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Five (Intuitive) Reasons To Bet on Facebook

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May 18, 2012
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Posted by David Armano

Edelman Digital, Chicago

http://darmano.typepad.com/

Follow on Twitter @armano

This post was originally published on David Armano’s blog Logic + Emotion.

There’s no shortage of commentary around Facebook as the smoke literally builds around it’s engine while the social media rocket prepares for IPO liftoff. This piece won’t be full of rational analysis but rather gut intuition. Here are a few things to chew on as you think about the global future with or without Facebook.

Zuckerberg Isn’t Steve Jobs, But He’s Jobs-Like
Mark Zuckerberg gets social like Steve Jobs got design. Furthermore, both share a core foundational value which is irrationally committed to making products and experiences which please their own sensibilities first and the market second. Does this guarantee Facebook’s success? No, but it does guarantee that there will always be a vision and if you look up Facebook’s governance structure, you’ll realize that it’s a company being set up to be purpose and vision led. Bottom line, you’re not betting on or against Facebook, but really Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook Is Today’s Telephone, E-mail & Internet For Many
Think about how you use Facebook, how your children use it (if you have them and they are old enough) and how your parents use it. It’s already moving past “social network” status and moving toward something which looks more like lifeline to the outside world. In conventional wars of the past, communication lines such as telephone would be cut so the enemy could not communicate. If conventional war broke out today—generals would plan to take the Internet out because of platforms like Facebook. Think about it.

Ecosystems Trump Products
Facebook was never a product from day one—it started as a social network and it’s been steadily building up an ecosystem ever since. It’s on our mobile devices, it connects with our Websites, it offers it’s own line of credit, it has apps and developer communities built around it and it’s spawned hundreds of start ups that employ thousands of people who would not be in their line of work if it were not for Facebook. The company has already gotten to this point with a significant advantage in that it looks more like an octopus than it does a shark gobbling up everything in it’s path.

Big Business Is Built On Addictive Behaviors
Facebook is extremely addictive and one can find themselves spending a good chunk on their day there either working, playing or doing a combination of the two. Gambling became big business because of this. Drug trafficking, while illegal in most cases is big business and so are food industries built on menus with addictive items. As long as Facebook remains addictive to use, it will find a way to build business around it.

Global & Local Are The Future
While Facebook is still working on markets like Russia and China—there’s no dispute that it’s well into the process of being a global phenomenon and in addition, it can be especially relevant in local markets. Any local business which is self sustaining or part of a larger company can have a presence and run it with the local knowledge of their own markets. It is this combination which positions Facebook as something of a “virus” with the ability for it to “infect” markets through the people who use it.

Personally, I would not bet against Facebook. Even GM which announced this week that they were pulling out of Facebook advertising spending concedes that they are committed to other ways of integrating it (via content etc.). GM isn’t betting against Facebook as much as deciding display ads weren’t working for them. Of course, I could be wrong on all of the above—but intuitively my instincts are telling me, “don’t bet against Mark Zuckerberg”.

Image credit: markopako

Friday Five: Marketing to Young Consumers – Why It Matters

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May 18, 2012
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Posted by Katherine Meyer

Edelman Digital, Chicago

Follow on Twitter @katherinemeyer

Today’s youth, commonly referred to as the iGeneration, represents a unique generation of consumers. What makes them special is that they will likely never know what it means to be “unreachable” and wield a more significant amount of influence over their parents than generations past. Roughly half of the iGeneration go online several times a day, 75 percent own a cellphone and they watch approximately 24 hours of TV per month. Based on how much content they consume through various avenues and their power as influencers, these young consumers are a highly accessible and sought after consumer.

Here are five things to watch out for if you are targeting a youth audience (under 18 years old):

1. Know Your Stuff When it Comes to COPPA and TRUSTe Compliance.

COPPA guidelines should serve as framework for any kid-focused promotion or campaign to ensure that it’s legally acceptable and protects the privacy of participating children. Another factor to consider is whether your digital properties are TRUSTe compliant. If using any TRUSTe compliant digital properties, you will need to work with a representative from the company’s Compliance team to make sure its privacy and safety standards are met as well. Doing the upfront work to make sure you are COPPA and TRUSTe compliant will make your company’s legal team extremely happy and ensure you are protecting the privacy of the children involved.

2. Don’t Collect Children’s Personal Information Online or Work With Partners or Businesses That Do.

If you are focused on kids under the age of 18, it is not advisable to collect any information other than what’s reasonably necessary for a child to participate. ”Personal information” is typically defined as full name, home address, email address, date of birth, telephone number or any other information that allows someone to identify or contact the child. The information you collect will dictate the stringency of the guidelines that you, and any third-party vendors you are working with, need to meet. Furthermore, parental consent will be needed regardless if a child is under or over the age of 13, and there is significant legal liability tied to the company’s brand in the event that children’s’ identities are made vulnerable.

3. ”Going Social” Gets Tricky

The most popular online destinations (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, etc.) do not allow children under the age of 13 to register with their sites, but this doesn’t prevent them from joining anyway. Roughly 7.5 million users on Facebook are kids 13 and under who have registered with incorrect birth dates so they can gain access to the site. Technically the onus falls on the technology social sites use to verify the child’s age, the child to be honest when registering and parents to be aware of the social sites on which their child has registered.. Huge gray area, right? Yes, there is some wiggle room here, but from a legal and COPPA compliance standpoint it’s not recommended to encourage kids to visit social sites to engage with your brand. If you want to incorporate a social element check out kid-focused networks (e.g. Club Penguin, Togetherville, What’s What) and see if they fit your needs.

4. Don’t Forget the Parent Audience

Regardless of their level of involvement, it’s important not to ignore the parents who are keeping track of what their kids are doing online. Think through the messaging that will be sent to them and if it’s appropriate to engage them any further. Even if they will just receive participation notifications, be sure to clearly explain the child’s engagement with the brand and any pertinent information that will make the parent comfortable with his or her child’s participation.

5. Be Wary of Offering Shiny Things

Today’s youth are likely to engage with your brand if you can offer a fun game for them to play or a prize. Offering prizes will drum up excitement, but remember you must follow COPPA guidelines to execute a giveaway. Steps of execution that will need to be thought through include where to host the giveaway, defining who is eligible to participate and prize fulfillment. If the giveaway is open to kids under the age of 13, Facebook is out as a hosting option due to its terms of service, and a parent must be involved to approve of his or her child’s participation and provide any personal information needed for fulfillment, regardless of where you are hosting the program. Consider the cost of execution and potential COPPA compliance hurdles before committing to a giveaway.

There are more logistics to work through when speaking to young consumers, but tapping into this burgeoning group of tastemakers and influencers can be invaluable to a brand.

Do you work with a brand that wants to reach out to young consumers? If so, what experience have you had working in this market segment?

Image Credit: James F Clay

Connecting with Today’s (And Tomorrow’s) Workforce

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May 17, 2012
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Posted by Edelman EE

Edelman, Chicago

Follow on Twitter @EdelmanEE

This perspective was originally published by Edelman Employee Engagement on Scribd.

How does your company treat its employees? The answer matters. According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, an organization’s reputation as an employer is critical to its overall trustworthiness: “Treating employees well” is the third-most important action a company can take to build public trust, behind only listening to customers and offering quality products. Indeed, a track record as a trustworthy employer bolsters a company’s broader corporate reputation with audiences beyond current and prospective employees.

To that end, companies often ask us what they should do to make any number of “best places to work” listings. The reality is that there’s no quick ticket to the top: A company’s employer brand develops over time and reflects the overall relationship employees have with your organization. If your company is serious about building its reputation as an employer, first take an honest look at your organization’s employee experience:

  • Are there specific things that need to be addressed before your company deserves a spot on an employer of choice list?
  • How strong are the connections you’re forging – between leaders and employees, between employees and their peers and between employees and customers?
  • What data do you have, such as engagement surveys or exit interviews, that indicate areas to improve or amplify?

Once your company is confident its reputation as an employer is solid, seek out external recognition frequently and proactively. Here are six actions you can take, starting with your own employees:

1. Initiate a Conversation About What Makes Your Workplace Unique

Ask your own employees what brought them to your company – and what has kept them there. Ask managers to nominate employees who aren’t afraid to speak up– they’ll know who they are– and tap participants in leadership development programs or solicit input openly on your intranet or an internal social media platform such as Yammer. Such stories make powerful proof points when seeking external visibility. Conversely, should your company experience challenges in the future, these stories can serve as “reasons to believe,” small nuggets of evidence that the organization can stick it out and succeed. Think about interesting ways to communicate these anecdotes – what about asking employees to submit videos of their kids explaining what Mom or Dad does at work, or having employees post “why I work here” to the company’s Twitter feed in under 150 characters?

On a related note, know what people are saying about your company’s employee experience online via job-rating sites (Glassdoor, Hallway, Jobitorial, Vault, CareerBliss, Indeed) and social sites, including industry-specific forums such as CafePharma, FinBox or AbovetheLaw. You may uncover misperceptions that will shape the story you tell about your company’s work environment. And be sure to align your employer brand story with overall corporate positioning so that the face you present externally is consistent.

2. Tap Employees as Ambassadors

The Trust Barometer clearly indicates regular employees (especially those with technical expertise) are among acompany’s most trusted spokespeople. Seek out volunteers to serve as company advocates: Certify them to advocate appropriately via social media, offer them shareable, compelling content to post and feature them in your recruiting materials. Many companies make ambassadors available to chat with job candidates via the company’s recruiting Twitter feed or LinkedIn group. Others encourage employees to provide a “day in the life of” view into the company by posting photos, status updates and videos that illustrate their experience. Furthermore, from a reactive standpoint, ambassadors can step up and help defend the company from detractors.

Companies typically embark on such programs by first understanding the risks of encouraging employees to talk about the company online, then mitigating those concerns by introducing online behavior policies that ambassadors can easily comprehend and apply. Sometimes training (on company positioning, communication skills or online engagement) is helpful. From there, it’s a matter of equipping ambassadors with authentic, relatable content that they feel comfortable sharing with friends, be it on Facebook or at the store.

3. Establish Your Online Presence in the Places Job-Seekers Go

Yes, it’s important for a company to tell a compelling story on its own websites and channels. But increasingly, candidates are seeking information from a wider array of venues, including social networks, employer rating sites and the forums mentioned above. Make sure your employer brand shows up in all these places through a combination of paid advertising, employee ambassador outreach and multimedia storytelling that illustrates what working at your organization is all about. And don’t forget to reflect your brand in job descriptions, which often end up forwarded or posted on sites other than your own. Reading a position description may be the first experience a candidate has with your company, so seize the opportunity to convey your company’s employee experience, not just to list job requirements.

4. Don’t Forget About Media

New communication channels seem to emerge almost daily, yet traditional media is still highly influential. In our experience, employee of choice recognition alone is not enough to make a story outside of trade announcements. But such recognition can serve as a timely news hook to bolster an overall strategic media plan with key business media, HR trades and relevant local media.

Moreover, the employee stories you collect in pursuit of employer of choice awards or for your overall brand story can make for great local media coverage, particularly when it comes to job creation stories. What about the manager of your company’s local plant who started as a line operator and worked her way up? Or a group of young employees hired via a diversity recruiting partnership with an area university?

Similarly, if you’re prepping your CEO for a media interview, make sure he or she is equipped to at least make mention of the company’s employee experience – after all, your employer brand is inextricably linked to your organization’s overall reputation. Employer of choice positioning is also valuable when developing third-party advocates, particularly community leaders who want to know how your company is creating local jobs.

5. Meet Prospective Employees Where They Congregate

Just as you should connect with employees via online destinations they’re already visiting, seek to attend the events your prospects do, irrespective of industry. For example, in an age where many employers are looking to hire talent with strong digital chops, participating in premier digital events like SXSW Interactive can be incredibly valuable. To maximize your presence at such venues, incorporate your employee experience into speaking engagements, influencer meetings and conversations with other attendees. This effort should complement your company’s executive visibility and corporate reputation strategy.

6. Selectively Seek Out Employer of Choice Recognition

Naturally, many companies covet a spot on Fortune’s annual Best Places to Work For list, the U.S.’s most prominent such honor. Yet many other recognition programs may prove more achievable and effective in connecting your organization with the kinds of employees you need most.

Go after the awards that support your company’s recruiting and retention goals: Expanding your presence in a particular market? Apply for location-based awards (such as Chicago Tribune’s Best Places to Work in Chicago.) If you’re in an industry where the war for talent is especially fierce or need to recruit employees with specific skills, seek out sector-specific programs (such as ComputerWorld’s Best Places to Work in IT.) If you’re looking to diversify your workforce, aim for awards that appeal to the type of employee you need to recruit, such as Working Mother’s Best Companies for Multicultural Women or BusinessWeek’s Best Places to Launch a Career.

About Us

Edelman’s Employee Engagement Practice helps organizations accelerate business performance, delivered by highly engaged and trusted employees. We do this by making meaningful, trust-building connections — connecting employees with the company, connecting employees with each other, and connecting employees with the outside world. We have a global network of employee engagement specialists who can develop engagement strategy; deploy the tools and processes to deliver it; create the multimedia channels and content that support it; and design the insight mechanisms to measure it.

7 Steps to Planning Better Presentations

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May 16, 2012
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Posted by Dave Fleet

Edelman Digital, Toronto

http://davefleet.com/

Follow on Twitter @davefleet

This post was originally published on Dave Fleet’s blog.

As we approach the end of the Spring conference season, and in the run-up to BlogWorld New York, I got to reflecting on how my approach to presentations has evolved over the last while.

Preparing a presentation for a conference is no mean feat (I’d estimate I spend at least 30 hours on each presentation I create for conferences; often more). With that level of time investment, especially if you’re creating multiple presentations each year, you need to make sure you invest your time well.

This year, I’ve started approaching presentations in a new way. I’ve thrown out the PowerPoint*-driven way of planning my presentations, and turned towards a more story-driven way of building them out. My goal: creating presentations that speak more directly and relevant to the people I’m speaking to.

Here, in seven steps, is how I’m preparing my BlogWorld NYE presentation. You can use these seven steps yourself, to improve your own presentations.

1. Decide on your topic.

Simple enough, sometimes. Other times, it may take a little more thinking.

  • Who is the audience? Who is attending the conference, and who from that group do you want to attend your session? For BlogWorld, I actually broke it down to a few sample job titles of people I want to ‘speak to’.
  • What do they want? Once you’ve figured out who you’re aiming to speak to, think about them more and figure out what they may want to get out of the event. Whether you’ve already figured out your topic or not, that will help you focus the meat of your presentation on them. Write it down, and refer back to this every time you sit down to work on the presentation.

2. Create your framework

The next step is to create the high-level framework for the presentation (I’ve taken inspiration from Cliff Atkinson’s book Beyond Bullet Points here).

Break down your session – what do you want to cover in the time you have? How long do you have to present? How long is the Q&A? Plot it out in a two-column table, with your main topic in a single cell on the left (as a reminder to ladder back to it) and multiple rows within this in the second column – you’ll build on this in later steps:

3. Flesh it out

At this point you already have a bare-bones outline of your persentation. The next step is to flesh it out. I do this with the addition of additional detail to the sub-topic column, and two new columns in the table.

Firstly, figure out how you want to prioritize your topics. You know how long you have and you know what you want to cover, so break it down. You can change it later, but it again helps down the road as you build your presentation.

Secondly, break each sub-topic down into components – this represents the narrative that your presentation will ultimately follow. As you do so, additional thoughts will come to you on soundbites, stats, reference points and even visuals. Note them in the final column here for future reference.

See what we’re doing here? We’re building a kind of hierarchy. By the time you’re done, the sub-topics should read as the key points within your presentation subject, and the sub-topics tell a more detailed story of those key points. Each row ladders back to the high-level topic, and each column tells the story of the presentation at a different level of detail.

By this point you should be finding that you’re forcing yourself to take a hard look at your presentation flow, identifying pieces that need to move around, either vertically or horizontally, within your structure. You should also be getting excited as the presentation takes shape.

4. Write it out

At this point, you’re at the stage of writing out your presentation. Yes, that’s right – write it out.

The level you take this to is up to you. You could just make more detailed notes on the breakdown of your detailed presentation elements, or you could write it out in full. The latter is more time-consuming, but can also give you a better idea of where you stand time-wise. While I rarely refer to speaking notes on-stage, I do prefer to write things out in full the first time so I can walk through it out-loud and see how it sounds.

If you choose to write it out in full, a good guide to length is shooting for roughly 110 words for each minute you’ve allocated to a topic. Your speaking rate may vary, so adjust according to your own style.

5. Start the deck

Step number five of seven, and you haven’t even opened PowerPoint or Keynote yet! Well, now you can. The difference is, rather than creating a presentation based on slides, you’re now creating it based on a narrative. Go through your notes, and drop them into the speaking notes section of slides. Don’t worry about the front end; just the notes.

You can create slides based on the topical break-down you’ve created – the more straight-forward approach – or you can do it based on natural transitions within the speaking notes you’ve created – your choice.

The key part here, again, is that you’re building your deck based on the topic and not based on shoe-horning specific visuals into slides, which often happens if you let slides drive the topic instead of vice versa.

6. Visuals!

Now that you’ve built your deck, the final step is the visuals. Happily for the audience, with the way you’ve planned this out, your visuals now support the material rather than the reverse, and you should be able to avoid “death by awful PowerPoint slides”. Refer to your topic notes, refer to the visuals you jotted down throughout your process, and pick visuals that reinforce what you know you’ll be saying rather than the reverse.

7. Refine and rehearse

You’re almost there. The last step is editing – my least-favourite but possibly most-valuable step. Don’t close things down and wait for the presentation; go over your deck and make sure it works. Sanity-check it with a colleague (or, if they’re really tolerant, your partner).

Finally, rehearse the hell out of your presentation. There’s nothing worse than a presenter who umms and aahs his or her way through their presentation, and you’re not going to have slides full of 12-point font behind you as a crutch if you forget, so make sure you know your presentation inside and out.

You should know your presentation well enough that you can accommodate interruptions without getting flustered (because, as anyone who presents a lot will tell you, it happens all the time. Sigh…).

Conclusion

There you have it. I’ve used this approach for a couple of presentations, and found I come at them with a much more thoughtful approach than I used to. It takes a bit more of a time investment, and it means you need to know your stuff, but I think it’s worth it.

What do you think? If you give a lot of presentations, how do you go about planning them?

If you’ll be at BlogWorld, I’m presenting “Six Important Shifts in Social Media Strategy” at 10:15 on June 5 and let me know if you think this technique worked for my session! (If you haven’t registered yet, use the code “SDaveF10″ to receive a 10% discount on your registration fee.)

*Microsoft is an Edelman client.

Image credit: evablue

Let’s Improvise Together: How Community Management is Like Improv

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May 15, 2012
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Posted by Christian Rooney

Edelman Digital, Chicago

Follow on Twitter @crooneys

Online communities grow to their greatest potential through the sustained efforts of a dedicated community manager. A community at its best should challenge both the members and the community manager to grow as thinkers and explore new avenues of ideas with one another.  At Edelman Digital, we want members and managers alike to benefit by always introducing new perspectives to the ideation process.

My name is Chris Rooney and I’m excited to be your new community manager for EdelmanDigital.com. I believe that great community management is a little like improv: it draws the community’s participation, keeps the conversation fresh and “goes with the flow,” so to speak. That’s the style I try to imitate.

Here are three ways community managers should imitate improv actors:

Always say “yes”

In comedic improv, the best players always agree to new directions for the scene. They accept new perspectives and ideas, which keeps the conversation fresh and moving forward. Likewise, in community management, when a member of your community introduces a new perspective, run with it! You might be surprised by the interesting new directions the conversation can go.

Be generous

Great improv players give generously to fellow players and the audience. There’s nothing worse than sharing an idea and seeing it rejected or even just lukewarmly accepted. Likewise, community managers should graciously encourage audience participation. Thank the audience for sharing their thoughts and opinions, ask questions and offer your reflections on their ideas—you’ll inspire great conversation.

Commit to the audience

As a community manager and improv player alike, you want the audience to connect with you and with each other. In the digital world, it’s too easy to detach from the conversation by never getting involved beyond the initial post. You want the audience to know that you have an interest in what they have to say and that you have your own thoughts as well, that you’re not just a brand mouthpiece. Commit to the community by participating, even when the conversation doesn’t specifically concern the brand. The members of your audience will keep talking to you in the long run.

I’m always looking for interesting views to cross-pollinate ideas across the Edelman network. Feel free to follow me on Twitter (@crooneys). Here’s to making new connections, sharing ideas and growing as a community. Thanks for having me on board!

Social Business In The B2B Ecosystem

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May 14, 2012
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Posted by Michael Brito

Edelman Digital, Silicon Valley

Follow on Twitter @Britopian

This post was originally published on Social Business News.

I just watched this quick video (see below) by Sandy Carter from IBM about the value of using social in the B2B landscape. To recap, Sandy lists best practices for social business in B2B:

  • Embracing your B2B business partners with social can accelerate competitive advantage
  • Partners will feel a part of your business strategy
  • Leverage social by connecting your employees within the B2B ecosystem

Sandy then wraps up the video with a case study about Premier, an alliance of over 200 hospitals with a mission “to improve the health of communities.” It’s a great example of a B2B brand working with its partners to innovate and provide shared value across the ecosystem.

Truth is, there is more “shared value” in social for B2B than B2C any day of the week.

Yup, I said it and I believe it. Especially when you consider the opportunity for establishing thought leadership around a specific topic, content (and when I say content, I mean really meaningful and relevant content, not marketing); and the opportunity to build trust with partners, suppliers and customers – just about everyone in the value chain via the content shared online.

But content is a big problem for the enterprise today. Organizations don’t have the resources, intellect, time and money to create, curate, aggregate content for their communities. This is one reason you see many companies recycling content across all of their social media channels; and even using identical content in the regions without a providing a local or cultural perspective.

I recently came across a company that helps the enterprise begin to solve this problem called Pure Channel Apps. Their platform enables enterprise organizations to pass along high quality and compliant social media content through to their channel partners up and down the value chain.

Take for example a fictitious OEM of semi-conductors called Britopian. Basically, Britopian can create social content (tweets, Facebook updates, LinkedIn) and add it a content library. The partners/suppliers can set up parameters to only receive content from Britopian that’s relevant to their business and/or products. If they choose to share/post the content, they will have the ability to manipulate the content to better align with their brand message or tone before it gets posted.

Another way to look at this is through the lenses of the supplier or retailer. If either is struggling with content, they can leverage this platform to pull content from the OEM or manufacturer. It’s basically a win win for the entire supply chain. Adoption of this platform would certainly require all partners to collaborate and work together.  The result is more meaningful and relevant content which can also contribute to community growth, increase in mind share, sales and accelerating competitive advantage. Below is an illustration of how this works.

And here is Sandy’s video. Enjoy.

Image credit: oooh.oooh

Shifting the Conversation from Influence to Advocacy

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May 11, 2012
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Posted by Michael Brito

Edelman Digital, Silicon Valley

Follow on Twitter @Britopian

This post was originally published on Michael Brito’s blog Britopian.

There has been a lot of discussion about online influence lately so I thought I would offer my quick two cents. I wrote a little about how a few influencers have impacted my life back in 2009 and I still feel the same way today.

I am normally a positive person but based on my experience, I hold some negative sentiment towards the concept. Influencers, the way its defined by many on the social web, are overrated. Most have an ego (thank you Peter Kim) and they offer ZERO value to any business or brand.  Truth is, I have been called an influencer in the past and it makes me feel uncomfortable. No one outside of my social media circle and family really knows who the heck I am and I am completely okay with that.

Last night I was chatting with Olivier Blanchard (yes, the infamous Brand Builder) on Facebook and asked him about the topic of influence.  He is someone I hold in high regard because of his smarts on the topic and he’s generally a nice guy.  I asked him to send me a few quick thoughts and of course he sent me a dissertation.  Here is a quick excerpt which reminded me of a book I read over a decade ago – Permission Marketing by Seth Godin:

Influence isn’t a Jedi mind trick. And there’s the rub: influence isn’t just contextual, impermanent and relative to timing, topics, channels and a whole bucket of persuasive traits and actions, it’s also as much about the influencee as it is about the influencer. The influencee has to give you permission to influence him on a certain topic. He has to be receptive to that influence. And that’s the piece you can’t control.

Influence is definitely a complex issue and there are certainly some fallacies with the way it’s defined today. In fact, just a few days ago, my friend Lee Odden wrote about the fallacy of influence. It reminded me of Klout’s Agency Insanity initiative last month whereby several “online influencers” were asked to participate in influencer “stand off” that turned into a voting/spamming frenzy. Yes, I participated and yes, I lost in the 3rd round. It became very competitive with many of the participants begging for votes (and being completely truthful, I did DM a few people asking for votes.)

But true influence of others shouldn’t require outright begging, right? Just because someone get hundreds of votes, does that make him or her influential? If so, influential about what? I could be wrong and maybe I am looking at it the wrong way, I don’t know.

Going back to Lee’s post … in it, he wrote “Pursuing the “big influencers” alone, is probably one of the biggest fallacies on the web.” This is such a true statement and very powerful. I often try and talk my clients out of focusing to heavily on an “influencer engagement” strategy and instead focusing on those customers that already have a natural love for the brand. They are not hard to find.  They have zero expectations and there are no incentives needed. They don’t care if you send them the latest products or send them to the latest trade show either.  And the truth is, they probably don’t care whether you are “listening” to the conversation. They just love your product; love your brand and the way it makes them feel.

While I am not a fan of the term “influencer,” I believe that everyone on planet earth has some degree of influence, regardless of community size (friends, fans and followers). How many times have we been influenced to fly on a particular airline based on someone else sharing his or her positive experience with us? Or better yet, how often have we NOT booked a reservation on an airline because of a friend’s negative experience? It happens all the time. It’s in our DNA.

About two and a half years ago, I first met Jason Aplin. He was just a random guy, nothing special. I liked him from the get-go mainly because of his sense of humor. One of the first things we talked about was his new android phone. He was flashing it in front everyone at dinner bragging about how big the screen was and that it was slightly bigger than an iPhone blah blah blah. And then he started showing me all the multi-tasking features. He loved the product so much and I distinctly remember the passion in his voice. I was certainly impressed and two weeks later what did I do? I bought one.

Now to be completely honest, it was one of the worst purchase decisions I have ever made but that’s a different story.

The point is that Jason is not an influencer (the way most define it) yet he influenced me to make a purchase decision. Situations like this happen ALL THE TIME.  Jason was an advocate of the phone and through organic, real life conversations, he was aiding and influencing others through the purchase funnel. Since then Jason has become a dear friend. He’s a great guy and we often joke about the first time we met.

The second point is this. Advocates drive real business value to the brand. They indirectly sell your products and services without you even asking. They are trusted among their micro-communities because of their authentic voice. The relationship between a brand and an advocate is not build on incentives, but rather an emotional attachment.

In my book I have a chapter exclusively on this topic. Here is a sneak peak in case you are interested.

The Rise Of Customer Advocacy
Image Credit: aquopshilton


Friday Five: Five Tips on Growing an Idea Into Exceptional Work

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May 11, 2012
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Posted by Gregory Lipman

Edelman Digital, Chicago

Follow on Twitter @greglipman

At the core of everything we do, we strive to be creative with the digital solutions we deliver to our clients. We gather information on requirements or a particular challenge and then expend a lot of blood, sweat and (only occasionally) tears trying to solve the problem in the most elegant way possible. Sometimes, a great digital concept can fall flat because it wasn’t communicated effectively or was critiqued in a way that didn’t nurture the idea to its fullest potential.

Here are a few pointers to maximize your chance for success:

1. Present Your Work

Ideas are fragile and best discussed in person with the key decision makers in the highest-quality presentation possible, regardless of project constraints. This is your best chance to communicate the proposed solution against the project criteria, overcome ambiguity and defend scope.

2. Hold a Critique

Critique is the neutral dialogue between praise and censure and is a two-way discussion between the creator and the jury. A critique is a shared effort among all stakeholders, whether they are account, creative, production and client etc., to validate the idea against established criteria.

3. Look to Solicit Clear, Actionable and Objective Feedback

“I Like it” or “I Don’t Like It” isn’t helpful. Critique participants should seek to get to the why?

CLARIFICATIONS:

  • Detailing, Expanding “Can you explain _______”

POSITIVES:

  • Pluses, Advantages, “What I like about the idea is _______”

OPPORTUNITIES:

  • Spin-offs, Interests, Unique connections, “It might ______”

CONCERNS:

  • “How to _______?”  Overcome concerns
  • “How might we_______?”  Overcome concerns
  • “In what ways might we_______?”  Overcome concerns
4. The Role of the Creator

If you are the creator, it’s your job to accurately explain and defend your digital solution, field questions and assess feedback/direction against strategy, redirecting recommended changes where necessary.

  • Be prepared and understand the concept completely.
  • Communicate clearly.
  • Clarify that which is not clear.
  • Ask the right questions.
  • Be objective, critique is not personal.
  • Listen, listen, listen.
5. The Role of the Jury

If you are a member of the jury, appreciate that when talking about work, you should be in a critique mindset. Thinking this way maximizes the potential for a meaningful and valuable conversation about a digital product.

  • Withhold judgment prior to presentation.
  • Let the creator explain intentions.
  • Judge success against previously defined criteria (i.e. SOW or brief).
  • Give actionable and objective feedback.
  • Listen, listen, listen.

Clearly defining roles and engaging a team in a critique are great ways to build advocacy. Asking the right questions and clear communication are key to avoiding common points of aggravation like feedback loops, misaligned project goals, wacky changes and budget overruns, etc. Professional creatives are taught how to critique work in school, but a critiquing methodology works well in bringing out the best of whatever you do. Thanks to all my great mentors over the years… This Friday5 captures just a few of the best points I could pass along.

Do you have any preferred rules on the critique process? Share them!

Image credit: zetson

The Pinterest (P)infographic

pinterest_infographic (2) featured
May 10, 2012
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Posted by Edelman Digital

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With Pinterest having a visual identity as its focus, we decided to bring our Pinterest Best Practices to life as well. From DIY to Social Media, Pinterest is quickly becoming an outlet for a variety of sectors and brands to engage. Before that first pin take a look at our infographic below to make sure you’re taking the necessary steps towards a noticeable presence on the platform. Take a look at Edelman Digital’s Pinterest account as well!

Browse more Edelman infographics.

The content for this infographic was composed by Diana Kelter and Andi Teggart. The design is by George Mathew.

Dave Fleet, VP of Digital at Edelman Toronto on Business, Life and Media

davefleet
May 9, 2012
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Posted by Edelman Digital

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The following is an excerpt from an interview with Dave Fleet, Vice President of Digital at Edelman’s Toronto Office that appeared on FreshGigs.ca. FreshGigs is a Canadian jobsite, which often profiles leaders in marketing, communications and creative jobs.

Dave, you’ve worked in both the private and public sectors in Canada. From a marketing and communications view what are the big differences when working in private vs. public?

From my perspective, communications principles are the same regardless of where you work. I’ve taken a lot of lessons from my time in the public sector and applied them to the work I do in agencies, especially when it comes to considering the needs of myriad stakeholders (something that is central to the life of government communicators).

With that said, there are certainly differences. While government communications requires you to get in-depth on a relatively limited set of topics, agency life generally you to work more broadly. Some people like that variety; others prefer to sink their teeth into a smaller set of topics. Agency life is also much faster-paced and high-pressure. Again, some people like that (I thrive on it) but it’s not for everyone.

Dave, you are the VP of Digital at Edelman in Toronto. What does your typical day look like?

I work with a team of about 30 people, split between Canada and the US. Fortunately they’re all smarter than me, so from my perspective my role is to help to set the right direction for them, provide whatever support they need and stay out of the way so they can do their jobs.

My days are generally a mix of providing input on proposals, plans and reports from the team, participating in client calls on any number of topics, administration (hiring, finances, 1:1s with reports etc) and generally acting as a clearing house for information for the team. Sometimes I’ll get more heavily involved in specific projects, but one of the things I love about this team is that 99% of the time they’re more than capable of kicking butt without my involvement.

Read the complete interview with Dave Fleet on FreshGigs.ca.

Image credit: Eva Blue

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