Jaffe Juice

Senator Obama, I don't have to tell you that you lost the Pennsylvania Primary to Senator Clinton. In fact you lost by 10 points, which was quite an anti-climax considering all the polls and mainstream media hype about closing the gap etc.

What troubles me the most is that you outspent Senator Clinton almost 2:1. I believe you spent in excess of $9 million versus Clinton's $5 million on predominantly TV ads. What troubles me more is how this year - at such a crucial time for America; where it is more important than ever before to reach out to younger, disenfranchised, disengaged or just apathetic voters - all the political candidates are essentially eschewing the full continuum of web/digital on one hand and social media/web 2.0 (or what I call conversational marketing) on the other hand, in favor of the most traditional; the most conventional; the most predictable; the most intrusive and quite frankly, the most insulting form of communication: traditional television advertising.

Isn't your ticket about change? Isn't your entire platform about doing things differently?

Come on Barack...it's time to walk the talk and lead by example. This year candidates (PLURAL as in ALL candidates) have given such lip service to Digital, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Podcasting etc. when in actual fact they should be focusing more of their efforts (not ALL, but MORE) on the powerful strategic combination of community, dialog and partnership.

And Senator Clinton, what's the first thing out of your mouth after you claimed victory? "I need more money..." Don't outspend; outsmart. Join the Conversation, rather than trying to drown it out.

Prove to me (either of you) that you're listening. I'm about to become a new voter in the US and if you want my vote....reply to this post. I'll take it one step further, I'll give you my consulting time to advise you on how to best leverage conversational marketing for your campaigns IF you take the time to contact me.

Game on.

In no respective order, and interspersed with several tangents for flavor:

• Hey Bob Garfield, Comcast cares. They really do. They have a twitter account which says it all, doesn't it?
• Is the Cluetrain still relevant? Do people even know about it? Find out more here. I wonder what the authors would say about my Join the Conversation assertion that not only are markets conversations, but marketing can be a conversation as well.
• Change articulated straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. Kansas State University students and Michael Wesch deliver your wake up call. Hat tip to Andrea Vascellari

• Amex CMO on moving from "disrupting" to "empowering". I'm glad they read "Life after the 30-second spot"
• Thought leadership and advice on Twitter here, here and here. Also this Scoble contention that # of people you follow and not the # of people who follow you is the real secret of Twitter (and by inference, wisdom, influence etc)
• fyi, here is my tweetcloud which gives you a nice snapshot of my jaffejuice (if you're on twitter, follow me here; I'll follow you right back) conversations on twitter. Hat tip to Verdino.
• Are you a member of thehissing monkey pack? I keynoted in Helsinki last week with Cult of the Amateur's Andrew Keen and he used the phrase "hissing monkeys" to describe elements of the blogosphere. He's probably not wrong. Now all we need is a logo. Anyone? Anyone?
• Hilarious parody of Second Life on the Daily Show. A year ago I would have been all out of joint; now I think it's indicative of ebb and flow into pop culture.

• The original crayon, crayola, gets in on communal act by announcing new color names. Apparently the community wants to play as well.  Case in point...."Best Friends' versus "Eating Disorder". You can imagine who's who in the zoo.
• Does the Tipping Point really exist? Some say not. Here's a post to the affirmative.
• Is the blogosphere blogging itself to death? crayonista, Deb Wiseman, picks up on a Times article which questions the health of bloggers.
• Friendship 2.0: Last week I met up with Andrea Vascellari and Anti Vilpponen in Helsinki. We had a simply awesome time and 3 hours flew by like 3 minutes. I have some video and will try and get it out soon enough.
• I know Fake blogs are criminal in terms of dumbness, but is it necessary heinous to the point of being a criminal offense?
• What's a blogger? Not the angry, gown-wearing, basement-dwelling, parent-living, disheveled, pimple-faced geek you might have expected.
• Blogs as EVOLVED focus groups. Just what I was saying up in Canada this past week...
• The blog cuss-o-meter. Sadly, Jaffe Juice rates at only 4.8%, 47% lower than other sites which took the test.

Created by OnePlusYou

• A new conversationally-flavored browser? You've got to be flocking kidding me. Hat tip to David H
• Elephant paints a self-portrait.
• I am Joe Jaffe goes national. I heard that every Joe Jaffe-wannabee is donating $25 to Frozen Pea Fund, which would put the total now at almost $700 by taking my name in vain. Love it.
• US and Western Europe lags behind Asia and emerging markets in social media participation? I'm puzzled. This might be the equivalent of saying 50% of the world population are dumber than the other half.
• What's the deal with this whole selling friends kerfuffle?
• Mind map of social media. Cool.