The lesson from *all of this* is clearly “when in doubt, go to a Hot Spring”
– dvo 8.27.20 (to Larry)
When in doubt…
Quotes
Quote: “book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse,…” Baudelaire
“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”
Charles Baudelaire
In the wake of Gabriel García Márquez’s death,…
Via Nobel Prize.org:
Ergo: In the wake of Gabriel García Márquez’s death, wisdom from his 1982 Nobel Prize acceptance speech. Complemented with Faulkner’s iconic 1950 Nobel speech on the role of the writer as a booster of the human heart, which Márquez bows to here. (via explore-blog)
On a day like today, my master William Faulkner said, “I decline to accept the end of man.” I would fall unworthy of standing in this place that was his, if I were not fully aware that the colossal tragedy he refused to recognize thirty-two years ago is now, for the first time since the beginning of humanity, nothing more than a simple scientific possibility. Faced with this awesome reality that must have seemed a mere utopia through all of human time, we, the inventors of tales, who will believe anything, feel entitled to believe that it is not yet too late to engage in the creation of the opposite utopia. A new and sweeping utopia of life, where no one will be able to decide for others how they die, where love will prove true and happiness be possible, and where the races condemned to one hundred years of solitude will have, at last and forever, a second opportunity on earth.
Gabriel García Márquez in The Paris Review
Check Gabriel García Márquez (March 6, 1927 – April 17, 2014) in this altogether excellent 1981 Paris Review interview, a fine manifestation of the magazine’s mastery of the art of the interview (via Brain Pickings).
In the end all books are written for your friends. The problem after writing One Hundred Years of Solitude was that now I no longer know whom of the millions of readers I am writing for; this upsets and inhibits me. It’s like a million eyes are looking at you and you don’t really know what they think.
How to Successfully Implement a Brand Ambassador Program via The Next Web
How to Successfully Implement a Brand Ambassador Program
Transforming your customers into your company’s marketing team sounds crazy but just might work, especially when those customers are eager college students.
Host events like HootSuite
According to a recent survey, branded live events are the No. 1 driver of brand recommendations. These events clock in at 65 percent, beating out even a friend’s recommendation (63 percent) in importance when it comes to brand experience. Knowing this, many campus ambassador programs make events an integral part of marketing efforts in order to attract new consumers. For instance, social media metric company HootSuite empowers users and brand ambassadors to host “HootUps.” These gatherings are put together by campus ambassadors and fans of the company, and involve discussions of social media best practices and networking. The events are branded with HootSuite swag, yet they offer students real-world value and the ability to make great contacts. If your events offer consumers and customers something useful, they’ll be likely to equate your brand with providing concrete value to their lives.
“How to Win the Networking Game at SXSW” Ryan (and Dave) in Wall Street Journal
“How to Win the Networking Game at SXSW”
Mar 5, 2014, The Accelerators, Wall Street Journal
After eight SXSW conferences, I’ve learned that the hard way. When my company was first getting off the ground, we were completely lost in the shuffle, despite our best efforts. In 2012, however, we had a 28-foot-long, 15,000-pound secret weapon. To stand out amid the gala parties and blow-out bashes hosted by much bigger tech companies, HootSuite decided to take to the streets. We transformed a Ford E-450 shuttle bus into possibly the world’s biggest owl, in honor of our mascot – mounting a pair of giant eyes above the windshield and affixing enormous plastic wings on the sides.
Cheesy? Yes. Effective, absolutely. By the end of the conference, our logo had been splashed across the pages of USA Today, Mashable and Inc. The conference’s highest profile attendees were clamoring to get on board and party with us. And investors whom I didn’t even know were inquiring about thecompany. In the end, it cost us around $30,000 to buy and outfit the vehicle. Considering that hosting just a single party at SXSW can cost as much, if not more, that’s an absolute steal. This year, in fact, we’re bringing HootBus back for its third ride.
HootSuite Talks China Plans: #video via TechinAsia
HootSuite Talks China Plans: Simplified Character Support, Chinese Branding Coming Soon via Tech in Asia
October 25, 2012
Social media in China is huge. So huge that nobody wants to ignore it. And while lots of people think “Twitter” when they hear HootSuite, the folks at HootSuite are taking China seriously. We already know the company has recently added traditional characters and Sina Weibo support, but what else is in the cards? I got a chance to talk with Dave Olson, HootSuite’s community VP, who gave me the lowdown on the company’s China plans.
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Mr. Olson also shared some cool extras with us, like this Chinese pronunciation guidean enthusiastic employee made and an introduction video in Chinese (embedded below). I’m sure not everyone at the company is learning Chinese, but this is still a nice, friendly touch that shows the folks at HootSuite are really working to communicate with Chinese users on their terms. Here’s hoping that HootSuite can move even further into the Chinese market (and that that pronunciation video will stop people from pronouncing weibo like “way-bow”)!
Source: HootSuite Talks China Plans: Simplified Character Support, Chinese Branding Coming Soon
HootSuite Talks China Plans: Simplified Character Support, Chinese Branding via TechinAsia
HootSuite Talks China Plans: Simplified Character Support, Chinese Branding Coming Soon
Social media in China is huge. So huge that nobody wants to ignore it. And while lots of people think “Twitter” when they hear HootSuite, the folks at HootSuite are taking China seriously. We already know the company has recently added traditional characters and Sina Weibo support, but what else is in the cards? I got a chance to talk with Dave Olson, HootSuite’s community VP, who gave me the lowdown on the company’s China plans.
Why is HootSuite interested in China?
Since launching almost 4 years years ago, HootSuite’s goal was to make our social media management system available to as many people as possible.
With this in mind, we monitor conversations about HootSuite and reach out to markets in which we see rapid organic growth. Afterwards we work to localize these unique markets. We started with Japan, then Spanish speaking countries, around Europe and then onwards into other Asian markets like Indonesia.
We knew the Chinese market was important but wanted to make sure we avoided missteps that we observed from other companies. We also knew that HootSuite is blocked by association in China because our core product includes access to Twitter and Facebook.
HootSuite is very cognizant that Chinese social media users have different networks, different needs, habits and culture along with different language. In addition we know there is more than one Chinese market with different expectations around China’s provinces including communities in Hong Kong, Taiwan/Taipei, Singapore and the huge ex-pat community such as in our home city of Vancouver.
We also learned that despite the difference, people using Chinese social networks share some of the same needs as users in the West, which are: sharing content across networks, managing multiple online profiles, and help listening, responding to, and analyzing their online interactions.
We’ve learned a lot from localizing elsewhere, and are hoping to use these lessons in bringing HootSuite to Chinese users. We want to tread lightly, and listen attentively.
As such, we are taking a diplomatic and educational approach to build community, share knowledge and deliver on expectations. Eventually we can build a business case as well.
What are you doing to get into the China market already?
Along with adding Sina Weibo support, we translated HootSuite’s web and mobile social media dashboard into Traditional Chinese and released it on October 8th in order to start the conversation with social media enthusiasts in Hong Kong, Taiwan/Taipei, etc.
However, before starting the translation project, we held a Chinese Localization Symposium in which we invited a cross section of Chinese social media users to discuss the linguistic, cultural and logistical challenges. The event was a success and we followed it up with a fun translathon with Chinese themed decorations, music, food, tea and more!
We also built a company presence on Sina Weibo, created a Twitter account, published a variety of videos to say hello and discussed our vision of collaborating with Chinese social media users.
Now, with the Traditional Chinese version launched, we’re underway with working on the Simplified Chinese version. We’ve also started developing a Chinese specific branding as well, to share our name and culture in Chinese characters.
We aim to keep things pretty grassroots, talking with people through our @HootSuite_CN and Sina Weibo accounts to see what is working, what isn’t, and what they want to see in the future.
Building relationships with users is our biggest priority.
What comes next and what are your long term plans?
Next up is getting our Simplified Chinese translation released by the end of the year. We will also increase Sina Weibo integration features, and are exploring integrations with other Chinese social networks like Renren and other Tencent properties. A lot of our next steps will be based on what we hear from conversations with our Chinese users.
We also hope to find quality social media industry events for our CEO Ryan Holmes to speak at and share our culture and story.
Long term plans are based on the feedback and reaction from these initial steps. Obviously, there are challenges facing foreign companies wanting to operate in Mainland China – especially technology companies like HootSuite – so we’ll stay focused on finding ways to get HootSuite in the hands of as many users as possible, perhaps with a China-specific version.
What are you finding the differences are between your Chinese and international users? Between weibo and twitter users?
First off, Chinese users can say a lot more in 140 characters!
Social media has broad appeal, regardless of which network you are using. The desire to connect with people, to broadcast, listen, and share, spans cultures.
Social media usage patterns and attitudes for Chinese specifically – and international in general – is a topic we spend lots of time researching. Getting a finger on the pulse of those differences is something we hope conversations with our users will produce.
For example: Weibo has a focus on media-rich content like photos and videos, as well as things like emoji. Comments and ‘likes’ on posts also helps keep the conversation going.
Overall, feature differences between networks reflect and/or inform usage patterns, so there are definitely some differences between Sina Weibo and Twitter users. We’ve embraced the differences in Twitter usage between North America and countries like Japan and Indonesia, so we’ll continue listening to the Chinese users for guidance.
Mr. Olson also shared some cool extras with us, like this Chinese pronunciation guide an enthusiastic employee made and an introduction video in Chinese (embedded below). I’m sure not everyone at the company is learning Chinese, but this is still a nice, friendly touch that shows the folks at HootSuite are really working to communicate with Chinese users on their terms. Here’s hoping that HootSuite can move even further into the Chinese market (and that that pronunciation video will stop people from pronouncing weibo like “way-bow”)!
Source: HootSuite Talks China Plans: Simplified Character Support, Chinese Branding Coming Soon
Radian6 Layoffs Prove Social is Not All About Technology – Techvibes
Techvibes broke some big news yesterday (Oct. 24, 2012)
But it wasn’t the page views, retweets, and Likes that blew us away. It was the comments on our article.
Shortly after publishing our piece confirming a slew of layoffs at New Brunswick’s Radian6 readers started weighing in with their two cents, job offers, and best wishes. Surprisingly most of the best wishes were from competitors in the social marketing and analytics space.
As Ian Gertler so eloquently said, “the incredible level of respect and professional admiration in these comments is refreshing.” Here’s a sample:
HootSuite’s Dave Olson: “As VP Community at HootSuite, i am rather sad to see this. Radian 6 – from the other coast of Canada than us – we’re a noble competitor and industry light. Regardless of Salesforce’s plans with R6 (and yes they are a competitor to us), it’s simply sad to see diligent community builders cut loose. In my (biased) opinion, cultivating community and sparking internal culture are critical roles which simply can not be outsourced, ignored or underestimated. Best wishes to all who received the dreaded news today.”
Sysomos Community Manager Sheldon Levine: “While these guys have been and are a competitor to my company, Sysomos, I got to know a lot of the R6 team over the past few years and I was a bit upset to hear this news. Just because our companies are competitors doesn’t mean that I couldn’t be friends with some of these people, and it’s tough to see great people lose their jobs. I won’t say anymore about this, other than I wish all of these former employees the best of luck in the future and that any of them can feel free to reach out to me to talk any time.”
Source: Radian6 Layoffs Prove Social is Not All About Technology – Techvibes
The High-Risk Jobs Behind Your Digital Conveniences via The Next Web
The High-Risk Jobs Behind Your Digital Conveniences: The Next Web By Mike Vardy, Oct. 14, 2012
One software-as-a-service that does its best to prevent workers from getting adversely affected by monitoring the goings-on revolving the company is HootSuite.
Dave Olson, HootSuite’s Vice President of Community explains that “the workload is distributed and everyone supports one another – practically and emotionally”. But there are times when the users get under the skin of those trying to bring the best service possible to them. That’s when Olson steps in.
“As a long-time practitioner, I provide mentoring to ensure workers don’t take snotty replies personally and don’t reply in haste or anger,” Olson says. “When in doubt: breathe, remember these tools didn’t exist 5 years ago, and go get a coffee and relax before replying.”