WOM Slam 5

I participated in Jeremy Epstein's 5th WOM Slam on Wednesday. It was the first one that I was able to attend, and was an enjoyable experience. Jeremy does a great job of summarizing the event.


Basically, the attendees were divided into teams of 4 to 6 people, and had most of dinner to figure out WOM tactics for Microsoft's local division. From a participant standpoint, it was great fun getting to interact with other smart marketers, brainstorming tactics that could be put into play immediately for the client. And, from a sponsor's viewpoint, I can see where it's highly valuable, immediately getting thirty or so people, and their varied experiences, to focus on their current issues.

I was also impressed by Jeremy's ability to orchestrate the event, while simultaneously capturing video and audio to document it.

New ecommerce designs

I had orignially planned to write up a blog post on the session at the NRF's Big Show regarding some new trends in ecommerce design. Instead, I would refer you to Scott's excellent summary. Four trends in ecommerce that are worth examining.

Social media roundtables

Yesterday I moderated a table at the Social Media Club of DC's Breakfast Shonali had a nice writeup. A couple weeks ago, I also moderated two tables on social media at the NRF's Big Show in New York City. The attendees varied in experience. The one common thread I heard was the need to understand what tools customers are using now, and what they'll likely migrate to in the future. The links provide a good jumping point for some of the discussions spun out from those tables.

Pictures of PPT

While attending the National Retail Federation's Big Show in New York City, I noticed an interesting development at the sessions. In the sessions that Shop.org had programmed, every time a new slide came up, cameras came out and 10-20 people in the audience took a picture of the slide. It reminded me of the start of a SuperBowl, with camera flashes going off everywhere. Anyone have a theory on why people are doing this (sharing with their company, perhaps?) when most of the speakers did offer to send out a copy of the PPT.

Scholarship fund

I recently put a post up on the Shop.org blog on the scholarship fund. Worth checking out if you're in the ecommerce space.

Great holiday cards

Thought I'd share the two best professional holiday cards I've gotten this year:

One from Harry Joiner - handpainted card from an artist. Clearly, some thought and planning went into it, plus, it's actually framable.

Another from a friend in the industry - nice card, plus a note indicating a donation had been made in my name to a local charity.

The worst? The generic holiday email, with all recipients in the cc line :)

Thursday links

Some days, lots of great links pop up.

Great review of the recent FTC privacy roundtable:

Article about the Social Media Iron Chef event I went to last night.

Esther Dyson on time based pricing:

Never thought about the weird holiday products that House of Rave sells? Well, you can end that gap in your knowledge with this link.

Why splitting checks in DC is difficult.

Good reading

How to trim the top of a hedge with a riding lawnmower. You have to admire the ingenuity :)

SEM - the pricing revolution. George always has fascinating things to say about the industry.

10 years ago - the first search marketing conference.

100 free things to do in DC.

Efficient customer service

I've worked at several organizations that have placed a huge emphasis on customer retention. Strange experience this week. Needed to end the membership at one of the health clubs I belong to. I was told that I could call the membership hotline, which instructed me to email them the cancellation.
I got back an automated response letting me know I'd hear back from them within two business days. I did, and got a nice message telling me that my membership was now cancelled. No question about why I was ending the membership, and no attempt to retain me as a member.
On one hand, I was pleased to have such a pleasant customer service experience. On the other, seeing how much effort they put into recruiting customers, wouldn't it have been worthwhile for them to try something to keep a customer?
What do you think?

Top 10 list from Social Media Day

I spoke yesterday at the DMAW Optimizing Social Media Day in Washington yesterday. Several people had asked for my top 10 list, which wasn't part of the planned presentation. It follows:

1. Play to your strengths
2. Sell internally
3. Decide on an online personality
4. Empower people
5. What's the worst that can happen
6. Find the right places to monitor
7. Money doesn't solve every problem
8. Lists work well, and are authoritative
9. Ask people to do something
10. Everybody loves a secret/free gift/inside knowledge

More to come, including my takeaways.

Thought provoking links

Many thought provoking articles this week:

When Growth Spurt Is Needed, Grab ‘Unique, Unfair Advantage’ - big news in the ecommerce space with the purchase of Rue La La.

Get Elastic's picks for best blog posts of October.

Edward Norton runs the NYC Marathon today with three Maasai warriors.

Who the hell are these people? The overuse of stock photography.

Michael Arrington on social media and scam offers.

Google redefines disruption: "Less than Free" business model

And, on another note, I'm talking this Thursday at the DMA's Social Media Day:

Freakonomics and the SportsGuy

Two separate book events last night in DC:

The Freakonomics guys hosted a book signing at the Washington Post conference center. An amusing note beforehand - the first two rows were labeled "resevered" ... we spent some time wondering what fate was in store for those who occupied them.
They're great storytellers - it was an enjoyable hour listening to them go over some of their personal history, and stories in the book. It looks to be a fun read. And, there was an only in DC moment. Someone from the "Union of Concerned Scientists" got up during the Q&A and asked a long-ish, rambling question, the gist of which seemed to be "sorry some of us slammed you online, but I'm really a real person, and wouldn't you like to reconsider your thoughts about global warming?" which was met by a good response, which was "we're happy to discuss facts, but when you make things up, and do your best to spread them, that's really not a dialog." At which point, when the questioner attempted to suggest more discussion, he was basically hissed/shouted down by the crowd, who were clearly much more interested in hearing fun anecdotes.

Bill Simmons, the SportsGuy for ESPN, was at the ESPNZone in DC. The book signing wasn't until midnight, but he was out and about talking to fans when I got there at 9:30. According to his Twitter account, they ran out of books for the second straight visit, so I'm happy I didn't stick around until midnight. Looking forward to reading the 700+ ! pages on pro basketball at some point - hopefully, it'll be in the mail today.