Chip Griffin - Conversations & Commentary

Looking for a Few Good Digital Communicators

2009-10-27T12:50:18Z

As you may know, I recently joined DCI Group, a leading public affairs firm in Washington, DC, as Chief Digital Officer to help grow a robust digital public affairs practice.

As part of this effort, I am looking to hire two senior deputies.

The first, a Vice President of Digital Operations, will run the day-to-day operations of the division, overseeing key departments including Creative Services, Digital Applications, Digital Field, and other digital operations. This individual will work closely with clients and client service teams to implement effective digital tactics, including managing online and mobile outreach campaigns, developing creative web sites, implementing targeted online display and search engine advertising campaigns, building effective email lists, and creating and managing internal client dashboards. This person should be a strong manager with a track record of implementing digital advocacy campaigns.

The other deputy will fill the role of Vice President of Digital Strategy. Working with clients and client service teams, this team member will lead a group of talented individuals who help develop cutting edge digital strategies that closely integrate with and complement traditional communications and grassroots programs. The ideal candidate will be someone with a blend of both traditional and new media communications skills in the public affairs arena.

Digital public affairs represents an important field growing in significance. At DCI, we are committed to establishing ourselves as a leader in providing digital advocacy strategies and service. My blend of entrepreneurial desire with a public affairs background gives me a real passion that I expect to share with these new hires.

If you are interested in learning more and potentially having a conversation about either of these openings, please visit the DCI Group Careers page for more information and to submit your name for consideration. If you think you might know someone who would be interested, please pass this message along to them.

My Next Big Thing

2009-10-01T17:48:55Z

Today, I am becoming Chief Digital Officer of DCI Group, a Washington, DC public affairs firm.

Ten years ago I left Washington, DC and became an entrepreneur. During the course of that decade, I have founded or co-founded more than a half dozen different companies, all of them at the intersection of media, communications, and the Internet.

In this new role, I will be an entrepreneur from within, helping to build an innovative digital communications practice for one of the nation's leading public affairs firms. I will bring the same skill and enthusiasm that I have used to develop companies like CustomScoop into leading innovators in their industries.

When I got my first job on Capitol Hill as an intern in 1991, I knew I loved the public policy arena. My subsequent experience working for a public relations firm, a think tank, and a Congressional committee solidified that interest and bolstered it with experience in the trenches.

In 1997, I was named CEO of TownHall.com. That married my interest in politics with my longtime hobby of computers and the Internet. Ever since, I have kept one foot in the public affairs world and the other in the online world.

At DCI, I will work to build upon the firm's existing efforts in the digital space and more fully integrate it with their robust offerings. I will be pushing the envelope and seeking to bring the same fast pace of innovation I have experienced in launching startup companies.

In some respects, this was a difficult decision. Stepping away from my day-to-day responsibilities at CustomScoop in particular will be a change for me - after all I have been at the helm of that company since 2000.

At the same time, however, it is really a natural move that capitalizes on my dual interests. It is an exciting time to be in the digital public affairs arena, and I look forward to being part of it every day.

Fortunately, this new role will continue to keep me involved in the social media community. I expect to continue blogging regularly (probably even more regularly than I have been of late) and participating in discussions on Twitter, podcasts, and elsewhere.

I will be splitting my time between my home in New Hampshire and Washington, DC. Many weekdays will find me in our nation's capital, while the weekends will see me back in New Hampshire with my family. It's a schedule I'm pretty familiar with from my work of the past decade, and though challenging it does help me have the best of both worlds.

Since I hope to bring a lot of my experience in the startup sector to bear, I'm sure I'll be reaching out to many of you to see how we might partner on some innovative public affairs campaigns. I look forward to continuing the dialogue with all of you.

Do You Cook Social Media Using an EasyBake Oven or a George Foreman Grill?

2009-08-14T16:56:17Z

Interested in an entertaining if tortured analogy of the progression that individuals and companies can make through social media? Check out my latest column at Media Bullseye.

When you cook, your tools make a difference. That's not to say that you need the fanciest, most expensive gadgets to do a good job. Far from it. In fact, a top-notch chef can whip together some truly tasty dishes with the set of kitchen equipment you might find in a college student's first apartment. In fact, Top Chef has repeatedly demonstrated that their contestants can produce culinary excellence in the woods, in a dorm room, or even with one hand tied behind their backs.

Of course, when you have limited equipment choices or capabilities, you will need to work harder and make sacrifices to get a good outcome.

The same is true of social media. Regardless of your expertise or budget, you can participate in and benefit from new media.

(continue reading)

Simple Moves, Happy Customers, and Myriad Challenges

2009-08-11T22:59:48Z

Today's recommended reading is a bit all over the map. There's something here to please communicators, entrepreneurs, consumers, and probably a half dozen other demographics. Don't get too used to it, though, because I'm just as likely to get hung up on a single topic tomorrow.

Encouraging Your Customers to Utilize Your Service (Aug 11, 2009)
Noah Brier points out that customers who don't use your service may temporarily increase your profit margin, but will likely lead to long-term client churn which may be more costly. He uses Netflix as an example and explores other areas where it might equally apply.

Delicious Founder: I Wish I Had Not Sold to Yahoo (Aug 11, 2009)
For entrepreneurs, it often comes down to control vs. cash -- at all stages of a company's life cycle. Delicious founder Joshua Schachter said of his sale to Yahoo in 2005: "I wish I had not sold it to them. The cash and freedom do not even come close; I would rather work on a big, popular product."

CustomScoop "Sucks In" Search Results and RSS Feeds (Aug 11, 2009)
There are days when I really enjoy eating my own dog food, as they say. Today is one of them. We recently added functionality to the CustomScoop ClipIQ product to enable it to consume RSS feeds of the user's choice and integrate it with the data gathered from our proprietary search technology.

Big Media Companies Navigate Free Content and Apps (Aug 11, 2009)
Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times writes: "Media brands are jumping onto the iPhone. USA Today? There's an app for that. "The Rachel Maddow Show"? "Entertainment Tonight"? Public radio? Yes, yes and yes, there are apps for those. Now, if only there were an app that showed media companies how to make money on the iPhone."

Facebook Acquires Social Veterans in FriendFeed Deal (Aug 11, 2009)
Forrester Research's Jeremiah Owyang says of the deal: "Friendfeed.com doesn't have a tremendous amount of visitors (monthly uniques are under 1mm says Compete, compared to Facebook's 250mm registered users) so the acquisition is for the cherry features like Search, Best of Day, and elegant and rapid procuring of social content in real time. Expect information in Facebook to continue to become more public, and this acquisition will help fuel this."

A Small Set of Simple Moves (Aug 11, 2009)
Brad Feld compares training to run a faster marathon to the simple steps that need to be repeated relentlessly to succeed as a startup CEO

STUDY: 83% of organizations have or need social media specialist (Aug 10, 2009)
Heidi Miller has a great write-up of a study from Eric Schwartzman of iPressoom that looked at how organizations are integrating online communications into their business efforts.

When Headlines Go Wrong

2009-08-11T18:22:59Z

The good news? People read the CustomScoop blog. That bad news? People read the CustomScoop blog.

I wrote a post this morning focusing on some new features of our service that I have been finding of great value to my personal efforts to monitor and understand conversations online. They saved me time, made me more efficient, and hopefully will make me more effective in what I do.

But what most people reacted to first was the headline of the post. I had tried to play on words a bit and probably ended up being a little bit too cute for my own good. What was the headline? It was "CustomScoop Sucks In Search Results and RSS Feeds."

Now I figured that some people would see the CustomScoop sucks part and get drawn in by that -- we're all curious about the negative. And it being on the CustomScoop blog itself would make it feel a bit like a man bites dog story, right?

I assumed that after that initial inference most people would quickly get the fact that it was really a phrase ("sucks in"). It turned out I was wrong. Most folks thought I had just been careless in selecting a headline and didn't realize that I was deliberately playing on words.

I had actually considered using punctuation when I first published the post to help tell that story better, but I didn't find anything I really liked. Here are some of the things I considered:

CustomScoop Sucks ... in Search Results and RSS Feeds
CustomScoop Sucks (in Search Results and RSS Feeds)

Ultimately I ended up updating the headline in the post to read: CustomScoop "Sucks In" Search Results and RSS Feeds.

In any case, it's a good reminder that the way an author or editor perceives a headline may not be the way that the audience does.

Monday Reading List

2009-08-10T23:18:34Z

I'm experimenting with a new way of sharing some of the interesting articles I'm reading from around the web. These links will show up in real time (or nearly so) in the sidebar of Pardon the Disruption at ChipGriffin.com, but I also plan to batch them up and post them here for those of you who may not constantly check my web site.

Let me know what you think.

Eric Schmidt on Where Google Is Headed (Aug 10, 2009)

No Man's Blog - The problem(s) with social media monitoring technologies (Aug 10, 2009)

Twitter's platform shortcomings (Aug 10, 2009)

Bloglines On Life Support. This Story Needs An Ending (Aug 10, 2009)

Untapped Opportunity to Engage High Dollar Nonprofit Donors via Social (Aug 10, 2009)

Influencers: Don't Call Them 'Bloggers' (Aug 10, 2009)

Why Blogging Is Like Running for Small Business Owners (Aug 10, 2009)

Public Relations Pros Must Be Social Media Ready (Aug 10, 2009)

PR and advertising are at a crossroads (Aug 10, 2009)

How I Learned To Quit The iPhone And Love Google Voice (Aug 10, 2009)

The Case Against Apple Is Just As Much A Case For Apple (Aug 10, 2009)

Ideas for Hotels and Hospitality (Aug 10, 2009)

What Do You Get Him For His Birthday? (Aug 10, 2009)

USAA Bank Will Let Customers Deposit Checks by iPhone (Aug 10, 2009)

Publicis Acquires Razorfish From Microsoft for $530 Million (Aug 9, 2009)

Time Use Survey ~ How Americans Slice The Day (Aug 9, 2009)

Make Sure You Avoid this Online Branding Fiasco (Aug 9, 2009)

New book on Professional Services Marketing (Aug 9, 2009)

Clueless is as Clueless Does

2009-08-08T10:42:54Z

Here's a good one. Wendy Davis of MediaPost says that Rupert Murdoch is "clueless" for wanting the names of Wall Street Journal subscribers on the Kindle. She rolls out the phrase "tone deaf to the privacy concerns" as it regards the News Corp leader.

As a reader aptly points out in the comments on the piece, these are subscribers not single copy newsstand purchasers, as Davis attempts to insinuate in the post. Traditionally, periodicals know the names of their subscribers.

Now, that's not to say that Amazon is obligated to give the Journal this information. Rather, I'm simply saying it is fair game to negotiate it -- including using the threat of pulling the newspaper off of the Kindle service.

To think that there's some obligation to hide subscriber names from the Wall Street Journal for its own product -- especially considering it some sort of a "privacy right" -- is simply ludicrous.

New Look for CustomScoop

2009-08-06T11:56:16Z

Just a short note to let you know that we have updated the look of the CustomScoop web site. Lots of new content there and you should expect to see more frequent contributions to the CustomScoop blog as well.

We're very interested in your feedback, so be sure to let me know what you think of the new look.

The ClipIQ application itself hasn't undergone any radical changes, but stay tuned for some updates in that regard in the near future as well.

At the same time, I also posted an update on our Summer 2009 Customer Survey at CustomScoop with a bit of information about what our clients told us about the product and a hint at some future plans.

They Do It Because It Works

2009-08-04T16:54:01Z

IZEA has caused a stir today with its new "sponsored tweets" service that matches advertisers with Twitterers. The post over at Mashable has generated considerable discussion, most of it negative (with the exception of responses from IZEA and some of its competitors).

Many commenters have taken to calling "sponsored tweets" spam. (As the service has been described, I'm not sure it qualifies as spam unless any advertising should be labeled as such, but let's set aside the definition debate for a moment.)

I suspect we would all agree that spam -- especially the email variety we are most familiar with -- is "bad." Yet it obviously works, otherwise the spammers would be out of business. For the life of me, I cannot imagine who would spend money after reading some of these absolutely ridiculous emails I find in my spam folder. In fact, anyone who sends money to some overseas web site in exchange for some of the odd potions and elixirs that are advertised deserve pretty much whatever they get.

But it clearly succeeds. There would be no reason to undertake the risk and expense of professional spamming if companies didn't pay good money for it, as shady as those enterprises may be. And those companies wouldn't spend the money unless it helped them make money.

Similarly, the same thing will happen with sponsored tweets. Users will either respond by buying in large enough numbers to make the campaigns worthwhile, or they won't. If they do, sponsored tweets will survive. If users actually unite against them, they will fail.

The evidence suggests, however, that users will click and buy and sponsored tweets will be here to stay.

Unless Twitter itself cracks down because they want to preserve the revenue stream for themselves. But that's a slippery slope -- and a topic for another discussion.

Teaching an Old Dog Old Tricks

2009-08-03T02:51:34Z

My early web experiences were all UNIX-based. Back in the 1980's, I started using the text-based Internet using UNIX boxes. When I got to college, I used it even more extensively. After I graduated, the World Wide Web came on the scene and I surfed the web from Windows computers, but I created web sites on UNIX machines.

When I became CEO of Townhall.com back in 1997, we were set up entirely on UNIX. I honed my skills pretty well at that point since I had to oversee web operations for my job, not just as a hobby.

Eventually, however, we migrated off of UNIX and onto Windows machines. It was my idea because at the time it was a cheaper approach. Or at least it seemed to be.

Today, the situation is reversed and Linux (the modern UNIX) is the cheaper platform (at least by perception). It can also be incredibly flexible.

So ... I have decided to start relearning the UNIX world. I spun up a Rackspace Cloud Server this weekend and started configuring it. Some of the details are different from 12 years ago. Back then, we were using Netscape servers. Today, Apache is the standard. But so far it has gone pretty smoothly.

Part of that is my prior knowledge (and comfort with command line interfaces, dating myself back to running TRS-80 BASIC off of cassette tapes, moving on through the world of C-64, MS-DOS, VT100, and all sorts of other fun acronyms).

But a chunk of it is also the idiot-proof instructions provided by the Rackspace Cloud Server support wiki. It's a great resource and saved me a lot of time in getting the basics done. (Kudos to Rackspace. As a customer for nearly a decade, I remain pleased with their offerings and service.)

I still have a long way to go and I expect some snags (like getting ColdFusion installed so I can continue playing with that as I get more proficient in PHP).

Of course, at the end of the day I'll still be more of a dabbler. I'm fortunate to have talented people around me who do more of the day-to-day technology work, but I like to develop some of my product ideas through prototyping since that helps me think things through more effeciently. Now I'm just going to try doing it while speaking Linux.

How Habits Change and What it Means to Entrepreneurs

2009-08-03T02:23:36Z

A food marketing researcher named Harry Balzer with the NPD Group has an interesting comment in today's New York Times magazine cover story that focuses on America's cooking habits and TV food shows. It's worth considering not just in its literal context, but in what it means for all of us who spend considerable time trying to envision the future.

"A hundred years ago, chicken for dinner meant going out and catching, killing, plucking and gutting a chicken. Do you know anybody who still does that? It would be considered crazy! Well, that's exactly how cooking will seem to your grandchildren: something people used to do when they had no other choice. Get over it."

Certainly, much has changed on the home front over the past century. I wrote about this a couple of years ago on the occasion of my grandfather's 100th birthday party and the speech he gave about how life changed since he was a boy.

Even reflecting on the changes in homes, technology, and more over the past 30 years, they have been quite significant.

But thinking about radical change is a much bigger deal. Considering how consumers, prospects, and customers will adapt their behavior becomes pretty important to long-term planning.

Most change takes time, however. Looking back at the cooking analogy, it has taken quite some time to get where we are today. Processed chickens, frozen food, microwave ovens, and other innovations didn't take root overnight. They steadily crept into homes and habits.

Those homes and habits continue to evolve. Understanding the trends helps us all create better products, but contemplating the radical future where we'll end up can be just as important.

When It Comes to the Cloud, I'm Torn

2009-07-12T22:26:50Z

Are we really headed back to the future? With all of the talk of computing in the cloud -- including an expectation of a major announcement this week -- are we truly destined to go back to the days when there was little horsepower on the desktop and all the computing was done at a central location?

Sure, it's different today because you're not wed to one box and one vendor. The entire Internet is your playground. But it was widely viewed as progress to get computing power in the hand of individual users and we now seem poised to reverse that decision.

Personally, I see many advantages to the cloud. I use two laptops, one desktop computer plus an iPhone and it can be somewhat clumsy to work efficiently in those different environments. Some utilities do help quite a bit from the way it used to be (especially the Foxmarks plugin for Firefox that synchronizes bookmarks and the superb Dropbox application that allows me to keep documents fully synced between all of my computers in near real-time).

So I can see real advantages in the cloud from that standpoint. Not to mention all the benefits of SaaS (sure, I'm biased since CustomScoop is a SaaS provider). And the ability to stop worrying about storage space, constant upgrades, etc. Switching to an environment in which netbooks are the center of the universe does have some appeal.

But what about the downside? Sure, Virgin America has in-flight wifi (I'll be trying it out for myself next week), but what about your ability to work when you have no Internet connection or a pretty weak one (those of us in the more rural parts of the country know the pain of poor cellular broadband but there are plenty of dead spots in urban America, too).

Then of course there are the privacy and security concerns. I don't get too worked up about the former as I have reached the conclusion that taking advantage of all that modern technology has to offer necessitates a tradeoff in the form of surrendering a not insubstantial amount of personal privacy. But the security one does cause me to twitch just a bit, mostly because I used to be an opposition researcher and government investigator and I know well how valuable internal documents can be -- and how easy they can be to misconstrue (intentionally or otherwise).

For now, I'm taking a bit of a wait and see approach. I suspect the outcome will be an ongoing mix of SaaS and desktop software for some time to come, but the pace and nature of that evolution will be interesting to watch.

What's the Next Big Thing?

2009-07-07T11:03:08Z

I am amused by how often someone asks me what the next big thing will be in the Internet space. What's the next Twitter or Facebook, they may inquire.

First, anyone who says they know is flat wrong. Even the Twitter guys didn't know what they were sitting on when they created the service.

But, second, if I knew with certainty what the Next Big Thing was I'd actually be doing it.

It's sort of like people who ask for stock tips. Anyone who tells you that some stock is a great investment better already own a good chunk otherwise you have to wonder why not. Of course, if they do own it, then you can't trust them either because they may just be promoting the stock to help their own investment!

Bottom line? We can all sit around, read the tea leaves, and talk about it. (Certainly I do enough of that in this space from time to time myself.) But that's about all we're doing.

A Love Affair with Bacon

2009-05-21T23:05:10Z

Heather Lauer, author of the Bacon Unwrapped blog for the past several years, has penned a book about her favorite meat titled "Bacon: A Love Story."

She took some time to talk with me about the book, the food, and the process of writing and promoting her first book.
Download Audio (MP3)

Transcript: Fundraising and Social Media

2009-05-21T11:38:02Z

The following is a transcript of a Conversation with Doug Haslam that aired on May 19, 2009.

(Click here to listen to the Conversation.)

Chip Griffin: My guest today is Doug Haslam. He is with Shift Communications but today I'm talking to him not about his professional life but about some charitable work that he's doing. Welcome, Doug.

Doug Haslam: Hi, and great to be here again.

Chip: Yeah, we do have a lot of these conversations for various of my podcasts and it's great to have you back. As I was telling you before we started recording I promised to actually record this conversation, because the last time you and I got together for a media bulls eye round-table we had an energetic 35 or 40 minute conversation only to realize that my computer hadn't recorded even a second of it!

Doug: [chuckles] Oh, well...

Chip: So, in any event... Doug, I want you to talk a little bit about the Pan Mass Challenge. It's something that you've done for the last couple of years and you've been using social media to promote your effort. So, first of all I want you to tell us what the Pan Mass Challenge is.

Doug: Sure, and this is actually my second year riding it. Last year was my first. It's a two-day ride across a large part of Massachusetts. There's a couple of other start points but the ride, I think, is about 160 miles over two days. It's actually, this year, the 30th ride. They started in 1980 and all the money raised -- every cent of it raised -- goes to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund. So it's to research in treatments and cures for cancer.

Chip: So, basically... I mean, you do a lot of training for this too, right? I mean, this isn't something that you just can go out and say: "Ha, you know, I think I'm going to ride for two straight days!" without having done a little bit of warm-up.

Doug: Right. You know, as soon as I... This year actually I started doing some spinning classes as well as getting to the gym. In fact, a friend I met through Twitter, Les Page, has been Jessie's spin class teacher and they've actually generously let me crash their classes over the winter but now that the weather is good I'm actually on the bike. Yeah, I would say every weekend I try to get at least one long ride in, maybe two, and then some shorter ones during the week. I just keep doing that up until August and the ride is the first weekend of August. You know, I just try to get a lot of miles and to get used to biking and my experience last year was that the ride wasn't that bad after getting ready for it, so... Even though it was longer that anything I have done.

Chip: . And you mention your experience sort of from the physical standpoint but talk a little bit about your experience last year and some of the people you've met and sort of how the process went for you.

Doug: From the ride itself or...?

Chip: Yeah. For the whole event, start to finish.

Doug: Yeah, sure. Well, what was interesting: I rode with one friend -- I neighbor I knew -- and we actually got separated a lot. It's just that way when you ride with a thousand -- 5, 000 really -- people: you tend to get separated among groups. So, basically, we all had name tags on our bikes so, as we were riding, I would just look at the name tags and see where someone was from and I would strike up a conversation, talk about were I lived and where I was from and all that. You know, you never know... because this is a pretty high-profile event in Massachusetts you never know who you're going to meet up with and at one point I was actually noticing the New England's Sports Network truck kept going past me and then slowing down and then going past me again with a guy hanging out with a camera.
So I looked at everyone's nametags around me and I realized I was right in the middle of the wives of the Red Sox players and actually struck up a conversation with Trot Nixon's wife. Although he doesn't play for the Red Sox anymore, she still comes every year out to ride that and the Red Sox of course are big supporters of Dana Farber so they have a huge contingent called Team nine -- nine as in Ted William's number -- that rides every year.
On the way back I actually took the less popular ride back last year to Wellesley and there was a lonely stretch where I was just getting very tired and very slow and I happened across a bunch Team 9'ers and they just said: "Well, bike with us!" and that really picked me up.
So I'm talking to these people about what they do and it was: "Hey, who are you, what do you do?" and one of them says: "Oh, I'm a cancer researcher at Dana Farber, I'm doing experimental bone marrow transplant research, like" I was: "Oh, OK. That's interesting. I'm in PR."

Chip: Right. [laughs]

Doug: And then I come up to a guy in the group and it's like: "Oh, what do you do?" and he says: "I'm the CEO of One-Stop-And-Shop" So, I mean, not to single out people who are rather prominent, because there's 5, 000 people doing this, but it's just kind of funny: you never know who you're going to run into and who's going to pick you up really and help you get through it. There is a real collegial atmosphere among the bikers there.

Chip: Well, of course a lot of people do get involved with the Jimmy Fund because of their affiliation with the Red Sox. You know, it's a lot of great publicity for them and for Dana Farber. I know that's how I got involved years ago and it's a great way to... all the events that they have are really a great way to meet interesting people, although I'm an entrepreneur and I like to think of myself as pretty innovative but when you meet the cancer researchers like you did, you sit there and say: "Yeah, OK, maybe an online clipping service in not as cool as that." You know? [laughs]

Doug: Don't sell yourself short but, yeah, you just get kind of get that feeling like: what you're doing is way more interesting than what I'm doing, as interesting as what we all do is. You know, it's fascinating.

Chip: Yeah.

Doug: It's just a whole weekend of meeting people like that.

Chip: Right, and one of the things I found out is... You know, I have gone to a number of the Telethons that they do each summer in conjunction, usually, with a Red Sox game and for a couple of years I was able to sit with some of the kids who were being treated at Dana Farber and watch a game. I remember one them, a few years ago, was a Yankees game and I believe the longest regular season game in Major League history. I was there with my wife and she said, about after the three and a half hour mark: "OK, you know, let's go now!" and I said: "No! We can't go yet! I stayed till the end of every Red Sox game. I've never left a game early!" On top of that I said: "And look! All these kids with cancer are staying. We can't leave without them leaving, you know! That would be wrong! I they can stick it out until midnight we can do it too!" But it's really amazing what they do there.

Doug: Yeah, one thing I think about is: I'm doing this because... To be honest, because I like to bike and this is an event that allows me do something good while I'm training with the bike and getting healthy but it occurs to me, like: well, everyone talks about cancer, everyone raises money for cancer. But all around you, you see the effect that people raising money and having research has done over the last, say, 20 to 30 years and how treatment for cancer has become much more advanced, more people surviving, more people surviving tougher types of cancer and a lot of cancer survivors actually ride in the PMC which is incredible. So, I mean, I can't touch those stories. I just like to say I'm just a guy on a bike.

Chip: Right.

Doug: But they make you commit to a certain fund raising amount and that's fine. So I go about doing that too and that's probably just as difficult as the training if not more so.

Chip: Sure, and that's actually a great segue because this is, after all, a fund raiser and you may start it because you like to bike or because you want to help people for all sorts of reasons but ultimately it's a about the money that's raised. Why don't you talk a little bit about some of the things that you've done because I assume most of your money comes from online fundraising, just by virtue of what you do and your profile online.

Doug: Yeah, well, I decided to take advantage of that since I'm very active in social media and I decided to use the blog and FaceBook and YouTube to house media and to use Twitter as a hub to just tell people about what I'm doing and link to my updates. So, from a content creation standpoint I would just occasionally blog about my progress but I would also strap a camera, like a foot camera, to my bike and do little videos. I started doing that this year. I do little videos of training rides and try to keep it fairly short but fairly interesting: maybe something funny happened or maybe there's something unique about this ride that I can point out in a five or six-minute video and put it online, and then just let people know where I am, and repeat the link for the fundraising so people can go there and give money.
And I found, last year, I raised about $3, 500 last year, and almost all of it came through Twitter and Facebook. And probably mostly Twitter, to be honest, because Twitter and FaceBook were pretty much the same group at that time. And I actually ended up not hitting up a lot of local friends and family, which I plan to do more of this year.
Now, this year, it's a bit of the same mix, but I found that Facebook has so many different people on it now, now that it's kind of a big high-school reunion, and people from all different parts of my life are there, so there's a lot of different people seeing that stuff and donating.
So there's a whole different crowd. And I credit that, actually, with my being ahead of my fundraising pace last year, despite having to raise more money this year, because I'm taking a longer route, and despite the economy just making everyone sick.
So, so far, fingers crossed and knock on wood, I'm ahead of my pace for last year, and then I'll be able to make my minimum before the ride. So I'm working on that. People are very generous and very helpful.
And I should add that something I'm trying to add this year, just to try to get a little bit more creative about it and exercise some of the content-creation and social-media chops is, as you know, because you're one of the generous people who have sponsored me, I've asked the people who have sponsored me for their permission to profile them on the blog.
So I'll have a series, starting soon, of just profiles of people who've actually donated, because those people are as important as anyone to this whole effort, and just asking people why they're donating to this as opposed to something else. Is it something unique about them? And of course, giving the opportunity for me to promote whatever they do, whether it's a personal blog or a business or something like that.

Chip: I assume it goes without saying that you apply the things that you've learned from being a social-media communicator, a PR practitioner, to what you're doing here. But has the converse happened? Through last year and this year, have you done things to help your fundraising efforts or your awareness efforts, things that you've learned there that you've been able to apply, or want to apply, to some of your actual client work?

Doug: Well, I think, just in general, when I do things for the blog, and I'm writing for you and doing things on Twitter and FaceBook, for me, I always have room for error. Even in fundraising for the Pan Mass Challenge, I have room for error and I can try things out. And if I learn things, great, I can apply them to clients, or I can apply them to make recommendations for clients. So I'd say, in a general sense, yes, I've been able to apply that back to my work because, more and more, social media and content creation and relating to people directly becomes important to PR agency work. That's an everyday conversation now in our business.
So I always preach that. Just practice. Get out there and do it for yourself. And kind of by trial and error, really, you'll figure out what works, so you can recommend just the parts that work to clients.

Chip: Now, assuming that the listeners who've made it this far are now inspired by what we've talked about and feel like they want to step up to the plate and help out the Dana Farber Institute and the Jimmy Fund, how can they go about doing that? How can they sponsor you?

Doug: Well, I set up links to my donation page, which is housed at pmc.org. And I should add, before I go on, that the people at PMC, including Jackie Herskovitz of Teak Media, who's doing their PR, have been very helpful and encouraging to me this year as well, just because they're really getting into the social media.
There's @PanMassBike on Twitter, and there are other folks who are riding that are on Twitter and doing blogs and on FaceBook and things like that. So, yeah, they've been very encouraging and kind of cheering every step of the way and linking to the blog and all that.
So, to go back to how people can help and sponsor me, you can just go to doughaslam.com. And I have a big Pan Mass Challenge logo right there on the right-hand margin. You can just click on that and go there. And I actually set up a short link that's easy to remember as well, which is a bit.ly link. So it's bit.ly/pmcdh. So either way will get you there. And of course, any of you folks who can help, great. I appreciate it, and I thank you.
The other thing I should add, also, is because of the economy, I know some people who gave last year, for instance, might not have jobs this year, or just might not be able to give as much or at all. And I've just started telling people, well, help in another way.
And one of those ways is to take the link and forward it to a bunch of friends, and spread it that way, and then maybe someone else actually is able to give. And you really contribute that way, too. And that's potentially very helpful. I hate to say the word "viral," but the intent is to have people pass it along.

Chip: A good virus. Not like the swine flu, right?

Doug: Yeah. Good viral, yeah.

Chip: I think that's a great point, because there are so many ways that you can be helpful in social media, and we are all getting hit up for all sorts of different things to contribute to, particularly in these tough economic times. So getting the word out and getting the message in front of someone who may say, "Yes, this is the cause that I want to support, I can support," I think that is just as important. But also, the other thing is, even if you can't give as much as you did last year, giving any amount is really helpful, right?

Doug: Absolutely.

Chip: No amount is too small, probably.

Doug: No, no. Last year, I think I had one donation that was like $2, and I had a bunch of $5 or $10 ones. Because they actually allow you to download your sponsorship info, I think my average pledge last year was about $45. But some people gave quite a bit more, so that kind of skews it. I think a lot of people probably gave $25. 25, 50 was pretty common. And it adds up.

Chip: Sure. Exactly, exactly. And if you give 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100, 1, 000, whatever, it all helps. It all goes to a great cause. And it's all tax-deductible, right? So you'd get a nice little tax deduction every April 15th.

Doug: Yes, it is. Yeah. They have a really great organization at the PMC. They get it all down. They send you a receipt. If you give right through the site, they send you a receipt right to your email address. And if you give to me personally, I just make sure I register your address, or email address, and they send the receipt so you have that. I was going to say, 78 people gave $3, 500 last year. And so far this year, I've raised--I should say we have raised--$1, 385 out of $4, 200 that I need to raise. I think I've had 31 people, actually, contribute. And to me, it's been a great response so far. I've still got a ways to go, but it's been a great response.

Chip: And what's the dates, again, for this? When do you have to make your contribution by?

Doug: Actually, the fundraising goes all the way 'til the beginning of October. I try to close it out by the time the ride goes on, just because it kind of increases the excitement, and I find that people do get more excited about it in June and July. That's no reason to wait, but those tend to be the busy months. And probably not coincidentally, it's the busier months for training as well, so I'm probably posting more about it and talking a lot more about it as I do more rides.

Chip: Sure. So we're running up against the end of our time here, but I do encourage everyone to go to doughaslam.com, click on the PMC logo, pull out the credit card, and make whatever contribution you can. And if you can't make a contribution, at least Tweet his site so that other people might do so if they're so inclined. Thanks for joining me, Doug.

Doug: Thank you very much.