Jott blogs have NOT been edited. The below message is exactly as I Jotted, hence some minor errors. Comments that I have added after the original blog are italicized, as is this paragraph.

Jott episode two. Right now I’m on the light rail train headed down town Salt Lake City and I’m updating my blog with Jott. Let me text rapolate. As you can see from my last blog entry Jott is a really cool service with lots of free features. Today I’ll be covering the feature of reminders. To record reminder for yourself, you need to do two things. First sign up at jott.com that is www.jott.com. All you need is to give them your phone number and your e-mail, the second step leave you reminder. Call the 1-8… listen

So, It cut out after about 30 seconds. I believe that is the longest recording Jott will do. That means I need to be sure to Jott only short blogs, or Jott blogs in parts. Let me finish the blog with another Jott:

The second step is to leave your reminder call the 1-800 number and the Jott system will automatically detect to your phone number and read it back to you. A pleasant female voice will give you the voice prompt. What would you like to Jott? you say reminder then a female voice ask you a date and a time after you give the date and the time you can record a message. The message is then sent to your email box and also a form of text message to your phone 15 minutes before you leave a reminder. You should try it out. Jott is free and easy, it’s a great service I used all the time for my reminders. listen

While I was hiking in the nearby mountains today I decided that I am going to do a four part blog series on Jott, a free “over the phone” voice to text transcribing service. I’ve been using it for the past six months now, and it is extremely useful. While this series does stray somewhat from Marketing, it is a great business tool that I have used numerous times to record me ‘to do messages’ while away from the office.

The service can be a great tool for a number of different applications. The four parts of the series will be:

1. Introduction (recordings from today – see below)
2. How to leave yourself a reminder or a ‘to do’ message with Jott
3. How to post to your blog with Jott
4. How to send a mass email with Jott

Captured via cell phone:

I’ve found this great new service called the Jott. It lets me call in and record a message which is then transcribed and uploaded to my blog. I don’t have it completely setup right now, so it’s just going to email me this transcript and I will copy and paste it to my blog but I’m starting a week long review of Jott. I’ll be uploading all these to the blog and I hope you check them out. This is the first one and it is totally completed over the phone while I’m up here by this reservoir up above Cottonwood Canyon.

Captured later that day, via cell phone:

Okay, part two of the blog. I’m sitting here by a river so I’m not sure how well this is going to translate or transcribe out. But, during this week I plan on doing a blog entry about how businesses can use this. Also, about how it can be used to send mass emails, how it can be used to update blogs, how it can be used for a multitude of, for a variety of different options that are really valuable it’s a great tool so far. I’ve been using it for about six months, and I’ve been very pleased with it. So, I will be blogging from home some more.

Organizations that continue to cling to old media are refusing to open themselves up to new results.  Old media, including newspapers, television broadcasting and radio has been declining in effectiveness for marketing.

So, why do organizations still cling away?  Because old media is strong media.  Erik Schonfeld said in his TechCrunch blog:

industries that are used to control don’t like to give it up. Old media is like that. Even in this day and age, its struggle with control issues continues. Old media knows the relationship with its audience has changed, but it is still not quite sure how to deal with it.

Because they are not completely sure how to handle the situation they just keep plugging away with their current efforts.  Because they print case studies that say traditional advertising is still very effective, the masses believe it.  In reality though, traditional advertising is loosing it’s effectiveness and isn’t reaching as many true impressions.

Businesses can improve marketing results by finding new methods of marketing – through capitalizing on the social media and TEXT GENeration phenomenon.  Read these articles to see how this can be done:

Get Digital :: Get Noticed

Viral Video Marketing

Marketing for the TEXT GENeration

Thomas Friedman, in his best selling book The World is Flat, writes about the boom in technology as “steroids” that have the potential to heighten our abilities.

I call new technologies the steroids because they are amplifying and turbocharging all the other flatteners (the idea that the world is becoming an open global market). They are taking all the forms of collaboration… – outsourcing, offshoring, uploading, supply-chaining, insourcing, and in-forming – and making it possible to do each and every one of them in a way that is “digital, mobile, virtual, and personal,” … thereby enhancing each one and making the world flatter by day.

Through this mention he coined the idea that technology can act as steroids which can inseminate business and personal growth with success and achievement. He focused mainly on how technology enriches our abilities to collaborate, work more efficiently, and to be more innovative. He didn’t touch on how technology acts as a steroid in the social media and marketing aspects, however. I’ll go out on a limb and say that it was because his first edition was published in 2005, long before the rise of the Twitter/Facebook/MySpace empires.

I would like to take the opportunity and build upon his theory that technology is a steroid to success. In today’s world technology not only increases our productivity but also provides us with with many new methods by which we can market ourselves, our ideas, our products or our businesses.

Here are three steroids that can help you get your idea/product/self to market:

Medial-TEXTalin. This steroid increases strength of marketability and gives your marketing muscles a lot of WOW factor. Om Malik, a popular tech blogger I like to follow, wrote in a blog this morning about how text messaging was used with American Idol to generate a lot of cash. “AT&T says the most recent season of American Idol show generated 78 million text messages — up from 67 million last season.” This is not to say that you, who probably don’t have any revenue sharing contracts with AT&T, can make money directly off utilizing text messaging in your marketing. It does show how successful text messaging in marketing is becoming. Teens are texting a ton! Capitalize on it! Check out how Projective Marketing delivers results in text message campaigns it runs for clients.
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I’m sure you’ve all seen some great online videos. They’re funny, they make you laugh and then they get spread to all your friends when you email them a link or post the video on your blog! The purpose behind these videos is entertainment… sort of.

The reason why people post these videos is for entertainment, usually. Some people have really gone all out making a fun to watch video and have then become famous because of it. I think it is safe to say that these videos are being posted primarily for entertainments sake. That being said, a HUGE underlying factor behind a lot of these video postings is web traffic. Why would someone want more web traffic to their blog or website? Because web traffic is the currency of the internet. If you have a lot of unique visitors to your website then you are wealthy.

Do viral videos really help someone market themselves, their business or their idea?

You bet they do! Take Blu for example (Blu is his pen name… not totally sure who he is. A Google search turned up nothing, so I went to see who his website is registered under and it is registered to a Sabbadini, Gilulia… maybe that is his real name?). He has been blogging for a couple months at least. He also has a sweet website. However, his web traffic was quite low until he released an awesome video online.

His video, seen here, has been viewed 1.2 million times! It has been posted on blogs (like I’ve done here) over 400 times! There have been over 6,000 people that have commented on his video! According to the viral video chart it is the most viral video right now.

According to Alexa (one of the top dawgs in tracking web traffic) his website has grown hundreds of times over in the past two weeks.

The way he brought in all this extra traffic is through putting his web address at the top of the video, like is seen in the video here.

How can I use viral video marketing to push my own business or idea?

Great question! Keep watching this blog to find out. Nate, VP of Sales at Projective Marketing and I are both really excited about this viral video marketing project we’re working on. We’re going to release the case study on our own video bit by bit over the next couple of weeks, so keep reading to find out more!

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” ~Western Union internal memo, 1876.

“The concept is interesting… but to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.” ~Yale professor on conceptual paper that became FedEx.

How crazy these early assumptions were! At the time though, most people having read or heard these quotes direct from the horses mouth probably would have legitimized them through popular consent. Starting with 14 planes in 1973, Fred Smith took his “not feasible” concept and created an airfreight shipping platform based around localized hubs – an idea that was new to the industry. Many people, his business professor included, thought Mr. Smith was making a costly mistake. Two years later he was turning an impressive profit, and FedEx hasn’t looked back since.

In business I’ve come across many skeptics – most of whom I come across actually – who immediately dismiss my ideas on mobile marketing as being ‘pie in the sky’ and not feasible. However, when I show them how well mobile marketing has done in Europe and East Asia and how quickly it is taking off here in the United States they change their tune.

Several brainstorming sessions at the Projective Marketing firm have turned to near brawls as decision makers make assumptions about what will and will not work. This is not all bad, by any means. A little conflict and critique is good in any business. A lot of the criticisms pan out and end up saving the company money. If such criticism had existed in the Projective Marketing structure since the beginning, however, the business would have never left the drawing board.

Unvalidated assumptions are bad. I call them unvalidated because they are assumptions based upon what ’seems’ will happen and not upon what has been experienced through vigorous validation testing. Good businessmen/women don’t so much as take risks, they manage risks. Part of managing risks is discussing with others an idea, measuring the risks and returns involved and then making a decision whether or not to manage that risk further and act on it. This process is validation. Sometimes validation won’t make it past the first few steps and thats okay, but it always needs to make it past the discussion stage.

How can we avoid making unvalidated assumptions?

Be creative! A lot of people say that they aren’t creative and there is nothing they can do about it. That simply isn’t true. Read blogs, books and the news. Garnish an opinion on what you read. How can you share that opinion? There, you were creative! This is how creative business works. Sometimes it is idea stealing. That’s okay. You don’t have to be the first person to come up with an idea for you to write about it or build upon it. This blog entry, for example, was inspired by an excellent article, “What’s the Ultimate Creativity Killer”, over at the copyblogger website.

Use the 5 Minute Rule. If someone pitches you a new idea, if you are in a brainstorming session or if you are trying to decide between white or wheat bread you can use the 5 Minute Rule to make a validated assumption. The rule goes like this: when a new idea is pitched only focus on the good qualities and possibilites surrounding that idea for 5 minutes. After that, feel free to bust in the idea with a stick. This greatly decreases the chance that you will make a decision you will regret in the future.

Create a Culture of Creativity. Most people have heard about the Google 20% time where employees are given 20% of their work day to innovate and be creative on individual projects. Scott Berkun does a great job of explaining that it is not the actual Google rule behind this idea that has created the Google empire, but instead the Google Culture of Creativity that has built the empire. In short, businesses can create a Culture of Creativity by:

• utilizing a horizontal hierarchy. Allow your employees to vote, peer review or debate upon which ideas and directions are best for the company. As smart as you think you might be (being the BOSS and all) you really could learn a lot from your employees who work directly with the consumer.
• giving a little leeway and expecting a whole lot more. Treat your employees like you would a very responsible child. Realize that people need leeway so they don’t feel repressed. Realize that good employees are willing to work hard and want to work hard but sometimes need a little more leeway so they can. Extend your employees leeway and expect their work to improve. If it doesn’t improve or if they take advantage of the leeway then FIRE em! There are better employees out there.
• empowering employee collaboration. Make sure you are giving employees credit for hard work they do but also make sure they are collaborating with others and mixing the ideas around. There are no super stars on the most successful teams. Provide them with tools to share and build on each others ideas, like the Google Aps online word/data processing suite (FREE).

Validations in a nutshell:

If you are avoiding rash assumptions and creating validations instead then you are sure to succeed in life. This doesn’t guarantee your business success, but it does guarantee that you will be able to make the right decision about when to drop your business and walk the other way.

While I’m not an expert, this advice isn’t all mine either. The advice is time tested and proven by the pros. It is what has differentiated Google and helped them create their empire.

A final word on creativity:

Being creative requires that the environment in which you work allows you to be creative. Google environment allows for creativity = Google comes out with new innovations every day. Microsoft environment does not allow for creativity = Microsoft borrows a lot of Googles and Yahoos and Twitters and…you get the point… innovations every day. The end result? Different profits.

This age group is made up of teens and young adults who use advanced technology multiple times a day to communicate, work and learn. They frequently use some or all of the following:

• Social Networking – 75% have a Facebook account
• Text Messaging – 94% own a cell phone
• Instant Messaging – 76% use instant messaging
• Blogs – 44% read and 28% write blogs
• mp3 Players – 60% own an mp3 player
• peer to peer file sharing – 49% download music via file sharing
• SOURCE: Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa Connecting to the Net.Generation: What higher education professionals need to know about today’s students, NASPA; First edition (March 29, 2007)

Before now, terminology for this age group has been so diverse (called Y or Z Generation, Internet Generation, Millenials, etc.) that it was very confusing as to who is who. A coworker of mine coined the phrase TEXT GENeration and it has stuck at our marketing firm. It is more fitting than all the other naming terminology because it incorporates the word TEXT. If a person is more inclined to use TEXT than SCRAWL they can be considered the TEXT GENeration. Some might argue that this is too diverse a group in that some elderly are quite “hip” on technology and use text messaging, instant messaging and social networking regularly. They are the exception though.

To keep in mind when you market to the TEXT GENeration:

• They have embraced technology and uses it in their every day lives.
• They understand computers and technology and are not afraid of it.
• They are the busiest generation yet. As such, they are rarely at home.
• They watch less television, listen to less radio and read fewer books and magazines.
• Many are keen on marketing and can easily say no to traditional advertising calls to action.

Traditional advertising – television, news print, magazines, radio – is still heavily utilized by many large corporations.  Even small businesses can utilize these forms of advertising on a small local level.  I’ve looked into advertising my own business in a new local newspaper, The Afternoon Buzz.  However, after a Google search for SLC (Salt Lake City) Buzz turned up no immediate results I had to really dig in with my super power searching abilities before I could find their website.  It was so laborious that it actually took about 1 minute to find, versus the 5 seconds it should have taken.  Oh, pampered world that I live in…

Traditional advertising is still a great way to market your products or services, if you have a lot of money.  If your advertising budget is under $1000 a month though, then you may need to look at Guerrilla Marketing as your primary marketing source.  Guerrilla Marketing is an unconventional system of product/service promotions on a low budget.  It includes techniques such as viral or ambient distribution, text message advertising, or tissue-pack advertising – all discussed more fully below.

What is the benefit of using Guerrilla Marketing?

Simply put, the TEXT GENeration is no longer watching, listening too or reading traditional advertising.  With the advent of Tivo, internet video streaming, downloadable mp3 content, etc. there are fewer and fewer opportunities for businesses to target this age group with traditional advertising.

Guerrilla Marketing makes use of the technologies that are destroying traditional advertising in a way that covertly inundates the TEXT GENeration with even more advertisements!

Tissue-pack marketing: Some of the earliest examples of Guerrilla Marketing date back to the late 1960s, where Japanese shop keepers would distribute free tissue packs to people that passed by their store fronts.  On the tissue packs were advertisements!  Early on this received a lot of criticism for being high cost and low effect.  However, now this holds a sizable share of the advertising market in Japan, where 4 billion tissue packs are distributed annually.  Because people are out of the home more, and thus seeing less traditional advertising, tissue-pack marketing aims to fill the void of advertising in your purse or briefcase.  As such, it capitalizes on valuable advertising space that traditional advertising techniques can’t touch.

Viral Distribution: Teens are spending more time than ever away from home.  Teens don’t pick up newspapers or magazines much, and so traditional advertising is not able to target this high prized market segment.  Teens always manage to check their social networking pages, their email, and their text messages though.  Viral distribution marketing puts ads with YouTube videos that get shared on teen social networking pages and through email linkage.  Viral distribution marketing also joins forces with TEXT GEN popular social networking sites directly, to distribute ad content.

Ambient Distribution: This marketing form capitalizes on the fact that people are very visual learners.  People see things and then think about what they see.  When something they see seems out of place they think about it even more.  If a business can get prospective consumers to think about their brands, products or services then they have made a very successful advertising impression.  Lately, all the bananas at the local Smiths Marketplaces have had Jamba Juice stickers on them.  I have been used to seeing the Dole brand on them, so I thought about it!  While this was a new experience for me, it seems to be a trick utilized for quite some time.  Back in 1999 Ask Jeeves ran a huge campaign where they put their stickers on more than 15 million apples!

Text Message Advertising: Text message advertising, a favorite of Projective Marketing, the firm where I now work, is quickly catching on with the TEXT GENeration.  The TEXT GEN always has their cell phones with them and so why not capitalize on that “in the pocket” billboard space?

Some say it would lead to a barrage of unwanted SPAM being sent to phones.  This fear is warranted, but unlikely.  When Projective Marketing decided to jump into the text message marketing game it had to go straight to cell phone company aggregators (the guys who route the text messages) with very specific details about how each advertising campaign would work.  Unlike email, text messages are highly regulated and the chance that we will ever see SPAM proliferation is unlikely.

With text message advertising businesses can put a specific high powered call to action in their menus, marketing collateral, billboards, etc.  For example, one Projective Marketing client in the Seattle area wanted to advertise their coffee shop with text message advertising.  Everywhere they put an ad (billboards, etc.) they used the simple call to action “Text ‘COFFEE’ to 32075 for a 50% off coupon on your next coffee!”  When people texted in the coupon was sent to their phone.  This is a highly effective means of advertising because each time the person would scroll through their text messages they would see this ad (repeat impressions) and think about the coffee shop again!

The reason why is most eloquently illustrated by the 19th century philosopher and author, Henry David Thoreau:

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. Did you ever think what those sleepers (railroad ties) are that underlie the railroad? Each one is a man, an Irishman, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. And every few years a new lot is laid down and run over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. And when they run over a man that is walking in his sleep, a supernumerary sleeper in the wrong position, and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime get up again.

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us. We do not drive our cars; they drive us.  We do not direct the traffic of our own lives; it directs us.

Such is the case for 99% of people today.  People purchase a certain Cola over another (Coke vs. Pepsi) because it tastes better.  People purchase the more expensive milk because of the trusted label.  Some people even refuse to purchase the generic store brands (Western Family, Krogers, Safeway) because they don’t taste as good.

All of this is made possible by marketing.  When you buy the Nike shoes you are paying for the advertising and sometimes a slightly superior product quality.  Is it worth the extra money?  Usually, no.

• Double blind tests PROVE that people decide the “superior” cola based upon advertising.
• National Milk brands are often bottled in the SAME plants as the generic store brands.  No link on this one, just check it out for yourself next time you are in the dairy section.  Usually by the expiration date their will also be a “plant number”…often the same as the “plant number” on all the competitors bottles too.
• Double blind tests PROVE that people actually prefer generic store brands over national brands.

So, why do I need to know marketing?

Because if you don’t know marketing then it is riding you!  Marketing is everywhere.  Conservative sources estimate that you are inundated by marketing messages several hundred times a day.

As much as I enjoy the writings of Thoreau, I feel like he was a little bit radical in his approach to marketing.  He, like many other philosophers of our day, taught that marketing was unethical because you were teaching people to differentiate items by leading them to believe one item had more value than another, when they were often the same.  While a lot of current philosophers hold stock in this idea, I don’t.  I’m not a philosopher, I’m a marketer.

I’ve been inundated with all the same marketing messages you have, but I’ve made it appoint over the years to make marketing work for me.  I know how to ride the train…and I’m quite enjoying the smooth ride (air cushioned seats).  With the economic downturn it is important that you know how to ride the train too.

Here are a few ways you can make marketing work for you:

• Watch, read and view advertisements sceptically.  When you buy Jello brand gelatin you are buying the advertising.  The powder inside the box of the store brand is the exact same… I promise.
• Reduce your trips to the grocery store.  Make a weekly list of “to buy” items and stick to it.
• When a car leaves the lot it is worth a lot less.  So it is with almost everything.  Don’t be afraid to buy used.  Unless the item has a non-transferable warranty then it is usually worth just as much as it was new… only the price tag has changed.
• Try your own hand at marketing.  Next time your computer needs upgrading sell the old one on Craigslist or another free local classifieds website.  It’s fun, profitable and it helps save the environment.
• Don’t stay late at work.  Don’t work weekends.  If you have to work 60 hour weeks to keep up with the bills then you aren’t leaving time to enjoy the items creating the bills.  If a large house, boat, new car or cell phone is cutting into your rump (through your pocket book) then you need to downsize or eliminate.  Enjoy life.  There are a ton of jobs out there that don’t expect your heart and soul.  Get one of those.

Here are a few ways you can make marketing work for your business:

• Keep up on technology.  The only group of businesses that don’t need to worry about this are those offering services to the dead or nearly dead.  Every business (except old folk or funeral homes) sell products to people that are keeping up on technology. This is not saying you need to splurge and buy a ton of new computers or higher computer programmers.  This is saying that you need to analyze your business and market segment.  If you are relatively savvy with technology then you can self analyze your situation.  If you don’t own a computer, don’t feel comfortable managing your computer and making changes to it or if you haven’t heard of Facebook then you probably need to enlist some help in analyzing your situation.  Ask a neighbor, friend or one of your children to sit down with you and tell you how they use technology every day.  Is there some way you can key in on this to increase your business traffic?
• Get a website. If your business does not have a website then you are losing sales to your competitors who have one.  Today when people want a phone number they often turn to Google or an internet directory.  Phonebooks are dying.  If you need a website you should check out these guys.
• Read this blog.  This blog is dedicated to following and reporting on technological advances in marketing.
• Contact Projective Marketing. I’ve been working with Projective Marketing for the past six months in developing some fresh and very effective ways to market products and ideas Guerrilla style.

I remember learning the basic command prompt skills needed to use the box…skills that I still use today on my Ubuntu desktop I have in my home office. The early adoption of computers has dramatically affected my life, as well as it has the lives of just about everyone else in the generations of my time. Because of this early training, I am now delving into high tech business ventures. Its an exciting and quickly changing industry that I love working in.

Our Cuban neighbors to the South, however, haven’t been so fortunate. Some of Cuba’s state officials and employees have had access to computers and the internet (more tightly controlled by the government than even China’s internet) but the typical citizen has never even had the opportunity to touch a computer. The communist government has effectively kept personal use computers out of civilian hands, until yesterday that is. The “new economy” that Cuban President Raul Castro has begun to roll out has already given civilians access to video games, cell phones, and some other electronics. Yesterday morning several electronics stores across the island starting selling computers legally. (See AP article)

Cuba has had quite a black market on computers for about two years now, and according to Slashdot comments made by supposed “Cubans” they even had internet cafes hidden away in dark chasms where government officials didn’t care about. This marks the first time that the government has officially deemed it okay to have a computer though. Castro was so nice to release computers to the general public, though, that he forgot to make sure the computers they were selling were worth a dime!

Cuban Computer Specs:

• Intel Celeron Processors
• 80 GB Hard Drives
• 512 MB Ram
• DVD Player
• Bulky Old School CRT Monitor

Perhaps the worst thing about this controlled release is that the computers are selling for $780 USD! The state controlled average wage in Cuba is just shy of $20 a month, which means citizenry must save every penny earned for 39 straight months before they can afford one! Cuba does an excellent job maintaining “equality” and a horizontal hierarchy through its ever so “just” governance. [read sarcastically] They seem to have forgotten though, that no one in Cuba can buy these computers except for the select few people in that nation that the government decided to give good wages to (the President and other powerful politicians’ families).

For you non techies to understand how this price compares to the United States prices, I am now selling a computer on a local classified site that has a processor that is twice as fast, twice the space on the hard drive, twice the memory (RAM) and the DVD player is actually a burner (meaning you can both play and burn DVDs). Mine doesn’t come with a monitor, but if I wanted too I could go to a thrift store and pick up a monitor like the one they’ve packaged with this computer for $15. All in all, my computer is selling for only $300. It’s a brand new Dell, still in the “never been opened” box, with a full 1 year warranty on it.

The Bottom Line:

Cuba citizens can have computers! Legally! This means that everyone else that already had computers can now take them out of their closets. This means that Cuba is going to begin to open up like China has so everyone there doesn’t starve to death (like what is literally happening in their buddy nation, North Korea). My prediction is this; Cuba will have an almost completely open internet (Saudi Arabia and China are closing in on this fast) within five years, computer prices will drop from $780 to $400 for the same configuration within the close of the year, and President Castro (he is actually starting to deserve that title, instead of dictator, because he is moving mountains for that poor little country) will continue to roll out technological advances until his citizens see him as a hero.