Last Week's Twitter Attack Unintentionally Originated from Japan!?

I have written extensively before on how I question Twitter's long-term viability as a solid business in the west before. See here and here and here. But I have always thought Twitter would do well in Japan because Twitter allows 140 characters - I think it is often too short for English, but, in Japanese using Chinese kanji, one can write a mini novel on Twitter since kanji often represent entire ideas.

But now here comes some news that claims last weeks terrible Twitter hack problems originated from Japan!

From Google News:   

This week's Twitter attack that caused a widespread headache for the micro-blogging service appears to have been triggered by a Japanese computer hacker who says he was only trying to help. The attack, which emerged and was shut down within hours Tuesday morning, involved a "cross-site scripting" flaw that allowed users to run JavaScript programs on other computers. The originator is believed to be someone who uses the name "Masato Kinugawa" in cyberspace and acknowledges creating the Twitter account "RainbowTwtr" that demonstrated the vulnerability. Through his Twitter account and personal blog, Kinugawa regularly tracks down possible computer security loopholes and notifies companies of their existence. There are "Twitter-like" competitors in Asia. The best is Pick. Pick allows you to place a photo right on your tweet (or I guess I should say, Pick") so you don't have to click-through to a different page like "Twit-pick" and, with how conscious of their privacy Asians are, these kinds of trouble for Twitter spell big opportunity for the Asian companies. We'll see how this all plays out.... Either way, more bad publicity for Twitter.     See original article.

Marketing Japan: Number of US Companies Using Blogs for Marketing Rising...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I just ran across an article that made me feel a bit vindicated. I often meet people who think that the meaning of the terms "Social Media" or "Social Media Marketing" extend to things like Twitter, Facebook,  Myspace and Pick and stop there. I do not agree at all.

I think that if you believe that just putting information out on Twitter is good enough for Social Media Marketing (SMM) then you are not even doing 1/4 of what needs to be done. 

I firmly believe that a solid, well-written, interesting blog, that is updated at least once a day with useful and free information, is critical to the success of any Internet marketing program. Whenever climbing any great mountain (your marketing target) any expedition team will need a good base camp (your blog).

Now, Adweek data seems to come out and confirm what I have suspected. It is estimated that, by 2012, 43% of all US companies will be using a blog for marketing. That's smart. From the article: 

In many studies, company use of social networks and Twitter outpaces the use of blogs, but the platforms are not mutually exclusive. "Companies are finding that blogs fill a specific niche that other forms of social media do not," said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna.

"Marketers perceive blogs to have the highest value of any social media in driving site traffic, brand awareness, lead generation and sales -- as well as improving customer service,

So, it seems to me that the lesson here is obvious: Twitter, etc. is good as a snack (but has many problems on the horizon), but somewhere down the line, people need to sit down to a proper meal. It's going to take at least two years of dedication to build a reputable and credible blog... I reckon it's best to get started ASAP.

For further information on this subject, and how you can find help for yourself, click here. As always, it's all free and there are no signups or surveys!

---------
Keywords: Blog, Twitter, Pick, Myspace, Facebook, Adweek, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I'm a Twitter Quitter!...

This is the third time that I will write about Twitter. It is also the third time that I do not have flattering things to say about it. Twitter is quickly becoming synonymous with frustration. Twitter will never even come close to taking down Facebook.

Today, again, Twitter is down and not in service in Japan... Again. Not only is it not in service, their excuses for why it isn't working keep changing.

I wake up earlier than most people do, I think, and I go on my computer and do the things I need to do; check my e-mail; see how much money I lost that night... Write. Whenever I write my blog, I always use Social Media to promote what I have written. My favorites to use are Facebook, Mixi, Myspace, Pick and Twitter.

You know what folks? I have never once had any irritation with Pick, Mixi, or Facebook (sometimes Myspace irritates me) but Twitter frustrates me far too often. I've come to expect that there will be some sort of trouble with Twitter. I never expect any trouble, with, say Google.

That's the way the Internet is supposed to be. Twitter? Problems at least once a week. Sometimes two or three times.

Not only is Twitter frustrating because I cannot put enough text into the short space allowed but also because Twitter experiences technical trouble far too often. Today is the fourth or fifth time in the last few weeks that Twitter has not worked properly. Throw on top of that Twitter admitting that they manipulate their "Trending" and it makes you wonder "What good is it then?"

I became a bit suspicious about the last time Twitter claimed that their "Service was over-capacity" as I had noticed that Twitter kept changing the excuses as to why the system was down. One time the screen would say, "Over-capacity" the next moment it would say, "Technical error." They've done the same thing today.

How is it that one minute Twitter says that the system is "over-loaded" - meaning that "we are too popular for you," (you know, like the prom queen would actually attend your birthday party!? Harrumph! Absurd!) then, a few minutes later, the screen says something completely different? This time they say it's a problem of technical errors (I believe that!)

Which is it Twitter? Over-load or tech problem? Either way, get your story straight. Some people might think you are confused... Others, like me, might think that you are amateurish and can't get the story straight... Er, well, people like me think you are lying - to put it bluntly.

Lying on the Internet is bad business no? Or do you lie because you want some fat-cat idiot company to give you more money? Isn't that really bad business?

You already committed several cardinal sins by manipulating your "trending" topics (For proof and admission, See here) so your credibility is already questionable. But lying about your service (again!)? That is just low-grade and no class.

Check it out. Here what Twitter landing page says at this moment:

It says, "Twitter is over capacity. Please wait a moment and try again. 

For more information, see Twitter status."

Folks, it is now 7:10 am Tokyo time, I have been trying Twitter since 6:30 am and this is still going on. Poor work Twitter! And, like I said, the fourth or fifth time, at least, in the last ten weeks.

No, Twitter. You are not that popular in Japan at this moment in time and at 6:30 in the morning.

But, then again, like I also pointed out, Twitter commits the ultimate sin of lying about the problem. Twitter, you are not over-capacity. That is not true. You even admit it with the Twitter status link above.

Check it out... I want more information. So, I click "Twitter status" what do I get?

This one says, "We're currently experiencing a high error rate on Twitter. Our infrastructure and operations engineers are responding to the incident."

Heck, Twitter, that's poor. I remember about a year ago when Google was having trouble with their G-mail. Sometimes it wouldn't work correctly for, oh, say sometimes ten minutes and then they had it up and fixed immediately....

You guys? Well, it's now almost an hour (at least one hour)...

This really sucks Twitter. No wonder 60% of all Twitter users quit using Twitter within the first 30 days. twitter can be incredibly boring and the service is poor.

I can honestly say that I have just about had it with you guys too. The way this is going, Twitter, while maybe not dead, will be just like Myspace or something that a few people use for a storage garage to keep their junk... I really predict Twitter will be a real dog by 2014.

As for me, just sign me, Twitter Quitter!

Twitter Sucks.

----------

Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Mixi, Facebook, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Twitter, Google, G-mail, Twitter over-capapcity, Twitter high error rate, Pick, Twitter Quitter, Social Media, Japan, Myspace 

Creating a Buzz Requires Credibility

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

A good friend of mine once said to me, "Credibility is hard to get but even harder to buy." When I heard this I thought it was simply genius. It's so absolutely true.

Lately, I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's most recent book, "Outliers." In one section at the front of the book, he writes about how kids get into the Canadian Major Junior A Hockey League; the premier league for children and teens hoping to become professional hockey players.

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers

Gladwell writes:

You can't buy your way into Major Junior A hockey. It doesn't matter who your father or mother is, or who your grandfather was, or what business your family is in. Nor does it matter if you live in the most remote corner of the most northerly province in Canada. If you have the ability, the vast network of hockey scouts and talent spotters will find you, and if you are willing to develop that ability, the system will reward  you.

Gladwell then goes on to point out that there's a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time is so important towards becoming successful... But he also delves deeply into working at success and dedicating time and effort practicing and honing one's skills.

I'd like to point out that if a kid gets into Major Junior A hockey in Canada, then that kid gets "status." With Major Junior A hockey comes credibility. And this credibility is impossible to buy.

It's the same when you are trying to build a buzz for your product or service... Credibility is crucial. Without credibility, you will never build a long-term lasting success. Quality is crucial to credibility.

Not only is this critical for other people's perceptions, but it is also, I think, the deciding factor for yourself and your team. Think about this: If you or any of your team member's are not 100% sold on your idea, product or service; If you do not have complete and total faith in what you are doing, then you will have doubt in the back of your mind somewhere...

This doubt, no matter how small, will do great damage to your efforts so the elimination of this doubt is so important... This is where, even more than what others think, what you think, in your heart and in your sub-conscious, is critical. You must believe in what you are doing to be successful. It is even written in the bible, "Belief can move mountains."

I've told this to many people that I work with; creating a buzz and almost everything else we do is a form of sales. In sales, I must believe in my product absolutely to be totally effective. Why? Because sales is not a transference of data. If it were just passing along facts, then car salesmen could sell the best cars with a copy of a pdf. But it doesn't work that way. Sales is a transference of emotions. I, the salesman, must transfer my excitement and belief about my product to you, the customer. You must get excited about what I have to sell.

I have to believe. You have to believe. This is the key to sales (and creating a buzz)!  

I am now working with partners on promoting tourism to a former Eastern Block country in Europe. In some circles, this promotion has been extremely difficult. Why? Because twenty years ago, this country was involved in a civil war and many Japanese people still have the image of war when they think of this nation.

We have to change that image among the Japanese. Maybe you have guessed the name of this country already.... A war 20 years ago in Europe? Yes. It had to be one of the countries in former Yugoslavia. I'm talking specifically about Croatia.

Actually, Croatia is nothing like the image that many Japanese people have; a cold and dreary former Soviet Bloc territory. Croatia has a rich history; formerly part of the Hapsburg Empire; formerly Rome. Croatia's tourism promotional copy is "The Mediterranean the way it used to be." Croatia has 7 world heritage sites, glorious architecture, fantastic gourmet (including seafood) and more! See some sites here.

But some Japanese still have the image of war.

Recently, two things have greatly helped us to gain trust and credibility among the Japanese. One has been the push from Japanese travel agents for Japanese tourists to visit Croatia. It really helps to show people the tourism and travel brochures made by reputable Japanese companies like Japan Airlines (JAL), All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) recommending Croatia. I mean, if Croatia weren't safe, they certainly wouldn't recommend it.

Regent Esplanade Zagreb

But the most recent thing that I think will be the watershed moment for Croatia tourism will be this December. From this December, Tokyo FM (TFM) will run a station-wide promotion on air and on the Internet (this will include, of course, SNS, blogs, Twitter, Pick, Mixi and Facebook!) The promotion will be for three lucky couples to win a vacation to Croatia including airfare and hotel....

The hotel stay is at one of the most prestigious hotels in all of Europe! It's the Regent Esplanade Zagreb. See photos here that will drop your jaw.

See more photos of the Regent Esplanade Zagreb here

There's not a person in Japan over the age of 18 who hasn't heard of Tokyo FM. Tokyo FM is the flagship station of a 34 station Japan-wide FM network. Tokyo FM is prestige.

Will Croatia become the huge buzz and "place to be" amongst the Japanese within the next two years? That remains to be seen, but Tokyo FM accepting Croatia as a partner for a big Christmas campaign gives Croatia the respect and credibility Croatia needs. With this credibility in hand, it is the final critical factor needed to build the buzz among the Japanese who like to travel.

Now, with this credibility, they can get to work on building a buzz.
-------------------

Keywords:
Croatia, SNS, ANA, Europe, Twitter, Social Media, Outliers, Japan, Christmas campaign, All Nippon Airways, credibility, Mike Rogers, Tokyo FM, U-Stream, Tokyo, Pick, Regent Esplanade Zagreb, blogs, Internet, Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Malcolm Gladwell, The Mediterranean the way it used to be, JAL, Japan Airlines, Japan Travel Bureau, JTB

Why the Digital Conversion Will Destroy TV Tokyo and TBS

Yesterday I wrote about why the conversion in Japan by television stations from analogue to digital is going to wipe out a bunch of FM radio stations. Today I will write about why this will also kill off some of the poorly rated TV stations too (good riddance!).

July 24, 2011. One year from the writing of this article

The digital conversion that is scheduled to occur on July 24, 2011, is going to kill off a bunch of FM radio stations in this country (especially Tokyo) because you will no longer be able to hear FM radio in your Toyota or Nissan without special equipment. The digital sets are not compatible with analogue.

Also, the economic consideration that analogue equipment is not manufactured in Japan anymore plays a big part. It may not be so much a matter of what the consumer wants, but what the manufacturer wants.

From that blog:

After July 2011, on your dashboard, you will have a digital GPS, Internet, digital TV and digital radio. Want to do Social Media, YouTube, Twitter, U-Stream, blog? Got you covered. Need to Google or Yahoo search? Sure. When you need traffic conditions, just a click on your GPS will give you up to the minute details on traffic and road conditions. All the TV channels? No problem. Throw on top of that 6 digital radio channels and, of course, a CD player and probably an iPod connection, and you have the next generation of car entertainment system. 

Read that entire blog here.

Today's blog will show you why I think this digital conversion is going to kill off TV stations like TV Tokyo and TBS who are consistently last in ratings.

It is important that you good folks have an understanding of the Long Tail to fully grasp this. For a brief explanation of what the Long Tail is, read here and here.

When the digital conversion happens in July of 2011, suddenly there is going to be massive choice on your television. The playing field will be evened quite a bit. Instead of being able to receive just 4 ~ 6 channels like today's analogue TV does, your system will be able to receive hundreds of TV channels.

Now, what happens to people when they are given a choice? Do they stick with watching the same 4 channels, or do they TV zap and try many channels?

History shows us that when people are offered a choice, they will let their own personal tastes dictate what they decide to consume whether we are talking about TV programs, restaurants, clothes, or even  jams and jellies for toast.

Let's use jam and jelly for our example.

Go to any convenience store where shelf space is limited. How many jams and jellies do they offer? 4? 5? Go to any grocery store. How many jams and jellies do they offer? 18? 20? Go to Amazon.com, how many jams and jellies do they offer? Over 1,300.

Now it makes sense that if Joe-blow is buying the lemon-tangerine marmalade made in Holland, that is one less purchase of the generic brand "STRAWBERRY JAM" that he is going to make, right?

Get it? Having more choice doesn't mean that people will buy more jam; it means that people will diversify their tastes. The more people are offered, the more wide-spread their choice becomes, the more dispersed their spending will be. More choices will result in a displacement of time and money from the old choices that were dictated simply due to lack of choice (caused by limitations due to time, money and space).

When people have wide choices they will exercise more discretion 

and more personal taste and freedom of choice

It is the same with TV.

When there are 300 TV channels competing for your attention and sponsor's money - both of these critical factors to the survival of TV (audience and money) will be more widely dispersed.

Think of it this way: You are the maker of, say, outdoor goods like tents, bicycles and barbeques. Say, the price for 25 TV ads on a TV station like TV Tokyo is about $150,000 (USD). The price of 35 TV ads on the sports channel is $14,000. Sure there are more viewers on TV Tokyo, but Sports TV offers a targeted audience of men who like sports (and, by the way, many are probably are married, have families, and like the outdoors).... TV Tokyo's audience ranges from 10-year-olds to 80-year-olds; Sports TV target audience is mainly 30 ~ 50-year-old men.

Now, where would you spend the money if you were the sponsor?

It is obvious that you would go for the Sports TV. It will be the same for all manufacturers whether they make diapers or women's fashion brand shoes. The diaspora of audience will make targeting even more important as time goes by.

But there will still be a place for the catch-all, wide audience accepted platform to advertise hit products; say the new Hollywood Blockbuster or the new Disney Park attraction that appeals to the entire family. Those will still be handled by the old style TV stations. The old style TV station thats target a wide audience will be amply served by today's #1 rated (by far) TV stations: Fuji TV and Nihon TV (at #2)... The stations like TV Tokyo and TBS, who fight it out for last place, will find it more and more difficult to find buyers for their ad space and are headed for very tough times and difficult decisions.

Sports TV can sell TV ads for 1/10th the price of TV Tokyo because they only have about 60 employees... TV Tokyo has over 700! TV Tokyo group has over 1,000!

Guess what? When the playing field is evened, then everyone will have to tighten their belts, but guess who is going to have to fire 50 ~ 70% of their employees and probably merge with another company? TBS and TV Tokyo.

While today, the stations like TV Tokyo and TBS are all crowing about their new digital channel... The content is still the same. Only the broadcasting platform has changed. What makes them think that just by changing platforms that their ratings and income are going to increase? Good question. If anything, their viewership is going to decline due to more choices being offered and some people opting out of buying an expensive new TV (at my home, we opted out of TV over seven years ago and haven't missed it once. I wrote about not having a TV and the benefits of that here and here.)

Today, TV Tokyo's ratings are dead last and they are losing millions of dollars a year and having to borrow massive amounts of money from banks to stay afloat. How long will banks keep lending them money? (Their FM radio subsidiary, InterFM alone is losing somewhere in the neighborhood of one million dollars a year!) What makes TV Tokyo management think that, when digital goes online, and the competition increases one-hundred fold, that their fortunes will get better?

Fuji TV consistently #1 in ratings by far.  

Strong on branding and image and logo is the same each and every time.

I think that they are in for a quite rude awakening, in spite of their current bravado and high hopes that digital is going to save them from their current conundrum... (I've mentioned before that "hope" is a very poor business plan).

I also think that their poorly designed Digital 7 TV logo is a sign of things to come for them. Of course my opinion here is very subjective but I think this logo looks old-fashioned, cheaply designed and not "cool" at all. It looks old-fashioned but not "retro" and looks like a design that wasn't made by a world-class professional. Like I said, it looks very poorly thought out and very cheap. Also, in typical TV Tokyo fashion, every time you see it it is a bit different.... Why don't these guys take classes in Marketing and Branding 101?

This is TV Tokyo's Digital Logo. 

Sorry, guys but this looks really cheap. 

How about some shadows or gradation? 

Why don't you hire a professional designer?

Let me get cute here and say that, I think, in this case, "7", for TV Tokyo is not lucky. In this case, 7 is their second number (on analogue they were channel 12) and if you've ever played Craps, you know that 7 on your second number means, "Loser."

This is why I say that the times they are a changin'... Look for no TV Tokyo and no TBS TV by 2015!

-------

Keywords:

Social Media, FM radio, FM, blogs, Yahoo, U-Stream, AM radio, Nissan, Tokyo, Pick, Twitter, Toyota, TV, YouTube, AM, blog,  Internet, Japan, digital TV, digital radio, Japan, TV Tokyo, TBS TV, 

Using U-Stream to Promote Real Time Concerts

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

The big summer concerts in Japan are having a hard time selling tickets... In fact, from what I hear (and I have excellent sources) ticket sales for Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic are dismal at best.

The word on the street is that ticket sales for any shows are bad but there is one ticket that is impossible to get as all four shows are completely sold out!

George Williams at GG10 July 21, 2010 (photo by Yoji Kawada)

Four four days this week, Music On! TV and host George Williams have held the 9th annual "GG" concert series this year at Shibuya Ax and this is the hottest ticket in Tokyo.

GG10, as this year's shows are called, have a logical, well-planned lineup (see line up here) - along with a crowd pleasing ticket price of ¥4,200 (about $45 USD). This blows Summer Sonic out of the water! Summer Sonic has a artist lineup that probably pleases no one (Who in the hell wants to pay ¥29,800 (about $320!) to see Offspring open for Jay-Z?)

On the other hand... It might be better than going to the other side of Japan and spending over ¥82,000 ($900 USD) to go see Fuji Schlock where a bunch of geriatric old folks relive the crap music of the late 60's and early 70's...

Not only did the Music on! TV folks do a superb job of lining up a killer roster of artists, they promoted the shows well and they were sold out long ago.

Eat your hearts out Creative Man and Smash!

On top of this, I was extremely impressed as to how George Williams used his own Internet media page, "The Music Revolution Starts Here" to promote the shows real-time and give us updates using Social Media such as, Pick, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and U-Stream. See George's The Music Revolution Starts Here, er, to go to that page click this entire sentence....

So, while all of Japan withers in this economic slump, George Williams and Music On TV sell out four shows in a row... They used a great mix of old media and Internet to sell the tickets and the great line-up gave them killer credibility. Sorry, Summer Sonic, but no one wants to pay to see Taylor Swift open for Stevie Wonder... Jeez! What a lame-o line up!..

I wonder why companies like Creative Man don't understand the simple concept of "Credibility is hard to get. It is even harder to buy"?

On top of this, George Williams uses the Internet and Social Media to give the concert goers - as well as the unlucky folks -who wanted to get tickets but couldn't - a chance to see what's going on back stage! Wow!

That's not just cool... That's intelligent business!

---------

Keywords: The Music Revolution Starts Here, Tokyo, Pick, Twitter, U-Stream, Social Media, Summer Sonic, Music On! TV, Stevie Wonder, YouTube, blog, blogs, Internet, Japan, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Offspring, Fuji Rock

Marketing Japan: Internet Versus FM Radio? A Cost Comparison....

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Last night I had the "pleasure" of co-hosting a radio show called "Bam!" on 76.1 InterFM. InterFM is one of Tokyo's 5 major FM stations. It is the flagship of a network of FM stations in Japan called the "Mega-Net" (of which one of the big network stations went bankrupt about two months ago!).

With Taro Furukawa on 76.1 InterFM Bam!

Being on the show was a fairly pleasurable experience for the most part but the loss of "excitement" for working in FM radio was palpable in the air amongst the staff. The thrill of FM radio was lost on me long ago...(Actually, the station wants me to be on this particular  show regularly and has had my photo on their web page for nearly a year, even though I haven't been there in a long time.)

Why haven't I been going to the radio station? Let me explain just one of the many reasons why....

Things in FM radio today in Japan are nothing like they were twenty-five, twenty, even ten years ago. I suspect the same is true everywhere. Even as recently as ten years ago being on the radio was exciting and there was the glam and glitz of "Hollywood" in the air.... Now? It seems like it is just a job to most people at the station.

Things aren't what they used to be... Although they never were...

I gather that the attitude of the radio station staff was just like that of a clerk at a government office or a manual laborer assembling nuts and bolts or attaching grommets at a factory. There was no passion. No buzz of excitement in the air. It seemed to me that everyone just consider this "another job."

People who think this way and have no passion for their work should find a job that they like or, most certainly, they should not be in any sort of creative endeavor.

I know how FM radio was over 30 years ago as I have hosted, produced, directed, cleaned toilets, served coffee and been a "go-fer" for radio shows and radio stations since I was a university student... In Japan, I am a very old-timer in this business.

During the program last night, I tried to pay attention to the commercials that they aired during the show and was surprised to hear that there were very few. Oh sure they had things that sounded like commercials, but, for the most part, they were "spots" about other programs.

Spots about other programs do not earn a station any money. Zero. Zip. Nada.

But I did hear, I think, two "real" commercials the entire two hour live show... One was for car insurance and the other one? Well, I can't really say that I understood what that was a commercial for... They were either selling milk or hiring drivers! I didn't catch it very well.

That's the problem with radio. If you missed it the first time, it's gone... you can't scroll back.

During the commercial for insurance, I wondered (again) why anyone would pay money for a 15 second commercial that runs at, say, exactly 10 pm and runs for exactly 15 seconds then disappears into oblivion? I mean, who hears these commercials? How much do they cost? How do they measure results?

InterFM broadcasts to an area of 35 million homes in Tokyo... Conservative estimates are 65 million people. So they have a huge potential pool of listeners. But how many are actually listening?

I suspect not many.

I have some anecdotal evidence that I can share concerning numbers of listeners....

In the past, I helped organized promotional campaigns for InterFM before whereby an airlines would, say, provide 3 pairs round-trip tickets to Macau with two nights free stay at a 5 star hotel... Basically the vacations were all expenses paid... The cash value for one pair of tickets with hotel was about (¥340,000) $3,600.

The commercials for the contest ran at least six times a day everyday for a week. That makes six 15 second commercials at 1.5 minutes a day multiplied by five days. That is a total of 7.5 minutes. (This 7.5 minutes will be an important point later in this article so keep this in mind!)

In a city of 65 million people, and only 5 FM stations, guess how many people signed up for the contest? 5,000? 50,000? 100,000? 200,000 people?

Nope. 82 people. Eighty two! Eight. Two. Oh! 8-2-oh as in "Oh my God! What a fricking disaster that campaign was!"

Of course there were more than 82 names who "signed up" for the contest. There were about 318 names in total (still lame!). But, I say 82 people (about) because everyone who signed up also signed up their spouses and their parents and in-laws... Some people even signed up their children. Heck, for all I know, some people could have signed up their dogs and cats. We could judge the fact that one person signed up their entire family by seeing on the sign up list the same family names of 4, 5, 6 people in a row.

So 82 is, pardon my French, "peis poor."

OK. Forget the poor results. Let's look at cost.

A campaign like this would normally cost about ¥5,000,000 (about $60,000) - heavily discounted it would cost about $17,000. And InterFM is one of the cheaper rated stations...

$17,000 dollars is a heck of a lot of money to pay for 7.5 minutes of airtime...

Now, think about it; why in the world would any sponsor pay ¥1,500,000 (about $17,000) for a week long campaign like this? I figure it is because the person who is in-charge of the money at a sponsor company is ancient and doesn't understand the Internet and still has some idea that FM radio is cool because "the kids like it." This person would have to be ancient because that would explain their poor eyesight. (As I know from experience, when you get older, your eyes get real bad!) I mean that these people would have to be ancient because ancient people are the only ones to have poor enough eyesight not to notice the white earplugs every second person on the subway is wearing.

(Hint: There is no FM reception in the subway and those white things in everyone's ears are earplugs for Apple iPods and iPhones!)

How much better that advertising money would be spent on creating a contest web page and using SNS and Social media like YouTube, Twitter, U-Stream, Pick, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs, Mixi, video blogs, vlogs, SEO that catches Google and Yahoo! to drive folks to your contest and company, product or service 24/7!

Heck, for what a sponsor spends on a week long campaign on the radio - where it is questionable if anyone hears it - they can get metrics and measure exactly the numbers of web page hits and what the effects of a Tweet or a YouTube has on their "bounce"....

Then they measure and tweak as they go along.

For $17,000, a sponsor could run a killer Internet campaign and probably run it for 3 ~ 6 months 24/7 before they run out of money....  

Now, I ask you, how would you spend the $17,000? Would you opt for the 3 ~ 6 months 24/7 Internet campaign or the 7.5 minutes campaign on FM radio?

--------------

Keywords:
Apple, FM Radio, Social Media, Macau, Japan, Google, InterFM, Tweet, Linkedin, Blogs, video-blogs, Pick, Twitter, U-Stream, Tokyo, FM station, Barter, Mega-net, Facebook, YouTube, SEO, SNS, Yahoo!, Tokyo, Taro Furukawa

Marketing Japan: George Williams Launches "The Music Revolution Starts Here"

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


Besides being on of the hardest working and hottest media stars in Japan today, George Williams is a ground-breaking leader in new media in Japan. He blows away the others by simply getting off his rear, getting to it, and just plain "getting it!"

George Williams' "The Music Revolution Starts Here"

Today we have blogs, video blogs like U-Stream and Youtube; we also have tons of SNS and Social Media tools like Twitter, Pick, Facebook, Mixi (in Japan), Linkedin, etc. On top of this, Yahoo and Google keep coming out with new and fascinating ways to "wow!" us... (Not to mention Apple and their iPads and iPhones!) On top of all this... Just when you were thinking, "What are they going to do next to top this?" Along comes a guy out of nowhere and "wows!" the Internet with his own original and expressive ideas.

George Williams has single handedly raised the bar on Internet blogging, vlogging and internet multi- media with his new site called "The Music Revolution Starts Here" at wwwgeorgewilliams.jp.

Koji Kurumatani is a frequent guest at "The Music Revolution Starts Here"

You have just got to check this out!  "The Music Revolution Starts Here" and features George with many of his super star Japanese musician friends (like regular guest Koji Kurumatani or Yuhi from Hof Dylan, to name but a few) talking (and playing) music... Music that you cannot hear anywhere else in Japan.

Not only that, George's web site also has something for everybody! You want to learn how to cook? Sure! The site has that too (George's fans will know that George co-hosts a wildly popular cooking show with famous cookery writer Kurihara Harumi). George gives us a cooking lesson once a week.

Harumi Kurihara

How about free English lessons? Yep. Got that! George makes a weekly English lesson for you too! And, of course, there's tons of music videos to watch too!

But even if you miss the live broadcast of the music, cooking or English you can easily watch back issues with the mere click of a button! No need to record your favorite show! They record it for you!

The Music Revolution Starts Here was launched last night, July 19th, 2010 at 12 midnight, so it is still a work in progress, but looking at the site, you wouldn't know it. It looks like it's been running for a long time.

This sort of multi-media solution to Internet marketing, PR and promotion is being experimented with (on the fly) in the west, but, from my knowledge, George Williams is the very first person in Japan to delve head first into this exciting new media form...

I'm expecting even bigger and even more "Wow!" products and services from George Williams and his team in the future. But today, we George Williams and his The Music Revolution Starts Here and it is a gas!

...Of course, it's all FREE!

------
For More on George Williams:

Go to George's: The Music Revolution Starts Here
Go to George's: Music On! TV "George's Garage"
Go to George's: NHK Your Japanese Kitchen
Go to George's: Tokyo FM "Docomo Love Family"
Go to George's: InterFM Bam!
George Williams on Wikipedia (Japanese / 日本語)

See George Williams' bio and contact here.

------------

Keywords:
Google, Tokyo FM, cooking, promotion, Harumi Kurihara, video blogs, music, InterFM, Internet, PR, Internet marketing, Youtube, Linkedin, blogs, SNS, George Williams, Bam!, The Music Revolution Starts Here, Hof Dylan, NHK Your Japanese Kitchen, Mixi, Social Media, Pick, iPhone, U-Stream, Japan, Music On! TV, Yahoo, Mike Rogers, Twitter, Apple, iPad, Docomo Love Family, English, Koji Kurumatani, Facebook, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, George's Garage, Yuhi, services, products

Marketing Japan: Write Down Your Goals to Achieve Them!...

By Mike Rogers
 

This may not seem like it from the surface, but this article is a tip on how to "stay cool" in the hot Japanese summer....
 

Today, I'd like to take a moment to highly recommend a book that has helped me greatly since the first time I read it and that is Brian Tracy's Goals!
 

Author of Goals! Brian Tracy (I also recommend another Tracy book, Focal Point)

In Goals! Tracy talks about how, if you are to succeed in life that you need to write down your goals in order to be able to achieve them. "Sure!" Everyone thinks this but I know few who actually do write them down. Trust that writing them down does help your sub-conscious to actually remember and activate your  brain to achieve the goals you set forth for yourself.

 

I write down my goals everyday in the morning when I wake up and, not only does doing so help me to achieve them, it also helps me to relax and stay much more focused. Who doesn't want to stay more focused in this day and age when our "in-box" includes, for most people, several e-mails accounts that are constantly filling up as the day goes by and consistently altering our priorities? Or an Internet world filled with Social Media like Facebook, Mixi (in Japan) and Linkedin accounts (among others) to attend? Twitter and Pick, are no longer for just sending messages to your friends, but they too, have been co-opted into the business world and your boss orders you to use them, or blogs and SNS, to get the company message out...
 

How in the world can anyone get ahead of the pile in the "in-box"?
 

The book promises that you will "Get everything you want, faster than you ever dreamed." Sounds like grandiose claims but let me point out that writing down your goals and purposes is like having a sort of road map to where you want to go. When you write them down, they enter your subconsciousness, they cause your inner brain to focus upon the Law of Attraction. If you do not write down where you want to go - if you do not have a map - then how will you know where you are going?
 

The publishers write:
 

Why do some people achieve all their goals while others simply dream of having a better life? Bestselling author Brian Tracy shows that the path from frustration to fulfillment has already been discovered. Hundreds of thousands--even millions--of men and women have started with nothing and achieved great success. Here Tracy presents the essential principles you need to know to make your dreams come true.
 

Tracy presents a simple, powerful, and effective system for setting and achieving goals--a method that has been used by more than one million people to achieve extraordinary things. In this revised and expanded second edition he has added three new chapters addressing areas in which goals can be most rewarding but also the toughest to set and keep: finances, family, and health.
 

Using the twenty-one strategies Tracy outlines, you'll be able to accomplish any goals you set for yourself--no matter how big. You'll discover how to determine your own strengths, what you truly value in life, and what you really want to accomplish in the years ahead. Tracy shows how to build your self-esteem and self-confidence, approach every problem or obstacle effectively, overcome difficulties, respond to challenges, and continue forward toward your goals, no matter what happens. Most importantly, you'll learn a system for achievement that you will use for the rest of your life.
 

One of my goals are to become a multi-millionaire. Laughable? Maybe. But at least I have a road map and I am consciously working on that everyday...
 

And I really do have proof! I have evidence that Tracy's philosophy and ideas in Goals! work.  I have shown myself that actually writing down goals are critical to achieving them. And my proof stands in something that, for me, is much more important than the Rat Race and making money: it's being the best dad I can be.
 

It used to be my #1 priority was, "To make $15,000 a month..." then, one day, when I got a flash of irritation at something my son did - then thought about that flash later on - I realized that the most important thing for me was not money. By far the most important thing for me was to be a great dad.
 

Now my #1 priority goal that I write everyday is; "I am a kind, loving and patient father and husband today and everyday" (with today's date added).
 

Folks, trust me. This really works! Since starting this habit, I have caught myself several times with a flash of irritation - that  before would have caused me to get angry or upset at my son and maybe raise my voice - but since I started writing down everyday my goal of  being patient and kind, my mind recalls that goal immediately and has killed that flash of anger instantly its tracks.
 

Why ruin what could be a good learning opportunity and great memory with an out burst of irritability? What for? Life is too short to be getting upset at the small stuff all the time.
 

As the great writer C.S. Lewis wrote in Chronicles of Narnia, "Life is difficult as it is so let us be good to each other."
 

Try reading Brian Tracy's Goals! Write down your goals everyday. You'll be glad you did.
 

(This article was inspired by a meeting I had with a most interesting fellow named Roger Marshall. Thank you, Roger!) 
------
keywords: Pick, C.S. Lewis, Twitter, SNS, e-mail, Goals!, Blogs, blogging, Youtube, U-stream, Brian Tracy, Narnia, Facebook, Mixi, Linkedin, Japan, SNS, Internet, business, Japanese, priority, Social Media

Watch Out for a New Scam on Twitter....

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Probably not so many people in Japan have the same trouble with Twitter that I do  because, in Japan, Twitter is a new thing and still not that many people are using it (though it is doing well). Most Japanese follow Japanese people (of course) and, since Twitter is relatively new here, it isn't filled with so much noise like I've been noticing coming across Twitter from English speakers recently. I hope that today's short blog makes you consider and think about your own experiences.

I think that, if what is going on now with Twitter in the west continues to grow at the pace it seems to be growing, then Twitter will not be doing well in 3 years. If what is happening with Twitter in the west, starts happening here in Japan, then Twitter will have a very bad future very quickly.

I don't like what I am seeing from many Twitter users in the west.

I mentioned in a previous post how 60% of new Twitter users drop off in the first month and how that spells bad news for the future of the business. But today I'd just like to write a short blog about two things on Twitter that I really don't like and that I've been noticing more and more of in these last few weeks.

I'd like to think this information can be useful to anyone in marketing, bloggers, advertising, PR, Social Media, people who U-Stream, Pick, YouTube, video blog (vlog) and business in general people in Japan. Anyone who thinks or plans on using Twitter for any sort of promotion in Japan should think about this.

What's the problem? There seems to be a huge surge in what is being called "Twitter Junk Mail."  "Twitter Junk Mail and "Twitter Spam" seem to be different animals all together. Whereas Twitter Spam is malicious, Twitter Junk Mail is automated Twitter posts that are generated by computer and ask us to buy something or direct us to some sort of sales gimmick. Sometimes I will get 10 Tweets in a row, all within a few seconds of each other, all from the same person (no one can tweet that fast) and all asking me to buy something.

I always stop following those accounts immediately... Frankly speaking, I've been spending most of my time on Twitter recently canceling accounts that I followed. 

These things - from the west - seem to be exploding on my Twitter account. How about yours?

Most of these Tweets ask me to go see some new and exciting way to make money on Twitter. One recent one - that really motivated me to write this - was a sales method that guaranteed that I could get my Twitter followers up to 20,000 ~ 40,000 people by paying money. There have been several others that claimed that I could make $30,000 a month doing Twitter from my desk! They often ask me to watch a video or short presentation as to how I can make money convincing people to sign up for these pay-as-you-go membership drives. 

One of the pages that I clicked showed that if I wanted 1,000 new Twitter followers then it cost $400... If it were 2,000 new followers, it would be $500... The prices kept going up, with guaranteed results, to 50,000 followers.  

When I would check the Twitter page of the person who joined my group (why they joined my Twitter group is as much a mystery to me as it is to you) and told me about these wonderfully fantastic ways of making money with Twitter, I could see that they had, say, 8,000 followers and were following 8,000 other people. This, seems to me to be a sort of scam and defeating the purpose of Twitter.  

Why anyone would want to pay for a bunch of uninterested followers that have no connection or interest in them is beyond my comprehension. Also, what good is following someone on Twitter when you are also following 20,000 other people?

Junk Mail in your mailbox or Junk Mail on Twitter, what's the difference?

Is having 20,000 followers a sort of bragging right? Perhaps you could make money on this for a short time conning people who are unfamiliar with how this all works (yes, there's LOTS of those still) but this scam will not last long.

It's like getting high rankings on an Internet chart or something by sitting at a desk and clicking on your choice a few million times. Sure, the ranking is good, but it really means nothing.

The purpose of Twitter is to keep up on the latest news of your close friends and family and other topics that interest you. Following 20,000 other people and having 20,000 people following you seems like having a post box outside your home crammed and ready-to-explode with 20,000 pieces of crap direct mail that no one is ever going to look at.

Why would the postman keep delivering to a mailbox like that?

This reminds me of the early days of Myspace. I remember an artist named Cary Brothers coming to the studio a few years ago. Cary was a very nice guy and his music was contemporary.

Before he came to visit me at the studio his company record promoters (I think it was Warner Records) had told me that, "Cary Brothers was a sensation on the Internet and he had a million fans on Myspace!" 

That was his claim to fame and why they signed him. 

When I met Cary he told me that he had spent 8 hours every night, night after night, for over 5  years contacting people on Myspace and asking them to join his fans group on Myspace.

Now, not to detract from Cary Brothers at all as he was one of the earlier musicians to recognize what Myspace can do for an artist, and he is a very talented, intelligent guy (for at least recognizing that these record company executives still haven't a clue about the Internet), but I do want to trash the record company for being so dim about how Myspace works.

On Myspace, generally speaking, unless you are very famous, then you have to go looking for fans; they rarely come to you. What I mean to say is that Bono is not sitting at his computer trying to get people to listen to the new U2 record... But an unheard of artist like Cary Brothers at the time had to ask people to join him in order to get people to sit up and listen. Myspace is a reciprocal SNS service so it is generally as sort of, "You join my Myspace and I'll join yours."

That was in the early days of Myspace when everyone wanted tons of "friends." At that time, pretty much everyone accepted anyone as a friend.

So, I do not want to detract from Cary Brothers as he put in the time and made the effort to create a buzz... I hope that, if you are a good artist, and have great tunes, and you are willing to dedicate yourself fully to thousands of hours in front of a computer then you can get results... If you do, you vindicate the Long Tail.

But to think that someone on Twitter who has, say 10,000 followers, and is following 10,000 themselves is some sort of measure of popularity is, I think, nonsense.

In my opinion "Popular on Twitter" would be someone who has a huge number of followers and very few people they follow.  

Here's a good example of a serious, credible Twitter account:

Lew Rockwell has 3,625 Twitter followers, yet only follows 22 people 

Lew Rockwell has 3,625 followers and yet he follows only 22 people. These are the kinds of numbers that make sense. These other people who have several thousand followers and several thousand that they follow are here today, gone tomorrow. Trust me. 

This scam on Twitter, plus poor retention, is going to spoil Twitter's future. Can they do something about it? Or will they wind up another "Also-ran"?

I predict "Also-ran" like Myspace. 

-------------

Keywords: marketing, Pick, Social Media, business, Twitter Junk Mail, Myspace, PR, advertising, Japan, Twitter, Japanese, Lew Rockwell, followers, bloggers, U-Stream, video blog, vlog, Youtube, Twitter Spam, 

The Collapse of Old Media and Antique Ratings Systems.

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

It's a recurring theme in many of my blogs; the old order is quickly collapsing right in front of our faces; TV and radio are dying.

Viewership and listenership of TV and radio are sliding down a steep slope and there's no recovering. Of course, think about it; anyone who has the time, in this day and age, to sit for 3 or 4 hours a day, everyday, in front of the TV must either be;

a) Jobless
b) Poor
c) Inactive
d) Lazy

Hate to be so rough sounding but I can't think of any sponsors who want to advertise or market to people who are inactive, lazy or have no money.

Most terrestrial TV & radio stations are both heading the way of the Short-Wave or Ham radios. The Internet is allowing for totally new ways for entertainment to be delivered to a targeted audience. Why would sponsors waste huge budgets on TV advertising that advertises to EVERYBODY when they can target their select group?

They won't. That's why old media is dying a slow death. Read more about that here and here in two articles I wrote about the Long Tail.

What a waste of a life. People who fear death, 

yet don't know what to do with themselves on a slow Sunday.

George Williams and a few few friends and I will be launching a new online concert series starting September in Japan. That's about all the details I can give right now because everything is still Top Secret.

This online concert series has come about because Japanese artists and musicians have gotten fed up with the old order and major record labels telling them what they can and cannot do. It also comes about because artists have seen with their own eyes what the Internet and Social Media can do for them.

From SNS services such as Mixi to Facebook and Linkedin, there are many artists in this country just now plugging in and finding out that they don't need a major label to tell them what to do and how to think. Twitter and Pick are also doing very well in this country even though it doesn't really seem that many artists have plugged into how it can help them to become independent.

Five nights a week George Williams has Japan's top artists on his U-Stream, and now, he's starting to place recorded versions of those shows on YouTube. Throw on top of that his blog that's about to begin (including blogging and video blogs) then you have a guy, in the music industry, who is showing these musicians first-hand just how simple this can all be.

The online concert series is all a part of this simplicity and freedom. One of the famous artists, Koji Kurumatani, who is an important partner in this online concert project told me that musicians are sick and tired of the old order.

He also mentioned that he (and I gathered a bunch of his other friend musicians) had come to the conclusion that it was absurd to sign with a major label as today's top selling albums on the Oricon Chart (Japan's version of the Billboard Charts) sells about 30,000 copies.

Koji said,  "If an artist signs with a major and only gets a 2-5% royalty with a major label, then they only sell a few thousand copies, then why bother? It would be much more profitable and fun to do it completely Indie."

Of course, Koji is 100% correct.

To prove that this collapse of the old order is not happening just in Japan, here's an article from the Washington Post that talks about TV getting the worst ratings in history last week.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans avoided television in historic levels over the past week.

CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox together had the smallest number of prime-time viewers last week in two decades of record-keeping, the Nielsen Co. said. Given the dominance of the big broadcasters before then, you'd probably have to go back to the early days of television to find such a collective shrug.

The first week of July tends to be among the slowest weeks of the year in television, anyway, with families more engaged in barbecues and fireworks. The problem was magnified this year because July Fourthcame on Sunday, largely knocking out one of a typical week's biggest viewing nights.

Together, the four networks averaged 18.9 million viewers last week, Nielsen said. During the season, "American Idol" alone usually gets a bigger audience than that.

I'm sure that this sort of article will be coming out less and less in the near future. Why?

Because every week will be worse than the last one for TV, radio, magazines and old media. And this sort of story is becoming old hat really quickly.

The only place that will shine from here on out is the Internet.  The revolution is being televised - not by what TV is showing, but by what they don't show.  

--------
Keywords:
Facebook, Internet, Twitter,  George Williams, Mike Rogers, U-Stream, market, Billboard, Fox, Japan, TV, blogs, SNS, CBS, Nielsen, terrestrial TV, Mixi, ABC, Blogging, video blogs, targeted audience, NBC, Linkedin, YouTube, magazines, Pick, American Idol, musicians, radio stations, Japanese, advertise, music industry, Oricon, old media, Koji Kurumatani, audience, Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Marketing Japan: Is the Long Tail all Junk?

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

After reading my "Primer on the Long Tail" where I explained what the Long Tail really is, one kind reader wrote to me claiming that most of the stuff (products, services and merchandise) on the Long Tail is "crap" and claimed that the proof in this lay in the fact that the average product in the Long Tail doesn't sell well. This, he claimed, is logical because he reasoned that it doesn't sell well because the average person doesn't want to buy it. So, in his reasoning, if the average person doesn't like it, then it hasn't mass appeal; If it hasn't mass appeal then it doesn't sell well so it must not be "good."

He claimed that sales are the ultimate determining factor in deciding whether or not something is "Good" or "Bad."

Is this pile of junk the Top 40 Charts or the Long Tail? You decide!

Well, I won't go into the subjectiveness of "Good" or "Bad" as what I think is good you might not like or vice-versa (or what is an "average person" - I like to think that I am not average and I hope most people realize that they are special too!) But the idea that one person's "Good" translates into "Everyone's Good" is, I believe, a little bit too simplistic so, I think you will have to find someone more intelligent than I to debate that point with you. But! I will show you how, without a doubt, for many smart companies who are doing intelligent business in Japan, the Long Tail provides them with better sales, profits and opportunities than the "hit" products. And I will prove to you, once again without a doubt that, when it comes to quality, what the the "average person" buys can often be a poor indicator of quality.

Popular and best selling? Yes. Quality? No comment (not from me at least).

The evidence of the booming business that the Long Tail offers on the Internet is all around, but even with that, some people refuse to see it, so I'll make some simple examples today.

Like I said, sure there is a lot of junk on the Long Tail, but there's a lot of junk at the top of the best seller list too. Would anyone argue that there's not a lot of crap on the, say, hit charts of popular music too?

Whether something sells well or not, is not completely a measure of it being "Good" or "Bad"; it is also a a factor in whether or not something was promoted or marketed well. It has to do with distribution problems and whether or not there was enough shelf space for it in a brick and mortar store.

I disagree that sales, in and of themselves, is a measure of "Good" or "Bad" and, once again, would like to point out what Chris Anderson wrote in The Long Tail to support my arguments. On page 118 it says,

"...for many people, the best stuff is in the Tail. If you're interested in Audiophile stereo equipment, the finest equipment is not going to be among the best sellers at Best Buy."

Think about that, that's exactly right. The best stereo equipment in the world would never be a top ten seller at a discount electronics shop or at K-Mart. Those places sell cheap boom-boxes imported from Asia. The best equipment would have to come from a specialist shop. I doubt that the average person is spending over ten or twenty thousand dollars for the world's best component stereo equipment. I won't argue that the average person is scooping up the compact, battery powered, CD, cassette, radio made in China that K-Mart has marked down to $8.99 for after Christmas clearance.

No arguments there. K-Mart also sells a guitar for $24.99 too... But I think you'd have a very hard time finding a professional quality Gibson or Fender for that low, low price - holiday clearance or not (OK, well, perhaps during the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalyse!)

OK. I think anyone would agree with me on the examples above. Yes?

Now, I'd like to point out that, when done correctly, a company in the year 2010 and beyond can sell and profit more through exploitation of the Long Tail and products residing in the Long Tail market more than they can by just selling hit products.

Because the Long Tail offers a virtually unending source of goods, then niche marketing can find the perfect product to fit exactly what the customer wants... Not so with a brick and mortar store! Think about this: How many times have you gone to the store to buy something but couldn't find exactly what you wanted, so you settled on the next best thing? I know I have many times.

This should never happen with Long Tail retailers.... You search for what you want; find other customer reviews and recommendations, and order the best product to fit your needs. Not a product that is the least of two evils.

Read The Rhino Records Story here

A good case in point how this niche marketing can be hugely profitable is Rhino Records. When I was a student in California in the late 1970's, I used to go to Rhino Records store in West Los Angeles. It seems to me that they had two shops at that time. I thought Rhino Records was dirty and dingy but I also thought it was cool as they sold 60's music as well as the local underground Punk bands too.

Rhino built a strong and loyal niche in that market for the Punk Music, underground, and 1960's psychedelia.... The story would have ended there, but they later made a deal with Capitol Records where they would remaster old Capitol back catalogue and re release it under the Rhino name. From that one deal, Rhino Records became a force to be reckoned with in the music industry.

Rhino Records didn't release big selling artists nor Top 40, yet they became one of the most respected and profitable record labels in the United States. They got that way by being cool and having street credibility. Credibility is hard to get, it is even harder to buy. Rhino got it by sticking to their guns and only marketing to a niche audience... A niche audience who, by the way, were sick of the big stars and the top sellers.

And all from releasing old material and back catalogue.

There is a huge opportunity for all of us in the Long Tail. The Long Tail, like Punk Rock in the 1970's, is taking the market out of the hands of the big corporations and bringing it back to the people.

And that is a key factor here: The Internet is bringing back business into the hands of the people; whether it be a small businessman promoting his company through blogs and blogging, video blogs (vlogs), Social Media and networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin or Mixi; to the housewife who has started a business out of her home utilizing Pick, Twitter, YouTube or U-Stream to freely promote herself and her business, the Internet has opened up an entirely new world to all of us.  

The Long Tail has lots of junk to be sure; but one man's trash is another man's treasure and, on top of that - say in the case of a record store  - the Long Tail has millions and millions of titles whereas the local record store has how many? A few thousand?

So, where do you want to shop? The Long Tail businesses that have these millions of items  - and the list keeps growing longer day by day - that are easy to find at the tips of your fingers from the comfort of your own home, or do you want to have to get up and travel to the brick and mortar shop that only sells a limited number of items in the hopes that they might have what is merely acceptable to you?

Your choice.

---------

Keywords: Pick, Networking sites, Capitol Records, YouTube, Linkedin, Blogs, Facebook, Popular music, Networking, Long Tail, hit charts, Rhino Records, vlogs, business, big corporations, Mike Rogers, Chris Anderson, the Long Tail, small businessman, Mixi, China, smart companies, Twitter, U-Stream, video blogs, Top 40, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Marketing Japan, smart business, Social Media, Internet, blogging, best seller, Punk Rock,