Dan Lives Here

Rock N Roll Haircut

2007-03-31T17:13:00.000-07:00

Jess, Jack and myself went to get haircuts... well, Jess and myself got haircuts, Jack's still got his "high and tight" hair style that hasn't grown out. We rolled to Bishops this morning around 9;15am and there were several people already in line.

If you haven't heard of Bishops, it is a series of 5 barbershops here in Portland with a cool twist. They pride themselves as the "Rock N Roll" Barbershop. When you walk into a Bishops, there is usually cut-out pictures pasted on every inch of the walls. Usually there is eclectic music playing (depending on the barbers choice)... rockabilly, punk, underground hip-hop, alt rock, drum and bass... it's usually all over the map, but good music.

The music isn't the only thing that makes this experience unique. You are usually greeted with the welcome "Welcome to Bishops, can I get you a beer." Yes, they give out the "Champagne of Beers" Miller High-Life for free. And, as most barbershops, the cornerstone of your experience is the barbers themselves.

Each time I've been to a Bishops, I've gotten my haircut by really cool people, (today it was Eric from the band Dead Man's Hand, a local psychobilly band here in Portland) who have great stories (a must for a good barber) and even cooler tats. Now, not all Bishops barbers have tattoos. But a good chunk live the lifestyle. Either they are in bands or are aficionados of music... Bishops lives up to the title of the Rock and Roll Barbershop.

Bishops is a great example of taking a normal concept (a barbershop) and creating a unique experience around that. CNN did a story on them as did KGW. A another good example is Voodoo Doughnut. That's for another blog, but the point is... experience.

I go back to Bishops each time getting a solid haircut at a good price ($19) and feel that I support two things local... a local business and the local music scene. Since a lot of these guys are in bands, anytime we can help support them in their normal jobs, means that they'll be able to continue to pursue creating music.

Roy for ROY Leatherman Tool

2007-03-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago we brainstormed to come up with an idea to help promote Brandon Roy for the Rookie of the Year in the NBA. We wanted to send a fun press kit to the voting members of the media. We tossed around several ideas, but one stood out, using a local Portland based company product that embodied Brandon Roy's game. The idea was to send a Brandon Roy Leatherman tool to the members of the media. Leatherman Tools (founded in 1983) are known for their versatility. Brandon's game is very similar. He isn't a one dimensional player. Leading the rookie class in points per game 16.3, assists per game 4.0, and 5th in rebounds per game 4.4, Brandon consistently has filled the boxscore with stats that usually have a number in each of the columns (sometimes 0's for turnovers).

We've been getting some good press about the tool (check out this MP3 from Jim Rome, courtesy of 1080 The FAN) and momentum for Brandon's bid for Rookie Of the Year. It will be a tough case for anyone else to make an argument for the award. Bargnani is sidelined the rest of the season with an appendectomy, Garbajosa has to have surgery on his leg, Rudy Gay isn't on a team that has won more games than Portland AND he doesn't have as good as numbers in any of the categories.

Brandon's stiffest competition might come from his teammate LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge has been putting up really good numbers since All-Stars. Especially since Joel Przybilla went down with a knee injury and LaMarcus became the starter.

The Leatherman tool promotion was great to see people here at the Trail Blazers collaborate in making this happen (thanks to Todd Bosma for the originator of the Leatherman tool idea) and for Leatherman to team up with us in creating these one of a kind collectors peices. We did a limited over-run, so you can buy them for $45 in our online store. Seriously, these are going fast. We've sold 1/4 of the inventory in 3 hours. Damn, that's hot.

Portland Social Media Group Ticket Deal

2007-03-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a ticket deal for all who come to my blog (as a little thank you)... Get 50% off tickets for the Clippers game (this Saturday 3/31) and the Sonics game (4/14). The yellow seats are pretty good for $25.

Click here to get your ticket deal... now you can't say I never gave you nothin'.

Jack is here!

2007-03-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

That's right, a week ago at 5:38pm John Gary Harbison (aka Jack) was born at Good Samaritan Hospital here in Portland. He was born 8lbs and 21 inches. If he waited until his due date (March 28th) he would've been 9+ lbs. He has his own blog here. Plenty of pictures on the blog and some on Picasa.

Also, I will be speaking at the March meeting for the Portland Social Media club. Tim Germer saw me speak at SEMPDX and asked me to speak. Here are details:

March 27th
7pm - 9pm
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave
Portland, OR 97253
(503) 708-0851

Should be a really cool setting to talk with some of Portland's bright minds in blogs, podcasts, social networks and other social things, like drinking? Does karaoke qualify as social media? We'll talk about why we're using Web 2.0 at the Trail Blazers and how it is working for us. Hope to see you there.

Tourney Time...

2007-03-15T19:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is "bar none" my favorite time of year for sports. There are people who love every Saturday and Sunday during fall for Football (ehem, my wife). I do love college football. I love the NFL and all the stress fantasy football brings me. But these next three weeks pumps adrenaline into my system constantly. I just watched Virgina Commonwealth beat Duke. I would never... repeat NEVER watch a Virgina Commonwealth football game.

I am a fan of Colin Cowherd, I remember the days at Entercom, early in the mornings seeing Colin wander the halls during a commercial break with his paper coffee cup asking people if they thought waffles were better than pancakes. Recently on his national radio show on ESPN Radio, he brought up the fact that college football wouldn't benefit from a tournament like college basketball. His argument is a valid one. The tourney makes the regular season in college basketball virtually obsolete. The only time of the year people care about it is during March. Where as college football gets great ratings throughout their regular season.

Where I disagree with him is it isn't the tournament that makes the regular season obsolete, it's the amount of games that makes the regular season obsolete. Most teams first 10 games are against non factor opponents and don't really garner any attention. In college football every game counts towards your quest to the national title or at least a bowl game.

What I like about the tournament situation is, the amount of teams that COULD be in the final four is larger. Of course, at the beginning of every sehttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifason, college football teams could say the same thing (Virgina Commonwealth maybe has a shot at the national title game for football if they win every game). But that isn't the case due to the voting system. Boise State went undefeated, but didn't a shot at the national title shot due to rankings from pollsters.

Do I have a solution. No way. I know that I love this time of year! And will be checking my two bracket entries every 10 minutes. Here are my two entries in case you want to heckle me for picking bad picks. The Brown Shark || The Moldy Hair Clog.

A blog post about March Madness would be complete without some sort of "waste of work time" reference. So here ya go. Also, mind you, I've talked to people at work during march madness that I rarely talk to normally. There is something to be said about building camaraderie.

Solid Ticket Offer for Detroit Pistons

2007-03-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, friends, family and people coming to my blog. I was able to get a friends and family discount for people from SEMpdx and of course, friends and family for the Detroit Pistons game on March 14th. We want to sell this game out for when 'Sheed comes back into town. To get this deal that gives you 1/2 off prices in a couple of the price categories, click here.

You will get the following discounts:

Yellow Seats: $24.50 (normally $49 for lower level)

Purple Seats: $12.00 (normally $24)

Red Seats: $10.00 (normally $17)

Top see some views where those seats are, check out the sweet 3-D seating chart that we recently added to trailblazers.com. Click here.

I will be sitting on a panel at SEMpdx tomorrow around 9:15am. Hopefully I'll see you guys there!

SEMpdx Search Fest '07

2007-03-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I will be speaking on a panel with other Web 2.0 enthusiasts at SEMpdx Search Fest 07. The panel will consist of:
Web 2.0 / RSS
Utilizing RSS Feeds as a Powerful SEO Tool
Doug Hay, Expansion+;
Janet Johnson; SnapNames;
John Anthony Hartman, Feedia;
Dan Harbison, Portland Trail Blazers;

I'm always excited to interact with other people who understand why Web 2.0 is exciting and share ideas on what we're all doing. I also get really excited to brainstorm on where we go from here.

One constant battle I see from Web 2.0 is the amount of crap that gets out in the internet. Now with Web 2.0, everyone has a voice and everyone has the ability to converse. My thought of Web 2.0 is to improve the knowledge that is out there. A collective brain is smarter than a singular one. You can have more rounded knowledge on a larger breadth of topics if you have multiple people who are experts in their own field. Where it breaks down is not having a "crap filter" on comments, or tags. Many times I have gone to someones MySpace page, looked at the first 5 comments and then bailed... instead getting carpal tunnel by wading through 200 comments and scrolling down to the bottom of their page. That is what I consider poor use of Web 2.0. Having all those comments didn't better my knowledge of who that person is, or help me decide if I want to be friends with them. A lot of the time it's for some DJ's party in St. Louis or someone's really bad hip-hop that they made in their mom's basement (DJ SharpTongue I'm looking in your direction...) Editing on Web 2.0 by authors and users is essential. Wikipedia does a great job of doing that. Allowing everyone to contribute, but if it's crap... out it goes.

I will post my presentation about Web 2.0 and what we're doing at the Trail Blazers after the panel on Wednesday. I recommend you check it out if you are interested in SEM. Here is a quick "3 questions" I did with their blog.

Amidst everything...

2007-02-23T08:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, a lot is going on. Launching social network (we're at half our goal for fan sign-ups in 10 days), a win streak (2 games, trying to make it 3 tonight, does that constitute a streak?), a trade (former Duck Freddie Jones for Juan Dixon) and the normal game stuff we have going on... it's Friday and time for Portland Coffee.

Stephen Landau started this up here in Portland (I understand Russell Davies gave Stephen the idea to start this up)...
Stephen usually hosts, myself and Shannon will be hosting this week, as Stephen will be at the traveling with his family. We'll be at Tiny's from 8:30am until whenever really. I usually have to bail due to a weekly meeting at 9:30am, but people mingle, debate, inspire and get cracked out on Tiny's Coffee.
Hope to see you guys at this coffee or a future one. Fridays, 8:30am.

Review from Pat Coyle

2007-02-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

Check out this great Sports Marketing Blog from Pat Coyle (Director of Database Marketing & E Commerce for the Indianapolis Colts), shares the observations, research and results that will inform the Colts digital strategies.

He recently reviewed IAmATrailBlazersFan.com. He has some great insight as he is going through a similar adventure as we did with the Trail Blazers. The Colts have been working on a social network for some time now. I'm eager to see some of the features they roll out with. The name is My Colts Network

One thing that seems that they will be focusing on Colts Fans around the world. I think that's great to look outside of their normal geographic territory. One thing that the Colts have to their advantage is that their team has been performing well. That is something that you need to focus on... if you can't sell any more tickets, but still need to bring in revenue, you can A) sell more sponsorships B) sell merchandise. That is where I think focusing on a world wide marketing (especially after winning the Super Bowl) is so key for them. They'll sell out next season, but where can they go beyond that.

Mock-ups of mycolts.net

AMA Luncheon

2007-02-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much to everyone that came to the American Marketing Association's February luncheon today. I really enjoyed a lot of the questions that people asked and it always inspires me when you get a room full of people in the conversations you can have.

One of the questions had to do with culture. This is something that we continue to work on. Your company's culture can A) Help or hinder productivity B) Help or hinder creativity C) Help dictate on how you are perceived (in other words, shape your brand). Some of the people we have had talk or I have seen speak recently include:
Patrick Lencioni, phenomenal speaker about building team and creating a healthy working environment.
Doug Mendenhall, who help build teamwork from the inside out.

I will be blogging often about this topic as I think this is one of the most important aspects of a business. For example, if you manufacture toilet plungers (and my apologizing for singling out manufacturers of toilet plungers) and your work environment is fun, engaging and rewarding. Your employees will rave these are the best "damn toilet plungers in the world". Your turnover will be low and you will continue to be efficient and productive. If you have a crappy work environment and people are always looking for a way out... your business will fail due to turn-over and lack of passion.

For the presentation I did today, you can click here.

To get a sweetheart of a deal on tickets go to:
http:tickets.trailblazers.com/deals
promocode: danismyfriend
Or, click here

Once again, thank you Tara and the rest of the crew at the American Marketing Association ama.ppt

Toyota's Social Network

2007-02-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

I live in Oregon. I walk to work sometimes (thankfully I live close enough). There is a problem with pollution (anyone see An Inconveniet Truth?)... so I'm seriously considering a hybrid for my next car. One drawback, and this is the superficial side of me coming into play, but the Prius is really not that attractive.

I'm not here to bag on the Prius... I wanted to talk about the social network that Toyota and multimedia firm Firstborn and ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi LA and Enjoy User Experience launched Toyota's Hybrid Owner Site.

It's a great place for people to showcase, in a stunning visual way, why they bought a hybrid. This is a great way for the Toyota customer to wave the flag on something they are passionate about and give the customer endorsement in an authentic way. This is stuff that brands thrive on. Kudos to everyone involved to bring social networking wrapped together to help the environment in such a stunning way... all in flash mind you.

I Am A Trail Blazers Fan LAUNCHED!

2007-02-13T08:34:00.000-08:00

That's right... after many many months... 8 months to be exact, we have finally gone public with IAmATrailBlazersFan.com. This is the first social networking site for a single sports team.

The NHL launched NHL Connect in late October. It is one social network for the full league. One reason I don't like it is it each team's brand is watered down to be more generic. I applaud them though for the feature set they rolled out with and being the first.

Our social network was developed by the guys at Affinity Circles in Mountain View, California. They had done social networks for university alumni associations (I found out about them when they did the "Duck Pond" for University of Oregon). We will continue to partner with them to help build this network into something really special for the fans. By no means is the site a finished product. When people become complacent on the web, their site will fail. You must always be evolving your site to make it more usable and more relevant.

Feel free to give IAmATrailBlazersFan.com a spin, even if you're not a Trail Blazers Fan. You will see the passion of the fans there, a pretty solid design (thanks to opus:creative and a unique website for the Portland Trail Blazers.