clue implementation unit

Welcome.

You've found the home of the Clue Unit, a collaborative podcast about customers, communities and business in the web 2.0 world. Our goal is to be long on telling stories of things we've done in the real-world, long on tales of what works and what doesn't, and short on vague theories of marketing frou-frou.

(It's your job to call us on it if you think that's not the case in any given episode. Be brutal; we can take it.)

Oh...the "we" part of this. Three folks who have been doing this customer-and-community thing for quite a while: Jake McKee, Lee LeFever, and Christopher Carfi.

So, take a listen, and tell us what you think. Thanks for stopping by.

February 07, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

Clue Unit #23 - Communities and Food - August 10. 2007

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Today's Topics:

The role of food in customer relationships
Food Service Storys: Portillos in Chicago
- The Varsity in Atlanta
- Dicks Drive-In in Seattle
- Texas De Brazil in Dallas
- Dick's Last Resort
Focus on Food for Events
Satisfaction Scores Based on Food
Food as Cross-Cultural Connector
Multiple Channels of Online Communities
Remembering Names as Customer Service
Phoning it in Vs. Doing the Right Thing

Related Links:

Blogher in Chicago
Elise Bauer Simply Recipes
Wired: Mike Arrington BBQs
Hugh Mcleod Blogger Dinner
Menuism.com - Social Networking and Dining Reviews
Menuism's Gut Check - Twitter as Food
Devil Wears Prada
Elizabeth Edwards at Blogher Chicago
Tech President
Personal Democracy Forum

August 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Clue Unit #22 - An Introduction to Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) - August 1. 2007

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Today's Topics:

What is VRM?
Will businesses get it?
What are the mechanics of the system?
Microformats?
The employee experience

August 01, 2007 in clueimplementationunit, clueunit | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Episode 21 - Community as Business: Rapid Fire

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Episode 21, about 30 minutes.

Today's Topics:

Recap of "Community as Business" Focus
Craigslist and Small is Beautiful
Other Examples of Community as Business
MySpace and Marketing
iPhone Release as Cultural Event
Personal Updates

Related Links:

JPG Magazine
Threadless
Next Week: CRM and VRM, Doc Searls
Small is Beautiful
Craigslist ; Craig Newmark
Cult of the Amateur
Business Lifecycle in Community Context - What Can Community Do?
Fon; Community Delivered Wi-fi
Moo Cards; Appended to Existing Community - Flickr
MySpace as Marketing Vehicle
X-Men Promotion on Myspace
iPhone as Cultural Event
Categories of iPhone Line-Waiters
Will You Get an iPhone?
Nokia 770
Jake's New Biz: Ant's Eye View
Cerado Gets New Offices
Common Craft - More Videos coming soon
Blogher 2007, Chicago

July 13, 2007 in clueunit | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Clue Unit #20: A Conversation with Derek Powazek - June 25, 2007

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Episode 20, about 30 minutes.

Today's Topic: A Conversation with Derek Powazek

The Story of JPG Magazine
Gaming the System for Good
Extremism and Sites Like Digg
Wikipedia and Big Ideas
Threadless as Community Business
Assignment Zero and Pro/Am Journalism
Community Hangover?

Related Links:

Derek Powazek
Design for Community
Publishing Before the Web - Newspaper
JPG Magazine - The Story
8020 Publishing
Access and Control Lead to Relationships
Gaming Can a Positive Impact - Embrace the Game
- 10 Photos per day
- Use Theme
- Encourage Friends to Vote (Digg, etc.)
Editors Make Final Call
Extremism and The Problem with Digg
Kuro5hin - Built Without an Editor
NewsAssignment
Tom Coates on Wikipedia
Wikipedia Required a Big Idea
Threadless and Creative vs. Financial Rewards
Threadless as Example for Doing Community Business
Lulu for Printing
Community Business Model
AssignmentZero for Pro/Am Journalism Wiki
"Community" - Using the Web For What It's Good At

June 25, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (2)

Clue Unit #19: The Ad Model in Communities as Business - June 10, 2007

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Episode 19, about 30 minutes.

Today's Topic: The Ad Model in Communities as Business

Ads on Blogs
The 43 Things Model
Options in Serving Ads
How Ads Really Work
Impressions vs. Clicks
Exclusive Sponsorship
Self-Correcting Nature of Advertising
Markus Frind and Plenty of Fish
Bad Models
Online Community Unconference
Fun time bong hit sound effects...

Related Links:
Jake's blog - no ads
Chris's blog - no ads
43Things.com
43 Things #1 Result for "lose weight" on Google
Indie Click
Google Adsense
Auction Ads
Blogher Ads
Federated Media
Matt Haughey's Post on How Ads Really Work
Metafilter
Markus Frind
Plenty of Fish
Josh Ledgard - Post on Ads in Community
Online Community Unconference
Pixish
Howard Rheingold
John Coate
Cliff Figallo
Gail Ann Williams
iPhone
Cult of the Amateur - Andrew Keen blog

June 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

Clue Unit #18: Community as Business - June 1, 2007

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Episode 18, about 30 minutes.

Today's Topic: Online Community As Business

Clipboard Roulette
Open Source Car
Community Business Models
User-to-user gifts, products
ROI and Metrics
Community as the means, not the end
Conference Chatter

Related Links:
ClipBoard Roulette
Derek Powazek's Search for People Powered Products
Open Source Car
JPG Magazine
Threadless
Flickr
Amazon with/without community
Photobucket
Stunning Nikon Campaign
Facebook's gifts
Second Life digital purchases
Sims Online
Sean O'Driscoll and not selling "community"

Conference Chatter:
Dot Sub for video translation
Common Craft Show
Dopplr for frequent travelers
Where 2.0
Google Street Level Views
Snopes

June 18, 2007 in clueunit | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Clue Unit #17: Transparency Rapid-fire - May 31, 2007

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Episode 17, about 30 minutes.

Clue Unit Episode #17 Transparency Rapid Fire

Todays Topics:

Google Street Views
Transparency and TV
Data as Transparency
Facebook Applications

Related Links:

Transparent Screens on Flickr
Google Street Level Views
Phone Plans and Transparency
Esse Quam Videre - To Be Rather Than To Seem
Pleo Dinosaur
Video: Rosie Vs. Elizabeth on the View (yes, we discussed it, thanks Jake!)
Transparency Linked to Trust and Effectiveness
Computer as Replacement for TV
Entertainment Weekly - Are You Killing TV?
Twitter
TweetVolume.com is it transparency?
Darren Barefoot
Goldcorp in Wikinomics
Facebook
Facebook Developers and Applications

May 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Clue Unit #15: Interview with Deb Schultz on Transparency - May 24, 2007

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Episode 15, about 30 minutes.

Today's Topic: Interview with Deb Schultz on Transparency

About Deb:
Deb Schultz is a consultant and speaker who describes herself as an evangelist and rabble-rouser in the relationship economy. She is the former Marketing Director of Six Apart, makers of blogging platforms Movable Type, Typepad, Vox and Live Journal.