Posts Tagged ‘indie’

Here we go, a sneak preview of the list of things I’d like to have happen for next year…in no particular order, but definitely in terms of priority. These are things which definitely need to be attacked, stat.

These are the things I really want to have happen…

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Yep, another 2012 Top 10 list…well, sort of…

Lately I’ve been wondering…with all this blogging I’ve done pretty consistently since 2005, will I ever dip back into my archive to re-examine my views from, say, six years ago?

Does what I said, felt, thought, or opined about back then – either fluidly or herky-jerkily – actually have any bearing in the present or for the immediate future? And, moreover, even if this were true, does it even matter? Isn’t it just a glorified waste of time?

With the reams of content being produced by everyone these days– pro-ams and everyone in between those two poles — what role then does your personal archive play in your overall strategic direction?

I’ve considered this as I respond to queries from clients as to the reasons why I constantly ask them to create all this content. If it’s only going to be looked at by a few choice individuals, they quite logically ask, does the copious up-front time investment justify the scant ends, in terms of pay, ad revenue, or audience share?

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The other day I was tweeting with Tiffany Shlain (IMDb), director of Connected: An Autobiography About Love, Death & Technology when she came out with this amazing zinger I thought I’d share:

Twitter tickles my gray matter…

I thought it was so great I’m reproducing it here, adding a few additional flourishes (hey, would you have expected any less here?) about my overall usage of Twitter and why I’m now a believer. Tickle away!

I’ve been on the platform since ‘08 (or at least according to HootSuite), but didn’t devote much to it prior to this year. Honestly. I think I was languishing around 1,000 or so followers for a couple of years back there.

As you can see from my paltry present 1,800-weak follower count, Twitter’s not a place I’ve spent an inordinate deal of time over these four years. By all accounts, I should have at least five times that number considering the sheer amount of hours I devote daily ‘netting and for entertainment purposes, in general. Still, the number refuses to budge skyward and I seem to be stuck in, I dunno, third gear over there. What’s up?

Why is this the case?

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If you’re into online marketing at all you might have already come across the new-fangled Chief Content Officer’s (CCO’s) position.

It was a relatively new designation created over the past couple of years to address the critical need for those companies actively engaged on social media channels to be present on all of the platforms. As part of their aggressive rollouts, there would be a twin concomitant requirement to aggressively spin out contents on a regular basis to address deliverables requirements of their content production departments. Someone would have to take point on this.

Basically, if you’re going to play well anywhere near Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the half-dozen other value social media platforms which make any shred of an online difference, someone needs to be in the driver’s seat designing and sourcing the content which features over in those places.

They must make it their full-time occupation-cum-obsession to write the best stuff which has the potential to lure the most readers and supporters as they can possibly draw. The CCO must learn to craft stuff which has the potential of going viral at any given moment. They must remain on top of your site’s traffic, views, metrics, not to mention the dozens of other emerging trends shaking up the online space several times per week. They must be ubiquitous. They must be always-on. They must be relentless. They must read and research and digest constantly. They must be tireless. They must sleep a maximum of four hours a day.

Well, you get what I mean…

Because this space is so quixotic, the marketing industry, in general had to give this position a name. It could no longer sate itself with the knowledge that content could be something left to the marketing department, attended to twice weekly, and hoping for the best.

Office space had to be carved out and a full-time salary allocated for this new position if the job had any expectations of being done well.

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The words pictured above weren’t my 2011 “three words,” those were C.C. Chapman’s, co-author of the bestselling Content Rules. Mine were actually these (and while you’re at it, don’t forget to watch this). Sadly, I couldn’t track down a suitable screenshot of my PROJECT, RESOLUTE, and LEGACY to replace CC’s so this will have to do.

I’ve finally decided what 2012’s Three Words are to be – after a month and a bit of deliberation – so I thought I’d unspool them today during The Downtime. I’ll return to these at least twice more during final week of December, before “the Bris” as it were on January 1st, but in the meantime allow me to explain why I chose these particular three and why I’ll be gunning hard for these during the third year of the second decade of the third millennium, aka “2012.”

Enough with the suspense already. Here they are:

• KIN.
• HONE.
• MITIGATE.

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The Holiday Season is upon us – the Friday before The Big Sleep, The Downtime, “Xmas Eve Eve,” it is – and folks around the indiesphere are wondering what sort of Yuletide gifts they’ll be getting beneath the pagan tree for their respective crowdfunding activity.

Given how popular crowdfunding platforms have become over the past couple of years – Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, namely – now’s the time for indies to think about the sorts of gifts they’d like to reward their high-value pledgers when the time comes for sending out gifts and squaring fair with the ladies and gentlemen kind enough to help bootstrap your dream.

I was getting into a chat about this with some colleagues the other day, about the sorts of things pledgers would really appreciate. The sorts of things that Jason Fried, of Chicago’s 37signals.com discusses in the recent edition of Inc. Magazine speaks about. Granting memorable gifts that aren’t easily dismissed, or gifts that have a sentimental and useful life beyond the mere granting of the gift on the day in question beneath the pagan tree.

So here are my suggestions for the sorts of pledge rewards which would probably go down exceptionally well for some of your higher-value crowdfunders.

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