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Monthly archive November, 2009

Is Being Unreasonable A Good Strategy?

by Brandon on Nov 30, 2009 • No Comments

I was talking with a good friend last night about ‘the state of things.’ We tend to veer off into lofty conversations on issues that matter to us, and it’s often quite productive for me. Last night was one of those nights. While we talked, I remembered a program I ran across called the Unreasonable Institute – they are looking for 25 of the world’s most outrageous minds to encourage and enable to do great things. The question that came to mind was – do we have to create things that are ‘unreasonable’ to get noticed or attract attention? Has the status quo stifled our thinking to the point that we have to go far outside the norm to capture the imagination of our audience? I suspect this might indeed be the case.

It seems more and more non-traditional thinking is breaking through in all segments of society – in business, in government, in development, etc. The fact that this is being celebrated is encouraging and reinforces that we’re actually in a very transformative period right now.

Last night as we talked about some of the opportunities on the horizon, I shared that I recently read a book my cousin Whitney gave me to check out called The City in 2050 published by the Urban Land Institute. Pretty incredible stuff here – I highly recommend you read it if you are interested in urban planning, architecture, future development and related topics. The book highlights some very thought provoking insights into a likely urban model for the future.

While we were talking, I Googled the initiative on my iPhone and jumped over to the ’2050′ page to see how well they were connecting. What I saw was an incredible opportunity to spread this message much further than it’s being spread right now. The opportunity that jumped out at me was under the ‘Enter the Dialogue’ section. If you click on the Creating Blueprints – Enter the dialogue link, it takes you to a page with a paragraph and an email address. Most of us in the social media space would agree that an email link does not typically qualify for encouraging dialogue, thus the opportunity! To be fair, ULI does have general links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn from their home page.

Perhaps identifying initiatives like this one that are well established but lack a thorough engagement strategy and helping them connect with key audiences through social channels is a business model in and of itself. Could working with ULI and other non-profits to help spread the word about initiatives that matter to the world without a pure profit motive be considered unreasonable? I bet most people would say it is. I wonder what the Unreasonable Institute would say?

What do you think? Is being unreasonable a good strategy? If so, what are some of the unreasonable ideas that you have for yourself or your business? Do you find this kind of thinking is encouraged or discouraged in your organization?

By the way, if you are interested in applying to the Unreasonable Institute, you better hurry – the clock is ticking! 14 days and counting until applications are due.

Photo credit: iStockPhoto

Gratitude

by Brandon on Nov 25, 2009 • No Comments

It may be cliché to write a post on Gratitude for Thanksgiving, but I’m doing it anyway. But really, shouldn’t we be giving thanks consistently and not just once a year? I try to incorporate gratitude in my daily routine. I feel that i have a lot to be thankful for.

When I read posts on other blogs that resonate with me, I tend to thank the author in the comments. If you’ve ever commented on a blog before, you know that it’s common to see things like ‘Great post’ or something to that effect in a lot of the comments. I do this myself, but I try to follow it up with a thank you. Why? Because I think it’s important that we all show our appreciation for the people out there that are doing great work and providing inspiration for the masses. It’s so easy to say, and I think it makes the people on both ends feel better about themselves and the work they are doing.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry called Four things that are inspiring me today, and I thought it would be nice to pick up on that theme and mention some things that I’m thankful for today.

TweetDeck – I don’t know how I would be able to keep up with the volume of info that I’m trying to consume without this incredible resource. I used to have a monitor on my desk at the office that was dedicated exclusively to TweetDeck. Some of my coworkers thought it looked a little freaky, but I’m seriously thinking about revisiting that setup. TweetDeck is a free program/service – that deserves a special thank you in my opinion!

Amber Naslund – I’ve been following Amber on her blog, on Twitter, and I’ve had the pleasure of participating in a webinar that she hosted recently with Radian6. She’s a very smart lady that has been providing some incredibly useful and thought-provoking content. I highly recommend checking out her blog. Amber, thanks for pushing us all forward with your insightful posts.

Simon Mainwaring – I happened upon Simon’s blog last week and was really energized by what I read. He is definitely a forward thinker, and reading his entries is always an inspiration to me. His recent video interview on his blog, How to face the future of advertising is definitely worth checking out. I’ve said this to Simon privately, but here again – thank you for your inspiration Simon!

Adam Waid – Adam is one of those guys that always seems to have a positive attitude. We met on Twitter a few months back and he consistently makes me smile with his tweets, posts, and even his commentary on my cooking photos on Facebook. Thanks for the positive reinforcement Adam. I’m cooking Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow – if you get hungry, we’ll have plenty.

Supportive Colleagues – lately I’ve received some incredible support from colleagues that truly want to give me a hand and move forward toward the goals I’ve laid out for myself. I want to mention Jeff Duvall in particular today – he really helped me through a situation yesterday when I needed someone the most. Jeff, thanks again for your support!

Friends and Family – I’m especially thankful for my friends and family today. I’m fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with family tomorrow that I don’t see often. These are the moments that really make life truly enriching. This year, we have 20 people around the table. I believe this is the most we’ve ever had together on Thanksgiving, and for that I’m very thankful.

In business, expressing gratitude can be rewarding to everyone involved. Depending on where you fall in your organization, it might make sense to share appreciation for your boss, your client, your vendors, your employees, your customers, or the people who pick up the trash at the end of the day. Saying thank you breaks down barriers and brings people closer together. It’s a liberating experience. Just imagine how much better you feel when someone says thank you for something you’ve done. Now apply that to the business you are in. Sometimes, a well-timed thank you can go a long way toward increasing morale, productivity, and general happiness of everyone in the organization.

What do you think? Is there anything in particular you are thankful for today?

Thanks for stopping by!

photo credit: istockphoto

Personal Journey

Connecting…

by Brandon on Nov 19, 2009 • No Comments

This is a new chapter for me, and I’m looking at the road ahead with much enthusiasm and optimism. I decided to start fresh with a new site and blog and make a renewed commitment to be more active with my own writing. In the midst of this shift, I dug back through some old entries from the past few years to see if I wanted to move them over and I decided some of the content is still relevant. Hopefully they may provide value to someone. Maybe even to you.

Exposure

Julien Smith wrote a couple of weeks ago about ‘showing your neck‘ and I thought he had some amazing insights with his take on showing weakness in public. It’s a short post and if you have 2 minutes, I really encourage you to read it. Essentially, in life, we are all humans. People. We’re on this journey together, and the more we can connect with each other as people, the closer our bonds will become. This has become increasingly clear to me, and I’m striving to keep the human side in my work and my writing as much as possible. The point is that by being more authentic, including ‘showing your neck’ – i.e. owning up to weakness, flaws, etc., we are all able to relate to each other on a deeper level as humans. A little neck every once in a while is good. Thanks for that reminder @Julien.

I’m posting this and launching my new site before it’s ‘ready’ according to my typical standards. Instead of waiting on everything to be just right and perfectly designed, I’m making the leap and showing a little neck. Time is too valuable to waste waiting.

Working with Intention

I’m looking ahead at the way I approach business with intention and purpose. The moves that I am making and the work I am seeking are intentional, or specifically due to their alignment with my core values and beliefs. Aligning passion for life and passion for business is not a long shot – the opportunities are out there, and I believe we simply need to open ourselves up to them and allow them to manifest in our lives. We really can create our reality. Smart thinkers have been proving this for generations. I’m making a personal commitment to listen – not only to what’s going on out in the digital world and within my networks, but to listen to myself and to what my internal guidance system is telling me. From this place I will be better able to make decisions with intention that will line up the opportunities to move me forward toward my goals.

Voice

For me, my voice is saying that being a part of and actively promoting a sustainable future is my calling. The relationships that I’ve cultivated and those that I’m developing now are the building blocks for this future. Working with sustainable buildings, products, programs, travel – these are all areas in which I’m passionate. More than any point in my lifetime, these ideals are becoming accepted in mainstream culture. The idea that we can and should do better has seeped into the thinking of some important leaders in businesses, governments, and other groups around the world. At the same time, we are all becoming much more willing and able to share information with our networks than ever before. In essence, we are expanding our collective voice. This alignment of sustainable thinking and social channels is amplifying the message, which allows these innovative ideals to spread even faster. Is there a better opportunity than right now to propel this movement? I think not.

Even as I was writing this entry, I saw a really cool tweet pop up in my TweetDeck alerts – it caught my eye because it was referencing a TreeHugger article on Starbucks. I stopped to check it out and it definitely had my head nodding. The article was an interview with Tony Gale, Starbucks’ Corporate Architect – in it, he discusses the initiatives that Starbucks has in place to make their stores LEED certified, and other steps that they are taking to be good stewards and community partners. This guy is doing great work – I can’t wait to meet him! Interestingly for me, it was just last week that a career opportunity working with the Starbucks social media team also popped up in my TweetDeck, which I jumped on right away. One of the reasons I got so excited about the opportunity is because they are taking steps like this out in the community. And of course, they are known as having a pretty bang-up social media program. Seems like alignment at work to me.

Connecting

As I embark on this new chapter for myself, I encourage others to show a little neck from time to time. We’ll all be much closer as a community if that happens. If we haven’t connected yet – please check me out on Twitter at @brandon101. That’s where I tend to spread most of my thoughts on business and social media. If you’re looking to connect on a more personal level, we can connect on Facebook at facebook.com/brandonsutton. My only request is that if we’ve never met in person or we’re only distantly affiliated, please include a short note in the friend request so I know the context. I use Facebook differently than Twitter, and to help manage the volume of info, this is what works best for me. Thanks in advance!

Calling

This is my call out to the world, with a little neck thrown in for good measure. I’m looking to create and explore opportunities with people who share these ideals. I’ve got a ton of energy and stamina around this, and I have an open mind about what comes my way. It’s time to get to work, and I’m ready. More than ever!

Does this resonate with you? I would love to hear what you think. Thanks for being here – I hope you like what you read.

Social Media Strategy

What Do Consumers Really Want from Brands in Social Media?

by Brandon on Nov 9, 2009 • No Comments

Razorfish has just come out with their very smart FEED report that digs into behavior of ‘connected consumers,’ which are the ones that most of us are trying to reach with our online and social campaigns. The report goes into detail about what these connected consumers are doing and how they are engaging online. The statistics are pretty amazing, although not altogether surprising (to me at least).

According to the report:

“Based on our 2009 Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Study, 65% of consumers report having had a digital experience that either positively or negatively changed their opinion about a brand. Of that group, a nearly unanimous 97% say that their digital experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased a product or service from that brand.”

This is pretty straightforward, and should definitely grab some marketers’ attentions. I certainly hope so!

The piece in the report that caught me was that consumers are looking for deals on social media, and they are not necessarily there because they share the brand’s values. This definitely raises an important point and it’s a good idea to probe a bit on this to figure out how best to capitalize on this insight. Here are a few thoughts on this:

1. Economics. I think it’s worth noting that we are coming out of a recession and naturally consumers are looking for deals online. I bet this explains some of the info on what people are looking for in social channels. But beyond just money, people want something unique or different – something that the average consumer isn’t getting. Of course, the easy thing to do is just offer a discount or some kind of sale. But there’s more that we can offer to satisfy consumer appetite in social channels. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water just yet please.

2. Unique Content. There are other ways to reward consumers for being a friend/fan/follower of a brand outside of the typical discounts or sales. Interestingly, in the FEED report, Whole Foods was cited as one of the brands that is ‘getting it’ and offering info on weekly specials AND shopping tips. The latter is something that probably costs them very little, but helps customers have a better shopping experience with Whole Foods. Is this valuable? You bet it is. This is getting more into the mind of the customer and really helping them outside of just financial rewards (discounts).

3. Advance Info. Social channels give us the ability to make announcements quickly, and give fans, followers, friends, etc. a ‘heads up’ that something big is happening. Making big announcements via social channels is a great way to reward these fans that make public proclamations of their brand support. And of course, the mix of communications is important here. We don’t want to fall into the trap of only pushing out messages that we want our audience to respond to, but those messages should be peppered in along with other messages that are truly useful to the community.

4. Limited Editions. Nothing groundbreaking here, but this is a concept that can be utilized in social channels to keep fans happy. If there is a limited edition item that can be announced and made available through exclusively social channels, then this can be used as a thank you to the members of the community. This not only rewards the community, but it encourages the viral effect, because those who don’t have access to the limited edition item will no doubt want to know why. When they find out, it’s a good bet that they will join the community so they are in the know the next time around.

5. Special Events. Inviting fans to a special event is another easy way to show appreciation and reward them for sticking around. Another old-school tactic, but one that translates well into social channels. How easy is it to send out an invite to an event via social media? Pretty easy. Is this something that the community would value? Probably so. This one may cost some money, depending on what the event is, but the potential upside may be worth the investment if done properly.

These are just a few thoughts that come to mind after reading the FEED report. I certainly think that providing deals and discounts is a strong proposition for many brands, particularly in the current economic climate, but this isn’t the only way to generate loyalty in social media. In the end, it’s not about the channel – it’s about Marketing. Some things don’t change just because there is better technology and more communication channels we can use. Sometimes you have to get back to the basics and figure out creative ways to connect with your audience without falling back on price cuts or sales.

Download the full FEED report here.

Special thanks to @gschmitt and the Razorfish crew for this outstanding report. It’s a must-read for any marketer. Give it a read and I’d love to hear your take on what this means for brands.

Inspiration

Four Things that are Inspiring Me Today

by Brandon on Nov 6, 2009 • No Comments

I was reading a post this morning by Chris Brogan on tips for coming up with blog content and his last point really stood out to me – recognizing others that are doing good stuff. Lately, I’ve been really inspired by things I’ve run across online, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to share this inspiration on my blog.

I took this picture of a butterfly on a recent camping trip. Simply beautiful.

Here are a few of the things that are inspiring me today:

1. Shannon Lane
Jason Falls tweeted about this entry earlier today and I have to say, I was very moved by Shannon’s story. She reminds us to take time to do the things that are important in life, because ‘one day’ is today, and we would be wise to remember that as we go through our lives. Do the important stuff now – don’t put it off. Thanks to Shannon and Jason for this inspiration.

2. Freeworld Media
I’ve recently become Twitter ‘friends’ with Sean from Freeworld Media. We’ve chatted back and forth about social media stuff, and even my passion for biodiesel, which Sean is also interested in. Today I decided to check out his site, and I was really impressed with what I saw. Not only does it look like they are doing great work, but their attitude about the types of work they want to do and how it affects society really impressed me. It reminded me of how I look at my own career and how I want to do the kind of work that makes me feel good about my contribution to the world around me. Check out the Focus page on the site and see for yourself. Kudos for your eloquence on this Sean.

3. Augie Ray
I’ve consistently enjoyed reading Augie’s writing. He’s making a big move next week, but that hasn’t stopped him from contributing some great material to conversations on Twitter, his blog, Social Media Today, and many other places I’m sure I don’t know about. Take a minute to check Augie out. He’s a good guy with a smart outlook on marketing and business in general. And if you feel so inclined, drop him a note and wish him well as he moves from his home in Milwaukee to explore a new opportunity with Forrester.

4. Indigo Twelve West
Every time I read something about Portland, I like what I read. This city has the kind of personality and mindset that I really relate to. The other night I was poking around online and checking out different things that are happening in Portland, and I ran across this development. Today is actually their big opening event, and I wish them all the best. The building is set to be Platinum LEED certified, and has some really incredible features that promote sustainability. This really resonates with me, as I seek to incorporate this kind of mindset into everything I do. I wish them the best in their opening and I look forward to checking it out when I visit Portland (which will hopefully be soon). If I were to take Shannon’s advice from above, I should go ahead and book that trip now.

So, these are some of the things that are inspiring me today. Of course, I have to give credit to Chris Brogan for the inspiration to write this post and the general topic. Thanks Chris – and keep up the great work!

What about you? What’s inspiring you today?

Gratitude