I came across this good evaluation of the “12 traits of successful bloggers” from Darren Rowse.
Creative and Playful, Innovative, Connectors, Community Enablers, Information Mavens, Communicators, Interest, Entrepreneurs, Originality, Perseverance, Focus, Curiosity. Worth a read.
We all have a different set of traits. I am sure my list will be different, with a few overlaps.
There used to be a backlash against showing the huge ugly logo of a company in the ad …in the late eighties, I believe. That was a reaction to the ‘branding’ mantra.
Now there’s a return to stealth branding, thanks to YouTube and viral distribution.
Gawker makes an interesting comparison between Levis and Ray-ban about how the stunt is such a formula for going viral today.
Looks like the idea of hiding the logo has gained vogue, telling us something: People are tired of logos masquerading as ads. A logo is nothing, if it does not give you a reason why to buy or subscribe. I don’t use Skype over Google talk because of the cool blue logo. They can hide it from my call interface for all I care. (It’s so tiny, I don’t even notice it is there.) They have made the experience worth coming back to, and paying for, in my case.
Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, authors of the new book, Groundswell, are asking readers to send in short reviews via Twitter.
“We love bloggers reviewing the book, but you may not have a blog, or have time to write a few paragraphs. So why not make it easy. Twitter your review,” they urge.
With Craig Newmark (Graig’s List), Steve Rubel and Guy Kawasaki already endorsing the book with their ‘mini reviews’ that could be a bit daunting…
“Steve Jobs doesn’t need sa sales force because he already has one: employees like the ones in my company.”
“Journalistically, going alomng with such an arrangement would be completely inappropriate. I agreed immediately.”
“Pardon Our Dust“
“The final piece in the digital jigsaw.”
“It’s becoming clearer that paper is holding news delivery back in other ways … I’m about ready to admit that the Web isn’t just another outlet for newspapers; it’s becoming better than print.”
“The Internet is the shortest, hardest wall against which your voice will echo back.”
Larry Lessig never ceases to impress. This week the Harvard law professor, blogger, author, and authority on intellectual property rights went off the grid to spend time with family.
So he effectively put up a ‘closed for business’ sign on his blog.
Lessig calls it a “tiny compensation for (almost) spending more time on the road than at home each year.”
Follow up to my post on storytelling using higher form of visualization. The New York Times online has started using some really mind-blowing graphics that go beyond illustrating the story. I am not even sure we could call this treatment information graphics.
Take a look at this story on disease and genetics. Redefining disease, genetics and all. The story is about disease mapping, and the illustration literally maps what disease mapping could look like visually.
You can click on Myocardial Infarction (geeky word for heart attack) and it pops up a magnifying glass that you can then move around so it shows you the relationship between the disease and, say stroke, and SARS.
This is what great story telling online has been missing –creating an experience plus context that makes it engaging, and easy to grasp quickly.
Adidas created a ‘left foot, right foot‘ event that was a brilliant way to inspire young people and be creative, without needing to run ads belaboring the point.
Called “Superstar,” it involved taking two oversized shoes –really oversized ones– and asking artists from the East Coast (the right shoe) and the West Coast (the left shoe) to customize each. Then they brought the pair together.
Lots of visual appeal, a fun event, and unlike a lot of ‘about us’ advertising, it’s breaks through the clutter.
I love bizAZ magazine for many reasons. It is local, and it is laid out for people on the move –literally and figuratively.
So I am very proud to write for the magazine, covering the technology space. This story about mobile marketing agency, Blumo, was published in the March-April issue, and also in AZCentral.com.
I keep hearing how bad customer service is, but I cannot help bumping into some great stories.
So this one about “magically appearing” paper-towels in the restroom as part of a corporate culture at Southwest Airlines was an eye-opener.
A simple pay-it-forward principle that is not the stuff of an employee handbook, but makes a huge difference.
I wrote this article, titled “Great picture, but what’s your story?” for Communication World magazine, based on a post here on the blog. Actually three posts. This, this and this.
This is a perfect example of the ROI (if you will) of my blog. It’s place where I test ideas out in a short post which gathers steam and based on online and off line conversations, and the idea quickly takes on a second life as a column.
Hoipolloireport 