Style 2.0 - Wow!

As many of you who read this blog know, I am constantly searching for things that are new and social to write about. To that end, I couldn’t resist jumping on the news my friend, Mike Pratt, recently shared with me about some exciting things he and the Style Coalition (which he and his wife Jean co-founded with Yuli Ziv) are doing to change the fashion industry. To that end, last Wednesday, luxury handbag and accessories online retailer, Avelle, worked with the Style Coalition to launch their five year anniversary campaign. While Avelle’s campaign itself embraced social media, it was different in many ways from the run of the mill variety many of us a slowly getting used to experiencing.

A few highlights:

• Because the campaign is run by the Style Coalition vs. going through an agency to the traditional media, Avelle is one step closer to the consumer and thus is more likely to be perceived as being “engaged in the conversation.”
• The Style Coalition, which consists of 10 top shelf bloggers/online publishers, is posting and creating conversations/engagement about some of their favorite topics like, handbags and accessories.
• Avelle wants to encourage conversation with its customers so the posts by the Style Coalition’s bloggers will be focused on the products & brands that Avelle carries but not explicitly about Avelle itself.

To sweeten the pot a little, the Style Coalition is going a little bit “old school” and will be giving away Avelle Gift Cards (substantial) via a variety of contests. The campaign itself will run over the course of three weeks with embedded widgets in each post by the Social Coalition providing cross linkages and additional value to each blog’s readers. Of course no good social campaign would be complete without Twitter – Avelle’s is using the hashtag #Avelle5Year.

For all this engagement and effort, the publishers will be compensated, in effect directly as the Style Coalition passes through revenues. Who doesn’t love a win/win where the Style Coalition can increase the effectiveness of its outreach and brand engagement while putting more revenue directly into the hands of the "value add-ers.” This “outside-the-box” approach is one that more businesses need to be thinking about where:

1. Innovative thinking is encouraged and rewarded.
2. A win/win is created for all stakeholders involved (as opposed to, “look at the great publicity you’ll get out of this ‘Joe/Jane’ blogger.”)

Oh, and my favorite part? The Style Coalition is providing full campaign tracking, stats and management. This way, brands like Avelle will not only suspect that the campaign is working, they can actually pinpoint which elements worked, which didn’t and how such successes (or failures) can be repeated again in the future in a more scalable fashion.

You go Mike! Way to combine beautiful people, their clothes and accessories and the world of social. To quote Facebook for a second, “Aaron likes this way of doing business.”

Live from Ad:Tech SF, Jimmy Wales

The good news is that Ad:Tech cares enough about the concept of "social" to go out and get one of the original consumer generated content guys in Mr. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame. His session is titled: Wikipedia, Wikia and the Future of Consumer Generated Media.

The room is fairly crowded (3rd FL of Moscone West). We're about 2 minutes from showtime...

Jimmy is walking through background data on Wikipedia (what it is, what it isn't) as well as its global reach. One thing that is fairly impressive is the fact that Wikipedia is the fourth ranked Website on the internet (behind Google/Youtube, Microsoft and Yahoo). He predicts that by next year, Facebook will move up into top five. Interesting stat - 4th largest Web property in the world has 25 people that work for it full time. I guess this makes sense when you think of the thousands of people that volunteer to contribute all of the content.

A few high level thoughts/data points:

• Amazing that Wikipedia was launched in 2001 (in the thick of the dot com crash). Wales said the tough economic times drove a lot of the innovation behind the genesis of the site.
• "Most brands have been afraid to be associated with user generated content." This is changing with growth/penetration of YouTube, Wikia and Wikipedia content.
• "Online advertising has gone down the rathole of direct response marketing.'
• Brands might want to start taking a look at advertising against user generated content.

Oops... gotta run to my next meeting. For a continuation of this and other Ad:Tech activity (#AdTech), go here for the live search feed.

Experts in the Industry: Bryan Person (76 of 45)

Let me start by saying that I know I've skipped a couple on entries in the Experts in the Industry series. That's not by mistake. It's so that my good friend, Bryan Person, can have the number that coincides with his birth year. I figure that this is my blog so I can do stuff like that.

Obviously if I'm willing to make such important sacrafices for Bryan -- who is the social media evangelist at LiveWord btw -- he's a fairly important dude. Or at least he is a friend that is worth bending the rules for. Given the fact that he was one of about a dozen reasons as to why I decided to move to Austin, I'd say he's worth it.

By way of history, Bryan and I first met on Twitter via mutual friend, Peter Himler. I was looking for someone to do some podcast production for me and Bryan was the guy that fit that bill. Subsequently, Bryan became a client of my old company, Mzinga (he was at Monster.com at the time) and we started getting together regularly for morning coffee since we lived in adjacent towns. Since then, we've roomed at Community 2.0 together, podcasted together, hung out for coffee, dinner, lunch, drinks etc. And as I metioned earlier, we both live in Austin. Yup, I'm a big fan.

Before I give Bryan too big a head, let's get on to his questions:

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
In many ways, online community and social media are a natural evolution of what I've been advocating for years -- using online tools to communicate when face-to-face conversation just isn't practical or efficient (I was in BBS chat rooms in the mid-90s and using IM to connect to prospective students for our study abroad program in my first professional job a few years after that). But my true "light bulb moment" with what we now call social media really occurred in the spring of 2005, when I discovered podcasting. Geek News Central with Todd Cochrane and For Immediate Release with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson were two of my early favorites (I still listen to FIR every Monday and Thursday). The shows offered rich, niche content that was relevant to me, that I could listen to on a portable device whenever I pleased (hello, mp3 player!), and that came right into my podcatcher when a new episode was published (hello, RSS!). Plus, the hosts of both shows were so welcoming and quickly built up a community of like-minded listeners. That's the essence of social media, and I've been hooked ever since.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Not that they necessarily need the money, but I'd invest the $10 million in the Boston Red Sox, the baseball team to which I've pledged my lifetime allegiance. The club and Major League Baseball are already doing some good "social" projects online -- fan communities, connecting on Twitter, etc. -- but I have a few more ideas kicking around in my brain that I'd be happy to tell them about.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
John Wood. His book, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, is an inspiration. Since 2000, John's Room to Read organization has built more than 7,000 libraries for children in developing countries around the globe. He's this century's Andrew Carnegie!

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Not a chance; I can't think of anything less compelling than a community based entirely around a commodity consumer product. But ... what if a toothpaste maker hosted or sponsored an community around raising healthy kids? Now that might be interesting.  

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
For marketers: When a company -- either yours or one you're reaching out to -- is slow to adopt social media, don't become overly criticial. Have patience with that reluctant executive. Consider it a golden opportunity to continue to share best practices and success stories from other organizations. Change will come.

Bryan is @BryanPerson on Twitter.

Experts in the Industry: Shiv Singh (74 of 45)

Today, we get to meet one of my favorite people in the social media space, Shiv Singh. In addition to being a new daddy (congratulations), Shiv is also the global VP of social media for Razorfish. In case that wasn't enough to do, he's also an active blogger and twitter enthusiast.

I've actually known Shiv for a few years now as he was kind enough to come and speak at some of the events for Shared Insights (now part of IIR USA) on portal technology. Since then, I've bumped into Shiv at other events like Office 2.0 and try and keep in touch with him semi-regularly on Twitter and e-mail. Given how long he's been involved in Web 2.0 and social media and the level of clients he gets to talk to on an ongoing basis, why wouldn't I want to stay in contact with such a bright guy?

With that said, let's hear from Shiv:

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
Got into the world of online community originally through my experiences on The Well back in 1995 and 1996. This led me to starting an online community for my high school alma mater (which interestingly has the reputation of being one of the four most powerful alumni networks in the world according to The Economist Magazine). From there one thing led to another and at Razorfish (where I’ve been 10 years) I’ve advised clients in community building and social media on both sides of the firewall – getting employees to collaborate and communicate with each other and on the consumer side building customer communities and helping brands market on social networks and across the social influence marketing landscape.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of "social," which company would it be and why?
If I could invest in one company and only one company, it would be Ning. I think they’re doing an incredible job, have the right philosophies (open standards, cross-integration, letting a thousand flowers blossom philosophy) and have made their platform simple and accessible. There’s so much more that they could be doing though and I think $10million would help them a lot and serve to deliver the kind of value that companies and individuals want but aren’t getting from any other platform.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
There’s no shortage of business leaders and public figures that I learn from everyday. I suppose I’m currently watching Malcolm Gladwell, Duncan Watts, Seth Godin and Tom Peters a lot. I’m drawing inspiration and practical insights from them these days. They’re sharp, pithy and are basing their insights either in rigorous research or in deep experience. I suppose in another month it’ll be a different set of people. That’s how it is for me.

And yes, there’s a fifth person too – the anonymous crowds which makes its voice heard often. The meta influence of the crowds is definitely influencing and inspiring me in different ways.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
No. Sorry, but I belong to more than enough communities and I’m simply not passionate about toothpaste. I need to nurture the relationships in my existing communities or leave some of them.

Freeform – here's where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
It’s great to see the social space finally growing up but there’s more maturing that needs to happen. Marketers and businesses are still struggling how to take advantage of social media in a measurable, ROI driven business centric sense. I think we will all benefit if there was a little less hyperbole. Nevertheless, social and social influence marketing is transformative and I believe the best is yet to come.

Experts in the Industry: Kenny Tomlin (73 of 45)

Kenny Tomlin, President & CEO Rockfish Interactive, is one of the rare few in my Experts in the Industry series that I don't know that well. But when my friend John Andrews of Walmart tells me that I need to include Kenny because he's the principal of "the hottest digital/social agency in the nation," who am I to argue?

Fortunately, Kenny and I now follow each other on Twitter and I will be adding the Rockfish blog to my reader later today. In the meantime, let's all get to know Kenny a little better based on his answers to THE five questions:

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
In the late 90’s I built an on-line social community for real estate agents (though we didn’t call it a social community at the time). About the same time I launched an ecommerce site that we grew utilizing much of what today would be considered social media marketing.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Based on their use of social, then I would have to invest in Amazon. They invented how most ecommerce companies today create social community on their sites and they continue to innovate as evidenced by their “See a Kindle in Your City” program. Then, I would donate all the profits from the investment in Amazon to Kiva. They have done a great job using social media to enlarge our view the world along with practical and easy ways to make a difference. One of the most powerful yet underdeveloped uses of social media is it’s power to be used for good.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
Historically, Abraham Lincoln. Contemporary, Rick Warren. Whether you agree with his spiritual views or not, Rick is one of the most innovative and brilliant marketers of our time. (The Purpose Driven Life is still today the most effective social marketing strategy ever executed in my opinion). In addition, he built one of the largest churches in the U.S., authored the best selling hardback book of all time, gives 90% of his money away, and now is focused on global issues with his P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
No. I don’t have the expertise to contribute or the passion on the subject to eavesdrop and learn.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
The entire world, with one small exception, is composed of other people. The social web gives us an opportunity to connect and learn from them like never before.

April 15: Weekly Content/Social Marketing Links

As I mentioned in our first Weekly Content/Social Marketing Links post, I've asked the Powered marketing, business development and product teams to pick one news article, blog post or research report a week that "speaks" to them. With that article, they need to come to our weekly staff meeting prepared to give a 120 second update on what the article was about and why they found it useful.

My goal is to share this content on a weekly basis. Here's what our third week netted:

DP Rabalais (marketing):

I’ve decided that since I like to travel and have an upcoming vacation on my mind, that I’d stick with that industry for the entire month of April. Today’s article is titled, Travel Brands Lacking in Social Media Activity – it is the result of a an article written by Peter Kim titled A List of Social Media Marketing Examples.

Both articles take a look at brands that are using social marketing and to what degree: the Peter Kim article could be of interest to Sales since it outlines the Social activities of over 300 brands.
 

Jay MacIntosh (business development):

I’m sharing the highest of highlights from Web 2.0 (i.e. phrases I highlighted from my written notes):

• Session titled “Why Social Media Marketing Fails” led by Owyang, Charlene Li and Peter Kim. For a thorough review go here.  That said, here are the sound bites that stood out for me: “Don’t think of SM as a campaign, it’s about building relationships…what kind of relationship do I have today, what kind of relationship do I want to build?” “Understand your purpose with metrics…either activity which is analytics or biz metrics which are outcomes” “One large financial services firm decided they weren’t going to allow employees to engage in conversations with customers, therefore, Charlene’s recommendation was don’t do community/social.” “The most common reason for not doing community/social is executives don’t trust employees to engage in customer conversations!” “Does SM matter today? No. Will it? Yes, it will matter a whole lot because humans are and always will be social beings…we’re just having trouble adapting to these new tools/technologies.”
• Session on measurement. “½ -2 % of people in social networking sites are “answer people” which you gotta have if you want discussions taking place on your community. Find ways to identify, recognize and encourage these people.” “Social media is about collective action…and why does this matter for businesses? Businesses are effectively conversations and measuring conversations is about measuring the context in which the conversations arise.” “If discussion is important to your community make sure you design it for at least audiences 1) the ½-2 % answer people and 2) everyone else. And make sure you validate people’s roles in the community because they value it (i.e. validation).”
• Session on Ford’s use of content in SM. “Ford wanted to make storytelling for the consumer easy and they did this by enabling them with content to help them tell stories…Monty used the term “democratize the content” “Overall approach to SM at Ford is that it’s not a campaign, it’s about ongoing engagement.” “When asked how measure the ROI…sometimes answer with the question of how do you measure the ROI of phones, email, wearing pants to the office…hard to measure but he guarantees that all have a positive impact on your business!” “Fords vision for SM is to be one of the world’s leading social brands.” “We use the Sharepoint platform from Microsoft for our technology.”
• Guy from Digg discussing how publishers can integrate with social networks. “Some interesting stats on Facebook…the average user has 120 friends. Of those approx 1/3 will see a Newsfeed item with anywhere from 0.8 – 2 clicking through to the item of interest. TechCrunch experienced a 100% growth in registrations when they implemented Facebook connect. Others like Telegraph, The Onion, Time, etc. saw registrations rise at least 30% with Facebook Connect.”
• John Maeda the president of Rhode Island School of Design. “Electrons travel at lightspeed…people don’t”
• Head of Microsoft Business Software unit. “Sharepoint is a social computing platform for within the enterprise…”
• CTO of Bluestatedigital (the tech company behind the Obama social campaign). “ They sent 71B emails, had 200k offline events planned via the site, 14.5M YouTube viewing HOURS, $770M raised of which 65% occurred online.” “They accomplished this by driving ACTION. Email was the thing that had the biggest impact in terms of opt-ins and donations. The way to get advocacy is to create ownership. For example, as opposed to just having donors ask others to donate, they allowed individuals to create a personal fundraising page with goal, personal commentary, etc. along with tools to then easily contact friends and family to “support” their cause.” “Email is still king…1) There’s not too much email, just too much unwanted email 2) Nobody reads newsletters (give soundbites with links to more) 3) Give more than you ask 4) Your list isn’t an ATM machine, but if you deliver good/relevant content it can be very effective.” “70% of all actions on the site came from 10% of the members. Segment user/member types by pyramid and develop ways to get people to move up the pyramid.” “#1 fundraiser for the campaign was Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican convention. Within a 24 hour period they had anticipated how their users would react to her and via the site and email rallied people with content and calls-to-action which generated $11M” “Measure everything and test what works good, better, best…for example they had a few different email concepts on one topic…the good email achieved a 30% open rate the lesser had an open rate of 15%. Try and test different content and see what works!” “Biggest unexpected lesson learned is that it’s important not to underestimate what people will do if you provide them with info and tools.”

Doug Wick: (business development):

This is a great article by Chris Kenton (originally published in the CMO Council’s “Marketing Magnified”) that describes at a strategic level the drivers behind marketing measurability, and settles on the biggest impact social marketing has – the effect on intangible assets like goodwill and brand equity. This article shows that path that connects the value of social marketing to the executive suite.  

Bill Fanning: (business development):

This article was written by Adam Weinroth, product manager at Pluck, last week.  The title is “How to craft a social media plan that connects.”  The article emphasizes the fact that there is no “one size fits all” social media plan for all brands.  To demonstrate the point, he outlines 5 tips for strengthening online growth through social media and references examples for each.  The high level points and examples are (check out the article for the details).

1.       Know your audience

a.       Scotts

2.       Get real

a.       Kodak

                                                                i.      A Thousand Words

                                                               ii.      Plugged In

3.       Provide relevant content

a.       Whole Foods

4.       Drive community back to you

a.       Dunkin’ Donuts

5.       Leverage social syndication

a.       eHow 

It’s important to note that before you begin thinking about the technology and content needed to connect with a particular segment, you must first understand why you want to connect with them.  Are you trying to drive customer acquisition, build brand loyalty, listen to the community or some combination of the three?  Answering these questions first will start you on the right path to building a comprehensive strategy that not only addresses how to connect with your segment (as outlined above) but also how to achieve your business / marketing objectives once you have them engaged (intelligent merchandising or driving specific calls to action etc.) and how to measure the success of the program in order to continually optimize effectiveness.  This is the difference between a Social Media Plan and a Social Marketing Strategy.

Beth Lopez (marketing):
On vacation this week. 

Don Sedota (product management):

This is another product management related article but I thought it was timely given PM’s recent effort to make product strategy a more collaborative effort and to enhance the level of documentation available per product releases. The article, entitled How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans, is geared towards the information flow between PM and Sales but the article can easily be applied to AM, Content, Ops, Tech Services, etc. as well.

The author offers the following (selected) advice for PMs in making key business groups more a part of product strategy and release processes and enabling them to do their jobs better:

• Transparency (builds trust)
  o Clear feature selection process for each release
  o Provide the “why” behind features
  o Share the roadmap
  o Solicit customer/prospect input and involve business groups in product direction
• Formal Process (sets expectations and provides consistency)
  o Involve key business groups in release cycle
  o Clear and transparent enhancement request process
• Transference
  o Provide sufficient documentation so that business groups can be self-sufficient in certain situations
  o Provide performance data via efficacy reports, case studies, etc.
  o Competitive data
  o Training

It will obviously take a while before we are hitting on all cylinders for all of this, but I’m excited that we’ve recently started improvement initiatives across many of these facets and that we seem to be heading in the right direction.

Experts in the Industry: Aronado Placencia (72 of 45)

Heh heh... Mr. Aronado. Your time has finally come. After a couple of interviews with you on Lucky Startup (now StartupLucky), it's nice to be able to return the favor. For anyone that's not familar with @Aronado - his moniker on Twitter, he's a pretty funny dude. He's also one of the hardest working guys in the socialsphere.

I first met Aronado about a year ago via Twitter when he regularly told me that I should hire him. While I wasn't able to make that happen, I appreciated his persistence. Fortunately for him, he's ended up in a better place running his own gig at StartupLucky, a company that focuses on "connecting startups with education, inspiration, & funding." They also do a kick ass set of interviews on their show.

With that as a backdrop, let's hear how Aronado answered the five questions in the Experts in the Industry series:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I give startups a free & live platform to pitch their ideas/concepts to investors, customers, and potential business partners.  I am good at it because, I have been rejected over & over & over and know exactly what these guys are going through. 

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
After owning two brick and morter businesses ( a restaurant, Daddio's Superior Bar & Grill and a Real Estate company, Xponential Exclusive Properties)  I thought, my God, if there is a way I can create a business online and work from anywhere in the world, I am IN.  So, I jumped in. 

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Probably Zappos a few years back.  Why? because they have immersed themselves in the social space and individually the employees have the freedom to be "themselves".  This is HUGE and, obviously, it has worked. 

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
President Obama...c'mon! This man has stepped into the shittiest job in America in terms of how things were handed to him.  He has rolled up his sleeves and he is DOing what he thinks is right. 

# Would you join a toothpaste community? Why? 
No, because I really don't care that much about toothpaste.  I mean I use it but...

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
Look, we're all learning here.  All I want to say is repeat after me: 

"My goal is to be as "ME" as I can be"  Nothing more, nothing less, just be who you are in any space.

Experts in the Industry: Christine Perkett (71 of 45)

We were lucky enough to have one of Christine Perkett's colleagues, Lisa Dilg, as the 8th interviewee in the Experts in the Interview series. To this date, Lisa's interview is still one of the most visited in the series. So what I'm wondering is if we can create a friendly rivalry between two very smart, well-connected and savvy PR women who truly understand how to tap into the power of social...

Before we get started, a little background on Christine. I first met her along with my old boss, Barry Libert, at the California Pizza Kitchen back in the summer of 2007. We were thinking about using Christine's company, Perkett, as our PR firm (Christine is the founder and president of Perkett). For anyone that's ever met Barry, he's a big thinker and can be a little overwhelming in a first interview. Fortunately for Christine, she's cool and calm under pressure and was able to roll with the punches. Ever since then, I've had an appreciation of Christine and how hard she works.

Now onto the questions:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I help people successfully connect and communicate with their core audiences – person-to-person, business to customer, brand to consumer, etc. - and I’m good at it because I listen first.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I’d say my first foray into online community came through working with clients - as far back as a decade ago - that connected users with other users in more interactive ways. It wasn’t called “online community” then but in essence it was. For example, clients such as Salesnet (now RightNow) – which used SaaS to connect sales executives for sharing best practices and defining methodologies - were the first of their kind to recognize the value in adding community and social aspects to an otherwise anti-social business process.  

I also worked with plenty of start-ups in the 90s that created social and community aspects around everything from online swaps to dating to gift exchange. Unfortunately, most of them were ahead of their time.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Oh that’s tough. The popular answer would of course be Twitter or Facebook or some other entity already proven to be well accepted and on its way to success. But I thrive on innovation and intelligent risk - it’s why I love working with start ups! I’m close with an entrepreneur who built and sold a successful company in the last boom and who has several other brilliant ideas. Although I can’t share yet, one of those ideas combines community, user-generated content, video and Digg-like voting in a way that no one’s yet delivered. Oh it’s so cool! It’s like those old “choose your own ending” books with video. I’d invest my dollars there, absolutely.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
I found this question particularly difficult, as so many of our public figures have let us down lately. I can’t truly say there is one I most respect – I’ve never been much of a “favorites” type of person. But I have to say I really respect Hillary Clinton. Not from a political standpoint – I’ve never voted for her and I actually hate politics, but from the viewpoint of a strong and resilient, assertive woman. Personally, she’s proud of who she is and doesn’t apologize for it no matter what the naysayers throw at her; she kept her private decisions private during a very painful and public intrusion in her life, and she rebounded. In her career she’s also had disappointments but she didn’t let them stop her from embracing other opportunities – she didn’t win the Oval Office (this time) but she accepted her current position as Secretary of State with grace, poise and commitment. She possesses some admirable qualities that more of us could embrace or learn from: strength, pride, commitment, grace, tenacity, poise, forgiveness, loyalty and resiliency.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
No, but I would follow a toothpaste brand who had interesting or entertaining content to share on Twitter, or perhaps join their Facebook fan page if they delivered compelling reasons to do so. Come meet me – and engage with me – where I already am. Otherwise, I have to track too many communities. Thus, Twitter’s brilliance.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
Hmmm so many topics…. So little time. Okay here are a few things:

• The social media Kool-Aid….there are way too many people enamored with the new wave of “social media experts.” Just because someone tells you they can set up a Facebook fan page, capture video or understand Twitter doesn’t mean they are going to help you make the most of these communities. I think “expert” goes way beyond that – do they know how to deliver compelling messages and content through these tools? Are they able to teach you who to engage with and how to create relationships? Do they understand why you want to be a part of communities – is it personal, business, both? Can they clearly and succinctly explain the ROI and value to those they are trying to teach – whether it’s an individual like an author or a jeweler, or a business selling enterprise software? The SME moniker is overused, abused and tiring.
• PR is not dead. I don’t care how great social media is. Like I said, you can use as many tools as you like. You can record as many videos as the next guy. But unless the messaging is compelling and it’s reaching the right audience – thus making an impact – it’s a moot point. PR will always have a seat at the table – social media is just forcing the good PR up and the bad PR out. And it’s about time!
• The economy is tough for most everyone right now. So many articles talk about the employees laid off or the bad leaders who got us into this mess. What about the good leaders – small business owners for example - who are forced to make tough decisions to keep their business alive? It’s not easy – or fun – for them either. People tend to overlook that or make it personal.
• People are very passive/aggressive in social media. Watching the behavior – and the underlying messages – is absolutely fascinating. I can’t wait to see the fallout of the madness and where everyone lands.
• I’m glad I met you, worked with you and that we’ve stayed in touch. Thanks for this opportunity, Aaron. [AWS: Same back atcha Chris!]

If you are looking for Christine on Twitter, her handle is @MissusP.

Ad Age's Five New Rules

Wow. I’ve always admired Ad Age but part of me has always had a problem with their “advertising-centric” focus. I know, not surprising for a publication that has the word “advertising” in it. And don’t get me wrong, editors Abbey Klaassen and Jack Neff definitely dish some serious “social” but a post by Neff today really made me stand up and take notice. 

The article talks about Simon Clift, CMO of Unilever, and his warning to marketers that “ Brands aren't simply brands anymore. They are the center of a maelstrom of social and political dialogue made possible by digital media” at Ad Age’s Digital Conference last week. Clift went on to state that marketers that don’t “adapt their marketing… are in grave peril.” But what impressed me more was Neff’s “five rules” at the end of the article. A sign that not only are main stream companies but also main stream publications are starting to understand the transformational movement that’s now underway. 

My favorite rules out of the five are easily numbers two and five but I really like all of them: 

1. Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them. As Mr. Clift said, "We may be ahead of our competitors, but we're most definitely behind consumers." The consumer is not a moron, she's the person defining your brand.\
2. You can't hide the corporation behind the brand anymore -- or even fully separate the two. Even this editor's creaking computer only took 0.13 seconds to show that Philip Morris is owned by Altria Group. Welcome to radical transparency, where bad corporate behavior will damage your brands, and vice versa.
3. PR is a primary concern for every CMO and brand manager. If "marketing" and "PR" are not the same department, tear down the wall. Spend time deciding whether PR is underleveraged in your organization.
4. Cause marketing isn't about philanthropy, it's about "enlightened self-interest," as Mr. Clift puts it. That doesn't mean it doesn't count. Don't be ashamed of your profit motive, because great branding and doing good are increasingly one and the same.
5. Social media is not a strategy. You need to understand it, and you'll need to deploy it as a tactic. But remember that the social graph just makes it even more important that you have a good product. Put another way: The volume and quality of your earned media will be directly proportional to the impact and quality of your product and ideas.
   

Experts in the Industry: Peter Shankman (70 of 45)

Oh where to start with Mr. Peter Shankman aka @SkyDiver... Well for one, I am a true admirer of the brilliant work he's done with his Help a Reporter Out (HARO) service. If you're not familiar with it, Peter puts out an e-mail three times a day that plays matchmaker between reporters looking for sources/experts for articles and blogs and volunteers that are willing to act as the aforementioned sources/experts. Last I checked, I think Peter said that he had over 75,000 people signed up (Wow!)

I'm also indebted to Peter for sending hundreds of new followers my way after mentioning me as someone to follow on one of his daily HARO reports. For that reason, I was particularly pleased to have the opportunity to meet Peter face to face at the recent SXSW/Mashable party my company, Powered, sponsored (thank you for the introduction Susan Bratton).

With that as a backdrop, here are Peter's answers to the five Experts in the Industry questions:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.

When you find that you've really good at talking to simply EVERYONE, you find a way to help people and make money by doing it.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I've had a blog for years, and ran a PR firm for years prior that catered almost exclusively to web and online companies. Hell, I was one of the first editors of the AOL Newsroom - I was in online and social back in 1995.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
I would invest in a company that took all the current networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) and aggregated them into ONE useful network that could tell me what all my friends/colleagues were doing in one place. Barring that, I'd invest in a company called Social Studies, which helps schoolkids learn that posting something online means it's public forever. (Company doesn't exist, but it should.)

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
Richard Branson continues to do his thing, do it well, and not give a damn what other people think. I envy that.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why? 
I'm a lifelong member of www.dropzone.com - I already have. When you're passionate about something, it's worth the join. We live as a society built on passion.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
We could be such a smarter and better society if we counted to three before doing 99% of the things we do.

April 10: Weekly Content/Social Marketing Links

As I mentioned in my last Weekly Content/Social Marketing Links post, I've asked the Powered marketing, business development and product teams to pick one news article, blog post or research report a week that "speaks" to them. With that article, they need to come to our weekly staff meeting prepared to give a 120 second update on what the article was about and why they found it useful.

My goal is to share this content on a weekly basis. Here's what our second week netted:

DP Rabalais (marketing):

My article from the Marketing Leadership Council talks about how several mega brands are incorporating social media into their overall marketing strategy.
Topics included in the article are:

• Growth of Social Networks
• Demographics of Social Networking Site Users
• Implications of Social Networking Sites for Marketing

Key Objectives Companies had for integrating social media site into their marketing mix are:

1. Improve Customer Understanding
2. Promote Issues of Social Concern
3. Promote Products and Services
4. Facilitate Internal Knowledge Sharing
5. Increase Brand Awareness

Note: this is from a PDF downloaded from the Marketing Leadership Council's site. If you're really interested in the article and don't have a subscription, e-mail me and I might be able to send you a copy. [aaron DOT strout AT powered DOT com]

Jay MacIntosh (business development):

This week's article titled, Social Media vs. Email  written by the CEO of an email service provider proposes that email doesn’t/won’t work with the under 35 crowd....perhaps he’s right? However, his theory got me wondering why is it that when a new medium comes on the scene people diminish the use/importance of the previous one(s)? Whether the medium is stylus and paper, Gutenberg’s printing press, radio, telephone, television, instant messaging, social networks, etc. aren’t all of these just different ways in which people communicate?

The core issue isn’t so much print vs. digital or broadcast vs. direct response, or face-to-face vs. video conferencing, etc. Rather it’s given the target audience and objectives, what’s the most cost-effective medium (or combination of mediums…aka integrated marketing) to increase the “signal-to-noise” ratio? This is what marketers care about (or at least should) and why managed online communities are an extremely cost-effective medium with a very high “signal-to-noise” ratio.

Doug Wick: (business development):

My choice for this week's post is from Adam Cohen’s blog. The title of the post is Social Media Impacts the Purchase Path. I liked this post because it’s relevant to our ROI discussion as well as the "ecommerce" focus that many of our prospects and customers take when it comes to "social."

One area where I disagree slightly with Adam is on his argument that purchase consideration is the easiest way to measure performance of social media on third party sites. While I agree that it might be the "easiest," my belief is that most third party sites aren’t optimized to capture people in buying mode, whereas other online spends like search placements are. So if you measure social media the way you measure other media you are setting yourself up for failure. 

Of course, social media on third party sites is very different from social media on branded sites. I describe this a bit in the comments.

Bill Fanning:  (business development):
My post for this week from Mediapost is titled Critics Of Influencer Model are Missing The Boat . It’s an interesting look at the definition of market “influencers”. It does a good job of categorizing and defining the 5 different types of influencers. Because of the internet and the ability of everyday people to give their opinions, the masses have become the most important influencer category. While the traditional influencers are still important, companies no longer need to rely on them to get the word out. Word of mouth from the masses of everyday people have become the most important “influencer” category.

This certainly validates our Facebook connect integration with our platform. If used properly, this will serve as a major traffic driver to the communities we build in the future. It also validates our own marketing efforts. While it’s important to reach out to the major analyst influencers like Gartner and Forrester, we are doing a good job of reaching out our own group of influencers to get them talking, growing our webinar participation with everyday influencers exponentially, and focusing on getting involved with the smaller social media and marketing groups regionally. This will take time, but we’ve come a long way over the last several months.

Beth Lopez:
My submission this week is not a blog article but a Forrester report called Social Brand Strategy by Lisa Bradner. The premise of this report (will be available on Powered.com soon) revolves around how to create a successful brand-centric social media strategy and what companies and CMO's must do to engage consumers with their brands.  While the report discusses in context of social media, it does contain validating points that we talk of in sales situations:

1. Think strategically about social media and social marketing
2. Understand who your target is, how that target seeks to engage, and the role that distinct social media channels play in their brand experience.
3. Turn off the reach and frequency blinders - marketers need to spend more time thinking about preference and loyalty than awareness.
4. Give brand advocates tools to evangelize and reasons to get involved!
   

Trey Anderson: (product management):

Forbes carried an article from the CMO council titled Turning Customer Pain into Customer Gain. While I like the article a lot, the title is a bit misleading as the majority of the article covers the increasing need to manage customer experience (being custom centric) and the affinity this creates.  The premise is that CMO’s should take ownership of the customer experience.  It goes on to explain that customer experience should be leveraged to develop affinity and that affinity is the key to driving business performance through word-of-mouth (referring customers) and loyalty (additional customer purchases).  It continues to discuss the challenge’s CMO face:

• Regardless of the fact that 59% of companies have a CEO driven customer centric culture, actions display a lack of execution
• Lack of accountability
• The difficulties associated with implementing the necessary lines of communication across all business units, partners, and channels

 It paints a nice picture for our business:

• Affinity, brand perception, retention, and Net Promoter scopes are critical metrics for driving business objectives through word-of-mouth and brand loyalty
• It is difficult and expensive for brands to implement across all business units, partners, and channels
• We can impact these same metrics in a fraction of the time and cost

Don Sedota (product management):

My post comes from ReadWriteWeb and is entitled Community Building 101 for the Bootstrapped Startup.  The post focuses on a four month old financial news community called Tip’d that has risen to success in a very short period of time. The secret to their success... "There really isn't any secret to our success. In fact, it's community building 101 in the truest sense. Instead of focusing on ourselves, we're focusing on what the financial blogosphere (i.e. the content creators) wants, and what the financial news readership (i.e. the content consumers) wants."

The article goes on to talk about some of the compelling features they’ve implemented. This may be an obvious strategy (focus on customer needs) but one that is commonly overlooked for the sake of implementing the latest and greatest technologies that might not be in the best interest of the customer. Definitely advice that we can all take to heart and especially interesting to me as a product manager in that customer feedback/needs should always be first and foremost when formulating product strategy. 

Upcoming Conferences: Where to Find me in April-June

Yup, it's that time of the year again. Conference time. We got things kicked off last month with SXSW and now we're on to some of the "less networking/more learning" type conferences. While I'd like to get to a whole lot more, this is about all my work/personal life/mental health can handle for the time being.

• Inbound Marketing Summit, SanFrancisco, CA April 28-29th (speaking)
• AV Marketing Roundtable - Creative Ideas to Stretch Your Marketing Budget, Austin, TX April 30 (speaking/sponsoring)
• Community 2.0, San Francisco, CA May 11-13 (attending/podcasting/blogging)
  NOTE: I have deep discount passes. Use code: GSTM2105AS when you register for $600 off.
• Corporate Communication & Technology Conference, New York, NY  May 15-16 (speaking)
• Inbound Marketing Summit, Dallas, TX May 27-28 (speaking/sponsoring)
  
• BlogPotomac, Washington, DC June 12 (attending/podcasting/blogging)

Which conferences are you attending in the next three months? Is there one that I don't have on the list that is a MUST attend?

Photo Credit: John Federico

Experts in the Industry: Ken Burbary (69 of 45)

Here are just a few words I would use to describemy friend, Ken Burbary, VP of digital at Big Communications... smart, thoughtful, sports enthusiast, late. Doh! [Sorry Ken, I couldn't resist that last one]. Seriously though, Ken is one of those people that I've enjoyed following and chatting with on Twitter over the last couple of years. I was also fortunate enough to meet Ken when he came to Boston last fall when we held a tweetup in his honor.

Before I make Ken's answers to the Experts in the Industry series questions any later, let's see what he had to say:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I help companies navigate an incredibly complex online world to improve their online marketing, advertising and communication efforts. I focus on helping them develop the strategies and capabilities needed to do so. I'm a natural teacher, and get satisfaction from showing others "how to fish", and then watching them move forward successfully.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I've been involved long before we referred to it by those names. Basically, I'm a Digital native. I have my dad to thank for being an early adopter, and bringing some of the earliest personal computers into our house. I was an avid user of bulletin board systems in the 1980s, Compuserve, Prodigy, and then eventually AOL. All of that time online, interacting with others, eventually led me to the online marketing and advertising industry in the early 1990s. I'm hooked on it, and can't imagine doing anything else. Since then I've done corporate web marketing, some consulting and spent most of my time at agencies big and small.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Easy answer. Zappos. Any company that is as focused on serving the customer as Zappos is will succeed in the marketplace, regardless of what they are selling. People remember how you made them feel. Zappos customers feel good about their interaction with the company, and that builds a strong relationship (aka loyal customer).

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
Bill Gates. Refrain from rolling your eyes and hear me out first. He is an incredibly successful business leader (currently the wealthiest individual on the plant to be exact), and yet he also possesses a sense of social responsibility that we see in so few people in similar positions. What he and his wife are doing with the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is a shining example of philanthropic work. He places a strong emphasis on the notion that everyone has equal value. He has given back a large part of his success (money and time) for the benefit of others. I respect his accomplishments and would like to see these qualities in more of our business, political or public leaders.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Yes, I absolutely would. If only to learn what actually happens in a toothpaste community so I could finally answer the question you've been asking for almost a year now. ;-)

In all seriousness, I don't have any personal interest in joining one but could probably learn more about online communities if I did join, even if it comes from one focused on toothpaste. I'm a optimist and try to see the positive in things.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
I debated coming up with something nifty to say here but instead want to thank the people that I have had the benefit of learning from, collaborating with, and allowed me to develop friendships that I cherish. This is hardly a comprehensive list (too many people to thank) but the people I frequently look to for guidance and/or inspiration when navigating the social space are Adam Cohen, Blagica Bottigliero, Damian Rintelmann, Amber Naslund, David Armano, Scott Monty, and YOU Mr. Strout. Thanks a million everyone!!

Experts in the Industry: Dave Evans (68 of 45)

What can I tell you about Mr. Evans. Well, for starters he has one of the best background photos on his Twitter page EVER [hint: think Whole Food's "Miles of Chocolate"]. In a more official capacity, Dave is a big brain in the social space and has been thinking about all things digital for a while now. In addition to being the author of the book, Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, Dave is also a principal at Digital Voodoo and writer for ClickZ.

Having followed Dave on Twitter for a while (note, he's @evansdave), it was a pleasure to finally meet him in person down in Austin. Fortunately for me, Dave lives down here so we get together semi-regularly for coffee with a group of other smart folks like Bryan Person, Peter Kim, Heather Strout, Tim Walker, Jackie Huba, Paul May, Kyle Flaherty, Ben McConnell, Kate Niederhoffer, John Johansen and Sara Dornsife.

But enough about coffee and chocolate though, let's get on to Dave's answers:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I work with marketing and operations professionals interested in applying social media based concepts. I am good at this because I have direct experience in ops (Product Management, Progressive Insurance), marketing and advertising (Interactive Strategy Director, GSD&M), and a passion for understanding the fundamental issues (BS, Physic and Mathematics.)

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I was involved with advergaming and decided to pursue non-interruptive forms of media. That led me to Web 2.0 and the Social Web as a business platform.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Powered, of course! Quite seriously, it was through my work with Powered and its predecessor, Not Harvard, that much of my quantitative thinking around social media and its application to business developed. Clearly, the company has “social” in its DNA.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos. Tony has been built an amazing company, in a segment (online shoe sales) that few thought possible, and fundamentally positioned the firm for success via social media by aligning his people with his customer’s best interests.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Yes, absolutely. One of the best jobs I ever had was as a Product Manager for Progressive Insurance. They recruited me from Jet Propulsion Labs where I was working in Mission Control on the Voyager Spacecraft. My initial inclination was to say “no way” -- I mean, how do you go from rocket scientist to insurance guy? But I interviewed anyway, based on what I’d learned about the company. The ten (yes, 10!) people who interviewed me were among the smartest, brightest, and engaged people I’d ever met. I took the job--opening up the business offices in Austin, TX--and proceeded to learn how business actually worked. One of the best decisions of my life.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
The Social Web is, to me, the dream of Tim Berners Lee come true: “An interactive sea of shared knowledge… to bring our friends and colleagues closer (so) that by working on this knowledge together we can come to better understandings.”

Experts in the Industry: Connie Reece (67 of 45)

Is there a more colorful person in the socialsphere than Connie Reece? I got to find out in person for the first time a few weeks ago at my first Social Media Club, Austin meeting where Connie and I were able to connect in person after following each other on Twitter for a while.

In addition to colorful, Connie is also charming, funny and stoic. If you haven't met Connie yet, she's a co-founder & advisory board of the Social Media Club and founder of Every Dot Connects.

So how did such a cool and wonderful person answer the Experts in the Industry questions? Let's find out:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you're good at it.
I teach companies how to communicate conversationally and how to use social technologies to leverage those conversational skills into relationship building with constituents--both internally and externally. I'm a naturally gifted teacher and lifelong learner who is passionate about using my knowledge to connect people, ideas and causes. (Okay, that was two sentences. Go ahead and count off, but I didn't want to risk writing a run-on sentence and having the grammar police come after me.)

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I'm a "seasoned citizen," not one of the so-called digital natives who grew up in the personal computer era. So before there was such a thing as the World Wide Web, I was using online tools for research as well as connecting with others. My old 300-baud dial-up modem should be in a museum somewhere, along with my Kaypro II suitcase computer (26 pounds) that I lugged self-importantly to clients' offices to demonstrate my prowess with technology.

My experience as a professional writer and communicator, along with a background in direct marketing and direct mail fund-raising with a bit of PR thrown in, made it easy for me to transition into the world of social media and community building. My skill set is all about connections through communication. Emerging technologies have simply enabled those connections to be made much faster and to a greater scale.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of "social," which company would it be and why?
Twitter, or another microblogging/presence app I thought had the potential to knock Twitter out of its number one position. I was an early adopter (January 2007) and have watched as users tried out each new service that came along--Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk--and then came right back to Twitter because of its simplicity and because that's where they have built their network.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
I won't single one out, but I have a great respect for entrepreneurs. They work hard, take great risks to turn dreams into reality, and they create jobs that fuel the economy. Most of them are overtaxed and underappreciated.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Yes, if it were a specialty toothpaste. I have Sjogren's Syndrome, which causes extreme dryness. So I have done a lot of online research and even participated in forums where people discuss various products that help relieve dry eyes and dry mouth. I've used about every artificial tear product on the market, and even special toothpastes and chewing gums. So if a toothpaste company built a community that created value for me in terms of information, product sourcing, and cost savings, I'd join.

Freeform – here's where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
If you guzzle the social media Kool-Aid rather than taking small sips, you'll contract a bad case of Shiny Object Syndrome and become totally ineffective. Remember that it's not about the technology, it's about people. Develop your people skills first, then master the social media tools.

Experts in the Industry: John Andrews (66 of 45)

While I haven't actually met John Andrews, Emerging Media Sr. Manager at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and adjunct professor at NWACC, I played him once on TV. Okay, that last part is a lie... but I am looking forward to connecting with John later this month, maybe over some BBQ at the Salt Lick here in Austin. What I can tell you about John is that he's a smart guy and COMPLETELY gets the world of "social." For starters, he's an active participant on Twitter AND, he also keeps a "life-streaming" blog about life with his wife and daughter.

I could go one but I shan't keep you from hearing more from John himself. Here are his answers to the Experts in the Industry series:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I am a student of social media and spend time thinking about how to blend it with traditional marketing to amplify engagement with consumers. I am successful at this when I do a good job of listening.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
Accepted a position on the Walmart emerging media team a year or so ago.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Kogi BBQ. They've mastered the craft and created a brand solely on the use of social (a great product probably doesn't hurt either)

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
I have always had a ton of respect for Mike Krzyzewski. Smart, passionate, driven. Defined his craft, loves his family, graduates his players. Oh, and I kind of like Duke.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
Probably not, but I would visit one if I needed specific information especially if it blended expert and consumer views.

[NOTE: John did send me this link this AM so he's thought about "toothpaste/toothbrushing communities more than you would think]

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
I believe social media can accomplish three key things. Help the hand raisers, connect passionates and give consumers an active role in managing brands. I don't think of social media as a replacement of traditional media but rather try to consider how the two will alter each other. I greatly enjoy being involved in the space on a daily basis and often relate it to the early fifties and working on the advent of TV.

More Music Dammit!

Was downloading a few songs I've tagged in Shazam recently and realized that it's been a while since I asked Twitter for some new recommendations (I still have $85 worth of iTunes credit). Of course I got lots more great recommendations. See for yourself...

1. carlainsf@AaronStrout For your list: B-Tribe, album "Spritual, spiritual"; Ray La Montagne; Musiq Soulchild; Fleet Foxes; Brett Dennen15 minutes ago from web
     
2. sdigregorio@AaronStrout I'm currently obsessed with Bon Iver, MGMT, Phoenix and, well Bowie - but I'm a Ziggy Stardust kind of girl all the time!43 minutes ago from twitterrific
     
3. Libmacbis@AaronStrout I'm considering the Adventureland soundtrack [great 80s tunes] and have been semi-loving Bon Iver and Regina Spektor of late.about 1 hour ago from web
     
4. peplau@AaronStrout Grand National's "A Drink And A Quick Decision" & Matt Pond PA's "Several Arrows Later".about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
     
5. csaper@AaronStrout Good new music: Ladyhawke, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, William Fitzsimmons, Lenka, Silversun Pickups and Dovesabout 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
     
6. JuicyJones@AaronStrout the new Decemberists record. It's great.about 1 hour ago from Tweetie
     
7. MikeLangford@AaronStrout Do you have "Loungin'" by Guru? If not get it. Also, "The Denial Twist" by The White Stripes.about 1 hour ago from twhirl
     
8. Libmacbis@AaronStrout--the new Decemberists album--"The Hazards of Love." They're fantastic. This album is a folk rock opera.about 1 hour ago from web
     
9. pphilp@AaronStrout Yeah Yeah Yeah's Zeroabout 1 hour ago from web
     
10. Anti_Job@AaronStrout - Anything 80s. Siouxsie B-sides. Anything Parlimentabout 1 hour ago from web
      
11. Mary_R_Roberts@AaronStrout I hear you, it is sooo easy to just click buy? Actually watched Slumdog Millionaire on my Ipod since I "bought" it!about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck