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If you’ve read Scott McCloud’s books on understanding the comic (visual) language, it will come as no surprise that his daughter is amazing too.
Here’s an incredible presentation by a teenager that we can all learn from.
Sky McCloud Presentation from Duarte Design on Vimeo.
I’ve been reading and hearing a lot of discussion about how this social stuff (social media, community building, customer collaboration) is a magic bullet for these troubling economic times. The term “Recession Marketing” is being thrown pretty willy nilly.
(Did I just use the term “willy nilly”?? Oh my.)
These times aren’t about simply changing the style of our marketing. A tough economy isn’t a time for a new marketing tactic. Marketplace woes aren’t a reason to see more of your marketing mix shifted to “social”.
No, the recession is time for all of us to look at our companies, clients, and customers and ask if we’re truly serving their needs. It’s time to ask if we’re giving an exceptional customer experience. It’s time to listen to customer feedback in order to understand whether we’re delivering on the brand promise.
We’re not in a period of “Recession Marketing”. We’re faced with an opportunity to improve customer experience and thus strength our (and our client’s) businesses. We need better products, better and different marketing tactics, and better communication with customers. These things aren’t specific to a recession, we just tend to forget them (or at least undervalue them) until market conditions force us to focus again.
Who’s going to join me in striking “Recession Marketing” from our collective vocabulary before it’s too late?
If you’re interested, join the Facebook group to make your voice heard in this Epic Struggle.
Lots of *NEW Community Job Openings! Check them out.
Community Job Openings:
To see all job openings: http://www.communityguy.com/jobboard/
Community Job Seekers:
To see all candidates: http://www.communityguy.com/jobseekers/
Uptake.com is looking to hire. Here’s the info:
As a small startup, this person should expect to wear a lot of hats. They will develop application features with a focus on the user experience. This means that this person should be equally passionate about mid-tier Web technologies (XML, SOAP, SAX, Rails, Web Services, J2EE) and about interaction/visual design issues. Add in business needs like search engine optimization, and multivariate testing and you get the picture of the breadth of what this person will be working on. The full job description is here.
If you apply, please let them know I sent you!
For months now, I’ve been calling Obama the Social Media Candidate (and eventually President), and a number of people have raised an eyebrow wondering what I mean.
The first blog post on the new Obama administration Whitehouse.gov site answers the question.
Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration’s online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:
Communication — Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues. This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs on the blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.
Transparency — President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President’s executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.
Participation — President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.
Sound familiar? It should.
Sometimes we wonder if the echo chamber of the Social Web has any impact outside that particular bubble, and often it doesn’t. Often our own “expert” voices are doing nothing more than stirring up new ideas with little to no connection back to business goals and objectives.
But at the same time, you have to wonder whether this kind of message would be posted on one of the most significant Web sites, representing one of the most powerful global organizations if we “experts” hadn’t continue to back away on these issues for so long.
Either way, it’s a proud day all around.
Update: I was thinking about this a bit more today and started thinking about the Latin on the United States seal: “E pluribus unum“, “Out of many, one.” Perhaps the presidency has always been rooted in the principles of social media, but this is the first time in our country’s history that the dream has caught up to the reality.
If you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area next week, I’ll be speaking at the Ft. Worth chapter of the American Marketing Association. You can find details on the event at the AMA web site, and the event description is below.
I hope to see you there!
Ten years ago, four authors started a new conversation about marketing. The result was the book The Cluetrain Manifesto and with it, Chris Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger nailed 95 Theses on the door of the Internet and challenged us all to wake up to a transformation underway in how companies and people engage in markets. One of the companies who embraced the ideas put forth in Cluetrain was The LEGO Company. Jake McKee, The LEGO Company’s first community manager spent five years on the frontlines of the company/customer interactions. In this session, Jake will recap his efforts to help LEGO embrace the principles of the Cluetrain, and will share tips for how you can apply those principles in your own business.
The SXSW team this year is launching a new event: The SXSWi Accelerator.
The event is happening on Monday, March 16 at the Austin Hilton Downtown. The goal is “to showcase innovation, cool new audio/video products, the latest ideas in social networking applications, or innovative web based technology services to a panel of industry experts, early adaptors, and representatives from the Venture Capitalist community.”
Interested in participating? I’m on the Board of Advisors for this event, and would be happy to pass your info along to the organizers. But hurry, the deadline for submissions is this Friday, January 16!
At the Golden Globes last night, the always spectacular Tina Fey (yes, I have a crush) called out internet forum commenters as part of her acceptance speech.
While this speech was (of course) fantastic, and the bit about the internet was classic, it makes me wonder: how can those of us who want to keep a positive internet overall can influence the experience to tone down some of the negativity that flies around with great abandon?
Certainly I don’t have the negative view of the internet culture overall that people like Andrew Keen have, but still.
Anyone have any great ideas?
After Christmas and at the start of every new year, thoughts turn to our reflections of the year past and the year coming up. For me and for my business, 2008 was an incredible year in every conceivable measure. This year, we grew from a new startup to a solid, sustained business with some of the best clients a guy could ask for you. As I predicted one year ago, 2008 was indeed The Year of the Kick Ass.
From the very beginning of my business, I’ve wondered how it should and could grow as the business and the industry matured. Marketing agencies, clients, and other consultants are continuing to get smarter and more experienced with social projects, which is great news for all of us in this space. Personally, that means that I have to up the ante on driving the industry, rather than just supporting it. To this end, January 2009 will mark a major evolution for Ant’s Eye View.
After months of discussion and planning, I’m incredibly pleased to announce that Ant’s Eye View and Sean O’Driscoll’s CGT Consulting firm will merge, effectively immediately.
If you don’t know Sean, introduce yourself. He’s one of the smartest, most seasoned people around when it comes to influencer strategy and implementation. Before starting CGT Consulting, Sean was a Microsoft General Manager, responsible for running the Microsoft MVP program. If you’re not following Sean’s blog, head over there now (www.communitygrouptherapy.com), or look him up on twitter (@seanodmvp).
Ant’s Eye View will continue to be focused on working with brands that are committed to taking a leadership position in their markets creating amazing customer experiences. This work will span organizational silos, from Customer Service & Support, to Sales & Marketing, to Research & Development, driving improvements at every customer touch point. Never before has delivery against a brand promise been so discoverable by customers, prospects and partners. We believe our clients deserve a partner that understands this transformation and is committed to building the most experienced, practitioner-focused team in the industry. Our practice will continue to focus on Customer Collaboration Strategy in the following key areas:
Sean and I are focused on nothing short of changing the world, through driving a better relationship between companies and their customers. (Want to join us in that quest? We’re hiring!) While it may take a few weeks to bring our web sites and other branding elements together, we’ve already begun offering joint services to clients, both existing and new.
Here’s to an incredible 2009 for all of us. It’s going to be a trying year in many respects, but for those who use this year as a way to establish better customer relationships, you will succeed where your competition fails. And if you need help in building those relationships, just give us a shout.
Jake McKee is the Chief Idea Officer and Ant Wrangler at Ant's Eye View, a customer experience strategy practice focused on helping clients escalate their customer experience. With a rich background in customer collaboration, online communities, and fan groups, and Web development, community management, and product development, Jake helps organizations understand how to act like groups of people, rather than soulless money making machines.
