Toothless Tiger

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 <a href="http://www.henrietteweber.com">henrietteweber.com</a>

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

Thoughts on shared branding

Henriette Weber — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:08:26 +0000

at Next09, Hamburg 5th and 6th of may, I am tranforming my "why every company should be a rock band" ebook into a new speech - the overall theme of the conference is shared economy, but I will be talking about shared branding and where it is that rockbandism is actually helping you a whole lot with your branding. I would maybe even go as far as saying that rockbandism is the precondition for good branding these days. I have been thinking a lot about how you share your brand, mainly I think it's interesting who you want to share it with ?

- It could be your customers, potentiel customers and the market out there, but it could also be your suppliers and your stakeholders. I work with social branding everyday where you actually talk about what return you get from involving your customers in your company (and there's a whole lot of strategic work involved in this question, because why on earth would people involve themselves in your company ? - ta da - rockbandism is why.

And a part of rockbandism is actually to share your brand inwards - aka. making sure your company is authentic and a rockband. If you are a company like innocent drinks it's would take a huge blow to your authenticity if somebody found out that you actually shipped your goods around the world with planes. (They don't - it's not an option for the logistic managers at innocent drinks, planes are out of the question).

So if you really want people to involve themselves in your rockband - you need to share your brand inwards before you share it outwards. Other approaches than that would be a shame.

Another thing that you could share is the management of your brand, where you lead the brand and put the management and decisionmaking out to the users, but again, how do make sure that people actually wants to manage your brand ?

hm. more to come.

ps. crossposted at henrietteweber.com

Why you should attend/organize/sponsor a Barcamp

Henriette Weber — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:49:02 +0000

Crossposted from Henrietteweber.com

I have been arranging Barcamp's in Copenhagen for about 3 years now and I have a new one in the making called socialmediacamp Copenhagen. (and I am toying with a bit of other camps as well). The problem/possibility of a barcamp is that the format is non-existent. the Barcamp format is called un-conference - meaning that unlike a conference, nothing is really planned except for a framework to support the attendants.

Basically as a barcamp organizer you put together a framework where people can have the best facilities for knowledge, network, inspiration, creativity and fun. It's a project management job where you make sure that the venue is working, the sponsors are happy and the crowd is exstatic.

As an attendant all you have to do, is participate. And how do you do that ? you put together a panel, you prepare a speech, a game a concert, whatever. Basically you prepare for, that minimum 30 mins of the barcamp is yours, to present whatever you want to present, or to do whatever you want to do. So what do you get out of participating ? hopefully you get to hang around some real cool cats for a day or two. You get to work with them, talk to them and laugh, dance and play with them. You get inspired from things you never thought would inspire you. You get creative.

one sentence why should I attend: you'll miss out on something if you dont. I don't know what that something is. But you're definetly missing out =)

As an organizer you get whuffie for organizing. A lot of whuffie. You sit back for two months after the camp has been done, and then you get that urge to have people around you in the barcamp way again. People that wants to share and participate. You could a beercamp (as allan did) or a transitcamp or a creativecamp, a designcamp, a fairtradecamp or as I am about to do - a socialmediacamp. If there something you are passionate about and you want to put your thumb on it - do a Barcamp people =)

As a sponsor you should give food or stuff to people! - why ? because they remember you for that. At the last couple of barcamps there has been something like 70 of the most influental and connected people there. Now that's something that you could use both as a supportive project, but also for marketing purposes I bet ? There's also some of that magic whuffie rubbing off to the sponsor, you get the mentality of a barcamp + the awareness and involvement from the people attending. oh and don't get me started on what will happen if you want to sponsor t-shirts or schwag bags =)

So final question: is barcamp just for geeks ? no it's for passionate people. People who wants to think new and get inspired. In my world geeks are a great thing. But I could see that designers, project managers and CEO 's could go barcamping - as well as the strange guy from the financial office. Barcamps are kind of an underground event.

Can you enter a brand - a new touch on brand identity.

Henriette Weber — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 07:15:22 +0000

Due to my latest blogpost on Toothless Tiger, especially the "user generated context" has reallly got me thinking about not being talked to by brands, interacting with brands but actually enter a brand. If user generated context actually holds water, you would be able to create an atmosphere where you would actually be able to feel the brand. Facilitated by online tools, but taking place in real life. One of the things that makes me doubt that this could actually happen (which to me, would be extremely creative), is the same feeling I got from Second Life, when that was really hot a couple of years ago. I think Second Life totally rocked in some ways - but it also blew pretty hard.

Especially since the community was visual and it was a whole new world without knowing what to do or any games or tasks - unlike World of Warcraft (Yes a friend of mine has slowly turned me over to World of Warcraft and I think it rocks). I just got the feeling of "im online in a community not doing anything except for living - i might as well be offline and do crafting or something like that. Second Life is the only community and game where I actually found myself hanging around, not knowing what to do, or not having a purpose. It wasn't clearly defined to me.

Anyway - if you should be able to enter the user created context of a brand - influenced by the people who is passionate about the brand - you should have a clearly defined purpose as a user or as a potential client. There's several initiatives you could do, but I think trancending online games to real life, with a clearly stated purpose, close to the users, build around the brand in mind, would actually rock and be really close to art and remarkable. Now THAT's Cool!