Too Many Planes But, Hey, It's Ze Frank!

I've been remiss in posting much lately.  Mainly, I've been traveling a bunch and spending my spare time at my kids' softball and baseball games. Although it's been nearly 2 weeks, I have to give overdue kudos to the Brett Hurt and his team at BazaarVoice for putting on a killer conference on social commerce in Austin. They had a stellar line up speakers including Ed Keller, Josh Bernoff, Andy Sernovitz, Bryan Eisenberg, just to name a few. I shared Strategies for Opening Your Brand but the highlight for me, personally, was interviewing Ze Frank on stage. He did a 15 minute stand up routine that showcased his rise of web celebrity status by getting people to make earth sandwiches, dress up their vacuum cleaners, pass along inane jokes and games. His list of projects is long, silly, and impressive. Check out ColorWars 2008. Anyway, our discussion was intended to help retailers learn and apply his lessons for building a community -- commitment, transparency, and humor. Speaking of funny, the BazaarVoice exces left everyone laughing with their must-see homemade video.