A Recommendation For Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey
One of the reasons Twitter is a more expendable platform than Facebook and LinkedIn is because people’s identities are not as tied to the service. Facebook profiles serve as social identities, LinkedIn as professional, and Twitter…
Twitter profiles do not fit into the identity equation, and this is the service’s largest weakness. The cost of switching over to other services is significantly lower on Twitter as compared to Facebook and LinkedIn. Put another way, I may/may not switch from Twitter to Google Plus, but I would kick and scream if anyone ever tried to remove my LinkedIn account.
How can Twitter become a larger part of a user’s identity?
Although this is a complicated question, I believe one solution is to advance the profile settings on Twitter.
As opposed to LinkedIn and Facebook, where a user can add a significant amount of information (Ex: work experience, about information, etc.), on Twitter a user can only add his or her name, location, one URL address, and a short description (160 characters or less).
Although I understand the importance of brevity with Twitter’s messaging platform, I do not see why the company needs to limit the length of a profile description. There are more than 160 characters in which I would like to describe myself, and there is more than one URL I would like to share.
Even if Twitter prefers to maintain brevity, they could add an “Optional Extended Profile”, which would allow users to fill in more information about themselves. This would greatly increase a user’s ties to the profile, and subsequently to the service itself.
Although Twitter continues to change it’s stated mission, in order for the site to be truly indispensible for users, the site needs to become a larger part of a user’s identity. A more extended profile is an important first step.
Why I Enjoy Reading This Guy’s Blog
I recently began reading James Altucher’s blog. James is an entrepreneur, investor, trader, and writer (picture to the right). I stumbled across his blog months ago, but because his stories are so surreal and witty I thought they were fictitious and stopped reading. I wonder if he loses a lot of other readers for the same reason.
After watching one of his interviews I realized his stories were not fabricated and have since become a big fan of his writing.
Why I enjoy reading his blog
1. Authenticity: James is beyond honest; he is a completely open book. In a world where so many try to hide their failures and shortcomings, James openly shares his with the world. His honesty is why I believe so many people are attracted to his writing. He is that person who, for one reason or another, does not care what other people think about him, and people are drawn to that. In a similar way, I also see the same trait in presidential candidate Ron Paul. Although many disagree with candidate Paul’s policies, and some may not fancy James’ stories, they are both undeniably authentic.
2. He Creates Serendipity: James has many surreal stories (Example: How I Screwed Yasser Arafat Out of $2 million (and lost another $100 million in the process). These stories do not exist because he had a particularly privileged upbringing (his career starting out was not unusual); they exist because he took advantage of opportunities. While the majority of people end up stuck on a certain route and schedule, James created his own serendipity. As an example, at one point in his career he contacted 30 influential people and pitched them various ideas. 2 people responded, one of whom was Jim Cramer who offered him the chance to write for TheStreet.com. A lot of people look to those that have been successful and give credit to an external factor (family background, university attended, etc.). I have found that successful people became that way because they put themselves in the situations where they could be successful.
3. He gives life to stories: What I really enjoy from David, and there are very few authors I see this from (Malcom Gladwell is another), is that his writing is so fluid. There are very few non-fictional story tellers that can draw you into a story, and James is one of those authors. His paragraphs leap from one idea to the next, but you forget the missing connections and just follow. At the end everything seems to make sense, and you appreciate the story.
What bloggers and can marketers can take away
1. Be authentic: Embrace your mistakes and share them. There is something about being brutally honesty that is very effective.
2. Take time to meet new people and pursue new opportunities: You never know where a conversation or a fleeting moment will lead. As an example, for myself I’ve made it a goal of mine to reach out to several people every week who I have not had contact with yet but whose work I enjoy. This week I contacted Nathan from MarketingStartups.com, Mark Suster from Both Sides of the Table (I highly recommend you watch his presentations on Youtube–very funny and informative person), and the former CEO of MP3.com Michael Robertson. I was really happy to see that all 3 responded within the same day of my emailing.
3. Become a story teller: This is unfortunately easier said than done. Will have more articles on this in the future.
Resources
1. Jame Alchuler’s blog: http://www.jamesaltucher.com
2. Ron Paul’s interview. Regardless of whether you agree with him, listen to his authenticity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg
How To Contact Journalists
A friend emailed me the other day asking if I had any recommendations for how he could connect with a journalist from the tech site Mashable.
This is what I told him
(As a note, this is from my experience writing for VentureBeat).
1. Identify why you want to contact a journalist: The journalists you contact are very busy people (I would receive up to a dozen emails from PR reps every day).
You should never, under any circumstance, email a journalist asking an open ended question that will take a long time to answer. This is a sure way to guarantee that you will not receive a response.
If you ask a precise question that can be answered in under 10 seconds, you may receive a response (I am referring to emails, it is different in person). Journalists are bombarded with emails every day. If they do not know you and it is a long question, you will be ignored.
2. Write to a journalist as if they are your friend: Once you begin receiving emails every day from PR, the emails begin to look the same. When I was writing for VentureBeat, I would receive emails throughout the day with the same generic start:
“Dear Conrad, We thought this might be of interest to you.”
Literally dozens of emails would have this same beginning. If you receive 10 of these emails in a row, they become very easy to ignore. The formality and lack of human touch become off-putting.
My advice is to write to journalists as if they are your friends. Treat them like people. As an example, an email with the beginning line is much more effective than any generic sentence:
“Hey Conrad, saw we had a mutual friend and wanted to reach out.”
(I received this email earlier today. This was not an email regarding writing an article, but I did not know this person and I took the time to respond).
3. Respect their time: If you do not know the journalist personally, never ask to meet for a coffee (coffee does not only take 30 minutes, it disrupts someone’s day and with commuting can take over an hour). In fact, I would not even recommend asking for a phone call unless it is important. The best way I have found to connect with journalists and busy people in general is to show that you understand that their time is valuable and that although you would like to meet, you do not want to burden them at all. As an example, here is the email I wrote Steve Cheney (contributing writer at TechCrunch).
“I know you are very busy so I don’t want to take your time to grab a coffee, but I’m pretty involved in the NYC entrepreneurial scene and if you’re planning on attending an upcoming event in the future, it’d be great to hear just so I could introduce myself in person.
Hope to keep in touch and best wishes Steve.”
Fortunately for me, Steve and I were able to grab coffee the next day.
4. The second best way to meet a journalist is through an introduction: The site that is most effective in helping with this is LinkedIn. It is very easy to type in a journalist’s name and see if you have any mutual connections. If you do, it is just as easy to ask the person to make an introduction. If you do not feel comfortable doing this, you can ask to use their name in an email. As an example:
“Hey X, I saw you were connected to my friend Adam and he recommended I contact you regarding X.”
Through LinkedIn, I have 2 degrees of separation with over 200,000 people (and this is not unusual for people who actively use the site). There are a lot of people you can reach out to.
As a note, remember that you need to have a legitimate reason for connecting with journalists. If you have an inquiry that you can find the answer to online, you should not waste anyone’s time. It is really important throughout this process that you respect everyone’s time (not only the journalist, but also your friends’ if they are helping ).
5. The best way to meet a journalist is in person: This is a lot easier to do than most people believe, particularly in the highly connected tech community. I took the elevator with TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld at one of the first NYC Tech events I attended and Michael Arrington sat in front of me at this year’s Tech Crunch Disrupt event in New York. An important part about networking is that it’s something you need to constantly do. If you just start one day and say, I need to connect with this person, then you put yourself in a much harder position than if you had been meeting and following up with people the entire time.
Media publications hold a lot of events; they are more common than you think. At every one of these media events I have attended, a high percentage of journalists at the company have attended. As an example of an upcoming media event, here is a posting by VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/21/reminder-venturebeat-and-demo-in-vancouver-thursday.
Another way to find events which journalists frequently attend is to ask well connected entrepreneurs. These people tend to enjoy helping others and are happy to recommend events where they have encountered journalists.
Resources
1. Great article on how to set up meetings with busy individuals by Marketing.fm http://www.marketing.fm/2009/10/22/how-to-setup-an-appointment/
2. Tip for what you should not do in arranging meetings by Vinicius Vacanti http://viniciusvacanti.com/2011/01/24/stop-saying-let-me-know-when-works-for-you/
3. Great video by Mark Suster and Michael Robertson on how to build relationships with reporters (about halfway through the video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMPnB0uxKTo&feature=related
A Marketing Tactic That Works
A few years ago, while browsing the web for GMAT blogs, I was drawn to identical banners on multiple blogs. The banners were not advertisements; they were something different.
The banners were “Best of Blogging Awards” from ClearAdmit, which is an MBA admissions firm (the banner is to the right). Year after year, legions of popular GMAT and MBA bloggers were awarded these banners, which were then proudly plastered on the blogs as a sign of achievement and social proof.
I thought this was a brilliant tactic from ClearAdmit. These popular bloggers were not only willing, but rather felt privileged for the opportunity to promote ClearAdmit through these banners.
In addition to the SEO benefit from these websites linking back to ClearAdmit, the rewards from the brand awareness were priceless. Despite the effectiveness, I have not seen this strategy used by many companies.
There is no reason why this strategy should not be used throughout all industries. As an example, here is how VentureBeat, a tech publication, could use this tactic:
VentureBeat Best of Blogging Award
VentureBeat would award the best Technology bloggers of each year (Best blogger of 2011, best upcoming blogger, etc.) and could potentially include some of their postings into weekly articles.
Bloggers selected would proudly post a “VentureBeat Best of Tech Bloggers 2011”, or a “Rising Tech Star Blogger” badge, which would help promote the VentureBeat brand. VentureBeat would also increase the content on their websites without diluting the quality of writing.
Bloggers would be happy because if their articles were reprinted on the VentureBeat website, a larger audience would read them, and they would also be proud to show the VentureBeat badge. VentureBeat would benefit from the growth in brand awareness and the increase in in-links.
Steps to Take
If you are interested in implementing a similar strategy, here are the steps I recommend:
1. Establish your company and blog as a thought leader in your respective market. Focus on creating quality content on your blog and on growing your audience. The strategy outlined will not be as effective if your company’s name is not easily recognized by bloggers.
2. Create an attractive banner that can be placed on a blogger’s website
3. Gather the emails and and communicate with potential bloggers. Ideally you would already have a connection with this group. Outline a set of benefits the blogger would receive. Perhaps the bloggers would receive coverage on your blog, Facebook Page, etc.
4. Maintain consistency with the program year after year. As with all marketing, the effort will take time. Fortunately, the time needed to manage this is very minimal.
Resources
1. Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging page: http://blog.clearadmit.com/2009/04/best-of-blogging-2008-2009-results/
What I Learned From 3 Months Of Writing At VentureBeat (Part 1/3)
I served as a contributing writer at VentureBeat for 3 months and had a view into reporting that most entrepreneurs do not have. There is a lot of information on PR (particularly with startups), but most information is written from an entrepreneur’s point of view. This article is written from the other side of the table.
This is Part #1 in the series about what I learned in those 3 months as a writer:
Part #1: How I ended up writing for VentureBeat and thoughts for those looking to get involved with writing/entrepreneurial ventures.
Part #2: How to pitch reporters (on developing a story, writing a press release, identifying how reporter’s find leads, etc.) I will include good and bad examples of press releases (we were bombarded every day).
Part #3: How to meet and interact with reporters and what it is like being on the other side. I’ll end with some additional tips that can curry favor (Ex: Always send a thank you if an article is written on your company. The entrepreneur should do this, not the PR person).
As a note, I was a contributing writer, not an editor, and though my time was limited, I hope the following provides insight.
Old VentureBeat Writer's Photo: Recognize MG Siegler in the back
Also, although I no longer am affiliated with the company, I have nothing but positive things to say about VentureBeat. The company has amazing people who I learned so much from. If you do not know, VentureBeat (http://www.venturebeat.com) is one of the largest tech media websites and has syndications with the New York Times and Reuters.
At the bottom of each article there will be a list of resources that helped me at each point in the process.
Part #1: How I joined VentureBeat
I did not have a writing background going into VentureBeat. In fact, when I first contacted Owen Thomas, who was the executive editor at the time, he let me know he knew this right away.
I had been introduced to Owen by Matt Marshall, founder and CEO of VentureBeat. Matt and I had met in NYC, where he was promoting the tech conference DEMO. Trying not to take up too much of his time, I told him I enjoyed the site and if there anything he ever needed (introductions, etc.), that I would be happy to help. To my surprise, he talked to me about writing positions that were opening and gave me his business card.
After following up through email the following night, I was relieved when he responded and I was forwarded to Owen Thomas.
Owen was the celeb-writer of VentureBeat and was infamous for his bold articles. He had been involved in a very public feud with Elon Musk (of Paypal, Tesla, and SpaceX), and was known for ruffling the feathers of billionaires. At VentureBeat, Owen cared tremendously about the quality of writing. He was the leader of the writer-pack.
After reviewing my blog, Owen let it be known that (I am summarizing): “I was not the right fit” and “Probably wasn’t talented enough at the time.” Despite his direct words, he gave me a chance. He always ended his emails with “I don’t think this will work out, but if you really want, you can send an article for me to review.” I will always be grateful to Owen for this.
Sitting at my computer, I knew I had to pursue the opportunity. However, I did not know where to start, as I had never written for a newspaper or publication before. I had no choice but to do as all entrepreneurs do; I was as relentlessly resourceful (from Paul Graham), as I could be.
I looked up recommended books on writing (Tim Ferriss and other popular bloggers recommended “On Writing Well”—listed at bottom). I reached out to a TechCrunch reporter I was in brief contact with (Steve Cheney of TechCrunch), and I began writing.
Soon after my first lesson was learned: The key to good writing is rewriting.
Every day onward I would write until 4:00AM, and immediately after waking the next morning would call close friends for a review. The entrepreneurs at the incubator I work out of became my extra sets of eyes, and with the help of friends my writing improved faster than I could have expected. I would make revisions in the afternoon, and would send the article to Owen at night. A few hours later I would receive a response from Owen.
(Summarizing here): “Tone isn’t right”, “This is not the type of article we are looking for”.
And as always, “But if you really want, I’m not really sure this is going to work, but you can send another article.”
This process of writing articles, receiving the review from Owen, and creating new articles, continued. The other entrepreneurs in the incubator were concerned at the little sleep I was receiving, and asked whether I should continue. My mind had been made up though: As long as Owen gave me the opportunity, I was going to continue.
Looking back, it was at this time that I truly appreciated the culture of entrepreneurship that I was a part of. With startups (and VentureBeat is absolutely a startup), meritocracy rules. It may not rule with an iron fist, but it does to a far greater degree than in any other industry. It did not matter to the VentureBeat team that I did not graduate with a degree in English from Harvard. What the team wanted to see was that I would hustle, that I was responsive, and in the end, that I could add value.
By the end of the second week, I received an email from Owen asking me to take on a larger role, and soon after I began writing daily for VentureBeat.
Reading the email that night, I happily went to sleep early.
If you are interested in pursuing a career in writing or are an entrepreneur looking to write for a publication on the side
If I were looking for writing positions in the future, this is what I would do:
1. Attend events hosted by publications/media companies: When a publication hosts an event, the management team and reporters will attend (these are also great opportunities for entrepreneurs to network with reporters). Although it may be difficult to pay for a TechCrunch Disrupt ticket, there are a number of smaller and free events held throughout the year. A great way to keep updated with these events is through StartupDigest and through Charlie O’Donnell’s website if you are based in NYC (Listed at the bottom). Face to face contact is critical, as editors prefer to take on people who they have met and like.
2. Create a blog: Regardless of who you are writing for, the company will want to see the quality of your writing and ideally will want to see an audience. Steve Cheney started his blog and, after his audience skyrocketed to 100K monthly uniques, was recruited to write for TechCrunch.
3. Look at the job boards of publications: This sounds obvious, but you would be surprised about the number of opportunities.
Resources
1. On Writing Well http://amzn.to/llweSu
2. Great PR article from Vinicius Vacanti http://bit.ly/h5LTly
3. Tim Ferriss has some great videos about how he developed his writing style (one of his many videos) http://bit.ly/lNjxdM
4. Startup Digest: Great resource for Tech events. Every Sunday you will be sent an email with the upcoming week’s events http://bit.ly/5PBJe4
5. Charlie O’Donnell (for NYC): Great resource for weekly Tech events in NYC http://bit.ly/2Nhz4K
What I Learned From My First 30 Days Of Blogging
I started blogging 30 days ago. Here are highlights and what I learned from my first month of blogging:
1. I was asked to audition as a contributing writer to VentureBeat: As an indirect result of blogging, I was asked to try out as a writer. I ended up serving as a contributing writer for the company for several months.
Lesson Learned: Create serendipity when you can. You never know where it will lead to.
2. The CTO of Blekko, Greg Lindahl, commented on my article: After writing an article on the future of search as a response to TechCrunch writer Vivek Wadha’s article, I tweeted to Vivek, which led to him retweeting my article. A spike in traffic followed.
Lesson learned: Just as important as the content you write are the people you tell. I’m a fan of Vivek’s writing, and Blekko is an internet darling, so this was a neat experience.
3. Grabbed coffee with TechCrunch contributor Steve Cheney: As an indirect result of blogging, I had the chance to meet Steve, a popular writer currently working at GroupMe. Over coffee he told me that nothing has had a greater impact on his career, including his MBA degree from Columbia, than his decision to blog. He’s a great guy doing really exciting things.
Lesson Learned: As Steve said to me, writing doesn’t just allow you to join a community, it gives you a voice. That platform you create for yourself can be meaningful. (As an aside, Steve has a great blog here).
4. One of my articles hit the home page of HackerNews: I received over 1,000 unique visitors that day and it was exciting to see the article highlighted on a website that I read daily.
Lesson learned: First, don’t underestimate the value community websites bring, particularly HackerNews. I now have a greater appreciation for the icons that allow you to submit articles to 3rd party websites (Digg, Reddit, etc). Second, it’s very important that readers have the ability to share your content. A study showed that blogs that implemented Facebook Like buttons had average traffic increases of 50%.
In addition to the above highlights, here are some more lessons learned:
5. Don’t chase the news: Although chasing hot topics in the news can be alluring, particular with the attention you receive if you break a story, it is difficult to consistently write about new topics and the space is competitive. If you are interested in building your blog for the long term, a more sustainable approach is to focus on being a thought leader in one space. In this past month there were times I found myself writing about recent events instead of startup marketing, and I need to have better discipline.
6. You never know with traffic: In this past month there were several days the website had spikes in traffic (due to HackerNews or a Twitter RT). I ended up averaging around 80 unique visitors a day (2341 total monthly visitors), although traffic was skewed towards particular days. What I found interesting was that even on low traffic days, over 20 users would still visit the website. It was encouraging to see the website’s traffic not dip to zero.
7. Your blog is part of your digital resume: I remember a post from Fred Wilson saying that in interviews, he rarely asks for a person’s resume. Instead, he asks to see their blog. The reason is that a person can embellish their resume, but it is difficult hide their true self in 50+ articles they write. As this has been my first time dedicating myself to a blog, it has been comforting to know that I can refer others to my writing. The blog has become a part of my online identity, similar to my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
8. Appreciate the craft of writing: Writing is hard. Writing well is even harder. After blogging for 30 days, I have a newfound respect for the profession.
9. Understand the difficulty and time involved: It’s challenging to write on a consistent basis and it requires a lot of discipline. It was hard enough for me to write articles weekly, let alone write daily as some bloggers do. I believe the best way to consistently write is to have a partner who is also interested in blogging.
Writing also takes a lot of time. I still need to go back to review earlier articles and to optimize them for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
10. Importance of digging into WordPress: Although I have played around with WordPress in the past, it was fun to delve into the system, add plugins, edit themes, and so on. I feel I have a much better understanding for the CMS having started this blog.
Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience from the first month of blogging. If you haven’t considered blogging, I strongly recommend you try.
Predicting What’s Next For Facebook
There is a lot of information online about how companies can promote themselves on Facebook. The information typically revolves around setting up Facebook Pages and using Facebook’s advertising platform.
But what is next? How will companies be marketing themselves on Facebook one year from now?
The answer is search; that is the next frontier with Facebook. Read more
The Solution To Google’s Search Problems Is The Next Google (Facebook)
Google’s search engine has been receiving a fair number of complaints in the blogosphere recently. Unfortunately, the people complaining don’t seem to have great solutions. Bing contains the same problems as Google’s search engine; the only reason Google has been receiving so much negative publicity is because of their large market share.
The solution proposed by some (Vivek on TechCrunch, etc.) has been Blekko (http://www.blekko.com), which allows users to make more refined searches and potentially warn others about spam websites.
The issue I see with the potential solutions is that once any of these smaller search engines grow to meaningful market share, the same problems that plague Google will occur. Every day thousands of companies and individuals experiment and test to see how they can improve their results on Google’s search algorithm. Why do they spend so much time and effort on these endeavors? Because their search results for their companies matter; that is how important Google has become.
If Blekko, Duck Duck Go (http://www.duckduckgo.com), etc. become important, the same people focused on beating Google’s search will begin working to improve their search rankings on these websites. These people aren’t evil; they are acting within the rules (hopefully) and are acting in their best interest (as most people who live in our capitalist society do).
So what is the solution to Google’s search problems?
The solution is here: the solution is Facebook. Read more
4 NYC Entrepreneurs To Watch Out For
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have met many successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs. It has come to the point where now, instead of being impressed by entrepreneurs who have accomplished much in their career (for example selling their company for an eight figure sum), I am more interested in meeting entrepreneurs who share certain characteristics. In my opinion, some companies will succeed and others not, but in the long term, it is the entrepreneur with these attributes that will most excel in business and in life. Within the past months 4 NYC entrepreneurs have really impressed me with specific traits they have. Fortunately, each of these entrepreneurs also happen to be personable, approachable, and all are well known throughout the NYC community. I highly recommend introducing yourself to each of them if you run across them at a future event. Read more
10 Things Technorati Can Teach You About Blogging
Technorati is a website that ranks the authority and influence of blogs. They have a popular section where they rank the most popular blogs by category. What is interesting is the insight you can gather from examining the most popular blogs. If you are looking to create an influential blog, one of the first steps you should is take is to look at the best practices and commonalities among the most popular blogs. Here are some shared characteristics from the top blogs on Technorati: Read more
