Servant of Chaos

Kill Your Website Mark II

A few weeks back, David Armano suggested that it is time to kill your website:

Your website should provide value to all of your users. If you can get them to participate, then do what ever it takes achieve that. In other words, it doesn't matter if your site looks more or less like a blog, what matters is if you're doing something to transform behavior from the passive to the active. Participatory behavior leads to better interactions between people, brands, businesses etc. So the real question is—are you designing for participation? Your answer should be, yes. If your Website doesn't do that, kill it. Then bring it back to life into something that does.

Interestingly, the folks from BooneOakley (via Daria)have transformed their website into a YouTube channel, using some of the interactive features of YouTube to provide the sort of participatory behaviour that David was referring to.

Take a look. BooneOakley are an agency with a sense of themselves and a sense of humour. I love the way they encourage P-L-A-Y . Listen to the “actual” tone of voice used. Think about your own website. Is there something you can learn here? Something of value you can take away? It looks to me like they understand the secret to marketing.

For the Love of the Story

In marketing when we talk about “engagement” with an audience, what we really mean is that we want to create an emotional attachment with each and every person who comes into contact with our brand. This is challenging, because each and every person is different.

There are, however, a number of things that we can do to reframe the experience of our brands. Fundamental to this is understanding the “like me” aspect of human behaviour. It works in two ways:

• Public image – we mark our belonging in the world by performing (living our lives in public) our allegiances over and over again. This is a continual external manifestation of who we want to “be” and is shown in the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the places we go and so on. It is the mark of the tribe.
• Self image – our internal identification where we appropriate behaviours, brands, celebrities, music and a million other cues from the external world. These are then processed and internalised before being incorporated into our public image.

Of course, there are massive overlaps and interplays between these two aspects (and I am describing a simplified model of identity), however, it is also a useful way of understanding what Mike Arauz calls desire paths:

… we often mistake chaos for randomness. It isn’t. Underlying random events is Desire as an organising principle. What this means is that we seek out, attract and are attracted to things that gratify our desires. And in the process we unconsciously order our world and make decisions and choices that obey the laws of desire – not the laws of logic. It’s why we buy things like Alfa Romeo cars and Ducati motorbikes – not because we are smart, but because we feel compelled to.

Perhaps it is the emotional interplay between the self and public image that is really what we mean by the term “personal brand”.

But what happens when these two elements are out of alignment? What happens when our self image is at odds with our public image? What happens when what we say is betrayed by what we do?

Natalie Tran, the creator of CommunityChannel - Australia’s most subscribed YouTube channel - has put together this sketch parodying the judges of the reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent. This short piece explains exactly this phenomenon – from the celebrity point of view.

But the fascinating story – and one which Britain’s Got Talent is exploiting so well at present – is the way in which contestants are, through the show, bringing their public and self images into alignment before our very eyes. It happened with Susan Boyle. And it has happened again with 10 year old Hollie Steele.

It is classic storytelling. We have a beginning, middle and end. We have a challenge or opportunity, a hero and certainly a villain. There is a climax, a transformation and, of course, catharsis. More importantly, for the Britain’s Got Talent brand, it generates tremendous emotional connection with an audience. There is plenty that non-entertainment brands can learn from this sophisticated approach to storytelling – but the most compelling aspect is that it starts with ONE person – and without that one person, the rest fails.

Why the Story IS The Most Important Thing

I am often asked what it is about storytelling that is important. After all, we have visual thinking, we have design, we have movies, great advertising … we have gadgets and cars and the fluff of life that surrounds us.

Often I find the best, and simplest way of explaining the importance of storytelling is to direct people to great stories. So I link to websites or recommend books. And today, I point here.

Take a few moments to look through the stunning Days with My Father website. Turn off your iPod. Give the story your respect. And remember the story is important because it proves there is a link between our own life and the lives of those we love. It changes the nature of the way we see the world and the way we choose to live within it. And if we are lucky, and brave, it can sometimes change our future.

Via Heather Snodgrass.

The Truth

I remember seeing this great piece of advertising a couple of years ago. I may even have written about it here on my blog (but just cannot find it). If you have not seen it yet, it was created for the Argentine political campaign of Lopez Murphy in 2006.

This idea has been taken and adapted for a competition. Now, rather than discussing politics and vision, The Lost Generation prompts us to rethink what it means to be part of a generation entering adulthood in the first years of the 21st Century. Some excellent copywriting and storytelling  (via Garr Reynolds and Carl Moggeridge).

What’s Your Story. Here’s Mine

A while back, Ian Kath and I got together for a chat. He is an interesting fellow and has a true curiosity for the people that he meets – which is just as well, as he produces the YourStoryPodcast series.

His website and iTunes catalogue now contains well over thirty podcasts and covers meetings with people from all over the world. In this podcast, Ian meets with the women behind the Hidden Europe magazine in a cafe in Berlin; while a little closer to home, Ian talks with Andrew Leavold about odd and eccentric DVDs and video recordings. One of my favourite interviews, however, was with Mel Poudroux who shares her personal story and discusses, along the way, tattoos, scarification and what it means to be normal in an abnormal world.

Most recently, Ian took time out from his Sydney trip to talk to me about social media, marketing, innovation and social judgement. Hope you enjoy it. I did.

Social Judgement: The Auchterlonie Effect

The playground was a swarm. To my left there are legions of boys running to and fro; to my right whole classes seem to be moving steadily across the playground. In front of me, our shared destination - the canteen – sits alone like a giant weatherboard pimple rising up out of the summer asphalt.

But there is a commotion on the grass on the far side of the building. There is a ring of boys bubbling across the lawn and spilling into the playground. Every now and then, one boy shoots off like a meteor to the far side of the playground. Minutes later, the gravity draws him back into orbit. But it is not one boy who returns – but three or four at a time.

Eventually I relent and go to see what is happening. By now the crowd is two or three deep and I struggle to see who is caught at the centre of the crowd. It is Grant Auchterlonie and he is in my class. After some time and after many of the other boys have left I finally get to see what the fuss is about. And there it is … on his arm. It is the first digital watch that I have ever seen – complete with stopwatch to 1/100th of a second.

I can remember it like it was yesterday. The excitement and buzz in the playground is palpable. But it is not just this story that has stuck with me. There were many other stories created that day.

As I discussed yesterday, influence is not just about the number of people that you have in your social network. There is a much more complex dynamic in effect where your personal store of social capital is used and accrued based on your interactions with those in your network. For example, in this diagram, it is easy for Katie to reach a large number of people. She is at the centre of the network with 1st degree connections to most people. When she chooses to push out into this network, she uses up a unit of accrued social capital. But to reach beyond the 1st degree network to Stan, Katie must go “through” either Ian or Gav. That means that she must use up two units of social capital. Interestingly, Ian and Gav must also use up one unit of social capital in this process as well. So reaching to the 2nd degree network requires not TWO but THREE units of social capital. As you can see, with every ADDITIONAL degree that you move through your network, an exponential amount of social capital is consumed.

BUT one of the most fascinating aspects of this is that the process can also be easily reversed. That is, social capital is ACCRUED when this process is reversed, driven by the power of a personal story. How? This is the Auchterlonie effect in action.

The Auchterlonie Effect

When a remarkable event takes place we play multiple roles. We are observers – watching from a distance. We are participants interacting with the other players. We may be the subject of the event itself (such as the ‘birthday girl/boy’). But as the temporal moment of the event passes, we become STORYTELLERS – crystallising the events in a narrative that involves us, encompasses the range of other participants and provides emotional drive to bring others into the loop of this story. The Auchterlonie Effect is the impetus that drives the ongoing story of YOUR personal engagement with the initial event – and it is, essentially, being able to bask in the reflected credibility of another.

In the playground, I accrued an enormous amount of social capital because I knew the “guy who had the digital watch”. And the people who knew me were able to proudly say that they “knew the guy who knew the guy who had the digital watch”.

How does this work outside the playground?

Say, Katie gets a new iPhone. It is the first in the country. No one has seen one before. And when she comes to coffee morning on Friday, she brings her new treasure along. A crowd gathers. As the person sitting next to her, I am in close proximity to this new device and am able to try it out. I am interested. And while Sue casts her envious eye over the prize, I move to a table nearby where my friend, Stan, is sitting. I relate the story of the iPhone. I explain how my 1st degree friend has a highly desired iPhone and talk to him about the things that I discovered while using it a few minutes ago. I suggest that, if he is interested, that I could get him a closer look at the said, iPhone. Meanwhile, Stan’s young friend, Jules, arrives for his morning ritual of coffee and muesli and listens into my story. Picking up on the vibe and the opportunity, Jules asks to tag along. So together, the three of us return to get a closer glimpse of the iPhone.

In this example, the flow of social capital is reversed. By creating, driving and owning this story, I accrue a unit of social capital from Stan. I also accrue a unit of social capital from Jules, as does Stan. And when I bring this story back to its source (Katie), she accrues THREE units of social capital – that is, she benefits from the network effect of my story. Importantly, the most important element in this whole process is NOT the object – the iPhone – but the STORY. And at the heart of this is a series of SOCIAL JUDGEMENTS that have unlocked value for each and every participant.

Now, multiply this out across the rest of the network and you can see that the power of the story can easily build very quickly. This is what we would commonly call “viral” – as in the case of a “viral video”.

The power of the story

In The Future of Your Brand is Play, I discussed how you can begin to build “infatuations” into your marketing. It is these infatuations which create the conditions for the Auchterlonie Effect. But by understanding this effect, you can help facilitate social judgement – for at every point of connection across the network, each person must make a decision about whether to bring another person into the gravitational pull of the story. When Stan introduced Jules into the story above, he had evaluated the situation and realised that he could accrue a unit of social capital based on his proximity to the story.

The strength of weak ties 

Before something DOES “go viral” it needs to spread beyond the echo chamber of 1st degree connections. Without this vital step, a story will just circulate upon itself until it collapses under the collective weight of retelling.

But, you see, social judgement is incredibly tenuous. Often it has only one strand, as shown here. If the one link breaks, then the story will not spread into adjacent social networks. It is why, as Valdis Krebs suggests, influence needs many connected people to spread – not just the highly connected.

This is precisely why it is difficult to predict when a video or a meme will “go viral”. It can only succeed when the MARGINAL cost of trusting is LESS than the risk of losing a person’s trust – where social capital continues to accumulate towards the centre of the experience.

But understanding the Auchterlonie Effect and the way in which social capital accrues is essential in achieving your marketing outcomes in a social context. By allowing social judgement to be exercised around your brand’s story, you are producing social capital as a by-product. And this can only be a good thing for brands (if they get it right).

Oh, and in case you are wondering – unfortunately, Grant’s claim to fame was fleeting. But even though I later purchased my own digital watch, I still recall the day when his watch made me famous too.

What's Your Story, Morning Glory?

It is one thing to talk about telling your brand story, but quite another to roll this out comprehensively within a business. It is even more surprising when a business encourages and empowers their employees to creatively engage with the brand AS a story. But this is exactly what Australian broadcaster, SBS, has done.

SBS focus their broadcasting as well as their messaging and brand advertising around the tag line “six billion stories and counting …”.

Last night, after the NSW Knowledge Management Forum on Online Communities, I met Aisha Hillary. (BTW both Jye Smith and Niina Talikka share their excellent notes and insight from the forum.) We got talking about her business card and how its creation became a personal challenge to every employee. You see, rather than placing contact details directly under her name and position, Aisha’s business card also shares her own, personal story:

Aisha means LIFE and that is why I make the most of everyday and believe you miss 100% of the opportunities you never take.

Apparently, some people focus their short sentence-long story on their job and the outcomes they hope to achieve – like a personal mission statement. Others reflect their collaborative nature. But, as we learned with The Age of Conversation, committing text in a printed format is far more daunting than blogging. After all, with a blog you can always delete or edit your work – but once it is printed, your ideas, thoughts and words are released into the world without recourse to change.

I wonder, if you had to commit it to writing, what would be the one sentence that defines you? In my recent contribution to Sean Howard’s Passion Economy eBook, I was able to whittle this down to a single magical word. Can you?

UPDATE: But imagine if your business card was like the one shown on John V Willshire's post?

Shift Happens Revisted, Again and Again

Web 2.0 or social media is predicated on the use and re-use of information, data, creative output and ideas in ever new versions - Baudrillard would be proud!. True to form, then, a newer, cleaner and probably more aesthetically coherent version of Karl Fisch's Shift Happens presentation is now available.

For those who have not seen this, it is a jaw-droppingly powerful presentation of raw facts placed within a context which is knowable (or at least more familiar) to us. It is, at once, a story that we know and one that we struggle to comprehend. And once you have seen it, your concept of "globalisation" is never quite the same again.

The Importance of Content Marketing

I always find it interesting that a great deal of thought will be put into the strategic planning of a campaign – but very little time will be devoted to creating a content strategy. After all, it is the content that will bring your campaign to life. And perhaps, more importantly, it is content that will feed your social media efforts.

Some time ago, I was interviewed by ethos3 – seven questions on storytelling – where I discussed the P-L-A-Y framework for brand engagement. I remember emphasising the importance of allowing people into the context of your world – like starting a story with “once upon a time”. For me, content marketing comes back to telling a story. It is using the techniques and devices of storytelling to change the way that someone relates to your business, brand or product. And it’s about allowing these people into the process of storytelling. For brands, that means changing the way that you think of your consumers. For businesses, it means transforming the relationships you have with customers. And for marketers, it means changing the very nature of the work that we do.

But if this is the case, where can you find out about content marketing?

Over the last 12 months, additional focus has been given to “content marketing”. The “Top 42” content marketing blogs have been tracked and compiled regularly on the Junta 42 website (servantofchaos.com is currently ranked #16), and Guy Kawasaki has recently created a new content marketing catalogue for his alltop.com site. Each of these sites provide a convenient listing of content marketing related sites – which is valuable for any marketer wanting to think through a content marketing strategy. (And while many people feel more than a little jaded about the relevance of lists with their rankings of “influence” or “authority”, I still feel that most lists like this listing of 150 social media blogs, can prove to be a great resource for all of us).

And in this interview with Bryan Person, David Alston shares his insights around the importance of content marketing. As VP Marketing for Radian6, David has a broad professional and personal interest in social media and the role that content marketing plays in lubricating our social/digital interactions. As David says, "Not everyone's a customer when you WANT them to be a customer" ... so content allows you to offer value (not a product) to build a relationship. And in social media, it’s relationships that count.

So, tell me … what’s your story? Why is content important to your brand?

A Wii Kidsperience

When we talk about thinking "outside the box", or when we think of the "experience", this often means that we are trying to make a break with current types and modes of thinking. On the creative front, this means playing with expectation, changing the framing of a story, transforming a consumer’s sense of control or mastery. I often think about this in terms of the P-L-A-Y framework:

P -- for Power

• Demanding of attention 
• Testing limits (boundaries around behaviour, responsibility etc) 
• Controlling the controllable 
• Belonging

L -- for learning and curiosity

• Skills development 
• Negotiation

A -- for adventure

• Exploring an ever changing world 
• Actively making the world a better place

Y -- the yelp of surprise and delight

• Recognition and reward 
• Self expression

As brands continue to investigate the changing consumer and business landscape prompted by the ever-increasing adoption of social (and mobile) media, strategists need to also consider the idea of “kidsperience”.

Nintendo appear to be following a similar path in their efforts to differentiate their product in the highly competitive gaming console market. As Scott Weisbrod points out, Nintendo are in search of a Blue Ocean. His competitive strategy canvas shows exactly how the positioning is being planned. But the question remains – how does this play out in their branding and advertising works? Take a look here. NO … wait, really, click through – and then come back and share your thoughts. I am fascinated to know.

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