Buzz Canuck

Word of Mouth - A Prescription for a Bad Economy...and Insanity

Word of Mouth - A Prescription for a Bad Economy

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I've usually taken a diplomatic tact when dealing with the traditional-minded world of media, marketing and research people but c'mon, enough is enough....if you can't be startled and motivate to act by a feather to the soles of your feet than maybe you need a blunt force blow to the head.

Trust me - from one who has spent tens of millions dollars on advertising and mainstream marketing in his lifetime, you are peddling fool's gold. The same people who believe a recession couldn't happen are the same ones ascribing increased sales to increased media weight - insanity.

Wake up. Campaigns rarely if ever build brands anymore, price-offs don't build sustainable consumption, shackling yourself to a brand identity manual is "paint by numbers" marketing that denies the reality of what has happened in the last decade to your consumer, marketplace and culture at large. Ask anybody under 27 years old in your department, they will tell you the harsh reality of what's happening - are you prepared to listen?   

With the remote, expansion of channels, PVR, simultaneous multimedia consumption - I would evaluate a TV GRP being 20% of the benefit it was ten years ago. Plus it's at least twice as expensive.

Radio and newspapers are a dying game and whereas I have a lot of heart for well-produced and targeted magazines, who wants to read about stuff that is weeks old in a 24/7 game.

I don't mean to add insult to media injury - there are some fine journalists and media people out of work right now...but the model is irrevocably broken and not coming back. The idea of companies renting out space and being viewed as an interruption to the good content is a horribly outmoded concept.

Even on captive mediums, the communication is all wrong. Very few stop me in my tracks, provoke me to do something or invite me to learn more. I guarantee you if you drive past 20 billboards today and if one even gets you to think about the product being advertised, I would be surprised (yes, I know it's snowing but you should still be able to see them). We hate the bravado, don't trust the promise and likely worse, simply don't care about the entire impersonal selling approach.

Join the real game and stop watching the scoreboard. Although it may lack standards, be slow to scale, be apparently risky, may deny some of your strategic genius and require a new set of skills, word of mouth and all its different variants is the real deal.

Why? Well, you have a Slideshare-favourited presentation in the attached that spells it out for you in precise, well-supported detail. The shorthand version for those not serious enough to care:

1 ) WOM Gets Noticed

2)  WOM Taps Participation Values

3)  WOM Stimulates Action

4)  WOM has Longevity

5)  WOM has Less Cost/More Value

6)  WOM is a Competitive Advantage

7)  WOM Targets Influence

8)  WOM is More Measurable

9)  WOM is More Trusted

10) WOM is More Customer Centric

11) WOM Provides More

12) WOM is the Future

The Canadian marketing groups across this country will spend $20 billion in media next year. We have trained a generation of marketers and advertisers not to rethink the equation- I guarantee ahead of time - most of their efforts will be wasted, that is a given. The big question is what are YOU going to do about it?

Agent Wildfire - There's a New Site in Town and She's Looking Good...

There's an adage in the service industry that you are your own worst client.

I confess, it's true. You spend so much time on your client's work that you take your eye off your own. Crossing fingers and barring no other client commitment, we will be launching our new shiny corporate site later this week and moving past our cobwebby 2 year old site.

Does this change what we've doing as Canada's Word of Mouth experts? Not really.

But with new programs, a new office, new staff and new clients, we thought it was time for a change.

Based on your feedback, we hope you'll find our new site more appealing for the following reasons:

- for the user experience addicts - it will be an easier navigate menu with consistency of layout

- for the design enthusiasts - better, more consistent imagery that's easier on the eyes

- for the marketers who get it or want to get it - we'll be providing better explanations, stats and quotes on what we do and how it can help you

- for the social media crowd - we will be launching a new corporate blog that will be broadcasting what's going on inside Agent Wildfire, freeing up Buzz Canuck to muse about industry devbelopments at large

- for the progressive marketing types - we will be launching and profiling a full ensuite of programs we are launching in time for the holidays and 2009

- for the survey junkies - we will be launching a 100 pt. survey that shorthands how word of mouth-able your brand really is and what type of WOM it lends itself best to

- for the business owner - it will explain to you more clearly the 6 branches of servcies and 30 types of program we offer

- for the word of mouth student - it will provide a resources area and an opportunity to participate in Wildfire groups and associations

- for the directionally challenged - it will provide much better directions to our new pad

- for the people people - it will explain what types of people and partners work with us and given a number of great new hires, tell a story of the hothouse of expertise in the Chateau Agent Wildfire

Shortly on the heels of this development will be the launch of something called Influencers in the Know - a Canadianized version of Alltops, PopUrls, PSFK and Blogs.com mixed together.

We will also be relaunching The Influencers for November - providing superior multimedia content, much better design and RSS links and a superior registration process and profile area and a more continuous stream of activity

That, on top of our impending tour of PR comapnies and ad agencies and four other proprietary programs we're selling in and launching for 2009 is keeping us busy at Agent Wildfire - we're just trying to be a little selfish and service ourself. 

 We hope you enjoy our new site and it's more effective in helping you pick up that banana phone and give us a shout to service your word of mouth marketing, grassroots media and influencer-driven insight/innovation programs.

Agent Wildfire - Creating Fires for Holiday 2008 and 2009

Three weeks since by last post, shame on me...any blogger worth their salt knows that 3 per week is the absolute minimum to maintain the ADD-riddled world of social media attention.

My only excuse...we've been busy starting some fires for the holiday season and next year...for the listing of Wildfire developments and the occasional shameless self-promotion see below.

Beyond a number of new clients that have dropped in our lap the last couple of months and a few word of mouth programs and community launches - we are also looking at a number of new programs that will position us well as Canada's Word of Mouth Expert for 2009.  In no particular order:

- On the social media front, Agent Wildfire will be launching its own blog to deal with the news, announcements, job openings and events that are all about my company, leaving Buzz Canuck to be fancy-free to talk about all the word of mouth subjects under and above the radar

- on buzz media launches, we are planning one micro launch a quarter next year behind Canadian-specific influencer-driven marketing/media initiatives designed to get our clients noticed and talked about:

The Sisterhood of Influence - for connected, savvy Canadian women
Generation GO - for active people who live in the city
TrendCity - for tastemakers and trendspotters well ahead of the mainstream
Alpha Bartender Network - for urban ringleaders who serve up buzz

If you are an enthusiastic outgoing person in any of these areas, please let us know and we would love you to join our efforts in some capacity.

Give us a call, get the details by signing up for our Buzz Report or join our media/PR tour in October/November. Category-exclusive opportunities await.

We are relaunching our Agent Wildfire and Influencer sites to add more functionality and design appeal.

We are also going to be launching the beta of something called Influencers in The Know next month - a hybrid of influencer content and RSS aggregation of only the leading edge content on the web specifically designed for Canadians. We are interested in grassroots celebrities and influencers interested in sharing us their top 10 sites/blogs for the best edgy content - let us know.

We are hiring for a number of key full-time and freelance positions:
- Word of Mouth Program Leaders
- Editorial Interns
- Guest Bloggers
- Graphic Designers
- Web People
If you are to use Sarah Palin's words "mavericky" and Obama's words "say YES WE CAN to client opportunities" and McCain's words "want straight talk in marketing" and Biden's words...what does he say anyway?....send us your best attempt to get noticed and talked about through the stack of resumes - apologize in advance if we don't always get back quickly.

We are also hatching a League of Kickass Network event hopefully for November. I'm quite excited about this as we wrangle a name brand author and CEO to take the gloves off in debate . If you're a senior marketer, media, business executive or digital geek and you are suitably Kickass give us a shout and let's get you on the list.

We will be hosting a road trip across cities Marketing 2.0 for the Executive - a conversation-worthy, safe haven overview for executives willing to embrace this arena but not knowing where to go next.

We are about the finalize our white paper on "Word of Mouth Marketing 2009" - a check in on marketer attitudes and beahviours with WOM, launch our presentation and start our community-based white paper "It Takes a Community to Build a Brand".

I'll also personally be  participating in Marketing Week events and hosting a panel of 6 experts on social media...yikes...look forward to some dust ups, insight and some "keeping them honest" Anderson Cooper like moderating in that one.

And in other predictions - Obama wins by 7 pts, Harper gets in by a slim minority, Green Party breaks past 11% of popular vote, Red Sox win the Series again (yeah!), The TSE bottoms out at 8.500, Leafs win only 24 games this year and retail sales will drop 6% year over year at Christmas (bah humbug!).

So our silence here has not been without productive distraction...apologies to Buzz Canuck Nation - we'll try to let it happen again.

The Ryder Cup of Word of Mouth, Buzz and Viral

With the advent of golf's best entertainment showcase about to take place, I thought I would provide the WOM version of the famed Ryder Cup tournament.

Why not pit the top 36 bloggers from the USA that speak on the subject of word of mouth, viral, buzz, influence and the engaging brand against the top 36 international bloggers that muse on the same subject?

Unlike some of the social media- and tech dedicated marketing and media bloggers, these broad-minded bloggers and company heads (below) have distinguished themselves by helping visitors understand how ideas spread, online and offline, through a range of different strategies and tactics and each recognizes the importance of having brands getting noticed, talked about and advocated in a 2.0 world.

In my opinion, they are much closer to explaining the purpose and benefits of a range of new media, web 2.0, co-creation, social networks and other web, cultural and social phenomenon.

For my social media appetite, they are also among the best at understanding the art and science of buzz, not getting too hung up on the Silicon Valley gossip, the backslapping self-promotion (with the race exception), the technology minutiae, the journalistic ethic or political meaning behind peer-generated ideas, content and advocacy.

To my knowledge, no one has yet built the all star list of word of mouth savvy blogs - too often our best are muddled with overarching marketing categories (The Power 150) or not fully descriptive, catch-all  social media lists. 

So here is my list, I've visited and read them all - my apologies to some of the non-english speaking International squad (there are limits to my comprehension even with pictures) and to some inevitable oversights.

Acknowledging my blind spots,  I've left 6 spots open for your own submissions on the U.S. and international side. Submit your thoughts on who publishes most credibly on the topics of influence, word of mouth, persuasion, participation, community, buzz, experiential and viral topics.

Perhaps we should have a favourite post tournament?  Any volunteers as Captains for the U.S. Side?

  The USA Team

1. Jackie Huba/Ben McConnell - Church of the Customer (Austin, Texas)

2. Andy Sernovitz - Damn! I Wish I Thought of That! (Chicago, Illinois)

3. Pete Blackshaw - CGM (Cincinnati, Ohio)

4. Jim Nail - Influence 2.0 (Boston, Massachusetts)

5. Idil Cakim - dot WOM (New York, New York)

6. Jeremiah Owyang - Web Strategist (San Francisco, Calfornia)

7. Rohit Bhargava - Influential Marketing (Washington, D.C.)

8. Owen Mack - CoBrandIt (Boston, Massechussetts)

9. Walter Karl - WOM Study  (Boston, Massachusetts)

10. Fred Reichheld - Net Promoter - (Boston, Massachusetts)

11. Max Kalehoff - Attention Max (New York, New York)

12. Olivier Blanchard - The Brand Builder (Greenville, South Carolina)

13. Charlene Li - Charlene Li (San Francisco, California)

14. Sam Decker - Bazaar Blog and Decker Marketing (Austin, Texas)

15. Joseph Jaffe - Jaffe Juice (New York, New York)

16. John Moore - Brand Autopsy (Austin, Texas)

17. Peter Kim - Being Peter Kim (Austin, Texas)

18. Mack Collier - The Viral Garden (Florence, Alabama)

19. Spike Jones - Brains on Fire (Greenville, South Carolina)

20. Ron McDaniel - Buzzoodle (Cleveland, Ohio)

21.John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing (Kansas City, Missouri)

22. Kim Proctor - How to Create Powerful Customer Experiences (Los Angeles, California)

23. Rob Walker - Murketing (Savannah, Georgia)

24. Lois Kelly - Foghound (Providence, Rhode Island)

25. Ann Handley - MarketingProfs (Boston, Massachusetts)

26. Shiv Singh - Going Social Now (New York, New York)

27. Laurent Flores - Customer Listening Blog (New York, New York)

28. Tom Asacker - A Clear Eye (Manchester, New Hampshire)

29. Francois Gossieaux - Emergence Marketing (Boston, Massachusetts)

30. Geoff Livingston - The Buzz Bin (Washington, B.C.)

31. Dave Balter - BzzAgent (Boston, Massachussetts)

32. John Bell - Digital Influence Mapping Project (Washington, D.C.)

33. Todd Tweedy - Word Spreads Quickly (Charlottesville, Virginia)

34. Marta Kagan - the Secret Diary of a Bonafide Marketing Genius (Boston, Massachusetts)

35. Greg Stielstra - Pyromarketing (Nashville, Tennessee)

36. Willow Baum Lundgren - Small Planet (Kansas City, Missouri)

37. Amber Naslund - The Brand Box (Chicago, Illinois)

38. Greg Verdino - GregVerdino.com (New York, New York)

39. Paul Chaney - Conversational Media Marketing (Lafayette, Louisiana)

40. August Ray - Experience - The Blog (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

41-42??? Your Turn

The International Team

1. Frederick Herrman - Netszkobold (Germany)

2. Emmanuel Vivier - Culture-Buzz (Luxembourg)

3. Sean Moffitt - Buzz Canuck  (Canada)

4. Rachel Clarke - Behind the Buzz (England)

5. Gavin Heaton - Servant of Chaos (Australia)

6. Sam Flemming - SeeISee.com (China)

7. Ian McKee - The Power of Influence (Singapore) 

8. Mirko Pollera/Alex Giordano -  Ninja Marketing (Italy)

9. Russell Davies - Russell Davies (England)

10. Simon McDermott - Attentio (Belgium)

11. Andy Lark - Andy Lark  (New Zealand)

12. Max Lenderman - Experience the Message (Canada)

13. Paul Marsden - Viral Culture (England)

14. Laurent Valembert -  Marketing Alternatif (France)

15. Mike Rowe - 1000 heads (UK)

16. Par Thunstrom - Buzzador (Sweden)

17. CLeber Martins - Blog de Guerrilha (Brazil)

18  Willem Sodderland - Buzzer (Netherlands)

19. Jean Nasr - Alt-Buzz (France)

20. Igor Beuker - Viral Tracker (Netherlands)

21. Grant McCracken - This Blog Sits At...(Canada)

22. Mitch Joel - Six Pixels of Separation (Canada)

23. Justin Kirby - DMC (U.K.)

24. Sebastian Provencher - Praized  (Canada)

25. Alan Moore/Tomi Ahonen - Communities Dominate Brands (England/Hong Kong)

26. Anna Farmery - The Engaging Brand (UK)

27. Neil Perkin - Only Dead Fish (UK)

28. Johnnie Moore - Johnny Moore's Werblog (UK)

29. Joanna Kocieba - BuzzReporter (Poland)

30. Hjortur Smarason - Marketing Safari (Iceland)

31. Krishna De - Biz Growth News (Ireland)

32. Fred Cavazza - FredCavazza.net (France)

33. Bart van Der Aa - Icemedia (Netherlands)

34. Gianluca Artesano - Frozen Frogs (Italy)

35. Ivo Laurin - Outbreak (Czech) 

36. Chris Abraham - Chris Abraham (Germany)

37. Mark Earls - Herd (U.K.)

38. David Eicher - Brainwash (Germany)

39. Pepe Wietholz - Buzz People(Germany)

40 Christian Wilfer/Carolina Schulz -  Viralmarketing.de (Germany)

41. Dean Hunt - DeanHunt.com - (UK)

41-42??? Your Turn

Spread the word, the Game is afoot!

Addendum - also if you could, take the following Agent Wildfire Buzz Report survey about word of mouth behaviors and practices in return for a chance for your favourite 12 business books.

Orbit 5 Gum Fashion Style Wheel

Love this idea from Wrigley's Orbit Gum (found at Style Dash) . A bit of chewing gum for your mind and fashion wardrobe...a spindel wheel focused on what fashion accessories match up with the flavour of Orbit 5 gum you happen to be chewing....plus it would appear they included a bit of a fashion blogger outreach in the initiative. Fun, novel, well done.

Now was that my Orange Lacoste shirt with White Kenneth Cole pants with Sangria gum again. Hmm...

The Social Media Business Trip and Vancouver Calling...

Certain, more talented business friends of mine have an exceptional command of their business and social media affairs when they're not tethered to the office umbilical cord.  I'm envious - frequently just getting to airport on time with the right luggage contents is success for me.

Whether it's the frequent updates I receive about  being delayed on the tarmac, queries about the best restaurants in Austin or spontaneous gatherings formed in funky downtown bars, a part of my mile high friend circle are biting out of the social media travel apple.

Mashable authored a very helpful post "How to Turn Your Business Trip into a Social Media Experience" that I'm applying on my business/personal trip to Vancouver this week. Here is combined list of helpful business travel resources:

Before a trip:
To plan, use my favourite travel planner TripAdvisor - 15 million travel reviews and growing
Before you decide where to go, one of my tagging faves - 43 places
Another fave on flight quality - Inside Trip
As a person who always packs their running shoes into their carry on - Map My Run is a frequent stop and I like this one too
Now that I'm unlocked from my Aeroplan points handcuffs - Farecast can take the grunt work out of finding the cheapest flights
As a road show foodie - Chowhound is a reliable restaurant fave
For visual inspiration - Flickr is my aesthetic shortcut to where I might want to visit
Placely - if you want to mine other people's itineraries
Dopplr - for the business person's itinerary
Pairup - to meet with travellers going out at the same time or visiting the same event, although not very user friendly
TripHub - convenient in planning group trips
Travelistic - YouTubey videos of cities you are going to
Couchsurfing - although not business travel-focused in any way - worth a look, particularly if you are all about community and don't want to bankrupt yourself on hotel rooms

Announcing:
Use Twitter throughout the week before travelling to highlight to your followers where you're going to be
Facebook's profile update also can serve as the same function
LinkedIn has a business travel expert's area and also has an update area, presuming Plaxo has the same functionality
TripIt - allows business groups to follow a centralized itinerary

When you're at the Destination:
Always go to the local guide for what's going on in urban centres - for Vancouver - my top 10 are: Georgia Straight, Urban Vancouver, Beyond Robson, Miss 604, Buzz Bishop, Metroblogging Vancouver, Vancouver Magazine, Where.ca, Vitamin V and a tonne of other urban and tech-focused in my reader   
Brightkite - allows you to send location tagged pictures by mobile
Utterz - allows you to send mobile audio and video
Upcoming and Meetup for the local events going on - there's a lot of stuff I wouldn't go near but every once in awhile
Of course, where would we be without Google Maps
Some travel software accessories for your Blackberry
Plus, these are very cool - and located in Vancouver - have a read

Onto Vancouver...I'm travelling out for my sister's wedding next Saturday Aug 9th (yes, we like the groom) and was hoping to sneak in a bit of personal, social media and business while I'm out on the coast.  A group of us are getting together at one of my favourite concept restaurants Salt Tasting Room in Gastown on Thursday, August 7th night 7pm - we need to reserve so if you're interested in meeting up, having some great conversation and even better wine and food...join the troop, just tell us you're coming by Monday. Of course, it's located near one of my favourite Irish pubs in Canada- the Irish Heather - so I'm sure there might be a nightcap too.

Marketing Profs Retort: Why The 6 Reasons that Word of Mouth Doesn't Work is Wrong

Marketing Profs published a post yesterday called "Six Reasons Word of Mouth Marketing Doesn't Work" by Michael Antman. Given my company Agent Wildfire's specialty, I received about 12 notes from various friends and colleagues shuffling this post off to me with the half embarrassed cover note "I thought you should see this" , akin to one of your relatives showing up in the daily newspaper accused of a crime.

I'm used to seeing this form of journalism (all opinion, no stats, no corroborating evidence) - so I dispassionately took apart the 6 reasons stated in its thesis, and I may have even agreed to half of one of them. Most of it however was straight out of a 1965 textbook on marketing.

As background, my forensics on the author Michael Antman is as a self-described "veteran ad creative director" and "principal of brand positioning firm". Nothing wrong with that at all but are we surprised that he's would come out on the other side of this word of mouth debate - his role and firm's success depends on marketers acting in the same way they have done for the last two generations. I just wished he had bought a stronger gun to make his points.

So here goes - the marketing version of:  Lincoln vs. Douglas, Evolutionism vs, Creationism, Rowe vs. Wade....maybe I'm overstating perhaps more Mondale vs. Reagan or "Great taste, less Filling" debate.   

1) Word of Mouth is inherently subjective, especially when it comes to B-to-B (WRONG) - I hate to disagree off the bat, but a study conducted by Jack Morton in 2007 argues that word of mouth from business colleagues and friends far exceeds the influence of meetings, trade shows, sales reps, the internet or direct mailin the B-to-B world.  Subjective or not, word of mouth sells and because of the long sales cycle all the more reason to harness a steady flow of it vs. transient media.  Unlike Mr. Antman's argument, advertising may get people aware of a brand but word of mouth is activating and actually closes the deal - a separate study by Keller Fay suggests 70% of conversations make people act - conversely,  what percentage of ads or direct mail could say that?

2) Word of Mouth is Uncontrollable (WRONG) - this is always the losing, command and control man's argument. If it's positive (which word of mouth generally is by a 7-to-1 ratio - Keller Fay) then why would you want to control it?   Regardless of the outmoded notion that ads actually "control" the message, ask Apple. ask Harley. ask Google, ask Mozilla - you will find very little broken telephone between what they do and how  people talk about them. A marketer's goal should not be to control, it should be stoke the fires that are there.

3) Word of mouth is limited in reach (1/2 wrong) - I nearly wanted to agree Michael's point but once again it was 1/2 false. The article is right in the fact that the decline from first to second generation drops off considerably. However, remember if you invite 10 friends to check out something and they tell just two people, guess what?  There are 20 outer ring people who may be talking about you two generations away from the initial conversation vs. the 10 you started with. In aggregate, it doesn't take too much of a multiplier to extend out. The other oversight is the web - if comfort and familiarity is required for a message to be adopted,  how do explain viral phenomenon? - surely 5 million people didn't know Randy Pausch individually, or 9 million people get intimate with Obama Girl or 95 million know the guy from Evolution of Dance. The concept of "weak ties" and the web that puts you in touch with them, makes word of mouth have potentially unlimited reach - whereas with ads, you get what you pay for and sometimes not even that.

4) Word of Mouth is easy to subvert (WRONG) - say what? So a genuine expression of referral and endorsement can be easily overcome by hmmm...a street team... or no, no - buttons at a convention or perhaps those slick glossy ads tucked in that massively popular trade journal - sure we only put it on page 18  - but people really read this stuff and believe it, right.  Yes, a company is served by having great ethics, service model and quality - those are table stakes - no arguments there. But we're talking getting your message out and Bain, London School of Economics, Cap Gemini, McKinsey and many others having proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the most forceful, influential force in purchase decision making is word of mouth. So how is competitor X going to subvert company Y's word of mouth efforts again?

5) Word of mouth is limited in launching new stuff (VERY WRONG) - Antman completely misses the bus on this one. Our own surveys have proved that the #1 thing people like to talk about is stuff that is new and innovative. This creates social currency for the sender and the receiver. The exact counter to the point is true - word of mouth is most effective when you are trying to launch something new, attracting a new audience or adding something onto what's already there. It's the traditional forms of marketing communication that get met with resistance with how people already see a company - as a positioning expert, Antman should know that. Word of mouth because it is two way, answers questions and is frequently about new stuff that allows brands to break out of that conventional box.

6) Word of mouth in non-replicable ..maybe (WRONG) -  the argument got a little muddled here but I think the article believes amplified vs. organic word of mouth is more scalable but paints a brush on both and suggests implicitly to get reach, you have to mass communicate. He's right - if you're looking for mere awareness , advertising is an efficient vehicle - however, if you're looking for inquiry, sales and advocacy, mass communications tactics fall well short - most studies peg ad campaigns return on value between $0.03 to $0.53 on the dollar and if you look at the inflationary and cluttered ad environment, at no other time in the last century have marketers been spending more and more for less and less trust, attention and time/space. So yes, use ads to get your name out but support it with more engaging, more credible word of mouth strategies that drive traffic and sales and consequently success in business.

Ironically, I love Marketing Profs but I found there tagline above the article "Smart Thinking...pass it on" - kind of an implicit endorsement of word of mouth. I applaud them for expressing a balance of viewpoints but sadly, on this article, the caption logo should have read "Old Thinking...keep it to yourself". Here's another article from Marketing Profs you should vest your time in from a writer with a wealth of experience on the subject.

Debrief: The Edelman Academic Summit

Having spoke at Edelman and PR Week's New Media Academic Summit '08, I truly have a better appreciation for Edelman's investment and support of the academic space.

Key takeaways:
- Edelman's philosophy and structure creates hard workers, solid corporate culture and builds a "do the right thing"  ethos
- Professors (or at least the ones at the conference) are earnest in wanting to provide their students with the best and most progressive education and have adopted a much more collaborative. less elitist approach to achieving this with their students
- Jesse Jackson is a passionate and well-spoken advocate for the underpriviledged  even after more than 40 years of crusading - my up close, living room session with him made me walkaway more impressed
- Robert French from Auburn and others are using the tools of collaboration to get PR professors to work together and build and share best practices
- founder of Edelman and patriarch Dan Edelman is a wisened soul with more than 50 years of experience in the PR space - a straight shooter and wonderful host for the conference participants

My colleague in crime and fellow Canuck Marcel Lebrun from Radian6 and myself representing Agent Wildfire spoke about Monitoring and Measuring Conversations, moderated by Edelman's Deputy Managing Director StrategyOne Natasha Fogel. The highlights were:
- approaches to 10 types of conversations
- control of medium has ceded to participation
- there are four types of conversation media benefits
- a list of 10 somewhat immutable laws of conversation measurement
    1) it's imperfect, 2) it has a valuable long tail, 3) it's intimate, 4) it's in the eye of the beholder, 5) it measures outcomes not inputs, 6)those who measure are those who manage, 7) conversation don't happen in one place, 8) you need to roll your own, 9)  there are 27 types of conversation, 10) faith goes a long way
- answers to: where does social media fit in?, what's the future hold? how to prep your classrooms for this coming wave?  influencers VS. crowds?

Quote of the conference goes to Walter Carl - "the new resume is 140 characters long"

Some great content and conversation was exchanged - I regret having to miss a number of the sessions, our session was expertly summarized by Edelman's Mary Metcalf and other sessions were summarized here.

"From Mass to Grass" Rolls Out

Looking forward to seeing an enthusiastic crowd at tomorrow's "From Mass to Grass" Word of Mouth conference.  I'm excited about bringing some fresh grassroots stories to light through some amazing, made-in-Canada , word of mouth marketing successes.

From big beer and airlines, to small labelling and 2.0 companies, to altruistic and profit-driven and some of the best B-to-C and B-to-B examples, if you are at all interested in the progressive side of marketing, media and research in Canada - get yourself down to watch and glean the insights.

If you are already going and would like an up close and intimate with some of the speakers the night before drop me an email and I will tell you where we're hiding out over a few beers.

Over the next couple of weeks, I look forward to providing an "7 Questions with" interview format with the majority of speakers and moderators who were at the event. See you there.

Pick 20 - Backbone Magazine Awards

In collaboration with Backbone Magazine and KPMG, I was happy to be tapped to judge a competition of the most successful, progressive and new websites in Canada.

Even though a couple of my fave sites didn't make the cut, I was still struck by the gold mine of online talent and product we have coming out of the North (some of them I refreshingly had not stumbled across yet) and  oftentimes not located in our major cities either.

In speaking to the Sault Ste Marie Innovation Centre last month, there was a palpable sense of hope amongst an online savvy hardcore that even though you might grow up in a smaller city centre, there is opportunity to build stuff that gets noticed, talked about and used on a global scale and not have to move to the "big show".

Although I would love to talk about my individual faves for these "Pick 20 - Web 2.0 Awards", I have been sworn to secrecy until the winners are announced in the July issue of Backbone.

My general observations however:

- design trumps substance - the best sites were easy on the eyes and not jammed with clutter and features

- half the sites had some community building element and a compelling level of transparency

- some of the sites were visual stunners, innovatively programmed - the only problem was they didn't have much of a concept of business revenue model that companies or people would pay for

- with the exception of one site, the most commerically successful sites had a clear and niche understanding of what they did well and how they could create value for their stakeholders

- many new sites have made the mistake of going fully public wihout first seeding enough interest to generate the content and activity that will make other future visitors perk up

- although the temptation exists to name your site something distinctive, the best and most recognized really did capture the "positioning/benefit delivery" in the name of their site

- perhaps an anomaly, but some of the sites were just as successful in expanding to Asia and Europe as they were in generating success stateside, in the web 2.0 world, the world is truly flat

The best PICK20 sites will be based on the judge's review of each firm's ROI potential, Ongoing long term value, competiive advanatge, execllence of execution and innovation quotient. The sites were categorized in the following classes:

1. Problem solving: customer response, idea generation, solution brainstorming
2. Innovation: crowdsourcing, market prediction, participatory feedback
3. Collaboration: jams, customer input, user rankings
4. Knowledge sharing and management: teamware, wikis, blogs and collaborative content creation

So definitely get yourself a future issue of Backbone and discover the eGold that's being built in Canada.