Can you work from home…effectively?

Posted on March 14th, 2010 by John Sostak

Toni Schneider is a partner at Automattic. Toni just put a great post up on his blog, 5 reasons why your company should be distributed.

In Silicon Valley, distributed means the employees are home based.  It is a new term for me, but not a new concept.  Wordpress has created such a passionate community, many members contribute for no financial gain whatsoever.  I am not surprised this works well for them.  The Wordpress community is a movement that I am a part of.  It is rewarding to contribute to making software that is improved by each member that touches it.  Matt Mullenweg and Toni and all the Wordpress community members have a reason to be proud.  WP is the anti Wall Street.

I asked Toni some pretty specific questions, like how do you keep people from freelancing, and how do you motivate them.  He gave me a very thoughtful response, and it has me thinking it is time to try it again.  My reluctance lies in the nature of Arcade Digital employees.  We are primarily a marketing company.  Our team is committed, but small.  If we grow, can we trust an entry level Internet marketing assistant to write articles, do submissions, and stay away from pirating music and laying on the beach?

Toni’s advice was to do projects first, before you commit to full time employment with benefits and stock.  I’ve thought about this, but haven’t tried it yet.  I will when we hire our next Internet marketer.  I can assign him-her to a couple clients, and ride it out for 90 days.  Month to month.  Internet marketing and social media lends itself to goofing off.  If we can determine that the marketer is not, we have a keeper.

Check out P2, by Wordpress.  It is a Wordpress theme that is real time blogging.  I am going to install it and see if it can help us manage the work being completed by each of us.  Arcade already uses Basecamp, this may compliment it, like Campfire was made for by 37Signals.

I need to wrap my arms around how to judge how much social media marketing should be done in a reasonable week.  The analytics are easy, but the intangibles of marketing are difficult to quantify.  Marketing is hard work, and it takes a lot of effort to manage an effective social media campaign.  It would be easier to manage SEO and SEM.

What has been your experience with distributed companies?  Have you been a home based employee, or do you employee home based Internet marketers, and public relations managers?

Tags: Home Based, social media, wordpress

Five questions. Can the internet improve our lives?

Posted on March 11th, 2010 by John Sostak

We are the World Wide Web

The Internet is About You…

The Internet is about you?  Is it about me or you?  Short answer is both.  The real answer is you.  You and I are one.

To many people are having there time on the web interrupted by a small group of anti social web terrorists.  To few of us are actually working toward using the web to improve our lives off line.

Facebook has a popular section where users post memorials to friends that have past away.  Reuters recently ran a story that I blogged about in which memorials were defaced by Facebook users.

How can we improve the experience for you?  I can never be a proponent of censorship, but to search for flowers and be subjected to adult movies is also not right.  Can Google create real filters, that work?  This cannot be considered censorship, just like yelling “fire” in a theater is not censorship.  K89YC3FMXBX2

The Internet has changed everything we do, and at 38 years old, I have had the pleasure of watching it.  The world wide web is what the printing press was.  Now how do we make it better for you?  If it is better for you, it is better for us.

Can we can can create online interaction that improves our physical lives?

Can we use this enormous amount of information at our fingertips, and in our pockets to be more productive, more intellectual, and happier?

Can we create an environment, like the labor movement of the 1930’s in which we can demand our governments listen to needs of the masses, rather then serve the corporations?

Can we market and advertise without vomiting on our audience?

Can the web serve me, rather then I serve the web?

There are a lot of other things on my Internet wish list.  I don’t think any of them are out of reach.  We are watching the Internet change our lives, and the world through Google, Facebook, social media, and mobile phones.  Let’s channel the power of the web together and improve our lives.

If you have any suggestions, any thoughts, please share them with Arcade.

Tags: Facebook, Internet Marketing, Media, social media

There is so much noise, is anyone listening? Welcome to the 2.0 generation.

Posted on March 9th, 2010 by John Sostak

It's crowded and noisy out here.

It is really noise in here.  In my little box, that is connected to 2 billion other people.

Communication has never had so many different forms.  Web 2.0 is social media and social networking.  Everyone has a voice, and an audience.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and hundreds of other social networks have taken the Internet, and mobile web to another level, and it has happened quickly.

I am constantly responding to emails, text messages, blog comments, an occasional phone call.  Forget about mail, I will not answer it, email me the wedding invitation.  With all this communication, why do I feel like I’m disconnected from my friends, family and clients?

The 2.0 Generation.

Time has always been a non renewable commodity, and therefore, of the highest value.  Now when we get someone’s time, we do not necessarily get there attention.  I believe the 2.0 Generation is only going to become harder to reach, because we have to many ways to communicate.  As an Internet marketer, I need to get a hold this.  Now.

I won’t pretend to have an answer to an obvious question.  How can we communicate effectively?  To me, effectively means we get our message across, and we receive feedback or something that we can act on or think about.  How are you communicating?

Is your communication and channels effective?  Put some thought into that.  Effective today may have a lower bar then 20 years ago.  20 years ago we were using fax machines, beepers, we always had change in our pocket for the payphone at the airport or gas station.  We did talk more, and I feel like we had a longer attention span.  I’m not pining for the old days before the world wide web, just trying to get my arms around what is next.

There is so much noise, it is getting harder to actually reach the person.  That is the true marketers challenge.  Aggregating a million page views a day is only impressive if the viewer actually responds to the page.  So, favorite way to communicate leads to the second, and maybe more important question.  What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate?

How do you slice through the noise, like a samurai, and reach Generation 2.0?  I see people on Facebook, and I can tell they are on it for hours, that respond to a Farmville coin, but do not answer their phone.  The smart Internet marketing companies and businesses are creating an incentive in exchange for the members time.

Engagement and incentives may get them in, and make your site and product sticky.  This leads to many more questions.  It isn’t uncommon to go into production on a movie without knowing how it ends.  If you write, you also realize that every answer isn’t needed before the 1st chapter is completed, so we can save the questions related to how we use the people we collect.

The question that matters is what channels can we use to effectively reach Generation 2.0?

Tags: Facebook, Generation 2.0, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, social media, Twitter, web 2.0

Facebook urged to act after memorials are defaced.

Posted on March 8th, 2010 by John Sostak

I had to share this article.  As much as I love the web, the anonymity has created an avenue for some people to just go wild.  To act less then civilized is ok, and even funny.  What is happening online a lot of the time now, is complete disrespect and hate.  I think it is because the person doing it feels protected by anonymity.

CANBERRA, Feb 25 (Reuters Life!) By Belinda Goldsmith – Cyber attacks on Facebook pages set up to pay tribute to two murdered Australian children has prompted calls for the social networking site to be more accountable for its users.

Social media experts say it is natural that people who use sites such as Facebook or MySpace as a major form of communication should turn to these sites with personal tragedies.  These memorial sites often attract thousands of friends and well-wishers, as in the case of the pages set up after the deaths this month of Elliott Fletcher, 12, and Trinity Bates, 8.

Students from Brisbane College in the state of Queensland flocked to a memorial site set up after Fletcher was stabbed in a schoolyard fight two weeks ago, but it was defaced with offensive comments and extremely offensive images.

The same happened to a site set up in memory of Bates who was taken from her bed in Bundaberg, Queensland, with her body found in a nearby storm drain on Monday. A teenager accused of her murder was also revealed to be a Facebook friend of her parents.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has appealed to the owners of U.S.-based Facebook to find ways to stop a recurrence of these types of “sickening incidents”.

“To have these things happen to Facebook pages set up for the sole purpose of helping these communities pay tribute to young lives lost in the most horrible ways adds to the grief already being experienced,” Bligh wrote in a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg which was released to the media.

“I seek your advice about whether Facebook can do anything to prevent a recurrence of these types of sickening incidents.”  A spokesman for Bligh said the premier had yet to receive a response from Zuckerberg.

But Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost said the site had rules to check content and reviewers were quick to respond to any reports of hate or threats against an individual, pornography, or violent photos or videos, and would remove the content, and either warn or disable the accounts of those responsible.

“Facebook is highly self-regulating, and users can and do report content that they find questionable or offensive,” Frost said in a statement.

She said in the tragic case of Elliott Fletcher, Facebook responded to reports of vandalism from others users and the police by removing the groups and disabling the accounts of the people responsible but that was about all the action possible.

“It is simply not possible to ‘prevent’ a person with a sinister agenda from undertaking offensive activity anywhere on the Internet where people can post content. Nor is it really possible in real life,” Frost added.

Detective Superintendent Peter Crawford of Queensland police said people should think twice before setting up such social networking groups. As well as memorial sites, Facebook pages popped up vilifying the man accused of murdering Bates.

“I would say anybody thinking about putting these sites up in the future need to realise that they’re going to attract these kinds of people,” Crawford told radio station Fairfax Radio 4BC.  “The reality is once you open these sites up to open access to anyone on the Internet, you are going to attract unsavoury people and clearly that’s occurred again.”

Tags: Facebook, Internet Marketing, Media, MySpace, social media

Flash Cab picked me up in a Scion…

Posted on March 7th, 2010 by John Sostak

Scion Taxi Cab in Chicago

I called a cab yesterday, Flash Cab, in Chicago.  I was a little surprised, they picked me up in a Scion.

The Scion looks like a car for kids into the Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift.  The Fast and the Furious franchise is one hell of an indication that we are a different world.  It’s not Rocky, or Die Hard or Lethal Weapon.

This post isn’t about bashing Toyota.  I know the recall has people who own Toyota’s annoyed.  It also has people who don’t own Toyotas acting like they are smarter then people who do.  The American made gene in me gets weaker every year, and every year I become more practical.  Buy a Toyota if you like it.  Millions of people have owned them, and have liked them.

Surprisingly, the Scion seems to be a very practical, utilitarian automobile.  I was shocked at how much leg room was in the back.  I own a Mercedes ML350, and there in NO leg room in the rear seat if you slide the front seat all the way back.  I’m 6′3″ tall, so my seat is pretty close to maxed out.  The Scion was roomy for 4 full size adults.

This also made me think about fuel efficiency.  I consider myself to be pro environment, so fuel efficiency is very important to me.  I am certain the Scion gets great gas mileage compared to my Mercedes.

This practical approach to building and buying vehicles is refreshing.  This car is much more practical then an SUV.  I hope this continues as we develop as a culture.  In Europe cars that have smaller engines are coveted.  A big block muscle car would be laughed at in Ireland.

I’m impressed by the Scion XB, so maybe I’m pro Toyota.  I’m definitely not furios that they have done a major recall.  The reality of manufacturing complex equipment things go wrong.  I’ve owned enough Chevy’s to be able to one up anyone on a broken car story.

Toyota may have a marketing challenge in front of them.  They will have to change a public perception that becomes negative quickly.  The Internet has opinions shifting quickly.  One day Toyota is a solid car, the next day they are death traps.  To control the social media and perception of your brand is a challenge.  Toyota be working hard to win back it’s reputation. Toyota competitors, like GM, Ford, Honda and Hyundai will be using the Internet and public relations to try and gain market share in auto sales.

I think if Toyota keeps making practical cars that are environmentally friendly, like the Scion XB that Flash Cab picked me up in, Toyota will recover quickly.  They are ahead of most automakers when it comes to Hybrid engineering, and when the media shifts away from the recall, Toyota will use the Internet to market this message.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Media, PR, Public Relations, social media