Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 319

Marketing Talent

There is a shortage of talent in the marketing pool.

Yes, the industry is filled with smart and talented people (some of them may even be out of work), but there is still a shortage. We need more people. Not just more people, but smarter and more informed people (think multi-disciplinary). As technology becomes the beachfront to the marketing industry along with great creative work, there is an ever-growing chasm of between digital, social, mobile, analytics and the professionals doing the work. It's not something that I, alone, struggle with at Twist Image. It's the same conversation I have with many of my peers... all of the time.

Blame it on Generation Flux?

The Fast Company cover story for January of this year was titled, This Is Generation Flux. The article defined Generation Flux like this: "This is less a demographic designation than a psychographic one: What defines GenFlux is a mind-set that embraces instability, that tolerates - and even enjoys - recalibrating careers, business models, and assumptions. Not everyone will join Generation Flux, but to be successful, businesses and individuals will have to work at it. This is no simple task. The vast bulk of our institutions - educational, corporate, political - are not built for flux. Few traditional career tactics train us for an era where the most important skill is the ability to acquire new skills."

Where does marketing fit into this? 

There are few success stories in the digital marketing space like that of the agency R/GA. Bob Greenberg, the company's Chairman, CEO and Global Chief Creative Officer sees the changing landscape with a very unique perspective. Here's more about Generation Flux in relation to R/GA: "R/GA's young GenFlux staffers are leaving at such a steady pace, sticking around for such short runs that Greenberg finds himself constantly replacing them, endlessly slotting one talented young person into another's place. Many CEOs would react to this news with alarm: What are we doing wrong? Why can't we keep our young talent? Greenberg talks about this intense transition with nonchalance. He's not upset by it; he's not fighting it; and he assumes this is the way life will be for the foreseeable future. But that doesn't mean he's standing still. Despite strong business momentum, he's pushing R/GA into a radical reorganization - the fifth time he's hauled the firm into a new business model. 'If we don't change our structure, we'll get less relevant,' Greenberg tells me. 'We won't be able to grow.' This time, he's integrating 12 new capabilities, from live events to data visualization to product development, into R/GA's platforms. 'People talk about change and adaptation, but they don't see how fast the competition is coming,' he says. 'We have to move. We have no choice.'"

Things are moving faster than ever... and this includes the talent.

During this week's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Greenberg sat down with Digiday to discuss how they attract and retain marketing talent. It's a quick eight minutes that is worthy of your time...

R/GA Chief Bob Greenberg on Attracting and Retaining Talent from Digiday on Vimeo.

What's your take?

Tags:

bob greenberg

business model

cannes lions

data visualization

digiday

digital marketing

fast company

generation flux

hr

human resources

marketing

marketing industry

marketing professional

mobile analytics

mobile marketing

rga

social media

talent shortage

technology

vimeo

web analytics

The Most Depressing Thing Happening In Digital Right Now

Yesterday it was about how great Kickstarter is. Today is about how big of a kick in the gut the Internet can be.

What, exactly, did Karen Klein do to deserve the publicity that she is now getting? The 68-year-old bus monitor got verbally abused by a group of middle school kids from Athena Middle School in Greece, New York. A ten minute video of said abuse gets posted to YouTube, and now the world gets to see the underbelly of how some people behave. Why has this one, particular, video come to the attention of our world? Max Sidorov saw the video and wanted to do something about it (like have the online community fund a vacation for this woman). Well, his humane act has now raised almost $300,000 dollars (you can help out, read the full story and even watch the disturbing video right here: Lets Give Karen -The bus monitor- H Klein A Vacation!). So yes, the Internet (and social media) have helped, but it has also - once again - demonstrated that we - as a society - have a long way to go.

Why this? Why now?

I tend to not speak about my personal life all that much. I tend to keep the content here focused on the world of media and marketing. But, as the father of young children, these types of antics terrify me. My kids aren't old enough for the school bus yet and I am doing my best - each and every day - to keep them as innocent and sheltered from things like hate, violence and bad language as possible. You would be surprised how difficult that is in our current world. To think that they may have to endure a berating like this or sit idly by as others act this way causes me to have deep anxiety.

The most depressing thing happening in digital right now...

Is that because anyone can have a thought and publish it in text, images, audio and video that we wind up seeing the hate that people have. It's amazing how much evolution we've had because of technology and how little evolution has seeped through to people. I'm about to get preachy here (so, if you're looking for my regular marketing blather, please come back tomorrow)...

We are...

One species.

Regardless of race.

Regardless of color.

Regardless of gender.

Regardless of sexual preference.

Regardless of physical appearance.

Regardless of borders.

Regardless of religions.

Regardless of faith.

Regardless of vocation.

Regardless of income.

Regardless of social class.

We all...

Are created the same.

Bleed the same.

Smile the same.

Die the same.

Laugh the same.

Think the same.

Eat the same.

Starve the same.

There are no differences.

We spend too much time attempting to find common ground between people, without realizing that the common ground is that we are all human beings. It's innate. We tend to forget about it. We're here for a short time (and hopefully a good time) and yet, we can't help but subjugate, judge, demean and do other nasty things to one another. Why? We are no better than the animals, some might think. It is, simply, not true. We have consciousness. We are aware of our own self and mortality. And, while he/she who dies with the most toys may win, ask yourself why this should be done at the detriment to others? Karen Klein makes $16,000 a year doing a job that (I bet) she never dreamed she would be doing when she was as young as the kids who are insulting her in this video. I spend a good chunk of my day acknowledging that I hit the genetic lottery (being born in North America with a lot of significant opportunities that others don't have). Videos like this remind me that we need to become much better guards at the gates of our brains and mouths. I realize that we have war, strife and starvation happening all over the world, and that none of it truly makes any sense, but Karen's story reminded me that if we're going to take those important first steps, they may as well be in our own homes.

Kiss your kids tonight... and remind them that we're all created equal.

(back to the marketing banter tomorrow... I promise).

Tags:

athena middle school

bus monitor

greece new york

internet culture

karen klein

kickstarter

marketing

max sidorov

media

online community

publishing

social media

youtube

The Most Exciting Thing Happening In Digital Right Now

It's not Twitter . It's not Facebook . It's not YouTube .

It's Kickstarter.

I fell madly, deeply in love with Kickstarter when I first heard about it back in 2009 (you can read more about my love for it here: Kickstart Your Own Economy). It seems like the world is starting embrace the idea of buying a product long before it is even manufactured. What is Kickstarter? Kickstarter is a simple crowdfunding platform that allows individuals to post their creative projects (everything ranging from music and film to technology and journalism) and start an online threshold-pledge system for the funding of the project In short: if you can't get a book deal, you can post your project to Kickstarter, define the budget and invite anybody and everybody who thinks it's a good idea to become a backer of the project. Kickstarter is a New York startup that was founded in April 2009. According to Wikipedia, the company has raised more than $230 million dollars for more than 23,000 projects since it got started. Even more impressive, Kickstarter has a project success rate of close to 45 per cent. (Success is defined by whether the project met or surpassed the threshold set by the project organizers). The company makes its money by taking a percentage of the funded projects.

The face of success on Kickstarter.

In the past short while, there have been a handful of extremely successful and interesting Kickstarter projects that have captured the attention of the world:

The Pebble E-Paper watch did an astonishing ten million dollars-plus in sales, making it the biggest Kickstarter project to date.

Musician and artist, Amanda Palmer, raised over a million dollars for her next record, art book and tour.

Business leader, Seth Godin, launched his latest book, The Icarus Deception, on Tuesday. He was looking for forty thousand dollars in funding and hit that goal in less than two hours. He's about to surpass $250,000 is sales in a little over twenty-four hours... and the project will remain open (and available for people to fund) for another twenty five days.

What's to love about Kickstarter?

It's real. People are not just funding/backing an idea. They are, physically, buying a product. In short, we all get to buy something that immediately delivers value to us, as individuals. We're not investing (or betting) on anything. There's no hype and there's no uncertainty. If the masses don't like a project, it doesn't get funded. If they like it and run with it, it happens. At a business level, there's a bigger (and much more profound) element at play here: Kickstarter devours the chasm that existed in entrepreneurship between ideation and go-to market (the hardest and most complicated part of it). A clever video, well-defined copy, enough levels of pledging that creates interest and it's easy to know - in short order - if you have something that people will actually buy. There's no speculation, prayer or finger's crossed as the entrepreneur moves from ideation to finding distributors to putting something on the shelf and hoping it gets some traction. With Kickstarter, you know before any pieces are ordered what your initial sales run looks like.

The creativity of humanity.

Kickstarter highlights creativity. Not "creativity" in an art and painting kind of way, but creativity as defined by ingenuity. The platform highlights talented people who have something to sell. It's not only valuable to us - as consumers - but it also acts as a microcosm that demonstrates the creativity of humanity. It demonstrates the desire of more and more people to become entrepreneurs or run their own startups on their own terms. It also enables people like you and me to become true patron of the arts. Yes, you can make a donation to a local symphony orchestra or you can make a donation to keep your local library alive (nothing wrong with any of that), but now, you can actively back, fund and derive value from artists who are flirting in many new and interesting intersections of creativity and commerce. True power to the people.

Kickstarter is not magic.

Just because someone created an interesting video, some fun copy and the right levels of pledges does not guarantee success. What is clear (especially if you have been following the Amanda Palmer and Seth Godin projects) is that it helps if you have already invested time and energy into building a semblance of a community. Simply posting a project on Kickstarter is not enough (even though there are some rare exceptions to this). Kickstarter acts as a catalyst to activate that community of people whom you are already connected to. If those community members derive value from what the entrepreneurs are offering, they will naturally make the Kickstarter project shareable and findable to everyone that they know. Again, Kickstarter works because it's real. Real people with new and interesting products to sell. Real people who want to buy that product. Real people sharing because there is value for both the Kickstarter project leaders and everyone taking part in the process. Real people connecting to one another and sharing which Kickstarter projects they're funding.

There a ton of social media initiatives that could learn a ton from Kickstarter. 

Tags:

amanda palmer

commerce

creative projects

creativity

crowdfunding

entrepreneur

entrepreneurship

facebook

ideation

kickstarter

new economy

online community

patron of the arts

pebble epaper watch

seth godin

startup

the icarus deception

twitter

wikipedia

youtube

This Disease Called Blogging

Why do you blog? Why should you blog?

One of my most favorite people is Gini Dietrich from Arment Dietrich and the always fun to read blog, Spin Sucks. Today, she published a blog titled, Responding (Or Not) to Blog Comments, in which she says: "...we ended up having a conversation about blog comments and replying to them. In fact, it's a conversation Mitch and I have nearly every time we talk. You see, he writes to write. It's like a disease for him. He has to get the words out of his head and onto the computer screen. He figures he's had his say by doing that and the comments are for everyone else to have their say."

No comments for you!

Gini goes on to define three types of bloggers and their level of comment engagement:

The blog is widely read, but no one comments (Valeria);

The blogger has his or her say and leaves the comments open for everyone to debate, argue, or agree with one another, but the blogger rarely responds (Mitch and Geoff); and

The blogger replies to every comment left on his or her blog post (Chris and me).

Start with why...

Gini's description of me isn't (fully) accurate. I don't blog to write. I write to share my ideas. They happen to be on a blog platform. I don't consider my words final. I consider my words my own perspective on a marketing and media industry that is constantly evolving and very exciting. This blog is a mere publishing platform for me to do some critical thinking and share it with the world. Just because I don't actively respond to each and every comment, it doesn't mean that I am not reading them, thinking about the context and appreciative of the additional thinking.

The blog comments are not mine.

This is a bigger idea: I don't think that the blog comments are my responsibility. It's not a dialogue between the blogger and the reader. The blog comments are a space for anyone (and everyone) to add their opinions and engage in a discourse that goes beyond a digital two-way-dialogue. I believe that the best blogs are not the ones where a blogger responds to the comments, but where there are multiple people engaging with one another. I have the spotlight already. The blog comments are your space to shine. The blog comments are not about me and how I respond. The blog comments are about you and what you add to the discourse. For me, the best blog comments are the ones that add additional color and perspective. For me, the worst blog comments are the ones where the blogger is put up on some kind of pedestal and is gracious enough to be all self-congratulatory. That doesn't sound like a valuable community. That does sounds like a whole lot of self-validation.

When to respond.

I have not mastered this. More often than not, I publish a fully-baked idea. It has run its course in my brain, so whatever blog comments appear after that, I'm usually finding myself either nodding in agreement with or trying to better understand the differing perspective. I don't feel compelled to write a movie review after every movie I watch. I prefer to just let the content marinate in my brain. If something gets pickled, it either becomes an additional blog comment or a new and unique blog post. In short, I respond to a blog comment that stirs me to respond (and yes, I'm like that on my own blog and on all of your blogs as well).

A true sense of community.

A community is not built on my ideas and how you (as an individual) add a comment. My definition of community is a place where ideas are shared. If it's just my idea, your comment and me responding, that's not much of a community at all. If my blog post entices you to share it on Facebook, Twitter or create a video on YouTube, then that's the nascent stages of a true community - a place where ideas are shared. My writing isn't done to encourage dialog. My writing is done in the hopes that it encourages you to think differently about your business. In the end, this blog wasn't created as a platform for me to chat with you. It was created as a publishing platform to facilitate new thinking. I think this blog does encourage dialogue, but it's not between me and you... it's between us and the success of it is not driven by how many comments that I respond to, but rather how you think about your own business and where you want it to go.

The beautiful thing about it all is this...

If you agree, fantastic.

If you disagree, you are entitled to your opinion.

If you want to leave some additional commentary, please feel free.

If you don't, I'm not offended and I hope that you still get value from the content.

If everything is driven by how often and frequently I respond to comments, please know this: I am going to let you down. But, please know this as well: I read each and every comment and they all affect me (both the positive and the negative). Trust me, you don't need my comment to affirm you or your thinking. I'm not the leader of this community. I'm just someone blogging my thoughts. The community aspect (if there is one) is governed by all of us... equally.

Now, over to you...

Tags:

arment dietrich

blog

blog comments

blogger

blogging

chris brogan

conversation

critical thinking

facebook

geoff livingston

gini dietrich

marketing

media

new thinking

online community

online video

publishing

spin sucks

twitter

valeria maltoni

writing

youtube

In The Age Of (Digital) Anxiety

Are you stressing out?

In a world of global economic instability, a deplorable job market, the digitization of everything, Occupy Wall Street movements, student protests and the general atrocities of a sadistic few, the headlines - whether you read them on paper, watch them on TV or get them from Twitter - are a constant stream of doom and gloom. For years, I was involved in a charitable organization called, NABS (the National Advertising Benevolent Society), which was a business-to-business charity that helped people in the marketing, advertising and communications industry get help should they need it. To this day, the majority of support is for people who are dealing with burnout. My industry has a specific capability in taking smart and able people and burning them out to the point of no return. In a world that no longer delivers a true work/life balance, more and more people are taking significant leaves of absence that are caused by mental illness.

It's taking a massive economic and health toll on our society, and there is no relief in sight.

Stress, anxiety, panic attacks - according to recent studies, the majority of our population deals with these types of health issues. While it can get extremely bad for some (these people wind up taking leaves of absence along with therapy and medication), the mass majority of people don't even recognize their illness because they're too busy self-medicating with everything from a few glasses of wine at dinner to hard drugs (and other vices). How many people do you know who never complain about stress or anxiety at their workplace?

It's something we all grapple with.

With all of this technology and connectivity, one would think that we - as a society - have become a whole lot better at working less because we are both more productive, and technology empowers us to remove some of the more tedious components of work. It makes perfect sense: shouldn't technology be doing a lot of the work that used to be relegated to non-skilled workers? It turns out that nothing could be further from the truth. We're so connected and communications is moving so rapidly that we're all just trying to keep pace. It's a dangerous treadmill.

Enter Calm.com.

As the screen goes completely black for several seconds before loading, you just know you're entering into a completely different digital experience. Users are then asked to select between two and ten minute relaxation programs with a selection of beautiful scenery, soothing music and even a voice-guided mediation to chill you out. Can you imagine Facebook or Twitter asking you to do absolutely nothing for ten minutes? Is Calm.com a unique website? No, there are others, but it seems to be all the rage in Silicon Valley, where a forty-hour workweek happens before Wednesday.

Is it somewhat ironic that we need the same technology that is keeping us stagnant and staring at a screen all day to also decompress and remove us from that experience?

What ever happened to getting up and heading outside for a nice, brisk walk? Iconic entrepreneurs, Steve Jobs (Apple) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) are known to conduct meetings by taking their team members out for a long walk outside to work through a business challenge. At the C2-MTL conference on creativity and commerce, held in Montreal at the end of May 2012, I was asked to lead a conversation with Arianna Huffington (founder of The Huffington Post). We discussed her latest project for The Huffington Post (and, no, it wasn't the launch of another local edition of the very popular online newspaper). Huffington and her team are about to release something called, GPS For The Soul. Arianna calls this "the killer app for better living." Why would an online publisher suddenly spend money and resources on creating an app that reminds you of all of the good things in our lives (you can add personal photos, music and quotes that make you happy)? Why is Arianna suddenly fascinated with how stressed out and sleepless so many of us are, and what we can do to align our body, mind and spirit? "The Internet and the rise of social media have, of course, given us amazing tools to connect, and to effect change in ways large and small," she recently said on her blog. "At the same time, there's a snake lurking in this cyber Garden of Eden. Our 24/7 connection to the digital world often disconnects us from the real world around us - from our physical surroundings, from our loved ones, and especially from ourselves. We see the effects of this in every aspect of our lives."

It's time for freedom.

There's also a popular application called, Freedom, which allows users to block their access to the online channels for a determined amount of time (no Internet for you!). With over three hundred thousand users and growing, the idea is to reclaim focus and purpose at work by not being distracted by your Facebook timeline or videos of squirrels water-skiing on YouTube. The idea is that there is a peace from within when you're not being pulled in a million digital directions.

The sad truth comes in the paradox of needing technology to disconnect from technology.

There should be no loss of irony in recognizing that the better technology gets, the better the apps, tools and programs become for us to disconnect and re-connect to ourselves. It's clearly not just a personal transformation either. It's also about the ones we are sitting next to us - each and every day - in the workplace. It's about a physical world and tangible relationships that we're ignoring as our headphones and smartphones become the new "do not disturb" sign of our over-worked generation.

Do you use technology to unplug?

The above post is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here:

Montreal Gazette - When a 40-hour workweek ends before Wednesday: Calm.com .

Vancouver Sun- not yet published. 

Tags:

advertising

anxiety

apple

arianna huffington

burnout

business column

c2mtl

calm

charity

commerce

communications

connectivity

creativity

depression

digital anxiety

digital experience

digital world

facebook

freedom

global economic instability

gps for the soul

health issues

mark zuckerberg

marketing

marketing industry

meditation

mental illness

montreal gazette

nab

national advertising benevolent society

newspaper

newspaper column

occupy wall street

online channel

online newspaper

online publisher

panic attack

personal transformation

postmedia

productivity

relaxation program

silicon valley

smartphone

social media

steve jobs

student protests

technology

television

the huffington post

tv

twitter

vancouver sun

work life balance

workplace stress

youtube

The Startup Of You With Ben Casnocha

Episode #310 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn - the very popular online social network for business professionals - in December 2002. With close to 140 million members in over 20 countries, LinkedIn's IPO in May of last year made Hoffman a billionaire. Currently, he serves as Executive Chairman of LinkedIn and is a partner at Greylock Partners - a very popular venture capital firm. Hoffman's passion is in understanding how these connected networks that we're all creating everyday as we connect, friend, like, link and follow one another creates new business opportunities. He also believes that in these highly networked times, we have to start thinking differently about business and the work that we're doing. Along with Ben Casnocha (an award-winning entrepreneur and author), they recently published the business book, The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career. Casnocha took some time out of his busy schedule to talk about the new value systems we should all be looking at when we come to work everyday. 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 #310.

Tags:

advertising podcast

ben casnocha

blog

blogging

business book

david usher

digital marketing

facebook

greylock partners

itunes

linkedin

marketing

marketing podcast

online social network

podcast

podcasting

reid hoffman

social media

the startup of you

twitter

Messing With Your Mind

What do you think of when you see the words: "subliminal advertising"?

It's not good, right? Human beings have an intrinsic fear of anybody doing anything with their mind that they are not conscience of. We all know that we're getting so many inputs (or messages) everyday, that whether or not we can acknowledge them all, they are still happening. Leonard Mlodinow, a a physicist and author, released his latest book, Subliminal - How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. He also gave an excellent talk at Google about the book and how our minds work, think and see (even when we don't realize it).

Watch this...

Tags:

business book

google

leonard mlodinow

online video

subliminal

subliminal advertising

youtube

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #104

93Is 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 (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) 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:

Hey, Did I Miss Anything? - Dan Harmon Poops . " Dan Harmon is the creator of the sleeper-now-giant comedy, Community , which is pushing many of the edges of the sitcom format (evidence a recent episode done entirely as an 8-bit cartoon game). But he's not the writer any more. And it came as a bit of a surprise to him. Here is perhaps the most candid glimpse into Big TV of recent years, where Dan explains how it went down, in characteristically disarming style." (Alistair for Hugh).

Rockstar condemns Max Payne 3 cheaters to play only against each other - Ars Technica . "Dealing with cheaters can be a nasty business. I love it when companies come up with simple answers to complex problems. In the case of Rockstar Games, this worked perfectly: cheaters are forced to play one another, and get a taste of their own online mischief. Elegant? Yes. But as Ars points out, this could have an unintended effect: 'we're a bit intrigued by the potential for the 'Cheaters Pool' to evolve into a new mode of play that some players might actually prefer.'" - HT to my Strata co-chair Edd Dumbill for finding this. (Alistair for Mitch).

Confirmed: US and Israel created Stuxnet, lost control of it - Ars Technica . "Stuxnet was a new kind of computer virus, that in 2010 was discovered to have infiltrated an Iranian nuclear facility (which was cut off from outside networks) - and infected the hardware control systems. The worm got in through a thumb drive. There was speculation at the time that Stuxnet had been developed by the US and Israeli militaries. It was." (Hugh for Alistair).

The Curse of Knowledge - The New Republic . "Science writer, Jonah Lehrer , get put through the ringer in this rather grouchy review of Lehrer's new book on creativity and the brain, Imagine: How Creativity Works." (Hugh for Mitch).

FunnyJunk is threatening to file a federal lawsuit against me unless I pay $20,000 in damages - The Oatmeal . "I'm no fan of litigation (who is?). I'm not sure about you, but if I was faced with a lawsuit, I would love to have the tenacity to handle it this way. And, if you think The Oatmeal is all fun and games, this dude has already managed to raise over $165,000 dollars for his charities. That sounds pretty serious to me. This one would make Kickstarter proud and it's another reason why I love the Internet: you learn who you true fans are and what they're willing to do when you need your back covered." (Mitch for Alistair).

If I'm not a writer then I'm nothing - Letters of Note . "Over the past while, we've all shared a link from the Letters of Note website. This is another beautiful one, but I'm more interested in drawing more attention to this site, in general. The idea of someone publishing all of these fascinating notes, letters and dialogs from a day and age when communications was not easy, mobile and immediate makes one truly marvel at the power of the written word: especially when it's expensive and complex to send a message and not as easy as 140 characters or less with a flick of the thumb." (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.

Tags:

alistair croll

ars technica

bitcurrent

community

complete web monitoring

dan harmon

edd dumbill

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

imagine

jonah lehrer

letters of note

librivox

link exchange

linkbait

managing bandwidth

max payne 3

media hacks

pressbooks

rockstar games

story

strata

stuxnet

the book oven

the new republic

year one labs

Earning Loyalty Points

This will not be about how to game a system so that you can redeem a free flight. Sorry.

When most people think of earning loyalty points, they think of their loyalty cards. They think of spending money that is then accrued into a virtual account where the dollar amounts are assigned some strange point structure, and if they spend a lot of money, they can save up those points and redeem them for a free flight (or other goods and services). People complain all of the time that this point accumulation is useless because the flights that they would really like to take are never available. The brands behind these loyalty programs are capturing tons of valuable data in what is perceived as a fair trade.

What if we looked earning loyalty points differently?

What if loyalty was less about how much a consumer buys, but the bigger win is that the brand earns loyalty points for doing the right thing for the consumer? How do you think a program like that might work out in the end? Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Canadian Marketing Association's Social Media conference in Toronto. The morning keynote session was Martha Rogers (from Peppers & Rogers Group) talking about her new book with co-author, Don Peppers, titled, Extreme Trust - Honesty As A Competitive Advantage (Peppers talked about the book in this podcast with me back in May of last year: SPOS #253 - Don Peppers Looks At The Future Of Marketing). I found her presentation extremely frustrating. It's nothing that Rogers said or did (she is a fantastic presenter with amazing content), it's that the net result of her presentation is this: why don't brands act in the consumer's interest?

Why don't brands act in the consumer's interest?

It bears repeating, doesn't it? Intuitively, we know that brands that build true trust and credibility are the brands who spend each and every waking moment ensuring that they are removing all of the friction that comes from their buying (and post-purchase) experience. The paradox (and the part that really frustrated me about Rogers' presentation) is that the brands who do this well are few and far between (go ahead, start building your own list and you'll see how quickly you run out of steam). And, it's not like the brands that get this right are not profitable (see: Apple). And, it's not like the brands that get this right don't often make mistakes but are still perceived to be great (see: USAA). And, it's not like the brands that get this right are small or medium or big... size has nothing to do with it.

We are trapped in dogma.

That was the truly depressing part about it. Rogers asked the audience how complicated it is for iTunes or Kindle to let you know that you're buying a book or a song that you already have, so you don't pay for it twice? It's not that difficult (and they do it smashingly well), but most brands won't do this. Rogers asked the audience why mobile companies don't call their customers up to help them change their plan, so that they can save more money? Think about that one: would you switch to another provider if your mobile company did that because they actually cared? The thing about dogma in marketing is that we're running everything day to day and week to week. We need the sale today to make our numbers tomorrow, with very little optics and care towards the true endgame: long-term loyalty and customer lifetime opportunities.

Buying loyalty.

My big takeaway is this: the mass majority of brands are trying to buy loyalty (and this can be as small as asking someone to like them on Facebook to as major as getting a customer to sign up for a corporately-owned credit card because of the promotional goodies that come along with it), but loyalty (true loyalty) can't be bought. It's something that brands earn - each and every day - and it's reflected in everything from how they promote their wares to how they communicate with consumers through channels like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Brands have every good intention to be great, but the general attitude is about being great today - in the moment - instead of being great over the entire customer experience.It's too bad that brands treat loyalty like a points game and not like the ultimate goal towards a truly great consumer experience.

What the world needs now is more brands that act in the consumer's interest.

Tags:

apple

canadian marketing association

cma

consumer data

credibility

customer experience

don peppers

extreme trust

facebook

itunes

kindle

loyalty

loyalty card

loyalty points

loyalty programs

marketing

marketing dogma

martha roggers

mobile

peppers and rogers group

podcast

promotion

social media

social media conference

trust

twitter

usaa

youtube

The Social Contract Of Social Media

Once we get enough people liking, friending, following and plus-ing us, we can start pushing product.

No matter where you turn, this seems to be the social media endgame: sell them more stuff. The trick with selling more stuff in social media is that you need to have some semblance of an audience (and, this audience has to be somewhat engaged), so that when you're ready to pull the trigger and start your shilling, that they're still there, listening and engaging with the brand.

Is that really the point?

For years, I've talked about the social contract that happens in social media. Let's take this blog as an example: if tomorrow (and forevermore after that) each and every blog post was a coupon, offer or some kind of pitch, what do you think the conversion rate would look like? What if it wasn't so radical, but let's say that once week, I sprinkled in one of those pushy sales pitches into the regular flow of content, would that be acceptable? Either way, the answer is somewhat meaningless because it is, ultimately, an act of bait and switch. I lured you in with content (giving true value) but then suddenly switched it up (to your surprise, but I knew that it was the play all along). Is being deceitful or unclear the best business model brands can come up with?

Many brands do this - each and every day.

This is the endgame for most brands (and, to prove it, the majority of them won't even admit it publicly... which makes it more true ;). The truth is that you have to choose your social contract prior to publishing anything. On top of that, you have to make the social contract dramatically clear to each and every business unit within your organization, because when it works and people start connecting with your brand, the first thing everyone in the company will want to do it pollute the community and engagement with sales and offers.

I see this each and every day.

The bigger the brand, the bigger the challenge and the bigger the temptation is to "get on with the selling." It doesn't have to be this way. Creating value as a social contract may not enable a brand to directly shill coupons, but it creates a massive amount of sharing and chatter (both online and offline) that can drive to direct sales. On top of that, a significant and engaged audience can be asked if they would want/accept a separate area, specifically created, for offers and promotions.

There's nothing wrong with selling.

If your social media isn't driving business, then it's just a hobby. The occasional ask of an audience for something is quickly forgiven and mostly accepted when you're constantly and consistently delivering value. Conversely, I've seen many strong promotions and incentives-based social media platforms that work like magic. The reason this works is the social contract. It's what people have not only signed up for, but expect. The murkiness and scuzzyness flows when the brand decides that it is suddenly time to do something divergent from the social contract.

Guard the social contract.

Whatever your brand may be about within the social media spheres (selling, shilling, adding value, customer support, curator, etc...) is fine. The audience will decide if there's value enough to connect with it and stay with it. Whatever path you chose, just ensure that you guard that social contract with your life. That you don't allow the brand to bastardize it or change it because they need some short-term sales. It will be one of the hardest things to do, but have faith that (in the end), you're doing the right thing because you are doing what's best for the customer.

Remember: without customers... there is no business.

Tags:

blog

brand

business model

community engagement

content

customer

publishing

social contract

social media