Facebook just won a $712 million lawsuit against spammer Sanford Wallace.

They deserve our support and congratulations for doing this.

The bigger question: Why aren’t more companies doing more to stop spammers?

The major email providers should sue the crap out of every spammer on earth. They won’t win often, but they’ll scare enough of them out of business.

Every email provider, web hosting company, and ISP should throw money into a shared non-profit to handle the legal work.  They’ll recover their investment through reduced spam-fighting costs and happier customers.  (This is exactly what they do with the Business Software Alliance to fight software piracy.)  And they’ll be doing the right thing.

I tried to organize a group like this in 2004. Fast Company wrote about it.

We’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on techniques to get people talking about you the next day.

Our lineup of speakers includes word of mouth supergenius and and President of Edelman Digital, Rick Murray. Here Rick shares a few tips on how to work with bloggers and influencers based on the class he’ll be hosting:

• Learn to be yourself. It’s simple, and everyone can do it. But what we’re not so good at — and what bloggers and influencers pick up on right away — is when we try to be someone we’re not.
• Learn to listen. Get to know your influential talkers by taking the time to learn what interests them. This is where you learn how and when to offer them valuable content.
• Learn the language. Reaching out to industry influentials may require speaking in a different dialect than what you’re used to. Although earning the ability to speak knowledgeably may take some time, as Rick says, practice makes perfect.

Two big insights from Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation.

From The Conference Board Review (full article here):

Your customers are the least useful source of new ideas. They are happy with the status quo — or they wouldn’t be customers. Ask non-customers what they want.

[Companies] assume that the things you go out and study should be the things that are right in the middle of the market, so they talk to customers who are in the middle of the bell curve about the products that the company already makes. That’s usually the least useful form of observation. The most useful is to go and visit with people who are at the ends of the bell curve. “Extreme users” are doing weird and wonderful things that you’ve never imagined, and that’s where you will get interesting ideas. Plus, you shouldn’t just talk to people who are using your product or competing products—talk to people who aren’t. If you ask somebody who already is, the best you’re going to get is incremental improvements of the thing you’ve already got.

Crunching the numbers doesn’t give you new ideas. Analysis of the data you already have just lets you see what you already have. That’s why companies obsessed by metrics often miss the next innovation.

We are used to being in a world where we rely largely on analytical forms of thinking in order to make decisions—particularly in business and leadership—and I’m arguing that that is necessary but not sufficient. We need to be divergent, not just convergent. We need to think about a world full of things we didn’t have before, and then converge and decide which of these we are actually going to work on. Most organizations are not very comfortable with being divergent.

And we have to rely both on analysis and synthesis. Analysis—taking complex things and studying and understanding them—is very useful for knowing how well something is going to work and how you might improve it or make it more efficient. It’s not very good for coming up with major new ideas. There we have to be able to synthesize many competing ideas or competing insights—even if those things are in tension—into something that is somehow a whole. What designers and design thinkers are always searching for is the alternative that’s better than the initial starting points.

Tim’s TED Talk:

We’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on techniques to get people talking about you the next day.

Our lineup of speakers includes word of mouth supergenius and author Paul Gillin. Paul will be leading an author session based on his book, Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business! and offered these tips as a preview:

• You can become a publisher. The implosion of mainstream media means businesses and individuals can now enjoy the same kind of trust traditional media once had.
• The media world is now flat. There’s no longer a heirarchy of media to tell you (or your customers) what you can and cannot know.
• It’s not about budgets, it’s about content. Being yourself and creating great content based on what you know best is how you earn a loyal audience.

Hear Paul’s live Supergenius preview (and check out our Facebook page to see all our interviews):

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I Thought of That Email Newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.]

Nobody is passing along your generic advertisement. But what people will share is great content (even when it’s technically an ad). Three ways to make it happen:

1> Anything fun and goofy
2> A great story
3> An amazing demonstration
4> Check it out: Prius floralscapes

1> Anything fun and goofy

If you make something fun or weird (or both), there’s a great chance people will pass it on. Trader Joe’s puts out a newsletter called The Fearless Flyer — and it’s completely bizarre. Described as a mix between Mad Magazine and Consumer Reports, it’s a mix of catalog and comic. And it’s just the sort of ad that doesn’t feel like an ad. It’s fun to read, informative, and is free of cliche copy.

The Lesson: If your advertising isn’t making them smile and there’s nothing strange about it, why would anyone show it to a friend?

Learn More: Trader Joe’s

2> A great story

An inspiring cause or issue will blow away a tacky slogan any day. When you purchase a pair of shoes from TOMS, they give one to a child in need. People love being a part of a bigger story — a story that spreads in all the YouTube videos of TOMS making shoe drops in poor countries all over the world. Lots of companies do some fantastic philanthropy work on smaller scales in their communities, but too often the story of it is buried in an annual report or some forgotten page on their website. If you’re doing your part to help the world, show everyone with lots of photos, videos, and opportunities for your fans to join in.

The Lesson: Ads don’t drive people to recruit their friends, but opportunities to help the communities they care about will spread.

Learn More: TOMS Shoes

3> An amazing demonstration

How fantastic is your product? Try blowing everyone’s mind with an amazing demonstration. When Blendtec shows off the power of their blenders, they don’t buy newspaper ads showing freshly chopped veggies. They blend garden rakes, baseballs, and golf clubs — and share all the demonstrations as short YouTube clips. It’s become one of the most popular online video series of all time — all on a budget of around $50. If you’re looking for a fresh source of content to share, try taking a stroll through the R&D department.

The Lesson: If you can visually prove how fantastic your stuff is, what could an ad possibly say better than a live demo?

Learn More: Will It Blend?

4> Check it out: Prius floralscapes

Along Californa freeways, Toyota has begun advertising their eco-friendly Prius with roadside floral arrangements. Using more than 20,000 live flowers, these “floralscapes” feature seasonal varieties grown by local businesses.

Check it out: MediaPost

We’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on techniques to get people talking about you the next day.

Our lineup of speakers includes word of mouth supergenius and Brains on Fire Firstarter Spike Jones. Spike will be hosting the class “How to Create a Fan Community,” and offered these tips as a preview:

• Find the passion conversation. To get people talking, find the topic your biggest fans love; it’s what Spike calls the “passion conversation.” To find it, Spike recommends asking questions such as: How do my customers use my product? How does it fit into their lives? How does it work for them?
• Create a barrier to entry. By encouraging community members to put a stake in the game early on, everyone is invested from day one.
• Establish a powerful identity. Everyone wants to believe in something bigger than themselves.

Hear Spikes’s live Supergenius preview (and check out our Facebook page to see all our interviews):

Randy Cohen, the New York Times‘ Ethicist, says that it’s not OK to ask your fans to review you. He says that if you are getting negative reviews, you should suck it up. (Full story.)

I disagree.

It is absolutely OK to ask your fans to review you. It should be a fundamental part of your marketing program.

Here’s the reality:

Angry people write reviews. When we’re pissed off, we tell everyone. We yell and scream and post nasty reviews.

When we’re happy, we never do it.  Do you ever wake up and say, “Today’s the day I tell the world that my dishwasher still works”?  Have you posted more reviews for your favorite restaurants or the ones you hate? The happier we are, the less likely we are to have the urgent motivation to post a supportive review.

Your job as a word of mouth marketer is to ask your fans for help. Tell them you need them.  Show your appreciation. Let them know that their support helps you continue to serve them well.

(There are ethical issues: It’s never OK to tell them what to say, to ask them to only say good things, or compensate them.)

They’ll be happy to help. They’ll be glad you asked, and they’ll feel a little guilty that they didn’t do more to help you earlier.

In an ideal world, we’d all rally to support our friends. But most people would rather complain.

Instead of fighting the complainers, focus on the happy, positive people.

We’re bringing together an all-star group of word of mouth marketers for Word of Mouth Supergenius: The “How to be Great at Word of Mouth Marketing” Conference on December 16 in Chicago. We’ll feature 12 how-to classes, 12 real-world case studies, and 6 brilliant authors. You’re going to learn practical, hands-on techniques to get people talking about you the next day.

Our lineup of speakers includes word of mouth supergenius, author, and Six Apart project manager, Andy Wibbels. Andy will be leading an author session based on his book, Blogwild!: A Guide for Small Business Blogging and offered these tips as a preview:

• It’s OK to start slow. While many companies tend to approach social media as “all or nothing,” a great way to start is by simply listening to what’s being said about you.
• People are people. Don’t be intimidated to reach out to your customers. Though online it’s sometimes hard to tell, even the biggest critic can be won over — and sometimes an old-fashioned phone call is the best way to do it.
• Get started. This technology is not going away. Even if you target an older crowd that you think may be less technologically inclined, that excuse is evaporating quickly.

Hear Andy’s live Supergenius preview (and check out our Facebook page to see all our interviews):

Dear Insurance Company:

I just received an “urgent” email from you, with a desperate plea to call my Congressman and oppose health care reform.

I’ve sent you $5,000 a month for 10 years. And you never so much as said hello.

Now you and your incompetent grass-roots team expect us to step up and help you?

This is not how you build customer relationships, and it’s incompetent lobbying. The time to start rallying your customers was 5 years ago.

In the classic words of Seth Godin, good marketing is “just like dating. It turns strangers into friends and friends into lifetime customers. Many of the rules of dating apply, and so do many of the benefits. A marketer goes on a date. If it goes well, the two of them go on another date. And then another. Until, after ten or twelve dates, both sides can really communicate with each other about their needs and desires.” (Buy Seth’s Permission Marketing.  It’s still the most important marketing book you can ever read.)

I’m not taking a position (publicly) on health care reform. But I am vehemently opposed to crappy marketing (and lobbying).

The big lesson: Make friends before you need them.

In marketing, this is why word of mouth is so powerful. I’m not going to introduce you to my friends on the first date. You have to earn it. No one puts their name on the line for a company unless they trust that the company will take care of their friends. (This is why your cable company, which probably gives you the best entertainment package in the history of mankind, still gets no good word of mouth. They broke your trust too many times.)

In politics, this is why you need to build true friends over a long period of time. You’re not a good date if you only call when you need cash. You’re not going to rally your supporters if you only call when you need them to do you a favor. (This is why our insurance carrier, which has given us extraordinary service for years, isn’t getting any support for their out-of-the-blue urgent plea. We’ve never had a political relationship. They’ve never even called.)

Start thinking about next year.  The community you create today will be the people you can count on next year. Get your fans involved. Help them. Let them talk to each other. Have some fun, share some information, do something nice together. And slowly, as you grow closer, you’ll build that kind of relationship that lets you call on them for help when you really need them.

Remember, is not social MEDIA, it’s SOCIAL media. Get out there and start making friends.

(Disclosure: I’ve been a paid lobbyist and a political lobbyist. That’s one of the reasons why I hate to see it done badly. I also do a lot of work with insurance companies.)

I loved Cisco’s hilarious product placement on NBC’s 30 Rock. It’s another example of a big company showing us that BtoB advertising doesn’t need to suck.

(See my post about GE’s great ads here.)

You can speak at Word of Mouth Supergenius! Upload a video showing why you’d make a great presentation for your chance to win.

We want you to get up in front of a room full of people and tell them about how awesome you are at word of mouth marketing. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Record a video of why you should speak at Supergenius. We’re looking for a case study of a great word of mouth project you did. Tell us why it would be awesome to learn more about it!
2. Post it to the Word of Mouth Supergenius Facebook event: http://gaspedal.us/2F
3. Get your friends to vote for your entry.

Entries close on Nov. 25. We’ll announce the winner on Monday, Nov. 30 – once we’re back from the holiday (and full of turkey).

The winner will be chosen based on popularity (comments and “likes” count toward this) and who we believe will be best for the conference. On top of their opportunity to shine, they’ll also receive a free pass to the event for them and a friend.

Full contest rules and regulations can be found here: http://gaspedal.us/2E

We can’t wait to see the fruits of your creativity, humor, and brilliance. Post your video and spread the word!

Check out this video for more on the contest and the conference:

Another great reminder from Seth to think about being wonderful:

Think about all the cool stuff in your life. Not just stuff you can buy, but experiences, works of art, innovations of all kinds… the bar has been raised for what you need to do to be noticed, and the market is responding.

Not only do I notice more fabulous, but it sure seems as though the creators of it are more engaged, dedicated and yes, joyful, than I can remember. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do work that matters, this is it. You can’t say, “but I need to make a fortune instead,” because that’s not happening right now. So you might as well join the people who can say, “I love doing this.”