The Nizzer Blog

Is PR the anti-social media?

2012-01-31T15:43:00.000-05:00

I was recently a guest speaker at an RIT PR class discussing Social Media. I went through my usual talking points about the relationship that Social Media has today for corporations, about being an authentic voice in a sea of "spin."

Then I got an interesting question from one of the students, he asked:

"When looking at a resume for a Social Media position, does it hurt to have PR experience/classes on there given what you said about the authentic voice?"

So what would lead him to believe that PR would hurt his chances of getting hired? Is it that everything he learns in PR courses goes against the fundamental social media concept of an authentic voice?

I don't want to throw everything that a student learns about PR these days under the bus but it was a really good question given all that I had said until that point. It makes me wonder what the future of the PR profession is since everyone knows the goals of PR is spin, its creation and control and Social Media is anti-spin and lack of control.

This is what got me thinking, is PR the anti-social media? If everything about PR; spin, media seeding, guiding the press, etc. is the opposite of successful social media practices then where does it fit into the current mix?

How much will PR pros have to change in order to work in this new world? In my opinion, a lot. The traditional PR cycle and practices still has its place but some old walls are crumbling. There is an entire conversation happening that PR has no control over.

How are the next generation of PR pros learning to adapt to social media?

Empire Ave Verification

2012-01-09T19:43:00.002-05:00

{EAV:3e33ad57494fffa9}

Just have to do this to verify that this is my blog on Empire Avenue.

9 ways to make your next event social media friendly

2011-10-31T10:08:00.001-04:00

I came back from a recent event here in Rochester called the Social Share Summit. I was both attending and speaking on one of the panels discussing B2B Social Media. It was an all day event that featured a few panels beside mine and a few keynote speakers.

Yawning yet?

Now don't get me wrong there was some flashes of great content and I thought my panel went well but there was something lacking. By the afternoon you could see the drag of the day taking its toll(I'm glad our panel was done by around 2:15). It got me thinking about ways to encourage more interaction from attendies at events like this since its hard to keep focus for that long, especially when its mostly listening to others speak.

Here are 9 ways to get people more socially engaged at an event:

Everyone gets handed a printed agenda with the following info:

Event hashtag for Twitter
QR code to scan to "Like" the event on Facebook, or auto generate a Tweet.
Twitter handles of everyone who is speaking.

Invite people to check in with plenty of visual signage in the halls and in the room(even the bathrooms).
Assign someone from the organization who created/organized the event to create a steady stream of content from it. This is photos, videos, etc and make sure to get peoples names and handles so they get noticed on social channels. Make people feel important, its goes a long way.
Large screen with constantly updated tweets about the event. This could easily become a distraction but I think this encourages more people to interact to see their handles come up on the big screen.
Partner with a charity and offer an easy way to donate to them. This is one for the downtime either between speakers or during a boring stretch of someones speech. Have the option to text to donate and especially promote that donation via social. It keeps people realizing the bigger picture and makes them feel good. That's a great association you want to have with your event.
On every slide of every presentation - Twitter handle of the speaker and a QR code(or URL) that you can download the presentation from. Make it really easy for the audience to get the speakers content, they are more likely to share it.

What have you seen that you would add to this list?

The web of One

2011-05-16T14:46:00.000-04:00

What's the effect of all the personalization on the web? Watch this video and see where this feature can actually deprive us of a truly "open" web experience.

Social Media and the end of the Chick Flick(finally)

2011-02-14T22:09:00.000-05:00

Watch this video. Johanna Blakley does a wonderful job walking us through how the rise in use of social media is killing the outdated practice of targeting media by age/gender. Advertisers should target interests and not make assumptions about potential customers based on their age ranges.

What do you think?

B2B Social Media Strategy - 3 things to consider

2011-02-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

Whenever I give a talk about my work in the B2B social media space I get a some consistent questions about it. There always seems to be a perceived chasm between social media for B2C online behavior and B2B online behavior. I say perceived because we need to remember that no matter who is interacting with social media and how they are doing it, its a person plain and simple. The same person who can click "buy" for a $100 digital camera is the same person who can sign a $500k check on a piece of equipment for their business. In keeping with that thinking, it would be a mistake to think that there is no place for B2B in social media.

Here are some things I have learned along my journey:

Don't force it on people - by "it" I mean any social channel(Twitter, Facebook, etc) and by "people" I mean executives. While it would may be great for your company's image if the CEO jumped right into Twitter and became a star, if it hasn't happened yet, it probably never will. Its hard work to maintain a solid presense on any social media channel. It won't happen by accident, or by force.
Have a keyword strategy - don't think "how does SEO fit with social?" Thats the wrong question. Always focus all online content on your most important keywords. I mean everything. That should drive every tweet, video and blog post. Think of all online content as perminant(Thanks Google!) so while that blog post that a subject matter expert wrote about how to optimize your print shop for a better printing workflow may not have brought in a ton of initial traffic, it gets indexed by Google and lives for a long time. Even if it only gets a trickle of traffic over time since the B2B buying cycle is long this post will have more legs than almost any other outreach.
Align with others - make social media a "normal" part of the marketing/PR mix. Condition people to include it at the beginning and not at the end as an afterthought. This is another channel to work in with a different set of rules. Just like you would not make a radio commercial the same as a TV one, you wouldn't create a blog post the same as a YouTube video.

Yet another social network...yawn

2009-02-07T13:38:00.001-05:00

I just got invited to join AgencyScoop which is billed as a social network for people in the Ad industry. Well that's fine and dandy but its a closed system, so its another unique profile I have to create and maintain. Why not use either Google or Facebook as my profile info so I don't have to deal with more usernames and passwords? Plus since there is no connection I have to worry about keeping another place updated when things change.

If AgencyScoop does not open up, then it will wither on the vine as the larger players more effectively break off and serve these niche needs.

What is open on your computer right now?

2008-12-12T13:09:00.000-05:00

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeSo I have my work e-mail(Lotus Notes blah),Firefox and Tweetdeck. In Firefox I have 6 tabs open, Gmail, Facebook, NetVibes, my companies website that I work on, Mashable and of course Blogger.com.

What do you have open?

GraphExpo

2008-10-13T15:58:00.001-04:00

I am pretty happy with the way this GraphExpo page turned out.

2008-09-16T08:54:00.001-04:00

Great post on Alex, we will miss you: http://ping.fm/jhQdL

2008-09-15T16:56:00.001-04:00

Try this for some creative inspiration: http://ping.fm/NpWpk

2008-09-15T09:18:00.001-04:00

Just found out that a colleague died over the weekend, R.I.P. Alex Elyjiw we will miss you.

2008-09-13T08:10:00.001-04:00

Threw a surprise party yesterday, its always nice to put a smile on a friends face.

2008-09-12T08:29:00.001-04:00

had an interesting meeting on Kodak and blogging yesterday, today I try to recruit more Kodak people to blog, wish me luck.

2008-09-09T13:32:00.001-04:00

Just started the Kodak network on Yammer.com

2008-09-08T12:43:00.001-04:00

What to do with 4 trillion photos: http://ping.fm/Z102B

2008-09-03T12:56:00.001-04:00

It is definitely a challenge to get a plan together for a corporate twitter account. Maybe we just start simple and see where it goes...

2008-09-03T10:39:00.001-04:00

In a meeting talking about how to use Twitter for Kodak GCG :)

2008-09-02T14:36:00.001-04:00

Researching website builders and e-commerce solutions for a friend

2008-09-02T10:59:00.001-04:00

Jenny Cisney talks about her experience at the Olympics: http://ping.fm/Tqi55

2008-09-01T09:27:00.001-04:00

3 websites to make u look super creative: http://ping.fm/udLJJ

2008-08-28T15:43:00.001-04:00

The best take on the American racial divide I've seen in a while: http://ping.fm/OQiPO

2008-08-28T08:52:00.001-04:00

Running Digitally Scared? http://ping.fm/qobb1

2008-08-27T16:42:00.001-04:00

Not that I would wear this but this shirt makes me laugh: http://ping.fm/8Mo3j

2008-08-27T14:03:00.001-04:00

Foam monster wants his hand back: http://ping.fm/oQNrQ

2008-08-27T11:57:00.001-04:00

Here is why I hated grammar lessons: http://ping.fm/gzQq6

2008-08-27T10:01:00.001-04:00

Some people have too much time & money - the Simpson's house in real life: http://ping.fm/5U8Cx

2008-08-26T14:10:00.001-04:00

Home Alone remixed as I am Legend: http://ping.fm/t5etD

2008-08-26T10:51:00.001-04:00

I am thinking of a way to teach the wonders of social networking for business to my co-workers.

2008-08-25T16:04:00.001-04:00

Working with Awareness as a blogging platform is frustrating, they are down often.

2008-08-25T14:14:00.001-04:00

More and more people from my high school are joining facebook, I haven't seen these people in almost 20 years.

2008-08-25T11:13:00.001-04:00

Guess how many pages Kodak printed at the Olympics? http://ping.fm/g3Xd6

2008-08-24T09:12:00.001-04:00

I find myself hoping for a good outcome from an MRI on Osi's knee this Sunday morning.

2008-08-23T13:50:00.001-04:00

Such a nice day outside, why am I sitting on the computer? Oh right I am a geek.

2008-08-22T22:45:00.001-04:00

Some of the most incredible photos from the Olympics: http://ping.fm/zc0Jd

2008-08-22T15:35:00.001-04:00

Trying to sell an old TV/VCR combo on Craigslist, I wish people would respond faster. http://ping.fm/bO1DF

2008-08-21T15:12:00.001-04:00

I like telling my co-workers to get on the social networking grid

2008-08-21T09:16:00.001-04:00

For those of u who "have nothing to hide" read this: http://ping.fm/FYrg6

2008-08-20T11:47:00.001-04:00

All together now: Budget meetings are fun fun fun!

2008-08-20T10:45:00.001-04:00

This is a cheap laugh but worth 1.2 seconds of your time: http://ping.fm/DzXAF

2008-08-19T09:19:00.001-04:00

Actually this site made me really laugh this morning: http://ping.fm/xqUxv

2008-08-19T09:08:00.001-04:00

This cheered me up this morning: http://ping.fm/jkJju

2008-08-19T09:02:00.001-04:00

working from home this morning, with the kids, god help me :)

2008-08-18T16:55:00.001-04:00

Google wants me to sign a petition about freeing the airwaves, I comply, now you should too: http://ping.fm/DT6AA

2008-08-18T14:24:00.001-04:00

working on a competitive analysis doc that will help decide the future of the GCG site.

2008-08-18T09:46:00.001-04:00

The (optically) illusive graphic arts: http://ping.fm/FWBF0

2008-08-14T10:46:00.001-04:00

Sometimes I just want to will a design to work, I find that staring at the screen does no good.

2008-08-13T15:10:00.001-04:00

Are all budget meetings this fun?

2008-08-13T08:21:00.001-04:00

This is just an incredible display, I so want one: http://ping.fm/lJqbl

2008-08-12T22:53:00.001-04:00

I am finding a bunch of Kodak co-workers who have opened up a twitter account and never updated. Get cracking!

2008-08-12T09:31:00.001-04:00

How long does it take Twitter to delete an account?(not mine of course ;)

Some fun on a Friday...

2008-07-31T12:52:00.002-04:00

While I am not personally a passionate fan of typography I understand that many designers(both online and print) are fanatical about it. The font can make or break a creative even in very subtle ways. This video should appeal to all those graphics people who have debated endlessly over the benefits of using a certain font, or not using it.

Actually this is funny even if you are not a designer at all. Enjoy.

In a creative slump, try Mutapic

2008-05-30T15:45:00.013-04:00

If you are anything like me(and I hope that you are ;) you know what its like to be in a total creative funk. Its the times that you could not think of a bright idea if your life depended on it. Your mind is a total blank and you need something that can help spin the gears in your head a bit faster.

I recently found a site called Mutapic that is an online image generator that lets you choose from a wide variety of icons, combine them in numerous ways, and create something entirely unique. A gentle warning before you go to the site, clear some time on your calender. This is one of those sites that if you are a geek like me, you waste a ton of time on.

Lets take a look at some exciting stuff that Mutapic and I created:

I imagine if I were to ever open my own restaurant and had to create Men's and Ladies bathroom signs, this is the way I would go. Combining the well known symbol for "Ladies Only" and a icon for a toilet, I have achieved communication nirvana. When someone sees this they will a)know the room is for ladies, b)it contains a floating toilet and c)is likely to induce seizures.

Not quite sure how the icon of "boy with pen through head" got into the rotation. Would you be that happy with a pen through your head?

At this point I decided to choose 32 random icons and select every possible effect and push generate and hold my breath. I think I actually heard the internet hum while it was creating this masterpiece. It almost seems like a window into another dimension. It makes me question reality. Am I looking at the cracked window into the void or is it looking at me?

Great tool for a "virtual" tour

2008-04-17T16:33:00.008-04:00

SO you are on vacation and you are furiously snapping away picture after picture of all the fantastic building and scenery. You get every angle, wide view, close up, with flash, without flash, and because you are an artist you get down on the ground and get that unique shot you are sure no one else has ever thought of.

Then you download all these wonderful shots and queue the slide show and soon discover that for all that effort you basically have a few usable shots that together would make a great tour of your subject. But how to get a bunch of 2D photos together in a seemless way to offer up an exciting 3D view of that quaint farmhouse by the lake with the picket fence and lone stallion standing in front?

Behold OpenPhotoVR.org. It's a new site that lets you experiment with a bunch of pictures taken of the same subject at different angles and distances. You can then weave them together to form an(almost) 3D tour of that subject. You can read more details here.

My subject was Kodak worldwide headquarters right here in Rochester, NY. I took a few photos at different angles and distances and then uploaded them to the site. Now I thought, how hard can it be to designate my angles and next pictures? Turns out its tricker than I thought. Compaired to the already done tours, mine feels lacking. What do you think?

Reaction to Real People Don't Have Time for Social Media.

2008-04-17T12:07:00.001-04:00

Real People Don't Have Time for Social Media .

I remember when the concept of a blog first started. A co-worker of mine had one along with 2 other female friends. They posted about various life events(think Sex and the City without the sex or Mr. Big) and I read it and was bored out of my mind. I showed it to my wife and her reaction was why would someone want to broadcast their life like that?

We are at an interesting crossroads when it comes to "social media." There are generations behind us(I am 33) that think nothing of having their entire life's online. That level of transparency is still an alien concept to most people. What happens when these generations make up more of the majority of the population?

Oh and including writing this post, I spend about 2 hours a day with social media

This will change the way you view images online.

2008-03-12T12:52:00.002-04:00

Its not often that I come across something that has a bunch of breathless reviews about it that I can actually agree with but I have recently. Its an add on for FireFox or IE called PicLens and it can change the way you view pictures on websites.

Normally you are at the whim of the designer of a particular website when it comes to seeing the images posted there. Sometimes thats a good thing and often times its a bad one. After installing PicLens, go to a site like Flickr and mouse over an image. You will see a little play button, click it and the window will change into a gallery view like this:

This particular screenshot is a search for the term "Kodak" on deviantArt.com. At this point you could click on an image to get a larger view, or move the entire gallery to the left or right to see more images. Its a beautiful way to explore an RSS feed of images and I find myself wasting precious time using it. There are other sites you can search on like Google Images and PhotoBucket.

Have you seen any other plug ins for either FireFox or IE that you find useful?

How to find the "buzziest" images online

2008-01-18T12:58:00.000-05:00

Since the beginning of the internet (around 342 B.C.), images have been passed around from person to person like a bad YouTube video. These images usually got sent via e-mail from one person's distribution list to another. These were the days before sites like digg and del.icio.us that provide "social bookmarking" for the masses.

With these types of sites, it's much easier to find out what pictures are out there creating a buzz (and you would likely find sitting in your inbox from your annoying uncle who just got online last Tuesday).

The best site I found that will aggregate only the pics from the top social bookmarking and sharing site is Picurls. This site takes the top pics as voted by users from various sites like Digg, Reddit, Wired etc and presents thumbnails of them as well as links to the original. One of the best features of the site is the special RSS feeds they provide so that you can just isolate the images from the other content that's posted there.

This site is like holding up a mirror to society and having society say "Does this make me look fat?"

There are things like this that make you just wonder how that even came to be. Or this that makes me think there are people with way too much time on their hands.

And to think before we had the internet we had to either photocopy an interesting image (which rendered it dark and un-interesting) or *shudder* actually talk to someone in person and describe it.

This made me want to look through my extensive collection of photos for something "buzzy." I came upon something interesting on a recent trip to the Buffalo Botanical Gardens in Buffalo, NY. They had an exhibit of garden railroads and here is a pretty typical scene from the trip:

How cute, a train! And look it goes through the indoor gardens! Well then I zoomed in on one of the stations on this particular railroad.

Now take a look at this scene of Americana. Looks innocent enough? Makes you want to start humming "Small Town" by Melloncamp right?

Well here is a closeup. What exactly are those ladies doing? What makes it even more disturbing is the obviously uncomfortable old woman sitting between them. She is probably thinking "gosh where did I go wrong with the twins to push them into this life of moral decay and sexual debauchery and where the hell is the 4:15?"

If you like the idea of finding conversation starting images don't forget to check out the Kodak Picture of the Day. I am pretty sure those ladies of the garden railroad will not make an appearance there.

Post a comment with your favorite sites for finding images.

A List of Fun Photo Sites

2007-12-03T13:49:00.000-05:00

It's always nice when a talented group of programmers decides out of the goodness of their hearts(or maybe the rush of caffeine) to create wonderful free sites that provide hours of photo fun. It's amazing to think that some of the things these sites do for free in seconds, people used to pay for and wait whole minutes to get(you remember "software" right?).

Here are just some of the sites I've come across that let you do things to photos and make the world a better place:

ReflectionMaker.com - "A little tool for all your reflection needs!" is the tagline for this site which allows you to upload any image(or point to an online one) and define the reflection size and background color.

Here I used a photo of myself that was taken while I was watching a Golden Girls marathon. With that reflection at the bottom of my picture I have now created a cool image to update my Facebook profile image, which guarantees all my "friends" will yawn in excitement at my coolness.

Photo2Text.com - With this site you have the opportunity to upload a photo and have it seamlessly turned into ASCII text. Thats right your image will be turned into something only a true geek could love. For those of you who are not computer nerds, ASCII stand for American Standard Code for Information Interchange and your can read all about it here.

So still using the above picture(which may have been taken while I took a brake from writing my book about a man with a phobia of post nasal drip), I ran it through the site and here was the result:

I had to post a screen shot of the "image" that was generated since its a pretty big file and we want you to actually come back to this website after reading these posts and not flee in terror.

The site also lets you choose different character sets, adjust brightness levels, and if you don't want to use letters and numbers there are shades of grey. Now if someone could tell me why one would want to do all this that would be helpful.

Picnik.com - This is a site that is pretty amazing, since its offering some handy photo editing tools all in the browser so there is nothing to download. There are various things that you can use to just touch up a photo like red eye removal, color adjustments, etc. There are also fun things like adding frames, little images and of course text. Even with all these wonderful options the following is what I came up with:

If you need an explanation look here. Or don't and take it at face value that I need to step away from the computer and walk outside.

Dumpr.net - Last but not least is the oddly named Dumpr.net. When I said this name out loud I thought it was relationship advice, but actually its a collection of interesting photo tools in one place. Some of these are pretty bazaar. Take this one for example:

The source picture was the same one as above(I was modeling for my "before" picture for a botox infomercial).

I'm not quite sure what I would use this for, I mean who doesn't want to see their facial features morphed into a nightmarish circular flesh-ball? I think I will make an ornament for this years tree so the kids are guaranteed to stay away from it, as would everyone else.

Here, using the Easter Egg function, I turn into something disturbing. Almost like Vince Vaughn, but not the cool slick version from Swingers, more like this version.

There are plenty of other sites out there to create masterpieces like the above. Tell me about your favorites so I can go in and misuse them.

The Top 5 Scariest Photos Ever Taken

2007-10-19T12:26:00.000-04:00

You’ve all seen them. Those grainy old photos of ghosts and other unexplained visuals that are often forwarded by someone with an AOL account and a lot of time on their hands. You look at them and at first see almost nothing, and then you read the description of what you are supposed to see and viola! There be the ghost of Saint Sir Lord Devonshire the Third Duke of PoppyCock something or other.

So in the spirit of poking some fun at this idea I present the top 5 photos of super scary ghosts:

The Ghost of Boothill Cemetary - Terry Ike Clanton (TombstoneArizona.com)

In this photo, it seems that Wilfred Brimley has a sordid past tied to the bandits of our imagination in the old west. Or maybe this was a picture of him during the actual old west. Behind him is the ghostly image of what I can only think to be Orval Redenbacher circa 1955 still miffed over Brimley’s damming quote “Popcorn?!? I only do oats!”

#4

In this series we see smoke from a fire. In the first shot there is smoke. In the second, closer shot there is…more smoke. Finally in the third and closest shot there is…even more smoke. If nothing else this photo proves the existence of smoke.

#3

This is one of the harder images to see the ghostly apparition. If you concentrate and look just above Scooby’s head, you can barely make out the translucent figure of what seems to be a “spirit” or “phantasm.” Legend has it that only after multiple Scooby snacks and hours of rehab did Shaggy recover from this encounter.

#2

I know this is supposed to be about photos only but I had to include this gem. The best part about it is it’s in Japanese, so I have no idea what’s being said. I mean they could be saying anything but the announcer has that evil Vincent Price voice going on. He could be reciting what he ate for breakfast that morning and I still would need to change my shorts. Oh yeah the video shows a ghost looking for her keys or something.

#1

The Brown Lady

This is supposedly one of the most famous ghost photos ever taken, well I didn’t just take Google’s image search results as proof. I zoomed in real close to examine every pixel on this one and below is what came up:

Needless to say a truly scary result.

THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAA

2007-09-25T13:19:00.001-04:00

A bunch of random pictures with the THIS IS SPARTA photoshopped everywhere.

read more | digg story

MorphThing.com - yet another way to waste time online

2007-08-24T12:15:00.001-04:00

Slowly waking up this morning and actively trying to figure out what time it was and how late I will be to work, I had an epiphany.

The next thing I need the internet to do for me was to give me the power of a god and be able to morph any two faces on earth into one human being.

The stars aligned and I went to check out the latest from del.icio.us and low! I found MorphThing.

This addicting site lets you take 2 photos of faces and morph them into one. All online and in seconds(which is impressive since the site is probably getting a ton of traffic from del.icio.us and others).

The images get automatically saved to your account(after you create one) and they give you plenty of options on how to share the images. There are tons of celebs on the list and you can upload your own photos.

Here is a gallery of some of my creations:

Audrey Hepburn & Dali Lama - "Practice silent mediation, in drag"

Harry Potter and Elvis Presley - Its Rowling's worst nightmare...

Dubya and Jason Lee - one plays a good ol boy on TV, guess which...

Denzel Washington and Hilary Swank - this one makes me squirm a bit.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Gwen Stefani - Gwyneth vs Gwen...names only a dungeon master could love.

Jude Law and Palpatine - I just wanted to knock Jude down a level here...

Just couldn't resist...

2007-07-12T23:01:00.000-04:00

Usually don't post pics on here but this one I just could not pass up.

I hope all the current NY Mets take a look at this face and know who their biggest(smallest) fan is.

Lets Go Mets!

Compubeaver case mod: the PC-stuffed beaver

2007-04-13T15:18:00.001-04:00

And this, my silent friends, I give you this lazy Friday afternoon...a working computer stuffed into a formally working beaver.

read more | digg story

BritePic - what? why??

2007-03-29T12:49:00.000-04:00

The first thing I thought of as I awoke this morning was "boy I wish I could not only look at pictures online, but easily click on ads within the pictures I look at!" That is so brilliant!

Thats the business model of BritePic. You take your already boring shot of your pet sitting in a pot(oh how cute) and add even cheesier comments within the picture. In return for that "value" you are presented with a CPC add at the top of the pic.

WTF?

Why do people need this? Was there an outcry from the masses about not seeing enough advertising on the web? Does BritePic actually believe that its even remotely intuitive for people to think that the photo they are viewing should contain an ad?

Also I love the picture they choose as an example. Its a freaking puppy in a pot on a stove!

This site deserves at least a 4 out of 5 on the craptacular scale.

A redesign and a new direction

2007-03-21T09:52:00.000-04:00

I upgraded my Blogger account to the new beta version which forces one to assimilate into the Borg..oops I mean your Google account to log in. No big deal but it feels like one of these days I will wake up and have to inform Google as to what I feel like eating for breakfast, actually they probably will know what I want.

I am forgoing the focus of my posts on online advertising and marketing and instead looking at the more interesting world of (WARNING: buzzword alert) Web 2.0 sites (gasp).

The reason for the change? Well there is more innovation in that part of the web universe right now. I read through the articles about online advertising & marketing and yawn and realize that there isn't going to be a heck of a lot of "innovation" in the near future. There are still articles like "Should you advertise on Podcasts?" and "How to maximize your RSS feeds" blah blah blah.

That's not innovation, its confusion. Its the outcry of hundreds of marketing people who have a scant knowledge of the web wanting to "do something different" without a real thought into why.

So I am moving away from that world for a while and looking instead to the new generation of online apps that are pushing the limits of what people think of as web sites.

I test these apps out and most of the time a voice in my head keeps screaming "WHY?" as in why is this new site/app in existence? Why would anyone use this? Why do I need to do this or that task in a new way in the first place? I like taking a pragmatic, practical approach to this whole idea of Web 2.0 and break it down.

Hopefully I will rattle enough cages on my way there ;)

2007-01-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is with me but so far I have been a complete grump this new year.

It started a few days ago and has lasted until now. I've never been this down on the new year before and I have a few theories why this may be happening:

Another year older - the new year is a stark reminder of the passing of time. Its even worse than a birthday since you can pretty much ignore your own birthday if you wanted to but with new year's everyone is talking about it. Its an official holiday, there are parties and fireworks and people saying happy new year. Its unavoidable, which makes it worse on your psyche.
Holiday stress - there is a stress with the holiday season that for me starts about 2 months before Christmas/Hannakuh. This is the time I have to start shopping for the gifts. If you want to stress out a guy to his limits, tell him he needs to find a gift for his wife/girlfriend that she will love. It can't be a cope out gift like a gift certificate to her favorite store, it has to be an actual planned out gift. Then watch as the guy goes from store to store in a mindless stupor looking in sections he doesn't even understand and reading labels written in another language. Is there really a difference between bath gel and shower gel? Is a new oven mitt an actual gift or a subtle instruction to cook more? It doesn't get any better once you find the gift because then the stress builds because the question of "will she like this?" keeping pounding in your head like a sledgehammer.
Back to work - the last 2 weeks or so of the year at most workplaces are like a scene from any of the living dead movies. It includes a lot of people with a glazed look in their eyes just shuffling around without a real purpose. Then one of the zombies mutters the magic word "lunch" and the other zombies follow him out the door. Anything that happens or tries to happen during this dead time is automatically pushed to the "wait until everyone is back after the holidays" mental folder. Then all of a sudden its today and everyone is back and the "woah I've been on vacation for too long so it will take me a while to get to that" mental folder is opened and gets all the work. At some point, around March, everyone realizes that its time to get to work again.

So I'm sure you have some other great reasons why this time of the year gets you down, post some so we can waste even more time on my blog.

2006-10-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

Why can't people just know?

You know the situation, you are guiding a project and parts have to be completed by other people, you get their work and it just looks like crap.

I know that I can't expect everyone to get it when it comes to marketing but people use some common sense! If you were to step back and look at the thing you just created would you take the next step and fill out that form?

A simple usability test is just close down all browsers, wait a few minutes, open up that page again and pay attention to where you are looking. Pay attention to your gut reaction, is it one of pride?

It’s just so frustrating when tech people have the mindset of a robot and think "this is my task, complete task, on to next task" rinse and repeat. You need specific instructions, fine but for the love of god think outside that little task box and react to things!

Don’t give me the excuse of “well you’re the marketing expert; you have to tell me exactly what to do.” Should I include breathing in the project request? Why not? Since you are following the task list to the dot how can you include something as complicated as inhaling and exhaling in there?

Ugh…I never feel as alone as when I waste time explaining ever single little infinitesimal detail to everyone involved so something incredibly simple can get done.

2006-02-13T08:38:00.000-05:00

I am on to my new gig...well I am officially starting at Kodak on February 27th. I am going to be the Online Marketing manager in their Graphic Communications Group. Leaving LogicalSolutions.net will be hard and I am not looking forward to these next 2 weeks.

So how did it happen? All I did was answer and ad posted by a company called Datrose a few weeks ago. They did not mention who the company was in the ad but I fit the skillset they were looking for. A recruiter called me a few days later and gave me more details on the position.

Turns out it was a contract position, yikes...

My first reaction was, what about health insurance? How long is the contract for? Is this going to work for me?

Well the Datrose recruiter answered all those questions for me and it helped.

Then I had the interview. Got a good rundown of the need and the expectations, things were looking better and better.

Went in for the second interview, this time with other team members. That too went well. I was really feeling it after that. That voice inside your head that tells you "this can work, I can make this work." There are risks involved, but without risk there is no reward. I was comfortable with the level of risk.

After sorting out a few details I officially gave my notice last week. It was very hard to do. Getting the position at LogicalSolutions.net enabled us to move out of NYC and eventually get a house and have our kids. That's a lot and I appreciate that. Even so, its time to move on.

2006-01-03T22:06:00.000-05:00

I am starting to work out this years Get Found seminar. We decided the topic for this year is going to be Local Online advertising because I feel like there are more opportunities out there for local businesses, they just need to learn more about them.

I am thinking we can attract a larger group to this years event. Any business who spends almost any level of marketing dollar to market locally would find this event interesting.

2005-10-28T12:22:00.000-04:00

John Battelle's searchable: Joel on AdSense

Why wouldn't click fraud be a problem? If the internet is anything at all its the biggest petri dish of human folly that exists. The simple fact is that if there is a way to make money with a given system, then someone will try and figure out how to rip that system off.

CPC is a big money making machine and that guarantees it a spot in the radar of scam artists. Those people will always try and find new ways to beat the system and make a buck doing it.

So now that we are all reminded of human nature, lets see the parties involved here: advertisers, publishers and Google.

For many advertisers its a tough pill to swallow that they just paid Google $10,000 to drive 845 people to their site and 10 people "converted." So where to point the finger? Well it must be fraud! Why else would someone get to our site and not buy our solar powered flashlights? Its never the sites fault right? We spent $$$ to redesign our site and we have flash!! I could go on but you get the idea. I think that a big part of this issue is that advertisers are driving people to very bad websites and can't see the pink elephant in the room, nor do they want to see it.

So is fraud the answer here? Are all those 845 clicks real people? I think most of them are but there is a percentage that are not. What that mix is I don't know.

From the publishers point of view the more fraud the better. Keep clicking! Be it a person, a script, or some poor soul in India working for 3 cents a day. They collect checks and have no legal or fiscal responsibility to their user base or to the advertisers that appear on their sites. If there was fraud, they can just turn around to Google and say "Hey take care of this."

So now Google's point of view. Do we acknowledge this "click fraud" thing or push it off? They seem to be following the M.O. of our esteemed presidents. Deny it until someone has proof, then push blame somewhere else and maybe fire someone. Until there is proof of click fraud that Wall Street will pay any attention to, Google will not have to deal with that subject.

CPC can work well, I've seen it over an over but to deny the issue of click fraud is denying the bigger human nature issue here. There are people scamming Google right now, what will they do about that?

2005-01-31T16:11:00.000-05:00

Announcing the unofficial Loquine Glupe SEO Contest Blog

2005-01-28T11:43:00.000-05:00

Its been a long while since I last posted here...It's good to see my PageRank has gone up since then. Maybe Google is happier when i shutup instead of blog...

Google has released an API for the AdWords program. While I will probably apply for one soon I don't anticipate getting any programming time to develop anything from it. I am hoping that some smart companies out there can develop some new features for the AdWords program that makes my life easier. Here is my...

Google AdWords API Wish List

True media planning tool - Let me input a bunch of core words and give me the average searches a month over the last 12 months, the highest month and the lowest month. I know there is seasonality data out there but its a bear to find it(if not impossible). I want to show my client key phrase specifc data that we can build a real media plan around.
How many advertisers are bidding on a word - show me how many are bidding on that word in quotes, in brackets and just the general buys(like eBay). Overture gives out this info(to an extent), why not Google? *Bonus wish* who those advertisers are.
Alert me when my ad is offline - I can't tell you how many times I needed to explain why an ad was offline and for what reason. Make an app that alerts me to when and why so I can see patterns and assure clients that their ads are at least running through lunch time.
Report on more than impressions - let me know how many unique users saw that ad and the avg number of times a user sees it. These are metrics that are being ignored by CPC engines and there is value there.
Allow time specific buys - dayparting! Kanoodle does it...

These are pie in the sky wishs but hey what are Friday's for?

2004-11-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

New York Daily News - Sports - Players insist line is crossed two ways

Punish the fans! Why can't this become a mandate? When you have the combo of alcohol and morons who bought tickets and think that gives them the right to do anything its a terrible situation.

There needs to be some sort of permanent harsh punishment for fans who do this crap at sporting events. Period.

How about this, a fan that gets fingered for this type of crap gets labeled based on the severity of his/her actions?

Maybe people get tagged similar to the way sex offenders get tagged when they commit those types of crimes. Basically whenever these morons try to buy tickets again(at least under their name) they have to pay an extra fee or the tag could give the venue the right of refusing to admit that fan, even if its a different sport.

For some reason people think they are totally anonymous when they are acting this way. Just watch the end of the brawl when the players are going into the locker room. Those fans pouring beer on them are cowards. Find them. Call them out to task, make them an example of being responsible for your actions and not anonymous.

Oh and stop selling beer at halftime, or earlier. The greedy venue owners don't need to squeeze anther 43 cents of profit out of fans for their beers. If you want to get drunk and be an ass run for president.

2004-11-09T09:02:00.000-05:00

New York Daily News - Sports - Lenny's pal goes as Isiah's steps in

This is yet another frustrating part of the drama that has become the New York Knicks over recent years. Isiah just take over the job already! What's the point of all this pussy footing around?

Watching the home opener the other day make me physically ill. It was like watching paint dry. The entire Knick team plays one on one, they don't move without the ball and can't guard anyone outside. They are so boring to watch its going to take a lot for me to pay any attention to this "team" the rest of the season. Who do you root for on this team? Maybe that new 19 year old kid and Sweetney but that's about it. I'm sick of almost the rest of the entire roster. Where is Mike Doleac when you need him?

2004-11-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything about any NY teams lately so here is a quick take on some current events:

New York Mets - I love the Willie Randolph hiring, I think this is the right move for this team right now. Its not a talent problem with this group, its a leadership one. That clubhouse needs something, I hope Willie has the answer.
New York Giants - This is a hell of a turnaround from last season. I mean that team just plain quit on the coach and their fans. It's such a testament to what coaching can do to team, since the roster is basically the same from last year. Its also pretty amazing what can happen when you don't turn the ball over, thank you Mr. Barber.
New York Knicks - the season just started and I am not too sure about them yet. Crawford seems entertaining but I have had a hard time really rooting for this group. There is just something about Marbury and Houston that grates on my nerves.

On a entirely different note, I wanted to give some help out to a friend of mine who just started his own web site helping people sell on eBay. I will write a bit later about how hard it is these days to get a good looking, credible website up and running without professional help.

2004-10-27T16:42:00.000-04:00

Balance SEO With Brand Clarity

Martin makes a really interesting point here that gets overlooked: "I asked my search engine optimization (SEO) company what I should do to reach the number-one spot. The answer was simple: Redesign the entire site, rewrite all the copy, and upload content I'd ordinarily never consider including on the site."

That makes me wonder, why is that? If the content is relevant for the business that you are in why not put it on the site? A site is there is establish your brand and in order to do so you have to offer value and value on the web is content, plain and simple.

I really don't believe that there can be too much content on a web site. Of course if its poorly organized then the content overload can be a negative but that is up to the information architecture to clear up. If the content is relevant to your site then put it on there but make sure you understand the hierarchy of how people want to get that information.

If someone only wants a summary of how your product works don't force them to read an entire white paper to do so. Put that summary up front and include links that let the user go as deep as they want to. As long as you give the user choice to get to those different content levels and its in a logical structure no one will complain about content overload. They will probably appreciate your willingness to offer the information, and that would lead to a positive brand experience.

2004-10-21T09:57:00.000-04:00

When you say the word "blog" to someone else that isn't that familiar with one, do you just cringe a little? I mean what a blog is is great, but that name, blog. Its just so....silly.

I know blog is short for weblog(which I happen to like better) and to write in a blog is blogging and I am a blogger...ugh......really I feel like 14 years old just writing this sentence. Can't we call it something else? Why didn't online journal catch on as a name?

Now that businesses are "blogging" and finding levels of success this business will mature. How do we move it into the more mainstream thinking of today's business decision makers?

actually I can answer that last question, we don't. Its going to take a few years and a few case studies to get the ball rolling on making blogging get more respect despite the name. Right now I will have to keep enduring those funny looks when I utter the word "blog."

2004-10-14T11:56:00.000-04:00

Google Desktop Search Download

I am installing the newest bell and whistle from Google to see whats its all about. After reading the overview in Search Engine Watch it seems like it would have useful functions.

Now if I can only think of some interesting things to look for...

2004-10-06T16:35:00.000-04:00

Today was the first of a "Lunch & Learn" series of talks that I am putting on here at work. They are basically designed to spread the word that internet advertising is a highly measurable form of marketing and should be taken very seriously.

It was good to speak to a full room of people about something that I am passionate about and love to give advice on. The questions I got were good and pretty predictable. No one really tried to challenge the notion that you should spend money on online advertising, which I guess is good but I would have loved to start a debate there as well :)

Maybe next time someone will stand up and say "Brian this is a bunch of horse crap, I am gonna go open my yellow pages and look for some ads there!"

2004-10-04T15:16:00.000-04:00

How many times have I walked into the IT department and found this scene?

2004-09-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

Knowledge management: Are you too busy to think?: September 27, 2004: New Thinking by Gerry McGovern

I always wondered why people put in so many hours sitting behind a desk. You would hear some people say "well you have to work 60 hours a week to show your dedication."

Bullshit.

I could get a monkey to wear a nice tie and work 70 hours a week and still have nothing to show for it. Its the quality of work not the quantity of hours that matters. Show me someone who can produce results and I will go with that person over the guy who is staring at his laptop at 8pm wondering how to complete his projections.

Quality over quantity.

If it took someone all weekend to finish something the first thing I ask is "why?" If there was a tight deadline then would't it have been more efficient to work smarter before that deadline so it wasn't so tight in the first place? Did that person or team stay all weekend to complete work they could have done in the 40 hour work week but didn't? Why did that not happen? Get to the root of the problem, and work more efficiently to solve it.

There are always going to be exceptions to this rule but it doesn't have to happen as often as it does. Work smarter in the time you are supposed to and then you will see better results.

2004-09-16T14:13:00.000-04:00

Aks Jeeves

Finally a search engine that tells you what it feels. The complicated algo here must have been years in the making.

Try a few queries and see how you can never go back to Google again.

2004-09-14T11:23:00.000-04:00

Straight Talk About Blogs: Do You Really Need One?

Having been attempting this blog for a while the question of do you really need a blog is very relevant to me. On the one hand its a great method of self expression, to put your thoughts(sometimes raw) on record. On the other hand it feels like shouting in the middle of the empty desert. Is anyone hearing me?

My reaction to that question would be, if you have to ask...Of course not enough people are.

Writing is tougher than it looks. Sometimes you think you have all these things to say about a subject then you start actually writing and there is this one sentence just sitting there. Such a lonely sentence it is.

That last paragraph made no sense since it just appeared there with seemingly no transition. That's a good example of breaking the writing flow. I bet I lost some readers with that mistake.

I am going to bold this sentence to make it look like a very important point.

I already know I will look back at this blog a few years from now and laugh my ass off at it...

2004-09-10T15:54:00.000-04:00

More on Media Addiction - Or Is It Just American Productivity?

I've always found it so completely sad to watch co-workers in the interactive industry staying at their office at all hours to work. Guess what people, you are not saving anyone's life with your work. It's this country's sad addiction to work that makes our overall lives miserable.

Really what are you doing right now that is so darn important that it can't wait until tomorrow?

Go home, see your children, wife, husband, friends, relatives etc. No one ever said on their deathbed, I should have worked more...

2004-09-07T10:38:00.000-04:00

The summer is winding down allthough it hardly felt like "summer" up here in western ny at all with all the rain. So I can't say that I am in a great mood right now since the weather sucked all the life out of summer and now we face the western ny winter in all its glory.

I am also dreading the 4th quarter rush in search engine CPC advertising. This is the time when all the businesses are jumping into the game and raising prices on all the B2C words out there. I know its all fair game but I also know that almost none of them are really tracking their ROI by word, they are just ego bidding and thats not helpful at all. So the people doing it the right way are playing agsinst all these hot button bidders along with all the other pressures of producing for the 4th quarter.

2004-09-03T10:43:00.000-04:00

What Can Search Tell Us About the Future of Marketing?

Amen brother! This piece does a great job of explaining exactly how the search advertising model is changing the way advertising will be bought and sold.

Here is the shock for the old school ad people: You now have to be accountable for the ad dollars that are spent! You can't justify an ad buy just by saying how many people may or may not have seen an ad at a given time.

The time has come to justify marketing dollars and search is only the beginning.

2004-08-31T12:16:00.000-04:00

I finally got a Gmail account. Of course this puts me in the category of "late-early adopter" but I don't much care for labels. In case you are interested I secured the hotly contested name of "bnizinsky" at gmail.com. that's right people, its all mine....

2004-08-30T14:03:00.000-04:00

The Consumer Is Taking Control of Advertising

The title of this article almost sounds like those blaring warning signals you get in the National Enquirer about the end of the world. Maybe for some ad folks this could be the case.

I have always been exposed to online advertising and its ability to target a person so I see that level of targeting as normal. I sit and ask how radio ad salespeople talk about return on investment when you can't really measure how well a radio ad is doing? I know, I know there are ways to try and measure the results but those ways are not always implemented and still companies pour money into the medium in the hope that sales will increase.

Anyway the point I am trying to make here is that for all the beatings that online advertising takes from offline media, the models that are being forged now are the ones that alladvertisers will have to adhere to in the not so distant future.

2004-08-27T12:16:00.000-04:00

Linguistics prof. George Lakoff dissects the "war on terror" and other conservative catchphrases

I ususally don't include politics in my writings here but after reading this interview I just needed to.

No matter what side of the fence you are on, even if you and tip toeing on top of it, this interview outlines some of the language that is being used in the current political debates and some of the implications of it. What does the "War on Terror" really mean? The answer gets broken down very well in this well thought out interview.

The next time some blow hard yells how you are anti-american if you don't support the "war" in Iraq, try to get them to read this, if they can read at all...

2004-08-27T12:14:00.000-04:00

2004-08-26T12:32:00.000-04:00

Wired News: RSS Attracts Really Serious Money

While I am all for RSS as a distribution technology, I have to ask the question, what is the business model here? I mean really how is Technorati going to make money?

Its things like this that makes me feel that VC investors have not learned any lessions from 1998...

2004-08-19T11:37:00.000-04:00

Blogversations - A Better Way to Market

This is an interesting idea. It seems like they want to put a level of management and automization into the process by which an influential blogger cites certain products or services in their blog.

The ideal situation would be if a blogger writes a positive review of a product that would influence the readers into buying it or creating more word of mouth buzz.

Will this work? So far it seems that the blogging community and its readers are pretty wary of plans like this.

Some other questions that come to mind:
- What is the determining factor in selecting blogs for the network?
- What are the levels of reporting that will be provided?
- What is the rev share for the blogger?
- How will ads be sold, CPM? CPC?

The blog ad space will settle eventually and it will be the companies with the best models that will survive.

2004-07-16T09:44:00.000-04:00

JibJab.com

This is great.

2004-07-01T14:31:00.000-04:00

Nizzer

Hey I'm not evil! But i guess you can't argue with the math here.

2004-06-15T12:21:00.000-04:00

Search Challenge: Evolve from "Result" to "Response"

Great article. It brings up a point that has been bugging me for a long while now.

Most current SEO people are former geeks who were the webmasters for certain websites. Their knowledge is steeped in pagerank reverse engineering and server side redirects but ask them a marketing questions and you get the deer in headlights look.

There are not enough experienced marketing people in the SEO industry yet. With a few notable exceptions, most people who can "optimize your site for search engines" know all about the technology and nothing about marketing plans and people.

2004-06-07T09:09:00.000-04:00

Personality

Its amazing to think that someone so young can have it but I would say that Nathan surely has it already. He is almost 5 months old and he has more personality that some adults I know.

He will smile at you, sometimes just because you are looking at him. He will give you this shy guy type smile sometimes that is just wonderful to see.

He grunts when he doesnt like what you are doing.

Nathan is starting to be really fun to be around. I hope that lasts forever. :)

2004-06-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

Spam Rules Require Effective Spam Police

Why aren't the search engines doing this? It baffles my mind. But I guess since the compaints are coming more strongly from the SEO community rather than users at large then the SE's are likely not to care as much.

A whole bunch of pissed off users is worth more in lost revenue to a SE than a whole bunch of pissed off SEO geeks :)

2004-06-01T11:09:00.000-04:00

Holy crap am I just plain tired! I haven't posted in a while and I started asking myself, why? Why am I not keeping this thing up to date?

Its pretty simple. I have the idea in my head that no one is actually reading this. There is no one coming to my site and blog so therefore I am doing essentially what most crazy people do, talk to myself.

That may be the case as this blog is concerned but that same mentality holds true for many businesses with regard to their websites. The difference there is that there actually are people on the site and that can be proven just by looking at some simple web stats. So why are they ignored?

People tend to focus on bringing in more people to their site. We need to rank high and promote the site better! But what about the people that are already there? What are you telling them? Do they get there and find your content crappy?

What if more of the people already finding your site actually made contact with you? Well most businesses don't understand this basic web concept. Give people a reason to contact you on your site and pay some attention to them!

Ok I have to rest my head again...

2004-05-20T15:05:00.000-04:00

What's a website?

Oh Brian that's simple, its that place I go to to find out more information about something.

Brian its the pages that Google takes me to when I ask it a question.

Its a jumble of images and text Brian.

What a stupid question Brian! Its our company brochure posted electronically so everyone can find it!

Brian its where I get to see a lot of nekkid ladies for free...

When I don't want to deal with anyone else because I cant find anyone that understand me, its where I end up.

A website? That's the crap we wasted $50,000 on 3 years ago cuz some geek in a ponytail told us we needed to get on the "information superhighway."

Brian a website is the only way our company is getting leads now, without it we would be failing.

I think the answer to that question can be found on a search engine no? Of all people Brian I would think you would know that...

That's AOL right?

I don't know Brian, you tell me.

2004-05-19T12:02:00.000-04:00

Ananova - Childless couple told to try sex

This is fantastic! Why you must always "keep it simple stupid"