We decided to promote the events with Ignite style presentation from the members. The Ignite presentation format of 5-minutes, 20 slides, automatically advancing every 15 seconds has produced some truly enlightening presentations. We filmed almost all of the presentations and they’re available to you online: http://ignitesteamboat.com/videos/

The Ignite Steamboat events are completely free.

Growth

2 years ago this thing started with just a handful of people. Now, there’s 142 on the list and we’ve had great participation at the Ignite events. If you’ve been looking for a group that promotes fresh thinking, connects entrepreneurs and interesting people, Ignite Steamboat may be your thing.

Spark Talks

In November we introduced Spark Talks. Spark talks are live video interviews via Skype with thought-leaders and entrepreneurs from around the country.

The hope is that their words ‘spark’ you to start something meaningful. The response from these special guests has been nothing less than enthusiastic and supportive of what this group is about.

If you’ve missed these, they’re available online for you here: www.ignitesteamboat.com/spark-talks/

A Night of Innovation

Next Thursday (April 7th) we have our biggest event yet with 3 incredible Spark Talks Lined up:

• Charlene Li – Author & Social Media Innovator
• Brad Feld – Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist & Founder of Tech Stars
• Chase Jarvis – Professional Photographer, Entrepreneur & Innovator

Charlene Li

Charlene Li

First up is Charlene Li. This woman is amazing and we’re really honored for Charlene to spend some time with the group. If you have any interest in forward thinking business practices, social media or the new rules of leadership, this is for you. 
- Named by Fast Company as one of The Most Influential Women in Technology
- Named by Fast Company as one of The 12 Most Creative Minds of 2008
- “Groundswell” named by Fortune Magazine as one of the 3 best Web books of 2008
- “Groundswell” named by Advertising Age as number 3 of 10 Books You Should Have Read
www.charleneli.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu6iCb6Xhgk

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Chase Jarvis

Chase Jarvis

Next will be world-famous photographer & entrepreneur Chase Jarvis. This guy has taken the photography industry to a new level and he got his start here in Steamboat! 
What Chase brings to the table is way more than photography.  Sure he’s a phenomenal photographer but his approach opened up what had traditionally been an industry built on secrecy and fear. So even if photography isn’t your thing, Chase has a lot to offer.

There’s no doubt you’ve seen his work for brands like Nike, Pepsi, Volvo, Reebok, Apple, and Red Bull!
www.chasejarvis.com
Chase Photographs New Zealand

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

Brad Feld

Brad Feld

We have Mr. Brad Feld scheduled to speak with us live via Skype. Honestly I wish just typing his name would be enough for you to camp out in front of the Smokehouse to ensure a seat but I realize that some of you may need more convincing. Brad has been the driving force behind the incredible technology & startup growth in Boulder.   


The current book club book, Do More Faster was co-written by Brad. 


Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies. Brad is also a co-founder of TechStars.
www.feld.com
Brad Feld on Techstars

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

What Are You Waiting For?

This promises to be our biggest Ignite event yet! There’s a cap of 60 max – so the first 60 to RSVP are in. There are a few spots left so please RSVP now if you’d like to go!
 
Act now and save your spot!

Videos & More

I posted several videos of our Spark Talk guests on the site. Go here to check it out: http://ignitesteamboat.com/2011/03/a-night-of-innovation/

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Noreen Moore, Chad James, Jens Owen & John Moyer, all co-organizers, for their persistence, hard work and value they’ve been providing this group.

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Find the 5 Mistakes - Click to Enlarge

There are at least 5 mistakes in this ad that, if avoided, would make this ad much more effective. Can you find them?

(The fact that it’s print isn’t one of them )

Leave your thoughts in the comments and I’ll follow-up with answers in a few days.

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

They created videos to target new moms by speaking directly to them with catchy reasons why Motrin is such a great choice to help them get through their day. If only the videos could go “viral” then the world would be right. They had no idea what was about to happen.

The marketing campaign launched with the slogan: “Motrin. We feel your pain.” The video-based social media campaign was promoted with magazine and TV ads. The visits to the online videos began to rise. Soon the hits skyrocketed and they thought they had a home run. But nothing could be further from the truth.

There was a big problem with how the videos referred to the way new moms carry their kids. The videos claimed that their choice of child portage was a “fashion statement.” Unfortunately many new moms were very sensitive to this reference. To make matters worse, these weren’t just any new moms, these were connected new moms.

It turns out many of these new moms were connected through a relatively (at the time) new channel called Twitter. Through Twitter, they began to communicate about the videos that offended them so much. Word began to spread and it was this communication channel that was driving all the traffic to the videos. The trouble was, no one on the other side was listening. No one at Pfizer or their marketing agency was listening or monitoring Twitter and they had no clue what was going on.

It wasn’t until a few mainstream blogs posted what was happening, then CNN ran a story that Motrin pulled the videos and an apology was issued by Pfizer-Motrin. But by then it was too late.

The video had been copied and posted on YouTube. Angry new moms went on YouTube and posted their own angry video responses to Motrin.

The campaign was a total failure. What’s worse for Motrin is the online damage is permanent. If you Google “Motrin Moms” you find almost 400,000 hits, most of which relate to this story.

If only Pfizer-Motrin were listening.

What this Means to You

Never before have we had the opportunity to listen in real-time to the conversations, thoughts and comments people are having, about nearly any topic. And yet the first thing most organizations do when they approach social media is to start “broadcasting.” They start spouting their message as if social tools are a new broadcast medium without any regard for what people are saying about them or their industry. What a waste.

Do the opposite. Spend a great amount of time and energy setting up and using social media as listening devices. By having good listening devices in place, you’ll be much more prepared to respond and connect with people and topics that matter. By listening to the conversations about you, your business & industry that are taking place now, you’ll be in a better place to discover and take advantage of opportunities.

As the buzz of a new situation begins to surface, you’ll be in a better position to evaluate how that might be an opportunity for you.

Listening helps you make better decisions. The flood of ideas, projects and demands will never stop. But, having the knowledge of what resonates with people within the social media space will help you prioritize and support the right projects, for the right reasons.

Recommended Tools

As you begin to build your Social Media Toolbox, we recommend the following listening tools:

Google Reader is a way to monitor what is being said across the internet about any subject which interests you. It takes 5-10 minutes a day to scan the web for mentions of your company and/or any keyword that influences your business.

Social Mention searches user-generated content such as blogs, comments, bookmarks, events, news, videos, and microblogging services. It allows you to easily track what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time.

http://bit.ly/9D7fTx (tutorial video)

Hootsuite is a good way to be engaged in social arenas in which you willingly participate. It does not measure all social mentions, but rather streams mentions where YOU have chosen to reach out to your consumer and feeds responses through one localized platform. Hootsuite is touted as the most relevant web application for Twitter. You can schedule all your posts days, weeks, even months out.

http://bit.ly/avZITH (demo video)

Radian6 at the high end of the scale gives you a complete platform to listen, measure and engage with your customers across the entire social web.

Highly recommend watching this short video:
http://bit.ly/bngXYd (Gatorade brand video on importance of social listening. – Radian6 customer)

[box type="note"]UPDATE: This video, just released by Gary Vaynerchuk speaks to this very post.[/box]

[fblike]

[hr]

[box type="note"] Web Camp starts December 9th! Are you in? More details at www.webcamp.co [/box]

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

It’s surprising to learn that most of us work in a way that doesn’t fit how our brain works. For example, most of us check email first thing in the morning. That’s the opposite of what we should do. There’s plenty more enlightening and counterintuitive lessons in the book.

This is a video of a talk the author gave at Google which summarizes much of what’s in the book.

(Click here if you can’t see the video.)

Get the book at Amazon.com

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Give this video a spin. Gary calls it like he sees it and gives some no-nonsense advice to those in real estate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Special thanks to these guys who gave great presentations on the future of real estate marketing:

• Les Reaves of Smart SEM
• Paul Reinarz of Rezora
• Kerry Shea of Wildhorse Meadows

We’ve gotten some GREAT feedback and hope to do something like this again.

We all had a great time!

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Speed is Power

“In this economy?” It’s a phrase I’m hearing over & over again. People and organizations are using this phrase as a blanket statement to say “no,” “stop,” “we can’t.” This phrase has become the catchall to stop the very thing that just might get them out of “this economy.”

I don’t buy it. It’s as if they’re suggesting this economy has a finish line and once we cross that line we’ll be in “that better economy” then we’ll move forward. Meanwhile their competitors are moving ahead. Their competitors are leaning into the problem, creating new value, new connections, making mistakes but learning from them.

We have entered an era where speed is power. Those who can move fast, innovate and answer the needs of the market faster, win. Those stuck in antiquated methods, compromise at every turn, and use the phrase “in this economy?” loose.

Two guys, Steve and Jon, invented the iPod. It took over 265 people to create the Zune.
Which do you want?

Tweet a TV tech question to @Twelpforce and get an answer in seconds from the helpful BestBuy employees.
Where might you buy your next TV?

Need it today? Amazon is offering same day delivery in select cities and Saturday delivery is standard on Prime accounts.
Where will you shop online?

HelloHealth allows you to interact with your doctor Facebook style and get medical answers quickly.
Better than “We’ll see you in a week.”

Speed is power. More so than ever in “this economy.”

Real estate isn’t immune. Buyers want help and information when they want it, where they want it. Companies, possibly your competitors, are rushing in to fill the huge hole left open by lumbering real estate giants stuck in yesterday’s thinking. You can too. You have all the tools, opportunity and leverage to make great things happen in “this economy.”

The internet, new communication channels, social media, print-on-demand, low-cost back office solutions and unlimited outsource opportunities have leveled the playing field for everyone. There’s very little uphill on the internet and 90%+ of your business is there, searching, learning and looking for a real connection to help them through the process.

So the next time you hear the resistance chant of “in this economy?” say “Yes, in this economy. We don’t have a choice.”
(Thanks to Brian Mann for the inspiration.)

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Paul Reinarz

There are plenty of communication tools for real estate professionals to choose from but there are few that are made specifically for real estate and even fewer that are taking advantage of Web 2.0+ technology.

Rezora is just that;  a new online communications tool designed specifically for real estate that allows brokers to easily communicate with clients in a way that’s personal & relevant.

I got to speak with one of the founders of Rezora Paul Reinarz about the new service. Give it a listen.

Questions? Email Paul

(Disclaimer: I have no investment in the company nor any financial relationship with Rezora.)

Get this interview in iTunes:

Press the green button to play:

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

Steamboat School District

The recent theft of a laptop from the school district finance administrator really brings home how vulnerable we all are. Since my wife works for the school district we are now having to implement identity theft protection. Yeah the school is paying for it for a year but its still a pain. All they had to do was take a few simple, free measures and this could have been avoided.

So what would it mean to you if your laptop/computer were stolen? How much client data (contracts, social security#’s, financial data) would be at risk? Could you imagine the phone call to ALL your clients to tell them that their identity may be compromised because your laptop was stolen? How’d that be for your reputation?

With increased mobility we are at a much higher risk of theft  and therefore have an increased responsibility to protect the data and information of our clients, contacts & families. The good news is that it’s very easy and free. In today’s world you have to encrypt sensitive data on your computers. Period, no exceptions.

You have to encrypt sensitive data on your computers. Period, no exceptions.

The Windows login password is NOT encryption. When someone steals your laptop they simply remove the hard drive, put it in a USB enclosure, plug it into their computer and they have total access to ALL your data. So here’s a quick tutorial on how to secure data on Windows.

First you need to decide what need to be secured. Here’s a few things to think about at a minimum:

• Financial information of any kind – credit info, SSN, bank records, Quickbooks, etc
• Confidential client information
• Business plans & other sensitive proprietary information
• Email – especially if you email sensitive information (which you should not do unencrypted)

Second, you need to create a secure place on your hard drive to store all this data. This is called a “virtual drive” or “volume.” So just like you have a “C:” drive (in windows) encryption software creates and encrypted container and when given the correct password will mount as a drive that can store all your sensitive data. There are a lot of encryption programs to do this and if you’re in Windows I recommend TrueCrypt. It’s FREE, easy to use and has a strong community that keeps it up to date. Macs have built in encryption that can do the same thing (yay Mac!).

How to Install (Windows)

Ok, this may look like  lot of steps but it will take you less than 15 minutes to do. First, download and install TrueCrypt from

www.truecrypt.org.

Then you need to set up the container for the virtual drive. You’ll need to figure out how big it needs to be and that will depend on how much data you have. In this example we’ll make a 1 gig encrypted drive which is really small. You’ll probably want to make some thing on the order of 10gig or more.

So start TrueCrypt and select “Create Volume.” The volume is going to be our protected container to store the sensitive stuff.

Click to enlarge

Next we want to create a “Standard Volume:”

Click to enlarge

Ok, now we have to create the file name. This is kind of confusing because Truecrypt says “Select File.” Actually you just need to browse to the place on your hard drive where you want the file to be. Keep in mind you’ll need to find a place that has enough room for the file. In this example, we’ll use the c: drive.

Click to enlarge

As you can see, I called the file “MySensitiveData” with no file extension. and it’s in the root of C:

Click to enlarge

On the next screen you can simply accept the default encryption method. Click Next.

Click to enlarge

Now you need to specify the size of your encrypted drive. For this example we’ll use 1gig. 1000 mb = 1gig do we’ll put in 1000 and select the mb size. If you wanted a 15gig  drive you’d need to put in 15 thousand mb or 15000. Click next.

Click to enlarge

Carefully read the info for the password and be sure to choose a secure password. Enter the password twice then click next.

click to enlarge

On the next screen you’ll have to choose the file system. I’d recommend NTFS because it can hold larger files than FAT. In this example we’ll choose FAT. Then click “Format”

Click to enlarge

Depending on how big your volume will be this will take some time to create.

Click to enlarge

You’ll finally get the confirmation screen that your volume has been created. Click “Exit.”

Click to enlarge

OK, now we have to mount the drive. In other words we have to get Windows to recognize the drive and give us access its contents. So we go back to the main TrueCrypt screen and select the file we just created.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Enter the password and select a drive letter from the list. It can be any drive letter but I tend to choose a letter that’s “M” or higher. That way it’s less likely to conflict with other devices I might add later like another external drive. In this example I choose “O:”

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

If you now open Windows Explorer you’ll see the drive is there and ready.

Click to enlarge

Ok, now to make life easy, we want this drive to mount automatically every time we start windows. When windows starts the only thing we’ll need to do is enter the password. This is what keeps the bad guys out & our data safe. So, click on the volume we just created and from the “Volume” menu above click “Save Current Volume as Favorite.”

Click to enlarge

Now select Tools-then settings and make sure you have the boxes checked just like the screenshot:

Click to enlarge

You’re now done creating the encrypted volume. Now move your sensitive files to the drive and you’ll be set. If you want to move your email to the drive you’ll need to move the email DB and  update your email program to point to the new location. Be sure to update your backup program to include the files in the new drive. Next time you start Windows you’ll be asked to enter a password and the drive will automatically mount. One note of caution: You should give someone else you trust the password or store it in a safe place that can be found if something should happen to you. This data is locked down and can never be retrieved if something happens to you and no one else has access to the password.

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

There were other media outlets chanting predictions like “The end is near,” and “Will this be the next great depression?” Here’s a picture from an Apple Store I was in recently and, I promise, they were not serving soup:

Apple is doing really, really well. So well in fact that this past quarter Apple, that sells premium products, had their best non-holiday quarter in Apple history. So, I think it makes sense to look at some strong companies, especially companies who have either survived or thrived during very tough times. If you go all the way back to the Great Depression you can find some interesting companies that thrived and grew during that time. You don’t need to go very far because it turns out some interesting things happened here in Steamboat.

Steamboat & the Great Depression

When the Great Depression hit around 1929, about 50 percent of Steamboat businesses died. Even the main bank of Steamboat, First National Bank, closed its doors and most Steamboat residents who had all their money in that bank lost everything. These guys lost just about everything as well:

Clarence & Olin Light

These two guys are Clarence and Olin Light and at the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929 they had a very tough decision to make. They could continue business as usual and face an almost certain end or they could try to take advantage of some of the tools of the day, take a risk, do some things a little differently, modify their business and see what would happen. They choose the latter. Clarence & Olin leveraged the tools of the day to be able to market themselves and connect with customers and provide value in a way that had never been provided in this area. In 1929, they took F.M. Light & Sons on the road, bringing their products to the ranches and farmers and people in rural areas. They initially started with their own cars by filling them with products and taking them on the road to ranches and farm houses to show samples & take orders. Business took off and soon they expanded to several trucks to meet the demand.

Tools of the Day

So the point is, rather than sit in their retail shop clinging to outdated business methods, hoping things would work out, they used the tools of the day, trucks and mail, to generate new business. And so they traveled all over northwestern Colorado, Wyoming, and down into Eagle County. F.M. Light & Son not only made it through the Great Depression but they actually grew during the Great Depression. It turns out that between 1929 and 1930 their business increased by 30 percent because of what they were doing and it increased again between 1930 and 1931. By the time 1937 rolled around, and most of the country was out of the Great Depression their floor space was three times bigger than it was before the depression and their store had expanded twice.

You Have a Choice

Today we’re all in a similar position in that we can continue to do business as usual and continue to go down that road or we can begin to look at business in a different way and take advantage of the new tools of the day to connect and communicate with new businesses and new customers, deepen our relationships and grow our businesses.

Sure some of these new tools include social tools like Facebook & Twitter but these are just the latest & loudest tools. There are many others worth exploring; tools that can help manage relationships, projects & assets. Tools that can help you create better email news letters, manage your time and help you be a little more independent from the office. Here’s a graphic of every online service I use to communicate and manage business everyday:

Click to enlarge

Most are free or very low-cost so what are you waiting for?

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology

In this 20+ min presentation, Jeff Jarvis offers interesting insight into how to listen to the conversations your customers are having and benefit in the new world of Google.

(Click here if you can’t see the video.)

BRITE Conference on Vimeo.

Like it?

Get Jeff’s book here:
What Would Google Do?

Click to see a bunch more Jeff Jarvis on YouTube.com

Altera Marketing Group - New Media Marketing & Technology