Being Peter Kim

I want to believe [that Twitter is useful]

  Why Twitter is Over Capacity 
  Originally uploaded by Jeremiah Owyang.

Twitter - do you love it or hate it?  I think your response to that question depends on why and how you use the application.  This drives the type of content you'll find valuable, the number of people you follow, and how you use text notifications and tracking.

Giving the continuing technical difficulties that Twitter has been facing - apparently birds moving whales can be quite difficult - I've been getting less value from my network.  I use Twitter as a heads up tool, to get advice, to connect with virtual communities, and to bridge communications from online to in-person (esp around events).  I was following almost 1,000 people - so getting information was either serendipitous when tuning in or via @/DM.

But I'm not getting text notifications like I used to.  So, inspired by some conversations and posts with/from Mitch Joel, Greg Verdino, and Mack Collier, I've decided to shift the way I'm using Twitter to make the conversation more manageable.  Similar to pruning my LinkedIn network, I unfollowed about 80% of my network, leaving only people whose names and/or pictures I recognized immediately, as well as people who I could remember having a helpful conversation with at some past point.

(remember is the key term here - my memory isn't fantastic and I'm bound to have offended some. My apologies, I will add you back.)

To me, Twitter content works best when personal.  Whether it's something you're doing or something you're thinking.  So I'm trying a new approach to Twitter, because I want to believe it's useful.  Maybe it's just microblogging that's useful and Twitter will ultimately pull a Friendster.

I think I'll go log into Pownce, haven't been there for a while...

links for 2008-06-24

• Investor's Business Daily: Firms A-Twitter Over Microblog Service
  Some Twitter stats: "more than a million users — 200,000 of those frequent users...[t]he service handles some 3 million messages a day."

  I've recently changed the way I use Twitter...more on this later.

  
  
  (tags: pressquote twitter)
  
  

Don't believe the hype (it's a sequel)

In the summer of 1999, I was subletting a place near Harvard Square while working at Fidelity Investments.  Near the end of the summer, my high school friend Dave moved to Cambridge to start his first year at HBS.  This was back when a book like Year One was invaluable, way before every student thought about bloging about the experience.  One of the things I found most interesting about the first years was that walking around the dorm, many had replaced the school-issued name on the door with business cards from their former employer - McKinsey, BCG, Goldman, etc.

I met up with Dave one day after work at an orientation happy hour at John Harvard's.  One of the people I met had previously been working in corporate finance for Paramount Pictures.  We discussed, among other things, the profitability of movie sequels.  Sequels are almost always profitable.  Why?  Among other things, they draft off the visibility of the lead, even if it tanks.  Assets can be reused and budgets more accurately scoped.  Distribution can bypass the expensive theater route and go straight to DVD or PPV.

So what does this have to do with marketing?  It has everything to do with branding and it's simple to make a connection with today's "viral" videos.  (I had a great conversation with Sam Ford from Peppercom/MIT last week about why the term viral is a misnomer - but that's a story for another post.)  Think Dove Evolution and Onslaught, for example.  At the time of writing this post, Evolution has 7.1 million views; Onslaught has 0.2 million.  So is Onslaught a failure?  No way - it's generated a ton of attention and surely Ogilvy didn't have to work nearly as hard to publicize #2 as #1.

Well, Kris Hoet from Microsoft Belgium emailed to let me know that a sequel to "The Break Up" has launched.  Even if you don't know the name, you've seen this video.  Now "Inspiration, Anyone?" is out - and has been since June 8th.

And I haven't heard anyone talking about it.

I don't know if it is just hasn't penetrated the echo chamber of marketing blogging or if most people have seen the sequel and thought "meh."  Or perhaps it hits too close to home for agencies - they can get very defensive, very quickly - e.g. check out this post.  Maybe it just needs time.  Some people have told me they think the first was successful because few people realized Microsoft was behind it.  But Dove was behind the Campaign For Real Beauty and that didn't seem to matter much.  Microsoft's making a point to sell more advertising services, Dove's making a point to sell more beauty products.  Maybe we can chalk it up to B2C vs. B2B.

If you haven't yet seen the sequel to The Break Up (it's 3:38 in length), I'd love to get your thoughts on why it does or doesn't work for you.

W I N G S

I have a poster of a young Michael Jordan hanging in the office.  The William Blake poem underneath the picture reads:

"No bird soars too high, If he soars with his own wings."

wagamama: positive eating + positive living - negative email

Have you ever eaten at wagamama?  They've expanded quite a bit since I first ate there in Leicester Square and have even expanded into the US, with two Boston locations.  I'm a fan of the restaurant/brand (yes, they have a Facebook group).  They may know how to run a good kitchen, but their email marketing needs some work.

You probably know that I don't research email for a living - I've only managed campaigns as a client-side marketer.  But I know enough to be dangerous, or at least to write a decent blog post about how to improve email marketing.

So here's the body of the message:

1. Pretty pictures, right?  Well first of all, this message displays terribly in text - it's just a bunch of hyperlinks.  Lesson:  deliverability matters.  How much attrition are you willing to suffer by relying on a link that says "can't see this email? click through to our website."
2. Look at the content.  How does this relate to a noodle house?  [answer: it doesn't]  Wagamama says it won't sell your information to 3rd parties, but this promo/promo/promo/promo is pretty much the same thing. Lesson:  make it relevant.  Why not a message like "Harvard Square now open" or "new summer menu"?
3. I haven't heard from wagamama via email for months.  Actually, I can't remember if they ever sent me an email prior to this one.  When a consumer opts-in, it's permission to build a relationship, not to ping them for money randomly like your alma mater.  Lesson: relationships matter and they need to be cultivated and maintained over time to thrive.

Forrester's analyst Julie Katz does this for a living and is worth contacting if you're responsible for this type of marketing.  As for me, I think I'll go unsubscribe from the list now.

Day on Martha's Vineyard, new camera

  Day in Vineyard Haven 
  Originally uploaded by Pete Kim.

I recently picked up a new camera - a Nikon D40.  Bought it at retail, did not receive it as part of the [in]famous blogger outreach program (which was for the super expensive D80 anyway).  Took it down to Martha's Vineyard to play around a bit today - photos on Flickr.

Speaking of which - who says that advertising doesn't work?  My existing cameras (Canon PowerShot, iPhone, Nokia N95) are fine, but I deemed myself ready for a digital SLR.  In my world, Nikon has generated brand awareness that crushes its competition.  Off the top of my head, there's the aforementioned blogger outreach program, the FanFoto photographers at Fenway Park, Picturetown on Flickr, and the flyers that have been in my Sunday newspaper for the past few weeks.  But even more important - word-of-mouth marketing in the amazing shots taken by guys like Josh Hallett and ... well, his work pretty much speaks for itself.

I've got a lot to learn about photography - hopefully it's easier than golf.