You gotta check out this WebProNews video interview at ACCM 08 of Steve Spangler - the science teacher turned catalog company CEO/Emmy award winner/keynote speaker/toy inventor:

In the video, Steve talks about how his Mentos + Diet Coke experiment turned into a YouTube sensation and how he was able to leverage it for his own marketing purposes. Steve is a client of ours and he even mentions Netconcepts (thank you Steve!!) as his experts behind the scenes helping him, which was really cool to hear.

Also in the video Steve shows off his cool flaming wallet, and how he is privileged to receive "special treatment" at airport security because of it. Um, yeah, that's not the kind of attention that you want, Steve

What you don't see in the video is that Steve also has a flaming business card holder. It's hilarious when he whips out one of his business cards and he has to put the fire out on the flaming card before he hands it to you. I'd LOVE to have one of those card holders and then troll the trade show floor and then hand over a flaming card to overaggressive, hard-selling vendors - but WITHOUT putting the fire out! hehe

Now that I'm back full-time in the US, it's not such a chore to get to conferences. I can even attend conferences that I'm not speaking at, which is something I seldom (if ever) did in the 8 years I lived in New Zealand. Yet it can be an excellent opportunity to connect with really interesting people and to expand my thinking. Last month, I attended BlogHer, to listen to my daughter Chloe, and I also made the trip to San Francisco for WordCamp. This month, I almost went to Gnomedex, but I hadn't acted soon enough and it had sold out by the time I went to register.

Here is a list of conferences that I haven't been invited to speak at and would love to attend:

• Pop!Tech
• South by Southwest (SXSW)
• TED - already sold out
• Web 2.0 Summit - invitation only
• Emerging Technology (ETech)
• Accelerating Change - on hiatus

These conferences are exclusive and expensive -- and worth even penny. For those who can't swing the invite or the budget, there are free podcasts of past talks. Pop!Tech has their Pop!Casts, TED has their TED Talks, SXSW has their SXSW Podcasts, and IT Conversations has covered a number of conferences including Web 2.0 2005/2004, Accelerating Change 2005/2004, and ETech.

How does your conference schedule look? What are some of your important conferences that you feel you have to attend?

Some of the gurus out there are offering paid subscriptions to screencasts, podcasts and other educational materials. For example, Eric Ward recently launched a subscription-based service, The Ward Report -- promising how-to podcasts, video training modules and other resources on link building, all at an annual subscription rate of $149. Debbie Mayo-Smith, in a similar vein, offers an annual subscription price of $395 for 3-minute-long weekly screencasts with productivity tips along with other educational resources.

I know I have been promising a regular schedule of 5 to 10 minute long screencasts and I have yet to deliver on that promise. (Sorry about that, folks!) I've been wondering if I would offer screencasts/podcasts by paid subscription like Eric and Debbie?

If I had a paid subsriber base like Eric and Debbie, I would force myself to get off my duff and produce at least weekly screencasts. So I wanted to throw this idea out to you Dear Readers and find out what your interest level is in a paid subscription service to podcasts and screencasts, in effect audio and video training on SEO, and perhaps other topics like email marketing and business blogging?

Or should I offer screencasts/podcasts occasionally for free as I can fit them in? After all, there's already plenty screencast/podcast material floating around the Web for free, like the excellent content at Tubetorial.com, so why would people pay.

Your thoughts on the direction in which I should I go would be helpful. Thanks!

I just got an email from one of my (Netconcepts') first clients (circa 1995) that he's now completed his MBA, doing it while still working full-time as a marketing exec. It takes a lot of courage to get an MBA after being in the workforce for several decades. Way to go, Greg!

Lifelong learning is where it's at. Even if you don't go back to school, you need to keep developing your brain and your skills.

Once you stop learning, you become a dinosaur, unable to compete in this increasingly complex world. This has never been truer, considering that technology is advancing at an exponentially faster rate.

Simultaneously, technology — such as the Internet and podcasting — is breaking down barriers, making it easier than ever before to access knowledge and information once only available to the priveleged elite. For example, MIT are making publicly available course materials and videos of lectures — for FREE! It's not just MIT, there are Stanford Graduate School of Business MBA lectures and UC Berkeley lectures too, for example.

If nerdy professors aren't your cup of tea, then how about business leaders and technology pundits? IT Conversations offers some amazing material, again all for free. Such as talks from Malcolm Gladwell and Tim O'Reilly. And entire conferences such as Web 2.0, PopTech and Accelerating Change, all of which I highly recommend.

The way I make time for learning is by subscribing to podcast feeds of this material and having it download to my iPod. Whenever I work out at the gym or go for a bike ride or drive to the office I'm listening to gurus rather than singers or DJs.

Speaking of gurus, here are two to definitely listen to: Steve Jobs (from his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005), and the Dalai Lama when he was a visiting lecturer at Stanford. Download from here (iTunes required).

Following on from my last post on Larry Chase's predictions for how online marketing in 2006 will evolve...

I can't stress enough how important it is to experiment with the new technologies that Larry discussed (RSS, podcasting, video downloads, mapping applications, etc.) so you're not left in the dust. Sure, RSS or podcasts or video downloads won't take over the world in 2006, but you can be sure you'll be on the back foot if you do nothing and let your competitors establish a foothold with a popular podcast show or video blog.

What I'm talking about here is first mover advantage. Once your competitor becomes the next RocketBoom.com (a popular video blog which auctioned off their first video ad on eBay for $40,000!) or the next FrenchPodclass (a podcast of French language lessons offered by 26-year-old Sebastian Babolat, who recorded them in his living room and within several months had 10,000+ subscribers), it'll be hard to catch up and overtake them.

Our client Steve Spangler is podcasting audio commentary, audio interviews, and video clips demonstrating some very cool science experiments to teachers and parents (his target audience). I reckon that his competitors won't be upstaging him anytime soon, given the loyal following and buzz he's already built up. And most importantly, now he's got the momentum to keep evolving his podcasting/vodcasting at a faster and faster clip.

What are you doing to differentiate your brand and position yourself to capitalize on the whole "Web 2.0" thing going forward?

Larry Chase of WDFM pontificates about key trends for Internet marketing in 2006. These include, in summary:

1. RSS? Yes, but...
   
   Real Simple Syndication (RSS) finally takes off, and while great for stuff like sampling content, subscriber acquisition, product updates, and grabbing the attention of search engines, he contends that neither is it the second coming for advertising nor is it the replacement for email.
2. Podcast Means "Narrowcast"
   
   It may have been the 2005 Word of the Year, but to employ "podcast" technology for marketing purposes? The ability to "timeshift" and consume content on-the-go on your schedule is innovative, but isn't it possible most of these sound files are being listened to on desktop or laptop computers? And when considering podcasts as part of your marketing plan, think about the payback. A simple press release may be better.
3. Email Marketing - The Tower of Babble
   
   Improve email campaign deliverability by adding your SPF text record to your domain's DNS record. Mail servers look for the sending server's IP address before passing the email through to the recipient. Also look into adopting SenderID and the other competing protocols put forward by inbox providers and ISPs, to further ensure your emails get delivered. And remember, the cleaner your list, the more emails will be delivered.
4. Video Downloads Will Be Huge
   
   With millions of videos already being downloaded from iTunes, it's a growing market. While folks are tapping into a missed episode of their favorite TV program sans commercials or downloading entire movies, what is the application for marketers? Video on the Internet featuring product demos, or how-to videos to help buyers with their purchase decision, perhaps?
5. Newspapers Get Bold
   
   Print media has had to rev up its act to tap into the new generations. The world's #1 most downloaded podcast The Ricky Gervais Show at Guardian Unlimited is a glimpse of great things to come from the newspaper industry. But where is the money? It's got to be about more than traffic.
6. Multidimensional Marketing
   
   Sure, mashing online maps with overlays of data have far-reaching implications for Internet Marketing. Mapping properties for sale or rent, visualizing where visitors to your website come from, or finding WiFi hotspots or dead zones for cellular networks, are all great applications. And there will be more exciting innovations to come. The rapid advances in Internet technology will be a boon to marketers and researchers alike. But in the urge to innovate or die, don't make the classic mistake of assuming your audiences are adopting new technologies at the same rate you are. There's still a place for the traditional.

What do I think about Larry's predictions? I say he's pretty much spot on. Of course we won't know for sure until the end of the year. ;-)

I'm finally getting a chance to blog my panel session which took place last week in Las Vegas at the Shop.org conference.

The session was titled "Alternative Marketing: What Happened When Etailers Dove into Blogs, Podcasting, and RSS"

Moderator:
(yours truly!)

Panelists:
Seth Greenberg, CEO, eHobbies
Pinny Gniwisch, Founder & EVP Marketing, Ice.com
Steve Spangler, Founder & CEO, Steve Spangler Science

You can download the Powerpoint slides here.

My esteemed colleague Brian Klais, one of our VPs here at Netconcepts, graciously took notes for me which I am posting below:

Stephan:
- Gave an overview of RSS technology and blogs
- 439 million Google search results for "blog"
- RSS is not the same thing as a blog, it is a way to deliver / syndicate content to consumers
- Search for "trustrank" in Google for an example of how RSS builds inbound links = top rankings
- Retailers can deliver news alerts, specials, new resources that have been posted to the site
- VMware builds customized feed around my interests
- Highlights of podcasting, moblogging, and a new buzzword "vodcasting"
- You don't have to blog to benefit from blogosphere
- Voltaic has a solar powered backpack, blogging friend Treehugger blogged it, then picked up by CoolHunting then Gizmodo and sales skyrocketed
- Negative buzz for Kryptonite = blogstorm
- The power of link text from the blogosphere that contain your brand names profoundly impacts your rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN. Just look at what ranks in top 10 for "kryptonite"

Seth:
- Blogs: ehobbies.blogs.com/sethgreenberg and ehobbies.blogs.com/rc
- Seth admits this is a new pioneering area and wanted to experiment with the channel
- Was able to "dumb down" the sign-up for RSS: the link to the "Bestsellers RSS Feed" beneath the Best Sellers sidebar takes the user to an instruction page.
- Launched the feeds just a week ago, so too new to reveal results. Feels similar to email channel.
- Affiliates could be a great application of RSS technology.
- Goal for blog: build trust, keep customers coming back, build loyalty
- Ran a promotion that resulted in 5% of all purchases redeeming the blogged "coupon"
- In June, added "blog" to the header navigation. 5% of sitewide traffic touched blog. Conversion of those who touch blog is 2x non-blog readers.
- Their "male nurse" collectible doll blog post was indexed next day by Google.
- Summarized experience as the good, bad, and ugly. The good: organic search results very good, personality, good press, effective for audience. The bad: more of a diary than a dialog with customers (message boards still have a proper place), has to convey an overall company strategy, has to be nurtured. The ugly: new technology is hard to pinpoint when things go wrong

Pinny:
- Blogs: SparkleLiketheStars.com, JustAskLeslie.com, Blog.ice.com
- 10 commandments of corporate blogging
1) Editorial - uses blog for editorial to converse with customers on jewelry advice
2) PR - PR blog talks about charity events
3) Current - hired a writer to talk about the stars and current events, talks about style, and then promotes similar products available from ice.com
4) Promotions - targeting "ice discounts" etc to target discounted jewelry
5) Customer feedback - customers can provide feedback
6) Natural search rankings - links from blog improved rankings over 2-6 weeks time
7) Sales - low volume but acquisition clear
8) Company vibe
9) Being at forefront - press is good and easy to get
10) picture of him with Beyonce

Steve:
- Blogs at SteveSpangler.com
- Steve pulled out his flaming wallet
- Steve played a funny video clip showing Diet Coke + Mentos explosion, and later gave the recipe. Was an example of a video podcast.
- One of Steve's products, "Instasnow," got posted onto BoingBoing popular blog, and created a 3x sales outcome. Record high for that product sales.
- Steve was sold on blogs, and launched
- Steve had the audience rolling over with his stories of Instasnow and related fun science products.
- Sales spikes were directly related to blog posts.
- Played an experiment: Can I own a search market by blogging it? Tried it with "launching potatoes."
- A blog post can be 3 sentences.
- Result = top 10 rankings.
- Steve says to blog best selling products, behind-the-scenes information, "Did you know?" product information, lets him voice his opinion and feelings on subjects.
- Podcast - can talk about what he is doing by speaking it, not writing it.
- Has learned the art of linking to other blogs, and filling his posts with links.
- 13% of online sales attribute to blogs
- Closing tip: 1 roll mentos, 2 liter bottle of soda for the explosion experiment!

Q&A:

Q: How do you calculate ROI?

Pinny: Don't look at blogs from ROI perspective. Low cost. Took time to get system in place, difficult to calculate actual cost and therefore ROI. Looks at it as free money.
Steve: Maybe 30 minutes per post, tries to blog a few times per week.

Q: Are blogs being commercialized?

Seth: They tend to be more informational
Pinny: Not done for sales, more for info.
Steve: Blog is a soft sell, a sense of authority, people enjoy it

Q: Do you need special skills or expensive software to blog or just use Typepad or similar?

Stephan: Advocates just download software (eg WordPress) and install on your webserver - free, functional.

Main takeaways:

1 - Have the proper motivation of trying to provide useful customer information and sales follow - often with dramatic though unpredictable results.
2 - Experiment with the technology and gain some learnings
3 - Check out Steve Spangler's funny science videos!

Automotive company Lexus (more accurately, Southern California Lexus Dealers) has signed a 26-week deal to sponsor podcasts at public radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, California. The deal is based on CPM (cost per thousand) which means Lexus will be paying for the actual number of downloads the podcast will get. The company's links and logos will appear on the KCRW podcast player, and the brand will be mentioned at the beginning of each podcast.

Lexus joins companies like Volvo, Audi and General Motors now using podcasts to appeal to a niche audience, specifically younger customers who use iPods. In fact many companies are tapping into the marketing potential of podcasting.

My article for MarketingProfs earlier this year highlighted opportunities for companies to sponsor existing high-quality podcasts.

Sponsorship allows you to associate your organization with a reputable podcast, and it gives you an instant audience. For example, sponsors of IT Conversations reach an audience of 14,000-15,000 listeners. Sponsoring others' podcasts can also be a viable alternative to producing your own podcasts and building up the listener base from scratch, for potentially less expense and better ROI. Sponsor slots shouldn't sound like commercial interruptions; they should be relevant to the listener and add value.

Interestingly, Lexus spots will be heard on feeds that are currently featured front and center on the iTunes podcast page. In podcast terms, that’s the equivalent of being featured on Amazon’s home page.

Forrester Research makes some exciting predictions about future uptake of podcasting by media consumers:

"Podcasting, which is the newest entrant into the digital audio mix, will see significant growth by 2010 - reaching 12.3 million households - as MP3 adoption climbs and broadband reaches 62 percent of households."

If you want to learn more about what podcasting is and how to use it in your own company's marketing, check out my recent MarketingProfs article.

The podcast I mentioned in my last post about recommendations on blog posting frequency has arrived! It is the inaugural podcast of the Business Blog Roundtable. It will be a weekly podcasted roundtable discussion with 5 business bloggers, covering various business blogging best practices. Download the MP3 file (12 megs).

Tris Hussey has already blogged it, so I won't bother restating what he's already said, beyond what I've already discussed in my last post.

If you have a business blog or are considering having one, this podcast is essential listening. It is rich with practical advice on increasing readers, retaining them, search engine optimization (SEO), and more.