Marketing Hipster

…. But at least I am enjoying the ride”.

So my friend Tola sent me this link from TechCrunch that in the next 24 hours, Dead.net will be relaunching as a full blown social network for of course DeadHeads!!

Now even though I play a tech-web marketing geek during the day, underneath my button down shirts and slacks beats the heart of a unshaven, dirty, tie-dyed hippie wishing he could hit the road like the old days and not come back. It sucks getting old doesn’t it?

Oh by the way, my girlfriend last night pointed out that I have a bald spot on the top of my head.

Life was so much easier when I was doing drugs… Oh well…..

Facebook announced this week their “next evolution of Facebook”, the Facebook platform. I have been waiting to write about this till after I was able to read all the info on this. I believe this is a HUGE step for Facebook and will be critical for the eventual domination over the likes of MySpace.

Just to quickly summarize what this Facebook platform is, it enables outside vendors, companies, etc. to build “widgets” that can be integrated into Facebook users profiles, main pages, etc. Unlike MySpace who has no formal development policy and depending on what mood they are in and whether their servers are up or not, has pulled and blocked apps for at times no apparent reason other than that they can. Facebook has built an architecture, rules and procedures for integrating with Facebook.

Let me give an example. Amazon can now build a widget very much like they have for blogs that Facebook users can list on their profile what books, music, games, etc. they are using right now. Each one of these can be linked to Amazon so users can be driven from a Facebook profile page directly to a product page within Amazon to buy.

I believe the real challenge for Facebook will be how much control are they going to give to these outside vendors and if some of these apps become successful, will they want a piece of that pie?

Either way I believe this is a huge step forward for Facebook and in the long run this among many other things Facebook is doing will spell the demise of MySpace. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Facebook platform, Facebook, MySpace, widgets, Amazon

This is a real interesting story about an individual who started a profile page on MySpace for Presidential candidate Barack Obama more than two years ago and then just recently, the guy got kicked to the curb and MySpace gave control of the profile over to the Obama campaign. What is even more interesting is that profile has lost a significant number of friends because of this incident. Please see the video below.

I don’t think this is going to be the last time we hear something like this happening when it comes to the web and politics. I am torn over this story to be honest. When I first heard about it, I thought I was going to jump all over the Obama campaign. But now after hearing the story and the issue was the guy wanted money, I am not so sure. If the guy started this profile more then 2 years ago, it seemed to me that he started this because he believed in the candidate, but now all of a sudden he wants some cash? What do you think?

Technorati Tags: MySpace, Presidential candidate, Barack Obama

If you have not been introduced to Maki yet, it is time you do so. He writes some of the most in depth and well written articles on anything and everything regarding social media. He has another incredibly well done post on the in’s and out’s of Reddit. If done correctly, Reddit can be a valuable resource for driving traffic to your site and Maki lays out just how to do it. Check it out.

I hadn’t signed on to my MySpace account in weeks. I keep seeing the emails of new mail and new friend requests, but I just have not had the time or desire to deal with MySpace recently. Last night I finally took a little time to relax and I decided to login onto MySpace. The experience I had was the exact reason why I described earlier that I did not have the desire to deal with MySpace. Because that is exactly what it is, a deal, when it comes to doing the most basic things on MySpace. How long has it been since Fox bought them, a year, two? How much time does MySpace need to add enough servers so it does not take me four years to actually get to my inbox? Forget about watching a video, I could go into the bathroom and shave and the video would still be buffering when I returned.

This is why MySpace will eventually lose. For the longest time, they were really the only good game in town, but that landscape is changing and changing quickly. There are already many different players on the horizon not to mention the many smaller niche social sites that seem to popping up every time you turn around. Eventually even the most die hard MySpacer will come to the same conclusion that I have. Life is too short and there far too many choices available to waste time on a site that does nothing to improve the customer experience on its web site.

Technorati Tags: MySpace

I had not been on my MySpace in a while, but was getting a number of notices that I was getting mail so I decided to go in and catch up. Low and behold I saw a site that I did not think I would ever see. A Girl Scout hanging on MySpace. I virtually walked up to her and asked what a nice girl scout like her was doing in a place like this? She virtually responded, “I am selling cookies. You interested?” I immediately wanted to wash her mouth out with soap until I realized that cookies was not a metaphor and she was really selling cookies. That’s right, the Girl Scouts are on MySpace.

Is that a Thin Mint in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? Sorry, I could not help myself. I hear next week the Vienna Boys Choir will be launching a new site on Adult Friend Finder.

As my old friends the Grateful Dead once said, “I may be going to hell in a bucket, babe, but at least I’m enjoying the ride.”

Technorati Tags: MySpace, Girl Scouts

Last week it was announced that Ogilvy would partner with Technorati and they would provide Ogilvy clients with blogs, video blogs, videos, photos and other online user-generated media.

“Ogilvy creatives and account teams will use Technorati’s conversational marketing products to build relationships between brands and conversations relevant to those brands. This will result in the the creation of destination sites, new forms of advertising and communities of interest.”

This will be interesting to watch and see what transpires from this. My initial thought was that this was yet another example of an agency creating another avenue for their clients to communicate to their customers, but not creating a way to better listen to their customers and most importantly understand them. I think we have seen numerous examples of companies jumping head first into the blogosphere and truly falling flat on their faces. The reason for this was that they did not understand who their customers were and what they were saying.

Developing a blog is the easy part of social media. Creating landing pages for people go to and read is nothing different than creating new landing pages for a pay per click campaign. Though if you want to capitalize on social media, there needs to be a great deal more than this.

A company needs to understand before launching a blog what issues and feedback they might receive. They must have procedures in place to not only hear what their customers are saying, but being able to respond to them quickly and correctly. And finally, a blog’s singular purpose is to engage with their readers. If a company is utilizing a blog for yet another avenue to put out press releases, they will soon realize that this blog will do nothing to enhance their brand and more often than not, it will hurt their company’s overall brand and reputation.

What do you think? If you were a Fortune 100 company, what would your initial steps be to launch a successful blog?

Technorati Tags: Ogilvy, Technorati, blogs, social media

I am sure most of you have already read their fill on the latest Microsoft controversy. I do not plan on discussing it any further here. Just for the sake of anyone who is not up to date, Microsoft paid a blogger to write information on Wikipedia regarding an open source page. Microsoft wanted what they called a more “fair and balanced” article. Then the blogger went and posted a story on his own blog about how Microsoft just paid him. This was followed by a big uproar in the blogosphere of course.

After reading a number of articles discussing this incident, I think this highlights in no uncertain terms a lesson that all companies with products and services to sell should learn. Instead of wasting an incredible amount of time and effort on spin, how about you put that time into developing a product or service that your customers will love in the first place? If you have a product or service that your customers love, there will be absolutely no need to prompt or pay anyone to write or talk about your product. They will do so without hesitation because people do that with things they love. They are passionate about things they love and want to tell anyone and everyone who will listen. Do you think that a story about Apple paying bloggers to write about the iPod will ever happen? Of course not.

Microsoft, if you felt like your Office Open XML was not getting the due it deserved who is to blame for that? The writers in Wikipedia or you for releasing a product that does not capture the minds and imaginations of the people you covet? When this latest debacle calms down, sit down and think about how much time your employees spent dealing with the negative press and then think how that time could of been used for better pursuits like developing products that people will want to sing your praises from the rooftops.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft controversy, Microsoft, Wikipedia, blogger

I had a little bit of a deja vu moment earlier. I was having a political discussion with a friend over IM today and we were talking about possible presidential candidates for the 2008 election. My friend who is also “in the industry” talked about how many of the presidential hopefuls are really grabbing onto “engagement marketing” techniques like MySpace, YouTube and their web sites. I responded to him that yes, the candidates are using some of these technologies, but they are far from even coming close to engaging anyone.

Following my discussion, I was going to post an article on this when my Google Reader popped up with a post from Robert Scoble whose thoughts are very much in line with my own. Bottom line is that these candidates can use all the new and cool widgets out there, but the only way to truly engage with their constituents is by opening a two-way conversation.

Even though Barak Obama launched his exploratory committee though YouTube and John Edwards has a MySpace page, no-one has yet engaged with the people on these social sites not to mention the blogosphere. Politics and business have a lot in common here. It seems that neither understand or want to actually listen to what people have to say.

The first candidate to actually engage in a two-way conversation online the right way will see attention that all the media dollars in the world could not buy. Though I question whether that will happen or not.

Here is my Sunday question of the day. If you were running for president and truly wanted to engage people online, how would you do it? What would be your tactics? Where would you start?  I am going to put some ideas together as well and post my thoughts this week.

Technorati Tags: presidential candidates, engagement marketing, MySpace, YouTube, Robert Scoble

Thank you for stopping by, let me introduce myself, my name is Cord Silverstein. I don’t want to take too much of your time, but I thought I would just give you a little background on myself. I have been working in the marketing industry for over 15 years. I have worked on both the agency side as well as client side. I have been very lucky to work with some incredibly talented people as well as with some great brands. Here is a quick rundown on my professional career:
Agencies:

• Marketsmart Interactive – VP of Client Services
• Emerald Solutions – Director
• Grey Interactive – Senior Producer

Client Side:

• Metlife – Vice President of E-Commerce
• Dell Computer Corporation – Senior Online Program Manager
• IBM – Business Analyst

I am presently the Executive Vice President of Interactive Communications for an amazing marketing and communications firm in Raleigh, NC called Capstrat.

Why?

I believe that we are at a crossroads when it comes to marketing and advertising today. Technology has given the consumer today unprecedented power to control what and who are marketed to them everyday. It is no longer the push mentality that if I do this type of marketing plan, I am guaranteed these many eyes and these many ears. The consumer is now putting the burden back onto the marketers to grab their attention and to give them something worth looking at, listening to and talking about. I believe that we as marketers have failed the consumer for quite a long time now and it is time that we begin rebuilding that relationship between the marketer and the market.

All articles and information written on Marketing Hipster is the sole opinion of Cord Silverstein and Cord only. If at anytime, I write an article that deals with a campaign or client that I am personally working with, I will disclose that information in each article.

cord AT marketinghipster.com

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Technorati Tags: Cord Silverstein