Grant Robertson · new media superhero

IMG00222, by Grant_Robertson.

Promoting yourself at conferences is hard. SXSW is an especially tough field to compete within, as it’s crowded and full of the best and brightest among the blogosphere.

I nearly blew it. I forgot to order slick cards in time for the show, and I went into panic mode. Sometimes, panic brings the best inspiration to the table. Laying in bed two days before I left, I realized I had a perfect opportunity to stand out. Everyone — and I do mean everyone — would have amazing cards with pretty graphics, slick logos and clean cut edges. So, why not go the other way?

This passage from William Gibson’s short story Johnny Mnemonic was the inspiration I needed:

I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs of tennis socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for: If they think you’re crude, go technical; if they think you’re technical, go crude. I’m a very technical boy. So I decided to get as crude as possible. These days, though, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness. I’d had to turn both those twelve-gauge shells from brass stock, on the lathe, and then load then myself; I’d had to dig up an old microfiche with instructions for hand- loading cartidges; I’d had to build a lever-action press to seat the primers -all very tricky. But I knew they’d work.

So what did I load my shotgun with? Humor. I decided to tell the story of how I’d fucked up, forgotten to print cards, and beg for forgiveness; all in one paragraph. And hey, it couldn’t hurt to take a shot at Robert Scoble while I was at it, right?

This is my, “Oh, crap! I forgot to print cards for SXSW!” card. Laid out in romantic old-school fashion using tape and a Xerox machine, this card was forged on paper crafted from only the finest pelts of the most adorable baby seals and printed with ink containing the blood of Robert Scoble, god of first person pronouns. It may or may not possess magic powers. Please hold this card dear as a souvenir of my absentmindedness and an invitation to stay in touch with Download Squad”

It was pithy, reasonably short, and gave a bit of insight to my personality. I had no idea how it would be received, but I love to experiment.

The verdict? It worked. In a sea of slick business cards, my crudely crafted calling card stood out, stopped people in their tracks, and made them pay attention. I got more compliments on my card over the week than I ever could have hoped for.

Yesterday I found that Darren Rowse of Problogger had even given my card a shout out in his “How to Promote Yourself (and Your Blog) at a Conference” video, which was a huge honor. Weeks after the SXSW glory has faded, my cheap and easy business card still has legs.

The moral, “If they think you’re crude, go technical; if they think you’re technical, go crude.” I can’t wait till next year. I won’t do it exactly the same way, but I’ll certainly take a lesson from this victory pulled from the steely jaws of defeat.

bloggingheroes, by Grant_Robertson.

Although I feel Blogging Heroes tagline is total hyperbole, “Interviews with 30 of the world’s top bloggers”, it’s prudent to point out that it’ll be available on December 10th. How I ended up on that list, I have no idea.

I’m definitely looking forward to reading the interviews with Gina Trapani, Mark Fraudenfelder, Chris Anderson and Mary Jo Foley.

Oh, and having seen the draft of my interview already, I’m going to go ahead and apologize to Ray Beckerman. I mentioned you correctly, but they misspelled your name. Hey, at least they got your link correct.

The book’s publisher, Wiley, has been incredibly cool in allowing each blogger featured to freely share a pdf of their chapter. Here’s mine.

I’m on NPR’s Marketplace this morning. They didn’t use much of what we’d taped but, I did get the “hammer home the point” spot towards the end of the piece.

Thanks goes to Lisa Napoli, Marketplace, American Public Media and thanks as well to CKDU 88.1 in Halifax where I recorded the segment.

** If you’d like to have me drive home a point or, even talk at length, check out my Contact page or grab a copy of my press sheet.

I’ve been asked to appear on WNYC’s Soundcheck with John Schaefer this Monday. We’ll be discussing the migration from CD to digital download formats and some of the issues that have arisen as a result. Yep, Soundscan data has everyone talking about the democratization of the music business.

Soundcheck is a very well respected show, and John Schaefer was recently named a “New York Influential” by New York magazine. I’m excited and honored to be on the show, and I look forward to talking with John.

Tune in to WNYC on Monday 7/17 at 2pm EST or, download the podcast.

I was interviewed by Biotic on the podcast / radio show “Black Sweater, White Cat” this weekend. Biotic and I talked about music, the commons, my move to Halifax and the recent addition of he and his co-host Subsystem7 to the contributrs list at my site, Indieish.com.

We had some technical difficulties with the interview that caused radio listeners to miss the first half. Fortunately, you can catch the whole interview, sans technical issues, in the podcast version of BSWC.