Flock me, Baby.

I spent the first 3 days of last week at TechCrunch50.  I’ve been torn about what to write about the event.  I don’t really want to talk about the logistics…I’m going to trust that Arrington and Co will improve things next year.  I don’t really want to talk about any specific startups, because very few blew my mind.  But that helped me finally figure out what I wanted to talk about: the basics for marketing your startup.

You may ask why I think I’m qualified to post on this.  I certainly don’t have the experience starting and running a startup that Calcinas, X, or X have.  But that’s just it: these folks have great internal insights, but they also have the Curse of Knowledge; They don’t look at startups from an outsider’s perspective.  I think I do, for the most part.  In my experience, here’s the elements that many TechCrunch50 startups were missing that resulted in me leaving with no knowledge of what they’re about

1. Have a name I will remember.

There seems to be a new trend in naming Web 2.0 companies.  Gone is (occasionally frustrating) dropped and/or added vowel of Flickr, Zooomr, Tumblr.  The new trend seems to be taking a real word and spelling part of it out in a weird, extended phonetic way.  I won’t use any real examples from TechCrunch50…my goal isn’t to embarass people, just to help.  These fake names pretty accurately represent what I saw at the conference: hangowwwwt, wikeeficayshun, sooperpooper.

The issue here is that if I actually figure out what “hangowwwwt” is supposed to be (”hangout”), I will probably go home and type “www.hangout.com” into my (Flock) browser.  Maybe I will remember a bit and type in “www.hangowt.com”, but that’ll still be wrong.

Don’t name your startup something I’m unlikely to remember and unable to spell!

Good names are both memorable, descriptive, and easy to spell.  Some real examples from TechCrunch50: Legalicious, Flypaper (great logo too), Bluehaze, Musicshake, Truecar, and Goplanit.  It’s great if it makes sense like Goplanit, but it’s also OK if it’s somewhat nonsensical, as long as it is memorable and evokes an emotion.  My favorite example of all time is RadioHead.  Two words that I already have in my vocabulary, combined in an intriguing way.  Eventually, it loses meaning as two words, and now my brain holds three words: Radio, Head, and Radiohead.  Brilliant.

2. Have a reason for people to come to your booth.

This one is a sad fact of conferences like this: there’s a lot of shit to look at…why should I come to your booth?  You have to work your marketing muscle in any way you can to get me there.  This could be as simple as having a tagline that catches my interest (”Share status updates with your co-workers” - Yammer, TechCrunch50 winner).  Or, you can go a more primal route: fill my wants and needs.  Zivity had cell phone chargers.  Gazaro had booth babes  (and they worked rather hard).  Joongel had a big sign that said “We Have Chocolate”.  The guy from Kangapole juggled.

3. Use pertinent examples.

This one’s pretty simple.  Cater to your audience.  If you have something map-related, show the location of the party later that night.  If Joss Whedon is coming by later, have Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog on the screen.  Not that he noticed.

Your audience is also not homogenous.  TechCrunch50 was a mix of investors, exhibitors, press and others.  You don’t want to give me the same pitch as an investor.  Instead, take a glance as my badge and figure out why I’m here.  If neccessary, ask me what I do online!  I can’t count how many startups pitched me on stuff that, while useful to someone else, I will NEVER use.  If they had asked before speaking they either could have saved some time or catered their pitch towards my needs.

4. Make it easy for me.

This is more of a note for those who are just forming their startup, but it’s very important.  It’s great that you have a social network/media site/news site for people who like to go to conferences.  You certainly have found a demographic.  Here’s the issue:  these people already have social networks.  If they’re going to conferences they’re probably busy.  And you’re asking them to set up a new account, add all their information, start uploading photos and making friends and interacting?  Trust me, they’re not going to spend the time.

Make sure when you create (and hell, as you evolve) that you are helpful and not work.  If I feel like it is going to be exhasting for me (someone who works in the Web 2.0 business) to try this network, you’re unlikely to get normal folks.  Make sure that along with your niche and demographic, you solve a pain point.

If you accomplish the above 4, you’ve got my attention.  Make the most of it.

I am generally a skeptic towards advertising.  I think most of it is ineffective for the majority people, and some of it is just painful.  This is why advertising has to reach such large numbers: to get any reasonable conversion, they need to be seen by a great many people.

However, this is a great example of targeted marketing:

I’m at the gas pump, I’m paying an arm, a leg, and two more arms (don’t ask where I got them) for gas…you can see that I’m at $22 for 5 gallons of gas.  I see this advertisement, and I have to agree: Yikes!

So what is the solution?  According to this ad, Toyota.  Toyota apparently makes the most fuel efficient cars.  Cool, I didn’t know that.  Isn’t that relevant?

Now if I didn’t already have a Toyota Camry, this would be very intriguing for me.  What if I have an aging Honda that I was thinking about selling?  I might seriously consider a Toyota for my next car…the savings would be tremendous.

Unlike most unfocused, bland, broad advertising, this hits me when it is most effective: when I literally am paying the “yikes” amount for gas.  Nice work, Toyota.

Originally posted by corydalus. Remixed as per his Creative Commons permissions.

I got a piece of mail from PG&E today.  This is not uncommon: aside from my regular statements, they send me a lot of spam.  Apparently they’re not satisfied to overcharge me and make it impossible to pay online…they want more out of me.

I opened the mail skeptically, but was pleased to discover that this mail was about saving power.  Great!  Saving power is a win-win-win situation: saves me money, saves them money, helps the environment and the oil situation.  I’m onboard!  How can I save energy, PG&E, how?

“Dear Evan Hamilton,

Did you know that you could save 25% on your energy bill by getting our ‘Smart AC’?”

Now, you may read this and think that it’s no big deal.  What you don’t realize is that I DON’T HAVE AIR CONDITIONING.  I live in an old building and nobody here has AC, we have windows and fans.

PG&E knows this, because they provide my power!  But instead of taking the time to figure this out, they send me this letter anyway.  Well guess what, PG&E?  I am now going to throw this useless letter, which is plastic-y and unrecylable, into the trash.  You know what is going to happen to this trash?  It’s either going to a landfill, which is an unsustainable solution to our waste problem, or it’s going to be burned like 16 percent of waste in the USA.  What’s that going to do for the environment?  Is it going to save electricity or oil to have millions of PG&E letters shoved around landfills by tractors and backhoes?

If you are going to make your company “green”, or “energy-saving”, think carefully about how you’re going to do it.  You don’t have to make your organization 100% Green (Flock didn’t for the Eco Edition), but you should make sure that your “Eco” initiatives are not actually causing more harm than help.

Wow, have I really not posted since December ‘07?  That’s an eternity, especially on the web.  Unfortunately, I needed to update my version of Wordpress to get things working correctly here, and it didn’t happen right away.  Additionally, Twitter allowed me to keep publishing, so this hasn’t been a priority.

Let me be totally honest: I was scared to make the upgrade without the help of my web developer friend.  I know the basics of web development, but mucking about with databases is past my comfort point.  I finally found time with my friend and we got everything rolling.  The process was surprisingly simple…I think I could probably even do it myself next time, and I certainly won’t let such a long gap go by without posting again!

So…what now?  I am determined to get back on track with posting, and not let myself get behind.  A few of my goals for the remainder of the blogging year:

• Document the process of recording the new Monsters are not Myths album.
• Tackle the challenging subject of “what is the role of a Community Ambassador/Manager/Evangelist, as I touched on in Defending the Community Ambassador.
• Clean up the blog. I’ve already started on this, but I’d like to do some SEO (which I’ve been dabbling in) and perhaps even move all my evanhamilton.com pages to Wordpress.
• Be impulsive. I want to post what’s at the top of my mind and get my small base of readers involved in the conversation, rather than mulling on a post for weeks.

For those that are still here, thanks for sticking around during the dry spell. Get ready for some rock’n'roll!

-Evan

Ok, maybe that’s a bit harsh. But still, I’m frustrated.

I’ve spent the last few weeks (and will spend the next few) thinking up nice, original presents for friends and family. A silly DVD set for one friend, a mini-keg of Root Beer for my brother (don’t read this, Curran). Although it is work, I enjoy it because it’s worth them getting something they they truly like.

I appreciate this treatment as well…I’d much rather be surprised than get something that is “exactly” what I want…most of the time “exactly” is actually “approximately” and requires numerous trips to the store to return and exchange stuff.

I respect that many people don’t have the time/interest/capability to come up with a unique and fulfilling present, especially family (after all, presents from family are required, whereas they’re opted into with friends). I usually try to come up with a short list of things I would like that I wouldn’t buy myself. This year, there’s just one thing on that list: A Nintendo Wii.

I used to be a big-time gamer (even developed levels for Myth II), but I have since run out of time and money to keep up with games. However, the Wii really eliminates the time factor. I’ve played it a few times and it’s easy to pick up, play with friends, and have a great short session (unlike the long shooters and strategy games I played back in the day). I’m not going to buy it for myself; I need to save money and any splurging goes towards instruments for Monsters are not Myths or brief vacations. Thus, it is a perfect gift.

I understand that the Wii is not cheap, but my birthday is right after Christmas and I figured all the family presents could combine into it. If not, that’s fine…find out where you can find a Wii and give some gift certificates.

However, this seems not to be the case and I’m now being hounded for more present ideas from my own family. As stated above, I ALREADY spent my creative juices figuring out presents for THEM.

In short, I don’t care anymore. What I want is to be left alone. I spend enough time working at work and on music that I should not need to spend time coming up with my own present. If they can’t, then my present should be not having to deal with the hassle of presents. Honestly, that would be fine with me. Let me enjoy the holidays and give presents without having to write even one more Christmas list or go to any stores to return lame presents. Give me the gift of not having to be stressed about a PRESENT for MYSELF.

Merry Christmas.

Update: My friend Victoria Potter just wrote a great post looking at the larger, less selfish picture of why Christmas/December is no longer cool. Scope it on her blog.

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Tags: EvanHamilton, Christmas, presents, Monsters are not Myths, MANM, Myth II, family, returns, curmudgeon, Victoria Potter

I just wrote the following frenzy of text after reading this on Kevin Gamble’s blog:

“It’s not a community if everyone doesn’t feel free to participate as an equal. As soon as you make this someone’s job you devalue the contributions of everyone.”

I think the heart of Kevin’s post is in the exact right place. However, I think it’s entirely incorrect to say that making community work someone’s job devalues it; it doesn’t change the value at all, it just focuses it in a more useful way for the company.  While Kevin’s “conversational” aspiration is fantastic (and I think can be part of the community job), I think it’s idealistic to think that almost any company can have their best possible relationship with their community without someone focusing on it, at least part time.

For the record, a few things: I work at Flock as a Community Ambassador.  I am certainly biased.  I will refer to the position that we’re discussing here as Community Ambassador, but it has also been called Community Advocate/Evangelist/Manager (I’ll state my take on the “Manager” title later in the post).  I think Kevin’s heart is in the right place, but I truly believe in this position.

Here’s why this job is important:

Community is important
I don’t think Kevin denies this, but I think it’s important to state: your community is what keeps your company afloat, and (hopefully) the goal of your company was and is to make the lives of your community better in some way.  If you don’t listen to your community, you are either going to fail or you will have to get very lucky.  Methods may differ, but for the most part you’ll find that successful companies listen to their community.

Companies are not inclined to state what they’re doing
Companies like to have big unveilings, to surprise their audience, and (frankly) to keep their ideas secret so they don’t get ripped off. Communication between releases is not in their nature. However, it is part of human nature to want to know what’s going on and part of human nature to talk about things they’re excited about.  I know people who are just short of physically upset when they don’t know what Flock is up to, even if it’s as simple as “planning our holiday party”. I mentioned our new Twitter account on our blog last week and within 5 hours more than 70 people had started following it. People want to know what’s going on, and employees want to talk about it…but companies are built by default not to do this. Unless you’re blessed with an executive staff that is open-minded AND takes the initiative to make the time to write and/or approve posts, this isn’t going to happen on it’s own.

Customer feedback is, by it’s nature, raw and biased
Of course my feedback about a product I use is going to be biased…I bought it for me, and it should work for me! But how is Apple supposed to treat my feedback that the new iPod Nano doesn’t fit in the mini-pocket of my jeans? Alongside (probably) millions of other pieces of feedback, where does this factor in? Again, time becomes an issue: does Jobs have time to read and absorb all this feedback and do his regular work?  Unlikely. While I’m fully in support of employees at all levels of a company reading community feedback (which we do at Flock, from QA to CEO), it’s unrealistic to count on this. Having a Community Ambassador to absorb, categorize, and interpret this feedback is key. Nobody at Flock would have guessed that Picasa was important to our community, but through gradual collection of votes (on our site, blogs, and via direct feedback) it became clear that Picasa integration is much more important to our existing community than any other service.

That said, I totally agree that the Community Ambassador should not be the single point of failure. Going back to the point about feedback being biased….even if 20 angry people like me write to Apple asking for iPod Nanos that fit our mini-pockets, that’s ignoring the millions of people who don’t care or even like the size. Both the Community Ambassador and the company they work for must take this all into consideration. User testing should be done, and ideas from directly within the company shouldn’t take backseat to community feedback…they should ride together, as equally viable ideas.

People like to get pumped
I understand where the inclination to stay “hands off” of evangelism comes from. Nothing is grosser than an employee (especially an executive!) putting on a big fake smile and blabbing on about how great the latest product is. However, I think that if you accomplish what Jeremiah suggests in his post on the topic, you are part of your community as much as your company. Once you are a legitimate part of your community, you are taken seriously by them (though you can easily compromise this by not being honest). If you truly are excited about your product (which you should be, or you should get a new job), you should express this to the people whom you know are excited about your product. If I care about, say, the band Queens of the Stone Age, I might join their Street Team or mailing list. If their Community Ambassador then contacts me telling me about how awesome the new album is (especially if it’s “insider” news), I’m going to be stoked! If he tells me they’re going on a new tour that is going to be wild and crazy and gives me the link to buy tickets, I’m not going to feel advertised to…I’m going to click that link and look at the tour dates! It’s all about being honest and genuine and only evangelizing to those who opt-in in some way.

Everybody should be part-time Community Ambassador
I agree with Kevin…the position of Community Ambassador absolutely does not absolve anyone in the organization of interaction with the community. As we do at Flock, the executives should blog, read feedback, respond to customers, and meet the community. This is essential to your organization, and the position of Community Ambassador should not affect this one way or another.

In the end, I understand where these anti-Community Ambassador posts come from. The position is often called Community Manager, which is a gross mischaracterization and invokes scary undertones. Many people claim to be interested in “community”, but describe it as a sort of asset (”Oh yeah, we got one of them community things. I hear they’re good for business.”) And the intrusive, look-we’re-cool-too style of advertising is so pervasive that it makes me physically angry when I hear a 40-year-old on the radio talk about how “sweet” and “stylin’” you’ll be with some “urban groove” on your “sweet mp3 player”. That is not community work…that is lame, dishonest advertising. The Community Ambassador is not an advertiser…he/she is simultaneously a member of the company and the community, and the guide for communication between them. He/she is not the be-all, end-all. He/she is not the single point of communication. He/she is not always right. He/she is just helping the flow of communication between those who make and those who use a product.  And if that’s not an important role, I don’t know what is.

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Tags: CommunityAmbassador, community, “Community Manager, Flock, “Jeremiah Owyang, “Kevin Gamble, customer, “customer feedback

I was driving into work at Flock today, listening to Wilco’s album A Ghost is Born, and “Company In My Back” came on. I’ve listened to this album several times, but I received it from a friend along with three other Wilco albums, so I haven’t truly absorbed it yet. “Company In My Back” felt so right this morning that I had to give it a review of it’s own.

At the start of this song you can hear what was likely the folky riff that the song originated from. In true form, Wilco has taken this to a totally different place, using rhythmic breaks to make this intro as poppy as it is folky. It’s totally familiar and different at the same time.

Instead of committing to one of these styles, the verse launches with bass as the primary instrument. Acoustic guitar strumming and riffs compliment this bassline, but float between styles successfully, making the focus of the verse the vocals. Which is appropriate, considering the ugly, lustful lyrics that somehow also border on beautiful with Tweedy’s soft, unconcerned voice.

I attack with you, pure bug beauty
I curl my lips and crawl up to you
And your afternoon
And I’ve been puking

The chorus, rather than continuing to be subversively vague, hits full force with a confident drumbeat and the revelatory (but not really) lyric of “Holy shit there’s a company in my back”. We barely get a sense of the fantastic chorus melody before we’re dropped back into the verse, this time with a more solid rhythm and some sustained chords on the piano. The melody varies a bit here, which keeps us from getting bored.

The second chorus hits with even more force, and the full beauty of the melody becomes more apparent, backed by an orchestra of what I think are mandolins. The beauty of the melody should clash with the dark wording of the chorus, but it doesn’t. Instead, I hear the beauty of how screwed up life can be.

The third verse continues to play with our perceptions of what this song is, throwing in a synth riff that could just as well be in a Madonna song.

The final chorus leaves us with one last taste of that brilliant chorus melody and then dissolves into genre-crossing instrumentation that ends with that incredibly unique and compelling intro riff. I’m happy at the end of this song, but not satisfied. I want that chorus melody to go on and on, backed by a million clinking mandolins. And in a way, it does…you walk through the rest of your day with that orchestra right behind you, making the sorry state of the world something to appreciate just as much as the good things in life.

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Tags: Wilco, Company In My Back, A Ghost is Born, Evan Hamilton, review, music, folk, pop

I don’t have the time to create a big writeup, and I’m sure most of it has been said already. BarCampBlock 2007 (for the time I was able to attend) was really fun and informative. Aside from some bottlenecks around the Socialtext offices, it seemed to go off without a hitch. I had a great time and can’t wait for the next one. Thanks to the sponsors!

A session on Microformats. If you look closely you can see folks from Songbird and Flock.

The floor at IDEO.

The obligatory crowd shot.

The bathroom signs at Socialtext.

The remains of lunch, sponsored by Google.

The wall of schedules.

Find the rest of the photos I took at my Flickr. If you see yourself or someone you know in these shots, add a note, tag or comment!

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I’m at BarCampBlock today (Saturday, Aug 18th), wiki-izing knowledge and meeting great folks.  Come join me!  I have lots of Flock swag to give away and I’d love to have some enlightening conversations.  Here’s what I look like today:

More info on BarCampBlock at http://barcamp.org/BarCampBlock

Seeya there!

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Tags: BarCampBlock, Evan Hamilton, Flock

Sorry for so few blogs, I am completely overwhelmed with being the only marketing person at Flock. Don’t worry, things are well and good. I just don’t have the time to blog.

I came across this while looking for Henry Rollins videos on YouTube. I have worshiped Rollins for several years, and his Black Flag tour journal book, “Get In The Van”, has a permanent place on my coffee table. I figured this would have relevance to you all.
GRR. The video will not embed. YouTube and/or Wordpress, I am extremely frustrated with you.  This is not supposed to be hard.

The video is HERE.

I keep having to remind myself (or get reminded by folks like Rollins) that this is a serious issue. Let’s all remember to do what we can.

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Tags: henry, rollins, “Henry Rollins, “Get In The Van, neutrality, “Net Neutrality,