Archive for January, 2006
January 12, 2006
11 Comments
I’m currently in London, back home tonight.
It looks like Stormhoek will be spending more marketing efforts in the USA starting this year, which might mean I get to spend more time in New York, after a few years away from my most beloved city.
Also, there’s some interesting things happening with English Cut on the company front. Since most of our customers are American, I can’t see not spending more time over there for that as well.
I’ve no real interest in living there full-time again [Honest!]. I’m not Wall Street material, nor does Big Media or Madison Avenue do much for me these days. Right now I’m thinking a few days every month or so would be good, not unlike the frequency I currently visit Paris and London.
It’s funny, even five years ago doing what I’m doing outside a big city would be nearly impossible. But the blogosphere changed everything.
A $5000-a-month Tribeca loft is far less appealing when you don’t actually have to live there in order to get ahead.
But yet, in spite of the internet making things possible for so many people near and far, the property prices in New York, London and other central hubs do nothing except rise. And rise fiercely.
What’s going on? The Pre-Cluetrain crowd having one last gasp before the party ends?
January 10, 2006
23 Comments
More coverage on the “Blogging Doubles Stormhoek Sales” story.
So you want to know “What comes after Cluetrain”?
Marketing Hub nails it:
The stumbling block to “markets as conversations” for most companies is that they see a world in which only one of the participants in the interaction is open to change. This would be the customer, by default — they are the ones who are putting their money down and making room in their lives for your product. The company providing the product has historically not been open to change in the process.
The next step for Cluetrain, as this article discusses, is companies willingly allowing themselves to be genuinely disrupted by the process.
Johnnie Moore also has some good thoughts on it:
There’s a parallel at work for bloggers — the value may not be the immediate impact of their words on the market, but how the conversation changes the blogger.
The best example I can think of is how Robert Scoble and his blogging colleagues are changing Microsoft internally.
But Microsoft is a tech company. What I’m not seeing is more non-tech companies following their lead. I guess it’s not surprising.
A year ago, I was very excited by the idea of corproate blogging, spreading like wildfire. But the more I’ve talked to large companies over the last 12 months, the less I’m convinced they actually want to get into the process.
For all the “Blaze New Trails” rheotoric the corporate PR machine likes to feed the media, most corporate types don’t like rocking the boat. And good blogs rock boats– they can’t help it.
So what comes after The Cluetrain? Companies gladly and willingly allowing themselves to be actually changed by The Cluetrain. But don’t hold your breath.
[FURTHER READING:] “Disrupt Or Die.”
83 Comments
1. I don’t consider myself an A-Lister.
No, but I turn up for speaking gigs at all the big conferences anyway. Uh-huh.
2. I don’t care about traffic.
Of course I don’t. Even though I’m a freelance consultant, and my blog is my primary way of marketing myself. Rock on.
3. I’ve read your blog.
Yeah, well I read the “Musings of an unemployed tech consultant” bit on the title bar, before clicking off. That counts.
4. I started blogging back in 1999.
Of course, back in 1999 a Flash-animated, brochureware homepage was considered a blog. Kinda sorta.
5. My blog has no commercial agenda.
I’m far too sexy to care about money. Exactly.
6. I only have advertising on my blog as an experiment.
That explains why the adstrip is right under the “Musings of an unemployed tech consultant” bit. Indeed.
7. I’ve never liked the unegalitarian term, “A-Lister”.
Even though I am one. Oh, the irony.
8. I’m proud to be a D-Lister.
Even though I spend 7 hours a day writing the thing. Right.
9. He’s a big hero of mine.
He’s got more traffic than downtown Mexico City and I’m hoping to God he links to me one day.
10. I really admire what she’s doing for the blogosphere.
I’ve noticed that she’s currently single.
[Inspired by Mr. Kawasaki, of course.]
[BONUS LINK:] “Top Ten Reasons Why Nobody Reads Your Blog.”
January 9, 2006
9 Comments
1 Comment
I’ll be speaking at Lift in Geneva, February 2 – 3.
Robert Scoble, Cory Doctorow, Anina and Euan Semple will also be there. Rock on.
11 Comments
From my best estimates, I’d say at least 90% of English Cut’s paying customers have never heard of or read gapingvoid.
What does that tell me? That blogging doesn’t work in the cause-and-effect way a lot of people think it does.
Indirectly. Blogs are a great way to make things happen indirectly.
But so many people live or die by metrics and “deliverables”, they can’t get their head around that.
January 8, 2006
15 Comments
[This cartoon is one of my all-time favorites. Which is why I repost it all the time etc.]
Back when I was new to this whole internet thing, I would check my stats at least once a day. Now I’m lucky if I check them once a week, tops. Stats don’t really tell you that much. OK, so let’s say hypothetically you got 30% more visitors in December than you got in November. Whatever. How many of this 30% offered to shower you with money, or sex, or brandy & cigars? Exactly.
My new metric of choice is how well Me and Thomas’ Savile Row business is doing on Google. This week’s been a good one. So I’m in a good mood.
Now here’s the thing. Savile Row is famous for dressing heads of state, movie stars, captains of industry, the great and the good etc. Of course, we’re delighted to have their business. But unbeknownst to many, the lion’s share of the business comes from the United States (and that is true for all of the Row, not just our little company). We’re mostly talking highly paid professionals– investment bankers, corporate lawyers, that kind of thing. Very East Coast.
Where are the next generation of East Coast $4000 suit customers finding out about Savile Row? Fashion mags? Books? Hardly. They’re finding out via Google and Yahoo and MSN.
I can see why people diss MSN or Google or Yahoo. Big company power ticks people off. But what I mostly feel towards them is gratitude. Because what all these three companies have done for me this year is make me money, not to mention for millions of other people.
To these three companies, I say, keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t change a thing. Keep sending me all those droves of high-paying customers, and I’ll be loving you forever.
9 Comments
Jeff from Texas states the obvious: Thomas the Savile Row tailor hasn’t been updating his blog often enough.
So I write in the comments:
Tom is REALLY busy these days, thanks to the blog. So he doesn’t have as much time to post new material as often he would like.
When you have dozens of customers waiting for their suits to be finished, THE LAST THING they want to see is you spending lots of time online.
A lot of bloggers like to write about “Creative Destruction”. But rarely do they include the creative destruction of their own blogging in the equation.
Am I the only one who sees the paradox?
[NOTE TO SELF:] My Alexa rankings are at an all-time high. What’s the deal with that?
1 Comment
A real gem from Fred Wilson. All to do with the US telephone companies patheticly trying to muscle in on Google and iTunes’ action, for no other reason than jealousy.
Sounds like they’ll have an uphill struggle. Like Fred says::
The Telco’s had their chance back in the mid 90s to develop all these value added services to run on their networks. They didn’t do it. They bought back stock, built golf courses, defrauded their shareholders, took on enourmous debt, and generally did everything other than take advantage of the incredible opportunity that they had with the coming of the Internet. Bottom line — they screwed up.
PS: Fred Wilson is on my “Must Read” list [along with about a dozen others]. Skip him at your peril.
January 6, 2006
6 Comments
This got my attention:
The New Dress Code:
The most dramatic change in menswear will be the shift towards formal suiting and structured garments. This year we will see the return of the suit, a fashion phenomenon not seen since the 1980s. Tailored jackets are the key item and the most effective way of updating a man
January 5, 2006
11 Comments
Interesting article by Millioniare Socialite:
“Divergent means of building a global microbrand.“
Option 1. “Microbranding by strategic aggregation.“[“This is what I like, isn’t it cool?”]
Option 2. “Microbranding by relative market engagement.” [“This is what I do, isn’t it cool?”]
Frankly, I think you’re better off going with the latter. Unless of course, you’re The Manolo.
[Bonus Link:] Millionaire Socialite’s Greatest Hits.
January 4, 2006
5 Comments
[Gift Idea:] A “Wirearchy” t-shirt, designed by Yours Truly.
Like Jon says, a good gift for anyone who belives that blogging and social software will have a big impact on business and society in the next century.
[Bonus Link:] How to avoid that corpse-like feeling you get from working in a large company. “The Art of Intrapreneurship” by Guy Kawasaki. [Thanks to James Governor for the link.]
19 Comments
[I originally said this to a female friend of mine. Yes, it got an interesting reaction.]
[UPDATE:] A “cultural stereotyping” debate is raging in the comments section. Rock on.
January 3, 2006
4 Comments
[This is the cartoon that inspired the name “gapingvoid”. I drew it way back when, in college. Click on image to enlarge.]
10 Comments
This picture was taken from my office window a few days ago.
And people ask me why I live in Cumbria…?
January 2, 2006
2 Comments
[Bonus Link:] Wired does a great profile of Jason Calacanis.
A lot of people don’t quite “get” Jason. They find him abrasive, fast talking, networking-obessessed to the point of pathological.
Whatever. I hung out with him a lot last June in Copenhagen. I thought he was charming company. Sure, he’s intense, but that’s a good thing in my book.
As the Wired article explains, Jason has had a lot of success in 2005. I must say I’m utterly delighted for him.
Congrats on the last twelve months, Jason. It’s people like you that make the Blogopshere so damn interesting.
5 Comments
[Bonus Link:] Guardian article by Jeff Jarvis about “Tagging”. A good introduction if you don’t know much about it– What it does and why it’s important etc.
Tagging has implications that extend FAR beyond the blogosphere. Right, Sig?
[Bonus Link:] Oh, and if you STILL don’t know what RSS is, this BBC article offers about as good an intro to newbies as I’ve ever seen.
2 Comments
Adrants picked up the “Blogging Doubles Stormhoek Sales” story. Thanks, Steve!
He has a good synopsis of it:
To double sales inside of a year can’t possiblely come from a few more people drinking a couple of bottles of wine. It can, however, come from a vastly improved internal attitude and sales process. The simple fact that the wine was out there and was being blogged about became part of the story telling sales process.
Rock on.
January 1, 2006
11 Comments
A successful advertising creative asked me this question a few months ago:
TV clearly is not the magic bullet it once was for advertisers. It’s been on the wane for quite some time now.
And people’s attention is splintering in many different directions. The online world being the biggest beneficiary of BIG TV’s demise. No argument there. But as an award-winning Superbowl ad writing type, can someone tell me how blogging specifically could help let’s say, the likes of Budweiser who need to reach a mass audience?
My response at the time (to the industry as a whole, not to him per se) was my usual, “Have a nice death, Dinosaur”.
But having some time to think about it, here’s another thought.
As I’ve said before, in terms of marketing, blogs are not selling channels, they are disruption channels.
And when I talk about disruption, I’m talking about the disruption of the company, not the disruption of the potential customers’ purchasing behavior.
So to Madison Avenue, let me ask the question:
So you want to build a blog for your client. What part of their company are you trying to disrupt? And what makes you think they’re going to let you?
If you don’t know the answer, your client doesn’t need you to build them a blog.
[UPDATE:] Euan Semple adds a thought:
What Hugh says applies just as much IMHO to the use of blogs inside organisations. If you don’t face disruption, don’t see the benefits of disruption or don’t think you can handle disruption then don’t go near social computing tools in your business.
I have had a number of conversations recently with people along the lines of “Why should we get into social computing when we already know what we do, know what needs to be done and know how to do it”. I don’t know what world they are living in but it is certainly one which I have never experienced.
2 Comments
My favorite tech writer, Ben Hammersley has a new book coming out:
Hacking Gmail
Covers turning Gmail into an online hard drive for backing up files, using it as a blogging tool, and even creating customized Gmail tools and hacks.
4 Comments
My first drawing of the New Year. I’m not sure what that signifies. Heh.
I actually stayed in last night. Had two glasses of wine then went to bed just after midnight. Instead, Thomas and I have elected to celebrate in the pub this afternoon. Nothing majorly festive, we’re both too busy.
My father tells me that, growing up in the Highlands of Scotland, they didn’t really celebrate Christmas when he was a child. Kids got presents in the morning, but then everybody went back to work in the afternoon. New Year’s was the big holiday for them.
I really like that idea.
