Good Communities and Bad Companies

Can bad companies build good communities?

Before you answer take the time to think of 10 companies that lack admiration, market success, and good products, who have built good communities. It’s a difficult paradox to imagine because your immediate reaction is it is impossible to have something negative build something positive. I don’t know the answer, but I want to research this topic to see if the paradox is possible, and what it really take to create a successful community.

What characteristics do communities inherent from their companies?

Can a company’s community culture be a litmus to its success?

**I would love to find some collaboration on this topic. If you are interested let me know.

Do you really need a community organizer?

Seth Godin believes the #1 job of the future is Online Community Organizer. The objective: build a community of product evangelists, organize events, be on the front lines of the PR battle, and all the while use the latest technology to facilitate all of this so your company can keep up the conversation with your customers.

But does your company really need a community organizer?

Without one a company runs the risk of not hearing and communicating to customers, being a catalyst to change, or taking new ideas to market.

But here’s the catch, if you can’t empower the a community organizer to execute with some measure of success it’s absolutely pointless to have such a position. Customers expect community organizers to facilitate their communication into action. Companies have to go beyond the chatter!

If you have what it take to build a community; make sure you work for a company that will power you to success. See Seth’s job’s posting.

0.01 Behind the Glasses: Gavin Heaton | Age of Conversation

What does it take to create a great blog? Why conversation can make the difference?

Behind the Glasses takes a look at blogging 101, and the collaboration of the new book The Age of Conversation with co-author and blogger Gavin Heaton.

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-52ca7045f9e42ddb4df2bffc5699f659}

0.01 Behind the Glasses: Gavin Heaton | Age of Conversation [31:14m]:  Download

Tour de France | What a Mess!

The drama off the road is more intense than the drama on the road at the Tour de France. What the hell is going on? Is it the riders? Is it the UCI? WADA? Tour leader Michael Rassmusen was “sacked” by his team for lying about his whereabouts during last month, thus, missing unscheduled drug tests.

Eurosport.com is reporting that Ras was sent packing because “someone” says they saw the star cyclist training in Italy, and not Mexico, where he had registered w/ the UCI. If this is the reason he was sacked and forced to quit the Tour just days before he was about to win, then, the UCI is the problem! Like the case against Landis, there is no due process for the athlete when anyone can accuse you of wrong doing.

I think the bicycle manufactures should start their own cycling federation, and screw the UCI. These companies like Trek, Specialized, Felt etc all have skin in this game; they are the natural candidates to create either a riders union or a new federation.

Maybe to protect the Tours branding they should cancel next years race. Thoughts?

If Ras did lie then good riddance!

More difficult than you think…

I had the opportunity to record the first episode of behind the glasses podcast interview with Gavin Heaton, co-author of The Age of Conversation, and I found it more difficult than I thought.  Recording, listening, editing, and listening to my voice just sucks. I never realized until now how badly I annunciate certain words (I blame my parents because they have South African accents, therefore, I have a dodgey part South African, part English, bloody American accent; I’m screwed).

I edited the crap out of the “ums” & “ahs” in my speech.  Gavin was a class act; very articulate and insightful, so you’ll hear way more of him than me :) But I’m not finished; I have to add the wrapper, probably split the 30 minute recording into two episodes:

1. Blogging 101 w/ Gavin
2. The Age of Conversation: The making and inside look at the book.

It should be up sometime tomorrow morning. I promise!

Vinokourov tests positive, withdraws from Tour de France

Eurosport.com is reporting that, pre-race favorite and winner of stages 13 & 15 of this years race, Alexander Vinokourov has tested positive for doping. His A sample found two different types of red blood cells, which assumes the athlete has had blood transfusion. The test wast taken just prior to his stage 13 time trial win. Vino has withdrawn from the Tour.

Despite the positive sample A test I believe judgment needs to be withheld until the process has been completed. I hope Dick Pound and Pat McQuaid will bite their tongues, and avoid the media debacle they created around Floyd Landis. I believe there is little due process for athletes in the middle of doping scandals, so it is important to be objective and fair before casting judgment. I hope for the sport of cycling and for the Tour de France this is a mistake. If it turns out to be true I hope the athletes will get their damn priorities straight.

Brammo Enertia | Cooler than a Harley?

Ok, the Enertia is not really cooler than a Harley, but I would probably choose the electric motorcycle over the gas guzzling pollutant hog. I’m probably in the minority of Americans, who could fall in love with a motorcycle that doesn’t rumble the windows of your neighbors. But there is a growing demand for green, and like the Prius the Enertia is pretty cool.

Quick green facts:

CO2 emission grams per kilometer is 22 g compared to 140 and 130 for the average motorcycle and Toyota Prius respectively. Granted this can be reduced further if you are recharging the Enertia w/ a renewable source i.e. Wind or Solar.

Unlike a Harley you won’t be screaming 70 mph down the highway heading to Sturgis because the Enertia only does a top speed of 50 mph for approximately 45 miles, which makes this bike very much a commuter, and roam around the neighborhood cruiser.

At $11,000 – $15,000 the price is a little steep, but if mass production can get the Enertia down around $5,000 or $6,000 then this becomes a great alternative to driving your car during the spring – summer – fall months. Until then I think I’ll ride my ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle) and eventually buy a Prius.

Disgusted by Vick

At one point in my life I was huge Michael Vick fan; in part because he played at VT and because of his athletic abilities on the field. But now I have absolutely no respect for him or his family. He disgusts me!

I read a very interesting article by Mark Kriegel on FoxSports.com about Nike’s lack of corporate responsibility when it comes to the athletes they sponsor, and the chances of Vick ever winning the PR game of his life. Screw the Super Bowl, if he can’t prove to the public a clear path to innocence he will be crucified! Kreigel puts dog fighting in a very succinct light when he wrote:

Still, the fact is, there is no way for Vick to win here. Even if he wins in court, the damage will be severe. A bar fight, a substance abuse problem, all of that can be dealt with. But in the public’s mind, dogfighting is somewhere between wife-beating and the ultimate sin, point-shaving.

For the sports fanatic points shaving is an ultimate sin, but for a father and a husband being a wife-beater is disgusting.

A few hours after Kreigel’s post Nike announced they were suspending the release of  any marketing communication regarding Vick’s new shoe, but not the release of the actual product. Nike you disgust me too.  Vick does afford due process, but why don’t you send a clear message to athletes that their off the field images and the money they make are tied just as intrinsically to the image on the field? Why weren’t the shoes suspended? Change the name of the shoe! Sending such a message has nothing to do w/ due process, but everything to do with corporate responsibility (which they so proudly boast on their site).  Very sad.

Vick and NIKE get the Rosie Award. 

New Saddle | Specialized Alias

There is one thing that I know w/o a doubt; take care of your butt and your butt will take care of you. This is true for toilet paper as it is for bike saddles. Unfortunately the saddle sold w/ my Trek Madone was absolutely horrible. Ok, there are probably worse bike saddles than the unknown Bontrager, but I couldn’t suffer any longer (neither would Napoleon and his generals).

I’ve learned in cycling the equation is simple: discomfort = speed OR comfort = slower. So goes the equation w/ saddles, if you want speed you have to endure discomfort, or go w/ comfort and have a huge seat that adds unnecessary grams to your bike. This is why I bought the Specialized Alias, it’s not the uber-racing-toupe saddle, nor is it grandma’s spring supported bubble butt seat. At 250 g it’s light and comfortable.

The comfortable in this saddle is not the gel or padding, but in Specialized’s own words, “Combined with our medically tested Body Geometry blood-flow technology to reduce numbness, the Alias redefines the crossing point between ergonomic comfort and pro-level performance.” In less marketing speak they’ve cut out the center of the saddle so your generals don’t sit in your throat while your ride.

Another feature Specialized offers in their saddles: 3 sizes. My previous seat was to narrow, so I went w/ the 143 mm. They also offer 130 mm and 150 mm.

I haven’t broken in this saddle, but on the short rides I’ve already felt the difference, and so has my bottom.

Rant: I’m not sure who’s to blame Trek or the reseller. I blame Trek, because they should never allow any of there bikes to be sold w/ crappy seats. Even a starter bike should be sold with a decent seat b/c the rider will judge his early biking experiences on the seat and not whether has the lightest crank or derailer. Just as important don’t sell a Madone w/ a crappy seat w/ the notion that the customer should upgrade. That is wrong on many levels and should be obvious. If a customer wants a cheap seat to lower the price of a bike than let them ask for a crappy seat. It’s just good business.

Age of Conversation | Top of my reading list

I haven’t had a chance to read “Age of Conversation“; yet, but the concept is near groundbreaking.  Over 100 top bloggers and marketers have contributed to this book by writing their thoughts and experiences on the topic of “conversation”.  The quintessential method of modern marketing.  If you are not having conversations with your customers, potential customers and even your competitors your not going to succeed.  Likeliness is your competitors are talking to your customers, if so, you are going to loose. No company is an island.

This is one of the most difficult strategies for Novell, or any large company, who has lived on their own island for so long.

Of note I did not see Seth Godin contributing to this book, which surprises me, because he is regarded by many marketers as the “bald-grand-wizard” of conversation marketing (I made up the title, but he is incredible at what he does). Check him out.

For $9.99 you can buy the “Age of Conversation” eBook from lulu.com: