One of the challenges I deal with on a daily basis is trying to effectively communicate both the complexity as well as the challenges that come with social marketing and blogging. For people who are not entrenched in this medium, I think it is very hard to understand what it actually takes to be successful. I just don’t think that a lot of people really “get it” yet and I look at that as a challenge for both myself as well as the other marketers trying to introduce new and innovative ways for their clients to market to their customers.

This issue was really punctuated for me when I reading a post on Weblog Tools Collection. If you are not familiar with this site, it is an excellent site for anything and everything that has to do with WordPress which is what I use for this blog. I was checking out some new themes when I noticed a link that read “WordPress Blogger Wanted” under the job section on the web page. Just for the hell of it, I decided to click on it to check it out. I am not going to post a link directly to this job page, but this is what the job post said:

“We pay per post you make to one of our WordPress blogs and you can write about anything except porn, gambling, drugs, hate, it just has to be original writings and of course make sense. No links can be in the posts and all posts have to have a minimum 150 words. We will pay anywhere between 25 cents to $1 dollar per post.”

They will pay between a quarter to a dollar per each post?!?!?!? Earth calling person who does not have a clue, come in clueless. You have the audacity to pay someone a lousy quarter for 150 words?

So in other words, someone is going to take the time to sit down and using only this person’s intelligence and talent and write four 150 word articles and he or she might just be able to afford a Snickers bar? I understand that whomever placed this ad could never write a blog for himself as he has the intelligence of a door knob.

Do you have a clue what kind of not only talent, but absolute dedication it takes to make a successful blog? Look at the guys who are flourishing at their blogs. They dedicate hours upon hours of not only writing, but reading and researching so they have new and innovative posts day in and day out.

I was thinking if anyone is interested, a bunch of us could get together and write some of the worst posts we absolutely can come up with and submit it to this idiot and see what his reaction is. What do you think? Maybe we can come up with some titles of posts that we can write?

Here’s a couple of the top of my head.

1. My Laundry and Me – A Dirty Tale

2. Where does the Sun go at Night?

3. How to Spell Mississippi.

Give me some of your ideas of great titles.

Technorati Tags: social marketing, blogging, WordPress

Well folks, I am going to be taking a very welcome vacation next week. Most likely there will be no posts here for the week. I think taking a little time off to recharge the batteries will do me and the blog very well. I hope everyone has a great week next week and I promise the Hipsters will come back bigger and better when I return. Have a good one.

Jason Calacanis declared on his blog “Facebook bankruptcy“. Overall his post is a rant about how he is too popular and all the requests he gets is keeping him from actually doing things. Jason also decided to turn off comments on his blog.

You know as I was reading his post, I was thinking of those movie and rock stars who for years wish and work their tails off to make it big. All they want is the fame and the fortune and then one day they actually attain their goal only to complain about how they have no time for themselves and how hard it is to be famous. Boo hoo. Isn’t life cruel.

Come on Jason, please. Is there someone at your place holding a gun to your head making you accept friends requests, forcing you to send emails? I don’t really care about the Facebook thing, if Facebook is not your bag than delete your profile and move on already. What I do take issue with is you shutting off comments to your blog. You should know better than most of us that blogging is about community. It is about giving the opportunity for anyone no matter who they are to let their voice be heard. By you shutting off your comments, you are shutting the door on the community that you have worked damn hard to create these many years.

“If you do have a blog and don’t want to take the time to fire off a blog post in response to this then, frankly, how valuable is your comment? The benchmark for responding to my blog is now starting your own blog and writing a post.”

Ah, I see, so now unless you have a blog, an individuals thoughts, opinions and comments are not valuable? Coming from a true innovator like you Jason, this kind of statement is embarrassing to say the least. I agree with you Jason on one point, you are bankrupt, morally bankrupt. So enjoy yourself in that ivory tower you constructed my friend. We shall see what happens in the future when all those requests and comments stop coming, you think your attitude might change then?

Technorati Tags: Jason Calacanis, Facebook bankruptcy, Facebook, community

I thought this was a cute little story in MediaDaily News. Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment has been taking some flack from TV critics as he made a decision that he was going to withhold some news about the upcoming season of Lost at the Television Critics Association summer meeting and instead release the news the next day at Comic-Con, a huge comic book convention.

The TV critics were not pleased with this and starting throwing temper tantrums.

“I don’t think my editor is going to be very happy when she reads in my blog later today that Steve McPherson promised that news on one of the biggest shows on the network would be going to a fan convention the next day,” said Aaron Barnhart, TV critic of The Kansas City Star.

Oh, boo-hoo what is a person to do? You know what I would say Aaron, BECOME RELEVANT! The reason the President of ABC wanted to withhold the news from the TV critics and release it at Comic-Con is because he knows that the people attending Comic-Con will have greater reach and visibility on the web than a bunch of stodgy TV critics who write for newspapers. McPherson understands that when it comes to creating buzz and excitement for this coming season, you and the rest of your TV critics don’t have any J-U-ICE my friend.

So stop your whining and start becoming relevant. How many times do you post a day? How fast are you at releasing hot news? Are you leading or following some of the biggest TV web sites out there? You are being beaten by kids in their basements while you sit around at your Television Critics Association summer meeting. I can’t believe there is actually a Television Critics Association. 

Technorati Tags: Stephen McPherson, ABC, TV critics, Lost, Television Critics Association, Comic-Con, RELEVANT

So I have been tagged twice one from Matt and one from Bob. Bob, I am very sorry it has taken me this long to respond. The tag is posting 8 random things people may or may not know about me. So here it goes:

1. When I was a kid, I got off a tour bus in Florida without my relatives which they did not notice. I sat on the curb for a half an hour until the bus came back for me. The entire ride back the driver was making fun of me. To this day, I would love to kick that drivers butt!

2. The first concert I ever went to was when I was 13 which my friends and I camped out for tickets. It was to see Genesis at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. We camped out overnight for them and got the second to last row on the very top section of the stadium. Mom dropped us off and picked us up. Awwwww…

3. My father once threw me through our garage. Yea not against, but literally through it.

4. A day after graduating high school, a friend and I jetted off and traveled throughout Europe. It was bar none the best time I have ever had in my lifetime.

5. I drink Fruit2O water like crazy. I love the stuff. I usually drink 3-5 containers a day easily. Oh also, even though it is named “Fruit2O” a take off of H2O, I call it “Fruit2.0″ (pronounced Fruit two dot Oh). I do it pretty much because it really annoys my fiance.

6. Every summer since I was very young until a teenager, I went to camp. I started in the youngest bunk and went up to junior counselor. I never realized just how amazing that place was until I got older.

7. I love to BBQ. In my humble opinion, nothing tastes better than when it is barbecued.

8. I am counting down the days until NFL football begins again. Life begins in September!

Ok, that is my random stuff. I guess I need to tag some folks. Here you go, you be tagged:

• Adam
• Jeremy
• Jake
• Meg
• Jennifer
• Ryan
• Alex
• Nathan

This morning was the official launch of Age of Conversation, a book written by over 100 bloggers from all across the globe. I was lucky enough to have been given an opportunity to write a chapter in this book and I am very excited to read what the other 100 or so bloggers came up with. I have already placed my order this morning for both a hardcover, paperback and an e-book.

All proceeds minus printing costs will go Variety, The Children’s Charity. The prices and how much goes to this charity are as follows:

e-book: $9.99 ($7.99 going to charity)
paperback book: $16.95 ($8.10 to charity)
hardback book: $29.99 ($8.55 to charity)

For more information, please check out the official Age of Conversation blog. You can order both the e-book as well as the printed books through Lulu at Lulu.com/ageofconversation. If you order the e-book, you can download it and start reading immediately after purchase.

You can also check out a Google Map that was created that shows where each author is from.

Once people have a chance to download and read it, I would love your thoughts and opinions.  Thanks for your support.

Technorati Tags: Age of Conversation, bloggers

I’m a ponderer and I was hoping you my fabulously intelligent Hipster readers would be interested in pondering with me… My ponderable today is about blogging. As bloggers, what are we looking for? What do we need and what do we want? I think each one of us began to blog for many different reasons. Whether that be for fame and fortune or just somewhere that we can share our thoughts. For me personally, I started blogging for one reason, but fairly quickly, I continued blogging for a much different reason, community.

This blog along with sites like MyBlogLog have given me the opportunity to meet and befriend people that I would of never had the opportunity to meet let alone have fabulous conversations with. It’s been amazing and it’s something that as I get older and hopefully wiser, I have come to realize just how precious this community and these conversations actually are.

Think of what technology has given all of us the opportunity to do. Just yesterday, I was introduced right here on this blog via a comment to an incredibly interesting woman named Ryan who through our conversation we discovered that even though I live in Raleigh and she in Boston, we grew up about a mile from each other. I am using the term “grew up” loosely as I grew up and then she was born as I am considerably older than her.

Now the reason I am bringing all this all up is that even though blogging is exploding each and every day, I believe that we as a community are dramatically under served. Even with the technology available and a whole lot of players in this market, I still don’t think people truly get that it is not always about subjects or interests, it’s about THE CONTENT and THE PEOPLE! What do I mean by this? There are blogs that focus on subjects that from the outside looking in, I would probably not have any interest in. But for one reason or the other, I took the time to truly read what some of these amazing bloggers are writing and now I cannot get enough of them.

Let me give an example. There is this amazing woman named Jen who writes a couple of different blogs. One is called Goodness Graciousness and the other is The Art of Intimacy. Now just from those titles, what would was your first impression? Mine was Chick Flicks! A place where women talk about love and how their men don’t cuddle with them enough, yada yada, yada… Now just being honest, for me personally, I think I would rather have my teeth removed with a rusty wrench than read this, but as usual I could not of been more wrong. Instead Jen writes these wonderfully personal as well as incredibly interesting articles that read like they came right from her heart and landed directly onto the screen. Content and People…

It’s amazing what we as individuals can do and I believe that when we as individuals can get together in a community, there is no limit to what we could accomplish. Though right now, I feel like there are things that are missing to enable us to do that.

So here is my ponderable that I would like your help with. I want to be able to have a better and stronger community. I want to be able to get better and more specific feedback on what you the reader likes and dislikes. I want to be able to keep track and stay abreast of what you my readers/fellow bloggers are writing about each day with the limited amount of time that I have available. I want an easier way to communicate to you both individually as well as a group.

What do you want? Am I off on my thinking or are there things that you would love to have that would allow your voice to be better heard as well as being able to find and hear other voices easily and quickly? I am asking you to join my ponderable and offer your thoughts. There are no wrong answers in Ponderableland, unless you ask me to vote for you for the Best Blogger Award.

Alright, here we go.. Sit back, take a deep breath, relax and join my ponderable and share your thoughts. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: Hipster, pondering, ponderable, blogging, bloggers, community, MyBlogLog

A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to write an article for an upcoming book called, “The Age of Conversation“. This great idea was the brain child of Gavin Heaton and DrewMcLellan.

A hundred or so bloggers were asked to write no more than one page on anything we like that had to do with the “Age of Conversation”. What made this project especially appealing was ALL of the books’ proceeds will be donated to Variety, The Children’s Charity.

I was notified that the release of this book is about a week away. The cover of the book is the picture highlighted above. The book is going to be available for purchase via an e-book or hardcover. I will keep you apprised on when the book has officially been released.

I am very excited about this for a couple of reasons. I think this is a wonderful idea that benefits a great charity, but also, you cannot find a better or more eclectic group of bloggers than the 100 or so they got together for this book. I can’t wait to read what everyone has written for their articles and I am just hoping mine does not totally suck compared to some of these incredibly talented writers.

I will definitely post information on how to purchase the book when it is released. In the mean time, I have listed all of the bloggers who have participated in this book below.

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Mindblob (Luc)
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Bob Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
Kofl Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Pollinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman

Technorati Tags: The Age of Conversation, bloggers

If you take a look at the right hand column of this blog, you will see a new little widget that I am trying out called Feevy. Feevy is a dynamic blogroll that you can display on your blog or web page. Pretty much you sign up for the service which is free and then choose what blogs you want in your blogroll. After inputting as many blogs as you want, you place a small amount of code on your blog and presto, you get a blogroll that is updated based on how recently the blogs in your blogroll have posted new articles.

I am going to give it a try and have added almost every blog that is presently in my blogroll. I thought it would be a great way to show off here some blogs that I really enjoy reading and what new stuff they have posted recently. Let me know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Feevy, blogroll

A Google employee and blogger named Lauren Turner hopefully has learned a valuable lesson on what not to do when writing for a corporate blog. Ms. Turner posted a story on Google’s Health Advertising Blog about Michael Moore’s new movie, Sicko. She said:

“Moore’s film portrays the industry as money and marketing driven, and fails to show healthcare’s interest in patient well-being and care.”

She then went on to encourage health care companies to advertise with Google to spread their “counter-message”.

To no-one’s surprise except for maybe Ms. Turner, this did not go over real well in the blogosphere. Very quickly, Ms. Turner recanted her post with this little diddy. She said:

” Not so good is that some readers thought the opinion I expressed about the movie Sicko was actually Google’s opinion. It’s easy to understand why it might have seemed that way, because after all, this is a corporate blog. So that was my mistake“.

Unfortunately, Ms. Turner could not leave well enough alone and then went on for another two paragraphs about how, “advertising is an effective medium for handling challenges that a company or industry might have”. Many bloggers have expressed their dismay on how this Google employee expressed her opinion on a corporate blog which got her into trouble. I absolutely disagree.

Yes, you do need to be careful how and what you write when you are representing a company, but I think many people are missing the bigger issue here. Blogging is all about credibility. Whether you are writing a blog on a subject you have an interest in, like what I do here or if you are writing a blog for a company you work for; the only way your message will get through is if the author has some sort of credibility. If you do not have any credibility, it does not really matter what you write because no-one will care.

All that Ms. Turner did in both her original post and then in her follow-up was to lose all credibility in my eyes. She took an incredibly complicated and important issue like healthcare in this country and boiled it down to, “Advertise with Google Healthcare companies and we can deliver your message.” Ms. Turner showed that she knows very little about the healthcare industry because if she did, she would know that EVERY study that has been done recently all show that people are not listening because they do not trust any of the healthcare companies and buying ads in Google will deliver nothing other than putting money into Google’s pocket. Writing for a corporate blog does not mean that you need to be a corporate shill.

Ms. Turner, your posts showed that you know very little about the industry your trying to sell to. Our world is very different than it was several years ago and buying text ads, video ads, and rich media ads in paid search will not help get a “counter-message” out. And even if it could, what would a counter-message really accomplish?

Even more importantly, you are doing a huge disservice to many people in this industry who are trying to show our clients how to actually reach out to their customers and truly have an impact that makes a difference.

What do you think? Was this blogger wrong and if so, what did you disagree with her about?

Technorati Tags: Google, Lauren Turner, Michael Moore, Sicko, corporate blog, Blogging, credibility, healthcare