Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog

5,000 words and 6 random thoughts about writing them

2009-07-15T11:17:41-04:00

When I announced my book deal, I promised occasional updates on my progress. I figure now is as good a time as any to let you know where things stand.

As I write this post, I'm sitting on roughly 5,000 words of my manuscript. I've written more than that and have plenty of jotted notes and typed-up transcripts from conversations with people I may quote or feature in the book, but I feel pretty good that the 5,000 words are pretty close to finished product. If nothing else, they are in the right order and seem to follow something that passes for a logical flow of ideas.

Beyond a simple status report though, I would like to share a handful of random thoughts (or get a few random things off my chest) about my writing experience. Quite frankly, this post is mostly for me (it's my blog, so I suppose I get to do that every now and then) -- but I hope that you find it at least somewhat interesting, to the degree that it provides some backstory to the process.

Writing a book is harder than it sounds. This is a big honking statement of the obvious, but this point didn't hit home until I was actually in the process. Of course, I knew that I had a lot of hard work ahead of me to get from proposal to published book but the concept feels more real now than it did a month ago. While I could have written 5,000 words of rough-and-ready blog posts in a week or so, it has taken me several times that to write the same number of 'book words' with the proper amount of polish and flow. While I often use my blog to float new (sometimes half-baked, sometimes barely researched) ideas, anything that makes it into the book needs to be pretty buttoned up, even if only because I don't want to be embarrassed when I see my work sitting on a shelf at my local Barnes & Noble. I can't just casually peck out a batch of disjointed ideas and call it it a book, can I? On the other hand...
I have a strong tendency to overthink things. Having read enough marketing books (especially social media marketing books) that all seem to tread and retread the same ground as dozens of other similar books, I am hyper-conscious of not falling into that trap. I often find myself scrutinizing every word (can I say "permission" or will people think I'm ripping off Godin; if I use the word "groundswell" will Charlene Li kick my ass) and worrying about whether readers might already know (and be tired of hearing about) an example I've used to illustrate a point. On the other hand, when I do light upon an idea that seems to be all my own I sometimes wonder why nobody else has written about it before and begin to discount the validity of the idea. I'm slowing coming to the realization that I need to cut the crap and get on with it. Some duplication is inevitable and, as long as I bring my own perspectives to the table, it's all good.
It's shockingly easy to lose sight of who I am. This probably sounds more like existential angst than I intended, but my point is this: having read hundreds of marketing books over the course of my career, having read thousands upon thousands of great blog posts, and of course armed with my handy dandy McGraw-Hill style guide, I will sometimes write a passage that, upon further review, reads as if it were written by someone else. The ideas are watered down, the language isn't really my own, the tone isn't as conversational as I'd like it to be, the structure feels a bit off. Sure, it reads like it could be a passage in a book -- just not a passage in *my* book. That's when I know it's time to go back and edit, edit, edit or -- in extreme cases -- hit the delete key and start again. The cost is lost time and wasted effort; the benefit is a book that I can be proud of.
Being a 'working marketer' is both a blessing and a curse. As an active marketing practitioner who works with clients day in and day out, I can bring plenty of first-hand experience and practical lessons to my writing. On the other hand, this first-hand experience consumes forty (who am I kidding? it's more like sixty-plus) hours per week -- leaving precious little time for writing the book. It's kinda shocking to me that I am writing this big thing in drips and drabs between client commitments, helping to run my company and (of course) dealing with the small issues of life like eating, sleeping and spending time with my kid. I suppose this last bit means that being a 'living person' presents its own set of writing challenges. :-)
The Internet is my friend; the Internet is my enemy. Given my subject matter, much of my research points me to the web, both for real examples and third party commentary (by industry media and bloggers) about those examples. But true to the nature of the web -- and especially the social web -- on thing always leads to a dozen others, and those dozen always lead to dozens more. What often begins as a focused fact-finding mission (I need one stat, I need to confirm a name or title, I need a link or a Wikipedia definition of a commonly used term) sometimes, after an hour spent surfing rather than writing, unearths lots of great information but at the expense of tangible productivity. At the end of an unproductive day, I might console myself that "at least I did a bunch of research" but -- let's face facts -- that's kinda bullshit. (As a related side note, it probably took me about an hour to write this post -- an hour I might have spent writing Internet stuff rather than book stuff. The irony is not lost on me, but I do believe that sometimes you just need to purge random thoughts like these by putting fingers to keys.)
I need better ways to capture thoughts as I have them if I want to make sure my best thinking makes it into the book. While I began with a reasonably high tech approach--clipping things and inputing random ideas into Evernote--and still use Delicious to compile interesting and relevant links, I now do most of my thinking on paper using a pocket-sized Field Notes memo book. It works, but sometimes an idea will have come and gone before I can even fish the notebook out of my pocket. Jane Quigley pointed me to a 37signals post about thinking out loud and capturing the results on audio, then suggested a handful of iPhone Apps that I might find useful for capturing thoughts (by audio or otherwise) while on the go. I definitely suck at this but didn't know it until I started writing the book. Interesting lesson learned...

Have any suggestions or words of advice? I'd love to hear them.

Writing what you know and knowing what you write

2009-07-10T09:53:01-04:00

Earlier this morning, I posed a question to my Twitter community:

Here's what some of my followers had to say:

Mostly what you'd expect, but with a few (reasonable) dissenting opinions thrown in for good measure.

I'd love my blog readers to chime in as well, but let me add some additional context.

First, my question isn't just about Twitter -- the same could be asked of any new experience, but since Twitter is the current media darling and since I posed the question on Twitter it was a good hook to spark conversation.

Second, because of my own frame of reference (and the focus of this blog) I was thinking mostly about the coverage of Twitter from a business and marketing perspective. As a marketer, should you be taking your cues about if, how and when to add Twitter into your mix from someone who writes for a reputable industry publication, very well may be a solid journalist, but is basing their POV and advice on second and third hand knowledge? So while, to @seanscogin's and @jmoonah's valid points, a journalist couldn't possibly be expected (or required) to experience everything they write about first hand (drug abuse, violent crime, war, disease, tragic loss) it doesn't seem too much to ask that a media and marketing reporter actually make the time to get at least some first hand experience about new media and marketing tools before writing articles advising agency and brand people about how to think about those tools.

Third, while my question was specifically about journalists you can, of course, ask the same about practitioners. It takes the form of the commonly asked, sometimes debated, question of whether a social media consultant needs to be personally active in social media. In my opinion, the answer to that question is a resounding yes, so should the answer be any different for a reporter covering the media/marketing beat?

Finally, I should point out that - yes - my question was spurred by a piece I read this morning by an ad industry reporter who, as far as I can tell (and it isn't that hard to tell), isn't on Twitter. I won't name names; kudos to you if you can suss out who it is. :-)

Have at it, gang.

Search ads are now more clickable than ever

2009-07-09T12:53:52-04:00

Like most marketers nowadays, I understand the importance of both organic and paid search as key components of the digital media plan but (confession time) I don't have even half a clue about how SEO or SEM really work -- or how to optimize either to deliver maximum results. Sure, I know enough to hire someone who knows more than I do when my clients ask me for help with search. And I've somehow managed to dominate the first page of Google results for my own name but don't ask me to tell you how. I don't know.

But I'd like to learn more.

Enter Clickable's Max Kalehoff, an innovative program he has been spearheading to help marketers get the most out of their search initiatives, and a free e-book that presents some best-in-class thinking about search.

In Max's own words (from the Clickable blog):

When I joined Clickable in late 2007, we began assembling a team of experts dedicated to public service - to help struggling marketers succeed in search advertising. We named them "the Clickable Gurus." For over a year, they've contributed expertise directly to hundreds of marketers in popular online communities, face-to-face, and on this blog. They've indirectly helped tens of thousands of marketers by leaving a permanent record of their wisdom and teachings on the Web. Indeed, the Clickable Gurus have been one of Clickable's most valuable investments to listen and connect with the search-marketing community. As a result, we've made better products for our customers. We all thank the Gurus for their great work, including: Andrew Bernero, Hanny Hindi, Trace Johnson, Ehren Reilly and Tony Soric...
To commemorate the Clickable Gurus' debut after one year of undercover service, we've released the first anthology of their teachings... The Guru's Guide To Better Search Engine Marketing is full of practical tips and best practices that demystify search and help marketers succeed. Just like Clickable's award-winning products, the Guru's Guide is simple and accessible to beginners, yet equally valuable for advanced search-marketing professionals.

If you're all geeked-out on digital you can download the free electronic version of the Guru's Guide. If you prefer good old fashioned wood pulp, Clickable offers a $10 hard copy through LuLu.com. They're also offering free hard copies to blogger who promise to write reviews -- not the reason for this post by the way. This isn't a review and I haven't read the book yet, but if you blog and think you'd like to review it you can get the details from Max's post.

To extend a great-sounding program and promising book, they also offer online forums where you can interact with the Gurus, ask questions, get answers and add your own advice. And they're running a contest that gives search experts an opportunity to vie for their own place in Clickable's Guru gang.

And finally, like all good content marketing efforts, this one supports Clickable's own brand positioning as "a trusted advisor" that helps clients make better search marketing decisions, is bound to generate enough social media buzz to fill at least a few big plastic cups with some extra Google juice, and (the clincher) actually intriques me enough to make me want to find out what that actually means.

I hope you find The Guru's Guide useful. Feel free to drop a comment with your own thoughts.

First we'll land on the moon. Then we'll buy blouses.

2009-07-06T13:26:45-04:00

If hindsight is 20/20, then foresight is -- well -- sometimes shockingly accurate too, even if some of the fine details are a bit blurry. This video from 1969 (that's 40 years ago people) extols the virtues of a connected future: online shopping, webcams and live video streaming, electronic banking, email, touchscreen-based devices and even content delivery networks. Plus it has a suitably creepy soundtrack.

[If you're reading the feed or get my blog posts delivered by email, you may need to click through to watch the embedded video.]

So here we are in 2009 and I'd wager most of us would be hard-pressed to make predictions that will hold up 40 days from now let alone 40 years. OK - maybe 40 days is a bit of a low estimate, but you get my point...

What do you think 2049 holds in store?

via Get Elastic.

microMARKETING: learn more

2009-07-02T16:18:33-04:00

About the Book | Progress | Join the Mailing List

Coopetwition gives two soda giants bubbly feelings

2009-07-02T10:11:30-04:00

The story: a member of the Twitterverse suggests that @pepsi and @cocacola put age-old competitive rivalries aside and become Twitter friends. The brands agree and shake virtual hands.

Sure the person who made the suggestion isn't quite an everyday Joe -- he is the founder of the Aussie arm of Razorfish and has done work with PepsiCo -- and the gesture between the two soft drink giants is as silly as it is symbolic. But still, it makes for a fun story.

Can Twitter teach the world to sing in perfect harmony?

(via Darryl Ohrt; image reposted from my Posterous.)

5 ways every marketer can have a "dancing man moment"

2009-06-29T14:11:15-04:00

Last night, social media serendipity led me to a video of a man dancing at an outdoor music festival. The dancing man himself isn't anything special -- a clumsy show of flailing arms and legs that wouldn't get him through the first round of auditions on So You Think You Can Dance.

What happens next is pretty special (or at least interesting.)

When the man starts dancing, he is the only member of the crowd moving. In fact, it almost seems as if the rest of the audience is blissfully unaware that they're at a music festival at all. But within seconds he's joined by one, then two, then three other dancers. Within three minutes, hundreds of people are dancing.

And like countless other seemingly insignificant moments, all of it was caught on video and uploaded to the web. Within a month of being shared on YouTube, more than one million people have viewed the clip, more than five thousand have rated it, and more than three thousand have left comments. And it turns out that these few minutes in time were captured and uploaded by several different amateur shooters who were there to witness it, so the cumulative numbers are higher still.

That's a pretty impressive ripple effect (or maybe it's a butterfly effect) for something that began with literally just one person willing to do something nobody around him was doing.

Now is probably as good a time as any to watch the video, if you haven't seen it:

[Feed and email readers, click through to view.]

OK, so what does this have to do with marketing?

Certainly the dancing man provides a clear (if trivial) example of how the actions of a sole individual can provide the catalyst that not only directly influences the behavior of the people around them, but also have the potential to scale up to have something approximating mass reach. Rather than reaching out to millions in the hopes of finding and connecting with "the one" (who responds, who buys, who changes their behavior), why not start with the one who can influence hundreds and ultimately reach millions?

Perhaps the dancing man also offers a lesson about risk and reward -- as a marketer, are you willing to try something (and potentially look foolish) on the off chance that it will deliver an exponential result? Or will you sit on the sidelines for fear of failure?

But mostly, it leads me to ponder how marketers can have their own Dancing Man Moments. Off the top of my head, here are five ways:

Be the Dancing Man: do something remarkable to spark a movement; star in the story yourself
Bear Witness to the Dancing Man: document his actions; capture the moment; be the storyteller
Put the Dancing Man on a Bigger Stage: celebrate him; tell everyone you know (your customers, audience, fans, friends); provide access to your larger network of distribution (after all, chances are your brand is bigger than his...)
Join the Dancing Man: tap into the momentum of the movement; follow the dancing man's lead but play your own unique part in how the story unfolds
Be the Song to His Dance: go beyond just joining in; contribute something unique and different, yet complementary; in fact, why not inspire him to dance in the first place

But enough of my yammering. I'd love to hear from you -- what do you think marketers can do to have their own Dancing Man Moments?

Bits, bytes, posterous, punk

2009-06-23T21:58:40-04:00

A recent post by Steve Rubel inspired me to dust off my "lightly used" (a euphemism for "never used") Posterous account and launch a new blog-like-object called Verdino Bytes. With an easy-to-use bookmarklet for clipping content straight from the web and an even-easier-to-use post via email function, Posterous is ideal for creating and sharing content that falls somewhere between my fully formed blog posts and my malformed tweets.

It's a perfect tool for capturing and sharing everything from cool photos, interesting videos, random thoughts, stray ideas and crap I find all around the interwebz. And with my regular blog output dialed down while I peck my way through the manuscript for my book, it's a simple low-impact way to pump out web content (ahem, make that micro-content) without giving my McGraw-Hill editor reason to believe I've taken her money and run.

The blog you're reading now is and will remain my primary online hub, but if you're looking for more regular updates over the next few months -- and are OK with the eclectic nature of what I'm posting over there -- you may want to subscribe to Verdino Bytes. For the most part, there will be no duplication between what I post here and what I post there so it's more great Verdino for the same low price (e.g., free unless you're reading this on your Kindle, you big nerd.)

Even if Verdino Bytes doesn't seem like your cup of tea, you still might dig this video I posted there tonight. Produced by an Australian reputation management firm (meaning a reputation management firm based in AU, not a firm dedicated to managing Australian reputations), it draws parallels between the punk rock movement in the 1970s and the social media revolution going on right now. Good stuff.

[Feed and email readers click to the blog to watch the video.]

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Tomorrow is gone too: social media RIP

2009-06-18T10:35:02-04:00

Friend, look-alike, PR man and Now Is Gone author Geoff Livingston is stirring the pot today, with a pretty provocative proclamation -- "social media is dead."

Tucked away in a post about why the next Blog Potomac conference -- slated for October 2009 and featuring fellow crayonista Jane Quigley -- will be the last, lies Geoff's eulogy for a form of media and marketing that many still consider the latest shiny object in the marketing practitioner's box of baubles.

The technology adoption cycle has been maturing for social media (and social media, web 2.0 whatever you want to call it is definitely inspired by technology) for some time. Widespread corporate adoption is happening as we speak, albeit with many stumbles. Based on conversations I’m having, even the most conservative organizations are adapting now.
The time when social media as a special or unique or “shiny and new” type of communication is rapidly ending. Does that mean it’s going away? Hardly.
But from an innovators standpoint, as someone who lives on the edge, who wants to be where new frontiers are being created, we’re at the end. For me, social media is dead… That means it’s future forward.

While my experience with conservative organizations leads me to suspect that Geoff thinks we're further along the Technology Adoption Lifecycle (or more precisely the "marketing adoption cycle" - I don't think we can debate that the technology itself is mainstream) than we really are, I'm not sure that Geoff is wrong. At least not entirely.

If we're talking about social media as a category, as something special, unique or new, then it probably is (or should be, anyway) dead or dying. The notion of social media as a silo and as something that warrants specialized expertise is nothing more than a point of inflection between a new media landscape that is entirely, seamlessly social and an old media landscape that was always social anyway (even if we didn't know it.)

Then again, I'm not sure the death of social media matters a whole lot to anyone but the "next new thing" innovation junkies. Is Geoff arguing in favor of shiny object syndrome at a time when, frankly, most marketers are still not making the best use of the last big thing? Hey, I'm an innovator too (or at least, I like to think I am) and I'm also keen to identify and understand whatever lies around the next bend, but I also know that tomorrow's toys don't amount to a hill of beans to an in-the-trenches marketer who is (let's be honest) at best dabbling in social and still thinks they've had a coup if they convince their agency creative director to display the corporate URL at the end of the new 30-second spot.

So on the one hand we have a small band of serial innovators already seeking out greener pastures. On the other, we have the rest of the herd who are just beginning to suspect that the ground might be shifting right beneath their hooves.

So whether social media is dead or not, it surely seems to be trapped in limbo.

What are your thoughts? Is social media dead or is Livingston burying it alive?

A buffet of delicious micro-media snacks

2009-06-16T20:50:57-04:00

I've always been an information junkie. I suppose you need to be if you want to stay one step ahead of the changes that happen just about daily in marketing nowadays.

Now that I'm working on my book though, I find that I need to be a lot more disciplined about actually keeping track of all the relevant news stories, interesting factoids, ideas, tips, tricks, case studies and concepts that might (just might) serve as useful background for a chapter, paragraph or sentence I might tap out months from now.

Sometimes the tidbits come from traditional media, in which case they find themselves ripped from the sources and scattered about whatever surface I happen to be working on (see Exhibit A, above.)

But for the most part, I find my inspiration on the web. Shocking, I know.

If you're interested in getting a peek behind the curtains -- and into the cluttered anteroom of my mind -- as I tap my way through the manuscript for microMARKETING, you can keep tabs on my Delicious tags.

I've been tagging interesting articles and other people's blog posts "micromarketing" since April, and will continue doing so as I find things that may come in handy throughout the writing process. You don't get to shuffle through my stack of loose magazine clippings unless you stop by for a visit (or live here), but my Delicious bookmarks are the next best thing.

Don't get lost and try to leave things more or less the way you found them. :-) And, if you're so inclined, feel free to suggest pieces you've read elsewhere that you think I might find interesting.