It's a Shame you missed Twitter. You got here just in time for the Death Rattle.

Some days I feel a lot like Lester Bangs.

Lester Bangs is the legendary music writer/critic featured in the film Almost Famous (and played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and in the film he says the following

"It's just a shame you missed Rock and Roll. You got here just in time for the Death Rattle...the last gasp...the last grope"

I love this quote because it is a perfect example of being too close to something to really be objective about it. You see there are days when I think forms of Social Media are done and we should all start looking for the next shiny thing but then something as simple as having a really thoughtful conversation with someone outside the "bubble" makes you all of a sudden realize that just because you have been playing in the social media playground for over 3 years doesn't mean everyone has and the actual fact is that this is still really early days for non-early adopters.

This realization also got me thinking that part of the reason I may feel like Lester some days is that I am living too much in the bubble. I'm not going to alienate any of my friends because you are all awesome but I am planning on picking the brains of more and more random strangers because in my opinion Social Media is no longer about the kool kids (or as Lester would say, The Rock Stars) and early adopters...it is now all about Lester Bang's other favorite type of people...The Uncool and if we are going to really be great marketers we may need to make some new uncool friends.

How to Create Offline Word of Mouth Marketing.

I am lucky because I get invited to speak at conferences all over North America. I speak on a couple topics (Entrepreneurship, Customer Service, and Social Media) but my favorite is always creating Word of Mouth Marketing. Here is a little talk I gave at the Word of Mouth SuperGenius Conference brought to you by the good folks at Gaspedal.

How to Create Offline Word of Mouth -- presented by Saul Colt from GasPedal on Vimeo.

If you found this interesting you can do one of three things.

1- Tell a friend or post it somewhere.

2- Invite me to speak somewhere...you won't be disappointed!

3- Buy a ticket to the next SuperGenius conference in New York City in July and hear me deliver a brand new talk (since I can't do this one again) about creating "WOM With No Budget!"

Always look at people's shoes, even in wheelchairs.

My dad has given me some interesting advice in my lifetime.

Things ranging from "Always look at people's shoes, even in wheelchairs because that is how you can tell if they are faking" to "Date who you want...your Mother will be fine". But the most helpful advice came from my days making comic books, you see my Dad used to come with me to comic book conventions and help me sell my books. At one of these shows he explained to me that to really make a sale you need to make a connection with the prospective buyer and try to gain their trust...he then proceeded to catch the eye of an older man wearing a Hello Kitty shirt and proceeded to ask "So you like little girls huh?"

Needless to say he didn't get the sale but the advice was good.

I started thinking about this because of a blog post over at BLOGTO.com about the Death of High End Sneaker Shops in Toronto. While I am saddened by the fact that these shops are disappearing (I collect sneakers and and buy as many as 20-30 pairs a year) but I can't say I am surprised...ok I am surprised a little but not shocked and here is why.

As someone who is the absolute 100% target market for these products, when I do frequent these shops no one will help me, or talk to me or treat me special at all...and by special I don't mean kiss my ass, I mean take a look at my feet (I usually wear something special to shoe shop in) and notice I am a customer and treat me as such.

I can buy shoes online but choose to do so in real life so I can actually talk with like minded folks who share a same interest as me but always end up feeling like I am bothering people and am a burden. To me retail is less about selling merchandise and more about offering and selling an experience...and the experience you are selling shouldn't be one of exclusion.

So if you own a specialty store, especially a shoe store follow my dad's advice and "Always look at people's shoes, even in wheelchairs" because knowing if someone if a possible customer is half of the battle.

...and if you are a sneaker store and want some business I am searching high and low for these shoes in a size 12. Not looking for a freebie, just someone with a pair I can buy.

Saul Colt will teach you Marketing.

I tend to notice things that others may not.

I always have and I can't really explain it. For example for years when I am in New York I always look for Dan Smith posters because to me, he is part of the New York experience.

I love everything about his posters because:

1- They tend to be everywhere...or at least everywhere I am going.

2- They are simple and to the point. (he wants to teach you guitar)

3-They leave me with the perception that he is serious about his craft and is dedicated to passing his knowledge over to you. (I can see it in his eyes)


Inspired by Dan I have decided to experiment with a similar idea and am going to have 1000 of my own flyers distributed and posted around the NYC area. They going to be advertising this here blog and I'm curious to see if anyone notices or has an impact...I'm sure they will cause the poster design is fresh and new.

I'll keep you posted!

Do you ever wish brands would say what you are already thinking?

Last week the shoe company Puma announced that they have re-thunk the traditional shoe box and will begin to sell their shoes in what they are calling "The Clever Little Bag". Now my love of all things Nike is well known but equaled is my passion for Marketing and Innovation so my ears perked up and I needed to know more.

Puma estimates that this switch will result in a reduction of water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level by more than 60% per year. Specifically speaking, 8,500 tons less paper will be consumed, 20 million Megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million liters less of fuel oil used and 1 million liters of water saved.

This is amazing, important, and Puma should be congratulated on the initiative because they are taking an important first step in changing their industry.

I just wish they also mentioned that they also hoped that after you took out the shoes you would use the bag as a lunch bag or small tote and continue to spread the Puma message because that was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the design.

I am not a Rock Star.

I am not a rock star.

Sure I wear tight pants every once in a while, and yes I have been growing my hair and practicing my stare (thanks for noticing) but this doesn't make me a rock star and here is why.

A Rock Star can live a long time on old material.

As a speaker sharing ideas and such, I can't.

Because of this I have been building a new (fascinating) 60 minute presentation around the concept of "What Marketing will look like in 2011". I've been walking around with this concept in my head for a few weeks and last night I had a Jerry Macguire moment...no not the "you complete me" part but rather the "come to Moses" moment where everything becomes clear.

This is the future (imho...and yes I work almost exclusively in colored Sharpie)



...and this is the foundation of the next two talks I will be giving:

Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference - May 13-14th in Halifax, NS

LessConf 3010 - May 21-22nd in Atlanta, GA (I have a crazy surprise planned for this event)

Anyway, Agree, Disagree.

What says you?

(my apologies to Jess Eddy for asking if I could include her in this post but changed the tone and couldn't fit her in. Go check out her links cause she is cool.)

Is quitting the internet the next big trend in Social Media?

I am proud to say that this is my 600th post. Hard to believe that I have done anything 600 times (but I assure you there are actually 2 things i've done this much.)

This whole 600th post thing got me thinking about all the gold I have written and more importantly, can I live up to the past and should I continue to pour my heart out to you on a weekly and sometimes bi weekly basis.

Normally this thought would never pop in to my head but all the recent news of Gary Vaynerchuk scaling back and Geoff Livingston leaving his blog got me wondering if this move is the next big trend in social media?

Gary and Geoff are people I respect a great deal but this post is not about them...it is about Jason Rodriguez. Jason was and is an author, internet pioneer and future restaurant owner. Jason has lived through all incarnations of the internet and there is an urban legend that says he was the inspiration for the Sandra Bullock character in the movie The Net. So knowing all this you can imagine how shocked I was to learn that he is hanging up his wireless mouse and moving on.

This is truly a sad day in internet history.

...and yes this is a joke, a pretty funny one if you ask me :)

7 ways to make an impact at an event like SXSW

It has been a long time since I did a good ole' fashioned "Look how smart I am" blog post so I figured this was as good as time as any. Regular readers to this here blog know that a few weeks ago I spent a week in Austin, TX for SXSW Interactive but not many people know what I actually did there. Hopefully if you attended the event you know since this post is sort of a step by step explanation of how I got the word of Thoora.com out to the people attending the conference but for those not there I have put together this 7 ways to make an impact at a conference. This won't work for everything but hopefully this gets you thinking a little differently towards how to promote a brand at an event.

#1 Custom Thoora Newspapers - Every great shopping mall has a large anchor store like a Macy's or whatever and developing a plan to stunt an event is no different. You need something that is large and interesting followed by a lot of little things that connect people's minds back to your big thing. Our big endeavor this year was creating fully customized newspapers based on the top ten stories of the day (gathered from Thoora.com) including a full page of original comic strips each day as well as an ad for the speaking panel I hosted (see #5). When I say these were custom I mean it. Every evening (starting around 2am) we created a completely new paper that got printed in the morning so they could be distributed that same day/evening...and by delivered I mean our team slid them under the doors of every hotel (in the sxsw area) we could before getting kicked out and told not to come back. Yes at last count we were warned by 6 hotels but that was cool because the fact that we were warned and removed became part of the story of our stunt.

#2 Uniform (and the ever important Shoes) - The best lessons I learned from Joey Ramone and Pee Wee Herman are that people respect a uniform.

For SXSW I wore the same thing for the entire week. Sure I had multiples so I didn't offend people fragrance wise but it was important that every photo that was taken of me and any casual glance from someone in the hallway counted as a brand touch (different from a bad touch) because as a new brand I was looking to build awareness as well as get the point across that I am with a new company and let my wardrobe act as a silent salesperson for Thoora....also it didn't hurt that my uniform was awesome!

#3 Canadian Breakfast - 11% of all attendees of SXSW were Canadian. On top of that 61% of all stats are made up. Made up numbers aside there are a lot of Canadians attending this event so we decided to host a little breakfast full of Maple Syrup and beaver jokes. The purpose of the breakfast really was just to do something nice and to get together with friends and make some new ones in the name of our flag but it was also an inexpensive way to make some people feel special and deliver a new reason for conversation around our brand and what we are doing at Thoora.com

#4 Hand to Hand Combat - The phrase "hand-to-hand" indicates unarmed combat but I like to think of it as advanced networking. You can do all sorts of stunts and cool things but if you don't follow up with a conversation or let people attach a face to something your stunts will lack the final piece of the equation. Going to SXSW is "the" single most fun thing I do all year because I get to do stuff like I am writing about as well as see friends but on top of all of that I make it my goal to speak to EVERY single person at the conference. I admit this isn't possible but I do want every person touched by my presence in some way and I work tirelessly to accomplish this.

#5 Community Panel - I have been very fortunate to speak at SXSW every year I have attended. This year I hosted a panel on Community Management: The Future Skills You Will Need" I was joined by Sarah Prevette (Sprouter.com), Justin Thorp (AddThis.com), Amber Naslund (Radian6), Seamus Condron (formerly of MediaBistro) and Andres Glusman (Meetup.com) and dare I say we had a great discussion. The room was packed, so much so that people were turned away, and the lucky ones that did get a seat were not only treated to over an hour of interesting information but everyone was given a the very same Thoora.com (see #2) t-shirt I wore during the talk on their way out.

#6 #PepsiRefresh - Sometimes when I am telling a joke I like to take people on a long journey that doesn't always deliver the impact at the punch line that it would if you just took the direct route. I know this and still do it because I am maybe not looking for an immediate laugh but something a little bigger. This is the quickest way to explain why when asked what the HashTag for the Community Management Panel (see #5) I chose it to be #pepsirefresh. Funny right? OK so here are the real reasons I did it.

• It made people scratch their head and ask why I did it and that resulted in 5 extra seconds of thinking about what possible connection there was between Thoora and Pepsi (and thinking about Thoora at all)
• There was a HUGE screen in the Pepsi Booth (at the entrance of the conference center) showing all mentions of the Pepsi Refresh project and this was my way of bringing our panel outside of our room and allowing the people downstairs to follow it as well.
• It is funny to me (here is the delayed punch line) to think that when Pepsi's PR agency reports back to Pepsi on all their twitter mentions there will be 100+ about our panel, our panelists and of course Thoora and through confusion they will be exposed to a new brand.
• Finally, I think the Pepsi Refresh project is a great initiative. I admire Bonin Bough (one of the people behind it) and this gave me a reason to be able to include it in my wrap up email post.

#7 Open your bedroom to strangers - I always say the best way to deliver a message is through a good old fashioned kidnapping! Well society and the police disagree so the next best thing is to allow people to willingly stay with you. Through a series of events I was asked if someone from a major media outlet could stay with me for a night. After weighing the opportunity of getting Thoora on this outlet to the chance of me being brutally killed in my sleep, I said yes. Well long story short I had a gentleman stay with me for a night, didn't die but much to my surprise the stranger I let stay with me wasn't the person who was supposed to be there. Yes, I had the wrong total stranger in my room.

Why am I telling you this?

To be honest...I'm telling everyone :)

Please note that all the photo's in this post were taken from other people who felt the impact of these events and were not staged in any way...except the business card pict. That one was staged but I assure you that no business cards were harmed in the taking of the picture.

Some of my best friends are Social Media Experts.

I have noticed lately that the tone of my posts have been less creepy and more cranky (this post may be evenly split) because I have been writing a lot about Social Media Experts and how I differentiate myself from the pack.

Well this post is less about me and more about a solution to the perception of your average Social Media Expert and before I get into it I have to tell you that this idea came to me while I was in bed with a pretty girl...why is that import? Well it isn't but I am making sure that if you remember nothing else from this post it is that even in bed with women my brain is still working overtime for you.

I recently asked the question on this here blog "What Makes You Special in Social Media besides being Early" and it got some interesting responses but I am still stuck on this idea and through it I came to this realization. Social Media is full of "Internet Famous" folks who have no real experience working with a brand or to take this further wouldn't know where to begin building a brand on through the Social Media channel. This isn't new and it used to bother me for some reason but like all industries, if they want to survive they need to innovate and social media is no different (yes I have written about this as well...you really should read my previous blog posts) so I propose all these Social Media "Kool Kids" who are internet famous re-brand themselves away from Social Media Experts to Personal Brand Experts.

For one it is more accurate and probably more lucrative since (and this part came from the woman I was with so I can't take full credit) there are a lot of CEO's and SR. people in big companies who need the help on the personal side of Social Media and not necessarily on the Brand side.

The Social Media Expert train has left the station but the Social Media/Personal Branding expert is just pulling in and who knows it may just be a money train.