Jeff Cutler – columns, essays and opinions

Is that enough W’s for you? I’m not trying to usurp the journalism story rule but I did want to share with you my schedule for the week. WAIT. I’ll do that in a separate post.

In this post I wanted to let you know why a merry band of men and women*(look in the right banner for “Our Friends”) thought – as did I – that it would be a good idea to create a webinar for Chief Marketing Officers. That’s what CMO means if you didn’t know. And also why it would be a good idea to give it a listen if you care about how you market your business.

Oh, the Webinar is tomorrow. Go sign up HERE. It’s only about 40 minutes plus a Q&A section. You might learn something about using social media, communities and other tools and techniques to reach your audience. Now here’s the top five WHYs…

1 – Shiny tools like Twitter and Facebook are being overused by everyone. If you want to stand out and have a measurable impact with your audiences, you should know the best ways to integrate these tools into your existing marketing plan.

2 – The majority of individuals in management positions don’t understand how the aforementioned shiny tools might help them communicate with audiences they’ve never reached. The Webinar series will explain some techniques for explaining how community building is done in Web 2.0 and 3.0 ways.

3 – Resources are dwindling. As your staffers get handed a box from the copy room and are escorted to the door you’re left doing the same work with fewer people. We’ll help explain how to get this work done by balancing your remaining team and using new tools.

4 – Outside perspective is valued everywhere, even if it’s not discussed. You might not want to hear what a consumer has to say all the time, but it can help you refine your message. You might hate hearing a competitor’s opinion of your process, but it could help you beat them the next campaign you run. Our team has CMOs, journalists, content specialists, marketing pro’s, advertising agency executives, account managers and sales people on it. Our views will help you look objectively at your current marketing path and either pat yourself on the back or lock yourself into a closet and weep quietly. But at least you’ll well-reasoned impetus to do so.

5 – It’s free and any return you get is 100%. When have you gotten 100% on any campaign? I thought so.

Join for The Skeptical CMO and friends: The value of building your online community (before you need it)”
Date:  Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Time:  3:30 PM – 4:30 PM EDT

Here’s the sign-up link again.

If you have ideas for future Webinars (or marketing podcast episodes), or if you have questions for the panelists, leave them here in the comments.

Keep reading…and thinking!

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Tags: cambridge, CMO, Jeff Cutler, Marketing, webinar

You’ve seen the books in the self-help section of Barnes and Noble or Borders.

Who Moved My Cheese

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

All I Needed To Know About Social Media I Learned Over A Danish At SMB13

Popular titles, all. But the one thing they have in common is the strength of the storytelling. To get someone to pay attention to you, your company, your product, your prowess, your demands and your opinion, you should tell your story in a convincing way.

Take for instance Willie Wonka. Without the golden ticket promotion or the fact he had imprisoned some short factory workers, he was just another guy with a chocolate river, a glass elevator and a weird time-machine boat. But he could tell a story.

Let’s take a harder look at the candy magnate’s modus operandi and see if we can apply some of the lessons he taught to your life in the social media sphere.

Hey, Oprah, Ashton, Today Show, Brookstone, Fat Cat Quincy and others, this might help you connect with your social media audience a little more effectively. So listen up.

1 – Don’t be predictable.

Mr. Wonka looked conservative and staid in his suit, top-hat and cane. But he wasn’t afraid to use an impromptu gymnastics move to recharge his audience and get their attention.

*If you haven’t seen the movie, Wonka sticks his cane in the bricks, feigns losing his balance and somersaults forward toward the locked gates of his chocolate factory with the entire town and multiple media outlets standing outside. They gasp and then cheer and he captures their hearts. Touching.

Convert this to apply to your social media strategy. Your company can remain as laced-up as you want when it comes to traditional media and marketing, but if you want to reach a new audience go to them. Wonka new the people thought he was a reclusive, unapproachable soul. He reached them by being human.

So get out there and converse with your communities. And from time to time, refresh yourself in their eyes by stepping out and doing something unpredictable.

e.g – (after each section I’ll give a real-world example that could help a company) How great, and how much buzz would Dunkin Donuts generate if they gave away free coffee to their Facebook Fans one day? Nobody else gets the free coffee, only FB fans.

2 – Don’t make missteps (or at least prepare for the fallout as best you can)

As part of his process of searching for a successor, Wonka invites five children into his factory for a tour. During this tour he allows them enough chocolate, blueberry gum, golden eggs, fizzy lifting drink and other accoutrement to eliminate them as candidates.

They fall one by one and soon nobody is left to take over the chocolate factory.*

*no spoilers here.

The world of social media shrinks the world and speeds up the flow of information. If your company is doing something wrong, stop now and get ready for the eventual (because it will happen) backlash. Social media people will recognize these names – Skittles, Domino’s and KFC (thanks Oprah).

Either poorly thought out or poorly responded to crises, these companies all got dinged by something as simple as a hashtag or a RT (@oprah, that means Retweet. It’s when someone repeats what someone else on Twitter says. It’s the viral way for a message about free chicken to cause massive food shortages as the world’s largest chicken chain.)

So, when you make a mistake and create a new return policy on massage chairs or decide that you’re not going to let a Nine Inch Nails application in your iTunes App Store, be ready for the public response.

When in doubt, pretend that you’ve made this decision public on all TV shows, in all newspapers and magazines and on all Websites across the world. Then see how you might handle it differently. Because people will find out.

3 – Keep an eye out for unlikely partnerships

While it was a manufactured misdirection, the association of Slugworth and Wonka was one that seemed so unlikely that little Charlie was aghast when he saw Slugworth near the end of the movie.

Wonka found that it was important to remain friendly and cooperative with the majority of people within his sphere of influence because it was beneficial to the chocolate plant and to him personally.

In social media, don’t just ignore someone because you can’t see their worth right away. Take a moment to explore the different facets of a person’s background and skillset before you dismiss them.

A real example for me was landing a gig writing content for a pharmaceutical community site. The company had assigned me to work on a community for one condition without knowing my background. When I mentioned that I had a chronic illness, the hiring professional stopped in her tracks and decided to move me to a community they were creating specifically for that disease.

Now the company is getting a deal and receiving richer content because I can spend less time on research and use more billable hours writing.

Is there a takeaway to this? Should you model your social media-aware business on the stylings of a guy who breaks into song everytime he wants to teach a lesson?

My comment is to keep your eyes and ears open. Learn from everyone you meet. And find people who can show you the proper way to communicate with the tools of today.

Keep reading…sweet dreams.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A lot of people ask me where my ideas come from and how I can create so much content across so many channels. The content production just comes from knowing the vehicles and using them correctly – and from 20 years as a professional journalist and freelance writer. The ideas, they come from everywhere. This column was sparked – literally – by my mistake of putting a FastBreak candy bar in the microwave. I asked myself aloud if Willie Wonka would have done that and out popped this piece. See photos below for the aftermath.

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Tags: Jeff Cutler, lessons, mashable, Oprah, social media, twitter, Willie Wonka

In the world of technology and social media events, we’ve gotten complacent about entry and registration fees. The community has come to realize that content can vary greatly and that a for-fee model doesn’t always guarantee quality.

In fact, some of the functions I’ve attended that offered the best intelligence and networking were entirely free and even included beverages and food. The caveat is that these ‘free’ events are usually underwritten by a sponsor who sees some value in bringing the social media community together.

They also get a list of attendees – nothing to sneeze at in an era where lead-generation efforts can cost firms up to $500 per qualified lead. And they also get a bump in SEO and link juice because people like me tweet, blog and podcast about my experiences and connections facilitated by this free event.

Poking around online, I found that Twitter folks had strong opinions…

Stuart Foster said, “I think it’s totally cool as long as the fees are clearly outlined and the reason for charging them is also outlined.”

Don Martelli said, “I dont mind the reg fees just as long as 1. thr will be real SM uses explained that I cn learn from 2. attendee list is solid. It’s a no brainer. just lk twttr & other SM nets, it’s all abt the content & the ppl. otherwise, it’s just a lot of yappin.”

Rachel Levy said, “I think it’s perfectly fine. If people don’t want to pay, they won’t attend, and it will probably limit attendance.”

Mike Shea rounded out the group saying, “I would love to see more free ones, but charging fees usually makes a better event, so it makes sense to. But as a college student, the fees have stopped me from attending.”

Gaining such a perspective helps me understand and schedule my tour of events. I love to swing by a TweetUp and pop in on a TechTuesday or MobileMonday session. But I also see some value in organized events being a little financially exclusive.

If you want access to a musical artist, you pay money for their concert. If you want to see a movie, you pay a fee to be entertained. Why should being informed be any different?

We pay for college classes, we pay for continuing education, we pay to learn a language when we’re going to another country. Is delving into the minds of the social media leadership that different?

Clearly, I’m straddling the fence. I want free drinks and food. I want people who can spark my imagination and fulfill my need for knowledge. But I also want to keep money in my wallet.

What’s created this sudden angst after five years in the social media space? Just the steady increase in paid events on my calendar.

It used to be that you could go to Podcamp for free. The unconference model – a contradiction – was that the conference would form itself based on the desires and needs of the attendees. I’m pretty certain that the attendees didn’t need to start paying $50 to attend what was once a free gathering of podcasting enthusiasts. But it happened.

Social Media Breakfasts started out free and now incorporate a symbolic charge of about $8 to ensure attendance and an accurate headcount (I think podcamp could have done the same thing – people are loathe to part with much more than $5 so an $8 fee would have cemented an audience).

One Web/social media entrepreneur has become an artist at pimping a social event and then turning it into a paid conference. The key there is to get on the speaker list so you can attend for free or to linger around the Web and see if the content is shared via live tweets, Web streaming or archived info.

And some of the larger learning sessions have gone the way of the traditional tradeshow. They’re now called summits and labs and camps, but they’re finally focusing on making some money from the increasing participation in the social media space.

Just this week I signed up for an event – What’s Next in Tech – and was surprised to see a $40 pricetag on it. The attendee and speaker list was similar to the crowd I see at WBUR TweetUps and around town at other free events. For $40 attendees weren’t even getting open bar – a pleasant perk and numerous free Boston events.

As a journalist, I played that card and am attending as a member of the media. But what is the driver for someone else to register and part with $40?

I asked that of Shayne Gilbert, one of the organizers for What’s Next in Tech: Exploring the Growth Opportunities of 2009 and Beyond. *You can find conference details HERE.

**Gilbert reminded me after I first posted this that they are offering scholarships to the event – just see the event site link above for details.**

I told Shayne I had gotten a few comments already from people who wanted to know what their $40 would buy at this ‘next in tech’ event. Here’s our conversation…

JC: Who is this event best suited for?

SG: People currently looking for their next career opportunity, starting companies, or investing in start-ups. Also, recently graduated students. We want to have a conversation that’s focused on the future of technology here in Massachusetts.

JC: How will job seekers benefit by attending?

SG: Our goal is to provide a picture — with help from our speakers and attendees — of where the growth opportunities are in tech right now.

JC: What level of tech knowledge should an attendee possess?

SG: There’s no pre-requisite here. The conversation will be accessible to anyone.

JC: How will questions for the panels be taken?

SG: Live, from people in attendance.

JC: What is provided (food/drink/facilities/materials)?

SG: Light appetizers & cash bar.

JC: What new tech outlets will be present?

SG: Several local bloggers, ZDNet, Boston Globe.

JC: What should someone hope to get out of this?

SG: Ideas and inspiration about where the tech industry in New England is heading.

JC: Would an iPhone app developer benefit as much as a venture capitalist or a CMO of a local company?

SG: Hmmm… inclined to say yes. But the event isn’t really designed for CMOs.

JC: How was this event developed?

SG: We put together a number of local conferences like the annual Nantucket Conference on Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and the Future Forward Executive Retreat. But we hadn’t really done any events that were open to everyone, relatively inexpensive, and focused on what happens right now. Hopefully, it will be useful both to people looking for their next gig, and people starting their next company.

I’m not really sure if the knowledge is worth it, but I’ll be there sharing my experiences via Twitter if you don’t have the cash to plunk down. Shayne did tell me that the $40 is a discounted price only available until this Friday, May 15. Then it goes up.

Ultimately, I’m still going to see where I can save money as I sail my social media ship through all the events I can find. But the way I’ve started to think about things is in possible ROI. If I meet one person that hires me to work 20 minutes for them, I’ve made my money back.

Or if I can get in as a member of the media AND sell the article, I’ll be way ahead of the game.

You’re going to have to decide if $8, $40, $50 or $1000’s are your limit when trying to make more connections in the social media world.

Maybe I should just start tweeting to my friend Ashton and ask him to hire me to write his biography. I’d get to spend some time in California and I’m pretty sure he’d pay me more than $40.

Keep reading…

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Tags: Ashton Kutcher, Boston, Jeff Cutler, next in tech, podcamp, social media, twitter

Somewhere in the archives of my blogs, I’ve commented on Jonathan Coulton. He of the IKEA song and Fancy Pants and other brilliant musical missives.

Well, I interviewed the artist in March 2008 and we talked about everything. The interview went for more than an hour and now he’s agreed to allow me to make it available for public consumption in podcast form.

Just visit A Life of Play podcast to get the first episode…or subscribe in iTunes. All five segments will be available this week and each is about 20 minutes long.

You can see more about Coulton at his site.

And if you have comments or questions, please leave them here or in the show notes at A Life of Play.

If you have an idea for an A Life of Play interview, gimme a shout on Twitter @jeffcutler or send an email to jeff [at] jeffcutler [dot com].

Thanks!

Keep reading!

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Tags: code monkey, DRM-free music, IKEA, interview, iTunes, Jeff Cutler, Jonathan Coulton, music

When people ask about my vocation I tell them I write for a living and have been doing so for 20 years. When they prod a little, I say I write practically anything. When they push more, I break it down to an easy-to-understand “journalism, advertising, marketing, opinion columns, blogs and Bar Mitzvah toasts”.

Raised eyebrows and quizzical looks come from all quarters.

Newspaper reporters (most of them freelancing now) wonder with righteous indignation how I can balance reporting and copywriting. The long-standing bias reporters have toward flacks comes through and they wonder if I’m not just a paid pen for hire. Unvoiced is the skepticism that anyone can maintain critical thinking and ethical balance if they write more than one form.

I say balderdash…partly because I never get to use that word in any of my writing and mostly because that contention is crap.

A comment on Twitter the other day said that the vast percentage of bloggers are unable to write with the same ethical integrity as trained journalists. I emphatically agreed and was chided by a woman I consider a traditional journalist.

My reasoning – slightly difficult to put into 140 characters – is that bloggers come in all shapes and sizes. They are people who want to share what they ate for lunch, who they met that day, the bad parking photos they took, amusement park ride reviews, naked photos of themself, stories and rumors they heard, and also some who report the news.

Just take a look at three of my blogs and tell me that they all serve the same purpose. Bowl of Cheese, Things to Worry About, TDF08.

BOC is a rant site. I talk about how people are idiots and how the world would be better if I were running it.

TTWA is a random site that gives voice to my fears – however ill-conceived.

TDF08 is a reporting site with a dash of editorializing.

Balance those three – or any of my 12+ blogs – with my 20 years as a journalist and you’ll start to get a complete picture of the versatility present in my writing. I hope it will also open your eyes to the reality of writers who can write across a variety of forms and venues.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to start writing press releases any time soon. But I’m still going to write where the money is. And as news organizations lose more focus and funding, my best bet might be to do some J. Peterman pieces inbetween my tech analysis, social media training, commentary columns and sports reports.

What do you plan to do to bring in money? Would you, as a reporter, every cross into public relations? What’s your take on my argument?

Keep reading…and please comment. I’d like to know what you think.

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Tags: bias, ethics, Jeff Cutler, journalist, writer