On being open to “less efficient” processes early on:
Appreciate the different creative types among your people—and realize that some are better at certain phases than others. And be very tolerant of the subversive. Creative work must, like Mark Twain’s character Huck Finn, avoid all “sivilizing” influences.

Creativity is really about silencing the voices (inside or outside ourselves) that say “no.”  Little annoying, evil voices that kill ideas before they’re fully hatched.  Efficiency, profitability, and misplaced strategy are all enemies of creativity.

Certainly, creative-types shouldn’t be lazy, excuse-making slobs.  (Some are)  Because true creativity comes when your mind is fully engaged in something else, and something makes a connection.  Your mind’s freedom (or your organization’s or your team members’) is important.  I read that Steven Spielberg’s best ideas come in the car, while driving.  His mind, fully engaged in the passive/reactive state of driving is allowed to drift into other places.  Come on, we all do it.  He just takes what he dreams up and makes blockbuster movies.

So what can you do to either be more creative yourself, or foster an environment of creativity in your workplace?

Be positive to ideas. Nothing kills ideas like a steady stream of “no.”  Be open to rethinking yourself, your brand, and your goals.

Create a sandbox to play in. Create a place to execute ideas on a small level, before they must be canonized, and put into production for all the world to see.  A test blog, a low-end video shoot, a sketch rendering.

Be prepared for failure. Many ideas lead nowhere, but they are great lessons, and lead to better ones.

Creativity can come from anywhere, and in an era of media and commercial saturation, it is only true and genunine personal creativity that resonates.  Are you having problems standing out?

I just stumbled across something totally separate from the show: someone has created Twitter accounts for a couple of the main characters, and they’re interacting, as if from 1962, with fans from 2008 (and with each other). Brilliant.

Twittering from the Past!

So far, I’ve been able to find a couple of character Twitter accounts. Don seems to be the most active, with over 800 followers and 170 status updates. Sure, Twitter is mostly for early-adopter technophiles, much like being on Digg, but it’s a probably a smart tactic for engaging the fans most likely to blog and use online media to spread your messages…

• Don Draper: Twitter (Bio at AMC)
• Peggy Olson: Twitter (Bio at AMC)
• Pete Campbell: Twitter (Bio at AMC)
• Joan Holloway: Twitter (Bio at AMC)
• Updated: Sal Romano: Twitter
• Updated: Bud Melmen: Twitter (and LinkedIn)
• Updated: Bobbie Barrett: Twitter
• Updated: Paul Kinsey: Twitter

The most interesting part of these accounts is that the characters are responding back to questions, rants, references to post-1962 pop culture (e.g., Peggy has never heard of “A Clockwork Orange”), and furthering the fan interaction into the show. Most of their updates are replies. Official or no, this is cool.

And, probably pretty easy. All it would take is someone with a deep knowledge about the show and a program like Twitterific or twhirl, where you can have multiple Tweet windows open.

And it doesn’t stop with Mad Men. After a little more research, I found Twitter accounts for:

• Liz Lemon (Tina Fey on 30 Rock)
• Michael Scott (Steve Carell on The Office)
• Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson on The Office)
• Darth Vader
• Borat (with over 5,000 followers!)
• Norman Dale (Gene Hackman from the movie Hoosiers – seems abandoned, but you get the point)

That’s a lot of fake Twitterers! Perhaps a real fake Twitter account might bring in the right audience to kick-start your communication strategy.

The Boston Globe’s Boston.com has a three-month old blog column called “The Big Picture” and yes, it does blow your mind.

It’s a collection of amazing photography presented in a large format.  Very little commentary and captioning.  Not to get nerdy, but all the photos are all 990 pixels wide and around 600 pixels tall.  Much larger than your average web site photos.

Artistry comes both from the quality and presentation of your work, and as I think about engaging people, I can’t help but think that most web content creators are missing the boat by limiting viewership of their most important digital assets.

Example 1: Photos
Looking at two examples from my own university, the Pepperdine school of law posted tiny photos from an alumni event.  No context; just hundreds lined up in a row.  Conversely, Pepperdine’s president just went on a highly-publicized tour of Route 66, and, along the way, his team posted photos to flickr, where people can view full-sized images, as well as download and comment.

Example 2: Video
I wrote a column for TubeFilter about TNT’s new interstitial series, Lucky Chance, and not only is the series lame, but they only allow you to embed a super-small window (260 px wide) in which to post the video on your site.  Not an engaging viewing experience, even if you’re watching your favorite show.

Apply this to your own site.  Your own blog.  Your own experience.  Are you trying to “wow” clients?  Trying to make web surfers “feel” your brand?  Big presentations and crisp photography can do that.

Tricking your customers can add to the mystique of your product or brand, but it’s important to not overstep your boundaries. While people like to uncover a mystery, they don’t like to be the butt of a corporate joke.

The video mentions a viral video by Parrot, which manufactures hands-free Bluetooth cell devices, where a kid records his drivers ed sessions while he talks on the phone. With 485,000 views on YouTube, this video did a ton better than the other Parrot vs. Quail Parrot-backed viral campaign I mentioned at SSM a while back.

But she knows that the Apple iPhone 3G comes out tomorrow.  The buzz is on her lips, and everyone’s lips.

My personal measure of marketable buzz is: if my parents are talking about it, it’s big.

How does Apple consistently generate such big buzz?  How does any company or movie or product or restaurant or web service generate it, and how do they measurably turn it into revenue?

Being in the viral video business, I have a vested interest in creating tactics for generating buzz about my videos and media, be it for marketing clients or for personal entertainment projects. Here are the characteristics of buzz:

#1 Buzz is Real, But Fleeting

Screenwriter John August and Ask A Ninja’s Kent Nichols have been downplaying the importance of film festival buzz on their blogs.

From Kent:
“I view awards [and film festival wins] as a karmic thumbs up that I’m going in the right direction. Nothing more, nothing less.”

I agree with them in that buzz alone does not create a career, or even a job, but it can generate a first step into a different world.  Once in that world, of course, you need to back it up with talent, training, and hard work.

#2 Buzz is Triangulation

Buzz is hearing about something from multiple channels on multiple levels. Media, social, and personal.

Iron Man was a perfect example of a buzz-worthy summer blockbuster movie.  The industry said it was good.  The commercials made it look good.  The reviews were good.  All that is standard mass marketing, however.  Those media outlets can be bought. The most important component to buzz can’t be bought…

The most important component to buzz, of course, is people.  Regarding Iron Man, people I actually connect with said it was good: friends, strangers, acquaintances, bloggers.  Then my mom said it was good, and there you go. Buzz achieved.

Iron Man

#3 Buzz is Buzz-Worthy!

Believe the hype! Buzz only works if the thing is actually worthwhile. The iPhone really is as cool as promised. Many friends say its the best device they’ve ever owned bar-none. But there is nothing lamer than buzz for something unbuzz-worthy. But that’s subjective, so be sure to narrow your buzz projecting to audiences that fit your product.

Case in point: Bon Iver. I’m the perfect audience for the indie rock album. So, when I heard about it on public radio, read about it on Pitchfork, and saw it on a friend’s iTunes shared folder, that was enough buzz for me. The media matched my tastes and my friend brought it home. I bought the album on iTunes.

Bon Iver

Takeaway on buzz: generate media and talking points for all kinds of talkers. Reporters from big media. Bloggers. Message boards. Casual fans using Facebook or MySpace. They’ll spread messages to all levels of people, and if it all coordinates on one set of ears, you’ll get the buzz you’re looking for.

I’ve been heading to things like this on the online entertainment side for a few years now, but haven’t been to a tech-related event since my days working for Jupiter Media Metrix in 2000/01. Back then, I was fresh out of college, no idea what I was doing, and catching the tail end of the dotcom boom (and bust).

It certainly was exciting back then, and it was just as exciting last night. A room full of ambitious people invigorates me. Do you like networking? Does it scare you? It did me back in my younger days, but now the pressure is off: I don’t have to shine in that room. I can just be me.

It’s always funny who you meet at things like that:

• I saw Tim Street, who just wrapped an advertisement/video episode for mDialog, a video startup that has commissioned a series from me and Bob.
• I ran into a girl that recognized me from welcoming people at church.
• I briefly saw Jason Nazar, whom I interviewed for a Pepperdine Law video two years ago, and now runs docstoc.com, a web site devoted to sharing documents (“a YouTube for documents,” I think I’ve heard him say).

Jason even offered to buy Sarah Lacy’s book for the first 25 people who mention docstoc.com on their blog, and I hope I qualify.  But more than just a cheap mention, I’ll take it one step further.  I checked out the site and found it to be an immediate help in two areas:

1. I searched for “online video marketing plan” and found some nice resources for developing my methodology for online video marketing, including doing some specific SEO on video metadata.
2. I am hosting a seminar on resume-building at church later this month, and found some great examples of resumes from all kinds of industries.

Check out docstoc for yourself, and, more importantly, go to where people are in your area of business.  It makes it all worthwhile.

These guys have their finger on the pulse. Let’s join them…

How to Write for the Web: Lost Remote’s Guide for TV Newsrooms

“On the web, you’re writing for the motivated reader. Users impatiently scan headlines for anything that jumps out at them, and once they find a story they like, they click it. Once they’ve made that decision to read a story, they expect more details than they typically see in a 90-second TV piece — not as many as a newspaper story, but more than television. In a nutshell, web writing should be tighter and more conversational than print, but more detailed and a little more formal than TV.”

How to Be Interesting

“…the core skill of any future creative business person will be ‘being interesting’. People will employ and want to work with (and want to be with) interesting people.”

How to be Creative

Hugh McLeod’s 2004 rant is very close to my heart. Be authentic. Work hard. There, I summed it up.

So, You Want to Make Your Own Christian Videos?

Veggie Tales creator Phil Vischer built a million-dollar media company and saw it dashed before his eyes. As someone who moved 50 million video units, and did it with a talking tomato and cucumber, he has something to say about the intersection of art and business.

It’s a nice, personal service and allows for fast-spreading messages.

But is it really a marketing tool? I think not. I hate it when spammers try to “follow you.” They’re fishing for followers. Then again, if you have a ready stream of content to share (@cnnbrk) or you are constantly moving around the country (@BarackObama), it seems to be tailor made for you.

In thinking about Twitter and the Pepperdine community, I’ve had quite a few conversations about using it to reach out to the few Pepperdine alumni who are active on Twitter. Honestly, the numbers probably aren’t there to make it worth anyone’s time. I’m not going to post tweets 10 times a day to reach 10 people. That doesn’t scale.

I found a few links dealing with universities and Twitter; great ideas here and good discussion on the comments. I won’t replicate it. Go check these out:

• Using Twitter for Higher Ed
• Twitter as Alert System?
• Social Survey: Twitter for Higher Ed Marketing (.eduGuru)
• Do You Twitter? (uwebd)

An Experiment

What these links don’t cover is using Twitter simply as an RSS aggregator. Using Twitterfeed, which renders RSS entries into a twitter account’s status updates, I created a Twitter account called PepperdineFeeds.

I set up six RSS feeds to push content to the account:

1. YouTube videos with “Pepperdine” in the title or description
2. Flickr images with “Pepperdine” in the title or description
3. Google News feed looking for any article with “Pepperdine” in it
4. Technorati RSS feed looking for blog posts with “Pepperdine” in them
5. Pepperdine’s own Public Relations RSS Feed
6. Pepperdine’s own student newspaper The Graphic

Since the first tweet on April 11, 2008, I haven’t touched the account, and it’s racked up 672 updates. I like that scalability.

Great. I have a lot of posts. What’s the point, right?

I’ve used it to keep track of news and interesting things in my Twitter account (rather than bogging down my RSS reader).

I haven’t pushed it to an audience, so, sure, there are only 3 followers. I suspect that I need to apply some additional content tweaks before it could be relevant to an external audience as content.

So, check it out. What do you think of Twitter, or the PepperdineFeeds account?

Personally, I use the following Firefox Add-ons:

• ColorZilla
• del.icio.us Bookmarks
• Download Statusbar
• Fission
• Foxmarks
• Nuke Anything Enhanced
• PDF Download
• StumbleUpon
• Tab Mix Plus
• Windows Resizer

What do you use?