Bukola's shared items
This morning, I headed to Soho House in Manhattan to hear Seth Godin talk to an assembled audience of 100 or so ad/brand/marketing/design folks. The $195 a ticket event, organized by hip trendwatchers, PSFK, was a way for Godin to tout his latest book, Linchpin, the subtitle of which asks the question, "are you indispensable?" Godin, who is clearly in his element in this type of scenario and whose shtick blends just the right amounts of self-deprecation, flattery of his audience and nimble wit, had some stern words for anyone whose instant response to the question was less than flag-wavingly affirmative. In fact, he offered four main calls to action for those within branding and marketing who are looking not merely to exist in the modern world but to thrive in it and shape it for themselves:
1. "If there is a map or a set of rules, reject it. You will not get paid fairly if all you do is follow the rules."
2. "What you must do is [create] generous art, gifts that change people, connect with people, lead with people, make change that matters."
3. "Ship it."
[This referred to the tendency we all have to talk ourselves out of doing something, instead convincing ourselves that it's too soon/not ready/not a good time/we'll be laughed out of town if we try it now, clearly we should delay. From the nodding heads and murmured approval around the room as Godin described this concept it seemed like a familiar problem. And, of course, the idea of shipping something that might not be perfect isn't just creatively liberating, it's really the only way to exist in a world where if you don't launch your great idea, you'll miss your moment altogether.]
4. "Treat the platform as an opportunity to give gifts and make change, not something to survive to get to tomorrow."
Smart food for thought, as well as a copy of the book that all attendees left clutching. I'm looking forward to reading more.
Oh, and in case you missed it, do check out our interactive, talking Seth Godin action figure. Makes me laugh every time.
A recent report by the CMO council highlighted the increasing importance of loyalty marketing (discussion here and here). It appears loyalty marketing is on the rise, with 80% of marketers in the study indicating their commitment to maintain or increase program funding.
With marketers of all stripes (including a great CPG example here) ramping up their loyalty marketing, I’d like to focus on a key ingredient marketers need to design and implement effective loyalty marketing: data, data and more data.
Why is data needed? Here’s what consumers told the CMO that they hated about existing loyalty programs:
- Too much non-personalized spam or junk mail
- Difficulties in redeeming rewards
- Too many restrictions
- Lack of personalization
In other words, the quickest way to turn off your loyal consumer is to send communications and rewards that aren’t personalized to their specific needs.
Despite the key need to “know thy customer’ the CMO study indicated that only one-third of the marketers’ companies collect the data necessary for personalization such as participants’ product/personal preferences, satisfaction levels and brand loyalty.
Liz Miller, the VP of programs and operations for the CMO Council, succinctly highlighted the challenge marketers face: “The top concern customers have with the programs is that they’re inundated with irrelevant messages and spam e-mails,” Miller said, “but the number-one thing marketers want to increase is the volume of e-mails they send. So there’s a big disconnect.”
What’s the way out of this “big disconnect?” As one commenter suggested, “to get loyal, you must get personal.”
Marketers need programs that seamlessly collect as much consumer data as possible and they need to leverage the data to design communications and rewards that speak to the individual customer.
The devil, of course, is in the details, but I think the obvious place to start is with a web-based platform (like Alice.com) that makes it easy (for marketer and consumer) to establish a direct, ongoing relationship.
Need further proof that web-based loyalty is the ticket? Take a look at how leading CPG manufacturers—from P&G to General Mills—are beginning to turn their attention to the promise of web-based commerce and marketing to deliver a one-on-one relationship with each consumer. Here are a few recent quotes, by way of example:
“The eventuality is a one-on-one relationship with every consumer, and obviously e-commerce needs to be a big part of that.” P&G CEO Bob McDonald (article here)
“The beauty of digital is it’s very effective–great ROI and very efficient–to talk directly to consumers and to give them customized and more relevant information about what the brand can do for them.” General Mills CMO Mark Addicks (article here)
Clearly CPG marketers are awakening to the power of the web to deliver engagement, and I suspect loyalty marketing will be a very big part of that investment in the months and years to come.
This is going to be real. Like, NYC Prep real.
Gawker's Doree Shafrir intercepted a memo from Times "Metro" editor Joe Sexton about a new reporter they're looking to hire:
Yes, we're finally doing it: Creating a full-time beat covering New York's private schools. It is, perhaps, the one topic other than real estate that lights up cocktail party conversation. Dalton. Brearley. Fieldston. Spence. Collegiate, Horace Mann and Riverdale. And, yes, Regis and Ramaz and St. Ann's and The Little Red Schoolhouse, too. They are bastions of aspiration and privilege both, places that inspire fierce competition and intense curiosity, worlds known to few outside their citizens yet critical to the shaping of the wider one. OK, maybe that's a bit much, but we know this: The stories are yakkers that race up the most e-mailed list and get noticed; we're talking about the kids of the people who run the world here.
Or, more accurately put, the kids of the people the Times wants to have reading its paper. And who doesn't like reading about their own kids?
New York Times Seeking Reporter for Private School Beat [Gawker]
Read more posts by Chris Rovzar
Filed Under: ink-stained wretches, media, new york times, prep schools, private schools
I know everyone has read plenty about how awful and stupid aiport security policies are, but this post from the New York Times Jet Lagged blog (which I didn't know existed) includes a point I hadn't considered:
The three-ounce container rule is silly enough -- after all, what's to stop somebody from carrying several small bottles each full of the same substance -- but consider for a moment the hypocrisy of T.S.A.'s confiscation policy. At every concourse checkpoint you'll see a bin or barrel brimming with contraband containers taken from passengers for having exceeded the volume limit. Now, the assumption has to be that the materials in those containers are potentially hazardous. If not, why were they seized in the first place? But if so, why are they dumped unceremoniously into the trash? They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are simply thrown away. The agency seems to be saying that it knows these things are harmless. But it's going to steal them anyway, and either you accept it or you don't fly.
Yeah, that's pretty dumb.
I get asked about Twitter all the time . . . in my seminars, anytime I speak at a conference, sometimes just at social events.
“What's the point of Twitter?” people want to know. “How often should I Tweet? What should I Tweet about? What makes for a good Tweet? What are the rules of Twitter?”
And whenever I’m asked those questions, I always want to give some serious, experienced advice. But, having been on Twitter for more than a year now, I have to admit that I still don't know how to answer a question about Twitter “rules.”
To me, using tools like Twitter and Facebook comes down to common sense: What would you want to read? What would make you join a Facebook community? What status updates or tweets do you pay attention to? How can you provide value to your followers or readers?
Now, I realize I’m never going to get rich with that attitude. I know that, when asked the question about Social Media “rules,” I should sit back and say something very consultingish and guruish. Something like:
“Well, it’s complicated. Microblogging and Social Networking, while incredibly effective when used properly for Word of Mouth Marketing and Personal Brand Building, can also be detrimental to your overall Integrated Brand Strategy if you don’t utilize and optimize the channels effectively.”
But I can’t bring myself to utter that bullshit. Even though if I did, there would probably be a book deal in it for me.
In fact, because I have not yet been issued my Special Super Secret Decoder Ring and Super Duper Secret Password that would get me into the “Social Media Guru” club, I’m never sure what to say to people who ask me about how to use Twitter.
Don't get me wrong. I Tweet. I like Twitter. I have about 1500 followers, I think. I like most social media stuff. But as far as rules go? Black-and-white rules? I don’t think you can assign rules to social media any more than you can assign rules to everyday life.
And the more I watch Social Media take over corporate communications, the more convinced I am that most of the "experts" leading the pack are making up the rules as they go along. And they’re also bending those rules that they themselves are making up in order to serve their own purposes.
For example, I know one “guru” who constantly retweets himself. Or, he retweets people who have retweeted his original tweet . . . which is the same thing. To me, that’s electronic masturbation, and would seem to violate some kind of Twitter rule.
But he has more than 100,000 followers! So apparently, using Twitter as a massive self promotion tool isn't against the rules.
I also know a conference producer and online publisher who has more than 10,000 followers on Twitter. That many followers puts him into “guru” status, and he is a regular on the Social Media Speaking Circuit.
He may not be Guy Kawasaki, but he’s certainly a poor man’s Chris Brogan.
But he uses his Twitter account as a glorified direct-mail spam machine. He “automates” his tweets . . . so that if you follow him, you get a rapid-fire barrage of tweets—sometimes as many as 8 or 10 per hour.
But there’s nothing personal about his tweets. In fact, he probably doesn’t even write them. I mean, he'll answer a direct question if someone asks one, but ninety-eight percent of his tweets are just links to content on HIS web site.
In fact, the very few times he tweets a link to copy that is not on his web site, the link still goes to his web site. Meaning, if I follow a link that he’s tweeted, I will be taken first to his site, which has nothing other than a summary of the article (which I already got in the original tweet) and his web site’s logo.
Then, if I want to read the actual article, I have to follow yet another link to get to the actual content.
Now, I want to be clear about something: I’m not criticizing this man. He has almost 11,000 followers, and his list continues to grow . . . so he must be doing something right.
But, if you believe the gurus, he is doing everything wrong. He doesn’t engage his audience. He spams them, non-stop, with links to his web site. He’ll tweet the same article five times in one day. He’ll tweet an article that is five years old, and he’ll tweet that article four times in the same day.
Once, this guy was on stage at a conference, giving a speech, and people in the audience were getting his tweets as he was holding the microphone and speaking!
This led people to believe that he uses a ghost tweeter. Now, that should be the kiss of death, right? I mean, think about what Social Media was supposed to represent: Transparency, authenticity, real people having real conversations, the wisdom of the crowds.
Well, having someone else send automated (and possibly ghost-written) tweets on your behalf while you’re doing something else would seem to fly in the face of all that Social Media was supposed to represent.
It would seem to put social media is in the same category as bullshit press releases with made-up quotes, sanitized employee publications that don’t communicate anything of value, and mass-produced e-mail spam attacks.
You would think that allegations of ghost tweeting and automated spamming would be the kiss of death for a social media guru.
But it's not!
In fact, Guy Kawasaki, the Holy Leader Of All Things Social Media, the smartest man on the Web, one of the early pioneers of Web 2.0, freely and gleefully admits to having not one but several people who ghost tweet for him!
If you decide to follow Guy Kawasaki, there’s a better than average chance you’re going to be reading tweets from Ned Scheebly, Wally Putz, or some other schlub who’s sending tweets in Kawasaki’s name.
And Kawasaki, whom I have a lot of respect for, isn’t bothered one bit by this! When asked about it, his response could very well sound the death knell for social media as we know it:
When asked about using ghost tweeters, he said: “Surely we have bigger things to worry about.”
Well . . . no, Guy. Seeing as how you have built a career and continue to make a living preaching the Holy Gospel of Social Media, there might not be bigger things to worry about. At least as far as you’re concerned.
If you’re willing to ghost tweet, and blister your audience with automated, direct-mail-solicitation tweets, and pay someone to update your Facebook status, and hire a writer to write your blog, then you’re sucking the “social” out of social media, aren’t you?
And yet . . . the gurus are all doing it. The people we’re supposed to be following for advice are breaking the very rules they set up to begin with.
For my part, you have my word of honor: Nobody will ever ghost write this blog; nobody will ever ghost tweet for me; I'll never even send an automated tweet.
But somehow, I think I may be spitting into the wind.
By Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man
Look who made People magazine’s annual “Sexiest Men Alive” list… again. None other than John Cho, star of FlashForward, Star Trek, and of course, Harold and Kumar. You did it again, John. He previously made the list in 2006, and he’s still apparently hot enough to grace the pages of People again:
He’s gone from stoner hero in the Harold and Kumar movies to hot FBI agent in FlashForward – a role that comes with a sexy walk “if you’re carrying a real gun. When it’s on your hip, you lead differently; your hands go to different places,” says Cho, 37.
Yippee. Very insightful. The gallery’s only a sampling of guys who made the “Sexiest Men” issue. Don’t know if any other Asian American dudes made the list this year, so I guess you’ll have to pick up the physical issue to find out. All I know is, if Daniel Henney is not on the list, that’s a damn shame.
By the way, have you been watching FlashForward? The show has its flaws, and it ain’t no Lost, but I’m definitely committed this story and the characters. John’s character Demetri Noh easily has the most compelling, interesting story line, and he’s pretty damn good in it too. Catch it Thursday nights on ABC.
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Back in July, the good folks at First Round Capital came to Cincinnati and held “Office Hours” with local entrepreneurs. As they describe it:
One of the greatest opportunities in college was Office Hours. Every professor held them and suddenly became accessible. It was a few minutes where you could walk-in, sit down, ask questions, develop a relationship and catch a professor in an informal environment. We think the same opportunity for dialogue should exist for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists…. At Office Hours, we’d love to meet with entrepreneurs, people thinking about becoming entrepreneurs or folks who would like to join a start-up.
I loved this concept but honestly hadn’t thought much more about it until I read a post by Bill Taylor on “the rise of office hours in business and finance.” Bill makes the point that it may be “time to transport that familiar ritual [of Office Hours] from the Ivory Tower to the halls of business. He points to the efforts of Jason Fried at 37signals, Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner, and Flybridge Capital’s Chip Hazard as proof in this rising trend.
This really got me thinking. I have always been a big believer of setting up meetings with smart folks just to talk about what’s going on. I have often found these to be the most productive meetings and the ones that lead to the most interesting conversations and opportunities. But in most cases, they are meetings that I have to set up weeks in advance in order to make it on my calendar.
So I’m thinking Office Hours might just be an alternative for me to try. As Bill Taylor points out, it’s nothing fancy…nothing all that cutting edge,” but it could be a fun experiment for me to try both in Cincinnati and when I’m on the road traveling (like today to Boulder, CO). It would be a chance for me to meet with anyone that is up to something fun in the world of marketing, media and technology. This could be a start-up looking to get the opinion of a Brand Manager or maybe just a company looking to bounce some digital marketing ideas around. I am hoping it would be a chance for me to learn as much for the people that stop by as they learn from me.
So what do you think about the idea? Is something you would be interested in seeing me do? If so, any suggestions on a format? It seems like 20 minute blocks of time are pretty standard. And for a location some go for an actual office while others lean towards the more informal environment of a coffee house or restaurant / bar. The location also dictates what time of day / day of the week is best.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Creative Commons. From ultrakml’s photostream on flikr.
So the first hearing in this case is at The Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney on 14 December. I will not be there! The main issue for this hearing is to establish if Australia is the right jurisdiction to hear this case. Or whether it would be best held in another country. I am British and live in Coventry, England. Evony LLC, is a Delaware company from the USA. My blog is also published in the USA, on Dreamhost. So you would wonder what we are doing hearing this case in Australia. Suing for defamation in a country that suits the prosecution like this is called libel tourism.
The company that is suing me, Evony LLC, was not formed till 22 July this year, which is after the main articles that they complain about were published. I must say that to me this comes across as very strange indeed.
Now we come to something very, very interesting. The Defamation Act 2005 in New South Wales says, in section 9, that a company can only sue for libel if : ” (b) it employs fewer than 10 persons and is not related to another corporation.”
They are saying that a game with 11 million players is run by less than 10 people.
Legally this jurisdiction question is interesting and it was examined in full on the ABC radio programme The Law Report with Damien Carrick, you can hear this or read the transcript here.
Related stories
The workplace is set up to reward extroverts. For example, ENTJs make up only 3% of the population but they comprise a wide majority of the world's CEOs. The bias against introverts in American society is well documented, including research that shows that a spot on the cheerleading team foreshadows career success much more reliably than a spot on the honor roll. Also, workplace catch phrases that annoy everyone are especially annoying if you’re not an extrovert: Toot your own horn! Your career is only as strong as your network! Let’s do lunch!
The absurdity of the workplace being set up for extroverts is that 57% percent of the world are introverts, according to Laurie Helgoe, a psychologist and the author of the book Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength.
A lot of people tell me that my posts about how to approach social situations if you have Asperger Syndrome are helpful to people who are introverts. That might be true, in that both types of people need to limit their exposure to social situations. But the difference is that people with Asperger’s are disabled socially. People who are introverts could be great in social situations.
So you can’t judge yourself by whether or not you are socially competent. Rather, if you have the choice to be in a social situation or be alone, which would you choose more often? An introvert has more energy for doing life if he or she gets time alone, to recharge. An extrovert gets recharged from being around people. (Here’s a test to take if you’re not sure what you are.)
I am not an introvert. (I’m an ENTJ.) But I have sensory integration dysfunction, which gives me a similar feeling to introverts when they are overwhelmed with outside input. So unlike most ENTJs, I have a soft spot for introverts. And I am realizing that introversion is an important thing to have in a workplace – the trick is having introverts that understand why they’re so valuable.
Here are five ways to leverage the advantages of introversion:
1. Work in the world of ideas.
Introverts generally love to talk about ideas, according to Helgoe. She says that in conversation, introverts are stronger if you talk about “what are you thinking?” instead of “what are you doing?” And at work, you are stronger if you are helping people with ideas rather than sticking to a routine pattern of work.
2. Give ten minutes and then go.
Make a connection, really contribute to the conversation, and then ten minutes is enough. Also, Helgoe says extroverts often have anxiety that they cannot get access to the introverts in their life – because they are always leaving to be alone. Introverts can alleviate this problem by being fully attentive for a short time and then leaving.
3. Have confidence in your self-knowledge.
Do you know the personality type that has the longest Wikipedia page? INTJ. Because the combination of being an introvert and being idea-driven makes one very interested in learning about oneself. INTJs are extreme cases, but all introverts have this combination to some extent, and the self-knowledge will help you to put yourself in situations where you’ll have the most positive impact. For example, Helgoe has a great chapter on how to get out of going to a party – a key skill for an introvert, who does better in very small groups. But the bottom line is that you have to say that you’d rather be alone, which, Helgoe points out, “requires a real grounding in who you are."
4. Teach other people to interact with you.
A lot of the conflict Ryan Healy and I used to have is that I had no idea how to communicate with an introvert. The biggest difference is that I think out loud, so I never stop talking to think. Ryan thinks and then talks. But if I never shut up, he can’t actually think long enough to have a response. He did a bunch of research about communication styles and he taught me this difference between us. It helped me a lot to make space so that we could have a productive conversation. (Here’s a book that can help you teach people how to approach introversion, and here's a summary of the book.)
5. Take control of your work.
One of the most popular professions for introverts is being a writer. What this means is that there is a lot of information written about what work is well-suited for an introvert. Here is a list of ways to make an office that will help introverts excel.
And, I’m going to end by telling you to check out the book I recommend more than any other book in the world: Do What You Are by Paul Tieger. This book does not provide a single list of jobs suitable to introverts because there are so many different types of introverts. But this book can tell you what sort of introvert you are (for example, an artist or an activist?) and what sort of work you will thrive in.
As for you extroverts, stop assuming everyone is like you, and start tailoring conversation to introverts when it's appropriate. Once I understood the different types of personalities, I started doing much better at work.
