Content That Works

We're big fans of the folks at Wired magazine. Indeed, in the Hammock Inc. Library, you'll find a complete collection of every issue of Wired ever published. Flipping through the February issue we were reminded once more how creative they can be when we saw this spread in a feature story on "33 Things That Make Us Crazy" that includes some inside-magazine humor. It's the first time we recall seeing the lowly blow-in card serve as the central visual element of an editorial feature.

While in the background (and on the website version of the story), you can see a photo illustrating the piece, the full impact of the design is experienced when flipping through a newsstand version of the magazine that is carry 3-4 blow-ins. If you catch it perfectly, the cards fall out into your lap, animating the story even more. We're so impressed, we'd think the Folio: folks should give them an Ozzie award for best use of a blow-in card in an editorial feature.

It's a bit fuzzy in the photo, so here's what the copy says:

"You know all those subscription cards cluttering up this issue of Wired? Well, um ... sorry. We understand you detest the deforesting paper rectangles — "bind-in" or "blow-in" cards, to use industry parlance. Honestly, we do, too. But they're part of our business model. It's not just about money, really — it's about your eyeballs. See, advertisers pay based on audience size. And blow-in cards are a cheap way to snag subscribers and boost numbers: It costs a glossy monthly about $10 to acquire a new reader through one of those cards. But using direct mail? $25 — or more. We'd be happy to get your business through the Internet, which we hear is the wave of the future. But for now, just 10 percent of new subs come via the Net. And 12 percent come from those damn blow-in cards. The worst part about 'em? They cover up some really good stories."

We'll admit we're also not the biggest fans of blow-in cards, but we now realize we're huge fans of clever editorial concepts and graphic treatments about blow-in cards.

[Photo: Shot by Rex with his iPhone at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.]

It hurts coming from your own mother sometimes...

We're always reading and listening to the ways people use words. Listen carefully and you'll notice it too. For some reason lately, and more often it seems, people are using reflexive pronouns incorrectly.

"If you need more information, please call myself or Megan."

Well, you can't call myself, only I can call myself. It's just that simple.

Even presidential candidates are using the words incorrectly as the Wall Street Journal pointed out just last week in an article titled Me, Myself and I.

So, here's a quick reminder list of reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself (singular), yourselves (plural), himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves.

A reflexive pronoun is used for three primary reasons:

• When the object of the sentence is the same as the subject (1)
• As the object of a preposition, referring back to the subject (2)
• To emphasize the subject (3)

(1) Example: Laura cut herself while slicing onions for dinner. (Laura is the subject and the what/who that was cut.)

(2) Example: I took this picture by myself.

(3) Example: The boss himself set our deadline. (A reflexive pronoun used this way is also called an "intensive pronoun.")

Simply put in my Basic English Revisited handbook: A personal pronoun is called a "reflexive pronoun" when it reflects back on the subject or refers to it.

I, myself, already knew that.

There's no mistaking it: We're big fans of Flickr around here. We're such fans that we've used Flickr a lot on Hammock.com to help power the site. And we're constantly looking for new ways to use our account on Flickr to help us present and display our work -- and share our company's story.

So it's no surprise we're extremely impressed that the Library of Congress announced today (fittingly, on their blog) that they're doing their own experimentation with Flickr on their page.

According to Librarian/Blogger Matt Raymond, "if all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity."

One of the interesting things about the project is that the photos posted have no copyright restrictions and, most importantly, the Library is allowing "people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves."

So what does this mean for marketers who want to utilize new forms of online media?

We believe this is a great model for any library or archives -- even those within corporations or associations -- who have lots of old images gathering dust in files. Scan and post them on Flickr and let your community help you discover what treasures can be found on them.

As since this is the BIG DAY of the year for Macophiles -- the day Steve Jobs presents his "Stevenote" presentation at the Macworld Expo, we thought we'd ask Patrick and Rex about any announcements that will have an impact on custom media -- and, say, on what we get to use around the office.

See the chat after the fold:

Summary:

Action for Savvy Marketers:

1. Podcasting: Perhaps one of the best known of the new casting models, podcasting is simply the idea of distributing MP3 (audio) files in a way that listeners can subscribe to and "catch" them when you distribute a new one. There are lots of options on how to distribute such content, but iTunes, email or attaching a file to a blog post can provide most everyone in your audience a way to receive such content in the way they choose. Links: Our favorite Podcast tool, and What is Podcasting? by Make Magazine's Phillip Torrone.

2. Videocasting: Sometimes, called video podcasting, the idea is the same. A video file can be distributed through various channels (email, iTunes, attaching to blog posts, posting on video hosting services or social networking sites) so that your audience can receive them when you release them, not just when they land on your website.

3. IMcasting: Do you have customers, members, students, fans, employees who communicate via instant messaging? A simple way to cast to these in your audience is through the microblogging service Twitter. Link: Twitter.com FAQ: How to Twitter via IM (scroll down).

4. SMScasting: What about those in your audience who communicate primarily via text messaging? Services like Twitter allow your customers and members to following you via text messaging as well as IM. Link: Twitter.com FAQ: How to Twitter via SMS (text-messaging) (scroll down).

5. PDFcasting: Did you know you could distribute a PDF or digital magazine via iTunes or RSS feed? Well, you do now. No longer do you have to limit your audience to subscribing to a digital publication via email or, worse, coming to your site to download it. The idea also works for PowerPoint presentations or Excel documents. Simply enclose (attach) a document with anything that generates an RSS feed (a blog post, for example) and you can start document-casting immediately.

6. Photocasting: Like with audio or video podcasting, you now have several ways to distribute photography in a way that fits into how your customers and members are experiencing photography online. And by photography, we mean any form of visual content that your customers or members may enjoy -- or find important -- to receive from you. Link: Share Business Images by Photocasting (Apple.com)

7. Screensaver-casting: While the idea has been around for a long time -- some of the earliest forms of push media used the concept -- we're testing some early versions of such tools, including FlickrFan (now, Mac only) that distribute content in ways that will make it easy for members, customers or employees to view ever-changing content (headlines, photography, web links) while their computer monitor or Internet-connected HDTV is in a rest mode. Link: FlickrFan Turns Any Photostream Into a Mac Screen Saver

8. Linkcasting: One of those easy-to-overlook content ideas is the low-effort, high-reward service you provide when you share current links to content on the web that your audience will find engaging. In addition to emailing links, take advantage of the wide array of ways to feed links to your customer or member's desktop. Link: Here's a "feed" of links we maintain related to media industry news.

How we're using wikis to power knowledge-sharing communities

Okay, everyone knows about Wikipedia, the user-edited encyclopedia (actually, ecyclopedias as there are different versions around the world) with information on just about everything.

However, Wikipedia is not the only website -- nor was it the first -- to utilize the approach of allowing users to both read and edit the content of a web page. That style of website, nicknamed "wiki" after the Hawaiian word for fast (wikiwiki), was developed (and named) by Ward Cunningham in 1994. According to Wikipedia (we thought it only appropriate to cite the source), Cunningham was inspired by software we at Hammock loved back then, as well: Apple's HyperCard.

At Hammock, we love wikis. That's not surprising as we've been creating and managing wiki-like, online sharing communities for clients since the early 1990s. We were even forum sysops on CompuServe, for any of you who can recall that far back.

In 1999, we began the development of what turned into a massive knowledge-sharing user community called SmallBusiness.com. The site was way ahead of its time in what folks now call "social media." While SmallBusiness.com was extremely popular with its nearly 100,000 registered users, the dot-com bust of 2001 nonetheless put our plans for SmallBusiness.com on hold. The overhead necessary to continue developing the proprietary platform on which the site ran proved too challenging during the early 2000s.

However, in 2005, we began to take note of what was happening at Wikipedia and determined that it employed the main principle on which we developed the first iteration of SmallBusiness.com: sharing knowledge at the grassroots level. Better yet, we observed that the site was running on open-source software using the kind of scrappy, low-overhead approach we were looking for to revive the popular service.

And so, in late 2005, we began work on launching a new wiki-powered SmallBusiness.com. We discovered that many of the lessons learned in our earlier experiences with online communities -- or, as we like to call it, "conversational media" -- worked well in the context of a wiki. The dynamics of community-building (motivations, identity, networking) seemed to translate well.

SmallBusiness.com -- in addition to once more becoming the leading online sharing community of content contributed by small business owners and managers -- is an incredible laboratory for the Hammock Team to experiment with ways that wikis can be used in the marketing, customer-care and membership-building efforts of our clients.

For example, in 2007, we created a wiki for the American Watercraft Association that serves as the hub of a wide range of information sharing among their members, owners of personal watercrafts. There's even a part of that wiki that allows their members to share maps of their favorite places to use their PWCs.

While we still love publishing magazines and helping clients build traditional websites, our experience in creating and growing wikis and in helping clients develop engaging, valuable conversational media programs and platforms are also a part of our legacy -- and future.

Coming soon to Hammock.com: Hammopedia: The Hammock Wiki.