Thursday, May 12, 2011
A Shortcut
Here's a neat little trick... instead of trying to train your customer or client on how to use a CMS (Content Management System) or log into an FTP hosting environment, set up a simple blog RSS feed and create an account they can update anytime, as easy as writing an email.
Friday, March 25, 2011
A Lesson on the Shady Characters of the Digital Streets...
Greetings friends and fans of the Big Dick Giant Detective, your pal Buzz has missed you! It has been an unusually long hiatus between my dispatches from the streets, but I think this one will be worth it. I wish I had gotten the down low on this topic long ago: the Shady Characters of the Digital world.
First let me start off by saying that I am going to be very candid here, likely at the expense of some friends and business associates, but mostly about my own foibles in the shadows of digital entrepreneurialism.
The world of entrepreneurialism is an attractive one to some people for the following reasons: 1)We are Ego-Centric 2)We have minor (or major) issues with authority 3) We are Patriotic* 4)We all believe we can be extravagantly wealthy if just _____.
Sound about right? Well the * needs a little detail. By patriotic I mean just that, but not to political parties, bogus flag-waving false prophets or Big Business, but to the IDEALS of our nations’ founders: Liberty, Justice, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
A true entrepreneur values one or more of the above over all else. Be it the liberty to make our own schedules, decisions, business directions, or to have our own voice and the right to use it as we see fit... the “freedom to be me” (and make some scratch while doing it). Justice to make sure there is a equal shot to get a piece of the American Pie; to have fair lending practices, competitive marketplaces, responsible governance and regulation, and all of the other sometimes fictional concepts that drive idealists to become capitalists. Finally, the Pursuit of Happiness. Happiness is the end of the proverbial rainbow, whether its comfort to live and travel, wealth to accumulate (although this RARELY brings happiness), the means to support a family, or the legacy a small business can become in a family’s history.
With that base philosophy, and with the personality traits I indicated before: Ego-Centrism, anti-authoritarianism, patriotism, and wealth-envy, it is not hard to see why this world attracts a lot of Shady Characters.
This blog post has been stewing for a few weeks, ever since I had coffee with a friend and fellow digital maven, Hana Kamm from www.shesnext.com. While we were discussing some potential integrations, the topic strayed, and turned to sharing bad experiences and the mistakes we had both made along the way... often due to Shady Characters.
The first type of Shady Character is a derivation of the Ego-Centrist, that we’ll call the Prince. It is almost universally true that the type of person that strays from the pack and goes out to find their own path is going to be a touch narcissistic... you almost have to be to want a life where there is certainly as much rough terrain as comfortable. So while some of us see ourselves as being a “solution provider”, others see themselves as being a bit more Machiavellian. For those that forgot the actual text that reference is based on, the book the Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, postulates that “the ends of princes, such as glory... justify the use of immoral means to reach those ends” (Strauss, 1958). While business is battle, and the competition will often eat you as a sacrifice to their own demons, at least philosophically it does not need to be that way.
The Prince sure thinks so. The Prince will attach himself to any project he sees as making his purse strings stretch, regardless of his ability to complete it. The Prince will whisper in your ear, soothsaying you into engaging, and then leaving you after harvest to conquer the next town. The Prince has no interest in the fruits of well-toiled labor; he has no interest in cultivating your ideas, he wants none of the struggle to cultivate, to irrigate, to grow. He wants your sweat. Mostly though, he wants your cabbage. Oh, and he wants everyone to know he’s the Prince, and thats why it should be this way.
The second type of Shady Character takes the “chip” on the shoulder most of us SMB-owners (Small and Medium Business) have, and replaced it with a manhole cover. The Grudge takes the anti-authoritarian trait to an unhealthy, and often destructive, extreme. Business is not friendly. It can appear so; it can be congenial, it can be fun, it can be mutually beneficial or mutually harmful. It can be a good time, which is why so many of us do it, but it is not friendly. But a Grudge thinks its miserable, hateful, carnivorous. The Grudge likely has been wronged, either in the SMB world or in a former career-interrupted. I actually have been a bit of a Grudge before for the latter reason, but have had great mentors to help me get over myself. Most Grudges don’t, or won’t, get talked off their high-horse though, and we meet them frequently... and they make doing business even more difficult.
The third Shadeball is the “false-Patriot”. This is where I might get in trouble a little. I will confess I am a pretty socially-liberal person, with conservative fiscal ideals. I am not a Dem or a Rep, but I am an active supporter of certain prominent politicos and a progressive agenda (i.e. the POTUS). However, I sure as heck-fire do not try an bring my personal agenda into business though, while I DO try and bring my ideals. The false-Patriot DOES bring their agenda, and sure seems to be lacking in the ideals category. Look at the Great Recession: Wall Street RAPED and PILLAGED Main Street like some ancient Nordic raiders on a virginal Celtic farmgirl. The C-levels that committed egregious, nee’ criminal, acts went unpunished. DICK FULD should be in jail. Not white collar jail.... but cry yourself to another place jail. If crime was punished by impact, we would have to bring back some of the Inquisition’s finer instruments.
To my point (and off my high-horse), these false-Patriots hold that they can act so horribly destructively because “its America” and everyone can F everyone else. In big business the resulting impact can be devastating on a global scale, but to a small business owner, it can be eradicating on a universal scale.
Whether its media/advertising sales people wasting money with poorly planned campaigns based on manipulated data, or developer/webmaster sorts that crush budgets with their fee structures, or the type of financiers that are REALLY hoping you go in arrears so they can get your stake, the false-Patriot type can be the most dangerous Shady Character in the digital alley.
The final Shady is the Slim Shady. They REALLLLLLLY want to get rich. They will BE rich. They will make YOU rich too!
Unfortunately... chances are they will NOT make you rich, but they WILL make you poorer. Be it in time-wasted, actual loss of income, or wasted expense, the Slim Shady will more likely hurt you than help you. And lets see... Buzz can count on his stripes how many times he’s been led down this alley.
So hopefully this dispatch reaches you before you’re neck deep in Shady Characters... but if you do find yourself in dark place and someone else seems to be leading you, TURN ON THE LIGHTS! You might find a skinny Prince with a terrible disposition sticking you up with a Red White and Blue painted Smith&Wesson.
Till next time,
Buzz Titan, The Giant Detective
(a/k/a Rory Foster)
First let me start off by saying that I am going to be very candid here, likely at the expense of some friends and business associates, but mostly about my own foibles in the shadows of digital entrepreneurialism.
The world of entrepreneurialism is an attractive one to some people for the following reasons: 1)We are Ego-Centric 2)We have minor (or major) issues with authority 3) We are Patriotic* 4)We all believe we can be extravagantly wealthy if just _____.
Sound about right? Well the * needs a little detail. By patriotic I mean just that, but not to political parties, bogus flag-waving false prophets or Big Business, but to the IDEALS of our nations’ founders: Liberty, Justice, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
A true entrepreneur values one or more of the above over all else. Be it the liberty to make our own schedules, decisions, business directions, or to have our own voice and the right to use it as we see fit... the “freedom to be me” (and make some scratch while doing it). Justice to make sure there is a equal shot to get a piece of the American Pie; to have fair lending practices, competitive marketplaces, responsible governance and regulation, and all of the other sometimes fictional concepts that drive idealists to become capitalists. Finally, the Pursuit of Happiness. Happiness is the end of the proverbial rainbow, whether its comfort to live and travel, wealth to accumulate (although this RARELY brings happiness), the means to support a family, or the legacy a small business can become in a family’s history.
With that base philosophy, and with the personality traits I indicated before: Ego-Centrism, anti-authoritarianism, patriotism, and wealth-envy, it is not hard to see why this world attracts a lot of Shady Characters.
This blog post has been stewing for a few weeks, ever since I had coffee with a friend and fellow digital maven, Hana Kamm from www.shesnext.com. While we were discussing some potential integrations, the topic strayed, and turned to sharing bad experiences and the mistakes we had both made along the way... often due to Shady Characters.
The first type of Shady Character is a derivation of the Ego-Centrist, that we’ll call the Prince. It is almost universally true that the type of person that strays from the pack and goes out to find their own path is going to be a touch narcissistic... you almost have to be to want a life where there is certainly as much rough terrain as comfortable. So while some of us see ourselves as being a “solution provider”, others see themselves as being a bit more Machiavellian. For those that forgot the actual text that reference is based on, the book the Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, postulates that “the ends of princes, such as glory... justify the use of immoral means to reach those ends” (Strauss, 1958). While business is battle, and the competition will often eat you as a sacrifice to their own demons, at least philosophically it does not need to be that way.
The Prince sure thinks so. The Prince will attach himself to any project he sees as making his purse strings stretch, regardless of his ability to complete it. The Prince will whisper in your ear, soothsaying you into engaging, and then leaving you after harvest to conquer the next town. The Prince has no interest in the fruits of well-toiled labor; he has no interest in cultivating your ideas, he wants none of the struggle to cultivate, to irrigate, to grow. He wants your sweat. Mostly though, he wants your cabbage. Oh, and he wants everyone to know he’s the Prince, and thats why it should be this way.
The second type of Shady Character takes the “chip” on the shoulder most of us SMB-owners (Small and Medium Business) have, and replaced it with a manhole cover. The Grudge takes the anti-authoritarian trait to an unhealthy, and often destructive, extreme. Business is not friendly. It can appear so; it can be congenial, it can be fun, it can be mutually beneficial or mutually harmful. It can be a good time, which is why so many of us do it, but it is not friendly. But a Grudge thinks its miserable, hateful, carnivorous. The Grudge likely has been wronged, either in the SMB world or in a former career-interrupted. I actually have been a bit of a Grudge before for the latter reason, but have had great mentors to help me get over myself. Most Grudges don’t, or won’t, get talked off their high-horse though, and we meet them frequently... and they make doing business even more difficult.
The third Shadeball is the “false-Patriot”. This is where I might get in trouble a little. I will confess I am a pretty socially-liberal person, with conservative fiscal ideals. I am not a Dem or a Rep, but I am an active supporter of certain prominent politicos and a progressive agenda (i.e. the POTUS). However, I sure as heck-fire do not try an bring my personal agenda into business though, while I DO try and bring my ideals. The false-Patriot DOES bring their agenda, and sure seems to be lacking in the ideals category. Look at the Great Recession: Wall Street RAPED and PILLAGED Main Street like some ancient Nordic raiders on a virginal Celtic farmgirl. The C-levels that committed egregious, nee’ criminal, acts went unpunished. DICK FULD should be in jail. Not white collar jail.... but cry yourself to another place jail. If crime was punished by impact, we would have to bring back some of the Inquisition’s finer instruments.
To my point (and off my high-horse), these false-Patriots hold that they can act so horribly destructively because “its America” and everyone can F everyone else. In big business the resulting impact can be devastating on a global scale, but to a small business owner, it can be eradicating on a universal scale.
Whether its media/advertising sales people wasting money with poorly planned campaigns based on manipulated data, or developer/webmaster sorts that crush budgets with their fee structures, or the type of financiers that are REALLY hoping you go in arrears so they can get your stake, the false-Patriot type can be the most dangerous Shady Character in the digital alley.
The final Shady is the Slim Shady. They REALLLLLLLY want to get rich. They will BE rich. They will make YOU rich too!
Unfortunately... chances are they will NOT make you rich, but they WILL make you poorer. Be it in time-wasted, actual loss of income, or wasted expense, the Slim Shady will more likely hurt you than help you. And lets see... Buzz can count on his stripes how many times he’s been led down this alley.
So hopefully this dispatch reaches you before you’re neck deep in Shady Characters... but if you do find yourself in dark place and someone else seems to be leading you, TURN ON THE LIGHTS! You might find a skinny Prince with a terrible disposition sticking you up with a Red White and Blue painted Smith&Wesson.
Till next time,
Buzz Titan, The Giant Detective
(a/k/a Rory Foster)
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Your Life as Content...
I've been thinking about what to write about for over a week now; with a few false starts and plenty of reading other people's words, I had a revelation: my Life is Content.
One of the most important things about brand presence is regular and relevant content updating; blogging, interactive chat, rss, video content- linked or original, all of them effective tools to maintaining a vibrant and charismatic presence online. What exactly that content ends up looking like depends on a lot of things: the brand image, the type of messaging, the desired interaction, WHO is writing the content.
If the WHO in that equation is you... the small business owner, agency or media professional, relentless self-marketer... then I have some simple advice for crafting out your place in the digital universe: be yourself.
Waaaay too much corporate messaging is just an endless barrage of offers, product info, bland corporate blah blah blah and other repackaged PR and marketing messages. On the surface this seems like a great idea, old biz agencies and inflexible corporate entities thrive on this vanilla-flavored online tripe. Don't get me wrong, I like vanilla. Its a great INGREDIENT in a better, more gastronomically-pleasing dessert. The flavors, the personality, the textures and the real goodies are what make the ice cream a yummy sundae; and they're what make it YOUR dessert.
Your digital presence should be equally self-expressive, and just as yummy. The only effective way to do this is to put yourself into the content, Your Life as Content. What does this mean? Well a few examples that I employ are this blog, some silly video content in addition to my practical reel, and a fanpage feed. The Giant Detectives have a lot of me in them, I've covered that before in the lore of @BuzzTitan, but the basic message is relevant to any business: making your presence online personal makes it very easy to maintain a rich and meaningful flow of new content.
I think that Groupon does this well. Their silly, and often literati-targeted descriptions are full of the copywriter's personality. They recruit and underpay a talented staff of young writers who grew up surrounded by digital. Those writers write content that sells products, and they write content from their own, albeit sometimes warped, worldview. The Millenials are guiding content as a business boon, and its time to take their methods to your brand. Be silly, be serious, be fresh, but most importantly, be honest. Your Life is Content, share it with the world.
Thanks and Godspeed,
Buzz Titan
a/k/a Rory Mitchell Foster
The Chief
The Giant Detective Agency
One of the most important things about brand presence is regular and relevant content updating; blogging, interactive chat, rss, video content- linked or original, all of them effective tools to maintaining a vibrant and charismatic presence online. What exactly that content ends up looking like depends on a lot of things: the brand image, the type of messaging, the desired interaction, WHO is writing the content.
If the WHO in that equation is you... the small business owner, agency or media professional, relentless self-marketer... then I have some simple advice for crafting out your place in the digital universe: be yourself.
Waaaay too much corporate messaging is just an endless barrage of offers, product info, bland corporate blah blah blah and other repackaged PR and marketing messages. On the surface this seems like a great idea, old biz agencies and inflexible corporate entities thrive on this vanilla-flavored online tripe. Don't get me wrong, I like vanilla. Its a great INGREDIENT in a better, more gastronomically-pleasing dessert. The flavors, the personality, the textures and the real goodies are what make the ice cream a yummy sundae; and they're what make it YOUR dessert.
Your digital presence should be equally self-expressive, and just as yummy. The only effective way to do this is to put yourself into the content, Your Life as Content. What does this mean? Well a few examples that I employ are this blog, some silly video content in addition to my practical reel, and a fanpage feed. The Giant Detectives have a lot of me in them, I've covered that before in the lore of @BuzzTitan, but the basic message is relevant to any business: making your presence online personal makes it very easy to maintain a rich and meaningful flow of new content.
I think that Groupon does this well. Their silly, and often literati-targeted descriptions are full of the copywriter's personality. They recruit and underpay a talented staff of young writers who grew up surrounded by digital. Those writers write content that sells products, and they write content from their own, albeit sometimes warped, worldview. The Millenials are guiding content as a business boon, and its time to take their methods to your brand. Be silly, be serious, be fresh, but most importantly, be honest. Your Life is Content, share it with the world.
Thanks and Godspeed,
Buzz Titan
a/k/a Rory Mitchell Foster
The Chief
The Giant Detective Agency
Thursday, February 3, 2011
@BuzzTitan: SoMe theory Part Deux
So I missed the Friday publishing deadline, but with good reason. The Detectives have completed two new client videos, and have secured another deal!
I wonder if this is what its like to come up in the big leagues as a rookie... every hit, swing, strike out and run scored means the world, for better or worse. Every play at this stage in the game had better be served up at 110%, with a side of pure hustle. If you’re gonna make a career out of playing a game, you sure as heck better play it well. That’s kind of how I feel about the Agency... it is a lot like a game. There are players, there are wins and some losses, there are the Good Guys, there are opponents, and there is a hero: Buzz Titan.
As I explained in the last post, Buzz is an amalgamation of the various elements of the Detective brand: my personal and business philosophies, some less-than-subtle iconography, mischievously melodramatic themes, and a little bit of humor. What I didn’t get to is Why the Brand Icon is so important: He has a Unique Identity.
The Unique Identity (UniqID) element of a Brand Icon seems pretty straightforward, but in reality is way too often overlooked. Considering The Giant Detective Agency is basically a meta-case study on digital business, for if the tools and techniques I am employing to grow the business work for the Detectives, then they certainly should for our clients. With that in mind, the UniqID element is very important. To put it in context: the core brand essence and mission of the business should be an intrinsic factor in defining the SoMe presence... i.e. Buzz Titan needs to say a lot more than words.
The tagline “Original Creative, Creatively Original” works for defining the product idealogy, at least for the Guerilla-mercial videos. Having as talented a team as I have to work with makes it a lot easier to boldly claim excellence in a somewhat unproven venture. Having Buzz to speak for the business and the work makes it even easier.
As anyone that is skilled at meeting people will tell you, confidence and genuine engagement with people are the secrets to success. Our goal at the Giant Detectives is much the same, to help clients make memorable and honest contact with their audience. The comedy should be fresh, the dramatic should be concise (think about those terribly long and depressing ASPCA commercials- a cause I support makes me cringe at thinking about them), and the informational segments entertaining.
Content IS King, and Video Content rules all. With online video you can instruct, goad, brag, praise... share a laugh, an idea, a want or a need. You can build your fan base, build your customer base, build your business... and You will definitely make impressions. So if you’re serious about solving your video needs, get Buzz working on your case today!
I wonder if this is what its like to come up in the big leagues as a rookie... every hit, swing, strike out and run scored means the world, for better or worse. Every play at this stage in the game had better be served up at 110%, with a side of pure hustle. If you’re gonna make a career out of playing a game, you sure as heck better play it well. That’s kind of how I feel about the Agency... it is a lot like a game. There are players, there are wins and some losses, there are the Good Guys, there are opponents, and there is a hero: Buzz Titan.
As I explained in the last post, Buzz is an amalgamation of the various elements of the Detective brand: my personal and business philosophies, some less-than-subtle iconography, mischievously melodramatic themes, and a little bit of humor. What I didn’t get to is Why the Brand Icon is so important: He has a Unique Identity.
The Unique Identity (UniqID) element of a Brand Icon seems pretty straightforward, but in reality is way too often overlooked. Considering The Giant Detective Agency is basically a meta-case study on digital business, for if the tools and techniques I am employing to grow the business work for the Detectives, then they certainly should for our clients. With that in mind, the UniqID element is very important. To put it in context: the core brand essence and mission of the business should be an intrinsic factor in defining the SoMe presence... i.e. Buzz Titan needs to say a lot more than words.
The tagline “Original Creative, Creatively Original” works for defining the product idealogy, at least for the Guerilla-mercial videos. Having as talented a team as I have to work with makes it a lot easier to boldly claim excellence in a somewhat unproven venture. Having Buzz to speak for the business and the work makes it even easier.
As anyone that is skilled at meeting people will tell you, confidence and genuine engagement with people are the secrets to success. Our goal at the Giant Detectives is much the same, to help clients make memorable and honest contact with their audience. The comedy should be fresh, the dramatic should be concise (think about those terribly long and depressing ASPCA commercials- a cause I support makes me cringe at thinking about them), and the informational segments
Content IS King, and Video Content rules all. With online video you can instruct, goad, brag, praise... share a laugh, an idea, a want or a need. You can build your fan base, build your customer base, build your business... and You will definitely make impressions. So if you’re serious about solving your video needs, get Buzz working on your case today!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
About BuzzTitan- A theory in SoMe part 1
Over the past decade I have been reinventing myself and my career, something many in the media industry have had to do in recent years. This gradual metamorphosis from old media hustler to new media maven took years and years, until that fateful morning I awoke from the cocoon and created my alter ego: Buzz Titan, The Giant Detective.
Buzz is a symbolic character for me, something that has meaning and is intricately connected to the brand I market, an innovative and creativity-driven video agency. With personal brand management (and that can mean a small business like my own or a multi-national corp with a slew of products and brands) it is most important that the digital presence of the brand be honest and memorable. The messaging should have its own voice, one that is cohesive and iconic. This requires a decent writer to maintain the conversation, as the standard promoted messages and links disappear from cognition as quickly as any of the other tens of thousands of marketing messages we bypass daily. Brands need an advocate, an embodiment, a character... a brand icon.
I wanted my brand icon to fulfill this for my business. My play on the concept of “Agency” in the business name is intentionally derivative of noir-genre pulp fiction, as the dramatic language of the Noir universe and its accompanying iconography are ripe for parody. I wanted a brand icon that was intelligent and deductive, and since most everything I do is tongue-in-cheek, I also wanted one that was a little bit lighthearted in this hardboiled world of digital media. The color scheme is my own personal signature: I love lavender and black, and since lavender is a floral color, it works with the bees. Bees pollinate; they keep the world beautiful, and parts of it bountiful. This is my core vision for the business (and for my life as well): pollinate ideas, help things grow, make the messaging (and clients) shine through and blossom. Create buzz... so I created Buzz. Every great detective novel protagonist has the name, Mike Hammer... Lew Archer.... Dan Fortune. Three syllable, hard-hitting, alpha male names: Hammer Archer Fortune. Sooo Buzz..... Titan. Three syllables, and whats more alpha than the spawners of the Greek Gods. Who were GIANTS.
So there it was, Buzz Titan. My brand icon. He is more than an alter ego for me, he is a voice, advocate, and representative for the Giant Detective Agency. On that day the Giant Detective, and my business, was born.
Thats all for now... tune in Friday for the rest of the story...
Yours Truly,
Buzz Titan
Buzz is a symbolic character for me, something that has meaning and is intricately connected to the brand I market, an innovative and creativity-driven video agency. With personal brand management (and that can mean a small business like my own or a multi-national corp with a slew of products and brands) it is most important that the digital presence of the brand be honest and memorable. The messaging should have its own voice, one that is cohesive and iconic. This requires a decent writer to maintain the conversation, as the standard promoted messages and links disappear from cognition as quickly as any of the other tens of thousands of marketing messages we bypass daily. Brands need an advocate, an embodiment, a character... a brand icon.
I wanted my brand icon to fulfill this for my business. My play on the concept of “Agency” in the business name is intentionally derivative of noir-genre pulp fiction, as the dramatic language of the Noir universe and its accompanying iconography are ripe for parody. I wanted a brand icon that was intelligent and deductive, and since most everything I do is tongue-in-cheek, I also wanted one that was a little bit lighthearted in this hardboiled world of digital media. The color scheme is my own personal signature: I love lavender and black, and since lavender is a floral color, it works with the bees. Bees pollinate; they keep the world beautiful, and parts of it bountiful. This is my core vision for the business (and for my life as well): pollinate ideas, help things grow, make the messaging (and clients) shine through and blossom. Create buzz... so I created Buzz. Every great detective novel protagonist has the name, Mike Hammer... Lew Archer.... Dan Fortune. Three syllable, hard-hitting, alpha male names: Hammer Archer Fortune. Sooo Buzz..... Titan. Three syllables, and whats more alpha than the spawners of the Greek Gods. Who were GIANTS.
So there it was, Buzz Titan. My brand icon. He is more than an alter ego for me, he is a voice, advocate, and representative for the Giant Detective Agency. On that day the Giant Detective, and my business, was born.
Thats all for now... tune in Friday for the rest of the story...
Yours Truly,
Buzz Titan
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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