Dave Mongan Says

When I was a youth, I used to love the show Martin on Fox.  This was back before Martin ran the streets butt naked waving a gun — so far back, in fact, that he was actually funny instead of just jaded and angry.

On his show, Tracy Morgan used to play this character called “Hustle Man”.  He was a homeless guy who was always trying to sell bootleg chickens, jewelry, flowers or whatever to whoever was around.  I barely remembered Hustle Man until I saw a clip of it on Jimmy Kimmel the other night when he was interviewing Morgan.

Needless to say, I had to hit Youtube to see if I could find the goods.  Luckily, HBO (the show’s producer) is pretty lax when it comes to defending their Martin copyrights.

Hustle Man sings “Pick Up the Pieces”

Hustle Man and his rapping chihuahua “Ice Pic”

truckle: to act in a subservient manner.

flout: to treat with contempt and disregard.

vet: to subject to thorough appraisal; to evaluate.

The coolest pose I could make — sad, because it’s not very cool…

Moving to San Francisco is a polarizing experience in many ways, especially when you live in the Haight.  I love the texture — the bums peeing on the sidewalk, the hippies drunkenly stumbling in the coffee shop at 8am, and of course all the hipsters/streetwear kids in outrageous clothing.

I still think this Yasser Arafat shirt is hilarious

I used to be the Phoenix version of a streetwear kid, but moving here has reformed me.  Whereas I used to feel unique, I now feel stupid and childish when I wear colorful, brand-centric garb.  Maybe I’m just growin’ up…Or maybe GQ has finally had its dirty way with me…

Anyways, money’s also been tight since I moved to the city.  It’s a bit more expensive here than Scottsdale.  But, when a friend of mine hit me up about the Barneys warehouse sale, I figured it was time for my credit card to come out of retirement.

Vince chambray, B. Bixby OCBD, Uniqlo OCBD — notice the difference in collar size.  I love the smaller collar on the Bixby shirt.  Bixby is an underestimated line.

Perfect chambray material — light enough to keep you cool, yet rugged enough to last.  Notice the attention to detail on Bixby’s cloth-covered hang tags.

I actually only spent $150, and I picked up an oxford Benjamin Bixby shirt (white), a Vince chambray shirt, and some red suede Co-Op driving loafers, that would have cost me more than $500 at full retail— good deals, right?

Then, I picked up a yellow Uniqlo oxford shirt and a pair of navy-blue linen Superga sneakers off Styleforum for $50.

All in all, it was $200 well spent, but not necessarily wisely spent — yes, there’s a difference.

Page st., SF

Chuuuch on the move!

Promotional Web pages are overrated these days.  They take forever to build out, cost a ton of money, and when it comes to promotions, they’re often obsolete when the next one comes around in a few months.  Amazingly, someone at Gap got this memo and carved themselves out a much cheaper, more-engaging experience via a build-out of their facebook fan page.

Kudos to this young pioneer who undoubtedly pleased management and damn-near ensured him or herself a promotion as their “fans” shot past the 300,000 mark.  Not only that, the discussion on the page is amazing.  From looking at it, I’m dangerously close to feeling like people might actually be excited to shop at Gap again — damn that sounds strange!

I knew they were up to great things when they hired Patrick Robinson, and the few times I’ve found myself stumbling into one of their stores, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the improvements.  The fit has drastically improved, and the items are quite current and well-made, staying true to Gap’s age-old value proposition.

Their latest push is in the—surprise—denim arena.  Yeah, I know they’re four years late to the party, but I’m sure PR knows that as well.  However, denim is still a sought-after item.  The campaign, called Born To Fit, comes as part of their 1969 denim line, which features several selvege and other well-cut pairs of denim for under $100 each.

Gap has used a shotgun approach to implement a variety of ideas for their promotion, all run through their Facebook fan page which redirects from www.borntofit.com.  There are style tips, both from Gap and user-submitted; a $100 outfit-design contest; and a sharing platform where users can upload pictures of themselves captioned with what they were “born to do”.

It’s a fantastic strategy, engaging users on many different levels in hopes that one of the promotions will strike their fancy.  It’s something that promotional Web sites have done for years, but the advent of Facebook has legitimized this by adding both familiarity and ease of use.  The results speak for themselves: over 300,000 fans, nearly 1,000 outfit designs and countless photos all since August 13th — five days!!!  (disclaimer: their fan page has been up for much longer than this)

The biggest part of any successful social media campaign is having interesting, engaging content.  With the aforementioned plans, as well as offering coupons, Gap’s got the content and strategy on lock for now.

Gap’s logo-free, affordable look is well-poised to take a considerable share of the recession denim market and quite possibly experience a bona fide brand resurgence.  I never thought I’d see the day…

I just found an interesting interview with Common Projects Co-Founder, Peter Poopat, over at selectism.com.  The interview is pretty brief and surface-oriented, but it goes a long way to uncover the reasons why they charge so much for such a simple shoe.  To sum it up: they were the first ones doing a high-quality, simple sneaker.

I’ve struggled with thei idea of $350 low-top sneakers for quite some time, and while I will likely never buy a pair, I now understand the logic behind them and can appreciate them a little more.

It’s unfortunate that great ideas are often diluted so quickly and turned into nameless, faceless trends, similar to those imitating the Air Force 1s a couple years back (Bape, Greedy Genius, etc.).  These days, there are a host of imitators flooding this once unique space.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

Why did your name the brand Common Projects?

PP: It’s really pretty straight forward. It’s a collaboration between me and my partner Flavio. We always planned on doing something together and we needed a name. We intended to do several diverse “projects” and since he’s in Italy and I’m in New York we called it Common Projects. The name also worked out theoretically as we wanted to have a open venue for outside collaboration.

You’ve said before that you just planned on making a couple of shoes and wearing them around, tell me all about how Common Projects grew from that into the company it is today?

PP: Yes, since there was a hole in the market at the time for simple well made sneakers we initially had the idea to make our own just to wear around for the summer. We made them as samples and the factory loved them and wanted to partner in producing them. We just happened to have the samples ready the day before men’s sales started in New York. We showed them to a couple stores and showrooms, all of which were immediately interested in carrying the line. We ended up leaving the shoes with our current showroom and the next day we started getting orders. We’ve been taking the same approach ever since, just making things we would like to see and the business has really grown and here i am doing this interview.

Full text here.

From Convince and Convert:

“You’ve put your brand on social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Congratulations. You’re part of the conversation. When a consumer follows or fans you, you reciprocate. Very nice.

But if that’s where your engagement ends, you have an appointment with fail.

In any good conversation, both sides should speak, both sides should listen. Each side asks, and each side answers. As I’m certain you’ve read, a brand shouldn’t merely be blasting content and shouldn’t be fielding complaints full-time either. There are lots of people and companies using the social Web to promote their brand. The ones doing it best are those that proactively reach out to, and react appropriately when called upon by their fans.”

Great point, and the title speaks volumes.

However, the rest of the post is exclusive to Twitter, which I think is a bit short-sighted.

Where I think this post is the most true is Facebook.  Companies continually set up fan pages to drive loyalty and collect users, and then they do nothing with them.  It’s as if some intern was told that’s where they need to be and the only goal was XX# of fans.

Intern: “I hit 100 fans!”

Manager: “Badass!” [high fives]

Facebook, like any social media platform, is only a means to distribute content relevant to your users/customers/fans.  So, use it!

If you’re a burger joint, start making videos, offering coupons and running promotions through the site.  Or, ask for suggestions, start a design-your-own-burger contest, or just do something — anything!

Realistically, Facebook is going to usurp Twitter in the near future, because they recently announced that they’re looking to add an all-user status search feature.  When that happens, fan pages will be the home base for FB communication, and brands will quickly realize that they’re way behind the curve.

“Next time this kinda thing happens, I want you to stop, take a deep breath, and pull your heads out of each others’ asses.” - Arcot “Thorny” Ramathorn, Super Troopers

Vagabond or self-employed?  The dress code’s the same.

Working for yourself has countless benefits: working in basketball shorts, taking odd days off without notice, and the shortest commute in the game (mine’s 5 feet if you don’t count my morning bathroom run).  However, the one downside of working for yourself is business development — more specifically the fact that it takes considerable time, and you don’t get paid for it.

Case in point, I’m writing this blog post at 12:33am, even though I won’t publish it until later.

For me, business development is one of the most fun parts of the job.  In fact, it’s the reason why I got into the freelance business in the first place: I love building things (businesses, lego towers, blanket forts, you name it).  I get a rush from it.  If I didn’t, I definitely wouldn’t have stuck it out this long. And, If you don’t enjoy it, then you shouldn’t be self-employed.

However, it’s time consuming as hell, and it often doesn’t pay off for months or even years after the work has been put in.  Just ask Gary:

Still, as long as it takes, there’s nothing like seeing a new client or badass project come into the fold.  It’s extremely exciting and rewarding.  Not only that, it also makes you a better, more agile businessperson.

So, if you’re thinking about breaking out on your own, ask yourself whether you can put up with this kind of delayed gratification, or the fact that you don’t get paid for 30-90 days net invoice.  There’s a lot of fighting involved:

Fight to win jobs.

Fight to finish jobs on time and in budget.

Fight to get paid for hard work on job.

It’s not for everyone, but it’s the life some will undoubtedly choose.  Everyone’s different — some people like cucumbers better pickled.

-DM

P.S. - This post was more me venting than truly informing you.  Sorry.

Forums might just be the best content sharing platform available on the Internet.  They allow open exchange at the leisure of their users, be it intelligent conversation or slandering your rival sports team.  They’re insanely popular, have been around forever, and are relatively easy to manage from an administrative standpoint (if you have the time).  Yet, their functionality and benefits are largely overlooked by businesses, leaving a gaping hole in the customer service spectrum.

I know that it’s hard to believe that message boards can be a serious tool.  After all, much of my experience with them involves sports, clothes or catching up on wild conspiracy theories (if you haven’t tried that last one, then you’re missing out).  But I digress…

When managed properly, message boards are more than just places to anonymously make fun of one another — they’re a fantastic customer service tool.  The open exchange allows users a place to contact you, vent, or even help one another with their problems — all of which are vital in the customer service process.

1. Contacting You - It’s gotta happen one way or another, and call centers are quite possibly the worst invention ever.  The waiting, lack of consistent personel and canned responses often do the opposite of help.  With message boards, there’s a record of every conversation, and the search function can solve a lot of problems sans interaction.

2. Helping Each Other - I don’t know why they do it, but users love to help each other out.  We aren’t always the selfish jackasses that we think we are.  It works, and best of all, it takes zero effort on your part.

3. Venting - Right or wrong, people are going to have a bad experience with your product, and they’re going to tell someone about it.  So, you either give them a place to vent and definitely be heard, and then control said vent.  Or, you force them to get creative and start a web page like Who Sucks.

Implementation - You can download vBulletin, the web’s most popular forum system, for the low-low price of $180.  Then, you can customize it, build it out or just leave it as is, and you have a fully functional customer service system for little more than your time and $7/month hosting fees.

Control the bad, encourage sharing and facilitate a few e-hugs.

-DM

I found this through Twitter, and it gives some pretty interesting stats on social media usage these days.  The author is a research analyst for econsultancy.com, which I honestly don’t know much about.  You can find the original post here, and you can follow the author on Twitter here.

YouTube

• If YouTube were a country, it would be the third most-populated place in the world.
• 20 hours-worth of video is uploaded to the site every single minute.
• comScore recently announced that the site had surpassed 100m viewers in the USA alone. They also reported that this US audience consumed over 6bn videos at the beginning of this year.
• According to Youtube themselves, over half of users visit the site at least once a week

Facebook

According to Facebook’s internal statistics:

• The site has more than 250m active users globally
• More than 120m users log on to Facebook at least once each day and more than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day. Combined, more than 5bn minutes are spent on the site on a daily basis.
• The average user has around 120 friends on the site.
• Every single month, more than a billion photos are uploaded to the site.
• More than 50 translations are available on the site, with more than 40 in development.
• Mobile is a big issue, with more than 30m active users accessing the site through mobile devices. It’s well documented that users who access Facebook through mobile devices are almost 50% more active than those who don’t.

MySpace

• Although now overtaken by Facebook, MySpace is the second largest social network, experiencing in excess of 60m unique users each month.
• MySpace apparently reaches 30% of UK adults aged 15-24 - it’s been suggested that its as common to have a MySpace account in the UK as it is to own a dog.
• According to Knol, MySpace has more than 115m active monthly users globally with, on average, 300,000 new people signing up to the site every day.

Twitter

• Over the past twelve months, Twitter’s year-on-year growth rate has broken the 1000% barrier.
• The company holds exact numbers close to their chest, but it’s estimated that Twitter currently has between 6 - 10m global users and this is growing rapidly.
• According to a recent report on Twitter usage by Sysomos, 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity and that 72.5% of all users joining during the first five months of 2009.
• The same report found that over 50% of all updates are published using mobile and Web-based tools, other than Twitter.com’s own website.
• It also found that Tuesday is the most active day for Tweeting, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.
• Hitwise recently reported that one out of every 350 website visits in the UK is via Twitter, but barely 5% of users currently go to an online retail service through the medium.
• Not really a stat, but still quite a cool piece of info: Twitter is now officially a term in the English Dictionary.