Marketing and Reputation

Every once in a while consultants are challenged to put their ideas into practice. Such was my experience this week. Colleague Shel Holtz, ABC and a co-host Neville Hobson, ABC, host a podcast “For Immediate Release” twice a week. This week, Shel invited me to join another measurement guru, Angela Sinickas, ABC as the featured guests on their regular podcast.

For the past year, I have been advocating that communication and management leaders need to include blogs, wikis and podcasts in their arsenal of communication channels. Blogs have been a relatively easy sell. They have increased in visibility, value and usage. Wikis are still a bit of a mystery but there is a small awakening there. Podcasts, on the other hand, are still in the incubator. The innovators and the early adopters of new ideas are just beginning to warm up to the concept.

Podcasting evolved with the birth of Apple’s iPod and the ability to publish audio files on the internet. A podcast is simply and audio blog. The audio files can be accessed on the internet and aspiring broadcasters can self-publish or ‘broadcast’ radio style programming using the internet as the distribution channel. Unlike regular radio, the podcasts can be accessed, downloaded and played by anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Podcasting began in the fall of 2003 and really became a growth phenomenon in late 2004. Shel and Neville launched “For Immediate Release”(FIR) in January 2005. Their listening audience has been growing in leaps and bounds. Their focus is on issues and innovations in communication and public relations. Shel brings a North American perspective from California and Neville from Amsterdam.

Each podcast is accompanied by a detailed guide to the content of the podcast – about one hour in length. Each topic has a time code so that you can select pieces of the broadcast rather than listening to it all in one sitting. Every person, topic and organization mentioned in the podcast is listed in the notes with links to relevant web sites. “For Immediate Release” is a model for others considering getting into the field.

It will only be a short time before enlightened organizations start using this new channel for communicating with customers, suppliers and employees. It has huge potential with its advantages of immediacy, convenience and consumability. It is the ultimate commuter’s communication channel as you sit in the bus, train or traffic jam listening to a podcast that you have downloaded in to your iPod before leaving home or the office.

So how did Angela and I do on our podcast? Well hear for yourself. The podcast was published in the June 22, 2005 edition of “For Immediate Release”. You can find the podcast at http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz with the detailed podcast notes. So you can listen to it all, select the parts that interest you or just see what this new communication channel is all about.

There is a link for comments at the end of the notes just like a blog. Give us your feedback and let us know what you thought of the issues we discussed.

 Tudor Williams

Why do weaker creative brains have a tendency to steal in broad daylight, and why is big money spent in promoting look-alike names, despite knowing full well that these names are stolen from other famous brands? Is it really human nature or just sheer stupidity? Unfortunately, some lack the basic skills for recognizing The Three Golden Rules of Naming.

Millions of entrepreneurs and thousands of account executives from major ad agencies all over the world are losing their sleep these days, most sleepwalking in search of new names with some extra “OO”s to ride along with the success of Google’s name.

During the day, they daydream about coming as close to this name as possible. Copy, modify or steal, who cares, as long it as sounds like Google. OOGLE, BOOGLE, FROOGLE, NOODLE, POODLE, CABOODLE, who cares? Just leave the Google brand name alone.

Look-Alike Names

Why do weaker creative brains have a tendency to steal in broad daylight, and why is big money spent in promoting look-alike names, despite knowing full well that these names are stolen from other famous brands? Is it really human nature or just sheer stupidity?

Unfortunately, they seriously lack the basic skills necessary to recognize The Three Golden Rules of Naming:

• Rule One: Do not hide under someone else’s umbrella, you will still get wet. Don’t be a copycat. It is very bad to copy or borrow from an established identity. A look-alike, sound-alike name, resembling the personality of a powerful, established, legendary name would be fruitless in the long run. Stay clear of legendary names.

In the current battle with Froogle, Google has the full right to challenge as the spelling of frugal was changed to appear like Google’s. Just like in the past, Apple, as in computers, faced copycats called, Pineapple, Banana and Cherry, but all perished in the copycat game. There were also Boohoos, UHOOs after Yahoo. Creative agencies love to steal. That is why there are ALTIVA, ALTIPA, AMTIVA, by the hundreds or ENGENT, PANGENT, and CANGENT. Ever wonder why most cars, beer, banking, medicine commercials are just the same? The corporations pay millions and do endless research that is all wasted in the end, as the resulting names or ads are always just the same. Surely, they are not all out of new ideas — or are they?

• Rule Two: Creativity is a spark of genius. Over-creativity can cause fire and damage. Don’t get too creative. Do not twist, bend, stretch, exaggerate, corrupt or modify alpha-structures to their extremes in naming. It might result in difficult, confusing, unpronounceable and only silly names. Avoid overly creative solutions. Studies have shown again and again that most ad commercials or strange branding themes and names, which surely win top awards from their peers, are simply shut out by customers. Next time, just check the top 10 most-awarded campaigns and their related sales performances. Here, raw creativity is rewarded whether it rings clients’ cash registers or not.

• Rule Three: Work locally, think globally and name universally. Do not short-change. No matter how small or local the project, think of the future and think of this small planet. A name is only good when it is free and clear to travel around the globe, without encountering translation problems or trademark conflicts. Name for the universe. Ninety-five percent of the corporate and major product names will fail a test of global protection and suitability. It is so easy to have a global name identity.

Clarity Needed

Global branding and rules of corporate branding in just about every sector are faced with the massive proliferation and commoditization of leading brands. This factor alone demands clarity in the name identity and a precise definition in the marketplace. Copying and stealing famous names is the first step to a big failure.

Globalization is at a serious crossroad. Nationalistic posturing is demanding localization of brands at a much faster rate. At the end of the day, global corporate nomenclature is the most sought after issue of any serious branding exercise. This process is not to be confused with name branding exercises that are primarily looking at global directories and stealing famous name ideas by changing a letter or two, all in the name of big branding.

Creative agencies should pack up all gear, leave the success of Google’s name alone, and wake up and smell the coffee.

If you’re the head of your company, you have to be able to define not just what your company does, but why it does it.

Having difficulty? That’s normal. You can blame it on the way your brain works. The part of the brain that contains decision-making and behavior doesn’t control language, so when you’re asked questions about why you do what you do, it’s natural to get tongue-tied.

That’s where great leadership comes in. Leaders are required to put in to words what a group does; they’re required to cross over between the decision-making and behavior sphere and the language sphere. Leaders are great because they’re good at putting feelings into words that we can act upon.

So it’s up to you, as company leader, to define your “why.” Here are four reasons you should, if you want to survive as a company.

1. Your company’s “why” generates loyalty.

Apple can sell phones not simply because they have the smarts to make phones; every single one of their competitors can make phones too. What gives Apple permission to sell products beyond computers is the fact that it doesn’t define themselves as a computer company; rather, it is a company that stands for something. It represents an ideal: Down with “the man”; attack the status quo; champion the individual.

As long as Apple’s products are consistent with its cause, the company has the freedom to do things other companies cannot. Those who identify with Apple’s cause, in turn, will say they “love” Apple–even if they think it’s because of the products.

2. Organizational success (or failure) often dates from inception.

Most great companies were founded by a person or small group of people who personally suffered a problem, went through an difficult experience, or had someone close to them face a tricky challenge–and then came up with a solution or alternative. That original solution to that original problem is what they formed their company around; it’s why they do what they do.

Organizations that just look to capture some market opportunity, or are born out of some market research, often fail (or else need endless pools of money to keep going). No one has passion for a problem revealed in market research. People have passion to solve their own problems or to help those they care about.

When creative concepts collide unexpectedly, this sudden accident incubates a branding process, which can result in a random selection of a weird strategy. This gives birth to an extreme name identity, whereupon a major advertising process kicks in. All things are combined — shaken, not stirred — and that’s how we refer to today’s trendy branding. To avoid a catastrophe, we must first learn the secrets of the various branding tricks and become aware of the bigger risks.

Right now, in good old England, they have big corporate brands like EGG, as in ham & eggs, http://www.egg.com; ORANGE, as in juice, http://www.orange.com; and THUS, as in “thus far, this Scottish Telco is still having difficulties,” http://www.thus.net.

Wandering Off the MMap

And then there’s MMO2, a very big telecom name in the UK, created as a cute play on the then very popular millennium year 2000. It was fashionable to use the Roman numerals for 2000 at the time, and so MMO2 came into being — but it soon became outdated in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Now they’ve just dropped the MM to be proudly rebranded as O2, as in oxygen, at http://www.o2.com.

Naturally, you would need oxygen after such a mm-mega surgery. Accidental naming can create a lot of crashes and cause injuries during the long term care of a major brand.

There is also GO, as in go where? And NOW, as in right now. ETC is also supposed to be a gentleman’s gentleman-type magazine for very straight-up guys.

The influence of such strange and experimental naming is also spreading outside of England. In Australia, Quantas airlines almost called their no-frill airline Oi or Oz air, but settled on JetStar, a name already used by so many others in aviation. In Asia, there is now a short-lived fad for two-lettered corporate identities. And no, you can’t ever find them on search engines.

Dancing in the Air

Here in the U.S. we have TED airlines, as in what’s left of United. With only one single peanut per passenger to offer, United Airlines so brilliantly chopped the Uni from their name to come to this unique invention of TED. Like, half the airline with half the things chopped, except the engines, of course. That deserves half an entry in the half-naming hall of fame. Just as Blue, Jazz, Tango and Song airlines are trying to dance in the air, so TED is now attempting its trampoline routine.

It seems that all over the globe there is a rush to find four-letter words for airline brands. Is this the revenge of the disgruntled flier? Maybe. The fact is, airlines are in the fast-chopping mode.

“Cut everything in half and than half again; do it slowly and do it painfully.” Of course they all are losing big money. Who could be surprised about their losses? But one could question the old branding fanfare. To frequent fliers it became obvious, way before the 9/11 tragedy; it all started with the peanut packets being replaced by one single peanut. Now all you might get is just a picture of a meal, a great take-home souvenir.

The peanuts and monkey business are almost over — now you even pay for a cracker and dare ask for butter. All you are allowed is simply to dream of demanding an extra satin pillow with silky blankets. Today, the stage is nicely set to get a greyhound bus service in the air. Cut the washrooms, give them a used parachute. The naming of airlines has taken a major turn from country-specific to discount-coupon-specific and from first-class to no-class. While Asian airlines are boosting super luxury classes, here in the U.S., it is time to fly a TOM or a DICK or a HARRY. Thank you, Britannia, we are amused with these yoyo monikers.

The Global Wordplay

Real advertising was invented in England, and let’s face it, they are great at it, just like the global branding that came out of Japan while America provided the largest arena to play out the branding games.

Meanwhile, our good old McDonald’s in the U.S. is unhappy about McJobs being included as a word in the OED, the Oxford English Dictionary, mother of all the English words and a slap to the French because their Larousse dictionary is poorer by a few thousand French words. Wow, we have more four-letter words than the French — merde.

To Big Mac, the jobs of “Flippin Engineers,” “Moppin’ Mechanics” and “Latrine Sentries” are not to be laughed at. True, Big Mac does help tens of thousands at entry-level jobs and helps students as well. Somehow they later become very obese and try to sue them — in revenge?

Here is a new twist: the fast-food freedom fry, fatty chow-maker now wants to sell children’s clothing and introduce McKids in a big way. Why not go for McSleep: Eat and sleep and complete the life circle — indeed, a million dollar tag line on Madison Avenue. Watch out for the naked kids running around at the golden arches drive-ins exchanging and re-fitting pantaloons — French, that is.

America is better off with business name brands, which give us a clear advantage, provide global identity and a leadership position, rather than just simple English words from the dictionary that can get lost in the crowd. Name wisely, or just go to McSleep.

Naseem Javed – ABC Namebank

There is a commodity that is at the core of our work in the communications field, and the related fields of marketing and advertising. Without this commodity, we could never hope to wield influence. Unlike oil, it is a resource that will always exist, yet it is finite; there is only so much of it to go around. This commodity is attention.

In an information/knowledge economy, attention is at the heart of just about everything. If people pay attention, you have a shot at getting your message across. If they don’t, if they choose to focus their attention elsewhere, you might as well be firing your messages into deep space. What’s more, given the nature of the Net, you can identify what people are paying attention to and use that information.

It’s interesting to reflect on the term “pay attention.” “Pay” suggests some kind of barter arrangement. When I pay money for something, I expect to get something in return, whether it’s a pack of chewing gum, a new laptop, a novel, whatever. When I pay heed, I also expect something in return, such as information of value. As more and more organizations jockey to attract the attention of key audiences, what are they giving in return? Are they even thinking in terms of an exchange? And what of those organizations that use services like Technorati and PubSub to identify where people are focusing their attention in order to use it to better hone their own messages? Are they employing any ethical guidelines to their application of the information they obtain?

These questions are new to the information age, but a non-profit organization has been launched to advocate on behalf of the people who own the commodity organizations crave. AttentionTrust maintains that individuals own themselves, their data, and their attention. Further, this ownership assumes certain rights:

• Property—You own your attention and can store it wherever you wish. You have control.
• Mobility—You can securely move your attention wherever you want whenever you want to. You have the ability to transfer your attention.
• Economy—You can pay attention to whomever you wish and receive value in return. Your attention has worth.
• Transparency—You can see exactly how your attention is being used. You can decide who you trust.

AssociationTrust defines attention, in part, as

…the substance of focus. It registers your interests by indicating choice for certain things and choice against other things. Any time you pay attention to something (and any time you ignore something), data is created. That data has value, but only if it’s gathered, measured, and analyzed. Right now, you generally lack the ability to capture that data for yourself, so you can’t benefit from it. But what if you could? And what if you could share your data with other people, who were also capturing their own data, or if you could exchange your data for something of value with companies and other institutions that were interested in learning more about the things that interested you? You’d be in control–you would decide who has access to what data, as well as what you’d accept in exchange for access to your data.

The site also includes links to some research and writing on the subject of attention.

The mission of AttentionTrust isn’t clear, and its activities aren’t defined, but the association is inviting memberships for those who are willing to abide by the four principles. In any case, this is no fly-by-night group. The volunteer board includes the likes of ZDNet columnist and attention advocate Steve Gillmor (president), Nick Bradbury, designer of the FeedDemon RSS newsreader, Seth Goldstein, Clay Shirky, and Mary Hodder, among others. Since there’s no dollar figure attached to membership (other than a suggested $25 donation), I’m signing up if for no other reason than to see what comes next.  

Shel Holtz – Holtz Communication + Technology

In my “Writing for the Wired World” workshops, I begin by pointing out a fundamental difference between business websites and everything else on the web. When you build a family site (birthday party pictures and the like) or a fan site (if you love your Mini Cooper, for instance) or a performance art site (fun with Flash, for example), your visitors are happy to click here and there to see what you’re offering. When people come to a business site, however, they know exactly what they want. With laser-like intensity, they will zero in (or, at least, try to) on the answer to their question, the solution to their problem. Visitors to business sites have agendas. They’re not interested in following any links that won’t get them to what brought them.

Similar distinctions apply to business podcasting -– particularly B2B podcasting, where your customer is another business instead of an individual customer or consumer. There’s no point in pretending to be “Dawn and Drew” when your audience has come for useful business content. (Besides, if they want to listen to “Dawn and Drew,” they can. )

That said, it’s also worth noting that your listeners spend most of their time listening to podcasts other than yours. There are podcasting practices you should learn and adhere to that, so far, many business podcasts are ignoring. Most busines podcasts, for example, don’t have associated blogs. More on that later.

Not that there are a lot of B2B podcasts out there yet. I count maybe half a dozen (from Oracle, Jupiter, Eric Schwartzman, and BMC Software, for example). But podcasting is exploding and businesses are going to figure out sooner rather than later that a podcast could be a useful B2B communication channel.

With that in mind, I started jotting down some guidelines for B2B podcasting. As luck would have it, I wound up with 10:

Be relevant

If you’re considering a B2B podcast, you’ve probably already given some consideration to a theme and an audience. One of the no-brainer podcasts no business has A podcast for this audience helps elevate your content above the dozens or even hundreds of other companies sending content through traditional channels. It’s not enough to just focus on this audience; you have to add some value. You don’t need to disclose material information for this podcast to be relevant, but you should offer insights into why your organization is a worthy investment. You might, for instance, pick a focus of your R&D efforts and give it a bit more attention that usual, talk about customer satisfaction metrics, or conduct an interview with one of your thought leaders.

Under some circumstances, you might be tempted to use your podcast to address issues that have reared their ugly heads. It’s easy to view the podcast as a broad business communication tool. It’s not. Podcasting is all about narrowcasting, particularly when you’re dealing with a business audience. Resist the temptation to digress or risk losing an audience that listens because of the highly focused content you deliver. Consider IBM’s podcast, which delves into the future of some aspect of life (homes, cars, shopping) through the eyes of two company thought leaders on the subject. How many people would unsubscribe if IBM used an episode to explain its labor issues? That’s not why people subscribed.

Avoid fluff

I’ve heard some comments recently suggesting that business podcasts should be more entertaining. One pundit went so far as to suggest that business podcasts should play songs. Don’t you believe it. Someone who listens to the IBM podcast wants to know what the future holds and they want to hear it from experts working on real-world applications. Listeners to my podcast may argue, “You play music.” Yes, Neville and I play a podsafe tune at the end of every show. But we’re not a B2B podcast; there is no business behind our show. (We’re just two guys doing a podcast.) We also save the music for the end of the show, so those who don’t want to hear music can stop listening when the music starts. (Incidentally, we play music to support the independent artists whose efforts are one of the biggest drivers of podcasting and because it’s our show and we want to.)

Be infotaining

While you don’t want to turn your B2B podcast into a top 40 music show, you do want to employ enough entertainment elements to make it interesting to listen to. Solid content is not compelling if it is delivered by a lone monotonous voice. Use musical intros and outros, introduce new features, and generally take advantage of the medium. Adopt a format for your show. “For Immediate Release” is a co-hosted discussion with audio commentary from other sources. You could do an interview show, a panel discussion, or commentary by company thought leaders. Listeners get to like a format. They also like it if you shake it up from time to time.

Build and engage community

There’s a podcasting myth that suggests one of podcasting’s great limitations is its one-way, top-down nature. Hogwash. Podcasts routinely build communities of listeners the members of which interact with the podcaster. Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code offers a great example. Curry expressed an interest in biodiesel and asked for input. Listeners sent what they knew by email and audio comment. Other listeners commented on what the first round of listeners said. Curry responded and asked more questions. The biodiesel discussion has been going on for weeks on DSC. Neville and I have worked hard to make “For Immediate Release” listener-driven, with as much as half of each show based on themes raised by our listeners.

There are no competitors…okay, there are some competitors

If you spend your time bashing your competitors, your listeners will unsubscribe in droves. They’re coming for insights, not an us-vs.-them commercial. As my mother (and yours, too, probably) used to say, if you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say anything. In fact, if a competitor introduces a podcast or says something worthwhile in a blog, point to it. Neville and I don’t see the growing number of PR-focused podcasts as competition. We even link to them in what we call our “podroll,” a list of other communication-themed podcasts on our show blog. Just because your audience is made up of customers doesn’t mean you shouldn’t recognize the interconnectedness of the medium and your listeners’ hunger for useful and interesting content.

Not that I think Boston Consulting Group would ever welcome a new podcast by McKinsey & Company into the podosphere. Short of that, though, it pays dividends to be part of a bigger podcasting community.

Don’t advertise or sell

Nobody wants to subscribe to and download a commercial. You can brand your product, service, or company by being the provider of useful information. You should avoid turning your podcast into an advertisement at all costs, regardless of what your throwback marketing VP wants.

Be authentic

Businesses often are inclined to overproduce their media, striving to be as good as – or better than – mainstream public media. I remember talking to the manager of one company’s video production operation who said his baseline was a local newscast; his work could never, no matter what, be worse than a typical local newscast. While podcast listeners do want to be entertained, their primary interest is in content, not polish. A podcast hosted by voice talent reading a script will be dismissed, while listening to a real engineer or designer or brand manager -– replete with all his “ums” and “uhs” -– will be compelling, as long as he’s talking about something the listener cares about. (Besides, you can edit out the worst mistakes.)

Be mindful of your listeners’ time

Depending on whom you talk to, podcasts shouldn’t exceed 20 or 40 minutes. Neville and I routinely run 70 to 80 minutes. But again, while “The Hobson and Holtz Report” is about business, it’s not from a business. With a business podcast, you’re asking your customer (or prospective customer) to give her attention to your organization’s content. It’s an exchange. Don’t ask for too much of it. Make sure you fill the time you do have with something useful enough to make the exchange worthwhile.

Integrate your podcast into the blogosphere

Outside the pseudo podcasts from the mainstream media (repackaged pre-broadcast radio content), you’ll be hard-pressed to find a podcast that doesn’t have an associated blog. So far, most of the business podcasts haven’t emulated this practice with the exception of GM, where the Fastlane podcast is just part of the Fastlane blog. Your podcast blog page contains show notes, another tactic common among indie podcasters but missing from businesses. Listeners appreciate the hell out of good show notes. Most important, but inviting comments on each show, you more effectively build that community of listeners naysayers insist you can’t build with a podcast.

As I said at the beginning, I’m sure I’ve overlooked some important guidelines. What have I missed? 

Shel Holtz – Holtz Communication + Technology

Over the weekend, I finished switching my Web site over to a new content management system. I had been using Mamboserver, but wasn’t as thrilled with it as I thought I’d be, so I switched to phpWebSite, which is a vast improvement. Interestingly, on the heels of the switchover came some input that suggested, perhaps, that static Web pages are a thing of the past in light of the conversational nature of blogs. Are static Web sites (and, for that matter, magazine ads) dinosaurs that should be consigned to the dustbin of communication history?

I’ve given this extensive consideration, weighed the implications, and reached a conclusion:

What a crock.

If we’ve learned anything over the last several years, it’s that all new media and communication channels are additive. I would defy you to name one-ONE-new medium that has outright replaced an older one. These predictions have always accompanied the introduction of a new channel. Radio was supposed to replace print. Television was supposed to replace radio. Now blogs are supposed to replace Web sites.

The truth is, new media channels assume the roles for which they are better suited than the older channels. And the older channels adapt to do what they’re best at. Consider television. Before TV, radio consisted of programming that included dramas and comedies, soap operas, game shows and variety shows (from “The Green Hornet,” “Inner Sanctum,” and “The Shadow” to “Texaco Star Theater,” “Beat the Band,” and “Quiz Kids”). When TV came along, these kinds of shows quickly became TV staples because they were better as visual presentations. Did radio die just because “Days of Our Lives” was no longer part of the programming mix? Nope. Radio adapted into a channel for programming that was better as audio.

Today, newspapers are struggling in the face of challenges from blogs, online classifieds (e.g., Craig’s List and eBay), and online news channels, but I don’t for a minute believe newspapers as a medium will vanish. There’s too much evidence suggesting that people scan Web content but read paper.

Some newspapers that don’t adapt will certainly perish. But smart publishers will figure out how to evolve their publications into something that is just better on paper than it could be online. New newspapers with fresh approaches that leverage print’s inherent strengths will appear. These will thrive.

E-mail is another example. Think back to when e-mail was first introduced at your workplace. Did IT simultaneously remove your fax machines? E-mail became a new alternative, not a required replacement.

So what’s the benefit of a static Web site or a magazine ad?

Let’s start with the Web, and let’s look at the Microsoft Office campaign that Steve Rubel wrote about. I agree completely with Steve’s assertion that Microsoft has wasted an “opportunity to use what I call ‘conversational marketing’ – e.g. blogs, podcsating and RSS.” But that doesn’t mean there should’t be an associated Web site. Once somebody has engaged in a conversation, there should be a place to go where they can quickly navigate to information they need. Remember, good Web sites are built on principles of information architecture, easy retrieval of information. Further, information found on the static site may well be what leads someone to want to engage in a conversation.

(By the way, the special Microsoft site, with its slow-loading Flash and streaming video files, sucks. It looks like it could have come from one of those extinct Web design companies of the mid-1990’s. And no, I’m not suggesting that Steve ever said there should be no Web site at all; Steve gets the idea of integrating all appropriate media to achieve a business

outcome.)

Another example: government sites. With the ocean of information available, do I want to engage in a conversation just to find, for example, how to get a camping permit in Yosemite? Well-constructed Web pages are far more

useful: Click, click, there’s my answer. I don’t have to wait for somebody to respond to my post. And let’s not forget commerce sites from Amazon.com to the online stores at places like Circuit City or Home Depot. Adding customer service blogs to these is a great idea. Replacing them with blogs is, well, dumb.

And what about magazine ads? People still read magazines; print still rocks.

And if you can create the awareness that drives readers to an online conversation, increased share of market follows.

Finally, it’s still worth noting that, according to the oft-cited Pew report on blogging, only 27% of the online adult population in the US reads blogs at all. That’s an impressive number, but it’s still a fraction of a company’s total potential audience.

You’ll find no bigger advocate for the social customer, the business/audience conversation, and the value of new communication channels than me. To achieve genuine and meaningful business results, however, it’s important to temper enthusiasm with practicality. Blogs, RSS, podcasts, and wikis are exciting and important and transformational, but they are a part of a larger communication landscape. Communications that integrate them will be far more successful than those that rely solely on them.

To bring this full circle, that’s why I have a Web site, a blog, a wiki, and a monthly e-mail newsletter. I can engage people in my blog. But someone who wants to know what my intranet audit service entails can find that in two clicks on my Web site. (I still get a lot of business that way.) People who don’t read blogs remain aware of me through the newsletter, which is also posted to a separate blog so I can distribute it as an RSS feed. I have an RSS feed of the news items on my Web site’s home page. I have no plans to give up my site and go blog-only any time soon. Each serves its purpose. And all is right with the world. 

Shel Holtz – Holtz Communication + Technology

I have had a few opportunities to hear Fred Garcia of the Logos Institute discuss reputation management/crisis management issues.   Fred does an excellent job in translating deep thinking into the bite-sized chunks I seem to need more and more to internalize heady concepts.

I was delighted to hear Logos entered the blogosphere awhile back.  I was always of the opinion that, if they decided to do a blog, it would be a good one.

Social networking offers significant opportunities for organizations, but things can go awry if you don’t do you homework.   Homework that requires multiple sources and points of view.  The Logos blog might be a good one for you to include in this mix.

Kelly Thul

Sustainability Leaders Go On Record (podcast)

• Insights from business sustainability leaders.  Presented by NewPage 

Have you ever noticed how quickly professional development disappears when the recipient tries to apply it to their own situation? I realized in a big way last year after a brand presentation at an IABC/Iowa chapter meeting about branding and the power brand.

”We’re all about brand,” said one veteran communicator after the meeting. He worked for one of the large insurance companies in Des Moines so I asked him if he felt his company’s brand was different, inviting, relevant, and truthful, and if he and his co-workers knew how to live the brand daily. His eyes narrowed slightly  when he realized the answer, and he told me, “your right. We aren’t about brand”. His chinned dropped and the smile left his face when, after discussing it a bit more, he discovered his insurance company employer was about brand identity, not brand management.

As he walked away discouraged, I realized that I didn’t help him. I didn’t encourage him. I didn’t arm him to become a brand warrior inside his company. I didn’t tell him to become subversive; that’s what it takes to move organizations down the road to being a great brand. Here’s what I should have told him:

1. Be observant – Make sure you’re doing a lot of walking around your organization, listen to co-workers including executives and the front-line staff. If you’re a large corporation, travel to other offices, participate in different task forces and groups. Watch and listen how sales people engage customers on the trade show floor. Watch and listen to the production staff talk to each other. Review the mission/vision/values statements and annual reports. Begin to define your organization’s brand. If it’s already been articulated, learn it.
2. Be connected – Start conversations with the executives, the front-line staff, the sales team and the production crew. Talk with the guy in the mailroom and the person at the front desk. Begin to refine your organization’s brand promise and build relationships with those who are in a position to easily communicate it.
3. Be vocal – Try the brand promise out on co-workers, on managers, on customers. See if it’s comfortable with everybody, if they can live it. If you get push back, probe a little deeper. See if it’s because that employee can’t live up to the brand or if the company can’t live up to the brand. Only by using it in conversation will you determine if the brand fits, if it’s authentic and believable in the marketplace.
4. Be courageous – Once you’ve determined that the brand that fits, start using it to drive your communications and to drive your behavior. Be a leader and get noticed. When others notice, share your story, your findings and encourage them to take it to heart. Hold others accountable when their actions conflict with the brand – even those above you on the organizational chart. This is how to build your personal brand. Let people know that you’re a brand warrior!

And be ready to bold if the brand is not embraced by others. If your organization doesn’t want you, others do.

By Mark True

My second job was in a large corporate environment, and I had been given the responsibility to produce the employee magazine. I was writing a typical article about a committee’s planning efforts so that everyone in the organization had a feel for what was happening. I asked what the team was doing, who was on the team and when they expected to finish the work, and I got a blank stare from the manager who was my source. She said she didn’t want to put a date out there because the team might be held accountable to that date.

That’s when I first learned the truth about truth: it’s a moving target. And it’s why so many brands are so bland. When there’s no truth – no authenticity – there’s no focus, there’s no goal, there’s no accountability to the brand.

It’s happened time and time again since that day…a client, for example, will boldly make a claim that is different and relevant, only to back down when it’s put in writing for all to see. “I’m not comfortable with that” is the common response (usually during the second or third round of the approval process, just before the piece goes to print) because they realize they can’t guarantee the claim operationally.

As communicators – as brand warriors – we have only one choice: speak up, loudly and often, and demand our co-workers or clients be true to the brand. It’s the T in a D.I.R.T.Y. brand. And it’s what will help us move out of the tactical conversations and be part of the strategy conversations in our organizations.

A few years ago, I was facilitating a brand discernment process with a group of employees at a small bank client, when the receptionist asked if she’s supposed to hold the vice-president accountable to the brand. I said “absolutely” and the whole room went quiet. A smile slowly crept over the face of the vice-president, a quiet man who completely bought into the premise, and he said “yes, you should.”

It’s difficult to demand authenticity across an organization. If the brand is understood by everyone, positive brand management examples are shared with everyone, and there’s buy-in at the top of the organizational chart, however, it’s easy to be a brand warrior.

And there’s nobody more empowered to be the brand warrior than the communications professional. You can use your skills to:

• thoroughly explain the brand,

• demonstrate how others are living the brand,

• help the leadership craft a brand story and

• take it to the market.

And keep telling the story so others know how to tell the story, too.

By Mark True

• How sales and marketing teams can create a shared go-to-market strategy that focuses on customers, not products.  White paper by Peppers & Rogers Group and Microsoft 

1. Make a list of critical vs. non-critical activities. As in, which ones will impact my customers and the current or future survival of my business?  Then, focus only on those essential activities. Eliminate, delegate, or postpone everything else.For me, that meant I cancelled a bunch of non-essential social, community and volunteer activities. This is a great way to find out what you’re really, truly passionate and energized about. I found I easily ditched my boring Dreamweaver course but nothing was going to get between me and my djembe drumming class (great therapy!).
2. Figure out what you can reasonably do and what you can’t, with the understanding that you need to get some rest and take extra care of yourself during a stressful time. I had over a thousand emails/alerts in my inbox, most of them to satisfy my endless cravings for information. Without mercy, I deleted everything that didn’t require action.
3. Set expectations up front.  For me, clients consistently identify reliability as one of my core brand attributes. While waiting for hours in the hospital, I sent each of my key clients (and suppliers) a personalized but brief note. I let them know I had a family situation and that I expected to meet my deadlines, but there was a small chance I may need a bit of extra time. All thanked me for letting them know. Turns out I met every deadline.
4. Be authentic (but not needy). Many of my client and peer relationships have turned into valued friendships. People in my network genuinely wanted to know how I was doing.  Although it would’ve been easy, I refrained from giving them an aloof, conversation-closing “everything’s fine.” I showed them the real me and shared what I truly felt – fear, hope, exhaustion, gratitude, imperfection.  In less than 30 words (they want to know you’re OK, but enough already).
5. Ask for help from your support system. It doesn’t need to be big. It doesn’t need to be lasagne. Despite my fierce need for independence, I asked my mastermind group, my friends and some of my close clients to send their positive, healing thoughts, if they were so inclined. They were grateful to feel like they could help. I was grateful to feel supported.  Strangely, it made us all a little closer.

Pepper and Rodgers shows us in their 1-to-1 media site the need to have Marketing and IT collaborate. Is this a problem in your organization???

Thanks to Paul Dunay for sharing this Q&A with such a distinguished panel of corporate marketers from the recent Media Convergence Forum. The panel consisted of the following:

• Jeff Hayzlett – Chief Business Development Officer, Eastman Kodak
• Russ Klein – President Global Marketing Strategy, Burger King
• Nicholas Utton – CMO, E-Trade Financial

At the Forum they discussed what the current and future role for the CMO looked like from their perspective.

Check it out here.

Miniaturization – Every business process will go through intense compression and digitalization so when it comes out on the other side of the tunnel, it will have already considerably reduced its operational costs.  This will enable the process to function effectively, more powerfully, and be highly replicatable, with a lower cost structure like a proverbial silver bullet. Will this now shrink entire office floors into cubicles, and cubicles into little icons on websites? Who would need to come to the offices anyway; managers, to put their feet on desks, water cooler crowds, elevator pitch experts or just the office cleaners? Is this the reason commercial office space is about to fall off the cliff? Both big and small businesses will be shrinking to survive, with increasing competitive pressure the requirement is to become the silver bullet. Are you running a bullet speed operation or lost in the office maze?

Lateralization – The realignment of both the cerebral hemispheres is also urgently required with the next automobile tune-up.  Many exhausted and stressed out individuals throughout the world have suffered tremendously over the last few years, intensifying with the economic collapse.  This raises serious question about the functionalities of senior executives, their basic business logic, financial literacy and the right-left-brain balance. Why did the business systems and financial services fail so badly? Despite all the high level education, was their vision got blurred, or capital risk management was insufficient so the real world imploded. Was it the lack of lateralization which fogged the reality? Is it time to re-discover new types and styles of educational agendas, new methods and new formats of operation? A new wave of educational programs will sweep the executive corridors. Are you newly trained and outfitted as a gladiator or you are just an old time spectator?

Trillionization – Once society becomes immune to the trivialization of the trillionization of nations’ debts it will become a real comfort pillow for the public consciousness to sleep on.  After a year of struggle, over confidence about a $1 million net profit may sound like an embarrassingly minute accomplishment when pleading for plant expansion funds to a banker, whose tight fisted policies, despite receiving a $100 billion bailout, still do not solve your business issues. The overly casual use of the word trillion, as an ordinary measurement of the rising deficit, with each hiccup is going to diminish our respect and regard to the daily challenges of life, dealing in only a few millions of dollars. Is this the reason why nobody is any longer impressed by how much money you have made during this great recession? New methodologies and new types of presentation collateral will be required to pitch for any serious business game plan. Do you have the new tools to present your business plan or would you prefer the sign language?

Infotoxication  -If the information is more toxic than the toxic assets themselves what is the point of believing anybody?  Just stay intoxicated; forget joining AA. The truth is being morphed into twisted sugar candy by the day to keep the masses high while credibility gaps are getting wider by the hour. Is there really a person or a body on this planet that the global masses would blindly believe?  Is there a government, a department, a corporation, an NGO, a global body, a credit reporting agency, a polling service or a bank? What happened?  Was it a meteor hit, or just a daisy-cutter type memory loss?  Why trustworthiness simply disappeared and why was credibility just wiped out? Is this the reason for the lowest rating when any head of state goes for national public broadcasts? Is this the reason that newspapers and TV are becoming irrelevant and disappearing? Creating solid credibility will be the biggest challenge for both the public and private sectors in this new decade. Do they trust you with their life or with empty bottles?

Googlelization – If society is already overly dependent on Google without a quick early morning hand shake, the day simply doesn’t start. The sun does not come out and the moon stays stuck behind the clouds. The entire global search-centric culture is based on Googling to put life in perspective, determine the importance of anything, news, personalities, money matters, buying or selling of any idea.  The new product and services from the mother ship Google will keep us even more comfortably tangled in a kind of great and free service till we all get overly cozy, almost dazed and habitually responding to our stimuli. What Google did in the last ten years took others a century to even approach. Today, Google can be credited with a trillion dollar savings in time costs, by having information in seconds available to the global public. It is hard to imagine a life on this planet without it. Become a Google expert and find all the possible options to build your expansion strategies around its access and services. Ignore the sobbing in other media and advertising as they have run out of batteries. The introduction of new ideas, ranging from phone and gadgets to insurance and banking services, will create amazing shock waves and exciting opportunities to feel the global pulse in real time. Are you being Googled and if not do it yourself?

Domainization -If several key languages other than Roman alphabets are allowed, it will make the internet really global.   It will be a dynamic adjustment, colorful and yet at times extremely confusing, so what should brand name holders do? Scream foul in other languages; buy dictionaries, or simply go exploring on world trips? A name is the most important and critical component of any serious business today. If a name is not worthy of protection as it is already diluted and confusing, then it could surely become a nightmare very soon. Only well balanced and protected name holders will really be allowed to play the superior games on new platforms of TLD now offered by ICANN.
A serious business without a solid global name is like a dull joke in search of laughter. Global understanding of domain name management and naming architecture skills will be where all the battles of social-media-searching and customer acquisition will be headed. Is your name identity a shiny star or a dull object?

Ghettoization – Is social media in reality becoming an anti-social-media, as Joe-Social has little or no real relationship with Jane-Public, except as a spectator cheering at dull events. Is it creating its own social-ghettos, where micro-gatherings are only blocking crowd-gathering? Will this fad mould into another form of personal personification like an old phone directory but with pictures and some quirky messages? If advanced level personal data was manipulated to determine the next action to plant a selling proposition, would it not eliminate all the old selling procedures? Can you imagine this as a new online CyberHeaven or will it be CyberHell? Is it time to buy stock in delivery vans? New processes will seriously replace old style location and large inventory-based retail industry thinking, along with the traditional advertising? Are you in social-media-heaven or anti-social-purgatory?

Cybernetization – Once all the processes are electronic, digitized, portable and in cyberspace, then what is the point of a regimented 9-to-5 Monday to Friday working society?  Free at last! If everyone was working and thinking while connected to some large portal spread out on a global range, what would it do to corporate structure, hierarchies, protocols and decorum? Would society cope with such an open ended free flow of work?  Will it change habits and daily routines? Will you find more people in libraries, cinemas, malls or restaurants? Will they just stay home and watch 3DHDTV and get more depressed about repeated ‘socio-politico-economico-climatico-damaged-news’? Will the home craft industry boom and autos stay in the garage? Will back yards turn into small grow-op farms, and will groceries stores be quieter? Are you already undressed to be hard-wired?

Frugalization–  While ‘shop till you drop dead’ created the greatest recession, then ‘save till you drop’ will keep you there forever. Was it the failure of capitalism and liberal economic policies without regulation that resulted in ‘beg, borrow and steal, shop at high interest plastic and boost Dow at 15000’? It will surely take all the income to finance these shopping bills. The capitalist free enterprise system seems broken. Communism and socialism is also not the answer. The society all over the world is getting a free crash course on economy, and what they are going to derive is that saving is perhaps the only way. Wealth is created by actual work and not by spending. Is it possible that the USA may end up with a Japan-like decade? The intense frugality at the main street will spread and linger all over. Are you saving or spending enough or do you have a printing press too?

Globalization  -If globalization is the only way to go forward despite all the nationalism, what will the new world would look like? Will it eventually create select alliances and free trades? Will it create blocks, or just battles in a sandbox? The search for best markets, best labor and minimum regulation is where the private corporate jets would be parked.  The talk of nationalism would primarily feed the textual lines to the tele-prompters all over the world, but the real protectionism will not work well for most of the nations. The internationalism of business is already way out of the bag and this is where all the cutting edge skills are required. Multiple countries, languages and cultures will all dance to one tune in the same boardroom. New global standards will drive marketing, naming and image management. Are you basically local, somewhat ‘glocal’ or truly internationalist?

Naseem Javed is widely recognized as a world-authority on building corporate image and creating global name identities. http://www.abcnamebank.com Toronto – New York