There's a really good discussion occurring on HCRealms at the moment about HeroClix and the role of the company (in this case, WizKids) in outreaching to and interacting with online communities. I made a post over there that I'm particularly proud of and figured it would be worth sharing here:
So I wanted to compose my thoughts on this, because there are some really good conversations going on here that are very similar to a lot of conversations going on in PR in general right now. PR's in an enormous period of change - probably the biggest "revolution" since we started this field. Before, companies used to simply talk to the press, send reporters goodie boxes full of swag and expect to receive good coverage for these "review" products. There was no accountability because the general public never knew that the good review of that new television, or game, or whathaveyou was written because there was now a brand-new, identical television sitting in the reporter's home.
But that's changing. Companies simply can't get away with that anymore for a number of reasons. First, the "mainstream media" is becoming increasingly irrelevant as more and more people are going online for news and information. Trust of the media is at its lowest levels ever. When's the last time you bought something based on a review in a magazine vs. the last time you went online and found reviews of a product on Amazon, or on a community about your product?
Companies are realizing that what the fans think really does matter because it often (not always, but often) reflects concerns of consumers as a whole. If enough people think something sucks, then there's a very good chance that it does in fact suck. In a lot of ways, WizKids was way ahead of the curve on this count. Since leaving, I've worked with companies that either have no clue what's going on online or in some cases don't want to hear what's happening. I've literally had to edit reports because they were "too negative," because the upper management didn't want to hear about the problems online and would prefer to ignore them. I'm not kidding.
So listening to and reading what the community has to say is the first step, and I think WizKids does pretty well on this count. I know Seth reads these forums often - he linked me to this thread, after all - but the next logical step is community interaction. Sure, we know what people are saying, but what can we say back? There is, as hair10 posted, a hell of an opportunity here to talk directly to the people who are buying your stuff. And it's one I was, quite frankly, given free reign to utilize, sometimes with not-so-great consequences. More than once, my foot went firmly in my mouth.
I believe, however, that a few mistakes are worth the overall gain when talking to the online community. Connecting with fans, being honest with them and straightforward (something I always strove for), acknowledging the limits of what you can appropriately tell people but still keeping them "in the loop" for lack of a better term - all these things are extremely important. Coming online to say "no" isn't really conducive to conversation. More importantly, whomever the representative is has to be OK with some back and forth with the community - that is the basis of conversation, after all.
There are limits, of course. There are some things that for whatever reason I couldn't tell you guys, or really you didn't need to know (just because it didn't matter, not because I was trying to keep anyone in the dark.) But overall the interaction is worth it because it builds community, and it doesn't matter where it happens - on WizKids' own forums, here, or another site. A Facebook group maybe, or a group chat on Xbox Live. There's lots of places to hold these conversations, and if you're limiting yourself to one place you're missing a good deal of conversation elsewhere. I myself was guilty of this when we shifted focus entirely to the WizKids forums and left HCRealms out of the loop for a while.
At the risk of this turning into a novel I should probably wrap it up, but I wanted you guys to at least know what was going on a little "behind the scenes" - but more importantly, I want you guys to know that what WizKids did a few years ago really was innovative. Not a lot of game companies (and certainly very few companies overall) do what WizKids did, and I know that there is some very strong resistance to it from people more entrenched in the "traditional" PR of talking to print media and sending people fancy review swag method. There are people who don't realize that those ways are rapidly dying out but simply don't want to change how they operate because change is hard. Anyone who has ever lived through a website changing its template can attest to that.
I don't mean to make excuses and I don't want this to sound like you guys are ungrateful - that's the exact opposite of what I want to communicate. Overall, WizKids should engage with you guys more. Seth does an admirable job, but he is, in the end, a game designer and spends a lot of his time designing games. In an ideal world there should be another "BrotherMagneto," someone who is brand-agnostic (as opposed to a brand manager not versed in communications) who has the time to engage with the community and let you know what's going on. That doesn't mean spilling details on upcoming sets and dials (although that's certainly one of the more fun parts of the job!) but engaging in conversation, listening to what you have to say and offering the company's perspective on things.
I'm laid up with some kind of bronchial infection, but in lieu of real content here's an awesome video a coworker sent me of "A BioShock Halloween."
I like Los Angeles. I'm here for a few more hours as we wrap up our team meeting, and I've found LA to be a surprisingly cool place. It's an essentially American city in that it's one massive piece of sprawl where the term "using space wisely" means nothing. It's about conspicuous consumption and being seen. It's a place where you go to "make it" that isn't New York, but one gets the sense can be just as harsh when you fail. The weather is great and the girls look good.
I remarked to a coworker last night that I can see the appeal of LA, and I never could before. He told me later that LA has no soul; that may be true, but the absence of a soul isn't necessarily a bad thing - in contrast to Las Vegas for example, a city whose soul is so filthy and corrupted it shows in every gilded edifice.
Now I just need to kick this cold and get a good night's sleep back in my own bed and I'll feel like myself again.
In my office's breakroom, CNN is running footage of Russian president Putin comparing the US' missile defense shield plans to the "Cuban missile crisis." The article on CNN.com seems less hyperbolic, but having a former KGB agent in charge of a Russia that's increasingly resembling its former communist self in all but name is scary enough without tossing around the closest we've ever come as a species to setting our clocks back a couple hundred thousand years.
Just in case our leaders are reading the Puppet Show (or if any of you Puppeteers need reminding): the only winning move is not to play.
It's not often I anticipate a book, but I've been waiting patiently for the Hobby Games: The 100 Best since it debuted at GenCon and there was a package waiting for me when I got home with my copy neatly tucked inside. I haven't opened it yet, but it's waiting for me by my bed when I finally turn in tonight. I'm cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning getting ready to sell this stupid house. I don't think I'll ever be done but in less than 48 hours, I have to be.
But I digress. Hobby Games is shipping, so if you haven't ordered your copy, why don't you try the link in this post. It's good karma.
I read on Mashable the other day about Gooruze, a "Digg for Marketers." Intrigued, I checked out the site which isn't so much Digg for Marketers as it is a specific Linked In / Facebook combination for New Marketers. I'm a little wary of new social networks - I'm on MySpace and Facebook and that's it - but I thought I'd give this one a try and I'm not sorry I did.
Gooruze has a lot of good things going for it. Pretty standard fare like your own blog and the ability to comment and rate other people's content, but you can contribute in three main different ways: asking a brief question to the community, writing an article for the community, and sharing news with the community. All of these can be commented on, and there's an entire Groups feature I haven't even begun to delve into yet. The interface is still a little wonky, but considering the site just launched on Wednesday the 17th I'm not surprised it's still in a 1.0 UI phase.
The value I'm taking away for Gooruze is threefold. On the most selfish level, participating in conversations there has affirmed a lot of my thoughts and feelings on blogger engagement and "PR 2.0." It has also lead me to a lot of blogs I probably wouldn't have discovered before and given me a lot more reading material and food for thought. And third, it's the closest to any kind of professional organization and network I've joined, and seems far more valuable than any "association" you join and pay monthly dues to so you can sit around and sip cocktails in some hotel ballroom every sixty days. Which is to say, it's the kind of networking and collegiate atmosphere I'm looking for.
I predict use of the site is going to explode and then level off with the good content starting to simmer to the top. I've encouraged my coworkers to give it a try, it certainly seems like a good thing to get into, even more so if you can get in on or near the ground floor.
When "Jurassic Park" (one of the greatest movies of all time) is on American Movie Classics.
Jesus, I remember when I hid a copy of the book in my 8th grade science textbook so my science (yeah, science) teacher wouldn't get mad I was reading it.
I've created a second blog that may interest you - A Yankee In London. I say, old chap, what an odd name for a blog! It's almost as if it will chronicle an American's journey to and experiences in London!
And you'd be right. As I mentioned before, Elizabeth was offered and accepted a job in London, and we're moving there in a couple of months.
Here's a Q&A that should address queries you might have about this:
Q: When?
A: Between Thanksgiving and the end of the year.
Q: Where?
A: We're not exactly sure yet, but we want to be near one of the major Tube lines in the outlying parts of the city.
Q: What will you do with your house and car?
A: Sell them both. We're not renting our house out from the UK.
Q: What about the cats?
A: They are subject to a six-month quarantine, but will be doing that here with our friends rather than over there in an animal shelter. They'll fly in and join us later.
Q: How long?
A: Two years minimum.
Q: What are you going to do for a job?
A: That's still up in the air right now, but I'm looking at several options.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I haven't been posting much recently - because this has been a logistical obstacle course and nearly every waking moment I'm not at work has been spent getting the house ready to sell.
In the end, it will be worth it!
So I finally sat down and forced myself to use Lulu.com's e-distribution tools to try them out. The result is that a short story I wrote a couple of years ago, Some Side Effects May Occur, is now available to purchase as an e-book for the low, low price of $1.30. It's a 6400 word story, so it's a steal at $0.0002 a word! I dare you to find a better deal for zombie fiction / social commentary anywhere. If you do, I'll promote it here!
Warning (for my mother and any other family members reading this) - this story is pretty gory and is intended to be disturbing.
Oh yeah, and I'm not crazy about the cover image but I didn't have any pictures to use so I went with one of Lulu's stock images.
Here's a nice button where you can buy my story too: 
"We want you to make a viral video!"
If I hear this one more time, I think I'm going to slap someone.
To paraphrase Me2: viral is not a strategy, it is an outcome. You don't make viral videos, you make videos that become viral. You may want them to become viral, but there's no magical spell/potion/Harry Potter wand that turns a viral video into the next LOLcat.
That is all.
I haven't been updating regularly, and I apologize. As some of you already know, my wife was transferred to London (and she's going over in late November) so every waking moment I'm not at work has been devoted to getting the house on the market to sell. Which is why there hasn't been anything in this space recently.
I'll hopefully remedy that soon, so stick with me.
A big buzz-term in the Web 2.0 community is "user-created content." By this, people are typically referring to things that online communities create themselves that demonstrate their passion towards something. This blog post is an example of "user-created content."
The New Marketing people were quick to seize on this, and "user-created content" quickly became something quite desirable within New Marketing circles. In this slightly more cynical case, the content they're referring to is something that users have created to show their loyalty to or excitement about a brand or product. A good example would be the "PG version" of the 300 trailer that came out right before the movie. The YouTube video (embedded below) has more than 4.5 million views, and while the users did basically overdub the source material a few times, it was enormously popular, and New Line played along because it's basically free advertising (a trick many companies haven't quite figured out yet.)
I was thinking today about the push towards user-created content, and I think it's a great goal, it's something that's exceptionally hard to create organically unless you specifically give the community tools to do so. But even if you were to allow users to create their own car commercial and share it (as GM did a couple of years ago), will all that have the same effect as one humorous video that's an overdub of the official trailer? It's hard to tell. There's a reason there aren't more Lewis Blacks, Dave Attells and Jon Stewarts out there: doing something funny and relevant, with a wide audience appeal, isn't easy. Empowering community members to do so is great, but one shouldn't expect each video created to be another "300 PG."
Rather, I think New Marketing should focus more on user-chosen content. Empower me to take the things I want and put them in my own space. This blog is a fine example: the content you see on the right nav is either static (the blogroll) or chosen (Google Reader, my Gamertag and its accompanying RSS feed) content. Facebook is an even better example; the entire site is at its heart a colossal crisscross of RSS feeds all picking from and talking to each other. Aside from blog posts and "wall writing" (Facebook's comments), most of the rest of the content there is generated by RSS, and the user chooses what, if anything, is displayed on their page.
The iGoogle landing page is much the same way. It's now so infinitely customizable that there are website contests devoted entirely to who has the best iGoogle landing page. That's powerful stuff, and I suspect we're only beginning to tap the potential of user-chosen content.
That's my thought for a Sunday after a busy weekend.
I have never been contacted by a PR firm to get me to cover something on this blog, but some of my blogging coworkers have. One of my coworkers was recently contacted, although we're a little unclear as to why - he basically blogs about marketing and PR like I do, so the closest we can figure is these guys created a list of "communications/marketing blogs" and spammed them with the same form email, inserting their names and nothing else. Remember when I talked about individual communication? This is the opposite of that. The exchange that follows is priceless. Note that all names have been removed, as have all references to the company and product to protect the innocent.
One of my only complaints about Apple and the iTunes / iPod format (aside from the shitty, shitty hardware - "just works" my ass) is the DRM'd music you "purchase" from their store - not that I want to share it, but because it locks me into buying Apple products so I can continue to play my purchases. I love my iPod, but I can imagine a day when another company makes a viable alternative and my brand loyalty only goes as far as what's most functional in my life. But Apple was smart, because the couple hundred dollars (at least ) of DRM'd music I've purchased from them must be played on Apple devices until the end of time. Considering that includes at least one exclusive Peacemakers album, I'm loathe to switch.
But today, Amazon.com launched their own MP3 online music store. What's the difference? A slightly smaller selection than iTunes, a crummier search function (it never was Amazon's strongest point), but DRM free, 256KBS MP3s. Often for the same price (and many times cheaper) than iTunes' DRM'd songs.
And I can just drag and drop them into iTunes, and they're good to go. Or into whatever other future service I might want to use, on a future player that hasn't been released yet.
iTunes just lost a customer today. Congrats, Amazon.
Also, the other thing I don't like about the iPod / iTunes? No multiple genre tags. That, and the crappy quality of the hardware that has necessitated the replacement of the device even though I'm hardly what I'd consider a "hardcore" user. But man, those iPod Touches are sexy.
After my last series of posts, I had a reader ask me a very good question: how do you deal with a toxic community? A community so entrenched in its negativity that anything you say or do with them will be turned around, thrown in your face or used against you?
Do such places exist? Are there really people out there who devote a good deal of their time online to complaining, albeit passionately, about something? Yes, there are. I've seen several varieties of these kinds of communities in my time. Here are a few off the top of my head. I've kept things general and intentionally not linked to anything, and none of these examples represent any of my current clients:
So to my reader's question - how do you engage with a community like this? The short answer is, you don't. Period. Sometimes, there is no strategic advantage to engaging with a community so toxic and hostile that they have the time, effort and inclination to do nothing but be negative on the Internet, especially towards a company or a product. While it's true that there are companies out there that certainly deserve ire, consider the kind of person who would make a blog only to post about how awful a game company (rather than, say, a political figure) is and then update it constantly, regardless of whether anyone aside from a small number of like-minded individuals actually read it. That's the kind of mindset you're dealing with.
Shop on Amazon
