Discover the three best ways to engage with readers on Facebook

- Download podcast: Via iTunes | Save to computer (Right click, Save As)
- Play it below:

Facebook continues to be the social media giant. It’s funny to look back at Episode 105 eighteen months ago back in May 2010 when I wondered whether recent privacy events could signal the fall of Facebook, and I went through 7 reasons the mighty giant might fail.

Needless to say, they’ve recovered from some of the issues I posed, including privacy concerns and revenue generation. In fact, the New York Times and Wired ran a stories about a group of students that were taking on Facebook with a new product called Diaspora, and it gained some pretty good buzz.

Where are we 18 months later? Well, Diaspora seems to be in alpha release still and in retrospect, was just a tiny fly on the back of a Rhino. And that Rhino would be Google Plus, which Facebook seems to be going head-to-head with and still winning.

Of course by now if you’re a brand, you have already have a robust Facebook page. You’ve updated some graphics, built up your following, and have widgets on your website to drive people to Like you on Facebook.

But now that you have fans on Facebook, how do you engage with your audience?

I’ve been running the Wired Facebook page for some time now, and am also managing Community Managers for four other Conde Nast brands. Needless to say, we are seeing lots of feedback and data, and are constantly trying to glean learnings from our users.

I recently did a deep-dive analysis of 60 days of Facebook posts on Wired, analyzing 250 posts for a theory that I have, which I’ll share with you in a moment.

But what I came up with his week was a fairly obvious observation, but one that I think can still really help The Hopkinson Report readers. When you’re posting something on your page, you need to have a goal.

Ask yourself, what is the purpose of this post?

Keep in mind that Conde Nast properties have magazine and websites and are content publishers, so if your business is retail or selling a physical product your mileage may vary, but in general when I looked at all the ways you can interact, three became clear.

The three pillars of Facebook engagement

1. Driving traffic
The first type of post is to drive traffic to your website. For the extreme newbies out there, the steps are:

a) Choose the ‘Link’ option and post in a URL from your website

b) This will bring up a thumbnail option if you have a photo on your page. I highly recommend that you do so that it catches the reader’s eye, and note that if you have multiple photos on your page, you can page through them and select the best one.

c) You can also edit the title and description of the post that is automatically brought in by facebook by clicking on the text.

d) Lastly, you write a description of the article you are posting. It can be the same as the title from the post itself, or you can customize it. It’s a good practice to word your text with a call to action to nudge the reader in that direction.

Again, the goal here is to actually encourage people to LEAVE Facebook itself and go to your website. The reason you would do this is to get them to read an article or view a slideshow (where you have ads that generate page views and revenue) or buy a product on your site.

Example:
Wired Product Review team takes a look at the new iPhone 4S. Click here to read their full review on Wired.com.

2. Driving comments
The second type of post is meant to keep people ON the Facebook page and engage directly with readers. Driving people to your website in step one is great, and might be what you ultimately want to do as a business, but if you constantly are asking people to leave Facebook and do something for you, it becomes robot-like.

In order to engage on a new level, it is important to ask questions, respond to your fans, and get fans talking to each other. There are a few ways to do this.

a) Post a link, but ask a direct question. In this model, you are doing Step 1 and posting a link, but how you write your status is much different. To build on the example above, you might say ‘Wired reviewed the new iPhone 4S this week. Do you feel that it is a significant upgrade over the iPhone 4, and how does it compare to the top Android Phones?’

In a perfect world, readers will go to your site, read the article, give you page views, and then return to Facebook to give their opinion. But in many cases, people already have made up their mind about the iPhone, and will go right to the comments and speak their mind. And let me tell you, the iPhone vs Android battle is alive and well.

b) Ask a question without a link. In this manner, you are asking an open-ended question about a topic that your audience is familiar with, and driving people right to the comments.

For example, we might simply say: ‘It’s seems clear that the smartphone race is going to come down to Apple vs Android. Leave a comment below to say why you chose one platform over another.’
The goal of this is to spark a discussion on your Facebook page and get readers interacting with each other. It’s a good practice for you, as the brand, to jump in and stoke the fires a bit and keep things going.

3. Driving shares
Facebook has only recently surfaced the statistic of ‘shares’ on a brand’s page, but it’s a helpful one. This tells you the reach that you are getting BEYOND your immediate audience. If one of your readers feels compelled enough to take your content and distribute it to their friends, then you’ve really nailed a topic that people like.

By sharing content, it has the true chance to go viral, as one person exposes it to their several hundred friends, and then those people might share it again to their several hundred friends.

What drives shares? A great story will be shared. A great question will be shared. And of course, you can be blatant and say ‘Like this post? Share it with your friends.’ But one of the best ways to drive shares is through PHOTOS.

Through the proliferation of cameras on mobile devices, high-end DSLRs, quick blogging services like Tumblr, and apps like Instagram, photos are being shared on the web at dizzying pace.

Photos are eye-catching, evocative, and let’s face it… people have ADD and are lazy. Sure, they can spend a few minutes coming up with an intelligent response about the advantages of Android as an open platform, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to see a killer photo of a planet and share it on their wall.

In my research, I determined that users were:
- 1.5x more likely to comment on a photo
- 2.5x more likely to share a photo
- 3.5x more likely to like a photo

So there you have it, the 3 pillars of Facebook engagement. Depending on your brand and your goals, you should determine what the best mix of posts will be for you. It’s important to keep it diversified, but whether you split them 33% each, or decide to go 70% photos is up to you.

I’m off to go take some photos.

Jim has a high-energy interview with author, speaker, and social media pro Krista Neher.

- Download podcast: Via iTunes | Save to computer (Right click, Save As)
- Play it below:

This week I had a great interview with with author, speaker, and social media pro Krista Neher.

As usual, for the full interview — and trust me, we had great energy and lots of fun sharing stories — make sure to download and play the podcast. The summary below highlights what we cover:

Krista’s background
- Her start at Proctor and Gamble
- Working on marketing for brands like Tide and Folgers Coffee
- Her transition to a startup
- The founding of Bootcamp Digital, which teaches companies how to use the web and social media to build their business

Her travels from Canada to Cincinnati
- What does that have to do with bowling?

Social engagement
- Not the kind of engagement you like – we’re talking on a train to New Jersey

Boot Camp Digital
- What makes a truly good social media program?
- Huge opportunity to show businesses how to do their own social media
- “You’re doing it wrong” – what is the #1 thing companies are doing incorrectly with social media
- Why “free” social media is a problem

Monetizing social media
Top 2 reasons people join a fan page
1) To get coupons and discounts
2) To learn about new products
These easily can convert to new sales, but are they incremental sales?

Her Book – The Social Media Field Guide
- Most social media books target a certain area
- Some people still need a true marketing plan around social media, but don’t know how to do it.
- Covers all the tools to get businesses to think more strategically – not immediately jump to Facebook
- ‘People need to get a grip about new sites.’

Institute for Social Media at Cincinnati State
- Social media nerds in white lab coats?
- Testing mice on angry birds?
- No… how do you get a comprehensive overview of social media industry without going to a conference or just reading websites?
- Certification – what do other industries do to certify professionals?
- Answer: Show they know and can apply knowledge of industry; Instruction, tests, application of information

Speaking
- Can reach lots of people all at once
- How she made herself a better speaker
- Some speakers have 1 presentation they do over and over (usually around a book), while others customize every speech they do
- She built it up 100% word-of-mouth
- The key turning point in her speaking career
- The two ways she is able to charge clients, and how to prove value

Speed Round – What’s the trend around the following:
Facebook
Google +
Twitter
Tumblr/blogs
Instagram
Foursquare
Youtube
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Klout

A true or false game: Can you guess what are the things that influence your Klout, and which are made up?

——————-
Learn more about Krista:
Bootcampdigital.com
KristaNeher.com
WinAtKlout.com

Note: Some links in this post contain affiliate links

Jim interviews Byron Bennett, owner of a NYC chocolate shop about how a small business uses Facebook, Twitter, QR codes, Websites, and his experience with Groupon.

- Download podcast: Via iTunes | Save to computer (Right click, Save As)
- Play it below:

It’s one thing for media companies to be on social media, but lately I’ve been fascinated with how small businesses are doing this. I met with Byron Bennett, the owner of The Chocolate Library, a small-business in Manhattan’s East Village and we discuss the challenges he faces.

Besides, he just happened to bring along some of his amazing inventory of chocolates from around the world. He tells me that 97% of people enjoy chocolate.

Count me in as one of them.

Summary of Topics covered:

BACKGROUND
- Byron’s background at a wine store before he started this business
- Why wine stores and supermarkets need a kiosk to help shoppers
- The similarities between wine and chocolate
- The effect of luxury goods during a recession
- The story behind the “library” classification in his store, and how he ended up on The New York Times.

SOCIAL MEDIA
- His store’s presence on Facebook
- Why he choses NOT to run his own Twitter page
- Why Google Local and Yelp are so important to small businesses
- His goal of ranking for the word “chocolate”
- The advantage QR codes have for retaining customers

GROUPON CASE STUDY
Just a few days before our interview, Techcrunch ran a story titled “Groupon Was The Single Worst Decision I Have Ever Made As A Business Owner.’ This made me even more curious to talk about his experience.

What did Byron learn? Listen to the podcast to hear about:

- The 2 other group buying services he used before trying Groupon
- His goal of reducing inventory — and the pitfalls of mismanaging that for small businesses
- The average transaction for his store — and whether or not the Groupon test exceeded that
- Whether or not the program attracted NEW customers to his location
- What type of businesses are better suited for Groupon and Living Social deals

- Bottom line — Is it worth it for a small business to try Groupon?

Today I interview Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn and self-published author of the religious thriller, Pentecost.

- Download the podcast via iTunes
- Download the podcast to your computer (Right click, Save As)
- Play it below:

For the full interview — a must-listen for anyone wanting to self-publish their own book — please listen to the podcast.

Summary of Topics covered:

Joanna’s amazing journey
Joanna Penn has had quite an amazing journey from the UK and a Theology major at Oxford (hence the religious thriller), all the way to New Zealand and Australia, and now back to the UK.

As a full-time IT employee, she started her writing career with non-fiction books such as How To Enjoy Your Job and the basic ways of marketing.

She once tried to do the full-time author route and take an extended period of time off in order to write “The Great American (Australian?) Novel,” and tried signing on with traditional publishers, but it didn’t pan out.

Intrigued with the rise of digital publishing, print-on-demand, and using social media as a marketing platform, she started a blog and podcast called The Creative Penn. Joanna immersed herself in everything going on in the industry, and became a trusted source for information, while also interviewing dozens of authors.

One recent post broke down the current publishing landscape into four quadrants:

Eventually, her writing solution was to go to her employer and reduce her workweek to 4 days per week, freeing up more time to work on her religious thriller, Pentecost.

Joanna then takes us through …

8 steps needed to self-publish a book

1. Choose your topic
Joanna always wanted to write fiction, and got her inspiration in Venice at the Pentecost dome at St. Marks.
Pro tip: All the top authors think in terms of a series… building a story around a character that readers can follow from story to story. Hook ‘em once, and they’re you’re audience for many books to come.

2. Editing
Joanna stressed the importance of hiring a pro editor. Yes, you can go through your own work, but you’ll miss something.
Pro tip: Release chapters and ideas out to your readers… they’ll help you out, feel involved, and become your biggest fans.

3. Design
Book cover design is very important. Joanna used a freelancer at Thebookdesigner.com.
Pro tip: Once again, crowdsouce. Joanna posted several versions of her book cover online and let her readers vote. The winner surprised her, but was rated most favorable by a margin of 20%.

4. Formatting
Getting the book into the right format can be a pain… pay someone to do it.
Pro tip: Check out Smashwords.com.

5. Upload your book go Amazon
Head to Kdp.amazon.com… it’s free to to upload in Kindle format, and your book will be live in 24 hours!
Pro tip: The Kindle has the largest marketshare of eBooks

6. Pricing
Joanna started her book out at $2.99, the average price for indie books and based on a lot of research by excellent author/blogger Joe Konrath.
Pro tip: She dropped the price to 99 cents because her goal was to get the biggest audience with her first book, not make the most money. Sales took off.

7. Tracking sales
Two keys to success on Amazon are reviews and sales. The book rose to #2 in religious fiction, #2 in action adventure, and #300 overall.
Pro tip: Once Amazon’s algorithm gets involved it will start recommending the book to other buyers

8. Marketing an eBook on Amazon
As any good marketer knows, its good to be everywhere. She has the following:
- Website
- Podcast
- Blog Interviews
- Twitter
- Trying for awards
- Appearing on TV
- Public speaking
- And a book trailer

Pro tips:
- Her favorite marketing avenue is on Twitter: @TheCreativePenn
- Don’t spend too much money on traditional advertising
- Check out Kindle Nation Daily, which Joanna used, with sponsorships for $99 to $299

Final Summary:
- Success breeds success. Do well on Amazon, get good reviews, get good rankings, and it becomes a snowball effect.
- Write a good book. All the marketing in the world won’t help if the product is sub-par. Put in the effort.
- This is a new reality: It’s a bit of hard work, but everyone can do this.

Also see:
Joanna also interviewed me on Skype video for HER blog. Here’s how it went.

Blogger disclaimer: some links may include affiliate links

Today I question the spread of social media to every last place on earth.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

Hey everybody

It’s my annual Super Bowl commercial podcast. You know I love sports, you know I love marketing, and I also love beer and cars so that’s covered too.

Last year I broke down 10 Super Bowl commercials that were completely irrelevant (and 6 that weren’t), but this year I’m going to do a quick one.

Passing thoughts were that a lot of commercials must have paid big money royalties to songwriters, including Kenny G, Elton John, David Bowie, Jay Z, Eminem, and the theme from Star Wars. I guess on the big stage, you want a music that people know.

I thought Bridgestone and Audi and Teleflora hit their mark, Best Buy tried a little too hard, the beer commercials were about par for the course, and the ad exec that suggested the ‘Pepsi Max can to the groin‘ should be fired. You know his defense was. ‘C’mon… can to the groin always works.’ Sadly, he’s kinda right.

And by far the one that stopped me in my tracks was Chrysler’s Eminem spot. Beautifully shot, held your attention, and made you think. Am I going to go buy a Chrysler? Let’s say the chances of that rose from never, not a chance…. to less than 3%.

But you know what? I’ve been swayed before. My parents need a new car, and I told them to look at two Hyundai models and two Ford models in addition to checking out an updated Camry. Can’t say I would have done that 5 years ago.

More importantly is what I think it does for Detroit. The motor city has been the brunt of jokes for well over a decade now. They’re like the youngest brother that can’t keep up with the rest of the family. But it’s still YOUR little brother. And maybe the Super Bowl, a game of upsets and redemption, is the perfect place to make a stand. Look at last year’s champions, the New Orleans Saints. Here was a franchise whose team was steeped in failure, but the entire country rallied around a city. Maybe Detroit is up next.

But let’s switch to the main topic…

Facebook integration on a new car.

For those that missed it, check out the spot below, or here’s the scene. A young couple is standing on the sidewalk at night after a first date, there’s the awkward pause, then they share a quick kiss before the girl runs into her apartment.

The guy gets into his car, hits a button on the mirror, and uses a voice command to bring up a spoken feed of his Facebook page, which assures him that his love interest has posted ‘Best first date ever.’ The tagline?

The all-new Chevy Cruze with real-time Facebook status updates.
When the good news, just can’t wait.

My visceral reaction was as follows:

- That’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard of

- That is the most unsafe thing I could imagine… what if the status update had been, ‘Back from my date, what a tremendous loser. Bad breath, stiffed the waiter with a bad tip, and talked about his mom all night. I’ll never get THOSE 2 hours back.’

- That’s a desperate move by Chevy to try to seem hip with the younger crowd

- Will social media seep it’s way into every last crevice of our lives? It seems the term work-life balance is going to become obsolete. There’s a good chance that the couple probably were texting and tweeting and checking in the entire date and not even getting to know each other. People are dialed in 24-7, work too hard, and can’t get away from technology. Can’t you drive home with a great song on the radio and not have to be on Facebook?

But I wanted to take an alternative viewpoint than everyone else.

Entertainment in the car has always evolved. Sure, there are Ferraris and Porsches that don’t have a radio, because the low, sweet sound of the engine gurgling and roaring is all a true driver needs to hear.

But we’ve gone from AM-only, to AM/FM, and then progressed from physical 8-Tracks to cassettes to CDs to multi-CD changers. There has always been a bond between a car and the music.

But now things have gone digital. We have satellite radio, iPod connectors, GPS systems with talking voices, and even video game systems and DVD players to entertain passengers.

Getting Facebook updates in your car is just the next step in the evolution of two trends we’ve been seeing for the last decade or more.

1) When it comes to entertainment, people want to consume what they want, where they want it, and when they’re ready.

That’s why we listen to podcasts on the subway, TV shows on computers, newspapers on iPads, and Saturday Night Live on DVR Sunday morning.

2) Social media is the new form of media.

There was a time when people read magazine or newspapers, or watched the evening news or the Tonight Show. Now people are spending hours per day, every day, with social media.

It doesn’t matter if it’s Twitter or Facebook or Blogs, this is entertainment to many many people in 2011. What’s more, it’s personal.

Some people have long commutes or drive for a living. If it’s just a voice talking about the day’s events, what’s the difference if it’s yapping sports talk show hosts talking about the Super Bowl, NPR breaking down the political status in Egypt, Eminem stringing together rap lyrics, or your close friends and family talking about the events of the day.

In fact, having Facebook in your car is kind of like a first date. There’s a lot of unknowns, it seems awkward and exciting at the same time, and only time will tell if things will work out.

=======================

What do you think? Ridiculous idea or sign of things to come? Hit me up on Twitter under the name @Hopkinson Report

Did the November cover of WIRED Magazine get removed by Facebook due to inappropriate content? We still don’t know for sure.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

I received an interesting message from Facebook recently.

First, it was an e-mail to my Yahoo account, which is connected to Facebook. It was so generic that I had to scour it pretty closely to make sure it wasn’t spam.  Then a day later, I was greeted with a popup message within Facebook with the same message to makes sure I saw it, forcing me to X out the dialog box to make it disappear. It said the following:

‘You uploaded a photo that violates our Terms of Use, and this photo has been removed. Facebook does not allow photos that attack an individual or group, or that contain nudity, drug use, violence, or other violations of the Terms of Use. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children who use the site.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page.”

Wow, Jim, you might be asking. What the heck did you upload?

The answer?

I DON’T KNOW.

The reason for this, is that Facebook does not give you any identifying information whatsoever about the content:

- They don’t tell you when you uploaded the photo or when it was removed
- They don’t tell you if someone complained about the photo
- And most importantly, they don’t tell you or show you which photo is the one that caused the problem!

From their FAQ:
Q: Can I see the removed content?
A: Unfortunately, for technical and security reasons, users cannot view the removed content. Please go through your profile and make sure to take down any other offensive or objectionable material that violates our Terms of Use.

This is a problem for many reasons.

1) I have about 200 photos uploaded on my account.
I’m sure some have far less, but I know many people with far more. The timing of the e-mail seemed random. If I had sat down and uploaded 25 spring break photos on a weekend and received this e-mail on a Monday, I guess I’d have a clue from which batch of photos caused the problem.

But since it’s been about 20 years since I’ve been on spring break, and since I’m not 20 years old, I know enough not to upload anything too inappropriate.

2) I was thinking that it might have been a photo someone else had uploaded.
So I went through my recent albums to see if I had been tagged in any photos that could be construed as inappropriate for any reason. My fraternity days have long passed, but you never know when a nostalgic buddy figures out how to use a scanner and uploads a few prints from the days of yore.

3) I thought it might be more likely that it was a copyright issue, not nudity or violence.
Sometimes you don’t think about it too much when you upload a photo, and I thought immediately of the picture with myself posing with an enlarged Wired Magazine cover with Brad Pitt on it. Or when I snagged a picture of Landon Donovan off the web and used it as my profile picture after he scored his dramatic goal in the World Cup. Was USA Soccer issueing take-down notices all of a sudden? Or maybe it was my buddy’s Halloween costume, dressed as Quagmire from Family guy. Nope, those were still there.

So I had to move to my fourth option.
4) What if it wasn’t even from my personal account?
I am in charge of the Wired Facebook page, and am listed as an admin on that as well as a few other Conde Nast Digital pages. This allows me to update the page multiple times a day, interact with fans, and download analytics.

And so that’s what I decided it had to be:
The November Wired Magazine cover.

Wired’s current issue’s top story was:

‘!00% Natural. Who needs implants? How tissue engineering will radically enhance the future of medicine.’

And on the cover, garnering lots of media attention was a photo of a topless woman, zoomed in on the cleavage.

As is our custom, I had uploaded the magazine cover of the month to Wired’s Facebook wall (this month it was on Nov 2), and designated it as our Facebook profile photo. This in turn makes the cover our default icon, which means it is seen not only on our wall, but also within the streams of the 150,000+ users that ‘like’ us.

The original post garnered 52 comments, a bit more than normal, and 187 likes. There were commenters on both sides of the argument – degrading, gratuitous promotion of women vs. highlighting a science story that people were overreacting to – but the dialog was civil.

Interestingly, this spawned another discussion along the lines of ‘Where are all the women in tech and why doesn’t Wired feature them on the cover?’ I won’t go into this topic here, because it was covered nicely during a special online chat on Poynter.org by:

Cindy Royal, who criticized the magazine for featuring a cover image of a woman’s cleavage for a story about breast tissue regeneration.

Rachel Sklar, editor at large at Mediate, started a Tumblr blog, “Change the Ratio,” dedicated to increasing the number of women in technology.

Wired Senior Editor Nancy Miller, who edited the tissue regeneration article and chose the cover image

Here, too, the conversation and comments were very well done, but I’m positive that as the image worked its way across the Facebook stream of many users, it picked up more than it’s share of flags for being inappropriate.

The thing that confused me was this:

The main profile photo of the cover, as well as the thumbnail, was still visible!

However, it had been deleted from our profile picture photo gallery. So there seems to be a potential loophole, although I can’t verify, that Facebook can remove a photo from a gallery, but not change your profile picture. I guess we’ll find out if it is gone for good when I swap in the December cover.

Some online research showed that I was not alone in my confusion. For some users online, the next step after having a photo removed was having their account shut down.

I came across a very nervous wedding photographer and small business owner that warned his readers that your online presence can be taken away instantly for reasons you can’t know, and it was only because he had an ‘in’ at the company that he got an email reply and was reinstated.

Taking Facebook’s side
It can’t be easy to patrol 500 million users uploading and sharing more than 30 billion pieces of content such as photos every month. I’m sure they have algorithms that are doing the majority of the work automatically, and algorithm probably aren’t always perfect in determining the difference between an inappropriate photo of a female flashing in a white dress, and a tastefully done moment of a bride trying on her grandmother’s gown before her wedding.

My main point is that it would be helpful to users to know which photo tripped up Facebook’s terms of service so that it could be avoided in the future. Because to be honest, after all this, I still don’t know if it was the Wired cover that is causing the problem.

Otherwise, it’s a catch-22. They tell you not to upload inappropriate content, but you can’t know what not to upload if they don’t tell you.

It brought to mind three scenarios:

First – and I better not get in trouble for this – is the man that comes home to his girlfriend or wife and she’s steaming mad. He asks her, ‘Honey, what’s wrong? Are you angry?’  And her response is, ‘You bet I’m mad… it’s because of something you did, and you know what it is!’

Hint for the young guys out there: If you don’t know what it is, do NOT start guessing.

Second, is in the old days, when they put you in jail if you owed people too much money. How did you get out of jail? Easy… as soon as you had worked and paid off all your debts, you were free to go!

And lastly, there were the witch trials. How do you know if someone is a witch? Well, the accused witch would be tied up and thrown into a body of water and if she floated, then she was a witch and had to be killed. And if she sank to the bottom she was innocent.

Unless you’re Monty Python. Then it’s a little more complicated:

—————
Speaking of the Wired Facebook page, join 150,000 other fans at Facebook.com/wired.
Have a great thanksgiving everyone.

It’s easy to jump on the latest trends, but do you know when to exit the old ones?

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

The tagline of this podcast is “The marketing trends that matter,” which means I’m usually looking forward at what is coming up.

But I read an interesting article in one of Wired’s sister publications, Details Magazine. The story is by David Amsden, and is called: ‘Introducing the First Dropper: Say so long to the Early Adopter. Today, the most influential guy in the room is the tastemaker who senses when a trend’s 15 minutes are up.’

He describes the First Dropper as someone that not only knows trends — whether it be a hot TV show, what jeans to wear, or the certain type of drink in the certain type of bar — but more importantly, he knows when these trends are overvalued.

Amsden says “Unlike most consumers, the First Dropper seems to be immune to peer pressure and the sway of marketing gurus; he’s propelled instead by an instinctual feel for when a trend has become overvalued. Think of him as a slyly influential arbiter of taste – one who operates as a covert counterweight to his better-known cousin, the Early Adopter.”

With the advent of worldwide blogs, tight social networks, and up to the millisecond trending on Twitter telling you what’s hot, it’s almost easy to be an early adopter. Is there anyone on the planet that does NOT know a month in advance when the latest iPod, iPhone, or Macbook is coming out?

Amsden makes it clear that you shouldn’t mistake the First Dropper with The Hater, who takes pride in never jumping on a new trend.

Don’t even mention your 65″ slimline 3D TV… you’ll get an earful that The Hater hasn’t even owned a TV since 1997.

Here are a few social media, tech, and pop culture items, and where I think they stand. In fact, it’s a little like Wired’s famous Wired/Tired/Expired feature.

Early adopter or safe to stay

Here are the items it’s still safe to jump on
(listen to the podcast for my reasoning on each)

- iPad, Kindle, and other eReaders
- Tumblr
- Twitter
- Facebook (Yes, even though I talked about a potential fall of Facebook)

Gone or ready to be dropped
- iPhone (see the great article by Wired Gadget Lab editor Dylan Tweney, talking about how he’d love a feature phone tethered with an iPad)
- Cable TV
- Untucked shirts and baggy hoodies (here’s a novel idea… why not grow up a bit, add some style, try some clothes that fit)
- Foursquare
- Cupcakes

What does this mean to marketers?

One prominent school of thought is to target these early adopters. After all, they’re dialed in, have influence over purchase decisions, and can help get your product on the radar. If you’ve used them successfully, congratulations.

However, better keep your eyes out for the First Dropper. Because if they start abandoning your product, that could be the sign of things to come.

I have to run, I only have one cupcake left, and I want to tweet about it from my iPad.

You can follow me on twitter at @hopkinsonreport

As someone that covers all things social media, it was almost my job — adult homework so to speak — to go out and see The Social Network, aka The Facebook movie. For me, it didn’t disappoint. I thought it was great. In this podcast, I highlight the theme of product vs. money.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

Like many others, I rushed out to see The Social Network on opening weekend. If you recall, back in July I gave 7 reasons why ‘The Social Network’ Facebook movie will be a huge success. And while the $23 million opening weekend wasn’t spectacular (Inception did $62m it’s opening weekend), it did land at #1.

So after viewing it as a movie-going FAN, it was time to look at it from a business and marketing angle. What I came up with was:

How The Social Network highlights the struggle between focusing on the product vs. focusing on the money in a startup business.

In the podcast, I start out by telling a story I’ve talked about briefly before of how I’ve LIVED this. Highlights include:

- Living in Seattle during the internet boom (1998) while working for ESPN.com
- Many web properties – especially content providers – trying to figure out how to make money
- Working in the Fantasy Games group, where people WERE willing to pay good money for game infrastructure and live stats, paying $29.95 for a single team
- Launching an even bigger product — The 3-pack — charging users $49.95 a pop for 3 teams

With revenue like that, upper management left us to do one thing… build the best possible product and bring in as many users as possible. It was truly a magical time and a once-in-a-lifetime team, with all-star players at each position: engineering. production, editorial, design, and customer service.

But then I started to see the dark side.

There was one ad sales guy in Seattle, and like any salesman, his job was to push. To ask. To test the limits.

Could we put a banner here?
Can we make the logo bigger?
What if editorial mentions the sponsor in a column?
How can we get them more exposure?

It was their job to ask and try to make money, and it was our job to defend the product.

Then I REALLY went to the dark side.

I moved into the marketing department, and transferred to New York. Now I was SURROUNDED by salespeople.

But a funny thing happened.

I got to know them. I worked with them. I went out for drinks with them.
And I started to respect them.

Because what we didn’t see on the west coast, was that the sales team had an amazing skill set as well. they were all-stars too. They were able to walk into agencies and companies and show them the value of associating with our brand. And in most cases, bring in thousands and thousands of dollars. And those dollars bought more servers, and more engineers.

So I learned a valuable lesson showing me the value between protecting the product vs going after revenue.

And that’s what plays out in the movie.

Mark Zuckerberg vs. Eduardo Saverin
The main focus of the movie, Zuckerberg struggles to “Keep it cool” while Saverin goes and talks to advertisers.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss
One brother wants to do things “the Harvard way” … to be a man, to let it go, to take the right path, and to build a new product. The Harvard way is basically the product they are trying to emulate. The money side? They want to sue the pants off them.

Sean Parker
Justin Timberlake’s character takes the comparison to the extreme with his most famous project – Napster. He truly wanted to make a great product … one that not only gets you noticed, but disrupts and destroys an entire industry and brings him fame. Did he make money? Quite the opposite as he was sued for millions and millions. But don’t cry for him. This Vanity Fair profile says he’s worth a billion dollars now.

The groupies
This story is as old as time. The women on campus wouldn’t look twice at a nerd like Zuckerberg (the product). Until of course, they find out that he invented “The Facebook” (the money). Of course, we see how that works out for Saverin.

What about real life?
Facebook and Twitter and Foursquare… three examples of companies focusing on the product. For months and months we were waiting, waiting, waiting and asking what is the revenue model? Some are doing better than others.

Then I ask, how many great ideas went under before made it mainstream because not enough money to sustain it?

What’s the answer? It’s easy to say it’s a balance.

But maybe I’m wrong. You tell me. In my career, I’ve seen the product focus on the west coast, and the money in New York. But with all the VC and funding and Silicon Valley drama, maybe the west coast is where the money resides as well.

So, do you launch a good product, get as far as you can without taking cash? Avoid banners and fees and costs like the plague until you hit critical mass?

Or has the recession killed that? Is an iron-clad revenue model essential for starting your business?

Comment below
Follow me @HopkinsonReport
Email me at MarketingGuy [at] wired.com

Can a broken arm kill Jim’s love for technology and social media? Stay tuned:

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

Loyal listeners of The Hopkinson Report know a few things about me:

- I never miss a week (once in the last 118 episodes)
- I love technology, being online and all things social media
- I love mountain biking (I compared the ‘flow’ of biking to a business in Episode 113)

So when I was away for the first part of my vacation while mountain biking some epic trails in Seattle, the capable Brandon Werner filled in. But then the unexpected struck when I came back to the east coast to go biking in the rocky trails of the Pocono mountains.

Photo: Happier, 2-armed times near Seattle just days before my crash

Do you believe in social media karma? No less than SEVENTY-FOUR different people wished me happy birthday on Thursday August 19th. It was great. Everyone was so happy, and people wished me the greatest day of the year!

Well, as fate would have it, my upper arm (distal humerus) would face a 3-foot high karma boulder head-on. And lose. Badly.

The next week turned into a whirlwind of hospitals, travel, surgery, second opinions, friends, family, pain, insurance red tape, and frustration before finally making it back to NYC.

My friends said that I would somehow find a way to link my broken arm to social media.

In truth? I went the opposite way.

What did NOT matter in that week, was twitter, foursquare, facebook, marketing, viral videos, podcasts, and blog posts.

What DID matter, was family, friends, coworkers, communication and old school doctors screwing a piece of metal into me to put me back together.

I will say this:
- Text updates were great for quick communication
- Facebook is a great way to post gross photos
- E-mail is a good way to tell a story once to many people (helpful with one arm)
- The iPad is a great way to kill 3 painful hours on a train

However, all this is nothing without a real world network.

So I ask you… How is YOUR real life network?

Is it healthy?

Or is it fractured?

On this special edition of The Hopkinson Report, Jim is on vacation, so I, Brandon Werner (Intern 1.0 for long time The Hopkinson Report listeners) guest-hosts. I explain why Social Media is the new dividing factor between Generation Y and their Baby Boomer parents.

Download the podcast from iTunes, or play it below:

On Hopkinson Report Episode 102, Jim interviewed me on my research on my generation, the millennial AKA Generation Y. This group is also called the echo-boom, as they are the children of the famous Baby Boomers. Since recording that episode, I had a revelation that will be the topic of this episode.

When I was a child, I remember my parents (baby boomers/teens of the 60′s and 70′s) used to tell me stories of how their parents ‘just didn’t get it’. Their formative teenage years were filled with Woodstock, the anti-Vietnam movement, Nixon… These were the years of Rock ‘N Roll and there was a sharp divide between the baby boomers and their ‘Greatest Generation’ parents.

Through my teenage years, I never really felt that level of misunderstanding between my parents and I. In fact, my parents ‘got-it’ almost too well.  I wanted to learn drums and be in a band, my dad taught me how to do it from his own experiences, If I tried to dye my hair, my mom would show me how. The classic parent/son anti-piercing or tattoo fight? They actually encouraged them (so I didn’t really have any drive to get them). I would say I wanted to go to a Green Day concert, and my dad would ask to come with me.

From talking to my friends, this is pretty standard. Where was our rebellion or revolution?  Where was our Rock ‘N Roll? Recently, after a few failed attempts to communicate exactly what I do for a living, I think I found it. Our Rock ‘N Roll is Social Media.

As I mentioned, the big events of my parents’ formative years are immortalized as the hippie and rock movements, I look back on the last ten years and one movement sticks out plain to see, Web 2.0 and the rise of the social networks. While it is hard to imagine, Facebook has only been around for five years. In that time, it has amassed over 500 million users, half of which log in on any given day. More than half of everyone in their 20′s has a Facebook profile.

I am not exaggerating when I say it is hard to imagine life without Facebook, but it is just one site. Think about how much YouTube, for example has changed the way we watch entertainment. I believe we just witnessed a milestone in how advertising is done with the recent Old Spice man response videos. Who wasn’t talking about those? In a time where not so long ago, people were saying TIVO was going to destroy advertising, we are passing around commercials and watching them for enjoyment! These videos received 45 millions views in just 2.5 weeks, with Old Spice sales going up 107% since the campaign started. When I asked my dad what he thought, he replied ‘Old Spice? That was for old people…’ Talk about brand transformation.

The eternal disagreement with my parents is, ‘why don’t you get off that computer’. They would rather me do anything other than sit at the computer, including sit and watch television. For the baby boomers, the first computer they ever learned to use was at work or maybe Atari. It is a single use tool, or even a toy. For us Millennials, we can not even remember a time before computers.  For me, sitting and just watching television is absurdly boring when I can be doing other things as well.

For me, my computer/iPad/iPhone are my television, office, bank, notebook, phone, book, canvas, post-office, etc. Try to think when was the last time you had a phone conversation for over a hour on a landline… When was the last time you stepped foot in the Post-Office? Been to a Blockbuster lately? Stood on an actual line to get tickets to a concert? How about had film developed?

Even our dating has moved online, with online matchmaking sites being one of the internet’s biggest businesses. Eharmony throws around the statistic that it is responsible for 2% of US marriages and a recent study says that up to 1 in 3 relationships today start online. Even crazier, 1 in 8 couples married in 2009 met via Social Media.

I think one of the biggest differences between generations is old friends. My parents have a tight circle of friends, but anyone they knew from high school or college that moved away from the area, they have little, if any contact with. This just sounds so alien to me. My best friends are scattered all over the country right now, but through twitter, Facebook, and texts… I have constant contact with them. Sure, its not physical, but its comforting to talk to people I have known since childhood.

I know that my parents think on some level what I do on the computer is almost akin to playing a video game. They can’t even fathom that I am actually talking to real people on Gchat, having interesting conversations on twitter, producing content that helps get my name out there, or god-forbid making money on the internet through freelance.

We are living in an absurdly exciting time. In my opinion, this could be looked back as one of the most important decades in history. We are (almost) all carrying pocket-sized computers which hold access to all of humanity’s knowledge. It’s a shame Douglas Adams died before he could see humanity with basically The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in our pockets. We are able to instantly connect us with anyone we want, even in video form. We get updated the second any important thing happens to our friends and family, and get the world news at basically the speed of light without the limitations of paper. Think about this: 150 years ago, it took the Pony Express ten days to get a letter from Missouri to San Francisco. Today, we can get a letter from Missouri to China in seconds.

From my parents, I have seen the wonder, but usually aversion to the progress that not only the internet, but the socially networked internet is bringing to the world. They are amazingly supportive of what I do with my life, but every so often things break down and they show just how much they don’t understand. Yes, I know that the largest growing group right now on Facebook is the 55+ year-olds, but for the most part, they aren’t using social media in every facet of their lives to the level the Generation-Y, Millennials are. I know there are many exceptions to what I am saying and I am sure any one listening to this podcast that is a Baby Boomer is one of those exceptions.

But I think I can safely say that Social Media is an invention forged by Millennials and younger Generation Xers.
Mark Zuckerburg founder of Facebook – 26.
Kevin Rose founder of Digg – 33.
Jack Dorsey co-founder of Twitter – 33.
David Karp founder of Tumblr – 24.

For a little comparison… When the Beatles came to America in 1964, largely regarded as one of the keystone moments in rock history, John Lennon was 24! 24! I’m 25 and I don’t think I’ve written anything as profound as Can’t Buy Me Love.

Then why this drive to spill our life and feelings out digitally in little bite-sized pieces? Well, let’s look at music’s equivalent of bite-sized spilling of life and feelings, Rock and Roll. Rock and Roll flourished in the 60′s and 70′s. For teenagers and Young Adults, it was a pretty disillusioning time. America was caught in seemingly unending war, there was a serious split between left and right political views, and the economy was in the toilet. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Like Rock, Social Media allows us to vent and feel connected to a greater whole. Like many people my age, I graduated into one of the worst economies in history with a masters and nothing to do with it. I have applied to over 150 jobs, attend meet-up groups monthly, but still have not found full-time employment. Instead of wallowing in self pity, I decided to put all my time that was not spent working on freelance or searching for full-time into jumping headfirst into Social Media, developing my own blogging collective of people in similar situations. I know I am far from the only one in my age group doing this thanks to the connections I’ve made online.

Neil Young said ‘Hey hey, my my, Rock and Roll will never die’ and I think the same applies to Social Media. Sure it will become more and more mainstream, and one day will evolve into a part of everyone’s life. I am sure my age-group’s children will be all over it, in fact my feeds are filling with baby pictures at the moment. What I find even scarier than this is that this poor children could one day sign up for Facebook with 1,000 pictures of them already. You know those embarrassing pictures your mother shows to your friends when they visit? Oh boy…

Just as social media confuses my parents, I am sure these facebook feed babies will find something that confuses my generation.

I hate saying this. I really do. It makes me sound like a whiny brat. It makes me sound like a hippie/rocker/punk talking about their parents in the 60′s and 70′s. The millennial generation helped change the course of an election using Social Media electing the first black president, saved Conan O’Brien’s career with Team Coco, almost destroyed and then revitalized the music industry with MP3 downloading, and are completely changing the publication and advertising industries. To our generation this is exciting, this is ours, this is Rock ‘N Roll!

If you disagree with anything I said in this episode, please leave a comment below and to you I say relax, its only Social Media, but I like it, like it, yes I do.

For more of my nerdy content, check out TheModernDayPirates.com and follow me on twitter @BBwerner!