Now Live: First National Deal Site For Gay Men

Groupon- and LivingSocial-type, just-in-time daily deal sites are growing like blue plate specials, but, until now, there has been no such Web-shopping service devoted to the most Web-savvy, most affluent, well-travelled and impulse-buying consumers: gay men. A new site, DirectMale.com, hopes to get first-mover advantage.

The Washington, D.C.-based online voucher company, which launched just under a month ago, is selling upscale goods and services featuring local and national offers from bars, clubs, restaurants, spas, salons, travel, hotels, cruises and much more. 

While the Direct Male site is new, the service isn't. The 20-year-old company actually started as a direct-mail business with a 100,000-person opt-in database, where participating households got "card decks" in their mailboxes, with offers from the likes of Jim Beam Brands, the National Gay and Lesbian Travel Association, British Airways and GlaxoSmithKline.

"We are the first national player in this space," says founder and CEO Andrew Isen. "Last summer, when we began to put everything together, we thought we would do it local but the gay male market is so strong that we opted to go nationally out of the bag." He says the niche market, because of the liquidity of its population and its willingness to part with cash for the right products, has become a much-coveted segment in the last two decades. "And because gay men are brand loyal, [marketers] know the value of targeting this segment."  

Isen says that rather than focus on deals-of-the-day the site will have a regular rotation of timed offers. Isen says they are much more affluent than the general market, with the gay male consumer earning nearly double the average household income with 70% more disposable income. The company says that in the U.S. there are about 12.3 million gay men over the age of 18, and 93% of them are active online consumers.

He says among products and services that are popular with gay men -- bespoke clothing that would otherwise be hard to find, skin care, and personalized household products and apparel, for example -- travel is one of the biggest. "We are offering, for example, a trip to a gay-friendly resort in Nicaragua. Travel is one of the biggest items and categories in the gay segment. And it always has been." He points out that roughly 80% of gay men have passports, which is double national average. They travel substantially more than any other niche; the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association has 3,000 members. "Today, every airline and hotel chain has gay-specific services. Winn Las Vegas, for example, has a concierge dedicated to gay clientele."

Per Isen, gay men are, per capita, on the Internet more than any other niche segment. Direct Male is mobile optimized. "The newest studies show that gay male consumers -- over 40% -- will only use mobile smart devices to make web purchases. They will only use smartphones or tablets."

Bee About the Business this Spring

We have gone to the moon. We have cured some of the deadliest diseases that have afflicted humankind through the centuries. We have even decoded the human genome. And with all these technological advancements, it's amazing how little we know about that most everyday of creatures -- the humble bee.

We are only now beginning to understand the workings of the hive mind. Tens of thousands of bees function as unique individual agents and yet manage to work in perfect harmony to build a vibrant community. As new findings emerge about the workings of bees, ants and other social super organisms, they will no doubt provide insights into how we (among the most social of species) can build communities both in the real and online worlds.

But here's what we already know. An important factor driving the success of the hive community is the clear division of labor. Each female worker bee takes on a different role depending on the phase of her life. During the first third of her life, she nurses the queen and the brood. She then moves on to processing food. Finally, she functions as a scout bee, where she leaves the hive to search for food and also find potential venues for new hives during the swarming process.

Online advertisers can learn from the hive mind as they look to build thriving brand communities online.

Before anything, they must attract the right kind of high-intent, engaged user to the community; i.e., connect with the worker bees while steering clear of the drones.

Second, they must engage the consumer in a number of relevant touch points. Just as the worker bee spends time processing food, people need time to process information. This helps them learn and process information about the brand in a way that is meaningful to them -- be it articles from the press, informational brochures, coupons or comparisons with the competition.

Eventually, like the scouts, consumers will go out into the world and evangelize your brand to new audiences, thereby expanding your social hive.

In short, a successful social marketing strategy will deploy a multi-pronged approach: run the right kind of acquisition campaign, follow it with a sophisticated email/CRM engagement strategy, and watch it grow.

Of all the different kinds of online advertising, performance advertising is uniquely suited to finding the user with high intent. Think of the person who is searching for your product category, or signing up for your ad. That's the person you want in your brand social community. Once you have this user, you can send her or him the resources he or she might need to learn about your brand and spread the word.

There are already a growing number of marketers who are using different elements of this common sense approach to social marketing.

JC Penney is using a combination of email, direct mail and social to promote its jewelry line.

To the surprise of many, Pepsi decided not to advertise during the Super Bowl. Instead, it began engaging consumers in a two-way dialogue through social networks to spark what Lauren Hobart, CMO of Pepsi called, "a full-year movement from the ground up."I LOVE THIS cuz they are studying their market base..." RP2

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is using a combination of performance marketing, email and search to increase its Facebook and Twitter membership. First, it ran cost-per-lead ads that invited pet owners and animal-rights advocates to sign up for ASPCA's email. The email drove the people who had signed up to ASPCA pages on Facebook and Twitter. On the social networks, the ASPCA provided information about pet adoption clinics and made available the Orange for ASPCA app, which allows pet owners to tell stories about their pets.

Before starting a social marketing effort, marketers would do well to ask a) Do I have the right people? and b) Do these people have what they need to learn about the brand and spread the word? HELLO

By following the tried-and-tested hive approach to community building, they might just be able to unlock the social marketing puzzle.

Face the FACTS - Facebook is here to stay!

Facebook 100 Million Mobile Users Strong (And Growing)
by Mark Walsh

Are you ready to Face the FACTS?

Facebook on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 announced that it has surpassed 100 million active mobile users worldwide. The new milestone comes only six months after the social network hit 65 million users on Facebook Mobile.

In a blog post on Friday, Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's vice president of user growth, mobile and international, highlighted the expansion of the company's mobile operations across its sites, text messaging and applications. Through its redesigned sites (m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com), Facebook is available on any mobile browser in 70 languages.

"With the explosion of smartphones, we want to make sure people have a great Facebook experience that scales with their device especially as people have begun to upgrade their devices more frequently," wrote Palihapitiya.

He added that Facebook had also recently introduced a URL-shortener called FB.ME to share content more easily via text message and updated Facebook applications across various handsets and operating systems including Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia and Samsung. In its Mobile Internet Report released in December, Morgan Stanley spotlighted Facebook as one of the companies expected to guide development of the mobile Web.

"Facebook has already become a primary way for millions of people to stay connected and Facebook's lead is likely to be extended as more consumers use increasingly powerful mobile devices (with photo/video + high-speed access) and the communications options on Facebook (like voice/video chat and other services) continue to rise," read the report.

The proportion of U.S. mobile subscribers social networking via cell phones is still small, but growing. Almost 16% of mobile users over 13 accessed a social network or blog in December, up from 13.% in September, according to new comScore data.
Separately, Facebook in December ranked as the third-most-popular mobile site, with an audience of 18 million, behind Google Search and Yahoo Mail, according to Nielsen.

Real Open Talk For Life with WJC

God: A Priority and Not an Option
By: Rev. W. Jeffrey Campbell, Houston, TX

I shared with readers on last week how I spent New Year’s Eve in church and the first 12 hours of 2010 with my some of my best and close friend crew. We sat at a round table eating a hearty breakfast and talked about the goals that we had achieved in 2009 and the goals that we have set for ourselves for 2010. It was a gay, gay, gay time as we shared our thankful moments, talked about the future and of course came for each other in the early morning hours as only friends can do.

As 2009 was coming to a close, I realized that I had spent most of the year in a spiritual daze. Yes, I had utilized my spiritual gifts of preaching, teaching, exhortation and administration to bless others. But, I knew that I had been walking around in a fog for most of the year and had not really focused on my own personal spiritual growth. (Anybody feeling me?)

I had decided that I would open up the New Year with a 40-day Daniel Fast in hopes of coming out of the fog. The Daniel Fast is a fast where you eat only fresh fruit and vegetables. You cannot consume any sugar, salt, caffeine, white flour, desserts or fried foods. That’s right, all the GOOD stuff.

In his book, “Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough”, Elmer Towns writes that the Daniel Fast focuses on health and physical healing. I will tell you now that although I am closely following the dietary guidelines of the Daniel Fast, I am praying about and meditating on a plethora of subject matters for my personal life and ministry while I also intercede for others. As a matter of fact, I had to pray about what I was going to pray about during my fast. My answer came as I was reflecting upon a posting that I had read while attending Facebook Church…yes, Facebook Church! If you are an avid Facebooker you know that you really can run across some postings that can be quite beneficial to one’s spiritual growth.

The posting that opened my eyes said this, “Never make anyone a priority that makes you an option.” Wow! I read that posting back in October. In that moment it spoke to a potential dating situation that I was in that was showing signs of failure before it even got off the ground. However, as the year came to a close and I was in prayer about what I needed to do in order to come out of the 2009 fog, I realized that the root of my issue was that I had allowed God to become an option in my life as opposed to a priority. I had been active in ministry all year. I had been in church on Sundays and during the week. I had prayed for others. I had preached sermons and taught lessons but, I again I say I had not taken the time to do anything to enhance MY OWN personal relationship with God.

As I gathered with my friends in the early hours of 2010 I didn’t have a list of things that I wanted to accomplish in this New Year. When it was my turn to share I simply said, it is my intention to make God a priority in my life and not an option. I knew then and know in this moment of writing that that goal included the fast that I would embark upon on January 5th as well as focused prayer and personal worship times. I knew that making God priority meant more times of study of not only the Bible but other forms of literature that support spiritual growth. And, I knew that it meant spending some alone time with God so that we can really reconnect.

I am thankful to say that I am on Day 11 of my period of fasting a praying and I have already experienced God’s movement in my life. It has not come without challenge however, I am much stronger to face and overcome the challenge because I am intentionally making God a priority and not an option.

As you do self-inventory I encourage you to ask yourself the question, “Is God a priority or an option in my life?” It is so easy to get caught up in taking care of the spiritual needs of others but, if you are not dually doing the work of pouring into yourself, you run the risk of winding up in the same fog that I have been living in for the past year or so. What you may be led to do may not look like what I am doing. That’s perfectly okay. My desire and I certainly believe that God’s desire is that you be closer to God today than you were on yesterday. Join me on this wonderful quest. You will be glad that you did!

Until next week…ROTFL with WJC!

Please contact me at realopentalkforlife@yahoo.com for further discussion.

Play Defense and Offense on the Field of Business

The MEGA World of Lil Mogul
Most companies now realize how important social media guidelines are for setting the ground rules for employees' usage of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc. The best guidelines encourage users to be responsible and respectful, indicate how confidential information should be handled, and reiterate the corporate rules of business conduct. But even the most robust guidelines are written and used primarily as Defense. The intent is to protect the company and its brand name.

Companies need to play Offense too. Social media and networking are ideal ways to promote the company and the brand but how does the brand promote itself with these new tools. To take full advantage of the brand-building opportunities in social media and networking, companies need to play more Offense.

In recent years, many companies have cultivated the role of employees or members as brand ambassadors. Front-line employees and members in particular are recognized by many as critical brand touchpoints; "friends and family" discounts or coupons are often distributed through employees and members in order to generate broader awareness and positive impressions in the community. Why not extend these efforts to the new social platforms and encourage and enable employees and members to use these tools to promote the brand?!

I'm not talking about showing how to use trademarks and logos. Companies need Brand Guidelines to inspire and instruct employees and members how to generate excitement and interest in the brand. Brand Guidelines include:

• How to talk about the brand -- the messaging and themes that communicate what the brand stands for, what the vision is, and what the key differentiators are. Leaders shouldn't assume that employees and members know this information and how to articulate it. Relay the brand strategy in a way that's accessible and understandable to employees and members at all levels and in all functions. Explain the background and rationale behind the strategy since people are more likely to buy into the "what" if they understand the "why." Plus this knowledge helps them figure out how to represent the brand in unexpected or unusual situations.

• What the brand personality is and ways to bring it to life in writing style, images, etc.
Explain how the brand would act if it were a person -- that way, employees and members can personally relate to the brand and understand its defining attributes. Include writing samples, images, stories, and videos that capture the personality of the brand. These help people express the brand appropriately when they use similar methods.

• Examples and ideas showcasing creative ways to promote and interpret the brand.
Since using social media and networking as brand ambassadors may be new to employees and members, they need inspiration in addition to instruction. Provide thought-starters and "straw man" ideas as fodder to get their creative juices flowing. Share best practices from the few companies whose employees and members are already doing it well. Disseminate brand-building posts and content from your own employees and members who are on the forefront of the movement.

• How to foster relationships with customers that contribute to a great brand experience.
Ensure employees and members know who your key target segments are and what's important to them. At the same time, ensure they know what the current brand campaign or sales focus is and they have accurate information (e.g., website URL, promotional offer, new product announcements, etc.) to share with customers. Help them make the connection between what customers are looking for and what the brand has to offer.

Brand Guidelines promote proactive and productive engagement in social media. The combination of playing Offense with Brand Guidelines and Defense with Social Media Guidelines makes for a winning strategy.




The NFL has awarded $1 million in grants to 89 player charities during NFL Charities Week in 2009. Five organizations are being singled out this week to publicize the substantial philanthropy done throughout the league. Those players include Dallas Cowboys TE Jason Witten for his SCORE Foundation, brothers Torry and Terrence Holt, both current free agents, for their Holt Foundation, the New England Patriots’ Matt Light for his Light Foundation, Miami Dolphins QB Chad Pennington for his 1st and 10 Foundation, and New York Jets RB Tony Richardson for his Rich in Spirit Foundation.

Face the Book in Business

The MEGA World of Lil Mogul

by Lil Mogul & Jaime Tedford

We humans, it turns out, are social. Whether in the real world or on the interwebs, we like to connect, share and express ourselves. Detractors of the social networking phenomenon diminish it to a telescope and microphone for creeping, stalking, and peeping.

In my experience, it's just the opposite. It's a magnifying glass and megaphone putting me out there for discovery and exploration. Our profiles are a window into our lives, or at least a carefully crafted version of our lives. We have reversed the peepholes on our apartment doors, office windows and invited the world to see us in our natural habitat.

It's an idea one of my associates labeled "reverse voyeurism" and betting on it is the closest thing to a guarantee of social media success that I know. Here's a pass at trying to translate this observation into some actionable social media opportunities.

Facebook starts with a face
Reverse voyeurism is a sister of vanity and a cousin of exhibitionism. The very idea of a "face book" starts with a photo, matching just another face in the crowd with a real identity. If social networking were only about vanity and exhibitionism, then this match would be the end of the story.

Real, honest-to-goodness social networking at its core is about the subtle invitation for my friends to get to know me better. Like a well-poured drink, it's also a powerful social lubricant. Would I ever have been so presumptive as to place 40th birthday photos in an envelope to send to 200 of my closest friends? Not likely. Yet with click of a few buttons on my new HTC Sprint phone (I still do not know how to use it fully) and the through the magic that is my news feed, it's almost like you were invited to my birthday bash (no need to send a gift, I understand).

Yup, something deep in my DNA wants all my friends and family, extended or close, to know I turned 40, had great weekend, partied and don't look a day over 29. Facebook is the number one photo site in the world not because it's a better photo utility than companies dedicated to that pursuit, but because it makes it more OK to share photos. The context is casual. "Hey everyone, check these out ... or not, whatever."

Obvious marketing observation: Incorporate photos into your social media strategy. Nothing captures and extends the lifespan of a moment in time like a simple digital image. Be the company that extends live experiences with your brand to the social web.

Enough about me, what do you think of me? Speaking of sharing little gems about me, the results of the last few Quizzes I've taken reveal I am; a "Audi" (What car-type ARE you?), a fashionista undercover (How fashion forward ARE you?) and Tennis (Golf or Tennis? The Game of choice). Honestly, it has baffled me for a long time why my friends, sophisticated and educated people, kept taking these personality quizzes.

It wasn't until I started considering the effects of reverse voyeurism that the answer came to me. We don't do it to learn more about ourselves; I already know I am a undercover fashionista that LOVES The Williams Sisters. We do it to provide one more puzzle piece to our friends. Hoping they continue to be interested in piecing together the 1,000-piece jigsaw that is me.

Oversimplified social strategy: Be the brand that asks me about me, but not so you can sell me more stuff. Do it so I can help my friends know me better. You'll get to know me better in the process, and eventually will sell me more stuff, I promise.

Duhh, Social Media Observation: I am what I'm a fan of. Give me a reason to add your brand to the mosaic that is me. Respect and recognize my permission to market to and through me. And how about a little something, you know, for the effort?

Ready, set, reverse your voyeursim
So is your brand ready to practice reverse voyeurism? As tentative as we all were putting our personal lives in that window, it's understandable the hesitation of many brands. Remember however that full transparency is a myth in person as it is in business. We still curate, put our best features forward, select the tidbits that we broadcast about ourselves.

Don't get all hung up on your own brand's transparency; you're not that interesting. Instead, keep asking how you're helping real humans be more transparent to other real humans who are their friends. When you turn the peephole around, I think you'll feel much less creepy, more like an invited guest and maybe even a friend.

Facebook.com - Rick Pelzer

Notes from Nathan: Coming Clean

esterday, I announced on Facebook that it was my 18th month of sobriety from cocaine.  I am so grateful to be free from that beast.  For so long, I was in it.  My friends were doing it and having fun, so I figured it was harmless, but it wasn't. It led me down a dreadful path.  The friends I thought I had disappeared when the 'magic' was gone.  It didn't resonate for me that my so called friends were using me until one day it clicked.

It was God who brought me up from that downward spiral.  It had to be.  I mustered up the courage to tell my mother about my addiction to cocaine and several other drugs at the time.  Naturally, she worried, but couldn't do much considering we were in two separate states.  She told me to be careful and prayed nonstop.

I cried my eyes out thinking about the obscene amount of money I spent on something that I will never see again.  It wasn't an investment.  The bible and church became my new friends.  I needed to unplug from the wicked nightlife that The Big Apple offered me at the time.  I watched friends regularly vacuum that powder up their noses with straws, dollar bills and extended pinky nails.  I watched them become what I knew they were not.  Evil.

There I sat. Just under seven days deciding to quit for life.  A patron at  my own party watching the transactions between the dealers and the clients.  Tracking the number of trips to the bathroom.  Eavesdropping on conversations between men searching for party favors.  It was a mess!  But there I sat, completely sober.  No liquor.  No drugs.  100% Nathan.

If you are suffering from an addiction and need to talk to someone, find someone, you don't have to go through it alone, you don't have to suffer.  Choose today to COME CLEAN!

Call me, I'll talk to you!  (917) 771-6611.  No anonymous calls please.

Social media: fad, evolution or revolution?

Social Media is “the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution” and has put together a video filled with impressive stats to prove his point. For those who ever questioned the power of Social Media might change their minds after watching this video as these numbers speak for themselves. Facebook and Twitter might be soon replaced by something else, but social media has indeed revolutionized the way we communicate.

(Click the video below)

www.TheFutureForward.net

Notes from Nathan - From Online to Offline

We live in a fast paced world, that’s pretty evident. We have also become very distracted in our day-to-day living. We have access to pretty much any and everything throughout the course of the day.

I remember a time when I had to wait until I got home to speak to my friends, now they can catch me as long as I have my cell phone in my immediate possession. With modern technology there is almost no way to fully escape. They even have devices where your friends can track your location. Now that is absolutely insane and I refuse to buy into that one.

Don’t get me wrong, I love facebook! It has allowed me to contact people that I have lost contact for almost 20 years. However, as of late, I have found myself sitting in front of my computer talking to those very people and checking for updates as if they were important! I am an entrepreneur and business owner, left to generate clients and my own income. Surely there are things that I could be doing rather than chatting away with people that ultimately are equally distracted.

I have a client who told me that he is glued to his television and computer while his social life is pretty non-existent and his living quarters is a total wreck. So, I ask “when was the last time you cleaned your room?” or “when was the last time you invited your facebook friends to join you offline for coffee or just a walk in the park?” We don’t even realize that these distractions, while seemingly bringing us closer together, are ultimately keeping us apart. Why? It’s because we choose to stay within the confines of our living quarters therefore not stepping outside of our comfort zones. Our social skills are lost and we are unable to have the connections that we deep down inside yearn for. So, today I invite you to not let your distractions become bad habits. Get out there and be social!

Here is the challenge. Over the next two weeks, extend an invitation to meet someone offline. This should be someone that you have never before met in person. Another option is to pick up the phone and have a real conversation, this would be effective for those connections that don’t reside in the same state as you. I invite any of you to give me a call. And don’t make it about making a romantic connection just a HUMAN CONNECTION. We all need love!

Nathan Seven Scott
917-771-6611