I was recently a guest on on the Rockstar Podcast Lite with host Lorenzo Araneo of Screaming Lunatic Multimedia, LLC.

Lorenzo and I had a pretty wide-ranging discussion covering everything from forklift safety training videos, to social media, to obscure bands from the ’70′s.

You can listen to or download the podcast from the Rockstar website: http://rockstarpodcast.com/rpl2/

Thanks for the opportunity Lorenzo!

I just sent out a tweet that got me thinking:

Wondering when the downside to lists will come: Suppose I created a list called “Zipperheads” or “Dumb People”… might cause a stir

Twitter just released the List function to all (or most) users, and people are busy playing with the feature, constructing new lists from the people they’re following. So far it seems to be a big hit with users, who are generally constructing subsets of other users based on what they tweet about, where they live, or generally positive attributes. But what happens when people use the Twitter list function to slam other users and/or brands in the social media space?

Is it so far fetched to think that, for example, a power user with hundreds of thousands of followers would put together a list called “Brands that Suck” or that a list called “Suspected Terrorist Sympathizers”? Aside from the personal affronts possible, what does this new feature mean for your brand? Hopefully Twitter users will only use their new-found power for good, but anyone who’s been on the intertubez for more than 10 minutes knows there will be some who will use it for “evil.”

In the mean time, I’m off to finish my list of zipperheads…

Sometimes you read a blog posting and just say: “wow, I wish I had written that.”

Mark McGuinness over at Lateral Action, just posted one of those. (In fact I’ve stolen his title too) 10 Creative Lessons from Bowie in Berlin combines two “Mike” things, Bowie & Marketing.

I could summarize it for you, but, well, eh, just go read it for yourself.

It sort of redeems my misspent youth listening to Bowie. I just wish my parents were around so I could say “told you so.”

This is not a political post.  No Really, it’s about permission marketing, new media, and the last stand of the old media guard.

By now you’ve most likely heard that Sen. Barack Obama has selected Sen. Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate; but how did you hear about it?

If you’re a bit of a political junkie like I am, you probably heard it the same way you heard about Dick Cheney’s selection by George W. Bush… the traditional media.  If you spent any time watching the 24-hour cable news channels on Friday or Saturday, just about all you saw was a series of talking heads chiming in on who they thought would be Obama’s choice.  Some were right, some were wrong, but you just couldn’t help but notice a sense of cynicism whenever the talking head du jour mentioned the Obama campaign’s upcoming text message announcing the choice.

With camera crews camped outside each of the potential VP’s houses, the “traditional” TV news folks were determined to scoop the campaign’s text message announcement.  Cable News’ last desperate stand to prove themselves better than any new fangled media. So the cable news strategy worked out for them, they scooped the campaign, proudly announcing that their sources and stake outs indicated that Sen. Biden would be the choice, and that this brave new world of new media was just a flash-in-the-pan, and the message to supporters first was an epic fail.

Ah, but was it really?  The campaign generated so much coverage on each of the news channels, there was hardly a mention of Obama’s rival Sen. McCain on Friday.  On top of that, the Obama campaign has collected untold thousands of cell phone numbers of highly interested people, an amazingly hard to come by resource these days.  Thousands of numbers left out of almost every telephone poll, thousands of numbers to contact for support, volunteer efforts, and get-out-the-vote efforts. An exceedingly smart way to incorporate that third-screen into the campaign’s overall effort.

With an increasingly large number of people abandoning their land-line telephones, and the amount of noise in their email in boxes, mailboxes, and TV screens, the News Media may have won the battle, but the Obama campaign has may great strides in winning the war.

This is one of those: “the only lessons I ever needed, I learned from my first job” kind of posts.

My first job was sort of unusual for a suburban kid from Edison, NJ. I worked at a farm market officially named Giles Farm Market, but know by everyone in the area as “The Umbrella Lady.” The place was one of those local hole-in-the-wall kind of places, no signs, just an ancient, round picnic table with an old yellow and white umbrella on it when she was open. The produce was displayed in old peck or bushel baskets, not for effect, but because that’s what was what you did. There was a an old general store counter with an even older scale on it, and an electric cash register that she upgraded to in the 60′s that still had a hand crank on the side just in case the power went out.

By the time I was old enough to get the job there, Peg “The Umbrella Lady” Giles had been in the business of fresh produce for decades, sometimes it seemed like 100 decades, but in reality it was probably 3 or 4. My first day was fairly disastrous, after all, what 14-year-old knows the difference between fava beans and green beans, let alone how to handle musk melons or shuck corn. At the end of my first day, she called me aside to tell me I was probably not going to make the cut, but if I was interested in working, and learning, to come back the next day.

Lesson #1

Showing up is half the battle – She was genuinely surprised to see me that second morning, but it showed her that I was not only interested, but willing to learn the “right way” to do things. What it showed me was that a little effort goes a long way. I worked for Peg for four years before I left for college, and in that time I saw quite a few people come and go. About half of the kids that started working there never came back (or were asked not to come back) for day 2: it was her version of trial by fire. It was relatively easy to get a day 1 at The Umbrella Lady’s, day 2′s were much harder to come by.

Lesson #2

Word of Mouth is Essential – I have to admit, it took quite a little while for the second lesson to make itself apparent to me. Everyone in North Edison, Metuchen, and South Plainfield knew about The Umbrella Lady… everyone. But Peg never did any advertising for the market. Every single customer was there because someone else told them about her. I’m not even sure if she was listed in the yellow pages (I may be dating myself, but this was well before the internet kids.) Shopping at Peg’s was the way it used to be, at least that’s what her long-time customers would tell me; she had the best produce, checking through every ear of Jersey corn and every Jersey tomato herself. People knew that and they told their friends and neighbors. She didn’t need any fancy advertising, just an old umbrella, and an open sign.

Lesson #3

Social Networking Works. – The newest lesson I’ve learned from working at the Umbrella Lady’s is about social networking. There were literally hundreds of regulars there, Peg knew most of them (like my mother) on a Mrs. So and So basis, but there were a group of “super regulars” who didn’t need to come in on a regular basis, they just got special treatment whenever they did. She knew these folks on a nickname or first name basis, like Fodder Dear, who was a shift supervisor at a large manufacturer where her late husband once worked, sure there was a connection to her late husband, but he also supervised 300 or more people, definitely a gatekeeper. There was “the golfer” who was the local gadfly at the country club, the real estate developer who was her key into new folks moving into the area, the author, who’s circle of friends seemed to be unending, and even the “sexy senior citizen”, who spent her time at the senior center telling her friends about what a great place the Umbrella Lady’s was.

The other part of her social networking strategy was brilliant: around Labor Day every year, the democrats, the republicans, the fire department, the police department, and the rescue squads all had their annual summer picnics, and every one of them served corn, tomatoes, watermelon, and whatnot from the Umbrella Lady. She didn’t discriminate when it came time for the picnics, they all got the produce donation from Peg. I think she may have been the most connected person in town.

Sure these lessons are pretty “old school” but each still works in the Marketing 2.0 world we’re in now. Peg Giles, visionary marketer.