Learn e-mail lessons from the Presidential campaigns
August 26, 2008
At Hammock, we've got plenty of political junkies who watch debates and channel surf during the conventions. And while we have supporters of both parties on our staff, we tend to be equal-time observers when it comes to learning how the different campaigns reach out and embrace their supporters.
I recommend to anyone who is in a field involving relationship marketing to sign up for e-mail from both the Obama and McCain campaigns. It is fascinating to observe their use of e-mail, video and a wide array of online conversational tools. I 2004, the Presidential campaigns online were all about the introduction of blogging and the organization of meetup types of events. This year, it is fascinating to see how willing the campaigns are to try new tools and approaches.
This year, the way the Internet is being used is as historic as some of those conventions I saw when I was a youngster.
Counting Down Until the Games Begin
August 6, 2008
The Antikythera Mechanism, a device dated to 150 BC and recovered in a shipwreck in 1901 off the Greek island of Antikythera, predicted future positions of the moon and sun, and perhaps other planets. But that's not all: Archeologists found a tiny dial on the device labeled with the locations of Olympic games. According to the Wired Science Blog, "The feature was probably not integral to its function, but a stylish demonstration of the machine's power, not unlike a watch that displays stock prices or an iPhone-enabled speedometer."
Very impressive, but my idea of a great Olympics calendar is one that helps me keep up with a dozen or so cable channels and streaming video on websites, like the one on NBCOlympics.com. It would be even better if it hooked up to the DVR on my Cable box.
Let the games begin!
Bonus video: A great video about the Antikythera Mechanism on Nature.com.
Gone, but not forgotten
July 25, 2008
I hate to say it, but today is Patrick Ragsdale's last day as director of hackology at Hammock Inc. His actual title was something other than that, but I could never remember the official one. As Patrick touched about everything in the office that plugged in -- and knew how not to get shocked while doing so -- he'll be missed.
We've known for several weeks that he's leaving to take a job more focused on his lifelong love of tying string between Campbell soup cans -- or something like that. During the past few weeks, Patrick has helped us put together the support resources necessary to keep our technology up and running and we feel confident that when we arrive at work next Monday, everything will boot up properly. We'll be announcing other tech-related developments in the coming months, as well.
We wish Patrick all the best. We'll miss you. But we'll keep up with you on your blog.
What I did on my summer vacation
July 21, 2008
I'm back in the office. Rested and relaxed from a week at the wonderful John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. It may not sound "restful" to spend about ten hours a day for seven days making a loopback Windsor chair, but to me, it was enjoyable and, at times, inspiring. And, as usual when I have time to experience something completely new, I see the connections I never imagined before. While the trip was completely personal and off-duty (I even joked that my going offline was an experiment in being NeoAmish), Jamie Roberts assigned me a writing assignment related to it for an upcoming American Spirit. I also took plenty of photos and video. In fact, here is a set of photos on Flickr that follow the progress of the chair I made.
On assignment and offline until Monday, July 21
July 10, 2008
Okay. I'm not actually "on assignment," however I'll be writing about my next few days for an article appearing in American Spirit next year. I'm doing wood therapy. As I'll be working with sharp objects, I'm going to avoid most distracting devices during my time out of the office. However, if you need to reach me, you can contact Natalie Willis (nwillis[AT] hammock.com).
Happy 4th of July
July 4, 2008
Today, our offices are closed to celebrate the 4th of July. We are very fortunate at Hammock to work with a client -- the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution -- (the DAR) who provides us with the opportunity to celebrate the founding of our America 365 days a year. Here's a five-minute video about Gen. John Knox and a special exhibit at DAR Headquarters. I put it together last week while in D.C., my "second" home.
After the Summit, back in the office
June 12, 2008
The first part of this week was a blur. Sunday through Tuesday night, I was part of a crew from Hammock in D.C. attending the National Small Business Summit, where we helped produce a real-time event media gallery for NFIB. From there, I took an early morning train for a day-full of meetings in New York. An evening flight (late, as usual) home to Nashville last night and now I'm back in the office. My travel schedule is light through the end of the month.
Rex During the Week of June 9
June 9, 2008
Along with several of my Hammock colleagues, I'm in Washington DC on Mon.-Tues, June 9-10, for the NFIB Small Business Summit. You can follow our coverage of the event at the multi-media gallery we are coordinating for the event. I'll be in New York on Wednesday and back in the office in Nashville on Thursday and Friday.
Why "who" is more important than "how-many"
May 14, 2008
[Cross-posted on rexblog.com]
Wired editor and author of the book, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson, posted an item on his blog today that contains an observation I believe is so obvious, it is completely missed by many self-appointed experts. (Okay, I'll admit I live in that glass house.):
"Not only do small (Long Tail) publishers montetize their content at 3-5 times the rate of the larger publishers in PubMatic's survey, but they're improving in the current environment while the big publisher decline.
This is a fact of life in business-to-business-media, where the business model has long been focused on "free" distribution of content to decision-makers in specialized fields. The "cost per thousand" (CPM) model of advertising sales does not exist as a metric in this long-tail of the media world. Of course, if an advertiser selling a $100,000 piece of equipment can reach 90% of the decision makers in a market of 5,000 specifying engineers, then, hell-yeah, the publisher of that content should be able to monetize it at hundreds of times the rate of, say, a newsweekly.
The lesson here: Online, if you want to monetize content, the number of eyeballs seeing your content is less important than who those eyeballs belong to. And the more helpful that content is in assisting real people make important and valuable decisions, the more "monetizable" it will be.
Harvey King's 2004 Letter to a Future That's Now
April 30, 2008
Four years ago, just as the economy was digging itself out of the recessions caused by the dot-com bust and 9/11, our friend and contributor, the columnist Harvey King at MyBusiness Magazine, wrote a column in the form of "a letter to himself in the future." He wrote it, he said at the time, to remind his future-self what to do during the inevitable economic slowdowns he would go through in the future. As we seem to be heading into that territory, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on Harvey's letter to the future, which, with his permission, follows.:
Dear Harvey:
It's me, Harvey. I'm writing to you from way back in 2004. I'm hoping you are older and wiser, but I'm afraid you may be getting a little fuzzy with your memory. So I wanted to send you a letter from the past to remind you of some lessons you said you really wanted to remember the next time the economy started slowing down. Good times, the kind I hope you've been enjoying lately, tend to dull one's senses a bit, don't they? Well, I hope this expensive, painful advice from your past will jog your memory a little and serve as a checklist for the economic slowdown on your horizon.
1. Do it now. Whatever it is that needs doing, do it right now. I hope you don't have to downsize, but if that's what it is, do it. If it means dealing with that confrontation you've been putting off, do it. It's a lot fairer to all parties involved if you'll just get it done.
2. Take care of your customers even more than you already are. I know you said you would never take any of them for granted, and I hope you haven't. But nothing else will get you through what's about to happen except the mutual respect, trust and loyalty you have with the customers you are serving (and profiting from) now in the good times.
3. Love your bankers. I don't care if you really don't want to, get on the phone with those bank folks and tell them how wonderful they are. I know Mom taught us not to lie, but do it anyway. If you timed this right and you're still a few months from the downturn, use flattery and your current fiscal soundness to lock down the best and longest terms they will commit to. I know you think it's crazy to get a bigger line of credit when you're not even using the one you have, but is your memory that short?
4. Brace yourself. I know you don't want to remember the pain, but get ready to relive some failures. You're about to rediscover what your face feels like when the door hits your nose.
5. Be patient. You'll hate this one, but get ready again for the world to move in slow motion. Remember, during a recession it takes a company six months to approve purchasing a package of pencils.
6. Do not panic. Hunker down, maybe, but don't panic.
7. Read and study and learn. While you're waiting for that pencil order, take up a new hobby.
8. Get ready for some great opportunities. When things start looking really bad, take those resources I know you've stashed away during the good years and start marketing when your competitors go silent. Get on the road when the airlines report that business travel has plummeted. During this recession, turn on some lights when things get their darkest.
9. Forgive yourself. Remember, you are not personally responsible for the entire economy, just the stewardship of your microscopic slice of it.
10. Write yourself a letter to the future reminding me (and you) how to make hay while the sun shines.
Historically yours,
Harvey
P.S. How are those shares of Google doing?
(Note: That P.S. is a joke - Harvey was not that smart in 2004.)
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Recent Posts
- Learn e-mail lessons from the Presidential campaigns
- Counting Down Until the Games Begin
- Gone, but not forgotten
- What I did on my summer vacation
- On assignment and offline until Monday, July 21
- Happy 4th of July
- After the Summit, back in the office
- Rex During the Week of June 9
- Why "who" is more important than "how-many"
- Harvey King's 2004 Letter to a Future That's Now