Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 295

Buy Your Way To The Top

There's a (not so) dirty little secret that authors don't like to tell...

You can buy your way to the top. Literally. The Wall Street Journal ran an article yesterday titled, The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike. It's a story that creeps on to the radar every so often, but it's a practice that is deployed by a lot of business book authors that you may know and love (and a lot of others that you never hear from). From the article: "It isn't uncommon for a business book to land on best-seller lists only to quickly drop off. But even a brief appearance adds permanent luster to an author's reputation, greasing the skids for speaking and consulting engagements... But the short moment of glory doesn't always occur by luck alone... the authors hired a marketing firm that purchased books ahead of publication date, creating a spike in sales that landed titles on the lists. The marketing firm, San Diego-based ResultSource, charges thousands of dollars for its services in addition to the cost of the books, according to authors interviewed... Precisely how it goes about that is unclear, though, and there is discomfort among some in the publishing industry who worry that preorders are being corralled and bulk purchases are being made to appear like single sales to qualify for inclusion in best-seller lists, which normally wouldn't count such sales."

Should I buy my way to the top for CTRL ALT Delete?

I almost worked with one of these organizations for my first book, Six Pixels of Separation, but I opted not to. I probably should have. Are you surprised by my answer? See, there is a world of difference between someone buying 10,000 books and dumping them into a landfill just to hit a bestseller's list so they can command better speaking fees or consulting gigs, from the hard working speakers who can genuinely sell a lot of books at the bulk sales level and get no recognition for it. My first book came out in 2009 and ranked #13 on 800 CEO Read's The Bestsellers of 2010 list. For my dollar, this is one of the most important lists to watch because 800 CEO Read handles most of the major bulk orders for business books. I worked extremely hard to book, travel and go to corporations all over the world to promote my book. Having these organizations buy my book for every one of their attendees seemed like a more much strategic move than trying to convince individuals - one by one - to take a chance and buy my book. I found myself getting a handful of engagements and selling thousands of copies of my book. The problem is that the charts that the public acknowledges as "credible" (New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc...) won't count them as sold.

It's not just business books.

Brands buys fans, friends and followers online, all of the time. Some in a very strategic and real way, and some are buying vapor, fake accounts and other stuff that creates an artificial bump in the numbers. We're marketers. What we do is pay to capture attention. The trick is in figuring out if that attention is authentic, if people care, if they connect to the message, if they tell others about, and if they become loyal to the brand. There are varying levels of intensity and nuances with that last sentence that are dependant on the brands positioning and consumer needs, but those are the overall goals. So, if I sold 15,000 copies of a book to 15,000 individuals who purchased them on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble or if five organizations each bought 3000 copies of the book to give to employees and customers, what is the real difference? If you engage with Facebook in a fan acquisition strategy and include reach within your Facebook marketing dollars, what is the real difference from just posting to corporate page and hoping that your ideas spread on their own?

If it's ethical. It works.

My understanding from the conversations I have had with businesses like ResultSource is that they help take those bulk sales and ensure that instead of it being counted as one, lump bulk purchase, that each individual gets a physical book that is then reported back to the bestseller's list. It seems somewhat ironic that the work that they do is considered questionable, when it's really the mystery and lack of transparency behind the reporting and building of the bestseller's lists that should be put into question. You see, brands buy fans on Facebook, Twitter and beyond all of the time. But brands can't keep fans. They have to earn them. The acquisition strategy seems somewhat inconsequential against the actual customer outcome, doesn't it? So, a handful of business books rocket to the top of the bestsellers' list and then the following week, they have all but disappeared. Why is this an issue? It's only an issue for the author who wasn't able to capitalize on that momentum to truly earn the exposure to new readers that the attention may have garnered. No, I don't plan on using any of these services for CTRL ALT Delete in May. Personally, I'd love to be on the top of all of these lists, but that's just because of vanity. Personally, I just want the ideas in the book to spread. That's where my heart lies, and I know that my professional lifestyles means that the majority of the sales and spreading of the ideas in CTRL ALT Delete won't count to any list, because a big focus will be on corporate events and bulk purchases.

There's nothing wrong with buying your way to the top. The challenge is in staying up there.

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The Content Crash

At what point do consumers push back, unfriend, unfollow, unplus and whatever else?

This does not spell the end for social media, but there is a common thought in the digital universe that goes like this: create relevant content and consumers will continue to connect with your brand. It's not a zero-sum game and it's not an all-encompassing strategy. It may be in marketers vested interest to adjust that theory to this: create relevant content and your heavy users may continue to connect with your brand. If brands do that last part better, those people (call them advocates, brand evangelists or whatever) may help make your idea spread. That being said, don't kid yourself into thinking that this content marketing strategy alone will reap the same rewards that traditional advertising has done in helping a message reach a much broader audience with a significantly higher level of repetition. The two models are not interchangeable and one cannot replace the other.

It's all a little much, isn't it?

How many branded connections points do consumers need with a brand. You buy a product and the expectation from the brand is that you follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, watch their videos on YouTube, and so on and so on and so on and so on. It's a major commitment from consumers, and brands are pushing for this direct relationship on a constant basis. Of course, this is a prime directive and, of course, having that direct relationship is the most important thing a brand can do in this day and age, but understand what the exchange of value is from the consumer's side. What are they truly getting out of the relationship? Yesterday, MediaPost posted a news item titled, Forrester: Marketers Should Talk Less, Design More, that states: "A new report from Forrester says that while marketers may be increasingly proficient at reaching out to consumers through new technologies including social and mobile, they need to figure out how to talk less and design more. While overwhelming consumers with chatter is already a problem, with 53% of online adults already saying they're annoyed by the amount of advertising they see and 37% saying that they would rather not be contacted frequently by brands, marketer blabbing is about to explode."

Beyond the marketing message.

I am often asked why I wrote the book CTRL ALT Delete (which comes out on May 21st, 2013) as if the book is some kind of follow-up to Six Pixels of Separation or another book on social media. It's not. The book (and the crux of what the MediaPost news item and Forrester report is screaming) is about how much businesses will have to reboot how they think about consumers and the engagements that they truly want to have with a brand. Right now, the vast majority of brands are simply using all of these amazing channels to connect with consumers, but they have become a pumping ground for a marketing message. Very few of them are thinking about utilitarianism marketing and even fewer are thinking about the overall experience of the products and services (or, as the news item calls it, the "design"). Marketers create messaging around campaigns. Few marketers elevate their thinking to a macro brand play and how it engenders the overall economic value to the business strategy. 

It's more than content.

If you look at the larger shifts in consumer behavior (everything from how they shop, socialize, connect, share and inform themselves), it seems somewhat simplistic to shift ad dollars to content marketing dollars. While it's not as dramatic as shuffling the chairs on the Titanic, that strategy does not embody a better sense of building loyalty through value, credibility, trust and a true care about how to make the consumer's lives better. Brands used to blog because it was cheap, easy and fast to do. Blogs never replaced any other form of media, did it? For the majority of brands it was a tool of augmentation and not replacement. In fact, they just replaced their blogs with Twitter feeds and Facebook pages.

Going forward.

It is my belief, that content is the new advertising. It is my belief that content is media for many brands. All of that is still a small component of the bigger marketing picture. Defining the true design of the brand, the value it brings beyond the actual sale of a product or service, how it contextually adds utility to the consumer and how it operates in a world where consumers are getting ever-better at regulating, monitoring and throttling these messages. This will be the true marketing imperative going forward.

What's your take?

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A Brand Of People

It's strange how much of a brand's foundation is laid by the people who represent it.

It could be a pristine service with a genius business model that is created with the latest in cutting edge technology, but none of that matters if the people who represent it fail to live up to the basic promise of the brand. Case in point: Uber. Without a question, I think Uber has one of coolest and most interesting business models. I recently interviewed Tim Ferriss for my Six Pixels of Separation podcast (you can listen to it here: SPOS #333 - Learn To Do Anything With Tim Ferriss), and he described the service brilliantly: Uber allows any person to feel like a European diplomat. You initiate the app, hit the pick-up button and a driver in a black town car is there within a handful of minutes to deliver you to your destination of choice. Uber has a simple sign-up process that includes your credit card information. All you have to do is leave the car once you have arrived at your destination. Uber handles everything from the tip to the transaction to the very detailed billing. The app also enables you to see how many cars are in your area, approximate waiting time and once a driver has decided to engage you, their information (name, mobile number and license plate) is sent to you, plus you can track their position via GPS.

It works like a charm when it works like a charm.

You would think that this is an amazing story of entrepreneurship with a brilliant, beginning, middle and end. It's not. On multiple occasions, I have had drivers text me to find out where I am going, and if the trip is too short or there is too much traffic, they make up some kind of excuse as to why the trip must be cancelled. It happened again today. It was rush hour and I needed to get from our Twist Image Toronto office to the downtown airport. It's a ten minute ride. The Uber driver starts texting me requesting my destination and then tells me he's coming, and then claims he had a flat. I found a cab in the rush hour traffic and barely made it to my flight on time. When I got to the airport, I checked my email and saw that the Uber driver charged me $15. When I texted the driver back that I will report him, he offered to pick me up. That was a pretty fast tire change. The system was working fine, until human beings started looking for an edge or angle that best serves them, but not the brand and the consumer.

This is not a customer service rant against Uber.

Uber is a great brand. The people who run it probably care deeply about a great consumer experience. By the time my flight landed, Lucas (one their community managers) wrote me a personal email of apology and refunded the money. The few drivers that have given me issues are not indicative of the Uber service, but they are a reflection on how I feel and interact with the brand. In short: it's not an ideal service for me as I use it to get to airports and important meetings and that extra fifteen to twenty minutes of frustration that happen on occasion taint the experience for me. It's nothing new. There's the old saying that our IP leaves the building everyday at 5 pm. The people who greet us at the door, handle our projects and more are not just employees or team members, they are the brand. The living and breathing embodiment of it. All of the advertising, marketing, pomp and circumstance in the world, doesn't add up to a hill of beans if you get a frown, an "I'm sorry. but that's our policy," or other infuriating interactions.

Thinking about the brand of people.

People are not software. They're not apps. They're not programmed to respond in a fair, balanced and equal way. People are emotional creatures and this makes us all fall prey to things like  innuendo, bad moods, a feeling of resentment and more. If you look at the top business books on leadership and leading people, you'll note one constant and common theme: motivation. People need to be reminded and motivated to turn that frown upside down, to serve the client, to deliver what was truly promised and to push back when being taken advantage of. We often let emotions get the better of us. Walking in the snow, dragging my carry-on in sub-zero weather while hoping to find a cab was not fun. The truth is that I don't blame Uber for this. I blame one individual (this driver) who lacked the integrity to live up to the commitment he made to Uber when accepting to be a driver for them. Sadly, it limits my ability to use the service, because that service is based on speed and reliability. Uber's job is not easy. Few brands have an easy job. Your brand probably deals with multiple similar scenarios every day. It's a reality and a fact of life. The marketing lesson is about how brands handle it, train and motivate their people to stick to the plan and do the right thing. The external marketing lesson is a little trickier, because we all expect brands to live up to a baseline of serviceability. As we all work our way through the people that represent our brand, we want to celebrate their individuality and empower them to be true evangelists. Values and philosophy must always align. Sadly they don't.

Another reminder that managing our brand is a big, important, time-consuming and all-consuming task.

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The Future of Media Is Beyond The Screen

Advertising traditionally serves a traditional purpose.

Television, radio, print, out-of-home, Internet and mobile devices all have components of advertising that acts, smells and feels the same. It either interrupts your content experience or wraps itself around it. You can look at all of the innovations that digital brought - from the Internet to social media and beyond - and while many media pundits are excited about the opportunities that could happen in places like native advertising or content marketing, the form, function and factor of advertising still does the exact same thing hat it has always done. It's unlikely that this model will change, so businesses might soon be forced to figure out what happens when how consumers engage with these screens becomes a smaller component of their lives. Pushing that even further, many of the newer devices that are coming out (some with screens and some without) are making the traditional form of advertising inoperable.

What does that mean?

The current vogue of technology is not about the Internet as we have known it or a browser-based experiences. The hot topics du jour are about 3D printing, the maker movement, wearable technology, the Internet of things, connected appliances, robotics, telepresence and the ilk. None of these are truly media platforms. They are the digitization of other industries (beyond media) and in this digitalization, these things will be connected and will have screens with them (though some may not). Think about the Nest thermostat (an Internet enabled thermostat for your home that can help you better manage your energy efficiency). Think about the NikeFuelBand or Jawbone's UP bracelet (both sit on your wrist and gather health and wellness information about your day to day activities). Think about Apple TV or Boxee (both connect you to the Web and - if we're going to be raw about it - provide many entertainment services that allow you to avoid traditional commercials with ease). This doesn't mean that advertising - as we have known it to date - goes the way of the dinosaurs. It does mean that marketers, brands and media agencies are going to have to scramble to develop newer and more interesting ways to deliver a brand's information to a consumer.

AirPlay demonstrates the disruption.

In its simplest form, Apple's AirPlay functionality allows you to throw your screen anywhere. If you're using a MacBook and have Apple TV, it's simple to toss your computer screen on to your TV screen and more. Does it seem so far-fetched that you might throw that screen over to a connected appliance like a fridge? It's not. What about tossing your iPhone content to your car stereo? Many consumers already do this all of the time. We currently deliver ads with the sole desire to drive an impression that creates an impact that (hopefully) makes the consumer take some kind of transaction with a brand (anything from talking about it to buying it), but as those moments become fewer and farther between, what is a brand to do

The place to have the space.

What becomes abundantly clear as you start hacking away at the current media models and layer them on top of the emergence of wearable technology (it can be anything from Google's glasses initiative to the UP band to Pebble's watch to the pending iWatch that Apple and Samsung are rumored to be producing) is that the space that we have traditionally used to send a message continues to change, shrink or go away. Google's AdWords still acts as a ray of hope because the company was able to devise an advertising platform that matched the media that consumers wanted to consume (in terms of context, engagement and even performance). Facebook marketing and leveraging the newsfeed is demonstrating some prowess and hope as well, but it still needs time to optimize, mature and capture consumers desire for it. To think that all of these newer and connected devices and technologies will do so as seamlessly is to have more hope for brands than I do.

What this all means.

Brands will need to not only leverage someone else's platform to deliver their message, but they will need to build platforms of their own. Transient media moments does not equal a strong and profound place to deliver an advertising message. In short, the past century may have been about maximizing space and repetition to drive brand awareness, but the next half century could well be about advertising taking on a smaller position in the expanding marketing sphere as brands create loyalty not through impressions but by creating tools, applications, physical devices, true utility, and more robust loyalty extensions that makes them more valuable in a consumer's life. It's something that the vast majority of brands could never do before, but suddenly it has become an amazing white space filled with opportunities and creativity... for those who dare.

It will be interesting to see which brands embrace media beyond the screen.

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post called, Media Hacker . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

The Huffington Post: The Future of Media Is Beyond The Screen .

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Turn Your Brand Into A Commitment Engine

Episode #345 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

There is a well-worn thought that small business can learn a lot from how big business operates. John Jantsch is one of the people who will flip that notion on its head. Jantsch spends his days helping small businesses grow. His company, Duct Tape Marketing, has spent years helping small companies to think small (effective and profitable). He has authored three bestselling business books, Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine and his latest, The Commitment Engine. Just what it is about commitment and a businesses' challenge to hold up their end of the bargain? In this week's podcast, Jantsch and I talk about how businesses can truly get that commitment and nurture it over a lifetime. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #345.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #139

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

How Luther went viral - The Economist . "Hugh and I spent some time this week telling the world why the future of books is their interfaces, now that everything is digital and everyone is connected. So it's good to know that viral sprawl has been going on for a few centuries, at least. In the shadow of the Arab Spring, and subsequent rethinkings, the Reformation has a lot to teach us. Not the least of which is headlines: was Luther's '95 theses' the precursor to '23 romantic movies revised for honesty'?" (Alistair for Hugh).

Take A Minute To Watch The New Way We Make Web Headlines Now - The Awl . "The fine art of headline writing has fallen prey to the harshly trackable world of the Web. Turns out, we love lists of numbered things ('promise me 11 things, I will at least read three of them.') But there's more -- headline trends wax and wane, as we first find a new angle, then let it lapses once readers get wise to our manipulations. 'Here's the real reason...' and 'Meet the man who...' are a weird dysfunction indeed." (Alistair for Mitch).

Symbolic representation and working memory in chimpanzees - YouTube . "This chimp reads and counts. Seriously." (Hugh for Alistair).

Goats Yelling Like Humans - YouTube . "What can I say, it's been a long week!" (Hugh for Mitch).

Clayton Christensen Wants to Transform Capitalism - Wired . "As the years wane on, we tend to look to brain heroes who have done the thinking that transcends both time and fads. Clayton Christensen is one of those minds. Without question. So many brands find themselves stuck and it's amazing to think how they have fallen or are trapped in The Innovator's Dilemma . The book was published in 1997... you would think companies would know better. Sadly, we do not. As this article highlights, Christensen has been through a lot: 'In July 2010 he suffered a debilitating stroke that left him unable to speak. But within weeks he was using Rosetta Stone to reteach himself the English language, and within months he had begun writing again. His recent book How Will You Measure Your Life? came out last year, and a new work, The Capitalist's Dilemma, is due out in 2014.' This is a great Q&A with Christensen who understands the power of disruption and what we must do to get through it/avoid it." (Mitch for Alistair). 

'I need rules' - Columbia Journalism Review . "Many thought that Jonah Lehrer was on the verge of Malcolm Gladwell fame. Everything was pointing in that direction for the 31-year-old. He was a recognized name, bestselling book author, a journalist for some of the world's most respected publications and he had a thriving public speaking business. It's the kind of life many people (like me!) would dream of. It all came crashing down, when it was revealed that he had made up quotes and plagiarized some work. In his first public appearance since the self-destruction of his career, Lehrer spoke to an audience at a Knight Foundation event. It turns out that everyone got some shrapnel from this bizarre event. Read this article and ask yourself if the world of journalism is working overtime to punish Lehrer and everyone in his path. It would seem that apologies may only work when you're a celebrity without the title of journalist attached to it." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

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Future Shock Brings Us To Present Shock

Want something that will get you to think deeply about where are and where we're going?

This past week, Tools Of Change For Publishing conference took place in New York City. It was another stellar line-up of speakers who looked at the present and future state of publishing. One of my favorite new media brains is Douglas Rushkoff. I could rattle off his very impressive credentials from bestselling book author, to teach to graphic novel writer, but you would be better served, checking out his bio on your own. His newest book, Present Shock - When Everything Happens Now, comes out on March 21st, 2013 and he decided to preview the content in this very compelling fifteen minute presentation at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference.

Watch this...

But wait, that's not all!

If that didn't blow your mind, Rushkoff also held this fireside chat with Evan Williams (he did a couple of popular startups you may know: Blogger and Twitter). This one runs about fifteen minutes as well...

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Tracking, Personalization And Screams Of Privacy

Any tracking of information of consumers without the consent of your consumer is a breach of privacy, right?

In my forthcoming business book, CTRL ALT Delete (out May 21st, 2013), I go in-depth on the notion that consumers need to better understand the difference between personalization (tracking their usage to create a better and more personalized experience) versus privacy (capturing personal information and using it in any way that has not been pre-approved by the consumer). Some privacy advocates might argue that this is a matter of simple semantics. I would argue that the best brands in the world are way less interested in procuring private information and much more interested in creating the ultimate in personalized experiences. The obvious fear is that if you give businesses an inch - in terms of individual information - they will take it a mile and suddenly be manipulative and dangerous. The truth is that marketers have failed this test so many times in the past that we must follow the legal rules set out by government and that consumer advocate groups must be vigilante with our performance. Marketers are constantly being put on notice for tactics and campaigns that cross the line. It's too bad, because this moment in history could well the one where marketing finally delivers on its promise of being relevant, personal and near-individualized.

What's your Amazon experience like?

On February 12th, 2013, Business Insider ran a new item titled, Amazon Has The Best Reputation Of Any Company In The U.S., that stated: "Robert Fronk, EVP of Harris' Reputation Management service says in a release, 'Our results show that Amazon has managed to build an intimate relationship with the public without being perceived as intrusive.' (This sounds like a shot at other companies like Facebook.)" Amazon beat out Apple, The Walt Disney Company, Google and many more to grab this coveted spot. What's fascinating about this is what, exactly, Amazon knows and tracks about their consumers. You can answer that statement in one word: everything. Amazon tracks their consumers with such sophistication and layers that everyone's Amazon experience is fundamentally different from one another (they are that highly personalized). They're not just tracking what you looked at and/or bought, they're tracking all of your behavior and more (including the ability to tie your reading habits on a Kindle device or app to how you shop their e-commerce experience and beyond). According to the report above (and just about every person you speak to who is an Amazon consumer), we love them for it.

Why should physical stores not have the same kind of usage information that Amazon is capturing?

This is the question that some former Salesforce.com executives started asking. So, they left Salesforce and launched a new startup called, Nomi. Nomi also made the news this week when they secured over three million dollars in venture capital financing a mere two weeks after their first investor meeting (you can read more about it right here: It Took Only 13 Days For Former Salesforce Execs To Raise $3 Million For Their Startup, Nomi). What does the company do? According to the Business Insider article: "Nomi's team gives retailers a snippet of code that lets wireless routers listen for nearby smart phone signals. The wireless routers can detect unique Media Access Control (MAC) codes from smart phones and then collect non-invasive data about customers in real-time. Its founders say no personal information will be pulled; store owners won't even know shoppers' names. 'It's completely passive and completely anonymous,' co-founder Corey Capasso, 25, tells us. Instead, Nomi will show retailers how many customers visit each day, the average time spent in the store, and new versus repeat visitors."

Creepy invasion of privacy or awesome use of technology at the physical retail level?

We're going to have to figure out what is clearly a grey and fuzzy line in terms of perception when it comes to consumers. In fact, I would argue that technologies like this are no more a breach of privacy than the tracking that Amazon deploys on every consumer who clicks on to their website (whether they are signed into their own account or just browsing anonymously). This is an important distinction because on the consumer side, they are actively wanting more and more mobile information at the store level. In the Internet Retailer article titled, Smartphone owners want more mobile information in stores, from December 31st, 2012: "Smartphone owners are using their devices to help them better understand products. 30.1% of smartphone owners say they most often research products on their phones when away from home, the survey finds. 19.6% do so while watching TV, 13.4% on the weekends, 12.4% while shopping in-store, 10.9% while at work and 2.7% on holidays. 10.9% say they do not research products on their smartphones. Of shoppers who research products while in a store, 73.9% compare prices among retailers, the survey says. In-store smartphone shoppers find a variety of tools helpful. 76% say mobile coupons are helpful, 31% say apps, 26% QR codes, 20% text messages, 19% links to informational videos and 17% mobile display ads."

What does this all mean?

Both consumers and retailers are empowered like never before. The physical retail landscape is now making major adjustments to create experiences as captivating (in terms of price, speed and ease of access) as the ones consumers get online. Ultimately, data and information rules. The consumer wins when they are empowered with the information and pricing they need to make the best decision and now, retailers can have access, knowledge and power to ensure that they're delivering the best experience to their consumers based on their needs. Cumulatively, this is a tonnage more of raw data being produced and stored somewhere that can be used in a positive way... and in a negative way (if it falls into the wrong hands). What that ultimately means is that both consumers and brands are going to have to be doing a lot more in terms of education to ensure that privacy is permission-based and that personalization is always rendered in the best possible and ethical experience for the consumer.

How do you think this will all pan out?

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Professional And Courteous

The plumber's promise.

As I was gazing out of the window on the Florida highway heading back to the airport, I spotted a very rundown truck. The exhaust was pushing gunk into the environment that would be heartbreaking to Mother Nature (especially on Valentine's Day). The driver was smoking a cigarette with the window rolled down and - at quick glance - didn't look like he had just rolled out of bed after a fresh and cleansing shower. Plastered across the van, in a massive font size, it read: "Professional and Courteous Service." I thought to myself: "maybe... but unlikely."

Isn't that what we all want?

At the end of the day, we want our plumbers to be professional and courteous. What winds up happening is that we consider it a "win" if they take their boots off before entering our homes (without track dog dung on our floors), if we don't see too much butt crack, if they don't pretend like they're smarter than us just so that they can rip us off and, ultimately, that they don't use our bathrooms to take a dump. It's a universal truism and, by the way, we're not just talking about plumbers. We're talking about all of us . Nobody likes to be dumped on. We've set (or moved) the bar so low in today's business world, that we're all amazed when any service or product that we have purchased is shrouded with an abundance of professionalism and courtesy. Why is that? We should not accept clients screaming at us and we should not be irrational if a Kickstarter project gets delayed. In a world of tweets, Facebook updates and tumblr, the short fuse is all but gone and we're constantly explosive... about everything.

We need more professional and courteous people in the business world.

It's as simple as that. Things go sideways. Projects don't always work out. Deadlines are sometimes missed. We often try to push new ideas on people who may not be open to them. Whatever the case is in your world, nothing is perfect. We all strive for excellence and perfection. We often fall shy of it (sometimes it's our own doing and sometime it is completely out of anyone's control). But, in a world where nothing is perfect (let's say seldom perfect?), there is never a reason not to be professional and courteous. It's the one thing that each and every one of us can not only control, but that we should all be very cognizant of in each and every business interaction with one another. It is something we can be vigilant about.

Back to that plumbing truck.

I have no idea whether that plumbing company lives up to their promise. By my guesstimates, it's hard to say you're professional when your transport vehicle looks so unprofessional, but who am I to judge from that brief moment alone? Still that line: "professional and courteous service," gave me pause. It made me think about the many interactions I had in the past few days, where I had been crabby due to a lack of sleep and too many early-morning flights, coupled with a burning desire to be constantly delivering great work with everything we're doing at Twist Image. In the end, I think I delivered on the promise of being professional and courteous. Going forward I'm not going to have to think about it again, because I'm going to do my best to live it - at each and every moment in time.

Taking a second.

My trick. Your trick. Before any interaction (phone, email, text, in person, Twitter, whatever), take a pause. Don't hit the publish button, hold your tongue and take a second to say to yourself, "professional and courteous service." Be there, in the moment, to serve, to engender a smile and to get whoever you're working with to be happy about that interaction. Do your best to get them to the point that they end your moment by saying, "thank you." Imagine, in just one second, you really can change the face of your business.

What's your secret to always being professional and courteous? Share them below, so that we can all learn... 

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The Mobile-Only Strategy Imperative

How long will the personal computer - as we have known it to date-  be relevant?

If you look at any data points surrounding mobile (and putting it in context on a global level), it seems like nobody is using a computer anymore, doesn't it? How often do you find yourself in need of a computer (be it a desktop or laptop)? When it comes to my work, I can't imagine a day and age when I would not require something that looks like my MacBook Air. Whether it is for writing or creating presentations, smartphones and tablets are just not up to snuff... at this point. And that's the rub, isn't it? "At this point." As the exponential growth of business and technology continues to intertwine, it seems obvious that gesture control and the simplicity/human touch and feel of tablets and smartphones will make the experience of writing and creating presentations that much easier. So, while we're not quit there yet in terms of content creation, writing and more, there is a vast majority of the population that is making the transition away from the PC as seamless as physical landlines to mobile phones was... only this shift is happening faster and faster.

Just how fast are we moving away from the personal computer?

Three news items captured my attention this week (all of them via Marketing Charts). They were titled:

PC Users Increasingly Turning To Smart Devices For Web Browsing, Facebook Access.

In Q4, 1 in 5 E-Commerce Site Visits Came From A Smartphone Or Tablet.

Twitter Says Its Mobile Users Are More Active, Engaged With Brands.

Kind of staggering, isn't it?

Exponential growth (in particular, when it comes to users and their usage of technology) can be challenging for businesses to see, understand and embrace. We tend to cling to what we think we see (often acting as A Market of One) or we see things in a linear capacity. Linear capacity is looking at the incremental growth of smartphone usage in your geographical region year over year, but failing to understand that the iPad is only three years old or that the iPhone 5 clocked over two million pre-orders in its first twenty-four hours of being on sale (what happened? Was everyone's mobile contract up for renewal at the same time?).

We are woefully unprepared.

It's sad to see how many brands are clinging on to the dogma of what they thought the Internet was all about. Take a look at Silicon Valley (which, by my estimates, is a fairly strong indicator as to where this is all heading). If you look at the new line of darlings (it can be anything from Uber, Snapchat, Instagram, Path, Highlight, Square, whatever), what you see is a mobile-first strategy. Arguably, a mobile-only strategy. Their respective websites are predominantly a one-page splash that drives you to grab the app or experience the company on your smartphone. Not a lot of venture capital is being pumped into anything Web-browser (or PC) based at this moment in time. So, why are so many brands not more bullish on mobile?

It's the experience, stupid.

Mobile is expensive (in terms of development, production, ideation, etc...), but it also gets more expensive when we have to kill our darlings along with it (traditional websites and other platforms that were built for people who were sitting down at a computer, etc...). When I review the landscape of brands and what they're doing on mobile, it gives off a certain Groundhog's Day hue. Marketing departments had to fight for control over the corporate website and e-commerce sites (some are still struggling to control it, as we speak) from the IT department. Now, here we sit, in 2013 and IT departments are the gatekeepers of mobile, apps, smartphones, tablets and more. It's too complex, too tech-heavy to give up that power to the marketing department, they'll tell us. So, what do we have? Ultimately, we're left with some fairly inferior brand experiences on mobile and, instead of looking at ourselves in the mirror, we're blaming things like a lack of interest from the consumer or not enough strong usage data to make the business case for apps (or whatever). For shame. Make no mistake about it, once again the consumers are ahead of the brands on this one (as they were with social media). The average consumer is getting by just fine with a tablet and/or a smartphone in terms of their day-to-day lives (browsing, engaging in social media, sending the odd email, etc...). Odds are that they would do even more if brands had the courage to give them the experience and utility that they rightfully deserve.

It's on us.

The event horizon for the PC - as we have known it to date - is not far off. Just look at what Facebook did to switch their browser-based online social network over to a mobile-first strategy. Whether it was forced by consumer demand, Wall Street or their own pro-active realization is irrelevant. Facebook responded. Facebook responded well. Just look at the past six months. They have made massive strides in shedding their PC-based legacy for this brave new world, where we're all connected, sharing and more in the palms of our hands. That experience is fundamentally differently from the PC and Web browser-based experience. It's something that brands are going to have to double-down on now. As bullish as I was on the Internet, e-commerce and social media in their nascent stages, I am an unabashed die-hard evangelist for the post PC and post Web browser world. The only difference is that others could have been a fad. This is a reality.

I wonder how many brands have the kind of courage to realize and act on this?

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