LAUGHING GIANT

Tumblr improves as general Web site platform

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:21:03 -0800

This week, Tumblr started supporting static pages on tumblelogs, instead of just chronogical posts. This means you can use it for building basic info Websites even more easily.

NewsCactus- Online Newsroom Solution for Public Relations and Marketing Professionals

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:42:59 -0800

NewsCactus- Online Newsroom Solution for Public Relations and Marketing Professionals:

This could be an interesting tool for companies needing an online newsroom without dedicated Web developers.

Getting Real: Epicenter Design (by 37signals)

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:34:53 -0800

Getting Real: Epicenter Design (by 37signals):

Whether you’re writing a letter, shooting a film or designing a house, stay focused on the core message or purpose of your project. Do that first, and work in order of priority.

Good internal communication in bad times

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:20:53 -0800

No companies like to do layoffs, but bad news comes to every company during tough times. This piece on Ragan.com explains what Starbucks had to communicate internally to employees. Little things like communicating ahead of time, careful timing, and respecting employees dignity go a long way.

"Steve Jobs once said that his goal was not to die the richest man in the cemetery. It was to go to..."

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:16:47 -0800

“Steve Jobs once said that his goal was not to die the richest man in the cemetery. It was to go to bed at night thinking that he and his team had done something wonderful. Do something wonderful. Make your brand stand for something meaningful.”

- Uncovering Steve Jobs’ Presentation Secrets - BusinessWeek

Do you hire people or "resources?" -The language of staffing - (37signals)

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:22:53 -0800

Do you hire people or "resources?" -The language of staffing - (37signals)

Get quick with the delete key

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:22:46 -0700

We have a friend who worked as a professional photographer and photojournalist for 30 years. Now that he’s retired, he just carries his camera with him and shoots out of habit. He then makes “Photoshop art” by colorizing, texturizing and filtering photos on his Mac.

When he brings by photos of a recent event, like the 4th of July barbecue, I’m always amazed. The shots are amazing. They move you, and you can taste the hot dogs, smell the summer night, and remember just how that scene in the photo felt.

But there are only three or four photos. Total.

“Where are the rest?” I think. He was snapping shots all night.

Everyone thinks he’s a great photographer. And he is. But he doesn’t show you 95% of his product. Just the best shots.

37signals wrote something interesting on this today that reminded me of our friend.

And today, I saw Michael Curry speak at the Portland Creative Conference, and he said something that caught me: “The most successful artists create FAR more bad work than mediocre ones do.”

My favorite example of this is Prince. He has recorded and released hundreds, if not a thousand, songs in his career. A LOT of them are really inane, repetitive and uninteresting. But there are easily 50 really good ones. And there are probably 20 unbelievable, unforgettable ones. “Little Red Corvette,” “Kiss,” “1999” and the list goes on.

Most of us would kill to write ONE unbelievable song in our lives. He’s got 20. But he had to get out lot of chaff to get those golden kernels.

Is it time for the CEO to Twitter?

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:32:09 -0700

Is it time for the CEO to Twitter?:

More on the Twitter phenomenon with this article about the CEO of Zappos.com uses Twitter to promote communication and transparency.

Gary Vaynerchuk rocks Portland's new media scene

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:56:00 -0700

Yesterday afternoon, I caught wind of a talk going on at Weiden + Kennedy by Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of tv.winelibrary.com and new media guru. He was in town to promote his new book, and Legion of Talk persuaded him to give this free talk as well. About 150 technorati and entrepreneurials turned out to hear him in the 90-minute session, co-sponsored by Weiden + Kennedy and Strands. Legion of Tech’s goal is to bring the speakers of the TED conference to the masses whenever and wherever possible. Portland’s a great place to do it.

Here are some of the best points from last night. For background on GaryVee, see twitter.com/garyvee or check out http://tv.winelibrary.com.

If you are not 100% fulfilled and energized at work, you are making a huge mistake in where you spend your time. This is the age to do what you love.

If you really, really, really do what you love, you will have the energy to put in the 18-20 hours a day that success requires.

Email is over. No one under 25 uses email anymore. Messaging has fractalized to Twitter, Facebook, texting, IM, Pownce, LinkedIn.

Social media is brand new to the masses. Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn are just getting going. When Oprah gets on Twitter, then you will know it’s hit bigtime. Until then, it’s in growth stage and we are early adopters.

Want advertisers for your podcast or other content? Google a search on your topic’s keywords, look in the right sidebar, and those are the advertisers you can approach for sponsorship. They’re already buying ads for your audience. It’s an easy sell.

Word of mouth is out of control in today’s market. It used to be that a well-connected professional could perhaps tell 50 qualified people about your product or service. The Web, Twitter, etc can multiply and target word-of-mouth referrals by 100.

Be Authentic. If you come out in the biggest, most authentic, way you possibly can, you can’t lose. Always be honest about who you are and what you do.

Don’t be afraid of who’s better. Don’t be afraid of who’s bigger. Don’t be afraid of who else is in your space. MySpace was already there. Facebook didn’t care. Yahoo! was already doing search. Google didn’t care.

Don’t chase the business models or money trail when finding your space. Chase yourself. Find what you really love. Only then will you have the passion to put in the 18 hours a day it will take to own your space. (Basecamp was built after hours on raw energy and passion).

Be the Media. Stop consuming content. Start producing it. If you’re sitting home watching “Lost” on DVR, you need to shut it off and figure out your game plan, or you are wasting your time. (Don’t read. Write.)

Be a RAT — Real. Authentic. Transparent.

The Secret Sauce: Caring about people. The most important question in business is “how can I help?” Focus on providing a truly valuable service to your customer and you will win. Period.

GaryVee’s 80/20 blend: Inject 80% of the energy into every relationship you have. The 20% you get in return will be sweeter than wine. Why is Zappos beating the rest of the market right now? Because they actually give a shit, and it shows.

Today’s Gold Rush is about the personal brand. You need to own your area of expertise and make sure everyone knows about it. No longer are the brands the companies. Now the corporate brands exist by following the personal brands around. Scoble. Oprah. Kobe. Godin. Calacanis. Kawasaki. Vaynerchuk.

Thanks GaryVee. And thanks to Twitter, @billder and @turoczy for the hookup.

How voicemail cripples social grace

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:23:13 -0700

Think about how many people you email during a day. How many people do you telephone?

In the average workplace, especially the mobile-enabled workplace, your phone is likely to display the caller’s ID, name or telephone number. This lets you know whether your boss, wife, husband, daughter, or a salesperson is calling, and it lets you decide whether to answer it or not.

Think about what it was like before voicemail and caller ID. Think of old movies. A person would walk to the ringing telephone on the wall, and fix a dreamy smile into space as they answered “hello?”. There was no pre-cognition. The call could be the postal service, or news of a loved ones’ death, or a simple friendly chat from Aunt Bea. They had to be prepared for anything and deal with it to their best ability.

Today, we’re able to look at the caller ID, and get excited, or nervous, or angry, and decide how we’re going to conduct the conversation before we even pick it up.

We enter the conversation pre-disposed by our conception of what the caller might want or need. Not necessarily as a blank page, greeting the caller optimistically and without bias.

Before, if you were in the middle of writing a letter, and someone called to chat, you would have to either talk with the person or use all your best social graces to guide the conversation toward a pleasant close.

Now, you don’t need to keep those graces sharp, because caller ID lets you pre-filter who you’re ready and willing to talk to, every time.

Try turning off caller ID, and see how more alert you have to become.

"Whenever orthodoxy seems to be going awry, you can either reject it, or try to understand it in a..."

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:39:09 -0700

“Whenever orthodoxy seems to be going awry, you can either reject it, or try to understand it in a new light.”

- Andrew Hinton

Obama/Clinton support visualizer that rocks - (37signals)

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:30:32 -0700

Obama/Clinton support visualizer that rocks - (37signals):

From the minds at 37signals. Really interesting information display.

First thought on the iPhone 3G: Only for some

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 10:22:00 -0700

The new iPhone 3G was announced June 9, and it comes out July 11. The wow factor is not so great. The new phone does in fact use 3G, which means you can get near-wi-fi speed data almost anywhere you are on the AT&T 3G network. You can read some of Robert Scoble’s thoughts on it as well.

New and improved with 3G?
Sort of. If you watch a lot of YouTube or other Web videos on your phone, it will be cool. If you snap and send a lot of picture emails from your iPhone (rapid Flickr dumping), you could use it. But for basic email, or pulling up a Google search? Not a huge benefit.

New Case?
The iPhone 3G has a slightly thicker, but more contoured case, that “feels even better in your hand” according to Steve Jobs. It’s pretty cool looking in all-black plastic (or a white option for the 16GB version) with metal buttons. It also has a flush-mounted headphone jack - so you can use any headphones with it, or plug your iPhone into a stereo just like any other iPod without using a jack adapter.

Price Drop?
Be aware: this is a subsidized price drop - which means AT&T is paying for the part of the phone that you’re not paying for — and they’ll be getting the extra money out of you over time. Here’s how:

The current $399/$499 iPhone requires AT&T voice plan + $20 for unlimited email/data ($59.99/month minimum)

The new $199/$299 iPhone 3G requires AT&T voice plan + $30 for unlimited email/data.

You have to sign a new 2-year contract for the iPhone. So that extra $10 per month over 2 more years adds up to an extra $240 to AT&T. That means the $199/$299 price is really $439/$539 compared with the current phone + plan cost. If the plan price isn’t as important to you as the purchase price, well then, yes, you can tell yourself it’s cheaper.

Existing iPhone users will get the software 2.0 upgrade for free, with Exchange mail, games, the iPhone App Store, and the other improvements.

Bottom line?
Yes, it’s cool. But if you don’t need 3G speed or a flush-mounted headphone jack, you won’t be saving money with the iPhone 3G. Except for 3G speed, all the software improvements to the iPhone are coming to the first generation as well.

Simplicity

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:04:00 -0700

One of the things we do for clients is simplify.

Simplifying means taking what you have, and getting rid of everything that doesn’t actually return more energy/space/time than it uses.

This Web site is an example of that. Tumblr does an excellent job of providing a stable, simple publishing platform without too many bells and whistles. It publishes, it edits, and it gets out of the way so you can read.

Communicate your benefit

Wed, 28 May 2008 22:45:00 -0700

Your story should be simple. At the end of the day, you either make sandwiches, or you deliver furniture, or you provide ____ service and products to your customers.

Great companies are built by focusing on serving customers really well. Don’t dress it up by saying you “leverage creative solutions” or that you “enhance market awareness & penetration” or that you’re a “leading provider of ABC.”

Besides the self-rewarding virtue of reducing hype — look at it this way: when the chips are down and the market goes soft — you need to deliver a real, tangible service or product and do it WELL. Glorified value statements and airy platitudes won’ do. Your current and prospective customers will ultimately ask themselves, “well, can they (deliver the furniture) or can’t they?”

Photo

Mon, 05 May 2008 23:48:45 -0700

Contact

Mon, 05 May 2008 23:44:00 -0700

LAUGHING GIANT messaging | media

620 SW 5th Avenue

Suite 702

Portland OR 97204

503 888 4920

info at laughinggiant dot com

About me

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 11:37:00 -0800

My name is Isaac Szymanczyk. I’m a communicator, information architect, and experience designer based in Portland Oregon.

My professional career includes work in advertising, public relations, corporate communications, customer service, branding, IT, information architecture, and Web and social media.

I received my degree in journalism, advertising and public relations from the University of Oregon School of Journalism & Communication.

When I’m not working, I enjoy being with my family, making music, and riding my bicycle around Portland.

This is my site, and it contains the work, play, thoughts and ideas. Enjoy.

About Laughing Giant

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:42:00 -0800

Laughing Giant helps companies and individuals tell their stories. We’ve worked with small businesses and entrepreneurs as well as government agencies and publicly traded companies. We believe that — with a little effort and thought — nearly everything can be improved, clarified and simplified.

Everything begins with a story. We start by learning yours, and then we help you communicate it to the people who matter.

Photo

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:40:00 -0700