In his blog post The Social Content Conundrum , Oracle's Mike Stiles helped me synthesize a jumble of thoughts I have had rattling around in my head since my interview with an entertainment brand this week. Mike's post is about the importance of being entertaining in content.
Many of you know I am a former comedian. But in my corporate life, this is not something I integrated into my toolkit. In fact, it was recommended by many that I remove it from my LinkedIn profile while searching for a new job. I was glad I didn't. I have made some contacts and had interviews as a result of it.
This week I interviewed for a position with a popular entertainment brand (think television, internet, events, products, and more.) The VP I interviewed with was very different than the typical corporate VP. He didn't nod and yes me to death. He really knew his stuff at the most detailed level. And he gave me time. He took more than an hour of his time with me to explore my fit for the position despite a family crisis going on that day and his own reservations about my fit for the company. His biggest concern was that as a result of my post-comedy career in corporate America, I wouldn't know how to fail. Yes. His idea of the right candidate is someone who would go to the edge and fall off the edge if they had to. Imagine a job where your creativity is encouraged like that?
He's right. At my last job, failing wasn't an option. So I racked up successes. Sometimes that meant playing it safe. I won't say I never pushed the envelope because many of my successes were due to thinking outside the box and approaching problems from a new angle, developing new ways of working to increase efficiency, improve results and reduce cost. That is what I was measured on.
When I moved into Social Media, I tried to push the edge a little bit. In one example, The Onion poked fun of a sophisticated technology marketed by the company. The Onion piece was very funny. It was not personal. The Onion is an equal opportunity disparaging news source, and makes fun of every one of the company's competitors in other stories. What makes The Onion piece so funny? As with most humor, it was a magnification of a real perception and someone finally had the nerve to call it out. It made clear to me what others hear when technology companies communicate. It also received over 9K social likes and shares. The people likely to have shared or viewed the video would be those most interested in the technology because of the underlying truth that the company was communicating in buzzwords rather than in a way that was connecting with our target audience. This piece would not have been funny to those outside of technology or those who do not purchase B2B technology solutions.
The Onion presented us with a giant opportunity to improve the perception that others had but weren't voicing and the Onion voicing it resonated with them.
My recommendation was to have our experts on the topic interview an onion about its experience with the technology and leverage the video. I wrote a comical script in response. It included the accurate information and message about the technology presented clearly without the corporate speak the Onion had rightly spotted and exaggerated in the video. It included a strong call-to-action. The Onion provided an opportunity for us to entertain and inform the right audience. Responding as I suggested would have presented the company as much more bold, confident, helpful, and hip and likely have drawn a larger audience than we had seen in the B2B space.
Many who "get it" in terms of social media were very supportive of my idea. But how do you take a giant corporation from playing it safe to hedging their bets on an entertainment factor? How do you get executive buy-in from those who refuse to participate in social themselves and in fact see it as another communications channel to push messages through? I let it drop. I played it safe.
Safe doesn't go viral. So I have come up with four tips for social practitioners in getting out of the comfort zone when the right opportunity strikes. I'll be ready next time, will you?
1. Do it now. Apologize later.
2. You Snooze, You Lose. Save for a Rainy Day. Set aside some social budget for immediate action on an unknown opportunity that may present itself - social is real time.
3. Monitor and Monetize. If you go out on the ledge, you need to show the payoff immediately.
4. Don't Launch Your Rockets Before They are Built. Keep it quiet until it takes off successfully. If you invite everyone to watch it fly, they will watch it explode if it doesn't work.
I almost included a Tip 5 "Have your resume ready" - but you will never need it. If it doesn't work, no one is going to see it. If it does work, no one is going to be holding you accountable. They will all be taking credit.
Have you ever taken a big risk in publishing something outside of the comfort zone for your organization? Tell us about it in the comments below. Are you still happier in the safety zone? What makes you stay there?
Showing posts with label content strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label content strategy. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Are You Stuck in the Loop? Develop Social Media and Content Strategies in Context of Past, Present and Future
Just went to see Looper. If you haven't seen it and are hoping to soon, this post may be a mild spoiler alert - I won't give the ending but might give away some of the plot. You will have to stop reading now and miss out on my golden nugget of an observation about how Looper relates to the impact of Social Media on your business.
In Looper, time travel has not yet been invented. But it has been invented and abolished 40 years into the future. As such, it is only used by mobsters. They use it to dispose of bodies. Instead of burying them under the proverbial cement, they send them back in time to a specific location, and have employees called "Loopers" who are from the earlier time - small time thugs who make a lot of money for each assignment. The Loopers await the arrival of the body at a specific location and time and shoot them, and burn them leaving no evidence. No trace is left of the victim (who may not yet be born so is it really a death?)
One day, older versions of the loopers themselves start showing up to be killed by their younger selves. This is called "closing the loop." (I could not figure out why they didn't give your old self to a different looper, but they always sent you yourself, a danger of not examining data, interpreting it objectively, and realigning your process I suppose.) When you "close your loop" you get a big payday and get to retire and just go live your life until you become that older self. You are aware of when you will be killed because you remember being your younger self and killing your older self.
So our hero(s) Joe - played subtle and brilliant - by both Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (I love the diner scene between younger Joe and older Joe) - doesn't close his loop when he arrives. The rest of the movie is a chase to basically kill himself while avoiding getting killed himself for failing the first time.
But the real plot is about the dysfunctional choices he made in life and his career while "in the loop". It also examines those moments where your choices can change everything, those few wake-up calls each of us is given to change the direction of our lives. I kept wondering why he didn't prevent the future collision somewhere in his past.
It made me think about how in business we can get trapped in loops of dysfunction. Our past dictates our future, our future traps us in our present.
Data doesn't show us everything, but it can provide us a map. We have to ask our data questions - and these questions need to be contextual from multiple lenses. The context needs to include questions about how the past and the future align in the present. Instead of asking ourselves "Where does social media fit in the marcom mix or how does it contribute to the funnel" we should ask ourselves "What does our business look like now with social media as a way to amplify what we need to do? What is the new role of advertising? What is the new role of web? What is the new role of email? What is the new role of support?" and most importantly "How does each role align in a new world?"
Keeping the Past in Perspective
Application to the present requires context. Why do we do what we do? What do we do that has value still? What is the value to our customers? How can we help to guide customers (problem solving content investigators) toward solutions for their problems? What is inherently true? What doesn't change while everything else evolves significantly? Why do we still exist?
For marketing communications, the answer is content.
Good content is good content - past, present and future - content should inform, educate, entertain, provoke and evoke. It no longer should fight for attention from everyone. It should command attention from the right people.
Great content should be relevant and valuable to the intended demographic. It should be presented in the best and fastest way for the intended absorber of the content.
Great marketing content should inspire an action and make a relationship available to build trust and for nurturing. Because great business is great relationships. Great marketing content is a map leading to a treasure.
Great marketers are people who build great relationships through content. This could not be a better time for great marketers because the tools are all available through web and social media to build excellent relationships through content.. Great relationships require trust. Trust requires two-way communication. Listening is critical in building trust and relationships. Social Media provides the tools that support two-way conversations.
New Social Media Tools Provide Challenges for the Present and Opportunities for the Future
Before smartphones, I read anything available every down moment of the day. Cereal boxes, magazines in waiting rooms, newspapers strewn round coffee shops... When is the last time you did that? When in a waiting room I am either laptop open or smartphone in hand catching up on twitter, facebook, googling movie times or searching for a new doctor with a shorter waiting time.
Digital content puts the content consumer in charge of everything he or she looks at. It gives users immediate access to problem solving of every type. Customers direct themselves using keywords. They have hundreds, thousands, millions, more options to connect. The content you are making available is just a tiny fraction of their options.
To compete in the present, you need to make every message you develop:
1. Findable
2. Obvious
3. Relevant
4. Specific
5. Helpful
6. Time Saving or Value Creating
7. Inspiring
8. Connected
9. Reactable
The savvy consumer's eyes have learned to avoid advertising. Distaste flares when obvious copywritten catchy phrases assault them. People seek content written by people, not by brands. People have relationships with people. The people they have relationships with may be part of a brand. But it is the people that add up to the brand, not vice versa. A brand is a perception that occurs at the intersection between its products, partners, people and customers. To do it well, you need to be there with more than just good content. You need to be there ready to listen and build trust.
To compete in the future, you need to be ready to create a relationship with your customers.
You can do this with a strong content, empowered people and social media strategy that is about your people developing relationships with people who are customers, future customers, influencers and sometimes innocent bystanders in a way that is reflective of your brand.
Do you need help making your content stand above the crowd or building a social media strategy? I know just the person who can help. Me! You can view my LinkedIn profile here, or email me at contentoptimization@gmail.com.
In Looper, time travel has not yet been invented. But it has been invented and abolished 40 years into the future. As such, it is only used by mobsters. They use it to dispose of bodies. Instead of burying them under the proverbial cement, they send them back in time to a specific location, and have employees called "Loopers" who are from the earlier time - small time thugs who make a lot of money for each assignment. The Loopers await the arrival of the body at a specific location and time and shoot them, and burn them leaving no evidence. No trace is left of the victim (who may not yet be born so is it really a death?)
One day, older versions of the loopers themselves start showing up to be killed by their younger selves. This is called "closing the loop." (I could not figure out why they didn't give your old self to a different looper, but they always sent you yourself, a danger of not examining data, interpreting it objectively, and realigning your process I suppose.) When you "close your loop" you get a big payday and get to retire and just go live your life until you become that older self. You are aware of when you will be killed because you remember being your younger self and killing your older self.
So our hero(s) Joe - played subtle and brilliant - by both Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (I love the diner scene between younger Joe and older Joe) - doesn't close his loop when he arrives. The rest of the movie is a chase to basically kill himself while avoiding getting killed himself for failing the first time.
But the real plot is about the dysfunctional choices he made in life and his career while "in the loop". It also examines those moments where your choices can change everything, those few wake-up calls each of us is given to change the direction of our lives. I kept wondering why he didn't prevent the future collision somewhere in his past.
It made me think about how in business we can get trapped in loops of dysfunction. Our past dictates our future, our future traps us in our present.
Data doesn't show us everything, but it can provide us a map. We have to ask our data questions - and these questions need to be contextual from multiple lenses. The context needs to include questions about how the past and the future align in the present. Instead of asking ourselves "Where does social media fit in the marcom mix or how does it contribute to the funnel" we should ask ourselves "What does our business look like now with social media as a way to amplify what we need to do? What is the new role of advertising? What is the new role of web? What is the new role of email? What is the new role of support?" and most importantly "How does each role align in a new world?"
Keeping the Past in Perspective
Application to the present requires context. Why do we do what we do? What do we do that has value still? What is the value to our customers? How can we help to guide customers (problem solving content investigators) toward solutions for their problems? What is inherently true? What doesn't change while everything else evolves significantly? Why do we still exist?
For marketing communications, the answer is content.
Good content is good content - past, present and future - content should inform, educate, entertain, provoke and evoke. It no longer should fight for attention from everyone. It should command attention from the right people.
Great content should be relevant and valuable to the intended demographic. It should be presented in the best and fastest way for the intended absorber of the content.
Great marketing content should inspire an action and make a relationship available to build trust and for nurturing. Because great business is great relationships. Great marketing content is a map leading to a treasure.
Great marketers are people who build great relationships through content. This could not be a better time for great marketers because the tools are all available through web and social media to build excellent relationships through content.. Great relationships require trust. Trust requires two-way communication. Listening is critical in building trust and relationships. Social Media provides the tools that support two-way conversations.
New Social Media Tools Provide Challenges for the Present and Opportunities for the Future
Before smartphones, I read anything available every down moment of the day. Cereal boxes, magazines in waiting rooms, newspapers strewn round coffee shops... When is the last time you did that? When in a waiting room I am either laptop open or smartphone in hand catching up on twitter, facebook, googling movie times or searching for a new doctor with a shorter waiting time.
Digital content puts the content consumer in charge of everything he or she looks at. It gives users immediate access to problem solving of every type. Customers direct themselves using keywords. They have hundreds, thousands, millions, more options to connect. The content you are making available is just a tiny fraction of their options.
To compete in the present, you need to make every message you develop:
1. Findable
2. Obvious
3. Relevant
4. Specific
5. Helpful
6. Time Saving or Value Creating
7. Inspiring
8. Connected
9. Reactable
The savvy consumer's eyes have learned to avoid advertising. Distaste flares when obvious copywritten catchy phrases assault them. People seek content written by people, not by brands. People have relationships with people. The people they have relationships with may be part of a brand. But it is the people that add up to the brand, not vice versa. A brand is a perception that occurs at the intersection between its products, partners, people and customers. To do it well, you need to be there with more than just good content. You need to be there ready to listen and build trust.
To compete in the future, you need to be ready to create a relationship with your customers.
You can do this with a strong content, empowered people and social media strategy that is about your people developing relationships with people who are customers, future customers, influencers and sometimes innocent bystanders in a way that is reflective of your brand.
Do you need help making your content stand above the crowd or building a social media strategy? I know just the person who can help. Me! You can view my LinkedIn profile here, or email me at contentoptimization@gmail.com.
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