Do You Poken?
Poken seems to have taken over the techie space as the next big thing in conferences and networking. Don’t know what a Poken is? Well, it’s basically a USB drive with a cartoon character for a cover. The drive has software installed on it that automatically connects to the Poken website when you plug it in. It also has a sensor on the hand that flashes when you “high 4” with another poken, effectively exchanging virtual contact information.
I first learned of this product at Affiliate Summit East 2009, thanks to Peter Shankman mentioning them in his keynote. It seemed like everyone wanted a Poken after that – and many people bought some from Peter before the conference was over. Peter has obviously identified these cute little virtual business cards as a significant advance in sharing contact information, a “game-changer”, even.
But are Poken really the wave of the future?
It depends who you are. If you travel and network a lot, they could be incredibly useful as they pick up popularity and more people are available for you to “high 4” with. Shelly Good-Cook says of the device, “I bought one a couple months and other than my twin sister, for whom I also bought one, I haven’t found anyone to “high five” mine with. I took it to a networking event I attended in Arlington, VA recently where most of the attendees were young, hip and computer savvy, but none of them had heard of it yet. I even met a reporter who covered that beat and it was new to her, so I gave her the scoop on it, hoping she covers it. They may have won a Tech Crunch Award in Europe, but they still have work to do in the U.S. before they get wide spread adoption. For me, this is like the early days of the fax machine. I have one but there isn’t much value in it until a lot more people get one. Most of the people I talked to about it at the networking event thought it was a great idea, although some of the men were less than thrilled with the limited design options. Most thought $20 was reasonable for the functionality although a few balked at the price point, stating it was much too high.”
Poken has responded to the cartoon complaints and come out with a more professional looking Poken, the Poken Pulse, that looks much closer to a traditional USB drive and boasts 2GB of space and traditional USB drive functionality in addition to the Poken networking features. At a higher price point, I actually expect more professionals will go with it over the cartoonish regular Poken as it does have that added functionality. Most of the feedback I get about Poken are from my contacts in the affiliate marketing community, and I wonder now that there have been a couple more conferences if they’ve gotten more use. Elizabeth Hannan said of her Poken, “I have had a experience with Poken at SXSW 09 where I was first introduced to Poken. It was incredibly helpful and made awkward introductions into easy conversations.”. I can definitely see how that is beneficial for those of us that are friendly but not incredibly extroverted.
Whether or not these are the wave of the future, time will tell. The buzz has seemed to died down in the last few months, but they’re not being tossed aside with that m100 Palm Pilot just yet. Do you Poken? Share your story!
Read MoreASE09: Tuesday Peter Shankman Keynote (Dominic’s Take)
Guest Post by Dominic Fawver.
I see that Trisha has already given a really good outline of the topics covered by Peter, so I will just briefly mention a few things that I got out of it.
This was one of the most entertaining, insightful, and inspirational speeches given at the Summit. I really enjoyed how Peter was able to engage the entire audience by using current examples mixed in with examples from his own experience. One of his key points was that you can not make something go viral; you can make something good, and if people like it, it will go viral. This keynote (along with all that I learned at Affiliate Summit) has given me the inspiration to continue on with a couple of projects I had been thinking of for a while.
That’s the mark of a good keynote.
Read MoreASE09: Tuesday Peter Shankman Keynote
I’m a lover of both Chris Brogan and Peter Shankman, but I have to say that I took more from this keynote than Chris’. I was surprised that Peter wasn’t TOO hyperactive, but was still incredibly entertaining and engaging.
- Peter Shankman, Founder & CEO, The Geek Factory (Twitter @skydiver)
Bullet Point Review!
- HARO has grown to just under 100,000 subscribers in 14 months.
- It’s helped 24,000 journalists.
- $0 to just over $1,000,000 revenue in 14 months.
- Peter worked at AOL News launching their digital news.
- You can’t make anything viral, but you can make something good.
- Social media is trust.
- Social media is the ability to screw up to a bigger audience in a faster amount of time.
- We’re a society that loves to be finders.
- Doing something to be nice gets you remembered, not just recalled.
- We covet what we know.
- 4 Ideals of Social Media
- Transparency -> Immediate Trust -> Viral
- Relevant
- Brevity
- Top of Mind Presence
- Social media is 2 way communication – you must be prepared to talk and listen and respond.
- Giving people what they want, when they want it.
- Have you ever asked your audience how they like to get their information?
- The average attention span is 2.7 seconds, or 140 characters. (Coincidence, Twitter?)
- There are three categories email falls into
- Ones you can answer immediately and delete.
- Ones you have to wait until you get back to the office to reply to.
- Ones that aren’t getting to the point and require too much attention to figure out what it is they want or need from you.
- Learn how to write; take a class if you need to.
- You have 1 paragraph to get someone’s attention and keep them interested.
- Paramount Studios CEO Barry Diller was known for getting to the office 30 minutes early and opening his Rolodex and calling 4 or 5 people randomly just to say hi -> this created good will and helped build relationships that could later be leveraged.
- Peter checks Facebook every day and sends people a short note when it’s their birthday – this is his version of the Barry Diller method.
I know that now I have to find a Poken since they just look so cool and really start to think more about the altruism of business, something I don’t think most people think about. As an added bonus, Peter showed us a video that was just GOOD and so it went viral. Here it is – it’s a bit longer than a video I’d normally watch, but it’s worth it. Funny yet touching. Enjoy!
Here’s the recording of Peter’s Keynote as well for your viewing pleasure:
Read MoreAffsum Session: The Ultimate Pitching Guide
Date: Sunday, January 11th, 2009. Session 2d, 1:30pm.
Session Description: Experts share their best (and most outrageous) secrets for getting attention from merchants, media and the masses. You’ll learn the tips, tricks and techniques to get the attention you seek. The panel consisted of:
- Lisa Picarille, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Revenue Magazine (Moderator)
- Anita Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, SmallBizTrends.com
- Jim Kukral, Owner, TheBizWebCoach.com
- Peter Shankman, Founder, Help a Reporter (HARO)
I was looking forward to this panel, and it didn’t disappoint. I also learned that Peter Shankman never needs more coffee – he’s animated enough as it is!
Bullet Point Review!
- A good pitch solves a problem.
- This might be common sense, but DON’T PLAGIARIZE!
- Make sure you have a discussion with young PR people that plagiarizing is NOT ok.
- Know who you’re pitching to! It will help determine the angle of your pitch.
- Resource: The Bad Pitch Blog
- Take 5 seconds and read what a reporter wants & oblige – that will get you in the door to just follow submission directions.
- No attachments – filters often delete those emails.
- A reporter must be able to get the point of your pitch in 7 seconds.
- Getting attention from a blogger is different than getting attention from traditional media.
- Leave comments consistently to get noticed.
- If you develop a personal relationship, it’ll help.
- Use the reporter’s name in blog posts.
- Make your pitch sound like a scoop, like you’re an industry insider.
- Do something timely and a little different to get noticed.
- Book: Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work–And Why Your Company Needs Them
- Some reporters now will only accept pitches via Twitter.
- If you can’t pitch in 140 characters, you need to work on brevity anyway.
- Try live streaming and letting people interact with you in real time.
- Twitter has replaced focus groups with the use of search.
- Publish your news wherever you can, like blogs.
- Book: Marketing Outrageously: How to Increase Your Revenue by Staggering Amounts!
- Press releases will be obsolete very soon.
- Resource: Twittering Journalists Wiki
I don’t remember there actually being a Q&A in this session. If there was, I think I included any good points in my notes already.
Overall this was an excellent session. They really didn’t use any slides, so I can’t share any. But with a session like this, it was more about their past experience and real-world knowledge than any special slides or data.
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