Hope you enjoy.

Quick Customer Touchpoints.

The folks at Nikon let me try out a D300s camera. It’s a lot more pro-feeling than my Nikon D-60. Honestly, I’m not yet that clever with it. I’m trying it out, and shooting stuff, and they’re giving me little tips so I can try to do better stuff with it.

I’m part of their outreach project, which they’re doing for the South by Southwest event in partnership with YFrog. So, if you check out http://yfrog.com/nikon, you’ll see what me and a few others are shooting.

Why let an idiot like me use such a powerful camera instead of someone who’s a really great shooter? There are a few reasons. One’s obvious: I have a big audience, so Nikon is hoping that I’ll somehow coax you into buying one. I’m not sure how well that kind of option works. It’s not an inexpensive camera, so it’s not like you do an impulse buy.

However, the OTHER reason they let me use it instead of some pro is that I can be more like an “everyman” user. (I’ve written about the everyman before.) This is why Scott Monty of Ford is perfect for Ford. He’s their everyman.

So, the post? I’ve got a mixed reason. First, I’m telling you, “Hey, look! Nikon wants you to see me making their camera take fuzzy shots because I’m not a good photographer, but darn it – they like me!” Second, I’m saying, “as marketers, take a look at this kind of outreach and ask yourself what’s the yield. Believe me, if I somehow magically convince you that “even I can use this camera,” which is possible maybe, then how many will I be selling?

What’s your take?

Should your company be blogging? What’s Twitter going to do for you? Why is Facebook all the rage? I’m happy to report that my new book, Social Media 101 (amazon aff link) is available for purchase.

Here are a few places where you can buy it, should you want it:

Social Media 101 – 800CEORead

Social Media 101 -Amazon

Social Media 101 – Amazon KINDLE edition

Social Media 101 – Audible.com edition

Social Media 101 – Barnes & Noble

Social Media 101 – Books-a-Million

Social Media 101 – Borders

(I’ll add more as they come about)

**Audiobook coming soon, but not for a bit. Kindle coming soon, but not for a bit.

Who Should Want This Book?

First off, the book is a collection of information that you might have read about here on [chrisbrogan.com]. Most of it comes from blog posts, tidied up to be useful to you. But that’s the point.

This book is for people who are less likely to read my blog. It’s also a way to have my information distilled in a static form so you can refer to bits as you need them. That’s one benefit to it.

Another benefit? You can share this with folks who might not normally read the blog who might need to get what we’re doing here in social media.

Make sense?

It’s Not the NEW Stuff

It’s the basics. It’s the little tricks and ideas. It’s suggestions of what to do next. Is it new and mind-blowing? No, not really. It’s important. Yes, it’s important.

Special Thanks

This book wouldn’t exist without my mom and dad. Steve Brogan and Diane Brogan did tons and tons of work on this book. My wife, Katrina, helped out, as well. Imagine that: a book brought to life by family. Hands-on by people who are NOT social media experts, but who get it. They all use these tools in their own ways, very differently from me. And yet, they use them.

Will you?

Twitter Search and Money (AMEX OPENForum)

What Third Tribe is About

It all started because of something Seth Godin said to Brian Clark (copyblogger) about marketing. Brian had written about an internet marketer type (the yellow highlighter kind) and Seth had asked which side of that kind of marketing Brian was on, as if there were two tribes: touchy feely on one side and harsh yellow highlighter on the other. Brian’s response was that he was in neither camp, and that’s where the basic seed of “third tribe” came from.

We chatted about it on the phone, and then Brian checked in with Darren Rowse (problogger), and then we all conferred with Sonia Simone (remarkable communications), and the idea came about to offer a private membership forum and information/education place to share openly about internet marketing strategies, tactics, and ideas.

That’s basically what we talk about inside the third tribe site.

(Oh, for those of you who just want to know how much, we’re doing an introductory rate of $27 USD a month for charter members, which will be your price if you buy it before Friday, February 5th [around 6PM CT]. After that, it goes up to $47 USD a month.) Want some?

Not For Everyone

What we’re covering in there is basically the “how you can do better internet marketing” stuff. It’s not about affiliate marketing per se. It’s not about “make money online” stuff per se, though some of the third tribers talk about that. But it’s definitely a place to learn and talk about what we’ve figured out works in the internet marketing place.

Because of who’s there, there are all kinds of perspectives. Darren makes his money one way. Brian does it a totally different way. Me? I’m even more different than both of them, and so we’re also learning from each other through this sharing process.

It might not be for you, and that’s just fine.

Who Else is There?

We’ve already got some great folks you might know like John Jantsch, Leo Babauta, Pam Slim, Naomi Dunford, Johnny Truant, Chris Garrett, Dave Navarro, Jonathan Fields, Hugh MacLeod, Laura Roeder, Mark McGuinness, Chris Pearson, Aaron Wall, and there are more that I’m probably missing.

Again, this stuff’s about marketing and what’s worked for us and what hasn’t. It’s been fun hearing from people in the forums sections, and I’m learning every bit as much as I’m sharing. That’s what I’m enjoying the most so far: the interactions. Yeah, there’s all this educational content that’s hopefully useful, including audio programs, worksheets, things like that. But me personally? I’m really digging the interactions in the forums.

If This Sound Good to You

I’m pretty happy about this project. I like working with Brian and Darren and Sonia, and I’m loving what I’m learning from the other folks who’ve already started in on the forums. If you want to talk privately about internet marketing and what we’re finding that works and what doesn’t, then consider joining the Third Tribe. If not, don’t worry. I’m still doing my thing here at [chrisbrogan.com].

How This Fits With Everything Else I Do

I’m still happily the president of New Marketing Labs. I’m still writing here at [chrisbrogan.com]. I’m still doing the stuff I’m doing. This was just a way to offer some ideas, insights, and interaction with people who wanted to get deep into online marketing. And no, this isn’t the education project I talked about in my newsletter. That’s still forthcoming.

For the Naysayers

Any time I talk about money, I get a bunch of emails telling me that I’ve jumped the shark or that I’m a sellout. I did when we published Trust Agents. I did when I took my first affiliate ad for Thesis. I’ll just say my part about this up front, and you can blog whatever about it elsewhere.

The reason for building a membership forum site is that we can share information that we use for our businesses. It’s not what we want to post on our blogs. It’s something people are paying to learn and hopefully use for their own business efforts, and because of that, we think it’s of value. Don’t want it? Don’t buy it. I do plenty for free, and that’s still useful, too.

It’s not for everyone. It’s for those who want to step up their online marketing game.

Get On Board

The Third Tribe Marketing site is a paid membership site. If you sign up before February 5th at 6PM (Central Time – GMT -6), the cost is $27 USD a month. If you sign up next week, the cost jumps to $47 a month. The early bird and all that.

I hope you join. I’m really excited about what’s going on there. Frankly, I haven’t been active on any kind of message board/forum in a long while, and it was kind of fun to revisit the feeling of threaded forum conversations where everyone’s voice matters.

Check out Third Tribe Marketing.

Location-based applications on mobile devices are all the rage. You might have already seen some hints of what local will do for you by using Google Local, but rest assured that this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you realize that more and more people are using smartphones, and that more and more people are searching for your business while mobile, you’re going to have to shift some attention into how you show up in the location-aware world.

Get Ahead of the Location Game

Slicing Your Social Media Pie.

Please, if you’re coming to Las Vegas for CES, make SURE you check out Social Media Jungle with Jeff Pulver and friends. It’s going to be a great event.

Photo credit Doug Haslam

Dog hiding in wrapping paper, by Chris Hershberger:

Playing with toys at the table by Janna Mock-Lopez:

Aunt Amy gives a tarantula as a white elephant gift:

And Santa visits the troops in Afghanistan, by Judy Reid:

Honorable mentions (no prize, but tons of fun):

Surprise, by Todd Earwood:

“Don’t tell Santa:”

“Dog Interrupts Holiday Kiss:”

“No More Pez for Christmas:”

Crying Daughter.

And “Bad weather on the flight home” (favorite for obvious reasons):

Bad weather on the flight home.

Now, there’s no real brilliance in my voting. I just picked photos that fit my description of what “really” goes on at Christmas. There are many more pictures in the comments.

Congrats to everyone for just being part of it. I’m so happy you’re sharing media with the world. Will you continue your projects in 2010?

There’s advice from:

• Chris Brogan (hey, that’s me!)
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Chris Guillebeau
• David Risley
• Penelope Trunk
• Chris Garrett
• Darren Rowse
• Pete Cashmore
• Jonathan Fields
• Shama Kabani
• Michael Dunlop
• Steve Pavlina
• iJustine
• Brian Clark
• John Chow

and more(?).

What’s covered in the book is:

• Detailed analysis of 15 A-List Bloggers – You Get the Whole Story
• Video, Audio, or Text for your blog? – We Help You Decide
• How to Monetize – Find the Revenue Streams that Work for You
• Learn from Their Mistakes – Cut Your Learning Curve in Half!
• The 5 Step A-List Blueprint – It’s All Laid Out for You

In reading that list of bullets off their promotional site, I thought about bullet #4, “Learn from Their Mistakes,” and my first reaction was, “Oh sure! NOW you can learn from our mistakes, after I made them for 11 years.” But don’t worry. I’ll keep making new mistakes, in case Nathan and Mike want to write Beyond Blogging 2: Electric Boogaloo.

The book is over 200 pages, and comes with some bonus materials that I’m too lazy to list out. If this kind of thing is for you, scrape up some of your holiday gift card money, trade it for paypal dollars, and rush over to their site to pick up Beyond Blogging.