Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 100

Why Every Debate Matters (Hint: It’s NOT The Economy, Stupid)

Dayton, Ohio is a battleground city in a battleground state, just like my home state of Virginia. I am in Ohio this morning to speak at a business conference, and all around the signs of this electoral battle are front and center here. Billboards promote politicians and key issues. Television ads aim to influence voters on everything from gun rights to tax policy. And everything is presented in partisan terms to make the choices seem as black and white as possible (no pun intended). But it is...

Moving On … Why I Am Leaving Ogilvy

We love legendary goodbyes. Hollywood, in particular, does a great job romanticizing that last moment before anyone walks away from anything. Jack dying in freezing water and saying goodbye to his love in Titanic. Andy playing with his toys one last time before heading off to college in Toy Story 3. Tom Cruise with his mission statement and office meltdown in Jerry Macguire. Yes, there are plenty of legendary goodbyes in Hollywood, and they always involve lots of drama.

For some reason, movies...

7 Useful Tips From Real B2B Brands On Using Social Media To Drive Sales

When it comes to social media, it is popular to talk about the importance of reputation. The better your reputation, the more likely people are to trust you. The more trust you have, the more easily you can sell anything to anyone. This logic makes sense. In most cases it works. But it has been used so often that it is starting to cause an unexpected side effect. Thanks to the steady drumbeat of discussion around reputation, more and more senior leaders are under the impression that building...

How To Tell Better Stories: 10 Profound Lessons From The Future Of Storytelling Conference

Walking off the ferry into Snug Harbor on Staten Island, there was a big motorcade of cars and police standing there. SIt was the first and most obvious clue that this first ever Future of StoryTelling Conference might not be the same as any other business conference. As the crowd filed into the auditorium, Al Gore was among them … just one of the many influential participants at this event put on by media pioneer Charlie Melcher. The earlier clue that every attendee received was an email out...

3 Reasons Why Likeability Will Decide The Next US President

It is just a few hours after the first US Presidential debate, and the media blitz is on to declare a winner. Most media give Romney the edge, and share the many ways he gained in the polls. On the CNN likeability poll, Romney came out with 46% of voters watching the debates feeling that he had the edge – while 45% felt President Obama was more likeable. But not everyone agrees that we should even care that much about their likeability.

A few days ago The Telegraph published an article titled...

How Personal Relationships Will Make (Or Break) The Future Of The Arts

For Nate Dern, the unlikely path to acting micro-stardom would come from a simple three letter catchphrase that most people would barely consider a word. As the artistic director of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York and a sociology PhD student at Columbia University, Nate had spent years auditioning for different roles. In late 2011, he landed a gig acting in a national commercial for AT&T Wireless called “Responsibilities.”

In the ad, a manager-type character dishes out unexpec...

LinkedIn Turns To Curation To Solve The Web’s Biggest Problem

Today LinkedIn announced that they are creating an exclusive list of 150 celebrities and influencers who anyone will have the ability to “follow.” There will be no pesky 140 character limit on what these influencers can post (there’s a new blogging feature too) and the assumption is that they will share mostly business-related thoughts. Some critics see this as yet another attempt to Klout-ify the web with artificial influence rankings, but the real significance of LinkedIn’s announcement may...

3 Reasons Most Business Advice Sucks

The day after Bill Clinton delivered his speech at the Democratic National Convention, the reaction from both sides of the political aisle were swift. Amongst the noise of disagreement, President Obama essentially summed up what anyone watching that speech might have thought when he joked that he might make Clinton the “Secretary of Explaining Things.” Actually, we need one of those in the business world.

Too often that skill is critically missing, particulary when it comes to professional adv...

How Social Media Integration Is Moving Beyond Calling “Shotgun”

There is a game my brother and I used to play when we were kids and my guess is that you played it too. It had its own set of rules that we all knew, and they were irrefutable. Get within visible distance of your car, and then the first person among the passengers to call “shotgun” would sit in the front seat. Everyone else would battle to avoid the middle back seat. It’s a silly game, but it also explains how social media evolved in many corporations. The person or team who called “shotgun”...

What Madonna Knows (And NFL Refs Don’t) About Pleasing A Crowd

It was quite a scene last night. On Monday Night Football, on the final play of a game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks, a ball was simultaneously caught by two guys. As they struggled for it in the end zone, the Green Bay player appeared to have it – which would have ended the game. But they were playing in Seattle, and to the delight of the more than 50,000 screaming fans – one referee on the field slowly raised his hands to signify it was a touchdown. To anyone watchi...