Conversation Agent

Fighting the Summer Doldrums

Maybe you have noticed it, too. After Memorial Day the only kind of reading I look forward to doing is that of a good book - a great story - on a beach, by the pool, or perched on a favorite spot somewhere outdoors.

Well before the heat sets in, when the skies are clear, our disposition gravitates towards sunny. Which means we begin to slow down at work.

Whether you are your own boss or not, it's hard to take yourself to task - especially on Fridays. Today I posted at The Blog Herald asking: can you run an online publication? All the while pining for the open air I can almost taste outside my windows.

With that in mind, there are some things that we as content producers - writers, marketers, PR professionals, authors, researchers - can do to fight the summer doldrums.

• Be realistic. Reading patterns are seasonal. If you're a business writer/publisher, you'll likely feel a stronger pinch than most. Take a deep breath, remain true to your basic mission, and wait for the end of vacation season. 

• Take a break. Post best-of material for a couple weeks and come back fresh.

• Start a side publication or series on something really new. If it's substantially off-message, preface each post with an explanation that it's part of a limited series. Then write about something that makes you happy, or some project you feel passionate about. The key here is "different."

• Line up a few guest posts, and return the favor. This is a good way to get some fresh perspective and make new friends.

• Hit the basics. If you have fewer people coming into the store during the summer months, you'll need to close more deals to fill the till, as it were. There are plenty of site tune-up tutorials around, but a few obvious possibilities are decluttering your sidebar, a new theme or logo, and going back over your articles to see your greatest hits and misses. Write more of the former, and much less of the last.

What else have you done to mix things up and prepare for the next creative wave?

[image of summer sunset, Puesta de Sol de Verano, Victor Nuno]

Tom Peters and Thoughts on Design

Tom Peters has an outstanding post outlining 67 random thoughts on design. I have admired the deliberate way in which Tom uses language from the very beginning of his career. The words we use matter. Words are powerful. As my spiritual upbringing taught me, thoughts are even more powerful than words.

Loving, compassionate, caring thoughts, when harnessed and shared through inspiring and empowering words, can move to a positive transformation. Words can sometimes betray thoughts, too. However, I have often found that it does not occur at random, it happens by choice - by design. The problems I (and I am sure many others) have been experiencing with TypePad for the past two plus weeks, are also occurring as a result of design decisions.

The teams at Technorati, Twitter, and now LinkedIn have all made design decisions that are impacting the function of those sites/services now. There is a reason why we all so like the quote: "if you build it, they will come" in Field of Dreams - it was a design decision that provided the theater for the events that followed. Design permeates everything: design of work, design of team, design of community - design of life.

How do we approach the design of conversations, actions, experiences? Do we let our need to leave an imprint rule the specs? Do we test, fail, learn, implement with others? As you think of that, let me build on a couple of Tom's thoughts:

• "It" works only if it is "a way of life." (Apple. BMW. Cirque du Soleil. Starbucks.)
• "Design-mindfulness." (Design-mindfulness is a universally shared attitude.) The tone, the pitch, the non verbals, the experience, all contribute.
• "It" does not work if it is a "program"! It most definitely is not going to be a campaign. However, if you need to start somewhere, do start by willing to make it an aspirational goal. Be serious about it.
• Don't try to "engineer it"—there is an essential "spontaneity" dimension. (Southwest Airlines.) It starts with that soft stuff called culture. That is not only your company's environment, it is also your personality, what comes across. You can help it change.
• "It" starts with the vendors and the vendors' vendors—and especially includes packaging and delivery folks. (And parking lot attendants. Think Disney and the gum-free Orlando airport.) Obsess about the details. Every single thing is a clue.
• IT IS NOT ABOUT "MARKETING"! (Though marketing is a piece of it—like everything else.) It most definitely is everyone's job.
• Capturing "best practice" only goes so far. Design is a decision made at every level, every moment, in everything you do - and are.

How do you design a life that works?

We Take Your Trash

What would happen if creatives from agencies all over the US organized an exhibit of all the communications that clients discarded? How about those works that were withdrawn or otherwise censored? Is there a hall large enough in Vegas for such a show?

Creatives Are Bad accepts your trash from all over Italy. They are putting together a show of all the refused (notice the nice play on words?) communications. Deadline for entry is June 6. In case you are in Italy and are planning to participate.

They do it because they want to draw a line, show that some of the discarded work may in fact have not gone far enough, ending up half done. Which did not satisfy the client, nor the creative.

You are smiling, you've been there. The concept you presented was gutsy, at the edges and still part of the brief. Yet the client looked at it, thought about it, and then decided to tone it down a little. Clean that headline, put in more copy there.

And you rationalize every change, water it down. Or so you think. The manifesto of Creatives are Bad specifies that the purpose of the exhibit is to reflect upon why the work was a no go. The ultimate goal is that of writing itself out of the event - by having less and less refuse.

It's a noble attempt - that of reconnecting creative work with business strategy, making communications sell not just itself, but the product and service it was created to help you buy. Over and over we say that the learning is in the mistakes. Were are they in this unwanted work? The exhibit purports to help creatives find out. [hat tip to Luca Oliverio]

Are you a creative? Agency, consulting firm, freelancer - now is your chance to showcase some of your best work that was not appreciated. C'mon, give us a link and a short brief in the comments here. Get some exposure to your unrealized dream and be part of the conversation.

How to Write a Business Recommendation

LinkedIn is enjoying increased visibility and success as an online business networking tool. One of the most requested actions there and in business networking overall is that of the referral or recommendation. Expert sales professionals have known it for a long time, and so have marketers: a third party testimonial is worth a thousand capability brochures.

Now that many of us are content creators, we are directly exposed to the conversation that is the marketplace. Thanks to our use of social media tools, what others say of their experience of us is gaining importance in our personal press kit. Links and authority are both quite subtle and difficult to gage vis-a-vis why we would hire an individual.

The Old Ways in New Media

The resume as a recording of the accomplishments and results we have contributed is not going to disappear any time soon. That is because it's a universal format that helps everyone - including the majority of the population that is not online. Note the key words I used there: accomplishments and results.

It's a good idea to focus the story that is your cv on how all of the things you know and have done contributed to the growth of a business, made it better, had an impact on your customers - internal and external. To do that, you center your exposition on where and how the business makes money.

That has not changed with new media tools. If anything, with microblogging tools such as Twitter, we are now learning to cut to the chase more quickly. Brian Solis wrote a post recently on the escalator pitch. I'd like to add emphasis on the quality and content of your focus vs. brevity, and knowing at which stage of the pitch you are. Writes Solis:

It's about saying and demonstrating the things that will continually escalate your opportunity to the next level to say and demonstrate more - earning believers, evangelists, investors, stakeholders, customers, and partners along the way.

Pitches are micro-stories that contain enough information for the listener to decide whether they will give you permission to continue the conversation, or they should. A recommendation is the pitch best friend. It's a vehicle where someone else says: pay attention to this individual, they can benefit you in "x" way(s).

Stories About Others

That is why a recommendation as a short story about another should also be focused. It needs to provide specific information to introduce someone in a way that benefits the group or person to whom they are being introduced - and honor the skills/talent/ability to problem-solve of the individual who is being introduced.

For an example of a targeted verbal recommendation: I recently spoke about blogging on a panel at a Chamber of Commerce event. In my talk, as I do on such occasions, I mentioned that I am from Italy. Among the audience was an entrepreneur who is also an astute business networker. A few days later as he attended another event with the Italy America Chamber of Commerce he remember that detail. He then followed up with me to gage my interest in speaking at one of their events.

When he introduced me to that Chamber, he presented the story about me as: uses social media by sharing practical "how to" lessons, speaks Italian and has many business connections in Italy. This was enough of an entree for generating interest in further conversations around the Chamber's topical needs and how I can help them directly and through my network.

Which brings us to the "how to" part of this post.

You'd Hire Him/Her Because

Say a friend or business colleague asks you to write a recommendation for their services. You are comfortable doing that because you have worked together. There are several options open to you. You can:

1. Tell a story of how "Steve" saved the day and helped your company earn new customers - this is a popular format in case studies and testimonials. The narrative begins with a delineation of the problem and continues with what the individual did specifically to solve it.
      
2. Summarize the skills and attitude that most impressed you about "Sara" with an eye to the audience who will be reading about her. Here it helps to ask yourself the imaginary questions: why would you hire Sara as community manager? What does she bring to the table that is unique? For example: she has "x" years of experience doing that; she did a magnificent job at company "z"; our community benefited from her work.
      
3. Define the problem someone is seeking to solve in greater detail and support how the individual has true experience and a reputation for contributing results. As an example, I will use a recommendation I wrote recently on LinkedIn for Gianluca of Frozenfrogs:

“In today's marketplace where the term 'conversation' can and does mean a better match of customers' needs and wants with companies' products and services, emerging technologies are helping humanize the point of contact and harnessing the force of the collective. Yet, they are mere tools that need to be grounded in a solid business strategy to yield results. Gianluca is fluent in both the language of business and that of new media. He is a keen listener and a passionate implementer. Give him a call and see for yourself.”

For a recommendation to be useful in a practical way to both the individual recommended and the potential buyer/employer, it needs to answer one main question first: why? Why would you hire him/her instead of someone else? Why would you engage his/her services? It's because... tell them exactly why. Part of the answer depends on context, of course.

What are some of the best (most useful to you) recommendations you have seen? Why?

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— John McCrae [In Flanders Fields]

Conde' Nast Buys Ars Technica is Not the Story

The news-breaking story was TechCrunch's - Condé Nast buys 10-year old Ars Technica for $25M. One blog/online publication edited with care, that delivers excellent content on a very consistent basis and with a community that has been defined by many as outstanding.  There is a lesson in there for business, and that is your customers are not merely a book you buy or sell in an acquisition, they are increasingly a community.

Condé Nast buys Ars Technica is not the story. The real story is how new media is capable of growing and retaining a passionate legion of readers, so passionate in fact that they are worthy of the term community. Let me ask you something in all confidence, when was the last time you felt you belonged to the community of print publications? The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, how about USAToday? All reputable and well written/researched publications. All in the business of delivering news. Yet, even as they have opened their blogs to comments, I would be hard pressed to call many of the commenters members of a community.

When I read the announcement by Editor-in-Chief Ken Fisher on Ars Technica a couple of days after the news had broken, I noticed that the word community shows up in the second paragraph. The largest amount of copy in the announcement addresses the publication's community both acknowledging and thanking its members. From the post (emphasis mine):

Together, we've done more than I think any of us ever imagined. We've built a writing team that's passionate about technology and its promise, and we've seen amazing growth thanks to the diverse expertise of our team. We have an amazing community, both in terms of its size (5+ million readers, as tracked privately by Quantcast) and in terms of its contributions. Our community is unparalleled, in my not so humble opinion, and it's a big reason why this year we're serving more than 30 million page views each month. [...]

Speaking of community, I wanted to share something that I think says a great deal about who Ars Technica is: every employee of Ars Technica was a member of its community first, and had been a longtime reader. (12 million posts, thousands upon thousands of news tips, recommendations, and corrections).

Not our product is turnkey, not our service is the best - our community is amazing, unparalleled. In fact, the one promise Fisher makes for change is an improvement of the community platform. He even addresses how he would have preferred to have broken the news himself acknowledging Ars Technica got scooped by Mike Arrington's TechCrunch. All throughout, the community is front and center.

New media champions and main stream media go hand in hand. Truly. While the hottest news may indeed come from the keyboards of natives of the 24-hour, 7-day cycle, I still believe there is plenty of room for traditional media. Can we teach them and businesses in general to learn to appreciate and embrace their communities?

25 Reasons Why You Need to Have A Whack on the Side of the Head

Many things go out of fashion to be replaced by others. One day they are business imperatives, the next day they are gone and forgotten. Amidst the buzzwords, awards, and puzzling fads we have seen develop and fizzle, one trend stands tall as valuable - the ability to create.

How valuable? Think innovation, think learning, Creative Think. All of those are the currency of modern times, what we call the conceptual age. Roger von Oech is one of my favorite creative thinkers - an amazing writer, storyteller, conversation facilitator, and cultured journeyman.

This year marks the quarter century milestone for his book: A Whack on the Side of the Head. Roger sent me a courtesy copy to read. I got so much out of it, that I decided to list 25 reasons why you need to have a whack on the side of the head yourself.

"Knowing many things
doesn't teach insight."
[Heraclitus - 25 centuries ago]

1. The expectation that you will use creativity at work today has gone from 5% to 35%. See the rest of the interview Roger did with Guy Kawasaki at the Sun's place here.
      
2. You can learn to use the mantra "look for the second right answer." Thinking that there is only one right answer precludes you from learning more, and creating something different.
      
3. You can put yourself in the shoes of the idea, and walk around in it for a while. Do you want to change the configuration of your hard drive? What would you look like as the new configuration?
      
4. When there is a limit to what you can do, you can do so much more. This seems counterintuitive, but constraints have always been the creator's best friends.
      
5. "Nothing succeeds like mediocrity because everybody understands it so well."
      
6. While it's great to be in love, falling in love with ideas begets stagnation. If you're looking for a secret stimulant, go click on Roger's photograph up top and get your own Creative Whack.
      
7. Randomness may fool us, but it's extremely good for innovation. Think 3M, think different.
      
8. You can fool people most of the time, you can even fool yourself, but your brain is trained to recognize patterns. You can use that to your advantage.
      
9. You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation [Plato]. That is also true about your self.
      
10. What you don't know will blindside you. When you soften your gaze and take in the whole context, you can see so much more.
       
11. Ambiguity is part of life. When you learn to thrive in it, you can do wonders.
       
12. It will give you a better jolt than an expensive designer cup of coffee and boost your spirit and confidence as a bonus.
       
13. Because creativity is a competitive advantage - in any business, at any level, any time. Richard Branson did not follow the rules.
       
14. You too can create a fun tagline that goes with a serious business. Some example gathered by Roger over the years: "In tuition we trust" from a major private university; "We've got you by the calls!" from a telephone company; "God people, good medicine, good luck" from a health insurance company; "A leader in technology whether the customer needs it or not" from a large computer company. Now go make up yours.
       
15. Sacred cows do make the best burgers.
       
16. You get to think about what you think life is made of. Forrest Gump thought it was a box of chocolates.
       
17. Going form point A to point B is pointless if you have traveled that way many times before without looking at the landscape. The best paths to a destination are filled with interesting turns.
       
18. You can be the explorer, the artist, the judge, and the warrior.
       
19. Turning irritation into inspiration will make you better company.
       
20. Books are intellectual popcorn with the least amount of calories.
       
21. Firing the brain synapses can feel good even when we will not see any of them pack the box and leave the office.
       
22. Opening mental locks and forgetting your assumptions is as valuable and restorative as taking a vacation - from those habits that are not creative.
       
23. Sometimes delaying action (and reading instead) can give you more information. Those who have worked with me know I am fond of saying that with some things, no immediate action is a time saver - those projects end up being scuttled or completely transformed.
       
24. Failure is a much better motivator than success. Where do you think proverbs such as "resting on your laurels" come from?
       
25. You are creative.

Repeat after me: you are creative.

Marketing as a Second Language

There are hundreds, actually thousands, of people who understand marketing - and they don't work for you. That is because today your customers know more about what works and what doesn't than many practitioners. One main reason why - they learned from being on the receiving end of marketing messages, strategies, tactics, and all that comes with that for hours a day, days on end.

Stories get passed from person to person - many of them not quite flattering to you. "Nice try," they say, "I can see through that." If you want the best example of that ability to break down a message and tell you who the target is and what the advertiser and marketer is trying to make them do, ask a four-year old. They'll tell you, and with the casual tone of the discerning connoisseur.

While you get to play marketer a few hours a day in the spaces between meetings and other commitments, your customers are on a constant treadmill. They are Olympians training to deconstruct your message (and your product), compare it, discard what they don't like about it, or worse, ignore it altogether. Who's paying attention to whom?

Word of mouth, viral marketing, crowdsourcing, consumer generated content - it all comes down to having something that is of value to someone, that is right for them then and there. Want consideration? Be considerate yourself - honest about what you offer while you listen to how you can help your customers. They are fluent in the language of marketing, are you?

To be fluent in marketing today the conversation needs to be:

• Personal - one-to-one
• Spreadable - one-to-one-to-many
• Spontaneous - another word for fluency

Today at Marketing 2.0 I talk about those as lessons marketers can take from the political process.

Has Web 2.0 Made You Happier?

Have all the social bookmarking services brought you closer to great content, or has it just added to your workload?

Are your online relationships as productive or satisfying as your real ones? And if the answer here is "yes," do you have many real relationships? This week Marcus Brown, alias The Kaiser, resigned all of his posts in his social media presence in favor of real life interaction.

Has Web 2.0 empowered your customer service people -- or just thinned out traditional marketing and personnel budgets?

Are email, Twitter, and IM services helping you to communicate better -- or just flooding you with noise?

There's a lot great about new web tools. But unless we master them -- and not the other way around -- Web 2.0 will be remembered as just another fad.

[As a side note, the recent change to TyepPad composition page has me scrambling to figure out how to post again. The system has been unstable for over a week now, splitting my URL again and again despite the full domain mapping. This has required a constant remapping and coordination with FeedBurner on my part, which I should not have to do on a hosted solution. This morning, for example, I woke up to the feed reverting to he clunky TypePad URL for no reason at all. Ticket submitted once more...]

What works for you in Web 2.0 -- and what doesn't?

When a Customer Says Yes

This was my original submission to the Age of Conversation II. Since it was still too long to be included, I wrote another (much shorter) entry for the book, which I will be expanding upon (without giving it away) in future weeks.

A good friend with whom I had lunch on Friday, told me that he very much enjoys - and uses - my advice on customer conversations. There is no expiration date on those.
____________

When customers say yes -- when they're engaged -- continue listening and talking; in other words, continue the conversation. This may seem counterintuitive for people who grew up thinking that when your customer says yes, you should quit talking. You should never oversell, but should still ask for the order by allowing the customer to tell you when.

Yet it's a different dance, this of conversation, one where you lead, and let your customer lead, too. It may be uncomfortable at first. Traditionally, marketing has been about being the leading man. You may step on your customers' toes as you get used to the idea. The music, your company's policies, may be a bit out of tempo. But when you let your customers lead a little, when you relax in the conversation, you find that you rather enjoy the experience - and learn new steps.

We're used to seeing the marketing world in black and white. The fours Ps are alive and well: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Social media adds hue. If  you've been out of step with your customers for a while, it may add more than a few reds.

It's worth doing. The dynamics of customer intimacy developed through conversation allow the extra spring in your step to come out again. That's good. When you feel emPowered, you're Purposeful and Passionate as you Participate in establishing relationships. These are four Ps of social media. They allow you to go from "have to" to "want to", "get to."

In the movie Pleasantville, a brother and sister find themselves trapped inside a black and white TV drama. As they work through their new reality, they realize they their presence is changing it. Colors begin to show. Soon, others in the cast start to move in new directions. The trick in the movie is to have the appropriate balance between what the brother and sister bring to the set, and what the characters in the Fifties had.

It's the same with social media. The most effective way to go from conversation to action is not abandoning all rules. It's about active listening. You are a partner in this dance of conversation. You're still responsible to your customers for Products, Pricing, Place and Promotion. Now you're adding the dimensions of emPowerment, Purpose, Passion and Participation.

The magic of using social media to highlight what you offer is that you don't need to push and prod for the order. By letting your customers be part of the action -- giving them a way to voice their ideas on products they can help you make better -- they may begin to drive much of that promotion with you.

This active participation allows you to do more than improve your products and business model --- it allows you to get much closer to the marketplace, if you'll let it. Will you say yes to that?