I attended yesterday’s Word of Mouth Supergenius conference, the brainchild of Andy Sernovitz and gaspedal, to have new conversations about what it takes to generate word of mouth. The content was 50/50 for me, as some of it was 101. The day was also very B2C focused but I still garnered a great deal of inspiration about what Fathom needs to do to amp up our work with clients. You can tap into the conference presentations by perusing the AWESOME live coverage at gaspedal. To catch the conversation from attendees, follow the hashtag #supergenius [...]]]> I attended yesterday’s Word of Mouth Supergenius conference, the brainchild of Andy Sernovitz and gaspedal, to have new conversations about what it takes to generate word of mouth. The content was 50/50 for me, as some of it was 101. The day was also very B2C focused but I still garnered a great deal of inspiration about what Fathom needs to do to amp up our work with clients. You can tap into the conference presentations by perusing the AWESOME live coverage at gaspedal. To catch the conversation from attendees, follow the hashtag #supergenius on Twitter.

I met an incredible mix of folks from all walks of life and the discussions I had in between sessions was worth the trip into the city and I’m looking forward to connecting with them online and beyond. But, I think the most interesting thing I can share are my favorite quotes straight from the mouths themselves so here they are . . .

Andy Sernovitz, creator of WOMMA, CEO of gaspedal, torch bearer of Social Media Business Council, blogger at Damn I Wish I’d Thought of That: For Andy, I have two favorites: “Advertising is the price of being boring” and “Every Homer has a Marge.” Andy’s laser focus in his opening remarks was all about making love. That’s right. Beautiful, sweet word of mouth love. Advertising exists to buy your love, as Andy’s no BS remarks state but he’s less concerned with upending the ad industry and more focused on helping companies understand that a lack of love with your brand is a timing issue. Advertising comes first but word of mouth gets the last say (if it is an unknown brand). I would argue that word of mouth can come first and sometimes is the only thing that exists. For those who rely on their personal networks to get information, recommendations and help, an ad can be after the fact to reinforce its existence.

Tony Hsieh, Zappos: “People are bad at predicting happiness.” In other words, “if I get ____, I will be happy.” The beautiful irony of Tony’s discussion gave me hope that there are business leaders who are charging themselves with building more than just a healthy profit margin. Zappos only hires people who want to be inspired, not just motivated, to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Tony is knee deep in studying the science of happiness. Not the fluffy idea of what makes people happy, but what happens to the brain when its on happy. As the “customer service company that happens to sell shoes,” Zappos is engineering a beautiful, and foreign concept, in business and pulling in a boatload of cash money along the way. Side note: Two weeks ago, the longest call time in the company’s history was set. It was 7.5 hours. 7.5 hours! Check out Zappos Insights for more on the customer service revolution they are revving up.

Rohit Bhargava, Senior VP, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, writes the Influential Marketing Blog and spearheads The Personality Project based on his book “Personality Not Included’: Two favs from Rohit: “The opposite of love is indifference.” and “A great story is entertainment. A shareable story is retold.” Rohit gave us a lot to think about when constructing buzz worthy topics. I like his approach of finding one slice of coolness and focusing on that, even if it’s not your product. If it’s your culture or the way you promote something, tap into that if there is an emotional trigger — belonging, curiosity, exclusivity — that will make a connection with customers. I am also bringing his idea of discussing “predictable failure” instead of attempting to predict success into Fathom. Start with what you know and carve out your strategy from there.

Paull Young, charity: water: “We never ask for money.” 100% of donations go to fund the construction of wells in developing nations. Their cause is clean and clear: 1 in 8 people do not have clean, drinkable water. At $20 per person, we can help millions live and fend off disease by giving them access to clean water. The beauty of this charity is that it is so cleanly and tightly communicated that kids in developed countries, like 8 year-old Riley who only ate rice and beans for a month so she could donate grocery money to the cause, pick it up and run with it. I like how Paull ended his session. He talked about what he learned from Tony’s discussion on happiness and how he is now going to look for ways to bring happiness back to his donors and supporters. Those who commit to give and take versus just take, from charities to coupons, will exist for a long time. I suspect charity: water will be around for years. Their goal is to raise 2 billion dollars in under 10 years. It will happen.

Martin Atkins, author of Tour Smart and former Public Image Ltd drummer: “Be the fart in the elevator.” This may not be a direct quote but Atkins was referring to the notion that we are all looking to generate a ginormous atomic explosion in our marketing, when the real success is found in small waves with our most interested fans. There are probably 87 different quotes I could use from Atkins’ talk on how to generate word of mouth offline, but I was laughing too hard throughout his bit to write anything down. I have to say, this was the session that I was looking forward to the most and I was disappointed that it was not a discussion on constructing a holistic online-to-offline strategy. That’s okay. By this time next year, Fathom will be presenting at Supergenius or other conferences on what that looks like.

Olivier Blanchard, a.k.a. The Brand Builder: “ROI is a buiness metric, not a media metric.” Olivier was one of my favorite presenters because he helped bring some science to the art of conversation. His quest was to help us think from the CEO’s chair. ROI is not ‘Return on Influence’ or ‘Return on Interest’ or anything else except ‘Return on Investment.’ C-levels want to know where the investment will need to come from (their hard/soft costs are already allocated for so your social media budget cannot be invented) and how/when you will achieve clarity on the results. His approach has helped me look at all my typical questions about social media and turn them into business questions. For instance, replace ‘Where can I get more WOM?’ to ‘What are my options for fulfilling our objectives?’” Ultimately, if you are asking anyone to invest time, money and resources into anything, it must align with the a company’s current business strategy and structure or you will tune a C-level right out.

Todd Spencer, President & CEO of Doe - Anderson: “How would you treat a friend?” Todd’s presentation was a story about how Maker’s Mark is a true word of mouth company. They do not just implement WOM campaigns, they live and breath word of mouth. Earlier this year they decided to introduce a new product for the second time in the company’s history (based on the request from customers). Pre-launch they invited 150 bloggers and influencers in to try out Maker’s 46. 111 showed up to taste test and the result was articles, videos and tons of chatter that ran thousands of comments deep all over the web. From 1958-1966, it took the company 8 years to sell 25,000 cases. When Maker’s 46 was released, it took 8 weeks. Enough said.

There were no huge revelations for me or life altering discoveries at Supergenius. But, I believe that’s right in line with how our world needs to operate. The days of constructing a “WOW! Did you see that?!” ad campaign and then watching the dollars stream in are over. The Old Spice spokesman guy, Isaiah Mustafa, was talked about at least 5 times yesterday as a great example of successful viral. Yet, how interesting is it that sales for Old Spice are down 7%? You can Daddy Warbucks your customers all you want but be warned that buying their love can only get you so far.

One of the biggest naysaying comments we receive from clients about publishing their work online or even engaging in online conversations is: what’s the point if I will only add to the noise?

The definition of “noise” here is not derogatory. It’s all about context and purpose. The “noise” is a mix of people taking action, junk, groundbreaking ideas, cultural phenoms, personal brand blogs, blogs for the sake of blogging, hobbies, news sites and more. Like anything, the online world is full of great stuff and its full of crap. [...]]]> One of the biggest naysaying comments we receive from clients about publishing their work online or even engaging in online conversations is: what’s the point if I will only add to the noise?

The definition of “noise” here is not derogatory. It’s all about context and purpose. The “noise” is a mix of people taking action, junk, groundbreaking ideas, cultural phenoms, personal brand blogs, blogs for the sake of blogging, hobbies, news sites and more. Like anything, the online world is full of great stuff and its full of crap. For many C-levels and professionals  in the B2B space, the environment is still off-putting because they do not see any peers engaging online or they cannot see the value of investing time and energy into something that is completely foreign to their world.

MediaPost says it best with their recent article title: “The Blogger Generation Still Dominates Blogging.” They cite stats from Sysomos.com which show that nearly 75% of the bloggers are age 35 and younger. The stats do not dig deeper than surface demographics (geography, gender, etc.) but it is telling that many from today’s primary age group of online publishers are those who started it in the first place nearly a decade ago. For this group, blogging is a natural extension of who they are and what they do. For others who have a critical eye on the web, shifting into this space can seem like a compromise instead of progress.

Keep in mind that I’m not talking about the marketing ROI of investing in online publishing. I can cite examples that include our own and others that answer the question of why to start an online publishing program. I am much more interested in helping clients understand that they can have an impact on the world through the online space. I actually believe that by not sharing your thinking and experiences with the world you are doing yourself and all of us a great disservice.

But, can publishing online for all to see and share have an impact on how we think about our world? Before we can make real changes in this world — from business to the environment and politics to raising our kids — we need new ways of thinking about it. That’s where you all come in.

I believe that if we let the “oh it’s just a bunch of noise so why bother?” retort win, we remain spectators. By sitting on the sidelines as armchair quarterbacks, we don’t allow ourselves to jump into the action and change the game. Stop complaining about all the noise out there, that there are few compelling discussions online, and do something about it. The difference between being a real armchair quarterback watching the Super Bowl, and a spectator in the online world is that skills and tools we need to play in the online game are attainable. We can all make the online community worthwhile if we’re committed to the bigger question of how to make things happen (business, culture, political, whatever lights a fire in your belly). It’s not up to the “noise” to convince us to join in, it’s up to us to take these new opportunities and tools (yes, they’re still very new) and create something better.

So, that being said, along comes Double Rainbow Guy. If you haven’t seen the YouTube vid, go watch it and come back. I’ll wait. I’m actually more partial to the Kermit the Frog and Double Rainbow Guy duo. Again, I’ll wait.

This video, like so many other viral videos, has launched a complete unknown into becoming news media’s poster boy of the week. Jimmy Kimmel Tweeted the video just shortly after July  4th weekend, and suddenly the YouTube hits jumped from thousands to millions within under a week. Each day at lunch, the Fathom crew would check the jump and it was amazing to see it jettison into the spotlight each day.

Double Rainbow Guy allows people in game changing organizations to say, “See! The web is full of the inconsequential, the random and the ridiculous. Why would I spend any time there?”

Because that’s not a good excuse. If you have an idea that can change something in the world and the infrastructure of the web has the potential to connect you with that world, are you going to let other people stop you? If the online world belongs to all of us, and it truly does for those with accessibility, than why are we not all taking charge of its destiny? We are at a critical shift in the web’s development — from the content to the tools — but it’s going to take more brains on the job to take it to the next level of use and importance.

I’m not asking you to try and emulate Double Rainbow Guy by jumping on the viral-for-viral sake train and become a one-hit wonder that gets some media coverage this week but then next week drops into oblivion. If you want to have a real impact on how we think and the decisions we make, be prepared for the long ride. Be prepared to have a high volume of impact with a smaller audience. Be prepared to learn and change yourself, along with helping others to learn and change.

And I’m also not interested in exploring why videos like Double Rainbow Guy or events go viral, or trying to figure out how we can make this happen for our clients. As Fast Company points out, this story is yet another example of just how unpredictable it is to gauge popularity and influence. Even more unpredictable is the impact you can make and who will become your evangelists. But, that’s the unpredictable part we explore and want our clients to learn to love.

To take this work on, you need contradiction: stay true to you and let the outside world change you. Once you can achieve that balance, we can figure out how to find your fans and make things happen — both online and beyond. When we brainstorm, pick apart, build, deconstruct, rejigger, add, streamline or reinvent a strategic approach for a client’s online presence and engagement, like we have with architect and game changer Pete Larson, we hit the reset button each time we take a new step. With someone like Pete, we spend hours behind the curtain on the holistic strategy. This includes what you see online plus research, ongoing discussion, trouble shooting, entertaining fresh points of view and much more.

Pete and our other clients won’t be appearing on Jimmy Kimmel and their work is not going to be consumed by the masses, and that’s perfectly fine. This doesn’t lessen the impact of their work. The two do not belong in the same conversation. Double Rainbow Guy is consumable and sharable with everyone you know, and allows us to relate to something on the same plane. People like Pete Larson and others who have big, challenging ideas require us to have willingness, time and the commitment to think differently.

If you are in the marketing/brand/creative world, when a client says to you, “what’s the point of starting a blog?”, explore the answer together. I’m much more inclined to say to a client,”What are you trying to do with what you have to say?” and then figuring out which tool to employ, be it an online publishing project or anything else.

Having an opinion is great. Wanting to change the world is even better. Giving people the opportunity to help you do it is imperative if we are to take this very embryonic world we have birthed and help it gather strength, integrity and purpose.

says Jim Sherraden, manager at Nashville’s Hatch Show Print. And he’s right. Just look at them - in all their bold, chunky beauty.

So what gives them the extra kick? Truth. Simple and unadulterated. The limits of the letterpress force clarity - in both message and hierarchy of presentation.

Modern technology makes cramming in more - copy, images, logos, names, dates - the [...]]]> “The Hatch poster, though, kicks with a louder boot,”

says Jim Sherraden, manager at Nashville’s Hatch Show Print. And he’s right. Just look at them - in all their bold, chunky beauty.

So what gives them the extra kick? Truth. Simple and unadulterated. The limits of the letterpress force clarity - in both message and hierarchy of presentation.

“Everything’s done by hand. Hand crank. Hand ink. Hand trim. Hand wrap. And we call the customer from a rotary telephone.”

Modern technology makes cramming in more - copy, images, logos, names, dates - the easy default for dealing with every contingency. But usually, more is just more - confusing, distracting and detrimental to communication.

Next time the urge to add-on leaks in, be a vicious editor. Imagine having to produce your ad concept or web site homepage or brand story on a Hatch Show Print poster.

Sacrifice for clarity.

Founded in 1879 and owned by The Country Music Hall of Fame since 1992, Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest letterpress shops in the country. Read more here from the Smithsonian Institution.

Update June 7: This June 4th post from Seth Godin, But You’re Not Saying Anything, hits on the same idea (perhaps more succinctly.)

Today is a sad but encouraging day at Fathom. Today we say goodbye to Corrie Colwell, our 2010 Marketing and PR intern. Corrie joined us for the spring semester after emailing and telling us that she really wanted to work here. Due to a ridiculously red-taped UConn system completely devoid of support for students who take initiative, Corrie only received ONE credit for this internship. She was here 2 full days per week, worked her butt off, always had a great attitude, took on anything that we threw at her, didn’t hold back her opinions, jumped on any opportunity we [...]]]> Today is a sad but encouraging day at Fathom. Today we say goodbye to Corrie Colwell, our 2010 Marketing and PR intern. Corrie joined us for the spring semester after emailing and telling us that she really wanted to work here. Due to a ridiculously red-taped UConn system completely devoid of support for students who take initiative, Corrie only received ONE credit for this internship. She was here 2 full days per week, worked her butt off, always had a great attitude, took on anything that we threw at her, didn’t hold back her opinions, jumped on any opportunity we presented to her, completed things at lightening speed and was always easy going. Yes, UConn, I can totally see why you would prevent rewarding such a motivated student. NOT!

Either way, today is Corrie’s last day and she will be missed, but we have high hopes for this very motivated and enthusiastic grad! Here are Corrie’s own words about receiving the full-on Fathom experience:

From The Intern Desk
By Corrie Colwell

As I sit at my desk in Fathom’s “bullpen” on my last day as their official PR and Marketing Specialist (aka intern), I can’t help but reflect on the experience that I’ve had here and, even better, submit to the urge to leave my mark on the Fathom crew.

Interning at Fathom has been the best single credit (yes, thank you UConn for giving me a single as in one) credit I have ever earned. Regardless of the University’s lack of support, I can honestly say my experience at Fathom has well exceeded its one credit label. I am proud to have been a part of such a creative, hardworking, and amazing group of professionals and a company that offers such a variety of unique and incredible services.

I have worked on many interesting projects and with several of the Fathom crew, but there are a few that require special recognition as they hold a unique place in my intern heart . . .

Thanks to one particularly lively Fathomite, I have done more research and spreadsheets than I ever thought possible. I am now an expert at all things Excel and contact research-related tasks. And, as much as this may seem surprising, I’ve learned that spreadsheets are not a bad thing. Fathom has a great service to offer to the world, and if spreadsheets are how business development guy, Jon Tufano, organizes his contacts to spread the word - then I say, keep it up. (Especially because I will no longer be doing them). Oh, but, all kidding aside, Jonathan Abel will now be doing all spreadsheets.

I have gained immeasurable knowledge and experience in social media, writing press releases, and mass mailings from resident expert Suzi Craig.  I have spent hours looking at blogs to determine the direction that Fathom’s own blog will be going in and what conversations the company should be involved in. The result of all my research is this thought provoking post. After seeing what else is out there, I’m positive that Fathom has what it takes to be a trailblazer. I know that, moving forward, The Deep End will be an excellent reflection of Fathom’s new and exciting direction and all that it has to offer. (And, that last bit sounds sarcastic and cheeky, but is actually not at all).

Lastly, I have learned that Fathom has diverse knowledge that can be applied to a wide variety speaking topics. On numerous occasions I have assisted with research for a speaking engagement that Brent Robertson has been giving and on one occasion even attended one of his presentations. This one in particular was about getting girls involved in technology. I found the speech to be riveting and engaging, and not just because I got free girl scout cookies out of it. His impeccable speaking skills and the amazing application of his knowledge has made me realize how much impact thought leaders can have not only on their own company, but far beyond. Any conference or group would gain priceless knowledge inviting Fathom to speak. (Yes, that was a shameless plug for Fathom).

Overall, I have really enjoyed my time here and getting to know the crew. I can’t lie — I have an easier time saying goodbye to spreadsheets. But, the people I’ve met will always hold a special place in my heart well into the future, even when Jon calls up my famous, world-renowned PR firm to talk about a potential partnership. Call my intern Jon. We’ll see if we can fit you in.

All the best,
Corrie

What do you do when an experiment goes right, yet you suddenly don’t have the muscle to take it to the next level?

Don’t go into your hole. Get help.

If you naysay the value of building a strong online community that believes in what you do, here’s a story that I hope will change your mind:

CT TweetCrawl: The Evolution

I started CT TweetCrawl to mess things up. I was looking for a networking event where I could meet people outside of my geographical footprint and beyond my comfort zone. And, I wanted to talk about social media’s [...]]]> What do you do when an experiment goes right, yet you suddenly don’t have the muscle to take it to the next level?

Don’t go into your hole. Get help.

If you naysay the value of building a strong online community that believes in what you do, here’s a story that I hope will change your mind:

CT TweetCrawl: The Evolution

I started CT TweetCrawl to mess things up. I was looking for a networking event where I could meet people outside of my geographical footprint and beyond my comfort zone. And, I wanted to talk about social media’s next evolution with people from all industries. I wanted to meet other people who liked to mess things up. That happened, and pretty quickly.

When I started the TweetCrawl in early 2009, I lived a double life. I was running group88, a meeting and office space for independent professionals, and working at Fathom, the sugar daddy company of this blog (a.k.a., awesome brand and creative firm). I have since left group88 to put more of my eggs into the Fathom basket (so to speak). While I shifted my energy into Fathom, the TweetCrawl evolved and began to take on a life of its own. I thought, “success!” and I convinced my Fathomites that CT TweetCrawl should be a Fathom-endorsed event. They supported the effort and my enthusiasm.

We went from 6 people in a room together sharing a six pack to up to 70 people from all walks of life, making connections and becoming friends. The most successful part of the event is that we consistently have 30% new faces each time. To me, the most intriguing thing about CT TweetCrawl was our ability to connect people who normally wouldn’t get in a room together. Naysayers kept telling me that small businesses only want to make connections in their backyard. I say we need to redefine the backyard. The online world is your playground. Why not mimic what’s happening online so successfully, in the form of making connections that break geographic barriers?

We hold the event about once per month and take it all over Connecticut. So far, we’ve been to Hartford to New Haven, Farmington to Fairfield and Middletown to New London and most recently to West Hartford. The majority of Crawlers are small business folks interested in social media. Other folks from the broadcasting, nonprofit, corporate and education worlds round out the cast.

We ended the year with the grandaddy of all Crawls was Operation Home for the Holidays where we raised over $14,000 in two events, and the only reason it was a great success was because of the networks Fathom, Crawlers and our other sponsors built online and via the Crawl.

Now, we’re very much into 2010 and I’ve only been able to organize one Crawl. It’s beyond me and Fathom now that we’re really heating up with client work, speaking gigs and all kinds of stuff. I talked about the Crawl with Fathomites and asked them if we should do something else with this event that would align it with our market space more. They said, “Why, when that’s not why you started it? And it would kill a good thing if you try and make it into something it’s not.” True. Also, the event is not Fathom’s. It belongs to the Crawlers who make it happen, as it did when it began.

I ran a survey with the very awesome help of @KatieHoke (a.k.a. Kathy Hokunson) of Site Seeker. A lot of ideas were kicked around about what the Crawl’s next evolution could be — speakers, brainstorm sessions, more fundraisers — but one thing was clear: keep the fun. Keep the networking. Just make sure there’s more of it.

At the last Crawl, Diana Bartollota (@blawllc), had an awesome idea. She said, “Hey, if people want the Crawl to come to their town, why don’t they make it happen?” The thought of this was really intriguing. But, could we pull that off if lots of people were running the show? I think we can if we put a process in place that can be supported by many.

I put an email out to the regulars and asked for help. I suggested that we form a group of Producers who can help make sure the Crawl happens. They raised their hand with enthusiasm. We kicked around a bunch of ideas about how this could happen but it was clear that we needed to get in a room together to brainstorm, as well as start a Google Group to share ideas online. And, that is where we’re sit.

The Crawl has evolved but it’s ready for the next iteration. But, the people involved are the only reason it’s ready to grow.

Want to be a Producer for CT TweetCrawl? You must live in Connecticut and be ready to help host a Crawl (at a local venue) or help others to host. We’re not sure if this will be divided by geography or how it will work, and that’s where you will come in. We need your ideas, enthusiasm and willingness to keep the Crawl crawling. To come to our brainstorm session,  post a note on the CT TweetCrawl Facebook group or Tweet us at @cttweetcrawl. And, if you have ideas for us to kick around but don’t want to be a Producer, be sure to post them here.