One of CBC radio’s best offerings, a weekly documentary on the history of marketing and public relations, is not in the fall 2008 schedule. That’s right… The Age of Persuasion will go back into remission, falling into the down curve of the on-again-off-again nature of the show as accepted by the program’s cult following.

Fortunately, the back catalog from 2007 is being trickled out on the show’s website which goes to show you that in this topsy-turvy world of terrestrial radio and digital media, there are many opportunities for disappointment and excitement in The Age of Persuasion.

Partly to submit feedback and partly to see if they were listening to the online conversation about them, I posted an open letter to Yogi Tea on July 11 (Dear Yogi Tea). I allowed six days for the company to jump at the opportunity to engage with me, a loyal customer with a simple suggestion for the company to refresh the Yogi Tea experience. Basically, it was open customer feedback and the chance to turn a loyal customer into a brand ambassador. That post became the number two return in a Google search of “Yogi Tea” within a few days of my post — second only to YogiTea.com.

I heard nothing.

So, I decided to contact Yogi Tea on their terms. I submitted feedback on their site, pointing out my post and suggesting that I’d be happy to speak with them about social marketing as a way to increase notice of their product. I received a personal (vs. automated) acknowledgement of receipt from customer service within four minutes. Wow! I took that as a good sign that someone would be contacting me quickly to tell me if my idea was viable or not.

One day went by. Then two. The days kept passing, eventually becoming a week.

It’s been nearly two weeks since my note to customer service; nearly three since my open letter and product suggestion to Yogi Tea. Still nothing.

I probably shouldn’t care. I do. Why? Like many people who are changing the way they consume products and interact with the companies that make them, I care because I have been a loyal customer and wish to remain so. Spending money on a company’s product is no longer enough in this age of engagement. I want to feel like the companies that I patronize see me as more than a sale and statistic. I want them to know that I care about my purchase and consumption experience. Similarly, I want to know that they appreciate my business and feedback.

In many ways it’s entirely selfish of me to expect a company to follow up with me. In many other ways it’s good customer relations and relatively affordable to be engaged with your target market, especially those that are already consuming your product and reaching out to you to expand that experience. That kind of engagement can turn existing customers into brand ambassadors which can result in new customers.

At the same time as Yogi Tea appears to not be listening and has missed an opportunity to engage with an existing customer, other tea manufacturers such as Numi Tea and Choice Organic Teas seem similarly disconnected from the online conversation about their competitors.

While there are a few standouts in every market, many products and services are becoming homogenous. To be remarkable in this world, you need to be more than just the purveyor of a quality product or service with a slick marketing campaign. You need to be a connector in your market.

It’s like spam that you can’t avoid.  In many cases, that’s because the people who send it to you are part of your social network.  For me, it means that I may have to ‘unfriend’ myself from people within my network to avoid the clutter.

I’m talking about ‘press releases’.  I get a lot of them and do my best to ignore them.  Every now and then I skim through one to see if I am indeed missing out on something.  It appears I have not.  In fact, earlier this week I received a 495-word press release about a social media site that’s been redesigned yet maintains its original purpose.  The rest of the release is filled with quotes and information that was refreshing three years ago.

Here are my two ‘not-new’ pieces of advice about press releases:

1) Have something to say. Before you create your release, ask yourself if the release is of interest to the public or just of interest to you. If there’s no story to latch on to in your release it will be a pointless exercise for you.

2) Know your target audience and deliver to them.  If your release is largely for your own network/community, most of which you have a real connection to, use a mailing list service to write a more personal and concise note that provides an update.  I’d much rather get a note saying something along the lines of “Hey Mark!  After three years of the same look-and-feel, I decided to update my site to make things more interesting for me and my community.  I relaunched it this morning.  It looks great and I’m really excited about it.  If you haven’t been by my site in a while, you may be interested in seeing how things have evolved over the last few years.  I’m also interested in your feedback.  Take care!”  There, 73 words delivering a more concise version of the message and I’m more likely to be follow-through.

Do you have any advice on press releases?

Whitney Hoffman has published a few blog posts this week relating to the demands put upon conference organizers by last-minute registrations (see Your Failure to Plan Ahead is Not My Emergency, Law of Supply and Demand and What Happened to the Social Contract?).  I’d like to add another component to the discussion: The rule of no exceptions.

This is a hard rule to implement and enforce, particularly since many of us in the social media community know each other very well and in many cases we’re close friends.  It’s hard to say no to your friends.  When it comes to conference planning and public deadlines, you have to. 

I’ll use Podcasters Across Borders as an example since, for some reason, I know it well.

For the second year in a row, we have announced the dates of the next conference nearly a full year in advance (July June 19-21, 2009 in Kingston, Ontario — Canada — in case you hadn’t yet heard).  Last year, we starting making announcements about early registration (with a lower registration rate) a little more than one month in advance.  We made a formal announcement a few weeks in advance, and made regular updates online leading up to and during early registration.  Some people told us that they would be registering on the second last or last day of early registration.  The day following the close of early registration we received several emails requesting that we make an exception in each specific case.

Planning events and conferences for the community is a difficult task.  Registering for an event is an endorsement of the quality of the event and the investment of the organizers.  If an event is worth attending/endorsing, it’s worth doing so within the parameters of the event.

Congratulations to the PodCamp Boston 3 team.  I’m sorry I couldn’t be there this time.

Just as I hit stride putting out fresh content everyday, my computer crapped out on me.  So, expect things to be a lot quieter here.  I’ll blog when I can.  However, my audio production is on hold until my computer gets back from repair.

A while back I blogged about cyberbullying in a post I called Beware the Cyberazzi. My post was largely motivated by my knowledge of a few sites that are dedicated to sabotaging the character and credibility of people in this community.

Today, Michael Geist has reported that a B.C court has ordered an Australian man to pay $179,000 in damages for posting hundreds of libelous comments on the Internet over a period of four years.

In an effort to support the community, Bob and I plan to interview an expert on cyberstalking and cyberbullying (hopefully a police officer) for an early episode of season three four of the Canadian Podcast Buffet.

In response to some requests I’ve received to talk about my workflow and production techniques, I’ve started going through my archives of podcasts to select the productions that stand out for me.  I’m going to pick my favourites and do a director’s commentary of them and post them here in the coming weeks.  Those will be my picks.

Is there a production I’ve done that you want to learn more about?

Have you ever opened a mail message from a friend and thought to yourself “here we go”? This happens to me quite a bit. In many cases the dreaded feeling of being spammed is founded. Not so, today. I opened an email from a long-time friend and former work colleague and read an effective endorsement of a lawyer whose services he’s used.

While I’m not on the market for lawyer right now, I’ve added the name to my contact list because the email message is direct, personal and sincere — and from someone I trust.

One suggestion, though… learn how to do a mail merge so that emails aren’t addressed to “Hey folks!” (or some such variant). People get a good feeling if there’s a chance you’re sharing information like this with them alone; even though they know you’re telling everyone you know. Thanfully, there was no “pardon the mass email blast” in the beginning (I find these the equivelant of saying ‘I know I’m not allowed to do this but I’m doing it anyway‘).

So, no, I don’t think this email was a bad idea as asked in the P.S. That’s why I’m sharing the text here (names withheld).

I have never referred another Professional to my network of Consultants (and doubt I’ll do again) but my recent legal experience with our Corporate Lawyer, [LAWYER] has made me think this one time could be of value to colleagues in our industry so here I go.

Our own company, [COMPANY] changed law firms to [LAWYER] about 2 years ago because he demonstrated an intimate knowledge of our Consulting industry and spoke in plain language. Also a small firm, he understood our challenges and created a superb teaming agreement for our [GROUP] (even received kudos from several of the folks’ lawyers).

The icing on the cake was a recent issue we had with another firm and [LAWYER] handled it extremely well, gave great advice and the issue went away due to his knowledge as well as his professionalism. I was impressed with his ability to generate a customized contract that reflected our corporate philosophy and now his ability to negotiate under pressure.

Too often, we only acknowledge the bad things but I thought you should know there is a Lawyer ( and all of us hope to never to need oneJ) who understands our industry, gives sage legal advice etc. So…. if you ever need help, thought you should know.

PS. We are not opening a legal wing of the company and the note is purely altruistic. If you think this was a bad idea on my part, let me know.

I’ve been following some online discussions about children’s books that deal with some of life’s more serious issues.  The discussions led me to a book review posted on Amazon.com which concluded by saying “Children have their entire adolescent and adult lives to learn … and should not be subjected to such material before bedtime. Ridiculous.”

Okay.  I have a problem with this.  It perpetuates two problems.  First, that children don’t have the capacity to deal with certain realities of life.  Second, and most important, the review implies that the time to read with your child (or that the only time to read a ‘weighty book’ with your child) is just before you shut off the light for the night.

One of the feelings I get when I read that review is that some parents won’t expose their children to books that can help them understand the world around them and can kick-off real conversations in a controlled environment — anytime, anywhere — and yet they’re likely to plunk their children in front of the television or let them surf the Internet and discover the how inhumane the world can be on their own.

Where and when do you read with your child?

Condenser microphones became very popular in the early days of podcasting, likely because condensers give a better ‘real-life’ representation of the speaker’s voice. Many people will argue that condenser mics can make anyone sound great.

While condenser mics can give you a great sounding recording, there are some drawbacks. They can be amazingly sensitive. Even with shock-mounts that are meant to reduce the amount of conducted sound on a mic stand, condensers can pick up sound that travels through your floor. They can also pick up a lot of sound that travels through the air from other parts of your house including through vents (so shutting your door may not help you any, especially if you have a furnace or air conditioner running). If you have a particularly quiet room with a solid floor in your basement, a condenser mic might be the ideal choice for you.

MXL brand condenser mics are popular among podcasters, particularly because of their entry-level pricing (some of their mics can be purchased for around $100). No matter how good they may sound, don’t let any salesperson convince you that a $100 MXL mic is comparable to a Neumann U67 which can sell — used, mind you — for over $5000 (new, they’re about $7000). This has happened to me.

I like condenser mics and own a few mid-range MXLs. However, when it comes to spoken word recordings for podcasts which will be made available as MP3s, I don’t see the specific value in using one; particularly since I have two young children and find it limiting to wait until they’re asleep to do all my recording to avoid giggling and arguing from two floors away (yes, two floors away). I also live in a century-old row house which means that I frequently picked up noise that carried in through the floor from my neighbour’s house.

Condenser mics require something called ‘phantom power‘ in order to put out any signal. This means that you need to also buy a mixer or a mic pre-amp that has ‘phantom power’.

I don’t want to go into much detail about mixers and pre-amps since that could take a long time. What I will say is that the general equation is cheaper-price equals cheaper-quality. This could mean either noisier electronics which will result in recordings with hisses or hums, or a mixer that (figuratively) blows-up on you. I remember suggesting to a friend that he not purchase a $100 Behringer mixer just to save a few bucks when he could spend an extra $50 and get a Mackie. One year later (after the warranty period, of course), he had to replace the Behringer. For me, it’s worth the extra money to have a mixer that will last a long time, even if only to save me another trip to the music store. If you’re like me, each trip to the music store can be expensive.

In my view, a condenser is best for recording singing and acoustic instruments where the nuances of the voice and instrument are of particular importance. I still use my condensers once-in-a-while, though I rely on my dynamic mic almost exclusively for my spoken-word and voice-over work.

That wraps-up my series on picking microphones.