I can’t lie, every time I see a list of top social media or digital “influencers” pop up in my stream, I cringe a little. Why? Because 99% of the time, Top 10/25/50/100 lists are nothing more than linkbait and bullshit. Here’s how it usually works:
Agency/consultancy XYZ feels that it isn’t getting enough attention anymore. Their white papers or “content” aren’t all that great this quarter, traffic and lead gen are down, so they need to think of something to do to salvage their waning relevance. The quickest way to do that is to spend an hour or two creating an ass-kissing list that awards some measure of recognition to a predetermined list of social media gurus. It’s easy enough to do. Most of these lists are essentially clones of each other. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. The names are always the same and you know what they are. The process is as follows:
1. Google “Social Media, Influencer, Top, List.”
2. Cut and paste social media guru names from any of those lists. Make sure that you don’t include companies or organizations as it will defeat the purpose of the exercise. You’ll understand why in a minute.
3. Cut and paste the reason why they were selected by the person whose list you just ripped off, but change a few words so it isn’t technically plagiarism.
4. Come up with a really cool title.
5. Publish the list on your blog.
6. Ping every single social media guru on the list. Do this every hour until they respond and share your post with their entire network.
7. Remind them to do it again the next day and engage in small talk with them on Twitter and Facebook… err… Google Plus.
8. Enjoy free traffic to your blog for months.
Sometimes, gurus create lists like these themselves. It’s… well, you know. It’s done so much that I don’t even bother getting excited when I see a list of top influencers, top experts, top gurus, whatever, anymore. For the most part, they’re just copies of copies of copies. They provide zero insight into why these folks are experts or even valuable in their fields. They are the product of a lazy, cynical, unoriginal exercise in derivative self-promotion by proxy.
However…
Sometimes, someone takes the time to actually do it right. They take a careful look at an industry, research who does what and how, dig into their track records, weigh their actual influence rather than just their Klout score and the size of their network, and… well, sometimes, they put in the work.
This week, when I ran into BSMi’s 2012 Global Influencer Survey, I expected it to be another clone of top influencer/social media guru lists of Christmases past, but instead discovered a thorough, well-researched report that analyzes in detail what the top experts in three particular fields (social media, marketing and digital) have done this year, and explains why they are the best among us. This one really is different. When you browse through it, you’ll understand why. Clever way of presenting it too.
Just really great work all around from BSMi, as always. Click here or on the image below to check it out. (UK readers, click here.)
From now on, every time a “top” influencer list comes out, I want you to think about what you learned here today. 😉
And if you’re as tired of the bullshit as I am, pick up a copy of Social Media ROI – Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in your Organization. It was written to teach managers and executives how to build and manage social media friendly business programs and incorporate social technologies and networks into everyday business operations. The book is divided into four parts: social media program strategy & development, social media program operationalization, social media program management, and best practices in measurement and reporting. If your boss doesn’t yet have a copy, time to fix that. If everyone on your team doesn’t yet have their own copy, fix that too. No bullshit. Just solid methodology and insights. It makes for a great desk reference.
(Now available in several languages including German, Korean, Japanese and Spanish.)
So yesterday, one of my well-meaning online friends sent me a private message on Facebook that included this bit of warning/worry:
You have a first rate mind .. I’m a little concerned, however about the the posts you make as they might limit your project/career options. You’re in the buckle of the bible belt and political sensibilities are hard to gauge.
This friend was referring to some of the political content and opinions I share on by personal Facebook account.
You may or may not have noticed that this blog remains for the most part apolitical. I keep it focused on business topics, and more specifically those which relate to brand management, marketing, communications, social media and overall leadership. I prefer not to discuss my political beliefs here for two principal reasons:
1. This is not a political blog. It’s a business and marketing blog. If I wanted a political platform, I would launch a blog with a political focus.
2. Politics aren’t particularly relevant to the topics discussed here anyway.
If you have ever worked with me, you know that my politics have absolutely no impact whatsoever on my professional life. If we work on a project together, I don’t care if you’re a liberal or a conservative, if your believe climate change is real or think it’s a hoax, if you think that President Obama is a decent man or a secret Muslim antichrist. I am probably too busy helping your business get out of the ditch to notice or care who you plan to vote for next November, and I certainly won’t be the one to ask. Your politics and religion are entirely your business. If you bring them up, fine. I won’t.
Having said that, I am not an apolitical creature. I have opinions and beliefs, like everyone else, and right now, I feel free to express them on Facebook and engage in political discussions with my friends, and sometimes complete strangers.
The way it works for me is simple:
While I am my own boss, I have no reason not to express my views on Facebook. If anything I post today somehow offends someone’s political or religious sensibilities, there will be no impact on anyone’s business but my own. There will be no backlash, no boycott, no drama on HuffPo or The Blaze, and no awkward conversation with my boss, Legal and HR on Friday afternoon.
Conversely, if I ever decide to leave free-agency behind and take a position somewhere, I won’t feel as free to post or share certain things on Facebook anymore. Employment changes things. It reframes the kinds of discussions you can have online. Right or wrong isn’t relevant. That’s just how the ball rolls: you don’t want to become a liability for your employer. Ever. If self-preservation isn’t enough of a motivator, then professional responsibility sure as hell should be.
But something bothers me about that piece of advice up there. It implies that I should hide who I am or what I believe in order to be employable in the first place. As if being of one political persuasion would somehow make me more attractive to employers and clients than being of the other kind.
That really, really, really bothers me, and it doesn’t bother me because it’s bullshit; it bothers me because it’s true: declaring yourself a democrat in certain parts of the US can cost you a promotion, a raise or your job. Recruiters might decide to put your resume in the dump pile on political conviction alone. A lot of liberals I know in SC are afraid to “be found out” by their peers and bosses because their jobs could be at risk, so they pretend to be conservatives and just go with the flow. I know it sounds absurd, but then again, some people think that President Obama is a secret Kenyan agent working for the Muslim Brotherhood, so our frame of reference here might be a little shaky. This isn’t about logic. It’s about the reality of blind prejudice.
So yes, friend whom I will not name, the concern you expressed on Facebook is valid. Sad and depressing, but valid. And I appreciate your sharing it with me. But I’ve given this a little thought, and…
1. If you have to hide who you are in order to keep your job, you need to change jobs.
2, If you have to hide who you are in order to keep your clients, you need to get some new clients.
3. If your company is a cesspool of discrimination and everyone is too afraid to do anything about it, things will never change. Either accept it and strap-in, or go look for a better company to work for.
Now let me share how I deal with the fear of being black-listed for my political views, starting with what some “businesses” might find objectionable about my political views. Just this one time, let me share with you my deepest, darkest political secrets:
I like President Obama. He isn’t perfect, but I like him. I like Bill and Hillary Clinton too. That isn’t a crime, nor should it be. I don’t believe that women should be treated as second-class citizen (in and out of the corporate world), make less money than their male counterparts, or be called “sluts” when they admit to using birth control. I want gay couples to enjoy the same constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms that straight couples enjoy. I don’t believe that someone is “more American” if they are of Christian and Anglo-Saxon but somehow “less American” if they are Muslim, dark-skinned, atheist or vote Democrat. I actually like that the government defends our borders, protects our forests, our water and our air, and makes sure that our kids’ toys aren’t covered in lead paint or made out of carcinogenic materials. The government does wonderful things that the private sector either cannot or will not do alone, and contrary to Tea-Party anti-government mythology, it does most of them quite well.
People who hate the government so much that they want to do away with it are basically dumbfucks. They probably need to go live in Somalia for six months and see how they like the freedom of anarchy. Then we’ll talk about how evil and “too big” the US government is. Also, I’m a Christian, if that matters. I only tell you this because even though I fall into that particular Abrahamic faith category, I don’t believe that it gives me license to be a faith tyrant. For instance, insisting that creationism be taught in public school might seem like a great idea if you care more about forcing your faith on everyone than actually respecting the US Constitution. But the real problem with it is that it doesn’t exactly prepare our youth to be globally competitive. What it teaches them is to distrust science, knowledge and facts (things that would help them cure cancer, build bridges, design tomorrow’s cars, etc.). Meanwhile, the kids who will be hired for the jobs your kids won’t be qualified for are learning real science, real history, real anthropology and philosophy and literature. Speaking of science and facts, climate change is real. (Just like gravity, aspirin, glacier erosion and Obama’s birth certificate.) Get over it. It isn’t a question of opinions. Believing that there are space aliens out there is an opinion. Accepting the reality of basic science is called being a rational, responsible adult.
By the way, as someone who grew up with universal healthcare and still runs into it regularly, I can tell you from extensive personal experience that it isn’t death panels or the end of freedom; it’s just poor kids not dying of cancer in the gutter. It’s expectant mothers receiving proper prenatal care. It’s your mom not being turned down for treatment because of a bogus pre-existing condition. It’s people living longer, healthier lives and requiring less expensive care over time. Yes, Russia and North Korea probably do it wrong. But France, Canada and other countries do it mostly right. Look into it before parroting absurd nonsense you heard on AM radio.
Social Security isn’t a frivolous expense either; it’s a promise we made to retired people that guarantees that they will not have to choose between heating their houses in the winter and being able to buy food. Yes, it’s expensive to help your fellow Americans. Of course it is. But if you think that a better alternative is to let them starve and die, then you need to ask yourself what kind of person you really are. If money is really a big concern for you, then stop supporting nation-building in the Middle-East and start supporting nation-building right here at home. That isn’t socialism, by the way. It’s just called investing in your own country. Kind of like having a strong military, and fast trains, and good roads and drinkable water. It might even be called building a really cool model that will make you the envy of the world and make other countries want to invest in you again.
Welfare and food stamps are not dirty words, by the way. Go hang out with poor Americans for a few months and see if they’re really just the lazy parasites you keep hearing about. They aren’t. They want jobs. Desperately. You know, it’s really easy to dehumanize people. All you have to do is put labels on them and use stereotypes. It’s what the Nazis did with the Jews, and what the KKK did with African-Americans. It’s also what old white men in corner offices do to women, and what homophobic preachers do to same-sex couples. One thing I’ve learned in my years is that real patriots don’t turn their backs on their fellow citizen. They don’t preach hate or division. They do everything they can to help them. Always let that be your litmus test. Cynicism isn’t a virtue. Compassion is. Try it.
Since we’re on the subject, let me close with this: the political hate machine in the US has become appalling. We can talk about how people like Rush Limbaugh Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann are irresponsible, batshit sideshows of pre-packaged angst and faux paranoia, but they have vast audiences of people who think they are brilliant and spot-on and should be President. When I hear people repeat their rhetoric as if it were gospel, (and I do, a lot,) my spider senses flash passages of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale at me, and it worries me. It really does.
If all of that makes me a liberal, fine. Label me what you want. None of my beliefs stem from a particular political or religious philosophy or agenda, mind you. I have traveled around the world, served in the military, lived on two continents, and worked with people all over the globe. I make up my own mind on what is true and what is false, what is ethical and what isn’t, on what hurts people and what improves their lives. In the US, I happen to fall on the liberal side of the aisle. In France, I easily fall on the conservative side of the aisle. But I’m not the one doing the moving. It’s just that we’re talking about very different lines. So what am I in the end? A liberal? A conservative? Depends who you ask. For some people, I will never be conservative enough. For others, I will never be liberal enough. And for some, I will never be American enough, French enough, white enough or Christian enough. But remove political labels and stereotypes, and you’ll find that I am simply someone who won’t stand for racism, sexism, willful ignorance of the facts, xenophobia, fraudulent behavior, exploitation, irresponsible business practices, hypocrisy and fear-mongering.
If that world view somehow offends a particular business, then let me tell you quite candidly that I have no problem if that business decides not to hire me. In fact, if evidence of my political leanings weeds out businesses that would rather not work with “someone like me,” that’s great. I just did myself a huge favor. It isn’t that I don’t want to work with conservatives or republicans. In fact, I love working with and for conservatives and republicans as much as I love working with and for liberals and democrats. It’s just that I don’t particularly enjoy working with and for small-minded haters.
“But Olivier, aren’t you afraid that admitting all this will hurt your business?”
Not on your life. Here’s why:
1. I am not sitting here all day trying to broaden my options. What I am trying to do is narrow them down as much as possible. The reality of my business model is that I can only work with maybe 100-200 more companies before I retire or move on to a completely different phase in my career. I want every one of those partnerships to count. I don’t have time for the kind of bullshit that invariably comes with working for companies managed by irrational, hateful pricks. That means that I have to sort through tens of thousands of businesses to get to the right ones. Businesses deselecting themselves over something this stupid helps me out. And if I were to decide to go back into the corporate workforce, I am looking at 2-5 employers before the time comes for me to leave again and go do something else. Believe me when I tell you that I have no intention of wasting my time even interviewing with mildly racist or sexist bullies, let alone wasting a few years working in a poisonous corporate environment that idolizes people like Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck.
2. This particular crowd only makes up about 20% of the US population. I’ll do okay with the other 80.
3. The kind of business I want to work with doesn’t give a shit whether I am Christian or Muslim, gay or straight, liberal or conservative. It’s focused on people. More specifically, on improving people’s lives. I don’t care if that comes in the form of designing awesome cars or making killer 3D flat screen TVs or tasty coffee or better artificial organs or portable water filters. It just has to have that people focus, both internally and externally, and it cannot have it if it sort of hates African-Americans, gays, women, Muslims, the French, poor people and whatever other “minority” happens to get on Rush Limbaugh’s radar. I run into enough of that just going to my mailbox as it is. I don’t want it to poison my work life with it too.
So yes, letting my Facebook friends know what I stand for politically lets those opinions radiate outward. And yes, that probably limits my employment options in the deep South and some parts of the mid-west. But maybe that’s kind of the point. I work nationally and internationally. I don’t need to work for companies in the Bible Belt if they don’t want me. And for every company that won’t hire me because I don’t fall over myself to love on Mitt Romney’s charming indecision on every issue, or because I don’t get behind the next BBQ overdose-induced boycott of France, there are 10 who will hire me for what I can do for them. And they tend to be in cool places like San Francisco, Montreal, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Sydney and Dubai. Know what I mean? It’s a big world and it’s full of businesses looking for expertise that not a lot of guys actually have.
So thanks kindly for your concern. 😉 We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Cheers,
Olivier
* * *
Social Media ROI – Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in your Organizationisn’t a social media book. It’s a business management book, and it focuses on social media program strategy, management, measurement and reporting. If your boss doesn’t yet have a copy, time to fix that. If everyone on your team doesn’t yet have their own copy, what are you waiting for? (Now available in several languages including German, Korean, Japanese and Spanish.)
I know what you are going to say: “Olivier, what’s up with the poopy-words all of a sudden? The other week, it was “assholes”. This week, it’s this. Didn’t your mom raise you to be a polite young man?” Answer: She tried. But sometimes, the polite version of a word just doesn’t do the job. Case in point: I could say “care.” Care about your customers. Care about designing the best products. Care about giving it your all every day. Care about taking your business into the stratosphere.
Care.
Except no. This isn’t about caring. This is about giving a shit, and yes, there is a difference.
When the word “care” no longer actually means caring.
“Caring” about something can mean a lot of different things. I can care about matching my shoes to my belt. I can care about the way my rainbow sprinkles touch the peanut butter ice cream but not the ball of Nutella ice cream underneath. I can care about maybe watching Curb Your Enthusiasm tonight, or waiting until tomorrow or next week. I can care about trying to sound pleasant on the phone, or maybe not so much. I can care about something if the conditions are right, and care less about it if circumstances change. Caring lives along a broad scale, as demonstrated by this awesome home-made graph:
But when you give a shit, that isn’t any kind of passive caring. Giving a shit means caring to the max. It means committing heart and soul to caring about something. Giving a shit is to caring what running a full-on sprint is to jogging. It is the storm to the light drizzle, the bazooka to the cork gun and the bear hug to the friendly nod. Giving a shit means you won’t sleep tonight if you screwed it up. It means you are going to take it all the way to the line. It means you are going to excel rather than settle for average… or mediocre. Giving a shit means you are driven by something more than a paycheck. It means you are driven by passion. And that, boys and girls, is some mighty strong secret sauce. Nothing can crush that. Nothing can get in its way.
When I walk into a store and talk to one of the salespeople there, I don’t want them to “care.” I want them to give a shit. The chef in the kitchen, I don’t just want him to “care”. The customer service guy on the phone, “care” is just the price of entry. You want to make your company kick ass? You have to take it a step further. That politician I just voted for? Guess what: He needs to do more than just “care.” The surgeon operating on my kids, yeah, her too, what I want her to do is actually give a shit.
When you give a shit, excuses don’t work anymore. Falling short (failing) becomes less of an option, if at all. Giving a shit means you’re invested, and that is when I know you are bringing your A-game. You aren’t just there for a paycheck, the dental plan or the free tickets to Wally World every summer. You are there because you want to be. Because you give a shit.
Look, everyone acts like they care when you interview them. “Oh yes, Mr. Jones, I really want to work here!” Right. In six months, that new hire will be spending half his day complaining to their office-mates about you, about pesky customers and their temperamental complaints, about having to work late, and about how poorly he gets paid. When you walk by his desk, you won’t even catch a glimpse of the Facebook tab or the game of computer solitaire you just interrupted. That’s what “care” will get you. And you know what? You’ll be to blame. Here’s why: Because your company culture made them that way.
When I call a company’s phone number and get an automated message telling me “… we care about your call,” what that company has just told me it doesn’t give a shit. And since companies don’t think – people do, namely executives making decisions (like having a computer answer my call instead of a human being), I know that this wasn’t an oversight. Someone made a deliberate decision to communicate to me and everyone else who calls them that the people in charge of building the company’s internal culture don’t give a shit. Way to get things off on the right foot.
The importance of creating “I give a shit” cultures.
None of this is rocket science. If you hire people who aren’t passionate about what you do, about what your company is about, or even people who don’t particularly care about their profession save getting a big fat check at the end of the week, you are going to create a culture of mediocrity. If instead you hire people who love your company, who were fans long before the job ever opened up, you will get a completely different result. Likewise, if you hire someone who is passionate about what they do, they will probably not disappoint.
A few years ago, one of my then employees admitted to me (when her bonus didn’t seem as guaranteed as she would have liked it to be) that she was considering transferring to HR. Puzzled by that admission, I asked her to elaborate. She told me “they just make straight salary over there.” I studied her for a moment, and asked her “Don’t you want to do this? If HR is something you’re interested in, why are you here?” She sighed and told me “I don’t really care what I do. I just want a steady paycheck.”
This is someone whom, if asked, would have told the CEO that she cared about her job, that she was passionate about it, that she loved it. That’s the average value of “care.”
Nb: I made sure my team hit its targets that month and the one after that, and she did, in fact, hit her bonus.
People like this are everywhere. It isn’t that they are necessarily lazy. Some are, but some are just apathetic. Doing what they do is a job. A paycheck. Nothing more. They spend their day watching the clock. They are out the door as soon as their work day is over and not a minute more. This is not the kind of employee you want. I don’t care if you are managing a hospital, a restaurant or a global brand, people like this are poison. They are engines of mediocrity, lackluster service, and lousy customer experiences. And god forbid they should become managers, or worse yet, SVPs or C-suite executives.
Imagine a CEO who doesn’t give a shit, for example. Or one who at least gives the impression, through their actions or words, that they perhaps don’t give a shit? What would that look like? What would be the impact of that type of “leadership” on the entire organization? On the brand’s reputation? On decisions being made up and down the corporate ladder inside its four walls? What kinds of ripples would this create?
Ken Lay of Enron
BP's Tony "I'd like my life back" Hayward
Now imagine a CEO who does give a shit. What would that look like? What kind of company culture would that generate? What kind of profitability and customer experience excellence would that drive?
Tony Hsieh of Zappos
Sir Richard Branson, of all things Virgin
Company cultures don’t grow from a random churn of interactions. They are engineered and designed from the inside out, deliberately, by people who give a shit. Or by people who don’t. The difference in outcomes between the two is typically fairly spectacular. We have all seen amazing companies falter under the direction of this CEO or that, solely based on their degree of giving a shit.
Why am I emphasizing that company cultures are engineered? Three reasons:
1. People who give a shit tend to hire people who also give a shit, and so on. Companies like this tend to hire carefully because they understand the importance of only hiring what you might call kindred spirits. Fans. Like-minds. They aren’t hiring as much as letting the right people into their little tribe of believers. When your entire company gives a shit, customers notice and become loyal. Why? Because they like that you give a shit, and they respect that. Besides, since you give a shit, you treat them well, which is more than anyone can say about companies that don’t give a shit about either their employees or their customers.
2. When customers like you (see 1. above), they tend to do a number of things: a) They love doing business with you, b) they do business with you as long as you keep giving a shit (which could be their own lives), and c) they recommend you to everyone they know, which in turn helps drive your business.
3. One CEO can make or break a company. Just one. Remember what happened to Apple when Steve Jobs left, back in the day? Should I mention some of Home Depot’s ups and downs? Show me a company whose CEO gives a shit, and I will show you a company about to bloom like a flower in sunlight. Show me a company whose CEO doesn’t, and I will show you a company about to race headlong into a very rough patch.
More than anything, customers instinctively know that they will eventually get screwed by someone who doesn’t really give a shit. They also instinctively know they will never get screwed by someone who does. This is important.
Even if giving a shit didn’t generate better design departments, better products, better service, better customer relations and generally healthier businesses, this point alone should catch the attention of CEOs, boards or directors, and investors alike: Consumer perceptions, trust, loyalty, these things matter in the mid-to-long term. Heck, they matter today. This very minute. Every single consumer making a purchasing decision right now is weighing one company against another. One will win. The others will lose. How are you feeling about your chances?
Leadership isn’t all about skills and experience. It’s also about attitude. And giving a shit, boys and girls, is a pretty important component of the sort of attitude we are talking about today.
The reciprocal effect of giving a shit.
Hiring people who give a shit, but not those who don't.
The above diagram illustrates the process of engineering loyalty and positive WOM (word of mouth) by sticking to a no asshole policy (see Part 1) and making sure you hire people who actually give a shit.
Note the jokers in red ink who didn’t really give a shit and are therefore not hired. The fact that they are not invited to spread their apathy and inevitable passive aggressive disdain to their coworkers and customers like a CSTD (Customer Service Transmitted Disease) ensures that your company maintains its edge.
Now let’s look at another kind of organization – one which doesn’t discriminate quite so much:
Hiring people who give a shit, and those who don't.
Note how in this alternate version, a company having allowed such individuals to breach its inner sanctum begin to spread mediocrity across their entire business, and how that trickles down into customer experiences and perceptions.
In short, giving a shit is contagious. From the CEO on down to everyone in the company and outwardly to customers. Positive attitudes and perceptions spread virally through recommendations, discussions and general perception. In the same way, not giving a shit is contagious as well, and it too spreads like a virus across departments, front-line employees, customers, and to their social and professional networks.
This is how reputations are both made and unmade, depending on what kind of culture you decide to engineer.
What are some of the obvious symptoms that a company doesn’t give a shit?
This is important, because these are common red flags. When consumers spot any of these (or several,) they know that perhaps your company doesn’t really care a whole lot about you, your loyalty, or your affection for their products or brands.
1. Customer service is outsourced. (Because nothing says “We care” like handing you off to total strangers working under contract for less than minimum wage.)
2. The recording says “your call is important to us…” which is kind of funny coming from a recording.
3. The company’s employees look at the clock more than they look at you.
4. The CEO, in the middle of a crisis, says things like “I’d like my life back.”
5. Outsourced social media accounts, especially when it comes to customer service functions.
6. When the product fails, technicians will be happy to “look at it,” and repair it for about 70% or more of the value of the product in about 6-12 weeks. This is usually followed by “you could just buy another one” type of “caring” advice.
7. False or misleading advertising.
8. The company spams your inbox, twitter feed, phone, or otherwise valuable channel.
9. The average customer has no idea who the CEO of the company is. Until they see him or her on TV, defending pretty bad decisions.
10. After several interactions with company employees or management, you begin to suspect that everyone who works there might actually be some kind of asshole.
11. Poor product design, characterized by lousy user UI/UX.
12. The manager, in an empty store or restaurant, still manages to blow off his only customers… assuming he is even there.
13. The company sells your personal information to third parties.
14. The CEO’s Twitter account, blog and/or Facebook page – all proof that he “cares,” wants to “engage” customers and feels that social media is “important” – are all managed and fed by a proxy, (or ghost writer) preferably working for an outside firm or agency. (Sorry Mr. Pandit, but you have been advised improperly on this one.)
15. More excuses than solutions, followed by buzzwords and lip service.
16. The CEO spends more time on the golf course than he does listening to customers.
And there you have it.
Three questions.
So the three questions you have to ask yourself are these:
1. What kind of company culture are my customers experiencing whenever they interact with one of my employees, colleagues, bosses, products and services? The kind that gives a shit, or the kind that clearly doesn’t?
2. What kind of company culture should I be building?
3. Once I cast aside the propaganda, tag lines, mission statements and sycophantic reports, what kind of company culture am I really building?
Be honest. Are you setting the right example? Are you hiring the right people? Are you teaching them to give a shit? Are you rewarding them accordingly?
… Or are you banking on a mission statement to communicate to your employees that they should “care”?
Giving a shit is hard. So is kicking ass. So what?
Yeah, giving a shit is hard. It’s expensive too. It requires all sorts of investments: Financial, cultural, temporal, even emotional. (Perhaps especially the latter.) Giving a shit means that your business isn’t just about balance sheets and incremental basis points of change. It’s about creating something special for and with your customers. It’s about building the foundations of a lovebrand – like Apple, Harley Davidson, Virgin Airlines and BMW. It’s about investing in market leadership, in customer loyalty and evangelism, in your own reputation, and in the strength of your own brand. In short, it means investing in long term success, in stability in tough economic time, and in a demand vs. supply ratio that will always be in your favor. Giving a shit is an investment, yes, and not one that might immediately make sense to financial analysts, but one that pays off every time. It is the genesis of everything that ultimately makes a business successful: Professionalism. The endless pursuit of quality, of great design, of remarkable user/customer experiences.
The moment you lose that, the moment you start giving a shit a little bit less, the moment you start cutting corners, that’s when you start to screw up. When you lose that competitive edge. When you start sinking into the fat middle with everyone else. That’s when you start to lose. Before you know it, you’re stuck picking between BOGO pitches and worrying about price wars with foreign imports. I’ve worked with companies like this. You don’t want to go there, trust me. It’s ugly. It’s stressful. You wake up one morning and realize that even if you tried to give a shit anymore, you couldn’t. There wouldn’t be enough time. It wouldn’t make a difference. It might even get you fired. Everything you’ve worked for all your life is hanging on the edge, and it’s a long, hard road back too the top. Most companies never make it back. I can tell you that it’s a lot easier to never fall than to have to climb back up again, but either way, it’s a daily battle.
In fact, giving a shit is so hard that very few companies do anymore. It isn’t how the game is played any longer. “The customer is always right” is a relic of the past, isn’t it?
Or is it?
Have you listened to what people are saying about your company on Twitter and Facebook lately? Do you know what they are saying about your competitors? In a year or two, do you think companies whose leaders don’t give a shit are going to be able to compete against companies whose leaders do? If you don’t see giving a shit as a competitive advantage yet, as a differentiator, even as a normalizing agent, then at the very least see it as a matter of survival. The age of the “I don’t give a shit” CEO is done. Game over.
Time to make a change or two?
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Since it’s June, here are this month’s three quick little announcements:
One – If you haven’t read “Social Media ROI: Managing and measuring social media efforts in your organization” yet, you will find 300 pages of insights with which to complement this article. It won’t answer all of your questions, but it will answer many of them. If anything, the book is a pretty solid reference guide for anyone responsible for a social media program or campaign. It also makes a great gift to your boss if you want him or her to finally understand how this social media stuff works for companies.
You can sample a free chapter and find out where to buy the book by checking out www.smroi.net.
Two – If you, your agency or your client plan on attending the Cannes Lionsfrom June 19-25, I am planning something a little… “unofficial” during the festival. If you are interested in being part of it, let me know.
You can send me an email, a note via LinkedIn, a Twitter DM, or a facebook message if you want to find out more. (The right hand side of the screen should provide you with my contact information.)
Three – If the book isn’t enough and you can’t make it to Cannes later this month, you can sign up for a half day of workshops in Antwerp (Belgium) on 30 June. (Right after the Lions.) The 5 one-hour sessions will begin with an executive briefing on social media strategy and integration, followed by a best practices session on building a social media-ready marketing program, followed by a PR-friendly session on digital brand management, digital reputation management and real-time crisis management, followed by a session on social media and business measurement (half R.O.I., half not R.O.I.). We will cap off the afternoon with a full hour of open Q&A. As much as like rushing through questions in 5-10 minutes at the end of a presentation, wouldn’t it be nice to devote an entire hour to an audience’s questions? Of course it would. We’re going to give it a try. Find out more program details here. Think of it as a miniRed Chair.
The cool thing about this structure is that you are free to attend the sessions that are of interest to you, and go check your emails or make a few phone if one or two of the sessions aren’t as important. The price is the same whether you attend one or all five, and we will have a 15 minute break between each one.
The afternoon of workshops is part of Social Media Day Antwerp (the Belgian arm of Mashable’s global Social Media Day event), and I can’t help but notice that the price of tickets is ridiculously low for what is being offered. Anyone can afford to come, which is a rare thing these days. (Big props to the organizers for making the event so accessible.)
The event is divided into 2 parts: The workshop in the afternoon, and the big Belgian style party in the evening. You can register for one or both (do both).
My advice: Sign up while there are still seats available, and before #smdaybe organizers realize they forgot to add a zero at the end of the ticket prices.
One particular question from last week’s Q&A session struck me as worthy of its own blog post. It was this:
You’re very active in social media, speaking engagements/traveling, etc. How do you go about scheduling your day/s — balancing work and family life? – Kristof
What about your scheduling and what are the most interesting activities of your day to day life? – Robin Clerk
You ask, I answer.
Just… whatever you do, don’t share this video with anyone. These are trade secrets I am only sharing with you, so shhhhh…
This post is about movies, but it isn’t. Just bear with me.
What movies can teach us about mass market products vs. game-changers.
Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, 2010, Reservoir Dogs, Memento, Pulp Fiction, Boondock Saints, The Machinist, Kill Bill, Fight Club, 300, Eyes Wide Shut, Moon, and now Sucker Punch.
What do these movies have in common? I’ll tell you: People either love them or hate them. Though some of them achieved mainstream status (in some cases years after their initial run at the box office), many failed to find as broad an audience when they first released. This, compared to sure-fire blockbuster movies like Transformers, Spiderman 2, Shrek 3, Terminator 4, or Fast 5 (the fifth installment of the Fast & the Furious franchise) which have come to be the new model of success for Hollywood: Franchises safely bring in the numbers, even if they often turn once original ideas into hollow shells of creeping mediocrity.
The truth though, and the numbers don’t lie, is that “simple” is safe. Franchises work.
Line up the remakes, sequels and mashups. They mean box office gold.
How many Marvel and DC comic book superheroes are headlining movie studio franchises these days? Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Thor, Captain America, The X-Men and Wolverine, Jonah Hex, Ironman, Hulk, Green lantern, Daredevil, The Losers… The list keeps growing. Transformers and G.I. Joe didn’t escape the great 21st century rehash of pop culture childhood icons. Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, The A-Team, Mission Impossible, Green Hornet, and scores of other popular “classic” TV series are being given the same red carpet treatment in Hollywood, and for obvious reasons: Familiar titles sell. Ask anyone associated with the Harry Potter universe. Or Shrek. Or Star Wars. Or Toy Story. In fact ask any movie producer today how much easier it is to get your sequel funded, versus getting a yet unproven original idea funded.
The reality of most businesses is that money talks. Return on investment, for better and for worst, usually trumps creative or UX considerations when it comes to funding a project. There is an accepted success model in every industry – something many of us who try to push organizations beyond their comfort zones and break through stagnation refer to as the status-quo. That ROI should be a key factor (and often the central factor) in business funding decisions isn’t the problem. The problem is an often blind belief in “the safe bet.” The accepted model. The brainless PG13 sequel to the blockbuster or the formulaic movie adaptation of the comic book, complete with merchandising deals. This at the expense of relevance and long term survival. (Ergo: Long term profitability.)
Using the movie industry as a platform, we can make the case that neither studios, directors nor actors can be successful if they focus solely on creating game-changing films or solely on contributing to endless tepid franchise vehicles. Success in the film industry (as with every other industry) comes from being able to balance both. Too much of the same thing pigeon-holes you as either a corporate sellout or a fringe indie eccentric. If you are Daniel Craig, you can get away with filming Bond film after Bond film, only if you also regularly work on projects like Layer Cake and Flashbacks of a Fool. If you are Johnny Depp, you can’t build a career on The Libertine, From Hell, and Chocolat without also signing up for Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Steve Jobs could have decided to stick to his franchise: Computers and software. Instead, he gambled on iPod, iPhone and iPad, and it paid off. JJ Abrams could have stuck to television, but he didn’t. The result: Almost cult-like excitement for every new big screen project he produces. (Super 8 comes out soon.) Steven Pressfield, in deciding to follow The Legend of Bagger Vance (a book about golf) with Gates of Fire, a historical epic about Spartans at Thermopylae, went against the grain, against the accepted model of success in the publishing world: He jumped categories. The gamble paid off, but at the time, industry professionals cautioned him against the move – which they saw as… ill advised.
The lesson here is that success isn’t just a question of repetition. Success is a process of opportunity creation through experimentation. Before you can have a franchise, you have to give yourself the chance to either buy or create a basis for that franchise. Buying it is expensive and limiting. Creating it is riskier, but the payoffs are immeasurable.
image courtesy of Dreamworks
Planting the seeds of mainstream success: Investing in success incubators.
There is nothing wrong with mainstream success, whether it is in the world of movies, TV shows, books, music, games, cars, clothes or electronics. Not every movie needs to change our souls or blow our socks off. Even dumb sequels with mildly entertaining jokes have their place, especially given their role in the cycle of profitability – which makes bolder experimental projects possible: Big successes mean big profits, big profits fuel big budgets, and big budgets often allow for experimental projects and products to be funded.
Experimental projects are, to put it simply, talent and technology labs. More to the point, they are success incubators. As such, they don’t usually exist on the same plane as deliberate blockbuster efforts, nor should they be expected to. Let’s not forget that before Shrek became a franchise, it too was an experimental concept. An original idea. A gamble.
Even within the world of commercial success, different types of products can yield wildly different types of results. Movies with niche audiences also have their place, not only as talent incubators but as gateway products for narrow (and deep) market bandwidths more interested in quality and nuance than quantity and noise. Tom Ford’s A Single Man was an outstanding film (especially for a first time director) but it could not be expected to experience the same kind of success (sales volume) as Sex And The City, for example, or even Ironman 2.
Yet judging by the sudden appearance of tightly tailored suits and Michael Caine-like glasses on the red carpet following the release of the movie, it not only impressed its audience but even impacted the way men began to dress and accessorize after seeing it. Compare Colin Firth’s look in the movie with Sam Worthington’s choice of eyewear at the Oscars just a few months later, where Ford’s movie was nominated for several Academy Awards.
image courtesy of The Weinstein Co.
image courtesy of Google
Uncanny, isn’t it? Sometimes, the impact of a movie or product – its value to the company taking a financial risk to create it – transcends the cash register. As a movie producer or a CEO, you sometimes have to see beyond the immediacy of sales. You have to take a step back and not only see the entire field, but make sure you allow yourself to see the bigger field.
Yet the low hanging fruit usually wins: Pitch the next Batman sequel against an completely original script which has no basis in popular literature or existing franchises, and the outcome of box office sales is pretty much a foregone conclusion: The familiar blockbuster franchise will almost always win. Hollywood producers know this. Distribution companies know it too. And so do movie theater operators.
Historically speaking, Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg and Chris Nolan come to the table with a much stronger sales pitch than, say, David Fincher, Zack Snyder and even Quentin Tarantino, which is why the former’s movies typically find their way to the most coveted summer release dates, while the latters’ films often see themselves released in the fall, winter and spring rather than just in time for 4th of July weekend. I won’t even get into the difference in same theater screen percentages between a Michael Bay release and a David Fincher release.
Art films and so-called “foreign films” (like The King’s Speech) notwithstanding, there is a world of difference between franchise-driven blockbusters and courageous gambles on “concept” movies that aim to provide a certain portion of the movie-going populace with something more original than the usual fare. Directors like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Copolla, Stanley Kubrick, and even Luc Besson (back when he still made good movies) have given us cult classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, ET, Jaws, Schindler’s List, Terminator, Avatar, The Fifth Element, Psycho, North By Northwest, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Nikita.
It is worth mentioning that Besson’s Nikita, which inspired an American remake and two separate TV series, still churns out revenue two decades after reinventing a genre on the big screen. The technical aesthetic of Kubrick’s 2001 still influences set design for sci-fi movies to this day, and will probably continue to do so for decades to come. Like most of Spielberg’s work, many of Cameron’s movies were enormous box office hits in spite of the fact that they were not extensions of existing franchises. Tarantino, for his part, has built his entire career on making completely original films… even though each set piece is an homage to not particularly original motifs deeply rooted into our pop culture consciousness. Before these guys became the big names of mainstream cinema, they were revolutionary film makers. Rule breakers. Rebels. They were the wild cards of their respective studios.
image courtesy of Miramax
If mainstream success grows out of cult projects, why does funding rarely fund success incubators?
When Tim Burton Chris Nolan and David Fincher aren’t taking the reins of sure studio bets like Sleepy Hollow, Alice in Wonderland, Batman or an Alien sequel, they give us completely original movies like Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Mars Attacks, Memento, The Prestige, Seven, and Fight Club. Copolla, Kubrick, Besson, Hitchcock and Spielberg are still, to this day, some of the most influential movie directors of all time, and some of their most celebrated movies were not necessarily their biggest box office successes. Burton, Nolan, Fincher and Tarantino are among the next batch of directors future generations of movie-makers will spend endless hours studying and emulating. What is important to note is that they are not influential because they have huge box office successes under their belts. That came later. They are influential because they either reinvented genres or created entirely new narratives. Their true contribution to the world of movies isn’t sales numbers. It is originality. They provide for movie audiences the cinematic equivalent of what Apple’s Steve Jobs provides technology enthusiasts and Zappo’s Tony Hsieh provides shoe shopping enthusiasts (and the online shopping model, for that matter). This is where the catalyst of mainstream success lives: Not in scale and breadth first, but rather the exact opposite: In a chronic devotion to core fans, core users, core customers. Focusing on narrow but deep bandwidths is where lasting mass market success truly begins.
The byproduct of truly original ideas translated into a valuable product – like a movie, a gadget or a UI – is a cult following: A core of ardent fans who absolutely love it, sometimes in spite of mainstream scorn. In some cases, that cult following scales (as it has with Apple) and sometimes, it doesn’t. Nevertheless, the power of the cult classic is not something to be underestimated. Out of cults grow communities, then movements, and these can become the building blocks for broad mainstream success further down the road. Before Apple was the biggest technology in the world, it was the proverbial underdog. The David to Microsoft’s Goliath.
Don’t underestimate the importance of funding and fostering talent and success incubators. Pixar, Lucas Film, Imagine Entertaiment, Microsoft, EA Games and Apple get it. There’s a key success lesson in this. Remember what we said earlier about franchises and commercial success: You can either buy into it or create (incubate) it.
Buying into success should not be your first choice.
Most companies, by the way, neither fund nor actively pursue talent and success incubators. Look around. There is a reason why so few companies produce win after win.
image courtesy of 20th Century Fox
The tax for being first is often scorn, criticism and hostility: Pioneers shouldn’t expect a mainstream praise… yet.
When David Fincher’s big screen adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club first hit theaters, it was destroyed by critics. They tore it to shreds. If you go to RottenTomatoes.com and look at ratings and comments now, you will see a very positive 81% on the tomatometer and a 95% overall approval rate by viewers. Back in 2000, when the movie opened across the US, the picture wasn’t so bright. At the time, Fight Club had one of the lowest tomatometer scores I had seen on the movie review site. People called it mindless and needlessly violent. Most of the reviews looked like this:
“An unhinged mess of a movie, with potentially dangerous ideas handled in a winking, cynical manner.” – Nitrate Online
“David Fincher’s dumb and brutal shock show of a movie floats the winky, idiotic premise that a modern-day onslaught of girly pop-cultural destinations (including but not limited to IKEA, support groups, and the whole Starbucks-Gap-khakis brand-name axis) has resulted in a generation of spongy young men unable to express themselves as fully erect males.” – Entertainment Weekly
“Bloody mess of a guy film loses its battle to have any real meaning.” – Detroit News
“When you see good actors in a project like this, you wonder if they signed up as an alternative to canyoneering.” – Roger Ebert / At the Movies
You get the idea. It got killed. Was it because Fight Club was a bad movie? Was it because the book it was based on was bad? Neither. And more than a decade later, now that fans have had time to find the film and make it their own, its early mainstream rejection seems ridiculous and outdated. It just wasn’t mainstream enough when it was first released, nor was it intended to be.
The film, like the book, were never meant to appeal to the millions of fans of Friends and Seinfeld looking for a light family-friendly comedy to take their kids to on a Friday night. It aimed for the exact opposite: Fight Club‘s target audience was deep, not broad, just like films like A Single Man, Black Swan, Memento, Pulp Fiction, Watchmen and Edward Scissorhands. Sometimes, movie makers turn to projects they know will appeal only to fans of a genre or style, a narrow bandwidth of potential core fans, at the expense of huge bankrolls and mass appeal. If they didn’t, all we would end up with is derivative “content” packaged as yet another sequel to an offshoot of a popular series remake. When does a copy of a copy of a copy finally lose its appeal? (I am not just talking about movies.) How many Rocky, Rambo, Shrek, Spiderman or Kung-Fu Panda sequels do we really need to put ourselves through before brain cells actually start shriveling up like raisins?
image courtesy of Dreamworks
If originality presents the biggest risk for the cash register, it also presents the only hope for evolution of any medium or industry. Risk aversion is a short-term investment philosophy. Risk aversion favors remakes of Clash of the Titans over the pursuit of technical achievements like Avatar. It favors CSI: and NCIS: (insert random city here) over shows like Arrested Development and American Gothic. It favors gray boxes still running Windows XP behind agrarian firewalls over a fully liberated and mobile workforce equipped with dynamic, collaborative social media ecosystems and iPads.
It isn’t enough to understand that risk aversion supports cultures of stagnation. In order to be able to do something about it, you also have to understand that expecting every project to be a blockbuster success creates and supports cultures of risk aversion.
Organizations and cultures that don’t take the time to not only fund and foster but also reward talent incubators are doomed to fall into vicious cycles of “same as” or “also in” mediocrity.
Remember what we established earlier in the post: Establishing a balance between cult and mainstream is crucial to long term success. Too much focus on one or the other, and the equation fails: Your product either becomes too “indie” to scale and succeed, or too generic, and so it ends up becoming commoditized and largely irrelevant.
In order for organizations to build long term engines of success, they must not only treat talent and success incubation projects with as much respect and interest as they do their mass market wins, they must also reward each based on realistic and appropriate expectations. An Avatar sequel may very well gross $1B before it is all said and done. An indie film about an injured athlete trying to put his life back together most likely won’t. Sliding scales are important when calibrating budgets, expectations and rewards along the broad spectrum of what qualifies as “success.”
image courtesy of Warner Bros.
The danger of judging cult and experimental projects as if they were mass appeal products.
When I first saw trailers for Sack Snyder’s latest CGI opus Sucker Punch, here is what I saw: A cult movie. The imagery and stylized visuals were clearly an homage to specific genres in popular culture, namely Japanese animé, steampunk, dieselpunk, heroic fantasy, comic books and video games. Take a look:
What I didn’t see was a family-friendly summer blockbuster. Twenty seconds into that trailer, you know this isn’t going to be Finding Nemo 2 or National Treasure 3. Sucker Punch wasn’t made for the Dancing With The Stars demo. It is, first and foremost, a visual extravaganza, an overflowing dish of eye candy, which is something Zack Snyder is known for. Ever since 300, his carefully manicured comic book aesthetic has become his trademark. Love them or hate them, Snyder’s films are beautiful to watch. The attention to detail he brings into every set, every costume, ever frame and every cut is impressive in its own right, even if his movies aren’t your cup of tea. Here, Snyder also rewards his fans with an impressive soundtrack featuring covers of “Sweet Dreams (are made of this)”, “Where is my Mind”, “Love is the Drug”, “Asleep” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” though Bjork’s “Army of Me” and Emiliana Torrini’s “White Rabbit” are beautifully woven into the film.
For the cinematic experience alone, movie-goers in my demo (fans of the steampunk genre, comic book aesthetic, hyperbolic martial arts-inspired action sequences, wonderfully curated soundtracks and Zack Snyder films), the movie struck home. Even if the plot had been weak, the characters cliché, the narrative muddled and the dialog uninspired, Sucker Punch would have still been worth the $9 to a fan of beautifully crafted movie sequences.
There are a few lesson here about the importance of taking the time to occasionally make movies (and products) for fans rather than for general audiences:
1. It is how you build your audience, your reputation, and your core community of fans.
2. It is how you build towards the greater mainstream successes of tomorrow, how you progressively change the cultural landscape, one project at a time. It is how you shape it, mold it, evolve it. It is how you turn fringe into mainstream: By being there first, before something is popular. By taking the hits, the criticism, even the financial loss, knowing that somewhere down the road, having affected the currents of popular culture, the crowds will warm to your new ideas and aesthetics, and come back in droves when they finally get it.
The lesson about shooting for safe mainstream success and broad adoption without doing the core work is that you end up with a generic product. You end up with the kinds of products that satisfy but don’t inspire, like a meal that temporarily feeds your hunger but isn’t filling enough to keep you satiated for hours, or even memorable enough to revisit years later as a noteworthy gastronomic experience.
The truth is that in trying to appeal to everyone, you rarely end up truly appealing to anyone. You become the default choice rather than the inspired or enthusiastic one. The danger of turning this sort of dynamic into policy or standard operating procedure is that you end up creating cultures of average. Cultures of uninteresting. Cultures of differentiation through discounts rather than differentiation through outstanding, game-changing, category-changing original design.
Because of the trailer and reviews by mainstream critics, I went to see Sucker Punch this weekend with low expectations when it came to plot and script. I fully expected the movie to be an excuse for impressive visuals rather than a vehicle for them. As it turns out, I was wrong: Sucker Punch is actually a smart movie. A clever movie, even. One of the rare movies I have seen in recent years that makes extensive and unapologetic use of allegory and metaphor. It is bold not only in its style but in its use of narrative devices, which was a pleasant surprise. To have it compared to Inception (as it has been) is actually a bit insulting. Inception was simply a plot about dreams inside of dreams, which is easy enough to process. Sucker Punch goes further: It is a movie about metaphors inside of metaphors, which asks far more intellectual flexibility from audiences. Yes, in spite of its deceptively cliché animé imagery, Sucker Punch is actually the kind of movie that makes you think. It is in every way a genuine intellectual art film disguised as a formulaic blockbuster vehicle.
Anyone who tells you that Sucker Punch is simply a movie about muddled X-Box-fueled teenage fantasies failed to push through their own misconceptions and biases, and in doing so, completely missed the cleverness of this film. Metaphor doesn’t work well in the US. The average US movie-goer doesn’t want to have to think about what a giant ninja golem represents in the world of a young girl who feels utterly helpless and vulnerable in a desperately hostile world. They just want to know that the giant is bad and that it will lose the battle against the underdog heroine because she has superpowers.
Judging a movie like Sucker Punch with the same grading scale and intellectual lens as one would an equally desaturated and Kung-Fu superhero inspired The Matrix is a lot like judging 2001: A Space Odyssey using the same grading scale and lens as a film like Star Wars. It just doesn’t work.
image courtesy of Warner Bros.
The beauty of movies like Fincher’s Fight Club and Snyder’s Sucker Punch is that everything is a metaphor. Everything means or represents something. From the dilapidated house on Paper Street to Baby Doll’s flawless makeup. Sadly, superimposing genuine intellectual sophistication with deliberately gritty and purposely exploitative visual themes is also the initial undoing of movies like this: Too clever, too artsy, too cerebral often backfires when it comes to mass appeal and sales volumes. Fight Club took years to be understood (or at least accepted) by mainstream audiences. Judging from reviews on rottentomatoes.com (21% on the tomatometer and barely a 56% approval rating) Sucker Punch may be suffering the exact same fate.
“The movie spins out of control, until it collapses in a heap, senseless.” – The New Yorker
“”Sucker Punch” is what happens when a studio gives carte blanche to a filmmaker who has absolutely nothing original or even coherent to say.” – New York Post
“The movie is like an arrested adolescent’s Google search run amok.” – Time Magazine
The same thing happened to Fight Club eleven years ago. And just like Fight Club‘s core audience of fans came to the film’s rescue, fans of Sucker Punch (call them early adopters of this new genre) have already begun pushing back against culturally outpaced critics still struggling to adapt to a creative world heavily influenced by comic books, MTV, anime, video games, and a century of cinematic influences from Akira Kurosawa to Miloš Forman. Mainstream critics, just like mainstream audiences, haven’t yet made the transition from yesterday to tomorrow. Zack Snyder and his fans have.
“To me it is a brilliant film. Yeah perhaps a bit over the top in the stylized world, but that is ZS’s style. […] I found this is a movie that requires multiple times watching to really understand and follow the symbolism that is there. SPOILER ALERT – For example, the little sister has a stuffed rabbit which becomes the mechanized rabbit. The stuffed rabbit could not protect, while the mechanized fantasy rabbit could. These kinds of things are all over in the movie.”
“I loved the film. I loved it for it’s fresh feeling, its visual beauty, it’s crazy story line and most of all, I loved it for being DIFFERENT. I’m amazed at the amount of passion from both sides… Hate or Love. With all the remakes and revamps, I fear people are getting used to the same thing over and over only told in a different way. Sucker Punch is unique, even those that dislike it admit that. Unique? Isn’t that something? Mozart was not appreciated during his life. Orson Wells died thinking the public hated his movies… Everything is relative. I enjoy visionary directors. I enjoyed SUCKER PUNCH. I must point out that Godzilla films were never considered GREAT FILMS, honestly they were kinda inept, yet they had a kind of hidden magic to them. When Baby Doll stands against the giant Dmajin Samurai Warriors, I was reminded of that “Magic”.”
“A film has only as much meaning as the viewer watching it can give it. When my fifteen year old son came home Saturday night after watching the film with his friends all I heard him talk about was how interesting the film mixed the action/adventure genre, with the asylum genre, with the prison genre, and with the pre code backstage musical genre of the early thirties like 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933; he talked to me about how the film’s structure advanced the narrative, setting up the asylum story, that eventually becomes a musical, only that the musical story doesn’t build up to singing and dancing set pieces but to big action set pieces; he told me the action set pieces payed homage to all of the great action genres: the samurai film, the war film, the medieval film, and the run-away vehicle chase films; he told me about all of the homages made to Citizen Kane in the beginning of the film, shots that mimicked Kane’s death in the protagonist’s mother’s death, and a few examples of depth staging being executed; and he discussed how the film’s end paid homage to films like One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Lord of the Rings, how in this film the Sam character is played by Abbie Cornish, and the Frodo character is played Emily Browning, the one who carries the burden that frees them all.
One of my son’s favorite parts was how the movie used creative ways in depicting death visually without all the blood and gore used in other films to maintain the PG-13 rating, like the burst of steam from the German’s gas masks whenever a German was killed. In essence the film is a prison film. My son doesn’t think it is an example of great film making, but he doesn’t deny the significance a film like this has on the landscape of contemporary film making. I think it’s too soon to describe Zak Snyder as an auteur, but he is certainly a much more interesting Hollywood director than Michael Bay, Robert Luketic, or Louis Leterrier. My point is, there’s always more to a film the explosions, effects, brawny women, and action sequences, and it is silly to think of them as just that, it only lessens the culture and the efforts of the filmmakers.”
Sucker Punch was never meant to compete against Kung-Fu Panda 2. It was never meant to bring in July 4th or Thanksgiving-size audiences. It was never meant to gross $100M in its first week. To expect it to measure up to box office safe bets is to misunderstand its place in the incubation process. A movie about a girl locked up inside an insane asylum was never going to draw big crowds, even if the desperate fantasy world she creates offers some of the most visually arresting set pieces yet seen on the big screen, and especially if every detail of these fantasies – from the way the camera cleverly travels in and out of mirrors in the brothel scenes to the choice of the bus stop’s color palette – carries a deeper meaning than the obvious. To see a project like this judged by critics against Hollywood’s typical linear three act action fares is disappointing but not surprising. A critic’s point of view is often driven and shaped by the expectations of his audience rather than a clear understanding of the culture of the industry he aims to be a part of. The same is true of tech bloggers, automotive reviewers, and anyone who sees himself as an industry influencer. Case in point, critic Christian Toto’s reaction to the film:
“Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch should send shivers down the spines of Superman fans.”
This in reference to the fact that Snyder is slated to direct the next movie iteration of Superman. (Yes, AGAIN. Talk about franchise overload.)
In spite of the fact that Sucker Punch – like Watchmen – is a niche movie while a Superman remake is a solid blockbuster bet, critics like Toto don’t seem to understand the difference. Critics aren’t necessarily industry analysts. Instead of grading and judging different type of movies with different sets of lenses, they default to their single mainstream lens.
This type of mentality echoes that of risk-averse, mainstream-focused executives who shun experimental talent incubation projects that cater to narrow but deep niches in favor of the mainstream status-quo. It is this brand of operational myopia that forgets to invest in relationships with core fans and users, preferring instead to focus on low hanging fruit “also in” product categories: The 3D animated adventure prequel. The 20th live action comic book superhero movie. The 38th flip phone in the catalog. The 53rd black flat screen TV. The other silver sedan. The other “other” e-reader or tablet.
The inability to understand the need for a different standard of success for bold niche products in a world of same-as mass appeal products stunts the growth of companies in every industry, and jeopardizes their ability to invest in their own successful future. It is as simple as that.
image courtesy of Warner Bros.
In conclusion.
So what have we learned today?
1. Incorporate experimental projects and success incubators into your company culture. Without them, you are merely surviving.
2. Fund them well.
3. Judge them through a different lens than you do mainstream successes.
4. Learn how to scale niche successes into mainstream successes, like Apple, Virgin Airlines, Zappos and Starbucks, for starters.
5. Depth first, then breadth. Not the other way around. .
6. Go see Sucker Punch… unless you aren’t into Zack Snyder movies… or visionary film-making.
No talk of social media today. Instead, let’s turn our attention to slightly more interesting topics that might come in handy as everyone is busy putting the finishing touches on their 2011 planning.
On innovation, grabbing life by the horns, and not pissing your life away:
“Do things that are gaspworthy.”
That was one of the main messages delivered by Tom Peters, the influential business thinker and management [expert], in his speech yesterday at Epsilon’s Integrated Marketing Symposium 2006 at the Quail Lodge in Carmel, CA.
“Do cool stuff that make people gasp,” said Peters, who looked older and angrier than in his “In Search of Excellence Days” (the book he co-authored with Richard Waterman in 1982 that was hailed by NPR as one of the Top Business Books of the Century). “Don’t piss away your life.”
He changed his speech at the last moment after having learning this week that one of his best friends has a terminal illness, Peters said.
Also noted
“Innovation comes not from market research or focus groups, but from pissed off people.”
“Whether you are Jack Welch or the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous not to do what you love. If you don’t have a level of passion that drives your thinking about what you’re doing day in and day out, there will be others out there who are passionate who will overtake and outrun you. People who care will take the initiative away from those who are half-hearted. So loving what you do is a competitive imperative, not simply a nice thing to have.”
Knowledge @ Wharton interviews Mark Thompson and Stewart Emery, co-authors along with Jerry Porras of Success Built to Last
On retaining talent:
“One of my favorite cliches is “there is no such thing as indentured servitude”. Iuse that line to talk about the fact that talent can’t be bought and sold. It must be retained with something more than money.“
Question: What would the social media world be like if I stopped doing what I do?
Answer: It would be exactly the same.
Judging by what I see happening in “the industry,” I am failing. What’s worse is I have been failing for the last 2 years. ROI is still a question-mark for most social media “experts” in spite of the fact that a) it has remained the same since the dawn of commerce, b) every first-year business major can tell you what it is, and c) most social media consultants cost a lot more per day than their expertise in basic business concepts seems to warrant. Social Media measurement as a whole is still a farce. “Social business” and “earned media” are increasingly anything but. The term “content” is becoming a euphemism for mindless link bait. I can count the number of Fortune 500 social media directors who actually know what they are doing on the fingers of one hand. (And yes, since Ford’s Scott Monty is one of them, that only leaves only four lucky question marks.)
This isn’t me being negative. This is me reporting on the state of social media and social business today, and it makes me sad. Genuinely sad. And disappointed that nothing I have done in that time has made a difference. Not one thing.
If I cannot somehow find a way to make a dent in the monuments to bullshit, stupidity and utter ineptitude currently dominating the social media “thought leadership” space in the next year, if I cannot convince digital agencies, big brands and their recruiting firms to favor competence over incompetence and actual results over spin, I will go find something else to do, and watch – from afar – this whole inbred guru-driven experiment burn into the glorious pile of rubble it was destined to be from the start.
I observed November 11th this year by having a few beers with a long-time Army buddy who will soon be redeployed overseas. Without revealing too much about his job, let me just say that he isn’t in the rear with the gear: Wherever he goes next, he will be in the forefront of the fight, outnumbered, surrounded, and very isolated from the main force that could shield him from harm. He does this not just because it’s in his blood to do it or because he likes to challenge himself (though both these things are true) but because he feels that it is his duty to put himself in harm’s way so others won’t have to. It’s a calling. He is a soldier and that is all there is to it.
He and I didn’t talk about war though. We talked about things like purpose and integrity. About dealing with the annoying fact that we can only control so much, that our impact on the world cannot always be what we would like it to be. We talked about the inefficiencies of overbearing bureaucracies and the scourge of poor leadership. We talked about the epidemic of bullshit plaguing every facet of both the private and govt sectors, driven by the same breed of self-serving morons with delusions of grandeur that seems to breed in equal measure everywhere around the world. We talked about our dreams and frustrations, about what we would like to change and what we know cannot change, and about the need to do the right thing even when no one else (perhaps especially when no one else) will. Chatting with someone who understands that “the effective range of bullshit is exactly zero meters,” someone with the kind of integrity, quiet pride and hilarious honesty that is seldom found in the marketing world these days, was refreshing. It made me realize how much social media, marketing, PR and advertising – if not the business world in general – needs to swap some of its hordes of bullshit weavers for just a few handfuls of warrior poets, if only to even-out the scales a bit.
This year, I didn’t think as much about my grandfather, who fought in both World War I and World War II, or the sacrifices made for my country on and after D-Day, or my own military service. Not as much as I usually do. I didn’t even slip into my old uniform to march around the house and scare the pets half to death. This year, I thought about the men and women who serve in today’s wars, about the soldiers, first-responders, law-enforcement, and intelligence officers who were killed, injured or otherwise impacted by the post 9-11 conflicts, as well as their loved ones, who serve and sacrifice as much as they do – and often sacrifice much more. I thought about my buddies who are in theater now, putting their lives on the line – not bonuses or promotions or potentially lucrative contracts – Their lives. Perhaps for the first time in the last twenty years, I thought only about the veterans of my generation’s wars rather than veterans of the wars that came before my time. And perhaps for the first time since becoming aware of Armistice Day (the reason it falls on this date every year), I thought about it more on November 12th than I did on November 11th, and chances are that the 13th and 14th won’t be any different.
We have heard it a thousand times in meetings, political speeches, at conferences and corporate feel-good events: “Failure is not an option.” Rah-rah!
It’s a lie. Don’t believe a word of it. Failure is always an option. In fact, statistically speaking, it is the most likely option. (Probably more so if you have to remind people that it shouldn’t be.)
Believe me, I know a thing or two about failure: The failure to get an A+ on every test and in every class during my school years. The failure to score goal after goal for my team. The failure to break school records. The failure to convince Rachel Gray to go out with me in eleventh grade, or for that matter, the failure to get up the nerve to even ask her. The failure to completely master a generic American accent before I was 18. The failure to win first prize at competition after competition where I came in second or third. The failure to finish my first Ironman in under 12 hours. Professionally, I have spent the last 16 years dealing with failure as well, occasionally my own and others’. I deal with it on a daily basis. In fact, one could argue that dealing with failure is pretty much all we do:
My phone battery’s failure to give me 24 hours of juice, for example, or my Volkswagen Passat’s failure to keep rain out when its little drainage tubes get plugged with spontaneous generations of microscopic dust. The failure of Wall Street banks to remain solvent in 2008, and the US government’s failure to prevent things from getting so bad in the first place. BP’s failure to prevent one of the world’s most devastating ecological disasters, then its failure to both stop its catastrophic oil leak for months, then clean up its mess before it destroyed vast ecosystems. The failure of civility and citizenship several months ago, when Muslims looking to build a place of worship near Wall Street found out that not only did many Americans no longer care to see the distinction between “Muslim” and “Islamic Terrorist,” but also decided that Constitutional First Amendment rights no longer applied to foreigners and non-Christians. President Obama’s failure to sell to a hefty portion of Americans that something as basic as affordable and reliable healthcare is a better option than the completely ineffective “insurance” based model that barely-covered Americans overpaid for until now.
Failure is always an option, and it bears embracing that fact. Unless you work your ass off and get lucky, failure may even be your only option. What then? How will you react? How will you adapt? How will you bounce back?
The spray valve faucet story. (Short version.)
Note: If you don’t have time, skip ahead to the next section. No, really. This story adds very little to this post. It’s a personal story thrown in for the fans. you won’t miss anything if you skip it.
Years ago, I helped develop the world’s first effective water conserving spray valve for commercial kitchens. I was working for a faucet company whose luster had faded a bit over the years, and I had been hired to help restore it. It was clear from the start that “marketing” wasn’t the problem. The problem was this: Chinese manufacturers had copied our products so well that their imports were almost as good, and their prices were significantly better than ours. They were eroding our market share faster than a hurricane chews up a Florida sand bar.
We were faced with a choice: Lower our prices and become a commodity product, or improve our product’s value and continue to be the category’s premium product. Indecision for well over a decade had left the company somewhere in a falsely safe middle. We decided to go with the latter option: Improve value. First, the company created a commodity line of products to compete against the cheap imports and create a clear separation between commodity (throw-away) products and the high-end stuff that would last the life of the restaurant. Then we set our attention on the “premium” products themselves. How could we further distance their quality and performance from the cheap stuff? Almost overnight, I went from being a marketing guy to a weird blend of product designer, field anthropologist, and community listening post.
I went out to restaurant kitchens and watched how dish-rinsing spray valve were being used. I watched how they were being abused. I watched how they were being installed and repaired. I analyzed how spray valves were being specified, how they were being bought, and how resellers made money on their replacement parts. I observed. I listened. I asked questions. I took notes. I learned. Soon enough, the company’s design engineers and I started working on ideas. The project took on epic proportions. We were going to completely re-invent the category from the ground up. And over the course of a year, we that is precisely what we did.
The first thing we did was reduce the flow of water to about 1/3 of what it used to be while actually increasing rinsing performance. The impact of this particular focus for a restaurant was that they would save a significant amount of water and electricity (that water had to be heated), which meant considerable savings in utility costs over time. In fact, the valve paid for itself in under a month just in utility costs alone. (We did cost analysis studies and planned to use them in our marketing, the numbers were so good.) The impact of this feature on a larger scale was what made me truly proud: Millions of gallons of water could be saved every day in California alone. A significant amount of the energy demand of that state would also be impacted, either lowering pollution or freeing that energy to be used elsewhere on the grid (hello Nevada).
Multiply the water conservation and energy conservation impact of this product by introducing it across the United States, and it could have resulted in a pretty incredible story of how industrial ingenuity not only made restaurants kitchens more efficient and turned a fading brand back into an industry leader, but actually helped preserve the environment as well.
This wasn’t entirely an environmentally motivated project. Around that time, California had enacted strict water conservation standards for such spray valves, and the federal government was moving towards requiring these standards across all 50 states. At the time, none of our competitors had a spray valve that actually worked in water conservation mode: Sure, they could meet the flow restriction requirements, but they took 3x longer to rinse a plate than before. (Kind of like new toilets that don’t quite… you know… work the first time.) We were the only ones with a functioning low-flow spray valve that truly worked. In fact, it worked better than the normal flow sprays.
Imagine being the company in your industry that has the best product on the market. The one that cracked the code first, a full year ahead of everyone else: The battery manufacturer with the first 48-hour smart phone battery. The car company with the first $15,000 family vehicle capable of going 1,200 miles at 65mph on a single charge. That’s what we had with this spray valve.
As a bonus, we made it completely anti-bacterial. We equipped it with a built-in back-flow preventer (to stop dirty water from getting sucked into the pipes). We made it mostly out of recyclable materials. It didn’t conduct heat like its predecessors, which meant no more burns for its operators. It didn’t crack or break on impact – you could drive over it with a truck, and it simply popped back into shape. Because it was made mostly of soft materials, it could not dent pots or crack dishes. It was ergonomic and pretty fly looking. It was so cool looking that it legitimately opened up high-end residential kitchen markets to the company for the first time. And here’s the kicker: It was cheaper to manufacture than the original. This meant two things: a) The company would save money every time they manufactured this product instead of its current one, and b) those manufacturing jobs would get to stay in the US where they belonged.
So let’s recap: We built the fastest, strongest, most ergonomic, coolest looking spray valve in the world. We built into it every functional feature our market asked for. We created for it accessories and repair kits that brought all of our distributors and retailers onboard. We made it so easy to install and work on that every plumber and spec engineer we talked to in the US was enthusiastic about it. It worked better than anything on the market, was cheaper to manufacture than our existing one, exceeded government requirements, and was already creating quite a buzz months before we introduced it to the world. Its impact on the environment alone would have earned it story after story, perhaps even a few honorable mentions in product design reviews here and there. Oh, and the patents were solid, meaning the product would be difficult to copy or emulate by our pesky competitors.
We had a win on our hands. I was psyched. We tested the things for over 8 months, and they were holding up the way we thought they would.
But the product never went to market. At the eleventh hour, after almost two years of work, just weeks from beginning production, the company’s CEO decided to kill the project. We never knew why. “I just don’t like it,” was the only answer he gave us. He said it felt flimsy to him. He wanted it made out of brass. He wanted it to be heavy and strong. What we had built just wasn’t what his company was known for. In spite of all of our research, all of our testing, all of the evidence to the contrary that we had painstakingly accumulated, he didn’t think the market would go for it. He got cold feet. He killed the project.
It was one of those times when I genuinely thought I was on candid camera.
We had the holy grail of our industry: The self-sealing undersea oil pipe. The Eurostar rail system that operates in the snow. The self-correcting accelerator in a Toyota. The variable seating device that doesn’t prompt Southwest Airlines to boot Kevin Smith off one of their planes. That’s what we had, and still we failed. I failed. Because I assumed that basic common sense would prevail. I assumed that the CEO of a company, given a sure win of epic proportions, a carefully engineered once-in-a-lifetime chance to not only regain its place in the market but capture significant parts of it that it had never held, would seize on that moment and run with it. I assumed that objections like this might have surfaced earlier in the process.
What I failed to anticipate was that logic, reason, business sense and even a hint of the entrepreneurial spirit might not always prevail in the face of an unknown quantity.
If this story makes no sense to you, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. It took me years to come to terms with it. My design engineers quit the company almost immediately after the project was tabled. They were furious that their work – truly the chef d’oeuvre of their careers, a slam dunk – could be so easily cast aside against all logic and good sense. Me, I wasn’t furious. I was devastated. Crushed. Obliterated.
Imagine Steve Jobs canning iPod a month before going into mass production claiming that “Apple makes computers, not media players.” Imagine Starbucks’ CEO deciding not to expand, claiming that “takeaway coffee cheapens the coffee drinkers’ experience.” I had just handed Pfizer the cure for cancer, and they had tossed it away saying “we’re in the erection business, not the cancer-curing business.” It was madness. I couldn’t fathom it. To this day, I shake my head every time I think about it.
I held on for a few more months, my brilliant design team gone, my other product improvement projects (equally ambitious) surely destined for the same fate, and slipped into a very well concealed state of depression. Though I resented the CEO for his bizarre decision, I didn’t blame him. Somewhere inside, I knew that the fault was my own: I had failed to spot clear signs that he might feel threatened by the project’s success, that change on the whole made him uncomfortable, that he perhaps cared more about the aura of success within his familiar, comfortable world than driving major market shifts and exploring dangerous new horizons. More than anything, I had failed to recognize that the job I had been hired to do was someone else’s idea of where the company should go, not his. I should have seen the signs. In hindsight, they were obvious. I should have turned down the job to begin with. Failure was always the option. The only option. Why? Because a strong aversion to change had been engineered into the company culture for decades. In spite of all the “failure is not an option” rhetoric that made its way into quarterly meetings, it was, in fact the most likely option of all. In my youthful exuberance and eagerness to accomplish the impossible, I thought I could fix it, but I couldn’t.
I failed.
Failure isn’t what you think.
“The country is full of good coaches. What it takes to win is a bunch of interested players.”
-Don Coryell, ex-San Diego Chargers Coach
When I watch Lindsey Lohan’s battle with drug abuse and the legal system, I don’t see a troubled Hollywood starlet. I see a human being with the same degree of dysfunction in her life (albeit expressed differently) that I see in some business professionals: Though hers is focused on partying and substance abuse, then amplified by the media, it is really not that different from the mechanism that causes millions of people outside of Hollywood to fail on a daily basis as well.
I could tell you that fear is at the root of failure. The fear of failure itself, the fear of being laughed at, the fear of being fired, the fear of being punished, the fear of not making VP, the fear of not being the smartest guy in the room, the fear of being alone… Fear is an easy culprit, and I can make a solid case against it in the court of personal opinion. But fear is only part of the problem. There is another culprit at work here, and its name is denial.
Not wanting to admit that you are wrong, not wanting to admit that your company’s 2% YoY growth is the embodiment of mediocrity, not questioning the validity of the curious metrics that your agency gauge success with even though you that little voice in your head tells you that you should, not admitting that the economy isn’t the real reason why business is bad this year, sticking to the same marketing tactics year after year even if they hardly yield any results: This is denial, and denial, while perhaps not the progenitor of failure, is at the very least its cradle.
Failure also isn’t just an option; it is a choice. It lives in the decision to do nothing, in the decision to wait and see, in the decision to repeat the same mistake over and over again because that is easier than making a change, and in the decision to lie down rather than fight for victory at all cost.
“Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.”
-Lou Brock
Failure is always an option. Ask every losing team coming out of the World Cup, the Superbowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup how much of an option it turned out to be. Ask every tennis player but two as they come out of Wimbledon or Roland Garros. Stand at the finish line of the Tour de France in Paris every year, and ask every rider there but one, whether or not failure was indeed an option. Ask the Xi-Xia when Genghis Khan showed up at their doorstep. Ask the German war machine in 1945. Ask Enron, Circuit City and Blockbuster. Ask BP. Ask the brands still struggling to understand how to incorporate social media into their activities, who in spite of enormous budgets spent with agencies and consultants in the last year, are still no closer to seeing any concrete results.
There is a point where someone like Lindsay Lohan has to stop, look in the mirror, say “this is stupid,” and go where Robert Downey Junior went with his life and career: Stop making excuses for yourself, stop living in denial, stop paying lip service to ridiculous rhetoric and clichés like “failure is not an option,” and stop playing at finding solutions. Instead look reality in the eye every morning, stop playing games, get yourself ready for battle, and fight for every inch of win, especially on days when you don’t feel like it.
Why do you think most people don’t make it in their careers? Is it for lack of talent? Is it for lack of opportunity? No. It is for lack of endurance in fighting failure. Sooner or later, they give up. They settle. They stop fighting.
“Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.”
-Joe Paterno
Success, just like failure, is a choice we make daily, at every moment: Should I lie down and die today, or should I make a stand and fight? Should I crack open that bottle of gin, or go for a run and stick to water instead? Should I work on my 3-point shot another hour, or go hang out with my friends because that would be more fun? Should I spend my day trying to figure out how to make this program kick ass, or should I just let my staff find random social media metrics to report on to buy us an extra couple of months? Should I write about the truth today, or feed my readers 5 carefully crafted paragraphs of easily digestible, SEO-friendly bullshit? Should I give the appearance of winning today instead of working on winning for real in five years?
Here’s the reality of failure: It is the result of taking the easy way out, of cutting corners, of living in denial. Failure is the story born out of excuses. Humans are naturally flawed, weak, petty and lazy. If we weren’t, “discipline” wouldn’t need to be a virtue. The odds are stacked against us: Out of tens of thousands of hopefuls, only a few actors ever become movie stars. Out of hundreds of thousands of managers in corporate jobs, only a few ever become CEOs. Out of millions of young athletes, only a few ever get to win Olympic gold, Superbowl rings, or whatever prize is their sport of choice’s holy grail. Failure is always, always, always the default option. It is what happens of you don’t study, if you don’t run the ball, if you don’t take out that bunker, if you don’t make sure that your methodology is sound. It is what happens when you settle for the comfort of false security.
Failure is all around us. It is a virus we are all infected with. It eats at us a little every day until eventually, it kills us: Your health can fail you, your courage, your will, your spirit, your liver and eventually your heart. All things end in failure, and failure ends all things: No winning streak can last forever. The dinosaurs had their time. So did the steam engine, the telegraph and the cassette tape. Someday, long after humanity has moved on, even our sun will fail. Wait long enough, and failure is mathematically inevitable. But you can win for a time – Not only win, but win with style and panache. If you want to. If you care to. If you are willing to work for it and fight against your own flawed nature.
By recognizing this, by accepting the nature of failure, embracing it even, you can give yourself a gift: That “this is stupid” moment of clarity I mentioned above. That moment when you decide to stop living in denial, pretending that your life, your career, your project, your campaign, your company are doing just fine. That moment when your social media director’s latest diversionary metrics and subsequent daily dose of spin stop making sense. That moment when you realize that your agency hasn’t been selling you “social” at all – that instead, they have been selling you the same marketing campaigns that weren’t working ten years ago, only repackaged to include Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. That moment when you might even realize that you would much rather be playing golf all day than playing at being the CEO of the company daddy built.
Once you realize that failure is the most likely option of the course you are currently on, you can start to look for ways of avoiding it. You can start to look for an edge, for a way to beat the odds, for a way to actually engineer success. Not mediocrity dressed up as success, mind you. Not another brilliant version of “the emperor’s new clothes” to add to your portfolio. Not spin. A real win, with real metrics to back it up, not just the convenient ones. Real metrics like the fastest time at the finish, the most touchdowns, the most ground covered, the most products sold, the highest revenue increase in the history of the company, the highest jumps in customer loyalty, customer satisfaction (even love) and word-of-mouth recommendations. The kind of win supported by actual business performance rather than your PR department.
If your goal should be 20% YoY growth and your company is crawling along at 2%, guess what: That positive arc in your trending is still failure, no matter how it looks come review time. Your competitor beating you on price is actually your company losing on value. Price has nothing to do with it. The guy who sold you on the notion that changing your logo would refresh your “brand” should have instead suggested you refresh your relationship with customers. (Gap, I am talking to you.) The reason why you only got a 3% raise this past year while your insurance premiums went up 30% wasn’t because the economy is bad, no matter what you tell yourself and no matter how much you want to believe your boss.
The truth is that failure lives in the little lies we tell ourselves to feel better. It lives in every little compromise we make in the face of what we know is the right path. It lives in every choice to promote a sycophantic weasel rather than a true champion. Simply put: A man who cannot face the truth of his condition cannot but fail. By association, a company whose leaders cannot face the truth of their condition cannot succeed either.
Failure and the Social Media tsunami of incompetence.
If you have ever wondered why I put so much emphasis on measurement, it is because properly measuring performance is the cure for bullshit. It’s that simple: As a triathlete, I can’t cheat the clock. As a military officer, I couldn’t cheat my unit’s tactical situation. As a business manager, I can’t cheat my P&L. Well… not without cheating. Without lying. Without putting a spin on failure and making it sound like success. What Enron did with its books, many Social Media “professionals” are doing with their reporting, and no one seems particularly eager to call them out on it. Unfortunately, denial and lies hold us back. All of us. They hurt and weaken us as a community, as an economy, as a culture, even as a species. They too easily creep into our daily diet. They too quickly become the norm, and sooner or later, the house of cards collapses. The bubble bursts. And those who trusted in the promise of success are the ones left holding the bag.
When it is easier to be in denial than to face the truth, to spin failure into success, and when we collectively turn bullshit into an industry norm, we all pay the price. All of us.
How much money is being spent on social media integration and “strategy” right now? How many social media “experts” advise companies today? How many big name agencies, marketing firms and consulting groups are billing major brands for their expertise?
Yet with so much “knowledge” and “insight” and “expertise,” how many major brands “do” Social well? A month ago, McDonald’s Social Media director confused foot traffic with Foursquare check-ins. Last week, I heard a member of Pepsi’s Social Media team claim to have seen significant lift in sales revenue from Social Media, yet strangely refused to provide proof. Earlier this year, global giant BP allowed its social media presence on Twitter to be usurped during its most public PR crisis ever, and Nestle discovered that its Social Media team was completely unprepared to respond when Greenpeace flooded its Facebook wall with a carefully orchestrated anti palm oil campaign. Ask Skittles where its social media “strategy” went. Closer to home, Wachovia Bank (now Wells Fargo) continues to operate a Facebook page and Twitter account while completely ignoring what is actually going on around their own brand in these same channels. See for yourselves:
Screenshot of ignored customer complaints
Screenshot of the painfully empty "information" page
Screenshot of Wachovia’s unmanaged discussion topics
Screenshot of actual comments about Wachovia
Screenshot of responses only to selected (positive) comments
Yet, in spite of the fact that the bank seems woefully unaware of the questionable management of its accounts, the bank shows up in a Mashable article titled “40 of the best twitter brands,” in which Wachovia (among other painfully horrendous social media programs mixed in with a few good ones) is featured as an example of success. Sorry, but the above screenshots (not a month old) tell a different story: Selective responses on Twitter that seem to favor positive comments while ignoring negative ones (rather than treating them as customer service opportunities), a Facebook page devoid of information like… oh, I don’t know… a company description, an address for the headquarters, some phone numbers, a website url maybe? A wall filled with angry customer comments yet no responses, a discussion page endowed with “Why Wachovia screws customers in the butt” as its most popular topic of conversation…
Forget understanding how to tie social media activity to business objectives or measure success properly… Some social media directors evidently can’t even figure out how to respond to customers on the world’s most simple social media platforms, or possibly even go as far as to give visibility to real online conversation topics to upper management. Yet, somehow, abject failures like this (not to pick on Wachovia – it is far from alone when it comes to this sort of pitiful mismanagement) are still what pass for success in this space.
Starbucks, Ford, Best Buy, Zappos, Virgin Airlines, and less than a dozen more: That is the tally of companies that didn’t settle for repackaged marketing campaign tactics, imaginary metrics, Wachovia-like account management fog, and outright spin. This is the painfully narrow minority of large businesses actually trying to figure it out with an eye towards success rather than… make-believe and unapologetic incompetence.
“Failure is not an option.” Really? Look around.
But what breaks my heart is the extent to which I have failed and continue to fail still: In spite of all my blog posts, my tweets, my appearances at conferences and other events, my interviews, my contribution to reports and articles, my presentations and even my upcoming book on how to actually develop, integrate, manage and measure social media programs (out in Q1 of 2011), I am not reaching enough companies nor reaching the ones I do reach fast enough. I am not reaching enough executives, CMOs and CEOs. Heck, I am not reaching enough agencies and marketing firms and consultancies either. My impact is piecemeal at best, and that simply isn’t good enough.
Will I fail again? I sure as hell hope not, but I have to be honest with you… It isn’t looking good yet. Let’s wait and see what happens next. I might have to up my game considerably in 2011.
* * *
Afterthought:
This brilliant note from John Heaney (pulled from today’s comments) –
Olivier,
As an enthusiastic and energetic product manager, you simply discovered the corporate truism that culture trumps strategy. Every time. Apple could turn over their precise product plans for their next 4 transformative products to Dell and I could guarantee that those products would not emerge successfully from Dell’s clumsy and inept design and development process. Dell, like virtually every large tech company, simply doesn’t have the corporate culture that pursues magic and celebrates delightful failure.
To a large degree, I think the restrictive corporate cultures are ego driven. Executives strive for control, and the design and innovation process – when done well – borders on anarchy. And if the resulting product incorporates materials they don’t understand, science they’ve never grasped and aesthetics that challenge their assumptions then their ego is threatened and innovation is stifled.
And I believe that’s why we see so many mindless product extensions (mini M&M’s? really? the originals were too big?) instead of revolutionary new products.
Free the culture and you free the unlimited potential and imagination of every creative mind.
What would happen if I adopted all of the Social Media and digital marketing BS I usually warn you about? Wonder no more. Welcome to Day 8 of the #StepfordTBB experiment.
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Before I begin, let’s reset our clocks a little:
1. Nothing says “I’m a rock star” like spending 15 hours a day on twitter and blogging about blogs.
2. Best new pick-up line in a bar: “Want to google my tumblr?”
3. Fact: iPad is the new Porsche. Bonus: You can take it inside the night club.
4. How do you know you’re truly important in the world?
a) You cured Cancer
b) You brought peace to the Middle East
c) You discovered how to turn salt water into emissions-free gasoline
d) Your invention eliminated both famine and AIDS in Africa
e) Your latest album went triple-platinum the same year you won your fourth Academy Award and the Nobel Prize in literature
f) Your blog is listed in AdAge’s Power 150
(answer: f)
Now that we’re all on the same page…
All I really-really want is to be a Social Media rock star
Liz Strauss, Chicago-based blogger and founder of SobCon, wrote a piece for Spin Sucks last month that resonated with me: Five Signs That a Social Media Star’s Reputation is Spin. Let me start by saying that the title is brilliant: First, it’s a list. Second, it talks about Social Media. Third, it talks about Social Media “Stars.” 3 for 3. Verdict: Three gold stars.
I mean… think about it: A Social Media star. How cool does that sound!
I also like that Liz makes a distinction between real Social Media stars and fake Social Media stars. “Spin” is indeed tricky, isn’t it.
Unfortunately, my newly found #StepfordTBB vocation of late has to stop at the title. The five points, ironically enough, describe the behavior that real Social Media rock stars actually exhibit. And it is these very types of behaviors, not intelligence, wisdom or tangible value, that have made them legends in the space: Based on what I have seen, “he talks more than he listens, she only shows up to sign autographs, he’s forgotten to read his own book, she doesn’t keep her word, he expects the world to revolve around him” are actually five sure signs that a Social Media rock star is in fact for realz.
Remember that we are talking about Social Media rock stars, here. Not just mere practitioners, professionals, researchers and teachers. Rock Stars. Of course the rules are different for them. They are above the fray. (I mean, have you seen their klout scores?! OMFG!!! Not. even. human. Zeus must have had a hand in this. Loki even. Surely.)
What Liz and I can agree on (now that I am #StepfordTBB and all) is the crux of the post itself: Brush aside the brilliant link-bait list of five whatevers, the advice itself and the thinly veiled “how to be a Social Media star” theme hiding behind bad practices, what we are really talking about here is the end-game. The holy grail of this whole golden house of cards: Becoming a Social Media star is the real carrot.
Liz’ post is definitely not a Freudian slip. It is simply honest. Some people just want to be rock stars. If they missed out on learning to play the electric guitar when they were little, the twitternets have finally given them their chance, and by golly they aren’t about to let it slip by.
And the best part about being a Social Media rock star? Once you know how to be one, you get to teach thousands of hopefuls how to become one too, one $259.99 webinar at a time, one $699-$999 conference at a time, and one $2,999 certification program at a time. There is value in being at the top of this new industry bubble.
Truth be told, I wish I could be a Social Media rock star too. In fact, for like, a whole week, I have been trying really, REALLY hard. (Can you tell? I even adopted a hot new content strategy.) That’s what this whole #StepfordTBB experiment has really been about: To hell with the work. I just want to get paid for performing. I want to be a Social Media rock star too.
My secret wish: Maybe if I keep playing nice with Social Media royalty, I might finally learn the secret handshake and get my pledge pin in the mail. If I finally start playing ball and stop making waves and all. You know, if I “get with the program.” Because clearly, the way to become a Social Media rock star – aside from acting like one – is to be accepted into the fold by the established rock stars. It’s a lot like a fraternity, really. When you aren’t in it, you aren’t worth the time of day. But when you’re in, suddenly you are all best buds. You get invited to all the cool parties and whatnot.
I know it hasn’t been super obvious these last few years, I so want to be one of their best buds, it hurts.
#CrossingMyFingers.
So anyway, I have been doing a lot of research on the subject of how to talk, walk and chalk like a Social Media rock star so more of us can be indicted into that virtual hall of fame. Oops. I mean inducted. (Thanks Wikipedia.) One might say that I have completely immersed myself into the world of Social Media rock stars. Knee-deep into their brown water of awesomeness, in fact. Have I succeeded in becoming a rock star? Not yet, (it’s only been a week) but I did uncover some sure-fire ways of getting there that I want to share with you here. These touch on how to behave like a Social Media rock star when it comes to becoming a staple on the all-so-important speaking circuit. Inspired by Liz Strauss’ list:
How to act like a real Social Media rock star on the conference circuit
1. Combine exorbitantly high speaking fees with the shortest speaking gig you can negotiate.
You have like, thousands of followers on twitter and you have a blog about blogging. Hello?! Of course you’re worth $15,000 per 45 minutes, but not a second more. You’re twitter-famous, aren’t you? Yes you are. And super special too, with your webcam and your 12-second pearls of wisdom. I mean, let’s face it: What you have to say is easily worth twenty times that. If those 150 attendees all paid for an individual session, they would be looking at half a mil between all of them, right? In comparison, $15K is nothing. Conference organizers should be thanking their lucky stars that you are that affordable. Clooney? Pitt? Who are those clowns? The real stars these days are bloggers with other big name blogger friends. Surely, if Sarah Palin can command $100K+ per appearance, a twitterlebrity like you can command 15% of that. Makes perfect sense when you put it all in context.
Just remember: Making $15,000 per speaking gig isn’t all that cool. It’s just business. (If you are a best-selling author, you can legitimately ask for twice that.) No, to be a rock star, you have to ad some spice to it. You have to add a stipulation to that fee: That $15,000 can only be for the first 45 minutes. Any additional time will cost extra. (See #2 below.)
I didn’t know about this little clause until recently. Not that I command $15,000 per keynote (not even close), but it would have never occurred to me to even think of making such a demand. Heck, until I started taking this Social Media rock star thing seriously, for $15,000, you could have basically kept me around all week! Newbie mistake.
PS: Make sure that all of your friends share intel on this. There is no “price-fixing” in Social Media. Showing a united front in this instance ensures that conference organizers know who’s who in the space. The going rate right now for a genuine Social Media rock star is $15,000 per 45 minute session. If you charge less than that, you are just an amateur. (Or worse, a believer.)
2. Real Rock Stars demand real Rock Star treatment.
Nothing says “I don’t know what I am doing” like asking for $15K per 45 minute presentation without adding a slew of stipulations to go along with it. Make your speaking contract stand out, even when the conference is small and can’t afford any extras. Here are a few common ones used by real Social Media rock stars:
– Charge an extra $5K for each additional (and inconvenient) 15 minutes beyond the agreed-upon 45 minute session. Even 1 minute over the 45-minute session gets you the extra green.
– Don’t leave book sales to chance: Demand that at least 250-500 of your latest book be pre-ordered on the conference’s dime, to be made available at the conference. (Bonus: Who cares if the event only attracts 100 – 150 attendees? That isn’t your problem.)
– Demand First Class airfare. Rock stars don’t fly coach.
– Demand that a limo pick you up from the airport and ferry you around town. Cabs are for normal people. (I’ve been doing this so wrong. This whole time, I was taking cabs, airport shuttles, even public transportation to save my clients money. What a dork!)
– Be sure to demand hotel perks like a king-sized bed, a junior suite, a minimum of four stars, ocean-views, and anything that makes your stay as luxurious as you deserve. It isn’t so much about needs or wants as it is about setting the right tone and letting clients know you are a true show business professional.
– Graciously offer the event organizer to take a group of their lucky attendees to a first rate dinner where they will enjoy the full experience of hanging out with your awesomeness. The organizer doesn’t get to go, but he gets to pay for it.
3. Don’t mingle. (Except with other rock stars.)
I saw Gary Vaynerchuck completely mess that one up a few weeks ago. Gary, what were you thinking, man?!
We were both speaking at the MIMA summit in Minneapolis, and after his Keynote, Gary hung out with attendees after his session, and even walked around, attending other people’s sessions like… like… a normal human being. Peter Shankman, Sarah Evans and Chris Barger did the same thing at Brand Camp U this past week! Even Scott Monty offered to pick me up from the airport, in his own car!
Guys… How can I say this? It’s one thing for me to do it (I didn’t know any better until now and I don’t even have a book out), but from what I hear in back-channels, you are ruining it for the rest of the Social Media guru crowd by acting so… nice. How do you expect anyone to treat you like rock stars when you’re so… approachable and down to earth? Stop now before you ruin your reputations (and the conference circuit gravy train). Didn’t you get the memo from the real rock stars? Are their interns dropping the ball or sunthin? You guys will never be rock stars if you keep this up.
No worries, I’ve been watching how themz do it, and here are a few pointers for you:
– Don’t mingle. Ever. You’re above that. Does Paris Hilton mingle with the standard admission crowd? No she does not. Neither should you.
– If you absolutely must mingle (you are stuck in a two-terminal airport and your limo driver is nowhere to be found), charge for it. (See 2, above.) Make it a line item in your speaker contract: $5K per 15 minutes of “engagement” with attendees. Your time is way too precious to just give it away. If it has value assign a dollar value to it. (Just because it’s all about engagement, conversations and transparency doesn’t mean you can’t charge for it.)
– Show up in your limo ten minutes before your session. Deliver your presentation. Leave immediately afterwards to catch a flight home. (No worries. The books were already pre-signed by your intern.)
Remember: Always rushing to and from the airport makes you look super important. In fact, you are in such high-demand that if you stay in one place for more than six hours, the stock market will likely crash again.
4. Do not attend the speaker dinner the night before the event.
Don’t even be tempted. As a rock star, this is beneath you. Better to order room service and eat alone than to hang out with those annoying plebes who just want to bask in your glory and tell you about their cat. No one there is worthy of your conversation anyway. Tip: Real rock stars DM each other a super-double-top-secret restaurant or bar where they will meet up to talk about real rock star stuff, away from non-rock stars. Never, ever, EVER attend the speaker dinner.
I’ve been doing this one wrong too. Even the one or two I missed, I missed by accident, not by design. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this rule sooner?
5. Protect your turf.
If someone wants to bring a Social Media related event to your city, make sure they know that it will not happen without both your consent and involvement. Yes, like the Mafia, but cooler because this is Social Media, which as we know is all about good vibes. Here’s how it works:
– Make sure to contact the person(s) putting on the event and explain that the city you live in is your city. Be welcoming though. Start with “Oh, I hear that you want to put on a conference here in (insert city name). That’s great. Would you like some help?” (The last question is rhetorical. You don’t actually want to help.) The answer to your question is irrelevant.
– If the date is too close to one of your own events, make sure this annoying intruder knows it. Ask them to reschedule their event so that it takes place at least 60-90 days before or after yours.
– Suggest (demand) a keynote or session. (Yes, paid. Of course! See item 1, above.) It’s your city and you’re a rock star. You should be the highlight of this conference! You deserve it.
– Demand a percentage too – since you will “help” put it on and get people to attend. (Nobody does anything in your town unless you give them permission to. Including going to conferences.)
– Talk a lot about what you are doing to help the event, but do as little as possible to promote it (except for your session if you have one). This event can’t be any more popular than your own, now, can it? No it can’t.
– Score some free tickets for all your Social Media friends, so they can attend your session like the VIPs they are. It’s the least the event organizers can do for all your awesome help. Besides, it’s an easy way to get asses in seats for your session.
– In fact, demand of the conference organizers that one or two of your cronies be invited to speak as well. You have to look after your friends, right? It’s what relationships are for, after all.
Oh, and don’t forget: Your turf extends beyond city limits. In some cases, your turf may even include several neighboring states.
6. Talking the talk is cheap, and it’s been done. Instead, talk the walk. (Just don’t walk it.)
As long as you write post after post about how transparent and human and genuine (I mean “authentic”) Social Media rock stars should be, you’re good to go. Anyone googling you will know that you are a stand-up person, one who stands for freedom, liberty, and justice for all. Your record will be hundreds of posts talking about how engagement is about building relationships and being really real. That’s pretty important, because people have to read about that side of you. In this, you are your own best PR department. By talking about these ideals and “best practices,” your readers will assume that you dispense this advice because you believe it also applies to you.
It doesn’t. Not if you want to be a genuine Social Media rock star anyway. Example: When a car rental company, airline or hotel asks you to actually “pay” for the upgrade you requested, throw a fit and threaten to give them bad publicity on your blog and all over the twitternets. If the clerk doesn’t know what that means, slam a copy of your latest book on the counter, brandish your phone, and cry “Don’t you know who I am?!?!?! I’m listed in the top 450 of… the AdAge Power 150!!! I WILL CRUCIFY YOUUUUU!!!!!!!”
Works every time. Just make sure none of your followers or fans are around to see it.
Truth is that rock stars don’t get to be rock stars by being reasonable or decent or self-effacing. They become rock stars by making demands. By applying pressure. By being threatening. But that’s for insiders to know: Conference organizers and Social Media Club presidents mostly. Hotel and car rental clerks too, on occasion. As long as you otherwise portray yourself as an approachable, friendly, down-to-earth person, all will be well with your outwardly “personal brand.” Just remember the golden rule: Talk about good karma stuff a lot on your blog. Become known as an advocate of good behavior. People will assume that you believe it applies to you as well.
Just like those televangelists. They’re rock stars too.
The advantage of being an outsider with access to “the inside”
One of the advantages of being involved with a number of marketing, digital and Social Media conferences is that you get to experience this kind of awesome rock star behavior firsthand – as a fellow speaker, occasionally as a volunteer, and also as an event advisor (something I might have forgotten to mention. Ooops!). You don’t just hear stories over beers or coffee. You see it for yourself. You get the emails. You sit on the calls. You get to review the contracts. You get to see who in the space puts on a good show, and who in the space is a genuine human being. (What the real rock stars like to call a “sap.”) It’s an education. You really have to see it for yourself to first believe it, and then truly appreciate it for its genius. I would have never known about this otherwise.
Remember stories of Jennifer Lopez demanding white doves and tulips for her on-location trailers? Same thing, except Social Media rock stars would never stay in a trailer.
What’s unfortunate is that the majority of the folks who hang on these rock stars’ every word never get to see what goes on behind closed doors. They (you, many of my readers) have no idea how cool their social media heroes really are when they are off the stage. With all that talk of engagement and conversations, of being real, of caring, of “the money isn’t important” and “it’s the relationships that matter,” you would think these otherwise brilliant bloggers are kumbaya-singing hippies or something, grabbing coffee with strangers in airports! Thankfully, no. They are shrewd businesspeople with a firm grasp of how to rise to Social Media stardom by acting every bit the part of a real-life rock star, and how to make money out of every handshake.
Too bad they don’t give out academy awards for some of these tours de force. They would be well deserved.
It’s true: Two weeks ago, I was appalled by this kind of behavior. Disappointed, even. It depressed me every time I found out that another person I had respected for years had begun acting this way. Today, now that I have fully embraced my #StepfordTBB experiment, I find it awe-inspiring. They are once again my role models and heroes. Remember: it isn’t technically hypocrisy if you’re a rock star.
Damn, that koolaid is delicious!
No wonder Social Media royalty has been treating me like an annoying little peasant for the last few years. I was doing it all wrong: Actually talking to everyday people on Twitter, responding to most comments on my blog, spending hours chatting with conference attendees in the halls for free if my flight wasn’t for a few hours yet, attending most speaker dinners (and enjoying them), mostly flying coach, grabbing the subway to and from the airport, adjusting my speaking fees to match each event’s size and budget, offering to speak a lot longer than 45 minutes at a time (at no extra charge), making no demands on hotel room size, attending other people’s sessions and even asking questions, questioning shady practices and claims that made no sense – basically acting like a normal person. A plebe. A tool. I totally understand why the real rock stars were getting so frustrated with me. Good thing I finally decided to listen to their advice. There might be hope yet.
But hey, I do wear tight pants, and I missed the #SocialStory speaker dinner earlier this month. It wasn’t on purpose (the missed dinner, not the pants) but it’s a start. Somebody turn off the lights and take the lid off the cookie jar. Here I come!
Mmm-mmm, delicious!
You know you like me better this way.
#StepfordTBB
Content Note: The tone and sarcasm of this post may be typical #StepfordTBB, but the facts and anecdotes shared in this post are real, from the $15K price tags and speaker contract demands, to the turf-war intimidation tactics and upgrade tantrums.
Personal Note: I wouldn’t dream of asking for $15K for only 45 minutes of my time. If I ever do, you have my permission to smack me.
What would happen if I adopted all of the Social Media and digital marketing BS I usually warn you about? Wonder no more. Welcome to Day 7 of the #StepfordTBB experiment.
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This month, The Gap unveiled its new logo and I have something to say about it.
5 reasons why the new GAP logo rocks:
1. It’s new. New is always good. Look it up.
2. It’s all people are talking about. Have you seen mentions of the thing on the twitternets and the facebooks? Everybody is talking about it! Talk about an explosion in impressions!!! I swear, if the Gap had a Social Media program, they could take credit for some pretty solid proof of engagement right now.
3. It is the most copied and adopted logo in the history of October 2010. (So much so that no one noticed that Belk also changed its logo this month.) Everyone is changing their Twitter avatars to emulate the new GAP logo. Have you ever seen this happen? Here are a few examples. There are hundreds more.
Speaking of Belk: Anybody using the Belk logo for their Twitternet avatar? No. Which is weird, because it also uses some of the same principles: Gradients of blue against a white background, with black(ish) letters. Evidently, the agency in charge of Belk’s logo redesign didn’t get the memo: Using a pretty font, a catchy tag line (or. triple. tagline. rather.), and turning a box into a half lotus of fairy wing-like awesome wasn’t necessary. A square and a default font would have done the job.
4. People are talking about the GAP now. A month ago, no one even remembered that store existed. Sure, we all remember it from the 1990’s, but when was the last time you went to the mall?
And if you still buy jeans from the Gap, don’t check out H&M. Ever. Or Express, even. Also, from what I hear, Levi’s is for old people. Keep doing what you’re doing. All is well.
5. It is the only logo that looks like it could have been created in forty-five seconds in Microsoft Word. That’s impressive, no matter how you look at it.
A year ago, I would have written a 72,000 word dissertation on why this logo change sucks, about how it wouldn’t have made it past the first draft review, how it is actually so beyond bad as to be embarrassing, but we’re smack in the middle of the #StepfordTBB experiment so you’re in luck, Gap! This week, I think your new logo is jelly beans and rainbow hearts x infinity.
What have we learned from this? Simple:
1. Change your corporate logo every time you score a new CMO. It will give him something to do, and changing those signs and displays in every store in the country (and the world) is money well spent anyway. Think of all the stupid jobs you could have created or saved with that kind of funding. All the charities you might have endorsed. Good thing you put that cash to better use.
2. When flower-bursts are too hard, go with something corporate and squary-looking. Nothing says “I just bought my seventeenth navy-colored cotton blend sweater from the Gap” like what looks like a default logo in a Mac Paint tutorial.
3. The more average-looking, the better. You don’t want that thing to stand out. Don’t ever stand out. BMW, Apple, Starbucks, the “old” Gap… All way too flashy. Boring is good.
4. When it comes to logo design, either go with dragons and unicorns, or something you can whip up by moving a few boxes around in Powerpoint on your way to your pitch. Graphic designers are so overrated. DIY logos is the way to go! Kudos for being pioneers in that area.
5. Oh, and don’t forget to use a 45% fade effect on your blue square, but without any shadowing or semblance of depth. It always looks awesome just like that. Flat is the new deep.
What would happen if I adopted all of the Social Media and digital marketing BS I usually warn you about? Wonder no more. Welcome to Day 4 of the #StepfordTBB experiment.
Unveiling the secret awesome sauce for success in 2011:
Here is how the Social Media world is shaping up for 2011: Strategy will be the big play.
Last week, we talked about how Content Strategy was going to change everything. This week, I also introduced the emerging need for New Media strategy, digital conversation strategy, social engagement strategy, Social Media internal collaboration strategy, Facebook wall strategy and avatar strategy. Each, of course, being its very own unique discipline requiring specialists to… well, develop said strategies. The lesson here is this: You are going to need qualified strategists if you expect to have solid strategies next year.
I could have loaded a lot more into that post, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you with the deluge of exciting new strategic roles emerging from the booming Social Media and digital marketing world. Among them:
What’s key here is really this: Don’t try to keep up with all the new strategic disciplines replacing outdated business functions. You can’t. It would take an expert to do that, and… oh wait. It just occurred to me that a good solution to this problem would be to hire a Strategic Function Proliferation Expert to handle this for you. Or a Digital Marketing/Social Media/New Media consultant. Either one. That’s step 1.
Step 2 is hiring a Strategy Strategist.
A what?
A Stra-te-gystra-te-gist.
Never heard of it? To be fair, until this week, you had never heard of a Content Marketing Necessity Scale either. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Or shouldn’t.
Why Strategy Strategists will make the difference between winners and losers in 2011:
Let’s consider the world of business in general: How is a business, whose executives and managers are busy doing businessy things all day, supposed to adapt to this new evolution in strategic restrategization? With an Strategy Strategist to lead the way, that’s how.
Imagine that you’re a chef. You slave all day in a kitchen, trying to make sure that your restaurant continues to rock customers’ socks off. Now here comes this massive change in marketing, in business planning, in business management, in communications, etc. The only way you are going to be able to weather this change and remain competitive is to staff up on key strategic positions that will advise your tactical roles on how to best do their jobs.
The dishwasher, for example, is probably very inefficient. I know this, because I helped design the first water-conserving high efficiency pre-rinse spray valve for restaurants. (It’s true. Look it up.) Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in commercial kitchens, studying dish-washing, so I know how inefficient dish-washing stations can be. Based on this new paradigm of strategic strategery, if you don’t hire a dish-washing strategist to bring order to the back of your kitchen, your dish-washing operation will continue to hurt your overall business by spraying water all over the place and letting dishes pile up. It’s a given. Don’t believe me? Perform an audit. For $35,000 and change, the report will back up what I just told you.
Back to our example: Ever noticed how waiters come and go a lot? How they aren’t always super dependable? How the level of service and professionalism they deliver to your customers isn’t consistent? Here’s why: You don’t have a waitstaff strategy. Why? Because you don’t have a waitstaff strategist. Why? Because you don’t have someone working for you can anticipate these types of strategic needs. Enter the Strategy Strategist. I have heard them called Strategy Czars, but depending on what part of the country you are in, that terminology might not be in style at the moment, so Strategy Strategist it is.
“That’s great if you’re a restaurant,” I hear you cry, “but what about if you’re another kind of business? Like… a plumber?” Answer: Same thing. A Strategy Strategist can help a plumbing contractor create a toilet strategy, a plunger strategy, a scrubber strategy, etc. No matter what your business is, small or large, B2B or B2C, your best bet to start 2011 with a bang is to hire a Strategy Strategist to help you identify what strategies – beyond content strategy, engagement strategy, traffic strategy and Twitter Follower Maximization Strategy – will give your business the extra edge it deserves.
Why this works:
The problem with the business world today is obvious: Too many roles are tactical instead of being strategic. (How boring is that?) Too many soldiers, and not enough generals, in other words. All these people spending all day doing stuff, managing, responding and executing instead of strategizing. Is that really the most effective use of their time? How do we know that that what they are doing is even important? or that when they do it, they are doing it right? For all we know, 99% of workers (none of whom are in strategic positions) might be producing complete nonsense all day long.
I hadn’t realized that this was a possibility until I brought up the Content Strategy thing last week, but the ensuing conversations opened my eyes. I had no idea that so many copywriters, editors, designers, brand managers, product managers, project managers, webmasters, Marketing Managers, CMOs, PR professionals, internet marketing professionals and other communications professionals were so incapable of doing their jobs without a Content Strategist looking over their shoulders and guiding them through their day.
Scott Abel, a content strategist since 2002 kindly wrote this comment several days ago:
There are entire conferences dedicated to this subject matter, including, Intelligent Content 2011, which serves to help organizations deliver the right content to the right people in the right language (and in the right context) at the right time in the right format and on the device of their choosing. It takes some strategy to make this all happen — fully, orchestrated, as it were.
Until content strategists came along, nobody could figure out how to do this. Heck, most of us thought this kind of stuff was tactical. We had no idea any of it was strategic until content strategists came along and set us straight.
Here is a little secret that this new breed of Specialized Strategists (not traditional strategists like military generals, Business and Marketing Strategists or even Communications Strategists) have been sharing with me with ardent fervor since I wrote my piece on content strategy last week: People in tactical roles (like machine operators, copywriters, line supervisors, web designers, Marketing Directors, etc.) basically can’t find their way out of a paper bag unless a specialized strategist draws them a map first. Even baggers at the grocery store need a bagging strategy. Without it, they would just sit there and stare at empty bags all day, making a mess of things at the checkout. In other words, if a strategist weren’t there to plan, direct and supervise, we might all forget to breathe.
Which is weird, because as someone who works in the business and communications strategy field, I always looked to my tactical and execution folks to guide the way. Even as a military officer, I turned to my NCOs for guidance on a daily basis. All these years, I did it backwards! I should have been the one telling them how to do their jobs all along. (Doh! Why didn’t anyone tell me this sooner?)
The invention of the light bulb
How things got done before these specialized strategists started to take over tactical functions, I have no idea. Fire, the wheel, the light bulb, flying machines… How we invented these things without strategists telling us where to go, what to do and how to do it is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Oh well. Better late than never: Now that specialized strategists are finally taking over the business world, we should start seeing some real results. Judging by the state of the US economy, we could be in for some exciting times ahead. Less funding for execution and more for strategy sounds like a good plan to me.
So do yourselves a favor: Start looking for a Strategy Strategist immediately, and put him/her hard at work developing new strategies for ALL of your tactical functions. If by January 1, 2011 you don’t have a mail room strategy, a cafeteria strategy, a lobby strategy, a post-it note strategy, a cubicle decoration strategy, an email signature strategy, a bulb replacement strategy, a janitorial strategy and a Starbucks-before-getting-to-work strategy, you are already starting the year with a serious handicap.
Remember, success in this field isn’t about what you do. It’s about what you say you will do! Let accountability be someone else’s problem. (The strategy is never wrong. When something fails, it is always at the tactical level. That is because strategists are as smart as elephants on red Bull, and everyone else is just lucky to be there.) What a gig.
The best way to make sure that you don’t miss out on any of next year’s key strategies: Hire a Strategy Strategist asap. (Tip: Make sure it says that on their resume, or you might not be talking to a really real one.) You will be glad you did, and a whole new vibrant industry will thank you for it.
Bonus: When someone asks you a trick question at a conference like “what’s your sandwich strategy?” you will finally be able to answer it properly.
By the way, in case you missed it, I also decided to start using the term “foot traffic” for anything that involves a digital visit (like a Foursquare check-in or a visit to a website, for instance). This new technique was recently developed by McDonald’s Rick Wion, so I can’t take credit for it. As we all now know, real Social Media Jedi masters invent the stuff. My new role as #stepfordTBB is just to apply it all without asking inconvenient questions.
As it turns out, the relative use of otherwise technical terms in Social Media and digital marketing really works. As soon as I stopped being such a stickler for facts, all kinds of win started happening to me. Which brings us back to yesterday: A whopping 305% increase in net foot traffic to this very website in just one day. A stunning victory by all accounts. The “snake oil” I kept talking about was in fact not snake oil at all. It was actually koolaid all along, and boy is it delicious!
But it gets better.
During Monday’s Content Strategy meeting with Chico – The Brandbuilder Blog’s Chief Strategic Content Strategist – we worked through ways to repeat our numbers on Tuesday. No easy task, given that our win on Monday crushed even McDonald’s much touted records from Foursquare Day. (Since in either case, no one actually bought anything as a result of the campaign, we have to go by net visits and % of increase, which we both obliterated.) How were we going to do it? This was the challenge facing us.
About 3 Red Bulls into the process, Chico had an idea:
Chico: “Why don’t we talk about how awesome we are?”
Me: “How do you mean?”
Chico: “Whenever Social Media gurus want Mashable or whatever to do a story on them, they talk about how awesome one of their campaigns was. All we have to do is share our results, turn it into a case study, and we’re golden, yo!”
Me: “But… isn’t that like, bragging?”
Chico: “Hey, Stepford TBB. Wake up! Is wearing your Gold Medal at the Olympics ‘bragging?'”
He had a point. Never underestimate the logical superpowers of a Chihuahua: There is no such thing as bragging in Social Media. After all, the true litmus test triumvirate for all Social Media rock stars is this: What’s your latest win story?
So that’s what we did. We published our case study. And that incredibly strategic content strategy decision worked! Check it out:
Actual Graph of Awesome #2
That’s right. We crushed Monday. As it turns out, talking about yourself works better than listening to customers or dispensing good advice. The Social Media gurus were right. 356% right, in fact. You just can’t argue with the data. It is right there, blue-gray on light gray, telling the tale.
When I started this #StepfordTBB experiment several days ago (the premise being “what would happen if I actually adopted the Social Media bull$hit I have been warning you about?”), little did I know that all of this stuff would actually work. All you really have to do to win in Social Media is basically outlined in today’s and yesterday’s posts.
Tomorrow, we will talk about the world’s biggest Social Media strategy secret sauce ever. (Shhh. Don’t tell anybody.)
See? Isn’t this better? The experiment continues tomorrow.
I’m sorry. That title is a little bit confusing. Let me clarify:
Technically, it was Pegasus (another breed of magical horses altogether), not a unicorn, but since many people get them mixed up, I figured nobody would mind. Here’s why: Real-world Social Media experts do that all the time. It is called Word-switching: Using one word to describe another. (Like strategy and tactics, for example, or foot traffic and Foursquare Check-ins, or even R.O.I. and outcomes.) I used to think it was important to put a fine point on terminology, but now that I am drinking from the right Koolaid fountain, I am pretty chillaxed when it comes to terminology and unimportant things like words. See? I am learning.
Speaking of foot traffic, what I actually saw was a 305% increase in visits to the award-winning BrandBuilder blog, but following in the footsteps of McDonald’s Rick Wion (a real Social Media expert who heads the fast food giant’s Social Media program) I nowconsider digital visits to be the same as foot traffic. I was so wrong to call BS on that case study, it’s scary. My bad. So… a 305% increase in foot traffic. Wanna see? Look:
Actual Graph of Awesome
Obviously, it pays to listen to the experts after all. This new modus operandi suggested by my peers – (a) dropping the snark and (b) becoming more of a Social Media cheerleader than an arbiter – is paying off like, huge! This is what happens when you stop worrying about real best practices and basically call whatever comes through your head a “best practices case study.”
I mean, look at that: McDonald’s had to use $1,000 and the mighty power of Foursquare to get 719 whole check-ins across the whole United States and its 13,000 stores, right? I one-upped them by instead used unicorns (kinduv), a super positive Social Media attitude and all of 13 cents in Chiclets money to attract more than 1800 net new visits to my blog in just one day!!!
That’s like, more than twice as much as McDonald’s, and on just pennies. (I mean, really. I dug them out of the couch to buy that pack of gum at Target.) The R.O.I. of that must be like, Millions!!! I bet it’s probably some of the best R.O.I. in the history of Social Media case studies, even.
The experts know what they are talking about, obviously.
To be fair (and for the sake of transparency), I have to admit that I also used a few other Social Media tricks of the trade (so to speak) to score that win. Want to see them? Okay, here we go.
Case Study:
How @TheBrandBuilder used unicorns (kinduv), Foursquare, Content Strategy, Personal Branding, magical creatures, Social Media Measurement and a positive attitude to increase foot traffic by 305% overnight!!!
1. My new Unicorn (kinduv) avatar on Twitter. Bow to your Sensei:
I needed an image that would replace the old “me” with a symbol of universal peace and empathy for all living beings. I thought about Care Bears, but since bears can sometimes be carnivores, there was a chance that using a fierce predator as my new emblem might send the wrong message. My avatar strategy team and I finally settled on a My Little Pony image, as it perfectly communicates my new snark-free path of wisdom and absolute Social Media neutrality.
2. I also used Foursquare: Granted, it was when I went to the gym, but still, I used it. Chico (my Chief Social Media Research Strategist) estimates that over 13% of my readers also use Foursquare, so we can infer that our common Foursquare usage contributed to the 305% increase in foot traffic.
3. Content Strategy: My new content strategy is obviously full of win. I was soooo obviously wrong about that content strategy stuff. It works like magic. Literally. If only newspapers had a content strategy too, they wouldn’t be in so much trouble, obviously.
4. Expert Personal Branding: You noticed my pictures with John, Yoko, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama earlier this week, right? Don’t underestimate the power of being seen next to really famous people. It works. I learn from the best.
5. Magical creatures: I know, using magical creatures is pretty old school, but it totally works! You saw the numbers, right? Right. Unicorns (kinduv), pixies, flying horses and faeries are excellent allies when it comes to generating foot traffic with Social Media. (Be careful with ligers though. They don’t always cooperate.) What’s your magical creature strategy?
6. Really solid measurement: Although the term foot traffic is completely subjective now, you can’t argue with the fact that it is the holy grail of googlitic analysis, especially when it is digital. Good thing we aren’t sticklers for terminology anymore. This is so much easier than when I actually bothered to differentiate between bad measurement and good measurement. Now that it’s all good, it all works. It’s just science.
7. A 100% snark-free, positive attitude: This is key. Once you start accepting that no one is wrong, that there are no bad practices, that words, proper measurement, carefully crafted methodologies and even ethics are completely irrelevant, you can start focusing on two super positive things: (a) Making sure your content is awesome, and (b) saying whatever you want, because accuracy is just, you know, so 2008.
8. Zero focus on R.O.I. Instead, I focused my heart center on content strategy and authentic engagement, since they are the heart and soul of this space. Foot traffic (even the digital kind) is love, and love is how you really measure success in the world of Social Media.
9. Referring to The BrandBuilder Blog as “award-winning” even though it hasn’t actually ever won any awards: Pffft. Details. Nobody fact-checks anymore. Not even me. Facts are so trivial anyway, right?
10. Learning from real Social Media gurus: Look at how many followers some of them have. Wow!!! Surely, they must know what they are talking about. And you know, they work with the world’s biggest brands, so they know this stuff. As it turns out, it pays to shut up, stop asking inconvenient questions, and do exactly what they tell you to do. (Who knew!) These numbers don’t lie. You just can’t argue with the data. I was so wrong not to do this sooner.
I am so glad I listened to the real experts and stopped pointing out so-called “bad practices.” And to think I was such a pain, wasting so much time focusing on pointing out the difference between solid practices and deceptive practices. No need for that, obviously. This is so much better.
Continuing our trend this week of embracing the notion that even the worst Social Media advice can sound pretty damn smart when you give it a chance: Below are 5 super-duper-awesome bits of advice from some of the best Social Media Strategists on the planet, paraphrased and edited to meet the rigorous standards of this blog.
1. Staff up for New Media. 2011 is going to be the year for strategy (Woot!)
Your New Media strategy is going to need a lot of qualified individuals to run it. Lucky for you, I have made a short list of the types of specialists you will need. Here it is:
New Media Strategist – This differs from a Social Media strategist in that this strategist strategizes about “new” media, not just Social Media. Foursquare is still relatively new, for example. Facebook, not so much. Having a New Media Strategist onboard will give you an edge on your competitors (who still think that having a Social Media Strategist is the bomb) because you will have strategies based on new (not just sort of new) media.
Content Strategist – Ignore my diatribe about this the other day. That was the old Olivier. The critical olivier with all the hangups about strategy vs tactics, and nomenclature. Pffft. That’s all over with. The new Olivier totally gets the need for content strategists, especially now that you had to let go your editors, copywriters, content planners and content managers when the economy tanked last year. Having a content strategist will help you ensure that your content doesn’t accidentally end up making no sense at all, for example. (This takes a lot of planning and strategy mapping.) You wouldn’t want pictures of Kermit the frog showing up on your 4″ ball bearings product page, for example, right? That’s what Content Strategists do: They strategize content.
Digital Conversation Strategists (you may need more than one) – That’s right: If you are going to be having conversations with customers on the interwebs, you are going to need a solid conversation strategy plan.
Social Engagement Strategist – This role works hand in hand with the conversation strategist. That said, you will need to make sure that the conversation strategist focuses on conversations and the engagement strategist on engagement. If you allow any overlap, you invite a turf war you do not want. Trust me on this. So make sure that your engagement strategist focuses on engaging, not conversing. Different strategies altogether.
New Media Turf Management Strategist – This role develops strategies that allow Conversation Strategists and Engagement Strategists to work together without generating unnecessary strategy overlap (or what experts call strategy creep).
Crisis Response Strategist – You are going to need one of those for when mean people attack your Facebook wall and whatnot.
Social Media Internal Communications and Collaboration Strategist – You need a strategy to help you develop internal systems and procedures for your Social Media army to function properly across your company. Fail to do this, and you will end up with a giant mess. (Every thrown a bunch of shoelaces in a bag and left them there overnight? That’s what your internal comms will look like if you don’t hire a Social Media Internal Communications and Collaboration Strategist.)
Facebook Wall Strategist – You don’t want your wall to be without structure, do you?
Avatar Strategist – Most corporate avatars are horrible. You need someone who will make sure that your corporate avatars are fully optimized for every new media platform AND that your avatar designers are properly supervised by a qualified (preferably certified) avatar strategist.
2. Create a ‘List Strategy’ for your blog.
Did you notice that this post is a Top 5 list? Of course you did. You know why it’s a Top 5 list? Because lists attract visitors like honey attracts bears, that’s why! The core of your content strategy should be this: EVERY other blog post you publish should be a Top 5, Top 10, Top 25 or Top 100 list. (If you feel really confident, you can even try a Top 150 list, but remember that with great power comes great responsibility.)
Here are some examples if you don’t feel inspired:
Top 5 ways to maximize your twitter marketing automation
Top 10 ways to attract 10,000 new followers per month
Top 7 ways to make $627.39 per day using Twitter
Top 25 ways to make over $10,000 per month with affiliate links
Top 100 most awesome Social Media buzzwords
Top 10 Social Media R.O.I. equations your business could start using today!
Top 10 ways to engage with (insert demographic here) customers on (insert platform here)
See? Easy! Content strategy is really real, and swell to boot. Want to see my content matrix?
3. Take out online ads like you mean it!
Forget what you have been told. All this “new media” stuff is basically just a bunch of advertising channels where people talk about their cats. Sure, we talk about how they’re sacred word-of-mouth chat rooms of authentic awesome, but truth is that nobody minds if you try to sell them stuff there. Look at DELL. Did people turn up at their headquarters with pitchforks when they sold $6M worth of stuff on Twitter? No way. People sang their praises for months! The only way DELL could have been cooler is if they had sold twice as much as they did. So don’t listen to the hype: Spam, shmam. Advertise more than Viagra and Cialis combined, and you will get tons of traffic to whatever web page you want, or sales, or whatever you’re after. Just make sure that you hit every new media channel hard. The Germans called it Blitzkrieg! For New Media, we call it BlitzShkrieg!
4. Give your Social Media Program and Director maximum exposure.
If your Social Media Director isn’t keynoting at SxSW in 2012, your New Media strategy in 2011 was a dismal failure. There is no other litmus test. Sorry. That’s just how it is.
Want to save yourself the embarrassment? Follow this simple strategy and you might have a shot.
– Meet with your PR department daily. No wait… Twice daily. Make sure they understand that if they don’t push out a story about your Social Media activities every single day, you will replace them with PR strategists.
– Every week, make sure that your Social Media program is featured in at least one “Top 50 Best Social Media Programs” blog post somewhere. Anywhere.
– Sponsor events, tweet about them and pimp the fact that because you had a hashtag for the event, it was technically a Social Media project. If more than two people show up, be sure to call it a huge success and a worthwhile investment. (It is. Two people can be a lot. It’s all relative.)
– Start creating slide presentations and post them to Slideshare. They don’t have to be good. Just post some presentations there every few weeks. That’s all people will really remember anyway.
– Hire a Conference Booking Strategist to make sure that your Social Media Director speaks at no fewer than two events per month. make sure someone is at every event to take pictures so you can prove they were there. Oh… You don’t have to disclose any of that. Better to let everyone thing your SM Director was invited to speak.
– Publish case studies every month. If your net numbers aren’t great, release anecdotal percentages instead. Like, for example, if your second event attracted 4 people, that’s a 50% increase in foot traffic from the previous one which only attracted 2. Publish that. No one will bother to ask for details. If anyone does, make sure your Social Media Director knows to act annoyed and walk away. It’s standard operating procedure for these types of situations and works on most journalists and bloggers.
– Make sure that your Social Media Director has his picture taken with all the big Social Media names, and that he/she chat with them on Twitter pretty much every day. Social Media clout doesn’t technically come from… Klout. It comes from osmosis. make sure you develop a strong Osmosis strategy.
– Sponsor events. With cash. That usually lands you a spot on stage if you want one.
– Remember, Social Media is really ALL about PR. Sure, you can win the hard way, by doing work and getting real results, but that isn’t the fastest way to get good press. Not everyone can be Ford or Starbucks. Your Social Media Director could be out of a job before any of that happens. The alternative is just to do what you’ve always done, which is to make sure your PR team pimps you all day, every day, to everyone who will listen, until no one dares question that you are indeed a Social Media powerhouse.
5. Focus on authentically automated transparent conversational engagement (Social Media Robots).
Let’s face it: The more you automate, the more cost-effective your Social Media program will be. Since you already blew most of your budget on strategists rather than people who do stuff, my advice is to either outsource or automate as much of the execution as you can. It’s really all about spreading the message, right? Right. Shove that messaging down those Social Media pipes like wet cornmeal down a goose!
What about authenticity and transparency? Not a problem: FTC disclosure rules don’t technically apply to robots. So not disclosing that your responses are automated is perfectly kosher. In other words, what you learned in science fiction movies was true: Automation is even better than outsourcing! All you have to do is get your content strategist to craft a keyword matrix / message generator, and then schedule updates (I prefer to use the term outbursts) at regular intervals on the Twitternets and Facebooks. All you have to do then is automate your outbursts and DMs (Direct Messages) weeks in advance, and voila! Instant Social Media success! Just squeeze out those self-promotion messages every 5-7 minutes, and you’ll be good to go.
So remember, kids: It isn’t about good practices or bad practices anymore. Thank goodness the “real” Social Media gurus showed me the error of my ways. Clearly I had it way wrong all this time, focusing on clearly separating best practices from really bad practices, discerning real methodology from made-up BS, aligning Social Media to business objectives… Using ugly words like “bull$hit” and “snake oil” to attack charlatans. Silly me. Why did I ever think that all that negativity would ever be worth anything to anyone? All I was doing was hurting myself and my “brand.” I should have listened to my betters sooner when they all took turns telling me I should stop pointing out bad practices and focus only on the positive. (Stubborn!) This is so much easier! There is just so much more value to agreeing with everyone and falling in line with the lowest common denominator isn’t there?
From Mark Smiciklas and Intersection Consulting, here is my new house. Well… It is more of a bubble, really. But a bubble can be a house, right? Yes it can. Especially when you own some unicorns and pixie dust, as I do.
Those shadow people with black clouds over their heads and dark thoughts about getting results and “selling” stuff, I used to think like them. I used to try and align Social Media integration with their objectives, and warn them about people who only pretended to know how. That was before my favorite Social Media rock stars told me I was too snarky. That I should focus on writing positive stuff, not pointing out snake oil and bad practices and whatnot. All that negative stuff. Now, thanks to my new bubble, I feel engaged! I can’t wait to have conversations with people! I don’t worry about right and wrong anymore. No such thing when you’re in the bubble.
To think I used to explain how to do that stuff, and point out when people tried to sell the space on bogus R.O.I. calculators, and pass off BS campaign results. I can’t believe I used to be so negative! Who needs unnecessary debate in this space, after all? People like me, sticking their noses where they don’t belong, pointing out best practices and really bad ones.What was I thinking? This is much better! Don’t you think so?
Continuing in the footsteps of the “new me,” as suggested by my Social Media guru betters: Shorter posts and no more criticism of anything.
A new paradigm of simplicity: How smart turned out to be the wrong approach.
All these months, I have been leading you astray with crazy notions of digital crisis management that involved listening to what angry internet denizens had to say, acknowledging their grievances, giving them a place to vent that doesn’t interfere with your brand communications, asking them to recommend solutions to the problem, etc. Turns out that this was too much tactical mumbo-jumbo. Apologies for making stuff so complicated and businessy. It was just impossible for the kids at the back of the class to follow.
Embracing the suggestion that everyone has a right to be right in Social Media.
Besides, there was no way for me to formulate these types of posts without sounding negative towards Social Media professionals who didn’t seem to know how to do it. (Something that I have been told time and time again. I should have listened sooner.) Not that I meant to step on toes, but when you tell people the right way to do things, it kind of implies that they are doing it wrong, and no one likes that. So… By being so into “best practices,” I was actually being rude and insensitive to my less qualified counterparts. The last thing I would want is for their bosses and clients to figure out that they weren’t as good at their jobs as their websites said they were, right?
Now that I have turned a new leaf with project “live and let live,” I realize that I need to suggest a different approach to digital crisis management. One that is more in-line with the kind of advice that many Social Media experts likes to give. So, in my continuing effort not to judge, to agree with the bandwagon, and most importantly make sure that every Social Media expert – no matter how new to the space – feels safe selling whatever kinds of services they want to their clients regardless of effectiveness, this is me taking the repeated advice of my respected peers: Stop being so critical! Instead of calling out bad practices today, let’s instead turn lemons into Social Media lemonade. Let’s embrace any and all advice, because it is all equally valid.
Here we go. The 5 new rules of digital crisis management:
Rule #1: Content is still king. The first thing you need to do when mean bloggers attack your Twitter page or Facebook wall with negativity, is hire someone to help you develop a content strategy. This is key. Without a content strategy, you cannot hope to respond to criticism on the web. Don’t take my word for it, though. Ask anybody!
More good advice from the pros: The slower your response, the more likely it is that your PR problems will go away on their own, so no need to hurry. Take your time.
Rule #2: Embrace transparency. If you don’t know what that means, I suggest asking your content strategist to recommend a transparency strategist immediately. A certified transparency strategist will help you make sure that your content strategy is transparent enough to effectively get rid of those pesky bloggers through conversation and engagement.
Rule #3: Engage! This means making sure that your content actually gets published in a transparent way, especially on the twitternets and Facebooks. You could hire an engagement strategist, but in case your budget is starting to feel a little strained, ask your content strategist if they can help you execute on their content strategy. You know, like stringing 140-character responses together for you. A good content strategist should already have a crap-load of canned strategized responses for you that worked for their other big-name clients. See if they’ll sell you that gold mine of content. If you still have the budget for it, see if they can’t recommend a conversation strategist as well. Those can come in pretty handy.
As a bonus, try to score some of their “viral” engagement content and add THAT to your content strategy. If you can make your engagement viral, you’re assured a Social Media win, especially in the middle of a crisis.
Here is a little tip that all Social Media gurus know. You should know it too: Know the Social Media vocabulary, and you are 90% there. (Shhh. Don’t tell anybody.) Get you some of that viral content asap!
Rule #4: Autheticity is your heart. Rip it out of your chest and show them! Let those angry Social Media bullies know that you are authentic! How? By telling people how authentic you are. Examples of this in Twitter sentences:
We are an authentic brand. Would you like to become a brand ambassador today?
Our responses are as authentic as we are. Read all about our authenticity strategy here.
Our content strategy is to be authentic when we engage with our fans through authentic conversations.
See? Easy. (Now you try!)
Why the need for authenticity? Because many independent marketing studies have shown that the more authentic a brand is, the more Word-Of-Mouth it will generate on the interwebs, and that’s how you judge success. (Mentions are everything.) There is no such thing as bad publicity, right?
Rule #5: Be positive! Focus on the mentions. When reporting to the brass (or the client) on their Social Media metrics for the month, be sure to show them how many mentions they got while people were firebombing their Social Media accounts. Also be sure to take credit for the surge in mentions, so they will know how well your Social Media strategy is working out for them. FTW!
Don’t be fooled though. Only entrust your digital crisis response strategy to either certified social media consultants, the advertising agency that designed your twitter page’s cool graphics, or people whose business cards state clearly that they are either conversation, engagement, or content strategists. Or okay, maybe the intern, but only you have changed their title to “(insert word here) strategist.” Like… Crisis Response Strategist, or Social Media Crisis Management Strategist. Something like that. Make it catchy so they can put it on their resume.
Wow. You know what? This blogging thing is a lot easier now that I don’t need to worry about things like… oh, integrity, logic or reason. Extra bonus: My posts are short now. Everyone should like that!
Isn’t this much better than when I was overly analytical and “critical” of everything?
Day One: Positivity has its rewards. My inventory of awesome in the last hour or so saw the following entries:
1. I have not written anything snarky about anything in at least 24 hours.
2. I did not mention the words “snake oil” or “charlatan” once today except just now, to say I didn’t.
3. No Social Media speaking circuit guru had to ask me to stop writing snarky posts about “negative” stuff yet today.
4. I started working on my content strategy.
Speaking of which, would you like to see it? Okay, I will show you. Right now, it looks like this:
Monday topics
Justin Bieber is like, awesome
Facebook will cure Cancer
I love puppies
Tuesday topics
Elephants are like people, only more nervous around lions
Journalists make excellent poker players
Twitter is like a giant chat room, but more vertical
Wednesday topics
Why zombies will never reach a saturation point in the gaming world
How to attract people to your blog with ironic kitten pictures
Social Media is better for economic growth than boring old business plans
Thursday topics
Oprah is never wrong
PR people are really good at mixing cocktails for some reason
Smart phones are the future of the phone industry
Friday topics
#FF
New words I learned from Social Media experts this week
Anything to attract affiliate marketers to your website
Saturday topics
Whatever sports are on TV today, except boxing
A recap of Mashable, Wired and Gizmodo stories from the past week
Pizza toppings
Sunday topics
The color yellow
The weather
Tactical Digital Content Strategery Optimization
See how I steered clear of anything even remotely “negative?” No way anyone can accuse me of being snarky or antagonistic anymore. Project “Live and let live” is going super-duper well.
Tomorrow, I start building a Social Media R.O.I. calculator that magically combines Twitter followers, blog karma ratios, incubated sentiment, and slow roasted organic pineapples.
See, all this time, I had it way wrong: Focusing on clearly separating best practices from really bad practices, discerning real methodology from made-up BS, aligning Social Media to business objectives… Using ugly words like “bull$hit” and “snake oil.” Silly me. Why did I ever think that all that negativity would ever be worth anything to anyone? All I was doing was hurting myself and my “brand.” I should have listened to my betters sooner when they all took turns telling me I should stop pointing out bad practices and focus only on the positive. For a year, they tried to talk some sense into me. Why did I wait so long to listen? (Stubborn!) This is so much easier! There is just so much more value to agreeing with everyone and falling in line isn’t there?
I was originally going to write a post outlining the difference between strategy and tactics, but it came to my attention that not everyone likes the fact that I a) call out bullpoopy, b) argue about semantics and c) tweet around acting like I am smarter than everyone else. Evidently, trying to “correct” people in this and other areas only serves to position me as a know-it-all, and others as know-nothings, which isn’t exactly the friendly thing to do in the big Social Media 24/7 party bubble where I should be… a voice of wisdom, not a voice of negativity.
Over the last year, I have inadvertently turned into that guy at the party who corrects people for their improper use of English, and questions the validity of their tall tales. (Who am I to question how big that fish actually was?!) Nobody wants to be that guy. So… I have decided to stop being that guy.
Yep, that’s right. Starting yesterday, I have decided to stop being so… negative. I am turning a whole new leaf.
Before I can really become the super-duper nice Olivier, the one who agrees with everyone and plays nice no matter what, I need to make amends. I don’t know much about 12-step programs, but I seem to recall that taking inventory of your flaws and asking for forgiveness is part of the process. So here we go:
1. I was wrong to butt into the R.O.I. discussion. Not sure what I was thinking with that one. I should have considered everyone’s feelings. Instead of trying to be right, I should have considered that EVERYONE has a right to be right. So… I was wrong to say that R.O.I. was a business measurement. In fact, it was kind of negative of me to imply that R.O.I. can’t be whatever you want it to be. R.O.I. can be anything you want it to be. You can measure it in followers, hugs, retweets, puppies, mentions… and whatever you want. R.O.I. can be anyoutcome you want it to be, and you can measure it however you want to. It was inconsiderate of me to suggest that anyone had it wrong. Hopefully, business schools will begin adopting new definitions of the term, and accepting that Social Media gurus are just as smart as MBA professors.
2. Social Media certifications are always legitimate, no matter who issues them. The legitimacy of the organization responsible for offering and delivering certifications in the Social Media space is not mine to question anyway, not that it needs to be. See item #3 to find out why.
3. Everyone who claims to be a Social Media expert actually is. How I got away with ever questioning that is beyond me. Thanks for being so patient with someone as obviously negative as I was. (It gives me chills to think about how negative and mean I have been to suggest otherwise!) Overnight expertise on the interwebs isn’t just possible, it is obviously common. Google something enough times and you too can be an expert. Thousands of people did it that way, and you can too.
4. There is no snake oil in Social Media (or in marketing, for that matter.) I made it all up. Everyone is 100% legit. Those R.O.E. equations, those calculators, those content strategy experts, they’re all solid. I was just jealous because they were better at math than I am. Trust everyone. Even when the math is wrong and the facts don’t add up, don’t be like me and expect the worst. Take the stance that… well, the guys selling you this stuff are the experts and you’re not. In the end, it isn’t your (or my) job to question, only to pay their invoices and let them do their expert strategist thing.
5. Nomenclature is completely unimportant. I was wrong to attach so much importance to silly things like what words really mean or don’t mean. Who cares if no one knows the difference between strategy and tactics, after all? It isn’t the end of the world. If people want to call themselves strategists, why should I care? (I shouldn’t.) Likewise, when a major brand’s Social Media Director confuses foot traffic and fouresquare check-ins, what does it matter? (I doesn’t.) The sun still rises the next day, doesn’t it? People still buy burgers, don’t they? Does anyone really care that 719 check-ins were made to sound like over 7,000,000 customers flocked to their 13,000+ locations? Of course not. These sorts of things are INSIGNIFICANT details. I was an a-hole to point it out, and to do so in a less than positive, encouraging way. I see the error of my ways now: Using the right words doesn’t matter. Everyone should be allowed to make up words and terminology whenever they want. That’s the beauty of the internet after all: The freedom to be, do and say whatever you want. To suggest that expert nomenclature comes with expertise was so pretentious of me! Sorry I have been such a party pooper.
So yep, I am turning a new leaf. Starting today, no more posts or tweets about things people do to harm companies or the public. (Since self-serving charlatans don’t actually exist.) No more shining a light on “shady” practices. (There is no such thing.) All I will write about will be positive and supportive, of everyone, without exception. You want less Jerry Springer and more Bono? You got it. David Armano, Jay Baer, Amber Naslund, Jason Falls, Liz Strauss, Chris Brogan and all of you who suggested – for months now – that I focus on the positive rather than the negative, your wish has just come true. I am finally listening to your collective advice. I am going to be the biggest Social Media cheerleader the world has ever known, starting now.
My content strategy is now this: Whatever I write, I will never offend anyone ever again. Most important of all, my content strategy will be to provoke exactly zero pesky arguments and debates about silly things like… terminology, measurement, ethics or whatever else used to make me such an insufferable, holier-than-thou know-it-all.
What the internet needs more of, after all, is love. Love, I can give. Encouragement and support, even. If you want to build Social Media and Content Strategy consulting businesses out of thin air and cracker-jack boxes, I will support you 100% of the way. You creative equation designers out there, those of you who have reinvented R.O.I. for the Social Web, you are the internet’s true heroes and I will not stop singing your praises until both Mashable and the Wall Street Journal mention you as examples of excellence in measurement innovation. We need more of that, and I have plenty of it to give.
Uncomfortable questions though, not so much. (All they do is make people feel bad about the choices they’ve made, and nobody wants that.) I have learned my lesson: When ethics, values and standards make some people uncomfortable, the proper thing to do is to back off and let them exercise their freedom to do whatever they want. I don’t want to be an obstructionist.
What I really want to be a Social Media cheerleader. It was wrong of me to ever want to be anything else. I let pride and ego stand in the way of being everyone’s best friend.
So my pledge to you from now on is this: Nothing but love, support, and acceptance, no matter what. I can’t wait to help you sell your new words, concepts and ideas for digital and marketing services! Certification programs? Send them my way! ROI calculators? Toss those babies over to me. It’s all good. I will never question anyone’s work again, no matter how um… complex it is.
