Hummingbird604.com » Third Tuesday

As always, Third Tuesday (on a Monday) was a success! Nate Elliott on The Future of Influence

Raul — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:07:00 +0000

I had to dash out of Third Tuesday (which fell on a Monday due to St. Patrick’s Day) but I had promised Tanya and Nate that I would come by and that I wouldn’t miss it so I stayed for most of Nate Elliott’s talk on The Future of Influence. Tris liveblogged it on the M2O blog, and here are my rough notes.

- The lasting appeal of influential consumers

- Who are the new influentials?

- The changing nature of influence

- What does it mean?

Marketers have always used consumer-to-consumer influence. They find influential people. They get them to pass along the message. Amway follows a similar message. Avon, Tupperware. People trust what other consumers tell them. You find influential people in the community. As a company, you give these influential people an interesting message and then you rely on these influential people to spread around the message.

Traditionally, personal recommendations have carried strongest influence

Axis X (Proactive vs. Reactive recommendations) axis Y (Broadcast vs. Personal recommendations)

Strongest influence – high volume, high trust (e.g. personal request for advice)

Medium influence – highest volume, medium/high trust e.g. Tupperware party, email from a friend

Weaker influence – lowest volume – medium trust – messsage boards, forums

Weakest influence – low volume, lowest trust – Amazon review, sandwich board.

New influentials – are internet users who maintain a weblog or personal homepage, who join in discussions on internet message boards, forums, or chatroooms, or who regularly update their social networking profile page.

Classic influentials – internet users who say they are the first person others come to for recommendations on music, films, tv programmes, books, consumer electronics, and technology

New influentials exert active influence but are rarely sought out.

Classic influentials – primarily exert passive influence by responding to requests for advice

New influentials – primarily exert active influence by proactively giving advice

New influentials and classic influentials sit at opposite ends of spectrum.

While classif influence remains stagnant, new influence continues to grow. 69% of Canadian online users are Spectators, 67% Joiners, 28% are Creators and 27% are Critics.

As users grow overwhelmed by influence, they will look for greater context. In the past the value of new influence was (not enough reviews/trust of consumer advice).

Third Tuesday February 2009 – Steve Jagger on “How to Grow Your Business”

Raul — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:02:28 +0000

Steve Jagger gave an awesome talk about how their business went completely virtual, and described the kind of tools they used to do that. Tris did an awesome liveblog, also using Cover It Lie, for Third Tuesday. The core Reachd/Ubertor team is in Vancouver and various other location (DT Vancouver, Burnaby, Whistler, Dominican Republic).

Morning conversations on Google Video Chat. The majority of their businesses is through GChat and GMail. Most companies who have employees elsewhere – you don’t get the emotion behind. Video really allowed them to do that, to bring the . Yammer – they use it to bring Google Video to the next level. It’s like Twitter, a closed conversation with only their team. Even if you have an office, Mailboxes Etc. allows you to have a stable mailing address.

Google’s Grand Central (from Google) – if you can, you should sign up. GotVMail – similar service.

SlimTimer - allows you to track your time. It’s more than just time-sheets, where you are tracking “I was at this meeting for an hour”. You track EVERYTHING. In their business, they do track every single task, trying to automate everything.

Meetup.com - A great one for sales people. They used to have a sales team of about 18 people. They became the educator – they brought speakers to educate the real estate people. When they compare the products, they compare pricing and stuff because they are bringing speakers and allows them to go to a different level.

Business video – Everybody should be shooting video (whatever you’re passionate about, throw the videos, people will embed them). Most of Steve’s speaking engagements come from his videos being watched.

Consultants - Seth Godin (25 guys flew to him) – Shane Gibson – runs a 12 week, 72 hour bootcamp. So Steve and his business partner enrolled in the course, and it was good. They just wanted to get the answers from Shane’s wisdom and insight. After the second day they talked to Shane about whether he would come and help their sales team. Consultants are important, it’s worth it to grab people who knows something about the stuff.

Thank you cards - Write a ‘thank you card’. Be grateful. There are people who actually thank Steve and his company because of their ‘thank you’ cards! They sub-contract the card writing to a woman who makes sure that the card goes out, and it’s something that can be outsourced and/or automate it. People really like thank you cards (shocking!)

Press - It’s good to be in the press. Steve and his company are always looking to be on the press. The fact that you were there, in the press, it’s what matters. The fact is, you are IN the media (it gives you leverage).

Live Chat - it’s pretty much the best thing, ever. If customers need support, they can help solve them. They can find out the browser that the customer is using, etc.

Wiki tools - Works really well if you have everybody trained to find the answers on the Ubertor wiki.

Setting up people or workers so that they can outsource. In this case, they might need to have an office (set up an outsource office for businesses).

They used to use BaseCamp and HighRise – for project management.

- Invoices – FreshBooks
- CRM – You could use HighRise
- Web-based Accounting – Clarity Accounting.

Ubertor and Reachd are more expensive than their competitors, generally speaking. Their advantage is not by price, it’s by service.

Even though I didn’t liveblog the event, I wanted to get this post out on time. Thanks to Steve for a great talk.

Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604) on branding: Third Tuesday recap

Raul — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:22:31 +0000

When I was being interviewed for The Georgia Straight article, I mentioned that it had been only this year that I had gotten involved in the Vancouver social media and blogging scene. However, it was back in the middle of 2007 that I sent an email to Rebecca Bollwitt asking her whether she thought that doing Blogathon. Her email response back to me was really sweet, encouraging and very positive. She even helped me set up the Blogathon badge on my (then) Blogspot blog. Ah, the memories!

Almost a year and a half and more than 1,200 posts later, I had the pleasure of hearing her distill the wisdom she has imparted to me throughout all the time that we’ve known each other into a short talk at Third Tuesday. I’ve been always very open and forthcoming in indicating that a lot of what I have achieved has been in no small part through what Rebecca has taught me. I still consider her my Blogging Jedi Master.

I would have live-blogged her talk (which was originally the intent) had it not been for the fact that (a) my laptop [on which I am writing this post now and that is NOT failing this time] was failing at the time, and (b) I didn’t get wifi on Rebecca’s (nor my) laptop, so I couldn’t really liveblog. Tris Hussey, however, did an excellent job of liveblogging Rebecca using CoverItLive, and I will seriously consider (after I buy a new laptop!) using the software. You can read Tris’ great coverage here.

What you are about to read are my notes on how Rebecca started Miss604. The text will read as though she is speaking, so bear that in mind.

So how did Miss604 start? Back in Boston – Miss604 would be the name that would associate me back with Vancouver. When I moved back to Vancouver from Boston, 2004 Miss604.com started. I’ve been in the information technology industry for over a decade now.

In 2006 my site started to pick up thanks to several elements. First, I was invited to liveblog a special concert by Matt Good. That same weekend, I signed up to BarCamp Vancouver, my first livebloggage of a BarCamp. I then switched from Blogger to WordPress. Got more involved with blogging. And the rest, as they say, is history.

How to grow your brand and your own presence online.

First off, some blogging basics.

1.- You need to read other blogs. See how people are responding, what people like to read, etc.
2.- Choose a topic you’re passionate about. In my case, Vancouver, BC, Surrey. I had my own voice and passion.

Quoting from Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008
Reasons bloggers start blogging
1 – 79% of people – to speak my mind in areas of interest
2 – 73% of people – to share my experiences.
3 – To Communicate with like minded people.

Blogging basics again

3.- Choose your name. Have a handle. Buy your domain.
4.- Sign up for your blogger account.
5.- You should join social networks (Facebook, etc.)
6.- Branch out – connect with others.
7.- Set up a blog that people can subscribe to.

The average involvement with social activities online – 5 things
- Comments
- Share videos
- Share photos
- Share links
- Read blogs

8.- You don’t need to get in EVERY single one application
- Rebecca recommends Viddler – videos – audience is in YouTube

9.- Find your audience. Then you have two choices – Go to your audience or have them find you.

Going to your audience
- Do links exchanges.
- Give people exposure and they will link back.
- Write a post including your thoughts on someone else’s posts. Link back on it. “Here are my thoughts on it.”

10.- Add people to your social networks. Check that they have a website, make sure you’re in every social network.

Having your audience find you
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization – try to use keywords and tags on your posts that are relevant.
- Make sure you are on Google. You can basically introduce your site to Google. You can add your site to Google Site Maps.
- Produce content on other sites. In 2005 and 2006 Rebecca wrote for Metroblogging (and still does, occasionally). You can find the specific sites and types of blogs where your message could be best heard.

11.- Once you have your audience, how do you keep your audience coming back?
- Make it easy for them to subscribe to your RSS feed.
- Be engaged and you will lose readers if you are not passionate about what you write.
- Keep writing about something you’ll want to write about several times.

12.- How do you measure the success of your blog?

According to Technorati
- First and foremost, your own personal satisfaction
- Number of comments
- Links

- To keep your audience you need to write often.
- Apparently, the top 10 blogs in Technorati blog 10 times a day although Rebecca wouldn’t recommend that. Rebecca’s maximum eve was 8 posts in one day (Raul – my own maximum was 6, although I think Rebecca forgot to mention that not once, but twice we both have done 49 posts, through Blogathon).

- Most bloggers spend 5-10 hours blogging.
- 2-3 posts a week is a normal average.

13.- Keep the discussion going.
- A huge part of blogging is respond the comments and discussions.
- Don’t sit back – engage in the conversation. If someone provides new information you can include it and update your post.

14.- Make sure you have a contact form so that people can contact you, or a visible email address.

15.- Have a contest you can have people engage.

16.- Ask a question and see what the reaction is on the comments.
- Never be afraid to ask a question.
- You want to make sure that you are aware of what is being said online. Monitor your own presence online.
- Listen to what people are bloggging about etc.
- In the corporate realm, find out what people were saying about the company. Make sure to find what you are listening, be aware of what you find online and make sure that what you write is louder than everyone else’s writing (e.g. important that readers find YOUR blog before anyone else who might be talking about YOU).

17.- Don’t let the worry about privacy put you off. Don’t worry about putting your first and last name. Fake names are very off-putting.

Personal thoughts on the personal brand (Rebecca’s thoughts)

* There are some people who think that personal branding is a crutch that people use when they are unsure of their comapnys real value.
- People who use the concept of a personal brand to be accepted.
- People often associate with personal brands – funny smart intelligent
- They have two personas and the personal and the public one.

* You can have your business and personal site – as long as you are being YOU, you are your brand, no matter who you are or what you do. You need to be who you are and be proud of what you write. You are, however, responsible for what you have written. So you have to monitor comments and stuff like that.
* Set your own boundaries. How much attention you have to you pay.

Examples of owning your brand
John Chow – I make money online by making people online — If I want to go where I can learn how to make money by doing online business, John Chow is the go-to person.

Rebecca considers Tony Pierce her blogfather (who has been writing the BusBlog since 2001) – (Raul side note – I have to confess that I have rarely only — once actually — read Tony’s blog, I read a post where he mentioned some blogging rules, and that was the one time when Rebecca suggested that I read them. I wouldn’t agree with all of them, but from the stories that Rebecca and Duane have given me, apparently Tony is a super awesome guy and I would love to meet him at some point – I know that he does love the way Raimi The Minx writes and that he has been to Vancouver)

He wrote a book called How to Blog. Some rules he has
- Write everyday
- Write twice a day – dont be afraid of doing anything – if you are afraid, write
- Dont be upset if no one comments for a long time
- If people start acting mean, remember that you have a power to moderate a comment

Rebecca reminds the audience “this is your space online, you are responsible for it”
- Dont be afraid if you think something has been said before, but you can say it anyway using your own words, as honestly as you can. Your brand is you. Be proud of what you are putting out there.
Make sure that you have your reputation online in the best way. You need to make sure that what you are doing is out there. Be aware of what is being said online.

— End of the talk —

I would like to mention a couple of things that I personally have learned from Rebecca.

First, own to your brand. If you are going to be snarky, be snarky ALL THE WAY. If you are going to be “clean” in your blog (my own blog, for example, is super G rated – I don’t write about sex nor religion) then be clean, all the way.

Second, BE your brand. For example, part of my own (Raul) brand is the social aspect. I *am* friends with many of my Twitter followers, many of my fellow bloggers in Vancouver. That’s one of the aspects that characterizes me. I would like to think that part of the reason why people follow me and follow my blog is because of the personal side that I bring to my blog, and the social (in real life) aspect. I’m a very social blogger. And it’s not fake or anything, that’s who I am. Actually blogging gave me the opportunity to put my social personality to good use

Third, be transparent at all times. Disclosure is really important. Rebecca is very honest in her disclosure of sponsored ads, etc.

Fourth, blog if/when/because you want to. The posts that you write when you’re tired are the worst kind, so just blog when it’s right for you to blog.

Overall, it was awesome to hear Rebecca give a talk on how she became as successful a blogger as she is, and I am very proud of what she’s done. I was very mortified by the fact that I couldn’t liveblog her talk, but whatever, here are my notes for what they’re worth.

Third Tuesday on a Monday, Vancouver, David Jones, September 2008

Raul — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:43:55 +0000

It is a rare occurrence that Third Tuesday does not happen on the actual third tuesday of the month, but since David Jones from Hill and Knowlton (Who by the way are running the bloggers campaign for Molson, with Brew 2.0 Vancouver, an event to which I’m invited too) was organizing the Tuesday night event, Tanya and Monica decided that it would be better for him to speak on the Monday. So we had a Third Tuesday on a Monday.

I will let Rebecca’s excellent liveblog give you the 411 of the talk, but just wanted to stress one particular element that I think is key. The bi-directionality of Web 2.0, which should transpire to any PR firm that is doing blogger relations. I think that this is an under-estimated, and often assumed element of social media – the bi-directionality.

I also tweeted this : “Dave Jones is saying almost “darn if we do, if we don’t” re: not being able to pitch EVERY single one of the bloggers.” Well, that’s a problem that probably needs to be addressed in the campaign design. For example, I know that not everybody got an invite to Brew 2.0 (and yes, I’m one of the lucky ones who did). I think that it would be probably a good idea to make it sorta kinda explicit why we were chosen. For example, my blog does do a substantial amount of Vancouver-centric posts, particularly restaurant and bar reviews. I am known for knowing “the local scene”.

Thus, it makes sense for a company that manufactures beer to have me attend an event where social media and beer intersect, even if I’m not a big beer drinker, but I do hang out where beer is served. Probably not the same if your blog is techie (I somehow don’t expect to get invites to EE Road Show). In speaking of transparency, I think it would do wonders for some marketing campaigns to be more explicit about the way in which participants in promotions are chosen.

You can read some of my notes on the Cossette Convergence talk that Darren, Kate and Rebecca gave, although I already had a PR post queued for later this week precisely on the bloggers relations issue. Anyhow, it was lovely to see many of my peeps and I look forward to catching up *slowly* with each and every one of you

Third Tuesday Liveblog – Jeff Young on intellectual property and Web 2.0

Raul — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:18:30 +0000

Rebecca is liveblogging, but both our laptops have very little power, so I am not exactly sure how long this liveblog will be. I’ll try for as long as I can.

SIDE NOTES – Dinner and drinks with Rebecca, Duane, Ianiv, Arieanna, David Drucker, Tris, Tanya, Marco, John Biehler, Monica and Nadia was awesome. I really have to update Granville Room restaurant review because I think they really enjoyed the food (I’ve already had dinner, so I didn’t try anything).

I’ve just spent a few minutes with Gus who kindly got me a beer (you know me all too well, my friend!).

JEFF IS STARTING HIS TALK.

Just because you can mail something to yourself, doesn’t show that you’re the creator of something.

Things that can be protected – mere ideas have no intellectual property protection attached to them. If the idea is attached/manifested into a logo – trademark. The mere idea has no protection.

Privacy agreements – infringement of copyright – breach of contract.

If the idea doesn’t become an actual tangible thing, or embedded in a tangible manner, it’s not subject to copyright.

Permissions to use this photograph (Duane had a bad issue recently happen to him). The right of privacy and publicity. It’s completely different jurisdiction for privacy, publicity and copyright.

Every single province have different laws in regards to rights of publicity and privacy.

Let’s start off with a case – one specific area of law.

UPDATE -
UPDATE – Jeff is starting his liveblog. Legal Hack Unlimited — bloggers’ liability for defamation. The stuff that caused the defamation is probably less sensational than you think. How much (or little) do we have free speech.

The first time we talked included about
- Copyright
- Trademark
- Publicity and privacy
- Misunderstandings in terms of law

News article of the case study – decision was taken around early 2007. Northern Lights Expeditions were very upset Sewid for creating a blog in a website that talked about the competitive world of kayaking. A problem that worked like this – originally some working together – Sewid gets the company upset – he creates a website that creates a kayak trip in the jurisdiction and starts something like “the best way to kayak”.

Emails are written evidence and can be produced in court and used as evidence [RAUL'S NOTE - Ouch.]

To make a claim about defamation – balance of evidence has to show that the actual – if you compliment somebody (if you say nice things even if it’s not true then it’s not defamation). What’s more important – recognize that any publishing on the internet is considered publishing, so we are all publishers for legal publishers.

The defense of truth – if you’re absolutely sure it’s true and you’re able that you have enough evidence that you are saying the truth, then you’re fine.

Except if confidentiality agreements lead to learning about the truth.

Balance of probabilities – Probably. You can win/lose the balance of probability.
51% – statements have a tendency to lower the reputation of the plaintiff.

Interesting – if more than one person is involved – all participants are liable. You work with a team, everyone is JOINTLY RESPONSIBLE. If you got 4 guys creating the site, they’re all liable for the whole thing.

[SIDE NOTE - Great question, Nancy - re: iPhone and website]

The defamatory comments were done maliciously. – So, if you’re doing things prudently,

We’re getting to commenting on blogs. Who is liable (if the blogger says “these comments are not my responsibility”)

Liable and slander used to be separated. Liable – more serious than slander, at the time.

UPDATE – 2 separate companies against a blogger.

Ianiv is asking a question about opinions about a coffee shop. Jeff says – if your website is fully focused on bringing the business down and shut them down, that’s when it starts to be a problem. If it is a legitimate coffee cost comparison, then you’re fine. If you have one specific agenda against, for example, Starbucks, then you’re not fine. If commenters are saying the same, then it doesn’t work.

Cease and desist – this is just consumer lingo. Literally, STOP.

Normal protocol, and the reason you would get a cease and desist letter – we as lawyers don’t start lawsuit right away – you have to give people a chance to stop on their own.

Giving 48 hours to take off stuff online (instead of a week) – Jeff only gives this little time because it takes very little time to take stuff off.

QUESTION – The onus (restaurant reviews) is on us to have the actual appropriate language. A bit of the responsibility is on us to be professional. Jeff – taking that attitude takes you a really long way. There are protocols – and also, do a lot of disclaimers. You can’t take your opinion into an intentional act of defamation.

QUESTION – Branding agency – for our clients – content supplied by client – if the content is defamation or wrong or whatever, if we have the signed contract – can we still be brought into a lawsuit?
Jeff – You should be more practical than that. You can deliver everything …

If we have been malicious, is because something is bugging the crap out of us. Lately, Jeff has been more sensitive to the realities of life. Play half-psychiatrist – “they ripped me off”, etc.

JUST BE OBJECTIVE.

Do we all know whether we’ve crossed all boundaries?

Trademark infringement – The test is whether something is confusingly similar. Not identical, but confusingly similar.

However, while it is contextual – Remember, it’s not about MY opinion or YOUR opinion. It’s what the judge thinks. You have got to take the time to look at cases, and see whether things were confusing or not.

The challenge is that people in this room are involved in technology.

We’re not talking about technology (patent law) – things that are covered by trademark law (art, etc.) – creating brand.

If you are JUST creating art, for art’s sake for display, those things are not being used as brands. You’re out of trademark law and into copyright law and the tests are different.

You have to get the right area of law before you start getting into this. If you have an invention and you want to trademark it, then you’re doing the wrong thing (it has to be PATENTED).

A patent has a 20 year life, you can’t renew it. A trademark lasts forever as long as you remember to renew it.

Great example. LEGO.

How does Epinions survive – you are allowed to have opinions, and they are moderated.

The trademark is PERPETUALLY RENEWABLE.

QUESTION – Defamation – by association – being paid by someone.

You can’t go “Small Claims” for defamation, just so you know.

QUESTION – Before there was blogging – Jeremy Cooperstock – Untied.com – crappy service he got from United Airlines – got a cease-and-desist. If you had a really crappy experience, where you would write that up, and maybe get other people to link to it and drive it up to the top of Google – don’t recall hearing something about this.

Jeff – When you get yourself sued, you don’t talk about it.

QUESTION FROM DUANE – Flickr photos – licensing (Creative Commons)
Duane makes his photos available licensed through CC (see my post on the topic). He had an issue (you can read Duane’s post here).

Jeff – Letter asking for damages – infringement of copyright lawsuit. There was clear license infringement.

In Canada there is no concept of “fair use” – it’s only prevalent in the US.

BUNCH OF QUESTIONS

W/defamation – does out of country protect you? Answer – no, it doesn’t because you’re here.

The World Intellectual Property Organization can help solve issues of cyber-squatting – the domain can go back to you.

Domain name law is NONE OF THE ABOVE.

QUESTION – Should I trademark a domain name? It’s tricky.

Anti-Cyber Squatting Protection Act.

[SIDE NOTE - I still have battery but I'm kind of tired, so I suggest you go back to Rebecca's awesome liveblog and read it. She did such a wonderful job!]

Third Tuesday Meetup – Media sponsor is Miss604.com

Raul — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:37:34 +0000

Just a friendly reminder that tonight at 7:00pm at The Network Hub (on Richards Street. Closest Skytrain is Waterfront Station) is Third Tuesday, with Monica Hamburg speaking about CrowdSourcing and Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss604.com) as the media sponsor. Rebecca will be live-blogging. This one is organize by Tanya Davis (aka NetChick) and Tod Maffin (CBC’s Chief Geeky Officer).

I will be attending and taking some photos and some notes, but mostly will be there just to hear Monica’s insights and to socialize with other social media folks. Check out an explanation of what Third Tuesday is here and Rebecca’s live blog here. I am very much looking forward to seeing a lot of you there, you know who you are!