Posts Tagged ‘social media’

« Older Entries

Asking A Lot: Diary of a Trust Fund

October 19th, 2009 by AV Flox in integrity

I remember the first time I ran for office. I was in junior high and I wanted to be vice president of the student council (Why vice and not outright president? Because while I will lead if I have to, I am a much happier right-hand woman to someone who shares my vision). That campaign highlighted the importance of being conservative with how often you ask people to support you.

THE BALLOON BOY INCIDENT

On October 15, 2009, news broke that six-year-old Falcon Heene had floated away in a balloon made by his father in Fort Collins, Colorado. The media and public were stirred into a panicked frenzy only to discover, when the balloon landed near Denver International Airport hours later, that there was no one aboard. A search for the body of the child found nothing. Heene was eventually reported to have been found hiding in a cardboard box over the garage of his family’s home. There is a criminal investigation of the Heenes underway and now many believe that the entire thing was staged to draw attention to the family’s aspirations for fame.

I don’t know what really happened in the Heene household, nor do I have any clever quips about what it all means about the state of modern society. What I do know is that the Heenes asked for our attention and support and broke our trust in them. We will never believe them again. It’s the 21st century boy who cried wolf.

THE EFFECTIVE CALL-TO-ACTION

In early January of 2009, David Armano asked the readers of his popular blog Logic+Emotion to help his family help a friend of theirs whose life had put her in a difficult position. He knew it’s not easy to ask people for donations and that that the crumbling economy made it less likely that people would contribute. His post was short and got right to the point:

I’ve been at this blog for nearly 3 years now and have never asked for something like this—I hope I’ve earned enough trust to be able to ask something back from you. Above is a picture of Daniela and her family. Brandon, age 6, Daniela, age 9 and little Evelyn age 4. Daniela is divorcing her spouse after years of abuse. In recent years her mortgage went unpaid and she’s lost her house.

As of this moment, Daniela’s family is staying at our house and we are trying to help her find a one bedroom apartment for her family to live in. With Evelyn, her youngest having Down’s Syndrome and Daniela herself being a Romanian immigrant with very little family support she literally has no one to turn to. Except us (all of us).

Daniela cleans houses when she can leave her family. I’m not even going to tell you what she gets paid—it’s obscene. Right now her options are pretty limited, aside from an apartment, there is only a group shelter. Not very pretty.

Here’s what we are asking. Right now, Belinda and I are opening our home, but it’s tight as we have no basement. We’ve committed to giving as much as we can spare, diverting funds from other places. I’m asking if you could think about doing the same. Or at the very least, helping get the word out about this. We are looking to raise 5k for Daniela and her family. Enough so that she doesn’t have to worry about a deposit or rent for a while.

I know this is the worst possible time to ask for anything…. I don’t have anything to offer back. Not an ego list or top donators directory. I can only hope that this thing we call “community” puts its money or heart where its mouth is. Please do whatever you can.

Respectfully, David and family

What happened? Donations poured in to a startling total of $16,880. David Griner summarized the forces that seemed to be at work in this unprecedented show of support. The first one is the most important, and the backbone of this post: rarity.

Armano has built himself a reputation as a brilliant commentator on business and the social web. His content is valuable to us–we tune in because we trust his judgment and insight. Secondly, he provides this information (quite often in beautifully minimalistic infographics) at no cost to us and gives us feedback on our own ideas, whether in his blog, comments section, Twitter, or Facebook. So when he asked his Twitter followers and readers to do something for him, we did it. At the time my now ex-husband was in a panic, we were liquidating all of our assets, and awaiting a financial Apocalypse that was hurtling toward us at light speed. I knew he’d have more than a word with me about throwing money at people I didn’t even know. But I didn’t hesitate.

And neither did 544 other people.

THE TRUST FUND

Every once in a while, we do need the support of our network. Maybe we need a ride to a conference in a nearby town. Maybe we’re launching a new product and we want to get buzz going. Maybe we want to see if anyone wants to buy a laptop bag we impulse bought that turned out to be too small or too big for our needs. It’s not as urgent, but the same rules apply–if your network feels your content has value, if they feel you have given them something, they’re going to do what they can to help.

My friend Damien Basile calls it The Trust Fund: “When you invest time and energy into someone you form a relationship. When this happens you create a ‘Trust Fund’ where both you and the other person either add or subtract trust from this mutual fund you have set up.” Asking for help requires trust. Do you have enough in your trust fund to make that request?

Not a single one of us is faultless, but how many of us know one person who just, oh, takes the cake Heene-style? How likely are you to stretch a helping hand the next time you see one of their tweets asking for support? Exactly.

VOTE FOR ME!

So there I was, standing in front of the school, about to give a speech about why they should vote for me. A closet introvert (surprised? Good, that means I’m doing something right), I didn’t want to address them myself, so I’d made a horse paperbag puppet. My promises were simple–we’d be able to order lunch from more franchises, I’d address the ridiculous little song we were made to sing at assembly about having a positive attitude with the principal, and so on. I’m convinced they voted for me because I was the girl who invited her whole class to her birthday parties and because I’d never asked for anything from anyone until that moment.

I won by a landslide.

So here is my point: before you consider what you’re asking, think about what you’re giving. Your space online is yours to do what you will, but be consistent in your offerings. People who read what you put out there come back time and time again because they know what they can expect from you. Yes, even if 50 percent of your tweets are conversation tidbits without much context. Be gentle in your metamorphosis–remember it’s not just you in that bus.

Engage. David Armano didn’t just put out content for three years before he asked us to help him out. He put out content and he interacted with his readers across multiple platforms. He, like most power-users of social media, know that the blog post or tweet is not a closing argument but a springboard for discussion. This is a big part of the Trust Fund. Your readers take you seriously–do you show them that you take their feed back seriously?

If you say you’re going to do something, follow through. I know this is hard, God knows I’ve dropped the ball with as much aplomb as I’ve followed through. Learn to avoid failing to follow through (or worse, having a nervous breakdown because you’re so much of everything to everyone that you’re nothing to yourself) by being selective in your commitments. Saying no is not rude, just be transparent about your limitations. And at the very least, be fast to notify people when things aren’t going to turn out as you’d promised. Time is scarce, but consideration doesn’t cost a whole lot. Take those two minutes, even if it means shooting a short text in the middle of a stressful call with a client.

EPILOGUE

Having said all this, thank you all for voting for me for the 140 Conference NOW Awards and Mashable Open Web Awards. Your submitting a vote says to me that you value my content and I am both humbled and honored by your gesture of appreciation. But you will not see me ask you to vote for me so lightly anymore.

One day, I may call upon you, my dear friends. And that day, without a doubt, you will know that what I’m asking means a lot to me. But just to make sure that you know, I promise to take the time to explain to you exactly why I need your support.

Now I ask all of you to think of your trust funds the next time you’re about to pelt your friends and readers with “vote for me” DMs. And if you absolutely must call upon me, avoid the form-letter feel of such a message and opt for e-mail. You don’t need a horse puppet and definitely not a UFO-shaped balloon, just a simple message that lets me know why this means so much.

pass it on!
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [kirtsy] [Ma.gnolia] [Mixx] [Propeller] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Email] More »

Tags: , , , , , , ,
4 Comments Comments



Who’s Afraid of the Twitter Bird?

September 5th, 2009 by AV Flox in social media

The National Football League (NFL), which makes more than $4 billion in television revenues annually, is having trouble dealing with social media. Already having reined in its members with rules about how soon before and after a game they can use services like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, the NFL has now instituted social media guidelines for its fans.

While fans are welcome to post messages about teams and players, they are not to update any kind of play-by-play accounts of games or post extensive footage taken at games.

The reason? According to a statement NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy made to Forbes, “the NFL sells exclusive rights to television networks and radio stations to broadcast the games and posting text or video recaps of each play could undermine the league and its broadcasting partners’ efforts to make money airing the games.”

What happens if you don’t follow the rules? The NFL will get in touch with you and tell you to pull the content. If a user refuses, the league will consider filing a lawsuit. Frightening, isn’t it? The problem is that the NFL doesn’t have property rights over fans’ tweets.

According to Wendy Seltzer, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, fans have the same right guaranteed by the First Amendment to publish accounts of football games, even in play-by-play form, that any news organization.

“Imagine a national or global brand monitoring intense volumes of conversations in real-time (at trending topic speed), which usually averages about 4,000 plus updates per hour,” says Brian Solis in a piece for Social Media Today. “Now picture the NFL attempting to identify offending parties within the noise and in turn, singling them out for official review and potential enforcement. The NFL would essentially need to implement a social media police force, which is impractical and expensive, or it would require the use of turks to perform this process on game days, but still face the burden of justifying action.”

In terms of preventing the spread of video footage, the NFL and its teams could put a clause on the back of game tickets specifying fans are prohibited from using recording equipment in stadiums. It goes without saying that enforcing the rules would be difficult and because the league doesn’t have property rights over the recorded footage, the task of proving that the presence of the footage in social networking sites reduced the value of their broadcasts falls entirely on them.

Licensing is a real issue that many sports organizations are going to have to face as social media becomes more prominent among fans. It’s going to require a careful balance of protecting leagues’ own broadcasting revenue and finding a way to encourage fans to participate in the experience.

This ban is not the way, but it’s something. And in this world, that’s how we learn best: by trial and error.

(And for those of you wondering if I would be this calm about this if the FIFA went draconian on social media, yes, I’m glad soccer moves too fast for me to say anything other than some variation of OMGOMGGOOOOOOL!)

pass it on!
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [kirtsy] [Ma.gnolia] [Mixx] [Propeller] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Email] More »

Tags: , ,
No Comments Comments



Diva Marketing: A Chat with Toby Bloomberg of Bloomberg Marketing

April 1st, 2009 by AV Flox in marketing

Diva Marketing Blog, A Chat with Toby Bloomberg

The web has become a crucial aspect of marketing in past years. Recently, immediately after stumbling on her blog, I asked Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing Blog to sit down and tell me a little about how she got her start and the role that blogging has come to play for her company since she began in 2004.

How did you get into blogging?

If truth be told, I never had any intention of blogging. I often conduct marketing workshops for small business owners and in 2002 or 2003 I came across this cool website thing called a “blog” that was free (Blogger). You didn’t need to know how to code, there was something called “comments” where people could actually talk to you in real time and you could talk back to them. I thought: perfect for business owners on a limited budget with no technical skills!

Diva Marketing was launched because a friend told me I couldn’t talk about blogs unless I was personally blogging. Well, girlfriend, I told him he was daft and I could talk about any marketing topic without a lot of experience as long as I knew the basics. He told me this was different. Since I really did need to understand the logistics I agreed to play around with a blog for awhile. I had not a clue that it would turn into a long-term passion. I had a (boring) website so what did I need with a blog, right?

I was so wrong! Within days I realized that blogs were way far different than any website I’d ever seen. I also was wrong about talking about blogs without actually “doing it.” This is one marketing tactic where credibility is derived from experience. If anyone tells you they can teach or consult about blogs or social media without participating in the space, I suggest you run in the opposite direction.

What do you try to achieve with the blog?

Diva Marketing began with a focus on branding and general marketing information. However, as my interest and passion for social media grew, the focus of Diva Marketing changed.

As I’ve seen many times over, if you’re not passionate about what you’re writing about, it’s tough to sustain a blog long-term. I was also asked by many people to explain how to use blogs as a marketing initiative and Diva Marketing seemed the logical place to hold that information. Over that last almost five years, the blog has grown into a rich educational resource for marketers from Fortune 100s to small business to nonprofits and government agencies.

In addition to the typical marketing blog opinion posts there are interviews with industry leaders who generously share their learnings.

If you could impart three tips to other niche bloggers, what would it be?

First, begin with understanding what makes social media different from other marketing strategies. Social media is the only marketing strategy that I know that is built on a culture that is based on transparency, authenticity, honesty–and throw in some passion, too.

Second, since social media impacts how you conduct business, it’s important to create an umbrella social media direction for your organization. As you’re thinking about all, that begin to listen to the conversations of your customers and people in your industry.

Third, develop your strategy based goals and objectives and a determination of what would be success for you. Success in social media may extend further than traditional metrics. Keep an open mind. Also, as you would do in any marketing strategy keep your customers top of mind.

Has social media always been a focus for Bloomberg Marketing? How did it start?

Social media came about after Bloomberg Marketing opened its virtual doors in 2007 as a boutique strategic marketing firm with a focus on interactive marketing. We helped organizations use, at that time, innovative web-based tactics weaving in traditional tactics.

Would a Fortune 100 company use social media differently than a small business or are the principles the same? What about governments and non-profits?

Let’s go back to the belief that social media is a credible marketing strategy that helps “people” within organizations create and nurture closer relationships with customers/clients and other stakeholders. I call this developing ‘corner grocery store relations’: the old-fashioned relationships where the shop owner was part of the larger community, knew and cared about the people that purchased her products or services and were built on a foundation of trust. On that level the answer is the same no matter if it is for an Fortune 100, small business, government or nonprofit.

However, it is the objectives and the execution of the strategy where organizations take different paths. This can depend, for example, on where your customers are hanging out (are they on Facebook or Twitter?), the culture of the organization, the resources available (human capital, financial and time), and regulations (such as HIPAA in a health care situation).

How does Bloomberg Marketing use social media, if at all?

My goals are to reinforce my positioning as a thought leader in this new emerging industry who “gets it” and can help other people incorporate social media into their marketing plans. The outcomes that signal my strategy is succeeding include: new client opportunities, of course, but also speaking engagements, serving as a resource to mainstream and online media.

Another benefit is the personal relationships and networking that I’ve developed with other people–like you!

In addition to Diva Marketing I’ve extended the brand through a BlogTalkRadio show called Diva Marketing Talks. The concept is 30 minutes with a focus on one social media topic with two rock star guests. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are also part of my social media tool box.

What companies are using social media right and why do you think so?

Keep in mind that social media is evolving by the nano second and we are learning together what works and what does not. Pioneers are experimenting in this new media. One factor that those that do it right always have in common: they maintain transparency, authenticity and honesty.

As for who is doing it right? In government, take a look at how Queen Rania of Jordan is using YouTube. She’s created a branded channel and is talking directly to the world. Her personality shines through as genuine and caring.

For me Dell is the poster child for how a company can get blown-up for doing it wrong and then, by understanding their customers, learn to do it right. By not only listening to the conversation happening in blogs, on Twitter, in Facebook, etc., but actively participating in those discussions, Dell has created a stronger, more positive brand experience. In addition, its use of social media is creative and innovative as Dell’s Social Innovation Competition shows.

Goodwill of Washington is a wonderful example of how to strategically use social media in an integrated marketing plan. Brendan Hurley, vice president of marketing, is leveraging multiple tactics such as blogs, Twitter, YouTube to reposition not as a thrift store but a vintage shop.

In the consumer world, please allow me to brag on a client who is a true pioneer when it comes to blogs, and holds a piece of social media history. In 2005, GourmetStation was one of the first eCommerce companies to launch a blog. Delicious Destinations, a character blog, colored outside the lines when it used its icon as the voice of the blog. A huge fire storm erupted but we knew the direction was right for the brand and staid the course. Four years later the blog is successful and still going strong. We’ve included ‘real’ people such as the owner of a B&B in Tuscany, a travel writer living in Paris, a wine consultant to expand the content.

Social media is one form of marketing that we can use to get to know our customers better. One of the exciting benefits are they get to know us too! If I had to give one last piece of advice I’d say, don’t be afraid to experiment. If you have a quality brand that your customers like even if the initiative doesn’t work as intended you’ll be admired for trying. If your brand is weak because of poor customer service of quality, fix it before attempting this at home!

Of Possible Interest:
Toby Bloomberg is currently writing and crowdsourcing a book about social media on Twitter. You can can tune in to watch it unfold by following the #SMGPS hashtag on Twitter Search.

pass it on!
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [kirtsy] [Ma.gnolia] [Mixx] [Propeller] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Email] More »

Tags: , , , , ,
2 Comments Comments



The Bad Facebook Friend: Meaningful Connections, Weak Ties and Parasocial Relationships

February 20th, 2009 by AV Flox in social media

I have 450 friends on Facebook and I often wish I didn’t. Since day one, I maade a point to accept friend requests from anyone who asked in order to allow them access to me, which I feel is important when you spend as much time as I do online. Maybe they liked my blog, maybe they saw me on Twitter, maybe we know some of the same people—whatever the reason, they want to connect and I wasn’t going to let formalities get in the way.

But I have found that connecting doesn’t lead to forming a meaningful relationship. Connecting is easy: it requires a couple of clicks. Forging a relationship takes time and energy.

“Within Internet Marketing, I have developed some solid relationships with and would work with them, partner with them, and/or hang out with them at the drop of a dime,” Tony Adam writes in his post, Keys to building quality relationships and things to avoid. “The problem here is that there are people that don’t understand there is big difference between someone that is a contact vs. someone that you have established a relationship with and the value of that relationship.”

The investment into 450 people in terms of time and energy is a big one, and one that I can’t meet. It’s made me into what my best friend Atherton Bartelby calls “a bad Facebook friend”: one who doesn’t comment on your updates or posts or regularly look over your photos.

It reminds me of that piece in the New York Times Magazine Brave New World of Digital Intimacy by Clive Thompson, that came out in the fall of last year:

In 1998, the anthropologist Robin Dunbar argued that each human has a hard-wired upper limit on the number of people he or she can personally know at one time. Dunbar noticed that humans and apes both develop social bonds by engaging in some sort of grooming; apes do it by picking at and smoothing one another’s fur, and humans do it with conversation. He theorized that ape and human brains could manage only a finite number of grooming relationships: unless we spend enough time doing social grooming — chitchatting, trading gossip or, for apes, picking lice — we won’t really feel that we “know” someone well enough to call him a friend.

Dunbar noticed that ape groups tended to top out at 55 members. Since human brains were proportionally bigger, Dunbar figured that our maximum number of social connections would be similarly larger: about 150 on average. Sure enough, psychological studies have confirmed that human groupings naturally tail off at around 150 people: the “Dunbar number,” as it is known. Are people who use Facebook and Twitter increasing their Dunbar number, because they can so easily keep track of so many more people?

Thompson’s conclusion, after speaking with many “aggressively social people” was that the Dunbar number was not being increased. Online interaction has the ability to enrich relationships by keeping people connected, but deep relationships require more. The main change, Thompson noted, seemed to be among people’s “weak ties,” that is, their acquaintances or contacts.

Contacts are not a bad thing. I don’t think, for example, that a solution to my being a bad Facebook friend is to prune my list. I don’t want to shut people out. I just want to interact in a more meaningful way.

I just don’t know there’s enough time in the day to do it.

I KNOW YOU PARASOCIALLY

When I met Brian Solis at the TechZulu anniversary party last week, I told him I was fond of his musings on the web and social media. He asked me whether we knew one another and I told him, “I know you parasocially.”

He laughed. And it is funny—it’s funny to recognize it and call it like it is. I might know where he had dinner and what he’s reading because of Twitter, but I don’t know him at all and I recognize this.

That’s a parasocial relationship: a one-sided consumption of information where one of the parties knows a lot about the other, but the other party is completely oblivious about the former’s existence. This used to be more common among celebrities and their fans, but in an era of oversharing, many non-celebrities are gathering audiences that know a great deal about us. They feel close with us because of how much is shared by us on the daily, whether via our blogs, or microblogging platforms like Twitter, or through our photos on Flickr and videos on YouTube and Vimeo. Maybe we’re even Facebook “friends.”

But it doesn’t mean anything because there’s no real relationship.

QUALITY CONTACTS

“The real value is in the quality of the relationship and not the quantity of contacts,” says Adam—and he’s right.

In A list of 10 social media habits that I am stopping immediately, John Welsh announces that he will no longer ignore people he adds on Facebook after accepting their request.

“As soon as I accept a ‘friend request, I write a comment on their wall,” Welsh writes. “Why did I imagine that accepting a ‘friend request’, and not saying hello, was anything but rude?”

He’s right, but that’s not all there is to it. A relationship is more than a DM or an e-mail or @replies or comments on your photos or a funny back and forth on Facebook walls. Hell, a relationship is more than sporadic IM conversations, e-mails and even phone calls. A relationship is a social commitment.

“Relationships, whether they’re on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social network, are held to the same guiding and ethical principles of those we cherish in the real world,” says Brian Solis in his piece Finding the Tweet Spot – Top Tips for Building Twitter Relationships. “Think of them as investments where the ROI is intelligence, social capital, respect, trust, and friendship. Individuals on both sides must realize mutual benefits and advantages for cultivating short-term or long-term relationships. You are equally responsible for contributing ongoing value.”

The piece by Solis is full of ways to maximize one’s connections online. My favorite bit of advice: “Remember, always pay it forward and never forget to pay it back… it’s how you got here and it defines where you’re going.”

SCRATCH MY BACK…
I’LL TOTES SCRATCH YOURS AFTER I’M DONE SCRATCHING THE BACKS OF 449 OTHER PEOPLE!

Ask anyone about what a relationship is and you’ll hear something about giving as much as you take. The biggest issues I have had in interpersonal relationships have come about as a result of one party feeling they’re giving more than they’re getting, so it’s no surprise that this is one of the biggest complaints in social media.

“Big names don’t like coming to events because people are always asking something,” someone explained to me at a recent tech event in Los Angeles.

Everyone talks about the popularity contest in social media, the race for more followers, for higher trends and better grades. What about the flip side? The day you can’t go on IM because your screen explodes with 50 different “friends” asking something? The night of some big event when your phone blows up with texts and calls from “friends” wondering if you can get them in?

Even from the nosebleed section, I can see it’s a hell of lonely place down there, center stage, with all eyes on you. You just can’t do it all. Even if you want to, you just can’t. We’re overextended.

Even I, with only (only?) 450 Facebook friends and 2,350 Twitter followers, am over my head.

I want to make good on my social commitment. I would love to read the blog of every person who reads my blog and retweet every person who has ever retweeted me and answer every e-mail and every phone call. But as the barriers go down, as we interact with more and more people, it becomes harder to do this. I feel, more often than not, that it’s not that people are too important to be bothered, but that we can’t do it all. The web annihilated geographic boundaries, but there are still only so many hours in the day.

How do you strike a balance? How do you remain accessible to all who want to reach out, foster meaningful relationships, and still have enough hours in the day to work and play and rest?

pass it on!
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [kirtsy] [Ma.gnolia] [Mixx] [Propeller] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Email] More »

Tags: , , , , , ,
10 Comments Comments



Sexy Snacks: How To Make Web Like A Porn Site

January 17th, 2009 by AV Flox in intarwebz, interview, social media

POPPORN.com offers an light-hearted spin on adult entertainment industry news and events and provides regular fun, irreverent video content. I caught wind of it when they added me on Twitter a couple of weeks ago. I knew right away I had to get some more information, so I shot off an e-mail to editor-in-command Brian Bangs to get the skinny on how the site came about, how they’re making use of social media to gain popularity and where they wanna take their vision.

When did POPPORN get started and what’s the concept behind it?

POPPORN started unofficially in March of this year. Our goal with the site was to create something that offered a totally different perspective on the adult industry and then cross over adult and mainstream content.

It seems that even as the adult industry continues to reach into the mainstream there aren’t many sites dedicated to this concept. Sure, you have adult industry news sites which serve a great purpose, but they don’t really offer much to the casual adult fan.

POPPORN tries to create an environment that can reach into a more wide-spread demographic and retain a sense of humor about what adult content is.

How did the idea come about?

The idea was kind of a fluke. We are all amateur film makers with an interest in the adult business and I’m kind of a project guy so we decided at last year’s AVN [the Oscars of adult entertainment] to bring a camera and interview folks. Our perspective is a little more skewed than most adult news or review agencies and the folks and studios we covered really liked what we were doing: giving adult an attitude and opinion. So we figured creating a blog where this content could reside made the most sense. Sort of right time scenario.

Do you feel the industry has a need for this kind of angle?

I’m not sure there was a need for what we were doing, It would be a little arrogant to believe that, but I think what we saw was a void in the market for this kind of content. We knew that we could do something a little different that could put an edge on adult content, yet still keep it more mainstream for folks who aren’t diehard porn fanatics, while at the same time, adding a little levity to the adult industry as a whole.

So you see yourself developing into a mainstream-adult industry hybrid media outlet, a sort of sex for the common man, fun, accessible and real.

I would be cautious in saying we believe we can become a mainstream porn outlet, I don’t see that as a goal. But I do see us as being a fun resource for folks who are either into porn or curious about porn. A site that can give a laugh while still giving folks a valuable look into the adult industry.

Would you say it was accurate to say POPPORN was an SNL-meets-The Onion of adult entertainment?

Hmm, I never thought about the SNL angle, but maybe, yes.

Are you making money with the site? If not, how do you finance your endeavors?

We are making money off of the site. We sell advertising and while it’s not making us rich, it runs our site.

A lot of people are getting on the social media bandwagon—obviously Twitter was how we connected initially. How has that been working for you?

I think that taking advantage of social networking is the key in a web 2.0 environment. Twitter and Myspace have been excellent resources in helping folks find us who may not have had the opportunity to find us in the past. Those networking sites spread like wildfire and we’ve been very successful with finding new readers taking advantage of them.

Honestly, the success we have had has been through a lot of persistence and word of mouth. We’ve just focused on trying to create something new and unique, something that we are proud of that makes us laugh. It seems that kind of attention to the process has resulted in folks responding very positively and it’s trickled down from there via word of mouth.

What are your visions for POPPORN in the future?

A ton. We actually launched a sweepstakes for this year’s AEE [Adult Entertainment Expo] show sponsored by AVN so we’ll be running around shooting tons of content there. We’re also shooting the red carpet at the AVN Awards with Wicked Pictures contract star Jessica Drake, she’s co-hosting with our host Spock Buckton and then in the New Year we are shooting our first adult film. We are partnering with a major adult studio to bring our retardation to a living room near you!

What’s your first film about?

Our first film is kind of classified at the moment. Ideas tend to get ripped off like crazy in the adult business but it will tie into POPPORN very directly and feature a lot of the characters and stars we feature on the site.

As filmmakers do you eventually see yourselves eventually running your own studio?

We are considering developing into a studio; however, there is so much bad porn out there we want to take it very slow to make sure what we put out is worth the consumers’ dollars.

What do you mean when you talk about bad porn?

There is an influx of cheap, poorly-made porn. Bad lighting, poor production values, etc. When someone tries to make a funny adult film, it’s rarely funny. I mean, watch Not The Bradys XXX and you will see what I mean. As for how we can improve on it—I think that we have a certain personality that will come through in our films.

POPPORN isn’t currently looking for talent for their debut film, but they’ll always take your n00dz.

pass it on!
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [kirtsy] [Ma.gnolia] [Mixx] [Propeller] [Reddit] [Slashdot] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Email] More »

Tags: , , , ,
2 Comments Comments



« Older Entries

  • AV Flox writes about web culture; new media’s gradual overthrow of old media; trends in social media; and the complicated entanglements people get themselves into as we venture forth into this new world where, more and more, the analog is colliding with the digital.

  • Hosted by: