The Basement

The WOMMA Conference was awesome! The WOMMA staff has posted a good recap and links to other (including me – thanks!) discussing their impressions. I have lots, and lots to say and I'm going to try to spread it out over the next several days. I'm gonna start breadth first.

Big Picture Thoughts

There is an unbelievable amount of interests in WOMM from CPG, agencies, researchers, brand managers, product managers, internet strategists, etc. I have never been in a room with so many people (about 300ish I'd estimate), so focused for so long.

Who was there? There were a few names I recognized. Maybe you've heard of some of there: A&E Television, American Express, AOL, Apple Computer, Audible, Bausch & Lomb, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Burson-Marsteller, Citrix Online, Cold Stone Creamery, E.W. Scripps Interactive Media, Fiskars, GE, General Mills, Fidelity Investment, GfK NOP, Hallmark Cards, IBM, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Jupiter Research, Loreal, March of Dimes, Microsoft, Millward Brown, Nokia, Pepsi-Cola, SIGG USA, TaylorMade/Adidas Golf, Verizon Wireless, Walt Disney Co., Young & Rubicam and Yahoo! to name a few.

Now, this might not sound too surprising, but when you consider that WOMMA is less than a year old, this is really impressive. Well, at least I'm impressed.

There is also a clear sense of urgency. No one is really sure exactly what WOMM is (except me, of course), but everyone is certain that they need to figure it out quickly.

Remarkable Quotes & Thoughts

There were several incredible, thought provoking and interesting presentations – in fact, I've never been to any conference with such a consistently high level of presentation quality - and over the next several days I've going to be wallowing in some of the details. But tonight, sticking with my breadth first theme, I want to give you some quotes and thought from presenters throughout the day that resonated with me.

Andy Senovitz, CEO WOMMA

"URUE – You are the User Experience."

"The truth always rises to the surface."

"Marketing is easy – earn the respect and recommendations of your customer and they will do the rest."

Seth Godin, uh, well, he's Seth Godin

"It's NOT your mouth." (perhaps my favorite quote of the day)

"Ideas that spread, win."

"Close and cheap isn't a business strategy."

"If you define marketing as spending money to promote a finished product, you will fail."

"You don't grow by meeting needs."

"Apple is not a computer company, they're a fashion company."

Dave Balter, Founder/President BzzAgent, Co-author of Grapevine

"40% of every WOM dialog includes something about another media." (citing study by Dr. Walter Carl, super genius)

"Companies come to us and as 'We want help with WOMM, but we only want good WOM.'" (heavily paraphrased)

"50% of the bad stuff is about the company's response – not the product." (also paraphrased)

"80% of WOM is offline." (Citing NOP World – NOTE TO DAVE: It's GfK NOP now.)

To the above point, Jonathan Carson of BuzzMetrics added about online WOM - "From 0% to 20% is a short time it pretty good." (paraphrased)

Gary Stein, Jupiter Research

In response to a question about ROI of WOMM asked of the panel he was moderating when none of the panelists responded- "Someone mentions ROI and everyone scatters!"

Dave Evans, Digital Voodoo

Dave's vote for the name of CGM is "Consideration Marketing"

On the significance of broadband internet connectivity - "It's no that it' fast, it's that it's always on." (hugely overlooked and important point I think)

Paul Rand, Partner, Managing Director, Ketchum

Presented the phrase "Hear Me's" as a name for bloggers (usually with negative feedback) who desire to be heard. I included this so the folks at Volkswagen would know what to call me.

Laurie Weisberg, SVP, Informative

We've all been talking about the HBR article and the "Would you recommend me..." question, but Laurie presented what I thought was a great idea about the use of the question in practice. When you identify a category influencer you can use the recommend question to separate the promoters from the detractors for a particular product.

That and I could listen to Laurie's accent all day long.

Mark Hughes, Author of Buzzmarketing

"Put your brand second. Story first. Brand second."

Troy Young, VP of Interactive Strategy, Organic

"Strip back to the truth and get rid of the bullshit that surrounds the product."

IMO, Troy was one of the most entertaining presenters – you should see his sexy hairy belly.

George Silverman, Author of The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

"I have a client that is coming out with a product that will have lots of PR. He doesn't want to do blogs because he is afraid it will undermine the PR. I think this is so insane that I cannot answer." (paraphrased slightly) I think it's insane to Mr. Silverman. I have several discussions in which people used the world "fear" in association with blogs – I think that's insane too.

Mike Nazzaro, CEO Intelliseek

"Positive WOM is more influential than negative WOM." (I think this is another overlooked and important point.)

Terry Pittman, Exec. Director, Digital Services Market Research Group, AOL

"[The Cluetrain Manifesto is] profoundly important reading." This one sentence has made me begin to reconsider my opinion of AOL. Now if Terry can just get them to stop sending me CDs.

"Thank you for your attention." I just thought that it was interesting that out of 23 speakers in front of 300 people, all concerned about getting attention through respect, Terry was the only one to use this particular phrase. You're welcome Terry. I sincerely appreciate it.

Eileen Campbell, President, Global Development, Millward Brown

"There are type types of WOM: buzz and advocacy."

Jon Gabriel, Store Design Manager, Cold Stone Creamery

"In summary, chocolate covered crickets are good..."

Linda Bennett, Head of Buzz Marketing, Yahoo!

"Connect the unconnected." She said lots of good stuff, but it was late in the day. I particularly love this simple idea though.

And finally, my pick for the most informative, relevant and impactful presentation of the day goes to the very last one of the day: Gaylene Nagel, Senior Promotions Manager, Electronic Arts – more on this in an upcoming post.

One last note, I sure wish Pete Blackshaw had been there. This would have made my experience absolutely perfect. Understandable of course, he's got a couple of other things to worry about.

Constantine von Hoffman, Senior Writer for CMO Magazine posted about companies dealing with negative blog feedback. This is something that was talked about a lot at the WOMMA conference. I think companies need to work quickly to figure out how to respond and to respond quickly. As a "Hear Me" blogger (a term I learned at the WOMMA Conference), I can tell you that the worst response is silence.

I've been reading Constantine for a while and I enjoy his blog very much. He mentions my recent Volkswagen case study as a negative example and wrote me to tell me that my trackbacks are screwy. So, I thought I'd just post a link back to him - in case the folks at Volkswagen needed to hear from a reputable industry journalist.

Galloway makes it clear that someone at VW HQ is looking at his blog, so why hasn’t someone with actual credibility responded?

says Constantine. See, it's not just me.

UPDATE: Cindy Sullivan linked to my VW saga too in a good post on Cymfony's Marketing Insight blog: Fear and Threats to Corporate Reputation in the Blogosphere. She calls me a "dissatisfied customer" but really I'm just a "dissatisfied prospect", or more precisely a "dissatisfied ex-prospect."

It's 4am and I'm just getting in from a night on the town. NYC is an amazing place!

I have lots to say on WOMMA - it was an awesome conference - but alas, it will have to wait as I need sleep badly.

But I'm expecting some new friend to be reading this and I wanted to leave a short note of thanks.

Thanks to Andy and Micheal and all the folks with WOMMA for inviting me. I had a wonderful time. Thanks to all those that took the time to talk with me. It is obvious to me that WOMMA is an increasinly important organization and lots of neat stuff is going to happen here.

Check back in a day or two as I have lots to say about the presentations from the conference.

Thanks again!

Ooops. I missed this email form VW when it came it on 9/22. Here's what they said...

From: VIC Web Responses 
To: "'matt@thebasement.com'" 
Subject: RE: Marketing / Public Relations / Sponsorship 09/22 lp
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 13:59:57 -0400

Matt,

Thank you for making contact with us through the Volkswagen
website.  We regret to learn you were displeased with the 
service you received.

In order to give you the fastest assistance, we encourage 
you to call the Customer Care Center at 1-800-822-8987.  
You may reach them Monday through Friday, 8:00a.m. to 5:00p.m.  
A representative will document your concerns and assist you 
further in this matter.

However, we do offer an area on our site in which you can 
contact the Customer Care Center directly if you have your VIN
(vehicle identification number).  Click on Contact Us and scroll
down to VW Customer Care. 

We appreciate you sharing your comments with us.  Please visit 
our website again.

Ivan
Volktalk

-----Original Message-----
From: matt@thebasement.com [mailto:matt@thebasement.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 2:43 AM
To: volktalk@vw.com
Subject: Marketing / Public Relations / Sponsorship

Name : Matt Galloway.

Comments : 

I recently spent over 2 hours on your website and was ready to buy a car.  I
went to the dealer and after 4 minutes I had decided to never buy a VW
unless I move more than 100 miles.

I've blogged the experience and I thought you might want to know.

http://www.thebasement.com/blojsom/blog/thebasement/WOM/2005/09/13/How_Brad_
Noe_Volkswagon_Pissed_Away_2_Hours_of_My_Attention.html

This is a shame - your website is awesome.

-Matt

---------------------------------------------

Hmmmm. Where to start? It took them 9 days - from September 13 to September 22 to send me a form letter that asked for my VIN and tells me to call their Customer Care Center?

A couple of points...

1.) My email made it clear that I don't own a VW so where would I get a VIN?

2.) Perhaps they didn't read the blog I provided the URL for. Later on Sept. 13th (around 11:30 Central time) I called the Customer Care Center and spoke with a representative for about 45 minutes. I also blogged about this. During the call I gave them my physical address, phone number, email address and blog URL. I also menitoned that I had sent an email though their web site.

3.) What with the subject line and from address. In the age of SPAM, who would every open an email with a title of " RE: Marketing / Public Relations / Sponsorship 09/22 lp" from "VIC Web Response" - especially when I never sent an email with that title? This is why I missed it in the first place.

4.) Why are you telling me that you appreciate my comments while simultaneously illustrating that you haven't listened to a single one of them? Do you think I'm stupid?

5.) I have been back to your web site - many times in fact. It hasn't changed at all.

Would someone at VW please tell me why the heck this took you 9 days? What were you doing? And, perhaps more importantly, why did you send an email that is completely irrelovent?

Let's forget for a moment that I've spent hours writing about you - read my original email, then imagine waiting for NINE days, then read your response. If you were the customer, how would you feel?

Don't get me wrong, I'm no longer upset. I've already ordered my Scion xB. I'm just really curious how a company like Volkswagen can be so completely and utterly clueless.

Such great cars, such lousy marketing, PR and customer relations.

Lesson for marketers: It doesn't matter how good your product is if you suck at everything else. This is the corollary to the first step of WOMM - start with a great product.

Hey Volkswagen guys, my mobile phone number is 918-808-3072, in case you would like to explain any of this to me. It's the same number I gave you Customer Care Center two weeks ago.

Well, I am here in New York – in Brooklyn – on a friend's couch. It’s late but I wanted to post a bit about my surreal WOMMA experience tonight.

What an amazing group of people!

Three months ago I didn’t know what WOMM was. Tonight, I was at a WOMMA banquet meeting some of the industries leading players. I think I was the only person in the room not professionally involved in marketing or related offshoot. That didn’t seem to matter much to anyone though – what a great bunch of people.

Andy Sernovitz, WOMMA’s fearless leader, kicked of the evening with a toast. Andy and I talked a bit – he’s a really great guy. He announced that WOMMA is now 200 members strong – this is huge for a trade association in it’s infancy. I’m not sure if this is a testament to WOM, WOMM, or WOMMA or all three, but you can just tell that SOMETHING IMPORTANT is going on here.

Sometimes you hear people talk about meeting someone online and then meeting them in person. Well, tonight I meet lots of online friends for the first time. I met…

Andy Sernovitz, WOMMA
Mike Rubin, WOMMA
Jonathan Carson, BuzzMetrics
Gary Stein, Jupiter Research
Spike Jones, Brains on Fire
Robbin Phillips, Brains on Fire
Geno Church, Brains on Fire
Greg Cordell, Brains on Fire
Owen Mack, CoBrandit
Brad Fay, formerly of GfK NOP – now a part
     of a secret project, details forthcoming
Ed Keller, co-author of The Influentials, –
     formerly of Gfk NOP, now conspiring with
     Brad Fay

These are all folks who I’ve met through blogging. It was wonderful to meet all of them, but the odd thing was that they all felt like old friends.

I also met…
Bill Tuohig, Umbria Communications
Gordon Ebanks, Customunity

Gordon was at my table. His company, Customunity, is doing some really interesting stuff. Namely they provide custom social netowrk solutions - say, for example, build for a particular product, brand or community. I struggle with the social network concept, but Gordon (and table-mate Gary Stein) has convinced me that I need to look a little harder.

I enjoyed wonderful dinner conversations about applying WOMM, working with bloggers, and appropriate levels of transparency. Our table talked a lot about the particular difficulties of a company such as a large pharmaceutical company applying WOMM. In addition to the normal challenges, there are governmental limitations on what they can and can’t say, do and promote. Online community building is also challenging because of the nature the commonality of the participants. For example, as a pharmaceutical company, how do you get people to participate in online communities about a condition that might be embarrassing or that carries a negative stereotype? Certainly this can be done, but it is much more difficult than say, creating an online community of people who love their cars. Very thought provoking and enlightening.

I also noticed a flurry of activity on the WOMMA WOM v. Advertising blog today. I noticed that the WOMMA staff blogged about a negative experience with Kinko’s – namely failing miserably to deliver on their marketing promise. Alas, I had to wear a hand written name tag – can you image the embarrassment?

So I have to agree, Kinkos, you picked on the wrong crowd.

Kinkos sucks. Pass it on.

I don’t have time at the moment to read everyone else – I have to sleep sometime. I’m very excited about tomorrow. Good night.

My Dad, Dan Galloway starts his new job as City Manager of Stillwater, Oklahoma on Wednesday. Stillwater is the home of my alma mater, Oklahoma State University. This is quite cool and I'm very proud of him and I'm looking forward to visiting the old stomping grounds.

He has previously been City Manager for Bethany, Clinton and Owasso (all in Oklahoma). He worked for a short stint at the Army Corp of Engineers in Tulsa. He was a Resource Planner for the Upper Mississippi River Basin Commission before that. And with the Southwestern Illinois Metropolitan Planning Association Commission before that. He taught High School in his home town Pleasant Hill, Illinois while finishing up his Master's degree in Urban Planning or some such - this was right around the time I came to be so I'm a little fuzzy on the details - but it was from a state university in Illinois, I believe.

My Dad is brilliant and everyone I've talked with that has worked with him professionally says wonderful things - nicer than what's required.

Anyway, lot's of folks have ended up here after Googling him lately so I wanted to write a bit about him. If you live in Stillwater, don't worry, you're getting the real deal.

Good luck Dad! Oh, and be sure to stop in at Cooper's Bicycle Center and tell Mary that I said hi!

I love karma. Two weeks ago I wrote about how a poor web marketing strategy, followed by a lousy sales man wasted over 2 hours of my attention. Now, for the three of you who read my blog that are not in marketing – attention is the Holy Grail of the modern marketer. Especially one that sells $18-$60K consumer products like cars. In this case the offending company was Volkswagen and it's local Tulsa dealer Brad Noe Autoplex.

In summary, I spent over two hours on the Volkswagen website learning everything there was to know about a car that does not exist. The problem was that during that 2 hours Volkswagen did everything possible to make me want that car, including helping me "build my own". In software, we call this vaporware.

I emailed both the dealer and VW customer service. The dealer – Brad Noe Autoplex – was quite responsive. Immediately responding to my email and then later in the day with a phone call from the sales manager. They were professional, understanding and apologetic... even though they completely understood that they had lost my business. This is the right response.

On the same day, after getting no response from VW from my email – complete with URL I might add – I decided to call their customer service department. I complained in detail – politely and professionally – for about an hour. I gave them my phone number and my web address. The customer service rep was polite but unsympathetic. I told them that I was discussing this experience on my blog and repeated the URL.

The next day I got an email from someone at a large prominent international software vendor. It appears that they read my blog and were emailing the link around as a negative example. Their management wants to help everyone understand that somewhere out there, there are real people. The author of the email happend to be in the market for a car and told me that VW was now definitely out of the running. I records about 600 hits on the original post from that company's IP address.

After the phone conversation I posted Volkswagen: Drivers Unwanted and shifted more of the blame where it belonged – to Volkswagen.

Fast forward to now, two full weeks later. I haven't heard from VW (other than from the dealer).

Today though, I noticed that someone from Volkswagen started reading my blog at about 7AM. They clicked 17 times before someone at Brad Noe Autoplex started clicking at 9:21 AM. This is the first time the VW IP address appears in my logs. My guess is that someone at Volkswagen called someone at Brad Noe to find out what the problem was. From the looks of my logs, it was a long conversation.

Here's an except from my log...

whois199.5.47.1@whois.arin.net OrgName: Volkswagen of America OrgID: VOLKSW-1 Address: 3800 Hamlin Rd City: Auburn Hills StateProv: MI PostalCode: 48326 Country: US

whois 199.227.136.98@whois.arin.net Brad Noe Autoplex 199.227.136.96 – 199.227.136.103

199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:06:59:06 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:07:18:33 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:07:53:34 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:07:54:53 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:07:58:28 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:07:58:39 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:07:58:40 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:07:59:29 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:08:23:16 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:08:29:16 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:08:29:19 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:08:38:04 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:08:56:54 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:08:58:00 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:06:55 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:20:25 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:20:39 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:26:41 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:26:48 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:29:49 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:31:59 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:43:00 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:43:01 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:51:58 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:10:07:34 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:11:02:50 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:05:53 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:10:18 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:11:28 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:13:39 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:13:47 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:15:02 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:22:34 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:22:46 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:30:07 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:30:38 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:30:45 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:13:39:52 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:05:04 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:11:04 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:11:11 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:11:27 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:11:36 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:38:19 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:59:04 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:15:04:25 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:15:04:25 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:15:26:31 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:32:04 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:32:05 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:38:23 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:38:27 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:53:09 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:53:13 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:56:35 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:17:08:03 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:17:08:03 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:17:11:09 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:17:40:13 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:18:24:29 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:19:30:16 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:20:33:20 -0500] 199.5.47.1 - - [26/Sep/2005:20:33:20 -0500]

199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:21:41 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:21:41 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:25:03 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:38:58 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:09:48:48 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:10:16:28 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:40:16 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:14:59:52 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:15:00:32 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:22:57 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:51:38 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:51:44 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:56:24 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:16:56:32 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:17:16:20 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:17:53:19 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:18:15:09 -0500] 199.227.136.98 - - [26/Sep/2005:18:15:22 -0500]

I'm glad to see after wasting 2 hours of my time, I am wasting many times that for them. In the meantime, the Jetta Wagon is still displayed prominently on the VW website despite the fact that it hasn't been built since April and none really exist for sale anywhere. They are still bragging about the great gas mileage of their TDI Diesel engine ("Go farther: Jetta TDI gets up to 42 mpg." ) - which is not really available anywhere in the US. They might as well advertise a hybrid Touareg full-loaded that get 87 mpg at $12,999. Why not? They are essentially doing this already.

Just think how much time VW could not only save their prospective customers, but also who ever is reading my blog (at VW and Brad Noe) if they just adopted a web strategy that was transparent about the actual availability of their products. Why is this so hard? Amazon does this with millions of items – VW only makes 10 models (with options of course, but come on). I thought those kids were supposed to be engineerin' geniuses?

Farfegnugen must be German for crappy supply chain management.

Note to VW: Stop bothering your dealers and take a few minutes to review your website. Your dealers' salesmen would probably be more personable if customers showed up asking about a car that they could actually get. And, if you want me to explain your side of the story, you'll have to contact me and tell me what it is. Oh, and why after I sent you an email and called your customer service folks and complained for an hour, did it take you 2 full weeks to get around to reading my blog? Just curious.

A little bird told me that...

BuzzMetrics is being acquired by Trendum, a leading search and text analytics company focused on the buzz space - and the union is financially and strategically backed by VNU, the market research giant.

This is a very interesting development that speaks volumes about the importance of blog analytics' future in the market research landscape.

Congratulations to Jonathan Carson and everyone over at BuzzMetrics!

I'm going to be in New York City this week to attend WOMMA's Advertising event. I'm excited for several reasons - I'm going to get to meet several folks that I've come to know and respect over the last couple of months through their blogs (and mine), I'm staying with an old friend I haven't seen in ages, and I'm going to get to meet some of the folks my wife works with - folks I've heard lots about but never met.

But I'm particularly excited about hearing Seth Godin speak. While almost no one in my off-line life has a clue who Seth is, to me - and everyone else who's interested in marketing - Seth is a rock star. Whenever I hear someone speak, I try to say hello and shake their hand afterwards. And of course, I'm hoping I get to say hello to Seth. That said, I know that there are going to be lots of brilliant folks there - folks like Jonathan Carson, Gary Stein, Spike Jones, Mike Rubin, etc. So, in a sea of arguably more interesting, more brilliant, more important folks than me, I wanted to increase my chances of Seth knowing who I am.

So what did I do? I recorded a Audio Book version of Seth's free ebook Knock Knock. Available as individual mp3s or as a podcast feed.

I emailed Seth and he gave me the go ahead to distribute it.

So, go here to get your copy or get suck up the podcast feed here.

Feel free to copy it, share it, email it or link to it.

Enjoy and I'll see you in the Big Apple!

Virginia Zimpel of LaunchSquad wrote me about a corporate blogging survey they are working on for the upcoming BlogOn. She writes...

[The] survey [is] focused on corporate blogging that Guidewire Group (producers of BlogOn) is doing with a corporate blogging company called iUpload. The goal is to shed light on market demand for corporate blogging solutions, emerging best practices and the role of blogs in key enterprise functions, as well as to identify barriers inhibiting adoption in the marketplace.

We’re going to be announcing highlights of the survey at next month's BlogOn conference. Participants of the survey can register for a chance to win an iPod nano or a complimentary pass to the event.

The survey is short and sweet. Please take two minutes and participate.

Henry Copeland's written a great article on the phrase Consumer Generated Media. In short, he doesn't like it and prefers immedia – that is, if we have to call it something. Here's a excerpt...

Unfortunately, the words "consumer-generated media" aren't just misleading, they put things exactly backwards.

First, forget the word consumer. These folks are now participants, both in the news cycle and the creation of new products.

Generated? This stuff isn't generated, it's lived. Bloggers and podcasters are speaking from their hearts and passions, directly with their peers.

Media? Mediation means bridging a space between you and me, him and her. But we're all connecting directly now. Who needs a corporate bridge when all this new stuff is inside the same vibrant space, unmediated and immediate?

So I'd like to propose a new label: immedia.

Mr. Copeland's article is a fun read and I detect more that a twinge of sarcasm, but at face value I think he's missed a point or two.

First off, let's take another look at the definitions...

Consumer – the most powerful person in any transaction [MGGD (Matt Galloway Generated Definition)]

Generated - To bring into being; give rise to: generate a discussion. [From Dictionary.com]

Media - A means of mass communication, such as newpapers, magazines, radio, or television. [From Dictionary.com]

Several folks have said that CGM is a marketing term. (Which, by the way, it is.) But they say it like it is a bad thing. Yes, traditionally, marketing has been (arguably) evil – but those marketers that are banding about terms like Consumer Generated Media are starting to get it. Think about it – to a marketer a Consumer is the most important person in the world. Matthew Hurst doesn't like the word "Consumer" because we're not always talking about products, brands and purchasing experience or as Mr. Copeland puts it "Bloggers and podcasters are speaking from their hearts and passions, directly with their peers." But come on, face it, we are always consumers – even when we're at a funeral or in church or having CGHMM. And "speaking...directly with their peers" ?!?!?!? Then why the heck is it posted on a daggum web page and broadcast in feeds and advertised on ping servers? Bloggers are not talking directly with their peers – they are broadcasting to people that might be peers or who ever else will listen. This doesn't make it any less sincere, but it is certainly not intimate. Bloggers want to be heard or they wouldn't be blogging. They want a voice. And gosh darn it, they want to be viewed as the most important person in the world by those that they buy products and services from and they want those folks to listen. So bloggers everywhere, stand up and proudly proclaim I AM A CONSUMER!!!!

Mr. Copeland says "Generated? This stuff isn't generated, it's lived." But folks have been living experiences for decades – it didn't get Dan Rather fired until they started Generating Media! Generated – to bring into being; to give rise to. This is MORE than just living – this is giving up television and using the time and investing the energy to write. This is not some byproduct of simple existence – this takes effort. I don't know how your blog gets written Mr. Copeland, but mine is absolutely GENERATED.

Finally, saying that "the word media today is teetering on the verge of irrelevance" is just silly. We're not talking about a specific technology here like telegraphy – we're talking about a concept – a means of mass communication. Again, if we weren't aiming for a mass faceless audience we'd just email this stuff to everyone in our address book. My close friends already know that I'm pissed at Volkswagen – I want everyone to know. If my blog ain't MEDIA then I don't yet have enough readers, er, participants (I liked that bit).

Rhetoric aside, Mr. Copeland is right, blogs - or whatever you want to call them – are beginning to level the playing field between companies and individuals. In regard to information about stuff – including products, services, candidates and policies – we all have access to the mike. From the perspective of marketers - this means no more yelling over the heads of the public at large. Notwithstanding, lest we abandon capitalism and democracy – there will always be buyers and sellers. As the Cluetrain tells us, buyers today (and opposed to any buyer ever in history) have a very real, and very loud voice. Sellers – and their marketer friends – have to take note - and yes, Mr. Copeland, participate - or suffer the consequences. Sure, buyers and sellers are participating – but one of them still has to pay the rent.

In their notes next to my name, I hope those seller folks write CGM... and not some goofy made-up word like immedia.

Footnotes:
Henry Copeland runs BlogAds and has a great blog. He's brilliant and I like him, and his very opinionated opinions, a lot.
I found Mr. Copeland's post by way of Pete Blackshaw's Consumer Generated Media blog. I can't wait to hear what Pete has to say.

[UPDATE: Pete's posted more thoughts here.]

I saw this unbelievable story about a guy who was selling some funny shirts that said "A Prairie Ho Companion". He got a Cease and Desist letter from Garrison Keillor's attorney. This is unbelievable to me. Here's a comedian who is generally considered to be liberal and who is known for parody and poking fun at the shortcomings of each and every town he visits taking legal action against (arguably) a fan for making funny shirts. Mr. Keillor, apparently, is a hypocrite and clueless. BTW – that's not parody, that's my opinion, based on the facts.

I sent Minnesota Public Radio this email...

date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 03:59:06 -0000
to: phc@mpr.org
from: Matt Galloway
subject: You have got to be kidding...

Mr. Keillor and gang,

I just read this

http://www.mnspeak.com/mnspeak/archive/post-733.cfm

It's the story about the "Prairie Ho Companion" shirt.

I've been a long time listener of the show and I even own PHC CDs. And I have to tell you that this is really pathetic. If you don't understand why this is moronic and hypocritical, then you are not the bright folks that I had thought you were.

Sure I'm just one guy, but I won't continue to listen - or to contribute to stations that carry your show - if you don't let this guy sell his last 10 shirts and be done with it.

If the Lutheran church can continue to take your jabs, you should be able to handle this.

Sincerely,

Matt Galloway
Tulsa, Oklahoma
http://www.thebasement.com

P.S. For what it's worth, I'll be blogging about this in a few days whether you respond or not. What would you like me to say?

I received no response, so apparently they don't care that they have lost me as a listener.

Oh well, in my experience Prairie Ho Companions are better off shirtless anyway.

UPDATE: Related funny bit here.

Sorry about the light posts as of late. I've been working on a secret project that I hope I will be able to share within the week. I have several things to write about but most of them will take a while, so they will have to wait.

I also have a laundry list of small items...

WOM on WOMMA in NYC

I'm definitely going to the WOMMA Conference in New York City next week. Thanks to the folks at WOMMA for the invite, old friend David Murphy for lending me his couch while I'm in there and for my amazing wife Hetty for the support and, more importantly, the airline miles I'm using for my ticket. If you're reading this and you're going to be there drop me a line so I can be sure to look for you!

Seth Godin is going to keynote. I'm very excited about hearing him speak.

WOMMA Blog Plug

Speaking of WOMMA, their WOM vs. Advertising Blog is slowing down a bit as the event that it's promoting grows near. I've been posting comments there like a mad man so check it out if you haven't already. At the time of this writing the most recent post was an important one titled Time to Establish a WOMMA Trustmark? by Pete Blackshaw. So go read it an post your $0.02.

Pete has been a little pre-occupied lately – or should I say doubly pre-occupied. Be sure to check out his nearly neurotic new-dad meets consumer generated media and brand pundit blog "Dos Bebes"

CGM vs. OPM

In related news, Pete and his Intelliseek cohort Matthew Hurst disagree on the the name of the media of which blogs are a subset that is being generated by people who are not professionally trained or compensated for producing. As his blog name suggests, Pete like "Consumer Generated Media" or CGM. Matt, on the other hand, likes "Online Personal Media" or OPM. Matt writes...

BTW, if you are wondering why I prefer Online Personal Media to Consumer Generated Media, I realised I can't think of people stuck in a war or disaster zone uploading images to Flickr and blogging via their cellphones as being consumers! 'Consumer' is a role for an individual - it is the individual that blogs, sometimes as a consumer, but often not. The next step in terminology is to figure out something that captures this and which can capture feeds - 'Feed Media'?

I can see both sides here but I think CGM is sexier. I like Feed Media though. That's good that is.

Brains on Fire Indeed

Three kids from that Brains on Fire (the world famous identity company) are going to be at the WOMMA conference – Spike Jones, Robbin Phillips and Geno Church. I'm really looking forward to meeting them – especially Spike whom I've had the pleasure of engaging with some scintillating repartee in the WOM vs. Advertising blog. I've been reading the Brains on Fire blog lately and I like it a lot. Them kids is always thinking. Of particular interest to the read - Ms. Phillips asks for some input on goals and I rambled a bit in comments. She wants folks to post some comments so go there and let her know what you think!

That's all for now – I'm gonna try to be a little more prolific than I have been of late though. Thanks for reading!

An interesting bit over at iMedia Connection suggests that blacks and hispanics that blog are more influenced by blogs in their purchaing decisions that white bloggers. The post can be found here.

There's not really enough information here for me to make any objective inferences but I think this is interesting. Is anybody else looking at this?

By way of Gary Stein of Jupiter Research...

Jupiter is rapidly expanding our marketing coverage area to cover word-of-mouth, consumer content, blogs (vlogs, podcasts, etc) and evangelist marketing. Our current plan is to expand our current service to cover these topics, and write a number of reports in the coming year.

The first piece of this a simple executive survey, designed to get a sense of current practices. The survey is live right now, and available here

It's great to see Jupiter turning up the heat on WOM(M). So, please take a few minutes and help Gary out and take the survey!

See you in New York Gary!