Month: September 2006

Wear Your Heart on Your Chest

Authenticity

The blogosphere is filled with lists. There are "top 5" lists, there are "top 10" lists. There the "best 3" lists and the "worst 3" lists. It seems that we are all destined to create list after list for our readers to stew over, comment on and discuss.

Most of the time these posts annoy me. I do not like the list. I am anti-list really (except when I need to organise myself). I think this comes from some strange desire to abolish lists and rules … a last dash of anarchy in a world of order. But then I read this post by Russell Davies and it gave me a new perspective.

It seems that I have the list all wrong … it is not trying to capture or define me, it is a way for me to define myself! Russell links to this GREAT site where you can order a T-shirt carrying your favourite list. Not only can you put your favourite Top 5 list on your blog, but you can now wear it as a T-shirt. So, if you are being truthful and dare to write a REAL Top 5 for your blog (you know, the kind where you TRUTHFULLY put forward a Top 5 that MATTERS to YOU) there is a chance to now wear your heart not on your sleeve, but on your chest. Cool!

So what would mine be? A little boring. Probably all about lists.

S

PS … and if you read Russell’s excellent post, I think Lego is cool … but Bionicle is waaay cool.

Can You Stop, Can You Say No?

Authenticity

Caution, High speed trains
Originally uploaded by Lampy.

If you blog, as I do, for fun (for the stimulation and  the joy of engaging with people in a world of ideas), then it is easy to rant. It is easy to take shots at others. It is easy to stand on a soapbox and to put forth a PRINCIPLED and idealistic view of the world. As a modern day Descartes may say "I blog therefore I am".

BUT … it is quite a different kettle of fish to blog professionally, or to blog on behalf of your company. I am not referring to those evangelists who help present a little human softness to the vast multinational corporations … I am referring to those bloggers who write and maintain their blogs as an extension to their business. For these people the thoughts and ideas that they publish on their blog can both bring in new business or lose it. The authenticity that they seek and work towards in their ideation and their writing could be the very thing that keeps  potential clients away. Furthermore, this principled approach to authenticity can also cause a real work dilemma — which clients do you accept, which do you turn away from, and how do you draw the line?

The Staufenbergers have recently been wresting with this challenge. The money was good but, in the end, they decided NOT to take on a project where the client was in a sector that they didn’t want to work in. There are a couple of interesting points around this (and please go read the article):

  • Standing by your principles costs you — when you are a small agency/business this will cost you REAL money. If you have won the work, then you would have invested in the pitch … and you may have foregone other work to do so. And that means it costs you DOUBLE.
  • You feel childish — when you decline work you start to doubt yourself. You feel childish and perhaps churlish. You wonder whether you are standing by your principles … and can go so far as to question them, belittle them and begin to self-censor. AND all this happend BEFORE you call your client.
  • Your feeling of wellness grows — after you have answered the 100 questions asked by the voices in your head, and after you have spoken with your client, you begin to feel happy. Your sense of wellness grows and continues to strengthen almost immediately (and it lasts).

I must say, full marks to The Staufenbergers. Not only have they shown that it is important to make a personal and professional stand from time to time, but they also demonstrate a firm sense of their abilities — if they did not think that they would have an impact on the people in the marketplace, then there would have been no dilemma.

Makes you wonder though, where would YOU draw the line?

S.

Blog Debt

blog debt

dump the debt
Originally uploaded by Daveybot.

I don’t know if any other bloggers have found this, but there is a hidden bonus in blogging … the disciplined generation of ideas. It is like there is a whole lot of work being done by the creative side of my brain allowing ideas to pop, ready-made, into my conscious mind.

The unfortunate side effect of this is that you also generate a need to write … and in the days when life (kids, family, work, illness, kite flying etc) gets in the way you end up with a BLOG DEBT.

Over the last few days I have been reading a lot of other people’s posts and feeling rather inspired to comment or analyse … but really have not had the time. So, as part of my blog debt, I am aiming to return to some of these posts, allow the ideas to seep into my brain a little longer, and write it up when I am ready to start paying back my blog debt. Articles for blog debt payback include:

  • Russell Davies — I love the way that Russell uses observation from real life to force us to actually look and feel and PERCEIVE and UNDERSTAND the world around us. This post on IP piracy is a great example that goes on to show how even the most mundane works can have beauty and value.
  • Johnnie Moore always has a unusual insight … and this post is no different. He seems particularly reflective at present, and it is nice to be able to observe some "slow thinking" in a busy world
  • Some great rants are available here. A lot of fun, energy and enough vitriol to keep us on the edge of our keyboards.
  • And the prolific Mr Armano is now blogcasting and giving us deeper and more personal insights into his most popular articles.

What is Your Reputation Worth?

Rant

There has been plenty of debate around Snakes on a Plane and the way it was picked up by bloggers. There has been a lot of discussion about how this has changed the game, or represents a significant shift in the nature of marketing. But it was this post over at MarketingProfs that really got me thinking about the way that the blogging community got behind the movie. Gerry McGovern asks us to consider what is free, and what is the hidden cost of "free" on the web, and as he says:

Free is a funny word. We all know that very little is really for free. If we go searching on the Web for free music and free screensavers, we know-or should know-that there are risks involved.

But what are the risks that we, as marketers take, when we get behind something like a movie that we have never seen? Are we taking Seth’s work in vain? Don’t we owe it to ourselves and our reputations to make sure that the product we get behind is, in fact, one of the famous Purple Cows? And if it is NOT purple, shouldn’t we check that it is a cow, and not some other barnyard animal?

Mack Collier has an interesting post that shows (again) how many traditional marketers don’t understand social networking and blogs. Through some traffic stats detective work he tracks down a newsletter linking to his site, and finds the newsletter exhorting readers to hire "unpaid interns" to produce some "low cost marketing" — ie blogs. Please check out the full post if you have not already.

But there is a greater problem here. I agree with Todd over at Advertising Ourselves to Death … the job of the citizen marketer is to "call bullshit when companies try to blow sunshine up the collective skirts of consumers". But we missed the boat on many counts. There were A-list through to Z-listers jumping on the Snakes bandwagon, lapping up some traffic, some referrals and a bit of the limelight. The product that we bought was the MARKETING, not the movie. The movie marketers, with all their finely honed skills persuaded, cajoled and seduced us.

So while it is easy to call this a win for Marketing 2.0, I call it the other way — a big win for Marketing 1.0. What is your reputation worth?  Maybe that isn’t the right question — perhaps it should be "What is the trust between me and my audience worth?".

S.

Look Into My Eyes

Branding

Lookintomyeyes2 It is hard to live up to your own idea of yourself. No matter what profession that we choose to follow, or path that we take in life, we can always fall into the trap of self censorship. On an artistic front we can hold back our best ideas or perhaps our "craziest" concepts, only to hear later that same idea pushed forward successfully. In business we can miss out on opportunities just because we did not step forward when the chance came … or we can suffer in our own failure because we did not ask for, or accept help, when it was needed. But, if you are nodding your head, then you are already a step ahead … you can at least recognise the situation.

There are, of course, other people who read this and cannot understand or relate to this problem. And for them, there are no amount of words that I can write to help them 😉

BUT then there are the REALLY scary people who actively work to deceive others. Like the hypnotist character from Little Britain, who is happy to work on stage, as a hypnotist, but rather than working WITH his audience, he works ON his audience.

Look into my eyes, look into my eyes. Not around the eyes. Look into my eyes. You’re under.

Rather than entertaining and engaging a SINGLE person, he turns his gaze on the entire audience and hypnotises them. Once under his spell he explains that "they will have had a great night, experienced a show of unparalleled entertainment and will tell all their friends about it". He then pulls out a chair and a book and sits down to while away the hour or so duration of his show — because he wants it to be AUTHENTIC afterall.

Why do I tell this story?

Because it reminds me of the way that a number of brands are using social media … they are busy making us THINK that they are engaging us, when all they want to do is use the same old brand building/advertising tricks that they have used for years. They think that by putting up a blog that they are part of the blogosphere.

Here is a case in point — Trixi. I know I am not in their target demographic, but seriously, the kids that are will sniff this for the fake that it is.

What makes matters worse is that it is perpetrated by companies that SHOULD know better. Seriously, if Yahoo! doesn’t GET web 2.0 and the whole need to be authentic … then there is bound to be a Yahoo v2 knocking on the door or jumping through the window any day now.

Look into my eyes? Don’t think so.

S.

The Speed and Beauty of Blogcasting

Storytelling

Darmano_blogcast_1 When I sit down to write, most times the ideas just flow — I get into a groove, and the ideas begin to transform themselves quickly into words. This is partly because I write about the things that I am interested in, but also, partly because I have taken the time to develop my writing in a disciplined manner. In fact, I started writing this blog as a way of reasserting this discipline.

However, the process of writing is quite slow … even if you know what you are going to say, it takes time. And because you can see what you are writing, you also are able to edit it. You censor yourself, you edit out some sections, remove any embarrassing gaffs (most of the time) … and you generally work and rework your text so that you make sure you look good to your readers. You are, afterall, only as sexy as your writing portrays.

One of the benefits of blogging is that you can work through ideas in an episodic and non-linear way … and by categorising your posts you end up with a series of articles that (generally) build and expand on a central theme. Often, when I visit blogs I take a look at the categories to see how ideas have evolved over time.

But then, sometimes an innovation jumps in to disrupt this flow. Such is the case with David Armano’s new adventure in blogcasting. In his virgin blogcast, David gives us a great insight into the background thinking and actual approaches to using his Experience Map. The cool thing? It was done in 15 minutes with no fuss … and there was no worry in clearly articulating his "voice", sounding "authentic" or demonstrating his mastery of the topic. It was all these things. Done with speed and beauty.

S.