1. http://www.searchtempest.com

Ever use craigslist? My guess is everyone has surfed craigslist at one point in time or another – for one reason or another – and I’ve been seeking a comprehensive a craigslist search tool forever. Part of the appeal of craigslist is the obvious simplistic approach; they don’t seem to be to eager to change things even if it means more functionality. Due to craigslist’s philosophy and TOS, there aren’t a lot of legit 3rd party tools out there that actually integrate well with the service. Searchtempest.com seems to have figured it out and has created a (beta) app that allows users to search multiple locations at once. Solid.

2. http://www.Hankshelper.com

From the same creator comes Hankshelper.com. Hankshelper is focused on the car search space and they compile results from craigslist, ebay motors, autotrader, cars.com, automotive.com, and carsdirect in a simple format. It’s the definition of an aggregate tool that will save people time and hassle.  Also clearly in beta but fully functional.

“…the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.”

The phrase was originated by Seth Godin nearly a decade ago; ironically, Godin is the keynote speaker arranged for the MIMA Summit on Oct 5th.

I understand  “permission” can be a gray area – open to interpretation and relative to individualistic preferences – but, isn’t it better to be safe when dealing with such delicate commodities as people’s time and attention?

MIMA has pushed it’s permission limits and abused its right to email me for three specific reasons – surely I am not alone!

1) I have received no less than 6 email messages from MIMA within the last 30 days (July 31-today) and I’m willing to bet that I would have received at least one more before the end of August (had I not unsubscribed today), since they’re marketing me every 4 days on average.  I’m not even registered for the Summit;  I wonder if registrants are getting an inordinate amount of communications/updates as well -or- maybe it’s just repeated attempts to coerce the uncommitted (read: sell).

Remarkability speaks for itself, I don’t need a boilerplate reminder every week for two months in advance.

2) WHY HAVE THE SUBJECT LINES FOR THE LAST THREE EMAILS BEEN IN CAPS?  CAN GODIN CONVINCE MIMA TO STOP YELLING!?!?

3) Please be human.  If you seek the need to invade my brainspace so frequently, at least show me that there’s a real-live person behind it all by returning my email should I respond (favorably) to one of your solicitations. Otherwise you’re reminiscent of egocentric, one-way, old media communications.

4) (I know I said three) but while we’re at it, what’s with the sheer volume of hyperlinks.  15 hyperlinks in one email? Sorry.

I wonder if MIMA is losing any other “permission/attention assets” with their aggressive and seemingly senseless marketing tactics?

I tried my usual “starving student” volunteer/price break approach to no avail…damn…but 2/3 isn’t bad!?!?

Anyways, moral of the story is this -  If you’re hosting a big ticket event that sells out quickly, why wouldn’t you implement a paid live-stream option for those who:

(a) want to attend/pay full price but can’t get their hands on a ticket

(b) want to go but can’t for logistics purposes

(c) too broke/cheap to pay full price (ie-me!)

Figure out the demand/price point, and give yourself the added benefits of REVENUE + BRAND EXTENSION.

Sure beats the “…We’ve sold out, email us to get on the wait list bs”

Seems like a no-brainer  – what am I missing here!?!?!

Does anyone have experience in this approach?  What might the objections/concerns be from the organizers/hosts perspective?

TEDxTC – are you listening?

“…even during a time of prolonged economic recession, volunteering has remained steady, fueled by a compassion boom led by young adults and a wave of do-it-yourself volunteers working with their neighbors to fix problems.”

It’s interesting to learn that young adults are leading the cause. 16-24 demographic rose from 7.8 million in 2007 to 8.2 million in 2008.

“…other less-formal ways of serving in communities have dramatically increased. The number of people who worked with their neighbors to fix a community problem rose by 31 percent, from 15.2 million in 2007 to 19.9 million in 2008, suggesting an emerging trend of self-organized ‘do-it-yourself’ service.”

I’m curious to keep an eye out for emerging platforms that cater to and enable, the so-called “do-it-yourself” volunteers as described above.

• For the fourth year in a row, Utah was the top volunteer state with a volunteer rate 43.5%, followed by Nebraska (38.9%), Minnesota (38.4%), Alaska (38%), and Iowa (37.1%).
• Minneapolis-St. Paul once again ranked number one among large cities at 38.4%, followed by Portland, OR (36.7%), Salt Lake City, UT (36.5%), Seattle, WA (34.3%), and Kansas City, MO (33.4%).

Rock on Minnesota! Here’s the primary web page with all the juicy details

These are tough questions to independently & objectively answer but one thing we can all agree on is that there’s no shortage of problems starting us straight in the face – pick one. It boils down to values, what are yours?

So why are we (generally, at large) still so fixated on learning, embracing, and even exploiting “social media” for such commercialized purposes? In this sense I think “social media” is still in infancy stage which might explain why we’re acting like infants;  it’s almost as though “social media” has become an oxymoron.

Make no mistake – the shift is happening: “social media” is growing up and maturing into a matter of practical social application. I see “social media” is a function of networked people, therefore, the network(s) themselves are evolving – which is a good sign.

Social Media for Social Change is a small example of an emerging trend: people using social tools to connect & collaborate with a deeper more humanistic purpose.

I am of the opinion that the next phase of “social media” will include more “social” and less “media.”

Marketers, advertisers, narcissists, ego’s, and the like should consider that “social media” (tools, networks, apps, platforms, etc.) are not created or driven by anything other than our human nature: that is, to be human.

While there is a place for humanity in the marketplace, our society/culture is still largely off balance-we’ve still got a ways to go before we find an equilibrium between capitalism and humanism within our society.

The good news is, based on my research and inclination for trends, I speculate that  we will be seeing a noticeable increase in the worthwhile & meaningful application of  “social media” tools.

And yes, there is plenty of financial opportunity in the next wave of “social media”, but it will be reserved for the most aggressive “social animals” who in and of themselves, represent merit & “social value”. In other words, the metrics will change from arbitrary variables (# of twitter followers) to meaningful social yardsticks – ie “how many people have I/we directly positively impacted today?”

Many individuals (including myself) and organizations stand to enrich themselves and the world around them by moving beyond the “media” and into the “social”; making a bunch of money in the process doesn’t hurt either, which is entirely possible if done correctly (read: people>money).

What if, in the future, our value is primarily based on our “social contribution”? What kind of effect would this have on our communities and the world at large?

If anyone disagrees or has thoughts on this subject, please share…

Project Title: 40 Ventures- a “seed fund & venture development enterprise”

Organizers: Marti Nyman & John Montague

Strategy: 5 companies per year are taken in on full time basis to an environment known as “the facility”.  Mentorships ensue with multi-party hands on development aimed at prepping the startup for first round VC/Angel 12 months forward. “The facility” and related resources will be based out of Minneapolis and application process begins fall ‘09 and the program is set to kick off Jan 1 2010.  According to Mr. Nyman, the fund target is 20 million over 8 years, intending to to inject 40 different ventures with initial seed capital in the 100-200k range.  Percentage of equity will be negotiable and shares issed are in fact, founders shares.

Inv Paramaters: light orgs; not working with med device, not looking for long regulatory approval cycle, saas (consumer, enterprise, commercial), social media, digital media, online retail, mobility, computing simplification, etc.

Notes: Startups will spend a longer time “in facility” than comparable models, ie- techstars,y combinator.

Need: Right team,  clarity of idea, viability of idea, reality of demand, clear understanding of how to go to market, capital efficiency model.

i

Tissues

Anyways, we’ve got Michael Lebowitz (@bigspaceship) from Brooklyn NY here talking about  advertising (yawn) in a post advertising world.

Ok, so mass marketing is dead.  Next.

• value exchange
• earn attention-yes, it isn’t given
• “if you talked to people the way that advertising does they’d punch you in the face.” -Hugh Macleod
• fun begets passion.passion begets quality. Nice!

Ok, Michael is still talking but I’ve already moved on to more relevant and informative content…working on tomorrows post.