The Buzz Bin had the opportunity to gain some valuable insight from the master of corporate documentaries himself, Thomas Clifford. Better known as Director Tom, this award-winning filmmaker’s extensive list of clientele includes Fortune 500 companies to non-profits. For 23 years, Tom has managed to help companies tell their stories and bring their brands to life.

BB: People assume video is easy, but it’s quite complicated. How long did it take you to become a strong professional?

TC: A few years after college, I studied intensely for two years under an amazing director who was a master at capturing short personal stories for organizations. When it came time for him to move on, I was offered the opportunity to take his position. I was more nervous than you can possibly imagine!

I was responsible for producing and directing around 50+ videos a year. That’s a tremendous amount of material to produce and direct, but I’ll tell you, I did it! And my team won numerous awards for our innovative approach to filmmaking and storytelling.

So, I’d say it took about four years at 60-80 hours a week to get to the point where I’d know what a client was looking for, see the story in my head and comfortably know how to capture it.

BB: What do you think of the flood of amateur videos, both corporate and personal hitting the market?

TC: Overall, I think it’s great. Technology has enabled many of us to tell our story in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago. That’s the good news.

I think the potential downside is twofold. First, we lose a lot of time wading through a forest of material seeking the gems. How do you recover your time? You can’t. So, portals specifically designed to help us watch exactly what we need will become increasingly important.

Second, viewers will click out of poorly produced stories from companies that don’t engage them. As a matter of fact, I’ll click out and they’ve lost me. And who knows when I’ll go back? The video story should reflect the brand, the tone, the emotions, the story.

Here’s my view: capture the best story possible. Even if it’s produced at the amateur level, you’ll have a shot at capturing the hearts of your audience.

BB: What are some of your personal favorite projects?

TC: “People” stories are clearly my favorite films to produce.

I really love people and when I’m interviewing someone and I hear their dreams, their frustrations, how they came to work at a place, why they do what they do, what makes their work special…I’m reminded of how similar our stories really are; I’m reminded our inter-connectedness.

From HR issues like diversity, corporate culture, leadership profiles or de-mystifying myths about an illness…getting to the essence of the story and connecting to your viewer is what matters.

http://www.directortom.com/director-tom/2008/6/14/are-you-asking-these-11-stimulating-interview-questions-to-c.html

BB: In your opinion, what is the key to successful Internet video creation?

TC: Short. Engaging. Meaningful. That’s what comes to mind. I recall reading an article that indicated three to five minutes is the ideal time for digital storytelling. Look at Common Craft. They take complex ideas and capture them in clear ways in just a few minutes. It works extremely well. http://www.commoncraft.com/

Internet video or not, one more thing to remember…add a “dragon” to your video.

A “dragon” is an obstacle, a problem, a challenge. If a story is sugar-coated, your audience will become skeptical because the story doesn’t reflect life. Dragons add credibility to your story, company, team, culture, product, service, etc.

http://www.directortom.com/director-tom/2008/1/23/dragons-does-your-corporate-video-story-have-one.html

BB: YouTube is not the end all be all of video sites. What are some of your favorites and why?

TC: Here’s a few of my favorite sites and films on-line:

I love these short stories on Sundance. The style, the simplicity, the honesty…these stories just grabs me right into the world of the storyteller.

http://www.sundancechannel.com/nextgarde/

Errol Morris is my favorite director. My ultimate favorite short company film is this one from Errol. He produced it for an IBM conference. The conference was eventually cancelled and the film was never completed.

http://errolmorris.com/content/aborted/projects_ibm.html

Hitachi’s True Stories video are stunning captured. Real life stories from real life people. The Hitachi plug comes in at the end to tie the story together. Beautifully filmed, I love these stories.

http://www.hitachi.us/truestories/

Quantum Shift is a great site filled with short, “higher consciousness” type videos. Climate change, business, energy, human rights, heroes, and more are all covered by submissions from around the world.

http://www.quantumshift.tv/

Global Oneness produces interesting videos on indigenous cultures, social change, sustainability, spirituality and philosophy. Bookmark it.

http://www.globalonenessproject.org/all-videos

Here’s a few of my favorite documentaries:

• Riding Giants
• Dogtown and ZBoys
• Fog of War (and everything Errol Morris)
• Roadtrip Nation (series of DVD’s)
• What the Bleep Do We Know?
• Himalaya
• Manufacturing Consent
• The Awful Truth
• Hoop Dreams
• First Amendment Project
• Hard Day’s Night
• The Beatles Anthology

BB: Do you think network television is a dying media form?

I’m certainly not the expert in this field. My take? Know one knows, really. The FCC ruling mandating stations air their material in digital formats starting in 2009 might be a game-changer. As I understand it, this opens up opportunities for more programming and more content. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean more viewers. If the content isn’t worthy of watching, then the eyeballs and eventually the revenue, won’t be present.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html

BB: What’s next for Director Tom?

Short term…First, I’ll continue producing and directing films for visionary organizations that make a difference in the world. It’s incredibly rewarding to get emails and phone calls from clients to hear how I’ve touched their lives in some positive way. It’s food for my soul and makes the journey that much more fun!

Second, writing for my blog “Bringing Brands to Life!” constantly needs attention. I’m grateful it’s doing well; the community is awesome and it’s receiving neat recognition from a variety of places.

Longer term…I’d love to publish a book. It would not be a “how-to” book but a collection of short essays and ideas reflecting my values, techniques, and thoughts surrounding producing films for organizations. Most people beginning this journey don’t know where to start, who to call or how to think about the film they really need. My book would address these issues from a customer point of view.

Thanks, Geoff, for the opportunity to share my thoughts with your readers…it’s been fun and certainly appreciated!

Thomas Clifford works with Fortune 100’s to non-profits who are losing market share and employees or people simply frustrated they can’t breathe life into their corporate story. He can be reached at tom [at] directortom [dot] com. Follow Tom on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thomasclifford

A recent e-Marketer report says from 2007 to 2012 Web-influenced store sales are expected to grow at a 19% average annual rate, compared with a 12% rate for e-commerce sales. While both brick and mortar and online are predicted to enjoy double digit growth, 19% is significantly higher than 12%.

It’s an interesting statistic because it demonstrates the critical nature of integrating new and old media, that isolated neither will not save the day. We already know that folks need to engage in web presence, and not rely solely on web 1.0 brochureware. At the same social engagement must be developed to compel people to walk into the store. Nineteen percent will be compelled by the web, not junk mail. That means strong online reputation is absolutely necessary.

The web driving brick and mortar sales reminds me of a conversation Toby Bloomberg and I had with Frank Gruber when we were considering a book project. Frank noted that great online properties all have a brick and mortar component to them, whether it’s a tie into someone’s cell phone, delivery to your house (hello Zappos!), or actual retail outlets, such as Apple stores or Dell kiosks.

In essence, as the report says, to market effectively great companies engage in “multi-channeling” information. This only makes sense as well discussed before here and on other blogs. A happy median needs to be found between social and traditional, online and brick and mortar.

From a corporate branding and marketing standpoint, content creation needs to intelligently integrate new and old. A social media tool may need to intelligently manage social and traditional channels.
A TV or print ad needs the social call to action. The social media effort may need a webinar or white paper to bulwark value.

Integrate intelligently to achieve cross tie marketing. Remember all of those great Super Bowl ads that drove people online?), list social properties on business cards and letterhead, tell people about store features using a prominent piece of real estate on a social property, etc, etc.

The word that comes to mind is balance.

With the July 4th holiday upon us, it’s clear that we’re all set to see a significant dip in traffic over the next couple of months. Bloggers and industries (even sports!) go on vacation, news tends to slow down, and overall people are spending less time on the Internet and more time outside (as they should be).

(Picture Credit: Michele Killman)

There are a number of things that you can do to beat the slump, but the most important recommendation I have is: stick with it, no matter how you do it. Some options:

Utilize Micro-blogging: Twitter continues to grow up. Geoff and I were talking the other day about how many views Parasocial received via blog and via Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, etc. Hits were overwhelmingly in favor of social networks. It makes sense - people are more likely to click through to links from their trusted networks, rather than through a blog. Not only that, but it takes a few minutes to browse a Twitter feed or FriendFeed, it takes much more time to go through an RSS reader or blogroll.

Keep it Short and Sweet: Start a meme. Participate in a meme. These are fun and easy posts that get people involved, don’t take a lot of brain power, and create lots and lots of link love. Keep up with links posts (if that’s your kind of thing) and provide short posts with commentary on what other people are writing about. Anything to keep your mind, blog, and readers going.

Be Discreet: If you don’t normally blog every day and you haven’t blogged in a few days or a week, don’t apologize for it. It simply draws attention (through RSS feeds and site visits) to the fact that you haven’t been blogging. Many people may not have noticed. However, if you are a daily blogger or blog professionally, it’s good to give people a heads up if you plan to take a mini-break. Again, take advantage of micro-blogging tools to keep in touch.

Choose to Go Dark: People will respect that. Everyone needs time away from the Internet, and what better way to spend your summer hours than enjoying long sun-filled days with loved ones? Get out and do something!

Build Up Readers and Content: Since so many bloggers do take off during the summer, use the downtime to boost your own blog. You’re guaranteed to pick up a few new readers that way. Come up with some great thought leadership pieces that can be carried over to the fall.

Just to keep things fun (and follow my own advice), I’m starting a meme.

(Photo credit: Flickr)

SUMMER MEME

4 things you like about summer

1. Longer days = more sun!
2. Rooftop dining, especially through the sunset
3. Laying out at the beach/pool and tanning
4. Driving with the top down (metaphorically speaking)

4 of your favorite vacation destinations

1. Midwest - warm days and cool mountain air at night
2. Caribbean - because it’s always a good time to go
3. California - Northern
4. Maine - love to visit my friend in Kennebunk

4 of your favorite summer foods

1. Berries
2. Corn on the cob
3. Slurpees/frozen lemonade
4. Anything that I grill outside!

4 concerts not to miss

1. Rascal Flatts
2. Any music festival - Virgin Festival, Lollapalooza, etc.
3. Old school bands - sometimes perform at local fairs, events, etc. Think 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s bands
4. Musicals - I saw West Side Story at Wolf Trap last year, great for outdoors!

4 things to avoid during the summer

1. Sunburns
2. Bug bites
3. Brain freezes
4. Spending too much time inside with the A/C!

Tagging:

• Sarah Wurrey
• Andre Blackman
• Rachelle Lacroix
• Maddie Grant
• Leslie Bradshaw
• Shannon Whitley
• Brad Levinson
• Nicole Brazell
• Karen Snyder
• Cece Salomon-Lee

The twin global crises - fuel and food. Its evident that the closer to home we ‘harvest,’ the less fuel is needed to feed us. Side effects of local consumption include feeling better about eating fresh food and contributing to a local economy.

Local is the new black. So, for your educational pleasure, here’s a roundup of local food resources on the Web (and off), from one student to many:

Online - get first hand accounts, and a lot of tips

• Blogs of note - all make the case for sustainable, local consumption, and offer tips for urban and rural dwellers: Eat Local Challenge blog, Local Food Blog, Slow Food USA Blog, Eat.Drink.Better.
• Sustainable Table offers an impressive Eat Well Guide. Enter your zipcode and find local farmers markets (there are 60 within 20 miles of D.C.), co-ops, restaurants, CSAs, a seasonal food guide and more.
• Local community sites and recipes: A quick search will connect you with resources designated for your geographic area. No one-size-fits all formula for local eating, of course. (Still, it would be nice if Whole Foods partnered with Sustainable Table or Slow Food to created ‘the USA Guide for seasonal foods and recipes by region.’ This doesn’t cut it.)

Offline - get out your glasses

• Recommended Reading: Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Consider the loss of food culture in America. We can get anything we want, any time from any where. This book helps restores our roots. Kingsolver’s website features stories of people trying to “do it locally,” and resources for the average eater. (Image credit: animalvegetablemiracle.com)
• Next on my personal list: The Omnivore’s Dilemma (already on the nightstand) and Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front.
• Go see Wall-E. Pixar’s new kiddie call to arms (“save earth” meets “fat is bad”) practically guarantees that kids are now going to pester their parents about the quantity and types of food being consumed at the table (or on the sofa).

In person - get out your cane

• Local Farmers Markets – my Sunday mornings this Spring and Summer have been given over to the local market in Dupont Circle. Freshness abounds. I stick to produce (and the Maryland crab cakes), but pastries, dairy and meat products are all available. And everything is so pretty. Find your market. (Image credit: melissamccart.)
• Restaurants: Check out that Eat Well Guide listed above to discover eateries-near-you that serve local products.

Don’t Forget to Give it Away: We can do our part by changing personal habits and looking out for our neighbors.

• Locally: America’s Second Harvest can help you find your local food bank. Slow Food is rallying donations to Midwest farmers who lost their livelihood to the floods.
• Globally: Foot riots are battering disparate nations across Africa and Southeast Asia, and the price of rice has skyrocketed globally. A mother in Haiti has to pay $1.35 for a can of rice (up from 40 cents), when her family only makes $2/day. GlobalGiving can take your dollars to Haiti.

Do you pay more to eat locally? Maybe up front, on a monetary basis. But the long run, you’re getting - and giving - exactly what you pay for.

A satirical commentary of today’s social media and blogging subculture,
Parasocial: Life in Silicon Valley examines how fan Lori Silkun meets top-ranked linux blogger Paul Murphy. A pseudo Robert Scoble makes a cameo appearance in the third scene. Also available for comment on YouTube and Digg.

This movie really had its genesis last April, when I wrote about the strange Parasocial phenomena that has arisen in our social media culture. In short, referencing a summary written last week):

From people trying to “date” rock star, favorite female or male bloggers or putting them on pedestals to the blatant stalking by people like Brian Conolly/Amanda Chapel and the Kathy Sierra nightmare, we’ve given birth to a parasocial culture.

Regardless of form (this movie takes a poke at some of the more light hearted shenanigans that go on), it seems really silly to take x,000 Twitter followers, Facebook friends, or daily readers as a sign of arrival. While we do live in a world where influencing the few means more, success in this sense doesn’t really seem to warrant the kind of silly, and quite frankly, vain attention that’s developing. Thus I could not help but make Parasocial, and what better setting for the movie than Silicon Valley, the heart of this ridiculous culture.

Last week’s Pendulum post inspired many great comments on the topic from the likes of Valeria Maltoni and Debbie Weil. Later in the week some prominent bloggers wrote related posts. Most notably Pam Slim wrote “How to avoid being ‘fan boy’ or ‘fan girl when building relationships with people you admire.’” Jason Falls wrote a post about bloggers taking themselves too seriously.

It’s good to see people are actually talking about this now. More important than the silly stuff, is becoming aware of the heinous attacks that have spread and affected several of my personal friends. These attacks range from efforts to defame and the very public case of Kathy Sierra receiving death threats. While people will be people, the Internet does not need to be the Wild West. Change begins with acknowledgment.

P.S. A light apology to Robert Scoble who served as a bit of a foil in this movie. While there may have been other choices, all of the hub bub about him coming to Washington last week for big party made him the natural choice.

Sometimes we make mistakes at work, and they can seem cataclysmic. In reality, some of the mistakes I see are made worse by the attempt to deny or bury the event, rather than take accountability and address the issues uncovered.  Even the worst mistakes can produce silver linings (image by Omar Eduardo).

To illustrate my point, here are my five worst mistakes and the lessons learned (in chronological order):

1) When I was 25 I had a boss who wouldn’t let me do anything I wanted.  Of course, I knew everything so what was the problem? Geez. Anyway, one day my boss came down on me or pissed me off or something else completely ego deflating, and I flipped out and yelled on her voicemail. 

Can you say sepuku?  Yeah, it was probation, but rather than fight the good fight, I resigned, knowing my actions were completely inappropriate. Later I made an amends with this boss, and we’ve since done business together.

Lessons learned: 1) My temper always gets the best of me. Do something about it.  2) No matter how comfortable you are with your boss, they are still the boss. Don’t cross the line. 3) Ego… More on the next one.

2) Next job (Oh yeah, don’t quit one job before you have another, doh!), I was promptly put on probation for not saying please and thank you.  Great. At this point, I had to acknowledge that my ego was going to kill me wherever I went, so I decided to eat humble pie and stick it out. And I succeeded. I received several increased responsibilities and control of three publications in six months.

Lessons Learned: 1) Being pleasant to work with is half of your job. 2) Ego is the root of almost every bad decision I make. It’s important to always look at my motives and see if fat-head disease is creeping in.

3) At 26 (notice most of these are in my twenties), I got an offer to move to Newport Beach, CA with lots of money and options, and a dot bomb, and a bunch of people who liked talking about the beach instead of real things…

Yeah. I went to get rich, and ended up humbled.  A year later I drove back across the country with the computer in the trunk and my clothes on my back. After getting fired during vacation on my cell phone along with the rest of the marketing team three weeks before our options vested. Nice (image by bucaorg).

Lessons Learned: 1) Ego was at play on this one again. I thought I was the man, but in reality too much of my personality was associated with work, and not on a spiritual life and actions, as well as my family. Losing everything to the point that I was sleeping in a friend’s basement off of 12th and Florida for two months taught me a ton. 2) Don’t ever assume you’ll get options until they are vested. 3) Don’t use VC to fund a company. They are f&ck0ng evil.

4) When I was 28, a Red Herring reporter took issue with my client and reported some incorrect facts.  It was extremely damaging, and when the reporter refused to take my calls and emailed me an incredibly snide, self-serving justification, I flamed him with a cc to the ENTIRE RED HERRING EDITORIAL STAFF. 

The president of my PR Division received a call from said reporter five minutes later. I was told another move like that would cause instant termination. Uh yeah. But Red Herring wrote three nice articles about the client after that :)

Lessons Learned: Temper again. Even justified anger does not warrant severe action. It would have been better to simply call a senior editor and take our case up the ladder.

5) At 32, I had a decent, established job at Widmeyer. I had brought in several nice clients and leads, including the National Scenic Byways Program and the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund. But along came opportunity vis a vis a former president in a prior job. This time I was promised partnership, the ability to run my own division in a company…

But then I received three unsolicited phone calls from former direct reports of said president warning me not to take the job. When you have that many people telling you something in an unsolicited way, LISTEN! But I didn’t, and I got royally screwed over. Oh yeah, get on that white horse.

Lessons Learned: 1) Ego. Again. 2) Money and balance. Again. 3) I didn’t need anyone to be successful. I could do it on my own, and when things went bad, I did, and here we are now. The ultimate silver lining.

Take Aways

You can see I made a lot of repeat mistakes, often manifested in different situations. Yes, the same situation will keep presenting itself until the lesson is learned (image by Amish Shah). So the sooner you face the music, the better.

The other thing is that we all have personalities. Personalities include good and bad aspects.  My worst aspects still re-occur, though on a lesser level, and I am much quicker to rectify them. My temper is still an occasional ankle biter. Ego can still cause me to engage in situations I shouldn’t.

When you have these defects, you can’t kick yourself too hard. It’s better to laugh, learn and clean it up. Only the many religious conceptions of God are perfect,  and no one here is God.

The word human and humility both have the same Latin derivative: hum.   Both imply good quality and character. I often associate humility with brutal truth about oneself, a gift really, because humility ultimately allows me to be of good quality and character.

The new blog search engine, Twingly, is finally out of beta and has caught the attention of many bloggers. Advertised as “spam-free”, this European-based startup provides an array of features.

Twingly lists a blog’s recent posts, most linked posts, recent linking posts, authority (just like competitor Technorati) all on the blog’s very own profile. Other features include widgets, ‘pinging’ your blog, voting and suggesting upcoming features on the site. [Image credit: One Mans Blog]

The two most popular however, are the Twingly Screensaver and the Twingly Blogstream. The screensaver shows global blog activity in real time and the blogstream connects traditional media to the blogosphere.

Buzz Meter Ranking: 3 out of 4 Buzz Bees

Positive: Besides the obvious list of features, Twingly is very user friendly and has a simple interface. The Twingly Profiles provide almost everything that a blogger wants to know about a blog, all in one page – especially with who is linking to whose blog posts. Top it off, Twingly supports over 29 different languages and they’re spam-free!

Negative: A downside to the blog search engine is that in order to fully access all that Twingly has to offer, you must register with the site.

Conclusion: I do enjoy the overall functionality of Twingly. It was fun and very easy to use. The idea of integrating its users to help build upcoming features is brilliant! Some would even say that if you combine Twingly with Technorati, it would be a top notch blog search engine. I would definitely recommend people to check out Twingly.

The following nine minutes represent the first part of my keynote speech at this week’s Greater Baltimore Tech Council Social Media 101 event. Topics include the boom, why social media is important, and common corporate mistakes (nine minutes).

Our regular interview series will return next week with Director Tom.

A recent article on advertising techniques caught my eye. Touted as “The Five Creepiest Advertising Techniques“, the article points out what marketing and advertising firms are doing now (and will do in the future) to reach target audiences.

According to the article, the techniques are:

5. Tracking Every Site You Browse and Every Show You Watch

4. Custom-Made Shilling

3. Fusing Ads and Culture

2. Going Undercover

1. Getting In Your Head

People usually complain when they are bombarded with ads that aren’t relevant to them. But, where does the line get drawn between research and targeting audiences to just plain creepy?

Marketing is a fickle thing. You can be too pushy and loud, too quiet and reserved, or simply go after the wrong medium, people, etc.

How are smart marketers supposed to know the best ways to reach out to people amid different socio-economic backgrounds, gender roles, careers, and geographic locations?

It all comes down to balance.

Message. We know that we can’t control the message. So, make the message something that is simple and easy to propel through word of mouth marketing. For example, the “do the Dew” campaign easily translated into sports and video games based on the advertisements’ high levels of risky-behavior. People were able to immediately identify with the campaign and associate how the product fit into it.

Audience. Create a campaign that can work for a variety of groups. Keep a similar theme but develop different situations. Think of the MasterCard “priceless” commercials.

Research. Understanding your market is key. It doesn’t take a lot of creepy marketing techniques to find the right tactic. Consider the universal language of “dude” campaign from Bud Light. Targeted to the 18-34 year old male demographic, the ad was an immediate hit.

Keep these things in mind when developing a marketing campaign. Don’t go too far between extremes, and you won’t have to worry about resorting to creepy methods of research and outreach. In short, treat your marketing the way that you want to be treated. Think about what makes sense to you, and look at the bigger picture.

If organizations trust consumers to create programs, and consumers want control, then why aren’t more of us taking the reigns? Forget big brands for the moment. Yes, some people will create fan pages for Family Guy and Hot or Not Hotlists for Starbucks. Does this brand loyalty really benefit societal ills? Not so much.

Consider what matters. People are empowered to voice their concerns, harpoon issues, and rally support for pressing matters related to health, environment, education, politics, poverty. But they - we - don’t take advantage of this privilege.

Remarkable platforms have been built to further social issues, but lie dormant. It’s a reminder that support must start with self-selected community members who are compelled to act.

[ Image credit: source unknown, spotted at Lazy Habits. ]

Take Iowa/Midwest flooding. Craigslist’s Iowa pages are virtually devoid of calls to action for monetary/in-kind donations or volunteers. (On the other hand, Craigslist was one of the premier resources for families and service during the New Orleans flood.)

Then there’s Social Actions, a platform that aggregates user-developed campaigns across 29 do-good social networks: Care2, Change.org, Idealist.org, Razoo, MicroGiving, and GlobalGiving to name a few. Anyone can post their fundraising campaign to these sites. A search on Social Actions shows nothing on tap for Iowa.

The tools exist, but are untapped. Is there a good reason for this? Perhaps we think the Red Cross has it covered. In reality, the Red Cross disaster fund is depleted, having raised only $3.2 million of the anticipated $40 million it will take to ameliorate flooding the Midwest. Tack that up against the rising price of gas and food.

Another contributing factor in lack of action: people don’t know about - or how and why to use - the tools and knowledge at their disposal. Friend Jake Brewer at Idealist.org touched on this recently:

Where we’re very well known, we become even more well known. Where no one knows us (e.g. OK, AL, SD, WY, etc) well …no one knows us.”

Per yesterday’s PR Week article on “The Digital Effect,” 65.9% of marketers are “very willing” to let consumers play a significant role in shaping their marketing programs. But are marketers willing to educate?

Beyond that, if people are enabled to create communities and tools on their own terms, is the average consumer willing to learn how to do so?

Again, the imperative can’t be stressed for anything outside of cause marketing, CSR, advocacy, and social sector/nonprofit-related initiatives. Times are tough. Help your neighbor and educate your community.

What better hour than the present, when user-generated content is King and word of mouth is Lord?

UPDATE - JUNE 26, 5p.m.

A very thoughtful and fresh perspective was contributed via comment on this post from Greg Hollingsworth. I really appreciate his insights about the kind of turn-off-your-laptop-and-get-your-hands-dirty action that has been taking place in his home state of Iowa. For those who don’t live in that area and want to help via the Internet, Greg recommends two effective donation channels: Grant Wood Area Red Cross and/or the United Way of East Central Iowa. More on Greg’s insider POV here.