The TrueTalk Blog

Staying In Touch Using Twitter

Twitter's become a pretty important tool for staying in touch with people and things I care about. 

Changing Change

We all carry around mental models of how things happen. Sometimes, those models prevent us from seeing things we need to see.

In particular, there's the matter of "change." I take that up in this video.

Video + Blogs = Engagement

In case you haven't noticed, video has finally come to blogging.

Next week, The TrueTalk Blog will be celebrating its fourth anniversary. We're gonna have a nice party with a bunch of other kids.

In that time, I've created 1,125 posts. And received 1,167 comments.

Now, in the past two years, I've recorded 242 videos on YouTube. Unfortunately, there's no way to know how many comments those videos have received, but, I can assure you, it's a lot more than the 250 or so they'd have received if the ratio was the same as that on this blog. A lot more. Fifty or more comments per video is common; hundreds, occasional.

Well, the question I have to ask myself is, "why"?

I guess one answer is that my written blog posts don't interest readers enough to leave comments. While I do have a few loyal commenters out there (hi, Mike!) others are sporadic.

Another answer might be that I'm a better at expressing ideas using the spoken word than in writing. That's possible, too.

Still another might be that video, itself, is inherently more engaging than writing. I'm certainly not ready to settle for that as the answer, but it does strike me that the emotional connection between two people is immediate and compelling in video. At least that's been my experience.

Regardless, what we now see are blogs are using more and more video material to illustrate points. That video might be created by the blogger her/himself or it may be video produced by someone else on which the blogger wishes to comment.

A couple of recent announcements have made it much easier for bloggers to integrate video into our sites.

First, a couple of weeks ago, our friend Loic Le Meur at still-in-beta Seesmic announced a the release of a Wordpress plug-in that enables blog readers to leave video comments on blogs. Now, Seesmic has turned on the same functionality for blogs using the Disqus comment system. We switched over to Disqus a couple of weeks ago but technical problems have ensued. We hope to be able to get them ironed out and turn on video comments here soon.

Second, today, our friend Steve Rosenbaum at Magnify.net announced several new functional enhancements for blogs. Magnify's new Publisher will make it easy for bloggers to locate and embed videos from YouTube, Google Video, blip.tv and other major video platforms. For now, Publisher works on WordPress and Movable Type blogs, but Steve tells me that other blog platforms (including TypePad) are in the queue.

This is all great news for those of us who see video as a significant enabler of emotionally-engaging interaction between people. Congrats to Loic, Steve and their teams for making it easier for bloggers to connect with their readers and viewers.

And, watch this space for some big announcements about video and community in the coming months. This is a revolution that is just beginning to gather steam.

Zappos: Twitter Tweet Shoevangelism

Most companies haven't a clue about how to use social media. (If yours is amongst them, be sure to read Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff's new book, giving you a real head start over your competitors.)

One company that has MORE than a clue is Zappos. A year and a half ago, I was leading a strategy project for a retailer, which shall remain unnamed. The leaders of the business were complaining about how, "Zappos is kicking our ass" in the shoe and handbag business. Today, Zappos has become an online behemoth, a destination for serious shoe shoppers.

Why?

Well, price and selection are clearly important reasons, but customer service has to be paramount. Remember, we're mostly talking about women. Buying shoes. Online. How many pairs do you (or your honey) try on before finding just the right one? Now, how do you make that work if you're selling shoes online?

Well, first of all, free shipping...both ways! You buy 'em, you try 'em, you like 'em, you keep 'em; you don't like 'em, you send 'em back. Just like that. Oh, and you can send them back any time within a year!!

Also, you put together a great Customer Service team. Oh, and everybody's on that team. Every employee gets four weeks training in customer service, including a week in a warehouse.

Now, Zappos was founded in San Francisco and grew up there, but then, one day in January 2004, CEO Tony Hsieh (all of 32 at the time!) decided to move the company to Las Vegas. Why?

It was one of those things we started talking about at the beginning of lunch, and by the end of lunch, we'd decided. We were having a hard time finding good customer service people in San Francisco. Las Vegas has a lot of call centers and lots of people who want to do customer service as a career. We announced it later that week and people were moving by March.

Decided to move the company over lunch in January. Moving by March. Think youthful decisiveness and a kick-ass focus on action matter today?

Anyway, today, Zappos employees are not only having a hell of a lot of fun, they're also creating a killer online brand. And,  what are they thinking about? Easy to figure that out. Follow Tony on Twitter (they have Twitter classes for their employees!). Read their blogs (they have several). Watch their videos.

Want to wake up some people on your executive team or in your boardroom? Invite them to spend an hour or so researching the Zappos story and then drop us a line. Let's see if TrueTalk can help you jumpstart your use of social media to help you connect with your customers in entirely new ways.

Still Another Boomer Journey

Stuart Elliot reports on another fallen advertising taboo in his article about Estroven's new Menopauseland campaign.

It's only fair that all those ED commercials showing older men with younger women will now be countered by their mirror image. Some will find this in poor taste, but it's really just the next stop on a very long ride.

It's fascinating how my generation continues to change the meaning of every developmental, social, economic, medical milestone. From adolescence through senility, we're going to transform everything. Or, at least marketers are going to make it sound that way. And, as a generation, we love it.

What are we going to do when it becomes clear that we've already had our last boomer president, and that it was George W. Bush, to boot?

Singularly Freaked

Susan Greenfield, an Oxford neuroscientist, is pretty freaked by the prospect of carbon-silicon convergence. Guess she's not much of a Battlestar Galactica fan, eh?

As Ray Kurzweil pointed out in this 2006 TEDTalk, Moore's Law has long made it  evident that silicon-based computing power would soon match that of the human brain. Add to that our increasingly sophisticated prosthetic design and implantation technology, and it's pretty clear that by mid-century, at the latest, hybrid human-machine life forms will be theoretically possible. Kurzweil called this moment, "the singularity."

At this year's TED, memologist Susan Blackmore  suggested that technology is already replicating itself via humans, a highly radical notion if you stop to think of it.

Point is, these ideas always frighten us. Visions of scenes of villagers with torches come to mind as Dr. Frankenstein's monster terrorizes the countryside.

I wonder when we're going to be able to have straightforward conversations about this inevitability. Probably not for a while, huh? Especially with Oxford neuroscientists raising the specter of lost individuality as the inevitable outcome of our continued use/dependency on technology.

Ordinary and Extra-ordinary

Titrating in an age of unprecedented opportunity for public expression.

Twittering Pangea Day

I'll be Twittering Pangea Day for the next four hours. If you're interested in following along, go here and hit the Follow button.

Pangea Day In The Cosmos

Well, one thing you can say for the TED community: we sure do know how to do a launch!

What do I mean?

Well, last night, I received an email from Carolyn Porco. Now, Carolyn is not someone who you'd think of as given to PR bullshit. This girl's a scientist. Get me?

So, when the Subject: of the email is NASA'S COSMIC PERSPECTIVE KICKS OFF PANGEA DAY, MAY 10, I was very impressed. Carolyn, a terrific TED presenter (2007 presentation here, caution: autoplay), will be kicking off the worldwide Pangea Day activities.

What's Pangea Day? Well, it's the 2006 TED Prize wish of Jehane Noujaim. That wish was at once simple and grand: what if the whole world could watch a films together and discuss their implications? Could such an event change the world?

We'll see the results tomorrow, as millions around the world gather for four hours to watch 24 short films and share our reactions. Check out the Pangea Day site and find a location near you to gather with others and watch Jehane Noujaim's TED wish come true.

Will Hillary Retain Her Dignity?

Now that the issue of the Democratic nomination for president has been settled by the voters in North Carolina and Indiana, the lone remaining question pertains to Hillary Clinton's desire to retain her dignity.

As presumptive nominee Barack Obama graciously pointed out last evening, Sen. Clinton has been a spirited campaigner. Her supporters have seen her as an intelligent, well-informed, hard working public servant, as well as the best hope yet for becoming the first woman to hold the nation's highest office.

Her effort has failed.

The key question now is whether or not Sen. Clinton  will demonstrate the poise and maturity her followers and the rest of the nation would expect from someone aspiring to be our leader. Personal ambition is a large part of the motivation for anyone to become president. But personal ambition must give way to the common good of the electorate, lest it be seen simply as hubris. Sen. Clinton's behavior at this crucial time will determine whether she will be seen as a committed, dignified representative of the people or a blindly ambitious politician. Dignity, once lost, is difficult to regain.

I have supported Sen. Obama for some time but have respected Sen. Clinton's efforts in this difficult race. That respect stands in the balance for me, and I believe others as well.

The time has come for Sen. Clinton to acknowledge a difficult reality: she will not become president of the United States on January 20, 2009

Broken Ankles & DNA

Watching Eight Belles finish second in the Kentucky Derby and then be euthanized was tragic. The current outcry over racing's safety is very healthy; Thoroughbred racing must do a better job of training and protecting these majestic animals.

But watching 60 Minutes last night was much more disturbing. The segment about the Dallas County prosecutor's record of erroneous convictions was heartbreaking. James Woodward was the focus. Woodward is a 55 year-old man who spent 27 years in a Texas prison for a rape he always contended he did not commit. Last week, DNA evidence proved he was right.

Here are my thoughts about reactions to these two things.

Bareback Riders

Annie Lebovitz's "topless" Miley Cyrus photos have driven 17 million unique page views to Vanity Fair's website, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

And, oh, the hubbub!

Does anybody else think that calling these wrapped-up photos anything other than "topless" would have generated WAY fewer views? Don't you see more of Miley in a bikini than in these shots?

Zappos Zappy Hour

Lots of companies are blogging. But I haven't seen one like online shoe store, Zappos.com. 

Most corporate blogs are, well, boring. They're more like brochures than blogs.

Zappos is different. Theirs is a hoot.

Watch the first video and tell me that you wouldn't know immediately whether or not you'd want to work at Zappos, or, for that matter, buy shoes from them. It may not be your cup of tea but they're lettin' you know who they are and a lot about their approach to doin' business.

Then, watch the second and imagine your CEO as the video's star. Or, if you're the CEO, ask yourself whether yours is the kind of business that would benefit from you leading in this way? (Remember, these are people in a privately held footwear business. Fashion people. Merchants. Lot of logistics and  Web people. Young. Smart. Home office in metro Las Vegas. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Take a look.)

If anybody asks you about what "authenticity" means in business, refer them to the Zappos blog.

A Mouse in Z-Time: Update

Clay Shirky's talk at last week's Web 2.0 Conference is up, here.

Wow.

We have come to accept the assumption that time is a  finite resource. Which, of course, it is, if you take status quo as baseline. So, if you continue to work X number of hours and sleep Y what's left is Z. And Z, of course, is already spoken for, or else you'd be sitting around doing nothing, which you're not.

Ah, but Z is the big opportunity. Why? Well, right now, you're reading the paper in Z-time. You're going to the movies in Z-time. Or, you're watching Lost.  Shirky calls Z-time our "cognitive surplus."

What we know, however, is that much of what used to happen in Z-time ain't happening anymore. Newspaper readership; down. Movie-going; down. TV viewership; down.

Well, what are we doing with our Z-time then?

Blogging. Making videos. Recording podcasts. Uploading photos to Flickr. Commenting. Twittering.

In short, we're creating stuff. Some of us more than others, for now, but all of us getting used to the idea that we, all of us, are creators and not simply "consumers" of material. All of us care enough about something to say something about it, write about it, take a picture of it or comment on somebody else's take on it.

And, to do that, we need, metaphorically, a mouse. So, Shirky says:

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD.  And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen.  That seems like a cute moment.  Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever.  But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables.  And her dad said, "What you doing?"  And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

Here's something four-year-olds know:  A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken.  Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for.

Read the piece. Hey, it's your Z-time, use it wisely.

UPDATE: Here's video of Shirky's talk.

Oh, Good. I'm Going To Podcamp!

Here's the morning kickoff video as I prepare to leave our apartment for Brooklyn. Stay tuned!

Writing "War and Peace" With Smoke Signals

Sometimes when I read the Twitterstream, I wonder what the great writers of the past would think. I mean, 140 characters at a time seriously limits what one can say, right? But, there is that elegant, haiku aspect that challenges some to be very eloquent. Others of us just drivel along!

A Very Smart Obama Supporter

I've followed Tom Barnett since seeing him at Pop!Tech several years ago. Sometimes I catch up with his blog in batches, so I missed this post when it appeared three weeks ago. Here's a snip, with a closing money quote:

And that's why I like Obama most.

Plus, as everyone I talk to about the candidates notes, he's got the smartest foreign policy crew around him in terms of innovative thinkers and raw talent. Too many retreads in other camps, promising too many reruns I fear.

I know, I know. For now, in this Dem fight with Clinton, Obama makes some unwise statements. All easily corrected by the intimidation of being sworn in.

But consider this: would it be easier for Clinton or--especially 70-plus--McCain to learn NOT to be who they already are--once in office (meaning, deconstruct their hard selves and adjust to a world very unlike the one they grew up in)? Or easier for Obama to find himself in office and "play up" to circumstances? Remember, Obama comes of age in 1970s, when this globalized world really begins.

I see zero chance in McCain growing and plenty of growth potential in Obama.

We need a listener right now, and an articulator--bad.

Yup, we sure do, Tom.

Taking The Gloves Off

Well, now! Twenty seconds into this video, Barack Obama lets Hillary Clinton know that he's infinitely hipper and more with it than she is by letting her know what he thinks of her utterly reprehensible approach to politics. Way to go, Barack! How many people in the US want to send Senator Clinton this exact message?