Archive for September, 2010
4 Reasons to Love ProductCamp!
Monday, September 27th, 2010I was recently asked to write this blog post on ‘why I love ProductCamp’. The request itself speaks to one of the things I love about ProductCamp, namely the chance to work with ‘product people’. The request came from the ProductCamp Seattle Marketing Team volunteers in charge of the social media campaign. Let’s start with that.
ProductCamp is an unconference, like BarCamp. ‘Camps’ are frequently organized by the skin of their teeth. In fact, it is a testament to the elegance of the unconference format that they happen at all given their typical ragtag scrappy nature. Not ProductCamp.
ProductCamp is typically run by and for product managers, business analysts, product marketing managers, and program managers. These are amazing smart people who have learned to assume accountability without authority in their jobs by building and implementing systems, processes, and tools to successfully give direction and relevance to products and services in brutally competitive markets.
Reason #1: the people
When you put a few of these people in a room together, crazy magical things happen. Yes, they make way more work for themselves than is necessary. Granted. Where many ‘camp’ organizers feel like it’s part of the unconference ethos to plan as little as possible, ProductCamp organizers form committees and subcommittees, like the social media arm of our marketing team. Okay, we have some bureaucratic tendencies. We also cover every last detail from every last angle to make sure that the organically structured chaos that is ProductCamp goes off without a hitch. It’s a beautiful thing.
Reason #2: the people
This is going to sound like a restatement of the first reason, but hear me out. The sort of person that steps up to volunteer for ProductCamp is a natural leader who gets things done, whatever it takes. They believe in working hard and smart. They think of ProductCamp as a product in their portfolio, and they want to proudly point to it as an example of the great things they can accomplish. They are innovative critical thinkers who take risks and measure success objectively. It’s a pleasure to be part of a team who values quality and integrity.
Reason #3: the people
Here, I’m talking about the people who attend ProductCamp. Sure, lots of the attendees are product managers, business analysts, product marketing managers, and program managers. Other attendees include engineers, developers, testers, researchers, business developers, sales people, executives, designers, and all kinds of other ‘product people’. ProductCamp assembles a rich diversity of perspectives and experience and shines a bright light on what we can learn from that diversity.
Reason #4: the people
Alright, now I’m just having fun with my heading convention. Humor me. There’s something special about the unconference format that brings amazing people out of the woodwork. At a regular conference, there are often great presenters with great content, but they’re usually only the obvious people with the most clout, exposing the biases of the conference organizers. At an unconference, the quieter voices get to be heard. Any attendee can propose a session, and the most popular session proposals are put on the schedule, exposing the biases of the attendees. The unconference content selection method does introduce the risk of a lame session presented by a poor speaker, but in truth it just doesn’t happen that way most of the time. Most of the time, the collective wisdom of the attendees chooses fantastic sessions, and of course there’s the unconference Law of Two Feet to protect attendees from sitting through bad sessions.
There you have it. The four reasons I love ProductCamp: the people.
I hope you’re one of the people I meet at the next ProductCamp!
Soda Pop Dreams
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010One hungover morning, I watched the video above. Three weeks later I took the picture below. I’m a sucker.
A good friend of mine recently said to me, “You’re made to be in marketing because you’re their target audience.” Long story short, marketing works on me. Well, I don’t always buy the shit, but I appreciate a job done well. And my appreciation spans from print advertising to radio and even paid programming. Not much beats a Shark Vacuum commercial on a Sunday morning. I guess that’s why it was only natural for me to watch the entire Soda Pop Shop video on the morning after my birthday party. A couple of the flavors featured in the video intrigued me so much that I decided to put in an order. These are the sodas I ordered: Bundaberg Ginger Beer, Jolt Cola, Cherry China Cola, Rose Flavored Sweet Blossom Soda, Plantation Style Mint Julep, Manhattan Special Espresso Coffee Soda, and the national soft drink of Austria, Almdudler Krauterlimonade! Recently another friend/roommate said, upon seeing my gaggle of soda “You are so ridiculous that I can’t even talk to you right now.” But I’ll tell you what, she started talking to me when she tried my Bundaberg and Maker’s Mark!
Long story short, keep an eye on my Twitter for future exotic soda cocktail reviews. I’m thinking the rose soda with vodka is really going to start a party in my mouth. Next time I’m in LA, I plan on going to the Soda Pop Shop. I will be sure to inquire if this semi-viral video lead to other sales, or if I was the only rube that got suckered into it.
ProductCamp Seattle 2010: The Ultimate Social Conference
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Social media is all about the constant exchange of ideas and the facilitation of fruitful conversation. That is why Spring Creek Group is so excited to sponsor ProductCamp Seattle ’10, which deviates from the traditional conference organizational structure to provide more opportunities for real life community engagement in a Socratic Seminar type of arrangement (appropriately named “unconference”).
The event, which occurs on October 23rd (9 am -5 pm on the Microsoft Campus), is aimed at product managers who will discuss pertinent topics ranging from driving innovation to knowing your competitor. This conference is highly innovative and attendee driven because attendees not only vote for the presentation that they most want to hear, but also present the sessions themselves. Think of it as a conference builtd on a social media model where individuals determine what information they want to receive and contribute to the conversation in order to drive the direction of discussion.
ProductCamp’s event page echoes the highly interactive structure of the conference. The page features several feeds, including a feed from the ProductCamp’s online community discussion board and feeds that feature recent tweets, blog posts, and Facebook updates from attendees. The innovative page allows attendees to communicate and get to know each other before the conference even starts, jumpstarting conversation and forming early introductions.
To learn more about ProductCamp Seattle 2010 (#pcs10), check out the event’s FAQ, tweet it at @prodcampsea, or visit the Facebook page. To get in on the “unconference” action, register on the ProductCamp Seattle website. Clay will be leading proposing a round-table discussion on how to gain insight into product development through social media. We look forward to seeing you there!
More ‘To-Do’ About Foursquare
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Foursquare recently announced an all-around update to the iPhone version of their location-based application (v2.0) as well as updated to their Web interface which will allow users to find and visit new places.
Here’s the meat:
- Tips and To-Dos Take a Split – In an effort to try and make it easier to keep track of your To-Dos, Foursquare split the two lists up. Their hope is to make Foursquare more about what you want to do rather than where you’ve been.
- More To Do About To-Dos – The team also added the easy-to-find To-Do button to place pages on the iPhone app, making it easy to see somewhere and add it to your To-Dos, rather than having to navigate deep into a page.
- Tying Online to In-hand – Every service has a button, or so it seems. Likewise, Foursquare just launched the ‘Add to My Foursquare’ button to their Web arsenal. The thought is that users are looking for places to go on the Web and want to add those places to their Foursquare so they can navigate there once they leave that pesky PC behind. This actually does a lot for discoverability of new places and allows Web journos and place owners to add this feature to their stories and sites fairly easily.
As noted at the end of their post, the new updates are just available to us LBS-addicts, they’re also available in API format for all those crazy developers out there.
SCG + TAF = (Learning) x 2
Monday, September 20th, 2010
Kids are back in school, and we here at SCG are about to go join them. One of the best things about Spring Creek Group is our relationship with the Technology Access Foundation (TAF), through which we help out with TechStart, their afterschool technology program. Every Tuesday and Thursday during the school year, volunteers from our office head down to White Center Heights Elementary School to assist a talented educator, Tri Nguyen, in getting a bunch of 5th and 6th graders REALLY excited about technology. We help keep the students on task and talk to them about nearly everything from computers and college to favorite colors and least favorite pop stars (classroom consensus: Ke$ha). This past spring, we helped them build and program Lego robots. (That’s mostly a lie. They built and programmed the Lego robots while we looked on in awe and wonder).
We are honored to be a part of both TechStart and TAF’s internship program, which places high school students from the TAF Academy in summer internships at tech-based companies. Brian, our intern this past summer, consistently impressed us with his excellent work and dedication (so tech savvy for such a young person!). We loved that he loved the office snacks so much, and can’t wait for him to come back next summer. We strongly believe that TAF’s mission of “transforming public education for students of color” aligns perfectly with the values we hold as a company. Frankly, we feel incredibly famous to be featured in their Volunteer Spotlight!
Social Media by the Numbers: Sept. 17th edition
Friday, September 17th, 2010
- US has 43.8% penetration.
- In the past year, the percentage of men on Facebook have grown from 43 to 45%.
- In August:
- More males joined Facebook than females.
- Most new users came from college aged people as school starts back up again.
Here’s the list of why Facebook users might like your brand according to a study by Exact Target.
- 40% to receive discounts and promotions
- 39% to show my support for the company to others
- 36% to get a “freebie”
- 34% to stay informed about the activities of the company
- 33% to get updates on future products
- 30% to get updates on upcoming sales
- 29% for fun or entertainment
- 25% to get access to exclusive content
- 22% someone recommended it to me
- 21% to learn more about the company
- 13% for education about company topics
- 13% to interact
The Facebook Like button now allows people to become a fan of a Page from any website with the button in place. Before, it was just used to share content.
OnStar, General Motor’s in-car service, is ready to integrate Facebook. What does this mean? The service will read you status updates and messages with a the future being check-ins.
John Mayer quits Twitter – and his
3.7 million followers.
Score a Celebrity Twitter Follower
by donating to charity
The Tosh.0 Effect
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Surely by now most of you have heard of the relatively new show on Comedy Central show, hosted by Daniel Tosh, called Tosh.0. It airs every Wednesday at 10:30pm and has the main premise of commenting/mocking anything and everything viral. Most of the show is dedicated to making fun of videos that circulate through the web every day. Whether it’s a guy in awe of a couple rainbows or a kid freaking out after his mom cancelled his World of WarCraft subscription, you can count on Tosh.0 to analyze it, often in ways you didn’t think could be aired on TV.
One reason for the success of Tosh.0 has been its ability to receive its content and connect with its viewers by harnessing the immense power of social media. Tosh uses many different methods to connect with his viewers: he promotes user-submitted videos (most of which are men getting hit in the groin), answers Twitter questions sent to twitter.com/danieltosh during his show, and updates his blog on Comedy Central’s website on a daily basis. He says much of his outreach is met with hostility, especially in response to his raunchy tweets. He also jokingly states that he receives death threats on a daily basis.
Through use of social media, the show has been able to grow in popularity at a staggering rate. During the show’s first season each episode averaged 1.3 million viewers. Now in its second season, it has a weekly viewership topping 2.5 million.
Some have called Tosh.0 the new, and somewhat twisted, America’s Funniest Home Videos. Tosh.0 recently signed a deal for a 3rd season and with its large viewership, grasp of use of social media, and a seemingly never-ending vault of viral content, it is hard to think of Tosh.0 going anywhere but up anytime soon. Which is good because watching people fall in funny ways never gets old!
Big App on Campus: Foursquare Launches University-focused Program
Thursday, September 16th, 2010
Fall is in the air here in the U.S. and students are trickling back to the ivy-covered halls of higher learning. As students, staff and alumni head back this year, they’ll have a new tool (or toy, depending on how you look at it) in their bag – Foursquare for Universities.
The program, currently being used by one Ivy, a Pac-10 school and Syracuse, aims to better connect students, alumni and staff through the ever-growing Foursquare network of locations and information.
Universities can visit Foursquare’s page for more information on the new program and sign up fairly easily.
Fashion Week
Friday, September 10th, 2010Can’t make it to the concrete jungle for fashion week this year? Thanks to the fashion industry’s increasingly warm embrace of technology and social media, you can experience the magic from the comfort of your keyboard. While you may not be rubbing elbows with the celebs, designers, and models, you can still experience the action as it happens thanks to live-streams, tweets, and behind-the-scenes blogs. Just follow this quick-reference guide for the best ways to keep up with the action (gift bags not included, sorry):
Live-streaming: This year, many designers are choosing to live-stream their shows. If you register on http://firstcomesfashion.com, you can watch your favorite shows as they happen. If you don’t want to miss a moment, this is definitely the way to go. Get the full show schedule here.
Twitter: For a more condensed version of what’s happening on the runway, you can follow fashion bloggers, insiders, and magazines on Twitter. Just search #NYFW to get photos and quick (140 character, obviously) recaps of what’s happening live. Some of the major publications that are tweeting live include @womensweardaily, @glamour_fashion, and @cutblog. Twitter has also just launched a microsite that aggregates fashion news from key sources to help you keep up with fashion week events in one place.
Blogs & Recaps: For in-depth coverage, behind-the scenes photos and videos, and other fashion week news, check out the fashion magazine’s websites. New favorite at SCG: the recently revamped, glammed up, Vogue.com. Another valuable source of news is the trusted fashion source, Women’s Wear Daily.
While the designers and the shows remain the main focus of praise and commentary during fashion week, the efforts made by the key players and publications to make this exclusive event accessible to the public through social media should be applauded as well.
The Future of Shopping + Media
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010Preface: I’m a huge nerd. Not like your normal, everyday, nerd. I worked in embedded technology PR before making a screaming run for the exits (by way of my boss laying me off on my birthday), so needless to say I’m a bit further down the path to nerdom than some of my colleagues. Remember that when you read this.
It’s 2010… You’re watching your favorite sitcom (on demand or DVR of course, who watches live TV?) and wonder to yourself “wow, that blazer Barney is wearing is pretty awesome. I wonder where I could get one” So, you pull out your iPad, bring up Bing and search “Barney AND Blazer AND HIMYM” and dig through the hits until you find one enterprising blog that lists where you can buy clothes from your favorite sitcoms… Then you go to the clothiers site, only to find they are shut down… Sad tuba.
It’s 2015… You’re watching reruns of your favorite sitcom (on your PCTV- a brand new Samsung 50 inch LED with built-in media PC . Who has a TV and a cable box anymore?) and wonder to yourself “wow, that blazer Barney is wearing is pretty awesome. I wonder where I could get one” You hit the pause key on your remote, pause the playback on your show and mouse over the picture using a Wii like feature motion. Items on the screen glow in outlines and your cursor shows they’re clickable as you hover over the jacket and hit OK. Now the fun begins…
As swiftly as today’s iOS4 switches between apps, your browser window comes up and displays not only info from the designer/retailer of Barney’s awesome jacket, but also info on similar products – all set up as a pay-for-top-placement scenario of course. You hit buy on the jacket and a checkout application asks if you want to use your card on file, a new card, or even pay using FBC (Facebook Credits – the most widely-used form of Internet currency currently trading at 1.87 USD to 1 FBC) Not wanting the wife to know you’ve bought yet another corduroy jacket, you say “use another” and your smart phone vibrates with a message saying “take photo of card” and displaying the invoice info since it links with your entertainment system using wireless proximity monitoring. You snap a pic of the back of your card, using the advanced 2D barcode and bam – You’re done. A box pops up and asks if you want to share you purchase on Facebook, so you hit yes – now your friends have no excuse to show up at the bar with the same jacket (and your wife still doesn’t know because you have her on a separate security level on Facebook).
You hit play on your remote and kick back again knowing that you know how the series ends already and who the mother is and you don’t mind the 3 mandatory ads on your free subscription service because the ads are targeted and actually informative – not to mention interactive. The advertisers jockeyed like the old AdWords days to get the chance to be in that exact spot.
Then you hop in your flying car and head to the space drive-in… OK, maybe that part is a bit out there.
Postlude: As whacky as some of this may seem, it’s closer to reality than science fiction. Partnerships between companies like Samsung, Yahoo! and Intel are blurring the lines between entertainment and the Web more than ever. Google/YouTube’s integration of overlay layers (annotations) in videos are bringing interactivity to the content on their site. Advertisers are looking for a way to tie real sales dollars to the dough they’ve been shelling out for product placement for years.
As Moore’s Law continues to be supported, the embedded possibilities bringing together media, advertising, and the Web in technological machines we can’t even begin to imagine right now take shape. And you can bet I’ll be in line to pick one up when they are released.
