We (some Forrester analysts) are fielding a series of surveys on our blogs to get a better sense of readership with the intent to write better content.
If you're a reader of Being Peter Kim, I'd appreciate if you could take a quick spin through our survey.
"Ours" meaning that it's being posted by Jeremiah, Charlene and Josh, and on the marketing team blog as well.
Thanks!
Today's the 2nd birthday of this blog. It's also the birthday of Frodo, Rakim (the other half of "Eric B and"), and the Lego Brick - which makes for a better picture.
Over the past year, a few great things happened. I met a lot of interesting people. My feed subscribers grew steadily from about 100 to just over 1,000. And I settled in with three other social media properties: Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.
Enough about me. Going into year two, I'm more excited about a couple of other people's blogs. Ann Handley of MarketingProfs has started a personal blog. My colleague Brian Haven has renewed his as well.
I know some other people are thinking about starting to blog. What are you waiting for?
I've made it a point to try and do some serious housekeeping work on my contact lists once a year. I know, you're a better networker than I am so you keep at it on a more frequent basis. But for me, little piles of business cards stack up on my desk like a claymation stop-motion film that advances a frame every time I attend a conference or event.
For the past couple of years, I've been doing my annual thing on LinkedIn; however, I've gone into respond-only mode on the site. Why? LI creates connections between resumes. Sure, you can add a profile picture - so now we're creating connections between CVs. LI is positioned for better or worse as a professional networker's haven. I kind of see it as Frankfurt airport - orderly and efficient. Work with me here.
Quick, what's the airport you most hate connecting through? For me, hands down that would be London Heathrow. It's just a mess. That's how I feel about MySpace. But there's no better SoNet for self-expression, especially for artists like Alex Young (a family friend).
This year, I've turned my attention to Facebook.
[Un]fortunately I discovered the Gmail contact import function today. And because all my contacts are n*sync, I uncovered a CRAZY cross-section of people on FB that I've crossed paths with over time. Unfortunately, the add/invite went out over the series of tubes before I could include a personal note - my sincere apologies.
Amazingly, I've got small networks re-/forming. The kids who grew up on my street. Elementary school friends, even the guy I fought one time in 5th grade. High school friends I moved away from. High school friends who I graduated with and have gone on to wonderful things. Freshman year friends. Fraternity brothers. Their girlfriends. A cappella geeks. First job. B-school. Internship. Second job. Third job. Current job - colleagues, boss, ex-boss, mentors, and management, along with an entire ecosystem of clients, competitors, media, and other new types of friends. Even my wife got on FB this year, but thankfully I interact with her about never on the site and in person instead.
In a nutshell, this is my social graph. Rich profiles mean connecting along affinity lines deeper and more personal than corporate logo alone. I'll keep this post personal and leave the "web strategy" stuff out - but I highly recommend reading up on Jeremiah's thinking about the subject.
Thanks for joining me on my blog; feel free to join me on Facebook and Twitter as well.
If you've arrived here after reading my short piece in Brandweek, welcome!
Here's a quick guide to some of the most popular content here over the past year.
From my feed:
On the site:
Speaking of Twitter, here I am. Again, welcome!
Thanks for allowing me to share thoughts with you this past year.
I was quite fortunate to be invited by many clients, organizations, and associations to meet in person and discuss marketing and strategy. I'm not a great photographer; however, I threw together a small scrapbook of stuff I saw this year that you might like.
Looking back, one of my favorite things about 2007: meeting so many social media people in person, some for the first time, others just in a long time: David Armano. Jonny Bentwood. Rohit Bhargava. Pete Blackshaw. Toby Bloomberg. Chris Brogan. Blake Cahill. CC Chapman. David Churbuck. Henry Copeland. Michael Donnelly. John Eckman. Richard Edelman. Maxine Friedman. Josh Hallett. Ann Handley. Joseph Jaffe. Jeff Jarvis. Max Kalehoff. Karl Long. Owen Mack and Jesse Buckley. Amanda Mooney. Rick Murray. Jeremiah Owyang (now a colleague). Jeremy Pepper. Marianne Richmond. Julia Roy. Steve Rubel. Deb Schultz. Dan Schwabel. Aki Spicer. Mike Spataro. Ilya Vedrashko. Greg Verdino. (Sincere apologies if I missed you in the shout outs here.)
Looking forward, 2008 may fly by even faster than this year, hard to believe. I'm shifting my research coverage at Forrester to focus on mobile marketing, blogging, and building interactive skills/z. More on that in the weeks to come.
Thanks again for the conversation. I'm happy to share with you in Flickr, Twitter, Dopplr, and Facebook as well.
I'm certainly not a technical genius, but I've performed some minor tweaks to this blog that might give you some ideas for your own:
If I had any design skills, I would have redone the header and CSS by now...but for now, I'm done geeking out! (At least until I catch something else that's cool.)
I added some links to new photo sets at right (on the blog itself, not seen in RSS readers): some photos from Fenway during the 2007 Red Sox season, from Wellesley and the Boston Marathon last month, and from walking around Miami during Forrester's Marketing Forum.
Also experimenting here with posting directly from Flickr - if it turns out well, expect more in the future.
Up to over 14,000 views - wondering if I'll be over 20,000 by year end.
Today's the 1st birthday of this blog!
Whether you're subscribed to the feed or visit the site, I appreciate being able to share thoughts with you on marketing, advertising and well, being Peter Kim. I appreciate the comments and exchange of insights even more.
One of the things that's really crystallized for me over the past year - why I blog. Most of the stuff I post about is related to my research; the conversation here helps me crystallize thoughts. Or sometimes it's just to air out the maven in me. It's a way to think out loud - procrastinating, working, venting - sometimes a way to talk to myself in a socially acceptable manner.
Moreover, my blogging has led me to get involved more extensively in social computing. I'm a photography hack but have shared more pictures from trips and on Flickr. I've started uploading videos on YouTube. Still trying to decide if I prefer to read my feeds in Thunderbird, Bloglines, or Google Reader. I flew around on Second Life for a while but wasn't really feeling it - my first life is a bit too demanding. Similarly, my activity on social networks has declined - sorry to report that I'm a bit of a dull node. I've also been tagging on del.icio.us and have become a novice Typepad hack (let me know if you have questions).
(I thought about sharing year-in-review stats and upcoming-year goals here but I'm not sure anyone would care.)
What's funny is that I wrote this post on Thursday while sitting in Dulles, waiting for a flight. I set the post to publish on Sunday (i.e. the one year mark) and on Friday I stumble across a chain of "why I blog" posts from David Armano, Sean Howard, and Kate Trgovac. I sense a meme rising - or at least a derivative of some ad campaign's tagline.
Looking forward to sharing Year 2 with you! Thanks for reading.
One more housekeeping post before Being Peter Kim returns to its regular marketing and advertising content...
I'd like your advice on what to do when you see your content republished without any attribution. This is the downside of greater influence - more people are likely to take ideas and republish them as their own. I consider this to be intellectual theft. Is that too extreme?
I've stumbled across republished content by accident - not necessarily in places with great reach, but annoying nonetheless. And it's not something as general as "customer-centric marketing" - it's more along the lines of specific concepts.
So what would you do? Email the author? Leave a comment? Call it out on your own blog with trackback? Do nothing? Something else?
Your advice appreciated (in comments).
[image from unity.project on Flickr]
Now:
I am currently an analyst at Forrester Research in Boston. My coverage
area focuses on marketing strategy and organization, including
advertising and accountability.
Public speaking appearances: ARF re:think 2007; Forrester's Marketing Forum 2007 - Keynote; MIT Enterprise Forum of NY; Ad Club of Boston Symposium 2007; CTAM Board of Directors; Mplanet 2006; The ARF's 1st Annual Audience Measurement Symposium; Forrester's Consumer Forum 2006; Forrester's Consumer Marketing Forum EMEA 2006; The 30th Annual DMA Financial Services Conference; the 2nd Annual Interactive Promotion Summit; Digital Signage Investor Conference; MITX Future of TV Panel; WOMMA's Summit 2006; in addition to many private client events.
Press quotes: Advertising Age, Adweek, Boston Globe, Brandweek, BusinessWeek, Chicago Tribune, CNBC, CNN, The Economist, Fortune, Handelsblatt, IT News, Investor's Business Daily, Les Echos, Marketing News, Nikkei Shimbun, NPR, New York Times, Red Herring
Contact info: +1 415 413 4397 or me [at] beingpeterkim dot com.
Earlier:
Prior to joining Forrester, I was international marketing manager at
PUMA AG; part of the strategy network at Razorfish; and a research
analyst at Coopers & Lybrand focusing on the energy industry.
Education:
I got an English degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.
Etcetera:
I hold one U.S. copyright, with thanks to both Flock of Seagulls and O.J. Simpson.
Disclaimer:
That being said - the contents of this blog are my personal opinions and not those of my current or former employers.
