Free as a book choice in my Fall 09 Internet Marketing class

I heard about Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson while I was at SxSWi last spring. I'm a Chris Anderson fan and reference the Long Tail concept often in my classes, so I was intrigued as I heard Chris talk about his theory about pricing and how a service or product that is free might very well drive stronger profits for items that are connected to that service or product. His point that the three pillars of technology: storage, processing speed and connectivity speed are so abundant and so cheap that products and services that rely on those could change their whole pricing approach seems more than plausible to me.

Disclaimer -- I'm a Marketer NOT an Economist.

I decided that Free would fit in nicely into my supplemental book list for my Internet Marketing class.

Scheduling being what it is, I made that decision BEFORE I READ THE BOOK. The bookstore wants the Fall book list by the end of the spring semester so I went on faith.

It was the right decision.

First let me point out one of the highlights of my Internet Marketing class. All students are REQUIRED to read one book for the course: DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing (please don't judge the book by the website which suffers from GSNFI or gratuitous stupid non-relevant flash idiocy). This is the one book that actually works well for a course that is almost impossible to use a traditional text book for. Besides the content challenge of the course itself, many different majors take the course. It is required for Marketing and PR majors. Business majors who are interested in Marketing take it. I get some graphic design students (which I got more of these), an occasional web development student (more of them should take it too!) and International Business majors. Because of the disparate nature of the majors I came up with the idea to also have the students read a second book -- they would have a choice from a list of five that I provided -- all chosen based on their potential relevancy to the major so that students could gain a field perspective and context for why the Internet Marketing tools and techniques we are working with are important in their chosen field.

Free fits in well for Business and International Business majors. The economic emphasis along with the examples that Anderson provides and the breakdown of "how can ? be free" visuals really hits a home run...and Anderson does a great job of connecting all of this to the main topic of my course -- the Internet as a full-blown communication tool.

Overall I found the book an interesting read and one that brings forth a theory that I would like to see more explore. Great research for economists in higher education!

I am, however, disappointed in the approach both Anderson and his publisher took when it came to vetting sources and more importantly citing his sources. As the Virginia Quarterly Review pointed out in a June 23, 2009 post, Anderson did not appropriately cite his sources of historical information -- he used a lot of Wikipedia entries but didn't identify them as such nor cite the authors of the entries. While he did respond in a post and explain what occurred it is clearly an issue that I face in my classes all the time -- how do you accurately cite your sources? What are the different levels of plagiarism? How do you appropriately utilize community generated content information such as Wikipedia in research and information gathering? It's a challenge that will become even more difficult and one that has shown up here. Because of this I did think about pulling the book, however I have decided not to because the focus for me in the book is the theory that Anderson brings forth and his ideas around the impact of free pricing on products and services.

As even the author of the VQR blog post, Waldo Jaquith, wrote in response to comments:

While we’re on the topic of plagiarism in the form of ideas, I must note that I did not find any evidence that Chris Anderson’s thesis contained any plagiarized ideas. That’s an important point. All ideas that form of the core the book are credited, and his own thesis that he builds upon that showed no signs of being anybody’s but his own.

Hopefully other book authors and publishers will think about this issue, which can have a decidedly negative impact on the book, and not loose site of good editing practice in the rush to publish.

On a side note, Anderson made corrections to all the DIGITAL copies -- because he can. The hard copy editions won't have those corrections. Now isn't that an interesting dilemma that the digital age has brought us.

All my students have to write brief summary and analysis papers on the supplemental book they selected. I will look forward to reading their takes on Free.

Putting Burlington (BTV) on the (Social Media) Map

This morning I attended the second Burlington Vermont Social Media Breakfast (twitter hashtag #btvsmb) at the Sheraton Hotel. For info on the background of this event and a quick overview, read Rich Nadworny's account at his blog. The speakers for this one where Sarah Evans known as @prsarahevans on Twitter and Jason Kintzler of PitchEngine who is known as @pitchengine on Twitter.

I enjoyed both of their presentations -- Sarah's on general PR and social media, and Jason's on Pitch Engine and the evolution of the Press Release -- because they provided a strong case for why the social media space continues to grow and evolve and why it is NOT a fad.

My main take-aways from today's presentations and breakfast have a little to do with what the presenter's actually presented, but more to do with my impressions of our BTV community when it comes to this thing called Social Media.

> PR and Marketing and Advertising have to work together now in ways they never have before. Ok, so this didn't really come from the audience -- but is a key take away. No longer can it be advertising in one corner, PR in another and Marketing somewhere else. They must work together to craft an integrated communication strategy. Things are moving too fast and your brand is too important to segment these skill sets any longer. @pitchengine talked a bit about Advertising vs. PR as did @prsarahevans and it is clear that PR pros have to consider Adwords and SEO in their pitching strategy and Marketing/Advertising must consider not just the outgoing messages but the incoming messages as well.

> It's NOT ABOUT THE TOOLS! I believe both @prsarahevans and @pitchengine highlighted this fact and I couldn't agree more. The tools keep changing and evolving. It's how the PR pro uses the available tools to leverage their message and connect with their brand influencers that is key. That's the strategy. And each tool should be used differently.

> Burlington, VT is Rock'n the Social Media. Well...kind of.... What I saw today was a group of individuals in the room who are all over the map when it comes to social media -- some are swimming in the deep end and others are standing on the side wondering if they even want to dip a toe in the water. But, what the #btvsmb has done is provided an affordable way for all of these individuals to come together to meet and hear from thought-leaders in the field about how social media is evoloving and how a brand/business can benefit from the use of social media. Did this morning move anyone closer to getting their toes wet? I think it did. The ongoing conversation including the Wednesday evening #iBTV Twitter chat might help too. (Thanks @joemescher for jumping on that!)

> There's a vacuum at the top. So here we are in this room with these two innovators in the social media space and questions focused on moving people in the organization (in other words, the boss/ceo) to be willing to give social media a try. And this, my friends is the challenge. While there were a mix of individuals in the room, many got the fact that they had to at least know what is happening in the space. BUT when they go back to their 9to5 will the boss LISTEN to them? I get this question when I do presentations too -- how do you get the administration to LISTEN and allow you to try the social media, and I certainly experience it in my roll as a prof at Champlain -- and my answer is simple. Keep at it. Be patient. Provide information. But, CEO's if you value your brand and your company perhaps instead of sending your staff to these events you should come too.

Next week EpikOne is hosting another Seminar for Success that will include speakers from Google, Gannett Digital and Core Industries. Part of the event will be at Champlain College and the last day in downtown Burlington. It's another opportunity for our local businesses to learn about strategies and tactics -- and if I know the Epik crew it will be well worth it.

So in two weeks time we have @prsarahevans, @pitchengine, @avinashkaushik, @schutzsmith and Matt Jones all here in Burlington, VT.

How cool is that?