Explaning Niche and Community using the Reverse Maslow
I sat in a series of sessions of a co-professor who projected stuff from the Authenticity Book for his marketing class. Part of it had to do with understanding new media, the Internet — that sort of stuff, really. So I borrowed it. And it’s been a “formula” I use to introduce or summarize “new media” from a different perspective. Let me share this.
You may be familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Before aiming for higher and more profound functions of self actualization, the basic needs need (food, clothing, shelter) to be addressed first. Today however, with the advancements of technology and the “fast paced lifestyle” seem to push people to want to be “accepted” first in order to function properly. An argument here is that every human being ideally needs to belong to a family. With new media, it becomes easier for individuals of similar niches to find one another: Star Wars forums, Macintosh zealots, Trekkies, Trekkers, food bloggers … the list goes on and on. There seems to be a community for everything. Seth Godin refers to this social structure as “Tribes.”
With that mindset, it becomes more apparent how communities work, and how authentic messages can be distinguished from those that are canned from press releases or below the line gimmicks. Authenticity is still key, and this is where the machinations of A-listers, authority figures, conversion and credibility come along. Forums, blogs, microblogs … these are all manifestations of this.
If you’re a marketer, do you believe you are treading on sacrosanct grounds when you wish to involve communities?
Engaging Bloggers by Running Surveys
Apart from seeding press releases and product demos, another way to tap bloggers and online publishers for help would be to engage them in a partnership to run consumer surveys within their niche if influence.
For instance, you can discourse with three technology bloggers to run a series of surveys on consumer insight about mobile phones and in turn give out a good enough prize to a random draw of survey respondents. It gives you insight on the different sub niches of each blogger and you also get a more reliable and diverse sampling of the data.
The important thing here is that survey respondents should be able to immediately WANT the prize, so if you’re raffling off a 10USD coupon for Amazon, you may have to think bigger.
“Fair Use” and Publishing Media for Blogs and Videos
Lately I’ve been building videos of my dives in the Philippines for a SCUBA blog and one thing I’ve noticed is that it is becoming harder by the day to find a video service that recognizes fair use for ambient audio tracks. Sure there are always the royalty free audio selections but most of the “good stuff” are from records, independent label or not. Youtube started this, removing audio from edited videos despite the credits. Facebook is doing this as well. The subject of “fair use” can be scrutinized on and on.
In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose such as to comment upon, criticize or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. Another way of putting this is that fair use is a defense against infringement. If your use qualifies under the definition above, and as defined more specifically in this section, then your use would not be considered an illegal infringement. [source]
So if I use only a partial track from a song, that’s considered fair use? If you’ve been editing videos and posting one man acts on your blog, what experiences have you had with material being taken down? Look, I’m not here to challenge the policy. I just want to initiate a discussion on what can and cannot be done. The reality of the situation is that on the web, the actual practice seems to overshadow the real policy.
Case: Measuring Word of Mouth via Bloggers
Back in 2007, I partnered with a PR agency that handled a french inspired fast food company serving mainly breads and pasta. They were looking into doing a “blogger meet up” and experiment with the idea of measuring word of mouth. They were in the process of launching a new product, which happened to be a special blend of spiked coffee; one of those amaretto or Bailey’s infused mixes.
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9rules opens its doors to nominations once more
Back in 2003, 9rules established itself as a premiere collection of blogs highlighted by great content and a passionate community. The codex of the 200 and so blogs were summarized by the “9 Rules:”
1. Love what you do.
2. Never stop learning.
3. Form works with function.
4. Simple is beautiful.
5. Work hard, play hard.
6. You get what you pay for.
7. When you talk, we listen.
8. Must constantly improve.
9. Respect your inspiration.
Today 9rules has just opened up a new round of submissions and the door will be open for 24 hours. The submission form can be found here. If you think your blogging philosophy fits the nine rules, then by all means, submit.
9rules is part of Splashpress Media, of which Performancing is a member.
A ‘Personal Blog?’ Just use Facebook!
Okay so maybe I was a bit brazen with the title, but after writing about technology for more than 5 years I had wanted to reboot and open up a personal blog where I talk about the more mundane “let your hair down” moments which only close friends can truly relate to. So I erased some content from domains I didn’t use and decided to install Wordpress.
Actually, I initially did an iWeb install, then got frustrated over it, and went into Wordpress. Then it dawned on me that these platforms were not what I was looking for. All I wanted was Facebook. The updating of status message, getting very personal comments, photo uploads of the weekend dive trip … these were all the things I ever wanted to do in a personal blog. And the whole stats thing, really — did I need that?
So I scrapped the idea of a personal blog because all along, Facebook was there. I’d like to ask you — how extensive is your Facebook use? With the introduction of the custom URL, I’m able to include my Facebook address alongside my Twitter, email and IM when I print business cards.
Do you feel that your readers own you?
“Can you give me a list of all your recipes?”
“Why are you putting ads on your site?”
“I think you should stop posting about fashion and concentrate on your make up tips instead.”
“Can you write about that new steak place that opened in the city?”
The new phone is out. How come it’s taking too long for you to post a review?
Do you often get these kinds of comments? When you started writing, you probably, and I sincerely hope, did it for the passion. Time passed, and your readership scaled and you blog grew up faster than its neighbors. All of a sudden you received email from PR companies, and yeah the freebies started to pour in as well. Event invites, blog roadies, and yes there were the haters as well.
All of a sudden the passion started to fade and you felt disillusioned, looking back at something you started as sharing your passion in reckless abandon which turned into a chore you needed to do once, twice, thrice a week. Sometimes everyday.
At one point, did you feel that your topics were dictated not by your own personal accord, but by your readers who demanded your time?
Do you still rename your images for SEO purposes?
It has been an age old SEO trick to apply the same article tagging principles to images. This is done by simply renaming an image file from the default IMGxxx.JPG or DSCxxx.JPG, depending on what camera we’re importing from.
Although photo uploading services allow you to insert tags, there’s nothing like good old search juice from Google’s image search feature. A question — how meticulous are you with renaming images you upload to your blog’s hosting? Do you rename the entire file, go as far as the alt="" description? Do you do this all the time, to all your posts, with no exception?
A personal practice is renaming images only when I feel that I have a scoop. Say, if I covered a product launch for my technology blog, that’s the only time when I rename all the photos I took and batch export them from iPhoto through sequential exporting so that the images are automatically tagged with the desired name plus a corresponding number (i.e. Nokia_phone_1.jpg, Nokia_phone_2.jpg and so on).
The 9rules Nostalgia and Building Community
There’s been a blanket of nostalgia lately on the Internet. For those of you who may remember the good ‘ol days of blogging circa 2004 to about early 2006, this was a time when community was much smaller, and it was easy to spot the “A-listers” and blog networks. Amidst the typical blog networks that would hire and pay writers a fixed rate or revenue share, 9rules was different. It went against the grain of the “production house” blogging (not that this was bad in itself) and focused on quality content. 9rules had, well, 9 rules:
9rules is a place where members and readers can connect, build relationships, and learn new things. 9rules started in 2003 with a set of 9 rules:
1. Love what you do.
2. Never stop learning.
3. Form works with function.
4. Simple is beautiful.
5. Work hard, play hard.
6. You get what you pay for.
7. When you talk, we listen.
8. Must constantly improve.
9. Respect your inspiration.
Lots of other networks have adopted similar principles, but basically 9rules was a pioneer when it came to building a passionate community.
Today, Splashpress Media has acquired 9rules, (of which Performancing is part of the SPM network). From their blog, written by Paul Scrivens:
Why Splashpress? Because not only do they have the people that have a passion for publishing online content, but they also have the resources to make things happen without being too large as to forget the core of what makes 9rules special, the community. Much of the Splashpress team have been fans of 9rules for years so this will only make the transition easier as they understand the purpose of 9rules and why it is important to continue to push quality content to the forefront of the web.
The thing with the Internet is that the tides ebb to and fro too fast, and yesterday’s web is so much more different. In the past 2 years, big corporations have planted their blogging seeds through acquisition, while some argue that blogs were not what they once were with the rise of Twitter and Facebook. Tomorrow will be different.
The take away from all of this is that communities are bound to change. But change can be a good thing, and rebuilding a new community doesn’t mean the end of the world.
5 Tips to Help Bloggers Maximize HARO
Peter Shankman founded the HARO mailer network many months ago. Since then, the Help a Reporter Out network has grown into perhaps the most powerful community of networkers, journalists and product marketers on the Internet. Not only is the network free to use, it is also very effective. Here are some tips to maximize the use of HARO.
Don’t confuse the “source” and “media” request pages
This is the most fundamental rule, and is something that Shankman highlights at least twice on the main HARO page, which is reserved for companies who are the source of information. If you’re a journalist or blogger looking for leads, use the other page.
Be brief and get to the point
When looking for sources, note that the HARO mailer comes in the form of a digest. If you’re smart you’ll probably use the search function to go through a ton of requests. If you had all the time in the world to look through a dozen of these queries then fine, but put yourself in the position of the person looking through your query: avoid run on sentences and long introductions (i.e. avoid lines that start with “may I request the permission of your good office…”) and simply, get to the point. If you need a sponsor for a prize, give the benefits of the sponsorship. If you need leads, ask for it.
Be concise in credentials and duration of requests
By credentials, I mean filling up the form with an email that looks authentic. Use your business email if possible. When asking for leads it is beyond a doubt reasonable to give ample time for a response. Don’t ask for a lead with a deadline the very next day. Not only will it cause attrition on your part, but it will also most probably not be sent due to the way the mailing list is compiled. Remember, mailings are not sent immediately, but are collated first, then sent. It also goes without saying that you should not spam the HARO network.
Note the Gift Bag page
There’s a special page within HARO that caters specifically for “goodie bag” sponsorships. This is by all means not a paid list and should be used with a lot of discretion and respect. If you make products and want them to appear in loot bags, this list is for you.
Build relationships
More often than not, PR contacts will often save your email addresses in queries after a successful engagement. Don’t be a stranger an do keep in touch. Provide updates to build your very own network of contacts to sponsor prizes and receive wires.
