Spoonbuzz

This site is now defunct (temporarily, since it is being re-purposed). Josh Klein can now be found at http://www.joshklein.net.

The blog there is live, and I think you’ll find it very interesting - even more interesting than what’s up here. I post every Tuesday, so it’s easy to keep up with the latest!

So check out Josh Klein Marketing Strategy.

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A recent project I managed went live this week. To experience an innovative new shopping experience, take a stroll over to teroforma.com. You’ll find something you like.

Development credits to POKE, whom I had the supreme pleasure of working with.

Carla, Charles, Greg, Benny, Will, and everyone else pulling their hair out with us for months, congratulations!

Nicole posted our kindergarten class picture to Facebook and tagged a few of the faces she recognized. Each of those people received a “You have been tagged!” notification, and went to check out the photo. Those that recognized others adding their own tags.

A week later, after rigorous argument in the comments, everyone in the class had been tagged and reunited. It’s the best use of tagging I’ve seen to date. Way to go, Facebook.

Think you know which one is me? Post your guess in the comments.

Aaron let’s us know we can say “hello” to public toilets in NYC. It costs 25 cents for 15 minutes, after which the doors automatically open. I hope it warns you first.

This is a far cry from kicking the homeless off of park benches. Is NYC starting to market itself more like San Francisco, and is that a good thing?

[photo via AP article]

The term “social network” doesn’t mean what you think it means. Facebook isn’t a social network. It’s a website where I host my social network, and my friends host theirs.

“Social networks” are not a channel for your brand, they are a channel for your customer.

What makes Facebook awesome is that it provides a way for our social networks to overlap without having an awkward dinner party (or kegger). I can find out which of my friends are living in New York or watching Dexter.

Unfortunately, this also means that evil corporations can figure out which of my friends are living in New York or watching Dexter. Crap.

The system isn’t all bad, but you sure managed to screw it up.

If you want to promote your whatever-site, please don’t make yet another Facebook application that lets me flirt with, bite, zombify, or hug my friends. And definitely don’t make another one that tells me which Disney Princess I am.

Oh look — Mike made me a vampire. Now I’ll bite all my friends! Too bad I’ve already been bitten 100 times. We didn’t like it when it was a chain letter, and we don’t like it now.

You can’t just “get on Facebook” — like you couldn’t just “get on the web” in 2001 — and magically make money. I wish someone would grab you, and shake you, and scream, “You idiot. You’re wasting your time and money, and you’re ruining Facebook.”

But, lo! Hark! There is a better way to do it. It isn’t magic; it’s as easy as remembering 3 things:

1) Get over the novelty.

Social networks aren’t the wild west of the web anymore. That bubble will burst (or at least, leak all over my nice new rug).

2) Give me something worth sharing.

I don’t want to spam my friends, and I definitely don’t want you to spam my friends for me. If you do, I’ll go to great lengths to avoid your brand. But if you give me something of value, I’ll gladly tell everyone I know.

3) Let me run my social network.

I put it there, it’s mine, get your grubby hands off it. Make a good impression and I’ll leverage it as a channel for you. I’m a two year-old when it comes to sharing my network; you can’t make me do it. You have to make me want to.

Stop polluting my signal with your noise. Let me use my channel how I want.

Sincerely,
Facebook Users

Save Facebook. Endorse this letter in the comments below, and say your piece.

[Photo by Jason Sewell]

Marketing gets a bad rap. There are plenty of bad feelings around advertising (often for good reason), and people tend to equate the two.

But good marketing isn’t bad men in dark suits bothering you. Marketing can add value.

Information asymmetry makes markets inefficient. Information asymmetry hurts everyone. Marketing can correct information asymmetry. Let me break that down.

Information Asymmetry Makes Markets Inefficient

I’ve mentioned information asymmetry before. It refers to when a buyer and seller do not share the same information, and therefore are unable to accurately value a product. It can work in either direction, but let’s use the example where the buyer doesn’t know the quality of a product.

Let’s say a buyer values a TV at $200 and, coincidentally, that’s also what it is on sale for. Great! But what if the buyer believes there is a 1 in 100 chance that the TV will be a dud? He won’t be willing to pay as much, to account for the chance he’ll end up out $200 and a TV, whether or not his belief is true.

Market Inefficiency Hurts Everyone

The difference in how the buyer and seller value the TV cuts into either the seller’s profits or the buyer’s derived value. In the worst case, it stops the sale altogether.

In a world of thin margins, if the expected outcome of a buyer lowers the value of a product below the inherent value believed to exist by the seller (the cost), the seller will not be willing to sell his product.

In our example, let’s say that the belief that 1 in 100 TVs is a dud is false. The buyer, who no longer values the TV at $200, will not pay that price. The transaction does not happen. This hurts the buyer AND the seller.

Marketing Can Correct Information Asymmetry

There are some kinds of marketing that immediately jump out as useful. What if the seller offered a contractually bound money-back guarantee? The buyer should feel confident in paying the full price, as a dud could be returned or exchanged for a working product.

There are also less obvious methods. What if the brand used marketing to increase it’s trustworthiness? The buyer might no longer believe there was a chance the product could be a dud. Remember, in our example there really are no duds, so this is good for the buyer (and the seller, who gets to make the sale).

Where have you seen this effect in your day-to-day life?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider submitting it to your favorite bookmarking or social networking site, leaving a comment, or checking out my other articles.

I just talked about story yesterday. Here is another example:

Last night the results of the Iowa Caucus were announced. The two “hope” candidates won (Obama’s message, Huckabee’s home town).

This isn’t a political blog — I won’t mention who I support — but I think it’s safe to call these two “story candidates”.

The other candidates have their policies, their experience, and their political machines. Yes, they have stories too.

But these two are all about stories. Their speeches, demeanor, and interactions are all crafted to build a personal brand.

Brands reach people, especially in a place like Iowa where the message isn’t diluted by a huge population. It should come as no surprise that the story candidates — the ones with the strongest personal brands — did the best in reaching a (comparatively) small audience.

Where’s the marketing lesson in this? A strong personal brand reaches “deep,” as opposed to “wide”. At first.

Money lets you reach wide right away. It lets you blast your message to the masses.

Brand lets you reach deep. It lets you touch, mobilize, and evangelize a small group.

Our new and growing interconnectedness is beginning to prove the value in turning the small group of evangelists into your megaphone, rather than wielding the megaphone in the first place.

[photo via smcgee]

Jack White, of the White Stripes, has this to say on personal branding:

Everything from your haircut to your clothes to the type of instrument you play to the melody of a song to the rhythm — they’re all tricks to get people to pay attention to the story. [NYTimes]

I don’t know if “trick” is the right word, but the essence of Jack’s thought is spot on. Everything you do is a part of your story.

It’s never too soon to craft your personal brand, nor is it ever too late.

Think about Steve Jobs and his black turtlenecks or Donald Trump and his gun-slinger attitude. Both are arbitrary attributes, but they act as part of an overarching story that we eat right up.

You don’t have to be something you’re not. But consider this - everything you say, do, wear, and write reflects your personal brand anyway.

You might as well make sure you’re creating the right brand.

[via Steve; photo by mosesxan]

I took a long holiday break, and I’m back and rejuvenated for 2008. I hope the same is true for you.

The popular “new year resolution” meme always pops up this time of year. We tend to get a little depressed in the winter, so resolutions are an opportunity to change.

2008 means Spring is closer and everything can start anew.

But I don’t usually like resolutions, because I’ve only been successful with changes that I maintain for long periods of time (thereby making them habits, not fads).

But I am changing things in the New Year. I will be unveiling changes to this blog - in design, structure, and even content.

What is 2008 going to be for you? Leave a comment.

[photo via Tahir]

Like other professionals, a private practice psychiatrist can only build her client list with an ad in the yellow pages and word of mouth, right? I mean, thats the normal way to do it.

You can do better. To do so, you have to do 3 things:

1. Discover what makes you different.
Figure out who your ideal client is. Lets suppose you have an interest in treating teenage depression. You want to help teens just entering high school, and you identify more closely with the issues young women face. Young teenage girls are your ideal clients.

2. Decide who cares about that difference.
Teenage girls care. But so do their parents, teachers, camp counselors, and coaches. When a teenage girl and/or her network decide to seek out a psychiatrist, they’re going to want to find the best person for their specific situation.

3. Reach out to that group and its network.
Write an article for the school paper that lets young girls know that others are dealing with the same things they are. Attend school board meetings and voice ideas about how the school can help. Run a continuing education class to help parents better connect with their daughters.

Be a Niche Expert
The point is to help your target audience and its network (for free). Besides being a good thing to be a part of, it positions you as an expert in that niche.

It’s about being the biggest fish in the pond (even if you have to shrink the pond).

Of course, not everyone wants to treat teenagers. But thats the point. There is far more room in your community to be the best psychiatrist for teenage depression in young women than there is to be the best psychiatrist, period.

What is advertising, anyway?

“Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.”

— Robert Stephens, founder, Geek Squad

The more people remark about what you do, the less you need to spend on advertising. That’s why we say the best marketing is built-in; you don’t have to spend a dime to get people talking.

But sometimes, mostly at the very beginning, unremarkable is indistinguishable from unknown. Even if you’re the best in the world, you have to start somewhere.

[via FastCompany]

Lee posted an allegory about work and happiness that demonstrates another good reason to embrace being small or independent.

Your goal doesn’t have to be to maximize revenues. There are plenty of objectives to have besides growth (like happiness, for one). Being big can get in your way.

[via Aaron]

I often get stuck looking for the most efficient way to do things. This is a bad habit.

Inefficient actions are more likely to be credible signals. The traditional example is that it’s too easy to advertise a lemon as a well-kept used car, so we don’t trust used cars (or the people who sell them). This punishes the sellers of used cars that really are well-kept. There is an information asymmetry between buyer and seller.

Another (more applicable) example is that it’s too easy to email everyone we know, so we devalue spammed communication, no matter the content.

Building-in inefficiencies is a signal (to buyers of cars, receivers of emails, whoever) that you aren’t pulling one over on them. The more inefficient your signal, the more credible your claim.

This is why we actually read emails that are personally written to us. It would be too inefficient to write a personal email to 1,000 people, so the author must really want to talk to us. That makes it worth our attention.

Danah Boyd recently had some insights into the usefulness of inefficiency in communication. She’s really smart.

Danah says city planners get it. They build inefficiencies into the system to foster social good. In Manhattan, standing in line is often the only interaction you have with strangers.

Take a minute to think of all the things you might be doing too efficiently.

My beliefs and schooling lead me to take “the economic approach” to thinking. This contributes to my daily struggle to do (against the fear I might do wrong), which is why I tend to spend too much time planning. I try to make my plans hyper-efficient.

My new year’s resolution is to execute more and plan less. Not the sort of advice they gave us in grade school.

[photo via bcostin]

Whatever your profession, writing well is an indispensable asset. But writing well doesn’t require literary perfection.

Don’t worry so much about grammar and word choice; concentrate on writing persuasively. Sometimes, that requires an eye for structure and form. But more often, persuasive writing is about being colloquial.

Writing isn’t about spelling correctly and following rules; it’s about conveying information (or emotion).

That requires writing clearly and intelligently. Be playful if it helps convey your idea. Make up words if you need to.

Disclaimer: I am not a good writer, just a mediocre storyteller.

[photo via shefaet]

Katamari Damacy is one of the weirdest video games ever. You play a young prince who, at the behest of your father (the King of All Cosmos), creates the stars by rolling around a giant sticky-ball that collects earthly materials.

The game’s addictive puzzle-solving gameplay, brilliant soundtrack, and unique aesthetic are a perfect example of differentiating. In an industry of copycats, there is nothing quite like it.