Spark Minute

The Most Creative Ad is Useless If I Never See It

David Spark — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:26:18 +0000

If you’ve got a DVR, then you are in the same boat as me. You happily skip ads and watch your programming much quicker and with fewer interruptions. All that talk of creative TV commercials is lost on you. Fine, they’re really imaginative and creative. That argument and many more were part of my discussion last night on Bob Knorpp’s (@TheBeanCast) “The BeanCast,” a one hour round-table discussion with advertising and marketing pros. Listen or download the show here:

Guests

Cabell Harris (@WorkLabs), Founder, Work Labs
David B. Thomas (@davidbthomas), Director of Community and Social Strategy, Radian 6
Steve Wax (@stevewax), Partner, Ladies & Gentlemen

Topics

Combatting Brand Blindness? – Ad Age on the Ford Move, NYT Covering the Ads by Grey
What Works On Facebook – Ad Age Covers the Facebook Report, The Brian Solis Opinion Piece on TechCrunch, Ad Age Piece on Natural Pauses
Agencies Ditching Blogging – Digiday Story
Phone Wallet Debate – NYT Story About the Confusion
The Launch Of On-Air – CNET Reports

Stories to watch

Chief Collaboration Officers
Fatigue With Fishbowl Living
The Rise of the Culture Manager
Social Cluelessness of Writers
Facebook App Center

Stock photo of blank billboard in city from Big Stock Photo.

Apply Hackathon-Style Creativity and Productivity to Your Business

David Spark — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:05:53 +0000

This article was originally a report published for Intertainment Media’s Ingaged Blog, makers and distributors of the KNCTR and Ortsbo.

Hackathons are definitely the rage. Where else can a product, and sometimes an actual business be created in just 24-48 hours? A bunch of successful online services and products have been born out of hackathons. GroupMe started out as a hackathon project at the 2010 TechCrunch Disrupt NYC and was acquired by Skype for $85 million in 2011.

Some of Facebook’s most popular services such as Photos, the “Like” button, and Video have been a result of internal hackathons. In fact, Facebook’s hackathons have become so popular for their business and the employees that they’ve become a regular part of the company development and workflow. They’re currently being produced four times every year. Employees so love hackathon development and culture at Facebook, that they participate in the weekend hackathons voluntarily, for no additional pay.

Hackathons are not just for developers. I’ve seen business planners and designers work alongside developers in hackathons. Plus, there are hackathons for all other kinds of business and business development, such as management, creativity, and film production.

To understand how you and your business can take advantage of hackathon-style culture, we have to first look at what makes hackathons so popular.

Hackathons are unlike a traditional work environment in that participating in a hackathon gives you a chance to:

Participate in a creative cultural moment – Not everyone has a creative job, or if you do, you may only be able to be creative in a box. Hackathons give you a chance to be freely creative and be around the energy of others being creative.
Not be hampered by the structure of the needs and wants of the organization – Most projects are bogged down by project management, people’s time, and client demands.
Work with eager, self-motivated, like-minded, new, and usually smart participants – Those people who are participating chose to out on their volition. A hackathon is a challenge of your skill and knowledge so participants are also usually talented and bright.
Operate under a short time limit – This project isn’t going to go on forever. We all know it’s going to end at a specific time.
Operate in a pressure-induced, yet friendly, environment – You have the time pressure to get a project done, but it’s pressure to succeed in a game. It’s not intrinsically tied to your job and therefore there’s no career-level stress.
Leave real work behind – Facebook’s hackathon requirement is that you have to do something that’s not related to your job.
Work intensely for a short period of time, but with a known ending – We all work hard, but much of what makes hard work exhausting is because it keeps going on and on with no specific end in sight. This is a case where you will work hard, but clearly know that there is an end, and it will happen soon.
Produce something or not – When the time limit is over you’re going to have something, although many people don’t make it to the end. Of the hackathons I’ve seen, only about half of the participants that enter actually make it to the end and have something to present.
Participate in positive-only career development – So many possible career-changing events can happen if you participate in a hackathon: You could create something that could make you great money. Your talent could be seen from others eager to hire you. You could meet and work with people who you may work with in the future.
Be recognized by your peers and the industry – Hackathons are a great way to show off your talent, and it’s a great way to discover great talent.
Win something – Amazingly this is towards the end of the list as it’s not really the motivator that gets people involved, yet you could win a few bucks.
A chance to continue the project – You can’t help be strongly attached to or repelled by working with someone for 24 hours in a row. At the end of the project you’re going to be eager to continue to work on the project (or something else) together, or you might never want to talk to them again.

Hackathon tips from a hackathon addict

Zac Bowling has participated in more than 80 hackathons and was recently profiled in Wired Magazine. At SXSW this year, I interviewed Bowling on what it takes to succeed in a hackathon.

Can you apply hackathon principles to your business and career?

On a day-to-day basis, I don’t think it’s possible to maintain hackathon principles and behavior in your business and career. So much of the success of a hackathon is that it’s a departure from normal business procedures, plus it’s an extremely intense period of work, often with little to no sleep. Maintaining a hackathon’s frenetic pace on an ongoing basis is not possible in a standard work environment. Hackathons are and will continue to be seen as a special event which requires a certain amount of down time before and after.

You as an individual or a company can create “hackathon moments” to regularly juice you to participate similar to what Facebook does, or you can seek out or participate in hackathons. If neither option is available to you, given your location or your profession, then you need to produce a hackathon yourself.

The answer is yes you can apply it, but make it a special event and organize it correctly. How do you organize it and make it successful? Listen to my interview with Peter Morano, organizer of the hackathon at last year’s SocialDevCamp in Chicago. He gives the lowdown on the physical and promotional elements necessary to pull off a hackathon.

Creative Commons photo credit to hackNY.

Your “How To” Guide to Repelling Talented Tech Pros

David Spark — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00:35 +0000

Here’s a video I shot at SXSW where I was reporting for Dice.

Are you making mistakes with your recruiting and you don’t even know it? At Talent Net Live at SXSW we asked some of the top recruiters what NOT to do when it comes to talent acquisition.

Stock photo of young man running courtesy of Big Stock Photo.

When You Can Call Yourself an Influencer

David Spark — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:15:20 +0000

This article was originally a report published for Intertainment Media’s Ingaged Blog, makers and distributors of the KNCTR and Ortsbo.

We’re obsessed with being able to numerically rank anything and everything on the Internet. So much of our online lives are attached to numbers. We have a very visible count of friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, readers of our RSS feed, retweets of an article, likes of a Facebook fan page, and view counts of our YouTube video.

Influence measurement services such as Klout and Kred are trying to ride that wave of attaching a numerical indicator of our ability to influence others. I’m a little down on these services solely because they predominantly just measure Twitter behavior and they give higher credence to the sharer of content than the creator of content (read: “Do Online Reputation Measurement Services Like Klout and Kred Support a New Kind of Plagiarism?”)

Regardless of the debatable quality of these services, they’re being used to easily determine influence. The question is do we understand the theoretical underpinning of what creates “influence?”

When do you influence?

When we talk about “influencers” we’re looking for those individuals that have the ability to affect others.

Here are some theoretical thoughts on influence:

You can’t bestow the title “influencer” to yourself: While you can call yourself a doctor, lawyer, or whatever other profession, you can’t call yourself an influencer. That’s a title that’s bestowed upon you by someone else, and never directly to you. Someone who values your thoughts and content will refer to you as an influencer to another.
Influence is different than having an audience: An audience member is one who is tuned in and entertained by what you do and say. To influence goes a step further and causes one to take action Or they can cause you to make a behavioral/emotional change.
We are all influencers: We all have the ability to influence our family and friends.

In a discussion on Quora about “When can you call yourself an influencer” there was amazing consensus that influence is not about counting followers, retweets, etc. Influence is just about your ability to affect change in another person. I’d like to believe that’s true, but people keep saying they don’t look at the numbers, yet it’s the only thing we actually look at when we refer to someone as an influencer.

Enough of the warm fuzzies, how do I know who are the influencers?

Regardless, of the theoretical there is still a desire to uncover who is influential online. That’s why the influence measurement services have done so well. They put a rating to the person and provide the methodology. Problem is no one looks at the methodology. They just look at the number. I see your number is higher. That means you’re more influential, right?

In the discussion, my favorite response was from Yuriy Gumen, VP, Product Management at mBLAST, who in the midst of the theoretical discussion about influence pushed others to realize that we still have to solve the issue of discovering who is influential online. He boiled influence it down to five factors. I added a sixth one, Quality:

Volume: How much content the person produces?
Quality: What is the value of the content produced? (this weeds out content farms and spammers)
Popularity: How many people are “listening” to the person?
Authority: How many experts are “listening”-citing the person?
Relevance: Is the content created by the person relevant to your area of interest?
Action: Can this person produce a butterfly wing effect?

We actually do have ways to measure all of these things, yet the current measurement systems are doing a poor job. They mostly rate popularity, authority, and relevance but only within Twitter. I’d like to see influence measurement systems take all six into account.

In other news, TIME released its list of 100 most influential people today. I made TIME’s list of 100 people they didn’t consider influential.

Creative Commons photo attribution to Anirudh Koul, Photos by Mavis, and laubarnes.

How I Use My 17 Most Useful Mobile Applications

David Spark — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:30:48 +0000

I have become quite a big fan of the Android operating system (although I’m not a huge fan of my current phone, the Samsung Charge). Consequently, I am finding myself more reliant on the phone to maintain many different aspects of my life. All of these apps below were at one time just a “cool app” and now my attitude is “I need this app to function.” Let me know what you think, and please add your recommendations with an explanation of its usefulness in the comments.

1: Yelp – Be a local expert, wherever I go

I have to admit I’m more of a user than a contributor to Yelp. I’ve only written a couple of reviews, yet I rely on the service all the time. While retailers on the site complain about the editorial policy (many argue that valid 5-star reviews are pulled by the Yelp algorithm and staff) I have almost always found the reviews to be accurate. I’ve used Yelp mobile for restaurant recommendations, or if I’m eager to find a frozen yogurt shop nearby.

2: Google Maps Navigation – I am never lost, especially when vacationing

Since using Android’s built-in “talk to you” navigation system, I can’t remember the last time I looked at a map or asked someone for directions. I would say this default app alone is the reason to get an Android phone over an iPhone. I can’t believe there’s still a market left for navigation systems with the easy availability of this free application.

3: Facebook - Maintain connection to my network of friends

I’m admittedly a Facebook addict, and this application definitely feeds it.

4: Facebook Messenger – See availability status of my friends

I’ve been an IM user since the ICQ days and the one and only factor that makes an IM application useful is the number of your contacts that are using it. By the sheer fact that everyone I’m connected to on Facebook is using the instant messaging application, it is a far more valuable IM tool than any of the other applications.

5: UberSocial – Stay connected with my Twitter community

There are tons of mobile Twitter applications. This one works for me. A mobile Twitter application is incredibly valuable if you’re stuck in a situation and you’re hoping your community can answer a pressing question for you.

6: Camera – I never have to remember to bring my still camera or video camera

You know when you need a camera? When there’s a moment happening that you want to capture. How the hell do you plan for something like that? Thankfully I don’t have to now that my phone, which I take with me everywhere, has both a still camera and a video camera.

7: Google Play (formerly Android App Marketplace) – Downloading kids applications at the last minute

I have a two-year old son and like most parents with small children I’m often in situations, such as at a restaurant, where I need to calm him down and keep him entertained. I rarely have his favorite toy with me, but I always have my phone which allows me to look up, find, and install an app for my son within seconds. He’s entertained. My fellow patrons are happy, and so am I.

8: Evernote – Capturing receipts

Other people use Evernote far more aggressively than I do. I use it solely to take photos of receipts so I don’t have to carry them around with me in my wallet and I have an automatic backup of it in the cloud. It’s all part of my tear this year to go paperless (read: “My Strategy to Go Paperless in 2012″). Once a month I export all my receipts as an HTML file and store them on my computer as I will need these receipts for a few years and I don’t know if Evernote will be around still offering this service. Some people use it in conjunction with Expensify, but my expense reports are not so involved that I would need that.

9: ColorNote – Reminders, ideas for blog posts, and note taking

This is similar to how I feel about the Camera application. I don’t need to remember a notebook or a camera. It’s all on my phone. There are tons of note applications out there, and this one isn’t necessarily better than the others, but it’s the one that I use. The trick to taking advantage of a note taking app is to organize it the way you want to use it. I have one pad for reminders, another for random notes, another for ideas for blog posts, and then if I’m at an event or a meeting I’ll create another pad. All of these notes can be exported to DropBox or emailed to myself.

10: K-9 Mail – Read and reply to all my email

Sadly the mail application that came with my phone pulled all the messages off the server and didn’t have an option for me to change it. K-9 Mail is a free Android mail application that not only lets you change that option, but a ton more. Incredibly management of your email.

11: Muni Alerts – Know when the next bus is coming

Since I’ve moved out of San Francisco I’m not as reliant on this application. I used this tool to time my morning commute and determine which bus I was going to take. If you’ve got public transportation in your city, and the city is tracking their fleet, then an app that gives you arrival times of the next bus or train is indispensable.

12: OurGroceries – Share grocery lists with my wife

This is one of the newest app on my phone and I love it. It’s a synchronized list of groceries that my wife and I share. Any time either of us thinks of something we need to pick up at the drugstore or market, we just add it to the list and our phones are automatically updated. So whoever happens to go to the market can see a list of what we need. Just tap each item as you pick it up in the grocery. Can create lists for anything and they can be synchronized with as many housemates as you have.

13: Fooducate – Know the nutritional value of the crap I keep buying

I’m a complete sucker for packaging that gives me some pitch that it’s “Lite,” “Nutritious,” and “All Natural.” Turns out most of that crap is all B.S. as I’m starting to learn with the Fooducate application which gives an “A” to “D” grade for different packaged foods. Just scan the bar code and you’ll see how it rates. But what makes the app really valuable are the alternative healthier options it suggests. So if that “nutritious” health bar gets a “C-” you can check the recommended health bar brands that score better.

14: Tumblr – Maintain a multimedia diary of my son’s growth

This app has just been recently updated and it allows me to shoot videos, photos, and write updates on a private blog that my wife and I maintain to capture the growth of our son. I’ve been shooting a video a day of my son since the day he’s been born (read my two-part article: “HOW TO: Record, Publish, and Manage ‘a video a day’ of your child”). We put a ton of work into it, and all of four people read it – my wife and I, and our moms.

15: TripIt – Organize all my travel

I was a hold out for this app for quite a while, but then I finally started using it and I love it. Simply forward all your hotel and flight reservations to plans@tripit.com and TripIt automatically creates your itinerary for you, organized by each of your trips. I used to print all the crap out. Now I don’t at all. It’s all on my phone.

16: Shortyz Crosswords – Play the daily crossword from multiple newspapers

I’ve become a little bit of a crossword fan and this is a great app that will yank puzzles from about ten different newspapers.

17: Lookout – Automatically scan apps for malware

I have no idea if this app is doing anything, but it appears it’s doing something right because it says it’s checking my apps and tells me they’re clean. So far no complaints, but time will tell.

Total cost

Amazingly, the total cost for all these applications is $0. I’m a huge fan of Android, but I don’t spend a dime on the apps. It’s a major problem if you’ve got a huge fan base, but they don’t actually spend any money with you. While I am valuable as a word of mouth marketing voice, I’m not helping them generate any revenue especially since I’m recommending all free applications.

Your recommendations?

I’m interested to know your recommendations for a very useful Android app and what you use it for. Specifically, I’m looking for a really good business card reader. I’ve tested a few and I’ve been unhappy with the results. Any tips you can offer are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Dru Kelly.

Interview with Instagram CEO about Mobile App Development

David Spark — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:14:13 +0000

Here’s an interview and article I produced last year with Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instagram, at the Mobilize Conference in San Francisco. I was there reporting for Dice.

I’m rather impressed with Instagram. Here’s yet another photo sharing app that has dominated an incredibly crowded space. To get a little insight in the development secrets of Instagram, I spoke with CEO Kevin Systrom at the Mobilize conference in San Francisco. His tips:

Understand the Difficulties of Mobile Development vs. the Web

Compared to mobile, Web development is easy. Mobile development simply compounds the problems you have online. Systrom’s examples:

More languages to manage – You have to deal with languages beyond HTML and Javascript, such as Objective-C and other native languages.
Phone behavior varies – Computer access is standardized. Not so with phones.
Manage connectivity – Not a concern with Web apps today, but a huge concern with phone apps that fall into the EDGE network or disconnect completely. How can your app handle that? Many simply shut down or freeze once the phone hits EDGE. You have to optimize your output for speed and inactivity of the network.

The Best Feature is Less Features

There are an endless number of photo sharing apps. How did Instagram succeed in such a crowded field? Systrom believes their success has to do with elements they didn’t put into the app. They purposely removed extraneous features and made it simple to use.

For example, to Systrom speed of upload is a major feature of Instagram. One way to get there was to reduce the quality of images. It’s kind of counterintuitive to a photo app, but it worked. In the most recent update of Instagram, filter render times have been reduced from four seconds down to four milliseconds. That’s made a huge impact on application speed.

Also filters, which traditionally have been an extra unused add-on slapped onto most image editing and sharing programs, are actually integral to the upload process for Instagram, used for two thirds of all uploads.

Move Quickly and Get the Details Right

“Putting out half-baked apps in mobile is the worst thing you can do,” says Systrom.

While users will put up with lack of functionality in Web development, and you have the flexibility of multiple iterations, mobile’s not the same. Systrom’s advice is to do fewer things, but do them better. Focus on the details that matter.

Systrom suggests you list out three things that matter most about your app and make sure every detail about them is working. For Instagram those things were application speed, distribution to other networks, and speed of upload.

New Innovative Companies at ad:tech 2012

David Spark — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:00:12 +0000

Last week, at this year’s ad:tech conference I went upstairs in the expo hall to the Innovation Alley and interviewed a bunch of the new young companies that were showcasing their products. Some deserved to be there. Some did not.

Which Dating Site at ad:tech Will Get You Laid?

David Spark — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:31:34 +0000

In the back of the expo floor at ad:tech San Francisco stood two salacious services: iBallers and Fling dot com. All three of these sites and their subsidiaries are online dating “hookup sites” where it is understood that by participating and connecting, the end goal is usually sex.

I caught one moment where the hired booth babes of Fling dot com were chatting up the babes of iBallers. Here’s what happened in our engagement and you make the call as to which one will better help you get laid.

Photo courtesy of Sukhjit Ghag.

WEBINAR: How to Run a Successful Social Media Contest

David Spark — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:30:03 +0000

Social media-powered contests are extremely powerful for your business in more ways than you know. Not only are they great ways to expose your business to a new audience, but they can deliver a host of business services such as top-notch employees, creative brainstorming, company testimonials, and crowd-sourced content, all for FREE!

For many it seems daunting, but it doesn’t have to be for you if you attend my PR Daily webinar:

How to Run a Social Media Contest that Gets Results

Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Time: 3–4:15 p.m. Eastern | 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. Central | 1–2:15 p.m. Mountain | 12–1:15 p.m. Pacific (75 minutes total)
Price: ~~$139~~. With this coupon code link, only $119. Save $20!

This webinar will show tons of real world examples of contests, explain different styles of contests that serve an actual business function, and ultimately, how to make your contest a success!

The presentation is the result of dozens of interviews with companies and contest experts. I share the experts’ best insights with you. No need to reinvent the wheel. Learn from their experience and make it your own.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

How a contest delivers free services such as top-notch employees, marketing, creative brainstorming, company testimonials and crowd-sourced content
More than a dozen examples of contests—the pros and cons of each
How a contest becomes a touch point for audience engagement
The do’s and don’ts of running a social media contest, based on true stories and experience
How to decide which contest type and prize will work best for your business
And plenty more.

Click the “Register” button to save $20 on registration.

To get a little taste of what content I’ll be providing, you can also register for Spark Notes* (see latest issue) and get a free copy of “20 Tips on Running a Contest Powered by Social Media.” Sign up below for the article and newsletter. NOTE: This only gives you the article, it does not register you for the webinar. You need to click the “Register” button above to sign up for and purchase the webinar.

Stock photos of business people on a race track courtesy of Shutterstock.

Do Online Reputation Measurement Services Like Klout and Kred Support a New Kind of Plagiarism?

David Spark — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:57:29 +0000

Yesterday, I made an appearance on the Tonya Hall Radio Show where we talked about online reputation measurement services such as Klout and Kred. While these services are fun to look at and watch your score as compared to your friends’ scores, they are really only a measurement of your popularity on Twitter assuming that people credit you appropriately via Twitter. These services are trying to prove that they’re more than that by allowing others to vote you up, including some offline behavior, and even a little Facebook and LinkedIn action. But the most measurable public and interconnected space is Twitter and that’s where the overwhelming majority of the measurement comes from.

My main problem with these services is they very poorly measure influence through blogs. Currently, Technorati does that to a certain degree for an entire blog, but not for individual bloggers.

The BIG PROBLEM with online reputation measurement services

I believe that people who write blog posts that others share and comment on are a much greater indicator of a person’s influence than someone being @ replied or retweeted on Twitter. That’s a strong opinion, but I think it’s validated by the fact that blogs are long form multimedia content and Twitter is 140 character limited microblogging that can only link to other content. There’s no way a person can solely be an expert on anything if all they do is microblog. You must have another outlet. And most influential people do blog. Very few only express themselves through Twitter.

These measurement services only measure your worth through how much others properly recognize you through Twitter. And the only way they can indicate that is if the user gives Twitter-specific credit (the blog author’s Twitter handle) to the content creator. It’s the only way these reputation measurement services can work. They can’t identify you via your full name and not your blog.

What that means is the following:

If you share this article on Twitter with your friends, and don’t include my Twitter handle, @dspark, and others click the link and you get retweeted, then YOU get the increase in reputation score. I get nothing, zero, zip. This is partially equivalent to plagiarism. While not intentional, these services are giving you credit for my work and I’m not being acknowledged or recognized for it.

These reputation scoring services do not connect a person’s Twitter profile with their blog. They have known about this problem for a long time. I mentioned this to Klout more than a year and a half ago and I got a “we’re working on it” response. The CEO of Kred just recently said the same thing to me in a Twitter chat and invited me to help them.

There is a solution. Why aren’t they using it?

Here’s my answer. FriendFeed figured it out years ago and many of the people search engines figured it out as well. People voluntarily and involuntarily connect all their real and social identities. So if I know your Twitter handle I can discover your real name, blog, YouTube account, Flickr account, etc. If this information is readily available then you should be able to connect someone’s Twitter handle to their blog and every other social identity. So if someone retweets an article of mine, but doesn’t use my Twitter handle, it should be easy to do a lookup of the blog address, and the author of the blog post. This problem is very fixable, yet I don’t understand why they’re not fixing it.

I would love to be proven wrong on this, but I’ve yet to see any new results. For more about how people can game their reputation score solely through sharing, read my article on Mashable “Why Sharing Online Content Might Be Too Easy” and my piece on Spark Minute “Here’s What’s Wrong with Social Media: Sharing Without Consumption.”

Listen to the full show with Tonya Hall where we talk about a lot of issues, but I harp on this one a lot:

Stock image of pirate flag on keyboard courtesy of Shutterstock.

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