Brian Zafron: I Eat Web 2.0 for Breakfast

I wrote this article earlier this week for FreelanceSwitch.com

A friend dropped me an email about a new site he was launching, StudentFreelance.com, and it got me thinking about my own freelancing experiences in college…

For my money, students comprise one of the most overlooked and underutilized freelance communities. Even though tons and tons of students are learning extremely valuable (and marketable skills) on a daily basis, we seldom think about college students as potential freelancers, particularly when it’s time to fill the next freelance gig.

Back in my own college days, when I wasn’t hitting the books or drinking eggplant juice (my older brother somehow convinced me it would help with hangovers – it turned out he was just messing with me), I was fortunate enough to freelance on a fairly consistent basis. While my java pressing compatriots earned their beer money concocting frappacinos at Starbuck’s, I was discovering amazing synergies between my studies and my work. Like the time I was able to use a class on VRML to impress a client who only wanted a “3D-looking” kiosk menu programmed in Director, with a real immerse/interactive 3-D world! (For those not fluent in “tech,” allow me to translate: I did something pretty awesome.) Not only was it rewarding for me to apply skills from the classroom to the real world, but I feel pretty confident that I was providing my clients with high-quality services.

Certainly, some old and grumpy types might stereotype college kids as too young to understand the responsibilities that come hand-in-hand with freelancing. (These are probably the same types that don’t appreciate re-runs of Seinfeld or a good “yo mamma” joke.) But for those of us with even a little bit of open-mindedness, college kids represent an incredibly useful, and underutilized, talent pool.

I may be going out on a limb, but I think most students understand that those work relationships they form while in school often lead to jobs (or at least referrals). With this understanding under their belts, you can bet student freelancers will likely go above and beyond their assigned tasks. But that’s only one of many benefits towards supporting student freelancing.

Benefits from the employer’s perspective

1. Cheap Labor. Students are notoriously strapped for cash. They might be attending an Ivy League school, on track for a six-figure salary, but until they receive their diplomas and leave behind the pearly gates, they’re just looking for enough money to buy the next keg.

2. Opportunity to Build Relationships. If you begin working with a talented freelancer when his/her career is still young, you’re in a position to form a long-term relationship that’s grounded in trust and loyalty. After all, if you give a fresh-faced freelancer his/her first big break, he/she is certain to be grateful and will remember your company years into the future — even if she/he has already become established in a given field. Wouldn’t it be great to have a freelancer whom you could consistently depend upon? Or better yet, wouldn’t it be great if you could hire that rockstar programmer straight out of college before any of your competitors got their mitts on him?!

3. A Known Quantity. When you work with a student freelancer, you know that he/she has at least minimal work ethic and ambition – otherwise, he/she wouldn’t be in school. Furthermore, you can gain a feeling for the freelancer’s general intelligence by the quality of his/her school, although this certainly isn’t always a reliable indicator: sometimes geniuses attend no-name community colleges, and dim-witted slackers, by some stroke of luck (or because they held an admission officer’s child for ransom), were accepted into the Harvards of the world.

4. Help out a youngster. You have a heart, don’t ya? We all remember what it was like, regardless of our field, waiting for our first big break. For a potential student freelancer, who studies all day and works the night shift at Starbuck’s, that break might be working on your next project.

Benefits from the student freelancer’s perspective

1. Apply what you learn in the classroom. You’ve heard the adage “you learn by doing,” right? Well, guess what? It’s true. When you have the ability to apply the information you learn in the classroom to actual, real-world projects, I guarantee that you will not only appreciate that information a little bit more, but you will retain it with far greater ease and frequency. It’s one thing to complete a class project on 3D design, it’s another to complete the same project for a client, with real-world deadlines, consequences, and rewards. Plus, when you deal with clients, you’re not only learning about the technical side of things, but about the business: how to conduct yourself in a pragmatic and professional manner.

2. Make money. Green. Loot. Cold hard cash. You know what I’m talking about. If you can live without the endless supply frappacinos, the money is typically far better as a freelancer than as a barista.

3. Form Valuable Relationships. I already hit this point, but to quickly summarize: the relationships you form with employers while in school, if handled with tact and follow-through, can often lead to future jobs and referrals. Your career is like a skyscraper: the sooner you start building it, the sooner you will rise. Despite spending my last few years in college focusing solely on entrepreneurial endeavors, I had lots of former clients asking me if I wanted a job when my graduation date approached.

I know what you’re thinking. What about the downsides of student freelancing? Is everything student freelance related all roses and peanut butter cups? Well, no. From the employer side, student freelancers are already involved in a “full-time job,” college. When the student needs to decide between studying for finals and completing your project, what will he/she decide? Regardless of the individual’s answer, you’d probably prefer that he/she wasn’t asking himself/herself that question in the first place. Additionally, I confess, dealing with a young adult often raises concerns of maturity and responsibility. However, at the end of the day, the fact is that most freelancers are overburdened with work, stretched thin for time, and there’s never a way to tell in advance whether your freelancer is sufficiently mature/responsible.

From the student’s side… well, there’s really not much to lose. The money is good. The opportunity to “learn by doing” is exceptional. And unless you’re sticking with Starbuck’s because you want to become a store manager one day, freelancing is the perfect way to take steps forward with your budding career.

With all this information in mind, I’d like to encourage you guys to check out StudentFreelance, a new web 2.0 freelancing site that’s designed to connect businesses with college students who are eager to work and make some money. There aren’t really any other similar sites out there, so I’m interested to see what happens with it. Plus at the moment, it’s completely free — no membership fees, no project fees, totally gratis.

If you are or know of a college student who’s interested in Writing, Designing or Programming, you should definitely encourage them to freelance- whether it’s through craigslist, the school bulletin board, or my friend’s new website. And if you’re looking to hire a freelancer, I definitely support hiring a “professional,” but at the same time, perhaps you should also consider the benefits of the student route.

I often hear people using “word of mouth marketing” and “viral marketing” interchangeably, when in fact, they have two completely different meanings. To illustrate these meanings, let’s throw our imaginations into cruise control and head back to high school.

If the wicked popular chick, Jacqueline Beantree, decides to sleep with the wicked popular dude, Joe Margolis, then both Jacqueline and Joe’s friends will soon start spreading the word – in bathrooms, during gym class, after the school day has ended. This spread will take place through several generations, through several demographics, before it eventually dies. Herein lies word of mouth marketing.

On the flip side, if the wicked popular chick, Jacqueline Beantree, decides to sleep with the wicked overweight dude, Trevor Tubblesome, then word will somehow leak out (it always does…), and everybody and their grandmother will soon be talking about the unexpected affair – at home, at the supermarket, even on the Internet. Word will spread at an exponential rate, through manifold generations, through limitless demographics, regardless of Trevor Tubblesome’s involvement, who most likely prodded the spread in the first place. Herein lies viral marketing.

To sum up, the distinction between word of mouth and viral marketing is the manner and speed in which the content is spread. Word of mouth marketing spreads like a common cold, and viral marketing spreads like a virus. Obviously, viral is the preferred mode, but let’s be honest with ourselves: how often does the popular chick sleep with the overweight dude?

(If the answer was “often,” high school would’ve been a happier time for me.)

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Obese people eat.

Smelly people smell.

Interactive marketers, like me, interactively market.

Tuesday’s post talked about the increasing necessity of interactive marketing. Of course, the necessity is only one piece of the puzzle. Thus, today I present you with the remaining pieces, or at least the next ten… you know what? This metaphor sucks. Let’s just cut to the chase: 10 Outrageously Helpful Tips To Succeed At Interactive Marketing

(These are tips that I’ve implemented in my businesses for as long as I can remember.  Read them, learn them, and if you really want to get interactive on this crazy, crazy St. Valentine’s Day, try to eat them. )

1. Get people excited. If you don’t pique the interests of your customer, you can chuck your product and your wonderful marketing schemes out your 100th story window. Tap into passions. Get a feel for your demographic and cater to their embedded likes and dislikes. And then, and only then, start contemplating interactive designs. To those simple-minded readers, let me throw it down like this: people don’t care shit about shit unless they’re excited.
2. Think immersive. Once you get the customer involved, you want him/her to stay involved for as long as possible. No wonder 64% of this year’s Superbowl commercials included a website. That’s right, homies: 64%. Here’s a sub-tip: Utilize microsites and extensive ad units to maximize the brand experience. Basically, the more you can immerse the consumer (without overwhelming him/her with too many options/too much complexity), the better. Check out Reebok’s awesome multimedia site when you a moment – I bet you won’t want to leave anytime soon.
3. Make it personal. People are unique, or at least we like to think so. Many interactive marketing campaigns thrive on their personalization functions, the ability to customize to the individual. People love how sites like Amazon and Netflix, for example, are able to recommend products based upon past activity. But how can you customize without becoming Big Brother?  The truph (truth with a “ph” because it’s just that raw): hard work and test runs.
4. Simplicity is key. It’s not that people are stupid. We’re just busy as balls and don’t have the time nor desire to sift through convoluted information. Interactive marketing only works when the customer is interested before overwhelmed, interacting before scratching his/her head. See Hot or Not for an example of excruciatingly simple, but highly effective (and trafficked) interactivity.
5. Don’t neglect ROI. It doesn’t matter how you measure it – CPC, CPM, CPA, etc. – but clients need to see concrete results in the form of dollars and cents. All interactive marketing efforts need to keep in mind conversions down the line, particularly how text links and search words will feed into your broader campaign. In other words, target, target, and oh yeah, target.
6. Let the customer do the work. Sometimes the best way to get the word out for a campaign is to step aside. Customers enjoy the sense of empowerment and influence that comes with editorializing a brand on the Internet. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that people are listening, particularly when you are passionate about the information you are distributing. Great examples of interactive marketing, in which the “marketers” step aside, include Swiffer’s video contest and companies like Affinitive and BzzAgent.
7. Explicitly encourage virality. Give the customer a kick in the pants, so to speak. Rather than cross your fingers and hope he/she will send an email, bookmark your site, or spread the word at next week’s cooking club meeting, simply dole out specific instructions: you’d be surprised at the rate of response. Although people like to think they’re unique, they also don’t like thinking -  so go ahead perform the “thinking” for them. Take a gander through Facebook at any time and note the directness of the advertisements along the sides of the page. “Sign up for x video contest,” “Get involved in the Ron Paul Revolution,” etc.
8. Make An Offer They Can’t Refuse. Lure them in with an offer that’s sweeter than candy. The offer has the potential to not only bring in direct traffic, but if sweet enough – and I’m talking sweeter than a tootsie roll here, but not necessarily sweeter than a chocolate soufflé -  it can also initiate flurries of referrals, or in other words, virality.
9. Any tips of your own? This tip is meant to encourage you, dear readers, to respond to this post with your own tips. Let the interactivity begin.
10. Seriously, any tips of your own? This tip is supposed to encourage even MORE interactivity. Also…. I’m hungry, and I want to go eat some lunch.

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If you watched last week’s Superbowl, you probably noticed something a little different about this year’s smorgasbord of commercials. For one, they weren’t exactly a smorgasbord.

Although the subject matter was obviously varied, the tonality of the commercials was decidedly homogenous. Oddball, inherently random, humor was featured in one commercial after another, with little variation, particularly amongst the “comedies.” Five years ago, this oddball humor was the exception, showcased in the handful of gems amongst the dry and non-daring bunch, but times have indeed changed.

Examples from this year’s crop, to name a few from many, include: Shaquille O’Neal riding a race horse, (Vitamin Water), a baby articulately explaining online stock trading (Etrade), and a witch doctor showing up at a car dealership (Cars.com).

So, what’s the connection between this trend in Superbowl commercials and American politics? Perhaps nothing. However, I would suggest - and feel free to visit my house and beat me with a Vitamin Water if you disagree – that these Superbowl commercials are evidence to America’s current embrace of the oddball, at large. In other words, the marketing wizards behind these Superbowl commercials understand that our country, now more than ever, with one African American and one female running for president, is fascinated by the outlier, the fish out of water.

Of course, this fascination did not spring from thin air: our two most distinguished Democratic candidates, by the grace of Capital Hill gods (and lobbyists) just happened to fall into non-traditionally presidential demographics. Does this make them any less qualified? Hell no. But, although we may laugh at Shaq Daddy riding a horse, are we  capable of putting an African American or a female into the oval office?

As a mere entrepreneur, I do not attempt to guise myself as a political pundit, much less a psychic or even a successful Ouiji player. However, I would suggest that the oddball humor in this year’s Superbowl commercials is not without cultural grounding, and as such, if effectively integrated into you and/or your company’s marketing campaigns, would very likely resonate with today’s consumers.

For more discussion on last week’s Super Bowl commercials, check back for tomorrow’s post entitled: Interactive Marketing Is The Tsunami Of The Future: Take Shelter!

http://brianzafron.com/blog/2008/02/11/An-Outlandish-Entrepreneur’s-Perspective:-what-do-last-week’s-superbowl-commercials-mean-(or-not-mean)-for -American-Politics?

The redundant title, first of all, is tongue-in-cheek. For me, it calls attention to Digg’s comical interplay between what’s officially a secret and what’s ostensibly public knowledge. This interplay is largely responsible for Digg’s broad coverage on blogs across the Internet, establishing an enigmatic status despite its monolithic size.

Personally, I’ve only used Digg on a smattering of occasions – pre-blog life, all my ventures generated traffic not through democratic voting, but hard work and the expenditure of calculated dollars and cents. Nevertheless, I’ve contacted several top diggers and conducted my own empirical research on the site. There are hundreds upon hundreds of articles written about Digg, the number growing every day, but none of them unveil the following three secrets, each absolutely critical to success on the site. I discovered them simply because I looked in the right places, asked the right questions, and as my physician Dr. Goldstein can verify, I’ve got a brain bigger than a brontosaurus.

• People Are Nice. The most effective way to learn about the community and become effectively integrated is reaching out to other diggers, particularly outside the Digg network. External communication with other diggers supports the establishment of real, meaningful relationships, vastly more valuable than hundreds of superficial ones. Even the top diggers, like mrsaleem, mrbabyman, and tomyboy501, are happy to lend you their time, and potentially, even their friendship. In your travels through Digg profile pages, take note of contact information, especially AIM names. These diggers wouldn’t list this information if they weren’t dedicated to giving back to the community. Don’t be afraid: they don’t bite. They just digg.
• Concentrate On The Tipping Point. You’re wasting your time on Digg if you’re trying to either a) submit quality content and magically reach the front page or b) create a large enough network that “artificially” pushes your content to the front page. They key is discovering the middle ground between these options, therein locating what I term the “Digg tipping point.” Essentially, this tipping point is a level of visibility for your article that will ensure, if the article is truly front page worthy, that it will indeed reach the front page. (Examples of sufficient visibility: making the hot section in any category, the first, second, or third page in general “upcoming,” or getting listed as a “favorite” by a top digger.) The obvious question, I suppose, is how does your article attain this visibility in the first place? My answer: refer to this post’s two other secrets.
• Tap into mob-mentality. Although many bloggers and purported Digg experts suggest that the content of your submitted article must be exceptional to make the front page, the truth is a little bit more complicated. Exceptional content is certainly helpful, but not nearly as effective as content that relates to Digg’s passions of the moment. In some ways, Digg is like an adolescent girl, journeying through high school, obsessing over an idea at one moment, then disregarding it the next. Successful diggers are attuned to these ebbs and flows of interest. Moreover, the average digger, who either is or wants to be integrated into the community, will digg or bury articles they perceive to be in alignment with these ebbs and flows. Thus, when submitting articles with the purpose of hitting the front page, ask yourself whether you’re using Digg’s mob-mentality to your advantage. Careful study of trends amongst popular articles is required.

This post is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to Digg, for there are many, many such guides across the blogosphere. However, these select secrets, for my money, are the most essential elements to success with reaching the front page. Of course, if you have no interest in reaching the front page, and are simply a casual digger, I apologize for wasting your time, and I hope you still love me.

I, of course, love you.

http://brianzafron.com/blog/?p=30

Facebook groups are amazing. The only better things in this world, as far as I’m concerned, are meals at The Ivy, an A-list celebrity’s nipple slip, and perhaps – I’m a little torn about this one- winning the lottery.

An effective Facebook group can spread like wildfire, spanning national and international networks, reaching a breadth of demographics you can’t even find at a Los Angeles 7-11. Or conversely, if the group is esoteric in nature, “I’m Obsessed With Button-Fly Jeans, and I’m Not Ashamed To Admit It”, for example, membership can increase with equal speed, but with dramatically more targeted results.

For an individual or company seeking promotion, Facebook groups maintain the upper hand on applications, pages, and networks. The reason is that groups not only take mere seconds to join, but seconds to share – with one friend or every friend in every associated network - and seconds to comprehend. When a user receives a group invitation that is even mildly amusing, inspiring, or provocative, he/she is likely to ask “why not?” before “why?” and when prompted to invite more friends, the same order of questioning applies.

As the administrator of a Facebook group, you’re in the driver’s seat 100% of the time. Not only do you wield control over all content on the group’s page – particularly useful in active groups with frequent postings – but with the simple click of a mouse, you can send a message to the entire group that shows up in each individual member’s mailbox. Just imagine your influence when the group is tied closely into your promotional content! Unfortunately, the caveat is that mass group messages are limited to groups with fewer that 1,200 members. Facebook programmers, however, are currently working to eliminate this caveat.

So how do you create a kick-ass Facebook group? Here are some tips:

• Title is everything. The success of your group depends first and foremost on the title. It serves as the group’s calling card, often the only criteria in an individual’s decision to join the group or investigate it further. A group can easily flourish with a stellar title and crappy or non-existent content.
• Tap into passions. Users associate themselves with groups that ring true to their stronger preferences. Groups, after all, speak to the type of person who constitutes them. They are highly visible components of one’s profile. So before you go ahead and create your group about fetishes for albino rodents, I’d suggest you think twice… and maybe go see a therapist. Examples: “If you remember this you grew up in the 90’s” (1,399,198 members), “I Love Naps” (109,286 members), “Addicted to the OC” (34,982 members)

• Articulate the un-articulated. People flock to groups about truisms they’ve never fully expressed or identified. If you can give them that “ah ha!” moment when they see your group invitation, you’re in like a skankily-dressed girl at a posh night club. Examples: “Enough with the Poking, Lets Just Have Sex” (354,744 members), “You were sexy until I saw that cigarette in your hand” (62,533 members), “People Who Always Have To Spell Their Names For Other People” (310,379 members)

• Exploit Current Events. Many successful groups have flourished due to the buzz of current events. Why not utilize the publicity that has already been created by mainstream media? Examples: “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)” (442,033 members), “Stay in Iraq until the Job Is Done” (57,874 members), “One Million People against Crime in South Africa” (71,622 members)

• Just plain funny. Who doesn’t love a good laugh? Try creating a group that is so humorous people feel compelled to participate. Make them piss their pants and in their state of delirious urine soakage, click on the “join” button. Examples: “I Secretly Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head” (742,154 members), “When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was A Planet” (1,239,153 members ), “Disney Gave Me Unrealistic Expectations About Love” (126,768 members)

• Make a spectacle of your size. Many groups achieve population explosion due to a direct solicitation for help with their growth. Sometimes this solicitation appears in the title, isolating size as the group’s principle interest. Contributing to a group’s growth can be fun. The best members treat the process like a game. Examples: “Six Degrees Of Separation - The Experiment” (4,215,241 members), “Let’s set and break a Guiness Record!!!! Approved by guinnessworldrecords.com” (2,749,370 members), “If this group reaches 4,294,967,296 it might cause an integer overflow” (58,681 members)

Along these lines, consider including instructions on the group’s page that detail how members can invite their friends to join. Instructions often provide a tremendous impetus for action.

Sample instructions to be posted on a group’s homepage:

1) Click on “Invite People to Join” from the menu on the right.

2) Select all your friends

3) Click on “Send invitation”

• Cheat. Sometimes the easiest way to create a behemoth group is to rip off someone else’s idea. Simply take the title and concept from a thriving group and add your own little spin. This spin might entail an altered perspective or just a variation of punctuation. Examples: “I’m Glad Pluto’s No Longer a Planet; It Makes Gustav Holst’s Suite Complete” (25,215 members; original group named “When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was A Planet”), “Six Degrees of Separation” (414,994 members, original group named “Six Degrees Of Separation - The Experiment”), “Save Scrabulous!!” (6,489 members; original group named “Save Scrabulous”)

• Avoid blatant advertisement. Don’t throw your promotional content in the faces of potential group members. Lure them in with a creative title and premise, then after you’ve built a solid community, begin your PR sprinkling. If people care about your group, then there’s a significantly better chance they’ll care about what you are promoting. But like a heterosexual man’s enjoyment of America’s Next Top Model, always promote with moderation.

• Active disseminators. No group will ever take flight without a core group of users to spread the word. It’s necessary to form relationships with the appropriate niche that will not only remain active in the group later down the line, but provide the initial invitation blitz. Basically, you need cheerleaders, not oafish offensive lineman.

With these tips in mind, you’re ready lace up your shoes and start some kick-ass Facebook groups. But until programmers lift the 1,200 group limit for mass messages, I’d recommend trying to create a slew of groups with 1,200 or fewer members.

http://brianzafron.com/blog/?p=24