Hitting the Pinnacle of Buzzwords

I freely confess to hating business buzzwords and jargon. Like David Meerman Scott and many others, I find the practice of repeating technical-sounding phrases in an effort to appear knowledgeable to be pompous and counter-productive.

It’s an over-leveraging of verbal resources. Yes, I went there.

Now, at the same time, I love a broad and deep vocabulary. Words like “obfuscation” (which means, if you’re not familiar with it, the use of words to obscure rather than clarify meaning). Obfuscation is a great word that actually nicely describes what buzz-jargon does.

I have found one company (which will remain anonymous) which has managed, over time, to establish a new benchmark in meaningless blather. Every trip to the well of this company’s jargon pool brings forth a new wealth of meaningless bloviation (look it up – another favorite vocabulary word). I thought I’d share just a bit from the latest press release, for your edification and amusement:

____________ today published a strategy pharmaceutical companies can apply to reinvent growth for established drug brands. Addressing the total context of change reshaping the operating environment, the approach shifts the center of gravity in pharmaceutical brand management, focusing on market collaboration and novel linkages to create new health and business value. Available for download through the _________ website, the strategic brief builds on the concept of ‘health ecosystem design’ introduced by _____________ as a new model for competitive strategy, regionalization and employer initiatives, and account-based sales to integrated delivery networks.
_____________ has pioneered a methodology for market strategy defined in 21st-century terms, an approach that enables an evolutionary leap in solutions for growth and competitive advantage. The firm was the first to introduce ‘marketing ecosystems’ as a framework to synthesize strategy, media, content and distribution platforms for in-line products.

Now, I ask you – do you have any CLUE what is being talked about here? Oh, and this company’s tagline now is: A New Grammar for Strategy. Enough said.

Lesson: talk about your business in plain English. Leave obfuscation to the pros….

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The Blog Slave

When you started blogging, it was pretty liberating, wasn’t it? Finally, a format for expressing your ideas! No barriers of time or distance to an audience. And once you started mixing words with other bloggers (and eventually meeting those people at conferences and tweetups), the energy continued to flow.

Until you became a blog slave.

Blogging can be a delightful tyranny. As you build an audience, as you see more incoming links, as you check Technorati rankings or see your name for the first time on the Ad Age Power 7,545 list of marketing blogs (OK, they say 150, but it doesn’t seem to stop there…), you begin to feel the pressure. You don’t want to lose your standing. Your momentum. Your ranking. As they say in academia, publish or perish.

Dump that emotional ballast overboard as fast as you can, OK? Because you are not the sum total of your ability to produce. Your value is you, not your writing output.

I read today how blogging friend Beth Harte feels a need to suspend writing on her excellent blog, The Harte of Marketing, for a season. As part of her post, she says this:

As well, I know social media is quid pro quo and while I try my best to keep up with other blogs (reading and commenting), comments on my blog, etc. I am falling WAY short and for that I am terribly sorry. I would completely understand if people stopped commenting/tweeting my stuff.

Well, the fact is, other things really are more important than obeying Master Blog (as Beth discusses in her post), and Beth’s value to me is not tied to her “production.” She is a friend. She has nothing to prove. Her blogging production couldn’t possibly be top-notch anyway if she’s doing it out of a wearied sense of duty. Treadmills aren’t usually where we get into a creative zone.

Beth doesn’t strike me as the type who wants to live like that. She’s a community-builder. And I would like to hope that putting my keyboard aside for a time would not cause the wonderful people in my network to drift away or be less than the great people I know they are. Otherwise, I’ve failed to build and be part of a community. Or I’ve associated with a bunch of artful fakes! (which I don’t believe for a nanosecond).

If you’re strictly building an “audience” for your “production,” then it will be hard to avoid the slavery. Blogging will be a chore. At times, yes, all the creative and interaction work can be a bit of a slog now and again. But let’s never become slaves, trying to produce bricks without straw, and expect that of others. That’s when I quit for good!

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Geoff Livingston over at the Buzz Bin has some meaty thoughts about personal branding vs “team social media” within a larger company. This is a valuable discussion. Personal branding for a solo entrepreneur is one thing, but how do we approach putting a “face” on an organization when interacting with the world at large? Just for the fun of it, here’s a mega-post with a bunch of recent links touching on personal branding, from David Petherick.

Mario Sundar is on a tear on his personal blog. First, Using social media to help your friends find a job (this is a real passion of mine). Then, Perfectionism ain’t Bliss -  just do it and don’t worry about making it perfect. And finally, some lists of Twitter worthies to follow. Mario, for those who don’t yet follow him, is LinkedIn’s chief blogger; he also maintains his own personal blog.

Image Recognition Software/Service – from TechCrunch blog. This is a big deal, actually. There are so many images now published on-line, a huge challenge is going to be finding/sorting/identifying/filtering. Here is one company (Milabra) that’s making a run at it, and their solution sounds very promising.

It’s easy to just listen to the voices that you already agree with. We also need to consider other points of view, lest we become infected with group-think, or an inflated sense of self-importance. This muse/rant by Kevin Palmer is a needed corrective as we consider the place of social media in the world. Guest post is found on Social Media Explorer blog – it must be good, because I rarely point to the same blog 2 days in a row (nice job, Jason Falls)!

Downturn. We’re in it. From the NY Times Small Business Toolkit section – Lessons Learned from Hard Times Past. There’s a surprise quote in there…

PLUS – What Happened to your Nose? The latest from Ann Handley‘s A N N A R C H Y blog. If you’re not subscribing to this wonderful treasure of muses and amusements, you should be (Ann – the Zamboni reference is a stroke of genius!)

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PLEASE NOTE: There is reason to believe that the Google/Feedburner changeover has created “issues” with RSS feeds for my blogs (and others). Here are the feeds for my three blogs; if you’re a reader, would you please re-subscribe just to make sure? Thanks!

:: Subscribe to the StickyFigure blog (that’s this one!)

:: Subscribe to the Steve’s Leaves blog (that’s my personal blog – you’ll see a story from there below)

:: Subscribe to the Impactiviti blog (that’s a pharma-specific blog, for my consulting business)

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Real-time. Chris Brogan today talks about real-time coverage of events, using as an example his live-tweeting of a press conference last night. What do you think – how much of a game-changer is this? Frankly, I think that the convergence of the tools (cameras, smartphones, etc.) and the platforms (blogging, Twitter, etc.) has already fundamentally changed the game. Immediacy is now here, and we’re just realizing it. Latency is….well, a thing of the past.

2009 – The Year of Going Social. From the blog of Laura Fitton (Pistachio). “The bad news for business? You’re late. The good news? You’re not too late…”

Is Social Media the same as Marketing? Beth Harte‘s asking – what do you think? I’m guessing most of us have had this discussion, at least in our own heads. “…a good communicator does not always make a good marketer nor does a good marketer always make a good communicator. They are two different disciplines.”

Want a nice daily summary of some Social Networking headlines? Here’s one of my secrets. Business Week‘s Business Exchange. Worth a daily visit.

Jeremiah Owyang provides a nice summary blog post of Social Networking news each week. Well worth subscribing to. Here’s the latest.

PLUS – What’s Cramberry? A cool spin on an old technique. Too neat-o to pass up a link. From ReadWriteWeb. And, just because the headline is so imaginative: The Art of One Butt Cheek Blogging (from Copyblogger).

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Blah blah blah Sponsored Blog Posts blah blah blah. OK, this horse has been flogged pretty heavily over the past week, but what I like most about this post by Ron Miller is the series of comments underneath. The discussion. And one important take-away is this: as we all learn, evolve, and try new things (like a fully-disclosed sponsored post) in social media, let’s allow our preconceived notions to be challenged a bit, instead of jumping down each others’ throats with knee-jerk Right/Wrong pronouncements…in this light, I also think Shannon Paul has some very interesting perspectives (The Tao of Social Media).

Peter Kim gives a very helpful 22-point list of social media tools (with usage examples for each), joined with an encouragement to just get started!

Speaking of tools, Jacob Morgan lists out Tools and Metrics for Monitoring Social Media Success. Nice.

Ten Advertising Words to Avoid. Actually, this is a very good reminder for a lot of writing, even blog posts. If you want to be free to be that which you really can be, take the opportunity to consider the synergy of drinkability and you’ll be a better writer, guaranteed!

Matt Dickman discusses a Best and a Worst new-ish Twitter service. I agree with his assessments.

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Social Media Predictions 2009 – a bunch of them from top bloggers, all consolidated in one free download! Cool. Thanks for the link, Joe Jaffe!

Writer’s Toolbox – 35 best tools for writing online. You’ll be familiar with a bunch in the top half of the list, but the second half has some less familiar resources.

Brands don’t belong on Twitter! Brands absolutely do belong on Twitter! Point – counterpoint, from the Mashable blog. What do you think?

ROI and Social Media. Here’s an interesting take, from the training world – a 4-point framework for measurement, based on Kirkpatrick (I’ve been involved in the training industry for years, so this is an interesting spin). From Mel Aclaro. Plus, is it easier to measure ROI from social media as opposed to traditional media? Thought-provoking post from Jacob Morgan.

Chris Brogan addresses the whole blow-up over sponsored advertising on a blog post. Really, folks, take a deep breath. The guy practices full disclosure, he experiments with new methods for advancing on-line business – what’s the problem here? Are we chasing some mythical ideal of the pure Oracle (sorry, Larry Ellison – not your Oracle) that will speak to us from on high with no taint of personal bias, no worldly interests, no brushes with the horrible and impure practice of commerce? If that’s what you’re looking for, then you’re after some Kool-Aid that you’re not going to find anywhere in the blogosphere – or on planet Earth, for that matter. Social media (or any type of media outlet) is not populated with angelic beings practicing “pure” journalism, “pure” conversation, or “pure” anything else. I have enough to keep busy striving toward some level of personal purity of heart, let alone imposing unrealistic expectations of “purity” on other bloggers. Sheesh…!

PLUS – an example of clear communications (under 140 characters!) from a 7-year old.

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John Moore (Brand Autopsy) begins a series sharing thoughts from Inside Drucker’s Brain (IDB Project). Intro here, first post here.

27 Practical Ideas that will Transform Every Organization. Distilled wisdom from Tom Peters.

The Catchup Lady breaks up with UmbrellaToday.com. Why? Well, you just gotta deliver the goods…

Kirsten Wright shares the ABCs of creativity. Well, 25 of them. Can anyone help her with “x”?

Blogger’s Choice winners for Open Web Awards. Actually, that post isn’t terribly interesting, now that I look at it. So why not visit Olivier Blanchard‘s rant on business cards?

PLUS – Are these folks just amazingly creative, or do they simply have too much time on their hands? Either way, it’s cute, and worth 1 minute and 20 seconds of your time! And while we’re at strange on-line holiday celebrations, have some fun Destroying a Fruitcake.

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Has your company’s social media cat meow’ed yet? The glass-half-full guy, Terry Starbucker, has some valuable thoughts on this.

Is There a Hierarchy in Social Media? (as in: where should you start?). Nice overview of the basics from Jeff Paro, over at Small Business Branding blog.

Seth Godin has a free download for you – the Tribes Q&A book.

Brian Clark over at Copyblogger talks about strategic collaboration. I include this because I think it is the most important emerging business model for talented entrepreneurs to tap into. Many new businesses, and business models, are waiting to happen…

Socially fatigued? Interesting thoughts (that we can all relate to!) from Karen Swim.

PLUS – Andy Nulman having a little fun priming the market for his upcoming “Pow! Right Between the Eyes!” book.

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Six ways to Build your own Personal Developmental Network. From the smart and always-helpful Liz Strauss.

What is Passion anyway? From those folks with their Brains on Fire.

Laura Ries on It’s the Category, Stupid. What do you think of her thesis here?

Free Social Media for Small Business e-book, put together by John Jantsch and Microsoft. Cool!

A simple reminder from Drew McLellan.

Discard this ACE. From Stickyfigure blog (ummm…that’s me).

New e-mail tool: AwayFind. Reviews by Chris Brogan and Sarah Perez. I could see this being very useful for some folks…

Just for a little Friday fun – nice looks can deceive! 50 very strange buildings. And, from TechCrunch, an imaginative way to get some exposure, if you can spare a shirt and $75!

And big congratulations to Ian Schafer!!

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“Income Security” – an interesting thought from Jason Alba (he of Jibber Jobber fame). What do you think? Oh, and part 2 is now up, with a bunch of good input from the clowd. (the virtual crowd, the cloud, get it? Never mind…)

You DO know about Mack Collier’s “Viral Garden Top 25 Marketing and Social Media Blogs” – right? If you don’t, go there NOW and find out where lots of the cool blog readers hang out.

Facebook, and Obama’s success. Some numbers shared by Louis Gray.

Into Logo design? The you probably want to check out LogoDesignLove. Just sayin’…

Interested in SMR (Social Media Releases)? Of course you are! And so is Todd Defren. So find out from him if they work…

BONUS – Way to LIght up Your Booth. What was the most creative booth promotion I saw at Ad-Tech this week? You might be very surprised…

PLUS – Want an insanely complete start page portal? Check this beastie out!

HEY! Have you found – or written – a Five-worthy post? Feel free to suggest entries for the next day’s Five in the Morning (stevew at stickyfigure dot com) or DM me via Twitter (@swoodruff)

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Drinking from the Twitter fire hydrant by using TweetDeck. Nice post from Beth Kanter. I’ve been a TweetDeck fan from its inception, and it keeps getting better.

Does your Tagline Create Clarity or Mystery? A helpful post by James Chartrand at Copyblogger. Make your headlines/taglines count!

Guy Kawasaki talks about the launch of his new book, Reality Check. What do I like most about Guy? His ability to laugh at himself. Read the book Foreword, which is in this post – F.U.N.N.Y!

Removing your “Perfect” Filter. Great thoughts from Mack Collier. I’ll bet you can relate…

Am I allowed to flog one of my own posts? Ah, why not…I did a guest post for Lewis Green’s blog this week, on Where Business Opportunities Hide. You’ll also get a glimpse of the thinking that led to my starting my own consulting company.

BONUS: A little Friday Fun: Famous Blogger Sucked into Second Life, Disappears.

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From John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing: Customers are your most effective sales force.

Chris Wilson (Mr. Fresh Peel) on the Rise of Personal Branding. An interesting book is recommended.

Seth Godin ‘fesses up to some pretty spectacular failures. Lesson: keep going!

What was the most effective channel for getting birthday wishes? David Berkowitz discusses his experience. There was one clear, dominant, unquestioned leader!

Matt Dickman presents some very interesting data about the relative preference for IM/SMS/Email among different age groups. Neat stuff!

BONUS: Kill the Buzz. Now! Read the Comments – that’s the best part!

Age of Conversation (2) Available NOW

The long-awaited second edition of The Age of Conversation is now available! This group-authored book is a great introduction to social media, told in the voices of dozens of practitioners (see list below!).

I was honored to contribute a chapter to both the first and second editions. And the collaborators are top-notch!

You can buy the book right here. There are hardback, paperback, and e-book versions available. All proceeds to Variety – the Children’s Charity.

Here is the author list!

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Kill the Buzz! Now!

I clicked on the headline link because it looked interesting.

Then my jaw dropped, 12 inches per paragraph, until I had to pick it up off the floor.

It couldn’t be. A PR gift! The most perfect press release illustrating Wordslaughter, 1st degree. The most astonishing pile-up of incomprehensible buzz-words and meaningless jargon ever assembled in one place! Surely it was a joke, a parody?

Nope. It’s for real – read it for yourself.

Here is a sample of the blizzard of words, phrases, mantras, and business pixie-dust concepts contained in this inspired document:

…a framework for pharmaceutical companies to develop a new value proposition for sales into medical group practices…the approach positions a pharmaceutical component as the keystone to an entire ecosystem of businesses marketing to physicians…Commercial models are designed and in turn “optimized” to promotional response curves…commodity inputs…has reached its productivity frontier…Opportunity space for value innovation…intimacy of interactions in the business ecosystem…We are unique with a framework to help clients innovate, differentiate their strategies, and shape new ideas at a system level.

But wait…there’s more!

The website copy was written with the same attention to jargon detail. If you thought the above phrases are parody-worthy, just head on over to the on-line mothership and try to grasp the 30-second elevator speech. Or, better yet, try to grasp anything.

The concept is a forward-thinking approach to synchronize action in a complex environment and build new knowledge to improve decision making. It looks at the whole of a marketing game with new planning, sense-making, and decision-making strategies.

Marketing and PR should not be done by philosophers and engineers. Because the end result is not promotion, but self-generated spoof!

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Becky Carroll lets us know about the Customers 1st conference, in November at Disneyland.  Read the post – looks like a terrific event!

What is Social Media Marketing and how can you use it effectively? Great stuff from Mack Collier.

Doug Karr asks, Do (blog) Comments equal Conversions? Short answer – no.

One win is all it takes – a quick encouragement from Jim Kukral.

An interesting perspective from Penelope Trunk – 5 reasons why you don’t need to write a book. Authors, what say you about this?

And, for a laugh… (hat tip: Todd And)

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There probably won’t be a Five in the Morning on Thursday, as I’ll be at a conference…but then again, I might get really motivated at 5:00 am!

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I like this post, and the accompany video, on Rohit Bhargava‘s blog, about Chili’s-To-Go.

Jason Alba gives us some advice on How to Find a Job during a Recession.

The Hero’s Journey – A Metaphor for Video Storytelling. Fast Company column from the prolific and ever-interesting Director Tom.

Return on Whatever. MarketingProfs Daily Fix post, by yours truly, on the compulsion to try to calculate Return on too many things. Join the discussion in the Comments!

Crowdsourced Java. A great campaign by Adam Singer. And I want some Coffee 2.0!

Return on…Whatever

My latest MarketingProfs Daily Fix post focuses on the compulsion to try to establish Return on Whatever (RoW). I argue that the RoW is only appropriate for a limited subset of tactics that can be directly measured as to results…many good business decisions need to be made based on doing what we believe is right.

Extract: The problem is, the RoW mindset can inhibit people from making sound business decisions for the simple reason that something is the right thing to do. The green-tinted RoW glasses can be like handcuffs, preventing businesses from implementing healthy long-term strategies because of a compulsion to show short-term tactical dollar returns. Calculating financial returns on specifics, in other words, can be a murky science at best – and a ball-and-chain at worst.

Here’s the entire post: Return on Whatever

This link brings you to all my MP DailyFix posts.

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Drew McLellan asks: What do you think of this Domino’s dancing pasta guy ad? My answer: I love it!

Would you like to (perhaps) get featured on the “big” news sites (like CNN, NY Times, etc.)? Problogger shares a few tips.

Igor‘s free, downloadable company naming guide. Wow.

Does color matter for your brand? Check out this quick overview from the Swiss Miss.

Bloggers: What Not to Wear! From Copyblogger.

BONUS: Earth from Above hi-def pix. Amazing!

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From Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs), on her personal blog A N N A R C H Y – a very bittersweet birthday story. Profoundly touching.

TechCrunch points out a new and improved AlertThingy coming up…this appears to be another step in the evolution toward MetaMee. Can’t wait to try it out!

It was the beautiful photo that first drew me into the post, I confess. But anything from Valeria Maltoni is worth reading, and this is no exception: The Distance between Avoidance and Attention in Customer Service.

Speaking of customer service, Doug Meacham is no longer Expect(ing) Great Things from Kohl’s.

Seth Godin gives 9 SOLID Steps to Powerpoint Magic. Seriously, if you do any presenting whatsoever, you need to read and apply!

PLUS: Congratulations are in order for Douglas Karr, who is starting a new position in social media, and Greg Verdino, whose blog just transitioned into the terrible two’s.

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From Alan Wolk: Authenticity is the new Storytelling: “These days, ‘storytelling’ has been replaced by ‘authentic’ as the buzzword-du-jour. Everything that consumers touch is ‘authentic.’ Every vain attempt by a brand to hide the fact that it’s behind a marketing effort is done in the name of making it more ‘authentic.’”

An encouraging customer service story, from Keith Ferrazzi: Go Canada!

Matt McDonald explains why we should hire his Mom! I love this use of a blog…

10 Commandments of Blogging. A take-off on the classic 10. Pretty good advice here, actually!

Good stuff by Mack Collier: let’s stop pontificating about social media, and starting teaching!

BONUS: Top 50 NASA photographs of all time.

Not Quite What I Was Planning

Quite possibly one of the briefest contributions I’ve ever made – Six Words. A recently released book called Not Quite What I Was Planning – Six word memoirs by writers famous and obscure features page after page of fun and interesting six-word summaries of life’s lessons. The editors at Smith Magazine asked for contributions on-line, and sure enough, mine was accepted (page 175) along with many others.

A few favorite samples:

“Was rebellious teen. Now raising one.”

“Good, evil use the same font.”

“Awkward girl takes chances. Fun ensues.”

“Always working on the next chapter.”

I won’t tell you mine – you have to buy the book to find out!

Lots of goodies in here – in fact, this is a perfect “bathroom book”!

A Public Reading of the Age of Conversation

Seems to be the going thing these days for AOC authors to “strut their reading stuff” publicly on blogs and on Flickr. Although Sean over @ Craphammer has done us all one better with the worldwide premiere AOC video (and it’s a gem!)

So, with minor reservations, I’ll join the club. You see, I only ordered the e-book version, so…

Get a Taste of the Age of Conversation: From S to Z

This is the fourth and final installment of a “review” of the just-released Age of Conversation book – actually, just a taste of what each author has written, to make the case why you should buy the book!

This post will show the entries for those authors with last names from S to Z. Except there aren’t any starting with Z. Or X, for that matter!

So what is the “value proposition” of the Age of Conversation book? Take a taste. Then go buy it!

Mike Sansone
DO YOU TALK WRITE? – “We live in the McNews generation. We scan. Lectures don’t sustain our attention — neither do long sentences. Writing like you talk can also be a freeing feeling to those who think they are poor writers. Of course, writing is a muscle that improves with consistent use.”

Patrick Schaber
STARTING THE CONVERSATION FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS MARKETER – “The rise of search engines has allowed for a “meeting place” of sorts between the interested consumer and seller. As the consumers search for their interests, the seller can now be there at the right time in front of the right prospect with an enticing offer. If accepted by the consumer, this offer begins the conversation that can lead to long-term relationships and purchases.”

Gary Schoeniger
THE NEW ENTREPRENEURIAL PARADIGM – “Amidst the wreckage and the ruins of the old economy, a new breed of entrepreneur is emerging, adapting to a new global economy where the old rules no longer apply, where no one is in charge and no one is coming to the rescue. To this new breed of entrepreneur, problems are opportunities.”

Ron Shevlin
BEHAVIORAL CONVERSATIONS – “To succeed in the Age of Conversation, it’s not sufficient for marketers to engage customers in verbal conversations on social networking sites. Instead, they must develop a new marketing competency — a sense-and-respond competency — to sense consumer needs and intentions based on their behavior, and to respond with appropriate advice, guidance and offers.”

Jamey Shiels
THE WALLFLOWER – “When you consider the conversation that is happening online; the growth of interaction, connectivity and communication; are you out there dancing or are you leaning on the wall and watching. Are you a wallflower?”

Cord Silverstein
VOICE TO THE VOICELESS – “Helplessness is one of the worst feelings in the world because we feel powerless to change what is happening to us. We feel alone and isolated with nowhere to turn. Many people feel that the Internet and technology are causing people to be more isolated and that we are losing the art of conversation. I disagree.”

Nathan Snell
ARE YOU REAL? – “All these people are customers. Except they’re more than that. They are community members. They are fans. We engage them. We help them become involved in what we’re doing. More importantly, they let us become more involved in what they are doing. We open the lines for conversation. We establish relationships. It is here where the magic takes place.”

Mario Vellandi
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE – “By starting a conversation with the attitude of a desire to collaboratively create a better product, service, relationship or experience NOW… we exhibit our commitment to unconditional quality and being a true team player.”

Greg Verdino
HAVE YOU HUGGED A BLOGGER TODAY? – “By my count, I’ve met or spoken with more than two dozen people that I would never have had the chance to know if it weren’t for our respective contributions to the social media community. And each time this happens, I’m floored by the way simple text — just one guy’s thoughts about media, marketing, business and life — pecked out on my laptop keyboard in a few spare moments at the end of each day has led to new real world connections with actual flesh-and-blood people.”

S. Neil Vineberg
COMMUNITY AND CONVERSATION – “For those seeking a voice in their community of interest, technology is your amplifier. You can become a publisher and broadcaster. Spread your views and build a community of interest through
a blog, podcast, videocast and webcast. If you’ve got something cool to say, the audience will be there for you.”

Roger von Oech
HOW TO THINK LIKE A FOOL – “What did the fool do? Simply stated, it was the fool’s job to “whack” the king’s thinking out of habitual thought patterns. The king’s advisers were often “yes-men” who told him exactly what he wanted to hear. The king realized that this wasn’t a good way to make decisions. Therefore, he gave the fool a license to parody any proposal under discussion. His candid jokes and offbeat observations forced the king to re-examine his assumptions. By listening to the fool, the king improved his judgment and enhanced his creativity.”

Kimberly Dawn Wells
UNTITLED – “Not that long ago, dating was a contact sport. Couples got together when they wanted to talk. But, for singletons in the 21st Century, email make-ups and IM break-ups are quickly becoming a shocking standard…Oh, and for those of you considering a breakup via text messaging … don’t even think about it, loser.”

C.B. Whittemore
THE CONVERSATION AGE ENABLED – “Imagine being deaf, dumb, blind — like Helen Keller — caught in your own world with no way out, perhaps filled with brilliant discussion, conversation and brainstorms, but only with yourself. As enlightened and clever as you may be, you stagnate for lack of newness. Your world is a closed loop, a closed system. Then, imagine an “enabler” entering your world…”

Craig Wilson
BRINGING IT BACK TO LOCAL – “The Internet is amazing. Websites, blogs, podcasts, streaming video and e-commerce open the doors to a world of business opportunities. It allows small businesses to speak to almost anyone. However, this broad scope and randomness can also be a weakness for businesses who are not structured, or do not have the desire to sell to the world. How can regional businesses harness the immediate communication and broadcast possibilities of the internet and apply them to the market they actually want to serve?”

Steve Woodruff
THE LOWERED FENCE OF COLLABORATION – “While we still have nearby families and friends for support and fellowship, we now have a neighborhood far greater in scope. Collaboration and communication via the web means that I can now find others of shared interest — wherever they may be. I can create my own neighborhood, based on common professional interests, shared life experiences and mutual hobbies. The common space has no boundaries.”

Troy Worman
CONNECT TO THE UNCONNECTED – “Who are the unconnected? Look around. They are the people you don’t see. Listen. Theirs are the voices you don’t hear. They are the absent. Sometimes they are easy to forget as we go about our hectic days, rich with lattes and wireless networks….”

Nick Wright
CREATING VIDEO CONVERSATION – “The time is ripe to explore the conversational (rather than merely presentational) potential value of online video. Video can be a great invitation for people to chat, discuss and engage with you. You can gain instant feedback from encouraging participation and the more active your consumers are, the more free word-of-mouth marketing you get.”

Faris Yakob
“GIVE ME SONGS. GIVE ME SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT” – “Brands have been giving people songs but that’s not enough anymore — they want something to sing about. Today, brands can’t stick to a single song sheet. People have wrestled back control of brands because each of us has a voice now and we can make ourselves heard — online everyone is equal. If we choose to all sing a different song, the brand’s solo will be drowned out.”

—><—

See the full series:

A taste from A-D

A taste from E-J

A taste from K-R

A taste from S-Z

Get a Taste of the Age of Conversation: From K to R

This is the third installment of a “review” of the just-released Age of Conversation book – actually, just a taste of what each author has written, to make the case why you should buy the book!

This post will show the entries for those authors with last names from K to R.

So what is the “value proposition” of the Age of Conversation book? Take a taste. Then go buy it!

Gareth Kay
THE STRONGEST CONVERSATIONS START WITH A POINT OF VIEW -”A brand worthy of conversation needs to have an opinion; a clear and credible point of view on the world and the brand’s place in it. A sharp opinion, strongly held is the fuel that ignites and sustains conversation. It has the ability to make your brand matter in the maelstrom of daily life because an opinion gives people something to talk, and think, about. It may polarize, but in so doing it helps the brand become a catalyst for conversation.”

CK
THE “SHARE” ECONOMY – “Many companies view sharing as synonymous with losing control. Yet an objective assessment illuminates more opportunity for gain than risk of loss. With this new medium (and mindset) comes new
methods to build awareness, new access to communities in which to build market share and new technologies to create offerings.”

Kim Klaver
HOW TENNIS PUTS CONVERSATION INTO MARKETING – “People in direct sales and network marketing, the field I work in, do what the big boys do, only one-on-one. They contact people they know, and insist on having a 1–3 minute non-stop monologue with each person, gushing about the product they are marketing, and how it’s a MUST HAVE for the other person. This has not worked well in our field. Most people doing direct sales and network marketing (one-on-one) drop out. Ninety-five percent, actually. That’s where tennis comes in.”

David Koopmans
THE VOICE OF THE CEO – “Traditionally, communication between companies and their audiences of customers, employees and investors has been a carefully managed monologue. Our hierarchical business structures create a buffer of managers between CEOs and the rest of the world. So the conversation is often conducted on behalf of the CEO, rather than by the CEO.”

Jim Kukral
CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE? – “Two bloggers walk into a crowded room. The first blogger says, “Hi, my name is Jake and I blog about sports. Here’s a bio sheet and an about pamphlet you can read about me. Plus you could grab my RSS feed if you want”. He proceeds to hand out his information. A few people look up and accept his handouts. The rest continue in their own conversations, ignoring him.”

John La Grou
THE EMERGING MICROCLESIA – “In times past, the church had the luxury of slowly engaging new technologies over decades, even centuries. Today, the intersection of faith and technology is about rapid convergence that cannot be contained within inherited ecclesiastical architectures. Just as the printing press caused an epochal shift in religious priorities and organization, so the church is again being profoundly (re)created by instantaneous virtual interconnectivity.”

Karl Long
VIRAL GAMES – ALTERNATE REALITY GAMES -”Alternate Reality Games or ARGs may sound extremely science fiction but are in fact happening now, and have been happening for some time. Did you know that one of the things that makes Lost so compelling is that it has an Alternate Reality Game that runs parallel to it?”

Lori Magno
“SPEAK TO ME TJX” – “Speak to me! Why are you ignoring me? I thought we were friends, well, if not friends exactly, then shopping buddies. That was addressed to the TJX Companies from me, a humble consumer. Why did they dump me? Me, the person lining their pockets!”

Valeria Maltoni
CONVERSATION AGENT.COM: THE CONVERSATION AGE @ WORK – “We get things done through talk. We always have. The organizations that understand and allow these dynamics to develop and emerge with customers, partners and employees have a future. Over time, contracts, policies, scripts become less important — the free flow of ideas and projects is the backbone of this brave new world.”

Carolyn Manning
COMMUNICATION ISN’T LOST – “The main parallel between the Lost Generation and the Blogging Community will become more obvious when the best literature of the twenty-first century rises to the top. Yet, there are marks of similarity, even now. Those marks are the small things, things hidden in the open. The Lost Generation read from each other and talked together; they shared ideas freely. The Bloggers do the same.”

Paul McEnany
TELEVISION IN THE AGE OF CONVERSATION – “Before, TV was about high-paid executives, Hollywood mega-stars and prime-time budgets. Tomorrow, it’s all about me and my friends.”

Colin McKay
GOVERNMENTS – “Unfortunately, most executives, and most government officials — elected or appointed — are instinctively wary of an unrestrained exchange of ideas. To them, the world of online communications is a lot like the annual family reunion — for every bright nephew with a good idea, there are still two crazy aunts circling the bar holding a grudge.”

Drew McLellan
FULL CIRCLE – “Suddenly, whether it was a small business down the road or a conglomerate, they weren’t faceless anymore. They were Joe. Or Raj. They were a blog reader. They were a 24/7 live customer service rep. They were a peer in the same industry but half a world away. They were a blog writer. They were accessible.”

Gaurav Mishra
CREATE CONVERSATIONS, NOT CLUTTER – “A community in itself is not enough; it needs content to get into the conversation mode. One way to enable conversations is to focus on niche channels.”

Scott Monty
B2B SOCIAL MEDIA: DON’T MONKEY AROUND – “Above all, resist the temptation to jump in until you understand the context. Businesses that attempt to harness the power of social networks or new media sites without realizing the rules and etiquette will find themselves unwelcome. It is only by listening and learning will B2B marketers be able to start talking with their customers.”

Michael Morton
HOW TO BUILD A COMMUNITY ON A BUDGET: JUST USE AN ONLINE NEWSLETTER! – “…your customers must view your company as something more than just a business. They need to be able to humanize your company. This can be accomplished in many ways. One way is through your writing, another is by showing your charitable side.”

Chris Newlan
WE ARE ALL NEWS HOUNDS NOW – “Citizen journalism — where ordinary people capture a newsworthy event that the mainstream media struggle to provide instant and first hand coverage — means that history’s first draft now often makes its debut appearance within minutes on social networking sites like Facebook, on personal weblogs and video sharing sites like YouTube.”

Andy Nulman
HOW TO SHOUT – “Shouting is not about making yourself heard. It’s about making yourself interesting. And making yourself into someone people will want to converse with.”

Simon Payn
HOW PETER GOT HIS CUSTOMERS BACK – “Everyone in the neighborhood knew Peter. He was the hardware guy. On sunny days, he would stand outside and wave to people as they walked by. Some would stop and talk. After all, Peter knew everyone — and he was always full of good conversation, from the latest gossip to the best grade of sandpaper for pine.”

David Polinchock
THE ROLE OF CONVERSATION IN THE BRAND EXPERIENCE – “You see, the real challenge for brands today is that I’ve got lots of brands that I can talk to. So, if I’m not enjoying the conversation I’m having with you, it’s really easy for me to find someone else to talk to.”

Joe Raasch
NO LIMIT CONVERSATION – “The only rules are that no one can defend anything, no can promote a specific agenda, random connections are followed, and the final topic connects back to the original topic.”

Arun Rajagopal
THE RULES OF THE GARAGE. FOR DIGITAL MEDIA CONVERSATIONALISTS – “Your interactive channel should reach out, inform, entertain and make an impression on the world.”

Ryan Rasmussen
IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO SIMPLY LISTEN – “The risk of requesting feedback in an uncontrolled public setting is often the leading inhibitor for companies to join in the discussion. However, the loyalties made now will become the backbone of your future brand image as participatory consumerism and social medias topple traditional models of business-centric customer relations. It is not enough to simply listen.”

Connie Reece
THE TWO-STEP OF CONVERSATIONAL WRITING – “…one of the skills in great demand is conversational writing. Even in B2B marketing the need is for plain, but powerful, language. A writer who tries to dazzle readers with buzzwords
will not be effective.”

Emily Reed
IS YOUR BRAND A BORE? – “in her advice on the etiquette of conversation, Emily Post wrote this about a person who can only talk about himself – but she may as well have been describing most marketing communications…”

Brian Reich
PUTTING MEDIA BACK IN THE MIDDLE – “Media — or to be more clear, what I call the ‘little m media’ — is the information, the experiences and the stuff that we create, consume and share every day. Media is at the core of what
organizations do and what inspires their work. Media is what we learn from, talk about, and define ourselves by.”

David Reich
CONVERSATION – THE ULTIMATE CUSTOMER SERVICE – “The new marketing buzzword is engagement, but it really stems from something that marketers had more than 50 years ago — conversation. Personal, up-close conversation with customers — a real two-way dialog. Knowing your customer — what they want, why, when and how. Knowing it because they’ve taken the time to tell you.”

Sacrum B Rown
WARMNESS – You’ll just have to buy the book to see this graphic!

Sandy Renshaw
GRAPHICS AND CONVERSATIONS – “Since 60 percent of us are visual learners, a well-placed image can convey an idea to a wide audience quickly and clearly.”

Nick Rice
AUTHENTICITY-BASED BRANDING – “Right off the bat, I want to get one thing on the table. You do not own or control your brand…You cannot control your brand because your brand is defined by the internal feelings your employees, suppliers, customers and their associates have when they think of or experience you.”

Steve Roesler
WANT TO CHANGE THE ORGANIZATION? CHANGE THE CONVERSATION – “The successful New Leader will realize that organizations are now inhabited by people who are either part of the conversation or disengaged. Internal social media will become the friend of the New Leader or the enemy of change.”

Roberta Rosenberg
AT MY GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE – “I’ve been a copywriter for 25+ years. Print or web, I write and like it all. But I love writing letters most of all because they remain the most intimate and powerful form of persuasive conversation in print.”

—><—

See the full series:

A taste from A-D

A taste from E-J

A taste from K-R

A taste from S-Z

Get a Taste of the Age of Conversation: From E to J

This is the second installment of a “review” of the just-released Age of Conversation e-book – actually, just a taste of what each author has written, to make the case why you should buy the book!

This post will show the entries for those authors with last names from E to J.

So what is the “value proposition” of the Age of Conversation book? Take a taste. Then go buy it!

Mark Earls
“WE” NOT “I” – THE HUMAN TRUTHS REVEALED BY THE AGE OF CONVERSATION – “What the new connectedness that technology has really done is reveal human nature more clearly, more fully, and more usefully. And in doing so, it challenges some of our most important assumptions about human nature and human behaviour, ideas that have dominated for two centuries at least.”

Gia Facchini
ABOUT CONVERSATION – “Without a conversation there is no engagement, no sharing of information, no transfer of knowledge. Without a conversation, we cannot learn to listen, to give words their own meaning and not the one
we would like them to have. Without conversation the essence of blogging would be lost as well as the newest trend in customer-centric marketing.”

Anna Farmery
HOW TO TURN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT INTO A HAPPY MARRIAGE – “To win in your market, you need to win the hearts and minds of the talent in your company — as it is the talent that differentiates you from your competitors.”

Julie Fleischer
VISUALIZING THE THREADS – “In contrast, two or more speakers engage in conversation — their threads interweave, they jut, they pause, they wrap around each other. If you pull one thread from the fabric, it all unravels. A good conversation is one in which neither thread dominates, neither thread tells the whole story; together, they create something entirely new. Each thread, each participant, is influenced by the other.”

Cedric Georgi
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF WORD OF MOUTH – “International WOM will, in fact, improve conversations all around the world. As a consequence, almost everything will be known on earth and companies or governments will have to tell the truth and start real conversations with people!”

Phil Gerbyshak
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION: THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOW-UP – “One of the most overlooked pieces of communication is also one of the simplest, and most impactful, ones to do. It’s the timely follow-up after someone meets with you, be it for a formal interview, a question and answer session, a cup of coffee and polite conversation, or even an e-mail where you’re asking for assistance.”

Bob Glaza
GIVE AND GROW – “Every community has an intrinsic need to grow. The worthy community will always seek and embrace a diversity of voices. Begin by using your unique voice at the edge of the community.”

Mark Goren
BEING A GIVE + TAKE MARKETER – Act One: Joining In
“Stop talking.
No one wants to listen to just you.
Start a conversation.
Throw out a topic. Move out of the way.
And just see where it goes. “

Kristin Gorski
W.R.I.T.E – “Blogging and its immediate interactivity helps writers develop tools to blast through the dams that slow a flood of words to a trickle. When readers encourage, ignore, laugh, disagree, and link to us, blocks to expression cannot stand up to it.”

Janet Green
THE RESTORATIVE QUALITIES OF CONVERSATION – “Conversation also has the power to restore critical aspects of our humanity which over time have eroded from our daily lives: civility, credibility and integrity.”

Lewis Green
CONVERSATION THAT CONNECTS YOU TO ME – “Customers have a voice and they want us listen to their voices. If we want to gain their trust and win over their business, why wouldn’t we give them what they want? Isn’t that the basis of business — we understand what our customers want or need, and we give it to them. In exchange, they give us their business.”

Jessica Hagy
SHARING – “Ideas kept in the dark don’t corner markets.
Ideas kept secret don’t succeed.
Money in the mattress doesn’t earn interest.
Neither do ideas you keep secret.”

Ann Handley
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE YOU TALKING TO? – “The thing is … in this Age of Conversation, one exchange has the potential to influence many. Anyone can be a maven. Or a connector. Social media like blogs and wikis help one person to reach and influence many.”

Gavin Heaton
THE PROMISCUOUS IDEA – “In moments, a concept can be explained, shared and tracked on a single blog — on the other side of the world, this idea can be modified, expanded upon and discussed. Seconds pass and more voices are heard — a version transmutes into new forms … being picked up as a podcast, a video, an older-style presentation deck. From a single creative impulse, a legion of additions, modifications and transmutations can spread in minutes, hours, days and weeks.”

Dr. Graham Hill
VALUING CONVERSATIONS – “There are early indications that we are already entering the Customer Co-creation age. Co-creation is based upon involving customers inside the company: in customer-driven innovation, in social marketing and even in customer self-service. Co-creation not only enables deep conversations between customers and companies, it also gives customers the tools to converse with each other.”

Kris Hoet
YOU GET A LONG WAY WITH COMMON SENSE – “There’s really nothing different about the conversations we’re having on the web using all this social media compared with conversations you have in a bar, in your office, at a conference or wherever. The speed in which technology changes might frighten a lot of people, but the conversation is the
same.”

Uwe Hook
THE NEW WORLD OF INVITATIONAL MARKETING – “Clearly, marketers have always tried to attract, allure, entice, or tempt people. But instead of being a polite supplement to everyday life, they tried the Neanderthal approach — hit them over the head, hold them hostage in exchange for entertainment and grunt at them louder if they react in
unexpected ways.”

Sean Howard
DISCONNECTION FROM COMMUNITY IN OUR REAL WORLD LIVES – Hmmm…you just have to see the (full-page) graphic in the book, I guess!

Robert Hruzek
THE AGE OF CONVERSATION MAKES ME THINK OF…BRIDGES – “Conversation, when employed wisely, can easily become an effective tool for bridging geographical, political, and ideological barriers. I talk to you; you talk to me — but watch out! You’re in a construction zone; a bridge is being built!”

Richard Huntington
OPINION IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF CONVERSATION – “After all, what makes you want to join a conversation, whether online or face-to-face? I’ll bet it is because you couldn’t agree more with what someone says. Or because you couldn’t agree less with what someone says. Or simply that the point of view being put forward is in some way fresh and unfamiliar to you. That’s why any of us comment on blogs. And for this to happen, a person, blog or brand needs to deliver a point of view the conversation can coalesce around. In other words, to advance an opinion.”

Tim Jackson
ARE YOU IN THE CONVERSATION? – “Here’s the core, the kernel, the meat of the matter; you can bet your company’s entire marketing budget, that if you are not online in some form or another, where your customers (or potential ones) are spending more and more of their time, somebody else is and they are taking them away from you.”

Dustin Jacobsen
ENGAGING CONSUMERS IN THE MOBILE INFORMATION AGE – “Mobile is one of the most personal forms of communication we have today, with most people carrying their mobile phone around the clock and well within reach 24/7.”

AJ James
THE ART OF NON-CONVERSATION – yep, once again, you’ll have to buy the book to see the (full-page) graphic!

Stanley Johnson
DON’T TALK. LISTEN. – “Listen to people. Real people. But not the sort of people who only tell you what you want to hear. Of course you may not always like what you hear, but that’s no reason not to listen. In fact that’s probably one of the best reasons to listen.

Spike Jones
SHUT UP – “Seriously. Shut your yap. You just might learn something if you do. In fact, I guarantee you will.”

Amy Jussel
MOMMY, WHY IS THAT LADY LICKING A BEER BOTTLE? – “The age of conversation … Age 5? 10? Trust me, it takes on a whole new meaning when you have wee ones trying to make sense of the media and marketing messages flying in their little faces with increasing coarseness, commercialism and crass innuendo 24/7 at rapid-fire speed.”

—><—

See the full series:

A taste from A-D

A taste from E-J

A taste from K-R

A taste from S-Z