The shirts all meant something. If it was purple, it was abuse against someone based on sexual persuasion. If it was green, it was a survivor of incest. And so on. There were all kinds of stories on the line. Each shirt was fabric art designed by someone (there wasn’t much in the way of a description), and each story was painful in its own way. Hank and I just read a bunch of the shirts and thought about it.

Hank found a few students who were related to the project, and they explained it (somewhat) to us. It was meant to raise awareness, to tell a story, to get us to think. And I guess it did all of those things. They mentioned that it was somewhat related to Take Back the Night. While listening to them talk, I was struck by the realization that this was a display that would be seen mostly by college people (1 in 4 college women suffers some kind of assault, we read on a shirt). But it would only be people on this campus seeing the effort. Further, none of the tee shirts gave us a URL for information, etc.

At moments like this, I get a mixed feeling. I appreciate the effort. I get that it’s meant to educate me, and it did. It moved me. But then, I start thinking, but we have to tell more people. We have to get the message to spread further. We have to do something bigger than a bunch of tee shirts, if we want to make the message have an impact and help others. I’m not sure it’s the right feeling to get, but that’s what I feel. I start by feeling moved. I finish by feeling we have to use our voices to get the story to travel further.

My friend, Julie Roads is promoting the movie, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, based on the book by Steig Larsson. The story has lots about domestic violence, and the book (which I just finished) also had quotes and facts about it. To me, this project will get lots more awareness, and yet, like the shirts, there won’t be a direct and obvious line between the feeling we’ll experience, and some next action we can take.

This, to me, is where marketing has a big responsibility and/or opportunity. We need to get you from the “I feel bad about this” to the “I can help in some small – or big! – way, by doing ____.” It’s just not enough to feel aware only. To me.

Am I alone in this? What’s your experience? And what do you think about when you see the shirts in this project? What else would you do to help people take back their voices?

I was part of the Hanes Comfort Crew this past week at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida (more about my Disney experience later). Basically, they wanted to show off their new lines of garments and underwear, but mostly they wanted to understand a bit more about how social media and moms/parents who use it will help influence the experience of buying more product. It’s an important game for Hanes to win. Over 85% of households in the US have Hanes products in them (the exact number eludes me, but who cares), so to grow is a tricky challenge.

How Do You Work With the Influencers?

But more so, they want to know how to build relationships through some of the great folks I got to meet like Erika Lehmann, Lori Falcon, Vera Sweeney, and more. What does the new world of advertising at a distance look and feel like? How do each of us find the right lever to help Hanes with their goals, while feeling that we’re doing something for our community?

(Quick note: the “we” and “us” in this is more my work over at Dadomatic, not here at [chrisbrogan.com].)

What’s the return on these efforts? How do you move more socks and underpants and the like?

Cause Marketing is Solid

One thing I loved: Hanes is working hard at cause marketing. They did a great project with Mark Horvath of Invisible People, not to mention that they’re a key sponsor of the Susan G. Komen foundation. And they’ve got some great plans for 2010 in that aspect. That, I believe, helps a brand: showing that they’re working with causes.

But What of Influencers?

It’s a tricky business on all sides. Large brands (not just Hanes; I’m using them as the storytelling element) are seeking relationships with people who have an audience the way publishers sought to build relationships with magazine readers and TV viewers, etc, only the way we interact as bloggers and media makers is much more different than the way shows were produced, and the lines were far more distinct between editorial and advertising. It’s a tricky situation on all sides with regards to disclosure (though I feel that disclosure is probably simpler than we make it).

And audiences aren’t the same as communities. I’ve worked long and hard at [chrisbrogan.com] to make this a community. I can’t and won’t treat you like an audience. My friends in the Hanes Comfort Crew feel similarly. Daddy Brad from DadLabs knows that his community trusts him with their time and attention. He won’t sell out for camouflage boxer briefs.

It’s an interesting time. Companies are saying, “We’re going to invest in this social media stuff, but we have to see a return.” On our side, on the media making side, you and I are going to have to find how we can ethically, seamlessly, and with value to all parties tell stories that will help all sides of the triangle.

What say you?

So, again, the book’s fine the way it is. I just came away wanting more than what he chose to write. Read other people’s much better reviews at Amazon, if you’d like ( Collapse of Distinction).

But here’s the story. Scott told me this in a follow-up email, with regards to my comment that the cover needed to change:

I went to B&N and asked for their input. I just thought it was a bit incongruent to write something creating distinction through, in part, listening to the customer — then, not ask the company I hoped to be the top retailer of my new product how I could make it better.

The head business buyer there read the book, went to the publisher and said that he wanted to do a push for the book — but absolutely hated the cover, and wasn’t willing to do anything for product he felt was so badly packaged. So, the publisher got him involved in the new design.

Think about that. Scott wanted the book to succeed. He wanted Barnes & Noble to be pleased with it. So he asked them what they wanted. Makes sense that if B&N is going to be a big distributor, you might want to care what they think of your design choices.

This one little story alone, about how Scott wanted to be sure his book was distinctive, was useful, was salable, made me go back and rethink my “meh.” I think he’s a smart cookie, so maybe you should skip my opinion and check out the book for yourself.

I’m allowed to change my vote, right?

I think this is phase one of something. But what’s interesting to me is that they reached out to me as one of 25 people to get this news. They presumed (correctly) that I’d blog about it. They figured I’d say something one way or the other.

Pepsi doesn’t get an A plus for this effort, but they get an A (updated since I re-read the part about FriendFeed: see below). I’m pleased that they’re trying. Would they have tried blogger outreach a few years ago? Would they have tried without Bonin in place? Not sure. Doubt it.

**UPDATE: I missed the bottom of the letter in my post where it shows off the new Pepsi Cooler room on FriendFeed. That’s about as two way as you can get, and also fringe cool to boot. Good on you, Pepsi.

**UPDATE 2 (2PM): It looks like the Natives at FriendFeed are getting restless. If I’m Pepsi, I’d better think about this a bit, too.

By the way, the soda still tastes the same, in case you’re curious.

Friend and blog community member Ed Shaz asked me why I thought my post about the magazine designers all using the plus (+) symbol was worth a digg request. I responded back that he certainly didn’t have to Digg it if he didn’t like it, and that led Ed to ask me why I bothered wasting a Digg request (which is sometimes viewed as offensive by a community) on such a post (which means that I presume Ed found my 24 pictures of magazines to be less developed than my typical post).

All this to tell you that finding new and engaging community members doesn’t come from sitting on your blog and writing great posts. It takes outreach, and it takes attempts to find disparate audiences that wouldn’t normally slip in to see what you’re doing.

Put another way, I know most of the social media types. I’ve had beer or coffee with most of them. They know I’m here. But maybe with that post, I might find a designer or two, or I’ll find someone who was intrigued by the observation at all (did YOU know all those plus signs were everywhere before my post?).

5 Ways to Find Community Members From Outside Your Fishbowl

1. Go to Alltop and search some categories not related to yours. Read three to five blog posts on someone new’s blog, and then leave a pertinent comment or two. Subscribe to their blog via RSS feed and get to know them. Over time, your comments (if pertinent and left without spammy promotion of your site) will encourage a reciprocal visit or two or three. (I never said this was a quick fix).
2. Go to Delicious and search for topics that are just outside your blog’s main subject, or that are at perhaps tangential. Do the same thing as step 1.
3. Write posts about an industry vertical using your blog’s perspective instead of just writing about your main focus. If you’re writing a running blog, write a post like “Top 5 Runner-Friendly Companies in Seattle” or if you’re a food videoblogger, shoot an episode called “Election Day Dinners.” In these cases, make sure you’re using tagging and that you’ve claimed your blog in a search site like Technorati.
4. Make the occasional dip into social bookmarking promotion. For my magazine design post, I actually dared to be a bit over-the-top and dugg, stumbled, reddit-ed (?), and put it up on Facebook. That’s the first time I’ve done that kind of thing in several months. Why bother (as Ed asked me)? Because I wanted outside-of-the-fishbowlers to come and see if what I was doing here stuck.
5. Encourage the occasional guest post. Partly because I’m on deadline to finish a book, and partly because I feel that guest posts are a great way to raise awareness of other great bloggers (hat tip Louis Gray for that idea), I like to encourage guest posts. The side effect of doing this, however, is that THEIR audience will come and see their post, provided the guest author points them to it. Voila, instant new friends (potentially).

One key warning is that you have to try hard not to come off as spammy in these efforts. If you burn social capital to get a few more people into your community, what good is that? Ask yourself seriously whether you’re being humble and honest about your requess, and make extra effort to promote others unbidden during this same time. (I call this karma.)

It’s nice to grow organically, and your community deserves that. Dropping off a few hundred new RSS subscribers who haven’t been around, and aren’t regulars like Sue Murphy, Ginakay Landis, Ed Shaz, Steve Garfield, Zena Weist, etc, might be a bit jarring to the community.

One last thing: if you’re going to bother to try and build community, do ask them to stick around.

If you’re a newcomer to [chrisbrogan.com], would you consider subscribing for free to keep receiving updates and new posts?

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Did That Explain Things Better, Ed?

And everyone else?

Photo Credit Phille Casablanca

None of these bloggers are on your typical Top 10, but they’re people I read nonstop. I want YOU to read them, too. Not all of them will be your cup of tea, maybe. But they’re voices that deserve more attention than the stuff I write on a given day.

In our space, in the fishbowl business, it seems like there are a scant few people getting all the links and the references. We point to the folks on top of the charts all the time, and riff off their ideas.

Wouldn’t it be more cool if we found the less-known? Wouldn’t it be better if we collected some of our favorites into “starter packs” of interesting content we should be reading/watching/listening to?

And furthermore, even amongst the bigger names, how often are you sharing the good stuff other people are doing? I’ll tell you who’s on top of the heap who shares a lot: Robert Scoble. He points me to new stuff all the time, both on his blog, but very much in his Google Reader Shared Items.

So, my question to you: are you sharing and promoting others enough? Can you do it more? How can you bring more awareness of the people who deserve it?

Photo credit (stolen without permission) Glenda Watson Hyatt