I wrote my own version of the famous Mac ads the other day, a moment of clarity amongst a dark cloud caused by a system meltdown of my trusty Compaq desktop system. It’s easier to see the humor in them, now that I’m dreaming about owning one (an experience I can’t even enjoy, because of the teasing and taunting coming from current Mac owner friends. Some friends you are).

I might still shoot my version of the spot, because I’m finally getting a better video set-up for the office.

(My view, with my dark monitor looming in the foreground)

The view from my office window and the comforts of my desk are tied directly to my level of productivity and overall cheery disposition, hence blog posts, twits and even Facebook status updates (wha-what?) have been infrequent and rather grumpy in nature. After all, the still-unfixed hulk is staring back at me, silently begging for a more qualified technician (I’ll get on that soon) to bring it back to life. Even a dual monitor set-up with the laptop hasn’t helped my mood (or my stalled hard drive), so here I am venting. Any jokes or other such pleasantries are more than welcome to lift my spirits.

Normalcy shall return in short order, promise.

Almost two years ago or so, on the advice of my boss at the time, I joined up at Linkedin.

Since then, I have seen a slow trickle of “connection” requests, but it seemed to have considerably less uptake when compared to social media powerhouses like MyBlogLog, Twitter and most recently Facebook, all of which caught on like wildfire.

At least, until recently. My list of connections is still quite modest (32 as of this writing), mostly because I haven’t actively attempted to increase the size of my network. But lately, I have seen what could be described as an influx of connection requests, with close to a dozen over the last two weeks.

Sure, that’s still nowhere near the amount of activity I see from the likes of Facebook, but it seems as though Linkedin is worth taking another look at.

What I like about it: Detailed work info about your connections (when they choose to share it), and a “degrees of separation” metric to identify people outside of your existing network. Also, the “recommendations” feature is great for conveying one’s credibility using the endorsements of others.

What needs improving: No pictures. Not only can you not put a face to a name, but you can’t identify your company with branding of any kind either. This may have made sense in the beginning, but it’s time to add that feature. I think the level of interaction with the site would grow considerably if you could see who it is you’re interacting with.

If you haven’t already, then add me on Linkedin. It’s certainly the most widely accepted “professional” online social network, and occasionally I’ve been known to pass myself off as a professional…

I’ve been pretty silent about it until now, but I was selected as one of the 50 bloggers to receive a Nikon D80 DSLR camera for a review period of six months. The camera arrived yesterday ( coincidentally on the same day as a scheduled Gastown Photowalk- photos below), and now I’m finally going public about my involvement.

I suppose it’s likely that I was chosen because of my photography hobby in part, but I assure you that nobody is expecting any photographic magic from me. It’s more likely that I was selected because I’ll take an active interest as much in the campaign as in the camera itself. Or maybe they just didn’t want the list too heavily stacked with talent .

I’ll go into my take on all of this in a second, but to avoid any confusion, here are the facts, as I understand them:

Nikon hired the MWW Group to create a blogger relations program that they’ve called “Picture This.”

50 bloggers were chosen, 48 (To date, 46) of whom opted to participate

The trial period is six months, after which the camera can be purchased (at a discount, with the funds going to charity), sent back or kept for an additional six months.

There is no obligation or even expectation to blog about it, the only rule being that if we choose to, we must disclose that we are part of the program. Already, there’s some controversy over the program, which critics say is unethical. They wonder how a blogger could possibly be objective with such a generous loan in the equation?

It’s possible that sending me a camera will make me go ga-ga and cause me to start singing the virtues of Nikon, sure. But that is why there is only one rule: that I disclose my involvement, so the reader can take my opinions and feedback with the proverbial grain of salt. This mandated transparency is what separates this campaign from many of the others that have been under fire for avoiding this extremely important factor. As always, it’s up to the readers as to whether anything that I write rings true for them, and as long as they have all the facts they can make an informed decision one way or another.

I suspect that the dissenters share this one in common with me; we both wish we’d thought of this campaign first. But whether I had been selected or not, I would agree that it is a great way to spread the word online and is perfectly legal and ethical. The only thing that is different in this case of this campaign is the middle man has been cut out. The middle man in this case being the MSM (main stream media).

This time, the consumers are having their say, and have been contacted directly for their opinion. This has rattled the feathers of a few PR types, mostly because the model that they’ve “always used” has been abandoned. After all, what kind of future is there for the PR industry if there’s no need to kowtow to the media anymore? We’ll have to address that one another day, but for an example of how to adapt, start reading this post again from the beginning.

Now that I have been completely up front about my involvement and my feelings about all of this, I can move on to why we’re here; the camera in question. But first, a few more short words about the campaign. The box arrived via courier, accompanied by a hand-written letter on Nikon letterhead from a Senior Director at MWW. In the letter, they offered to give me a walk through of the camera’s features at my convenience. Even if I were being extremely critical (which I often am of attempts at blogger outreach) I have yet to find fault with the way they’ve conducted themselves.

Now, the camera. As I mentioned, I am a bit of a hobbyist photographer, and I used to shoot sports on the weekends while still in high school and between semesters of college. Since getting a new Olympus Evolt E-500 for Christmas, I’ve been trying to relearn the art, this time in digital. So although I’m not completely uninformed, running out on a Photowalk with nary a clue as to how to use this new tool was an interesting adventure. I took a bunch of shots, and I published them in their unedited form, in a set made specifically for my involvement in the program (equal parts disclosure and evangelism). Check out my first attempts with the D80 on our Photowalk by clicking this image:

I will continue to disclose my involvement each time I blog about this subject, and the meta data on my Flickr photos is all the disclosure I feel is necessary as to what camera took what shots (including my webcam, we now have four cameras in the house).

I welcome all feedback in the comments below. There are obviously a number of differences of opinion on all of this, and I’d like to hear them all.

That is the question asked by a new series of funny videos from Elastic Path, a local e-commerce software developer here in Vancouver. Here’s a sample:

Full disclosure: I am an acquaintance of a few of the Elastic Pathers, and the firm that produced the spots as well. That being the case, it should be noted that the email I received containing the link was a terrific example of blogger relations. Here’s an excerpt from the email from Darren Barefoot:

Hi Jordan,

How goes the Barcamp organizing? If that date is secure, I’m optimistic that I’ll stick around for a week after Gnomedex to attend.

I’ll spare you the usual pitch, but I thought you might be interested in these videos we made for Elastic Path.

We’ve done our best to make ecommerce funny (a tall order, I think). There’s a nifty jingle, and the second video prominently features a turnip. I have a bit part as the search engine in the first video–I apologize in advance for my dodgy performance.

Doesn’t sound anything at all like the emails that one usually sees from PR companies pitching bloggers does it? Exactly.

With Paul’s permission, I’m taking a conversation that we had via email (below), and re-publishing it here, edited for length.

Paul lives in the UK, where he says the new media phenomenon has yet to catch fire among the marketing community. There simply aren’t enough Pauls or Hughs to go around, it seems. Recently, Paul has found himself without employment, and has publicly blogged about his search, his struggle to find just the right fit, and the question of whether to publish one’s CV online.

Paul Fabretti

Paul’s Blending the Mix blog has always been a great read. Like me, Paul spent many months at the beginning reading, reflecting and commenting on the many new media marketing lessons published on the web each day, before beginning to publish his own original thoughts and ideas about marketing on the new web. All of this over a two year time span, give or take. In short, Paul gets it, and has had plenty of time to put much of “it” into practice. What’s more, he has a direct marketing background that helps him understand the dynamics of the old way of “pushing” information, and the new way of using information to “pull” visitors to you.

Since it hasn’t long since I was in a similar position as Paul, at the crossroads, I wanted to add some perspective for both him and his prospective employers about the value of what Paul already understands. And so begins a peek at our conversation:

Paul: In all honesty, most people I get interviewed by tell me I don’t have enough online experience. 2 years is nothing compared to most people I hear get interviewed so how do you show you have the knowledge without having anything to show for it?…How do you pitch what you do to clients by the way? How do you persuade the skeptics who think it is mumbo jumbo?

JB: To the sceptics who say two years is not enough, I say two years is an eternity in new media. How far have we come since we both starting blogging, etc? How much experience could one be expected to have in such a new and rapidly changing biz? Added: (Wanted: Facebook Apps Developer with 3-5 Years Experience! Joke stolen from kk+)

As for pitching clients, I sell them on what I know they want. Forget about the technology, the tools, the strategy, and first address this simple fact: The web allows them to put their already great (hopefully…) relationship building process online. And they can create and track word of mouth online, as long as they join the conversation with the best of intentions. Reaching more people, and creating lasting client relationships; that’s the return.

Web content is more important than ever, and if they have no strategy to manage it, they’ll get left behind. Years of experience managing “Web 1.0″ campaigns are less relevant, in my opinion.

Paul: You make a great point about a fast-changing environment providing little opportunity to gain experience. To be honest, I think it is one thing to use new tools (like blogging or twitter for example) but quite another and much more important, to understand how these tools should and should not be used for commercial purposes. I fear that the UK is not as aware of most of the tools I know and understand, and as such any experience i do have seems largely irrelevant! As you say, with new ideas cropping up all the time it is as crucial to keep track of it all. I also like your take on knowledge sharing on the net. There are always people out
there to share the knowledge and experience with.

JB: Paul, it sounds as though you’re in a perfect spot to help more companies discover this stuff, and your take on the fact that they are merely tools and not strategies will be infinitely helpful to the first smart employer who snatches you up.

It’s a shame that more companies in Paul’s neighborhood (Manchester) don’t already see the value in the kind of knowledge he possesses. Still, being the first with a great idea has its advantages.

Please join me in wishing Paul the best of luck in his search, and feel free to add your suggestions and comments to the discussion.

Lee Lefever has done it again. Along with his wife, on the Common Craft Show, Lee has produced another great tutorial to explain a concept that internet newbies have yet to wrap their heads around: wikis.

The concept of an editable page, as Lee explains, is easy to use but a little tricky to explain. He puts in plain English, here:

Click To Play

Well said! Lee’s original post here.

I’m pretty excited to report that Tell Ten Friends is in The Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs (Week 58)!
We’re just in, with our 521 links. Too bad we’re not measured by the links to the home page here: www.telltenfriends.com. To that address, we have 1091 links as of today on Technorati. Note to friends: link to the blog!

It’s great to be recognized, especially among so many other talented and insightful marketing thinkers.

Here’s a little link love for the list:

1 - Creating Passionate Users - 8,460
2 - Seth’s Blog - 8,452
3 - Gaping Void - 3,728
4 - Logic + Emotion - 1,406
5 - Daily Fix - 947
6 - Converstations - 914
7 - Drew’s Marketing Minute - 800
8 - The Viral Garden - 742
9 - Jaffe Juice - 736
10 - Church of the Customer - 710
11 - Diva Marketing - 706
12 - Duct Tape Marketing - 701
13 - Servant of Chaos - 671
14 - What’s Next - 666
15 - Influential Interactive Marketing - 651
16 - Hee-Haw Marketing - 648
17 - Brand Autopsy - 618
18 - Community Guy - 571
19 - Flooring the Consumer - 563
20 - CrapHammer - 560
21 - Customers Rock! - 547
22 - Shotgun Marketing - 534
23 - Coolzor - 532
24 - CK’s Blog - 525
25 - Tell Ten Friends - 521

Cheers!

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