Disqus - Latest Comments for treypennington

Re: What the Circles Illustrate About Influence

treypennington — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:18:27 -0000

And, if you want to grow your Klout score, here are Four Keys to Increasing Your Klout Score: http://treypennington.com/2... (CAUTION: read with care or you'll fall into a horrendous pit)

Re: Opportunity And Risk In Tracking Influence Online

treypennington — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:00:40 -0000

Solid post. Thank you for including my blog post. If you get a chance, please read through my entire post. When you do, I think you'll see that I am poking great fun at Klout for the ridiculous nature of their claim to be "the standard of influence."

My four keys to increasing your Klout score WILL work—thus the ridiculous nature of even exploring ways to increase one's Klout score.Have fun and happy influencing.

Re: 5 Minutes With… Trey Pennington!

treypennington — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:27:46 -0000

Y'all are too kind. Thank you.

Re: What’s the ROI of your mother?

treypennington — Fri, 20 May 2011 19:14:01 -0000

Right on. I think most executives mean well when they ask, "What's the ROI of that?" After all, they heard us MBA types say stuff like that and it sounds quite executive-y. Once you get them past the question their culture tells them they're supposed to ask in order to sound as important as their titles, you can get down to what they really want to know but just didn't know to ask it: "What's the value of this relative to our goals?"

On second thought, the real question takes too long and doesn't sound as sophisticated.

Re: Serious, extreme personal branding gone wild (you can do this too)

treypennington — Wed, 18 May 2011 23:32:10 -0000

Thanks John. I am especially grateful for your constant encouragement. I'm looking forward to seeing sometime during one of my three (so far) scheduled trips to the UK this year.

Re: Serious, extreme personal branding gone wild (you can do this too)

treypennington — Wed, 18 May 2011 23:31:11 -0000

Thanks Leo. I especially liked "leverage," too. Scott raised a very solid creative thinking inspiring question: "now that I have THIS, what else is possible." Brilliant. Thank you for taking time to read and comment.

Re: All I want for Christmas (a sales story)

treypennington — Sun, 08 May 2011 17:45:10 -0000

I think Dr. Haven would highlight his specific wording again: specific narrative structure. From what I can tell so far, structure is preeminent in his mind.

Adding to your "piece of an anecdote"…"Flotsam"=marketing puffery.

Re: All I want for Christmas (a sales story)

treypennington — Sun, 08 May 2011 17:29:09 -0000

Here's what Kendall Haven concludes is "story":
"A story is: a character-based narrative of an interesting character’s struggles to reach a real and important goal that is initially blocked by some combination of one or more problems and conflicts that have the potential to create some real risk and danger (jeopardy) for that character, all presented in sufficient detail to make the story seem vivid, compelling, and memorable."quoted from http://astoriedcareer.com/k...

Re: All I want for Christmas (a sales story)

treypennington — Sun, 08 May 2011 17:14:11 -0000

@storyteller , you may be happy to hear that I'm stepping it up a notch and am now exploring the meaning of "story" as a "specific narrative structure." Yes, I'm reading Story Proof now.

Re: All I want for Christmas (a sales story)

treypennington — Sat, 07 May 2011 18:20:54 -0000

Thank you @twitter-631803 @storyteller . You're going to make me get a masters in storytelling from Eastern Tennessee State University, aren't you?

Here's a helpful collection of definitions of "story" from someone with a doctorate
@astoriedcareer which includes Sean's definition of story. Interesting to note the definition of "story" immediately after Sean's in this collection: "story is a context." [Link downloads PDF]

As with marketing, there is actually no universally accepted definition of "story" nor "storytelling." I crafted my own definition of marketing—"Marketing is the ongoing process of engagement whereby strangers are nurtured into advocates." However, I am not even going to begin to start to initiate a draft of a definition for "story" or "storytelling"!

That being said, there is a need to bridge the chasm of definitions so that the foundational mindset of a classical, Ruth Sawyer, storyteller may begin to effect change in the mind of a marketer. It could be that ENDS may affect one's definition and understanding of MEANS employed to reach the ends. For instance, what the storyteller seeks to accomplish when he's all done, may not be at all what the marketer (or, as in my story above, a daughter) seeks to accomplish. What the tool looks like, feels like, behaves like, might very well be different depending on the hand that holds it.

Though I'm still pondering this next thought, I'll include it in the mix here as a seedling: I wonder if a "looser" definition of story, as opposed to a sharply-contoured definition, might aid adoption of the worldviews underlying great storytelling (a la Connie Regan-Blake or Sean Buvala)?

Just pulled ALL of my storytelling references off the shelves (24 at the moment), to see how Annette Simmons, Roger Schank (boy is THAT a tough read!), Ruth Sawyer, Doug Lipman, Joe Lambert, Stephen Denning and others define story. At the very least, it'll make for a killer blog post in a couple weeks. If you want to write it before me, I'll tweet the story of it. ; ) [insert a quite devilish chuckle here]

Re: Be different, but not THAT different!

treypennington — Sat, 07 May 2011 12:48:23 -0000

Thank you Gregory. Your list of differentiators is quite helpful. I think you'll enjoy reading @tomasacker 's books: A Clear Eye for Branding, A Little Less Conversation and Opportunity Screams.

Re: Trey Pennington: Feeding What Humans Hunger for with Social Media

treypennington — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:34:39 -0000

Brilliant, accurate recap. Thank you for listening well enough to create such a thorough follow-up post.

Re: People are more important than Klout

treypennington — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:19:55 -0000

Thanks for sharing the link to the Marketing Edge content. What a treasure trove!

Great phrase: "obsessed with commercial cause and effect." You'll definitely be seeing that quoted in an upcoming post.

I'm delighted we discovered each other on someone else's Facebook status update! I think you may be one of the few who might enjoy this post: http://treypennington.com/2...

Re: It’s all in an icon: why your social visual presence matters

treypennington — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:53:43 -0000

Good reminder to remember the basics. It's easy to become enamored with The New while forgetting the essential, irreducible minimum elements of marketing. One brand mark makes a huge difference.

I've struggled with my brand mark for a long time. Almost by default, my looking-up-at-the-camera-wearing-a-dark-suit-and-yellow-tie profile picture has become my brand mark. The problem is, I'm beginning to look less and less like the guy in that picture! Within a year or so, it will be un-authentic for me to present myself as that guy. Then what? I know; I've got a visual identity challenge looming on the horizon (and probably in my rearview mirror, too).

I also think you're spot on about video. The really cool thing about social media is, it's lowered consumer expectations of production value, so every small business, every individual can now confidently incorporate video into their/his/her marketing program.

Re: Sometimes Like means NO!

treypennington — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:00:10 -0000

Oh Joanne! That's sheer poetry! May I morph your poetry into American English?

"'Like' is to favor what 'friending' is to friendship."

Re: Sometimes Like means NO!

treypennington — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:58:13 -0000

Ah, we like stuff for so many different reasons, huh? I like that you pointed that out.

Re: A Scorecard on the 7 Blogging Essentials

treypennington — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 05:47:35 -0000

Most impressive thing about this post? The comments, and particularly the one by Billy Mitchell where he says he read the post and then TOOK ACTION to check his own blog to see if he was offering the Subscribe by Email option.

Re: Social media success isn’t rocket surgery

treypennington — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 12:33:27 -0000

Very good point. Sharing stories and shining the spotlight on others. Brilliant way to succeed online. (and in life, too)

Re: People are more important than Klout

treypennington — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:47:18 -0000

Thank you Sara.

Re: People are more important than Klout

treypennington — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:47:10 -0000

I'm thinking it was only a coincidence, but a happy coincidence for sure!

Hey, don't throw out that shirt. I hear the ones with stains are more valuable.

Re: People are more important than Klout

treypennington — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:45:58 -0000

Good point. There is a role for metrics and a role for Klout (obviously! Look how the commercial world is embracing, even drooling over, Klout). The challenge is probably in what Klout claims to be: "The Standard of Influence." But then again, Klout founder Joe Fernandez is brilliant. He heard the commercial marketplace clamoring for a "standard measure of influential people online" and he served it up to them.

Re: People are more important than Klout

treypennington — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:43:30 -0000

So glad we got connected! Thank you for taking time to comment.

Re: You have more clout than the guy who has all the Klout there is

treypennington — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 13:24:19 -0000

Thanks Mark. I appreciate your consistent encouragement.

You are so right. It could be that team Twitter became enamored with the "fame" brought to them by way of Justin and Ashton and Oprah. I trust someone at Twitter does indeed realize that Justin, Ashton, Oprah, and celebrities in general, USE resources to enhance their own celebrity. Seems Twitter has far more potential that celebrity self-promotion.

Re: You have more clout than the guy who has all the Klout there is

treypennington — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:56:19 -0000

Good point. Gratitude fuels community. http://treypennington.com/2...

Re: You have more clout than the guy who has all the Klout there is

treypennington — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:53:41 -0000

Indeed. Thanks for commenting.

The point of my posts on Klout is, "A two-digit score cannot measure real influence, so just do your thing the way you do your thing, help the people you're in business to help, and don't worry about any artificial measure of influence." The bottom line is, "Don't worry about Klout. Do your thing."