So for the last 3 weeks I have been working on making Mike Boss’ WordPress blog site ready for NECC in San Antonio. 

There were 3 things we wanted the site to provide:
1.  A holding place for our Caricature portraits -via Flickr
2.  A brief Utterz (audio & picture) of the interview Mike had just completed w/one of four major education publications
3. A mp3 Podcast from the above mentioned interview (btw: love Twitter, but look out! Here comes Utterz!)

For those that know me (and my skill set) know that I am not a programmer by ANY stretch of the word.  But what I do know is the message that we need to project and that there are certain apps that talk to other apps & I know that those apps can help us make a great first (public) blog!  I don’t want to be one of those “failed” blogs that Jeremiah has talked about recently!  I don’t FAIL well.
It took some time to research the best options, routes of delivery, a lot of testing and a few rounds of training…but we did it!
Wendy polished it off beautifully with her HTML knowledge & as we were heading out to Taco Friday today (on a Thursday) we said the look of the site reflected Mike’s laid back personality!  Couldn’t ask for a better representation!

So big thank you’s to:
Angela Lewton for giving us the green light to do something way outside the box of “normal”…
Wendy Fox for the beautiful skin
Mike Troverfor trusting me on putting the caricatures on Flickr that would be displayed on a site that would generate “repeat customers”
and MIKE BOSSfor your beautiful vision of what New Media means to you & expressing it so eloquently next to me: the over excited, “over-enthusiastic”, 2.0 passionate gal!

Have a GREAT 4th of July & stay tuned for our next baby step! 
-jen

Just wanted to post out there that the Lithium project is on hold.  I have been told until January 2009, but you never know, someone might bring it back to life next month.

We have other “2.0″ tools happening, more in the form of new PR strategy, which seem to be getting really great feedback.  Hopefully we can expand on that success & get MPC more “social” on the web.

Social Media is not a trend & it is vital for a company…just as email is today.  I hope that there will be enough outside education on this subject with-in the decision makers spheres (not just me) which will lead to a sense of urgency to get back on track.

This is a GREAT little video by Common Craft who state that Social Media is as easy to understand as ice cream.

Check it out here.

My friend & former co-worker, Tac Anderson blows me away. When it comes to early adopters he is even beyond that title. If GM decides to open their truck plants back up to start building flying cars, Tac would be the first in line.

His latest posts he talks about FriendFeed and the multiple applications he uses to aggrigate all his conversations there.  Wow.  I am in awe of the technology that emerges every day so that we can all stay connected.  I can completly see the reason why forward thinking companies see understand the benefits of using new media tools to stay in contact with their customers.  In a downward, commodity-driven market the company that will emerge the winner will be the one with the best customer experience (notice I didn’t say service - that is toilet paper, we as consumers already expect superior service).  It is about releationships that are developed outside the 9-5 timeframe, you want to know someone as a human being, not just a customer. 

As for Tac’s flying car…by the time we all roll around to getting one he will have rocket shoes.

I challenge you to start with two communication tools outside a phone: a blog & a Twitter account.  Then we can let people like Tac rummage through discover the next best thing…and use what he used a year ago.

This is a post by the World Wide Media Director at HP, Scott Berg who answers a question that I receive a lot when in comes to New Media & the 2.0 world “are we ever going to use this stuff?”  The answer is simple, short & to the point…just my style!

The value of new media/social media/2.0…the internet in general is HUGE.  When companies realize that they HAVE to use this new technology, they might go kicking & screaming.  But after some education & insight, they will soon get it.

I have added a new person to the Blogroll.

Welcome Michael Brito of Britopian.com. 

I have been following him on Twitter for a while now, and it’s always nice to put a blog to a Twitter…and he has some great views & some great commenters that have some valuable info to add.

Well our site is 89% there!  We need to launch it internally first (goal: Friday 5/23/0 tweak it, mold it, learn it & then we would like to release it to our initial test group of customers by the end of June.

The site is very “thin”, as per the suggestion of Lithium.  I initially had it stacked w/layers of categories, threads & questions to get the customer “started”…but they said the best model is to have it very raw and let it take it’s direction from the users, the customers.

I am very anxious for the educational opportunities internally to help spread the Social Media love with an actual example!  My last education on the site (see link to slideshare.com) I had some great response & enthusiasm mostly from the folder of “it’s about time”. 

I say this all the time…”you need to blog, but DON’T be pitchy!” 

Blogging w/o selling…you want to sell, you have to sell, you NEED to sell…but you need to blog & communicate in this New Media/2.0 format…but how?  How do I sell w/o pitching?

Leave it to Seth Godin to say it so simply:
ENGAGE, CONTRIBUTE, QUESTION, PAY ATTENTION, READ, INTERACT.
This will have an end result of sales and not put you in the category of a door to door salesman.

-jen

Michael Brito wrote a great post that talks about On LIne marketing changing a bit…

IN vs. AT Marketing

IN marketing is participating in conversations that costs a company time which will have long tail results.  Consumers will believe someone (a friend, collegue, a fellow community memeber) more than an ad…if feels more real, more trustworthy, more of a value to use someone/something that is recommended.

AT marketing is still trying to interrupt the consumer through banner ads, buying ad words etc.  I will go to AT marketing if I hear from a “friend” that there is good & valuable information at that particular online location. 

Your thoughts on IN vs AT Marketing?

Shall I dare say…it doesn’t exist?

It’s just not as concrete as your traditional marketer would say while pitching you “over 10,000 cars will drive by and see YOUR billboard” or “we have a circulation of 400,000 readers”…

It’s about starting conversations, participating in conversations, linking your conversations to other RELEVANT converstations…and most important…is being relevant in these conversations.  You have to participate, engage dialog.  If you participate in order to “push” your information out there, you might as well have bought that billboard for 6 months.

Ross Mayfield wrote a great blog talking about how you can’t do the same type of marketing with social media as traditional marketers have done for years.