When Brands start doing this I hope people remember who did it first.

*Please Note* I have launched a new home for my blog at http://saul.is/ I will keep cross posting here for a little while but please update your bookmarks or click on the link an subscribe to the new rss feed.

So I hope you have noticed the new look here at Saul.is (and I will write about that in the next blog post) but there is something pretty special that you may have not noticed yet…and I expect to be copied.

The thing that is so special, imho, is the url. Ya see I went with a “.is” extention (from Iceland if you are keeping score) so I could create blog posts like this one with the url www.saul.is/a-genius or even better full pages of this site that are as clear as day to what they are like www.saul.is/speaking (for my speaking career) or www.saul.is/consulting (for my side projects) and I have plans to add hundreds of pages of things that will entertain and amaze.

Pretty clever huh? Now imagine what a big brand could do with this? www.wwe.is/protecting-the-environment or www.bmw.is/the-ultimate-driving-machine or even www.coke.is/it The possibilites are endless and with the number of .com’s getting almost impossible to find I would not be surprised if this becomes more popular…so please just remember where you saw it first!

How I learned the importance of Vision.

One of my favorite podcasts is Creative ScreenWriting Magazine because every week they interview a writer and begin each discussion with "breaking in" stories.

This isn't exactly my breaking in story but it is interesting non the less so please indulge me.

As many of you know (cause I keep typing it here on my blog over and over) I used to make comic books for a living and through running my own publishing company I learned most of the lessons I share now in my fancy pants role as "The Smartest Man in the World". Probably my favorite lesson that I have never shared was "How I learned the importance of Vision" so grab a coffee and enjoy cause this one is a tear jerker!

In comics I had the pleasure of working with some amazing artists. One of my favorites was Bill Maus (That is his Batgirl drawing) because he drew beautifully, we got along well and he would make me think about stuff.

Bill told me this story about before he got enough work to draw comics full time he was also a caricature/portrait artist at Sea World in San Diego. One day while working there, a family came up to get a portrait of their son. The boy sat down and Bill noticed that he was missing an eye and didn't have a patch just an exposed socket. He began drawing the boy and purposely left the eyes for last because he had to decide how he would tackle this. After a little thought he drew the boy with two perfect eyes because he assumed that in the mind of his parents that is how he saw them. When he presented the drawing the look on the parents face confirmed he had made the right decision.

I was thinking about this recently and it dawned on me that this is a business lesson. You not only need to see your company or brand as what it is right now but also what it can be and what you want it to be, because how you see your business is going to shape how you discuss your business and how you discuss it is going to also be how others see it.

I haven't spoken to Bill in a while and for all I know I am remembering this the way I want to but either way I'm going to give him a call and say hi and thank him for the inspiration.

This may be the thing that bothers me most about Social Media.

I am a nice person.

I don't go out of my way to be confrontational but I am not afraid to defend myself if need be. Instead of picking a fight I have always thought it more impact full to walk away from a fight, follow the person home and put a bumper sticker on their car saying "registered sex offender".

I think a lot of people are like me but if you were to read social media streams you would imagine more people are like the kid in the picture and less polite then yours truly.

Now I am no shrinking violet and I LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA but I am really bothered by the fact that people use their "amplified voice" to criticize people and brands instead of being more constructive like trying to find love or teach someone something.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I would have more respect for the people who would walk into an [insert brand name here] store and scream expletive filled descriptions of their unhappyness (spelled like the movie...not a typo) to the kid in the store so you are reminded that there are real people involved in these companies then run to twitter and ruin the chances of me finding love.

Everyone knows that Sex Sells but has sex ever offered a discount?

On July 20th in NYC I will be delivering a talk on "How to create brilliant Word of Mouth with no budget". You can see I'm excited to be speaking at the Word of Mouth SuperGenius conference and as a way to get the word out (using no budget) I asked one of the neighbourhood moms to let me take a picture of her in a partially wet shirt designed by Hugh Macleod (@gapingvoid on twitter).

You see by knocking on the door of a a neighbour that I don't really know and ask the lady of the house to pose for a picture (and ignore the super gorgeous 21 year old daughter) I created a story worth sharing, made a new friend, probably ruined the self image of the daughter and proved yet again I am very charming...so by my calculations this family alone will be telling this story forever.

Ruining family dynamics is only one way to get stories to spread and to learn other ways I hope you will join me at the conference and listen to not only from me but Tony Hsieh, Spike Jones, Olivier Blanchard, Lane Becker, Virginia Miracle and Kira Wampler (just to name a few).

...and hey since I am in a good mood and still tingling from the photo shoot I am going to share a discount code to the conference. Sign up and use the code Saulismyhero for a savings of $101

Disclaimer: you realize I was kidding about the whole ruining family dynamics but serious about being charming....right?

People who are good at Social Media know this...

When I worked at FreshBooks the thing I got asked most was "What exactly do you do there?"

The reason people were unsure was because when they met me they would see my title was "Head of Magic" and that was an immediate conversation starter. I've explained my role there 100 different ways but the core message included "a convergence of Social Media, Marketing, Customer Service and PR."

People are always debating the point of where Social Media falls between Marketing, Customer Service or PR and I am here to tell you that if you are doing it really well it will falls into all of them...or even better it's a new category all together and can be run beside traditional marketing departments because when you combine them all, Social Media becomes about one thing and one thing only.

[Wait for it]

Idea Integration.

When you are integrating ideas you are not replacing anything (some people think Social Media is a "cure" to all that ails ya) but rather enhancing what you are already doing in any of your traditional buckets.

What says you?

Would you take architecture advice from O.J. Simpson? A blog post about Social Media Influence.

I am fascinated by Social Media influence. I find it interesting that a lot of people assume just because you have a lot of followers it makes you influential in some way, or if because you get re-tweets a lot you are a celebrity of some sort.

Normally this would be the part of the blog post where I shoot down this theory and make a pop culture reference that will evoke a smile and then send you on your way so we can all go back to doing whatever else is on the schedule but instead I am going to agree with an asterisk and explain why these social media folks are "celebrities" but like most celebs they have very little influence outside of their small area of expertise and here is why.

O.J. Simpson is a celebrity.

No one ran like O.J and by all accounts he was a super nice guy but I would never ask for advice on architecture from "The Juice" because that is not something he is an expert on. Now if I was needing advice on how to kill someone, get away with it and tour the country playing golf before getting thrown in jail for something really stupid then that is something I would totally trust OJ to advise me on.

What I am getting at is that Celebrities do have influence but not for things they know nothing about. I got to thinking about this after a talk Scott Stratten gave a few weeks back. Before I show you this I should point out that I have nothing against Scott, I have written about him a few times on my blog because he has a different viewpoint then I do on some things and inspires me to write about my side of a discussion. I do wish him well, think he is a very entertaining speaker and think you all should buy his book and continue to make him a celebrity and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE realize that I am not comparing Scott to OJ in any way...I just used OJ as an example cause, well OJ is funny to me.

In a talk he was explaining to a group of Financial Advisers how influential he was online and said [notice the quotes] "I have more influence over the Canadian Financial Advisers then you do" This statement couldn't be farther from the truth (my opinion) because no one in Scott's network is going to trust him with their retirement plans or money in general to invest on their behalf. You see just like OJ, Scott's expertise is in Social Media and the tools etc and while he can (and I assume) does consult to all sorts of industries on how to do what he does best but we as Social Media folks can't assume that our influence will cross over to anywhere we want it to go and our followers will blindly follow us no matter where we try to take them...and to take this a little further we must realize that whatever influence we do have over people comes from trust and proving over and over we know what we are talking about in our little slice of expertise.

Influence isn't all encompassing. I don't buy into celebrity endorsements but will listen to celebrities talk about their craft for hours. When people rank influence there needs to be a clearer explanation on what the folks are being judged on. I imagine there are folks on Twitter with a few hundred followers but own a lot of trust in a sub culture like a genre of music or a style of art that have those few hundred people hanging on every word and are equally influential to them as any of the Twitter Celebrities.

There are a few valuable and different lessons in here but...am I right? Honestly, I want you to use your own judgment and not use my influence over you to make you agree with me.

The solution to the problems of Newspapers is simple...3D!

Not a day goes by that my phone doesn't ring and someone asks me for a solution of some kind.

Just yesterday I got a fax from one of the most powerful newspaper publishers in North America (true story....maybe, and really who sends faxes anymore?) and on it was one word...."Help Us".

SO since I never back down from a challenge I offer you my solution to the Newspaper industry.

3D

No not the visual explosion that is coming to a fancy new television near you but rather "3 Discussions"

The concept of 3Discussions is that as long as Newspapers continue to only show one side of a story (or one opinion or slant) the industry as a whole will not fulfill the unspoken promise of reporting a story.

My favorite way to explain this theory is by using my favorite movie critics Siskel and Ebert. Ya see, Gene and Roger made magic together because while they agreed with each other often, they still had different views and reasons to why a film made an impression on them and they were never afraid to offer dissenting opinions on something.

Major news stories, like blockbuster movies need different opinions in the same place and side by each. Every major story should have 3 ongoing discussions so people can choose who they identify with and how they want to consume any individual story. Continuing with this thought process, I have my own mind and will enjoy a film that a critic doesn't necessarily enjoy and the same slant and bias can come through in reporting so instead of offering 1 slant I suggest offering 3!

I know I am probably rambling now but I have a joke I want to use so bear with me another paragraph or so.

I like Howard Stern, and I know he is not everyone's cup of tea...and I know he makes some people hate tea (that is my favorite Andy Kindler joke...was it worth the wait?) but I can honestly say his coverage of major events like 911 spoke more to how I want to consume news then any major network. Big Media needs to offer these concurrent viewpoints and discussions and they may just find they can offer something interesting for everyone.

...and get a lot more people drinking tea.

See what I did there?

What says you?

How smart people think about ROI.

Somewhere along the way in my travels I picked up a reputation of being an "anti-roi" guy and I am here today to tell you that you got me all wrong.

I think more about ROI then you could imagine.

The difference between you and me may be that I only care about the metrics that meet my company goals and I don't care much about the metrics that everyone tells me I need to care about.

If you buy a book on metric measurement or listen to a speaker talk about the importance of ROI Metrics they will speak to generalities and "Best Practices" and not know, understand or meet your unique objectives.

You should know your business better then anyone and that makes you just as much of an expert as people saying they are experts. Understand your needs and find the things you need to track...and chances are it isn't always "hits" because as Avinash Kaushik says "Hits = How Idiots Track Success"

To further make my point, here is a panel I did at SMartCamp last May in NYC. The beautiful Julia Kaginskiy (moderator) pitted myself against Israel Mirsky (Porter Novelli) to discuss the value of Metrics. He is a smart numbers guy who makes an excellent defense but still had no real response to my analogy of not using metrics to get pretty girls to make out with you and if I had to pick a clear winner I think it was me (by decision, no knockout) due to the fact that like this blog post you need to know your audience and decide what goals are the ones that match them...not what people tell you are the standards.

Best Practices are kinda like fairy tales.

It is late, dark and quiet. A beautiful woman sits alone on a red leather couch wearing only a tank top and a pair of short shorts. Her hair is in a pony tail and Letterman is on in the background but she barely notices it because she is lost in her computer. Every few minutes Tweetdeck chirps and she is follows a new stream of ideas and conversations.

Without warning there is a loud crash followed by a scream and then crying. The woman springs to her feet and runs up the stairs of her home two at a time until she is in the dark doorway of a bedroom…looking down she sees the source of the tears, her son is on the floor.

The woman sweeps up the boy in her arms and consoles him by lying down beside him in bed and gently rubbing his head. As the child begins to settle down he looks at his mother, eyes still a little wet and asks her to tell him a story, but not just any story, he wants to hear the same story he has asked to hear every night for the last year.

“Mommy, Can you tell me the story of when you increased sales 25% by launching your company blog?”

…and just like all the times before, the woman gently ran her fingers through her son's hair and shared her story she likes to call "Best Practices"

I was at the Canadian Marketing Association National Conference yesterday and found it interesting how many people still in this day and age ask for and rely on Best Practices. Now before I get into what may be perceived as a mini rant I want to say that the Conference was very well put together and I got a lot out of it so please don't take my observation as a criticism of the event.

Best Practices are an old way of looking at things and should be called "Things that worked for someone at some time but probably won't work for you because your goals, situations or conditions will all be different."

I am always for blazing new trails and not following others but even I realize the importance of understanding what works but please also understand that conditions change daily and things like geography or change in economy or where your company is in the brand development stage (and about 100 other things) all contribute to how ideas are received and accepted so if you are going to invest time in reading Best Practices please treat them as fairy tales and allow them to inspire you not influence you.

What says you?

Forget engagement for a minute, would you fight along side your customers?

At last count there are exactly 763418 ways to attract customers and build brand loyalty. I'm not going to list them all but I am going to focus (for this post at least) on one of my favorite ways.

Advocacy Marketing.

Advocacy Marketing is basically picking a cause that directly affects your industry or customers and fighting on their behalf...and just so we are clear, this is not picking a charity and donating to them (that is a good thing as well) but rather picking an issue that people that rally around and if you win the fight you will have made your small part of the world a better place.

There are a lot of great examples of this but my favorite right now Is the fight against spec work being led by Upstack. You see they are a service that matches people looking for creative work with amazingly creative people. Their business relies on having a full roster of happy designers to fulfill their brand promise so this makes sense to fight on behalf of the designers who work with them but more then that (and this is the impressive part) they made their advocacy stand one of the differentiators in their business while a majority of their competitors have based their model on the spec work/contest model.

Wes Wilson, the guy behind Upstack is a friend and I am helping with some of the idea generation for this (that's how I know so much about it) because he and I share the same passion for this cause.

The interesting thing about advocacy marketing is that it doesn't apply to every business or situation but if it did and you had the choice between marketing to your customers or starting a movement (maybe revolution is a better word) what would you choose?

If you were asking me, the answer would be fight every time.

Paying to Speak at Conferences ain't a bad thing.

I speak at a lot of conferences and I like to think I am being invited because my talks are a mix of interesting and informative with just a dash of southern charm that you only get from being Canadian.

Because I speak so much I think I understand the conference scene pretty good and found a recent blog post by Scott Stratten interesting because he was saying that a certain conference was charging to speak at their event and he didn't like it.

Now I don't and wont pay to speak anywhere. I will waive my fee for friends or a great opportunity but paying to speak is not something I would do so he and I are similar in that way but I don't share the same passion as Scott on this subject because paying to speak at a conference isn't such a bad thing under certain circumstances.

If I was a freelance consultant offering my services to a specific industry I would absolutely pay to speak at very targeted conference because it would be an investment the same way as advertising is but this would be laser targeted and probably reap a financial return right away. There is no better way to develop new business then to stand on a stage and prove to people through your own work examples how great working with you would benefit them.

There are plenty other sides to this argument but on a whole it is just about opportunities matching your personal or professional goals...and if you don't want to pay to speak because it doesn't match your goals then do what I do....I delete those offers.

What says you?

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!"

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!

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.)

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.

I don't think this blog post breaks my one rule of never saying bad things about a brand.

I have mentioned this before but my only real rule here is the not use my blog to slag other brands etc. I don't think I am breaking this rule but I was moved to offer a bit of critism towards Chevy and their SXSW campaign of giving cars to social media kool kids so they could drive to Austin and promote the brand and the cars while there and all along the way.

If you read Caroline McCarthy's piece about it on Cnet you would say to yourself "Self, this is a clever idea!" and it is. Not exactly original but it is clever...only thing is that while clever it is majority flawed...and here is why.

If I was doing this promotion I would have done the exact same thing except instead of sending a bunch of social media kids I would have gotten actual Chevy drivers to make the trip and as a reward I would have treated them to the SXSW experience all on the dime of Chevy (or GM...whoever) and if you wanted to keep the whole SM thing going you could add one Kool Kid to the car and fill the other seats with actual Chevy Owners because by using actual Chevy Owners they are 1-being rewarded for choosing Chevy and 2-will act as a trusted spokesperson while having a good time at SXSW.

Who better to speak about the fun and excitement of driving a Chevy then the folks who drive one everyday and not people who received one for a week as part of a paid promotion.

When companies sit around planning these "influencer" strategies they have to remember that the people who actually use their products and are passionate about the product in question are equally as influential as people with cache.

What makes you so special on Social Media besides being "early"?

Way back in October I put my "money where my mouth is" and challenged someone to come up with a new idea in Social Media because if there ever was something that needs re-invention, this is it because I am getting told by more and more "leaders" in this space that they are burning out or not being recognized for their thought leadership because of the ease of labeling yourself an expert.

Well I am sad to report that I still have my money...but that isn't what this post is about but it does speak to some of the same thoughts. You see this post is inspired by a question that my friend Rob Blatt asked me yesterday that I have not been able to get out of my head.

The question was this:

What makes you so special on Social Media besides being there early?

Now before you get all angry at Rob, he wasn't asking me in a negative way it was more of a statement about people on twitter in general and could someone who is considered in the "kool kids category" start today and really have any impact against the noise or be original without being compared to whoever the early person was.

I wonder how many people can actually answer the question honestly?

For me it is simple...I don't think I am special and from that comes an authentic genuineous that allows me to appreciate every person who interacts with me in a daily, weekly, or monthly basis...and also once I year I, very late at night while everyone is sleeping, post a picture of myself in just a pair of underwear (TRUE and there are 3 now...go find them)

How would you answer this question?

Does having a million followers actually mean anything?

I admit this is a bit of an unfinished thought so feel free to jump into the comments and finish it with me but I have been walking around with the notion of influence on my brain and wondering if there is such a thing anymore?

Most of this stems from my impression of the Kevin Smith vs. Southwest airlines incident

[Disclosure: I am a self identified Kevin Smith fan. To put that into context, I was one of the very few who saw Jersey Girl in the theatre and have chatted with KS more then a few times at Comic Con and the Toronto International Film Fest as well as have listened to every Smodcast since the beginning...yes a fan.] and what has happened since the initial event.

I am not going to bother with giving you a re-cap of what happened because others have done it better than I would but if you are in the dark on this you can read this great piece by Caroline McCarthy from Cnet or any of these articles.

As someone who is pretty sensitive to weight issues I was initially drawn to this story [thankfully I still have 4 inches on the old airplane seatbelt to work with so my interest wasn't from personal experience] and after the initial salaciousness of it I became instantly drawn to the outcome...and by outcome I am curious to know if this will actually hurt Southwest in any way. I say this because the airline industry is unique since it has a bad reputation already and I doubt that this is going to hurt it any further. The interesting thing to me is because Kevin Smith has a million followers on twitter and if his [in my opinion, deserved] outrage going to get people to not fly Southwest?

We keep talking about how the "power" has shifted from the company to the consumer because people have a voice and while I agree with this and appreciate it I wonder if people will actually give up something they love because someone on Twitter told them to. The last celebrity boycott I can remember was Howard Stern vs. Snapple and while that was a very different time, history has shown that he was able to hurt the company.

So I ask you..With more and more people collecting a million or more followers on Twitter or any other social network are we moving to a place where the people delivering the message...as well as the actual message will become a commodity with people not listening?