Viral Community News

First of all, congrats to my man Geert, who has joined Microsoft as the Trade Marketing Manager in their Belgium office. Geert's a great guy, and he gave BMA one of our very first links way back last fall. You can pat him on the back at his new location, on MSN Spaces.


Eric Kintz has a great post on how we can bridge the blogging world, with the 'real' world. This is a very timely post, and I love this question: "So what do you think? What will it take to spread the “epidemic” to the other 99% marketers?".

My answer is, we have to put the message in their hands using the channels they interact with. Mainstream marketers aren't reading The Viral Garden, they are reading the NYTimes and the WSJ and Ad Age. This is where I think many bloggers that go to each and every blogging conference under the sun are doing themselves a bit of a disservice. IMO they need to be spending much of that time trying to get the 'real' world clued into what they already know. The 'real' world that has never heard of Doc Searls, or Robert Scoble, or Jason Calacanis (99.9% of the country really have no idea who these people are).

Eric also posted his entry on Daily Fix as well. Remember that Eric is the Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence for HP, so he's coming from the mainstream side of the fence. We need to support the few 'corporate' bloggers such as Eric that are trying to embrace and join the blogging community.

David has a great take on Eric's post as well, with this quote:

"The Social Network is both viral and a community in the same breath. And it’s influential. But—it’s still a minority when you compare it to mainstream forces and the Forresters of the world. They still have the ear of the people we would love to reach. But that is definitely changing. Blogs are becoming a source of breaking news, refreshingly alternative thinking and of course community that entices active participation. But to Eric’s point—”what will it take to transform this emerging community into a viral marketing network beyond the blogosphere?”

Speaking of Daily Fix, my latest entry on the Mentos-Diet Coke bruhahahaha is up. BTW I totally slept on linking to my entry before that, The War For Marketing Control. Please check both out if you get a chance.


Tricia reviews Chris Anderson's new book, The Long Tail.


The first episode of Karl Long's new podcast, The Co-Creative Business Show is up. Congrats to Karl, I know he's excited about it. I'll try to give it a listen the next time I have the 5.3 days available to download it (damned dial-up).


Asi jumps on a topic that Karl started, viral videos. I agree with Asi that it is almost impossible to 'make' a viral video. You can follow the guidelines that Karl outlines for most successful viral videos, but in the end, the community will decide if they want to spread the video, or not. Your best bet is to let the community decide, and if they run with it, be thankful.


Paul offers the Marketer's Credo.


John at American Copywriter has an important reminder on the importance of refilling your creative juices.


Amy Gahran has a great post about how conversations online start, and how they are different from offline conversations. Marketers will want to grab a notepad before reading.


Mario is going to start interviewing other bloggers. I know I know, I thought the same thing at first, but Mario has a very interesting twist. He is going to accept questions from his community of readers for a month, then conduct the interview by asking his reader's questions. A great way to involve your community in the process! His first interview will be with Jeremiah Owyang.