Toothless Tiger

blog action day 2009 - my take on climate change

Henriette Weber — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:16:03 +0000

Today it's blog action day, and this year, more important than ever, it's about climate change.

It's something I feel very passionate about, and someting that we know that we need to act upon now if the status quo of gaia needs to be maintained.

Also from my writings on Green Girls Global, I also figured out that you have to have a positive and creative outlook on this HUGE challenge otherwise it could really get you depressed. With this attitude towards climate changes I was ready to go explore - and there's so many awesome things out there happening in this area to make the world a better place for the future generations. On the other hand, I get increasingly upset when I see that some people don't really care - and why should they - I mean we probably won't live to see the worst of it, But our kids will, and their kids, and their kids.

So I can get really sad when I walk into a house where all the lightbulbs aren't energy efficient, when people don't believe in ecology, when they can't see what all these hyped things are good for, and they put me and my kids in some sort of generational dictatorship, where we decide the outcome of the world for the kids, but we're to caught up in social media, business, life or whatever to care.

Why should you chose to put solarpanels on your house ? because it's important that we redesign our energy consumption. why should you eat ecological foods? because it's healthier, it's better for the animals, and the ecological farmers are doing so much to try and bind the CO2 in the ground. Why should you eat more vegetables ? because it makes you look like a rockstar and if you eat more vegetables you won't eat as much meat - and our global meat production is the no 1. cause to the climate changes.

We all know by now that the best thing you can do to affect the climate changes in a positive direction is to become vegetarian. I think that in 3 -5 years you will be looked down upon if you don't do your share to battle this. You won't see computers or phones that are using more energy than they are giving - everything will be based on the natural unlimited resources we have - and it could be that I come across as such a hippie - but this is bloody important.

Why should you blog about climate changes, because others might support you and write their thoughts, They might comment and participate in the discussion somewhere, or cut back energy consumption in their house because they start monitoring their overall electricity level. You should do it because you have a voice, and that voice matters..

There's so many reasons to be a part of this movement. There's so many ways we can change this for the better. We have all the tools to make it happen. I believe in you. I believe in us. I really think we can pull this off.

Tricking the publishing houses and doing the things they don't

Henriette Weber — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:27:44 +0000

So I haven't mentioned it here really in full, but I have recently self-published my first book entitled "Return on Involvement - how to use the social web to create business unusual". It has been a real fantastic/hard thrillride where I have found myself on a basketball court outbattling and being faster the rest of the danish publishing industry. not top-down but down-up. I have sold a lot of books by now and the orders keeps coming in, by word of mouth mostly.

So how did I do a self-publish thing in Denmark that has turned out to be a succes ?.

step 1: releasing the introduction for free as a teaser to the book - people could download it and share + print it if they wanted to.

step 2: a somewhat pr 2.0-ish pressrelease - what I thought would be do-able in Denmark...

step 3: the facebook page

step 4: the guerilla posters around the city

step 5: the launchparty - champagne and cupcakes for the people

step 6: launching the books own webpage : weloveroi.com

step 7: contacting the media, libraries and bookstores to get them to take the book on - which they did.

step 8: talk to people about the book and ask them for endorsements of it - if they like it.

step 9: doing one minute videos of the most important ideas (and beyond) of the book and publish it on the facebook page + youtube.

so this is where I am now - the next steps are what will be happening in the future (if I don't change my mind)

step 10: make the e-book ready for sale

step 11: give away 1/3 of the book for free

step 12: 2nd pressrelease

step 13: workshops

step 14: repeat with new initiatives

step 15: starting up the english/german/swedish part of the book in the end of november (already partly translated)

So the above mentioned is my plan... what I really really like about this is that there is so many thing that the publishing houses don't do (as well as companies) because they are waiting around for proof that it works... Well guys when that proof comes - everybody will be doing it.

I plan to have the first 1100 copies sold in Denmark by December. Then it's time to review if I will do a 2nd print.

Anyway I guess my point is - don't wait for proof. Remarkability ratings are down a lot if you have proof that it works (which means that other people has done it as well. I know it works.

Dear webshops: How to sell more by getting a richer identity

Henriette Weber — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:20:27 +0000

People often come to me and ask me if I can help them spread messages about things they really want people to buy. There's nothing wrong in that, and I will sometimes do it if I think it looks and feel cool. However - most of the times it doesn't feel or look cool. Then it's just a link to a page where you can find out what the product is, and then click "purchase".

Now, I could spread it everywhere if I wanted to - with no impact. Because there's no substance behind the product - only a purchase button.

The thing is, it's not the product that's selling. it's the experience of the product and the company that sells the product.

If there was a richer identity behind the shop aka. "why we do this, who we are, what we stand for, what we're passionate about". I would be more inclined to buy stuff. I don't explore brands all the time - but I want to have the choice.

Also - I don't know why this is, but standardized webshop solutions where one shop looks the same as the next (lists, mediocre product pictures etc) doesn't make my day anymore. Lists are fine - but there need to be playful elements to them - like amazon.com is doing... enhancing the buying experience by giving so much details about the product. I think it's the perfect contrast to IRL shopping malls that I personally don't go to anymore, because there's too many products there - and most of the time, too little information about the product....

introducing my first book: Return on involvement - and my take on the book

Henriette Weber — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:32:31 +0000

So a couple of nights ago I decided to do it - give the pressrelease and the date of the launch of the book to the public. Danish press release here and google translation of press release here. It feels great to launch and give the date of when you can get the book in the bookstores (august 31st 2009) still there is a lot of stuff PR and marketing wise that needs to be done (oh and the logistics=).

I think it's been a great ride, but it's been a tough baby to bear, I guess I knew I had to do it on my own when my ex-editor told me that she didn't think it was time for me to publish a book, i should be doing other stuff. Now one of the first triggers to get me going is when people tell me what I can and what I can't do, I just knew that I had to get this book out of my system - and right away.

The book to me is something that's missing out there. Not focusing on the social tools (to me they are 10% of social marketing and branding), not to focus on why you need to do it, but simply to give people an overview on what it takes (and it takes a bit) and how they create business unusual - the type of business I find is most suited for what I call the "anarchistic ways of the internet". So it's been a fun progress - it has a bit of everything I have been working on for the last couple of years - rockbandism, tools, identity, revolutions, movement, marketing, branding - stuff like that.

The best that I have taken with me from writing this book is the process of it. It was hard work (not just hard- but darn hard), and yet I still know what my next book will be about, I have even started to structure it in my mind, which is scary because I have promised myself that I need to take care of myself after this first insane project.

I have a saying that I can only take care of one baby at the time - now up is my health (I need to loose weight and these days I am loosing weight as we speak =), next up I am gonna ruin my weightloss by having another real baby. (Princess P is 5 now and tired of not having any siblings), heck I might even do 2 babies in a row (aka. weightloss probably pretty much ruined).

Also if you want to know more about the bookwriting process I did a summary a couple of weeks ago.

There's gonna be a booklaunchparty on the 28th of August where all of the internet is invited.. So I hope to see you there.. be-fan the book at facebook if you want to know more.

ps. crossposted on henrietteweber.com

The Wabi-Sabi and process of Toothless Tiger Press

Henriette Weber — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:39:49 +0000

So Toothless Tiger Press is what we are working on these days - I don't know if you have read the story behind starting our own publishing house, which came out of rebellion against the publishing industry as usual. Thomas told me a couple of weeks ago, that since he had putted together a rather cool publishing system (in Ruby on Rails and all) he suggested that I started to use it more.

Now when the man you married and love gives you a suggestion like that, your mind starts acting and thinking and innovating. So here's the idea what we are turning Toothless Tiger into, in addition to a self-publishing house: we are going to specialize in publishing conference talks as eBooks. This makes complete sense to me, because it was the proces I went through myself when I turned my "why every company should be a rockband" conference talk into the "why every company should be a rockband" eBook.

So why an eBook ? Why isn't conference video good enough?

Well it is - but I think that some people likes words better. For me words are my visuals - and there's still an effect to a book (eBook or not) that is in having produced it as a product. Basically what this does for the conference speakers is to extend their personal brand - beyond the conference talk and onto the sharing process, where people actually can download and print the eBook - making it somewhat more of "product" of your thoughts au contraire to a conference talk that has it's own time and space.

We have a couple of eBooks from the speakers at Reboot11 in pipeline - and hope to be working soon together with a conference speaker near you=)

A couple of reasons why I don't want to engage in your brand online.

Henriette Weber — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:49:55 +0000

1. you mainly do producttalk - so you got the conversation thing going on - apart from no one is answering. you blog about your products, you blog about how great you are - and I don't really care to ask why you do that. It just annoys me to pieces and I am out the door. Why don't you tell us what makes you so great, why don't you tell us what you are so passionate about that it wakes you up in the middle of the night ?

2. You don't do cool stuff. Maybe you talk a lot. But you don't really do anything cool as a brand. You don't have a knitting community. Haven't you heard ? everybody should have their own knitting community these days. If you can't fit knitting into your branding - find something else that does good and resembles the knitting community - I have my coworking boat. Yep and it's what people they talk to me about when we meet. Who cares about Henriette Weber or Toothless Tiger ? Let's talk about the coolest boat around (shares still available btw).

3. you broadcast continously on social media. Broadcasting can be ok - if it's relevant for me and it gives me more of what you know. It gives me the unicorns, fluffy clouds and my little pony's of you - it's brilliant. If it's out of context it's pretty lame and more badwill than goodwill. Oh remember there is a reason that it's called "conversational tools" right ? maybe it's not meant for broadcasting then.

4. you think your better than your competitors and you continously highlight yourself. again who cares ? tell me why you exist, tell me what you oppone against as a company and as a person. and act out why you are the smartest kid on the block, instead of just talking about it.

Business unusual in the life of Henriette Weber

Henriette Weber — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:53:55 +0000

this post is coming at you from henrietteweber.com =)

So the videos from two talks I gave 2 weeks ago in Hamburg and Stockholm are online.

Here's the one from next09 called: "rockbandism" or "why every company should be a rockband" based on my ebook with the same title - filmed by the amazing Andrea Vascellari

Here's where you find the video of my talk on rockbandism

Here's my talk on "return on involvement - how you can use social to create business unusual" from disruptive media a couple of days later i Stockholm.

Here's where you find the video of my talk on return on involvement

This week I am working on putting last hands on a new ebook that is probably going to be entitled "from hopeless to hot - a crashguide in social marketing" - I don't know yet - I change my mind all the time =) anyway the suggestion came from Eva Jonassen who send me a mail with the coolest suggestions...

Also I have made up my mind to move socialmediacamp copenhagen from the 5-6 of june to the 12th of september - this is mainly do to heavy workloads on the PR and publishing side of my big book (entitled return on involvement - how you can use the social web to create business unusual" which is due to come out shortly.

that's about it these days - what's happening on your side on the internet ?

Why should we ever engage ourselves in brands ?

Henriette Weber — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:24:05 +0000

Im just back from next09 in Hamburg and Disruptive Media in Stockholm (you can find my talk here). It has been a hectic but really learningful week, filled with great people, great talks and new insights. This morning I watched one of my favorite speeches in a long time again: Brian Solis on "putting the public back in PR" - the reason I guess I find this talk at the top of my conference experience is because Brian is so right in my opinion. It leaves me to touch on something that I mentioned in my own talk at disruptive media - why should we ever engage ourself in a brand ? I mean:

1. a brand is not a person
2. brands are normally really boring
3. they normally don't do anything in this world if they can't measure it or can't make money on it.

aka. they're not human.

So why should we engage ourselves in brands ? Well first of all because of the utility and convinience they provide. but I think that Umair Haque (or Jeff Jarvis ? don't remember) said it very well at next09. "the only reason we engage ourselves in brands is because they make us better". The experience of the brand is giving us some sort of value that we didn't have before. The experience of the brand get's us closer to our own personal truth (whatever that is)...

The great thing is that with social tools - it is so much more fun to create this involvement in the brandexperience - it's not really easier, it still has to be a brilliant creative mind that comes up with the call-to-action for the involvement. The hardest thing is to find that magic something in your brand that people loves - and it might not be the thing you think it is - what are people saying about you - and where?

Now the thing that people are already saying - might be what you need to start out with =) - now go ahead and engage some people

speaking at two conferences: Next09 and Disruptive Media

Henriette Weber — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:56:39 +0000

I completely forgot to tell you guys that I am speaking at two conferences in the next week: Next09 in Hamburg and Disruptive Media in Stockholm. At Next09 I will present my ideas on Rockbandism and at Disruptive media I will be talking about some of the ideas in my first book : "return on involvement, how to use social networks to create business unusual" Which is set to launch in a closed beta (in danish) on the 10th of may.

I am looking so much forward to take a tour around Denmark - Germany and Sweden that is =)

new Toothless Tiger event: Socialmediacamp Copenhagen

Henriette Weber — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:45:31 +0000

I can't sit still these days - so I have decided to do another event within the field of social media : Socialmediacamp Copenhagen.

Socialmediacamp Copenhagen is an un-conference that seeks to research and teach people about social media: blogs, podcasts, video, social networks, online communities and transitional web apps. An un-conference is a conference/workshop-y format where all the participants is prepared to participate in the camp in different ways. Putted another way, you have to prepare something that you're passionate about that could occupy the other participants for a minimum of 30 minute

Who is it for ?

Basically everyone can participate in Socialmediacamp Copenhagen, no matter if you are a super social media user, an expert or a newbie. If you have any interest in Social Media Socialmediacamp Copenhagen is the place to be. So take a look at it, and sign up.

ps. Crossposted on Henrietteweber.com