Debbie Bolduc of Franklin Savings Bank first brought this story to my attention back in October 2009, and it quickly made its way into our presentations as a powerful example of how building a dedicated tribe through social media has tremendous, far-reaching, and even unexpected benefits.
Short summary: In September of 2009, Vermont’s Rock Art Brewery got a cease-and-desist letter from Monster Energy Drinks (subsidiary of the multi-billion-dollar Hansen’s Natural Beverages). They wanted Rock Art to stop using “The Vermonster” as the name of one of its microbrewed beers. Rock Art found out they could fight it in court and have a good chance to win, but it would likely bankrupt the comparatively small-pocketed company in the process.
A month and a half after receiving the C&D letter, thanks to thousands of people joining a Monster boycott movement on Facebook and nearly 2 million tweets on Twitter about it (which also got the attention of one of their US Senators), Monster dropped the case. Or, as CNN succinctly puts it, “Matt [Nadeau, Rock Art's owner] used social media to publicize his plight and settled the dispute amicably.”
Yes, that’s right - this social media groundswell also led to television coverage on major news outlets, including this piece last week on CNN. And the best news - as you’ll hear at the end of the report - is that Nadeau leveraged the power of his tribe to create real change in how small businesses like his, yours, and ours can protect their trademarks.
Heard the news about Twitter? It’s yet another password hack, but it’s not really their fault. (Really!)
Since some of the things I’ve read required me to read them two and three time to understand what was up, and since I had a client ask me whether they should be worried about their account, I thought I’d share with you a very simple explanation for this latest Twitter security breach, and plan of action for you, in 6 easy points:
1. Some file-sharing websites/forums (also called “torrent” sites) have turned out to be hacker scams, thought out over the long-term. Hackers built online forums and sold them to unsuspecting folks, secretly keeping the ability to access complete lists of usernames and passwords for themselves.
2. As a sweeping generalization, people like to use the same username and password across all their different logins anywhere on the Internet whenever possible (from your newsletters to online banking to web-based email to Twitter).
3. When these hacker-compromised forums get popular and get enough users, there’s enough reason for hackers to go back in, pull the lists of usernames and passwords, and use them for nefarious purposes.
4. One of those nefarious purposes was to break into Twitter accounts - likely to send spam, scam people for more confidential information, et cetera.
5. So if you use file-sharing forums, or software like BitTorrent, and you want to keep using it, then you’ll need to change your password for Twitter (and would be advised to do it in every other online venue you use that requires a password).
6. And if not, then you don’t have to worry about it for the short term…but do consider the idea of changing passwords more frequently and (to be REALLY safe) use different passwords for different sites where possible, so they’re not repeated across websites/forums.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 11:47 pm and is filed under Insight + Action.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Allen and I are in the midst of an extended “Spurt.”
What’s a SPURT?
Well, according to, um, me (and some maniacal-looking scribbles in a few notebooks), a Spurt is a distinct chunk of time in the life of an entrepreneur, creative professional, artist, and/or forward-thinking business person. It’s a magical time of focused creativity, heightened productivity, and determined and dogged propulsion.
This propulsion part is an interesting mix. Some of it is self-rocketed, sure. But a big part of it is of the “Manifest Destiny” realm. As hokey as it sounds, there’s some sort of spiritual inevitability component, a cosmic coasting, if you will. When you’re in the midst of a Spurt, things get done. Momentum flows. Issues that may have held you up for months — and sometimes years! – are handled swiftly and confidently with one bold decision after another.
From a two-bit, overly simplified (and probably misinterpreted) quantum physics standpoint, a Spurt is a creative wormhole wherein the Unmanifested becomes the Manifested. Ideas that have been swirling around in God-knows what dimension find their exit strategies, and take their cues. You do the plucking and pulling, and they fall into place accordingly.
As the mere human who’s been given the gift of facilitating the transition of an idea into its physical reality, you may feel more like an observer than a participant. That’s OK. They key to effective Spurting is to accept your marching orders, take the ACTIONS necessary to transform metaphysical IDEAS into their physical counterparts, and TRUST THE PROCESS.
Sometimes, you may feel like you’re dreaming. You may feel like you’re in a daze, you can’t even remember how you got from point A to point B, and you’re shocked at what you’ve managed to create, produce, devise, concoct, and MANIFEST in such a short period of time.
If you watch the TV show Heroes, you’ll understand it best with this example. A Spurt is when your superpowers kick ON, and you’re not even really aware of it. You know how, on the show, artists who paint the future have freaky, pupil-less, all-white eyes when they go in the zone to “see” what’s going to happen next?
That’s a Spurt.
For Allen and I, our Spurt is taking shape through a 3-part Teleseminar Series on “How to Recession-proof Your Business” that we just finished up. The materials we’ve created, the energy we’ve channeled, and the information we’ve shared have all come tumbling out of us so quickly, with such purpose and power, we are having trouble taking ownership of it all.
Quite frankly, we’re stunned. And proud. What’s more, our actions have opened up a bunch of other possibilities and opportunities, and they’re all playing into a bigger plan — one that’s unfolding before our eyes. It’s exciting, a little intimidating, and it’s often frustrating because we can’t necessarily see the whole picture all at once…YET.
Still, we acknowledge that SOMETHING is happening here. SOMETHING is upon us. We’re in the midst of SOMETHING very special, even extraordinary.
Our buddy Kevin Skarritt flagged this post about “Managing urgencies” by Seth Godin for his staff and strategic allies recently, and wanted to hear everyone’s insights on it.
Godin’s solution for making sure you keep your focus on your goal, rather than the fires you have to put out in your business, is this:
I guess the trick is to make the long term items even more urgent than today’s emergencies. Break them into steps and give them deadlines. Measure your people on what they did today in support of where you need to be next month.
Ah…but how do you make your long-term items more urgent?
In the corporate world, managers can make the long-term goals more important for their employees by tying those goals to performance reviews, bonuses, salary boosts, and so on.
But what about the lifestyle entrepreneur? The solo professional? The micro-enterprise or small business owner?
Variations on the “How do you make your long-term items more urgent?” question have launched a thousand careers. From business coaches to motivational experts, helping people achieve their goals is a multi-billion-dollar business, and the success stories - no knock against any of them, it’s just life - requires a “results not typical” disclaimer.
In the face of so many people, with so much more experience, I’m not going to presume that I have the revolutionary answer to this question, the one that would make Epiphanies, Inc. become the be-all, end-all of personal motivation.
What I can tell you is that I made one small change, and it’s made a world of difference for me.
We have a number of clients, and I have a weekly to-do list for them. I draw my daily to-do items from that, and work in any “urgent” stuff as need be.
Previously, I used to put the to-do items for our own business at the bottom of lists. In 2008, I started putting them at the top.
Three months later:
I’ve blogged much more for our business this year than I did over the same period last year.
I’ve produced more articles.
I’ve gotten our information products onto our website and available for sale (after a year of having them created).
I’ve had more sales and lead-generation conversations than I did all last year.
In other words, I’ve become more of a business owner working on our business, rather than just being a technician working in our business.
Ultimately, trying different things until one stuck has helped in making the right things urgent. It’s not perfect - there are still things on which I need/wish/want to prioritize for our business - but I’m headed in the right direction, finally.
Ever heard of Judson Laipply? No? Well this guy may be one of the smartest, savviest, and/or LUCKIEST marketers of all time.
Why?
He managed to:
Package his talents in a six-minute window
Spend nothing on marketing and advertising and get TONS of free media coverage by the biggies - like The Today Show, Good Morning America, Rolling Stone mag, and Oprah - by leveraging a FREE tool
Get more than 77 million people to watch him shake what his mama gave him…AND share it with millions of others voluntarily!
In fact, whether you recognize his name or not, chances are you’ve seen Judson strut his stuff (or rather, dance his butt off). According to Wikipedia and his website, Judson (Jud) Laipply is an inspirational comedian “best known for his performance in the Evolution of Dance clip [below], which is currently the #1 Most Viewed (All Time) Video, #1 Most Favorited (All Time) Video, and #9 Most Discussed (All Time) Video on YouTube.”
I don’t know what kind of revenue streams Mr. Laipply has enjoyed because of his decision to follow INSIGHT with ACTION, but I have a hunch his decision to upload a six-minute video to YouTube has paid off handsomely.
He didn’t wait for a team of experienced video professionals to capture his routine. He didn’t need the audio to be “just right,” or hours and hours of footage to communicate his vision.
Instead, he used other people’s content (i.e. the songs!), mashed ‘em up in an entertaining way, and took his audiences on a journey of nostalgia, pop culture, and abject silliness.
What are you doing these days to connect with your peeps in a fun, bold, fearless, and effective way?
You don’t need million-dollar marketing budgets or fancy technological know-how or everything perfectly poised, plucked, and polished before you GET OUT THERE in front of your Ideal Audience.
What you DO need is a good idea, a little creativity, and the determination to “A-Ha Yourself!” - which is to put a little JOY-FILLED ACTION into your BOLDEST INSIGHTS.
Got it?
Now, here’s Judson’s perfectly imperfect masterpiece, to inspire you to take some chances and do your thang, in case you somehow missed it.
In his blog post on January 7th, good friend and social networking thought leader Kevin Skarritt flagged an all-important list for me, hubby Allen, and anyone else in the trenches of the Internet Marketing Revolution. This list is Tamar Weinberg’s “Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007,” which is a super-rad collection of Tamar’s “favorite timeless posts of 2007, complete with descriptions about each blog post (which more than quadrupled the workload for me this time around, especially because I tripled the amount of links, but I had fun!).”
This amazing, exhaustive, well-though-out list has earned Tamar more than 180 comments and trackbacks (which means more attention to her site by people AND search engines!), not to mention the GRATITUDE of peers, bloggers, and professionals in the internet marketing community who love the idea of a fully-loaded resource of information and inspiration like this, all in one place.
What a fab way to “A-Ha Yourself!” - take the initiative to collect, order, and share information you know will help you and countless others down the road. Smart, efficient, considerate, pragmatic…basically, ultra keen all around.
Did I mention the list contains more than 250 well-considered and laser-summarized links to top-notch articles and resources around the World Wide Web? Here are the categories Tamar covered:
Social Media Sites: General
Facebook
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
LinkedIn
Twitter
Mixx
del.icio.us
Sphinn
Social Media and Social Media Marketing
General Internet Marketing
Viral Strategies
Link Resources
Blogging: General
Blogging: Inspiration
Blogging: Promotion
Content Generation
Reputation Management
Video Articles
BusinessSearch Engine Optimization
Search Engine Stuff
Web Development
Search Marketing Tools
Paid Search
Recommended Books
Affiliate Sites
Domaining
And finally, Techipedia’s Best Posts for 2007
Look, I’m exhausted just PASTING the names of the categories. Tamar’s devotion to sharing the articles within these categories - AND commenting about each one! - is truly a feat of Herculean proportions. If I’m lucky and honest, I’ll get around to scanning a dozen or so of the articles she recommends. Still, the fact that they’re all in one place - and now I’ve got ‘em on OUR blog for super easy reference! - this makes me so happy I could spit like a teething llama.
(Oh, and what a great example of the power of ARTICLE MARKETING, eh? Each one of these authors is now being celebrated as a “best of 2007″ expert by an industry insider. Bingo!)
I really like Sean D’Souza, a savvy New Zealand marketing dude and Grand Poobah behind www.Psychotactics.com. I’ve applauded him for several years now. He’s got an easy, accessible style about him, and he delivers the goods with panache. Best of all, you can tell by his writing and wit that he’s a guy who likes to have FUN. We need more of those types of peeps, don’t we?
He also says I can share his articles on our blog, as long as we include his resource box. So I’m sharing this one. To me, it’s a real-life example of how to follow insight with immediate action that produces a tanglible, pragmatic result (i.e., an article for you to employ, as needed). A fine way to “A-Ha Yourself!” indeed. Enjoy!
If you’re stuck writing articles, there’s a reason why.
You’re sitting at your desk trying to write an article.
And that’s easily the worst way in the world to write an article.
Because you’re starting up from zero.
And starting up from zero is like pushing a ten tonne truck.
Kinda takes too much energy. Better to jump into a ten tonne truck on the move.
===============================================
So how do you get this momentum?
===============================================
Here’s what you need to do:
1) Keep a pen and piece of paper handy (at all times)
2) When a customer asks you a question, answer that question. In detail.
3) Then jot down the points that you covered in that answer.
4) And don’t head back to your computer. Sit down wherever you are.
Flesh out the points.
5) Then go back to your computer. And add some detail (write exactly what you told the customer).
And your article is ready.
Now you know this system intellectually, but you still aren’t writing dozens of articles.
===============================================
The biggest reason why you aren’t writing as much as you should ===============================================
We have our paper. We’ve got a loaded pen.
We know the answer to our customer’s question.
We give that answer.
Our customer walks away, having got a really satisfactory answer.
The customer is smiling. You’re smiling.
===============================================
Hang on, did you jot down the points yet?
===============================================
Because in about 45 seconds you’re going to forget most of what you said.
In fact what I do is actually write down the points when the customer is being instructed. I can’t trust myself to remember stuff later, because often I say so much that I will inevitably forget.
And just for good measure I get the customer to take notes as well.
And to feedback what I said to them. Either in person.
Or later in an email.
===============================================
But this formula may not always work for you ===============================================
Your client may not be the ‘emailing kind.’ Your business may not be the ‘tell me what I just told you’ kind. Or you may have a situation where you can’t write, while you’re instructing customers.
But about 30 seconds after you’re done, your thoughts are still with you.So write them down, because that 45 second mark is quickly approaching.
It’s time to get that content fleshed out. And time to put in some detail. Now, not later.And now that you’ve got momentum, it’s way easier to get all of those thoughts down on paper.
===============================================
But hey, that ten tonne truck is rolling…
===============================================
So why not let it roll a bit more?
Why not use the same information across media?
===============================================
Across media?
===============================================
Yup, across media.
How many ways can you present the same information?
1) Text.
2) Video.
3) Audio.
Well, that’s just a start up list.
But if you have a simple headset attached to your computer, you can record the notes in a matter of 10 minutes. If you have a video set up (and this takes a little more effort) you can have a video, in about 30 minutes. And you’ve already written the notes. But that’s not enough.
Because as notes they have limited value.
So if you were to put them into a PDF with a nice little cover, you’ve now got a tiny infoproduct that can be given away as a bonus. This bonus can be free or paid for. This bonus can be given away to alliances to give to their clients. This bonus can be used to attract prospects.
All of this leverage can take less than one hour.
The one hour you’d have spent anyway, scratching your head.
===============================================
Wondering what to put in your article?
===============================================
Well, wonder no more.
Get momentum.
Get that ten tonne truck moving.
And soon you’ll have a fleet of ten tonne trucks, eh?
You’ll be writing articles by the dozen, or by the hundreds (strange, but true).
And that, my friend is the real secret to writing articles!
P.S. I actually wrote this article while talking to a client on Skype. As I gave the client the answer to the question, I filled in the blanks in the article. Even the objection of ‘I can’t do that in my line of business’ came from the client. So yeah. I’m walking my talk. Or should I say: Writing my talk.
In a September 11th blog post, Mr. Purple Cow marketer himself explained to an inquiring mind why he’s never stingy with his ideas.
Since our Company - Epiphanies, Inc. - is all about using the “A-Ha!” (Bold Insight PLUS Joy-Filled Action) to catapult your life and biz to new heights, passions, and profits, I thought his eloquent response was worth sharing here on our “A-Ha!” blog:
…[I]deas are easy, doing stuff is hard.
My feeling is that the more often you create and share ideas, the better you get at it. The process of manipulating and ultimately spreading ideas improves both the quality and the quantity of what you create, at least it does for me.
History is littered with inventors who had “great” ideas but kept them quiet and then poorly executed them. And history is lit up with do-ers who took ideas that were floating around in the ether and actually made something happen. In fact, just about every successful venture is based on an unoriginal idea, beautifully executed.
So, if you’ve got ideas, let them go. They’re probably holding you back from the hard work of actually executing.
Right-eo, Sir Godin. Right-eo! So many people get stingy with what’s going on in their brains. “If I share the stuff I know openly, my competitors will steal it!” or “My clients won’t pay me for my services!” or “Someone will run with my million-dollar idea, and I’ll be bitter for the rest of my life!”
Yes, all that may happen, it’s true. But if you haven’t committed to an idea enough to put some actionable OOMPH behind it, you can’t be that in love with it, can you?
By all means, BRAINSTORM. Experiment. THINK. Dream. WONDER. Imagine.
Work it out in your head, talk with trusted friends and colleagues, do research, poke around the Internet and see who else is doing something similar to what’s on your mind. (And if it’s a good idea, 9 times out of 10, there ARE others playing in your idea’s territory!)
But if you find yourself dwelling in the Land of Ideas for weeks, months, and even years and never actually DOING something about ANY of your brilliant thoughts, chances are there’s a reason for your obsessive hoarding, and it’s a four-letter word that starts with “F.”
A New Hampshire small biz success story, launched by an epiphany following a near-death experience…two gutzy chicks…6000% growth in the first year…bold messaging on comfy, cozy, sun-washed tees and sweatshirts…PLUS a smiling Alec Baldwin…
I found out about their story and biz success in this article on NH.com, from where this explanatory excerpt hails:
“We’re not just a clothing company,” said Bruu, a marketing and public relations professional and owner of December Marketing. “We’re promoting a lifestyle. We’re getting people to look at their own humanity and ask themselves, ‘Am I living the life I’m meant to live?’ It’s like we’re igniting these epiphanies.”
Their own “aha moment” came after Alyson nearly bled to death after simple surgery to remove an ovary. The Big Life questions started pouring in: “Did I live a meaningful life? Did I make a difference? Was I true to myself in life?”
The conclusion to each of these questions was “No.” So the six-fig salary was ditched, and a T-shirt company was born. Bold insight PLUS joy-filled action. Ain’t it purty, tho’?
Now, the co-owners boast huge growth, international attention, and an ever-broadening fan base - all in less than two short years! - because of regular press coverage and successful viral marketing efforts. (Getting some good Hollywood exposure hasn’t hurt, either.) Cancer survivors find comfort and strength in their clothing AND powerful mini-anthems:
“Hey Cancer…You Picked the Wrong Broad!”
“Defy mediocrity”
“Because I Can”
“Mine Are Brass”
Bring It On!”
Congratulations, ladies. Excellent messaging. Stellar mission. Bold moves. You are fab examples of how to “A-Ha Yourself!”
Keep on truckin’!
for themselves.
In 
