have to be all in the same location. So enjoy that freedom.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Speakerphone Cons

Avoid using a speaker phone if you can when you are speaking over a web conference. I've heard many presenters claim that they must use their speaker phone so they can keep their hands free to run their computer in the web conference...please read my previsous blog on using a headset.

If you must use a speaker phone, you will have to be very careful as ambient room noise can be picked up by a speaker phone and magnified for your listeners 10-fold. Do a sound level check with your body location in relation to the speaker phone and then don't move the phone. If you slide the phone, or even bump it, your listeners will get a rude noise. Turn your cell phone off. I was recently on a conference where the speaker turned his cell phone to vibrate and then sat it on the table next to his speaker phone. You guessed it, the cell phone went off and although the speaker only heard his normal vibrate noise, we thought we were being buzzed into a high rise apartment building.

There are as many old speaker phones in use today as there are contestants who don't make it to Hollywood at the American Idol auditions. If it ain't broken, don't have to buy a new one, right? Not true in this case. Speaker phone technology gets better every year and old technology gets older every year. Small single microphones that don't pick up audio evenly from all directions which transmit low fidelity sound can dull what was otherwise a shining presentation.

Are your presentation notes sitting right in front of you with a nice staple in the upper left corner and as you go from slide to slide, you are going to flip the top page over to the back? Be careful. That particular action is frequently picked up by the speaker phone. Here’s how you avoid this: First, don't staple your stack of papers. Then slide the top sheet noiselessly off to the left. If you’ve read my previous blogs you’ll know that I also want you to sit with good posture in your chair, holding your head upright and speak in a relaxed professional but conversational manner which mean you shouldn’t be reading a script right off your notes anyway but if you absolutely have to have notes, use the above method of moving through your papers.