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For those who missed it, the Milwaukee Interactive Marketing Association has just posted this podcast of the presentation on Multi-cultural Online Marketing, presented at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.
As an office of the organization, I’d love to hear your comments on the topic, the locale, and the presentation itself. Especially the topics.
What are the topics you’d like to learn about?
In the early days of radio journalism, reporters would conduct “man on the street interviews,” to get the opinion of “John Q Public.” The news-gathering ritual has extended into television reporting today. The technique makes for interesting coverage of a topic, but opinions recorded are hardly the unvarnished truth. When presented a microphone, all but the most incautious of us edit out statements to fit what he’d like the world to think of us.
If it were possible, a more accurate accounting of public zeitgeist might be to eavesdrop on a roomful of friends, discussing and arguing about the topic at hand. Listen in on enough rooms and you might be able to get a better feel for public sentiment.
That’s the concept behind Facebook’s Lexicon. This (currently) free feature allows marketers and others to slice and dice Facebook members’ comments on their friends’ Walls. Currently this new Lexicon version is limited to a list of roughly 20 terms. There are plans to open this up shortly.
An earlier Lexicon version showed relative volume of terms over time, but not actual numbers. This made any sort of statistical inferences impossible. The newer release shows the actual numbers, as well as these enhancements:
Below is an example of terms associated with mentions of “Palin,” over the last two weeks. Significantly, it was within this period that Saturday Night Live (SNL) presented a much-talked-about skit, where Tina Fey played Sarah Palin at a press conference, standing beside Amy Poehler as a disgruntaled Hillary Clinton. The topic was sexism in the presidential race.
In the Associations graphic, the bottom dimension is gender, with the terms farthest to the right being used by more men than women. The graphic (which can be expanded by clicking on the image) shows that more women than men commented on Facebook walls during that time period with statements containing SNL, Tina Fey and skit (when also using the word Palin).
The caption at the bottom of the graphic helps you understand what you’re looking at:
The Y axis is the average age and the X axis is the average gender of users who posted the association. For example, a bubble up and to the left means that the association is more prevalent among older and more female users. A bubble down and to the right means that the association is more prevalent among younger and more male users. The size of the bubble indicates the number of times the word appeared alongside the topic in the given time window.
Explore Lexicon for yourself. And if you’re curious what all of the comments were about, check out the skit:
Here’s a Help Wanted ad guaranteed to get noticed: Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. It was written by Antarctic explorer Earnest Shackleton, undoubtedly to make it clear that this was one opportunity that slackers could take a pass on. Ironically, the  challenges that my marketing technology team face sometimes seem just as formidable. And they persist in their struggles against the odds — as Shackleton’s heroic team did – for precisely the same reason: To have fun.
I’m sure that’s why it was included in this Eight Principles of Fun web slideshow presentation. Here’s another quote:
Do yourself a favor and watch this brief and inspiring presentation. I ordinarily do not enjoy these types of time-wasters. I’m more inclined to enjoy and share satires of this sort of rah-rah motivational blather. But I didn’t this time. And here’s why:
Most of the “There is no i in teamwork; We can do it if we don’t give up”-type presentations seem calculated to get us working folk more excited about doing the same old stuff faster and cheaper. If you consider your work life dull and frustrating, they seem to imply, “Look again! It’s really more exciting than you think!”
Yeah, right.
This presentation is far more subversive.
It talks not about achievement, but about the fuel that propels us to it: FUN. Yes, fun laughs at adversity. But it also laughs at authority — or at least the pomposity and rote conformity that often come with authority.
Take a look. And many thanks to personal and business coach Lindy Asimus for posting this.
If you’re member or “friend” of the Milwaukee Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA), you may already know that tonight will be a terrific meeting. The topic of the MIMA dinner event is multicultural marketing. We’re honored to have Marquette alum Nancy Hernandez, MBA, founder and president of ABRAZO Marketing.
Nancy Hernandez will discuss interactive marketing in a multi-lingual environment, best practices and case studies. She has been praised by audiences for her no-nonsense approach to the challenge of leaping the culture barriers we all face in an international marketplace.Â
Also winning rave reviews is the venue. Based on strong positive feedback, MIMA will again be at Milwaukee’s Intercontinental Hotel — a fitting name for the topic!
DATE:
TONIGHT! Thursday, September 18th, 2008AGENDA:
Appetizers and cash bar: 5:30-6:00
Speaking engagement: 6:00 – 7:00
Q&A: 7:00 – 7:30LOCATION:
Intercontinental Hotel
139 E Kilbourn Avenue,
Milwaukee, WI 53202
Register now!
Special Offer To Readers Of This Blog
LIMITED NUMBER ONLY! If you are one of the first 5 people to arrive at the event, you’ll receive a FREE GIFT, courtesy of ec-connection. Its the book New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing, & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly, by David Meerman Scott. Let the registration desk know that I sent you and if you’re one of the first 5 to do so, you’ll get the book!
Last night was two firsts for me. I attended a Chicago Cubs baseball game from a rooftop venue across from the stadium. (The Cubs faced my city’s Milwaukee Brewers). The second precedent: Using LinkedIn to reduce or eliminate the need to retain business cards.
I was able to accomplish both because the rooftop socializing event, and a pre-game presentation, were jointly organized by the Milwaukee and Chicago Business Marketing Associations.
Mingling in the posh, luxury box-like meeting room, I had plenty of time to mingle and press the flesh between innings.
By their own estimates, LinkedIn is signing new professionals to its social network at a rate of one every second of every day. In just four years, the site has become de rigueur for executives looking to build their network of contacts. Which is, well, everyone.
It’s an impressive network. Below is a recent summary of who can be found on the site:
The meteoric growth of LinkedIn’s member base means that compared to two years ago, I now rarely search for someone within the site and not find them. And every time I do find someone and add them as a business associate, my own network grows.
Last night I decided to put this ubiquity to the test. For those I spoke to whom I truly saw a value in keeping in touch with (and they with me), I did something different. Instead of simply exchanging business cards, I used my smartphone to go into LinkedIn, search for them, and invite them to add me as a contact.
Now I have something even better than a business card. I have a database entry of these contacts that changes as they move through the ranks of their company, or a future employer. And they have an opportunity to contact me with a favor or other request for assistance — which is, of course, the lifeblood of good business networking.
Looking back at these two firsts from last night, I can tell you I will definitely use the LinkedIn technique again, where appropriate. As for rooftop voyeurism, I must say it was better networking than “spectating.” This shot of my view (unaided by the dozens of big screen televisions throughout the facility) was taken by my smartphone.
P.S. Too bad about the Brewers. Better luck tonight in Game #2 of there three-game Chicago line-up.