Facebook - A Great Opportunity

From the Timeline of Facebook you can see that the number of registred users has doubled from January 2009 until September 2009. The number of users has increased from 150 milliion to 300 million active users.

From the Statistics of Facebook you can read that the average active user has 130 friends on the site.

Think of these figures and how it may help you in your day to day marketing. This is a great viral marketing opportunity not to be missed.

Ideavirus Persistence

It’s amazing how things change. In year 2000, when Seth Godin wrote his book “Unleashing The Ideavirus”, one of the viruses in his examples is Palm. The handheld electronic diary which we couldn’t be without.

When writing about “Persistence” in the aforementioned book, Godin writes:

Compare this (the laser pointers) to the Palm virus. Every day, somebody else marches into your office, declaring their undying love and devotion to his new pocket wonder. And unlike laser pointers, people who love them keep using them. They persist.

I wonder how many use Palm today when you have all the same options in your cellphone.

Palm once filled a vacuum, a vacuum now filled by cellphones. I don’t see anyone uses Palm anymore, but it happens that I see someone using a laser pointer….

Pleasurism – the act of having pleasure

According to Dictionary.com the definition of pleasure is “enjoyment or satisfaction derived from what is to one's liking; gratification; delight.”

What does this definition implies?

“Enjoyment derived from what is to one’s liking”
Meaning we first of all should know what we like. And that shouldn’t be too difficult. And if we participate in something we like and enjoy it, we have pleasure

“Satisfaction derived from what is to one’s liking”
We still know what we like, and should have satisfaction from participate.

Some of us like music, other like theatre or watching a movie. So – we sit at home in our sofa, listening to some music we like, or watching a movie or a play on television. This gives us a sort of enjoyment. That’s the reason for listening or watching, isn’t it. But we are not fully satisfied. What if we could have been to a concert with our favourite artist, been on a great theatre watching a good play or a marvellous musical. Or – what if we just went to the city where we could watch the great movie on a cinema. A movie is best watched in the cinema, they say. Which is perfectly true. Watching a movie in a cinema, or going to a concert not only gives us enjoyment. We are also more satisfied after having a good and nice evening. We’ve had pleasure.

Faith Popcorn in her book “The Popcorn Report” tells us about Small Indulgences, A small reward – a little luxury which sometimes is enough to make us happy and delighted, even if it’s only for a very short time. Because, as Popcorn says, sometimes it is only the moment which make it happen. Going to a café is a sort of a small indulgence. Paying some coins for a cup of coffee gives us a moment in peace at a table where we can sit an watch other people passing by or sitting in the café. Or we can sit together with friends and acquaintances having a chat, or we can sit by ourselves reading a newspaper or a book. To be honest, this is something we could have done at home to a small percentage of the cost. But we go out. Cause when going out, we get enjoyment and satisfaction and it’s worth the cost of the cup. “We’re looking for an emotional ego-trip, without having to worry about the costs or the risk of really having to pay an overprice far beyond what it’s worth (even if an overprice is part of the enjoyment). Hey – paying too much is part of the enjoyment? And gives us satisfaction? Ok – we have a pleasure doing it.

And since our wages all differ from person to person, small indulgences for one person (Bill Gates buying a new Rolls Royce) will be a great indulgence for most people, e.g. me.

On the other hand there may also be pleasure in anger and naughtyness. Again Faith Popcorn tells us that “Pleasure Revenge means we’re fed up with self-deprivation in the sanctified name of Health and Correct Behavior. As consumers we’re ready, willing, and able to Click into the pursuit of pleasure. Not sweet and pure, but the dark side of pleasure, the underbelly pleasure. We’re boomeranging back to fun …. with a vengeance.” (Clicking / Popcorn, Marigold) “In Pleasure Revenge, there’s an anger, a distinct decision to go ahead and be naughty, a vengefulness.” (The Popcorn Report”) In Norway it’s prohibited to smoke on your working place if it’s inside. It’s prohibited to smoke on a pub or a restaurant, or in a cinema or a concert hall. So the smokers have to get out, even if it’s below 20 degrees Celcius. The smokers stick together outside, often hiding in a dark corner for no-one to see them having their pleasure revenge.

The same happened when drinking alcohol was prohibited during the 1930’s. At that time people made their moonshine whisky which was no good for the health and made you break the law. That gave some kind of pleasure. An underbelly pleasure. When you drive your car too fast on the motorway, it is just the same. You know you are breaking the law, but you have done your calculations regarding the risk of being stopped by a police, and you are enjoying yourself having the satisfaction of testing your car. You have pleasure, Pleasure Revenge.

How do marketers act upon pleasurism? How do they make it an advantage? Or do they take advantage of it at all? What are your thoughts with regards to this?

The author, Roy Dahl, is the Festival Manager of 11musikk (http://www.11musikk.no/) a music festival in Larvik, Norway. Some years ago he did articles about Servicism and Narrativism on PSFK.

Larvik - The Boring Cow

This is the "Welcome to Larvik" sign. Looks just as boring as the town itself.

Alas. It doesn't have to be that way. Larvik has a lot of cows that can be made purple. Just look at this, our Lake Farris, almost in the mid-city. Great - isn't it?

The photo is taken this winter, but in summer the lake is crowded by people. Very nice - indeed.

How do I sell ads for a hardcopy book?

Does anyone have an advice on how to do this?

Please feel free to make a comment.

Creating Evangelists

I read the blog of Creating Passionate Users on how to create Evangelists the authentic way. This is what they say about what you should have and what you should do.

1) You have a product or service or cause that helps users learn and grow and kick ass at something.
2) You give users tools to help them evangelize.
3) You do not ever, ever, ever pay users for doing this.

Creating Evangelists is about how you can get someone telling their friends about your product in a way that is truthful. Creating Evangelists has nothing to do with asking "cheaters" to go on the street telling "everybody" about your product, a product the "cheaters" may not even have seen. This is what separates the good from the evil, the true ones from the cheaters.

Then, of course, there are certain remedies which may be used to help your evangelists evangelize your product. These may be

1. Give-aways DVDs so the ones that receives the DVD may see why this product means so much to the one the got the DVD from
2. Posters and stickers to raise attention to the product. Speaking for my self, I'm a true evangelizer of the Skagen Festival , a music festival in Skagen, Denmark, and I often get posters to put up in my city just before the festival starts.
3. Free tickets to an event arranged by the manufacturer of the product
4. Friends and Families Nights; three weeks ahead of the Skagen Festival me and my wife arrange a Skagen Vorspiel where we invite the friends of ours who we will be going to Skagen together with.
5. Testimonials from credible people. Speaking once again for myself, I talk about the Skagen Festival round the year, telling all my acquaintances about what a remarkable experience it is to go to Skagen and listen to all the wonderful music, and not by least, how much it adds up to your marriage.

This is how YOU can help your true users to evangelize YOUR product of service.

Will We Go Green?

It's great to see so many bloggers will go green. It's not so great to see how one of Tom Peters' contributors, John O'Leary, is not that concerned about going green. This is what Tom O'Leary writes:

Yet before we get ahead of ourselves, there are scientists who remain skeptical that greenhouse gases (human-caused) are the major source of global warming. They argue that this warming is due to natural cycles or other variables, such as sunspot activity. While the number of these skeptics is shrinking faster than the polar ice caps, we shouldn't forget that a majority opinion is no warranty of scientific truth (ask Copernicus). And ideological claims ("they're all paid off by Big Oil") are no substitute for fact-based discourse, even if the big clock is ticking.

A heartly warm thank you to Gil Friend who in his blog really makes a statement with regards to the profoundly effect of releasing CO2. In his blog yesterday he wrote:

The options for action -- for governments, companies and, yes, each of us -- should now be clear, if they weren't already:
1. Slow and reverse any and all contributions to global warming
2. Minimize, mitigate, deal with, adapt to the daunting and inevitable impacts
3. Do #1 and 2 in ways that build economic benefit
4. Do #1, 2 and 3 in ways that build reputation
(#4 is especially pertinent for companies -- but I guarantee you it will impact politicians as well.)

The Prime Minister of Norway is also deeply concerned about this. In his speech for the New Year he stressed the fact that the polar ice is melting.

Still we see the President of US hesitating to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, and that he has a lot of American followers in not ratifying the protocol. Probably people who runs a business which will have to make investment in CO2 reducing gadgets.

I think most of the population on earth is really concerned about this very serious topic. It is also my opinion that all these human beings will seek not to buy products from manufacturers who is releasing a heavy load of CO2. Faith Popcorn calls this "The Vigilan Consumer" and "The Trend of Surviving".

The consumers will take action. Will the manufacturers follow suit?